Vic Sage

would it be impossible for Uribe to back up at SS? He hasn't played more than a handful of games there over the last 4+ years, but is it just out of the question? Is his range that much less at this point than that of FLores? Not necessarily to get a start at SS, but come in for a double switch, or to keep his bat in after PHing, or XtraInning games, or injury. No? Maybe not, but i'd consider it. If Terry platoons, we could see something like the following alignments in Sept/Oct: [u:1sa2a6ys]vs LHP[/u:1sa2a6ys] Lagares CF Murphy 1b Wright 3b Cespedes LF Cuddyer RF d'Arnaud C Flores 2b Tejada SS [u:1sa2a6ys]vs RHP[/u:1sa2a6ys] Grandy RF Murphy 3b Cespedes CF Duda 1b Conforto LF d'Arnaud C K.Johnson 2b Tejada SS ...at least until Wright shows he can play every day, at which point Murphy goes to 2b and Johnson to the bench. In any event, no real role for Uribe, except as a PHer.

Top 10 ranked by pitcher's WAR/ NL: Grienke = 6.97 deGrom = 5.19 Kershaw = 5.01 Scherzer = 4.71 Arrieta = 4.6 Miller = 4.25 Harvey = 4.04 Wacha = 3.29 Cole = 3.2 Lackey = 3.2 [on edit] Bumgarner = 2.99 C.Martinez =2.91

With Wright coming back next week, the Mets will have to make a move. So do we actually cut a guy or do we just send somebody down for a week, then bring them back up after 9/1? If we cut Kelly Johnson, whose skills are redundant with Murphy, we lose a potentially useful asset for nothing. Ditto Uribe, as well as losing his great clubhouse presence (from what i read). So who goes down? Flores? Conforto? Lagares? Other? If its flores, we don't have a backup SS. If its Conforto, our offense takes a hit. If its Lagares... well, Cespedes has been fine in CF, and Grandy can play there in an emergency. With Cuddyer as the RHed OF bat on the bench (and Johnson available as a backup LHed OFer), it seems to me that Lagares is the only one we could miss for a week without really skipping a beat.

alright, who cut one?

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Judging by the reviews, this movie is every bit the travesty I figured it would be. (And I have to say, I'm very gratified by how bad the reviews are.) I hope that some day there's a Fantastic Four movie that respects the source material. This one certainly isn't it. I never would have imagined that there would be an FF movie that I would have no interest in seeing, but it's happened. yup. Once they screwed up the casting, i thought it would suck. then i saw the trailers and was sure of it. Now, upon its release, my worst expectations have been realized. This may be the only superhero movie i won't be seeing in a theater.

This: LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: I like Cespedes, and he'll help a bit. But, all told, considering fit-to-need, overall onfield value, and controllability... cost inclusive... I would have preferred the Gomez trade. And this: Heroics and humanity aside... I kinda don't love Flores as a player, and I've always thought Wheeler (for command reasons) to be the least steadfast/most limited, ceiling-wise of our "big" arms. I see middling-AJ Burnett as his upper limit, honestly, so if someone will buy high on him when he's recovering from surgery... That being said, this is about Cespedes. No, he won't sign here. He has to test the market and, once he does, we can't re-sign him until May or something, and by then he'll already be signed somewhere. In the meantime, the move has changed the spirit of the team and the mood of the fans, not to mention our offensive production. He's also a better base runner and fielder than i thought. he does, however, suffer from Gandalf Syndrome ("thou shalt not pass!"), and swings at a lot of bad balls. But unlike Vlad Guerrero, he can't hit them very well.

Mets � Willets Point wrote: Anyone else feeling a bit giddy these days? yes, but that's just a side effect of my medication.

dgwphotography wrote: Vic Sage wrote: Edgy MD wrote: Good. We could use a Kevin McReynolds on this team. no, not again. I believe Edgy is referring to the Kevin McReynolds we had for the first four years of his Met tenure, not the puffy malcontent who came after... yeah, i wasn't that crazy about the first McReynolds either. Look, I know he was a very good player, but he wasn't a great player. He was a .270-280/20-25hr/85-95rbi/70-80r guy with a decent arm and a decent glove, who ran ok. He did everything fairly well, but he didn't do anything great. Plus he was a whining malcontent and a dog, and the next time he runs hard after a ball will be the first time . Plus we traded future MVP Kevin Mitchell to get him and only got a washed up Bret Saberhagen when we finally had enough of him. Plus i had a pathological hate for him on a genetic level which is otherwise hard to explain except that, for the same reason we've just had a Wilmer Flores love affair, with him demonstrating how much he cares about staying a Met, the sense that McReynolds had no real interest or enthusiasm for being here and would much rather have been huntin' possum in Arkansas just infuriated me.

dgwphotography wrote: How long until there's a "Space Cowboy" Night? [youtube]3Q3pdj9p6yI[/youtube] i love that clip. Browncoats, unite!

it seems to me he's also laying off those low and outside sliders that he had previously been flailing at, so he's getting into hitter's counts more often.

i'll be good with this if it works and pissed if it doesn't (especially if Fulmer or Cessa eventually becomes something), just like everybody else here.

yeah, but the family tired and we left by the 10th. damn it. I need to go to games alone.

I was there last night, with the family. We had great seats, it was a warm but lovely night, no traffic in or out, a pitcher's duel with some great defensive plays, late inning drama... but we tired by the 10th and watched the thrilling moment at the end on TV. Damn it. Still, it was heartwarming to see Flores get a big cheer during the announcements, then a standing O every time he got up or made a play (he made a nice one early and that got the crowd going). Who says NY fans are tough? We're big mushes is what we are.

oh joy. I'll tell him you said hi.

Ceetar wrote: Bruce is good, and healthy. He's only 28. His Career splits against lefties aren't horrible. And it's a trade there, because if he does hurt the defense( right now he'd play right with Curtis in left?) it's probably because either they got someone else or Cuddyer is back and hitting lefties. i guess it depends on how you define "horrible". The platoon differential in OPS is 90 points (.820-.730), dropping him from a productive hitter to a hitter that's not so much. Maybe not horrible, but not good. But more pronounced is his 100+ home/away split (.845 -.743), indicating how much the Great American Ballpark has inflated his numbers. And if Grandy plays LF, then you still have a NIeuhy/Lagares platoon in CF and no place for Conforto or Cuddyer. So yes, i guess it'd be a slight overall improvement in our offense, replacing Cuddyer/Comforto with the road version of Bruce (with Cuddyer against LHP [eventually] and Conforto back in AA). And it probably improves our overall defense in that alignment, with Grandy going to LF and Bruce's arm in RF. But is this upgrade enough? Does it fix our leadoff problem? Our LH/RH imbalance? Our offensive hole in CF? no, it just gives us another .250 hitter who can hit it out of certain parks. Color me unexcited, considering Gomez actually did fit all those criteria.

good weather tonight, Harvey v Gio. Nobody else?

I'm not excited by Bruce. He's a LHed RFer with a huge platoon split and he forces Grandy to CF, but yet he's preferable to a Coespedes or Upton because he's signed for 1 more year? So fucking what? He'll end up sitting against some LHPs, and won't be able to produce in Citi the way he did in Cinncy (check his home/away splits). So Wheeler for Bruce is stupid. Yes, he's better than Nieuhenheis and Lagares offensively, but not as much as it would seem, and he hurts our CF defense. This move won't help us down the stretch OR next year. If they're so willing to move Wheeler, do it in a move that will make an impact right now. Gomez was the move to make, and they bailed because of money, not hip issues. that's a bullshit cover. they knew he had a hip issue when they made the deal in the first place, they just wanted to squeeze some cash out of the Brewers and they probably told Sandy to go fuck himself. So Houston said fine, send that solid CFer to us.

[u:1q00t2jo]Tulo's salary (from Baseball Reference):[/u:1q00t2jo] 2015 30 Toronto Blue Jays 1/3 of $20,000,000 ($6.67m) 2016 31 Toronto Blue Jays $20,000,000 2017 32 Toronto Blue Jays $20,000,000 2018 33 Toronto Blue Jays $20,000,000 2019 34 Toronto Blue Jays $20,000,000 2020 35 Toronto Blue Jays $14,000,000 2021 36 Toronto Blue Jays $15,000,000 option ($4M buyout) That's ~ $105M guaranteed over the next 5.3 years, with buyout As for Reyes: 2015 32 Toronto Blue Jays 1/3 of $22,000,000 ($7.3M) 2016 33 Colorado Rockies $22,000,000 2017 34 Colorado Rockies $22,000,000 2018 35 Colorado Rockies $22,000,000 Option ($4M Buyout) That's ~ $55M guaranteed over the 2.3 years, with buyout Yes, Tulo's average salary is lower ($24m v $20m), but average salary doesn't matter in a league without a salary cap. Tulo's deal still requires $50M more of a long-term commitment to a player in his 30s with a terrible injury history, and is now moving out of Coors (where he has a significant split) to play everyday on debilitating Astroturf. Reyes' deal is bad, but they'd have been out from under it in less than 1/2 the time, at less than 1/2 the cost. Is Tulo's current superiority over Reyes worth that? I guess it is to Toronto. I'm less sanguine about Tulo's continued production being worth that difference, considering Toronto's already abundant offensive firepower, but i guess we'll see. If they get the pitching they need, the difference may put them over the top this season. If they don't, then they're pretty much where they were, just more expensive.

Edgy MD wrote: Good. We could use a Kevin McReynolds on this team. no, not again.

Outside of Coors, Car-Go is a .260/20hr 30 year-old LHed corner OFer who hasn't played CF in 4 years and who has stolen 5 bases in the last 1.5 years. And he'll get almost $40m through 2017. Gomez provides a little less overall production, with less power and more speed, but is still able to play CF and bat leadoff, and he provides a RHed bat. Plus, he's only signed through next year, for $9m/yr. Plus he has Mets bonafides.

what i said about Clippard? um, never mind. Damn Mejia. You'd think he could find a more effective masking agent by now.

However you slice it, Reyes is guaranteed about $50m from now through 2018, and Tulo is in for $100m from now through 2021 (the difference in their average salaries is $22m v $20m; not enough to make any real difference). Given their similar ages, recent health issues, and road production, i wouldn't take either of those deals, but i don't know that taking a $100m risk on Tulo is a better idea than a $50m risk on Jose.

i agree that, when your in a position to make a run at a post-season berth, you have to take some risks, and parting with a 2nd tier prospect is not the worst idea in the world. However, taking that risk on 2 months of another reliever (and Clippard's peripherals indicate a pitcher in decline) when the real need is a power bat or legit lead-off hitter seems to me a poor allocation of resources. So we've given up 3 young pitching prospects (albeit 2nd tier prospects) for some spare parts, which, to my mind, only makes sense if Sandy is now going to make the big move that can make a difference. Gomez makes some sense to me, but rumor mill says Milwaukee wants Brandon Nimmo, shortstop Amed Rosario and Zack Wheeler in return. I'd be tempted, because Gomez plays CF, can lead off or hit in the middle of the order, is not yet 30, and is signed through next season to a reasonable contract. If they would take Lagares instead of Nimmo, i might do that. They're also looking at Jay Bruce for Wheeler, infielder Gavin Cecchini, and two minor league Single-A prospects. Bruce isn't a CFer nor a leadoff hitter, but he's a little younger and cheaper with significantly more power, and i like his price tag a whole lot more. But if we bite on that, then Conforto goes down and Lagares stays in the lineup, unless Terry is willing to move Grandy back to CF after all these years. So is the difference between Bruce and Conforto over the next 2 months worth giving up that package? Maybe; i don't know.

type casting.

... on Friday, with the family. It looks like Harvey v the Nats. Anybody else?