Vic Sage

right. so whoever gets him, gets him for 1 year (or less, if its a mid-season deal). it's tough because, the longer we wait, the less value he has (in terms of remaining time on his deal), but he's likely to restore some of his luster this season, with the fences pulled in. I'm tempted, actually, to let him play out the year and reestablish his value. THEN trade him before 2013, when the same 1-year deal scenario will still be available to buyers... unless i'm misinterpreting the provision. Would the Mets be totally prohibited from dealing him after 2012?

half measures are half-assed... If we're in a rebuild mode, then rebuild. yes, trade wright, in the right trade. I do seem to recall, however, that David had something in his contract that made trading him difficult... either an automatic and expensive extension, or a vesting something or other. Anyone know?

on the one hand, it was sweet, corny, sentimental, entertaining ... but more for me and my wife than it was for my 11-year old son (who was bored but polite enough not to say so) or my 14-year old daughter (who wouldn't be caught dead going to this movie). on the other hand, its a nakedly cynical attempt by Disney to revivify a moribund asset. Yes, i teared up a bit during RAINBOW CONNECTION. fuck you, Uncle Walt.

if you think about for a second, though, we could probably see where the market is right now. All the teams in that article (including the Mets) would take Reyes at 5 years / $15m; lets assume that's the floor. Would any take him at 7 years / $20m (i.e., "Crawford money")? Unlikely, but not impossible. It only takes 1 buyer. But lets assume thats the top end. a mid-point is probably 6 years / $17.5m, which would scare off some teams, but probably not all. You could even add an option/buy out provision to bring the total package up a bit, plus incentive clauses that could all back into a "crawford" type deal, if Reyes was healthy and productive. Could the Mets do this? and should they? I don't know if they CAN, but if that's the market, i'd reluctantly agree they should. But at 7yrs+/$20m+ straight up, i'd understand if Sandy passed the deal is right around the 6yr/$17.5m deal i surmised it'd be about a month ago. sorry to see we didn't have the money to go in on it, at that price, but likely a Mets counter-offer in that range would've just driven the final deal higher. And since it now seems clear the Mets were never seriously going to go in on any deal even remotely in this range, the point is moot. what a surprise that Jose's obvious affection for his home in the Long Island area didn't persuade him to take a lesser deal from the Metropolitans. shocked. I'm shocked, i tell you. so long, Jose, and thanks for all the fish. Time to change the laundry. Ruben Tejada, c'mon down!

Mets � Willets Point wrote: Well, at least there are sensible baseball writers in England if not in New England. welcome back, WP.

Vernon Wells , he should kiss his agent nightly i'd kiss his agent if she was Keira Knightley.

Morris borderline? Really? yeah, really. i think he pitched well for a long time, but was rarely great. His ERA for his era was absolutely nothing special. He walked alot of guys and didn't have a great K/BB ratio. He was an accumulator more than a dominator and yet didn't hit any of the key milestones. But he's been on the ballot for over a decade and his vote count has increased from the 20% range to the 50% range, which is another indicator that "borderline" is the exactly appropriate label for his candidacy. In fact, i'd say it's generous and optimistic but possible. Voters are still suckers for "big wins".

YES: Bagwell, Larkin, Martinez, Raines YES, EXCEPT...: McGwire, Palmiero BORDERLINE: Trammell, Morris, Murphy, Walker CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR: Smith, Mattingly, McGriff, J-Gonz FIVE PERCENTERS:Javy Lopez, Tim Salmon, Bernie Williams ONE AND DONE: Jeromy Burnitz, Vinny Castilla, Brian Jordan, Bill Mueller, Terry Mulholland, Phil Nevin, Brad Radke, Ruben Sierra, Tony Womack, Eric Young how much ya wanna bet we start getting MFY fan rationales for Bernie Williams?

they don't deserve Bobby. Idiots.

you said: the initial plus on Santana over Capuano, if that's how it shakes out, would be $1.5 million to spend elsewhere and i'm saying "no", it won't be spent elsewhere. its money coming off the budget and instead of going back into the team, it'll go to service the wilpon debts. so its NOT a plus for the team... just for Fred.

G-Fafif wrote: Pat Misch joins Wilson Valdez, Brian Schneider, Raul Valdes and Ty Wigginton in Philadelphia for the largest aggregation of Mets from lousy Mets teams since the 2011 Mets shook hands and parted ways for the winter. that's some funny shit right there.

Edgy DC wrote: Terry wasn't keen on trying to isolate him against lefties. I would have liked to have given him those seventh-inning matchup at-bats for a little while. He instead caught the righties as the last guy off the bench in the ninth. Then he was suddenly the starting firstbaseman. i remember Earl Weaver used to platoon Loewenstein and Roenicke, for about 5 years in late 70s-early 80s, to create a pretty productive LFer. He was a great manager in part because he found out what a guy could do well, and then asked him to do that. just that. he rarely asked guys to do things they didn't do well. Sure, its great when a guy does EVERYTHING well, but that's a rare commodity and waiting for that to happen is like waiting for lightning to strike. Weaver was effective over a long period of time because he didn't wait for lightning... he saw what he had and made the most of it. its unfair to compare most managers to Weaver, but Terry ****bunter Collins? that would just be embarrassing. I think Evans will develop into a useful player and will get that opportunity in Pitt. Best of luck, Nick.

Well, the initial plus on Santana over Capuano, if that's how it shakes out, would be $1.5 million to spend elsewhere --- meaningful money, I think, on the Austeritymets. well, with the payroll dropping around $40m, the only place that $1.5m is going is in the wilpons' pocket -- actually, their lawyers' pockets.

The rotation definitely leaves room for improvement, but at least we have five guys who belong on a major league roster (yes, I think Gee pitched well enough to warrant that distinction). Right now I count four major league relievers (Parnell, Acosta, Beato, Byrdak), and the Mets could use three guys who are better than any of them. i suppose i could disagree with you more, but i'd probably sprain something in the attempt. If your criteria for "five guys who belong on a major league roster" is simply 5 guys who were on a major league roster last year, then ok. but i don't think it is. Aside from Dickey, not one of our guys had even a decent year and i've little confidence that any of them but Niese is even capable (much less are LIKELY) to be much better. About Gee: I don't trust a pitcher over the long term whose only good stat in a partial season is "wins". He had a good start but faded badly and is still a AAA pitcher as far as I'm concerned. As for the bullpen, Parnell blew up in high leverage situations, but the other guys you've listed did not have particularly terrible years. Would i like better ones? yeah, but Acosta and Beato are young with good arms and upside, and Byrdak got lefties out, mostly. And considering how little these guys pitch, as compared to starters, thinking that replacing their innings with other low-cost options is the answer (or even AN answer) for the Mets next year is just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

Wait. You don't think it's worth zero additional dollars to see if Santana can perform better than the last guy on the roster, because roster spots are too expensive? yeah, i'm pretty sure i didn't say anything even remotely similar to that. I said that, in comparing this year's projected staff with last year's, the IP Santana will give us will be not be in addition to, but instead of, what we got from Capuano, who no longer has a spot in our rotation. And no, i don't think we'll get more from him than what we got from Capuano, at least not much more. Certainly not $20m worth more... but you're right, that's a sunk cost and irrelevant since the Mets owe it whether he plays or not. And I'm not saying i wouldn't prefer taking a shot on Santana rather than AAAA borderline guys this season (Besides, we've already got one of those in the rotation with Gee). But its not like we're just adding Santana. We're replacing Cappy's production with his. So no, i don't see that as a big plus for the rotation. Maybe a little "plus", but not enough to make a difference, unless all the other question marks in the rotation are answered positively. which is highly unlikely.

Edgy DC wrote: They got all that in Vinny Rottino. Third-string catcheriness. Multi-position flexibility. Puncher's power. And he comes on a minor-league deal and without the OBP impariment. yeah, but i didn't KNOW that, so it doesn't count. on edit: i looked him up. not that it matters, but they didn't get all that with Rottino. He's older, with 39 pretty shitty major league plate appearances to his name, so no real projectability there. And Fox's minor league numbers are significantly better, to the extent that means anything.

Edgy DC wrote: I hope the top five picks of 2012 all declare themselves free agents. Under what theory? MLB has an anti-trust exemption and the draft is legal. Not that i wouldn't enjoy the ensuing chaos...

Santana's comeback isn't free; it costs a spot on the 25-man roster and a regular turn in our rotation. Theoretically, he'll be replacing Capuano, who went 11-12 for not much money. How much better is Santana going to be? As the writer implies, we have to take it on faith alone that he'll come back from serious injury and do much better than Cappy did last year. So i don't see his return as much of an upgrade in our starting pitching. And with Dillon Gee being penciled in for a full season, i have every good reason to fear an overall decrease in our rotation's quality, since i expect significant regression in Gee's production. Perhaps Harvey or one of the other kid pitchers will step up, or Pelfrey will bounce back, or Niese will develop... But these are all big "if"s. That being said, i don't know that we have any realistic options, FA-wise. building a better bullpen would seem the more cost-effective and realistic option. But it is easier said than done.

More people would read reviews written like that. Tell that to the Crane Pool Press. I'm looking for a new gig.

Frayed Knot wrote: Vic Sage wrote: Jake fox. He's a Nick Evans type with a catcher's mitt. Actually, he's got a pronounced reversed platoon split, hitting RHP better in his career so far. But he's still under 30, with real power, multi-position flexibility (1b/3b/Lf/Rf/C) and will probably be cheap. Also has a sub-.290 career OBA (in 500 ABs) with all of 32 games (and 20 starts) at catcher in his career. Sounds to me more like the guy you keep as a utility player who can also serve as your 3rd catcher in a pinch allowing you flexibility with the first two guys without fear of getting caught short if an injury occurs. It's the sub-.300 OBP that makes him available cheap. His extensive minor league career shows a well-rounded hitter, and i wouldn't be surprised if he ultimately became one. But i think its a moot point now, because he apparently signed with Pittsburgh last week. DOH!

Jake fox. He's a Nick Evans type with a catcher's mitt. Actually, he's got a pronounced reversed platoon split, hitting RHP better in his career so far. But he's still under 30, with real power, multi-position flexibility (1b/3b/Lf/Rf/C) and will probably be cheap.

No, that was "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0457419/ a really stilted, overripe bit of fantastic treacle that would be better left unwatched. as to DR. PARNASSUS, if your going to bother downloading it, i'd recommend best possible version (Blue-Ray/HD) to fully appreciate its qualities.

Edgy DC wrote: Not to mention the Gilliam tendency to be undercut by a mid-shoot disaster. Wonderful visual thoughts haphazardly assembled, leading to appealing peeks into an inarticulate vision of an unclear pantheon. It gets an almost from me. Heath Bell's disappearance wasn't even the real problem, so much as too much seemingly conceived on storyboards and in the editing room. The presumed script that underlied it all was almost invisible. it's a mess, but not without significant pleasures. I've watched a 2 to 3 times, and each time i can't stop watching, but always feel like "wow, what the hell was that?" Yet compelled to see it again. like a cold sore i can't stop flicking with my tongue.

Any of you guys call me Francis, and I'll kill you.

MVP NL: R.Braun (mil) - toss up with Kemp; edge to Braun for getting his team to post-season nailed it.