Ceetar

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: antitrust exemption won;t allow a team in New Jersey even though it probably would work as a thing. Certainly couldn't hurt keeping Mets feet to the fire. I am in favor of Tampa losing their team; they don't support it and they were stupid to have built that ugly stadium in the first place. Would like to have another reason to visit Montreal. antitrust makes any expansion a tricky conversation in many cases.

I don't really believe that Montreal has baseball fever beyond a small subset. Strongly favor a team in NWish Jersey though.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Ceetar wrote: Edgy MD wrote: I tend to think they have a succession plan firmly in place, and if and when Fred dies, we who survive him will hardly notice the change � at least for the first two years until Jeff decides to send his team on a 2005-like shopping spree. I mean, Jeff Wilpon is already the higher-profile executive and has been for some time. A more interesting question to me is who is Sandy's successor-in-waiting � Ricciardi, DePodesta, or somebody else. I think more interesting is what the Fred Wilpon patch the Mets will wear all season will look like. You could win twitter -- and probably an eternity in hell -- by conducting a design contest now. I almost want to do that. it's an off day after all. It'd ruffle enough feathers to make a whole new bird.

Edgy MD wrote: I tend to think they have a succession plan firmly in place, and if and when Fred dies, we who survive him will hardly notice the change � at least for the first two years until Jeff decides to send his team on a 2005-like shopping spree. I mean, Jeff Wilpon is already the higher-profile executive and has been for some time. A more interesting question to me is who is Sandy's successor-in-waiting � Ricciardi, DePodesta, or somebody else. I think more interesting is what the Fred Wilpon patch the Mets will wear all season will look like.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Not to be ghoulish or nothing but you figure when Fred goes there will be some shuffling around. More likely that the Chapter 11 everyone has been waiting for. My understanding was Jeff was mostly running things at this point anyway, but yeah, there definitely will be some of that. I wouldn't expect anything to be particularly different. One rich guy much the same as the next rich guy. The "refinancing" of executives. Some shiny new titles for some, different roles for others.

hey, I hope the Mets win this one!

Never. Selling.

Frayed Knot wrote: I went to one of the first (think it was THE first actually) NYM/Balt inter-league series weekend at Camden a bunch of years back. Two games back to back IIRC. The locals -- not just at the park but also waitresses, cabbies, hotel folk, etc. -- seemed both surprised and a bit overwhelmed by the number of Met fans in for the weekend but also agreed we were much better "invaders" than were Yanqui fans. Me too. Think it was two times ago for me when I was there. It was part of a week where the Yankees and Red Sox also visiting and the Mets scored a billion runs and it felt like tons of Mets fans. I imagine CY felt weird for the home team that whole week.

Edgy MD wrote: I got no room in the discussion for Scherzer. It doesn't really _mean_ anything, but the no hitter is going to play in his favor too.

It's gotta be Conforto for the week I think. Lagares has options too but better defense/CF. Flores doesn't have options. Surprised how much Conforto has picked it up in the last week or so. his numbers are now decent. But it's not like he's carrying anyone, and we've got plenty of outfielders.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: In a race this close the thing that might matter is the team's performance. I know its not supposed to count but you figure in a close call if Greinke's Dodgers or deGrom's Mets go all the way -- or a maybe-likely matchup between them goes one way or the other in the playoffs, then that could carry the vote. The votes go in before the playoffs don't they? This might eliminate Scherzer but most of the other guys are gonna make it.

RkPlayerDateTmOppHR1Lucas Duda2015-07-29NYMSDP32Kirk Nieuwenhuis2015-07-12NYMARI33Curtis Granderson2015-08-18NYMBAL24Curtis Granderson2015-08-08NYMTBR25Lucas Duda2015-08-01NYMWSN26Lucas Duda2015-07-25NYMLAD27Curtis Granderson2015-06-07NYMARI28Lucas Duda2015-05-27NYMPHI29Lucas Duda2015-05-21NYMSTL2 10Anthony Recker2015-05-14NYMCHC2 Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used Generated 8/19/2015.

It's mostly cherry picking, they're all so close. Scherzer is right there too. So is Arrieta. And if the Mets manage deGrom's innings I think that hurts him. Being awesome for 20 more IP counts for something.

Edgy MD wrote: Look for me in Section 76, Row 12, Seat 19. I looked it up. It's the second section into fair territory on the field level to the right of the left field flag pole. Not the section with the pole, the next one. Right at the curve of the stadium. (the last one still sorta slanted left) There are 23 rows in the section, so look smack dab in the middle. seat 19 is on the CF side of the section. It's the aisle seat. No other tickets (As of this moment) have been sold for that row. Most of the section behind him should be empty. Most in front, full. Sections 70 and 72, so just two sections away, into foul territory, is the 7 Line Army.

Look for The7Line shouting down the Orioles fans.

no, it doesn't, you just choose to argue a different point. Guy who had had tests as recently as the offseason and or a few months ago is struggling to pitch. Is he a headcase or is there something that's not showing up. Just so we're clear, if I'm wrong, you're saying Montero's mostly a headcase here and not hurt?

nope, and again this isn't really about Maine, who they'd already run tests on and found nothing. He'd struggled all season. There was plenty of chatter about removing him from the rotation as it was. The doctors and tests said he was healthy and he's at risk of losing his job. Whether or not he was actually feeling pain/soreness/whatever (which there is no way the Mets weren't aware of, given trainers and treatments and what not) is really irrelevant. He was going to go out there and pitch. It's a totally different thing than a guy already shut down and in rehab. (and that's STILL on management. You either shut him down if you think something's wrong to the point of no velocity in warm-ups/earlier, or you give him more than a batter to hang himself with) You're only talking about the point where the discussion came to a head, forgetting that there were months of fits and starts in regards to Maine's performance and arm that night. That lack of a plan was part of why Manuel's the worst Mets manager I've ever watched. He managed that night like John Maine's condition was a total surprise and yanked him with basically no plans beside "get him out of here" . I wouldn't be surprised of Warthan said he shouldn't go and was overruled. His comment might very well have been a cover for that.

no, actually, what happened is exactly as I describe, there was an injury that was discovered medically after repeated attempts to pitch. I'm suggesting that just because what the Mets have looked at so far doesn't show an obvious injury, doesn't mean there isn't one and that that's a much more logical hypothesis than he's a headcase. I cited one example. It happens all the time though, in non-sports situations as well. Doctors miss things, the human body is complicated. One person's minor hip injury is another's degenerative hip condition.

It was referenced as a previous deal. It was talking about the perceived surplus value of a reliever when you called him a 'closer' and how Beane had basically taken an ordinary reliever and given him saves and made him that much more value. Market inefficiency, so to speak. relevant passage:

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: http://nypost.com/2015/08/17/mets-writing-off-rafael-montero-after-latest-setback/ I keep reading how the Mets find nothing structurally wrong, he's still complaining of discomfort, and fans (and some management) are questioning his head. Am I the only one reminded of J.R. Richard here? The Mets kept finding nothing wrong with John Maine to the point of calling him a liar, turned out they needed to do a different type of MRI and he'd been injured all along. That's not an accurate description of what happened. The club suspected he was hurting, but Maine repeatedly denied it. he DID have (at least) two tests that found nothing. He did the opposite of what Montero did, in that he ignored it because otherwise you get speeches from your manager about manning up.

dgwphotography wrote: http://nypost.com/2015/08/17/mets-writing-off-rafael-montero-after-latest-setback/ I keep reading how the Mets find nothing structurally wrong, he's still complaining of discomfort, and fans (and some management) are questioning his head. Am I the only one reminded of J.R. Richard here? The Mets kept finding nothing wrong with John Maine to the point of calling him a liar, turned out they needed to do a different type of MRI and he'd been injured all along.

MFS62 wrote: I agree. The third part of the solution: Don't (automatically? ritualistically?*) replace the reliever if he is pitching well. Save the arms of the other guys in the pen. Later * Fie on you, Tony LaRussa. The trick here is to replace the reliever BEFORE he pitches badly, not wait until he does. It's a fine line, and a tricky one. I'm heard a lot of people say Josh Smoker is pretty much a given to get a callup by September.

TransMonk wrote: Would the Nats really fire their manager with six weeks left in the season while their team is still in the hunt? I know the Nats have under-performed this season, but a shake-up like that seems risky. certainly seems like this is a story because someone needs something to write about in this post-deadline period before we round that final turn where things get really interesting. *checks* Nope, Steinbrenner does not own the Nats. I'd be all for giving up Backman though, ask the Nats for a low-A prospect type back.

fleecing the Mets with Taylor was a key point in Moneyball.

Zvon wrote: So he gets to say that without any details as to what or why? Sports Journalism 101, best way to get page views for your morning post.