roger_that

Remind me--who was the last important Met to break a hamate bone? I remember it messing us up but I'm drawing a blank now on who and when.

They certainly would have had to overpay him for what they could reasonably expect in 2025. A year like he had in 2024, followed by a FA year, he had to see big money coming his way, or at least a shot at it, even if teams tended to think "Almost certainly a fluke year, never gonna see that again from him." A shame because the one part of 2024 that is replicable is his fielding, which we needed, especially at 2B and still need. I still hold out hope that the Mets could pick him up (with the Padres paying most of his salary) during the year if they get sick of him.

Frayed Knot wrote: Yeah, when you start off by comparing a guy with 40 ML PA who's never cracked the top-50 in anyone's prospect rankings to two HoF'ers (one current, one probable future) then you're going to be disappointed A LOT more frequently than not. I ain't arguing with ya. Well, I am, but I know full well that your side of the argument wins the vast majority of these arguments. But I was very much impressed with Acuna in those 40 PAs. I couldn't have been more impressed. And I'm never wrong, except when I am. He struck me as something rare and special, and I want to see him get every chance the Mets can throw at him.

Frayed Knot wrote: Acuna is a nice prospect but he's not his brother, or the equivalent of what Kris Bryant was at the same stage. Or, to get a bit more modern, he's not on the level of Bobby Witt or Jackson Holliday. Maybe it's just me, but I see him as our version of Joe Morgan or Jose Altuve, a pint-sized power-hitting middle infielder who can field at a GG level, potentially a HoFer even. Ya think maybe I have absurd expectations for him, and am dooming myself to disappointment? Only time will tell.

Ditto. I'm counting on him for a big breakthrough year.

=Buck4Prez post_id=186783 time=1741440646 user_id=167]he still can't hit

I guess I'm higher on Baty's and Acuna's potential than some of you are. I see them both with real potential to be stars this year, and don't want it neglected for some guys closer to the end of their careers. Winker had his moments, but there were long stretches last year when he couldn't hit the ocean from a boat.

=Gwreck post_id=186737 time=1741364938 user_id=56] =roger_that post_id=186717 time=1741347982 user_id=128] I think that they may be intending to give Baty a shot as their full-time DH for the first six weeks of the season.

So, doomed to spend April in Syracuse, then. I agree--he needs the ABs, the Mets need to delay his service by about a month, they don't really need a backup SS now.

How about my understanding of the Mets needing to send him to AAA to delay his free agency a year?

I may be clinging to an outmoded notion of how teams treat their rookies, but I wonder if the Mets are committed to sending Acuna to Syracuse for a month or so to make up for the month or so that they called him up at the end of 2024, in order to give themselves an extra year of locking up his services, that is, delaying his potential free agency by a year if he lacks the service time at the MLB level. Is this still how the system operates? If so, then I think that they may be intending to give Baty a shot as their full-time DH for the first six weeks of the season. Barring injury or other disaster, Baty will also serve as their backup shortstop (Lindor will most likely play every inning at SS anyway) while Acuna gets a chance to rip up AAA pitching. If both do well, they'll call up Acuna in Mid-May and spot him at DH, CF, and 2B, and maybe try to deal Baty off for a strong starting pitcher. If Baty fails, of course, they give up on him, and make Acuna the full-time DH (and backup SS, 2B, CF, 3B etc.), depending on whether McNeil is doing well. In other words, if my understanding of the Mets' longterm contractual situation with Acuna is correct, the first six weeks of the season are an extended Spring Training/tryout camp for Baty and McNeil (and Siri), and when Acuna has served enough time in AAA to delay his free agency another year, he steps in for whoever isn't cutting it in a full-time role. And if he does poorly at AAA, then it's on to Plan D or whatever. Am I correct in dooming Acuna to serving a month or so at AAA? If not, it wouldn't be the first time.

It was pointed out a few years ago that for some reason, he seemed to depress attendance in games where he was the announced starting pitcher. Here's an example, of which there were many: Some wit came up with a version of the Sesame Street song beginning with "Sonny Gray, chasing the crowds away..."

I can see him having a breakout year as the Mets' primary DH and backup utility infielder. .265/27/85

His offense seems a whole step below Taylor, who's no slouch defensively. I don't get it, other than as a backup and a defensive replacement. Even if he's a really good centerfielder, is he going to get to one ball a week that Taylor wouldn't get? One ball a month? Is anything on that order worth having a Rey Ordonez in your everyday lineup?

How gifted defensively, do you suppose? Better than Bader? Better than Taylor? How much better? Assuming the maximum, and assuming the offensive numbers aren't going to change much if at all, I'd guess we're looking at another Rey Ordonez situation here. In other words, a possible contributor in a limited role, as a late-inning defensive replacement, which may justify the roster spot, but an inning killer as a regular. That OBP is deadly, and there's no reason to expect it will improve, is there? You can't really give away outs like they were jujubes, can you?

I was kinda hopin' he'd a made it to the Mets roster, against all odds. Maybe he still will in some mid-season Mets-Padres wheelin'-dealin'.

I wonder if people fully realize the effect of inducting him into the HoF, even long after his death, and the death of each of us, for several generations to come. It is to state "It's okay to gamble--eventually, baseball forgives the sternest of its edicts and its principles. If you get caught, which you may or may not, and if you're given the harshest of punishments, which you may or may not, after a time people will stop caring, or even knowing, of your misdeeds, so gamble away. Throw games. Sell out your teammates, do what you need to do, or think you need to do. Do anything, commit any crime, betray anyone's trust, lie, cheat, steal, rape, rob, murder with wild abandon--all will be forgiven, and you will be honored as if you'd never done anything wrong, because in a very real sense, in the eyes of future generations, you haven't. You will be absolved of every foul deed or thought you ever had." Which is why my position on Rose is five-fold: Never, never, never, never, never.

I'm going to be hopeful and contrarian, and project a big year for him. .290/20/75, based on his surge before his hand injury. Also, I'll project the possibility that his young competitors (Acuna, Baty, Mauricio) will push the Mets into dealing him off to a club that desperately needs a second baseman but has a starting pitcher to spare, after he demonstrates that his bat is back.

=batmagadanleadoff post_id=186165 time=1740685112 user_id=68] Dating Game legend Rod Gaspar.

=Gwreck post_id=186156 time=1740679344 user_id=56] An excellent guess but Ron did not debut until 7 games into the 1963 season.

Thank you. My opinion is that this "pressing" stuff is nonsense. Much more like "random variations" that can be argued to look like "pressing." When we have expectations for someone, often based on having performed over his head (randomly) the previous season(s), and then he regresses to the mean, we go "Ah HA!!! PRESSING! Crumbled under the weight of a salary drive! This shows that his character is lacking in the following traits [proceeds to list various character traits]." Also at some point in their careers, all players just lose abilities. When this loss coincides with a "salary drive year," we go "Ah HA!..." But it's mostly nonsense. In Pete's case, he may just have peaked two or three years ago, and we're witnessing the plateau-and-decline years. Don't mean he's pressing, though if you say that often enough it may seem so to people, possibly including Pete.

Especially because he succeeded Dave Kingman at first base, whose principle was "put your foot somewhere near first base if at all possible, and hope the ball hits your glove."

Or made a light bulb appear above your head, or flipped your brain, or [anatomical reference of your choice], showing you some principle or truth about baseball through a characteristic of his? For me, it was Al Leiter, late in his Met career going to three balls on batter after batter. Very slowly I realized that this wasn't a loss of control on his part but rather a deliberate policy, meant to compensate for his fastball not being as fast as it once was. Leiter was (in my memory, anyway) deliberately putting his pitches outside of the strike zone all the time in the hope that batters would swing at bad pitches. He had decided (in my view--I have no documentation) to waste pitches until he had no more pitches to waste, so his games went on and on, and he had reached 100 pitches by the fifth inning typically, when he got removed from the game. I believe this began a trend of pitchers caring much more about the quality of each at-bat, and if they got taken out early, so be it, but they weren't going to pitch in the strike zone until they were absolutely forced to do so. The principle of "A pitcher's job is to last through the 9th inning, or at least to last until the closer could come in to finish off the other team" went right out the window. Of course, it may well be that I just noticed this first in regard to Leiter, but in my mind he was the first one to start slowing down the game on purpose.

And so it begins Define "it"? Chorus of the "We're Doomed" squad?

=Marshmallowmilkshake post_id=185899 time=1740421483 user_id=119] Sterns talks about Acuna needing more seasoning and playing every day.