Edgy MD

Royce Ring showed up to training camp in this baby:

bmfc1 wrote: I don't understand your post, Edgy. When fans decide they hate somebody, they tend to make something of everything he says that supports the narrative already established.

I expect him to give an interview in which, no matter what he says, people will passionately use it against him.

The Second Spitter wrote: (And before you answer "Dickey" ask yourself how much coaching you can give to a 36yo knuckler?) Niese. Parnell. Gee. Pelfrey. Takahashi. Dessens. The Mets have had some good pitching despite the adveristy that they've faced, and Warthan has earned his seat.

I've been weighting this one. Seeing a buncha Bourne films instead. I think The Bourne Angioplasty is next.

Wouldn't it be great if he showed up with a big fuckin' crazy rooster mohawk?

�liver (Martinez) P�rez. Pos: SP; BL-TL. Born: August 15, 1981 in Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico. (He'll be 29 in 2011.) Birth Context Karma: The SHaMs of 1981 were storming into the fringes of the second-half race with a 3-1 victory over the world champeen Phillies. That Leach guy might be worth a look. Acquired: Traded by the Pirates with Roberto Hernandez to the New York Mets for Xavier Nady on July 31, 2006. TmLgWLW-L%ERAGGSGFCGSHOSVIPHRERHRBBIBBSOHBPBKWPBFERA+WHIPH/9HR/9BB/9SO/9SO/BBBB-Ref WARFG WARSt.�LucieFLOR (A+)11.5004.6322000011.6776624014101470.9435.41.53.110.83.5BuffaloIL (AAA)00.0002.3122000011.67104327010202531.4577.71.55.47.71.43TotalMinors11.5003.4744000023.33171094110243031001.2006.61.54.29.32.18NYMNL05.0006.80177400046.1543735942337404234582.07210.51.78.27.20.88-1.5-1.1TotalAll16.1435.702111400069.437147441353361707334583.27217.13.212.416.53.06 Number: 46 Wife: Luz Arianna Felix Gutierrez Perez Nickname: Nothing kind. Namesakes: Gigolo on the left: Best Day in 2010: Good days were not common for Ollie in 2010, at least not on the field. But he didn't come out terrible. His second start had some grind-it-out quality, before the bullpen spit it out. (Yes Fernando Nieve was pitching his third day in four there.) Last Word: Oliver is coming to camp, expecting to be abused, and ultimately released before camp ends. If he pitches well, it's most likely to be a set up for a trade to a team willing to take him on at 5-10% of his salary. If. What do you expect of Oliver Perez in 2011? Be kind. He's holding a puppy.

Wife: None I can find. Grrrlfriend Tori Ahern.

Not when it's generous mixes of Alex Cora and Luis Castillo trying not to play themselves into oblivon (and failing), Jose Reyes re-establishing himself after the better part of a year off and no spring training, and Ruben Tejada bouncing between positions. Yikes, there was some Fernando Tatis in there also. dWAR scores, according to baseball-reference.com: Cora: -0.6 Castillo: -0.1 Reyes: -0.3 Tejada: 0.0

Maybe it's tempting but not easy. It's not like the Mets were tight in the middle infield when he started 10-1 last season.

I don't know that he's actually good. I have trouble trusting guys who throw that hard and don't K people. They can't economize their pitches. He looked like he had turned a corner in 2008 also, but was pretty bad in 2009.

Michael Alan Pelfrey. (Everybody's an Alan.) Pos: SP; BR-TR. Born: January 14, 1984 in Wright Patterson AFB, OH. (He'll be 27 in 2011.) Birth Context Karma: Not much really, Metwise. Five days later they shored up the 1986 shortstop situation by siging Rafael Santana and drafting Kevin Elster on the same day. Ten days later, Apple introduced the Macintosh. Acquired: Drafted by Mets in the 1st round (ninth overall pick) of the 2005 amateur draft, and signed January 10, 2006. Filthy little holdout. WLW-L%ERAGGSGFCGSHOSVIPHRERHRBBIBBSOHBPBKWPBFERA+WHIPH/9HR/9BB/9SO/9SO/BBBB-Ref WARFG WAR159.6253.66343310012042138883126851136118701071.3779.40.5351.662.3 (-0.2 off)2.9 Number: 34. Wife: Angela. Nickname: Big Pelf. Namesakes: Best Day in 2010: Would you believe this big animal is still looking for his first complete game shutout? Well it's true! He still has only two career complete games, both from 2008. That's what you get working under save addicts like Willie and Jerry. His best day was shutting out the Phils for seven innings on May 27, finishing a three-game sweep of the Phils, with all three games going scoreless for the future division champs. Last Word: Mike is expecting to start on opening day, as well as his second child. What do you expect of Mike Pelfrey in 2011?

What a bloody day. It's like they all hung in there to outlast the Mubarak regeime. Chuck Tanner never made sense on the Braves. Not that Sparky Anderson really made sense running the Tigers.

I think we get locked into initial notions. Melvin Mora arrives on the Mets and Bobby Valentine uses him as a defensive sub outfielder, fans can't get their head around him being a shortstop. Jerry Manuel has a gap in the outfield and the GM sends him Daniel Murphy from AA, and he can't conceive of the idea that any failures out there are due in part because he's spent his whole career as a corner infielder and should be perhaps tried there when there's an opening. A spends half a year in the bullpen on your staff, and you try and come up with reasons he belonged there all along. An actor puts on superhero tights on in a movie and you can't accept him as rennassance painter or dustbowl farmer or gay cowboy. Our minds organize information in categories. It's probably a benefiical trait... most of the time.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Impossible, Grimm-- Saturday's when he does paintball with the boys from the warehouse. You better drop and roll, be you're on fire.

Somewhat less than cleverly.

Except win a second championship, but yeah. I guess weak-hitting Bucco teams pressed Doumit into duty at other positions, forcing Paulino to do more catching. That shouldn't happen with the Mets. I think Doumit was derided as the weaker (if clearly more versatile) defender, but Paulino was derided as a big-time slacker. I'm not sure where the system broke down in Florida.

Ceetar wrote: i'm supposed to expect something from this guy? gee..I dunno. Hits about .260 with 5 home runs. 10 doubles. 35 RBI. Hits .380 with RISP. .5 WAR Yeah, there's something Shane Spencery there. He looks like a guy who could put up good numbers if he could be isoltated against lefties, but doesn't manage to stay isolated. How come nobody could do that? The Pirates couldn't do it with switch-hitting Ryan Doumit. The Marlins had John Baker (who I conflate with Paul Bako and Matt Treanor but does bat lefthanded). What gives? Is platooning catchers that hard?

Ronny Leonel Paulino Pos: c; BR-TR. Born: April 21, 1981 in Santo Domingo, DR. (He'll be 30 in 2011.) Birth Context Karma: Cloudy. Ronny was born in the midst of the only series in Mets history that resulted in no results. They had a home doubleheader against Montreal (split, natch) and then flew to Pittsburgh. Monday: rainout. Tuesday, the day Ronny entered this world: rainout. Wednesday, eight and a half innings resulting in a rare tie after 8 and a half innings on a Wednesday night, which counted, of course, as no result at all in baseball. I probably watched every minute of the rain delays and every inning of the game they tried to play. As a kid, I wondered quy Staub got pushed to the bench midway through 1981, as he was still hitting, but look at the logjam on the basepaths he creates in that boxscore. Acquired: Signed as a free agent December 9, 2010. TmGPAABRH2B3BHRRBISBCSBBSOBAOBPSLGOPSOPS+TBGDPHBPSHSFIBBPosBB-Ref WARFG WARPos PED TestsFLA913443163182180437102551.259.311.354.6657611211003420.61.11 Number: 9 Wife: His MLB bio lists none, but it does say he has a five-year-old daughter. so he's got that going for him. Which is nice. Nickname: I don't see any, but for being dumb enough to risk his career over what he claimed was a diet pill, I dub him "Se�or Zantrex." (Yeah, I guess not, but I'm open to suggestions.) Namesakes: Friendster sends me this guy. Thirty and single? With dimples like that? Is this some sort of trick? Best Day in 2010: I guess any day you don't get traded back to Pittsburgh is pretty good, but Ronny best remembers this day, when his Fishies followed an 8-0 shutout loss to the Chicago White Sox with some 13-0 payback led by Ronnie and his seven total bases, including a singe, a double, a homer, two runs scored, one driven in (his own self) and catching a shutout pitched by four pitchers. Last Word: Ronny has to open the season finishing out his PED suspension. After that, he's expected to protect Josh Thole from lefthanded starters. How much protection Thole will need remains to be seen. What do you expect of Ronny Paulino in 2011?

I don't think Murphy eventually looked passable at first. I think he was always fine there (more than passable), and Manuel eventually got around to getting past his infielder's prejudice that any fool can play outfield and anybody who can't certainly shouldn't be let in the infield.

He has as good a chance as any to be the Angel Pagan Breakout Dude of 2011. Throwing that hard --- somewhere he can find an location or an angle that can make him untouchable. Problem is that --- though he may be one adjustment from untouchable --- that walk rate is already kinda high, and he may be one adjustment from a mess. Nonetheless, I'm betting he turns the corner like a righthanded version Randy Myers 1988. 5-2, 2.29 ERA, 55 G, 63 IP, 64 SO, 19 BB. In every interview, he praises Dan Warthen in tones so reverent that it begins to get creepy.

Valadius wrote: No chapter four? I can't give away the shop.

I recently started a new career in the celebrity image control business and am about to publish a new book. EDGY DC'S GUIDE TO IMAGE CONTROL =#000080]CHAPTER ONE: Don't be a douchebag. =#000080]CHAPTER TWO: Get caught looking stupid? Blush and say, "You got me!" =#000080]CHAPTER THREE: Be up front about your expectations. =#000080]CHAPTER FIVE: Refuse to associate yourself with the Yankees. (Cliff Lee did!) =#000080]CHAPTER SIX: Really, don't be a douchebag.

The Times is doing a better job here than previous I think, focusing on the less salacious details about the other vulnerabliity the Wilpons/Katzes face --- the overextension they've found themselves in, trying to keep flush after the Madoff revenue streams dried up. They really built at the wrong time, didn't they? I breathed a sigh of relief when I found out they weren't wiped out by Madoff, but it took a while to realize how dependent they were on the phony revenue stream that he gave them to continue --- that in their debt-intensive world, loss of future revenues isn't so meaningfully different than loss of actual assets. I don't think they're going to end up at the curb like Lenny Dykstra, but goodness, the thought crossed my mind. Banks Could Have Key Role in Mets Suit By PETER LATTMAN and RICHARD SANDOMIR Published: February 8, 2011 Bernard L. Madoff�s arrest on Dec. 11, 2008, shook the pillars of Fred Wilpon�s world. Gone was $500 million that he and his family thought was in their Madoff investment accounts. On top of that, Wilpon�s remaining empire had at least a half-billion dollars in debt with no easy way to deal with it, according to court papers filed last week. There was, the records say, �very little actual cash on hand.� Sterling Equities, the family company that owns the Mets, was scrambling to survive. In the end, eight banks, including Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase, came to Wilpon�s rescue. Together, they engineered what the court papers say was a �complete and comprehensive� restructuring of 40 loans totaling $500 million owed by Sterling�s partners and other parts of the empire. In the refinancing, the family trusts of Wilpon and his brother-in-law, Saul Katz, added $100 million in debt. The overhaul worked, keeping Sterling afloat when global finances were in doubt and easy credit was nonexistent. And there is little doubt Wilpon�s public record as a careful businessman and respected team owner explained some of the willingness of the banks. �Here you have the Wilpons with a reputation for being smart, good businesspeople,� said Shai Waisman, a bankruptcy lawyer at Weil, Gotshal & Manges in Manhattan, �and if you�re a bank, you probably think they�ll be able to weather this storm and turn things around.� A lawsuit brought against Wilpon and his associates at Sterling by the trustee for Madoff�s victims � one that accuses them of having willfully ignored warnings that Madoff might have been a fraud � has offered Wilpon�s banks an unflattering portrait of the man they helped rescue. The trustee, Irving H. Picard, has charged that Wilpon and others at Sterling, despite having reason to be suspicious of Madoff, nonetheless used their Madoff accounts as collateral for bank loans, and that they used loans from banks to open up additional accounts with Madoff, confident that the steady money earned with Madoff would outperform the interest rates on their loans. A lawyer for Picard, David Sheehan, has said that when Wilpon needed cash but wanted to avoid formally going to the banks for more loans, he simply had Madoff lend him millions, all under the guise of ostensible investments in Wilpon�s real estate holdings and venture capital deals. Picard is seeking $1 billion from Wilpon and his partners to compensate those who he argues were true victims of Madoff. Wilpon�s banks have chosen not to answer questions about the lawsuit or its portrayal of Wilpon and his partners. And Wilpon�s lawyers contend that Picard �did not uncover one shred of evidence� to disprove Wilpon and his partners were anything more than victims who trusted Madoff. But those banks, which over the last two years have saved and supported Wilpon, could be critical players as Wilpon contends with Picard�s lawsuit and the prospect of needed hundreds of millions in cash to settle the case, according to lawyers and other banking experts. Those lawyers and experts suggested Wilpon�s banks could contemplate a number of options: they could call in their loans, perhaps forcing Wilpon to sell all or parts of his empire; or they could choose to assist him, helping him find a way to survive even a giant settlement. �Generally speaking, banks don�t act rashly in these sorts of situations,� said Anthony W. Clark, a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom who specializes in corporate restructurings. �They�re usually cautious and will watch to see what happens. They don�t want to precipitate the thing they are most concerned about, which is diminishing the value of the assets that serve as their collateral.� Wilpon�s empire is heavy with debt. With his real estate dealings, that is hardly uncommon. He and his partners routinely put up a small percentage of equity in their real estate funds and borrowed two to three times that when making acquisitions. There is also serious debt on his team and the new stadium he helped build in Queens. Indeed, with the Madoff case looming, Wilpon�s company�s need for cash was such that in taking out a $450 million loan on the SNY network last year, he and his partners, Time Warner Cable and Comcast, got about $240 million in cash, two-thirds of which went to Sterling. And in a $375 million financing of the Mets last year, Wilpon reportedly received $75 million in cash. It is not clear whether that cash was spent or salted away. And Wilpon has, within the last two weeks, put up for sale 25 percent of the team � a previously unthinkable option � to raise more money. As the banks look at the loans Wilpon and his partners have, their options depend on the specific language in the agreements, said Sandra E. Mayerson, a lawyer at Squire Sanders who specializes in restructuring and insolvency. The banks may well have forced Wilpon, in these most recent refinancings, to add more collateral or restricted the investments he could make. �I�m sure the Wilpon side will fight tooth and nail to keep their businesses viable,� Mayerson said. �It doesn�t help anyone, including Picard, to have those businesses fail.� Picard�s lawsuit described a web of dubious banking that fueled growth at Sterling. When Wilpon needed a loan to buy out his cable television deal to start SNY, he pledged at least one Madoff account as collateral. The Sterling partners opened 65 accounts solely to invest with Madoff and then often to use as collateral to borrow still more to invest in the accounts. Bank of America �was influenced by both the large purported balances� and �consistent returns� generated by the Sterling�s Madoff accounts when Sterling sought a $75 million loan. According to Picard, the loan supplied Sterling with half of what it needed to secure its stake in its latest real estate fund, which entitled it to 90 percent of the fund�s management fees. According to Picard, Wilpon and his partners used the Madoff accounts to prove their net worth and creditworthiness to raise capital �that might not have been otherwise available.� Some experts say that Picard�s accusations have not been proved in court. �Don�t forget that it�s only a legal claim that the trustee has against them,� said Deirdre Martini, a managing director at Wells Fargo Capital Finance. Still, Bradley Simon, a former federal prosecutor who is a defense lawyer at Simon & Partners, said that banks should be �nervous, if not terrified� if Picard successfully forces Wilpon and Katz to sell the Mets, SNY and real estate to come up with $1 billion. He added that banks should be combing their loan refinancing documents for misleading statements related to Madoff. �I don�t think they understood what Picard knows,� Simon said.

If he can level out at 100, I'll be happy. I think his effectiveness will depend on his usage pattern. We all know that Jerry Manuel was where setup men went to die and Willie Randollph wasn't much more merciful. I was an early adopter of Terry Collins, and I'm hoping for better from him.