Edgy MD

After 26 years and a World Series ring with the Mets organization, Randy Niemann cuts ties to join Bobby Vee in Boston as assistant pitching coach, leading me to suddenly suspect he's our Mystery Met Maligner. Et tu, Rande?

Bill James ranking around the turn of the (21st) century, and not including Negro Leaguers, had it this way: Wagner Vaughn Ripken Yount Banks Larkin Smith Cronin Trammell Reese Appling Boudreau Aparaicio Davis Fregosi Rizzuto Rodriguez (with Nomar Garciaparra and Drek Jeter stuck in here at 17.5 for no good reason Jennings Wills Pesky Now, I think we need to consider a list from the likes of Bill James as, at least, somewhat authoritative. I'm perfectly willing to accept Jeter and Rodriguez as having passed him, using James' standard that a guy with a legacy split at more than one position gets the totality of his career ranked at that position. But I also think he passes Mr. Cub in the remaining four years of his career, also. We're left with a top eleven that looks something like: Wagner Rodriguez Vaughn Ripken Yount Jeter Larkin Banks Smith Cronin Trammell Now, for another picture, take away the James pretend-he-only-played-one-position standard, and we look at it with a lot of points Wagner, Rodriguez, Ripken, Yount, and Banks accrued at other positions. Trammell gets himself sneaking into the top ten that way mebbe, probably ahead of Banks. Hardly a throw-out. Great players, these guys. Just didn't have Ripken's publicist. Or Derek Jeter's.

G-Fafif wrote: In 139 games against the Mets, reasonably close to a full season's worth (especially the full season of his MVP year of strike-shortened 1995), Larkin produced at a .279/.346/.393 clip. Scored 70 runs, stole 33 bases, 7 HR, 59 RBI. � 0-for-3 with a walk in the game that mattered most between the Mets and Reds during his career, Game 163 from October 4, 1999. � 2-for-4 with a walk in one of the worst games ever, May 6, 1995, when the Mets held an 11-4 lead (featuring Edgardo Alfonzo's first MLB HR, an inside-the-park job) and lost 13-11. Singled to lead off the decisive ninth, in which the Reds scored three times off Doug Henry. � Made the error that led to the run on April 30, 1988 that nearly caused a riot at Riverfront (Mets won 6-5, Rose, out to argue the call at first on Mookie's grounder, shoved umpire Dave Pallone). � Doubled and scored twice to help build a 3-1 Reds lead that Bobby Bonilla erased on his last-swing homer off Rob Dibble on August 30, 1992, the Sunday night when that creep Dibble tore his turn-back-the-clock vest off his massive body and left it on the Shea grass. � Has a daughter named Brielle D'Shea Larkin. Chipper isn't the only opponent that liked Shea.

Carter getting along with Andre Dawson. That's something.

If Larkin isn't one of the ten best shortstops in MLB history, I'm a monkey's uncle. Certainly one of the ten best retired ones.

And a 23 year old arthritic knee..why bother really? Because perfection doesn't exist in this broken world, yet still some light breaks through. And it's ours to search through all the broken places trying to find it.

Tribute to Greg at MLB.com.

It's a spent cost. If they've lost faith in his ability to outpitch the last guy on the roster, why not? And it's not necessarily eaten. He could certainly clear waivers. And he could possibly accept a demotion. We can dispute what it its, but there's a dollar sign on the value in Martinez and Herrera, also. We can just as easily decry the "loss" of the $1.4 million signing bonus Fernando Martinez got back in the olden times, plus the hunnerts of thousands in medical expenses.

The day I visit the Pro Football Hall of Fame will be the day I really pack it in, self-worth wise. O.J. was found not guilty --- at least on the murder charges. But I'd certainly support Simpson's ejection if there was a fair and honest mechanism subjecting him to scrutiny by the same body that inducted him.

Twitterverse on fire with flaming snarks at the expense of Fernando Martinez and the Mets.

I don't have no ESPN access, but if these are truly revocable waivers, then the Mets better clear some room in the next 24 hours, because there's no space to pull them back to. They could certainly clear, what with the health questions on Martinez and the height questions on Herrera, but I imagine an American League club might be curious. I like Herrera. Can't see the downside to waiving Carrasco. I guess he gets to declare free agency if he gets farmed out, but...

It would be pretty cool if they did. If it came to that, things would have to have come to a pretty serious juncture. Rape, murder, child molesting, for instance. It would also be a motivation for dirty guys to come out right NOW!!!! in order to begin rebuilding their reps before being exposed to that deeper disgrace.

Danny Herrera and Fernando Martinez. Whoah!

Neyer offers a way out for voters shy about voting for a potential juicer, evidence or no.

metsguyinmichigan wrote: I think Gonzalez was implicated somewhere. Canseco's book, maybe? His performance sure did fall off quickly. Never recovered from the year in Detroit. It certainly began a downfall, but he went to Cleveland the next year and bounced back very strongly --- 140 RBI, in fact, which would be a Met record by a big stretch. He had one good and two poor partial years after that. http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/gonzaju03.shtml

That's certainly true, but he was the class of the league at his position for a not insignificant period of time, and there's little more we can ask of a Hall-of-Famer than that. Also went .338 / .397 / .465 // .862 in 78 plate appearances in the going-postal season. Money. Tim Raines behind Lee Smith is troubling. What don't I know about Juan Gone? He seems to be behind at least a half dozen clearly inferior players. Am I forgetting that he was caught smuggling HGH out of Mexico or something?

It was ten years, and then they'd remove maybe one or two who were backup catchers that whole time. Now they seem to be a bit more particular about who makes it onto the ballot and remove, it seems, quite a few guys. I think that's a disservice not only to the players who would be at the back end of the ballot but don't get their day in court, but also those at the top, who don't have as large a pool to make them look good next to. I think, psychologically, it's a lot easier for a sportswriter to check seven names out of 100 than seven out of 15.

Morris sure seems to have hit a point of no return, though.

My understanding is that Mookie's still on the payroll. Respect for loyalty has to come with a respect for quality.

I think it's amazing because he's encouraging, among voters, spoiled, vindictive, bratty behavior. And he's trying to pass it off as loyal fandom, when it's actually just childish attention-grabbing.

Which is almost sort of my point too.

metirish wrote: Dumb question but........if Larkin wasn't a HOF player last year why is he this year?, providing he gets in of course. My answer would be: because perspectives evolve and arguments get made in one year that get absorbed in a subsequent year. Tough questions take a while to discuss and chew on. A simpler answer would be because he looks better compared to this group than to others.

Larkin smashing the field. Juan Gonzalez looking at taking his two MVPs, 434 homers, and 1404 RBIs and going home. http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/files/newsstand/discussion/2012_hall_of_fame_ballot_collecting_gizmo/P100/

Posada's case hurt by Girardi, to a degree, at both ends of his career. http://mlb.sbnation.com/2012/1/9/2693299/jorge-posada-hall-of-fame-retiring. It's kind of funny about this whole Core Four business is that the Yanks won two of their championships with Posada backing up and one with him sharing the catching position.

I'd have realized that was actually Piazza about two weeks after passing him on the street.