Ceetar

Breaking: player's agent pushes the "GIVE HIM LOTS OF MONEY" button at possibly the literal high water mark of said player's career

Lefty Specialist wrote: I'm baffled by the Reyes playing time. There's SOMETHING going on with Dom Smith, to see what little PT he's getting. They're going to dump Bautista, Familia and Cabrera after the break. Flores is also a possibility; this time I don't think he'll be crying if he leaves. And Reyes, he needs to be shot out of a cannon. I'd rather see Ty Kelly play third. We yell and scream but all teams seem to do this. lead up to the trading deadline and then do the 'play the kids' stuff. It's dumb for the most part but it's mostly minor. And that said, there hopefully is some value in working with the actual minor league coaches and instructors. It's such a fine line between letting them have the full timeto develop skills before they get to the majors and getting them up to speed and used to major league speed. I tend to err on promote them earlier, but it's not necessarily the 'best' way to do it.

There's almost definitely something going on with Smith and the club that we're not privy to. I suspect this is not unrelated.

Simply put? no.

Frayed Knot wrote: Q: The only thing better than a Mets win? A: A Mets win where you quickly click over to the Yanx game and see the last out of their loss 5 seconds later. damn garbage AL. even with that loss they're like 8.5 up on the As, the only other team making a pass at the playoffs.

that's not exactly expert opinion. and they're wrong.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I imagine that many of the same rules apply, though. He makes a good point that the Mets haven't been good at controlling their messaging. It's not something that I particularly care about, until and unless it has some kind of impact on the results on the field. But for their own sake, the Mets should try to get better at this kind of stuff. It's just that it's an impossible task. The Wilpons get criticized constantly for not talking until they talk and everyone remembers they're garbage people and then they want them to shut up again. The Mets open up about injuries and then get killed when those injuries don't heal as fast as initially prognosticated. But if they're not clear on injuries they're hiding something. They literally can't win. It's why I wish they'd lean into things sometimes, but the Wilpons are too old-fashioned/stick in the muds to do that. Like have a "doors open" night to mock the bullpen gate thing. "On September 10th, the Mets will 'accidentally leave all the doors open to all the Citi Field clubs'"

41Forever wrote: Then you let other people control your narrative. MetsBeat is going to be writing about it no matter what, so you want to make sure it is your narrative they are advancing. The more you do to drive the message -- and can provide for the reporters -- the better off you are. Trust me on this, saying "F 'em" doesn't work. They could even pick one reporter they are comfortable with, let that person post the story and the others will follow. Meh, it's not on Cespedes to care about how the media portrays him. Even when he's healthy and fine the MetsBeat is all "why is he playing golf so much? Maybe he shouldn't buy such flashy cars?" It doesn't matter if someone ( Isabel Vincent and Melissa Klein ) does a very well written and researched piece on Yoenis in Cuba coming from nothing and how he's enjoying the freedom of America. It's literally a story of the so-called American Dream and they still bashed him being too flashy. The media doesn't need to be all "I don't know why you make me do this to you Yoenis" about it.

You don't think it's possible the old white marine might have similar takes? The last one is confusing. I can't tell if we're criticizing the Wilpons for not spending on the team or for deciding who to spend on? I think that's just one of those nothing 'talk about process and say nothing' quotes from Alderson. Unless this is a jibe back at them. Are the Wilpons asking Sandy "Hey, is Cespedes ready to go yet or what?" and Sandy's like, "uh, maybe we shouldn't re-sign guys with this type of injury?" The other two are annoying. Particularly the second one, though that's again part of the damn old-school "just rub some dirt on it and play!" stuff that could very well be Sandy's own beliefs as well. 41Forever wrote: So, from a communications perspective, it would benefit both Cespedes and the Mets for him to talk to the media. Change the narrative. Talk about the injury, what the problems are, why the recovery period is long and express that he's excited to get back and contribute. Wright has done this periodically. I'm stunned that they didn't do this with Cespedes in Miami. An answer-all-questions presser can do wonders when there is nothing to hide, which is what I'm sure is the situation here. You're bashing me constantly in not so subtle racist ways, let me open up to you and talk to you and give you quotes? nah, fuck that. I get that it's self-perpetuating in that the media bashes a guy and that guy takes it personally and then doesn't want to talk to them and then they get pissed he's not opening up to them and bash the guy and... but let's put the pressure on the click-bait MetsBeat to gives us some real honest reporting and not "oh, guess they have to bash the guy since he won't talk".

I think the first base thing might just be a temporary "Let's get you back this year to play some games." thing. At least I hope. I'd actually worry more about the quick pivots and movements at first more than the outfield. Let him slowly lumber after balls out there if he needs.

Centerfield wrote: Yes, I meant similar production offensively. And I know that I typically undervalue defense anyway, but in 2017, our pitching ranked 28th and our offense ranked 19th. We needed to upgrade on both sides so drastically that defense is, like, a bonus. And considering our approach to improving the pitching was "hope everyone is better in 2018", we needed guys who were going to make a significant difference offensively. And Todd Frazier and Jay Bruce were not the guys we needed. Bruce is garbage, sure. I still think paying Cain was worth it. But infield-wise? Frazier/Rosario/Cabrera/Smith is a much better defensive infield than 2017. Even if it's Gonzalez for a little while. That's even arguably an above average defensive infield. If you take that hand in hand with the chose of Vargas as the veteran SP innings eater guy, it does make a little sense.

d'Kong76 wrote: We're married to the man through 2020 for muchas dolares. Might as well root for him to get better, find a place for him to stand in the field and to stay off of piers until trading deadline 2020. I don't think he'd be a good 1B and I'd rather him be Jeff Francoeur in the OF defensively over playing at first. Don't waste that arm.

41Forever wrote: Did you know that Nationals season ticket holders who want to go to the ASG had to buy tickets to everything else this week? That means the Fan Fest, the Futures Game and the Home Run Derby. That might be why you can purchase a ticket for the Futures Game on Stub Hub for as little as $6. I'm going to the Fan Fest today but unfortunately, Ryan Church won't be there when I'm there (he's currently trying to find third base). This is actually an MLB thing for a while -- at least when the game was in Detroit in 2005. Kind of sucks. Enjoy the FanFest. I've attended a number of them and they are a lot of fun!!! yup, was the same in 2013 and 2006. I've actually never made it to the Fan Fest. The futures game/celebrity softball thing is kinda fun though. I mean, it's all fun in a "BASEBALL!" way, but for just a chill day at the park, the futures thing is fun. I wish in 2006 it hadn't been a last minute (like sunday evening) decision to go. I'd entered the lottery and 'won' and bought tickets back in like April thinking it might be a neat thing and probably easy to sell for like 2x but no one really buys ASG tickets so I couldn't find a buyer even for $190 SRO strips. So me and my friend drove out Monday morning and missed the futures stuff. Got in trouble at work for calling in sick.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: How about if Matz gets us next year's (or the year after's) catcher and/or second baseman? Some kid who can hit? That's what a team 15 games out needs to trade for. I'm as optimistic on the volume of pitchers the Mets have (Gzelly, Lugo, Dunn, Peterson etc) as I am suspicious of Matz as a longterm guy given his fragility. It's almost like a gift that he's done so well. I mean, yeah, I guess. I like having the lefty, but if you're convinced he's fragile (well, that he's significantly more fragile than roughly every other pitcher who you might replace him with) try to swing a trade for some equal-ish value as a more stable hitter. I personally err on the side of 'keep the pitcher', but I maybe biased as both his and my daughter's first games were the same day.

I'd rather not trade our pitchers unless it's in a package for something really awesome. I don't want to shuffle Matz or Wheeler away for like a Todd Frazier "pretty decently above average but not remarkable". Then you need to find another starter of that quality and you're better off just finding that hitter. I don't think Flores, the bad defender who can occasionally get hot but is mostly average. I'm sure he'll have value as the righty platoon guy for some contenders, but not hugely valuable. There's a lot of 'homegrown' value to him that no one else will care about. And with only one, expensive, year left you're not gonna ship him off to someone like Milwaukee who might view him as a nice stand-in at a variety of positions while you're rebuilding. This is where the Mets are going to miss having a GM though. Flores probably will be on the team as a reserve next year, but at $5 million or so you might be better off with the TJ Rivera/AAAA type guy there for free. If so, you have to trade him for basically anything, live arm, whatever, but that GM is probably not on the team right now to make that decision.

d'Kong76 wrote: Not buying the Yankee Mystique, huh? Well, they're certainly selling it. But I've always been reluctant to buy into #brand. See also: Tebow, Kardashian.

smg58 wrote: It's shocking that Machado hasn't been dealt yet. I can't imagine the Orioles couldn't have gotten more for him in May than they can now, and it was already clear by then that they were the worst team in the league. What if he gets hurt? The Orioles are..well, they're not a particularly well run organization. d'Kong76 wrote: Centerfield wrote: Not sure why they would be interested in giving away top prospects for a rental when they have tons of offense anyway. I doubt it would be a rental once Manny puts on the pinstripes and realizes he's always been a true Yankee at heart and he'll be all like where do I sign. Like roughly everyone else, it'll be the numbers on the check. Whether or not he's there for the 1-game exit.

Centerfield wrote: Frazier is so so so so so SO much better than Flores and TJ Rivera combined. Todd Frazier career OPS: .773 TJ Rivera career OPS: .780 Wilmer Flores Career OPS: .734 (But, his OPS for the last three season: .788, .795, .802.) Wilmer Flores + TJ Rivera combined: 1.507 That's not how you'd combine them in my eye, you'd have to compute the averages. anyway, Flores is having a career year, and has managed to raise his walk rate to almost league average. But that was mostly early season stuff and it's slipping again. Frazier was good until the first injury and was maybe still injured afterwards? Either way, he's typically been good the last few years since he learned how to walk. And he does play much better defense, even if that's decent defense, which is much better than bad defense. Frazier has a history of doing it for a long period of time.

Centerfield wrote: metsmarathon wrote: my god. i just clicked over to bbref to look at the mets salary situation for 2019. there's not a single damned player under actual signed contract for next year (meaning i'm not including any arbitration or pre-arbitration players) that would make you think, "yeah, i'd sign him for that money for next year" cespedes $29M wright $15M bruce $14M lagares $9M - this might be the most reasonable of the damned bunch! frazier $9M swarzak $8.5M vargas $8M that's a whole hell of a lot of money to spend in return for a bunch of negative and near-zero WAR. sheesh. That is damn depressing. With Cespedes and Wright, those deals were good gambles. At least the money was spent on top tier players. One can never predict injuries, especially one like David Wright's. These guys at least had the chance to be good. It's the others on the list that are infuriating. All that money spent on middling talent. $9 million for Todd Frazier when Flores or TJ Rivera could give you similar production. Frazier is so so so so so SO much better than Flores and TJ Rivera combined. Swarzak was a good grab, if a bit expensive, and still might be worth it. Vargas isn't good, but he's typically not horrid either. But pitching, even averageish pitching, is expensive and the Mets already had like 8 starters. I still don't understand anyone opining that the Mets didn't address rotation depth, they probably had more guys than most other teams.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: If the Mets take an approach of "Hey we're not so bad. We only lost about 90 games. Let's let everyone get a year older and see what happens." they'll get roasted, and deservedly so. yeah but we kinda want like Rosario to get a year older no? Who knows with the FA flux, but the Mets haven't really been in a 'hold serve' pattern for years.

4 of those walks were intentional. but there are some glimmers of hope maybe.

The other thing with Anthony is that it's been a minuscule 15.1 IP of which he was at least partially injured with an absurd HR% and a high BABIP. Him suddenly being a useful reliever again next year would be the least surprising thing that could happen.

smg58 wrote: Competing next year will be impossible without at least a $25M bump in payroll. And you still have to hope everybody stays healthy and performs to realistic expectations. The Mets have gotten very, very little of either this year. . I mean, there's a little either or. You need the 25 or so to compensate for the not-healthy not-performing aspects of it. Unless you do manage to shift around some players like Bruce for different pieces, I dunno. Or add ons. Like trade Wheeler and Nimmo for Votto or someone but they have to take Bruce too and then sign Harper?

Centerfield wrote: But the only way I see them seriously contending is to open up the payroll. Another round of Bruce/Vargas/Swarzak/Frazier is going to put us right back here again next year. If there was any question about it last winter, all such doubts should be erased by now. I mean, that depends. If they get the career/recent lines from Vargas and Swarzak and Frazier, that'd actually be fine. The Mets major issue this season is that none of their prospects panned out, from a Smith/Rosario and even Conforto right now, and all their bullpen moves bombed. But even some of the bullpen moves they were rumored to make, or 'cost more', bombed. the same with almost all of the non-Vargas SP guys. And so they put two of their starting depth guys in the bullpen, but they actually had/have more rotation depth than most teams. Sometimes things spiral and make its seem worse than it is. But the real sticking point is probably Rosario. You can find a decent stick at 1B. you've got outfielders even if Conforto isn't awesome. but a good defending SS with at least some offensive ability? damn, it hurts to lose that. But there's still a chance he can be good. 2019 is going to look a lot different than 2018, no matter what happens. But go after another big hitting star. Preferably infield of course, as Harper/OF is kinda fullish? So Machado. Try to get Machado. Hopefully he'll move back to third and isn't actually a malcontent and insists on playing a bad SS. He's not Jeter.

Vic Sage wrote: when was that a hope? 2016.