Ceetar

Too many tie-breakers might mean too much rest before division series for the top team though. I'm actually fine with basing it on head to head record, although I guess you could tie there (tie-breaker could be in-division record). If you've already established you can beat the other team(s) in your division in head to head matchups, isn't that enough edge to say you're the division champ?

game over, Orange wins. (white pants)

good to 'see'.

Ashie62 wrote: Friday intrasquad: Dillon Gee, Jeurys Familia, Daniel Herrera, Tim Byrdak, Matt Harvey, Miguel Batista, Jeremy Hefner, Frank Francisco All running in the 5th at Belmont. This would be a good time for "Niese would lose by a nose" but he's not pitching.

Friday intrasquad: Dillon Gee, Jeurys Familia, Daniel Herrera, Tim Byrdak, Matt Harvey, Miguel Batista, Jeremy Hefner, Frank Francisco

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: I'll go 50 the same way. I have a feeling Lurch Pascucci puts a charge into Dillon's middling stuff. I've got Nieuwenhuis going deep myself. I see Batista, Hefner and Francisco on the Whites.

I'd give Gee the nod over Turner as the 'regular'. also: Baseball!

Ceetar wrote: http://ottoneu.fangraphs.com/209/home is the league home page. the password is Hietpas http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/h/hietpjo01.shtml

G-Fafif wrote: How many Mets -- or for that matter players in general -- do you suppose are working on a new grip or an alteration to their swing convinced it's just what they needed only to find themselves a year from now blaming their lost season on a "bad habit I got into during Spring Training"? Probably the same many that are currently at Duffy's eating a fatty dinner so they can show up next season in the best shape of their lives.

Worst comes to worst I'm sure a twitter begging would get us one or two more. Anyway, anyone want to 'practice' and fill out my other team for me on Saturday 3/10 at like 5?

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Madden today wrote about Terry leaning on Thole to improve his handling of the staff and general work behind the dish saying he better hit a lot higher than .268 if he catches like he did last year. I kind of admire his bluntness, no getting around the fact that Thole was a rotten catcher especially early last year and needs to improve his overall game to be a good one. But it was an encouraging kind of rip. Supposedly Thole asked for the constructive criticism as well. yeah, I like the bluntness. Collins isn't one to let guys get complacent. I thought Thole was mostly tolerable after about Mid-May or so. He had a really really bad start all around. Interestingly, I'd sorta been giving Thole somewhat of a pass for the Knuckleball, but Collins turned it the other way; Maybe Thole should've had MORE passed balls that got assigned as Wild Pitches that he should've caught if he'd had the glove turned right.

metirish wrote: Fuck it , make MLB like the NBA,NFL and MLS where everyone makes the playoffs it seems... I get this worry, but this is sorta the opposite. I know it's going to be promoted like the playoffs, but did the Reds in '99 feel like they "made the playoffs"? If the Glavine game was actually the playoff, would we have gone into 2008 thinking "At least we made the playoffs" no, it'd still be a terrible collapse. It's going to be sort of a 'tweener round no matter what. No one's walking away from the season having lost in the 'first' round saying "Playoffs are a crap shoot, we're good enough, better luck next year'. No. beat the division leader. For every example of a strongly superior team having to play a much weaker team to prove themselves there are other examples of weak division winnings not having to prove themselves. 2000 Yankees, '06 Cardinals. the 2001 Oakland Athletics are an outlier because the Mariners were just that amazingly good. Of course, that's partly because they won 10 games against the A's. So yeah, they deserve to play in a Wild Card round, because they failed to establish them as a first place team. This way we'll have three teams that have Won the division, plus the 'best' other team that had to defeat the coin flip game.

Edgy DC wrote: I think the one-game randomness should lower the proposition that a weak team advances. Yeah, it's not about cheapening the playoffs, but cheapening that fourth spot --- which should be cheaper, as it was a acquired at the lowest price. if we're defining 'weak' as 'team not the best in their own division' the chances they advance/win the series are roughly exactly the same. It's just that the best said weak teams can hope for is a ~50% to get that equal chance to advance. No system is perfect though. I happen to like this one more than any of the others that were proposed.

NY Mets manager Terry Collins tells Josh Thole he's not guaranteed starting catcher's job Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/ny-mets-manager-terry-collins-tells-josh-thole-guaranteed-starting-catcher-job-article-1.1030962#ixzz1nsBcSnLh That's like giving Mark Brunell snaps and pretending Sanchez might not play. Luckily, that's not what Collins was saying at all. He was just emphasizing that Thole needs to improve to be considered a major league catcher.

Edgy DC wrote: I moved the SI cover talk here. wouldn't want to muck up the talk about re-signing the guy.

HahnSolo wrote: John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: You just know this'll be the year the MFYs would fail to qualify any other way but for the extra-team bonus. Thanks a lot, Bud. Of course. First thing that popped in to my mind. They're one of the few teams that's won the World Series with the 5th best record in the league, so they've already got the practice.

Edgy DC wrote: Depends on whether you count Jeter cover stories as baseball-related or whether you regard them the same way as swimsuit covers --- as a dimly related sideline for the more breathless among their readers. hey now, It's an insult to swimsuit loving fans everywhere to compare them to the Jeter lovers! Especially since the swimsuit fans don't get giftbaskets.

I don't think we need 12, although I don't see any clear indication either way. Go ahead, invite them. Sell them on 3/22 though.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Gwreck wrote: Ceetar wrote: Dynamic pricing is looking interesting. Looks like they'll be able to better capitalize financially on hype (OD already up about $10). That they have lowered prices each year doesn't mean the tickets are now priced correctly. Dynamic pricing would be interesting if it was true dynamic pricing, but it isn't, as there is an artificial price floor. There will be no market-value price drop for midweek/early season games because the Mets committed to not dropping the price below the season ticketholder price. Similarly, Stubhub sales also have an artificial price floor because of the minimum $5/ticket service charge and $5 delivery fee. I get what you're saying, but there's nothing to stop a ticket holder from selling his $100 face value ticket on StubHub for less than face value, right? And if interest peters out in 2012, the Mets will have shot themselves in the foot by committing to face value when, presumably, the same or comparable ticket might sell for 50% or 75% less on Stubhub. I'll be interested to see how the dynamic pricing algorithm responds day of/day before games. Particularly for crappy weather reports. In fact, I'd like to see the algorithm itself, although I know that'll never happen. Since Stub Hub is manual, sudden drops in ticket prices will benefit the Mets because Stub Hub won't keep up. But ultimately the idea here is probably that the prices will play off Stub Hub, decreasing when people go there, increasing when they come back. But that floor is gonna kill them if they become completely irrelevant and eliminated before September. I get that season ticket holders get finicky when you sell "their" section to the unwashed masses for less than they paid, but it sorta defeats the purpose too.

Ryan Howard set-back in recovery, out indefinitely. Ty to the rescue.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Gotta figure Bobby Pee makes the cut. Then it's really Carrasco v Hererra v Beato. Probably. Carrasco has the leg up via contract probably. And Hererra behind the 8-ball with not being on the 40 man. But Collins really likes Beato.

Edgy DC wrote: I think there are plenty of decent catchers around. The Mets have one in Thole, who costs nothing. The paucity is in good ones. But wear and tear and sudden traumatic injuries have a way of reducing the good ones to merely decent (or seriously unavailable). Well, I guess I meant a tick better than decent. I like Thole but he's not exactly someone you'd necessarily worry about losing either. It's a balancing act between locking up one of the top catchers and overcommitting to perhaps the second most injured position in baseball. I guess they felt a little flush with cash with a fresh title, and no Pujols?

Edgy DC wrote: Speaking of extensions, the Cards are supposedly set to close on five years and $75 million for Yadier Molina. That's a lot of spinach. Spinach that could have fed Albert Pujols for a few years. There are so few decent catchers that I guess it makes sense to lock up the ones you have. Especially when they're as well rounded as Yadier..but yeah, that's a lot. And there's the aches and pains and injury risks that catchers come with that seems to be not fun for long contracts.

yeah, all decisions to come later. Chances Kirk actually makes it are next to nil, but who knows who's actually a frontrunner at this point. I had assumed Beato wouldn't, but Collins seemed pretty confident. Not that it means much in February.