roger_that

OK, it seems (seems) that Buck has decided that McNeil belongs in the 5 hole and Marte in the 2 hole, rather than vice versa, which is where I'd put them. A little odd, given their skills, but maybe Buck knows something I don't. McNeil has a better OBP and slightly lifetime better SLG (not very much better) so I'd want him hitting #2.

It's really horrible, innit? Empty, foolish remarks all night long, no insight, chitchat, filler, stupid 'how does it feel to be you' interviews while the game is going on. OTOH, it's almost the only way i can watch MLB.

It also kinda wrecks baseball stats--the reason that innings per game works out so close to "9" is that all the rain-shortened games, and home team victories, are balanced by all the extra-inning games. Now, not so much.

Chad ochoseis wrote: =kcmets post_id=94021 time=1653880283 user_id=53] I really dislike this runner-on-second nonsense. It annoys me far more than the DH ever will. I can kind of sort of almost live with the DH. The Manfred Man is a solution looking for a problem.

I hate Girardi, not only for being ex-Yankee trash, but because he utters such piffle and crap all the time. Last night, they had him on the air and asked about his team's defensive shortcomings, and he didn't even validate the question, just gave them a load of crap about "believing" in his team, "feeling sure" that they'd improve, etc. until I reached through my TV screen and strangled him. Well, I tried to. Didn't work out so well for my TV or for me.

Is ESPN showing "Baseball for Dummies"?

"18-MPH differential between those two pitches"--doesn't he mean "difference"?

It is funny, though, imagining some 22nd century player getting to the Yankees and requesting number after number only to be turned down on each one because it's retired. "Who the fuck was Bernie Williams?" I can picture him asking in frustration.

Frayed Knot wrote: So they're telling me that that review Definitively Showed that Realmuto, who showed NO sign of being hit by the pitch, was hit by the pitch?!?!? On further review, the guys in Chelsea have gotten drunk tonight.

Jean Segura's never played in the post-season "You don't want to be on that list" Ya think? How do they figger it's desirable to play in the post-season? "I figured out something about third to first base--it's very level" Have these guys never considered shutting up if they have nothing to say?

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: Did they explain where's Nimmo? I got here late. Says he's been battling a sore wrist for a few weeks that's worsened in recent days, thinks a day or two off will help Thanks. underwhelmed by the insights of the announcers. A lot of platitudes, generalizations, meaningless observations. "It's tough when you lose...if you've got one pitch that no one can hit, keep throwing it" sort of thing. Or have I been spoiled by good announcing?

Did they explain where's Nimmo? I got here late.

Just my way of saying that it's neither a bad deal nor an implausible one, if they can do it. Whether Cincy will bite, who knows? But I don't expect they will. Worth trying.

OK, not bad, but how did things work out the last time they acquired Luis Castillo?

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: a club like Cincinnati that would take less in a deal were they to also offload a problematic contract, which they happen to have in Moustakas. You're pretty good at spending Steve Cohen's money, but to what end? Moustakas gives us a pretty even equivalent for Dom, same kind of offense, only he's no good if Alonso goes down for a stretch or if we get a sudden hole in the OF, plus he's 33 years years old as opposed to 26, and on the downslide end of his career. Also, we need another 3Bman like Custer needed more indians. Which of Cincinnati's star pitchers are you fantasizing they would toss in to get rid of Moustakas' contract?

a guy with no real future with the team who also isn't very good. That's just it. You don't need Dom to have a "real future." He's not here for the future--he's here for right now, in case Pete pulls a hamstring or Canha goes down for a month or so. He can step into the role of your short-term primary LFer or IB man and you don't have to make any panicky moves. meanwhile he can DH or PH for you and do a creditable job. If he were much better, or you had reasonable hopes that he would get much better given more playing time, then you'd have to expand his role, which would create conflicts with Canha or McNeil or even Alonso, but he isn't and you don't. He is what is, and he does a decent job at the role he plays. If you traded him for someone like Trevor Williams, you'd then need someone to fill his role on the team, and I don't think that pitcher would be much of an improvement over a AAA pitcher, or what you could pick up on the waiver wire, and when Scherzer or deGrom gets back in a few weeks, you'd probably have to cut that pitcher from the big-league squad anyway.

Actually, he seems bright enough to me, just liked the word play. A lot of talk of trading him for pitching. Let's examine. At this point in his career (turning 27 in a few weeks, nearly 1200 MLB at-bats) we know who he is, what he can do, what he can't. Knowing that is a plus, but a minus too, because other teams know what we know. So that puts a cap on the quality of pitching you're going to get back for him. Fairly limited. As stated elsewhere. I strongly oppose trading position players for pitchers, generally, across the board. But in Dom's case, more so. And in his present situation, especially. His present case being “struggling.” That generally understates the return you'll get for him. With his track record established as it is now, we know that “struggling” doesn't matter much in the long haul. A reasonable expectation is that he'll start hitting soon. No reason to think otherwise. Being a lefty, he's limited in the positions he's capable of playing, and practically he's limited even more to LF and IB, which he's played just about equally in the bigs. As long as Alonso remains healthy, Dom's mostly a LFer. Given the Mets who can do a good job in LF (Canha, and McNeil) that makes him a LFer, DH, and pinch hitter. Low OBP guy, decent SLG guy—you can live with that for a month or two if injuries hit, either at 1B or LF. He also has one advantage over most left-handed OF-IB guys—he seems to have a reverse platoon thing. So far, and it's far enough to begin to draw conclusions about his capacities, that means he can play everyday if you need him to. So he's of limited value, but we know what those limits are. And we need a good backup LF-1Ber who can DH respectably and PH. Everybody does, but you're not going to get a starting pitcher back for him who's a hair better than your best AAA pitcher. So I say stop the chatter about trading him for a starting pitcher.

Edgy MD wrote: Got to coach his younger cousin, Pete Falcone. But left too soon to coach his other cousin, Dave Idcone.

I always wonder why more utility infielders DON'T offer themselves as emergency catchers. Emergencies rarely arise, you can't do it poorly enough to catch a lot of blame for screwing the pooch, and it's a certain kind of insurance against getting sent down, traded, DFAed. Where's the downside?

=kcmets post_id=93310 time=1653400466 user_id=53] I watched with fast forwarding the SF broadcast on MLB.TV this morning.

I came up with that theory BTW around 2015 when I, unlike every Mets fan that I knew, was screaming "Trade Harvey! Trade Thor! Trade DeGrom! They're all worth much less than you think, and you could get great position players back in a deal. They're injuries waiting to happen, and they're perceived as potential HoFers right now. Trade them today!" Then I did a very careful, lengthy study of equal-value young pitchers and position players and traced out their futures, and came up with the conclusion that a 25-year-old pitcher with a WAR 5.0 had half the remaining WAR in his career than a 25-year-old position player with a WAR of 5.0, though most teams think they're of roughly equal future value.

I have a very complicated theory, that I've worked out to my satisfaction (at great length) that says that pitchers are twice as prone as position players are to career-ending injury, so a trade of "equals" is usually lopsided. You'd need to get back twice the perceived value in pitching to make a position-player deal worthwhile, and few teams will agree to that. The way to get pitching, I concluded, is to grow your own (and swap it out as soon as you can for position players) and to get it on the FA market, preferably at the trading deadline, for short term fixes, and sometimes for middle-term deals, knowing you're overpaying in $$$ so you don't get burned too badly when the pitcher's arm blows up, as they will most of the time.

Frayed Knot wrote: There's another alternative as to what to do with Luis ... as in we were wondering what it would take to pry away a pitcher off someone's roster. Not by himself probably, but including him might be seen as a case of selling high and would lessen the quality of prospect being sent away. Again, I want to go on record as being opposed to the acquisition of a pitcher for a position player on principle. I think it's a loser move.

Valuable guy to have around. Good OBP, so he's not a clear-cut loss on offense compared to Escobar, about .050 point difference. Escobar hits a little bit better vs. righties than he does lefties, so there's a little platoon situation advantage here, plus both could be the precise sort of backups you need for Lindor and McNeil, capable off-days rest-guys, and injury-regulars.

The SNY app carries the games (at least the SNY ones). The Mets are on mlb.com today, but their gameday is also a good way to follow along without live video. I clicked on their "watch for free" on today's game, and got a choice of "tickets" or "gameday"--I clicked on "gameday" and got another popup that said "buy tickets." Does this mean I should wait until the game gets underway and there will be a different popup?