Edgy MD

Eleven strikeouts and an ERA back under 2.70.

I just ripped out my UCL as an act of solidarity.

I want to hold him. Classic Sugarloving homer there to right center.

We have an outside chance to finish with three regulars hitting .300.

Fwhiff.

Don't bunt here. Steal.

Turn off the spigot, Dickey.

First blood to the scarvy dogs. Barajas, man, how do you do what you do to me?

Sounds kinda awkward.

Amazing to have a guy jump ship at this juncture.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: A team with better hopes for 2013 would have a different bird-in-hand/bird-in-bush perspective than a team further away from contention. In theory, sure. We'll see. They will still drive for the best bargain they can.

I'm sure the SNY crew will make that shit up for the broadcast.

With respect to the Branch Rickey paraphrase, I have greater aspirations than finishing 20 games out, and even that modest goal is harder without Dickey. We'll see. Most trade partners are going to have a similar calculus to the relative value of birds in hand and birds in bush, so the scale has to tip meaningfully. If nothing else, Sandy seems to have shown himself to be a conservative trader.

Lools like Lee Mazzilli's brother in that last shot.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Dickey's 2013 will be more valuable to another team (a team more likely to contend than the Mets are) than it will be to the Mets. If you trade him, you're selling high. Harvey is more likely to contribute to a contending Mets team, if not in 2014 than in 2016 or 2017. (Let's hope it doesn't take that long.) Even if you can get more for Harvey, and you probably can, he's someone you'll need to replace down the road. Harvey's 2015 is more likely to be better than Dickey's 2015. I don't know. If the statement is that there's nobody on the team that has more value right now, it seems ambiguous with regard to future and present value. I'm terribly excited by this coming offseason, and I hope Dickey is a part of it, and I hope the Mets younger pitchers assert themselves to the point where Dickey could continue to be a big part of this team even as he becomes the third or fourth best pitcher in the rotation.

This go down yet or what?

While very much disagreeing, is it necessarily true that there's nobody who has more value? Dickey on a cheap one-year deal vs., say, control of Matt Harvey or Zach Wheeler for six? I say, if he has so much value, let him keep feeding it to me directly.

Sheesh. It's not like something's on the table waiting for a signature. I believe Wright shut down negotiations for the season anyhow.

Next up, uneven bars.

Wow! I hadn't realized --- or had forgotten --- she left mid-season. And really, not a lot of folks were in the house to notice.

bmfc1 wrote: "Knuckle Love, it's driving me mad, it's making me crazy." I met you in somebody's bullpen I was letting my fastball rip You laughed at my speed and my motion And taught me a different grip

Interesting that he's facing R.A., who can be seen as something of a leveler, humbling the elite but giving the layman --- or the out-of-the-game-for-a-few-years-man --- a hacker's chance.

Seven more and Daniel Murphy cracks the top 40.

I think we were still a few months away from that, unless had some prior information, which I don't doubt!

I think of Eddie K. and this is one of my favorite memories: August 21, 1979. The Mets at 51-70 aren't really going any place, and a paid attendance of 9,337 suggests few cared if they did. Pete Falcone, having a tough season, comes up big against a good Astros team. Doug Flynn of all people picks up three hits and three RBI, and Pete is cruising into the ninth with a shutout. Falcone gets Cedeno and Cabell with the ol' knuckle curve before Jeffrey Leonard comes to the plate. That's where it gets weird. Jeff Leonard hits a can of corn to Mazzilli, and the Mets head for the dugout as Mazz squeezes the final out. But no, one of the Mets infielders had asked for and received a time-out. The out is discounted and the players in the midst of congratulating Falcone are sent back to their positions. Leonard, given a second chance, singles to center. As the ball is relayed in, somebody notices that for the last few pitches, the Mets have had no firstbaseman. Ed Kranepool, closest to the dugout, had headed to showers without bothering to salute Falcone. Heads are scratched. Nobody knows what to do. Replacement ref time. (Apparently, the game had only three umps to begin with.) Kranepool is retrieved and Leonard is told to take his at-bat for the third time. Bill Virdon goes nuts, believing his team shouldn't get punished because Ed Kranepool was a space cadet, so he protests the game. In his third trip to the plate in a row, Leonard flies out again. Ball game: Mets. But whoah, late that night, or early the next morning, MLB upholds Virdon's protest. Leonard should have been allowed to remain at first. The next night, this night's game is continued, with Leonard at first and Jose Cruz up. Joe Torre isn't going to send his Brooklyn homie Pete Falcone out there the night after throwing 8 2/3 innings, so that night's starter Kevin Kobel is pressed to get the final out, which he does as Falcone grounds to second, the action is paused only long enough for the Mets to switch to the lineup for the scheduled game, and Kobel continues pitching into the next game. He threw seven innings of one-run ball, too, but ended up getting the loss, with a 2012 dose of hard luck. Thanks, Ed! (I won't say much for 1979, but all of our pitchers --- save Tom Hausman, I think --- had some interesting facial hair.)