Ceetar

The real worry of falling to division 2 would be wasting bullets in ace pitchers and the like. You have this really good team that comes together and you're wasting it on division 2. Or it comes together second half but it's not quite enough to take over first. Maybe you'd have a shot in the playoffs if it were MLB, but it's not, you come in second, and not you have a juggernaut next year but maybe by the time it steamrolls 2 it's worn out and the year after it's not as good in MLB and you don't get anything for it. Not to mention that Division 2 is going to be almost by definition lesser in both revenue and value. How do you escape that? You're never signing the big MLB free agents. Are we keeping the draft? You kind of have to, or you're never signing the big prospects either. The only hope is to draft the right prospects and hope the right mix of aging veteran Quad-A guys get you first place so that you can afford to pay them when you get promoted. But it would take time for the revenue streams to return unless we're doing extreme revenue sharing so that might not even be enough. Essentially you're getting the same AAA system as now except the teams actually care and try to win at all costs instead of focusing on developing the prospects.

Have you guys not watching the Mets in 15 years? Not knowing what a Reyes run is feels like not knowing who Kevin Burkhardt is.

The only way I see them pulling off relegation is by giving us a long time to get used to the idea and prepare. like, take those 18 new teams and make them the B league. Say in 2018. The winners of that league in 2018 and 2019 get promoted to the 32 team MLB for 2020. Then in 2020 you start swapping up/down with whatever rules you decide. is it 1 up 1 down? or two division of 8 and each winner goes up?

Frazier is..not great.. He had that one year where he was real good and it seems to have colored (mine included) opinions of him. But whenever I look him up.. subpar OBP, though he's one of the guys that got better and lost power in a juiced ball era, dunno how to feel about that either. (A couple of his doubles went for home runs but he hit fewer balls hard) Good defense though.

41Forever wrote: So, all those writers citing sources about who the Mets were looking at were basically pulling stuff out of their butt. But hey, when you are citing unnamed sources, it's easy to be wrong. Luckily for them, it wasn't really about right/wrong, but about clicks. Happening to glimpse a missed called on Alderson's cell from "Ventura, R" would be enough for a 7-part breakdown of Ventura's chances as the Mets manager.

I have no interest in the promotion/relegation thing.

always fun to laugh at the slow decay of print media. prediction: deGrom is on the winning cover.

d'Kong76 wrote: Is Lenny Dykstra out of jail? yes I believe he was "me too"ing someone just the other day on Twitter.

Nothing wrong with new teams. I'd kinda welcome them. How we align them is a different story.

Mets Willets Point wrote: And the odds of a crappy team winning a weak division go up. I suspect baseball would be okay with this though, as it'd make it easier for one player to shine through, carry a team, and be 'marketable'.

my argument is that there are a myriad of ways to improve your team, and sometimes the best 'assessment' of who is the best fit isn't one that needs/can be bought. What if Sandy learns about a MI guy that can play second who's available for trade, or what if the answer is Otani, or.. more specifically, what if the answer IS Lagares and not Cain. You have to actively not spend money to make that happen.

Sure, but the reason they did/didn't get cancer is perhaps unrelated to smoking. And it's your job to figure out which one's going to get cancer. Simply being like "Cain doesn't smoke!" doesn't actually give you a better shot at winning if he's baking in the sun 8 hours a day getting sunburnt or something. What I'm saying is that money is one part of it but it sometimes reduces to zero in the winning equation. This is especially true when it comes to relief pitching.

Centerfield wrote: Smoking increases your chance of cancer. Wearing seat belt increases your chance avoiding injury. Spending increases your chance of winning. These likelihoods apply every year, no matter the results. If you never smoke and have a few packs in 2018 it's unlikely you'll get cancer in 2018. If you stop smoking now you still have an elevated risk of cancer in 2018. You could sign Lorenzo Cain and have him preform worse than Juan Lagares would've in a different timeline where you don't sign him.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/play-index/event_finder.cgi?request=1&year=2007&year_to=2017&id=ellsbja01&divisory=1&from=button&type=b&event=17 He's never had a CI with no strikes. 14 behind in the count, 9 even, 8 ahead. 5/31 of the times his team has had more than a one run lead. 19 of the times his team wasn't winning. It's most often on the 4th pitch. Only 7 have come before that. It's not conclusive in my eyes, but certainly suggestive.

well, to be honest, it was never really about the travel. That's why there's taxi squads. No one shows up to the park and suddenly goes on the DL unless they were expecting the possibility and then you bring a guy over early just in case anyway. The park itself and the conditions for pitchers in the PCL were undoubtedly of bigger concern.

According to Travelocity for a random Tuesday there are 3 direct flights from Syracuse to LGA. ~6, 10, and 2. Technically those are all too early for a 'day of' callup if someone shows up to the stadium for the night game and is broken and getting DLd. Of course you could always send them to JFK, it's not like it's that much farther. Of course, Buffalo isn't better in terms of 'direct to LGA' Mets should call up sponsor Delta and try to get a 3:30 SYR-LGA flight on the books. Offer 'em a banner ad in the Syracuse stadium.

d'Kong76 wrote: Airplanes? Let 'em take the bus, it's the minors! they can take the bus back to AAA, but I'd like the call-ups to get to Queens pronto! You know, I wonder if there's tangible value in how close Citi is to LaGuardia.

I don't know what the flights are like from Syracuse or if it matters, but I'd imagine there are more from Buffalo giving you a little more flexibility in getting players here. That's minor though but perhaps you could find another place with a better flight schedule if you really wanted.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: The Mets plan to talk to the Nationals about the 2018 season after the Nationals are done playing. I doubt anything will come of that. I dunno, the Nats are broke and cheap. You might be able to toss 'em a few bucks and make them go to Vegas.

I'd root Dodgers over Nats. Granderson + just wanting the team that beat us to lose as a rule. I don't really have anything against the Cubs winning again either. Favorite is still Beltran's Astros though.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Nobody here is rooting for The Murph? no.

Stras 1-2-3 on 16 pitches. let's see how long he can go before the drugs wear off.

Man, only the disfunctional Mets could screw up a game 4 starter situation this badly. Strasburg apparently IS starting now. Were the Nats shamed into starting him? Is he going to literally pass out on the mound? only time will tell.

I don't think 2017 does so much. It was injuries more than sucking, so the 'hype' of 2018 should still be there. Thor. Conforto. etc. If you're not "bleh, I don't even know if I'm gonna watch in 2018" maybe you skip, but hope Springs eternal right? so if you're excited for the season and Spring Training's your thing, i imagine you still go.

I wonder if Thor declines again this year, or just rolls with it off a lost season.