Edgy MD

The Mets "official" awards are the Sterling Awards, formerly the Sterling/Doubleday Awards. They come at the end of the minor league season, and are good in that they are all about actual performance, whether the guy has prospect stock or not. The 2013 Sterling Player of the Year was co-awarded to Alan Dykstra and Kevin Plawecki. The Sterling Pitcher of the Year was Gabriel Ynoa, because Ynoa great season when you see one, and 106 strikeouts to 16 walks is a great season.

Seems most sensible to dole out credit in the same way they do it with pitchers (or goaltenders, for that matter). Who's in charge when the team takes the lead for good. They can do it with or without the five inning minimum --- which I'm not particularly partial to anyhow. You're also responsible, as manager, for the opposing runners on base when you get tossed. We can even uncover a new category of managerial saves.

Zvon wrote: Benjamin Grimm wrote: My guess is that it was intended to be permanent, but didn't look as good in reality as it may have looked in the imagination, and they fairly quickly reversed course. It may have been that they rethought the aesthetics, or else the problem was with the batters' ability to see the pitched ball with that light colored fence in the background. I don't believe that at any time in baseball history would anyone anywhere think that a white outfield wall was,..not even a good idea, it shouldn't even be an idea at all! The ball is white! There has to be a more interesting story here. Though if someone did approve this "idea", the persons level of stupidity would make it interesting. Who was this stupid? I need to know. Standards were different, and bad ideas are allowed to float around all the time. There have been crippling chain link outfield fences and there have been murderous concrete outfield walls. Ask Bobby Valentine about the fence that turned him from a phenom to a journeyman. The most beloved park in the National League has brick walls all around. Behind the plate and down the line too. Stupid, yeah but it looked so good, your retro parks have all imitated it.

I think back to G-Fafif's post from after Jordany got hit in the beans, saying something along the lines of, "He say's he'll wear a cup from now on but the best part is you know he won't."

I don't know. Assholes learn humility and turn over a new leaf in the movies, but in real life, true conversions come pretty hard.

Jordany's new leaf not going so well.

He's gonna be great. Proposals are already being entertained to change the name of the place to the Cess Pool Forum. Cessa's a veteran of the 2012 Brooklyn rotation that I fell in love with, but couldn't generate the sort of interest over that I was going for.

I'd like to see a team with a manager confident enough in the organization he's managed to leave the team for a scouting visit on occasion --- maybe skip a series in June to visit the AA team and another in July or August to pay a call on the AAA squad. He can phone in the lineup and surely his staff should be able to manage from there. I would be supportive of the hitting and batting coaches taking occasional time off for similar reasons.

I would have loved to adapt the unisphere --- or a reasonable facsimile --- into the nu ballpark's design.

Big ticket foreign signee. It's all in the tools right now, as he's pushed above his age, a practice that was more typical in the Bernazard era. He played in the Appy league at 17, and the stats reflect that. Interesting to see if he jumps to a full season league this year (Savannah or maybe even St. Loo), or they hold him back for Brooklyn.

Well, don't let a wealth of one area necessarily imply a paucity in another. But yeah. There are certainly other potential shortstops. Our man Tovar is one of them. This challenge/interesting part is that they've taken high school position players #1 three years in a row. If position palyers are safer picks, that's certainly less true of high school ones. High ceilings and low floors. Kevin Plawecki, who came with three years of college under his belt, has come along smoothly though.

John Sickels assesses his top 20 Met prospects. Most notable isn't necessarily who's on top, but it's all pitching-pitching-pitching from 12 to 20, most of them slotted in as starters. So hopefully, with that big a bag of C+s, some of it can shake out. 1) Noah Syndergaard, RHP, Grade A-: Borderline A 2) Travis D�Arnaud, C, Grade B+: Borderline A- 3) Rafael Montero, RHP, Grade B+: Borderline A- 4) Dominic Smith, 1B, Grade B: Borderline B- 5) Kevin Plawecki, C, Grade B: Borderline B- 6) Wilmer Flores, INF, Grade B: Borderline B- 7) Brandon Nimmo, OF, Grade B- 8) Amed Rosario, SS, Grade B- 9) Gavin Cecchini, SS, Grade B- 10) Cesar Puello, OF, Grade B- 11) Dilson Herrera, 2B, Grade B- 12) Jake DeGrom, RHP, Grade B- 13) Vic Black, RHP, Grade B- 14) Steven Matz, LHP, Grade C+ 15) Cory Mazzoni, RHP, Grade C+ 16) Gabriel Ynoa, RHP, Grade C+ 17) Luis Cessa, RHP, Grade C+ 18) Robert Whalen, RHP, Grade C+ 19) Chris Flexen, RHP, Grade C+ 20) Michael Fulmer, RHP, Grade C+

Ha! I joke! (This doesn't bode well for parody invitational this year.)

Nobody gets immunity unless/until they give up Jeter.

Well, the name is in the title and everything. Anybody else go for the Jackson-as-Smaug notion? I can't recall any film whose production felt like so much a contradiction of it's own script's morals since... Titanic? ... Mary Shelley's Frankenstein?

Well certainly.

I just rewatched and didn't get the ending until now.

It is genius. What a vocabulary that guy has. Given sometimes as little as a second to embody a guy, one small hand gesture or bat loop or eye squint does the trick.

Slow down, little girl. [youtube:3c9q4i87]uGSyc1FZoOI[/youtube:3c9q4i87]

Well, let's get to lobbying. I think it'd make a great conference presentation to reveal the most dramatic changes that would occur in the historic record if records were adjusted to give credit to the guys actually managing affairs in the dugout over their superiors who were unavailable, absent, or ejected. The Yankees got 21 wins while Torre was out. That doesn't change the all-time rankings as they currently sit, but it's a five-week-or so difference if Dusty Baker or Bruce Bochy or somebody come climbing up the charts.

Even illness/prolonged absence won't do it. Don Zimmer doesn't have any of the wins and losses on his record for the 36 games he filled in for Joe Torre during the latter's prostate cancer treatment. Only one guy is eligible to get those credits/demerits. If a guy is the manager on the payroll, all wins and losses are his, whether he is in the dugout, in the hospital, or in prison. That's a shame --- if only a minor one --- I think.

So what's your rating out of five stars? Who gave it half a star?

Must've been a nice ovation for Yogi to come to work in St. Louis the night of his induction ceremony.

Still think that falling beam was sabotage.

Funny thing is that he looked a little like Westrum. Older and less of the athletic frame from his playing days still remaining, but still. One may spy a rare shot of Johnny Murphy on the field and mistake it for Westrum.