Ceetar

27 hours to play a game and fly to San Francisco isn't super bad.

I just dropped all my stupid AL guys. Everyone else hold off while I scoop up the fun players.

almost like they know they need pitching but weren't willing to pony up.

Where's Conforto.

still need more pitching. I know many expected a bit of an August slog after the shortened season last year, perhaps Walker, Stroman, etc are hitting a little bit of a wall. Hopefully they can get that straightened out, and deGrom can come back 'healthy'. Maybe Carrasco getting a late start will end up mean he's cruising in October, but post-trade deadline you'd like to have a little more certainty on what the rotation is. A month or so ago we were riding high that as long as disaster didn't strike, you had deGrom, Stroman, Walker all just cruising with guys like Megill as a great wildcard and the possibility of Carrasco and Thor returning and being backups or long relievers or whatever you needed in the playoffs. Now we're not even sure who'd start in the NLDS.

cough cough, whatcha drinking?

There are guys out there that might sign for 1.5 million that won't sign for .5. You're trying to convince these guys NOT to go to college, not to return to college, that sort of thing. You draft a rawer player in pick 4 or 5, okay if you lose him if Rocker signs, but if not you've got this other guy that maybe you can now entice away. Most teams can't sign a 5th rounder to a million over cap or whatever, but if you're punting your first pick that you budgeted that money to, you've got that opportunity. ALL their other picks were based on the budget and expectation of their bonus requests. Budgeting that money to Rocker means they targeted other guys more likely to sign for less, or with less negotiating power. MOST teams spent the maximum 105% of their cap money without penalty. The Mets were way under.

Even if we ignore the "humans as commodities" thing and pretend that "Let's just draft someone else next year" isn't extremely subjective, they still pissed away the overcap money, meaning they drafted a guy without seeing his medicals WITHOUT a plan in place should they not like them. They clearly weren't prepared NOT to sign him. Being surprised about it is no excuse, that's their job. See also: Sandy's quote about being surprised what pitching went for at the traded deadline (this year, previous years, you pick, he says the same thing every time. He's a grouchy old man complaining about prices these days, and it shows) It's inarguable that they were unprepared.

Rocker would start tomorrow somewhere if he was on a team. He'd take the ball and pitch. MAYBE the Mets read the medicals as him being a risk (but a sure failure? that's almost never how medicals work, and it's not like the Mets docs are 100% here) but they knew he didn't submit his info AND they knew he was asking for overslot, which seems unlikely if he was worried about something showing. But even if the Mets were all fine there, they still didn't hedge there bets with that information and have a few other draftees that they could use the (overslot) money earmarked for Rocker on perhaps a better prospect that wanted more money. i.e. some lower guy that would sign for 1.5 but not .5. If you lose that guy because Rocker signs, fine. Instead they pissed it away.

=batmagadanleadoff post_id=73144 time=1627864255 user_id=68] =Ceetar post_id=73142 time=1627864046 user_id=102]And where did they discover this information in a scant few weeks?

Frayed Knot wrote: =Ceetar post_id=73139 time=1627863214 user_id=102] It makes no sense, it is dumb and yet another example of how confused this front office is. It makes a whole lot of sense if they have reason to think he's damaged goods.

well, they should extend Conforto. There's no reason to think a pick a year from now is going to help the Mets MORE than having Rocker now. It makes no sense, it is dumb and yet another example of how confused this front office is.

he's a smidge above league average at run creation this year.

=kcmets post_id=73021 time=1627697746 user_id=53] First place, slip slidin' away...

Cubs are throwing in cash too.

This is better than Guillorme, but like, when Lindor is back this does NOT help the run creation portion of it. Feels like they went for splashy over quality.

Williams is at least a live arm I guess? I mean, I was hoping for someone _good_ maybe there's still time.

Might not be anyone left when Sandy and Steve wake up.

Realmuto or Springer though..

hell of a lot better than just the bland 'rays' who play inside most of the time, out of the rays of the sun.

The Devil Rays were great. this is not. I received a book rec and a gutter email since the name announcement for Guardian. If you read a headline that didn't use baseball terminology, you might think it was a security company, insurance, or any of the other billion uses of the word. "Hell, Guardians break down in Anaheim" could be about the Disneyland ride or a baseball game. Who knows? The guardians themselves aren't even unique to Cleveland. They're Assyrian Kings. How many representations of them do you think there have been over the last 3000 or so years? The name is fine, if boring, as long as the fans are fine with it. But using the same color scheme, practically the same font and lettering and all that reeks of capitulating to public pressure, not actually trying to distance oneself from racist iconography. And certainly doing so without even mentioning the reason. It's so similar to the current scheme that you can barely tell. Most teams have alternates that differ more than that. The existence of the team playing ballgames is like 99% of the continuity. "We gotta ease up on deviating too much from the racist look because this is how we looked in 1940 and we gotta respect that" is mindnumbly stupid. Have some guts and creativity. But nothing's stopping them from continuing to alter it, even for next season. Hopefully they do so, and start establishing a new identity, because this one is little more than the same thing with the word 'censored' in front of the offensive parts and pretending that's enough. Anyway, Braves, Chiefs, Blackhawks, et al, you're up.

just depth move to replace some of the guys they've lost to roster crunch. not much else to this probably.

=Marshmallowmilkshake post_id=72433 time=1627095444 user_id=119] Nobody loves traffic. But they like really cool, massive sculptures that are identified with their cities. You don't make sense sometimes.

=Marshmallowmilkshake post_id=72378 time=1627069805 user_id=119] I've heard people in Cleveland are tired of the rock and roll motif.