Edgy MD

Do you realize after this weekend series, we have Monday off? It's like this schedule was developed in a government momentum-dampening laboratory. "Hey the Mets are always strong at the break, let's give them five days off in eight with their only series against a team full of brutal pitchers! YEAH! Even if they win the series, they'll come out of it in a batting slump!" "Let's make it in California, too! They'll be drunk and jetlagged. It'll be awesome! <>" Anymuch, the Pads have had a struggling first half, with injuries and underperformance undermining their best offensive plans. They had two All-Stars --- starter Tyson Ross and closer Huston Street --- to our one, but both their names sound like their parents accepted a sponsorship deal from a major corporation. And that's just not the Padre Way. So, how about them Padres? Catcher: The Padres main catcher is Yasmani Grandal. Yas is a Cuban dude, but he went to HS in the US, so one shouldn't necessarily associate him with those recent mutants like Puig and Cespedes who are making the game seems stupid. Yes, one should judge him on his own track record. And that track record includes a big beefy frame and a 50-game suspension for elevated testosterone levels. [fimg=400]http://www3.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Yasmani+Grandal+San+Diego+Padres+Photo+Day+dylGYaG28_Al.jpg[/fimg] (Looks like and outline of Cuba on his left wrist.) Grandal homered from both sides of the plate in his first MLB start. The only dude to pull off that trick, and with his meaty build, his switch-hittiness, his low batting averages, his puncher's power, and his roidiness, he's pretty much Todd Hundley before his All-Star peak. Between his suspension and his name turning up in the records of a certain lab in Miami, he's perhaps not a good bet to ever find that peak. But like young Todd, the defense has always been there. He's had his share of dings though --- a knee injury (ACL and MCL) ended his season last year and a hand injury has damped him this year. Grandal is going .210 / .299 / .364 // .663 this season in 70 games. The Padres hope he's more than that when healthy, but it's his second straight year hitting with a banjo bat, so that may be all there is. Puerto Rican Rene Rivera backs Grandal up, and he's pretty much their uglier version of Anthony Recker. I mean we're all --- and by all, I meant to say mankind --- are uglier versions of Anthony Recker, but this guy is a minor league vet who brings defense and puncher's power, and like with Recker earlier in the season, that looked modestly better than waiting for the prospect to find himself. Rivera comes into the game at: .219 / .277 / .423 // .700. [fimg=300]http://www3.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Rene+Rivera+San+Diego+Padres+Photo+Day+oLaY5OgWpTrl.jpg[/fimg] (Long sleeves. Can't see what's on his wrist.) Rivera was named the Padres' opening day catcher for 2014 and serves as Andrew Cashner's personal catcher. "Wtf is Andrew Cashner and why does he get a personal catcher?" you may ask. Well you may. But Cashner is disabling on the list and will be unlikely to provide any answers during this series. But man, I like opponents with sub-.300 on-base averages.

Which film of his do you find to be horrid? Green Card? Anyhow, I guess in the Weir context, this wouldn't be seen as his tour de force or anything.

Not a tale of an awkward teenager weathering a miserable summer at a beachfront community, but a rather one of hard men trekking thousands of miles to escape Siberia during World War II. Directed by Peter Wier. [fimg=450:15ip8uyx]http://jimsturgessonline.com/images/albums/userpics/10001/TWB_poster_Swiss_002.jpg[/fimg:15ip8uyx]

This article suggests him getting moved off of short was something of an arbitrary decision. He had never been given the opportunity as a pro with the Pirates.

The thing about Syndergaard is that he can go through whatever shit he's got to go through at AAA, because thanks to some guys stepping up, the team hasn't needed him, and that's beautiful, and it speaks well not only of the guys who have stepped up, but the organization that corralled them.

Yeah, Pujols is huge tool.

Man, that was 2005 crashing and burning in a nightmare. Cliff Floyd earning his paycheck that day too, sustaining a system-jarring crash himself two innings or so later, but somehow, Willie stalled for 20 minutes while he put himself together, refusing to take him out of the game and put a(nother) reserve infielder into the outfield. The team already was going with Marlon Anderson in right and Chris Woodward in center. A few days later, Pedro Martinez lost a no-hitter and the game at Los Angeles when Gerald Williams failed to corral a fly to the wall, folding before the impact. It was a shot Beltran or Cammy would have had in their back pockets.

Murphy is making $5.8 million this season, and will go through arbitration one more time this winter, and likely earn about $8 million in 2015, before becoming a free agent after this season. Wow! Arbitration and free agency, all in one off-season.

Over... ? Over hill? Over dale? Over Macho Grande?

Mets pitchers not named Jacob deGrom as hitters: .054 / .084 / .074 // .158.

David Wright has eight fewer walks than Duda and 10 fewer walks than Tejada. When did that happen? Kirk Nieuwenhuis is slugging .690. Rilly? Guys that were 2014 Mets that I can't summon a single 2014 memory about: Omar Quintanila, John Lannan. Three 2014 Mets have hit grand slams. None are currently 2014 Mets. Andrew Brown seems to be a shoe-in for the Mike Howard Award --- given to the opening day hero that becomes a trivia question by mid-season, either by playing himself out of the picture or simply getting boxed out. Multiple Howard Award-winner Kaz Matsui will be presenting the award at a private ceremony this year. Of the Mets at AAA threatening to crack the rotation as the season progressed, raise your hand if you thought deGrom would be locked in at the top of the Queens rotation by mid-season, with Montero making an indifferent four-start cameo, and Syndergaard still searching for himself in Las Vegas. Scott Rice: tenth in the league in appearances in 2013. Will he even return in 2014? Ever? Bartolo: Has his bumps, but he hasn't missed a start. Mets pitchers as hitters: .087 / .127 / .110 // .237.

Also worth noting is that it took a Puerto Rican living in Canada and playing for a Canadian team to take the step that Delgado did. That story also gets Seaver's service wrong, identifying him as a soldier instead of as a marine. A serious faux pas with some. Freakin' Fort Scott Tribune.

Mets Guy in Michigan wrote: Edgy MD wrote: Seaver-in-his-prime could probably be better described as a cold fish than an asshole. But he sure was ahead of his time with regard to carefully planned image management. Tom could ruffle a feather or two. Check out the quote from Swoboda in the story. http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1906&dat=19710416&id=0NcfAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ItkEAAAAIBAJ&pg=664,6476455 Harvey will be fine as long as he is a stud pitcher. I have no doubt that's true. There was an incident where Seaver didn't pitch the last game of the season. The Mets had been eliminated, but it could have made the difference between (I think) second or third place and the standings bonuses that represented, and his teammates were pissed. I just mean to say that GTS had a well polished public image. Middle aged guys like I am now loved the guy. They wanted sons like him --- handsome, athletic, going to college to work instead of to get high, a marine, with a pretty and demure wife, of the hippy generation but apart from them. This recent bio pretty much sums up all that bullshit, and unfortunately buys it and continues to push it all 30 years after we should have all woken up from the dream. But it's pretty clear the Seaver and DiMaggio and others have been savvy antecedents of Jeter long before the social media world arose. Dick Young throwing him under the bus may have been a hatchet job that is to his eternal shame, but it's a dark shadow of what made Young a rebellious hero decades earlier, standing apart from the sportswriters who painted characters onto players rather than capturing what was really there. Nonetheless, I'm totally not ashamed to say that I want Harvey to be less of a douche.

Yeah, but that was spun generally positively, a la Jeter. Certainly a negative spin would have been just as valid, and if Seaver went through a struggle early in his career, those words might have blown up in his face.

Seaver-in-his-prime could probably be better described as a cold fish than an asshole. But he sure was ahead of his time with regard to carefully planned image management.

As tweeted by Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal: "We are deeply saddened by the loss of Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn, an extraordinary individual whose memory we have honored in numerous ways in recent weeks. The Baseball family has sadly lost a number of people this year - including Hall of Famer Ralph Kiner, Frank Cashen, and former All-Stars Jerry Coleman, Jim Fregosi and Don Zimmer - and did not want to slight anyone by singling out one individual." You can almost see where they're coming from, but it's awfully difficult sell considering the game was basically a three-hour tribute to Derek Jeter, while 69 other All-Stars all shared supporting roles. You could perhaps see where they are coming from, if they weren't so obviously and absolutely lying. The truth is that they had their story. And alternative stories did not occur to anybody involved in the broadcast. Not even once. But, you know, get set for next year's game to be turned into a three-hour version of "People Who Died." Because if there's anything MLB knows how to do, it's over-correct for a minor PR snafu, at least when it comes to minority issues. They'll completely miss (or ignore) that their real failure was not the snub to Gwynn (and really, did anybody here feel miffed that Kiner wasn't mentioned?), but rather the three-hour planned Jetergasm that precipitated it, and the 20-year fake, forced lovefest that led up to it.

I agree with that. You could totally weave a narrative of the whole world going to hell and this manical stay-the course/happy-days-are-here-again attitude prevailing in what was just a terrible time to build a new stadium and destroy a prized institutional asset. Add in the subprime mortgage crisis, the assassination of Benazir Bhutto (and Musharraf's later resignation), the failed assassination of Hamid Karzai, the South American tensions with FARC and Venezuela and Chavez (who, let it not be forgotten, threw out the first pitch at a Mets game), ice shelf collapses, out-of-control high-seas piracy, the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, the phasing out of the shuttle program. It was a terrifying year. Sure, we elected a black president (and weathered the rise of Palin), but what a terrible time for anybody to assume that mantle. And here the Mets are, trying to stay the course and plow through it all, with a bloated budget and at the helm of it all, a GM whose inexperience and under-qualified-ness made our inexperienced new president seem like a revelation of professional demeanor and leaderly strength. In 2008, the world was going to hell, we looked around, and couldn't find a grown-up to answer our cries. And the Mets were all this in a microcosm. Hell, yeah, there's a film there.

They shoot down Mets on the same terms. Tejada, Harvey, others. Some who I imagined have expressed Re2pect for Cheter, some who I imagine couldn't give 2 shits. By the way, wtf is Re2pect? An S doesn't look like a 2 and a 2 doesn't look like an S and when I read it, I mentally say "Retwopect," and I sound like a drunk Castillian. There's brand advancement, there's brand management, and there's brand massaging, but that's like... brand enforcement, or something. Something... far more coercive.

But come on. He TOTALLY plays into it. Cashes in that stupid CLASSY brand for all it's worth, giving more time, effort, and thought to massaging the image than actually living up to it.

Now, the '79 Mets. THERE'S a story crying to be told.

That "guide" doesn't get the half of it.

I'm telling you, my post-season baseball awards ceremony is gonna knock your sox off. It's just gonna be called Baseball Night, and it will be spectacular. I've got a producer, a writer, a host, a venue, and an iPhone camera. All I need is scads of money and Bob Mackie.

We built this model! We built this model of Cardboard Shea! Built this model! We built this model of Card...board... Shea!

All that's missing is Grand Funk Railroad and tens of thousands of thoroughly baked 15- to 19-year-olds.

The "oldest All-Star to ever play more than one inning"? "Ever"? Really? Where do they get this stuff. Checking a comprehensive list of ... one player, I note that Willie Mays started the 1972 All-Star Game and played five innings at 41. I'm going to guess he's not the only guy who can put the lie to that claim. Let's try, I dunno, Pete Fuckin' Rose. Started the 1982 game at 41 and played five innings. Both older at the time than Jeter is now. Both better at the time than Jeter is now. And I have few charitable thoughts for Pete F. Rose. Wainwright is my MVP.