Edgy MD

He will, I'm sure. Once the team starts getting some hits to drop in.

That's a lot o' lefties, 2-thru-6. Looks like Chris Young has fallen into a platoonio situation with Abreu.

"your" but I hear you. (My only tools are reference books and style manuals.)

Some bloggers seeing Jeffy fingerprints on this that I can't spot.

I like the idea of fining players certainly. It doesn't show the guy up publicly the way whistling him for taking more than 12 seconds to throw a pitch (for instance) would. And that sort of whistle would just create more delays as the pitcher whines and then the manager comes out to plead his case. They play the game as slow as they want, and then show up at the ballpark the next day with a fine waiting for them, and they'll police themselves, certainly.

Well, you hate to do that sort of thing pre-maturely, I think, is my point. Early reports indicated his elbow, but latter reports, including his own, seem to point to the forearm, I believe.

If Keith finds a contrasting viewpoint on anything these days, it's generally from himself having a afterthought.

Of course he could be wrong. I certainly don't say otherwise.

seawolf17 wrote: Does anyone else notice that we seem to be more African-American-heavy than the MLB average? Both Youngs, Granderson, coaches Goodwin and Johnson, plus Hawkins and Byrd last year. You read about the dearth of black players in MLB every spring, but we seem to be doing pretty well. I actually think the ownership is very self-conscious about this sort of thing. Not so much with the roster, but they always make sure they have an African-American on the coaching staff --- since the fall of Jerry (and before the rise of Willie), this has often been the first base/outfield coach. I never looked at it particularly that way, but after cleaning Jerry's crew out of the house, they put together his staff, and (re-)added Mookie late in the day. It was almost as if it was "Oh, shit, what a bunch of whities we suddenly just threw together, after having the blackest shop in baseball. Get me... Mookie... on line one. Can always count on the Mookster." Then at the end of the season, Mookie gets flipped for Tom Goodwin, when they got a little more intentional about it. It doesn't hold together as well as a theory when you considered that Ricky Bones was the bullpen coach, but I figure he held the separate but related Afro-Caribbean chair vacated with the departure of the Sandys Alomar. Gary Pettis also held the Mookie chair for two years.

Right?! I feel kind of ripped off in that regard.

You get the idea that Luis Nutera is of two minds this morning. On one hand, he's laid low enough to dodge the axe when Hudgens wasn't so lucky. On the other hand, he may have laid so low that nobody thought to consider him for the promotion.

Shave or no, Razor wasn't part of the hitting coach continuum.

Lamar Johnson, Chambliss, Baylor, and HoJo also all wore/wear mustaches. Hudgens too! Denny Walling totally never got with the mustachioed batting coach program.

I think the culture is just washing over these guys. They're popular, but they've got to get with the zeitgeist of contempt or get left behind. Either that, or frustration just makes doubters of us all. I mean, it's natural to distance yourself from a losing formula --- even if it's not the formula at all. When that old skool bullshit rears it's ugly head, Gary can become SUCH a suckup.

Relief pitchers in general: [list:13w4prsz][*:13w4prsz]Strike out more people[/*:m:13w4prsz] [*:13w4prsz]Walk more people[/*:m:13w4prsz] [*:13w4prsz]Have much more variance in BAA, but generally hold batters to lower averages.[/*:m:13w4prsz][/list:u:13w4prsz] And that makes sense. When the go-ahead run is on third, you're going to pitch around the hitter a lot more in the seventh or ninth than you would in the third or fifth.

First Met ever to end his tenure in camouflage?

Was born in Bessemer, Alabama --- the same town that gave the world Bo Jackson. On June 19, 1977, Lamar sang the national anthem before the game, and then started for the Sox. Chicago managed only two hits against Mike Norris and Bob Lacey, but no matter, both hits were homers by Johnson and the Sox won, 2-1. He previous was the batting coach for the Milwaukee Brewers, taking over a light-hitting team in 1995 and leading them to club-record historical production. They fell off after spiking early in his tenure and he was let go in August 1998. Brewer Runs per Game, 1993-2000, Lamar Johnson Years in Red 1993: 4.52 RpG 1994: 4.76 1995: 5.14 1996: 5.52 1997: 4.23 1998: 4.36 1999: 5.06 2000: 4.54 [*]The next year he moved over to the Royals, and again, his batters saw a remarkable initial run of success before tailing off. Royal Runs per Game, 1997-2004, Lamar Johnson Years in Red 1997: 4.64 1998: 4.43 1999: 5.32 2000: 5.43 2001: 4.50 2002: 4.55 2003: 5.16 2004: 4.44 [*]Spent one year as the Mariners hitting coach. This was an outstanding team trending in the wrong direction. And in fact, they trended during the season, hitting strong early but flagging down the stretch, getting him fired. Mariner Runs per Game, 2001-2005, Lamar Johnson Year in Red 2001: 5.72 (!) 2002: 5.02 2003: 4.91 2004: 4.31 2005: 4.31 Sometimes it's coaching. Sometimes it's personnel. Sometimes it's just gravity. And sometimes, it's the end of the liberal supplement era. [*]Played Major League baseball in gym shorts. [*]Rarely played a full season, DH-ing as often as not. [*]This won't please you to hear: he grounded into a LOT of double plays. [*]He's been in the Mets organization since 2005, which makes him a survivor of the Omar/Bernazard era. [*]Will someday be conflated with Don Baylor and Chris Chambliss in my mind --- 21st century African American Mets hitting coaches who took over mid-season as their teams were mired in batting slumps. Caucasian Howard Johnson was also hired mid-season in 2007.

Syndergaard tweets that he's synderfine. Hopefully there weren't too many self-immolations.

It's not like it's an either-or thing.

Oh, I think there's a lot to be said about the culture of negativity surrounding the team. I think people are being nutty, and if it gives his players a breather to take a shot at the boobirds on the way out the door, drawing some of the wrath on himself and briefly away from the players... well, there are certainly less noble exits. I mean, we've all got to imagine morale sucks, right?

Hudgens calls out the boobirds on the way out the door.

Now I've got disco Grateful Dead in my head.

Seemed like a good character. Big, broad-shouldered, back-slappy. Took shit from people on Twitter with grace. Managed in Latin America in the winters and scouted Bobby Abreu for us down there. Big honking manly nose. You know he's not much of a drinking man, because a nose like that would betray a fella in a second. Has, I think, a young adult son and daughter who seem like his best buds, who join him down in Venezuela sometimes in the offseason. That's a hardcore baseball lifer bringing family down to Venezuela in these times, especially family that's of the Age of Terrible Judgment. Never seemed to want to grow his facial hair in fully, and seemingly perpetually was sporting the scruffy beginnings of a Van Dyke or the scruffy beginnings of a mustache. Hard wiry stuff that would come in thick and coily if he let it, but he didn't, and a few days of beard is one thing, maintaining a saucy stubble, but a long-term early stage mustache looks confusing. Grow it in or shave it off. Destined to one day be conflated with Dave Jauss by me. But not THIS day. Godspeed, Dave Hudgens. Stop squinting

Is this a trade you're advocating?

Check the players' lot tomorrow. If that Italian-looking road-ripper isn't there, you know it was his.