Edgy MD

The post-Lagares era begins with dD getting the leadoff call. [*:3flkdbhx]den Dekker, cf[/*:m:3flkdbhx] [*:3flkdbhx]Murphy, 2b[/*:m:3flkdbhx] [*:3flkdbhx]Wright, 3b[/*:m:3flkdbhx] [*:3flkdbhx]Granderson, lf[/*:m:3flkdbhx] [*:3flkdbhx]Abreu, rf[/*:m:3flkdbhx] [*:3flkdbhx]Duda, 1b[/*:m:3flkdbhx] [*:3flkdbhx]Flores, ss[/*:m:3flkdbhx] [*:3flkdbhx]d'Arnaud, c[/*:m:3flkdbhx] [*:3flkdbhx]Colon, sp[/*:m:3flkdbhx][/list:o:3flkdbhx] One day closer to the first triple-little-d lineup.

Daniel Ray Herrera, Somerset Patriot.

Worth noting, if not perhaps to make too much of, the Mets left Philadelphia with a 15-11 record (a season-high .577 winning percentage), only to turn around and look terrible upon arriving in Colorado, capturing only the last game of the four-game series when the Roxx mercifully sat Troy Tulowitzki.

The, um, story, I guess, speaks for itself. The Mets are filthy, greasy gluttons. In Philadelphia, Mets eat cheesesteaks better than the rest and break records PHILADELPHIA � In the dining room of the visitor�s clubhouse at Citizens Bank Park is a leaderboard. And no matter where the Mets lay in the National League East standings, they stand atop this one. This April, on the last day, as they sat marooned in that clubhouse, awaiting rain to pass to see if they could play that night, and then waiting to leave after the game was rained out, the Mets decided to set their aim for the team record for most cheesesteaks eaten in a day. Cheesesteaks are Philadelphia�s delicacy � a greasy stuffing of beef and lining of cheese inside a sub. Visiting teams are welcome to eat as many as they want or can, with the meal made for them at the ballpark, and a scoreboard tracks their feats. There are individual and team records for a single day or series. On April 30, over some ten hours, the Mets ate 103, they say, setting the new single-day team record. Though baseball may be a sequence of individualized events, this was the work of a collective. It was planned two cheesesteaks per person, or more for those that were willing to help out where other teammates could not eat their share. By the time the Mets left for Denver, distended and at over-capacity, they were now record-holders, breaking the previous mark that stood somewhere in the 80s. Though impressive, perhaps it should not have been surprising. When it comes to eating cheesesteaks, the Mets are the 1961 Yankees, and their bullpen catchers, Dave Racaniello and Eric Langill, are the Mantle and Maris. Last season, from April 8-10, Langill set the three-game series record by eating 17 cheesesteaks. He broke Racaniello�s record of 14 -- which had stood for years. The cheesesteak eating competition is not without rules and calls for prior planning. To viably set a record, cheesesteaks can only be eaten after getting to the ballpark until batting practice, from the end of batting practice until the game begins, and for an hour window after the game has concluded. There are moratoriums during batting practice and the game, likely, so that players and coaches can proceed with their day jobs. As the Mets arrived in Philadelphia last season, Brandon Lyon, then a Mets reliever, egged Langill on to set the new mark. In chasing the record, Langill followed the necessary stratagem. He did not eating [sic] breakfast in the morning. He took the early bus, at 1:30 in the afternoon for a night game, to Citizens Bank Park to allow him more time to eat. The first two were easy, but by the fifth it became a challenge. To ease the burden, he vacillated between chicken and steak fillings. When he came home at night, he felt overwhelmingly bloated. After the second game, the night of his birthday, he could barely finish a beer. When the Mets left for Minnesota, Langill�s pants could barely fit. �It�s torture,� he said. �It�s not fun. But at least you�re on the there.� [sic] Racaniello took the lost mark with aplomb. As Langill shot for his title, he set about trying to become the single-day champion. In eating seven and a half cheesesteaks, he did, waking up the next morning with a face puffy from all the sodium he had consumed. �We were going for it together,� Racaniello said. �Then I did that and, alright, I�ll hold the single day record, you can have the three day record.� But several weeks later, Racaniello received a text message from Joe McEwing, a former Met and now the White Sox third base coach. Bobby Thigpen, the team�s bullpen coach, had topped him. Thigpen, who had once held baseball�s single-season saves record with 57, had eaten eight cheesesteaks in one day. But there was controversy. He had done so over the course of a double-header. Like Maris taking eight extra games to best Babe Ruth in the home run record chase, Thigpen had been the beneficiary of more time. �Exactly, asterisk,� Racaniello said. �I�m crossed off. I�m like I should at least still be up there.�

d'Kong76 wrote: Bartolo Colon turned 41 years old nine days ago, but the right-hander has done his part to solidify the New York Mets� shaky starting rotation. Hmmm... It seems to me that an equally valid perspective is that hes done his part to shakify the New York Mets' solid rotation.

Hee...

Amazin'. Ceetar wrote: No, returning to the same fact when people try and point out a broader array. That's ONE fact. There's no reason to be sarcastic. Just because you think the stuff Abreu did in CBP in 2005, and before and after, is significantly relevant to today doesn't make it so. And just because you think it's not doesn't make it so. Where does that leave us? With you citing the same datum over and over? At least that beats the one you made up about him starting three times in six games when other players were healthy. Ceetar wrote: When you're 40... I am! I'm even older! Ceetar wrote: ...and the results over the last 3+ years are subpar. That's the most recent sample. I think you're failing to construct a sentence here. Ceetar wrote: 59 PA is basically nothing and is certainly not reason to think he's reverted to a player that he hasn't been in years and therefore deserves MORE AB and responsibility. Which of course is not the claim. Ceetar wrote: People that know him better than we do even looked at him, closely, and decided he didn't really have any of value left. 59 PA doesn't make those people wrong. Other people looked at him and decided otherwise. They are real people too. Ceetar wrote: If Chris Young was even remotely hitting this would be a moot point, Well, he's not and this is the situation before us. Ceetar wrote: and if Juan is hurt again, well.. Well! Ceetar wrote: but personally I'd rather see if I could mine any value out of den Dekker or Nieuwenhuis or Puello before I played Abreu more. That's great. Ceetar wrote: Even if their... "there" Ceetar wrote: ... is more weight on Abreu's side of that equation... I thought you were suggesting there was no weight. Ceetar wrote: ...there was the upside of discovering something in one of the others is too great, in my opinion, to give more work to Abreu. Fine. But these players aren't going anywhere, and haven't yet made strong cases for themselves as hitters. And there are still games to win. This subject was indeed brought up framed with concerns for the short-term, the near-long-term, and the long-term. Ceetar wrote: And yes, if we're suddenly finding ourselves awash of OF playing time because of these injuries and such, it doesn't really matter. Then why are you being so impossibly intransigent? Ceetar wrote: ... ride Bobby if he's hitting, ... That's the idea. Ceetar wrote: ... but certainly don't bat him leadoff and give him more AB than everyone else. It annoys me that for righty/lefty ordering they bat him ahead of Duda. I promise you that he'll go away soon enough. But short-term, the team still needs an answer.

Nobody would be surprised. But one outfielder is on the DL and another is apparently heading there, while the whole team is desperate for offense. Even Rusty Staub was briefly tried as an actual outfielder for a few days at the end of his career during a pinch. Pinches happen.

No, returning to the same fact when people try and point out a broader array. That's ONE fact. There's no reason to be sarcastic.

Abreu has been to the plate almost 10,000 times as a major leaguer. Much of that is less relevant, because it's well behind him. That doesn't make it [u:2ypjnxdf]non-[/u:2ypjnxdf]relevant. If you're not enjoying his performance, I'm not sure what to say. It's been a gift, from my perspective. The guy's plate judgement is just spectacular. He doesn't even cock his bat on balls off the plate. They miss by a mere inch or two and he's taking from the moment they leave the pitcher's hand, sometimes with two strikes. He should be an ump when he packs it in.

Ceetar wrote: 59 PA is not evidence, it's a small sample size and the recent past doesn't suggest it's going to stick. You're just going to keep doing that, aren't you?

Ceetar wrote: Am I going to say the guy who wasn't even in baseball last year and sucked the year before that is going to maintain quality value based off 59 PA? Absolutely not. You're sticking to your antipathy of Abreu, and missing the evidence of your own eyes. I think the argument has been made and made again that there's a lot more to judge him by. Just look at him play. He's a fat old dude who brings very little on defense and could break down tomorrow, but until then, every plate appearance is a privilege to watch. And that's a cool drink of water in an offensive desert.

I'd love to give Tejada a chance, but like Duda, his confidence seems so fragile, I'm loathe to put him in a spot that makes him more of a lightning rod.

A former Marine Corps officer, Alderson has spent the last four seasons instituting his plan with militaristic zeal, only to watch the Mets' run production dwindle with each season since his arrival in late 2010. Run production in fact went up his first season --- they still had Beltran and Reyes and Willie Harris and Chin-lung Hu and stuff --- before declining each of the following three. It's actually upticking this year, though certainly not getting the job done. 2010: 4.05 RpG 2011: 4.43 RpG 2012: 4.01 RpG 2013: 3.82 RpG 2014: 3.96 RpG

Certainly, but there's a lot rivers and mountains and fan revolts between now and Nimmo. Really underscores how two birds could've been bagged with a leadoff-hitting shorstop. Didi Gregorius, hear my cry!

I was scarcely above "eh" too. Very episodic, without much of a narrative arc at all. A modestly good scene here, or maybe even there, and then nothing building off of it. Gave me the feeling of a movie where the principles were just flying in for a day or two and flying out. And the editor was left to compose it into something. Most effective --- and that's not saying a lot --- as a vehicle for George Clooney to continue positioning himself as our onscreen national conscience. Even stuck his dad in there, because of course he did.

What's your strategem for leadoff batter? Much as I enjoyed Juan Lageres swinging with some more authority this season, I prefer him batting sixth and bashing the ball gap to gap, rather than slapping and taking and running and trying to be a leadoff guy, not that he's been a complete failure in that regard. What's your plan for leadoff, in the next few weeks with Lagares absent, and going forward beyond? Do you give it to den Dekker until Young, Jr. returns? Do you expect EY to return promptly? Would you try Tejada and Flores? Longer term, even beyond this year, who do you see profiling as the leadoff guy? Nimmo, Mazzill, Cecchini, and Rosario are too far away to speculate, but I don't see an answer in Las Vegas or Bingo either? Nieuwenhuis? Puello? Nah...

That makes sense. I think he was on the virtual bench in Gameday, though. Makes sense also that 15-year-olds are eligible for fedoras. But it sure sounded funny when they put it that way.

den Dekker heading to JFK to fly out LV, Lagares sent to HSS for MRI, den Dekker takes U PDQ.

Breaks down, hurts his team badly, re-injures himself, collects $17 million, which adds up to $1 million per game appeared in, gets fat, announces his retirement, effective the end of the season, breaks down, and hurts his team some more, all while being celebrated and feted at almost every stop, never inviting his team or his manager to ignore his status and pull him from the lineup when needed, all the while collecting at least another $12 million = leaving on his own terms/putting the team first

PAH! A long slog but the Mets clinch the series. Frustrating to watch the offense flail, but it shows character to outlast the other, I suppose.

Tying run and his name is Ryan Howard.

Not that Young would have caught that, but cheeee...

I'd certainly be tempted to at least send den Dekks out there and slide Young over to left.

Campbell-Young-Grandy in the outfield. Murphy at second, and Doo at first. Not our showcase defense for the save attempt.