Edgy MD

Edgy MD wrote: I don't care about the Yankees. Nor do I think the Mets "relied" on the Yankees in any meaningful way when they hired Buck Showalter, for instance. It's a factual question, and not particularly concerned with how much you care or don't care about it. No, the premise that the Mets "relied" on the Yankees is not a fact at all, but very much an opinion.

I don't care about the Yankees. Nor do I think the Mets "relied" on the Yankees in any meaningful way when they hired Buck Showalter, for instance. More interesting to me is that he's the fifth managerial hire since Terry Collins retired at the end of 2017, four of which have been first-timers.

Tim Anderson — whose season was so disastrous that it really made me appreciate Jeff McNeil's 2023 — has had his option unsurprisingly declined by the White Sox. He's had some really good times, but it's going to be a hard time finding a major-league deal after his season's highlight was landing on the wrong side of a brawl with José Ramirez in which most of the league took Ramirez' side, despite the video evidence being ambiguous.

Number one sounds like Hall-of-Famer and original Mets coach Rogers Hornsby, but could probably be referring to a few others.

Larry Bird: https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=bird--000larhttps://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=bird--000lar His stats aren't shown, but he apparently played one game and went 1-for-3 with two RBI. [FIMG=350]https://metsrostercentral.files.wordpress.com/2023/11/bird.jpg[/FIMG]

Sure, I just mean to suggest that they seem to have more such targets. I could be wrong.

The oversaturation of The Daily News' coloring ink makes Carrasco look un-naturally jaundiced in ROCKED AROUND THE CLOCK, but looks gorgeous in WHAT A DIAZTER.

A strong three-way showdown over the Correa non-signing.

Shortbread is out of options, and the Mets don't necessarily have immediate room in their infield, so he could be seeing the waiver wire again before April 1.

The Mets have claimed Zack Short off of waivers from Detroit. Zack lives up to his name by actually playing short, and while his 5'10" stature might not be particularly small, he's no Oneil Cruz. Zack comes from Old Mole territory, being a graduate of Kingston, New York's Kingston High, before moving on to DGW territory, matiriculating at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield. Originally a member of the Cubs organization (a 17th-round pin in 2016), he jumped to the Tigers in a deal for former Met Cameron Maybin. Zack also plays second and third, along with a little center, and has thrown six mopup innings in his young career. He wears his socks high and his pants higher. [fimg=550]https://www.detroitnews.com/gcdn/presto/2021/04/21/PDTN/faeab50d-dfe6-4803-b41d-d0df46850f4e-2021-0421-rb-tigers-pirates338.jpg[/fimg]

I don't know. It just seems the Cubs fans have some deliriously nasty things to express about the Cards and Brewers, even if the day's opponents are the Angels or Rockies or something.

It would have taken at least a dozen minutes of Chelsea review to confirm all three outs, but I think all three would have held up.

Cubs fans are unique in that, instead of having a singular and all-consuming arch rivalry, they actually viscerally hate three teams, don't they?

Aug. 5, 1998: J.T. Snow grounds sharply to first. Take it from there, Fran. [media=youtube]aqovxP9U6FI[/media]

I wouldn't make too much of those Berra/Green/Stengel/etc. parallels, but Mendoza is more analogous to Willie Randolph, in that he previously had a tenure with the Yankees as a base coach and a bench coach, but not as a big-league manager. Unike Randolph, though, he has had a meaningful amount of minor-league managerial experience.

It took seven games, but the Hanshin Tigers have overcome the Orix Buffalo to take The Japan Series, 4 games to 3. It's the Tigers' first championship since 1985, when the ecstatic fans not only hurled themselves off a bridge into the Dotonbori Canal, but uprooted a statue of Colonel Sanders and threw it into the drink as well. Some said that the over-exuberant act of hooliganism was due to the statue's passing resemblance to gaijin Tiger slugger Kevin Bass, and the fans wanted to take their hero with them for a murky swim. Whatever the reason, the rowdyism supposedly cast dishonor upon the franchise, and brought upon the team "The Curse of the Colonel" — resulting in a long period when the team has had their periods of excelling but had been never able to take home the big one. Curse or not, that period has ended. [FIMG=700]https://cdn.theathletic.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=770%2cformat=auto%2cquality=75/https://cdn.theathletic.com/app/uploads/2023/11/05121335/AP23309494926350-1024x683.jpg[/FIMG] Congratulations on the reflected glory that also falls on the likes of George Altman, Scott Atchison, Jason Hardtke, Mike Kinkade, Tom O'Malley, Jerrod Riggan, Shane Spencer, Tony Tarasco, the inimitable Bruce Boisclair, and any other TigerMets I am forgetting.

I realize that having a president of baseball operations makes having a general manager something less than it's usual necessary element in day-to-day operations, but it still feels kind of freaky to hire a manager while the gm chair is still vacant.

Number 5 is clearly George Stone, who came to the Mets from Atlanta when Atlanta was an out-of-division team. Either that, or it's Fred Flintstone.

=roger_that post_id=140530 time=1699209924 user_id=128] You are a more evolved human being than I am.

The Mets can avoid the two-Japanese-stars-on-a-team issue (which may or may not exist), by going all in and signing Yamamoto and Shohei Ohtani, and thereby making it three.

They dealt his contract hoping for value in return, I suspect — including the added value of that second year or the added value of not being on the hook for that second year, depending on how one might look at it.

Dusty https://www.yahoo.com/sports/dusty-baker-says-criticism-from-astros-bloggers-and-tweeters-played-role-in-his-decision-to-retire-032308550.htmlpoints a finger at the social media game. “We had a lot of success here, Ernie and Charles, and then the last couple of months here weren't very pleasant, because we weren't 10 games ahead,” Baker said. “You spoil people. They think you're supposed to win this every year running away, and it's not like that. Every year's different. There was a whole bunch of criticism from 30-year-olds and bloggers and tweeters that I'm not doing this and I don't know that, and I told my wife, ‘You know, I'm kind of tired of this and tired of the scrutiny, and if I could go manage and show up at say 6:30 for a 7 o'clock game and leave 30 minutes after the game, don't do the [pregame and postgame interviews], I could manage for another four or five years.' You know what I mean? After a while, you just get tired of answering questions.” Thirty-year-olds are the worst.

batmagadanleadoff's image links are dead.

No, I totally wouldn't have thought of him as a loser. I'd certainly question our team's offensive philosophy, though. Choosing between dumping on deGrom and "allowing it to go on indefinitely" is a false choice.

I mentioned the sorry groundskeeping standards of the era, and Martin correctly pointed out that any field that wasn't full of cow poo was probably a plus.