Cowtipper

Mets signed minor leaguer Alfred Vega.

I have Matthew Broderick's autograph. He seems like a cool guy.

=metirish post_id=158241 time=1717790208 user_id=72] I love that about Pete, he's in the moment and enjoying it all

he's collapsing! i predicted it long ago! players like him always collapse! cut him now! I agree. He's never been that great. The only season he played over 150 games, he hit .270. He was only ever a power hitter in 2019 when the ball was juiced and everyone was a power hitter. He's never been good at drawing walks. I don't think that's necessary. But he's never had great power or speed, his defense is solid but not stupendous, two of his .300 seasons were stunted (62 G in 2018, 60 G in 2020), and if you remove his 2022 campaign, his career average drops 10 points. He's just very Diaz-ian in that his one or two great seasons prop up the rest of his career. Give me a break already. This Typewriter All-Star card from 2019 (Latin American release only) reminded me that McNeil was an all-star in 2019. [FIMG=511]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53773816832_03039417b8_b.jpg[/FIMG] McNeil batted over .300 in each of his first three seasons, over more than 1,000 at bats. His lowest season BA over that span was .311. His lowest OPS+ - 130. After an off year in 2021, he came back to win the batting title in 2022. He batted well over .300 in four of his first five seasons. And he was a batting title champ and a two-time all-star. And while the ball was certainly juiced in 2019, it was juiced for everybody. But not every outfielder made the all-star team. After five seasons, McNeil was a star and anybody denying that just doesn't know shit. He's struggling now. And I could come up with many plausible explanations for his struggles. Maybe he's now in decline. Maybe he's hiding an injury, the kind of injury that isn't severe enough to sideline him, but enough to throw off his game. Maybe he's in a funk. I don't really know what's up with McNeil. But I can tell you what's not a convincing explanation for his current lower production: that he was always a bad player and that whenever McNeil ever did anything good, it was sheer luck. That makes no sense at all. Neither does diminishing McNeil's entire career and all of his considerable accomplishments because of his current struggles. A player can be both good and bad without having to simplify things. Everybody sucks at the end. Everybody declines. If McNeil is in his decline, so be it. It happened to everybody. Even Babe Ruth sucked at the end. Otherwise, Keith Hernandez would still be playing first base for the Mets and Mike Piazza would still be their catcher. 1,000 ABs is 333 per season. Consistently small sample sizes. And since then, he's plummeted in every respect and has, in the aggregate, been barely anything more than a weak singles hitter with a poor OBP. Mets fans have gotten so used to mediocrity that they latch onto the McNeils of the world. Back in the day, that was okay, because that is all we had, and all we thought we COULD have. But now we have a billionaire owner that apparently supposedly 'wants to win,' yet still ... the McNeils of the world are still all we have. It gets old.

You knew MLB playoffs were a joke when the 2020 Astros, 29-31, made them. I do wish to see many trades this trading deadline. They did pretty well last year in stocking up on young'uns and I hope they do it again in 2024. The Orioles were garbo from 2017 to 2021, yet now they're a winning club, multiple years running, in part because of all their (relatively) young talent.

This is like choosing between cow dung and horse shit. Offense has no one that's even close. Alonso might get it because he's a name player with all the home runs. Vientos and Martinez haven't been with them long enough, but they'd be obvious choices if they had a to-date full season under them so far. Garrett could have been if he kept it up, but his predicable collapse happened so that's a no. Severino is the only one that I can look at and comfortably say 'yes' to, so he gets my vote.

Another Mets legend, gone :-(. This is about the time where they will start perishing in droves.

Why London?

=metsmarathon post_id=158099 time=1717679611 user_id=83] he's collapsing! i predicted it long ago! players like him always collapse! cut him now!

An audition is when you give someone a tryout at something.

You are cherry picking your responses I'm showing there is considerable precedent for what I've said about Alonso and that it doesn't just happen now and then. Feel free to come up with your own evidence-based rebuttals instead of just issuing five-word critiques of mine.

More hyperbole No.

Players since 1980, 240+ lb., 150+ HR, .260 or worse BA (not exhaustive): G. Stanton: Declined markedly at 32. A Dunn: At 31. R Howard: At 32. C. Davis: At 30. G. Sanchez: At 27. M. Sano: At 27. P. Alvarez: At 30. J. Bell: At 30. L. Duda: At 32. C. Carter: At 30. J. Gallo: Outside of power, never really got good enough offensively to have been capable of declining markedly. To answer your question about trading people, yes, I'm all for it if that means building a core that will actually win in the future, more than one year in a row at a time. But they've been chasing that ghost since I've been following the Mets so maybe that will never happen.

No, I love the Mets. But they are not due our fealty just cuz we're fans. They are getting paid a lot of money to perform, and when they don't perform, they are justifiably ridiculed. I don't understand what is confusing about starting 2025 auditions now. If the team is building for 2025, they should be auditioning players for 2025—and seeing what works—now, not later in the season. I've said elsewhere that the Nimmo-Alonso-McNeil-Diaz core, with later additions of Lindor and Marte (and Ottavino, too, come to think of it), has been together for a long time, yet they're barely a .500 team. That is unacceptable and clearly not working as it is built. Time to tear down and start over. And yes, Alonso is in a collapse. Most pure power guys his size fall apart at some point and he's at that point I think. I want the Mets to succeed more than anybody, but I'm not convinced the Mets want the Mets to succeed.

Do you know how asinine the sounds? I mean wtf? All hyperbole I don't know how asinine it sounds, please elucidate.

All I can say is, if I ran the team, we'd be 162-0 right now.

The only thing that bedaffles me is why Alonso is still with this team. He's just taking up space. Time to start auditioning for the future now, not August 1. He's nearing his total collapse and the Mets might as well ditch him while he still has value.

That was fun, have a lovely evening fellas.

The Mets have found a quality replacement for McNeil in Iglesias. Great play.

=ashie62 post_id=158053 time=1717630311 user_id=90] Two homers for Torrens who would have thunk it

A Gallo Grand Slamboni is coming up!

Severino is falling apart.

Oh jeez, now the wheels are falling off.

Complete game.

Will the Mets do okay in London? Will they even know the language they speak there?