Edgy MD

It's really a shame that this is even coming up. The Braves put together this great lineup and won a championship despite Ronald Acuña, Travis d'Arnaud, and Marcell Azuna missing most of the season/post-season.

Downside of Freddy Freeman is Don Mattingly from 1990 onward. Downside of Pete Alonso is Chris Davis from 2016 onward. That's mostly educated guesswork, but I tend to think that the Mets of recent vintage have tended to look at decisions from the perspective of where they will be if things break bad like that, but that may be less so under Cohen.

Wait a minute ... when did Josh Lewin re-enter the fold?

MacKenzie giving up the "gamer" to Frank Howard. http://leaptoad.com/mets/scorecard_graph.php?game=200&font=1>

"I feel shitty." Now that we've got HoJo back in circulation, let's get him edited into Once Upon a Time in Queens.

Maybe not, but a reporter can certainly get access to the players other ways. I've seen enough of Marcus that it isn't hard to imagine a little of his personality going a long way.

Is the owners' endgame really about expanded playoffs? That would be awful silly. You're allowing teams to tank away a season without consequence, and instead of trying to fix that, you're trying to create a second, more profitable season after the season is done?

Jerry Koosman got four votes in his one year on the Hall of Fame ballot. But there were https://www.baseball-reference.com/awards/hof_1991.shtml45 dudes on the ballot that year, as opposed to 30 this year, despite baseball having expanded by four teams in the interim. I think that by pre-eliminating a lot of guys on the back end of the ballot, they think they're doing a service by not forcing the voter to consider the legacies of a bunch of Joe Sambitos and Scott Servaises, but I think the smaller ballot, where virtually everybody has a pretty decent case, inadvertently encourages the voter to be more miserly with his or her votes. If so, that's bad news for the big Hall advocates.

And the Dodgers were the Robins or the Superbas or somesuch.

We were shocked to find these players from brand new teams we'd never heard of in our packs. We'd never heard the term "Mariner," and read the word as "Ma-REEN-er."

The Mets do it a lot. The notion is that, now that anything over five innings from a starting pitcher is a bonus, bigger bullpens are needed, and yo-yoing creates more available fresh arms. I mostly reject that notion as (1) a pitcher who gets sent down for a few days and comes back has the appearance of freshness, because you haven't seen him in a game, but (a) that doesn't mean he hasn't been used in AAA in the interim, and ( he's got the additional wear and tear from the round trip; and ( pitchers called to the big leagues need to make adjustments in order to get outs consistently, and they never get to do that if they get sent down after one or two outings. So, yeah, I agree that there is some degree of service-time manipulation in the yo-yo game.

I'm not sure how much blame I'm willing to give to Billy Eppler for Skaggs' death. I'm not even sure how much blame I'm willing to give Eric Kay. While it's clear that the Angels failed Tyler Skaggs at some level, the Mets have failed any number of their own players in the same manner, as so many institutions of society continue to fail the drug abusers in their ranks every day. My best friend from childhood has seen his life spiral in the last several years — losing a solid career in publishing following several bouts with heroin abuse and a torrid affair with the co-worker who introduced it to him. The employer gave him two leaves of absence to get himself detoxed and rehabbed, but on the third strike they let him go. Were they remiss in not cutting him loose earlier, exposing other workers to his toxic bullshit, or were they cruel and uncompassionate when they finally cut bait? It sounded to me like they did their best, but if he died in their employ, could his family sue the company because a co-worker was his partner in debauchery? Indeed, she introduced him to it. I can guess at what my responsibility is when I'm confronted by that sort of shit, but there are no easy answers. And most folks are just looking to pass the buck.

Went back to the 1977 debut year with the Mariners. Did he have a 1977 card? I feel like his was the first Mariner face I ever saw.

Did Billy Eppler publicly do something controversial recently?

One kind of weird thing is that MLB is proposing to cap the number of minor leaguers per system. This puts the MLBPA in the odd position of negotiating on behalf of non-member minor leaguers while trying to secure the best deal for their members. While the union has historically seen the interest of minor leaguers as unaligned with or competitive with those of major league members, many in the union certainly realize they might have future opportunities as veterans in AAA curtailed under such a cap. If, somehow, this could lead to minor leaguers organizing or the MLBPA beginning to work for their minor league counterparts, it could be a long summer, but also one of the more productive work stoppages in living memory.

Nothing against Mike Scioscia, but even back then I wasn't under the impression that he was their first choice. That he was undone by his conscientious work ethic was kind of perfect for such a borderline All Star.

Pretty funny that the show portrayed Ken Griffey as something analogous to a juicer, when he outclassed his generation of Hall of Famers by (apparently) not juicing and fading away in the second half of his career like a man is supposed to.

I want to be the Capital Sports Events guy who called into HQ all excited, yelling, "We got Bill Wambsganss!!"

I want a screen cap of that Activision game.

Wonderful work, Benjamin. And deep gratitude to all the municipalities on Long Island for doing such a great hosting job. We were really fortunate to get such terrific weather. I'm a little concerned about the dead starting to outnumber the living at our unveiling ceremonies. Greta Thurnburg's last-minute cancellation was a disappointment, but The Ghost of Dino was a real good sport and the perfect substitute.

Controlling player salaries through their minor league careers and through the first five-six years of their major league careers is, for most players, controlling them into perpetuity. And with the actions to remove the middle class at the major league level, the league has found a way to collectively box out a large share of players who survive into six years of service time.

Player contracts only exist under an agreed-upon CBA. Without a CBA, the contracts aren't active. Deferred payments and bonuses have been received during the last two months and they will continue to be, but base salaries only happen during the season, and under a current CBA, so those will not happen should this proceed.

=JohnFromAlbany post_id=86038 time=1645309008 user_id=123] Thanks for news on Andres Regnault. He played 3 games in the Venezuelan league this winter. 5 at bats - 1 hit, 1 walk, 2 RBIs - .200/.333/.200

BIG signing.

Desi Brogna Relaford reflects on his career, his time with the Mets, and Mike Piazza's September 21, 2001 homerun. https://ballnine.com/2021/09/10/replay-desi-relaford/https://ballnine.com/2021/09/10/replay-desi-relaford/