Edgy MD

Not to stereotype, but Brandon Marsh doesn't look like a guy who feels real good about paying taxes.

It's not really fair to Tommy Pham, but I feel like if he made a dive for that doink, Senga might be perfect so far. But after that catch, Senga certainly can't complain about outfielder support. Gotta salute Nimmo going out and making that play after looking at strike three down the middle the previous half inning.

One of the local soccer teams played there whilst the Mets were on the road. I guess maybe Senga needed warmer weather than Chicago to get a feel.

#BringBackNateFisher

Here's to the Cards for inducting a coach.

Poor Trevor Williams. Even I've got 137 followers. How sad and sorry is that?

Ben Joyce, clocked at 105 in the ACC, makes his MLB debut. Looks not unlike Syndergaard from behind, but comes from a lower arm slot.

Transactions, 5/30/2023 [th]Direction[/th][td90]COMING[/td90][th]Transaction [/th][td90]Signed away from Evansville (Frontier League) and Assigned to St. Lucie[/td90][th]Position Group [/th][th]=#FFC2C2] Outfielder[/th][th][/th][td90][fimg=90]https://city-countyobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/resize-11.jpeg[/fimg][/td90][th]Name [/th][td90]Eric Foggo [fimg=50]https://thecranepool.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/US-flag.png[/fimg][/td90][th]DoB[/th][td90]7/19/99[/td90][th]B/T[/th][td90]R/R[/td90][th]High Level[/th][td90]Frontier League (2023)[/td90] It's not altogether clear what kind of tomato the Mets have plucked here. Over four years of eligibility with Stetson U. (and what good player ever came from there?) he profiled as a three-true-outcome corner infielder/corner outfielder, slugging in a manner that suited his 6'5" frame, but doing better in smaller sample sizes. This included three years of collegiate summer ball at three levels, with the second in the elite Cape Cod League before spending his third summer back in the barely relevant world of the Florida Collegiate Summer League. Undrafted, he elected to use the fifth year of eligibility granted him by the COVID-era rules. Transferring to Alabama, in the Elite SEC, he maintained the same profile, putting up a .964 OPS over a scant 48 plate appearances — used mostly as a pinch-hitter, appearing only four times on defense. But again he found himself undrafted. This is less true than it used to be, because of the draft including ever-fewer rounds, but it used to be a loose rule that everybody gets drafted out of the SEC. This includes your utility infielders and backup catchers. But it's not so true anymore, and wasn't true for our pinch-hitting fifth-year senior. Not getting any sniffs as an undrafted free agent, the now-23-year-old signed on with Evansville of the Atlantic League — as a pitcher! And that's where the Mets found him, unscored upon in his first two innings, giving up two hits and a walk, striking out three. The wire says they've signed him as an outfielder and assigned him to St. Lucie, but he hasn't appeared in the outfield for anybody since 2021, playing 2022 as a pinch-hitter/firstbaseman, and now a pitcher in 2023. What's it gonna be, Foggy?

Well, there's some restraints on that. Firstly, they can't trade a guy in on the injured list. Secondly (unless I've missed a rule change, which is highly possible), they can't trade a guy in the first half season of a multi-year contract. Thirdly, and more practically, there's the shining likelihood that you need your redundancies as soon as you deal them off. They've already had their first and second catchers get hurt. He's here to be a mentor to Álvarez, and most evidence would suggest that he's better than Nido. I'm for keeping him around and getting to know him better.

Transactions, 5/28/2023 [th]Direction[/th][td90]GOING[/td90][th]Transaction [/th][td90]Signed away by Chunichi Dragons (NPB)[/td90][th]Position Group [/th][th]=#FF8000]Starting 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/650668/headshot/67/current[/fimg][/td90][th]Name [/th][td90]Humberto Mejia [fimg=30]https://metsrostercentral.files.wordpress.com/2019/07/panamanian-flag-small.jpg[/fimg][/td90][th]DoB[/th][td90]3/3/97[/td90][th]B/T[/th][td90]R/R[/td90][th]High Level[/th][td90]MLB (2021)[/td90] Humberto, the startingest pitcher for Syracuse this season, got cut loose on the 23rd, seemingly for his serial failures, but here he is becoming a magic dragon on the 25th. Maybe Chunichi had been sniffing around and this release was by request. ` Transactions, 5/28/2023 [th]Direction[/th][td90]=#008410]COMING[/td90][th]Transaction [/th][td90]Sent to St. Lucie on Rehab Assignment[/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/622694/headshot/67/current[/fimg][/td90][th]Name [/th][td90]Elieser Hernández [fimg=50]https://thecranepool.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/venezuelan-flag-small.jpg[/fimg][/td90][th]DoB[/th][td90]8/14/95[/td90][th]B/T[/th][td90]R/R[/td90][th]High Level[/th][td90]MLB (2022)[/td90] Perhaps we weren't thinking it through in that "Mets Pitching Sucks" thread when we claimed there were no saviors coming off the Injured List. Elieser has been both a reliever and a starter at the big league level, and maybe he's the guy. Probably not, but he's welcome to try. Transactions, 5/29/2023 [th]Direction[/th][td90]GOING[/td90][td90]=#008410]COMING[/td90][th]Transaction [/th][td90] Claimed off Waivers by SDP[/td90][td90]Transferred from Brooklyn to Syracuse on Rehab Assignment[/td90][th]Position Group [/th][th]=#00BF00] Catcher[/th][th]=#00BF00] Catcher[/th][th][/th][td90][fimg=90]https://img.mlbstatic.com/mlb-photos/image/upload/c_fill,g_auto/w_180/v1/people/596142/headshot/milb/current[/fimg][/td90][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/553882/headshot/67/current[/fimg][/td90][th]Name [/th][td90]Gary Sanchez [fimg=50]https://thecranepool.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Dominican_Republic.jpg[/fimg][/td90][td90]Omar Narváez [fimg=50]https://metsrostercentral.files.wordpress.com/2019/07/venezuelan-flag-small.jpg[/fimg][/td90][th]DoB[/th][td90]8/7/92[/td90][td90]2/10/92[/td90][th]B/T[/th][td90]L/R[/td90][td90]L/R[/td90][th]High Level[/th][td90]MLB (2023)[/td90][td90]MLB (2023)[/td90] San Diego's waiver claim takes care of half the catcher-glut issue the Mets were facing, along with saving the team about a million buckaroonies. The other half seemingly looms with the coming reactivation of Omar Narváez. Maybe the Mets go with three guys for a time. It wouldn't be ideal, but it wouldn't be unworkable.

The Braves go down in the ninth as Trevor May finishes it for the A's!

It's 7–2 now as Oakland still bats in the eighth. MLB.tv is only giving me a radio feed. Am I being blacked out or is nobody telecasting/cablecasting A's games any more?

I'm not sure how you see that, or what that claim has to do with righthanded José Butto getting hit hard in the minors.

Sounds like it's a time where the ancient courtesy runner rule might be invoked.

White Sox closer Liam Hendricks has been activated after spending the last half year battling cancer. Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, to be exact. Except his had progressed to Stage 4. So welcome the Hell back to Liam Hendricks.

Well, it's hard for a starter to not deserve his ERA. It's designed as reflection of his overall effectiveness, and it's built from the same stats that are in the boxscores.

Umpire enforcement. Hasn't tennis worked well that way? Nobody is timed and we aren't asked to watch seconds ticking away, but if a guy is trying to abuse people's patience and is stall, the guy in the chair has no qualms about saying "Get on the line and serve — if this keeps up, I'm docking you a point." The umps obviously been little good at controlling time abuses in the past, but that's not really what they've been trained for, and that's not what has gotten them in trouble if they've failed to do it. It's been an ancillary part of their job. But with much and perhaps all of their judgment calls to be taken away in the near future by technology, this could be the direction in which their role evolves — enforcing pace of play and enforcing sportsmanship. The results in time are undeniable. Congratulations to all involved for that. I just tend to ask myself whether what I'm seeing is a more fully realized version of baseball. Universal DH — a less fully realized version of baseball. Any DH — a less fully realized version of baseball. Free runner on second in extra innings — a ridiculously less fully realized version of baseball. Mandatory positioning of fielders in a zone — a less fully realized version of baseball disguised to look like a more fully realized version of baseball. Roster expansion — the impact is dulled by the universal application of the DH, but this is also a less fully realized version of baseball. Bigger bases — low-impact thus far, but tinkering for tinkering's sake is foolish and invites long-term outcomes that we cannot see. So that leaves the clock. Huzzah for the games being adjusted in length. But I think we have to acknowledge that (1) it's part of the infrastructure that has allowed the above changes (some of them quite perverse) to be Trojan-horsed in. And I think the unintended consequences are only beginning to be seen. These may or may not include (but in some cases seemingly already are including) shorter workdays for starting pitchers; disproportionate impact on older pitchers; adverse health and safety outcomes; a more and a more burned out pitching staff as we work through the hot months. Much of that is certainly speculative. The Mets pitchers are performing poorly under the regime and it is (and will be) way to easy to project that onto the new rules. But when I see a batter ready, and a pitcher ready, and a pitch is thrown, and the outcome of that pitch is discounted because there's been a violation called because the pitch came in 12.5 seconds instead of 12, and there's confusion over whether the violation was on the pitcher or the batter, and everybody feels like they were acting in good faith, but they don't know who to be mad at because they feel like the opposition was more-or-less acting in good faith too, I feel like I'm watching a less fully realized version of baseball. It feels like the equivalent of an automated system that mails you a ticket for going 17 in a 15-mph zone several days ago, that you can scarcely piece together enough of the context to dispute, but you really feel like you were honoring the law, because it's your neighborhood too, but you can't fight the fucking homeowner's association, but $75 is a lot of money. Is that camera really about safety or about that $$? But from your perspective, disputing the damned thing will cost more than $75, so you grit your teeth and take it, just as your neighbors all over the HOA's district are doing. And knowing how baseball is talked about in fora such as these, we know that players aren't just competing against each other, but competing against history, and that competition is dulled when drastic rule changes affect the nature of the game. It's a less fully realize version of the historical game of baseball. So yes, keep things moving. But I think umps can make batters get in the box, make pitchers get on the rubber, tell Derek Jeter to put his stupid hand down, and tell the pitcher to throw without a clock. When we turn governance over to the machines, we get the rules without the spirit that first animated them into existence, and they become rules for their own sake.

They all indeed are. At least, all the starters are.

Down 8–5 going into the bottom of the seventh tonight, Syracuse rallied for two in the seventh and one each in the eighth and ninth to walk off with a https://www.milb.com/gameday/bats-vs-mets/2023/05/28/722779#game_state=final,lock_state=final,game_tab=box,game=7227799–8 victory over Louisville.

I tend to think the (1) the numbers will come around, as attrition catches up with everybody else, and (2) it's a rough time to draw conclusions, coming out of Denver. That probably won't mean dramatic improvement, so much as perhaps enough regression toward the mean to give the offense more opportunity to win some games. This has already begun, I think. The tough part is that there is no ace in the hole — no game-changer expected to return from injury and be a force — and no impact pitchers expected to join the roster from the minors. (Syracuse's starting pitching has been much, much worse.) Hopes go to (1) Scherzer and Verlander being somewhat closer to their old selves than their recent selves, (2) Quintana joining the team and, if not necessarily becoming anybody's idea of a stopper, at least taking innings from lesser options, and maybe (3) getting at least one non-self-saboutaging figure from the Megill/Peterson/Lucchesi/Butto contingent. Some of that has to happen, right? The team is 4 1/2 games out of first in May, with an improving offense, so it doesn't all have to happen. One? Maybe one of those things can happen? I can work with one.

Nope. War of attrition falls on the wrong side.

And so it does.

Now that have Hand up, so if Vogey does get up, they have a countermove. This may come down to Escobar batting lefthanded.

A PHAMILY APHPHAIR!!

Vogelbach not batting for Pham. Perhaps saving him for the nine-hole if they get that far.