Ceetar

Other people are reporting that Omar hasn't been told this yet right? Sure, I doubt he'd admit it. But I find it suspect that only Heyman has it

Vic Sage wrote: Lefty Specialist wrote: If I recall, one of the knocks on Thole in the minors was that he wasn't a particularly good defensive catcher (I'm assuming he was switched from some other position as many catchers are). Now, while he's no Gold Glover, he's more than held his own defensively (passed ball stats should have an asterisk because of Dickey). I think there's room to grow here. We'll always be a little spoiled by the memory of Piazza, but that's a once in a blue moon type of catcher. If Thole can hit well enough to hold down the #7 spot in the order, hit the occasional dinger and drive in his share of runs, throw out some runners and manage a pitching staff, he'll be acceptable. I like his attitude, and with a little more work I think he can be a good one. He'll never be Piazza, but he won't be Brian Schneider either. I see him as that 'complementary' player that you need on a real team. This. Although, if he doesn't develop power but continues to have a solid OB%/low K rate, I'd rather he hit 2nd than 7th. Hopefully the new manager is capable of filling out a lineup properly with thoughts like that in mind.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: If the forecast holds we'll definitely be rained out tonight. It will solve the Saturday rotation question, but assure a losing record, as opposed to a neither/nor record. Won't assure a losing record if we have ANOTHER rainout and don't play 2 games ;-) Will assure the protected pick though.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: My knees hurt last night with all the humidity. Anyway, with Pagan away, Beltran hurt, and Feliciano PH for, Nick Evans played all 3 OF positions last nite. He can also play 3B and 1B, not a bad RH bat to have hanging around. Let's work him out at 2B too. Next year we can have a Murphy Evans super utility platoon of doom!

It's worrisome, but normal everyday healthy players do occasionally feel soreness and pain in their knees as well. MRI should be helpful. Hey, at least it happened now instead of January. Should get a pretty fair picture of what his knee looks like.

metirish wrote: It's a good question, Panama must have inspired you. I tend to agee with FK, plus I don't see the Mets going out with purpose to get a better catcher. All this could change of course if there is a new GM. I went with 1. I'm not sure there's a ton of quality catchers out there worth persuing, and i like what I've seen from thole. A little power lacking, but there are cures for that in other roster spots

A Boy Named Seo wrote: Another injury Q for anyone in the know.... is Murphy doing 'baseball activities' not XBox related? Or he still recovering?? Would be surprised if 2B isn't filled from the outside. Last I heard on Daniel Murphy was that he was doing baseball stuff in Port St. Lucie, although not games or what not.

Edgy DC wrote: There's probably a good chance that the ever-silent Mets are envisioning Murphy as the first-team secondbaseman. The secondbase situation is probably the biggest (or near-biggest) place where the current picture will be different on opening day. I have no idea what the Mets are thinking. I'd explore what options are out there, while monitoring Murphy in winter leagues while shopping Castillo. I think the bullpen picture will be the differentest, but that's almost always the case.

A Boy Named Seo wrote: I've been woefully out of it. Is John Maine even throwing or did he have to get the arm cut on again? I don't believe he's throwing. A Phillies team doctor found a problem with his shoulder (that was missed by the previous tests due to the location of it. oddly blocked by the MRI or something) that was never repaired and he had surgery to fix it back in July or something.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: batmagadanleadoff wrote: and therefore, more liability than asset relative to the NL's other first baseman. WAR tells us Ike is #8 in the NL this year. He is behind Pujols, Votto, Gonzalez, Huff, Fielder, Howard and Dunn. Ahead of LaRoche, Glaus, Lee (CHC), Sanchez, Berkman (pre-trade), Helton, Loney, and Jones. Ike Davis is a terrific fielder. WAR includes defense. I was writing about his hitting. Right now, Ike's about the 9th or 10th best hitting 1B in the NL, up from the very bottom of the barrel. He's having an excellent September. Still, you're not gonna make the playoffs with players that are 8th best WAR at their positions. It's about the team, now how each individual position matches up. I mean, Pagan's top 8 in WAR leaguewise isn't he? He was fluttering around there for a while actually, and was much higher around the time he was snubbed for the All-Star game.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: The problem isn't having "if"s. The problem is, jointly, having "if"s on which you absolutely must rely and the distance between the best-case "if" and the bottom-floor of "if not." The Phils-- and teams built like 'em--seem to have multiple "outs" each season that allow them to absorb even absurd injury waves; even when they were missing 3/4 of the starting infield, they still ran Polanco, a red-hot Werth, a capable Ibanez and Victorino out there most nights. In short, they're Marianas-Trench deep (if you haven't already, look at the amount of times over the last 3-4 seasons Utley's-- hell, Utley AND Rollins-- have missed significant time over the last few years... all division winners). they did start Wilson Valdez a whole ton. It certainly feels like they got more out of him then we did.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Ceetar wrote: Lefty Specialist wrote: Gwreck wrote: Really? Bay, Beltran, Wright and Reyes are all very good-to-excellent players. If healthy and playing (reasonably) well, the Mets should be ok. If. The 500-pound millstone around all Mets teams from the dawn of time. That quote could apply to 2010 as well. And in various forms, 2002, 1992, 1972, to name just a few. And it could apply to just about any team ever. Wright and Bay are healthy guys (concussions are odd What if the Phillies don't resign or find an adequate replacement for Werth and Utley doesn't stay healthy all season and Halladay starts to show his age? This year's Phils team saw significant time loss from Utley, Rollins, Madson, and Lidge, and saw lesser but significant time loss from Howard and Dick Torino; it also saw underperformance issues from Lidge, parts of the bullpen, and the entire back half of the rotation creep in at various points, as well as a teamwide month-long slump in May and June. If you called them this morning to ask them how those problems struck 'em, they probably wouldn't pick up the phone, because they'd have champagne hangovers. When they had howard out, did they bat his replacement fourth?

Lefty Specialist wrote: Gwreck wrote: Really? Bay, Beltran, Wright and Reyes are all very good-to-excellent players. If healthy and playing (reasonably) well, the Mets should be ok. If. The 500-pound millstone around all Mets teams from the dawn of time. That quote could apply to 2010 as well. And in various forms, 2002, 1992, 1972, to name just a few. And it could apply to just about any team ever. Wright and Bay are healthy guys (concussions are odd What if the Phillies don't resign or find an adequate replacement for Werth and Utley doesn't stay healthy all season and Halladay starts to show his age?

True...Arias keeps the Lastings Milledge thread alive.

Exactly how it's going to happen. Actually, as Maine doesn't have a contract and Perez does, I imagine he's the guy in the 5th starter spot. I'm not sure Luis Hernandez has earned that backup role. More like Turner or Tejada? I figure if we don't get into a 4 page fight about next year's backup middle infielder in September, we're just not doing our jobs.

Gwreck wrote: Free tickets available (PM me if interested): 1 for tomorrow, 9/28 2 for Thursday, 9/30. I already have free tickets for tomorrow. will be my last game of the year.