Edgy MD

No, no. This is the takeaway: frankie rodriguez is that golden shower.

And only he knows what he's going to spend it on. I don't think it's mincing words at all. That money has a tremendous real world value expressed in dollars or win shares or what have you. It's worth more as potential in pocket than it is invested in Rodriguez. I don't get this default to "only Sandy knows" over and over. Good is good and bad is bad. Are you contending that good is bad because we're only going to make a worse investment with it? Because chances are huge we won't.

We all know. It's $17.5 million large. That's exactly how large it is.

Of course there's a relationship between every single transaction. But it's never been a K-Rod or Reyes situation. It was never that he had to trade him to sign Reyes, or itw ouldn't happen, or that Reyes couldn't decide to leave anyway, regardless of K-Rod. Reyes being resigned is going to be the result of a ton of different things, and freeing up payroll with Frankie is one small indirect part of it. Seems pretty large to me. $17.5 million large.

I agree Beltran will hurt more, but he's got no contract for next year that we need to escape. So the pressure to shed him isn't nearly as acute, and there's no harm in waiting a week or two to see how things shake out. And it won't kill us to keep him. I don't think you need to pretend that there's a relationship between shedding Rodriguez and signing Reyes. There is.

Ceetar wrote: Edgy, you missed my point. I thought I responded to each one of your points. Ceetar wrote: I just mean that while I get that this is a good thing, and I'm glad that they did it, I don't get exciting for 'possibilities'. You seem to be complaining about it, and speculating about better options that Alderson passed on, and lamenting the loss and the lack of birds in hand. Ceetar wrote: I don't want to root for anyone to get traded... Me. Ceetar wrote: or celebrate it Me. Ceetar wrote: even Frankie. Even Hebner! Ceetar wrote: 99.9% of my enjoyment comes from the actual team on the field Seriously, is this me posting? Ceetar wrote: which is worse now, even if slightly. That's debatable, but I get your point. But it would be arguably worse if anybody is traded with nobody immediately added to the team. GMs have to step back and make reasonable choices about the present and the future. We all understand this, no? Ceetar wrote: I know that there is now a somewhat higher percentage that my enjoyment will be heightened sometime in the future, but that doesn't mean I'm going to look at the trade today and feel good about it. That's just now how I enjoy baseball. Me neither. But that's the emotional argument. You're actually all over arguing not the immediate emotional downside, but the rational one. And it's not there. Look, I want trading a player without his permission to be outlawed. But that doesn't mean that, in a world where trading does exist, this is a bad one. Hey, maybe Jose Reyes is signed by this time tomorrow. The Mets owners started this season in an existential crisis. That they've been able to stay out of the offseason market, survive critical injuries, put a .500 team (or better?) on the field, shed crucial contracts, improved at the minor league level, barely retained control of the team, and put themselves back in the position where re-signing both Reyes and Wright is within the realm of reasonable hope? Minor fucking miracle. So far.

Ceetar wrote: Yes, I'm not sure how the Brewers getting better is a anti-Phillies move? Certainly doesn't make the Mets or Braves more likely to beat them. It makes the Brewers more likely to beat them. Ceetar wrote: So the move is rated on the assumption that we trust Sandy Alderson blindly? No, it's rated on the assumption that Rodriguez was a white elephant of a commodity. A black white elephant. His salary was being wasted on him and we need it for wiser uses, like Jose Reyes. Ceetar wrote: Supposedly there were other, similar, offers or bites. I'm not going to make assumptions about how desperate Sandy was or what other possibilities were out there. Do you distrust him blindly? Ceetar wrote: I expect him to make this team better, and while jettisoning salary certainly raises the percentages he can do that next year, it's not quite next year is it? It's a tough call to weight today against tomorrow. But I think the Mets are more or less fine in the pen except when they're not. That's what I thought last week. Ceetar wrote: Perhaps there is more value on players to be named later, there probably is... There is. Ceetar wrote: ...but I don't think it was unreasonable to expect an actual player to be named now. I do. Maybe the better package is the one you wait on. Ceetar wrote: That's how most trades go. Some don't. I don't know how that makes this bad. Ceetar wrote: I'm sure there will be additions to match this subtraction... $$$! Ceetar wrote: ...because regardless of what fans think, it's too early for the _organization_ to write the season off. I don't know which fans you mean, but this isn't a write-off. Ceetar wrote: Maybe an analogy? I know I have to sell my old car to get a new car, but it's the new car that's exciting, not selling the old car that's done me well or even the window shopping for the new one. If my old car was costing me $653,846 every month, but wasn't getting me anywhere better or faster than a few other cars in my garage, I'd be pleased as punch that anybody gave me anything, because those payments are now back in my pocket and I can go shopping for more reasonably priced stuff. AWESOME!

Rodriguez was once somebody's lottery ticket.

Frayed Knot wrote: IIRC, PtBNLs need to be at a different level than those they're traded for - meaning that neither is a ML player at this moment. I'd like a confirmation on this, as I never knew such a thing. Obviously, it wasn't always true.

Ceetar wrote: Ceetar wrote: neither of Wagner's PTBNL probably should've gotten much, if any, playing time. I sure would've liked to have seen more of Chris Carter, especially as Lucas Duda was hitting .050 last year. I would've liked to see him earlier, and then when he failed to be good, not held onto all season and used in key pinch hitting opportunities. Duda didn't get brought up until the'd pretty much given up didn't he? Jerry may have given up on the season, but I hadn't given up on Carter. Jerry, I'd given up on.

Ceetar wrote: neither of Wagner's PTBNL probably should've gotten much, if any, playing time. I sure would've liked to have seen more of Chris Carter, especially as Lucas Duda was hitting .050 last year.

Amazin' Avenue inexpiclably put their farm report today in Ring Lardner-era sportswriter prose: BINGHAMTON 9, NEW BRITAIN 4 (Box) The game was: Club Matt Den Dekker Home. Allan Dykstra had the first whack (1st Inning) and sent Matty spinning in from 1B. Then Valdespin took his turn (3rd Inning, from 1B), selected "try again" (5th Inning, from 2B), and proved himself master indeed. So Josh Satin wanted a go (7th Inning), and Matty obligingly measured his lead at first. Crack! Oh how the Dutchman huffed and puffed around the bases. Then in the 8th, John Henry-like, Matthew G. Den Dekker died on the bags. Fourth straight B-Mets victory. Wally tossed.

Pehaps already at work shooting his new show, Gallactica 1980.

Cut from the same cloth as Rocky.

Oh, then I hear you. Though I'm a big Kent McCord fan. Huge.

We're facing --- what is it? --- seven All-Star starters in a row?

There was nothing second-rate about the celebrity of the Fonz. If anything, what was lame about that game was that the Met wives lost 10-0, despite having ringers like Joe Pignatano and (I think) Ron Swoboda playing for them. There was some bitchy war of words over the name of the mule. The name "Krane-mule" was suggested and Ed, somehow more miffed than honored, countered with the notion that perhaps "De-Mule-et" would be more appropriate. I devoured anything Metly I could and savored it on my tongue it like manna from Heaven, but I remember thinking, "Wow, those are two really terrible puns. Not in a smirking-writy-groan of the metahumorous self-aware punner either --- just simply awful."

The rule has almost always been that two championships as a manager get you to the Hall of Fame: with Williams having to wait a bit because he made few friends. I long thought that Don Denkinger robbed Whitey Herzog of that honor and Rich Garcia robbed Davey Johnson. Herzog got the call this last year anyhow. Probably justly so, even with one championship.

Tearing apart the Florida State League right now.

Tearing apart the Florida State League right now.

Start three, Matty had his strikeout pitch working, but also his homerun pitch. Yoops. 3.0 IP, 6 H, 7 ER, 2 HR, 1 BB, 5 SO. It was raining and Matt couldn't find his grip. That's what I'm going with.

People got to get over Bartman.

Not shocking about Simmons.

Howie was talking about Gene Simmons there also. He may have Judeo-Queens roots, but I'm not giving him a ticket to the MLBS club without a thorough investigation by the membership committee.

I'm working with audio only. Any Hollywood MLBS's in attendance this eve?