Ceetar

Centerfield wrote: And I'm not saying we deserve more as Mets fans. But I do believe that every team owner has a responsibility to put winning first. nope. And I don't believe any team does either. I believe the Wilpons are utilizing more of the ancillary revenue towards debts both team-based and non (though who knows how the accounting goes, maybe it's all team debt) but I don't believe for a second that say the Dodgers are spending money out of their pockets towards the team.

Yankees are starting a 23 year old prospect with only 25 IP above A, with a 4.32 ERA in AA this season on Thursday. Yeah, it's the Rays, but like.. that's their best option? And they didn't want Matt Harvey?

Centerfield wrote: Ceetar wrote: So you hold the Mets to higher standards than other teams, because you perceive some sort of obvious advantage that may not be there, despite them arguably being the most successful expansion team. So it's okay to give too many PA to a bad player because they've over paid for other bad players or what? Shouldn't this make it worse? They've spent so much more and STILL are playing bad players at 2B? Their rotation might be in shambles. The Yankees also have no pitching depth. This is such a terrible set of arguments it's hard to know where to start. I can't believe someone can offer this in good faith. It read like it's meant to infuriate the other side. First off, why the arbitrary category of expansion team? Being the best expansion team is something nobody cares about. Secondly, it's not a perceived advantage. It is a documented, irrefutable advantage. The Mets play in NY. The largest market in the US. Before a single move is made, they start off with a tremendous head start over the majority of their competitors. It's clear as day that there is a difference between signing an aging veteran to be insurance for a loaded team, and signing an aging veteran to be a main cog. If you're going to have a discussion, you have to exert a minimum level of effort or else it's pointless for the other side. The Yankees, with their lack of pitching depth, are 7th in team ERA. While playing in the AL. The Mets are 16th. no of course no one cares about expansion teams, but it still represents more than half the teams. And it sounds more impressive than arbitrarily trying to rank what the 'best' franchises are (hint, the Mets still probably fall in top third or whatever). This woe is me being a Mets fan sucks stuff is tiresome. Another nebulous argument I'm also tired of is the documented advantage and what we 'deserve' as fans. Yes, we have more fans and money than most teams. Some of that is curbed by various financial decisions/cheapness/whatever. It's not like they're spending nothing Nor are they wallowing in last place for a decade. The Dodgers signed Utley to be a main cog, the Mets signed Gonzalez as insurance for a position they have a talented prospect at (who got hurt in Spring Training) and a talented prospect right behind him. The Mets clearly never intended Gonzalez to make it to midseason unless he was mashing. The Yankees, yes, on 6/12 are 7th in team ERA. They won't finish there. The depth issue is coming due now. They also lucked out with Sabathia being able to reinvent himself. You can credit their coaches with being able to help, but not all pitchers can do that. They've got depth issues. so do the Dodgers. Maybe they'll plug them successfully, but it's false to say the Mets decision to take flyers on guys like Gonzalez is a financial one or even a wrong one. The problems with Reyes are somewhat off the field ones, given that he had a reasonable second half last year it wasn't completely off base to think he could be a tolerable backup at multiple positions. It's just a cop out. you can look at most teams and find these retread type guys getting shots, and ending up with quite a few AB. unrelated to the quality of the team.

Mesoraco was dealing with somethign so they brought in the third catcher, he's over it, so away he goes. Now Cabrera is dealing with something, so you bring up the extra IFer. smart roster management.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Ceetar wrote: So you hold the Mets to higher standards than other teams, because you perceive some sort of obvious advantage that may not be there, despite them arguably being the most successful expansion team. So it's okay to give too many PA to a bad player because they've over paid for other bad players or what? Shouldn't this make it worse? They've spent so much more and STILL are playing bad players at 2B? Their rotation might be in shambles. The Yankees also have no pitching depth. You're right. The Wilpons are terrific. there exists gray areas. Adrian Gonzalez wasn't a bad flier, and showed some signs for a month or so. Hell, if it gave Smith the no-pressure situation to work on his game that he wouldn't have gotten up here? If there is any longterm value to that, Gonzalez paid off in spades.

41Forever wrote: De Grom, already the author of one of the best All-Star pitching performances, should be the NL starter! It's Scherzer at home unless his arm explodes.

So you hold the Mets to higher standards than other teams, because you perceive some sort of obvious advantage that may not be there, despite them arguably being the most successful expansion team. So it's okay to give too many PA to a bad player because they've over paid for other bad players or what? Shouldn't this make it worse? They've spent so much more and STILL are playing bad players at 2B? Their rotation might be in shambles. The Yankees also have no pitching depth.

or you could just bench Bruce period.

smg58 wrote: He's the only Met position player that has a chance of getting in, but DeGrom is a surer selection at this point. Nimmo should get selected as a reserve, as he's one of the best players in the league. If the Mets would score some runs so he gets more than 4 PA a game he'll show up on the leaderboards soon too.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: I wouldn't put anybody on that team unless they played for the Wilpons, who seek these players as desperate hail Marys because they can't spend like a NYC team ought to. Berra and A-Gone just don't belong in the same category. It ain't right. Nobody else signs these guys. nobody. The Dodgers definitely didn't acquire Chase Utley and keep re-signing him. The Rangers definitely didn't sign the aged and bad last year Bartolo Colon. The Indians definitely haven't given 111 PA to the facsimile of Rajai Davis.

smg58 wrote: I'm a little concerned that Smith is still dealing with his injury. The power just doesn't seem to be there right now, and you don't expect a 22-year old playing in Las Vegas to lose the pop in his bat for no reason. I'd proceed with caution with him. But, I do agree that Gonzalez is showing us nothing, and I'm getting fed up with our defense giving runs to the other team. I said it in the Gonzalez thread but here as well, I think there's a reasonable chance that the Mets specifically told Smith to work on his plate discipline. So while the overall offensive numbers aren't great, the BB% is. (11.3% in the minors, would be 43rd of 161 or so in the majors) And with the juiced ball in the majors the SLG difference between the PCL and the MLB isn't that stark. So come up, wait for your pitch, and mash it. I guess that's the next step in the development, but if he can pull of even a .350/.400 obp/slg it'll be a huge boost to the offense over Gonzalez, and will even compensate if we lose Cabrera.

Nymr83 wrote: Edgy MD wrote: I'm certain that if he was pinned down, Alderson could defend Reyes' far lower stat line as more redeemable than Gonzalez', citing advanced metrics like chase rate and exit velocity and BABIP. He's certainly still on the clock. Reyes also has "ability to play multiple positions capably, if no longer well" which is a pretty in-demand skill on a team that insists on carrying a short bench. I'd still cut him, but his presence is far more defensible than Gonzalez's from that perspective This literally means nothing though. Like, you could literally put Kevin Plawecki at SS and he'd know to go pick up the balls near him and throw to whether the runner is going. Or Jose Bautista. Or like, Robert Gsellman. There is an entire minor league system of guys that could do what Reyes is doing that you could also just cut afterwards because they're like 28 year old minor leaguers.

It'll be Wheeler. They're rearranging the rotation. No word on if that's pushing Vargas back to game 3 or 5 of this road trip.

smg58 wrote: I think if Cabrera is OK, then Reyes goes when Flores is ready. Hell, if Cecchini weren't also the DL, Reyes would have been gone a while ago. Everybody else drops, and the guy with the .400 OPS who's no better with the glove stays healthy. oh yeah, I mentally already had dismissed Lobaton and thought they DL'd Cabrera for Ty. But still, if it's some sort of back up-back up SS reason they're keeping Reyes, that's dumb.

I liked the Gonzalez flyer and there was a lot to like in the metrics in April (hard hit rate, squaring up the ball, hitting it harder, etc), but all that vanished over the last couple of weeks. My conspiracy theory/guess here is that Dominic Smith was sent to Vegas to work on his plate discipline, something he did wondrously. I wouldn't worry too much about the overall numbers in AAA this year. Just hope now that he's up he doesn't abandon it and he starts mashing mistakes and taking his walks. He could theoretically make up for the loss of Cabrera offensively.

cooby wrote: Okay someone is hiding something. This is preposterous if all he did was strain a finger nah, it's just bodies are stupid and don't always heal the way you expect them to heal. And sometimes things that seem minor have a lurking underlying cause that's more sever, which is what we're hoping to avoid here. Hoping it's just strained and healing slowly and not some insidious nerve damage.

guys, I doubt the Mets are going to trade Ramos to the Yankees before this series starts.

I think they should call up Smith too, and should've, but I disagree that Gonzalez has no point.

What this illustrates is roughly nothing. If they'd kept more guys they'd be criticized for not making enough moves to keep competitive over a changing landscape, and if they'd kept less they'd be too cheap to retain assets. It's just an interesting factoid.

There are 78 guys that have switch hit this year. There was 82 in 1980.

smg58 wrote: Asdrubal Cabrera and Jose Reyes, off the top of my head. I'd be curious to see if somebody has done any sort of study on whether there's been any sort of trend in the number of switch-hitters. They mentioned it on the Effectively Wild podcast recently, did a split by decade. It's not declining or anything from what I remember.

I wonder if I can convince the wife to do bedtimes..

I know I've been saying this, but the Mets are extremely due. the offense IS actually better than this. They WILL hit. Would be a nice time to wake up and start that 8-4 streak they need to get back into respectability with a sweep.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: I'm telling you guys, they're waiting for David Wright to replace him. It's a weird Met thing. Ceetar deserves credit for this great idea but I'm acting like it's mine. David threw hard from 60 feet or something yesterday, so..

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Newsday says Mets are considering releasing Jose. https://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/mets/mets-considering-releasing-jose-reyes-source-says-1.19011938 That's almost definitely sourced, without citing it, from Mike Puma's tweet which is sketchy at best about the reasons they haven't.