metsmarathon

Good golly. What a way to not win.

Toronto and Seattle are all up in my DMs, ever since I visited with each of them on successive summer vacations. I'm taking my lady blue jay to the dance but keeping miss mariner on speed dial in case she bails.

=MFS62 post_id=134882 time=1692035720 user_id=60] (I can't find it but) I read a story a few weeks ago about how the new MLB shift rule has hurt McNeil more than any other batter. There were lots of scatter diagrams and stats to back that up. If we see he hasn't made adjustments by the end of the year, I don't think his current production warrants re-signing him. Later

i'm willing to surmise that sal licata is either an idiot, or just a man who is willing to say idiotic things to get ratings. possibly both at the same time. this is nonsensery at the highest level. the evidence presented is, 'the mets did bad. pete is still here. he must be the problem.' if the biggest piece of rationalization presented is that the mets supposedly were willing to listen to offers on pete, well, fuck, you don't think that if they really felt he was the problem and therefore wanted to move him, they couldn't have gotten a decent package in return!? jesus hairy christ. now look, if you wanted to tell me that pete was part of the problem in the rudderless rojas era, ok, sure. i don't see him as bristling against buck, or not putting in work. hell, he was on fire at the start of the season, when we sucked, then he got hit on the fucking wrist and sucked himself for a bit, and is on fire now, while we suck again. he looks like he's trying to help his team out there each night that i catch a game, and seems very well liked in the dugout by players and managers alike. if there's friction afoot, it's very well hidden - that's for damned sure. wait, is the problem that he's too well-liked in the dugout?!

Shoulda traded raley, too…

i was somewhat unimpressed when they signed him, and in fact told by a random phillies phan that i would come to hate him. i suppose he might be right if he ends up helping the marlins to win dramatic playoff games against us this year, but otherwise, i was really impressed by him. the one pitcher out of all of 'em that i had to worry the least about.

i've conceded that i'm usually terrible at immaculate grid. instead, i've taken to using it as a rabbit hole to dive into, to find the guy who can fill the most squares all by his lonesome. today, that guy is https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/santovi01.shtmlvictor santos who, despite contributing -0.8 WAR over 7 big league seasons, pitched for 7 teams over those 7 years, including, notably, the pirates, reds, tigers, rockies, and rangers, allowing him to be the correct answer for a whopping 6 squares! impressive! sadly, he stayed well below the 200k threshold at each of his many stays. there were a few players who filled 4 squares each, including darnell coles, todd van poppel, denys reyes, and kip wells. none of these interesting players threw 200 strikeouts for their teams, either. nobody was able to fill 4 squares by snagging teamwise combinations and a 200k season (or two) either. at least, not that i could find.

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/miami-marlins-top-29-prospects-2023/fangraphs has vargas as the marlins #9 prospect, and hernandez at 24, at least as of the end of may. vargas is a young infielder with a 60 future hit tool, and hernandez a catcher with a 55 hit tool. bottom line on vargas per their prospect report is "Because a special hit tool is the most important thing a prospect can have, Vargas is (by a wide margin) the teenage hitter in this org most likely to become a big league regular down the line." and for hernandez, "He's a solid long-term prospect at a premium position." not bad, i suppose. maybe something to dream on. i might've rather gotten a pair of pitchers back, but i ain't too unhappy with this. i don't think the going rate on a david robertson was a top-five, ready-for-the-show prospect.

happy immaculation! dotel 2% | soler 51% | brett 16% clippard 0.8% | luzardo 21% | rickey 10% hampton 1% | piazza 14% | wright 14% i was kicking myself for not picking piazza as my marletic, but came up with luzardo eventually. was just kinda hoping on clippard and happily got it right. i like that dotel is the right answer anywhere in the first column, and is probably the right answer somewhere on most grids.

rolen is absolutely deserving of being in the hall. he's a top-10 third baseman. mcgriff is a little light on credentials, but he's kindof the anti-steroid pick. also, the best part about him being in the hall is that it makes the absence of mex and olerud more apparent.

Ugh. I'm really so glad that the Mets games are being offered on free over the air tv. Unfortunately I get my tv from Directv. And Directv and wpix are having a spat. So no fucking baseball for me. Boo.

mcneil needs to watch some luis arraez and just put the fucking ball in play instead of trying to aim for smaller holes that aren't there.

Immaculate Grid 107 9/9: Rarity: 229 IMMACULATE! 🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩 Sweet immaculation! yankies: mariano duncan 0.6% yankwers: luke voit 21% yanker yugger: don mattingly 6% marinies: jay bruce 2% marinwers: daniel vogelbach 8% mariner mugger: ken griffey jr 43% marlies: jt realmuto 40% marlwers: christian yelich 60% marler mugger: giancarlo stanton 48%

best showing in a while, i only whiffed on the astronat. apparently, washington is like the only team that octavio dotel didn't pitch for... tex/hou: nolan ryan 58% was/hou: NOT octavio dotel 200k hou mike scott 6% tex/lad: adrian beltre 18% was/lad: max scherzer 23% 200k lad kershaw 58% tex gg: ivan rodriguez 27% was gg: ryan zimmerman 70% 200k gg: greg maddux 60%

hmm. i usually only allow myself one guess per square. that way i get to spread my misses all over the grid instead of concentrating them in one spot.

i'd love to see a tracer follow the ball on each hit. and then keep that tracer up for the entire at bat. show me where he's been hitting 'em! and you can show me some cool notable hits from the competition, too. we have the technology, and screens are big enough to show it all. DO IT!

this year really was an argument for implementing a pitching machine into the home run derby. the variability in pitcher quality is enormous, and you could basically guess the winner each round just by watching the pitches thrown. j-rod beat pete by having a guy throwing on automatic, delivering nice flat fat pitches with an outstanding tempo directly into his wheelhouse. pete's pitches were delivered at a halting inconsistent pace, and all over the plate. not as bad as mookie betts' pitcher - sheesh, talk about being set up to fail! was he even briefed on there being a time limit?? - but after him, pete had the worst thrower in the first round, by far.

I think maybe I know why the Mets offense might be struggling, if he's the bp pitcher.

he has a cool name that totally sounds made up. that's probably all i got.

Immaculate Grid 94 7/9: ⬜️🟩⬜️ 🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩 what the hell even is a devil ray!? so many good metly connections that i whiffed on, it's pretty amazing that i managed to get 7 correct given my awfulness. granted, i shot myself in the dick by picking david price as my LAD/TBR instead of as the TBR/200k. shane mcclanahan, my guess, topped out at 194. damnit. and then i couldn't for the life of me pull out the name of any astroray. maybe i need to shuffle through some old baseball cards before playing this stupid game lol.

Well shit. I'm glad I stayed up for this. What a gosh-dang win!

What in the world… canna triple to go ahead. Who are these guys?!

i couldn't draw the name omar vizquel from my memory hole, and then, fresh out of confidence and full of frustration, whiffed on the cub/o and the cub/m. any time i need to feel bad about myself, i play immaculate grid. alou (5%), baerga (3%), and mcsquirrel (25%) were my mets. at least i fucking got those ones right.

Oh. Then how is Greg Maddux the 80% answer for 300/gg and also 40% the right answer for braves 300? Oh. Wait. I'm dumb. That's of the correct answers for each square, independently. So the people guessing Maddux in one may not be getting the right answer in the other. That's what I thought at first, but the stats led me astray. Must. Drink. More. Coffee.

I guess you can use one player multiple times?