Vic Sage

Edgy MD wrote: My guess is that "able to play third" is an established part of Flores' label, and whatever value it has is diminished the more he actually plays third. Just a guess. then play Flores at 1b and Smith in LF, with McNeil at 3b and Kelly at 2b. or vice versa. anything but what they're doing now.

totally agreed. every AB given to Reyes or Bautista over ANYBODY is a waste of time. And time is a precious commodity. Play Flores at 3b. Play Dom at 1b. Trade Cabrera and Familia for AA players. Cut Reyes and bring up McNeil for 2b. Cut Bautista and play Borenstein (or any AAAA hitter) in RF on the off chance he can show something. Hell, i'd be happier seeing Tebow in the OF than Bautista... and THAT would sell tix! Not that i really want to see him, but you know what i mean. Nimmo McNeil Flores Conforto Borenstein (until Cespedes returns) D.Smith Plawecki -pitcher Rosario

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Edgy MD wrote: All the more reason you'll love it. I don't think so. Triple-A Mets games won't have any meaning to me, and I won't watch them. I guess you're saying that I'd be watching the 2018 games out of fear that the Mets would be relegated, and that may be true. But once they were dropped, I'm certain I'd be gone. Don't worry about it Benjy, It can't happen here. Owners that have paid billions for franchises won't allow a system that will suddenly destroy their investments, while simultaneously exploding the prices of AAA teams beyond the means of many of the markets in which they play now.

we're going thru an adjustment period, as players and management are adjusting to what we're learning from analytics. The computer age has improved defensive positioning and hitters have not yet responded to it. They want a rule change to save them rather than "hitting them where they ain't", which has always been an important dictum in the game. So it'll suck for a while. But eventually GMs will catch on to the new "efficiency"... guys who can hit it the other way. We've already seen a decline in the value of 1-dimensional sluggers. A bunch of them were FAs over the winter and few of them got the kind of deals that HR/RBI counting stats used to command (except for the Mets, of course. Welcome back, Jay Bruce!) So, as teams start going back to finding players who can actually get on base by putting balls in play, more hitters will start hitting that way, and the defensive shifts will become less prevalent. And once again we'll find baseball lineups with a balance of table setters and sluggers, which has always been the most reliable way of scoring consistently. A rule change is an overreaction to this transitional period.

avi

stretching for a throw at 1b is nowhere near as aggravating of his sort of injury as running hard after a line drive down the line into LF. Since we have him at big money for 2 (?) more years, it behooves us to find a way to keep him on the field. I'm good with a move to 1B as one way to do that.

Fman99 wrote: My son noticed my waning enthusiasm for Mets games in the last few weeks. I chose to sit outside on my front patio playing my guitar, rather than watch the first hour of the game, and was nonplussed to find they were already down 5-0 when I tuned in. My daughter asked me when we were going to a game. I said "2019... maybe."

when was that a hope?

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Mickey just double switched Blevins in before the LHH had been announced. Jacques strikes again, as the waves crash above him once more. Mr. Cousteau, white courtesy telephone please.

Frazier is back on the DL today, with a pulled rib cage. They've called up Ty Kelly. When asked why the team didn't call up Jeff McNeil, he of the 1.051 OPS so far this season, our manager, Jacques Cousteau, said "one thing we have with him [McNeil] is he's purely a second baseman. Obviously (Asdrubal) Cabrera is kind of holding that down for us right now." For the record, McNeil has had a significant number of games at 3b (about 2/3rds of the number of games at 2b), with some at SS and in the OF, too, including some games there this season. So once again, JC is in over his head and talking out of his ass. Which is a difficult posture to maintain.

that's a regular murderer's row right there.

I miss Willpie. Who was s/he, anyway? I don't remember if the moniker was one of youse or a long-lost `pooler.

i think he's too high, too.

jacques cousteau... he's in over his head.

41Forever wrote: d'Kong76 wrote: Edgy MD wrote: No, it's a community of followers sharing a hashtag. I don't totally understand some of the workings of Twitter. You can set a search on #Mets and every time someone uses that hashtag you'd see the tweet whether or not you are following that particular account. Twitter seems to bring out the worst in people for some reason. anonymity emboldens our worst instincts. that, and the presidency. We are what we do when nobody can see us (or to the electorate).

Aren't we at war with Canada, or something?

After we trade Cabrera, Familia and Blevins (presumably for prospects and suspects), and Syndy and Vargas get back from DL: lineup cf-Nimmo* 2b-McNeil / Kelly# rf-Conforto* 1b-Flores / Smith* Lf-D.Smith*/ Bautista 3b-Frazier c-Mesoraco / Plawecki P-xxx ss-Rosario bench c-Plawecki of-Bautista of-Kaczmarski* If/Of-Kelly# ss/If-Reyes# rotation: DeGrom Syndegaard (dl) Matz* Wheeler Vargas* (dl) bullpen: Gsellman Lugo Peterson Swarsak Rhame Smith Krol* (?) DL: sp-Syndegaard sp-Vargas* rp-Ramos c-d'Arnaud Lf-Cespedes Cf-Lagares Rf/1b-Bruce* 2b-Rivera ss-Cecchini 3b-Wright Our DL team is way better than our current roster.

Vic sage, two weeks ago: With Lugo continuing to pitch well in the rotation, i do think Vargas is the odd man out once Thor gets back, regardless of his contract. But there is no reason to think he'll be any more effective in the pen. He'll likely just sit there and only get used in blowouts and as an extra spot starter, not as a "situational lefty" to make up for Blevins. Meanwhile, we should release Reyes and Bautista, and send Guillorme down, and bring up McNeil, Kelly and an OFer (Borenstein, Kazmarski, denDekker or Brentz). as for the bullpen, Its time for Drew Smith to join Tim Peterson in Flushing, while Robles is staked on a field of ant hills. Welcome, abordick, y'all!

Edgy MD wrote: Do you really believe that's what Ricco, Ricciardi, and Minaya amount to? No, of course not. Moe, Larry and Curly were hugely successful.

Mets sign 2 of the top 30 international prospects: #9: Alvarez, Francisco © #25: Valdez, Freddie (OF) both are 16-year old power hitters https://www.sny.tv/mets/news/mets-ink-no-9-international-prospect-francisco-alvarez-for-29-million/283895132

... I stand by my statement that quality people are going to want to shape the rebuild themselves rather than accept whatever it is that Riccinayachhardi leaves them as a result of a fire sale that takes place before they are even hired. If and when there's a new head honcho after this season then he'll have plenty of reshaping to do and, at least theoretically, with a more versatile roster as a starting point. In the meantime, no one is simply going to put the franchise in mothballs for a half year. Don't act on any motions until after the election... let the people decide! on edit: sorry, wrong thread.

i'm not a callaway apologist, but i don't think he's a particularly significant reason why this team sucks. Managers rarely are, in my view. The difference between a good manager and a bad manager is maybe six games a year. So if your a borderline playoff team, it matters. if your the losingest team in the league, it doesn't. The fact is that just about every free agent signing by Alderson has gone sideways; some forseeably, some less so. But injuries and under-performance are always forseeable risks when you bring in older guys who've had injuries and years of under-performance. Are we shocked that the strategy of pursuing mid- and lower-tier FAs hasn't panned out? And if we blame Callaway for Rosario's lack of development, does he get the credit for Nimmo's development? Or was Rosario just brought up too soon, with insufficent time to develop basics skills before being rushed to the majors? And who put him on the roster this quick? Ditto for Dom Smith. Or maybe neither of these overhyped prospects is actually that good? Is that Callaway's fault too? We knew the bullpen was the weakspot on this team since ST, so are we shocked they're as bad as we were afraid they'd be? And is Callaway's BP usage the reason Swarsak, Blevins and Familia have sucked all year or that Ramos is on the DL? Yeah, he's overused Gsellman, but really what choice did he have? He was trying to get a fragile starting staff back into shape (and he has, for the most part) by limiting their innings, so he used the BP early and often. And if there were enough reliable arms out there, it wouldn't have mattered. But there aren't. Now he's going to ride Peterson until he stops going well, and then look around for somebody (ANYBODY) who can get people out in the late innings. So yeah, maybe Callaway is in over his head, maybe not. I'm not in that clubhouse. It sure looks like the vets are sleepwalking and the kids are confused (except Nimmo, who has an inner fire to drive him), so it wouldnt surprise me if Callaway got booted by a new GM after the season. But i think the real culprit for this season is the one who built the team. And if Sandy was limited in his building by unreasonable parameters or interference by the Wilpons, then the buck stops there.

ditto, mostly.

I don't understand the final line of this article: Perhaps his argument – that much of his family, friends and coaches stand behind him; that he has paid his debt; and that he is in fact innocent – will convince an organization to take on the complications of signing him. What debt? If he was innocent, he had no debt to pay. And legal advice that has you pleading guilty to such a charge when you're innocent is malpractice. And i don't believe it for a second. If i was innocent and facing such a charge, nothing on earth could make me plead guilty. The only way you do is if they have overwhelming evidence of the charge, or its a lesser charge than one you think they could convict you of. And child molestation has one of the highest rates of recidivism of any crime. There is just no rationale for giving a convicted child molester a job in MLB.

Foli, Strawberry, Wilson. A: "Chicott, Foli, Strawberry, Abner, Wilson" Q: "What are the former Mets #1 picks?" That's 3 total whiffs, 1 major league player, and 1 all-star. I thought this was pretty bad track record and then i compared it to other teams' #1 picks, and you can see just how often they don't work out for other franchises, too. The Mets are one of 3 teams that have had 5 #1 picks. The others: Houston: Bannister, P / Nevin, 3b / Correa, SS / Appel, P / Aiken, P San Diego: Ivie, C/ D.Roberts, 3b / Almon, SS / Benes, P / Bush, ss 3 Teams with 4 #1 picks: Seattle: Chambers, OF / Moore, P/ GriffeyJr, OF / A-Rod, SS Pittsburgh: King, 3b / Benson, P / Bullington, P / Cole, P Tampa: J.Hamilton, of / D. Young, of / D.Price, P / T.Beckham, ss Seattle got 2 HOFers out of their 4 picks, but i don't know that the Mets were appreciably worse than any of the other teams in the results of their #1 picks. on edit: actually, after adding up the WAR for each of these picks, the teams rank as follows: Seattle: 229+ (4 players, with +WAR coming from 3 players) TB: 70+ (4 players, all with +WAR) Hou: 62+ (5 players, with +WAR coming from 3 players) SD: 43.6 (5 players, with +WAR coming from 4 players) Pitt: 43.6 (4 players, with +WAR coming from 3 players) Mets: 43.6 (5 players, with +WAR coming from 3 players) by this ranking, the Mets actually were the least successful drafting 1st, when you consider they had the most chances, but got the least +WAR, from the fewest players.