seawolf17

Wow, that's remarkably candid from a player.

His brother Solly is a pastor in LA: http://www.thegreaterebenezer.com/ From what I've heard, Sammy occasionally teaches/preaches there as well. (Or perhaps taught/praught there, if what you're saying is true.) That site doesn't say anything about it.

I don't recall the Mets ever asking Delgado to think about being an emergency catcher. I have to assume he hasn't caught since the early 90's.

As I've been working on my Mets auto collection -- up to 534 cards as of now -- I've had some interesting exchanges with guys. Got a nice note from Rod Gaspar asking me to send more copies of the card I sent him to sign, and extra stuff back from at least Dyar Miller, Mike Fitzgerald and Skip Lockwood. Most current guys won't give you much by way of a response, if anything, but I got quick responses from Aaron Heilman and Ken Takahashi in the last few years, as well as non-players like Jerry Manuel, Jay Horwitz, Frank Cashen, and Gary Cohen. Then there are guy like Dave Racaniello, who never responded. Seriously, Dave? How much fan mail do you get? Bleh.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: It's proven that pigmentation improves UZR's by an average of 146 basis points; and naturalness by nearly 100%. Problem is, it also leads to massive increases in LZF (Laziness Factor) and MD (Mental Deficiency). Plus it causes their SF (Scrappy Factor) to drop nearly to zero.

I associate Greeny with the Cubs because he was a Chicago guy. Doesn't mean anything, though.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Mays should have no say in the matter. Where has he been since 1979? Willie Mays is one of my all-time favorite players, but he's not a Met. He's a Giant. I'd give number 24 to the next scrub that comes along. And then the next scrub after that. How about Jason Pridie? As good a scrub as any.

Dude hit 32 home runs two years ago. I know he DHed a lot last year, but the Royals had their 23-year-old wunderkind Billy Butler at first. I can definitely see Jacobs breaking camp. Maybe pushes Nick Evans off the depth chart.

Why did we cross out Ray Romano? We can cross out Gene Shalit: http://oldschoolbreaks.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/04wsinserts.jpg The image is huge, but he's a Dodgers fan, apparently. (I have the autographed version of that card.) Nell Carter was huge, but probably shouldn't be on the list twice. George Bush Sr.?

Quick! Let's buy an expansion team and sign all those guys! That's not a bad squad.

Good thing I clicked on the link; I thought they were talking about Mike Cameron.

You know, for the supposed "ugliest stadium in the history of professional sports" (*)... (*) This exaggerated claim may or may not have been made by alleged sportswriters near the time of the stadium's demise.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Orlando Hudson is only two years younger than Luis Castillo. He's 32. Not only that, but he's only marginally better than Castillo offensively. I'm of the opinion that there are more pressing priorities (namely catcher, first base, and pitching) than second base right now. Lest you forget, Luis Castillo finished fourth this year in Schaefer points. Now why would we give him so many Schaefer points if we all thought he was terrible? Val, the reason hoping for an upgrade at the keystone specifically makes sense is that: A) Castillo's offensive value in 2009 is probably his vertical limit; Castillo's defensive value is probably about as good as it would be were he faster... and handless. There's room for improvement. With a slow market for veteran 2B, there are perceived bargains-- and a few of 'em-- to be found there. Even Adam Kennedy would be a net improvement (though Felipe Lopez and older Orlando Hudson would probably be bigger pluses). C) There aren't the same bargains available without much greater risk-- Bedard or Branyan, e.g.-- at other need positions. And I'll agree with SJR on the Schaefer point point (in a year where Danny Murphy is in Schaefer-medal position for merely showing up, all bets are off there). On everything else... yeesh. I'll put up a hundy on .500-plus if somebody will take the other side. I'm down with an upgrade, but Luis Castillo is making SIX MILLION DOLLARS this year. I know it's play money to us, but it's not. We can't realistically expect Fred to just eat that money. I'd bet they took a look to see what they could get, and couldn't find anything reasonable. So Luis it is; sure, there are better second basemen out there, but I think we're stuck with him. And nymr's last point is my point as well.

Plus, Mitchell was traded for a guy coming off a season in which he was FOURTH in the NL in SLG, and heading into his prime. I know the Mets would have loved those 49 home runs in 1989, but I'd make that trade over and over. And on tonight's episode of "The Contradictor": I don't expect Omar to do any game changing moves anyway, he hasn't proven that he can do that so far in his Met tenure. a sign that the Mets are committed to once again changing the culture of the clubhouse ... [a la] what happened in heading into 2005 when Martinez and Beltran were brought in. Oh, and also... Jose Reyes' most similar players, according to B-R, through age 26: Jimmy Rollins, Alan Trammell, Garry Templeton, Ryne Sandberg, and Harvey Kuenn. David Wright's most similar players, according to B-R, through age 26: Scott Rolen, Duke Snider, and George Brett. Leave Reyes and Wright out of this. The only way this team doesn't hit .500 this year is if everyone gets hits by a bus AGAIN. Valadius wrote: Steve, by your logic, the Mets should jettison everybody with an ounce of personality or leadership. Last I checked, the human race had not yet invented baseball-playing robots. Oops. http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/32123100/ns/sports-baseball/

Edgy DC wrote: Great, we have a bet. You get to spend the season rooting for the Mets to suck. Let's go, Bets! Let's go, Bets! Unless they don't suck, in which case the bet is off.

Well, 1991 fell apart quickly. 71-91, 34 games out. So in the offseason... * Due to clearing out salary during the season, I had a lot of money to play with in the FA market. Signed Chuck Finley (2 years, $3.65 million) and Mark Langston (1 year, $540,000) to shore up the pitching staff before making the big splash: Cal Ripken (4 years, $32 million). * Ripken moved Alan Trammell to third, Jefferies to first. Jeff Kent will play second base for me, moving Biggio back behind the plate and pushing Todd Hundley back down the depth chart. * I had signed Ron Hassey to be my backup catcher, but I didn't want to carry three catchers, so I dealt him on opening day for 23-year-old Denny Neagle. * We had a glut in the outfield, so I dealt Vince Coleman and a prospect to Seattle for Randy Johnson and two scrubs. (The Unit is currently biding his time in Tidewater.) * I extended Casey Candaele (3 years) and Craig Biggio (6 years), and I'm currently negotiating with Pete Harnisch's agent on an extension, even though he's been out since late August with a back injury and won't return until July. * Picked up Al Leiter on waivers from Toronto, then snuck him back through waivers to Tidewater. We're 9-4 to start 1992, so things are looking up. The lineup is being carried by our 2-3-4 guys: Biggio C Ripken SS (.415/.492/.491 through 13 games) Strawberry CF (.362/.446/.787, 6 HR, 14 RBI through 13 games) McReynolds LF (.358/.386/.755, 6 HR, 13 RBI through 13 games) Justice RF Trammell 3B Jefferies 1B Kent 2B The bench is Hundley, Jose Vizcaino, Candaele, Mark Carreon, and Deion Sanders. The rotation is Cone (1-1, 4.15), Magrane (0-1, 3.68), Tom Gordon (2-1, 3.79), Sid Fernandez (2-0, 0.75), and Finley (2-0, 0.64). The bullpen has been solid, with Jeff Innis, Bobby Thigpen, and Alejandro Pena from the right, and Langston and John Franco from the left. (Franco just got hurt, and I called up Pete Schourek.) Rod Beck is 4-for-4 as the "closer," although Franco had three saves before the injury, as I'm playing matchups at the end of the game.

That would be the Hawaiian flag, by the way. I don't know why I had to look that up, but I did.

Hey, what Bill Cosby does in his personal time is his business.

I always assume that the Mets pump the hell out of prospects in hopes that some other team will see value that isn't there so they can trade us a washed-up middle reliever for them.