Marshmallowmilkshake

Good for Fboy! That could be a fun experience!

Griffin Canning is your man!

Aug. 5. He's going to do better batting near Soto, and the build up will be pretty fun! Pete thrives in big spots.

I have to believe the Mets would at lease match that.

The whole focus on a unanimous vote is about the writers making this about the writers. Used to be making it on the first ballot was the biggest thing. Someone was "a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer." Now it must be unanimous, or the player is slighted. As long as you are above 75 percent, it doesn't matter. It's not like there is a difference between Ralph Kiner's 75 percent and Ichiro's 99.7. They're both Hall of Famers. Should everyone vote for the obvious players? Of course they should. Does it really matter? Not as long as they reach 75 percent. Buster Olney's podcast this week was all about the voting and there was much venting about seeking out the one holdout and doing Lord knows what to him or her. When we start demanding unanimous collective thought, that's a problem. "We need to all think the exact same way and outliers will be ostracized" is a bad way to go. Celebrate the 99.7 percent who got it right. Olney also went off on a rant about making all the ballots public and how sports journalists should demand transparancy. Sure. Sports journalists are by far the largest group that won't name sources - "a person familiar with the Mets' thinking..." -- so there's no way they'll want transparency. I did notice that ARod, Manny and the other juicers are going nowhere in the voting.Wonder if at some point the Hall will convene a committee and look at that era and figure out what to do with Bonds, Sosa, McGwire, Clemens, Arod and the like.

I suspect an Astro. I was hoping that Sabathia would go in with Cleveland's logos, but he actually spent more time in the Bronx and I'm not sure he never wore a Cleveland cap with the C.

Here's the Hall of Fame Ballot Tracker, which as tallied about half the ballots prior to the announcement later tonight. The percentages tend to drop, so Wagner can't really afford to lose too may. I think Beltran will fall short. A litle surprised about Sabathia, who I did not think of as a first-ballot guy. Public Ballots: 202 Anonymous/Unverifiable Ballots: 11 % of Ballots Known: 54.3% Ichiro Suzuki 100.0% CC Sabathia 92.5% Billy Wagner 85.4% Carlos Beltrán 81.2% Andruw Jones 72.8% Chase Utley 52.1% Álex Rodríguez 39.9% Manny Ramírez 36.2% Andy Pettitte 31.9% Bobby Abreu 24.4% Félix Hernández 23.9% Jimmy Rollins 20.2% Dustin Pedroia 15.0% Omar Vizquel 12.7% Mark Buehrle 12.7% David Wright 10.8% Francisco Rodríguez 8.0% Brian McCann 3.3% Russell Martin 3.3% Ian Kinsler 3.3% Torii Hunter 2.3% Ben Zobrist 0.0% Troy Tulowitzki 0.0% Fernando Rodney 0.0% Hanley Ramírez 0.0% Adam Jones 0.0% Curtis Granderson 0.0% Carlos González 0.0%

I'd be curious what Boras and Pete are asking for. You'd think if it was anywhere close to what the Mets are offering, they would have split the difference and called it good by this point.

I am hoping this is just some hardball negotiating.

That kind of structure has appeal for both sides. Pete gets the security of a five year deal plus if he puts together a couple good seasons he has the option to go FA again when he'll still be young enough at 32 y/o to get a multi-year offer. And the Mets get to keep their power guy without having to commit to the back half of his 30s As I said earlier on this thread, I thought the Mets w/should play it as if they were willing to let Pete walk if someone else was going to go north of five years. It's starting to sound like, unless someone is hiding in the weeds waiting for their moment, that teams are reluctant to go there. I like this plan. I think it works for Pete, too.

Sad to see this. I worked for the Flint, Mich. newspaper in the 1990s and Merv was a local hero. His brother Marv -- yes, Mervin and Marvin -- was a longtime coach in the Flint schools. They're both in the Greater Flint Sports Hall of Fame.

Is this the one? Love that 1974 Topps set!

For the guys returning on the ballot, with last year's percentage: Billy Wagner | 73.8% | Enters 10th-and-final year on ballot Andruw Jones | 61.6% | 8th year Carlos Beltrán | 57.1% | 3rd year Álex Rodríguez | 34.8% | 4th year Manny Ramírez | 32.5% | 9th year Chase Utley | 28.8% | 2nd year Omar Vizquel | 17.7% | 8th year Bobby Abreu | 14.8% | 6th year Jimmy Rollins | 14.8% | 4th year Andy Pettitte | 13.5% | 7th year Mark Buehrle | 8.3% | 5th year Francisco Rodríguez | 7.8% | 3rd year Torii Hunter | 7.3% | 5th year David Wright | 6.2% | 2nd year I can't imagine Wagner getting so close and not making it this year. Would love to see Beltran make a big jump. They'll probably make him wait another year or two, which is silly. Would love to see Wright stay on the ballot to they can keep looking at his career. But it could very well just be Ichiro and Wagner going in this year from the writers.

I looked at Felix Hernandez' stats and they weren't as eye-popping as I expected them to be. Some great numbers, to be sure. But not what I'd expect of a first-ballot hall-of-famer.

That's awesome!

I think the Mets will want to keep him. They can do what they did with Nimmo - let him make the rounds, talk to teams who are interested, get the best number then come back to the Mets and see if they'll match or top. It might be less than the number he's looking for, but at least he'll know what his value is on the market. The danger is all it takes is one owner to go nuts and the Mets tell Pete to take it.