Vic Sage

my thoughts on d'Anaud so far: - For a catcher, he seems to have trouble, you know, catching; - He moves around way too much behind the plate (if i was pitching to him, i'd take him aside in the dugout and say "hold the fuck still and give me a steady target, or I'll put Icy Hot in your jockstrap.") - The next base runner he throws out will be his first (0-3 so far); - But he's pretty quick back there, and i think that will allow him to overcome these issues; - As a hitter, he hasn't yet; - He does have a good eye, and that's critical for his potential as a hitter So i can see the tools that make him ab attractive prospect, but he's had a bumpy start and doesn't look quite ready. Perhaps he'll calm down and settle in, and let his skills take over.

It would seem to me self-evident that a pitcher compiling a winning record for a losing team is a fairly impressive accomplishment.

These games aren't being extended by exciting explosive action or thrilling tension-filled extra innings, but by tedious time-wasting inactivity that serves no one but the egos and OCD of players and short term financial interests of teams. In the long term, the game is devolving into something that is just too boring for a modern audience to tolerate so MLB, through their inaction, is dooming the game to eventual cult status.

what did that mini-me tub of lard do?

Ah, what's the use? What's the use? welcome to the dark side.

If the Mets are willing to sign ANYBODY to a big-money / long-term contract, why would it not be a 1bman? A 1Bman is a hell of a lot less likely to implode like a pitcher, or get run over repeatedly like a 2bman or catcher, or to have chronic hammies like an OFer, or take one off the head or leg at the hot corner. It's probably the safest place on the field. So if you can get a young guy who still has a decade of international ball at the highest level, whose considered the best hitter in his country (a country that turns out pretty good ballplayers to begin with), and he plays a position where you do not have a long-term commitment to anybody else and no particularly strong rookie candidates in the wings, why the hell would you NOT want to sign him? Now I don't think they WILL sign him, of course. Oh, they might pretend like they tried after he signs elsewhere, because that's what they do. But to be that ballsy, to go out on a limb and make the highest bid for a guy they desperately need? Yeah, i don't think Fred and Jeff play that game these days. So we've got Ike and Duda, and Satin and Dystra, all ready to play 1b for our Metsies, and if that gets your knickers wet, so be it.

1 - Is on the NYM 25 roster (or ML DL) 2 - Is not on the 25-man roster but still is with the organization 3 - Is gone from the Mets� org 2014 [u:3hjiz8pr](lineup / salary status)[/u:3hjiz8pr] Eric Young - 1 (Arb1) Juan Lagares - 1 (minors) David Wright - 1 ($20m) ___________ Travis d�Arnaud - 1 (minors) Lucas Duda - 1 (minors) Wilmer Flores - 1 (minors) Ruben Tejada - 1 (Arb1) [u:3hjiz8pr](bench)[/u:3hjiz8pr] Justin Turner - 1 (Arb1) [u:3hjiz8pr](rotation)[/u:3hjiz8pr] Matt Harvey - 1 (minors) zack Wheeler - 1 (minors) Jenrry Mejia - 1 (minors) Dillon Gee - 1 (Arb1) ___________ [u:3hjiz8pr](bullpen)[/u:3hjiz8pr] Bobby Parnell - 1 (Arb2) Feliciano - 1 (FA) Edgin - 1 (minors) Torres - 1 (minors) [u:3hjiz8pr](minors)[/u:3hjiz8pr] Nieuwenhuis - 2 (minors) Satin - 2 (minors) Baxter - 2 (Arb1) Lutz - 2 (minors) Brown - 2 (minors) Familia - 2 (minors) Syndergaard - 2 (minors) Burke - 2 (minors) Rice - 2 (minors) German - 2 (minors) [u:3hjiz8pr](traded or released)[/u:3hjiz8pr] Ike Davis - 3 (Arb2) Daniel Murphy - 3 (Arb2) Marlon Byrd - 3 (FA) Jordany Valdespin - 3 (minors) John Buck - 3 (FA) Anthony Recker - 3 (minors) Omar Quntanilla - 3 (Arb2) Jon Niese - 3 ($5m) Jeremy Hefner - 3 (minors) Atchison - 3 (Arb3) Francisco - 3 (FA) Hawkins - 3 (FA) Aardsma -3 (FA) Carson - 3 (minors)

Byrd's career numbers are quite close to Rios, overall. But Rios is making 12.5m this year, $12.5M in 2014, and $1m in 2015 to buy out a $14M option. With that kind of price tag for his mediocre production, the white sox are lucky they got a living being in return. Byrd would give a team going down the stretch a bat at least as good as Rios (certainly this season) with NO FUTURE OBLIGATIONS to an aging OFer having a career year. I don't know why you think the compensation would be equivalent.

If you've got a "Dr. Who" as your villain, wouldn't you want to show him? But really, what an obscure Thor villain to choose anyway *. One would think that, after Loki, you'd have to go with ENCHANTRESS, no? or HELA, even. And the EXECUTIONER is a complex and powerful villain whose tale ends in redemption, which is kind of cool. Even Surtur, Ulik or Ymir are more interesting Norse demon type villains than Malekith. And for more Earth-bound villainy, i'll take the Absorbing Man or the amusingly destructive capability of the Wrecking Crew (Wrecker, Bulldozer, Piledriver, and Thunderball). Malekith? He doesn't even show up on the radar until the mid-80s, and then not very often since. Feh. whose running this chickenshit outfit? *According to Thor Ann. #17, the 10 most heinous villains in Thor's history are: - Grey Gargoyle - Ego - High Evolutionary - Absorbing Man - Surtur - Ulik - Enchantress - Destroyer - Hela - Loki

Speed and quickness are 2 entirely different talents. Brooks Robinson was a glacier running the bases but his reaction time and first step was so quick at 3B that nothing could get by him. Now, i don't know yet whether Mr. Flowers has either speed OR quickness, but for an infielder, quickness is the more important.

1B is the black hole that sucks a player's youthful speed, mobility and arm strength into its ebony maw.

PROJECTION: 75 wins Predictions (within 2): - MFS / 74 - DocTee / 74 - VSage / 77 - Sharpie / 73 - GFafif/ 73

yes, to platooning extensively. No, to moving Wright to 1B until such time as his arm falls off.

yeah, i think its the arm more than anything. It's pretty weak in LF, inadequate in CF, and just barely adequate at 2B.

I love it when somebody mispronounces a word in conversation that they've only read before and clearly haven't ever heard spoken aloud. I did this myself once, when i was in college. I was talking to a noted author who i was escorting around campus and we're talking about something or other, and i used the word "hyperbole", but pronounced it "hyper-bowl". He guffawed, and said, to ease my embarrassment, "don't worry; i do that all the time." But i bet he didn't. I'm over it now... but I still wake up in a cold sweat over that one, every once in a while. As to CF's earlier post, i applaud the attitude, and agree with the overall point, though i disagree in some of the details. While i have no confidence in Tejada as our SS of the present much less the future, I can't see EY at SS. It's not a position you want to sacrifice D for O, especially in a pitcher's park in the post-steroid era, where each run has greater impact. And Duda has not proven to me he does anything particularly well, aside from a decent OB%, and is atrocious in the OF, so i don't see anybody losing their job to him, though i'd rather see him in RF at this point than Byrd, who we clearly should've traded. Moot now, i know, but Marlon will be a FA coming off a career year, and he'll sign with the team willing to give him the best multi-year deal... and it better not be us (see HAIRSTON, SCOTT). In the meantime, he's taking ABs from prospects we have to find out about. Ike? who knows? I have no confidence in him ever being a reliable offensive player, despite the slow-footed powerless bat with a high OB% he's become over the past month. But i'd hate to see Flores pushed over to 1B just yet. You want to push him into the toughest defensive position he can reasonably handle. If that's 2B, great. Whatever his bat is, it'll play better at 2b than 1b. If he HAS to be moved, then ok. But we don't know that yet. If Flores can play 2b at least as well as Murphy (i.e., about league average), then Murphy becomes trade bait. D'anaud, yes. tomorrow please. the lineup i'd like to see for the rest of the season: Young LF Lagares CF Murphy 3b Davis 1b D'Anaud C Duda RF Flores 2b Tejada SS Next year, try to put a package together from among players like Murphy, Duda, Buck and Davis, and pitchers Neise, Gee, Hefner or Mejia (and/or a similar pitching prospect, if necessary), for a solid LHed cleanup hitter for either 1b or RF. We won't get a superstar for those kinds of players, but maybe a Markakis, or Kendrys Morales, or Mark Trumbo type veteran, or an Erick Hosmer, Justin Smoak, JJ Reddick type younger guy with upside, or even lesser deals for Mike Morse, Adam Lind, Colby Rasmus types as potentially useful parts. A SS might be nice, too.

looks cool, but i don't get who (or what) the villain is. Darkness? Darkness is the villain? So can sunlight kick its ass?

dinosaur jesus wrote: I think the thing to keep in mind here is that Jeter doesn't know he's a bad shortstop--he probably thought he was just as good a fielder as ARod. And that being the case, obviously it was the new guy who had to change positions. And who won the Gold Glove that year? Derek! This was kind of my point; he no doubt thought he was acting in the best interest of the team. I don't see it as an act of "selfishness", at least not knowingly. And A-Rod wasn't being "magnanimous" ... he was a free-agent coming to NY on a mega-deal, so just wanted to cause as little backlash as possible. He wasn't going to be making position demands to displace the Yankee captain upon showing up. It was as much in his own interest as Jeter's actions seem.

I was talking about later on when there was a clearly better fielder available. (and not even a star-studded one) You mean the time when Beltran came back from injuries that cost him much of 2009 and 2010, rendering him so immobile he was no longer qualified for CF, and came back to play RF without making a fuss about the fact that the guy who had stepped in to play a GG-caliber CF while he was on the DL was permitted to stay there? You mean THAT situation? And you're comparing that to Jeter, healthy and in his prime, with no significant decline in his game, being unhappy about moving off the position he'd played at an All-star level his whole life, for a free agent who'd never played for his team before? ok. no. ...he's a regular guy who didn't want to move positions or support a teammate who happens to be a prick. And that was more important than winning. Now CF, I'm sure there must be examples of the type of selfless heroic act you describe somewhere in the history of the game (maybe some obvious examples that i'm not remembering at the moment, though the Beltran situation couldn't be less similar). But that he wasn't as extraordinarily heroic as the hacks make him out to be doesn't mean his wasn't exhibiting exactly the same behavior you would expect to see from any other athlete in that situation. And just because WE think the team would've been better off with A-Rod at SS doesn't mean HE believed it but demanded to play there anyway. In all likelihood, he saw himself as the best option at SS for the Yanks to continue winning championships. Didn't Cal Ripken do the same thing? Even when it was long past the time his 1-step range required him to move to 3b, he had his manager (his father, i think) penciling him in at SS anyway. Didn't he play everyday to break the record, even when days off probably would've improved his overall production? But Cal has been deified for the behavior you now condemn Jeter for. Look, i hate Captain Wonderful as much anybody, but lets stop inventing sins for a guy who has enough real ones to his credit.

I'm not sure there's any reason to decry the arbitrariness of the penalty against A-Rod. He has the most powerful union in America to help him appeal; he gets to play until the appeal is heard; if the appeals process works like the appeals process usually works in baseball, his suspension will be cut in half (to a number similar to everybody else's); and he has the right to take his case to a court beyond baseball if he's still not satisfied. This is all true, but it doesn't make Selig's arbitrary and vindictive actions any more justifiable. It just means A-Rod has the means to possibly overcome them, or at least put them up for scrutiny by fairer-minded arbiters. And I won't lose a dollop of sleep over A-Rod's treatment by MLB. If anybody deserves it, he does. But the point is nobody does deserve to be subject to this type of capricious authority, and Selig is just a hypocritical, venal, self-serving front-man for millionaires, trying to resuscitate his own reputation by burnishing it with moral outrage.

Centerfield wrote: Rodriguez was the reigning Gold Glove winner and ahead by the conventional defensive stats. There was no question slotting him in at short would have benefited the team. Jeter was selfish. Now, it may be human to not want to move positions for a douchebag, narcissistic cheater. I get that. But Jeter is just a guy. It's not fucking Saint Derek. I absolutely agree; and anything that offers criticism of saint derek i'm all for... But. He is a proud and arrogant athlete (which is redundant). And an all-star SS with his career to that point would naturally feel like the team is best served with him continuing in the position which helped the team win 4 championships. But it was not for him to decide who played SS for the Yanks. It was the manager's call. Saint Joe could've looked at the situation, seen that they were a better team with ARod at SS and asked (then demanded) Derek to move over (either to 3b or 2b). But it wasn't Derek's job to suggest it, volunteer to move, or even be happy about it. It was the Yanks' job to require it. So i have a hard time bashing Derek for THIS one. And i think writers, when they do want to criticize Derek (which is practically never) go to this one point. But its a bullshit point. If anything, it's a critique of Torre at the time, which writers are equally loathe to do.

.302/.464/.488/.953 since the break That's about 60 PAs, during which he's had 1 HR and 5 2B and 7 RBI. So, first of all, if this is the guy you're counting on to provided power to the middle of your lineup, you are good and truly fucked. Secondly, any projection or assessment of his future production or value based on such a limited sample size is foolish. But you did the same thing with Lagares in the other thread, where you said about his turnaround over the last month: Yeah, it's gone on a little too long for me to doubt now. Too long for doubt? No, he just had an excellent July. There's PLENTY of room for doubt.

when you see a sentence that begins with: This is not pop psychology to explain a man... ... Run, do not walk, for the exits before you are drowned in a deluge of bullshit.

Edgy MD wrote: Can you please speak to the relative short- and long-terminess of Young and Lagares? How long do you believe Young will be productive and why? How long Lagares and why? Yeah, i'm not sure i get that either. It's not like Young is old. He's 28, coming into the prime of his career, and we don't know his ceiling since he's never been given a full-time major league job, despite showing flashes in Colorado and here. Lagares is younger (24) with obvious physical tools, but his minor league production has not been extraordinary (too many Ks, not enough BBs or HRs or SBs), nor was his major league production impressive either, until about 2+ weeks ago. Sure, he has the upside of any 24-year old physically talented athlete, and i hope his current success continues, but i don't know at all that a guy who has had almost no experience above AA ball is going to have a superior career to an experienced 28-year old with some limited major-league success already to his credit.

i need SOMETHING to root for this year, and as a SBU alum, its not like we've got a bunch of pro athlete alums to cheer for. It's this guy and Joe Nathan, and that's pretty much it for the history of the school. Not only that, but Koehler is from New Rochelle, too... he went to my daughter's HS. And he's a native NYer. And he was born in the magical year of 1986. How can i not root for this guy? Can't i get like a special dispensation under these circumstances? I throw myself on the mercy of the court.

i'm actually surprised by Chen. When he was here, I never thought he'd amount to much, but he's not only managed to stay in the majors for the past 15 years, he's put up a few solid seasons (1 for the Os, 2 for KC). just shows to go ya.