Edgy MD

Tracksuit McJazzhat cites the all-knowing People Familiar with the Team�s Thinking in stating the Mets are launching Operation Lowball. NY Mets to make low offer to Jose Reyes, then will let him test his value on the market BY ANDY MARTINO DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER Check in with Jose Reyes, perhaps make a modest offer, then step back while he collects proposals and allows other clubs to set his market value: That is the Mets' negotiating strategy with their free-agent shortstop, according to people familiar with the team�s thinking. The Mets have a five-day window for exclusive talks after the World Series, but will not re-sign Reyes during that time. Unsure what Reyes will be able to command on the open market - and if his price will remain within a range they consider reasonable - the Mets say they see no point in beginning talks by presenting an offer that is close to their best or final one. "Jose is not going to be a quick process," said one source. 'The fan base would love for it to be that way, but a quick process would mean that he will not be a Met. Let him go do the dance, and see how (other teams) value him. Why should we set the market?" Reyes' agents declined to comment on the process. With the Mets expecting to cut payroll from the $140 million range to $110 million-$115 millionish, club officials have made clear that if Reyes leaves, 22-year-old Ruben Tejada will replace him. Whether that is determined in November, December or January will not affect other aspects of the team's plans, officials insist. Reyes� price is difficult to predict, more so than those of fellow free-agent stars Albert Pujols and Prince Fielder. View Reyes through one lens, and he is a 28-year-old batting champion and one of the most dynamic players in baseball at a position known for offensive scarcity. View him through another, and his tightly wound hamstrings, which sent him to the disabled list twice during the 2011 season, create a serious risk for any team offering him a long-term deal (it is only fair to also note that from 2005 to 2008, Reyes played in at least 153 games each season). Despite concerns, the Mets - and most everyone else in baseball - expect that a team will offer a sizable deal; the real question is �how sizable?� Several Mets executives have speculated that the Nationals, Marlins and the Angels could become heavy bidders. If a team offers Reyes Carl Crawford money (six or seven years, $130 million-$140 million), the Mets almost certainly would not match it. The club values Reyes, and says it will launch an earnest effort to retain him, but it has long made clear its unwillingness to engage in feverish bidding. One team source mused that �he'll probably want to get paid like a home run hitter.� Reyes might ultimately be presented with this choice: Accept the highest offer or remain with the only organization he has known, in the city that he loves. Whatever happens, it will not likely happen in the next month, and perhaps not even in the month after that. Still, Mets officials insist they are not concerned that a drawn-out pursuit of Reyes will hijack their entire offseason, and make other planning difficult. GM Sandy Alderson has been clear that the team's non-Reyes priority is to rebuild the bullpen, with former All-Star closers Brad Lidge, Jonathan Broxton and Joe Nathan among those available as free agents. Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/2011/10/28/2011-10-28_ny_mets_wont_resign_jose_reyes_during_exclusive_negotiating_period_after_world_s.html#ixzz1c65SPHAA

Yeah, some things have to be faster, and the umps have been policing those things. And the tension between and among the delaying player and the aggressive player and the umps is a part of the story too.

Then let the ump hammer on the manager that he's being inconsiderate and holding up the game and remind him that he's the supreme law. I was at the gastropub last night, and I watched as the Rangers catcher took a painful foul ball off an unpadded part of his person. No words were exchanged, but the ump made a point of buying some time by cleaning off the plate. It was great. He just looks down, with a look of "My, isn't that plate a mess, and here in the World Series --- disgraceful." He takes a circular walk around the plate, pulls the little broom from his pocket in a circular motion, bends his ass directly at the pitcher, and paints the dish with the broom in clean even strokes like he's an artist. And he is. I explain this tableau to my wife, and praise the beauty of the automatic charity. She asks how he knows, and I tell her how he's back there taking fouls too, and how, from their common human vulnerability, an ancient bond of a game-delay ritual has occurred. And of course, if the ump got hit, the catcher would walk the ball pack to the pitcher, take off his mask along the way, spit, ask the pitcher how his wife likes the new place, rub the ball for him some as they spoke, and then walk back and pick up a pebble or two between the mound and the plate on the way. And we're all made more human by it, and with all better understand the gift of a summer day, or an autumn night. Well, everybody but Josh Levin.

I agree about ad time, but disagree strongly that the time between pitches is dead time.

Yeah, I'm definitely rebuilding that place in my back yard when I rule the world. I couldn't find a clip of Elian Malbin singing the national anthem, but she's awesome. Listen to her tell Robert Merrill to get lost. [youtube:r7grdkie]Q6ZqwoVr-Uk[/youtube:r7grdkie]

attgig wrote: bottom of the 9th, 2 run lead. you put your best defenders in there, no question. The way Cruz was running to the ball, he did not seem like he was their best defender... I know Endy's no spring chicken, but he's got to be better than THAT. Yeah, but as mentioned, it's not like Cruz would have been the obvious guy to lift.

G-Fafif wrote: G-Fafif wrote: Because Cruz doesn't really represent a perfect analog for Buckner --- old, white, broken down, chronically injured --- and failing to get to a hard-hit ball ain't the same as letting a bouncer go through your legs. White, Gracie? White, the general race category for Bill Buckner. Yeah, but so? I assume that was included for irony or something. Just kind of jumped out at me as irrelevant in the context of old, broken down and chronically injured. It's a community history thing, going back to the MOFo where a character named METSSC would openly lament the presence of too many Mets players who were "old, white, and slow." It's since become an article of faith to make a point of unnecessarily dragging race into it when referring to a creaky old guy. As if Moises Alou being old, slow, and broken down was offset in part by him not being white.

Wow. Seaver seems kinda pissed about it, too. Throwing balls into the box seats like that. Those warm-up circles (did they have a name?) were in the never-knew-what-we-had-until-it-was-gone catgory.

But a lefty. I think they designed these guys just generically enough and with just enough face hdden that you can project what you expect to see. I mean, the apparent race of the foreground guy isn't even clear. Looks like they change the overhang on the park to suggest different ballparks.

G-Fafif wrote: Edgy DC wrote: Because Cruz doesn't really represent a perfect analog for Buckner --- old, white, broken down, chronically injured --- and failing to get to a hard-hit ball ain't the same as letting a bouncer go through your legs. White, Gracie? White, the general race category for Bill Buckner.

Will Washington get the same criticism LaRussa had been getting? Will he get the same criticism MacNamara got? Because Cruz doesn't really represent a perfect analog for Buckner --- old, white, broken down, chronically injured --- and failing to get to a hard-hit ball ain't the same as letting a bouncer go through your legs. He took a crap route (though I don't recall McCarver and Buck underscoring this point). Yeah, I guess Endy should've been in, but do we have a good idea what the state of his legs are?

Never trust guys named Lowe. Ever.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Really? Got a competitive offer today from Baltimore. I'm trying to get my agent to squeeze a partial no-trade out of them, but yeah. Funny thing is that after the offer came in, I hung up and put together my most productive day of the year.

I kinda gotta go to bed, but I'm pretty sure I'm giving notice at work tomorrow anyhow, so... let's play 20 innings!

Napoli, who shoulda been out of the game nine innings ago, reaches on a tingle.

Nelson Munz with the first out.

metsguyinmichigan wrote: Ruth Ryan being hustled out of the clubhouse.... I heard Kathy DeWitt is jealous that Ruth has nicer clothes.

Guess he shoulda brought in a lefty too, though, huh?

Oh, I think Pujols is like the most walked guy in the history of walks. Washington didn't think twice about it. I'm sure RW sees him as closer to scoring at the plate than he is at first, if you get my meaning.

Did McCarver and Buck comment at all on the route Cruz took toward that triple in the ninth?

Strange that the Yankee/Met in the nearground has a lefthanded infielder's glove, like he's Mike Squires or somebody.

Smosh Smamilton, ladies and gentlemen.

Interestingly, the Fake Yankees have the lights blazing in broad daylight, while the Fake Mets keep them off at dusk, all the better to see Northern Queens' famous Aurorora Borealis.

And snatch it from St. Louis, too.

Check out these guys. The jawlines aren't quite right, and no numbers are visible, but the body types and body language and proximity suggest they're some sort of semi-inspired analogs for Reyes and Wright. The grandstands even kinda sorta suggest CitiField, with the light coming through the gap between the upperdeck and the overhang. But they're not Reyes and Wright. And no, they're not your buds. These two phonies are pulling double duty across town playing Robinson Cano and Mark Teixiera.