Ceetar

it's probably not going to help his, probably valid, suit.

Edgy MD wrote: Is this the MEMORIES OF DAVID WRIGHT thread or are we still processing? I think David Wright transcends the idea of a memories thread. "Memories of the 2004-2018 Mets"? But mostly i'm still processing.

In 2010, Harper told reporters, per The Washington Post, about how he got his Cowboys fandom from his father, while adding that he’s also a fan of the Yankees, the Lakers and Duke basketball.

Centerfield wrote: seawolf17 wrote: Because we mostly dislike both teams? Yeah this. It's funny how short our memories are. After 1988 and Utley we should hate the Dodgers. But when I watch I find myself rooting for them to beat the Braves. Division rivals! We need confirmation that maybe the Braves are playing above their heads. We don't need them to gain added accolades, attention, or revenue from long playoff runs. Also we haven't lost a playoff series to the Dodgers in decades. We still beat Utley.

Anyone read the most recent Athletic piece by Eno Sarris (I didn't, i don't have access and I tried to sign up with a student account and failed) but there was some real info in there about analytics depts, more than the unsourced garbage that's been circulated I hope.

Centerfield wrote: A Boy Named Seo wrote: Every time I see that stupid red-faced mascot - and they love to trot him out more in the playoffs - I want Cleveland to get their asses kicked. I'm rooting for Houston and the continued curse of Wahoo. This is a fair point. of course, Astros traded for Roberto Osuna who was serving a 75 game suspension for domestic violence, made troubling remarks about it, and then kicked out a fan holding up a sign with a domestic violence hotline number.

MFS62 wrote: The rulz: https://www.thecubreporter.com/book/export/html/3506 And I can't see anything specific to David's case since he is currently on the 40 man roster. My mother always wanted me to be a Lawyer, but I'm not. Can any of you clubhouse and other lawyers decipher this as pertaining to Wright's situation? Later seems like you can just add him to "An MLB player who is on the Ineligible List, the Disqualified List, or the Voluntary Retired List, or on the Restricted List" and never reinstate him.

Lots of moving parts (and we'll hear about none of them) for factoring in a buyout and agreement between Wright, the Mets, and the insurance company.

yeah. Ramos is good too. Looks like he might've been a little lucky too. Love Grandal's BB%. Kurt Suzuki and F. Cervelli look pretty nice too, from an older/cheaper/backup standpoint. edit: Cervelli not a FA. misread it.

Gwreck wrote: Go get the best available talent. Then worry about if you have 4 outfielders for 3 spots. Trades are also possible when one has a surplus of talent. Plus, you know, injuries tend to happen on this team. Sure but then you run the risk of having to trade away value and suddenly you're not as much improved as you though. or playing talent out of position and losing value defensively. Not that you lose MORE defensive value playing Bruce at first instead of RF. (which is inevitable for three weeks) Still though, Harper is a lefty in an already lefty-heavy team and outfield. He's a talent you'd love to have but it really just isn't a good fit. Unless you get blown away in an offer for Nimmo and Conforto, you really can't/shouldn't trade those guys. You almost HAVE to get a Machado type to make the infield all righty if you go all lefty in the outfield.

They've got a year on Mejia. Grandal is almost definitely a huge get, and should be on the list. If they don't get him though, rolling with d'Arnaud/Plawecki isn't the worst thing if you've upgraded the offense elsewhere. Plawecki is pretty league average with maybe a hope for some late development because he's a catcher. d'Arnaud can kinda hit, sometimes? if he's healthy. I dunno. Nido was overmatched this year, but could he hold his own a little more next year after some more minor league reps? (thinking post d'Arnaud injury) Flores will probably be back, he's a useful utility piece. It doesn't seem like the Arthritis is something to worry about. I guess budgetarly giving all that money to d'Arnaud and Flores might be unwise when you can probably replicate that for peanuts if you make the right evaluations of some of the other FA guys.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I hope they have a GM in place by around November 1. For them to do that, they need to move pretty quickly. GM meetings are..second week? or November. That's been there goal date, though those meetings are overblown, particularly in the media. But yeah, You'd like to not miss the opening of the free agency window I'd imagine. That can be anywhere from Nov 1st to Nov 5th. That can be tricky if the Mets want to talk to anyone with those two teams.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: The Yankees got one of those guys last year in Giancarlo Stanton. Trades are a different animal, and they traded nearly as much value in order to afford him.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Yeah, I think CF's point is that it's been a long time since we got a "Holy Shit!" kind of guy. Like Beltran. Or Santana. how often do those come along? There weren't even any available last year (well one, but it wasn't the Mets fault he choice the Angels)

Frazier is/was good. Swarzak is/was good. I guess it depends on how you define good. Vargas, compared to other 5th starters is technically 'good' as well.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I see that the Oakland starting pitcher for tonight's game only pitched 24 innings in 2018! He's started 8 games, usually going about 1 or 2 innings. I guess this is a "bullpen game". If I was an Oakland fan (and I guess I am for one night) that would make me pretty uneasy. gotta feel less uneasy than planning to let Cahill or Jackson throw a ton of the innings though. HR/FB rates can be a little fluky and random, but their two best starters, Cahill and Jackson both are at 10%+ and they're playing in Yankee Stadium. Shawn Kelley hasn't given up a home run as an A in 16.2 IP. So I'm sure he'll get in there. Familia too, is pretty good on that front.

Edgy MD wrote: I imagine part of the thinking with the lack of appearances before his start is that they consider him fragile and didn't want him hurting himself before his tribute game. Also, if it takes a lot of prep work just to get loose enough to pinch-hit, maybe he just didn't have it in him. yeah. just levels and levels of sad. He did take batting practice with the team most days I thought though, but that's still different than live pitching. It kinda sounds like a lot of the silence about what was going to happen was just him really coming to terms with it all.

They saved what? a million by not activating him 9/1? It's junk change. He played two rehab games in a row and I think only 9 innings of those once? I see no reason to doubt his press conference about the agony and pain and his body. Hell, even in the post-Saturday talks he was joking about how he was hoping it WOULDN'T be hit to him. He never sounded ready. But he was with the team. I would've liked to see them activate him and let him pinch hit occasionally. For whatever reason they wanted to pretend, a team that employs Tim Tebow, that doing so would've made a farce of the game. That's why they waited until the last home stand, so all his appearances would be in front of the home crowd, and didn't play him against the 'in it' Braves. I don't understand why they didn't announce/plan all this on 9/1 though. Why the two weeks of pretend and lying? (the media, if they cared, could've sussed some of this out. When did they call Cuddyer? Floyd? etc?) He might not have been up to major league speed, but is timing had to be roughly okay after the rehab, and I'm sure he lost most of that in the three weeks before he faced live pitching again. There had to be something from David in those simulated games and such. Just a physical drain that he couldn't handle. I wonder WHEN (again, something I haven't seen asked/answered) he decided that this was it. Maybe there was still a glimmer of hope in him in early September and he just couldn't keep up?

apparently I'm rooting for the Rockies.

Minimal interest so why bother with separate threads? PLAYOFF GAMES I'm watching the statcast broadcast on ESPN2. Much better experience.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Over the last third of the season, the Mets played at a 96-win pace. I don't want the new front office to overvalue ("We don't need to do all that much!") nor undervalue ("Tear it down! Let's commit to three 100-loss seasons!") that fact. Well, that's exactly the job. If they correctly value the things that were actually talent and correctly dismiss the things that were flukey, they'll be good in 2019. Same for everyone. I'd be concerned about over valuing McNeil, given Citi Field's BABIP reducing ability.

Chacin had a higher xFIP than Vargas. I didn't see anybody link the Mets to Chacin, but he might've been the best of the available guys. Lynn was badish but unlucky so maybe he wouldn't have been as bad in Citi. (was the opposite for him the year before w/ Cardinals) Arrieta was meh and overpaid. In any event, Vargas is as meh as any of 'em, he's probably a fine 5th guy as long as you both have reasonable depth guys and a better team around that. Mets still owe him about $10 so he either puts up more numbers like the second half or you just cut him.

Second half offense was 'fine'. We don't really have as far to go as it might seem. The plummet in June was extreme, and is making everything else seem kinda worse. Even just one great hitter, like Machado, and some talented platoon type bench guys would make a world of difference. The pitching is/can be pretty great. Even a lot of the disasters of the middle of the year were bullpen blown ones. Hold down those early leads and things look a lot different.

seawolf17 wrote: John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Well maybe. But was it a grooved fb he just missed? I wouldn't know enough to recognize myself. I thought it was weird that he reached for the first pitch he saw. Gotta take one, there, DW. That pitch appears to be a middle-down 97 mph fastball. Looks like he historically hits .366 in that zone. .340 on fastballs. Homered on 4 of the 79 fastballs he put in play there. (These numbers seem wrong/low) The popup was a 92 MPH fastball up and away, in the zone. He's homered on 10/95 balls in play in that location, one of his best spots for home runs, only the 2/11 down and in off the plate (2/11) is higher.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Going out and blowing the free agent budget on a closer is exactly the kind of thing an incompetant organization like the Mets loves doing, *especially* when they want to make a show of how serious they are. It's almost always a shortsighted waste of $$. I mean, yeah, but...the Red Sox acquired Kimbrel and his contract in a trade in roughly the same way. He had 11, 13, 13(buyout) coming to him and they gave up 4 players. They'd finished 5th the previous year and then won the division all three years they had him. Obviously Kimbrel now gets more than $25 guaranteed or whatever, but the Mets really do need the bullpen help the most.