Ceetar

heard a couple of radio callers/hosts (in all of the 20 minutes I listened today) lining up the playoff rotation. They're all content if pettite gets back by mid-September that he'll be good to go in the playoffs. yup, he'll just turn it on, turn back the clock, not get hurt, and will be just awesome!

I agree still 2 months and winning is fun and all that, but I think there's also value in finishing about .500, even if that's what the ceiling is right now. Just media relations wise, across baseball, positive stories. All that stuff. an 82-80 win team is on the rise, a 79-83 win team is wallowing in mediocricy.

There's probably very little value in trading guys just to trade them. Filler that has a slim chance of making the show? They've filled the lower minors with their own guys via drafting and what not. And anyone higher might need roster spots and that's a no go. Obviously if someone offers them something that's actually good they should take it, but otherwise it's probably pointless.

Swan Swan H wrote: Joseph just turned 21 and is in Double-A, so he's probably a year or two away. well yeah, I guess you take the best guy you can get and all. But seems like the Phillies are one of those teams that don't actually need a catcher, but probably need a guy at ANY other position.

That mean they're considering not resigning Ruiz?

I'd definitely get up and check out the club (sorry, it 's the Delta Sky _Lounge_ not Club. I've been to the Club, which has slightly more liberal access, though not by much) behind the plate, especially if the game sucked/was meaningless, which it has more often than not since Citi Field opened. And I go to 15-20 games a year anyway, so it's not like it's my only chance to see live action. But here's the twist..what if I was offered these seats to a Yankee game? Or a Yankees fan was offered Citi Field seats. I'm definitely taking them, but then have virtually zero interest in the game. It's true, i'm probably stereotyping the rich folk. Plenty of rich folk, and likely a similar percentage as not-rich folk, are baseball fans. I don't know what types of people own those seats, and if they do in fact look at it as an investment/perk of sorts and don't mind not going/giving away the seats when it's not worth it. The people that do go balked in 2009 when the Mets discounted some of the expensive seats a lot to get people to go. I imagine this same philosophy is why we don't see any contests that give you those seats if there are in fact any available. I do think that fans in those seats as visible by the cameras are a poor representation of how sold they are though. You can usually get an inkling of the more common sections by how spread out people are. massive swaths of empty seats usually means unsold, whereas a couple of people per row usually means no-shows/walkers/standers. (There are great places to stand after all) *checks* in fact, they are available, so you're right. section 15 row 6 seat 7 and 8 are available for the 'home stretch' if you click through the season ticket links on mets.com. Do the Mets claim these seats are mostly sold? I clicked for 4 in the second to highest section, delta silver or whatever(only $2,881.00 per seat for the rest of the year..), and found spots for that too. I only say the Champions Club is different because it's sorta that weird overhang area behind home plate and feels separate than the others. Too expensive for regular fans, but not seemingly worth it for folks that can afford it. I suspect this is why they tried the all-inclusive party feel to it for this year. You even have to go up the general escalator in the Rotunda to get there and not the special Delta one. But the CC sucks. I went in there last year when it was more 'general' admission. It's just a bar, one on either side. some nice pictures (and they're screwed if they get a third Champion to celebrate..where are they going to put it?) and then the ramp up to the seats in that section. I think the difference at Shea was (besides the economy obviously. I think prohibitively expensive didn't come until mid-2000s, but I guess it depends on prohibitively for who) that people already owned those seats and were sitting there. The jump season to season was never enough to make enough people say no, I'm not renewing. And no real clubs to hide in. I bet more of those people were just Mets fans too, versus corporations/businesses that saw a perk. Citi Field's price jump, coupled with the economy in some situations, scared people away. As they adjusted (same for the Yankees too, so this is probably not a 'Mets suck' thing) the prices it was harder to draw people in to buy new seats. The people that really wanted them chose other sections, other areas. Also, I'm not sure what he numbers are, but I think there are probably a lot more of these seats at Citi Field. The Mets gambled that the people sitting in the outer parts of the Field level at Shea would upgrade to sit at the nice seats at Citi Field, but it doesn't seem that way.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Ceetar wrote: Well the Mets haven't showed Alderson that there is any real impact to be had from a trade yet. He's struck me as a guy that would really like to tinker and adjust. We've seen it some with some of the roster shuffling via the minors, but I wonder how 'restrained' he would've been had the Mets hovered around that competitive point they'd been into July. Sandy's still working with no money. The Brewers would probably salary dump K-Rod ... maybe ask for just a fringe prospect, too. Even if the Mets are buyers, what are they gonna buy with no money and an unwillingness to deal their real prospects? Scrubs like Geovany Soto. I'm fine with the Mets holding on to their Zack Wheelers, but it seems to me that the team's still effectively broke. I don't think we actually know how much money he's working with. Maybe they would've bought K-Rod, like was supposedly rumored, if they hadn't faltered.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Does anybody here really think that the choice seats at Citi Field, field level at and around home plate are mostly sold out, as the Mets claim? Those sections are way too empty, too often, for the Mets' claims to hold any water. And if the Mets really did sell out (or mostly sell out) all of their choice seats, why the hell are they running ads for the Champions Club with the all you can eat buffet, like every two or three innings on every SNY broadcast? Champions Clubs are different seats. and yes. I do. despite what the media tells you, the club (and other clubs) don't actually care if those seats look empty on TV. These are the rich people seats. They leave early, they come late. They eat tickets when the team sucks and they're busy. They hang out in the Sterling Club in the air conditioning. They give away the tickets as perks, to people that rarely ever get to sit down there, that want to check out the Sterling Club while they have the option to. And those people probably deserve at least part of the blame for not being able to go behind the dugouts to watch batting practice.

Edgy DC wrote: Are you just gonna argue with me about everything I post the rest of my life? Let me test: The grass looks green. Have you felt this crazy heat? all the grass is dead.

Edgy DC wrote: He also ended up with a blown save, mostly because of the mistakes of others he was inheriting. a double a walk and a single is 'mostly'?

Well the Mets haven't showed Alderson that there is any real impact to be had from a trade yet. He's struck me as a guy that would really like to tinker and adjust. We've seen it some with some of the roster shuffling via the minors, but I wonder how 'restrained' he would've been had the Mets hovered around that competitive point they'd been into July.

Edgy DC wrote: It's true. No one's perfect. I can ask him not to not fall behind. I can ask him to not walk the leadoff guy. I can ask him to take that 100-MPH heat and pitch inside on occasion. You can ask that all you want, but those are non-results things. (besides the walks) But he doesn't actually walk a lot of guys. 5.8% this year. MLB average is 8.5. He was at 10.1 last year. He's walked 5 of his first 48 batters. So that's actually a wee bit high, but that means he's 6/141 which is 4.3% of his other batters. Of the 50 times he's had a runner on first with less than 2 outs, he's allow 11 hits and a .597 OPS. That's clearly not what 's killing him. he's gotten 6% of double plays opportunities converted behind him, compared to an 11% league average (Mets is 8%)

Edgy DC wrote: Parnell has been victimized by Parnell often enough as well. No one's perfect. Parnell's numbers are good though. Lots of ground balls, way more than anything hard hit. Lots of strikeouts, few walks. few XBHs. I really don't know what else you can ask of him, besides also playing SS.

Edgy DC wrote: True enough. But the "You're better than this, you've proven it, and we all know it" thing is true of all of our relievers. Yet here we are. Just tweeted a bunch of Bobby Parnell facts. I imagine it's true of the other relievers as well, but Parnell has been victimized a ton by the defense.

via Metsblog �I said, �Look, a year ago at this time, you were as good a pitcher as there was in this league. Relax and make some pitches. There are guys right now, they�re fighting for their lives, they�re fighting for their jobs and they all know it. The only thing you can do is take care of the business at hand and that�s try to make pitches and get hitters out. You can�t worry about tomorrow. You can�t worry about anything except the moment.� � We�ve got to somehow get him to relax, because Manny Acosta two years in a row has been an outstanding pitcher in the second half. We need him now.�

I'd walk him at home though I think. More margin for error.

I don't move the winning run up. Maybe if I trusted the defense more, but I don't, and they seem to fade in close spots as well.

Frayed Knot wrote: Tejada's another one who's had a tough night. This is purely perception, but it feels like Tejada's defense is great _except_ when the pressure's on. or Parnell's on the mound. I swear they play the worst defense when he's pitching.

Fman99 wrote: Dog tired, 55 minutes before the first pitch. Fuck you, rotating spherical Earth. fuck you Walter O'Malley? or Horace Stoneham in this case?

That kind of nose-dive is almost inexplicable and it's earned Hamilton some grief from both owner Nolan and some of the Texas fans.. Here's a suggestion: put a breathalyzer on him. The thing about Hamilton is, given his history, being slightly over the line is not likely to be the source of his hitting woes. He's definitely more of the feast or famine type. He's either going to be stone cold sober, or lying in a gutter somewhere. From what I'm reading its getting purty ugly in TX for the "Beyond Belief" kid. How can you invest huge money in an alcoholic that does not use the 12 step recovery system. The "personal keeper" method tends to fail.. IMHO there are a million different ways to stay healthy/sober/functional in society beyond a singular one. It's kind of cruel to automatically assume the guy must be sabotaging himself. Can't he just be struggling? hurt? sick?

- OK, which of you had Cincy winning their last 10 straight and 17 of their last 19 (that's losing twice since before the AS break) and all coming after losing Joey Votto to injury? ... None of you, that's who. That's what they'll say about the Mets in three weeks. right.. right!?

MFS62 wrote: Benjamin Grimm wrote: I think they will cut him, but not before spring training 2013. Has he amassed enough at bats for his 2013 contract to vest? If not, wouldn't it make more sense to cut him now? Or is there a golden parachute clause? Later vest is basically off the table. Would need 600 AB next year and even if he bounces back to Boston-Bay and stays healthy it probably won't get that. I doubt he gets cut, since you're really only saving a month of a roster spot until rosters expand. I imagine though, if he goes hitless, or like 2/30 on the rest of this road trip, they might decide just to cut him. Probably needs to be correlated with like Duda hitting 8 HR for Buffalo or something. Or, if the Mets go 10 for the next 12 and miraculously climb back in the race despite his struggles. Then you almost have to cut him because he hurts chances of winning the rest of the games needed to actually climb bck into the race. (Mets face the Braves on August 10th. They're 9 losses behind. If they made up significant ground that could be a d-Day point) Obviously their are other teams to climb over, but one of them is the Giants. Two others are the Reds and Nats(probably not the Nats) right after the Braves. If they're desperately making a push and need every last drop of offense..maybe they just dump him (or phantom-DL?)

back in '08 and '09 when Luis Castillo was out-OBP'ing Reyes as a singles hitter, it always seemed to me that it'd make more sense to let him get his walks leading off and then have Reyes be able to drive him to third/in. Castillo was still above average speed wise, swiped some bags, could go first-third and more often than not allow Reyes to steal (or double steal) if that was the play.

I'd assumed until I looked it up that they simply replaced the actor. I don't do a lot of reading up on movies I know I want to see, I'd rather just wait and see the movie itself. It's why I hadn't watched the Man of Steel trailer yet. "Bourne is in Manhattan! I repeat, Jason Bourne has been spotted in Manhattan!" certainly didn't help that presumption. But the most recent book pits Bourne against another former Treadstone member, so my perception of the Bourne universe is very muddled and the preview hit on certain keypoints. And I know the movies have really nothing to do with the books, but it's hard to separate the two in my head sometimes. I don't even think the last book was called Legacy, I think that was the fourth one which despite not being nearly as good as the Ludlum books, was enjoyable and touched on some delicate parts of David Webb's (pre-Bourne) memory.

Ozzie Guillen is clearly the smarter former-White Sox manager to bat Reyes third.