Edgy MD

Shogo, by the way, is no joko. He has an Ichiro swing, keeping the bat head back and following the ball to left with his head, but while he doesn't make contact as much as Ichiro, a .301 career batting average is no small satsumaimo, and his walk rate and power really amplify that. Actually, he kind of has a McNeilian profile as a hitter. Big downside is that his season ended with a broken toe, and that came on October 31. And, you know, figuring out whose game is going to translate across the Pacific is always going to take some guessing. [fimg=500]https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/TNbL1uOL_smx0Iy7f5OKv7FQtpM=/77x489:4494x2996/1200x800/filters:focal(1882x434:2600x1152)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/65553598/1060960534.jpg.0.jpg[/fimg]

=Centerfield post_id=26477 time=1573676131 user_id=65] It's hard to believe that the Mets will utilize whatever resources they have to a problem as minor as centerfield defense. I don't mean to downplay its importance, but if the Wilpons continue to run on a limited budget, there are far more compelling needs.

So, oddly enough, if Juan Lagares had spent the last five yeras with some other team, they might well be interested in him. Bader is an interesting option. But I'm not sure the Cards are done with him. He'd certainly be another low-average/high strikeout/occasional power type on offense. I think he'd get his shirt torn off once or twice, but every day in between, he'd drive me crazy.

Something like.

The current personnel suggests (to my reading) that Brandon Nimmo is currently the opening-day centerfielder. Do you think they want someone to displace him or another defensive caddy, a la Lagares?

I anticipate it becoming another red state/blue state clusterfuck and getting conflated into the impeachment hearings.

It's weird that Bochy lasted so long, announced his intention to retire before camp opened, but the Giants didn't have a successor in place. I mean, I know MLB insists a search be conducted, but in many industries, the successor would have already been in the organization and his status an open secret.

Willie was rarely great, but he stayed mostly healthy, stole a lot of bases efficiently, remained a defensive asset through most of his career, could turn the double-play better than any contemporary not named "Flynn," worked an assload of walks, and lived in the shadow of some larger-than life characters. A better second act to his managerial career could turn him into a serious candidate. I wouldn't bet on it, though, as he was never a serious MVP candidate or had a career-defining season. I also think some of the current guys (Pedroia? Altuve?) have a good chance to push him backwards in the pack.

So, Gattis is our guy, then. I think video guy is overstating it a little (shitty for baseball?), but yeah, the case is pretty damning. Also damning may be that Gattis went through 2019 without a big league offer. Pure speculation, but that may suggest that his cheating had become an open secret. It also may suggest that it was a shit year to be a free agent, but he sure seemed to end his career a little early.

Vic Sage wrote: IFer: Whitaker? no. just no. not high enough peak, not enough sustained excellence. Really good, but not a HOFer. His partner squeaked in due to higher peak. I didn't know Mrs. Whitaker had been inducted. Here are the leading fWAR gobblers among second-basemen: [TABLE][TR][TD]1) Rogers Hornsby: 130.3 2) Eddie Collins: 120.5 3) Nap Lajoie: 102.2 4) Joe Morgan: 98.8 5) Charlie Gehringer: 78.6 6) Frankie Frisch: 74.8 7) Rod Carew: 72.3 * 8) Bobby Grich: 69.2 9) Lou Whitaker: 68.1 10) Craig Biggio: 65.8 ** 11) Roberto Alomar: 63.6 12) =#FF8000]Chase Utley: 62.9 13) Bid McPhee: 62.7 14) Willie Randolph: 62.0 15) Ryne Sandberg: 60.9 16) Joe Gordon: 60.6 17) =#FF8000]Robinson Cano: 57.3 18) Jackie Robinson: 57.2 *** 19) =#FF8000]Jeff Kent: 56.0 20) Billy Herman: 55.0[/TD][TD]21) Bobby Doerr: 53.3 22) Tony Lazzeri: 50.1 23) Larry Doyle: 49.6 24) Johnny Evers: 49.0 25) =#FF8000]Ian Kinsler: 47.7 26) =#FF8000]Dustin Pedroia: 46.6 27) Tony Phillips: 46.6 28) Cupid Childs: 45.6 29) Nellie Fox: 45.2 30) Ben Zobrist: 44.5 31) Buddy Myer: 43.9 32) Hardy Richardson: 43.6 33) Julio Franco: 42.0 34) Davey Lopes: 41.8 35) Del Pratt: 40.9 36) John Montgomery Ward: 39.8 **** 37) Chuck Knoblauch: 39.8 t-38) Lonny Frey: 39.7 t-38) Gil McDougald: 39.7 40) Fred Dunlap: 39.5[/TD][TD]41) Miller Huggins: 39.0 ***** 42) =#FF8000]Alfonso Soriano: 38.9 43) Plácido Polanco: 38.4 44) Eddie Stanky: 37.7 45) Max Bishop: 37.5 46) Red Schoendienst: 37.4 ****** 47) Dick McAuliffe: 35.3 48) =#FF8000]Jose Altuve: 35.0 49) George Grantham: 34.9 50) Danny Murphy: 34.5 51) Don Buford: 33.7 52) Claude Ritchey: 33.2 53) Jimmie Dykes: 32.9 54) Jim Gilliam: 32.7 55) Tony Cuccinello: 32.2 56) =#FF8000]Brandon Phillips: 31.4 57) =#FF8000]Howie Kendrick: 31.3 58) Jimmy Williams: 31.2 59) Frank White: 31.1 60) Bill Mazeroski: 30.9[/TD][/TR][/TABLE] Players in blue are in the Hall of Fame. Players in =#FF8000]orange are still eligible to gain entry to the Hall of Fame through the BBWAA. * Rod Carew finished his career at first base. ** Craig Biggio started his career at catcher and finished in center field. *** Jackie Robinson started his career at first base and finished it at third base and the outfield. **** Monte Ward really shouldn't be listed among secondbaseman, as he played all over the diamond, including pitcher, and appeared at shortstop more frequently than anywhere else. His Hall-of-Fame status is also largely due to his legacy as a pioneer of the game. ***** Miller Huggins was a good player, but he owed almost all of his membership in The Hall of Fame to his managerial career. ****** Red Schoendienst, it can be fairly surmised, earned a big chunk of his Hall-of-Fame legacy as a manager as wwell. One Hall-of-Famer not shown is Frank Grant, whose entire legacy was earned outside of the major leagues due to segregation. I've long considered Lou Whitaker to be one of the best Hall of Fame candidates on the outside looking in. I also consider him probably the best candidate who was given the one-and-done treatment by the BBWAA voters.

=G-Fafif post_id=26344 time=1573496728 user_id=55]“LU GOTTA BELIEVE!” ranks with the various references to “SYN” in the “stop trying to make ‘fetch' happen” realm.

You had me up until you locked out Whitaker.

Chris Fetter is a computer-generated character, right?

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: How much you wanna bet the guy who built Frazier's cul-de-sac by the woods leveled a turkey habitat to do so >>> "Get out of here, you turkey!" >>> >>> "Hey Frazier! The place is called 'Tom's River.' And I'm Tom!"

I think it's more of a sheet on top of a notebook than a Narron notebook en toto, but good for the organization if they can actually fill a notebook with information on Jerry Narron. I'm more interested in what messages would be on that phone, but perhaps folks were looking at that when the discovered Narron's name. Also, I have to say that, to me, Baldy Beltran is Yankee Beltran, and I hope that, whatever hair he has left, it makes a comeback in the Mets dugout.

Narron will always be the guy who replaced Thurman Munson. Now, even more dramatically, he may be the guy who replaces Jim Riggleman!

The Fonz says he bears no ill will for his dismissal as Brooklyn manager, understanding the new regime wants to put their own player development people in there. He says he was offered the ambassador job by Jeff Wilpon, who assured him the organization still thinks highly of him. Maybe it kind of shows at least a peek at BVW being independent from the Wilpons. Anyhow, at least it indicates a process by which BVW can have autonomy but Jeff can still get non-field hires to do. Also, ND Chavez is rumored to be the next Brooklyn skipper. If there's any family the organization loves as much as the Alfonzies, it's the Chavezes.

WHERE ALL METS ACTIVE IN 2019 RANK ON THE ALL-TIME HOME RUN LIST (ASSUMING THEY HAVE TEN OR MORE) ... 11) Ed Kranepool: 118 12) Michael Conforto: 109 13) Jose Reyes: 108 ... 25) Rusty Staub: 75 26) Yoenis Cespedes: 74 (active in theory) 27) Ron Swoboda: 69 ... 38) Asdrubal Cabrera: 55 T-39) Jeromy Burnitz, Pete Alonso: 53 t-41) Frank Thomas, Bernard Gilkey: 52 43) Travis d'Arnaud: 47 44) John Stearns: 46 ... 52) Todd Zeile: 41 t-53) Ryan Thompson, Todd Frazier: 39 55) Joel Youngblood: 38 ... 66) Neil Walker: 33 t-67) Ken Boswell, Brandon Nimmo: 31 69) Lenny Dykstra: 30 t-70) Mo Vaughn, Ty Wigginton: 29 t-72) Joe Christopher, Amed Rosario: 28 t-74) Daryl Boston, Carl Everett, Scott Hairston: 27 t-77) Jason Bay, Jeff McNeil: 26 t-79) Juan Lagares:, Dominic Smith: 25 81) Angel Pagan: 24 t-82) Willie Montanez, J.D. Davis: 22 t-84) Ed Charles, Mike Jorgensen, Danny Heep, Dave Magadan, Mark Carreon, Richard Hidalgo, José Valentin, Fernando Tatis, Jeff Francoeur, Marlon Byrd: 21 ... t-109) Marv Throneberry, Tommy Davis, Duffy Dyer, Tony Clark, Damion Easley: 16 t-114) Jerry Buchek, Del Unser, Mackey Sasser, Joe McEwing, Victor Diaz, John Buck, Anthony Recker, Rene Rivera: 15 t-122) Charlie Neal, Jesse Gonder, Duke Snider, Larry Elliot, Willie Mays, Xavier Nady, Paul Lo Duca, Shawn Green, Ryan Church, Kevin Plawecki, Kelly Johnson, Wilson Ramos: 14 t-134) Dave Marshall, Ellis Valentine, Matt Franco, Roberto Alomar, Eric Valent, Moises Alou, Robinson Cano: 13 141) Tim Harkness, Joe Torre, Kevin Mitchell, David Segui, Chris Jones, Rickey Henderson, Mike Jacobs, Brian Schneider, Rod Barajas, Jordany Valdespin: 12 t-151) Felix Mantilla, Hawk Taylor, Mike Vail, Tsuyoshi Shinjo, Kaz Matsui, Doug Mientkiewicz, Marlon Anderson, Lastings Milledge: 11 159) Al Luplow, Ed Bressoud, Bruce Boisclair, Richie Hebner, Claudell Washington, Lance Johnson, Gary Sheffield, Ruben Tejada, Michael Cuddyer, Devin Mesoraco: 10 (active in a really abstract theory)

I'm pretty sure there's not a cap on Evanses in the Hall of Fame. I always thought Evans had a pretty similar profile to Dave Winfield. Winfield was inducted in his first year of eligibility while Evans got 5.9% of the vote his first year, 10.4% his second, and 3.9% and out in his third.

I agree that it's way overboard to say that Beltran has zero relevant experience for the job. I'll also repeat that no two people can agree particularly well on what makes a good manager, and how much responsibility he should get for a team's won-loss record. Extremism in your hot takes is a good way to end up looking foolish. Most of the game is played between the 40-yard-lines, to use an awkward metaphor.

I find it interesting that Millan would have been in the middle of his career by this point, and he was still playing winter ball. While Ed Ott seemingly put an end to Felix's career from our perspective, he continued to play in Japan, where he was (naturally) very popular. He became the first westerner to complete Japan's grueling "winter training," which I believe took place in the mountains. Millan had no small amount of wa.

Look at Schmidtty's scary-looking sunburn back there.

Just stumbled upon this poster promoting the 1974 Criollos de Caguas, featuring Met legends Felix Millan, Guillermo "Willie" Montañez, and Luis Alvarado. An infield of Willie, Felix and Mike Schmidt, along with famed Billy Martin-lookalike Rudy Meoli at short, must have meant sure disaster for other Caribbean teams. Otoniel Veléz would be better known to 1970s card collectors as "Otto." https://metsrostercentral.files.wordpress.com/2019/11/felix.jpg> Looks like these guys took home the trophy as expected. Once and/or future Mets celebrating include a pre-perm Gary Carter and Craig "Swam" Swan. Jerry Morales also played for the team. https://lelands.com/images_items/item_23625_1.jpg>

Would anybody who is better at the Twitter than I am like to tweet about the Derby to the various tabloids' back page editors?

I like how CRUSHED and HEY '69 METS, SUIT UP use the same shot, but with a different crop, so CRUSHED crushed includes Cargo Shorts Guy dancing on the dugout, and Sweater Vest Guy rising in hope that the scoreboard operator will use the pitching change to update the golf scores. The wider shot makes the humiliation that much more intense.