Edgy MD

I need to get out into the sun!

The shunning seems far too lazy to qualify as witch hunting.

I'm not sure I care that it's subjective. That's why they have a big voting pool. I just care that those subjective standards are consistently applied, and that baseball writers act like the reporters they're supposed to be and pursue actual facts to make their subjective opinions as informed as possible. Anybody who makes his case on the know-it-when-I-see-it basis should be disqualified from any jobs as a persuasive writer. As for the "only one 200-hit season" standard, you can disqualify any Hall-of-Famer if you pick one random criterion of excellence. Babe Ruth only had three 200-hit seasons. Rickey Henderson had zero. Walter Johnson never got more than 42 hits in a year!

The quoting tree has been somehow incorrectly pruned, and Steve's words are now in my mouf.

Dan Shaugnessy just made me weep at my desk.

Over the holidays, Ryan Reid had a blowout welcome aboard party thrown for him by Darren Reed, Jeremy Reed, Rick Reed, Steve Reed, and Reid Cornelius.

Hmmm... just me again, huh? Well, you're not missing anything. I mean, you're missing a step on the evolutionary ladder of what filmgoing is to become, but other than that... no. Seems like Jackson did everything he could to avoid being the director on this series, and when it came down to him, he was more interested in using the property to advance filmmaking as a science, with no regard to filmmaking as an art. He also seems sad and angry. In many ways, Smaug seems like an analog for Jackson. He's achieved his wildest dreams of success and power, sitting on top of an unthinkable pile of wealth and artistic artifacts, and yet unsettled in it all, making a fight out of his encounter with Bilbo just to have a project to escape the day-to-day banality that complete worldly success brings. Jackson has taken on Bilbo and the dwarves for seemingly the same reason, and he's similarly awakening from a torpor and blowing a lot of smoke and wrecking something beautiful. The main result of the ballyhooed 48 fps technology was --- from my seat --- to make the sets look so vivid... that they look like sets, and the CGI looks like CGI.

Peter Jackson returns to add a second of three scheduled installments to his adaptation of Tolkein's beloved novel. [fimg=1000:3uywtqwp]http://cdn.fansided.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/229/files/2013/10/The-Hobbit-Desolation-of-Smaug-Poster.jpg[/fimg:3uywtqwp]

Am I OK with Recker? I'm not NOT OK. I imagine some vets will be brought in on minor league deals. I won't be too upset if a major league signee isn't among them, but since catchers get hurt, a big league vet would be nice. But then, our conversation gets further and further away from Stephen Drew.

Cool bit here about Bill Bavasi owning, and willingly taking it on the chin for, the Shin-Soo Choo trade: More than anything else, the trades that year were just good old-fashioned disasters. There was no specific pressure from above to make any specific move at that time. But I was not operating on the same platform they are now. Without going into great detail ... When I got there it was made REAL clear they didn't want any five-year plans � and that I'd get a mulligan in 2004 but, from then on they'd expect consistent improvement toward a postseason. When I say "improvement" I mean relative to our record. So even though we operated under some pressure to tangibly improve on a regular basis, the Choo and Cabrera trades were a product of my own stupidity and good work by the Indians. By the way, I'm not complaining about the "no five-year plans" attitude. Again, without going into detail ... I knew the score going in. We had good things to say about Choo at the time. We certainly didn't know what we know now -- what a star he'd be -- but our people liked him, knew he had skills, great make-up and a high sense of responsibility. We had good, smart people. I just blew it.

While I think while the team can get a mercurial range of outcomes from any of their first base options, I think among Davis, Duda, Satin, and even Murphy and others, steady is certainly available.

Well, again, I don't see Morales as all that great (or all that likely) an improvement to justify the investment of limited resources. Shortstop, starting pitcher, sure. If I had money to spend, I'd look in those directions.

That's just as good as life gets, isn't it?

Vic Sage wrote: Morales is 30, with an average OPS+ of 120, with a .280/30hr/90rbi line. And you don't think he is an obvious choice to outperform Ike or Lucas? Yeah, i'll just say i strenuously disagree. While the race doesn't always go to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, that's the way to bet. Yeah, Morales has a career OPS+ of 120. By firstbaseman standards, that's not so high as all that. Duda, three years younger, is at 114. Davis is at 112 and four years younger. Factor in time missed --- which was 1 2/3 years for Morales, and that's meaningful. I don't see anything so obvious there that's worth paying additional tens of millions and a draft pick for. Does he by himself improve the team's immediate prospects? Sure, 120 is greater than 114 and four firstbasemen is greater than three. But to the degree he'd cost, I don't think that's likely. If he missed all that time for the Mets after injuring himself in a homerun celebration, fans would certainly be wary and weary of him. I think he's a negative on defense. I'm all for upgrading at shortstop and generally pursuing guys who can play positions.

Well, the goal is generally to present a winning product that fans will support while not crippling your ability to continue to do that in the future. Morales would likely be giving up quite a bit (including a draft pick) for somebody that isn't necessarily an obvious bet to outperform who they already have.

I think the value we got from Lagares throwing out runners is highly likely to regress, as it's a contribution that's both situation-dependent and choice-dependent. Young, meanshile, may be a paragon of a new market inefficiency.

On Pafko: I missed that he passed. He almost made me cry in his insistence of unworthiness in Boys of Summer. On Hermann: Did you think you'd live long enough to see Dick Allen turn into the go-to guy for a tribute to a teammate. On Blair: He would have hit .500 in the 1969 series too if it wasn't for Agee. He made a lot of folks lists --- back in the day anyhow --- as the greatest defensive centerfielder ever.

Oh, shit, YESSS!! Ed Charles, 1968 edition, hit 15 homers, three of them being of the pinch-hitting variety, bringing no small measure of shame to the likes of Joe Hoemer, Bob Freaking Gibson (these two come on consecutive days), and Ron Reed, Each of these feats, alas, was accomplished in a losing caue.

Good job, area blogger. Dan Norman was the author of three Mets pinch-hit homers, though none more than two in a season. A quick web search does not reveal any wife that I was able to find, but if he had one, you can bet a pennant or two that she wasn't the gold-digger Nancy Seaver was. Whooh, boy.

Well, I guess my answer is why does anybody agree to subject themselves to the countless indignities of playing for the Yankees? Why would Alex Rodriguez, at the apex of his offensive ability and the current Gold Glove and on a track to challenge Honus Wagner for the title of GREATEST SHORTSTOP EVER deign ---absolutely deign --- to come to the Yankees and switch positions in deference to his utterly obvious inferior. The answer is... scads and scads of money.

Josh Satin is indeed the last man not good enough to start a game but good enough to strike the big blow. As late as September 26 of this year, Joshie pinch hit for Frank Francisco in the ninth inning with the Mets down 4-1. He ripped the offering from Jim Henderson down the leftifield line for four bags and an automatic homerun. Unfortunately, the Mets forgot to get some guys on base first, and the final scored was 4-2. Henderson ended up with a cheapo save, but man, he's been seeing those eyebrows in his sleep ever since.

Yeah, too crazy, I guess.

Maybe he'd play second for a year, while preparing to serve as Jeter's successor in year two, and be ready to step in earlier if necessary. Maybe?

metsmarathon wrote: 312 then. surely not more! Fewer than 312 Mr. I-Guess-in-Multiples. metsmarathon wrote: if 1981 wasn't the worst metly pinch homering year, then surely the newly moved-into-shea 1964 mets were the worst! 1964 might have robbed the Mets of the reachable corners of the Polo Grounds, but it did not rob them of the pro-creative thunder of Frank Thomas (at least initially), nor the blue-eyed lightning of Larry Elliot.

I guess, with the new posting rules, the Masuzaka contract has already had an effect on Lt. Tanaka.