Edgy MD

This game isn't moving very quickly.

What blows my mind is that I thought the Mets would have trouble with the star pitchers. They can wear down the lesser dudes with walks and power, but the Mets strike out too much, and make too little contact and run too occasionally to steal a run when needed in a low-scoring affair. Or so I thought. That analysis has shown itself to be dead wrong. Let's chase this guy early.

Very true. I was posting that from a meeting, if it makes my error less egregious.

d'Kong76 wrote: @cgrand3 RF #DavidWright 3B Murphy 2B @ynscspds CF Duda 1B d'Arnaud C @mConforto8 LF Flores SS @JdeGrom19 P @kcmets #cpftoocool Pick your hero.

Pretty cool that the Giants and A's manipulated it during the last week of the season so that Zito and Mulder could lock up against each other as a sendoff. Pretty telling that it ended up in a 14-10 game.

John Heyman reporting that Matt Harvey and Scott Boras have taken out insurance on his arm � a two-tiered policy that covers him against a catastrophic injury, or simply against a drop off in performance that would lessen the value of his next contract from where it might be assumed to be if he hit the market today. Good, I guess. It's appropriate to some extent that the player should assume that risk professionally, and it allows Harvey to pitch without worry. By the way, I wasn't initially able to find this thread. Typing "Harvey's Innings" into our search bar yielded dozens upon dozens of results. I thought for a few seconds and then typed "Doucebag," and hit pay dirt.

In theory, it increases air pressure, and allows his pitches to float on eddies of air conditioning. I dunno, myself.

Then go to see a win!

Z, I'm sorry for your nausea and all, but... how do I put this... you realize the game had already been tied at that point, right? YOU SUFFERED FOR NOTHING!

TransMonk wrote: I thought about a trip to Wrigley this week, but: 1. I'm super busy with work right now. 2. Tickets are outrageously priced on the secondary market there. 3. Hanging out with 35,000 Cubs fans sounds silly to me (especially if the Mets lose the game). Number 3. Does not compute.

Win this one for Mr. FaFiF, Mets. Forget about me and all I stand for. This one is his.

By the way, I watched an old episode of The Fugitive last night. It had originally aired September 27, 1964. Richard Kimball walked into a greasy spoon diner and a ballgame was playing on TV, featuring the instantly recognizable voice of Vin Scully, amazingly sounding exactly like he does today. Maury Wills was getting a lead off second.

That Lefty Specs story just gave me a massive headache.

At the height of Cold War tensions, an insurance lawyer (Tom Hanks) gets improbably recruited by CIA Director Allen Dulles to negotiate an exchange of prisoners. As out of his element as he is, he's not above going a little rogue. Tom Hanks stars and Steven Speilberg directs. Thomas Newman scores, which is amazing in that it's the first time Speilberg hasn't used John Williams in seemingly forever. (Since 1985's The Color Purple, actually. I just looked it up) I don't know if that means Williams is in semi-retirement or he is just up to his eyeballs in Star Wars work, or maybe it's just what it is. Anyhow, it kind of splits in half, with the first half being a courtroom drama without much courtroom, and the second half being a thriller without much action. But tension mounts. It does manage to mount. I'm always a little leery of films labeled "Inspired by True Events," but there I was last night, soaking it up with a box of Junior Mints. [fimg=350]http://img.123movies.to/2015/10/20/poster/Bridge_Of_Spies_2015.jpg[/fimg]

I don't buy that conditioning stuff. I'm certainly not conditioned. Any more than any fan of any other team, leastaways. Winning baseball is elusive. For everybody. Look at the team they're facing, for Pete's sake.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: I think Houston didn't hold on in part because they were just younger and dumber than Kansas City. What do you think? It certainly was a factor.

I still have trouble pronouncing "tihnk."

Vic Sage wrote: Sure, he's fat, he's old, has a history of PEDs... and could blow up tomorrow, but so could Wheeler Thanks a lot, jerk.

And yet, and yet, now that the Jays have arrived at the brink, they still got less fWAR out of Dickey than the Mets got out of Syndergaard alone. Not that it won't certainly be bittersweet to see Mets bats flailing at wind if they face Dickey in the World Series.

I answered above. I certainly agree about front-loading, but we don't exist in the same world as MLB GMs, and we're not playing for the same stakes.

d'Kong76 wrote: Do we really know the insurance policy and not paying Mejia was the real reason they made some moves? I don't think so, but I'm all ears to someone who really knows. Paging HVAC Guy!

Reasons to backload: Revenues/luxury tax limits are likely to be higher later on. You get a competitive advantage during the player's prime. Pay them a lower rate right now and you have a few bucks left over to surround your big shot dude with complementary talent. You have time to plan for the expense, unloading other albatross deals and replacing them with younger/cheaper guys. You can make $$ now on the deal while the player is young and excellent, garnering post-season revenues that can be put toward future contracts If that doesn't work out, you can will the shitty butt end of the deal to your successor. You might be able to trade all or part of that contract to another team, thus sharing the cost of the later years of the deal. You can amortize some of the premium. Maybe the dude will retire before the end is nigh. It fucking could happen. Obviously, there are plenty of good reasons not to backload a contract, but it's human nature (if not necessarily good business sense) to kick problems down the road, figuring or hoping you will solve them before the marker comes due.

It's like he has little notes so as not to forget somebody and their specific contribution.

Pretty interesting that the Mets swept the Braves in the first-ever NLCS and got no saves from Taylor and McGraw. How strange a pitching performance was Nolan Ryan in Game Three, taking over in the third inning and pitching the rest of the way for the win? Is there any post-season parallel?

How many home runs have we seen into the well of the apple? Shouldn't this be kept track of? And for comparison, how many guys actually sunk one into the magic hat?