Edgy MD

Ashie62 wrote: Best player on the Mets this year.. and arguably the most in shape. Yes, round is a shape.

I have no problem with Laggy not getting to an occasional ball that somebody absolutely creams if he keeps cheapies from dropping in front. Pitchers do better things if their defense forces batters to earn their hits.

Daisuke Matsuzaka returns after an inauspicious beginning to his first start, though he settled down nicely later. We'll see who the real Daisuke is. Mets bringing in Daisuke for an attempt at career rejuvenation/redemption reminds me of Ol' Bill Metsiac, who dearly wanted a private audience with Steve Phillips, to convince him of the wisdom of bringing back Hidecki Irabu, at a point that seemed like years after Irabu had retired to the links or a lawn chair or wherever. I also guess the name "Matsuzaka" shares a common root with "Matsui."

And it goes down as it was drawn up. Cue Justin Turner Overdrive.

Yeah, come on.

Buck getting traded the morning of his own tee-shirt day doesn't quite measure up, as far as luckless tributes go, to John Franco getting tossed from the game on John Franco Day, but it's only a matter of degrees.

The sun has set on the Buck and Byrd era, but not on the 2013 Mets? Not yet. Young, lf Murphy, 2b Brown, rf Davis, 1b Flores, 3b Lagares, cf d'Arnaud, c Quintanilla, ss Niese, sp In the insult-to-injury department, tonight is T-Shirt Tuesday, where every fan gets a tee-shirt dedicated to that great Met, Marlon Byrd. Matt den Dekker in uniform. Excited to see if he gets the lower-case "d" treatment of Travis d'Arnaud. I guess I would feel better if Terry ever paused before writing "Quintanilla" on his lineup card.

Mel Ott is the main guy I think of when I think of Sheman Potter. Winchester: Colonel, what gin rummy is to games of skill, Zane Grey is to literature. Therefore, I shall counter with something civilized-- Caruso. Potter: Enrico Caruso, the singer? Winchester: Yes. I do believe he sings. Potter: Nix on that. I hate opera! Winchester: Colonel, a closed mind is an empty mind. All I ask is that you listen and I assure you you will be carried away on majestic clouds of musical rapture. ... Potter: The guy sounds like a banshee in a bear trap. ... Winchester: Sir, this man is one of the giants of serious music. Potter: If I want music, I�ll send for my Tex Ritter 78s. If I want a giant, I�ll send for Mel Ott! I realize it's Alda-fueled second-generation M*A*S*H*, but there's something pure about watching Potter get sputtering furious.

December 9 --- the day somebody would have guessed Tatis.

Parnell also pretty much done collecting Schaefer for the year, isn't he?

Really vulnerable to breaking stuff away, particularly sliders, but folks would come in him anyhow and paid for it when they did. Joins Benny Agbayani and Butch Huskey in my All-Pretty-Decent-Defender-for-a-Fat-Guy outfield. (I think of Kevin McReynolds as more lumpy than fat.)

With three of the leaders --- Boid, Wright, and Harvey --- in the clubhouse, it's an interesting falloff to the active leader. Buck's race is run, too.

Edgy MD wrote: Fuck, now I wanna play the Eagles.

Yeah, in my eyes, that pie made him more employable --- if less desirable for a team I care about. That customized helmet, by the way, is the last of it's kind, as the league has otherwise outlawed the NHL thang.

Wow, it's interesting to see if Howie's speaking for his eyes or his ears.

Even taking the vicious pie-ing out of the equation, seemed to have a chip on his shoulder and take seriously his role of enforcer of big-leaguingess. I don't know if it was him pointing to the photographer as if to say "You're an important part of this --- we need a record" or his after-the-fact look over his shoulder as if to punctuate the pie-ing with "... Fucko!" but I find the whole thing mesmerizing, even it was a mouthful of pepper on top of a sweet tasty walkoff grand slam of a dessert. And then there was his tender side, which appeared last night and maybe inks out the pie-ing as the most indelible animated-giffible memory o' Buck.

On dealing now vs. July. Is it likely that this deal is the best, no. Plausible certainly. We don't know.

First Mets trade with the Privateers since the famed Ollie Perez-Roberto Hernandez/Xavier Nady deal in 2006. In 2004 came the equally salacious Ty Wigginton-Jos� Bautista-Matt Peterson/Kris Benson-Jeff Keppinger deal that probably was the nail in the fandom of Salamander Q. Pirates-Mets deals are game changers! Jeremy Hefner was an Alderson-era waiver claim from the Pirates. The Mets scout the Buccos! First-ever Mets transaction with the Pirates was grabbing Al Jackson in the expansion draft. That one's still paying dividends 52 years later!

One ancillary development in the dealing of Byrd is that it frees up a spot in the outfield to give Lucas Duda one last chance to save his flagging Met career. Of course, Brown and den Dekker will likely see some time as well, but if Duda is indeed among the top three outfielders on the team, does he go back to right? As harsh as he's been out there, I don't see his arm as particuarly worse than Eric Young's. I guess that he'll be in right and Young in left with the notion that they're both playing for a job in left next year. dD and/or Brown will get out there any time better defense is needed. I guess there's still a chance that Young could get some time at second, but that notion in my head is kinda dying a little every day.

Still a baby, but he would be the first Colombian Met. A quick search puts him around number 10 on lists of prospective Pirates.

Somebody's got an album coming to them, preferably on vinyl.

I think there was no difference between 1985 and 1986. One year they didn't get the breaks (I left Berenyi out of the bad breaks from 1985); the next they did (Berenyi was reduced to a fall-back plan that they didn't need to launch). The only significant injury to any of the players in 1986 happened in spring training to Mookie Wilson's eye. He was ready by the start of May and it was smooth sailing in the trainer's room after that. That's the main difference between successful teams and champions. Breaks. There were no significant injuries in 1969 either. Seaver had a brief dead-arm period and then was unstoppable down the stretch. We'll see what next year holds, but I think the notion that Harvey's injury is a blessing in disguise, because it prevents Alderson from going crazy in the offseason market, is weak and fuels the outdated notion of the Mets as bumbling pretenders that need circumstances to restrain their own appetites*. Alderson has been nothing if not deliberate, and has made clear at every turn that over-leveraging the future for the present is what sunk the team and not doing that is how he intends to save it (while insisting that this doesn't mean the present is lost). Let's remember that Bowden was driven out of baseball in disgrace, in a mess of a seamy FBI investigation into a culture of exploitation that Alderson (hopefully) helped clean up. If there are moves are perceived to be healthy for the organization --- long-term or short --- those are the ones I expect Alderson to make (if not necessarily succeed at). He's got to be deliberate because his first job is getting the organization above water, but my understanding is that he understands that it's short-sighted to reduce all strategies for building a successful franchise to "win now" or "win later." The Mets had a job to do this offseason. And now they've got a bigger and more complex job to do. Cassandra Complex Commentators who think they're the only ones who see the big picture are a dime a dozen. *This is somehow maintained simultaneously with the "all this winning is terrible" notion that the Mets are flaccid self-congratulating fools who think are deluded in times of success into standing pat and not seeing the flaws in the team that the success is masking.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: 1985 was a Mets season for the ages. But are you comparing 1985 to 2014? Responding to this'n'. Centerfield wrote: Next year was going to be, at best, 1985.