Edgy MD

Not for nothing, but playing to the greatest-city-in-the-world/most-knowledgeable-sports-fans/we-deserve-the-best sense of entitlement has led more than a few sportswriters to go off the rails and take a chunk of the fan base with them.

I mean the exchange in this thread.

Is all this Harvey stuff in relation to him watching a basketball game?

Had we posted more memories, you might have remembered!

A real, live nu poster? Could Christmas have come early? Welcome a-Bordick! Seaver was the best of his generation. He was somebody the old beat writers could stand by (he did his stint in the marines, respected his elders, cursed and smoked in the clubhouse but kept it clean in public, supposedly honored his marital vows), but threw a bone or two to the coming generation as well (opposed Vietnam, stood strong with labor, gravitated toward friendships with black stars, projected a chastely swinging swagger). He also was smart enough to carefully cultivate his image, but only as far as he could credibly take it. So he didn't create a caricature that was a paper facade over something far more self serving (like Jeter or Garvey) or end up honorably but clumsily trying to live up to an ideal that was built on mostly hollow go-for-it!/never-give-up!/be-a-gamer! cliches guaranteed to bite you in the ass, like Gary Carter did. He was a guy both fathers and sons could agree about in the middle of the Vietnam generation, when --- Field of Dreams will tell you --- fathers and sons couldn't agree about much. Come to think of it, the one guy who really toed that line as well as Seaver was Cal Ripken. But even he didn't top Seaver's vote totals. Seaver, of course, was handsomer and represented a bigger market and a unifying national miracle in the midst of a divisive war. But if Ripken couldn't pull it off, that doesn't make a strong case for Maddux, even if, as you note, he's got many or most of the same tangibles Seaver brings to the table.

What can I say? dgw likes the Seav.

Don't mean to be blasphemous. Just asking a question. It's partly an historical accident that has landed Seaver with that honor. (He's hardly the greatest player in baseball history, though a strong enough case can certainly be made for greatest pitcher since World War II.) So if it took a particuar alignment of forces to so designate him with that distinction, I would think it'd be useful to speculate when those forces might align again. I think there's got to be at least some degree of a discernable rebound from last year's vote, if not pehaps a full backlash.

Yeah, but are we still there? The writers may well feel en masse tha they made their point and are done with punishing the innocent with the apparently guilty. And Maddux, unlike Biggio, did his act on a national stage, usually in the post-season, with the eptiome of an anti-roidy image (for what that's worth). Yeah, I don't think he will either.

So, Greg Maddux: bookish, upright, insanley efficient, apparently clean in a dirty era, a guy who represented many of those classic values many claim to love but probably don't if it's too hard. Does he approach/surpass Seaver's vote total?

That does read like some sour grape spitting.

Seeing that list and how the market has played out, it lends some credit to the Mets still standing around with their dance card unsigned. The Yankees have dropped $17 million and, if recent stats suggest anything, may have ended up with next to nothing.

Forgot THE MAN. Minor League SigneesAge in '14LevelG at ssPAAVGOBPSLGOPSOPS+Anthony Seratelli31AAA3487.273.395.413.808115

Thanks for launching this thread. Among other things, spurs me to finish that chart I've been laying out. Please correct me if I got any of this wrong. 2013 GuysAge in '14LevelG at ssPAAVGOBPSLGOPSOPS+Omar Quintanilla32MLB92359.222.306.283.58970AAA43148.333.419.484.903139Ruben Tejada24MLB55227.202.259.260.51949AAA58269.288.337.379.71690RK310.333.400.444.844155Justin Turner29MLB1886.280.319.385.704100AA217.400.471.5331.004180A+11.000.000.000.000-100SS A212.300.417.400.817152RK05.200.200.000.200-38Wilfredo Tovar22MLB719.200.294.200.49445AA128486.263.323.340.66386Jordany Valdespin26MLB1144.188.250.316.56660AAA067.466.537.7591.296240 2014 Leading Internal CandidatesTejadaTovar 2014 Potential Position SwitchersAge in '14LevelPAAVGOBPSLGOPSOPS+Wilmer Flores (under the craziest of circumstances)21MLB227.211.248.295.54254AAA463.321.357.531.887133 2014 Fringey Internal CandidatesAge in '14LevelG at ssPAAVGOBPSLGOPSOPS+Reese Havens27AAA0109.237.312.330.64271Rylan Sandoval26AAA3119.327.378.509.88713326A+4247.243.309.320.62982Daniel Muno25AA17561.249.384.379.762114 You Snooze, You LoseAge in '14LevelG at ssPAAVGOBPSLGOPSOPS+Signed By:Years$$NoteBrendan Ryan32MLB101349.197.255.273.52851Yankees2$5 millionDerek Jeter40MLB1373.190.288.254.54251Yankees1$12 millionYunel Escobar30MLB153578.256.332.366.69897Rays1$5 millionRafael Furcal36MLB (2012)120531.261.325.346.67185Marlins1$3.5 millionJhonny Peralta32MLB106448.303.358.457.815119Cardinals4$53 millionClint Barmes35MLB106330.211.249.309.55858Pirates1$2 millionNick Punto36MLB49335.255.328.327.65587Athletics1$2.75 million Remaining Free AgentsAge in '14LevelG at ssPAAVGOBPSLGOPSOPS+NoteStephen Drew31MLB124501.253.333.443.777111Received Qualfying OfferAA523.200.261.450.71195C�sar Izturis34MLB29142.209.259.271.53046�lex Gonz�lez37MLB3118.177.203.230.43318John McDonald39MLB677.116.197.174.3716Played for 4 MLB Teams!AAA637.250.324.294.61866And one more in the minors!Omar Quintanilla32MLB92359.222.306.283.58970AAA43148.333.419.484.903139

I HEAR YA!

There are probably few beat reporters who don't fancy they have a side-career working the one-liner circuit. And therefore Twitter is almost too ideal a venue for them. I apologize for reposting here, but heck, we had a whole thread of that junk.

Anthony DiComo @AnthonyDiComo Bartolo Colon ate #Mets team doctors today, thereby passing his physical. He's officially a Met.

OK, then, we have an evolving triple standard.

Time's getting away from you. It was 1989.

I tend to find biographical epics overblown Oscar grabs, but LoA is a Seaver in a high school filled with Selmas.

So there seems to be at least a little grumbling that this class of managers from the veterans committee represents an evolving double standard, as the Hall is (for now anyway) keeping out the likes of Canseco, McGwire, Clemens, and (projecting) Giambi, and Alex Rodriguez, but rewarding LaRussa and Torre. The thinking goes that if the record is discounted or adjusted or called into question for performances by players apparently bolstered by PEDs, why should those same performances be unsullied on the manager's record, particularly since fair play and sportsmanship and integrity is, in theory anyhow, part of a manager's portfolio? Sportsmanship is certainly one of the HOF's explicit qualifying factors, and it can be argued that those managers among others capitalized by looking the other way or at least remaining blissfully (but deliberately) ignorant of what went on in and around their clubhouses.

Jeter aside, it's hard not to see this guy as the mysterious missing piece of the Yankees' offseason plan. And iherefore, certainly something to root against. Or at least root for the bidding to make it painful for the Yanks. Wearing the belt high like that is not going to protect him from Hideki Irabu comparisons.

seawolf17 wrote: (Tanaka, not Tanakaka.) I hiccupped.

He's a still-young star Japanese pitcher looking to transfer to MLB and now that the new posting agreement is in effect (less lucrative for the posting club), Rakuten isn't so sure they want to let him go. [fimg=250]http://img.bleacherreport.net/img/images/photos/002/547/226/hi-res-163368525-pitcher-masahiro-tanaka-of-japan-pitches-during-the_crop_north.jpg?w=650&h=440&q=75[/fimg] [fimg=250]http://sitracking.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/tanaka.jpg[/fimg] [fimg=250]http://www.wcbsports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/111113-Tanaka.jpg[/fimg] The guy went 22-0 with a 1.23 ERA last year, so people probably are actually singing about him. Derek Jeter seems to talk like the Yankees have some sort of right of first refusal with him.

Way to butcher both the mayor and governor's names, Ralph. You're alright. Hard to say whether the tech wasn't there or the execution, but the pre-game looks sloppy as hell. Was Webb on the job yet?

The illustration looks as much like Bush as Alderson, doesn't it?