Ceetar

Gwreck wrote: Yes, they should have specified that the Mets don't have any "outfielders that would start on .500 or better teams" The Red Sox aren't that, now are they? It's also not true. All those guys could easily have a role of some sort on a good team, depending on what they do next year. Figuring out what they're going to do next year is the tough part, but that's why you send scouts to a Mets-Marlins game in September.

bmfc1 wrote: My comments are out of frustration that the Cleveland Indians might get Francona rather than expectation of a change as it's clear that the Wilpons have no money and wouldn't want to pay two managers at the same time. They don't have to pay two managers at the same time. Collin's contract was up after this year. If a replacement was ever being sought, they wouldn't have extended him. Nothing I've seen suggests if it was Collins on Boston instead on Francona they wouldn't have won those series nor would these Mets have been better the last two years with Francona.

The Mets don't have any outfielders to trade..except Torres, Bay, Duda, Baxter, Valdespin* etc..

I think Collins has done a good job. But I'd always replace a coach for a guy that seems to have a transcendent mind for the job. Bobby Valentine maybe. Not Francona.

Wright has two gold gloves. two Silver sluggers as well. I could see him winning another this year though.

Frayed Knot wrote: One of the Detroit papers (are there even more than one?) last week had Leyland NOT being rehired if they failed to win the division - but, even if true, that issue got resolved last night. I suppose that with his age - 68 in December even though he's looked at least 68 for like two decades now - how long a club wants to commit to him (or him to them) is the biggest question. maybe it's a LaRussaesque retirement. I have them winning it all after all.

I bet Leyland gets a new contract.

Lefty Specialist wrote: Didn't Digital Domain go bankrupt this year, missing naming-rights payments on the park in Port St. Lucie? I thought that was Tradition and how Digital got in? Oh who knows.

Edgy DC wrote: Ike Davis against a sidearming righty is as good a number to put your chit on as we could hope for. yeah. I'll take that most days.

Cedeno, bunt, Murphy, Wright. Three singles get the Mets a run!

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Considering the offensive offensive output this team excreted during the second half, for my money, Hudgens is the more... um... interesting retention. I can't imagine he'll be on a very long leash come next April. yeah, I liked what I heard about/from Hudgens, but he really hasn't gotten the results. Of course, he's only been here a year too.

They play clips from them usually at about 7:05 before gametime. Cyborg Piazza is a much more aggressive catcher and a much better thrower than the original version. Citi Field XX though. Figure we're talking maybe an average of 30 years per, that's 600 or so years into the future. You'd think Digital Domain would've had themselves stealing the naming rights by then.

bmfc1 wrote: Yes of course the entire coaching staff of a 4th place team should be back. And keep Bay and Thole and Young and Hefner while we're at it! Don't make any changes because things are just fantastic. And they want Pelfrey back, too. Pelfrey back is an entirely different animal. it's not a singular mentoring/strategy position. But clearly we should just retire Dan Warthen's number now, since he'll clearly be here forever.

Edgy DC wrote: I wonder how horrific it would be. I sometimes think we aren't horrified by cultures we're born into, even if we disagree with them. No matter how repulsive from an objective distance, to us, it's just the sea we spring from. that comes across in the book. Mostly the heroine just wants to continue living the life and meager success she'd carved out for herself. But moments like JCL mentioned do come as well.

My guess is the incumbent will win it. (Wait, this isn't the politics thread?) But maybe not. Dickey's late push may help. I wish Collins had let him finish some of the 8.1 and 8.2 games for more complete games, because I think that would've definitively pushed him over the top.

I miss baseball. Of course, even if the Germans were somehow showing SNY, it's 12:20am on Wednesday and the game doesn't even START for 50 minutes. geeze. I will note that there was some extremely drunk people on the train this morning wearing FC Bayern M�nchen stuff though. Hopefully they weren't headed TO Oktoberfest for a postgame.

Edgy DC wrote: Ceetar wrote: Everyone has a different thing that makes them tick, gets them motivated, makes them check out, etc. Some people bounce back better from it, some shake it off better. Shockingly, they're all human beings. They could be dealing with marital problems, a sick parent, a new kid, a nagging injury, depression, bed bugs, and any number of things. "Morale" speaks more to the condition of groups, rather than individuals. groups don't think. it's a collection of different individuals with vastly different thoughts, and my point is that given the situation, many of these individuals have diverted focuses which affects the overall unity of the group. and indeed, the group no longer has the same directive as a whole. We, and the Mets, and Terry, want to see different things from Lucas Duda than they do from Bobby Parnell and David Wright.

Lefty Specialist wrote: The question regarding the offense isn't why it disappeared, but why it was actually scoring runs in the first place. One thing noted with frequency in the first half of the season was how many runs they scored with two outs. It was a statistical anomaly, and sure enough, it didn't last. There's a randomness factor to that. Secondly, they have no power and no team speed. That makes it hard to score runs in bunches. Thirdly, in the first half, there were guys who were contributing that you wouldn't have expected, like Nieuwenhuis, who was on a pretty good run initially until the league figured out how to pitch him, Hairston, Baxter and even Duda for a while. And David was flirting with .400. All these things flamed out in the second half (Baxter crunching his shoulder in the no-no didn't help). This team has gaping holes. I don't think one player fixes the outfield. By my count, they need three outfielders, a real second baseman and a catcher. And most of a new bullpen. That's a tall order for Sandy to fill. He'll have to get creative. They also scored, statistically, way fewer runs with 1-out in the first half. So was no real reason to say a regression meant less runs. Nieuwenhuis and Duda were providing some power early. And while they didn't really have 'speed' exactly, Nieuwenhuis, Wright, Tejada, Bay, Hairston, Murphy, Baxter, Turner all probably possess something of average speed or so. certainly enough for most of them to routinely go first-third. Duda Ike and Thole are pretty slow, but I wonder if, particularly for Duda and Thole, if they're a little bit tentative on the bases too. Maybe they need all that stuff. Maybe someone next year doesn't put up the exact same line as this year. (Thole for instance. concussion?) Murphy and Tejada are probably okay, at least in the sense that it's harder to find an upgrade and the upgrade wouldn't be as large. I doubt we need three outfielders. It's too early to give up on Duda or Nieuwenhuis. Baxter/Hairston could probably be a good platoon or at least a good 20% of the playing time in a rotation of sorts. Maybe Torres..I dunno. He's probably could be a decent 4th OF and defensive replacement especially if Hairston and Duda might be in the corners on a given day.

This 'false competitiveness' from the Phillies is nice. Hopefully it lulls them into complacency this offseason thinking they're better than they are and all they do is give a setup guy way too much money.

Edgy DC wrote: I doubt them too. My point is that, while I think this team is demoralized, I'm at a loss as to why that is and why that happened when it did. It's likely a large combination of things that shattered their faith (perhaps realistically) in their ability to keep playing at the level they had been. I do know my guesses are at least as good as the one about "losing Gee to a medical thing." sure. Everyone has a different thing that makes them tick, gets them motivated, makes them check out, etc. Some people bounce back better from it, some shake it off better. Shockingly, they're all human beings. They could be dealing with marital problems, a sick parent, a new kid, a nagging injury, depression, bed bugs, and any number of things. Here's a more interesting question (to me anyway) Do you think any of this means anything about how the team will play when it shows up in April next year? Or is what we're seeing now the basis of the saying about how you can't trust what you see in September?

Frayed Knot wrote: No, that's not the sub-title of the TV movie bio-pic: The Dan Uggla Story Instead, researchers have found that the errors-charged total in ML baseball since 1876 is approaching 500,000 and should indeed reach that round-number milestone sometime this weekend - even as the trackers themselves admit that the actual number is almost certainly inaccurate due to incomplete early records. So while this doesn't have the same cache that the millionth run scored had when the MLB poobahs made a whole promotion out of that once they realized they were closing in on the mark a few decades ago, this mark will still get "assigned" to some unlucky player who'll be the victim of both bad hands and bad timing at some point over the next few days. With the September call-ups in dugouts, there are currently over 800 choices to choose from. Bet on it being Dan Uggla. I'm betting on it being Derek Jeter.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Do you know how much pressure ML ballplayers are under? Especially the young guys who haven't hit free agency. Pressure to keep their jobs .. to demonstrate that they're everyday players ... so that they can one day sign an eight figure contract. And these guys, the Murphys and Tholes are pissing it all away, not from a lack of talent .... but because Dillon Gee is out for the season? No, I'm saying it's more likely than quitting on Collins or Bay's return, and is maybe 1% of the overall reason and that I can see how it would be a little bit of a shot to the gut to lose a teammate/friend to a medical thing. They suck because they're a combination of young/inexperienced, untalented, and slow to make adjustments to the adjustments other teams made off their first half success. But that's a boring reason. Here's another random thought that probably means absolutely nothing. Are they swinging too hard? Have they got caught up in a lack of power that they swing too hard and often end up with bad contact and infield dribblers? Does that pressure you mention manifest itself in guys that may be on the cusp trying to boost their HR numbers thinking it'll earn them next years job?

talking about from a athlete standpoint. Maybe it's wool over the eyes, but to accept that Bay will never hit again is to accept that you could wake up tomorrow and never hit again. So much of baseball is getting over and ignoring failure (the 3/10 thing) that I don't know if they look at Bay as an albatross (and it would be far from the most shocking thing if Bay had a good year next year, on any team) And they didn't lose a "fifth starter" they lost a teammate. No different if the guy at your office who's not necessarily good at his job has a Triple Bypass or something and is out for three months.

bmfc1 wrote: Even if Lannan makes the same salary, they could possibly get value from another team for Niese because he's under contract. A clever GM could do this... can Sandy? possibly . I don't see them getting a Gio Gonzalez cache though. Niese is much better than Lannan, and strikes guys out which would be nice of the defense doesn't get appreciably better. Hard to see getting good value to fix that, unless you're confident in the other guys staying healthy/stepping up. I'd rather roll with the SP as a strength.

bmfc1 wrote: Howie said that John Lannan, the latest SP to make the best look bad, will probably be non-tendered. He was sent down this April after starting the last two Opening Days for WSH, was pissed off about it, and is only in the rotation to replace Strasburg. Given that he's from Long Island so he might want to play close to home for a discount, even for a lousy team, do you think that the Mets might sign him to a one-year deal? That would allow them to trade Niese, cheap and signed, to get help elsewhere? Or do they think they have "enough" starting pitching? I can't read any scenario where replacing Niese with Lannan makes the Mets even equally as good but cheaper. (and will he actually be cheaper? I can't see him getting much less than the $5 on the market.)