roger_that

The Hot Corner wrote: damn AI spam bots. Can anything be done about this, aside from damning them to roast eternally in Hell?

How am I supposed to generate animosity against teams whose lineups I barely recognize? If it were up to me, I'd schedule more than half of any team's games within their own division. Maybe three-quarters. Maybe all.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: This is from the thread that discussed the proposed "Golden At Bat". https://phpbb3.leaptoad.com/mets/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=33980Golden AT-Bat "buzz" Benjamin Grimm wrote: I thought of twenty changes that have come to the game since I started watching in 1971, including two changes that have since been rescinded and the one that is being proposed here. I ranked them from best to worst. I'm not including changes to free agency, drafts, compensation, arbitration, trade deadlines, waiver rules, qualifying offers, injured list, etc. I limited it to things that more directly affect what happens during the game and how the postseason field is determined. The first section are things that I feel mostly positive about. The middle section is where I'm more or less neutral. And the bottom section are things that I feel mostly (or entirely) negative out. Please feel free to chime in with your own rankings! Pitch Clock Expansion of Wild Card Round from Best-of-One to Best-of-Three 26-man roster Expansion of LCS from Best-of-Five to Best-of-Seven Three-batter minimum Instant Replay Shift ban Limit on mound visits Larger bases Sticky-finger checks Interleague play {DEFUNCT: All-Star Game determines World Series home-field advantage} {DEFUNCT: Optional 24-man roster} Limit on pickoff attempts Introduction of Wild Card, change from four divisions to six Introduction of Second Wild Card Introduction of Third Wild Card Designated Hitter Ghost Runner Golden At-bat Good thread. Surprised I missed it. If someone could remind me how to create a poll, I'll try it, using your list for people to choose from.

Meanwhile, Lindor has pushed himself (permanently?) over the .300 mark for the season. He's also on track to hit over 32 HRs on the year, which is eminently reasonable.

Hold your horses on stuff you like, please. Maybe I should turn this one into a poll? Maybe I'll do that once we have enough nominees--I can't imagine everything that everyone despises.

Thanks for the encouragement. Alonso is a doubles-machine so far, on track to break the record for doubles in a season. At his current pace, he's on track to hit over 71 doubles. I think the record is in the 60s.

What is the worst innovation in baseball (rules, practices, league configurations, anything) since you started following the game? I've followed the game for a long while (I'm old, but spry) so I'll go back to 8-team leagues, way before the Mets drafted Hobie Landrith, but I think my own personal worst innovation is the DH, which insults my sense of balance, of there being a price to pay for defensive inadequacies. Just pisses me off. But there are others, just not on that DH-offensiveness level. The ghost runner burns me up big time. The automatic IBB is a small irritant. Cast your ballot here. There will be a Part Two to this thread, the best innovations, but for now, name your poison.

Lefty Specialist wrote: Not scurrying. Baty's a weak bat. One swing doesn't change that. Doesn't change the fact that he has no position once McNeil gets back. Sure he does--mostly as the lefthanded half of a platoon with Acuna at second base. McNeil can play the outfield, get a few ABs at 2B, 3B, PH, LF, DH a bit maybe, become a utility guy. You're looking at his numbers from when he was in his 20s and wishing they'll come back again. I'm looking at his numbers in his 30s and saying "Probably not." Certainly not worth throwing away Baty's potential on. Baty's numbers in AAA are Vientos-level numbers and his age tells me he's yet to reach his peak. Lefty Specialist wrote: . And for every Nelson Cruz there are a hundred guys you never heard of because they came to the major leagues, didn't hit, got sent down and never surfaced again. They went into insurance sales and real estate. Not guys who slugged better than .900 OPS in AAA for years while being called up to MLB and slugging well under .700 there. I was challenged to tell you who was in Baty's position and succeeded. You didn't care for my small sample size examples like Mays, Kaline, and Clemente, so I found you a more relevant comparison. Now you hand-wave that one away too. No matter how many I supply (and they're rare, because it's peculiar that a guy who hits in AAA DOESN'T make a big dent at the MLB level when he gets called up) you can handwave away all of them too. Lefty Specialist wrote: Baty's a peculiar hill to die on. I'm surprisingly comfortable up here. Lefty Specialist wrote: Acuna's a better player at second. Vientos is a better player at third. Jeff McNeil actually has a major league track record, including (checks notes) a National League batting title. Baty has boyish good looks. Well, he's played a pretty good 2B, too, wouldn't you agree? Certainly competent. I notice you dropped the "defensive superiority" bit when it came to McNeil --that was smart of you, because to claim that would make you appear foolish. McNeil is probably Baty's defensive inferior at 2B at this point, and certainly in the future--McNeil hasn't looked great at second the past few years, and his age doesn't hold out much hope his range or hands will improve miraculously. Baty is still learning a new position, and should improve over the next few weeks or months defensively. McNeil can still hit enough to fill in at LF while Nimmo moves to CF against righties (and Nimmo looked pretty agile in the outfield yesterday, agreed?). Jose Reyes is also a former NL batting champion but I don't want him in my starting lineup on that account. Nor Tommy Davis. Lefty Specialist wrote: What we think doesn't matter. It's what David Stearns thinks. Alvarez and McNeil are coming back Friday and decisions need to be made. So we should shut down the entire CPF? After all, what we say here is meaningless. I doubt David Stearns peruses the CPF more than three or four times every week, but if he does--Hi, Dave!!!!--I now think he's going to keep Baty on the MLB roster for a few hundred more big-league ABs on the chance that his contributions to the Mets are just getting started. When we started this thread, I felt Baty was going to be sent down when McNeil came back, but now I don't, mainly because I think Stearns is a smart guy. New topic: Did you see the shot Baty belted yesterday? That was an extraordinary HR. I think they said 425 feet, something like that. Off Wheeler. Kept us in the game when no one else was hitting, allowed us a chance for an extra inning win. I think he's got more arrows in his quiver.

For those remaining Baty-haters on this site (he hit a 2-run homer today, the only two runs against the Phillies for 8 innings, so they may be scurrying for cover around now), I'd cite the case of Nelson Cruz, a great example of someone who did not do well in his first three attempts at MLB: in 478 plate appearances with the Brewers and Rangers in 2005, 2006, and 2007 he had a lousy .666 OPS. I'm sure fans were eager to give up on him at that juncture, but he came through with a near-HoF career starting at age 27. He had been putting up impressive AAA numbers in the .900+ range while shuttling back and forth to the minors, just like Baty, but just not hitting MLB pitchers yet. Eventually he did. https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=cruz--002nelhttps://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=cruz--002nel Not sure if those numbers were put up in a hitters' league (the PCL was a hitters' league at some point, but I'm not sure of this specific period) but he was very comparable to Baty at this stage of his career. I could understand the continued skepticism expressed if we were turning down a star veteran at a position we desperately needed immediate help at, but this whole "shitcan the miserable guy" thing I do not get. He's a valuable player, and I want the Mets to get that value.

[FIMG][bIGPURPLE][/bIGPURPLE][/FIMG]=MFS62 post_id=190615 time=1745450805 user_id=60] No matter what the math says, whatever mojo this thread has conjured up, it seems to be working. (like wearing that lucky cap when the team is winning) Keep it going. Later

Now to those who persist in seeing the Mets as a low 90s-win team this year, and I can't show them wrong yet, nor would I try, the implication is that from here on in, they're going to go 75-62 or so, a .547 clip (which when combined with 18-7 comes out to a 93-69 record.) Which means to expect some disappointing stretches out ahead. We're not through a sixth of the season yet, so anything is possible. Lindor, btw, is now on track to drive in over 90 runs. The really encouraging thing is that Soto hasn't begun to unload yet, and he's as sure as anyone to end the year with an over-.900 OPS. (He's cleared it in 6 out of his 7 big league seasons).Thus far he's only around .760, which implies that we should see some vastly improved hitting soon. And Vientos hasn't gotten on track yet. So even when Pete cools off, and the bullpen returns to its level, we should be scoring more runs than we have so far. For the Mets to crack 100 wins, which seemed like a grandiose dream a few weeks ago, they'll "only" need to go 82-55 for the remainder of the season, or .599, which now looks like a pretty reasonable goal.

Yet another lousy single-RBI game for Alonso (albeit a well-timed one) reduces his RBI pace for the season to 168. The Mets meanwhile, in reaching an 18-7 mark, push their expected wins (at this rate, of course) above 116.

I've been getting "TOO MANY REQUESTS" messages for so long I forgot what I wanted to write. This is as positive a feeling I've had about the Mets in a long time. Diaz is upsetting, but maybe a good thing in the long run if he takes a short stay on IL while we bring up McNeil and Alvarez? Closer by committee for a while? Butto? Kranick? Stanek? Minter?

The Hot Corner wrote: Time for a Pete bomb. I'll take one from anybody.

Excellent play by both Soto and Senger. Huge play. Did Soto have a reputation as a gunner? Two excellent throws against the Phils.

SOTO comes up big with a throw from RF. Phillies challenge. Umps disallow.

Baty: "Hell, I coulda done that, Luisangel!"

Danny Young Ks Harper and Schwarber! Mendoza's baseball IQ climbs a few more notches. Now to jump on the Phillies' bullpen.

Wheeler's got one more inning left in him. Then we can gang up on the bullpen.

Another lefty, Winker, hits a good shot off Wheeler

Baty does my heart good. Wheeler has now given up 6 HRs, one in each start.

Frayed Knot wrote: Wheeler's had three good starts out of five: 4 ER, 10 H, over 20 innings combined. But the two others were kind of rough, particularly by his standards: 9 ER on 15 H in 11.1 innings combined Of course the competition may have had something to do with that. Good games = WAS, COL, MIA; Bad games = ATL, StL He's given up exactly one HR in each of his five games so far, but only 6 BB in five games. In his two "bad" games he's struck out only 10 batters combined. In his three good ones, he's struck out better than 10 per game in only 20 innings. Lefties hit him particularly well, of course, and we've got five good lefties in today's lineup, Lindor, Soto, Nimmo, Winker, and Baty.

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: Phillies have a shitload of talent but they look like they might be having a fire-the-manager year. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of guys. Let's rub their noses in it.

Frayed Knot wrote: P.S. today's game is a 1:10 start Thank you! That explains why I couldn't find it at night.

Frayed Knot wrote: Getting caught at the base you start at is the worst of the three as it doesn't even advance the other runner. It turns it into the equivalent of Him being picked off. Well, it was a little better than that. Azocar made second base easily. I was thinking "Jackie Robinson" or "Mays" when Acuna forced the throw to 3B--I loved when these guys got into a pickle because they usually turned it to their advantage through their speed, their smarts, and most of all their ability to change direction on a dime. So far, Acuna's only shown the speed. And you were right about TBS/MLB. It's tonight's Phillies game that's shown on MLB, though my TV says they're showing the Dodgers game instead.