Ceetar

the bomb already went off guys, Martino generated uber-engagement off that nonsense.

Girardi is not a bullet “dodged.” There is zero indication that he would do a bad job as manager of the Mets. He's an opportunity missed. Is he the only opportunity for the Mets to hire a better manager for 2020? Certainly not. But an opportunity missed nonetheless. opportunity? sure, so was literally every other person in the world. Girardi was like a safety school. He was the 'easy' pick. the safe one. That the Mets didn't just go "Girardi's good enough, just hire him" and move on is a great sign.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51rTlacnGNL.jpg>

I mean I'd rather have Maddon than Girardi if we're talking 'experienced managers' anyway. Maybe he just would rather golf in October.

dodged that bullet at least. And Tingler by the Padres, who i don't think was on the list?

Mendoza might be a very good manager. I don't think the Mets have the right front office/owners/PR/media cache to navigate those delicate waters though. Not sure any team does really, which of course is part of the catch-22 problem there. Unless they come out of the gate at an .800 clip and never let up of course.

I would assume the Yankees are going to whine about the ball if/when they lose this series, like employing lumberjacks in a tiny stadium isn't basically a juiced environment already.

=nymr83 post_id=24692 time=1571409331 user_id=54] If these are the choices, I want Girardi. I don't want a first time manager or a puppet for the player agent running the show, who I already don't like.

Girardi is a cut above. Perez/Bell/Shelton/Bogar are all completely acceptable. Beltran is completely unacceptable. Look, I'm going to need the transcript of the interview you've used to conclusively make this determination. "Hi Brodie and Jeff I was a really good player and now I want to be manager but not just manager of anybody but manager of the Mets who are in New York and have a lot of extra distractions and media coverage that I would have to deal with and not only have I never been a manager anywhere not even in the minor leagues but I have not even been a coach anywhere on any level whatsoever and even though all of these other people are way way way more qualified than me I was a good player and I want to be manager so I am entitled to be manager because I was a good player so make me manager!!!!!!!" lol okay. first, GREAT. not really good. Second, you're implying he can't handle NY which is obviously untrue. Third, a long pedigree of grinding away in the minors is not really the mandatory track anymore, hasn't been for a bit now. "I want someone with a track record" is not equal to "unacceptable"

=Mex17 post_id=24662 time=1571352864 user_id=67] Girardi is a cut above. Perez/Bell/Shelton/Bogar are all completely acceptable. Beltran is completely unacceptable.

Mets could be three-time defending WS champions and some Mets fans/and WFANs will still find a way to criticize Beltran for the Mets 2023 July swoon because he was so busy managing the ASG and taking the weekend off to be inducted into the HoF. So screw 2020, who do you think manages the Mets during HoF weekend 2023 while Beltran is upstate? David Wright?

Think the Yankees go 4? I'd be surprised. Twins in 3. Bludgeon that pitching.

Why wouldnt it? And why "when the time comes"? I'm certain that this was technologically achieved years ago, and that therefore, the technology is already advanced enough to call a dead-accurate ball or strike. I've heard some say that maybe it's not quite there yet (from non-MLB people, so not just pro-game/umpire stuff) but I'm not sure if they're right or not. There's perhaps some fuzziness around it that would need to be firmed up if we went automated, player height, player's knee height, etc. HARD strikezone edges. And it they might need to come in or up or down a few cm or something. It's possible the umps are calling balls on pitches that are barely ticking the corner of the back of the zone that are technically strikes and that those pitches might be virtually unhittable (operating under the assumption that a ball "in" the zone is a hittable one and if you don't you're penalized) There's also hard proof that the strike zone is smaller on 0-2 and larger on 3-0. This almost definitely wouldn't be the case with a camera, but all of the players have this stuff ingrained into muscle memory and the like. it'll be a huge adjustment that first year, and likely messy.

I imagine it won't call those strikes and many catchers will lose a lot of their worth.

how a manager treats or cares about the beat pool is like the 943rd concern for a manager imo.

clean house, fresh staff, imo. I mean, I guess I like Regan but I don't think he was going to be staying anyway?

former players coming out of the woodwork to twitter-petition for the job. (Beltran has not petitioning himself I believe) I've seen Schoenweis and Lo Duca so far. I could probably see Scott being good put would pass on Paul. I'm also not so much a Girardi guy but I guess I could be convinced.

I mean, that's generally how it goes. You can't command the slider so you have to throw fastballs which are almost always 'straighter'. 9 HR on the fastball, 6 on the slider ( up from 3 in 2018) He got more whiffs with his fastball, more Ks, than 2018. Because he threw it more. his BB% on the slider was exactly the same, but his K% went from 56.4% to 35.9. PutAway% from 37.3% to 25.2%. He lost some vertical movement on the fastball too, about an inch, taking it from above average to slightly worse than average, which I guess is probably enough for that few feet of HR distance and the 4 mph EV. I'm not a pitching coach, so what's this all mean? Why was he getting so many less Ks on a slider that seemingly was the same? The issue seems to be one of location more than anything else. He just couldn't keep the slider DOWN. Lots more in the zone, especially down and away to lefties/in and down to righties. In 2018 he threw 3.85% slides in the center of the zone, and 10.57% in 2019. to Righties. He just couldn't get it down. This is starting to feel to me more mechanical than just ball composition (though that certainly made the problem go from "he's not that good", to "he's bad")

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: I dunno. Does Beltran really strike you as a strong communicator? He sure had a hard time making the extent of his knee injury understood. I'm sure that was a two-way misunderstanding influenced by evil purposes, but it's what I thought of. I mean, you're talking about medical jargon and the various reports of 3 different opinions. But yeah, I mean, the reports from the last year with the Mets basically had him mentoring Angel Pagan and the reports from the Astros seemed pretty positive on the 'veteran leader' front.

Vic Sage wrote: no, but he can control whether or not he hangs a slider in the zone, as he did SOOOOO many times in the 9th inning this year. arguably he can't. That was the whole thing about the ball this year.

Diaz doesn't really control what happens after the batter hits the ball. He could throw the same thing, and as i posited above, those fly balls could go more dead center and be fly outs. Or be hit fractionally less hard.

he could preform the exact same way, and 12 more of those long fly balls go a little bit more to CF or a few feet shorter and they're caught and everything is delightful.

Which is exactly why Diaz is getting a bit of a raw deal perhaps, as he SHOULD HAVE been better than that, because players with those numbers almost always are. Hell, if you're going to use WPA like that, you can almost bank on two more wins for the 2020 Mets off of Diaz being more like the better predictor in fWAR. but WAR is a counting estimate, so the smaller the sample, the less reliable it is. You know you 'should' get two heads when you flip a coin 4 times, but this time you got zero. It happens. In my mind the best relievers are the best K guys. Bloops happen. And you want to use your best pitchers when you have the smallest margin for error (Which is why Openers are great, pushes your starter deeper into the game, into higher leverage situations, facing the opponents best guys, only for the second time instead of the third) If i hadn't watched any of 2019, Diaz would be on my short list for best relievers for 2020

I just did last 81 games for my RS/RA breakdown. But how much do I wanna discount the first half? I dunno. None? Some? The second half was closer to projections. Does that make it closer to true talent? There's some ball nonsense to account for too. deGrom had some struggles, but perhaps talent prevailed? Wheeler too, though that likely doesn't matter for 2020 projections.

Second half Mets: 8th. 4th in NL. Dodgers 142 Nationals 131 Cardinals 105 Mets 84 Braves 65 Just runs allowed? Second in NL Cards 298 Cleve 313 Houston 315 Oakland 317 Mets 320 Dodgers and Cardinals only won two more games, Nationals won three.