Ceetar

I'm good with any uniform as long as it's utilizing the blue and orange in some fashion. (and white and black in various degrees obviously) The camo is the worst ever.

I'm excited, particularly by the Civil War stuff, which I was hoping for years ago. I'm about 4 movies behind on the Marvel stuff though, need to catch up. Wonder if they're on Amazon Prime..

I want a Lucas Duda growth chart.

Edgy MD wrote: I don't know all the rules. But I know the existence of the rules. And I know the spirit of the rules. And I know that they are anti-competitive and awful for baseball and the men and boys who play it. The nonsense that they get away with in NFL and NBA is far more offensive. the pinnacle is the NCAA of course.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Centerfield wrote: *Too many references to Beltran right? I know. I'm still trying to get over him. And I know it's especially wrong to bring him up in this thread. Like a guy who brings up his hot-but-pscho-ex-girlfriend-from-college at his wife's birthday party. I'm working my way through this. Give me time. It's okay, bud. Our group meets on alternate Thursdays in St. Nicholas' basement on Parsons. is there beer?

and what about ERIC CAMPBELL?

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Again, though... as a 19-year-old who's already held his own and then some for two years in the f*cking Serie Nacional (and dominated-- DOMINATED-- any and all lower levels at which he played), AND has projectable tools? If you don't blow the bank/take a budget-penalty for this guy-- at a position of need for the organization, no less-- well... why roll the dice on anyone, right? well, 'projectable tools' perhaps is up for debate? Maybe it's over-stated. maybe he won't be able to be a SS for long, as sometimes happens as guys get bigger. And you're still competing against 29 other teams, 3 of which don't also have the drawback of losing out on the next two crops of IFA by overpaying for him. Maybe there's another SS worth it on 7/2 that you can sign AND also sign a half dozen other guys that have projectable tools. maybe that's more worth it? Edgy MD wrote: Those rules are amazing. How do fans tolerate it? fans? I'd imagine the percentage of baseball fans that know the rules for international free agents, much less to that degree, is well less than 1%.

Edgy MD wrote: Sounds like a lot of X-factors involved in recruiting that guy. Quite a few. I'd still do it though, from a Mets standpoint. As I understand it.. It would likely mean they can't sign any of these impact/top international free agents in 2015/2016 though. At least if I'm understanding these draft pool rule/posts correctly. The drawback to that seems to be that you can blow the budget to sign guys all at once, but then you're penalized, and most of the IFA guys are 7/2 so if you sign Moncada you miss out on this year and over-paying for more than 1 impact type guy. AND the Rays, Yankees and Red Sox can still be in on Moncada because they're already over the limit and banned from 2015-2016 guys for more than $300,000. They're already penalized and therefore have nothing to lose (besides the money) to sign Moncada.

Frayed Knot wrote: Yeah, spare me from the 'Whatever it Takes' line of thinking. I sometimes think it's more like the 'Whatever it takes to get you to read my column' strategy as opposed to moves they believe in. Sometimes?

Frayed Knot wrote: Not to steer this thread away from the topic too far, but one problem with WAR is that it's an estimate (well thought-out or otherwise) that's too often treated as if stone-cold fact. (it's not as bad a QB-ratings, but along those same lines). That doesn't mean it should be ignored, only that I think it should be looked at more as a piece of an argument rather than as the end of one. As far as things go for our annual rankings deal here, while there aren't any rules as to how one comes up with a list, it's traditionally been one where the choices were yours that you could defend if challenged and/or be willing to change if convinced otherwise. Not sure if GWreck meant that WAR-iffic list as one he wants to submit as is or if it was included for informational/comparison purposes only, but it would seem counter to the spirit of this now 12 or 13 year long project if all folks did was look up certain stats and consider that as the final answer. I think a lot of it has to do with the faultiness of defensive stats. But yeah, estimates. a 6 WAR and a 5.5 WAR for instance doesn't say anything about which player is better, but generally the players with the best WAR do pass the eye test for being the best players in the league, so it's hard to say it's less 'wild guess' than James implies.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: I'm a little Steve Phillips on Pig myself. I think he's juicing and all that. If we are going to make a trade let's look at Justin Upton. The Braves would have to be pretty desperate to trade Upton to the Mets no? But I'd be okay with that.

yes, I want all that. The problem is I think the Dodgers downgrade Puig based on that stuff less than the Mets do.

I went deGrom Hamilton d'Arnaud

Do athletes, at least the better ones, have two trophy cases? One for the 'real' awards and one for the random ones? Little trophies and plaques for things like NL Players Choice can't go next to like, NL Cy Young can they? Same goes for movie stars. I bet they don't put their MTV awards next to their Oscars.

and if Papa Grande isn't #1, you're doing it wrong.

Edgy MD wrote: Stanton is reportedly in extension talks with the Marlins. He hits arbitration this offseason and has a second arbitrary year before being eligible for free agency. So it's conceivable that the Marlins could shop him if extension talks aren't fruitful. I'm concerned he may never be the same hitter after his season ended with a pitch to the face. Someone tell him to make sure the deal isn't backloaded.

Edgy MD wrote: Cuddyer gets a qualifying offer. Hmm. He might fall into that iffy "Stephen Drew" area where he's going to be looking for a decent paycheck and no one thinks he's worth both that and giving up a draft pick. Is he turning down 1/15 and settling for something like 2/20? I doubt it, and I'm not sure I like him at much more than that. Assuming he declines anyway.

Edgy MD wrote: Sorry to bust your balls. I shouldn't have interrupted when you were on the verge of a hat trick. Good luck quitting the joe. its alright. it's no worse then anything else. they're are worse crimes. d'Kong76 wrote: Why are you quitting coffee? more of a detox. I hate routine, and i hate that my morning required that I find and consume coffee. Caffeine doesn't have a huge effect on me, at least not consciously, but I was concerned it might be making me more jittery, a poorer sleeper, and perhaps even mentally fuzzy. Seems like most of those concerns were unfounded though, I just feel like i could use a cup of coffee and all the physical addiction factors should be gone by now. But I'd still rather it not dictate my morning, so I'm trying to break the mental routine of "Hey, i'm sitting at my desk in front of the computer and am tired of just water, what's another 0-calorie drink I could have?" that led to me guzzling the stuff.

Edgy MD wrote: Ceetar's crushing it on the they're/there/there distinctions today. Like he's a giant Russian hockey player checking English into the boards. Fock yoo, standardized written Eeenglish! I keel you!! I haven't had coffee in 2 weeks and I'm lazy and bored at work today. proofreading? bah.

d'Kong76 wrote: Tampering, schmapering... http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/rays/joe-maddon-agent-says-tampering-charge-sad-and-insulting/2204793 first contact was an email asking them to prove their was an opt out? That's sorta out of the blue if you hadn't mentioned to them that there was an opt out right? Sounds to me like everyone knew he was opting out with enough time to discuss it internally in preparation of him actually exercising the opt out. And asking for the contract terms is basically them saying "Hey, yeah, we're interested."

Edgy MD wrote: Ceetar wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: Seems that there's a little bit of off-the-record grumbling about the ethics of Maddon (seemingly) ready to jump into a job that's currently occupied. That there are only 30 of these hard to land jobs available, at least some are contending that it's bad form for Maddon to effectively bounce one of his fellow skippers out of the one that he just landed a year ago. Of course he also allowed someone to GET one of those coveted jobs, and one with an arguably better team. That's one way of looking at it. I don't think fellow managers will see it that way. Maybe not. Let them grumble, they're evaluation of their own self-worth is highly overstated. Perhaps they should think about WHY Maddon is coveted.

Frayed Knot wrote: Seems that there's a little bit of off-the-record grumbling about the ethics of Maddon (seemingly) ready to jump into a job that's currently occupied. That there are only 30 of these hard to land jobs available, at least some are contending that it's bad form for Maddon to effectively bounce one of his fellow skippers out of the one that he just landed a year ago. Of course he also allowed someone to GET one of those coveted jobs, and one with an arguably better team.

I know we need _someone_ and It'd be nice to get the top-tier talent type guys, but Kemp strikes me as one of those guys that's going to be overpaid to be merely decent and only somewhat healthy the rest of that contract. But I dunno, maybe that's enough for this team.

More a 5 really. Wright 3, Duda 4, LFer 5, Granderson 6 to do the L/R/L/R thing.

HahnSolo wrote: Bottom of the fifth, Infante leads off with a hit; he was the first batter faced by Bumgardner. Do you bunt Escobar there? Yost did, no one in the booth questioned it, despite it only being the fifth inning. I don't like it...I know it's Bumgardner, but maybe your best chance to get to him is before you let him get in a groove. The radio guys questioned it, criticized even. First time I've had the radio on for the postseason and was only for 30 minutes so I don't know which one it was. (I had to scan for ESPN radio. 970? )