Ceetar

You can still get home run robbing catches in CF. and by the poles, which is harder.

I'd like the new coaching staff to come out and start with reminding everyone that the walls ARE high and to take nothing for granted. That they, especially the quicker guys like Beltran and Wright, should be thinking triple on every towering fly ball. And that the outfielders should do the same, and work on gunning guys out at third, or even second if they prematurely break into home run trots.

I don't think the dimensions are "so cavernous" and I think Wright reinventing his swing (another black mark for Hojo here as well) was part of the problem in 2009. If he'd acted normal, he still would've driven the ball out to left, and would've hit the gap in RF a lot for doubles and triples, as well as the ocassional home run when he put a good swing on it. The problem is that he pysched himself out a lot. He hit some towering flies that the wind kept in the park. I remember one he absolutely crushed, but it wasn't his typical line drive swing, he uppercutted it and despite looking like it could've left the building, the wind held it in. Nobody talks about teh wind as much except for those swirling april days, but the park is shorter and i suspect when you hit it high enough, the wind plays a bigger role.

Edgy DC wrote: Come on, why? Why should more capable people get tossed because of association with less capable people? I could go on and on about how Warthen provides nothing worthwhile. It's hard to really analyze what impact coaches have, but even the guys that had good years, Niese and Pelfrey, hit walls at times and the pitching coach was missing when they needed him most. He seemed to have a completely hands off approach with Santana, and yes, the guys a veteran and smarter than him, but sometimes you need that outside opinion, especially in game when you're tipping pitches or tipping motions and the phillies are running rampant on you because of a tell. But I'm not too concerned, I don't believe the beat writers have an inside angle on the coaching staff of a manager that hasn't been hired yet and first round interviews that haven't even finished yet.

Frayed Knot wrote: I hope the Mets move the fences in because I have a personal theory that it's extremely difficult to build a winner in a stadium that takes HR's away in every part of the field -- left, center and right. As opposed to those theories I seem to hear all the time about how a team in a hitter's environment can't win -- a theory which obviously took a hit after the Phils won the WS. Look at the Mets record at Citi Field, specifically before Manuel completely lost the team late in the season, and it suggests that if anything the _opposition_ finds Citi Field extremely imposing and scary. Now imagine that the Mets actually compete to their level of talent or above, and we're into it as fans, and in addition to whatever scares the Goose Egg Phillies, you've got 40k screaming fans.

dgwphotography wrote: They should just replicate the Shea dimensions where possible, and just be done with it. If they had built Citi with Shea dimensions, people would still be calling for them to reduce/adjust them.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Snooze today suggests Warthen will return to their posts. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

The Second Spitter wrote: Not sure if it was mentioned in another thread, but Metsblog recently quoted Ceetar's blog. At the rate he's dropping CPF member's blogs (Bucket last month), can we reasonably assume Cerrone wants to start posting here? This was a post off of the Howard conference call mentioned earlier. But it was actually Baron that linked me, think Cerrone had Pnemonia that weekend?

Zvon wrote: Melvin. He just seems to me to be more of a Sandy man. The Sandy Man Can!

David Wright.

seawolf17 wrote: Dude, they haven't even had time to take the bubble wrap off their new computers yet. They say by the time you boot up your windows computer it's possible to get half a dozen viruses.

Vic Sage wrote: If he's on the roster, he'll be good. I have no doubt of that, based off what he did last year, what he did in 2009 both with and without the pain No doubt? Really? If you combine his partial seasons over the last 2 years, its about equivalent to 1 season of 17 hrs/75rbi/75r, which is okay for a GG-caliber CFer (though less productive than he was in his prime), but considerably less impressive for a corner OFer with greatly diminished range. When next April rolls around, he'll be a 34 year old with chronically debilitating knee problems who will be 3 years removed from his last good full season, and very possibly be our regular RFer. I'd say he's at least as likely as any of Bay, Dickey, or anyone else on the team to take an $18.5M dive into a tank of turds or win comeback-player-of-the-year (is that even an award in MLB?) Sure, Tatis won it in 2009. The difference, I feel, from combing his last two seasons and 2011, is that preparation wise he's going into 2011 healthy and prepared. he'll have spring training. I think that's loads different from doing phsyical therapy, being babied through 20-25 minor league games and suddenly facing Tim Lincecum. In effect, I think that projection is the low-end of what he'll produce. I think his defense will be fine as well, and it doesn't really matter to the lineup if it's Pagan-Beltran or Beltran-Pagan in the outfield. If Sandy's gonna acquire another OF, I guess we'll see what happens, but as it stands now. i'm not tying his production to his position.

Edgy DC wrote: Not for nothing, but why should Rivera go year-to-year? Any team in baseball would sign him to a multi-year deal. Any. Team. In baseball. Cause Mike Francessa says he's awesome and doesn't want to leave a contract on the table if he's done early. Here's a question. I read a report that Rivera gets more 'borderline' strikes than any other pitcher. If he were to go elsewhere, without the Yankees uniform, would that still be the case? Or would there be some separate from the "great rivera" of the Yankees and an older veteran on another team that onced played for the Yankees?

no speed reports right? (which may be the best part, as too many people zero in on the number like literally 92+ is good pitcher and 89 is bad pitcher) 6Ks is comforting. the fringe statistics look okay. Ollie is at his best when he's throwing the ball by guys. Even in some of his bad performances, you'd be screaming for his head in the fourthi nning and suddenly realize he was throwing a no-hitter. So ifhe's getting Ks, and not serving up meatballs that are getting smacked over fences, it may be the first glimmer of hope.

Edgy DC wrote: Build the staff with redundancy no matter what, i say, But he's going to give them something this year, right? Yes, but I think that number can range anywhere from 10-28 starts. You gotta build the team very differently for those two extremes. The longer he's out, the better a pitcher to replace him should be.

metsmarathon wrote: from a roster-building standpoint, wouldn't it be wise to? I'll feel better about Santana once he starts throwing and is on a timetable for return.

attgig wrote: Ceetar wrote: They need pitching as much as we do. I don't know about that. their ace isn't questionable for 2010, and the rest of the rotation, while not lockdown isn't has full of question marks as our rotation is. I was actually referring to quantity of guys they need. But I'm not so sure CC (off surgery), Burnett, and Hughes is markedly, amazingly, better than Dickey-Pelfrey-Niese. Particularly if Burnett continues the Perez impression.

No. I don't think they get Werth. Pettittes been doing one year deals mostly, and they were reluctant to pay him what they did this year, and I can't imagine they'll pay the same next. I think they may let him walk. I heard a rumor (rumor's too nice a word, I think it was Francesa) that Rivera wants a one year deal because he doesn't want to leave a contract on the table or something. I don't believe it. I'm not sure what they'll do. They need pitching as much as we do. if they do get Lee, that's a big deal, but that's a big chunk of cash. I guess they'd try to get Pettitte cheap or go in-house for a 5th guy. They have a lot of work to do as well, on the cheaper end of things. They really need a solid backup 3B/SS, and I'm not sure how much they like what they've got there. The talk is they're promoting that catching prospect of theirs, taht supposedly isn't as far along with catching as Thole even, so I imagine they want to get a decent backup besides Cervelli...who didn't seem very good. I guess they may be casting Posada in that role when he's not DHing?

Yeah, well that's yesterday's non-news. Let's see what's on the blog-o-dial today: Mike Silva's New York Baseball Digest looks at platooning Murphy and Tejada, allegedly a notion that John Paul Ricciardi finds appealing. Mr. Met is my Brother is warning you that you're going to be seeing and hearing more of Josh Satin. Patrick Flood is passing on a study from sabernomics.com reporting that managers don't mean crap. The secret is out. Videoblogger On the Black is respoinding to people's comments about Jose Reyes and Angel Pagan. I love the cheap memorabilia in the dingy man-cave he broadcasts from. The Mets Police is doing a series on holiday shopping and also has a post up suggesting the Mets do a fashion show like the Nats. Washington certainly doesn't do everything wrong (Adam Dunn), but I bet a team can do worse than to steer clear of everything the Nats do. Faith and Fear in Flushing is updating The Holy Books. Finally, Moonlight Graham Mets Mets hasn't posted since January, but (apparently) bowed out with a nice recap of Doc Medich and his one-game Mets career. I have met _4_ of those bloggers. Tejada, to me, hasn't demonstrated enough on offense or defense to be considered for a platoon. Lately I think i'm favoring Murphy.

Edgy DC wrote: Sure you can. Just cite it as such. It's a crazy game of telephone sometimes. You wonder what gets lost in reported rumors between the person that told them, and the 18 billion people that relay it.

Edgy DC wrote: I dunno, the judge says you've got to much of a personal interest to serve on this jury. I'll sweep around the blogosphere and get you in next time. Or time after that. Prometo. The rickey ones one is amusing. When you stop writing a blog, often your last post becomes like what you would put on your tombstone. There's a dead blog out there somewhere that's last post was a demand for Mike Carp to take over for Delgado.

One is irrelevant and whiny, one is living in the past, one is fairly tasty most of the time, one is a must read. I'll leave it to you to decide which is which.

Centerfield wrote: Is there a bigger wild card for 2011 than Carlos Beltran? He could be dead weight on the roster, or he could be the MVP. "bigger"? Well, I don't know how to compare, but i'm 100% confident Beltran will not be dead weight _on_ the roster. It's conceivable his knee will wear down, but again, his injury hasn't been a "oops, that hurt" injury. it's been wear and tear over time. So surely mid-season could come around and he could be feeling pain in his knee, but it's healing, if slowly. If he's on the roster, he'll be good. I have no doubt of that, based off what he did last year, what he did in 2009 both with and without the pain. wildcards? Dickey one-year wonder? Davis and Niese: rookies with big first steps, or flash in the pan rookies that the league has the book on? Bay give us a good year ,or give us another year of subpar numbers and sink into "worst contract on the books" status?

Edgy DC wrote: Do you count Ricco on the historic roster of Met GMs? I guess you have to, right? I don't think so. They never called him an interim, merely that he would handle any immediate duties, but I'm not sure he even handled that. I think there was just a void period of no GM.

hard not to love the picture though.