Edgy MD

Mets sign career-spiraling .200-hitting slugger to show their other hitters what not to become.

Looks like we'll be seeing a lot more of José Butto.

"Explosive!" — Publisher's Weekly

I would take the under too, probably, depending on where ZiPS sets that line. Also, Bible thumping teetotalers can make bad decisions for their careers too. Orel Hershiser uncomplainingly let Tommy Lasorda run up massive innings totals on his arm from 1985 to 1989, after Lasorda similarly ran Fernando Valenzuela into the ground the first half of the decade. Also, there is probably a non-zero case for Hall-of-Fame Jerry. Baseball-Ref has him with more pitching WAR than Whitey Ford or Waite Hoyt. The lack of run support he got was pretty brutal. Also, probably nobody with 200 wins should be considered completely out of the conversation. OE: I shouldn't use the word "also" so much.

Frayed Knot wrote: Edgy MD wrote: And as I suggested above, it's easier to get starters deeper into games if you work with a more flexible philosophy of using the hook. It would be easier still if the starters would stop insisting on leading the planet in BBs allowed, HRs allowed, and big honking early defecits created. Sure it would, but I don't think having an eighth or ninth reliever on the roster is actually dampening these things. I just had to answer how I would get Vientos on the roster if I had to immediately. But again, I find that openings tend to present themselves. I don't think it's copping out, but how things happen. Or the Mets may make a trade tonight that clears up a spot by tomorrow.

Well, no career is a fait accompli until it plays itself out. By "see it happening," I mean to suggest that it was certainly a distinct possibility to anybody paying attention, and to many it seemed even probable, while the article suggests the near-HoF ZiPS projection of him ending his career with 43.4 WAR was something like a most-reasonable forecast. Nothing is guaranteed, but if I had to bet on that 43.4 number, I would have jumped to take the under, even if forced to place the bet on the day of the All-Star Game. I don't mean to be cynical, but it's just such a risk-intensive ride in general, and he was a guy who was happy to court risk ever more deeply.

Ironically, though, he was a hero this weekend. It would have been a good time for him to ask for his release, if he didn't have a record to worry about.

Michael Baumann at Deadspin offers a https://blogs.fangraphs.com/in-celebration-sort-of-of-matt-harvey/reflective retrospective of Harvey's career. I'm not quite sure what he's getting at. His argument seems to be that: (1) the emergence of social media and highly technical pitching analytics, along with the Mets' unique place in baseball history, specifically at that juncture, made him a very new and unique kind of star at the time. (2) history may remember him for that or it may not. To the first I say "... -ish, I guess, kinda, if you squint" and to the second I say, "way to hedge your bets." Harvey's rise and fall, to me, wasn't a new and unique kind of trajectory. It's worth observing that the way we use pitchers today, on the face of it, bends over backwards to protect them, while nonetheless chewing them up and spitting them out with regularity. But anybody who didn't see Matt Harvey flaming out young wasn't looking. Tim Lincecum, Madison Bumgarner, and José Fernández were just as electric as young pitchers as Harvey was — the former two emerging a few years earlier, and the last about the same time — and none of them are likely to get any Hall of Fame support either.

I think it's important that we not distort the problem. I think the only start that fits that description this season was the emergency start by Denyi Reyes*, which was very much a failed effort, but was probably going to be aborted early under any circumstances. And as I suggested above, it's easier to get starters deeper into games if you work with a more flexible philosophy of using the hook. 　　* On edit: In the game in which Scherzer was ejected, he came out after three scoreless innings as well, so that qualifies, too.

Senga75 is my new screen name.

I agree that he's the odd man out. Pham has really marginalized him. (I'm not sure that I'm a phan of that, but alas.) I don't think he's a good candidate to finish the season with the team, but what happens over the next week is a greater degree of guesswork. Part of my problem with the DH* is that bench players have fewer opportunities to make themselves indispensable in a role, and largely exist to sit around waiting for somebody to get hurt or slump his way out of the lineup, which is a crappy and demoralizing reason to exist. * One of the larger facets of my large and polyfacetic problem.

I think apart from the randomness of distribution of outcomes, history suggests he does have the power. The rest of your observances suggest that he's a specialist, and that's very much true, and specialists historically have very little margin for error. There's little room for a placekicker who isn't nailing his extra points. But the game is being engineered in several ways to create more indulgences for specialists, and many of them are prospering for their teams. I'm not certain I can summon up any game lost because of the lack a broader skillset from him. It's certainly plausible that pinch-running for him meant they were left without a pinch-hitter later in a game when they otherwise could have used one, but I can't think of when. Yacabonis' failure loomed largest yesterday certainly. I hope we can all agree there. Beyond that, I disagree that cabs jumping curbs (a reference to non-baseball injuries) are a product or a byproduct of the absence of an eighth reliever on the roster.

There's no game tomorrow, so no. My move is generally to let the opportunity reveal itself. It always does. The next time a cab jumps a curb, it's better to have a guy who is overdue to come up than it is to have a guy who isn't ready. One shouldn't be looking to force the issue. I'm certainly of the opinion that 100 pitches is a false limit that isn't saving arms or winning games, and 13 or 14 pitchers on a staff is a silly choice that just guarantees more innings for lesser performers, so if I really had to get Vientos up for the next series, I'd demote a pitcher. I don't think any of the relievers have options, so it would probably have to be Megill or Lucchesi, and as Joey just pitched, he would be first up. The other option is to try to pass a reliever through waivers, and after today's show, Yacabonis would be the best candidate to squeak through. So there you go. DFA Jimmy. I don't think that's a big help, but there's a big old gun to my head so I had to make a move. Forgive me, Jimmy!

The Cards have seemed to make the right move in the free agency game every time. They had to roll snake eyes eventually.

=Gwreck post_id=124679 time=1683505878 user_id=56] =bmfc1 post_id=124629 time=1683482830 user_id=73] Waive Vogelbach right now. Stupid POS. Meanwhile, Vientos hit his 10th HR today.

For context, "Big Shot Number One" is "Jimmy" and given that they are at Toot's Shor, it's 1961, his physique, and he's talking about the Mets, it's Jimmy Breslin. https://postimg.cc/hXDhd4bW https://postimg.cc/sv9vxGW4 Good call.

Well, it comes with a nice, juicy "maybe" in the middle, so sure.

Big Shot Guy Number One at Toots Shores, December 1961: The Pirates are gonna repeat. It's not what I want, but it's what's gonna happen. Big Shot Guy Number Two: No, it's gonna be the Yanks. Big Shot Number One: Without Stengel? Big Shot Number Two: Good riddance to Stengel. Don't quote me on that. Big Shot Number One: Word is, he's talking to the Mets. Big Shot Number Two: The Mets? What's a Met? 　　— The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Season 5, Episode 3: "Typos and Torsos"

"Usually, the Mets do really well at the start of the season, and then crash and burn, so maybe they're getting all of their crashing and burning out of the way, so they'll do really well later in the season, which is when it really counts." 　　— Ms. Edgy, 5/7/2023

Guillorme turned around the wrong way on the flare. If only his feet were as nimble as his hands.

Hand has a balky kink in his delivery, where he removes the ball from his glove and then taps it back in there briefly.

Not so fast with cutting Vogelbach loose.

Canha and Guillorme — two guys that hadn't really contributed much yet.

Well, this inning has included everything. Everything bad, anyhow.

Yousa in big doo-doo dis time, Jar-Jar!