Ceetar

http://www.tedquarters.net/2011/04/20/stop-bunting/ Ted Berg wrote: I mean, holy crap. Even if sacrifice bunting were guaranteed to be successful, you�d still be giving away an out, an offense�s most precious commodity. And it�s not guaranteed to be successful. Hell, with this particular Mets club, it actually seems to be a freaking longshot. And let�s forget for now that Jose Reyes is one of the best basestealers in baseball, that he already had two steals in tonight�s game and that he was 8-for-8 stealing bases on the season when Terry Collins called for Josh Thole to bunt him to second. Say for the sake of argument that Reyes couldn�t have stolen a base there because, I don�t know, he couldn�t get a great read on Brandon Lyon or something. Why are you playing for one run anyway? The leadoff hitter was on with the middle of the order coming up, including a red-hot Carlos Beltran. Why not aim for a crooked number and a walk-off win? So you can tie the game and put more innings in the hands of your powder keg of a bullpen, the same one that�s blown basically every lead for two weeks? Is that the plan? Tie it up and turn it over to Tim Byrdak? C�mon. Just� c�mon.

How does this work, does the lack of an adopted prefix mean he's available for me to raise?

I"m just gonna post random pictures from yesterday, just because.

Edgy DC wrote: Here's one thing: I've been shouting (and not alone among Poolers) into the void for years, hoping against reason that my voice would reach the Mets organizaiton. Where is Keith on all this. He's written that he loved when opposiing teams bunted. Shouldn't he be mercilessly abusing this play when he sees it, even without himself on defense? If they let us talk to Collins again, or even Alderson, I would expect at least Amazin' Avenue, if not someone else, to ask them just that. I'm sure we'll get a BS type answer out of it, and some blogger spouting off on a conference call is not quite going to be taken as a baseball guru.

Mets scrabble.

soupcan wrote: I'm starting to think if Ceeter was a Jew in Auschwitz he'd have found a bright side. I was going to make a joke here, but I think I'll just leave that one alone..especially on Passover. Doubly so since I'm not jewish and actually part German.

TransMonk wrote: �It starts with me. We have to find a way to be honest with ourselves about what kind of team we are. We can�t just keep telling ourselves, �Oh, we�re a better team than this.� We may not be. And we�ve got to be honest about that, and identify what we�re doing wrong, and do it better. That�s the only way you have any real growth�If we keep waltzing through the season and saying, �Oh, we�re better than this,� or �We�ve had some bad breaks,� or �The umpires are bad,� we�re going to look back and kick ourselves in the butt because we�ve done nothing about it. We�re walking too many guys, we�re not hitting with runners in scoring position. If you can identify the problem, it doesn�t have to be psychologically so overbearing.� Of course, it sounds like he has identified the problem, and it IS still psychologically overbearing. Unless he means _why_ they're walking too many guys and finding obsurd ways to 'ground' into double plays?

Vic Sage wrote: "We have to stop telling ourselves we are a better team than this � we might not be." I hope Ceetar didn't hear that. It'll drain the rose from his glasses. what rose? edit: i read the entire quote. It looks very out of context when you only look at this part of it. He's just saying they sucked because they played badly, not because of the bad breaks or bad calls. He's saying they have to go out there and figure out what they're doing wrong, and fix it, not that they'll continue to play this bad all year.

Centerfield wrote: I guarantee you if Reyes tries a straight steal there it doesn't end up in a double play. Wish he'd at least gotten the chance. I'm assuming someone must have asked him at one point over the years "wouldn't you like to steal in that situation?" And i assume he gave a bland response... but if I had to single out a player that didn't like the bunt, it'd be him.

TransMonk wrote: After reading the descriptions of the game in this IGT, I'm glad I missed this tilt. Honestly the game itself wasn't that bad as a single entity, it was as a subset of a whole miserable season so far that made it hurt.

Bunting keeps souvenir home run balls out of the stands! (And I think they give away a signed one too!) Mets are asked if they're going to toss something to someone in the stands, make it something overused. chewing gum, Pedro Feliciano's arm (I think it's probably still there somewhere) broken bats.. Or toss something of the opposing teams.

Well, I'm not totally against playing for the tie, the idea is it awards you three more outs, which is valuable. For better or worse, I think the players think the bunt is the right move too. It's probably been so ingrained into them that that's what you do.. So I don't think it's killing their confidence, and I think i t's the losing that's causing Pagan and Murphy and whoever to press. You do need a hit anyway, but if it's Thole that gets the hit you've got a guy on third with no outs. Even if Thole makes out, if Wright gets the hit you still probably have a runner on third with less than one out, which is still better than bunting him to second.

Gwreck wrote: Let's count down the unfuckingbelievable moments from the game tonight: 5. Ike Davis strikes out with the bases loaded and 1 out in the first. 4. On a walk/WP in the top of the 2nd, Josh Thole retrieves the ball from the backstop and flips UNDERHAND to Dickey covering at the plate. Had he properly thrown it overhand, they would have had a play. 3. RA Dickey not being able to get a bunt down properly. 2. Angel Pagan bad-baserunning like it's 2008-9 again. 1a. Josh Thole bunting on the FIRST PITCH instead of giving Jose a chance to steal; and 1b. Josh Thole, unable to bunt properly. This should have been an enjoyable game. I can deal with losses fine but losses where we do incredibly stupid shit are intolerable. They tried to force things, I'm not sure Pagan's attempted advance was _that_ horrible, and had it been the only blunder of the day maybe you live with it. I'd just finished thinking it was really heads up of him for him to dash home on the preceding pitch when the ball got away on the foul tip, in case it wasn't actually a foul tip.' Other than the bunt stupidity, i'm unsure if I should be annoyed at Reyes. He's supposed to be well off the bag and ready to dash to second, with or without Thole bunting. It was a pretty damn quick bunt out and i'm not sure Reyes even had time to read that it was in the air and hesitate and get back. I obviously didn't see any replays though.

The astros dressed up the win on a silver platter, and the Mets smacked it onto the floor like a petulant child. At least I got some fun pictures?

Bourn cf Sanchez ss Pence rf Lee lf Wallace 1b Hohnson 3b Hal 2b Towles c Norris p

Gwreck wrote: They seem to run it once every three innings, yet it still hasn't gotten old yet. "I'm now called upon to review the dry erase board rules." After all of last year and this year, i'm bordering on sick of it. "Meeting Cantelope will, unfortunately, no longer be provided. We suggest you bring your own, maybe something handheld. For some that might be an apple, maybe a banana.."

Frayed Knot wrote: btw, the wimpy bot bounced the pitch. Time to take that thing back to the supermarket and collect the nickels for the scrap. and apparently Phillies fans booed.

Edgy DC wrote: Wait. I'm not a scalper. Are all you people scalpers? Ick. my ticket is fresh from Stubhub. paid $15. It's worth 96*/120/144/168 *I think today's value anyway. I haven't actually sold a ticket in a while since I haven't really bought in bulk though.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Yeah. Publishing "No-show" statistics could be very embarrassing at time. Because we all really think Citi Field had 27k last night and that it wasn't embarrassing? And fans aren't taking pictures of all the emptiness and posting it to Twitter and blogs? It's silly. I understand MLBs all about the secrecy and the don't embed our clips or dare to show them elsewhere OMG! but they're not fooling anyone. Ahh. good info Frayed Knot. I wonder if it's something that didn't exist to the extent it does today? Now everyone's a scalper, so lots more tickets go unsold. Also the value of said ticket has made it more of a commodity.

He could've thrown some "blah blah blahs" in there at least. amateur.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: The others may not actually be there, but you can bet your bippy they'll be announced as if they were. They do this across baseball. But only the teams care about the 'sold' over the 'in attendance'. Why can't they give us both?

They lost the first game in '86/NLCS too. Reyes-SS, Thole-C, Wright-3B, Beltran-RF, Davis-1B, Pagan-CF, Harris-LF, Murphy-2B, Dickey-RHP I'll be in attendence tonight. Presumably there will be others, but I'm not positive on that.

Frayed Knot wrote: TransMonk wrote: True, Klap sucks, but it sounds like the story of Collins blowing up at Murph could be true. I'm sure it is true (cuz if he's faking that level of quotable knowledge he better turn in his journalistic creds) Well, It was according a person made aware of the exchange. Which makes it...third hand to Klap? The person that heard it, the person he made aware, and then Klap. Not that I'm doubting it, but that far removed from actually hearing it himself I wonder if he should even use quotes?

TransMonk wrote: I hear ya, Cee. I am enjoying watching the development of Ike and Thole. They both seem like that even if they are not world beaters, they could both end up being good Mets for a long while. Even if nothing else is going right, I like seeing the kids play. True, Klap sucks, but it sounds like the story of Collins blowing up at Murph could be true. well, we wanted accountability right? I like seeing Ike develop too, and Niese too, who battled last night despite not being that good. Could we perhaps stop walking people? maybe? please? However, the stories, which I think may be last years and have the statistics updated and Collins name in for Manuel's about maybe it's time for Meija are a little annoying. As are the Daily OMG TRADE REYES NOW ones.

6-0 Wright. maybe this wasn't such a good question.