Edgy MD

Sure, and as I said, with four roles to fill, there's plenty of time for everybody. If they all suggest some equal value, then they all can play 80% of the time.

Sure, but we all have a backstory. And they all do too. The disappointing thing is Baxter's name never comes up in the article. I never understand why there's ever a conflict about playing time between Outfielder X and Outfielder Y when one of them comes off the disabled list and the other has more or less been getting the job done. There are three outfield positions and first base. If you have five candidates for those roles, good, here's surely enough at-bats for everybody that deserves them and fewer for the people who, along the way, show themselves to deserve them less.

SteveJRogers wrote: Edgy DC wrote: I'd hate to have to prosecute a guy with jut that to go on, but neither is it remotely true that Piazza has "never been mentioned anywhere." He (and his possible steroid use) have been mentioned in plenty of places. Here, for instance. I meant that more in the line of anywhere in a seemingly legit fashion beyond idle columnist/radio host speculation. No, actually you said "anywhere." And then changed your post later to disclude Murray Chass. I also include an author who quotes two witnesses, one named and one un-named, and Piazza himself, who acknowledged using andro. That's not nowhere. It's not much but it's not nothing either.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Edgy DC wrote: So, I don't want to jump to conclusions, but should we at least consider that maybe Dickey's knuckleball doesn't dance too much in the rain, and maybe think about swapping him out of future rainy-day starts? That makes sense, but last-minute changes to the rotation can bring their own havoc. What could they have done? Given Batista the start? Let Niese start on short rest? Casey swapped pitchers in and out of his rotation all the time --- based on whether they were pitching well, whether the other team was stacked on lefties that a righthander might be vulnerable to, or other favoriable conditions. It's easy to do when you're not working your entire bullpen all the time.

Mets � Willets Point wrote: Edgy DC wrote: "Gay dame." Is there a reason for your out-of-context quotes in several threads lately? I'm thinking of a post that just said "Gift baskets" and couple of others as well. I was thinking at the top of the thread that maybe this dyslexic designation for the game is well past it's sell-by date.

Piazza has acknowledged briefly using andro early in his career, and then stopping because he didn't see a drastic change in his muscle mass. Something helped him make a drastic change, because he put on 20 pounds before the 1998 season. Then there's Bitter Murray Chass and the bacne. That was triggered by a crap Joel Sherman column saying he wouldn't bet on Piazza's cleanliness. Jeff Pearlman had this in his book about Clemens: As the hundreds of major league ballplayers who turned to performance-enhancing drugs throughout the 1990s did their absolute best to keep the media at arm's length, Piazza took the opposite approach. According to several sources, when the subject of performance enhancing was broached with reporters he especially trusted, Piazza fessed up. "Sure, I use," he told one. "But in limited doses, and not all that often." (Piazza has denied using performance-enhancing drugs, but there has always been speculation.) Whether or not it was Piazza's intent, the tactic was brilliant: By letting the media know, off the record, Piazza made the information that much harder to report. Writers saw his bulging muscles, his acne-covered back. They certainly heard the under-the-breath comments from other major league players, some who considered Piazza's success to be 100 percent chemically delivered. Plus the legendary Reggie Jefferson outing was there: "He's a guy who did it, and everybody knows it," says Reggie Jefferson, the longtime major league first baseman. "It's amazing how all these names, like Roger Clemens, are brought up, yet Mike Piazza goes untouched." "There was nothing more obvious than Mike on steroids," says another major league veteran who played against Piazza for years. "Everyone talked about it, everyone knew it. Guys on my team, guys on the Mets. A lot of us came up playing against Mike, so we knew what he looked like back in the day. Frankly, he sucked on the field. Just sucked. After his body changed, he was entirely different. 'Power from nowhere,' we called it." When asked, on a scale of 1 to 10, to grade the odds that Piazza had used performance enhancers, the player doesn't pause. "A 12," he says. "Maybe a 13. I'd hate to have to prosecute a guy with jut that to go on, but neither is it remotely true that Piazza has "never been mentioned anywhere." He (and his possible steroid use) have been mentioned in plenty of places. Here, for instance.

So, I don't want to jump to conclusions, but should we at least consider that maybe Dickey's knuckleball doesn't dance too much in the rain, and maybe think about swapping him out of future rainy-day starts?

Hits by Catchers (Total Hits in Parentheses) 1. Iv�n Rodr�guez: 2,749 (2,844) 2. Jason Kendall: 2,160 (2,195) 3. Carlton Fisk: 2,145 (2,356) 4. Bill Dickey: 1,969* (1,969) 5. Ted Simmons: 1,908 (2,472) 6. Gary Carter: 1,907 (2,092) 7. Mike Piazza: 1,906 (2,127) 8. Gabby Hartnet: 1,877* (1,912) 9. Bob Boone: 1,808 (1838) 10ish. Ernie Lombardi: 1,792* (1,792) 10ish. Mickey Cochrane: 1,652* (1,652) 10ish. Johnny Bench: 1,646 (2,048) * Hits by position unknown. Total probably lower. Pretty cool to have three guys within two hits of each other.

Indubitably. Best defensive catcher of his generation and he had more hits and more homers than Rusty Staub.

Why do I get the feeling "hits like Angel Berroa's backup" is going to be a baseball expression that lasts into perpetuity?

"Gay dame."

So, adding 1981-1986 into the ranking (and please dispute me where I'm wrong --- this is guesswork), we've got: 1965 Les Rohr (1) Joe Moock (3) Ken Boswell (4) Jim McAndrew (11) Nolan Ryan (12) Don Shaw (35) 1982: Dwight Gooden (1) Floyd Youmans (2) Roger McDowell (3) Greg Olson (7) Barry Lyons (15) Doug Henry (16) Wes Gardner (22) Randy Myers (June-Sec) 1980: Darryl Strawberry (1a) Billy Beane (1b) John Gibbons (1c) Jay Tibbs (2) Mike Davis (4) Ronn Reynolds (5) Jeff Bittiger (7) Lloyd McClendon (8) Rick Ownbey (13) 1967 John Matlack (1) Dave Schneck (38) Rod Gaspar (Sec-2) Gary Gentry (Sec-3) Ken Singleton (Jan-1) 1977: Wally Backman (1) Mookie Wilson (2) Brent Gaff (6) 1981: Terry Blocker (1) John Christensen (2) Mark Carreon (8) Lenny Dykstra (13) Randy Milligan (Jan) Herm Winningham (Jan Sec) 1983: Stan Jefferson (1) Calvin Schiraldi (1b) Dave Magadan (2) Rick Aguilera (3) Dave West (4) Marcus Lawton (6) Jeff Innis (13) Jeff McKnight (Jan-Sec) 1978: Hubie Brooks (1) Brian Giles (3) Mike Fitzgerald (6) Randy Johnson (11) Jamie Nelson (Jan-8) 1976: Mike Scott (2) Neil Allen (11) Dave Von Ohlen (17) Jody Davis (Jan-3) Kim Seaman (Jan-4) 1968 Tim Foli (1) Hank Webb (10) Don Rose (11) John Milner (14) 1979: Tim Leary (1) Jeff Bettendorf (2) Ron Gardenhire (6) Rusty Tillman (Jan-10) 1966 Mike Jorgenson (4) Duffy Dyer (Sec-1) Danny Frisella (Sec-2) 1969 Randy Sterling (1) Joe Nolan (2) Lute Barnes (21) Buzz Capra (27) George Theodore (31) 1985: Gregg Jefferies (1) 1973 Lee Mazzilli (1) Jackson Todd (2) 1972 Craig Swan (3) 1984: Shawn Abner (1) Rich Rodriguez (9) Goose Gozzo (13) Kevin Elster (Jan) 1974 Dwight Bernard (2) John Pacella (4) Bob Myrick (14) 1970 Bruce Boisclair (20) 1986: Curtis Pride (10) 1971 Rich Puig (1) Rick Baldwin (9) 1975 Nobody

Ashie62 wrote: Maybe Torres can be rehabbed until October. Seeing as how this outfield has been far from glorious without him, going .248 / .312 / .440 // .751, with a golem on defense in right, and far-from-flawless play in left and center, he's welcome back as soon as he is ready.

Dave F. Magadan

Sid Fernandez (surfing)

Manute Bol (baskeball) MC Hammer (bat boy) Pam Shriver (tennis)

Fman99 wrote: Ugh, if you give up 2 runs for every run you score, well, hell, I don't see how you can win that way. I know. Stop scoring and keep it close.

Mets Career RBI T1) Darryl Strawberry: 733 T1) David Wright: 733 3) Mike Piazza: 655 4) Howard Johnson: 629 5) Ed Kranepool: 614 6) Carlos Beltran: 559 7) Edgardo Alfonzo: 538 8) Cleon Jones: 521 9) Keith Hernandez: 468 10) Kevin McReynolds: 456

We need a lead that can't be blown.

A tree about to fall. Mets Career RBI 1) Darryl Strawberry: 733 2) David Wright: 732 3) Mike Piazza: 655 4) Howard Johnson: 629 5) Ed Kranepool: 614 6) Carlos Beltran: 559 7) Edgardo Alfonzo: 538 8) Cleon Jones: 521 9) Keith Hernandez: 468 10) Kevin McReynolds: 456

Here's an argument. [list:2ba3rot0]Whereas... ...Tom Seaver has had a remarkable career, as a ballplayer and as a public figure. Whereas... ... the main flaw one might find in Tom Seaver's remarkable career is his careful and conservative manipulation of his public image. Whereas... ... the result of that careful curation has been to leave us with an unimpeachably admirabable, yet frighteningly sterile, detached, flat, and sanitized version of himself. Whereas... ... while the latter half of that result has been disappointing to us up close, we are his base, and nonetheless stay loyal. Whereas... ... the former half of that result has been rewarded with a broad respect beyond the base. Whereas... ... that respect can be best represented by Seaver having garnered the highest percentage of votes ever for the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame, as voted on by the Baseball Writers Association. Therefore... ... I can think of no more appropriate person to take that honor from Seaver than Derek Jeter, whose career has been notable for the sort of shamelessly cynical image manipulation --- aided and abetted by an influential batch of media surrogates --- that would (I dearly hope) make Seaver blush.[/list:u:2ba3rot0] A ballplayer should be made not of marble, but of flesh. And a flesh-and-blood man such as Seaver should leave a handful of enemies behind, even if he carries a message of unity. Baseball isn't so pure and perfect as all of that. Not nearly.

The Baseball Writers Association of America has announced that the body this year has selected for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame Roy Halladay, Todd Helton, and "Derek Jeter." We're not sure why the Association chose to put quotey quotes around "Derek Jeter," and are still investigating.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Honoring a great opponent at the end of his career is a time-honored baseball tradition. OF COURSE it is! Mike Schmidt. Lou Brock. Craig F. Biggio! The Mets (and many or most other teams, I'm sure) honored them all. Icons like Dr. J. and Cal Ripken would roll into another town in their final seasons and the host team and the city would spend the whole weekend honoring him. The entire American league will roll out carpets of rose petals when Derek Jeter retires. Derek Jeter... Derek Je... OH DEAR GOD THE METS ARE GOING TO HONOR DEREK JETER!

Ceetar wrote: Noon start time. Good day to throw a rookie into a new and challenging role. Too early to spend all day thinking about it. I'll remention it at 11:30 then? I was speaking not of you, but of Nieuwenhuis, not having to spend all day thinking about living up to his promotion.

It's just silly that there is so much controversy (or any at all) over this. Howie and whoever were saying last night that polling was split. I assumed they meant that polling was split over giving a Hall-of-Fame-bound rival's honor to Chipper Jones, but no, they meant that polling was split over giving a returning-hero's welcome to Jos� Reyes. I just can't think of anything more obvious, harmless, and decent. There'll be a thing, it'll be brief, maybe memorable but probably forgettable, and then the game will go on. No harm to any animals. Can Met fans just stop being miserable crankypantses for 10 minutes? The did this for Todd Pratt. TODD PRATT!