Edgy MD

The key is to accept that reasonable people can disagree, and not that people who don't see it the same way are necessarily crazy or biased. OE: Or a fat, wooly sheep!

Other starting pitchers are available inside the organization and out.

Where do I collect on this dick I've been promised?

Daily News reporting the Mets are closing in on a deal to acquire them some Neil Walker. No quotes yet from Terry as to where Walker would bat.

No, there's no truth in the notion that, if I happen to disagree with you about something, it's because, if I agree with you, it would be a tacit admission that batmagadan was right. He's right often enough. He's certainly not right about being a martyr for the truth.

Centerfield wrote: But people here are fighting me on this. And I wonder if this has something to do with you. This debate has been ongoing for years. People are entrenched in their positions. Agreeing with me, would essentially mean agreeing with you. And no one wants to do that. Please don't buy into the persecution complex. Pretty please.

Hamilton wasn't even dealt away, but Rule 5-ed away.

Yeah, the World Series. Suckers.

Centerfield wrote: When they did more (got Cespedes, called up Conforto), that's when they took off. It's not a difficult concept. No, it's not. It's also highly selective. There's certainly no point in being patronizing. They also "took off" right out of the gate. And "took off" when injured players returned. Being able to call up Conforto, and being in a position to add good players as the developing situation suggested where they would be best added, is all part of who they were going into the season.

No, really, they got hit harder than most. Every team has injuries. Every team does not have injuries to the same degree. They got hit harder than most, and they endured a tough middle, and they adapted. And they won. And that is what happens when your best case scenario is a "just below average". I don't get this. The best-case scenario is and was demonstrably at least a National League pennant. Yay!

Feelings aside, the spring training record and record before three of their best hitters — among many others — went out simultaneously (for very extended periods in two of the cases) make a strong case that they were a strong team. That they were able to acquire good players at the deadline speaks also to what had been built previously. It's a process. Nobody has to agree with this, but it's certainly not unreasonable. They were a very good team, that survived an inordinate number of blows. Pennant!

Well, I am a man of reason, I promise.

Gwreck wrote: But it is also a fair observation that they did not have a World Series caliber team going into spring training 2015 and it took big in-season acquisitions to get there. It may be fair, but it's certainly debatable.

Of course.

I don't think so. It depends on which timeline you buy. One popular timeline, and the one I tend to ascribe to, is that Clemens started using following his exile from Boston, at which point he became the best pitcher on the planet with two straight Cy Young Awards and 162 wins in his post-Boston career. If he's the pitcher Boston thought he was at that point, he has (generously) 50 wins left in that arm. He's a Hall of Famer, perhaps, but a borderline one. A similar popular timeline has Bonds beginning his juice diet following the 1998 season. He's got an incredible streak going of seven straight four-digit OPS seasons, but he's grown bitter with the attention received by the home run record chase between juicemongers Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. He's already a clearcut Hall of Famer. And he's still at a lofty perch to amass some further great seasons during his decline. Bonds has a much stronger case by this measure. Conveniently, both these changes occur at the age 33-34 border, but... Barry Bonds through age 33 has a best comp of Frank Robinson, and it's not even that strong, with a similarity score of 868 out of 1000. Roger Clemens through the same timeline has a best comp of Dwight Gooden (944 out of 1000), who ain't in no Hall of Fame. It's only from that point forward he starts turning into Tom Seaver.

Alexei Ramirez (Hijack!), I believe, gets you into something like Desmond's neighborhood without sacrificing a draft pick.

TransMonk wrote: I'm of the opinion that if the Mets are going to lock up a SS with a track record, it needs to be a sure thing. There are a glut of SS maturing in the Mets' minor league system that I would not want to block long term. I'm not opposed to riding Wilmer until one of them is ready. This sounds like me until JUST before reading the report of Wilmer's broken ankle. I'm a little jitterier now. But yeah, there's a good chance both Reynolds and Cecchini debut this season. Don't know if there'll be enough shortstopping among them and Flores and Tejada, but there might.

Signing him now sure beats last season's proposal to trade Syndergaard for him.

PRO: Buds with Cal Ripken, who gave him a pep talk that precipitated him turning his season around (in part). CON: Buds with Cal Ripken, from whom he needed a pep talk that precipitated him turning his season around (in part).

I don't think the other option didn't pan out. I think they went in a different direction by their own volition. I don't buy this balls/pussy stuff at all.

Went to a Bucco game and got a Neil Walker tee-shirt. Lunchie looked at his with a shot of number 18 coming to the plate for the Pirates, and said, "Hmmm... Andy Van Slyke." I like Walker's general consistency and reliability, as well as his being younger than 34. As consistency goes, though, he's coming off a relatively poor year, and they have Josh Harrison of the Clan of Shelby to take over.

I never thought of the trade as having fallen through, so much as the Mets having other things going, continuing to work them as they negotiated on Gomez, and pivoting as they soured on Go-Go.

Frayed Knot wrote: Vince Coleman in response to post-Darryl Strawberry Trading for Kingman after losing the Dave Winfield sweepstakes.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Yeah, I was making reference to the Gomez-Flores-Cespedes thingy. Woosh.

Was that song part of our poll? Because whatever I voted for, change it that.