Edgy MD

Who comes to town? Giancarlo Alvarado Vic Black Buddy Carlyle Joel Carreno Jacob deGrom Josh Edgin Dana Eveland Kyle Farnsworth Erik Goeddel Daisuke Matsuzaka Rafael Montero Ryan Reid Miguel Socolovich Noah Syndergaard Logan Verrett Jeff Walters I'm guessing that last dude.

Oh, he certainly standardized his bullpen in a more normative way even while he was with the Mets.

Well, my thread obviously finished him off. Spirit of Frank Jobe, we call on you now.

He's certainly given lip service*, if nothing else. He seems to have an internal conflict over it. He speaks of objecting to innings-specific roles, while seemingly searching for a bullpen formula that would happily fall into place as such. I think all managers can be like this to one extent or another and grow moreso with age --- coming with a sensibility that objects to hard-to-justify status quo practice but not necessarily having the... moral energy... to make fundamental alterations. Your underlings waste energy questioning your changes and blaming them. The culture demonizes you. The press makes a mockery of you. And any loss that happens gets attributed to your smarty-pants new age approach, as if teams didn't lose 81 times before you showed up. This is pretty much why Tony LaRussa probably deserves the Hall of Fame, as poorly as it tastes to say so. People naturally want security, and so gravitate toward cultural norms. And don't give Davey Johnson too much credit here. His iconoclasm certainly abated with age and with the arrival of new cultural norms. *Has a history of saying the only one who has a specific role is the closer.

[fimg=750:26zch5f5]http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tNkWQb8WNWM/UzpF8uQL3wI/AAAAAAAAEGk/dAYquEG3ZuI/s3200/image.jpg[/fimg:26zch5f5]

That's the spirit.

Saw that coming. Heck, I half wanted to play that card myself.

Hasn't been on his stationary since about 1984, but YES!!

What gives with Bobby Parnell? Comes into the game throwing 90, and was able to dial it up to 93? 93?! Is that offseason surgery impinging him? Will it get better? Was the surgery elective? Un-necessary? Will there be lawsuits? Which is worse --- failing or never trying? Would I be younger if I didn't know how old I was? How come the things that make me happy don�t make everyone happy? Does it matter if I lie to myself if I have myself so successfully duped? I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS!! [fimg=700:3f979t8w]http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1433467.1377146483!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/article_1200/mets-braves.jpg[/fimg:3f979t8w]

FK's thoughts were my thoughts. The Mets didn't get any breaks but didn't make any for themselves either. One thing I'd've added is that Granderson's day of non-contributions really deserved its own line. It was pretty fitting that he whiffed to end the game. He doesn't get his season started in a few days, people are going to be real quick to hang Jason Bay's name over his head. Terry's moves were mostly solid and defensible, yes, but did you really see going to Torres looking to close out the seventh? I think of him as the long guy, and would look to Parnell, Valverde, Familia, and possibly Germen first. I hope Terry isn't already locked into a "Valverde for the eighth, Parnell for the ninth" mindset. Un-necessary losses lie in that direction.

It's hard not to think of this as related to pre-trade maneuverings.

Ceetar wrote: LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: I get the feeling that if there had been no vocal reaction, there might have been a smartassy hizzoner Tweet there in its place. Tracky is as the wind blows. (Or, rather, the pithiest counter to said wind-blowing.) saw one or two tweets before hand a little pissy about it. But first pitch was invented for politicians. that said, had no idea he was so disliked. Perhaps it's not unreasonable to not subject fans to someone they hate? but then, this isn't Rivera. It's pretty reasonable to ask fans to be decent gracious for a few moments. Doubly so since there were children entering the field with him who just had a chunk of their neighborhood blow up. Tracky's being priggy here but he's not wrong.

It's 1:33 PM on opening day and just heard my first Rush Limbaugh promo.

Laggy with the first hit.

He's welcome to challenge. He's entitled to strive to keep the inning going and I'm not about to ask for pity. I mean, play nice, but play to win.

Ka-plotz. Maybe this is going to be the one game that's the difference between Drew and Tejada. It'd be nice to put that behind us.

Hang in there, Jeurys.

One down. Desmond and La Roche loom.

Matt Williams saving his top reliever for a save situation. Mets saving their popup catching for some other time also.

Omar Quintanilla, in our time of need, we turn to you.

Amazing call on ball four by Welke to set that up. Look at this.

GAH! Beis on ballz.

Runner will be in motion, so a gapper will tie the game.

Is Espy really the last guy on the bench for DC?

[bigpurple:3hrm38nd]Two.[/bigpurple:3hrm38nd] Bobby finding some of that missing velocity.