Edgy MD

In the end, it's swapping one unethical system for another. I notice they never put a cap on ticket prices

I'll hold out to see if anyone takes up that bet before clarifying.

I'm going to say boo on the luxury tax thingie.

Probably the first time since he could legally drink that A-Rod hasn't got MVP support.

I was expecting "That's what she said!"

Michael Young brought it from multiple positions. That's worth some'n.

Although we've never seen his ballroom moves.

Ended Dave Kingman's career.

Doesn't tweek me. If the Mets can't have him, I can't think of a better employer for him than the Yankees' divisional arch-rivals. Reachable from his Connecticut home, too. I guess this is the exact same attitude I had when Seaver was on the trading block in 1986. I'm checking the time stamp and, yup, I haven't checked this one out since then.

Sheesh, how many 22-year-old brothers could he have. I don't know that I had ever heard of him. Athletic-looking dude.

Last I heard, they don't have a shortstop. Yikes.

Check out the Mets. Adding names to the roster like the Willets Points. Opted For Minor League Free AgencyRe-Signed To Minor League Contract And Invited To Spring TrainingSigned To Minor League Contract And Invited To Spring Training Added to 40-Man RosterRelief Pitchers Infielders Infielders OutfieldersStarting Pitchers =#0000FF]33 Taylor Buchholz DoB:10/13/1981 =#0000FF]6 Nick Evans DoB:1/30/1986 =#0000FF]15 Val Pascucci DoB:11/17/1978 =#FF8000]44 =#0000FF]Vinny Rottino DoB:4/7/1980 =#FF8000]50 =#0000FF]Robert Carson DoB:1/23/1989Added to 40-Man RosterStarting Pitchers Infielders Outfielders =#FF8000]46 =#0000FF]Jeurys Familia DoB:10/10/1989 =#FF8000]1 =#0000FF]Wilmer Flores DoB:8/6/1991 =#FF8000]12 =#0000FF]Reese Havens DoB:10/20/1986 =#FF8000]13 =#0000FF]Juan Lagares DoB:3/17/1989 =#FF8000]11 =#0000FF]Kirk Nieuwenhuis DoB:8/7/1987Added to 40-Man RosterOutfielders =#FF8000]22 =#0000FF]Cesar Puello DoB:4/1/1991 Your Projected 2012 Mets (Orange Indicates Players Have Options) Starting Pitchers =#0000FF]43 R.A. Dickey DoB: 10/29/1974 =#FF8000]35 Dillon Gee DoB: 4/28/1986 =#0000FF]49 Jonathon Niese DoB: 10/27/1986 =#0000FF]34 Mike Pelfrey DoB: 1/14/1984 =#0000FF]57 Johan Santana DoB: 3/13/1979Relief Pitchers =#0000FF]46 Manny Acosta DoB: 5/1/1981 =#FF8000]27 Pedro Beato DoB: 10/27/1986 =#0000FF]40 Tim Byrdak DoB: 10/31/1973 =#0000FF]77 D.J. Carrasco DoB: 4/12/1977 =#0000FF]19 Danny Herrera DoB: 10/21/1984Relief Pitchers Catchers Infielders =#FF8000]64 Josh Stinson DoB: 3/14/1988 =#0000FF]39 Bobby Parnell DoB: 9/8/1984 =#0000FF]9 Ronny Paulino DoB: 4/21/1988 =#0000FF]30 Josh Thole DoB: 4/28/1986 =#FF8000]29 Ike Davis DoB: 3/22/1987 Infielders =#0000FF]28 Daniel Murphy DoB: 4/1/1985 =#0000FF]11 Ruben Tejada DoB: 10/27/1989 =#0000FF]2 Justin Turner DoB: 11/23/1984 =#FF8000]62 Jordany Valdespin DoB: 12/23/1984 =#0000FF]5 David Wright DoB: 12/20/1982 Outfielders =#FF8000]23 Mike Baxter DoB: 12/7/1984 =#0000FF]44 Jason Bay DoB: 9/20/1978 =#FF8000]21 Lucas Duda DoB: 2/3/1986 =#FF8000]26 Fernando Martinez DoB: 10/10/1988 =#0000FF]16 Angel Pagan DoB: 7/2/1981 Also on 40-Man Roster Starting Pitchers =#FF8000]50 =#0000FF]Robert Carson DoB:1/23/1989 =#FF8000]46 =#0000FF]Jeurys Familia DoB:10/10/1989 =#FF8000]32 Jennry Mejia DoB: 10/11/1989 =#FF8000]66 Armando Rodriguez DoB: 1/28/1988 =#FF8000]63 Chris Schwinden DoB: 9/22/1986 Catchers Infielders =#FF8000]13 Mike Nickeas DoB: 2/13/1983 =#FF8000]1 =#0000FF]Wilmer Flores DoB:8/6/1991 =#FF8000]12 =#0000FF]Reese Havens DoB:10/20/1986 =#FF8000]65 Zach Lutz DoB: 6/3/1986 =#FF8000]3 Josh Satin DoB: 12/23/1984Outfielders =#FF8000]13 =#0000FF]Juan Lagares DoB:3/17/1989 =#FF8000]11 =#0000FF]Kirk Nieuwenhuis DoB:8/7/1987 =#FF8000]22 =#0000FF]Cesar Puello DoB:4/1/1991 Also in Camp InfieldersOutfielders =#0000FF]15 Val Pascucci DoB:11/17/1978 =#FF8000]44 =#0000FF]Vinny Rottino DoB:4/7/1980 Free Agents Starting PitchersRelief Pitchers =#0000FF]47 Miguel Batista DoB: 2/19/1971 =#0000FF]38 Chris Capuano DoB: 8/19/1978 =#0000FF]55 Chris Young DoB: 5/25/1979 =#0000FF]18 Ryota Igarashi DoB:5/28/1979 =#0000FF]45 Jason Isringhausen DoB: 9/7/1972 Infielders Outfielders =#0000FF]7 Jos� Reyes DoB: 6/11/1983 =#0000FF]12 Scott Hairston DoB: 5/25/1980 =#0000FF]22 Willie Harris DoB: 6/22/1978 Coaching Staff ManagerBench CoachBatting CoachPitching CoachThird Base Coach =#0000FF]10 Terry Collins DoB: 5/27/1949 =#FF8000]57 Bob Geren DoB: 9/22/1959 =#0000FF]52 Dave Hudgens DoB: 12/5/1956 =#0000FF]59 Dan Warthan DoB: 12/1/1952 =#FF8000]81 =#0000FF]Tim Teufel DoB: 7/7/1958First Base CoachBullpen CoachBullpen CatchersHead Trainer =#FF8000]55 =#0000FF]Tom Goodwin DoB: 8/27/1968 =#FF8000]56 =#0000FF]Ricky Bones DoB: 4/7/1969 =#0000FF]53 Eric Langill DoB: 4/9/1979 =#0000FF]54 Dave Racaniello DoB: 10/15/1981 =#0000FF] Ray Ramirez =#BF8080].Assistant Trainer =#0000FF] Brian Chicklo

Yeah, well, all these (relatively) sensible moves can get framed as "we need to tweak our great idea --- you know, to make it greater." Trashing the designated rivalries would be acknowledging the truth that maybe that great idea was actually ill-conceived from the start. Maybe next commissioner.

Their original numbers kinda messed me up. A very soccerish look.

I don't get the beliefs-have-no-basis-in-fact arguments that have been flying around. Beliefs tend to have at least some factual basis. You may believe that Jose likes Long Island. You could be wrong, but the notion that he lives there lends some foundation to the notion.

Gwreck wrote: TransMonk wrote: Great idea! I never thought of that. Now it's going to drive me nuts that they DON'T do this. Scheduling a 1-game "series" is prohibited in the basic agreement with the players which would be the holdup here. Yeah, I didn't seriously think it would be a layup.

metsmarathon wrote: and just how in the hell do we not have a "mets re-sign reyes" thread? we're slipping in our second decade. slipping. Mercy forbid me.

The thing is, a real show about baseball wives --- not one that's just another pretext for rich women to catfight --- could make for interesting television.

Cooly high. A little worried about that crazy Brad Holt, but waddayagonna do?

Larry Crowne is Tom Hanks' second feature as a director, following 1996's That Thing You Do, and unlike that effort --- which, whatever you say about it, it held together as a more-or-less tight affair --- this one is a sad sorry mess. Hanks plays the title character, a genial working stiff, a 20-year navy man happily embracing the grind on the sales floor of in a big box store, teaching trainees corporate policy as if he believes in the virtues of it himself, when wham-bam, he gets axed for not having any higher ed pursuits whatesover. Getting the point of the boot in his ass, he enrolls in a local community college, and his ordinary-guy virtues bless the lives of his new companions --- including: the neighbors who watch his life fall apart and reassemble; a bunch of 13th-graders of varying levels of stonedness in his speechifying class; his comely but sauced speechifying teacher (Julia Roberts) mourning her eroding marriage; and a gang of young, texting scooter enthusiasts who adopt him (yeah, I know). Hanks, who turned his Apollo 13 and Saving Private Ryan roles into HBO miniseries about the real American heroes behind those parts, apparently thinks his middle-aged ordinary guyness is a trait Americans are obviously quick to embrace. We're all getting axed. Tom Hanks, fine American, tell us what to do. Then there's the whole semi-aware virtuous savant thing --- like his lead characters from Forrest Gump and The Terminal --- here's another Tom Hanks guy that filmmakers think can just stumble into a situation, breathe the fresh air of old-fashioned decency, and stumble out with the benediction complete and the air cleansed and everybody just redeemed by the decency of it all. I don't want to be too cynical here --- I love decency (I am, in fact, crazy about it) --- but when the guy just goes from playing these paragons to casting himself as them, I get real nervous. As Mel Gibson will tell you, it's a slippery slope from casting and directing yourself in self-aggrandizing roles to becoming the biggest douchebag in Hollywood, and I don't think any of us want that from Tom. But if Tom wants to be loved, his movie wants to be loved more. And that's a big problem here. To the extent that the film is a romantic comedy, that genre's formula demands colorful side characters, and this sucker forces them on you like a bouquet pushed in your face by a crazy aunt --- the sassy black neighbors, the sunny young bohemian who recruits him into the scooter gang (yeah, I know), the array of corporate tools who smile at him condescendingly as they fire him, the classroom of mitfits, Julia's girl-get-yo'self-together officemate. Ugh. The movie is so busy throwing colorful side characters at the wall that they forget to draw up any depth in the alleged leads. Double ugh. (Not enough color for you? It's also got George Takei hamming his way to kingdom come. OK?) So you know, it hints at things it could have been. It could have been about people responding to our financial malaise by downsizing their lives and, ultimately, realizing they're rightsizing them. It hints at that. It could have been a movie about the culture shock of being destroyed and adrift and setting foot on a college campus for the first time in your fifties. Somehow regaining your equilibrium. Hints at that too. How about a movie about what kind of astounding personal transformation it takes for a toothsome if lushy college professor (OK, junior college, but still) to ditch her layabout writer husband and take up with a former navy cook with no academic experience recently laid off from a big box store. Julia, with her fan-tas-tic hair and haggard face, kind of maybe thinks she's in that movie, but it really goes unexplored. The movie thinks it's all of these things, but it's none. It's a sad little mess is what it is. So you know, some time in the next few weeks you may be walking around the video store, and stumble across Larry Crowne, and think to yourself, "Here's a film starring two A-list big shots, a handful of Oscars between them, who have proven in Charlie Wilson's War that they can work together, how come I don't recall this getting much of a push when it was in theaters?" As will often be the answer in those situations, the marketers knew what they were doing.

Sorry to be an hour late. Oh, yeah.

Mets celebrate Italian heritage by re-signing Val Pascucci and jumping on minor league free agen Vinny Rottino: Rottino, 31, is sort of like Nick Evans in that he's a righthanded semi-slugger, proven at the AAA level, with the ability to play all the corners. The main difference is that he's sort of like Mike Kinkade in that he's done plenty of catching in the minors, but nobody really seems to want to give hims a chance behind the dish during his big-league callups. He's a native Wisconser who first joined the Braves system after an open tryout, so he was kinda pissed to be let go by the team after 2009 with only 25 trips to the plate on his record. A long talk with the Fonz helped put things in perspective and he's moved on. Mets also belatedly celebrate Bastille Day and Dominican Independence Day by re-signing Jean-Luc Blaquiere and Raul Reyes. Evans and Buchholz declare free agency.

Said Satan to Eve.

There's plenty of opportunity to do this with only modest inconvenience. National League teams in town to face the Mets take a poke at the Yankees when they're done and then skate on up to Boston on the Metroliner. You playing the Angels? Make sure you catch the Dodgers and the Pads before you ramble on. One chance all year to see Josh Hamilton, kids.

72 in division + 60 extradivisional + 30 interleague is a perfectly viable breakdown that adds up to 162. It would be way way cooler if they played it that way without the designated rivalry nonsense, but the Mets are ditching black and I can't have everything. I'd enjoy it even more if the 30 interleague games weren't comprised of two three-game series against a particular division, but a barnstorm one-game stop against every team in the other league, with them barnstorming into your town later in the year. Ah, yeah!