Edgy MD

Those three posts seem to add up to the second tenure of Gary Matthews, Jr., don't they?

His breakthrough last year was reminiscent of Eric Valent, but I fear a Valentine crash and burn in year two. Did Valent even break camp with the Mets in 2005? I don't think so, as Willie seemed to go with a bench of all secondbasemen. Anyhow, I fear it, but don't expect it. I think the chance of semi-regular starts will keep him fresher than Atrophied Eric. The shoulder concerns me. How about .262/.321/.429. Eight homers and 34 RBIs. Two walk-off pinch hits, one of them a homer.

I imagine Lutz would be more of a fakir up the middle than Turner.

not exactly. No, not exactly. Therefore I wrote "pretty much." I'm just noting that: Burnitz turned the corner at 28 and about 274 games into his career. Duda is 27 and 250 games into his career. I draw no parallels beyond that. I didn't even introduce Burnitz to the thread. While Burnitz may have been given time to come around because of his useful defense, Duda's gotten time because of his.. team's lack of alternatives and their steadfastness, I guess.

I think AIG should be Duda's new nickname, because he's too big to fail.

He's pretty much at the point in his career where Burnitz turned a corner, for whatever that's worth.

I think AIG makes the third.

seawolf17 wrote: I think the Duda Bides, although Burnitz is a scary parallel. .260/33/88 in 140 games. Burnitz can also be a pretty exciting parallel. Burnitz had a damn good career --- just not for the Mets.

Let's adapt this into Zach's IPP thread.

In education, there's this new model called the Strengths Movement. The theory goes that educators should stop using time and resources on isolating, pathologizing, and treating a child's weaknesses, which serves to stigmatize and discourage a child, and motivates them to aspire to reaching milestones of average, and instead recognize and encourage what a child is best at, which motivates them to excel, and gives them to the confidence to attack their weaknesses in their own way, without shame. It strikes me that managers work from similar poles. You have guys using spring to spend hours upon hours working on the crap parts of their game, and will limit their playing time until they smooth off the rough edges --- this would perhaps be the fictional version (perhaps the real one too) of Art Howe in Moneyball. And then you have the guys who pride themselves on recognizing what works about a guy's game, accepting what does't, and trying to get those guys into a situation that matches their skills. Maybe Davy Johnson is the model of this latter type. Obviously, most managers work somewhere in between, on a case-by-case basis. But considering that Lucas almost always looks like he's on the verge of crying, he strikes me as a delicate case for a manager to be a hardass with.

Time for you to adopt Sally League Sexpot Michael Fulmer.

Gwreck wrote: Want to hear about the Mets finances from someone other than Howard Megdal? No problem, the Post has you covered. The team is expecting to lose more than $10 million this year, after bleeding red the past two seasons, while attendance is projected to fall for a fifth straight year, The Post has learned. Yeah, those are the team's own projections.

I don't think he's out of shape so much as (1) adapting to his injury, and (2) Lucas Duda. I'd never use the term head case --- pejorative and as broad as to be useless ---- but he strikes me as having a terribly awkward personality. And that's a shame because he seems to have the most complete skill set as a hitter of anybody to come down the road for thee Mets since Wright. Good contact stroke, good power. But he gets lost for six weeks at a time. So if the Mets are trying to intervene before he falls into one of those holes, best wishes to them. A challenge, try to find a photo of Duda, where you think, "Man, that's one relaxed and easygoing dude.": He strikes me as the big guy that jerky little guys picked fights with, just to make them look goofy when they fight themselves to maintain composure while fighting back.

I don't get it. I mean, I get that Amway wold want to re-present themselves as a legit act by opening a storefront or two. But why not in a strip mall in King of Prussia, PA?

Is that David Wright in the booth with the Gee-wouldja-lookit-that commentary?

Gametime is for 6:10, so get your early bird special at Bob Evans and then head over to the park.

Washington=#0000FF]New YorkPerez, cfLombardozzi, 2bBrown, rfMoore, dhMarrero, 1bRivero, lfSkole, 3bSnyder, cWalters, ss Gonzalez spCowgill, cfTejada, ssWright, 3bDavis, 1b,Byrd, rfHoffmann, lfBrown, dhBuck, cFlores, 2b McHugh, sp That's a whole lotta Who? in Davy Johnson's lineup, from my perspective.

It's through cinema, Obama said, that "our children learn to open their imagination and dream just a little bigger and to strive every day to reach those dreams." Especially Ted.

The fact is, with your help, we built Marlins Park, a crown jewel in our beautiful Miami skyline, which has won over twenty design and architecture awards and will help make us a premiere ballclub moving forward. I was going to waste perfectly good time looking up what these awards were. Fortunately Deadspin beat me to it and came up with 16 of them. Best Project Awards Engineering News Report National Sports & Entertainment December, 2012 Marlins Park Engineering News Report Southeast Sports & Entertainment November, 2012 Eagle Awards ABC-FEC Excellence in Construction Mega-Projects (More than $200 million) October, 2012 ABC-FEC Excellence in Construction Other Specialty Construction October, 2012 ABC-FEC Excellence in Construction Interiors, Acoustical, Drywall, Millwork, or Plaster October, 2012 ABC-FEC Excellence in Construction Mechanical - More than $20 million October, 2012 Craftsmanship Awards Construction Association of South Florida Ornamental Metal November, 2012 Construction Association of South Florida Ceramic Tile November, 2012 Construction Association of South Florida Stucco November, 2012 Construction Association of South Florida Glass & Glazing November, 2012 Grand Awards Florida Institute of Consulting Engineers Structural Systems November, 2012 Planet Professional Landcare Network 2012 Environmental Improvement Awards Program Florida Parking Association Parking Structure: New Design December, 2012 First Retractable Roof Sports Facility to Receive LEED-Gold Certification U.S. Green Building Council Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) May, 2012 Congratulations are in order. Not an unimpressive roster of plaudits. On the other hand, many of those are regional and representative of a pretty narrow building niche ("Florida Parking Association"?), so one would expect such a high-profile, broadly funded project to get its share of attention. One would even suspect at least some of these associations to be somewhat biased in praising the product of a public-private partnership representing interests that their members rely on for future projects. Congratulations, anyways. First LEED-certified retractable roof ballpark. That's not nothing, I guess. CitiField's opening was trumpeted with incorporating many sustainability features, but they elected not to seek LEED certification.

That ends the Yankees' years of handwringing about using their best centerfielder in centerfield.

Best Picture - Battleship Best Actor - That hairy, sexy, out-of-control guy that a good woman must tame from Battleship. Best Actress - Brooklyn Decker, Battleship Best Supporting Actor - Liam Neeson, Battleship Best Supporting Actress - Rhianna and her arms, Battleship Best Director - That latter-day Eisenstein who made Battleship Best Original Screenplay - God, for making Battleship possible. Best Adapted Screenplay - Battleship, adapted from Hasbro's game instructions Best Cinematograpy- If that means the camerawork, Battle- Battle- Battleship! Costume Design- Gotta go with Darling Companion on this one. Best Song- "I Got to Get Paid" --- ZZ Top, Battleship

Four fwhoofs for the Dudero. Get it out of your system now, big guy.

Game ends in a tie. Tough day for the Ev.

That should increase his outreach.

They tie it on a hit past... Evans. Not yet ready for prime-time, that guy. Mets intentionally walk to load the bases.