RealityChuck

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Oaawh, Curtis! You're something sort of Grand!He's even grander, son.

Haven't seen it yet, but definitely will, for the locations alone. I've seen several local spots in the trailers.

Felix Millan

At least we're not talking about the Melty Man. You never talk about the Melty Man. [youtube:2hoyleqa]bs1zz4zZhdM[/youtube:2hoyleqa]

That's not what he's saying. The Mets have at least five possible first basemen in house: Duda, Davis, Satin, Flores, and even Murphy in a pinch. There was no way to know how Abreu will do in the majors; his numbers look good, but there's no way of assessing the competition. He may be a star, or he may not be appreciably better than the ones they have in-house. If Abreu turns out to be mediocre in the majors, it just complicates things.

Ashie62 wrote: Buddy wasn't flashy, but he was solid. Buddy didn't hit much either, but he mostly played in an era when shortstops were expected to be defensive stalwarts and their offensive contributions were generally considered to be secondary. Rey, on the other had played in an ere when shortstops were expected to be more than just a glove. ARod, Jeter, Garciaparra, Larkin, and Ripken were contemporaries of Ordonez. Rey wasn't remotely in their class. Rey was a throwback player who was simply 2-3 decades too late. I'm thinking of Mark Belanger...Dal Maxvill...Ray Oyler? Managed to play over 500 games in the majors, with a line of .175/.258/.251. Regular shortstop of the 1968 Tigers world championship team; his line that year was an uneviable .135/.213./.186. The Tigers took their center fielder, Mickey Stanley, who had a grand total of 6 starts at short in his career (all coming after the Tigers had clinched) and made him their starting shortstop for the World Series.

Ordonez was probably a better fielder than Harrelson, but not by a while lot. Harrelson was the better hitter, which says a lot of how bad Ordonez was at the plate: Buddy was far below league average. But Harrelson beat up Pete Rose. That gives him the win.

Adam Rubin is pointing out that the Mets are facing a 40-man roster crunch. Eight players have to be moved from the 60-day disabled list soon: Ike Davis, Josh Edgin, Matt Harvey, Jeremy Hefner, Jenrry Mejia, Bobby Parnell, Scott Rice and Johan Santana. The team also has only eight free agents: David Aardsma, Tim Byrdak, Pedro Feliciano, Frank Francisco, Aaron Harang, LaTroy Hawkins, Daisuke Matsuzaka and Santana. In addition, the team has several players that they have to add to the 40-man roster or be lost in the Rule 5 draft: Jacob deGrom, Steven Matz, Darin Gorski, Jeff Walters and Cory Vaughn among others. Rubin lists Jordany Valdespin, Scott Atchison, Greg Burke, Robert Carson, Sean Henn, Zach Lutz, Mike Baxter, Andrew Brown and Kirk Nieuwenhuis as the ones most likely to go. So . . . who should stay and who should go? Who won't be on the 40-man roster by the time of the Rule 5 draft in December?

"My little flower arrangement."

When you're Jeurys Familia, you're family.

In a team with two Hall of Famers in the category, I think not. But Grote was a great catcher. Defensively, he was excellent, and the success of Mets pitchers in that era had much to do with his game calling (and Rube Walker's coaching). His hitting was adequate, but this was a time (like today) that a catcher hitting .250 was a major asset to a team. Obscure fact: Grote still holds the major league record for consecutive putouts by a catcher. Any serious Mets fan knows when he did it.

Any caption would be redundant.

So he's the anti-Don Drysdale? (Fourteen years in the majors, only one manager.)

It makes sense to bring him back, especially if you can get him cheaply. He's been pitching well enough to get a spring training look.

Not someone we want to claim as a fan. If you don't recognize him.

I remember Garrett turning into a superstar that September. Baseball Reference gives him a slash line of .323/.411/.604. The other big slugger that month was Rusty Staub. This was the first time Rusty had a chance at the postseason and I think he wanted to will the team into it.

Is it a remake?

This is not as laughable as most of these "predictions," but it's still very unlikely.

The truth, as usual, is somewhere in between. There is something to the argument that the more you pitch, the stronger your arm gets, and pitchers are facing fewer batters. It's interesting that last year's leader in batters faced, Justin Verlander, wouldn't have made the top ten in 1969. (Seaver didn't even make the top ten that year and he still faced more batters than Verlander last year). Of course, that was the era of four-man rotations, too. But most teams managed and I don't recall a lot of pitchers with abrupt ends to their careers. It was news when Koufax retired because it was so unusual (and Koufax's problem was arthritis, not any stress or muscle issue). Do we have any comparison about the number of arm injuries that would have required Tommy John surgery prior to 1971? I'm seeing 30% of pitchers have had it nowadays. Did 30% of pitchers blow out their arms in the old days? I don't remember it happening that often (obviously, prior to 1971, what TJ surgery can easily fix today would have ended a career). OTOH, pitching is different; you were expected to pace yourself as a pitcher and not throw every pitch as hard as you could. Now, you have to hit 90 on every fastball. and get a wicked break on every curve. That increases the strain. My feeling is that the caution and innings limits may have little effect on a pitcher's career. But there's no way to see, since if a team tried it, the second guessers would be all over them even if they were successful and, of course, the shitstrom would be intense if a player were injured.

Let Niese play right field when he's not on the mound!

Zvon wrote: That could have been messy. And Niese looked pissed that he was being held after he crossed the plate. He was intent on scoring. Hey, the way we score runs I don't blame him.Big mistake to run through the sign, but the Phillies catcher saw Niese was supposed to stop and gave up on the play. If he had realized Niese was coming, he would have tagged him out.

Is crow on the menu?

Is it 2007 all over again?

Mets � Willets Point wrote: Wow, the main character is a crop duster and there are no fart jokes. That must've taken some restraint.I thought fart jokes were required by law in any Hollywood comedy.

A function of the fact that the Mets have the best record for opening-day games in the history of baseball.