Ceetar

The Yankees also save a bit of HR milestone markers. (guess that's only $30 total, and unlikely he hits the last markers now) Alex isn't going to quietly disappear this season, even if the suspension is as stands. I am surprised they didn't reduce it a little, beyond the time he played while appealing though. He's sounding a little like Canseco did when insisting steroids were rampant about the contract guarantees for future CBAs but that might have been the players association sticking in a first volley too. Wonder if ESPN is thinking of hiring A-Rod for the season, that'd be kind of amusing.

Seems unlikely A-Rod walks with NO suspension, but even 50 games would save them $8 million.

Dontrelle Willis just signed elsewhere actually. The Yanks sign youngling Matt Thornton, 37, a declining LOOGY to a 2/$7 million deal it looks like.

Blue Jays must still be paying him some too right? I saw someone mention that if he gets picked up he'll be getting paid by 4 teams.

Frayed Knot wrote: Vernon Wells designated for assignment by the Yanx in order to clear roster space. Wells, 35, is due a $21 million salary in 2014 although the largest share of that is being paid by the Angels. I hope this is just housekeeping and not a sign of impending Tanaka.

G-Fafif wrote: Gwreck wrote: -Larry Rocca votes for Trammell, Raines, Jack Morris and Hideo Nomo. Rocca followed Bobby V to the Chiba Lotte Marines as his Jay Horwitz, so maybe there's something about Nomo's role as a pioneer in the US that appealed to him. That's the only reason I can come up with for any vote for Nomo, two no-hitters and fantastic rookie season notwithstanding. But why he'd omit Maddux is a mystery (unless he was protecting the 98.84% legacy, in which case, what a great voter!). He explained on facebook and someone tweeted. Nomo he felt because he came from Japan and was a pioneer and presumed clean, by him, that that's good. Glavine and Maddux on the other hand, those bums, didn't use their connections to clean up the game, so as guilty as everyone else that played during that time.

why don't we have pictures of David's wedding, besides the likely Turner one? Good for Bobby. was assumed he'd be fine but good that he's been cleared.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Don't tell anybody I said this but the admission price, even tough I'm sure it accurately reflects the cost of putting the thing on, and the organizers will likely take a bath, etc etc etc is way too high. You think so? In relation to what's going on, or just in general for an offseason get together type thing?

Edgy MD wrote: Ceetar wrote: More people will sell their votes. anonymously. Why do you say this? It's an amazing contention. did you read the deadspin article? Where it mentions that they had other conversations with other voters that didn't quite work out and that they intend to do this again?

There have been a billion suggestions to make it better including things like getting rid of the integrity clause expanding the ballot past 10 because sometimes there are more than 10 guys having the right to vote expire, or limit it to active guys at least. Finding a different group to vote, or at least a more inclusive group. firmly defining how to treat "PEDs" That the Deadspin ballot reflected guys that, statistically, are real Hall of Famers suggests that the process is not hard and that if the writers were actually unbiased observers, like I imagine was expected when they were given the vote, things would go smoother. Sure, it had it's own problems. Bagwell way too low, undecided on PEDs, but for the most part it seems better thought out, reflects more people. (and people that would actually got to the Hall for fun) I suspect if you took the 10 they voted for versus the 75% vote getters there you sorta have the big hall vs small hall debate. More people will sell their votes. anonymously. I don't think people would be as fed up with the hall if the class was Maddux, Thomas, Glavine, Piazza, Biggio as 75% of Deadspin suggested. some gnashing over Bagwell getting robbed, and the steroids stuff that's not exclusive to this process, but that's it. And if you expanded it to their 10 guys? I think the only people upset would be the small Hall folk, and only a little, since all those guys are qualified.

Frayed Knot wrote: He's not merely polling the fans, he's abdicating his vote. The vote is an earned privilege and if his idea of using that vote is to give it away to someone else in some sort of childish protest against how things are set up then, yeah, I'd take it away from him. Like I said, it's not like the guy doesn't have SEVERAL nationals forums to air views if he wants to lobby for changes. if by abdicating you mean binding, sure. If they told him to vote for Jack Morris he would've. The whole point is that the "earned privilege" thing is bs. So many have abused said privilege and so many others deserve it and don't get it for whatever reason. Modernize or die out. I think it's very enlightening, and something that would not have gotten nearly the attention it did if he just campaigned on his own forums. Plenty of people did that too, but to give it up to the fans, and pretty snarky ones at that, and have them actually cast a legitimate ballot and one of the better ones? They're in a sticky situation now though. Even if they try to revoke his vote that sets the stage for revoking other votes and modernizing the whole process by kicking out people that don't follow the sport anymore. But it also opens the door to selling votes for real in the future for similar reasons. And there is really nothing they can do about it because if this guy didn't agree to have his name known, they'd never have known who did it.

Frayed Knot wrote: The thing is, if LeBatard is abdicating his vote in some sort of attempt to make a point about the balloting process (assuming that's what he's doing) it's a shame that he doesn't have a national radio program, a national television program, and a newspaper column to lobby for those changes. Oh wait, he has all of those!! I'd take his ballot away if I were the BBWAA. for polling the fans, the people who are the ones that are supposed to come and celebrate the hall, to make his selections?

Edgy MD wrote: Edgy MD wrote: Creatine was a legal over-the-counter dietary supplement. Whatever its merits and demerits, it's far from the same category as HGH. I imagine everybody was using it. I imagine most everybody probably still is. Well, Androstenedione is a little more than Creatine, but also was legal and basically over the counter too no? How many team trainers probably swore by the stuff? especially for power guys? Andro is meaningfully different. I don't know how how many trainers swore by the stuff. How many do you know of? well, Piazza admitted to it was why I mentioned it. I was just speculating that it seemed fairly rampant (Bonds and McGuire both took it too I think) among the slugger type. I suspect when creating workout routines, it was probably a popular suggestion from trainers, guys like Greg Anderson. But maybe that's only the sleezy trainers that will do whatever you want, not the ones that are telling you about how that stuff's bad for you. What do I know? here's an interesting article from '99. http://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/11/sports/baseball-andro-hangs-in-a-quiet-limbo.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm Critics of baseball's stance believe that the sport's failure to act aggressively against the use of androstenedione in part has been influenced by a reluctance to diminish McGwire's record. Actually, the Piazza quote is in there too, and matches what he said in the book. Mike Piazza of the Mets said he tried andro several years ago, but found it ''overrated'' and gave it up. Here's Tony Gwynn (hey, he's in the Hall of Fame ain't he?) suggesting that maybe in a pinch the pros outweight the cons. ''We have discussions about this all the time,'' Gwynn said. ''What if it's the last year of your contract and you feel you're not playing well? With the kind of money out there, could creatine or andro or steroids make a difference in your play? And if you only take them one year to prolong your career, would it really be dangerous to your health?''

Edgy MD wrote: Creatine was a legal over-the-counter dietary supplement. Whatever its merits and demerits, it's far from the same category as HGH. I imagine everybody was using it. I imagine most everybody probably still is. Well, Androstenedione is a little more than Creatine, but also was legal and basically over the counter too no? How many team trainers probably swore by the stuff? especially for power guys?

Frayed Knot wrote: FWIW, Nine different NY Post writers have ballots (Nine? ... who knew?) and they made them all public. Don Burke? Ken Davidoff Mark Hale Kevin Kernan Joel Sherman George King Mike Puma Steve Serby (Really? .... I've never seen him deal with anything but football) Mike Vaccaro Six of them filled out the full complement of ten names, with the others going 8, 7 & 5 All nine went for both Maddux & Glavine. Eight each checked off Piazza & Thomas. Bonds appeared on Seven. Biggio & Clemens on six each. That's actually surprisingly high given the quality of the paper. wow.

Personally I think that the amount of playing time has to be a significant consideration. For better or worse, those who did get the ABs and the IPs are the guys who made up the bulk of the 2013 Mets and devaluing them (by over-valuing part-timers) because we wish someone else was in there instead I believe at least partially mis-applies the goal of this little project. Also, just as a general idea, I find projecting small samples as a sign of what a given player would have done if granted more playing time is a bit too faulty and speculative. With Mejia in particular, there's only so much impact one can have with just 5 mid-season starts including the last one when he was pulled after the 3rd inning never to return for the season. Is there an internet symbol for rolls eyes 10 times with projectile vomit that travels farther than an R.A. Dickey fastball? 8-)8-)8-)8-)8-)8-)8-)8-)8-)8-)===

This is code. It means The expected value for Davis now coupled with his price is less than the expected value teams think they get can from what's available in other ways before the season starts, including the possibility that the Mets choose to save Ike's salary by releasing him. There's a whole lot of difference between being willing to give a guy a shot and willing to part with something to give a guy a shot. It's just one end of the game of chicken Sandy's playing. Sandy says they might play him, other teams say they don't need him. They claim they'll get him later, Sandy claims he'll hit 40 HR. Your guy sucks, but I'll give him a try for (peanuts). Are you kidding? This guy's going to bounce-back like crazy, you should've seen his swings in the cage earlier last week. Better get him before someone else does.

Edgy MD wrote: Shouldn't really be anything awkward about it. Ruby can be weird about drama. he's hardly the first place to have trade talks surface and not be traded. Or to have bad things said about him and not be traded. And 'bulk of the early season time' is silly because A. I doubt Collins has decided on 2 weeks worth of Spring Training line ups in early January, and B. with split squads and the general 3-4 innings played early on, there's plenty of time for Ike, Duda, Satin and a score of others.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I was at a Cyclones game in 2009 where there were seven different people or groups throwing out the first pitch. Not all at once, but one after another. The seventh person to do so was actually throwing out the seventh pitch, but no one seemed to acknowledge that. the Mets tend to stick to one except for special occasions, but last time i was at a Yankees game they did 2 or 3. That might make tracking it more difficult I suppose.

SteveJRogers wrote: Ceetar wrote: Is there a blog or site out there that tracks first pitches? It'd be an interesting stat to throw out there "Mets are 4-2 when Michael Almonte throws out the first pitch" or something. Does seem like way too of an obscure thing to track. Even if you have access to Press Game Notes, I doubt they'd have all 81+ ceremonial pitch throwers or anthem performers for every single time (gotta give some room for cases of games called in progress and the person wasn't able to be brought back). Anthem maybe, but it seems more of a "you'd have to be there to know" sort of thing than something you'd see written down. I do have access to the press game notes (in fact, everyone does) but they don't always list it. (I just checked for the last series) Although if someone puts in the effort it shouldn't be too hard to track every day, at least bug people at the game to make note of it. Don't know if I have the following for that, particularly for Away Games, but maybe?

Perhaps with a CPF MC?

Citi is a little more enclosed, but hell if it isn't just as cold and windy on some of those bitter April nights. ..I'll get back to you about bitterly cold October nights.

Citi is a little more enclosed, but hell if it isn't just as cold and windy on some of those bitter April nights.

Is there a blog or site out there that tracks first pitches? It'd be an interesting stat to throw out there "Mets are 4-2 when Michael Almonte throws out the first pitch" or something.

G-Fafif wrote: Many of the Merengueans are obliviously using Loge as their as their ramp to Field Level for the impending concert. I don't mean they were coming down the actual ramps. I mean they were climbing over rows of seats from wherever they came while the game was going on. Flashbacks to some of the constant hassle of people walking in front of you in some spots in the Loge. And that weird almost connected spot between the loge and field level which was probably a result of the rotating field level or something.