Edgy MD

That's Chris Carter getting non-tendered ... following a 41-homerun season.

Only a handful of soothsayers, but none correctly predicted the bomb crater of a season that Antonio Bastardo had. Someday, you may forget he was ever a Met. In another possibly deft piece of chip cashing, the deal allowed the Mets to escape at least some of the 2017 obligation to Bastardo. That's something.

And on that note, the Mets announce a $1.75 million agreement with René Rivera, probably their strongest non-tender candidate. I think Rivvie and d'Arnie are what the team is getting next season. All other arby eligibles are expected to be tendered.

Yeah, I was looking at him in isolation. That contract re-writes the calculus, no doubt.

Lefty Specialist wrote: Uh-oh-ho-ho. Playing Santa is a curse. Syndergaard should stay far away. And he'll never be able to top this anyway. Don't press the issue. The Wifey Watch archives suggest that Noah has had some salty paramours.

I have no problems with those periods. Deciding whether to shelve a player or ride out his injury is part of baseball strategy and it provides a few drops of drama during games and between games. And seriously, a team can go out there and win with 16 players, so creating a rule to keep a team from being without a 25th player for a day or two seems to be overly coddling.

I ... hadn't ... realized. That's a reckless deal that they none should want to relieve their portfolio of. Five? Guaranteed? $20 million per year, you say? Three years remaining, you say? Enjoy Toronto, Russ.

If veteran catchers are a part of a champeenship formula, there's Russell Martin. If the Mets are fated to deal with the Blue Jays because they have a sudden paucity of outfielders and the Mets have a sudden (seeming) surplus, well, there's Russell Martin. If a red ass is an asset for catcher with a stable of young pitchers to work with, well, there's certainly Russell Martin. And hey, if the Mets are the ultimate destination of every hot young catcher developed by the Dodgers, I give you Russell Martin. Russell Martin's name is starting come up as potential trade bait for the Blue Jays, so I'm guessing he might soon be rumored as Mets-bound, and hey, the Jays have provided the Mets as much catching in the Alderson era as the Dodgers did in years previous. His average has been steadily falling, but he still hits his 20 homers, and gets his share of walks. Not a lot of doubles. He's got that WWF cover-the-bald-patches quality that beefy catchers in their 30s sometimes get (looking at you, John Buck), so combined with the red ass and the two years in the Bronx (his worst, btw), yeah, I always thought there was a somewhat roidy air about him.

Recovery going well. He can tell he feels better even though he hasn't thrown yet, but expects to throw soon. Mets haven't approached him about a contract extension. The informal press conference went down in home the locker room, which is kind of cool, in that he's seemingly in front of his locker, as if that's where he's most comfortable talking. Syndergaard expected to be Santa Claus this year.

I think we have 28 ballots with Bagwell and Vladwell each named on 27.

The Braves just sent Rob Whalen—the other half of that package they got in the Johnson/Uribe deal—to Seattle. If not for Bartolo Colón, I'd think they were deliberately shedding guys with Mets taint. Maybe the Mets can convince them to send back Akeel Morris.

Nevin Ashley indeed failed to escape the International League, but after backing up Monell and/or Plawecki most of the year, he did escape Vegas, with the Mets pulling off a HIGHLY improbable August 31 deal with Texas, who found themselves heading to the post-season, but with a small hole in their catching emergency plan that they thought Nevin was the exact guy to fill. Yeah, it was probably just loose change, but who gets any value at all for a free-agency bound AAA backup catcher on August 31? Sandy Alderson, that's who. And to think, I was impressed by the Rey Sanchez trade. This might have been the most unlikely late-season flipping of an expiring asset in team history.

His second half was indisputably better, but he was also damn good in the first half, just (a) less consistent from season to season, and ( doing it for some dreadful Phillie teams, so not accumulating wins. He and David Wells are evidence that control on the mound doesn't always correlate with personal control.

The "news" came from from a buncha beat guys tweeting. The chat was exactly like a lot of the traditional "season ticket holders meet ballplayers and broadcasters and hopefully renew their package" chats. But I don't think that's what it was, so much as the Mets experimenting with FB Live.

deGrom live NOW!!!! Click below and it should work. [video:t39s0t92] Video WWW.FACEBOOK.COM [/video:t39s0t92]

seawolf17 wrote: With the expansion of baseball over the past fifty years, more fans in more parts of the US and Canada have found teams to call "home." And yet, no modern Hall of Famer played for more than nine different teams, and such, how reflective can the Hall really be of today's game of free agency and player movement? But there's one guy on this year's ballot who got paychecks from TWELVE different major league franchises... and his name starts with "M" and rhymes with "Bat Stairs." Also wore nine different numbers, by my count. Suck it, Jeff McKnight.

It's like Miss America contestants. When you count down from the also rans, the drama builds. You start to think, "Am I so ugly as to not even get an honorable mention—am I a monster?—or AM I THE MOST BEAUTIFUL OF ALL?!!"

Amazin' Avenue is rolling out their prospect lists five guys at a time, down from 25 21-25 25. Cameron Planck, rhp: High schoolio drafted in June, DNP in 2016. 24. Ricardo Cespedes, cf: teenage lefty hitter/thrower who put up a lofty average (but little in the way of extra-base power or plate discipline) in Kingsport. 23. Harol Gonzalez, rhp: Darn good all-around numbers in Brooklyn, needs to show he can repeat it in a full-season league. 22. Jeff McNiel, if: Buffed up in the offseason, and it paid off quickly in Binghamton, as he ended up missing almost the entire year with a hernia. 21. Chris Flexen, rhp: Anchor of the St. Lucie staff. Added to the roster and might well see some time in Flushing in 2017. 16-20 20. Andrew Church, rhp: Former second-rounder who was written off by many but found his stride, starting in Columbia and climbing all the way to (briefly) Las Vegas. 19. Merandy Gonzalez, rhp: Coney Island's other Gonzalez. Good, classic fastball/curveball repertoire with inconsistent control. 18. Ricky Knapp, rhp: Goes together with Chris Flexen like Gsellman and Lugo. Pitched at all of the top three levels in 2016. Dad is a big league pitching coach. 17. Phil Evans, if: Won the Eastern League batting title. Is a league-wide favorite to get snatched in the Rule 5. 16. Peter Alonso, 1b: Beefcake righthanded 21-year-old slugger was, at times, most of Brooklyn's offense. 11-15 15. Marcos Molina, rhp: Spent most of the season recovering from TJ surgery, but pitched effectively in the AFL. 14. Gabriel Ynoa, rhp: Like Gsellman, gets it done without strikeouts. Was the most consistent pitcher in the Las Vegas rotation this year. 13. Andres Giminez, ss: 17 years old a thousand miles from the big leagues, but he had as impressive a debut as you can hope for in a DSL player. 12. Luis Carpio, ss: a more seasoned DSL shortstop (19!), he hit everything they threw at him and played his way into the states with 34 games in the GCL and 12 more with Brooklyn. It's going to be tough to find an arrangement for all their shortstops at the bottom of the system to get starting time. 11. Ali Sanchez, c: defensive specialist had his offense curtailed by injuries and whatever in Brooklyn in 2016, but has hit some in previous seasons. Surprisingly high ranking.

Maybe at Jacob deGrom's press conference, he'll be able to be able to clue us in on what's up with McCutcheon.

An announcement is rolling out over the digitalscape that Jacob deGrom will meet the media tomorrow at 10:45 at Citi Field. And if anybody knows why, they ain't saying.

I don't particularly like that. It'll create crazy traffic and juggling that just invites bad faith.

At the 2015 deadline, they were juggling deals for Céspedes, Bruce, and Gomez. It'd be goofy if all of them ended up in the outfield at the same time.

As cherry picked as it may be, that case for Matt Stairs was more compelling than I expected.

Edgy MD wrote: Rockin' Doc wrote: ... but I'm not sure I want him back if it is going to take 5 years at $100-110 mil. I'm thinking we're looking at a price north of that. Turned you he had the price right, at $110 million, but we only get four years for that.

That's pretty much where I was, I guess. I suppose I don't have to feel good about it. Hey, look, Edgar Martinez is up to 68%.