Edgy MD

Hi, we're Mets pitchers in the AFL. If the Mets' system is truly slipping, well damn it, somebody didn't send us the memo. We're all doing awesome, thanks for asking. Player W L ERA G GS CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR HB BB SO WHIP HLD GF Mickey Jannis110.534400017.00731004140.65000Kyle Regnault010.777000111.67821003150.94001Matt Pobereyko000.007000010.67700011130.75013Tim Peterson100.96600009.3362100250.86010

With the exception of Noah Syndergaard and Jacob deGrom, Mets starters may be shielded from facing lineups more than twice in a game, mirroring an industry-wide trend, according to a source. The adjustment comes after a season in which team officials watched many of their starters fade badly as they pitched deeper into games. I'm not sure what games Carig is reporting that the Mets officials saw. The Mets gave up 131 runs in the first inning, their highest number for any inning. This sounds like some real pseudo-science.

Frayed Knot wrote: Is reportedly an extremely disciplined fitness/nutrition freak - so he's got that going for him. Fun! Maybe we can pay him a few extra $$ to pull some overtime and take over for Mike Barwis. [fimg=350]http://mlb.mlb.com/assets/images/8/1/2/147218812/cuts/0903Spox3_usmndfrk_nfol2xah.jpg[/fimg] [fimg=350]https://cdn-s3.si.com/s3fs-public/2016/03/28/jake-arrieta-beck2.jpg[/fimg] [fimg=350]http://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/sites/csnchicago/files/styles/article_hero_image/public/2016/04/12/jake-arrieta-hunt-for-october-10-03-15.png?itok=IM5tHO-3[/fimg] [fimg=350]http://upl.stack.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Why-Jake-Arrietas-Lower-Body-Strength-Is-the-Key-to-His-Success-STACK.png[/fimg] [fimg=280]https://guysgirl.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/jessica-mendoza-jake-arrieta-pilates-.png[/fimg] [fimg=420]http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2016/0705/r99833_1296x729_16-9.jpg[/fimg]

Vote FAMILIA FEUD! Ambitious layering. Good work finding him in his DRNT uniform! Outstanding text-wrapping work on the subtitle!

Jake Arrieta: marginal starter for the Orioles, grows one of those beards the kids all have nowadays, and becomes a terrifying demon for the Cubs. A Silver Slugger winner in 2016 too, although that wasn't a particularly representative season. Doesn't like to conceal his guns, either. Should Arrieta be a Met-a?

Put there's also a long tradition of them carrying their teams in national high school tournaments with Herculean pitch counts, before they even earn taste their first money.

Mr. Met as Kong is glorious. When the Mets win the 2018 World Series, I want a giant Mister Met installed up there. For, like a week.

SANDY TO DARVISH'S AGENT: I WANT YU TO WANT ME! [fimg=300]https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e1/b0/f9/e1b0f994258bc02c136bbc24aa3c29e9.jpg[/fimg]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Would he really get $30 million per year? I think no way.

I think the 2017-2018 version of Pedro Martinez' Mets deal should be appropriate, no? Pedro was similarly coming off a fallback year that suggested that his arm was deterioriating and he'd have to get by on craft and guile going forward, but still should be feared because he had both of those in surplus.

I'm all for setting sights on Darvish, but ... pitchers that come over from NPB, even if they initially make a big splash, have a long history of losing their game early. A lot of them tend to become Mets, even useful Mets, in the back half of their careers anyhow, but in low cost/modest role arrangements. A commitment like your ass is suggesting would be a horse of a different color. Heck, seven years for a pitcher from any background is dramatically risky. Barry Zito, Johan Santana ...

But those players rights were won back from oblivion with those missed games. And the game has flourished because of it. Sixty-nine-ish games missed between 1981 and 1972 seems a small price to pay. Hell, I consider it an act of solidarity, and an honor to have missed them. And I HATED the summer of 1981. I was miserable. Well, except for the release of Hard Promises. Every player's career includes strikeouts. That is the price of the home runs. UzIG1KYBTDs ScmbyqZ9PxY

Mex17 wrote: That Kazmir trade ruined my enjoyment of the one and only time I caught a game at the Metrodome. I had a friend who was living out there at the time and we were about to catch a Twins/Sawx matchup when the news came over ESPN while we were pregaming at a nearby bar. It's dangerous out there.

All player contracts are assets in the same sense. I don't think he'll be traded, but if one guy is tradable, I don't see why another guy shouldn't be. As for not believing it even after you've seen it, the Mets have dealt their not-yet-fully-ripened top or near-top prospect plenty of times before: Carlos Gomez, Scott Kazmir, Preston Wilson, and Eddie Williams come to mind.

David Walter at Deadspin tells the amazing story of how baseball is everything in Palau. Not journalism per se, but a long blog post from the always-good Cardboard Gods, as Josh Wilker takes a profound look at Jerry Hairston. Current Affairs on "Why You Hate Contemporary Architecture."

HAH! I was looking at his 2008, and not even paying attention to his team! I suck!

Eight All-Star selections, two Cy Young Awards, a perfect game, and a postseason no-hitter. He put up a 2.37 ERA over 38 post-season innings. He inspired the Yankees to declare night games to be pre-emptively rained out at 2:00 in the afternoon based on a forecast calling for 100% chance of Halladay. When the Phils overtook the Mets in 2008, he bulldogged his way down the stretch going 8-3 in August and September. There were no no-decisions. You know, no matter when folks decide to vote, this guy is a Hall-of-Famer.

I would love to be swayed by the Jack Morris candidacy, but I don't see it. He belongs in the Staying Healthy Hall of Fame, and that's not nothing. He also belongs in the Pitching for Teams with Good Hitters Hall of Fame, but that should reflect a lot more on Trammel and Whitaker than on him. He won 21 games three times, but he never had a season that particularly terrified anybody. And in fact, had a career ERA+ of 105. His calling card is that he won more games than anybody in the 1980s, but that falls apart among the two realities that (1) pitching wins are highly deceptive, and (2) decades are arbitrary frameworks and being a decade leader has a lot to do with when you came of age. You know who the best leftfielder of the 1970s is? George Foster! Who's campaigning to put him in the Hall of Fame? Nobody that I've read. On the back of Jack Morris's calling card is an all-time outstanding performance in a post-season. That would certainly put him over the top in a closer race, but I'm not seeing the rest of his candidacy as all that close. I'd take Jerry Koosman's career over his. I'd take Orel Hershiser's. I think I'd take Ron Guidry's and Dwight Gooden's. None of them had as many wins as him and none are banging down the doors of Cooperstown. But pitching wins are deceptive and he sure doesn't outclass any of them by any other standard.

Duda gets two years, $23 million plus an option with a $2 million buyout from Baltimore. Chris Davis shifts more toward becoming a DH, fighting for time with Mark Trumbo and Seth Smith. That's four guys into three positions, but somebody loses out or gets hurt and things go forward. Lucas becomes Baltimore's favored son, at least at one watering hole.

There's some really good composition in these, and some less-than-clichéd angles and puns. I went for GUN SHY, TOUCHDOWN!, and FAMILIA FEUD. I continue to marvel at how Newsday's shots, particularly for day games — which, in spring training, is almost all games — so oversaturates the natural lighting so as to paint everything so pale. It makes them look like amateur photos of family picnics, and it sort of suggests that this isn't really big league ball. I mean, it isn't, but it hits me as so underwhelming. How sad that Matz gets immortalized during the brief and regrettable Mets-pitchers-wear-cheezy-short-mustaches period.

Well the official reason for the five-year rule was to be sure the player wouldn't be returning from retirement, so the official justification for the Clemente Rule was that this wasn't going to be an issue. But the real reason was probably that baseball had a martyr and there was no time like the present to canonize him. Populists demand this in the church too. When a larger-than-life figure like John Paul II or Teresa of Calcutta dies, a statim Caelitum decerneret! (sainthood immediately!) movement often crops up, when the church prefers to discern these things over decades. I think some time for discernment would have served Munson better. Clemente too and Halladay too. Baseball is better served, really.

Which brings us to a useful Once We Were Kings side project: THE BURLY BACKUPS Below is a list of all Mike Piazza's backups during his tenure as the Mets catcher. Some covered for him during periods of injury, some sat and waited for him to take a blow, some just came up for a few days during a roster crunch. Some played another position usually, but got an appearance or two in the catcher's box. Pick a burly backup, look him up, and find out what he's doing now. Copy the list and add the new information. I notice Jason Phillips is no longer bullpen catcher for the Dodgers. WEAK PLACE FOR YOU TO PINCH PENNIES, FARHAN ZAIDI! Alberto Castillo: Catching Coach, DSL Mets 2 Ramon Castro: Joe DePastino: Mike DiFelice: Jorge Fabregas: Joe Hietpas: Todd Hundley: Mike Kinkade: Jason Phillips: Todd Pratt: Jim Tatum: Tom Wilson: Vance Wilson: Bullpen Coach, Kansas City Royals Todd Zeile:

Angry white people.

Kiermaier didn't get enough season in there. I think Buxton was probably the right call. But you're right, the AL has a lot of outstanding ball hawks right now.

Chad Ochoseis wrote: This got me wondering if the Clemente Rule for HoF ballots still existed. Either way, I think Halladay is eligible for the 2018 ballot. It still exists, I think, though I tend to think players are better served by the perspective time offers. Darryl Kile went right to the ballot. Ken Caminiti, however, who died in between his retirement and the end of the five-year window, but his case waited until the five years were up. I don't think José Lima even made the ballot, somehow.