Edgy MD

Hey look! Freddy Garcia is a Brave. I promise you, we're looking at the birth of a new tradition --- veteran starters who you thought were retired or dead, re-emerging as September innings eaters to take pressure off younger or playoff-bound rotations.

Brownie, since his homer, has twice left the bases loaded.

Hey, I think all homers are good, even brown doodoo ones.

It's a shame (and less than American) that paying players and managers in stock is unallowed by MLB. It used to be a great model of upward mobility. Marquee player --> Manager --> Minority Owner --> Controlling Owner. Charlie Comiskey took that route. Clark Griffith, Cap Anson, and Connie Mack, too. Anson was something of a turd, but still.

I love the conversation reported from the end of last year where Terry's all "They're probably gonna trade you," and he's all, "No way, Papi!"

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: I think JoseJose's time came and went, but if the Jays are committed to swallowing a lot of $$ we can talk. A WHOLE lot of the money. And then some. For argument's sake, though, let's hang a number on it.

He'll be in the third year. For the Mets, that'll be four years and $82 million, plus a $22 million option in 2018 with a $4 million buyout, so effectively, it's four years and $86 million. How much would you want to carve off of that to make it worth it? Get it down to $55 million? $60 million? It's so hard to read the market these days. Worth noting is that since returning on June 26, Reyes hasn't been stealing bases. He 's only stolen eight in that time and bagged only one in August. On one hand, big whoop, as stolen bases are an over-rated weapon. On the other, it could be an indication of how healthy his legs are. The early years of Doubleday/Wilpon/Cashen were characterized by canceling debts with the team's fans by bringing back Kingman, Staub, and Seaver. While none of these moves made much of difference competitively, there was value perhaps in re-establishing faith. There may be some mindset with regards to that nebulous value as the team makes it's next push. Maybe.

I tell youse this: If Terra Cotta gets retained, then we could be in for a coupla dramatic offseason of personnel moves. If he gets replaced, it could be a way of representing a change of course for the team without otherwise doing high-impact offseason investing. Just a thought. Sandy's taxed a lot of patience staying the course and people wanna see something shiny. [list:3vhp97z7]So Sandy asked the Lord, "Why have You brought such trouble on Your servant? Why are You angry with me, and why do You burden me with all these people? Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth so You should tell me, 'Carry them at your breast, as a nursing woman carries a baby,' to the land that You swore to [give] their fathers? Where can I get meat to give all these people? For they are crying to me: 'Give us meat to eat!' "I can't carry all these people by myself. They are too much for me. If You are going to treat me like this, please kill me right now. If You are pleased with me, don't let me see my misery [any more]." --- The Book of Mets by the Numbers 11:11-21[/list:u:3vhp97z7]

Pedro Lopez is your Eastern League Manager of the Year. Not that I'm rooting for him, but if he leapfrogged 1986 legends like blue-collar spitfire Wally Backman and bespectacled Christian Tim Tuefel, well, the Omar-hating, xenophobe wing of what's left of the WFAN base would go gloriously nuts.

Yeah, I don't mind a double-switch in the middle of the game on principle --- and heck, if you're aiming to get multiple innings out of your reliever, then yeah --- but if the advantage isn't gained, then it isn't gained. And the presence of Turner simply has not been dovetailing with the presence of winning baseball.

I'm still coming out against Conan turning him into a hooker.

Maddon, of course, rarely has it come up as an American League manager. But yeah, sometimes a manager seems to go with the double switch just to show he's managing. Manuel seemed to do it all the time without going to the pitcher for a second inning. Besides weakening the lineup un-necessarily, it shortens the bench, and it telecasts to the other manager who you will have batting in the pitcher's slot, instead of giving you a chance to make a choice based on who the pitcher is and what the situation is.

But too much plate there. Yikey.

His fastball's got some real cut to it. His face has got some real flush to it.

They're doing just that, down 3-1 to the Chicago Venturas tonight in the sixth.

Pumpsie Green and his .409 OBP batting third! Pumpsie is the poor man's 1963 version of Richie Ashburn to me. If anybody had been paying attention to OBP, he'd've never disappeared.

Depends.

An 0-2 dubble and Murph makes trubble. Mets lead 1-0.

Nice triple, EY. I'm still not dropping the egregious bunting charges I have on you.

Four innings in less than an hour. No truth to the claim that Matsuzaka can slow a game down from the bench.

Yeah, I looked at 2003 also, focusing on Duncan minus Piazza, and the first I found was 9/14: 1. Cedeno, rf, 36 2. Garcia, 2b, 2 3. Perez, lf, 18 4. Phillips, 1b, 12 5. Wigginton, 3b, 16 6. Wilson, c, 13 7. Velandia, ss, 0 8. Duncan, cf, 0 9. Glavine, p, 1 That's 98. Perhaps a similar lineup could be found from earlier in the season when Piazza is hurt but Phillis and Wiggy haven't hit too many yet, but then Alomar or Vaughn might be there. Or Burnitz or Floyd. Can't have that. How about... August 10? 1. Roger Cedeno, RF, 35 2. Jose Reyes, SS, 1 3. Jason Phillips, 1B, 8 4.Ty Wigginton, 3B, 13 (would hit his 14th that day) 5. Raul Gonzalez, CF, 5 (and done --- would never hit anothe) 6. Joe McEwing, LF, 23 7. Marco Scutaro, 2B, 2 8. Vance Wilson, C, 13 9. Al Leiter, P, 0 That's 100, without even help from Duncan. Who'da guessed that Cedeno would be such a powerhouse and ruin this shit for everybody involved?

Your team may be crawling home but the honors just keep come pouring in. Anybody know who hit .448 / .448 / .621 // 1.069 last week? Step forward if you said Daniel Murphy, your NL PotW. Swinging a sweet bat.

I figured if you (a) take a punchless year (1979), ( follow a punchless player who played an otherwise high-power position (Gil Flores in right), and © look to September, where guys at the dawn of their careers might stumble into the starting lineup, you could easily top that number. I settled on 9/3/1979, taking on the Expos in Montreal. 1. Gil Flores RF 2 2. Frank Taveras SS 2 3. Lee Mazzilli CF 37 4. John Stearns 1B 41 5. Joel Youngblood LF 23 6. Elliott Maddox 3B 13 7. Alex Trevino C 0 8. Doug Flynn 2B 5 9. Ray Burris P 1 124. Not even close. What I did learn is that Flores had one of the subbiest seasons you'll ever see in a subby career. Seventy games, but only 10 starts.

Only way he's gonna stop is if we stop.

hope degrom or Montero can make the club from spring training. That's my big takeaway from the whole bit. Every 5th day could be ugly. Sheesh, give Diasuke the finger, whydon'tya? The one thing we can�t afford going into the future is a period of one or two months of assessment. I combine this with the first bit to take a hope that if a guy makes the club out of camp, he's made it, arbitration status be damned. Let's break camp with more of the team in place.