Edgy MD

Hey, another not-an-out.

Why would defenders need pine tar all over their gloves? Why is it allowed?

It's 2017. That's not the highest and ERA can get.

This is still baseball, right?

I haven't heard Darling be this bored and this boring in a long time. Like, maybe not since he worked for the Nats.

Looking like it's going to be a long night for Kari Ann Gee.

Who is this doing the play-by-play? Is this our sideline guy?

Edgy MD wrote: Big chance for Laggy to show his quality against a righty. Thank you, Juan.

The Trick was/is like the cast of Inside/Out, with the various band members each representing the personifications of different parts of a single personality. Like a baseball lineup!

JoséJoséJosé can't even crack a 10-man lineup these days. Big chance for Laggy to show his quality against a righty.

You could tell him "Matt, it's based on the John Smoltz model. It's just for now until your arm returns to full strength, and hey, Smoltz won 200 games, saved 150, and drinks his beer from a "Hall of Fame"-emblazoned mug, so we're thinking big here." And the truth will be that it's because of his lousy, deteriorating focus, and you're just trying to stabilize his decline so you can get something back in a trade.

Looking forward to getting two pitchers back in time for the Atlanta series, but it would certainly paint my wagon if it became the springboard for a whole slew of shakeup transactions all at once. Activate Matz and place him in the rotation. Demote Pill. [*]Activate Lugo and place him in the rotation. Switch Gsellman to pen. He and the emerging (?) Smoker would, could, or might give you two guys the Mets trust to go multiple innings, something sorely missed. DFA Ramirez. [*]Promote Nimmo, make him the lefthanded half of the centerfield platoon. Granderson becomes our lefthanded pinch-hitter, also backing up in left, right, and essentially at first, by backing up in right when Jay Bruce backs up at first. Demote Reynolds, who has no role on the team anyways. [*]Promote Rosario, elevate him to starting shortstop, batting seventh. d'Arnaud becomes the #2 hitter. Cabrera becomes the middle infield backup/double switch specialist. Reyes gets traded, possibly for a reliever, or ... ... Rivera gets traded, possibly for a good reliever, and ... ... Rivera fanbois storm Mets offices. Cecchini and Smith bone their bats, sharpen their spikes, and stay ready. Yeah, all of this means nothing if Matz and Lugo can't pitch well enough to hold down those spots they are being given, which, you know, show me, but it would hopefully make some concrete improvements and (less concretely) wake some other guys up.

Frayed Knot wrote: Edgy MD wrote: Roy doesn't make this list of 111 baseball Vietnam vets. That sounded high until I realized that the majority were minor leaguers, including those killed in action. I wonder how many of those in that list were actually 'in country' as opposed to just Vietnam-era vets. Yeah, I tried to clarify that. Unless someone can correct me, I'm pretty sure Wayne Garrett was the latter.

Roy doesn't make this list of 111 baseball Vietnam vets. That sounded high until I realized that the majority were minor leaguers, including those killed in action. Metly figures on the list include Jim Bibby (originally signed by the Mets but traded before debuting at the big league level), Rich Folkers, the aforementioned Wayne Garrett (listed, but I don't know that any of the time he missed in 1971 when his reserve unit was called up was actually in country), Phil Hennigan, Bob Johnson, Jim Kern (paper Met), Larry Miller, Dave Schneck, and Leroy Stanton. The last active Vietnam vet in uniform was umpire Jerry Crawford, who retired after the 2010 season. Biographies of Bill James say he was the last Kansan sent to Vietnam, but he never saw action there. Unless I'm wrong about Wayne Garrett, his inclusion leads me to question the accuracy of this list. I imagine at least a few names I didn't recognize were Met minor leaguers. Former Met Danny Graves is the only major leaguer born in Vietnam.

My recollection was that Staiger played under Joe Frazier in AAA and Joe was a true believer, and was committed to giving Roy the chance he wasn't getting. Sort of like Wally Backman and Davey Johnson, only not. Was there a AAA player that Bobby Valentine believed in more than the organization that he was committed to giving a shot to?

Great shot of the beat up field at Shea. It was, of course, Rich Gossage who joined the late seventies Yankee dynasty by was of the White Sox, but he had put in several years without quite getting over the hump, and even started his final year, before coming to the Yankees. Randolph was traded after only 30 games as a Pirate.

I have a co-worker here who is even more of a baseball nerd than I am. He's written an official history of the Orioles and is also pretty much an expert on the Indians and Yankees, and he found a small item in a 1945 Sporting News. Yankees Lucky—Missed Bomber Crash in Offices HOLLYWOOD, Calif.—The long-distance conversation went something like this: "Hello, Larry (MacPhail), this is Del (Webb). How's everything going—not so good, I guess." "That's right, Del. Weather's been lousy. Never seen so much rain for this time for the year. It his us hard then Joe (McCarthy) being sick hurts, too." "Yes, that's too bad, and give Joe my best, but even so, Larry, the Yankees are mighty lucky." "Lucky, did you say lucky?" blared MacPhail. "You're damned right, I said lucky." retorted Del. "Have you forgotten we almost leased the 78th floor of the Empire State Building for our offices—or haven't you heard about that plane crashing into the spot we planned our private offices and killing a lot of people.?" P.S." A ten minute ride in the express elevator didn't suit Webb, so the Yanks leased the seventeenth floor of the Squibb Building. JOHN B. OLD The connection is that when the Yankees passed the tenant who took the 78th floor was our agency, and amazingly, the only deaths besides the three crew members were 11 people from our offices. (Doubly amazing to me was that nobody on the ground was killed.) It was early in our existence, so it's part of the lore of the agency, but it's the first time I heard our folks had swapped fates with Del F. Webb and Larry F. MacPhail. Also notable in the sense of entitlement that bleeds through. A little rain and the manager being laid up and Larry MacPhail whines about the Yankees being unlucky. Hey, Larry, there's a fucking World War going on.

Looks like Colby (aka "Dynasty II") is going to be mostly repeating Brooklyn.

Indeed.

Any of you cineastes going to cast a vote?

Don't know the song. I don't tend to read mysteries, but I'm reading one now, and a Cheyenne man whose lost his legs to diabetes gets visited by the sheriff, who confirms rumors that the Cheyenne was a ballplayer in his youth, as he observes photos on the wall of the man with the Cubs (with Billy Williams and Ferguson Jenkins), the Cardinals (with Lou Brock and Joe Torre), and finally the Reds (with Tony Perez and Johnny Bench). "After I saw him coming up," the man says, "I just didn't see any reason to go on playing. He's part Indian too, you know. Choctaw. Mm, hmm ... Yes it is so." I wonder how many minor league careers come to an end like that when the player crosses paths with a future star who is just playing a different game than they are. I remember meeting a former minor leaguer who was coming up through the White Sox system as a second baseman, a year ahead of Willie Randolph. Once he made the mistake of asking a team executive where he stood in the organization, and the guy honestly answered, "Well, we really like this kid Randolph." He said he told the executive, "Randolph? That guy couldn't carry my glove." He was a year ahead of Willie and since Little League, he'd been able to look down on the younger players while he was moving up ahead of them. But that all stops at the bigs, where nobody moves up. And when he hit major league camp the same year as Randolph, he knew it was, in fact, him who couldn't carry Randolph's glove.

Justin Dunn only just recently reinserted into the St. Lucie rotation following a switch to the bullpen after a couple of ugly starts, just put together his best outing of the year, striking out seven and walking none in five shutout innings. Combined with four more scoreless innings from Kevin Canelon (3) and Tyler Bashlor (1), the effort produced a 1-0 shutout victory over the always-dangerous Florida Fire Frogs. Reliever Bashlor is just off of learning that he's been selected to the Florida State League All-Star team, joining St. Lucie teammates Patrick Mazeika (catcher), Jhoan Urena (third base), and Wuilmer Becerra and Jeff Diehl (outfielders).

Johnny Bench, greatest catcher in Major League history, is one-eighth Choctaw.

Every time the this thread pops up, a musical version of "Back up the truck" plays in my head to the tune of "Take back your mink."

I just gave him an instant nick-a-name. Sort of like "Andre Dawkins." I mean, Ellis Valentine may have washed up early, but with those awesome Expo threads, rock 'n' roll sideburns*, rocking-back-and-forth stance, and that flaming crossbow of a throwing arm, he was as cool as Elvis, no? *