metsmarathon

"I'm as surprised as you are."

Stop breaking my shortstops!

fuck you you fucking fuck.

Lefty Specialist wrote: Benjamin Grimm wrote: The Mets might win the National League pennant some time in the next 36 hours. I can't even visualize this. The last time it happened, we were at Shea when Mike Hampton beat the Cards in 2000. My son was 5 and singing along to 'Who Let the Dogs Out?'. minimm is 5, and hte damned games all start at his bedtime. grumble grumble.

d'Kong76 wrote: I'd like that, but see no reason why he would do it. i think that murphy gets a substantially lesser deal with a compensation pick attached to him than he would otherwise, and that's why he might accept the QO.

"Boom motherfuckin..." Uh... Live mike, guys...

Lefty Specialist wrote: Mets have a decided pitching advantage, except when Arietta pitches. Cubs have a decided hitting advantage. Cubs have speed, Mets don't. But the Mets better be running on Lester, who can't or won't throw to first. as a team, the cubs have hit 172 home runs this season. the mets? 177. in the second half of the season, the cubs have hit 94 home runs. the mets? 102. the cubs walk more than the mets do (9.5% to 8.7% in the 2nd half) but strike out a LOT more (24.9% to 20.9% in the second half). and this plays perfectly into the mets' pitching strength of massive strikeouts and minimal walks. in the second half, while both teams were basically at their fullest strength and most representative of their playoff selves, the mets had a higher batting average, and a higher isoP. but, yeah, the cubs are a faster team, with 95 stolen bases on the season compared to the mets' meager 54. (38:18 in the 2nd half) but wait... lets look at pitching... the cubs team ERA is better than the mets. (3.36:3.45 for the full season; 3.42:3.72 in the second half; 3.29:3.46 for starters in the 2nd half; 3.64:4.20 for relievers in the 2nd half). the cubs have a higher k/9 than the mets, as a team, and give up fewer home runs. the mets' sole advantage is in bb/9. ranking by ERA, the cubs have the best starter, but the next 4 belong to the mets. pitcherERAFIP arrieta 1.772.35=#0000FF] matz 2.273.61=#0000FF] degrom 2.542.7=#0000FF] harvey 2.713.05=#0000FF] syndergaard 3.243.25 lester 3.342.92 hendricks 3.953.36 hammel 3.743.68 the problem is, is we use FIP, we don't see nearly as rosy a picture, as the mets' young guns' ERAs have largely outperformed their FIPs, while their FIPs are considered to be more indicative of their true pitching performance. pitcherERAFIP arrieta 1.772.35=#0000FF] degrom 2.542.7 lester 3.342.92=#0000FF] harvey 2.713.05=#0000FF] syndergaard 3.243.25 hendricks 3.953.36=#0000FF] matz 2.273.61 hammel 3.743.68 defensively (i don't feel like spouting the data here, sorry), the cubs have a better infield defense (though how much of htat is lost by replacing russel with baez?) while the mets have a better outfield defense. neither the mets nor the cubs hit a lot of ground balls, so the edge may actually go to the mets here! mind you, none of this, not even a little, is what i would have expected based on my knowledge of either team, before i dove into the numbers. how it all adds up? uh... i dunno. it promises to be a fun, interesting, excruciating, and evenly matched series. lets fucking go, mets!

I'm so excited! I'm so excited! I'm so... Scared...

Fast food joints need better dictionaries

in the 90's, taking steroids was also a good solid baseball play.

Utley was just suspended 2 games for his illegal slide. Which will probably ensure that utley'sconcussion lifespan exceeds 2 more days. Say, if the slide was illegal... How the ever living fuck was he safe!?

I'm hoping utley'sconcussion keeps him out of the Dodgers two remaining playoff games. Not that I wish a concussion on him. Just that, yeah, the dude got hisself a concussion there.

Boooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!

Dirty slide. He didn't slide until he passed the bag. There was no intent of getting to the bag safely. It may be a throwback slide but it's a throwback to s dirtier uglier time. Fuck utley. Fuck him with a pitful of sharpened dicks. Tejada should've come across the front of the bag instead of pirouetting around the back.

Blue jays. Because fuck the yankees

holy crapola, it's a barn-burner! heading into the final, rain-soaked weekend, scant fractions of points separate the albatrosses from the chickens! a meager handful of runs scoreed, times on base, strikeouts or runs allowed will be the difference between victory and hollow defeat for one of us! every single at bat, every last pitch counts!

he should be pitching 100% every night, or he's going to fuck up his mechanics, and also his results. when it comes time for the playoffs, i want him to continue pitching 100%, and not 105% or 110% or some other bullshit nonsense, or he's going to fuck up his mechanics, and also his results. but let's talk. 150 pitches in a game. bad, right? why? fatigue, right? the more fatigued you are, the more your mechanics are going to break down, and the more you're putting yourself at risk of injury. ok. fine. let's only throw 120 pitches, but lets do it every 5 nights. at the start of things, maybe fatigue doesn't set in. but after doing it 20 or 30 times, every fifth night, you would think that fatigue would set in earlier and earlier. or maybe not at all if you're superhuman. at some point, the fatigue comes in too soon, mechanics break down too early, and an injury is caused or contributed to. 2 years ago, he pitched 167 innings. then he took a year off after having his arm cut open. is it not reasonable to think that, if you were doing chest presses for 6 months at 100 pounds, then stopped for a year and a half, and started again, after 6 months, you would be fatigued? yes, his surgury was over 2 years ago. and reinjury during rehab is a major concern. i would argue that his first season back is still part of the recovery process. (it has been for all of my injuries in my own meager athletic career, but, fine, i was never surgically repaired.) his elbow was surgically repaired. i haven't checked the data, but i'm going to guess that pitchers who have had one TJS are more likely than the rest of the baseball population to have a second TJS. might be adviseable to mitigate that risk as best as possible. no, you're right, he won't be a $25M player if he never hits 200 IP in a season. but the 180 inning limit is a discussion for this season only, his first season back from TJS. throwing 180 innings this season will not hurt his future earnings if he pitches 200 innings in future seasons. but he's not stopping at 180, anyway. he'll nudge past it in his next start, and add onto it in the postseason. and i don't know about trainers and chest presses, but i do know that if you're planning to run a marathon, it's adviseable to taper beforehand. perhaps this is matt harvey's taper. (insert poop joke here)

Ceetar wrote: in the sense that pitching is harmful to arms, yes. But should Tom Brady just retire? Football is dangerous you know. Window Washers shouldn't wash above the second floor. Delivery guys shouldn't deliver past midnight. Matt Harvey isn't in any more danger of hurting himself by pitching here than he was pitching 3 years ago or 3 years from now or next Spring. This is what he's being paid to do. This is his job. pitching is harmful to his arm, moreso as innings and pitches mount, and even moreso as he just had a major ligament replacement surgery last year. blowing out an elbow is not a random occurrence that can happen at any time, to any person making a throwing motion, be it gently or swiftly, repeatedly or singly. it happens for a reason, with causes and contributing factors. as far as medical knowledge about it stands, increasing innings may appears to increase risk, and the current understanding is that that increase is not exactly linear. or maybe it is. but at around 180 innings or so, there appears a tipping point, where the risk of additional damage increases tremendously. a knee in the curve, i would expect. the risk level is not flat, it is not smooth. it increases sharply as innings increase towards and above 180 innings. (if the risk level were flat, there would be the same amount of risk on pitch 1 as in inning 180. since innings limits are a thing, it must not be). is hte knee in the curve at 180? who knows for certain. it depends on the individual, and the individual's circumstances, and may not be fully known. and, as with all probability thingies, if nothing happens, it doesn;t mean there was no risk. and if something does happen, it doesn't mean the risk was 100%. window washers don't wash above the second floor without additional precautions. and as their height increases, so do those precautions, as well as their risk level. i don't think i could get a damned thing delivered where i am after midnight, because everything is closed. 3 years ago, matt harvey was a year away from blowing out his arm. this is his job, true. but it's also his career. if he blows out his arm again, his career may well be over. he is guaranteed exactly zero dollars of income after this season is over. if he stays healthy, he may see close to 200 million fucking dollars, or possibly way more, come his way. that's 200 times what he has already made in his career. TWO HUNDRED TIMES! he's making $600k this year, and faces a potential payday of $25M/year! a 40x increase in salary!!! have you ever had to balance your job against your career? if "doing your job" could cost you a chance at fulfilling your career goals, to the extent of a 200x increase in lifetime pay, or a 40x increase in yearly salary... would the decision be so clear, so easy? fuck this primadonna shit. it's utter nonsense. tom seaver never had to make that decision, nor weigh those odds.

fuckity fuck

this whole innings limit kerfuffle with harvey is terrible and awful and trivial and meaningless. at worst, to this point, the worst thing that harvey has done is be bad - like comically bad - at PR. he's like lebron, or maybe at worst arod without all the pesky ped stuff. seriously. his worst sin is that he sucks at talking about and drawing attention to himself. we knew going into the season there was an innings limit. are we surprised that it's come up now that it's the end of the season? is he shutting down? no. is he now being managed? yes. is it really a surprise? no. look, i think they should've been more proactive earlier in the season and skipped a start here and there all along the way. but then, when you're fighting for first place, you want to have all your guns available for the ablazin' so you kick the can down the road. well, now htat we're at the end of the road, the can's been kicked as far as it can. and now, somehting needs to be done. if there is such a thing as an innings limit, be it hard or soft, then it's gotta be there no matter how hte team is doing, right? now, i think it's a soft innings cap, and that on inning 181 his army isn't likely to go flying off, but also that every inning beyond that increases the likelihood of further damage. how much more, i cannot say, and neither can anybody else, i'll wager. so it's smart to manage it. but really, when it all comes down to it, i'm convinced that this is all, all because of little stevie strasburg, and is a controversy manufactured by and of and for scott boras. boras was hte one to open his damn mouth, not harvey. boras set this into motion, at the clear detriment to his player. but also to protect his relationship with another player. because how can boras not fight to shut down harvey after he fought to shut down strasburg, and in effect forfeited strasburgs' chance of winning the world series? boras has to fight to shut down harvey or else tacitly admit to fucking over strasburg. harvey may not have handled it right in response, (and may have been blindsided to an extent) nor did hte mets, but this one lay squarely at the feet of boras.

so, due to a general lack of interest overall, i'm pulling hte plug on my nascent idea to run an ottoneu football league. sorry...

he named hte kid shea because he loved playing at shea stadium and enjoyed great succes there, hence his love for hte facility. and presumably the energy that mets fans filled it with, but who knows. i think it's mostly for his successes there. but he didn't name his kid shea to torment mets fans. if he did, the kid would've been named 'armando benitez'.

ok, so ottoneu football is officially live. you guys still up for it? my friend muddy chickens is in, too, so we only need, like, 10 more teams! the basics of it are here: http://ottoneu.fangraphs.com/football/help/ ottoneu Fantasy Football is a multi-season auction-based dynasty fantasy football game with college players available as prospects. it's a weekly head-to-head league with 3 divisions of 4 teams each. $400 cap space, 20 roster slots. the positional breakdown is on the website under >rules< let me know if you're in!

If your teams are so terrible, you should maybe be a little more active on auctions, or looking for cheap players to hang onto. None of y'all were in on schwarber! Now, fine, he went for a ton of cash, but that none of you even bid a few dollars...? Or moreland... He went for a buck! You weren't going to outbid smg, but you could've driven up his cost. Don't wait until the offseason to start your rebuild! There's still promising players out there, and if you get them cheaply enough, you can hang onto them for next year. They may not be foundational players, but they could help solidify your roster.

if the mets can't afford to spend more money on payroll than they currently are... a) the cespedes trade is still better than the gomez non-trade, both this year and next sandy's grand plan is finally making hte most of what little resources are available c) the wilpons are to blame for the situation, as it was their investments in madoff that laid the cumbling foundation for it all d) the mets are a worse team than they likely would be if they had more money available to spend on payroll, because having more money to spend doesn't mean having to spend it poorly. i mean, do you think the mets would be a better team if they spent even LESS on payroll?