Edgy MD

I think it was "We need the dues," said in the response to the consideration of pledge Larry "Pinto" Kruger." I feel like I can confidently predict Giolito giving the team (whatever team he signs with) one third of a season of excellence, one third of utter averageness, and one third of utter nothingness — not necessarily in that order. He's not that deep into his career, and he started 33 games last year, but man, he brought almost nothing the second half.

Do you know where one might find a link to that story?

There are foolish and malicious folks out there who will tell you that you don't really have to pay federal income taxes — that the law only requires them to be paid by federal workers and residents of The District of Columbia. This is utter malarkey, of course, but the thinking goes that the government isn't going to tell you that, because they like their money, but if you just stop paying, they won't come after you, because they know that they legally can't compel you to pay. Jerry, around the time of his split from Lavonne, bought this line of bullshit and ended up doing six months in a federal prison for it. Say what you want about Lavonne's unhappy face, but she looks like a tough lady to bullshit, so I kind of connect the dissolution of his marriage with his terribly poor judgment.

Pourquoi devrais-je baiser Adam Rubin? He may have gotten his back up more than I might've, but Omar Minaya, in representing my team, really blew this. Media relations was never his strong suit, but when that's the situation, just say less, and let the PR reps parse out the messaging. Everything collapsed from this point forward, but it was hardly the beginning of the end of Minaya's regime. It was just another step in Minaya utterly losing control of the organization's trajectory. The common thread of that era is that Minaya, Randolph, Bernazard, and Manuel all had chips on their shoulders to varying degrees. All seemingly were trying to put on a brave face to cover some sort of insecurity. The "Los Mets" narrative creating a distrust between the white fan base and the media that fed them on one side and the largely POC brain trust on the other certainly didn't help, but once you start fronting and trying to push past that sort of bullshit, it makes you stupider, more stubborn, and more shortsighted in your decisions.

It profiles more as a shore-up than a rebuild so far from my perspective.

What's our tally?

Andruw Jones had annual post-season exposure which included constant plotzing over his defensive abilities. He had ten Gold Gloves and Lofton had three. And voters freqnetly tend to (consciously or unconsciously) consider those in a binary manner, as if there's the Gold Glove winner and everybody else. But yeah, I'd take Kenny Lofton if given a choice between the two. He had a career like Tim Raines, only not quite as Tim Rainesy.

Also bouncing between up-dos and down-dos. Jerry and Lavonne sadly split in 2003. And it was immediately during this period that Jerry decided to stop paying his taxes, for which he'd be incarcerated in 2009. I imagine it would take exactly that long for me to start fucking up if I suddenly became a single man.

Yeah, the Intenet needs more Lavonne Koosman. https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG6BxycFyw9XM--lz0ckEb3qqaBXUCeGjkTNxMNzWufWAuCIkkV6flhjRw-cofo5Fk-LY0P03cF2bR-bHyNwjvSHQ2i4rgyKaHhN36IdzpTVSnTGsgu3eRJCcJiUU6tCb5ymGD9-psnT4G-yMhgZtExs0VjgCzZS32r_YuFr5MLDBidO-xJBeMVxvFlFez/s256/lavonne%20koosman1973.jpg> https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LOIfH0V5U1o/X7gluUjL3lI/AAAAAAABKvo/Vqjpo0g0bKYOFpuO1FqBuC60DXFhWy8gwCLcBGAsYHQ/s526/koos.jpg> https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Kmdzd89nQ7o/XidrS2GzoaI/AAAAAAABHnU/3xq5Z_4FlfwMSv57QfFRvW47xVdhSyi3QCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/mets%2Bwives%2B1968.jpg> http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5kIk16vy0_Q/U8trTeDGyrI/AAAAAAAA1gg/Gm1TxleLvxk/s1600/jerry+koosman+(22)+-+Copy.JPG> [fimg=475]https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/pfsAAOSwQChk~4hJ/s-l1200.jpg[/fimg]

Hey, welcome to the money, K-Rod! In your FACE, Matt Holliday!!

He had major league swagger for a guy as unproductive as he was. Swung for the fences and probably should have had a more defensive approach, considering he went a long time between hits. Excellent glove game. Distinctive facial hair and dreads. A hot-button of birthplace controversy, with some sources claiming he comes from Nicaragua, while others tag him as Panamanian.

Second-half utility infielder from 2023 signs a deal with the Dodgers. [FIMG=512]https://img.mlbstatic.com/mlb-images/image/upload/ar_16:9,g_auto,q_auto:good,w_1024,c_fill,f_jpg/mlb/lxf3vqjqclnyu0aejwip[/FIMG] [FIMG=288]https://www.si.com/.image/ar_1:1%2Cc_fill%2Ccs_srgb%2Cg_xy_center%2Cq_auto:good%2Cw_1200%2Cx_438%2Cy_115/MTk5ODIxMzI0MDc0MzYyNDk2/jonathan-arauz.png[/FIMG]

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: This guy sucks BHMC more than the RHCP It's a pretty hilarious Christmas gift. It's like Yoshinobu Yamamoto minus the everything.

Transactions, 12/24/2023 [th]Direction[/th][td90]COMING[/td90][th]Transaction [/th][td90]Signed away from OAK to Minor-League Deal and Invited to Camp, Projected for Brooklyn[/td90][th]Position Group [/th][th]=#FF8000]Relief Pitcher[/th][th][/th][td90][fimg=90]https://img.mlbstatic.com/mlb-photos/image/upload/d_people:generic:headshot:67:current.png/w_213,q_auto:best/v1/people/663385/headshot/67/current[/fimg][/td90][th]Name [/th][td90]Chad Smith [fimg=50]https://thecranepool.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/US-flag.png[/fimg][/td90][th]DoB[/th][td90]1995-06-08[/td90][th]B/T[/th][td90]R/R[/td90][th]High Level[/th][td90]MLB (2023)[/td90] This guy is pretty much the central casting go-to guy when you're looking for journeyman reliever — mullet, big guns, scratchy beard, rock 'n' roll name, roots in both Alabama and Mississippi, originally drafted by Cleveland, tenure with The Albuquerque Isotopes, a long history of getting battered around, yet retaining something in his stuff and his makeup that makes new teams gobble him up. If he didn't exist, he would've been created in fiction by any of a dozen writers. In fact, his grandfather played for Washington in the 1950s, which sort of qualifies him for almost-fiction status as well, as the Senators of that era were immortalized in The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant, and its musical adaptation, Damn Yankees. [FIMG=350]https://i.ebayimg.com/thumbs/images/g/cCUAAOSwxXRjRuX4/s-l500.jpg[/FIMG] The box above has Chad projected for Brooklyn. That may sound unlikely, but until camp begins — at which point we find out who is actually healthy — it isn't hard to find 25 or more relievers under contract with the team currently ahead of him in the pecking order. Despite being a seasoned veteran with big-league experience for two teams, that's how spotty his record is.

Mets https://sny.tv/articles/mets-sign-rhp-chad-smith-to-minor-league-contract-with-mlb-spring-training-invitationsign Chad Smith to minor-league contract with invite to spring training. [FIMG=600]https://metsminors.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/D90620D2-E0D4-4937-BEF2-64162E8A3C92.jpeg[/FIMG]

I think Riley Hodges is smiling back at his mother too. The Koosmans (Koosmen?) are clearly all pissed about the crappy chestplate logos the kids got on their uni tops.

Jerry Koosman PHAX 1) Threw lefty and hit righty — the least common combination. 2) Totally missed by the scouts, but played for his base team in the army and was recommended by a fellow soldier whose father worked for the Mets as an usher. 3) Shared a rookie card with Nolan Ryan, and the two would eventually total 546 wins combined. There are more pitching wins in the future on this rookie card than on a theoretical Cy Young rookie card. I imagine there are more more pitching wins in the future on this rookie card than on any card ever. 4) He, and not Tom Seaver, and not Dwight Gooden, and not Jacob deGrom, leads all Mets rookies in wins, innings pitched, and ERA. 5) Was t-boned on the way to camp in 1966. Amazingly, the two prospects he was driving with were also Jerrys — Jerry West and Jerry Wild. He called ahead to Mets camp and farm director (and future GM) Joe McDonald wired him $50, later admitting that he wasn't sure Koosman was worth the money. 6) Learned the slider from Frank Lary, and developed it into a slider/fastball hybrid that we'd call a cutter now. 7) Opened his rookie year in 1968 by shutting out both the Dodgers and the Giants. 8) It was supposedly his shoe polish on the ball that got Cleon Jones to first. 9) Trading Koosman for Jesse Orosco; and later trading Orosco for Jack Savage, Kevin Tapani, and Wally Whitehurst; and Savage and Tapani for parts of Frank Viola; and Whitehurst for portions of Tony Fernandez; and Fernandez for Darrin Jackson; the Mets got decades of tenure from that one hot tip from an usher's son. The gift might have kept giving, but Chris Roberts, who the Mets chose as a compensation pick after losing Frank Viola to Boston, suddenly declined at AAA after a prodigious first two seasons in the minors. 10) Gave up Pete Rose's 4,000th hit. [fimg=700]https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t31.18172-8/11699059_913057065399266_8890937368507366685_o.jpg?_nc_cat=102&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=dd63ad&_nc_ohc=lAhUcNt_H90AX8McKvY&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-1.xx&oh=00_AfAoIf3_r9QkxXzczI9qBy_4btZRxh_gdrBecI3AgDdAvw&oe=65B025A3[/fimg]

Buzz Capra made a pretty big buzz.

Yesterday was the 81st birthday of Jerry Koosman, third all-time in wins by a Mets pitcher, second among living pitchers. Only pitcher in Mets history to pitch a complete game to secure a World Championship. [fimg=650]https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/h8gAAOSwjWJgKoOl/s-l1200.webp[/fimg]

I knew there was a Mets connection, but I couldn't remember what. I didn't remember Damon at all.

A successful, self-made car dealer, scandalized by the British financial system's failure during the 2008 global financial crisis, along with the subsequent public bailout, quixotically tries to bring financing back to the people by opening the first new bank in Britain in 150 years. The system gets rocked.

Ryan Minor, most famous for playing third base for the Orioles on the day Cal Ripken finally sat, has passed at just 49.

I'm not advocating. (Trades stink.) But it all comes at an expense. Teams nonetheless bet that the return will be higher, and if it's more often not, GMs and PoBOs pack their desks. That's the game. They flipped a not-yet-appeared guy that was half the return on Eduardo Escobar into two big-league players, so I'm guessing they're willing to go deeper into their future talent pool. pivot pivot PIVOT!!!

I totally missed this hire. Like, totally. I was checking out the Angels to see how dire things are after losing Ohtani, and I saw — BAM! — that they hired Ron Washington in early November. [FIMG=500]https://wehco.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/imports/adg/photos/103027406_103027406-8ebe218deabb44c281054355c995f3e4_t800.jpg?90232451fbcadccc64a17de7521d859a8f88077d[/FIMG]

There are also plenty of fish that they will pursue in the trade market.