Edgy MD

I heard he was stabbed by a ghost fork.

Players get paid for the WBC also.

Perhaps more importantly, Starling Marte made his spring debut, going 2-for-2 with a double and a homerun.

It kind of began with me in the 2021-2022 offseason. I signed. I didn't know if I was going to be a part-timer or a fulltimer. I didn't know how committed the Mets were. Just about the same time, they signed a journeyman guy name Rob Zatsryzny and I was thinking "Is this guy gonna be my roommate?" And then ... BAM! They signed Starling Marte. POW!! They signed Eduardo Escobar! KABLAMMO!!! They signed Max Scherzer. KABOODLES!!! All of a sudden, the Mets was the place to be. That started with me, man. I MADE it fashionable. Or maybe it started with Rob Zatsryzny, if you're gonna nitpick. But I'm taking credit. I'm not a part-timer, but not quite a full-timer, and I guess like many folks, I'm at my best when used most judiciously. But I'm a total asset, and until we see what we're getting from Starling Marte, I'm an important one. How important is that going to seem at the end of the year? Only you can say. Also, Chris Bassit is gone, so you can stop telling me you can't tell us apart. The fuck with that shit. [FIMG=480]https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,w_1787,h_1005,x_0,y_181/c_fill,w_1440,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/GettyImages/mmsport/3/01ghnske6pynzxxc1b5h.jpg[/FIMG] [FIMG=270]https://static01.nyt.com/images/2022/05/18/multimedia/18mlb-canha-swing/18mlb-canha-swing-mobileMasterAt3x.jpg[/FIMG] [FIMG=375]https://www.amny.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/AP22233825617740-1200x800.jpg[/FIMG] [FIMG=375]https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/08/20220724_MetsPadres030CS.jpg[/FIMG]

I was certainly jazzed, even if the return of Kingman was the consolation prize for not signing Dave Winfield. I was even more jazzed for Mookie, Hubie, and Wally joining the lineup. Rusty hit well that year, but the team must have been really unhappy with his play at first, because by the second half, they had given up on Kingman as a corner outfielder and mostly moved him to first. That, combined with Mookie displacing Mazzilli in center and the acquisition of Keith Hernandez in 1983, all conspired to keep Rusty almost never starting for the last four and a half seasons of his career. It cost him a run at 3,000 hits and 300 homers, both of which seemed well within reach in the middle of 1981. It sure seems that, in retrospect, reacquiring Kingman, Staub, and Seaver was more about cancelling the team's goodwill debt with the fans to Frank Cashen, than adding potential contributors to the next championship run.

Along with Jesús Feliciano, one of only two Jesi in Mets' history. Co-starred with his nephew in the Metmas carol "Always in Some Danger." After a year in Mexico and a year out of baseball, came back at age 36 to hit .324 in his third tour of duty with Houston. Uncle also of future Mets reliever Mel Rojas and future Mets manager Luis Rojas.

Good for the Nats, realizing who and what they've got.

The Giants will also be sucking ex-Met mojo out of the season through the person of Thomas Szapucki. That, plus they'll be getting mind-boggling reverse-image identical twin action from Tyler and Taylor Rogers.

By the way, that Doug Sisk piece was good readin'.

If it seems like a while since the Mets have brought over a guy directly from NPB, it hasn't been. Because just this offseason, they brought in me. And that's where I'm from. I'm Kodai Senga and I'm a 30-year-old career-long Softbank Hawk with 104 wins, a 2.44 career ERA, two Diamond Gloves, and a pitch nobody over here has ever heard of. I've got a big wide smile, a big wide contract, a funky kick in my delivery, and five career hits. But exchange rates are volatile. What does that all add up to in the US? I ask you to get out your calculators, slide rules, and abaci and figure it all out for me. Because the 2.5 WAR that ZiPS predicts for me could mean anything. Who knows? You do. [FIMG=450]https://imageio.forbes.com/specials-images/imageserve/63a1317749b4b4d012f31995/0x0.jpg?format=jpg&width=1200[/FIMG] [FIMG=300]https://images.wsj.net/im-728613/?width=1278&size=1[/FIMG] [FIMG=407]https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Mets-news-New-York-wins-Kodai-Senga-sweepstakes-with-5-year-75-million-deal.jpg[/FIMG] [FIMG=343]https://static01.nyt.com/images/2023/01/12/multimedia/12mlb-senga-top-fchg/12mlb-senga-top-fchg-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale[/FIMG]

Who is that doing PbP? It sounds like a cross between Tanyon Sturze and an Aussie.

A season ending over a finger break leading to a "core muscle surgery" was something of a surprise. He's due to make his spring debut tomorrow. .280 / .337 /.453 // .790 — 17 homers and 63 RBI in 130 games.

A Ronny Mauricio infield single with two out in the seventh combined with five walks to provide all the offense the Mets were able to muster against seven allegedly Nicaraguan pitchers.

Nicaragua beating the Mets 2-0 in the bottom of the fifth. Did I say beating? I think what I meant is no-hitting.

I was as good as anybody on this team last year. I hit, I fielded, I ran, and I threw, and I looked damned handsome doing it — until I broke. But shit, I stayed broke and stayed broke, and when they activated me just at the end of the season, it looked like I was still broke. I underwent "core muscle surgery" over the offseason, and while I know nobody's supposed to be counting at this juncture of the season, we're 10 games into the exhibition schedule, and I haven't taken the field yet. This is why these threads are important. ZiPS says to expect 2.7 WAR from me, but it's hard to explicitly expect anything ... until we hear from you. [FIMG=343]https://cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/advancelocal/EDYBB7OBNRFNNLK6W6TXI62W4U.jpg[/FIMG] [FIMG=407]https://img.mlbstatic.com/mlb-images/image/private/ar_16:9,g_auto,q_auto:good,w_1024,c_fill,f_jpg/mlb/yeuadla5eatcosyrbsbx[/FIMG] [FIMG=352]https://www.amny.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/AP22229863841273-1200x906.jpg[/FIMG] [FIMG=398]https://res.cloudinary.com/graham-media-group/image/upload/f_auto/q_auto/c_scale,w_400/v1/media/gmg/XQXBKGDIRVFXVCCVB2NLHIWORY.jpg?_a=ATO2BAA0[/FIMG]

I feel pretty certain that his failure to appear was not due to bad advice, but rather foolishness and wishful thinking.

The Marte Model is likely an early artist's rendering and will come out summat different on the other end. The Marte Model is also Robert Ludlum at his very best.

That Max Scherzer-Inspired Two-Tone Sunglasses Giveaway might maybe be awkward. I imagine Marvel Studios are approaching professional sportsball teams across the spectrum promoting Insert-Player-of-African-Heritage-Here Black Panther Bobblehead Giveaway Night. [fimg=300]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FoYZYryXsAktpNz?format=jpg&name=medium[/fimg] [fimg=300]https://external-preview.redd.it/6RwtWNhFP1zSuyiCCRHmZZmXwTiAq-DLgfQhZbxYA4M.jpg?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=320e11b87e75950415f9c06cbcc105079cd95c75[/fimg] It would appear that drinking the solution infused with the heart-shaped herb not only gives you tremendous strength, endurance, and vulnerability, it also erases your ink. [fimg=450]https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/L9IAAOSwmKNhzkUs/s-l1600.jpg[/fimg] Those are the main two I've found, so at least the Mets are ahead of the MLB curve.

There are any number of guys drafted in the middle rounds out of high school, that are either passed on for whatever reason, or simply committed to the college route. They get drafted a few years later in a much higher round and are the bee's knees. The Mets similarly picked Mark McGwire out of high school a few years later. Teams tear themselves up trying to better tune that whatever reason logic. There's probably a stunning All Star Team you could make out of players drafted but not signed by the Mets. There really is no explanation whatsoever why a team can't: draft and sign the player and then wait for him while he goes to college with his big fat bonus; draft and sign the player and then wait for him while he goes to college with his big fat bonus and plays for the professional team in the summer; draft and sign the player and then wait for him while he goes to college while the bonus is deferred; draft and retain the rights to the player while he goes to college. The draft is bad enough as it is. The idea that the league and NCAA force players who have worked hard to bring a unique skill set to market to make a coin flip of a choice with their fate is wholly unethical.

The Mets got a lot of good performances from seemingly nowhere pitchers that year. Jeff Reardon and Juan Berenguer would turn the corner that year but flourish with other teams. The other side of the Gibson '81 story, though, is that 12th-round draft pick Roger Clemens was invited to join the team and show his stuff when they came through his hometown of Houston. Depending on which report you read, the Mets either lowballed Clemens or elected not to make an offer at all after a bad scouting report from Gibson. Maybe.

I like that delay in his motion. Send a Cuban guy to Japan and he starts turning Japanese.

If you thought it was crazy of ZiPS to predict 3.2 WAR for Brett Baty — a rookie who is not yet at the top of anybody's depth chart — how about them predicting 3.1 more for me? That's 6.3 wins out of two guys unlikely to even appear until after April. But that's how things roll. They move along slowly — frustratingly so — and then change happens quicker than lightning. And that's how I hit. Slow, slow, slow, KAPOWIE! I'm Francisco Álvarez, a Venezuelan catcher with the youth and prodigious strength of Bam-Bam Rubble. What's unknown is if I'll develop enough Pebbles Flintstone-like grace and elegance to stick behind the plate, and when I'll be a fixture in the Mets lineup. But what's absolutely known is that I'm going to hurt some baseballs. Good God, am I going to hurt some baseballs. So, there it is. The gap between the known and the unknown. Who better to fill in that gap than a bunch of know-it-alls on a stupid baseball forum? [FIMG=407]https://sportshub.cbsistatic.com/i/r/2022/10/05/c85fede5-42a6-4941-ac9d-385816f0626c/thumbnail/640x360/988616d19f679adf05f8e53cb60fa1a2/francisco-alvarez-mets-getty.jpg[/FIMG] [FIMG=343]https://static01.nyt.com/images/2022/09/30/multimedia/30mlb-alvarez-subtop-1-14b4/30mlb-alvarez-subtop-1-14b4-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale[/FIMG] [FIMG=343]https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/6w3yDp92r5hchwImgBOZOg--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTY0MDtoPTQyNw--/https://s.yimg.com/os/creatr-uploaded-images/2022-09/edb40200-4072-11ed-9ea7-38fcd1cfbd48[/FIMG] [FIMG=407]https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,w_5766,h_3243,x_0,y_689/c_fill,w_1440,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/GettyImages/mmsport/3/01g08cbrfkwtakb96e49.jpg[/FIMG]

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: My stat line was authored by David Wright's freshman year. He was a mid-season callup and maybe Baty is too I thought I recognized those digits.

Well, the way things are rolling, he might end up initially stealing appearances from the DH and left field contingents, directly or indirectly.

This park probably already has set a record for the most times moving in the fences.