Cowtipper

Mets are up 1-0! Jared Young hit a home run!

Drew Smith and Dom Smith are off the market. That leaves us with: Starling Marte Michael Conforto Frankie Montas Max Scherzer Jesse Winker Justin Turner Wilmer Flores Tommy Pham Jose Iglesias Justin Wilson Joey Lucchesi Max Kranick Jorge Lopez Marcus Stroman And here are some minor league free agents: Omar Narvaez Erasmo Ramirez Adonis Medina Stephen Nogosek Tyler Naquin

Brett Baty: Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said Tuesday that Baty will be eased into spring training action after experiencing hamstring discomfort during offseason workout two weeks ago, Mike Puma of the New York Post reports. It doesn't sound like an overly serious issue for Baty, but the Mets are going to bring him along slowly early in camp. Baty figures to have a chance to beat out top prospect Carson Benge for the starting job in right field this spring, but if he doesn't, Baty is still projected to see plenty of playing time around the diamond in a utility role in 2026. Injury Hamstring. Day-to-day. Peyton Prescott: Injury Elbow. Est. Return 2/1/2027. Mike Tauchman: The Mets signed Tauchman (knee) to a minor-league contract Monday that includes an invitation to spring training, Will Sammon and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic report. Top prospect Carson Benge enters spring training seemingly in the driver's seat for the Mets' right-field job, but Tauchman will provide additional competition and depth. The 35-year-old slashed .263/.356/.400 with nine home runs over 93 contests last season with the White Sox. Tauchman's season ended in late September due to a torn meniscus in his right knee, and it's unclear whether he will have any restrictions at the outset of camp. Injury Knee. Day-to-day.

Oh boy, I'm so excited, I can't wait to see what happens. Ahh, the first spring training game of the year, I wouldn't miss it for anything!

Mets at Yankees. Good guys vs. bad guys. Justin Hagenman v. Luis Gil. Discuss.

The Mets had a game yesterday but there was no ITG. They lost 2-1 against the Marlins. Without spoiling any more, here is a retrospective thread for our members to pretend like they're discussing the game, or to share their memories of the game.

IF growth can be slow and steady rather than exponential, and IF this website can be allowed to maintain something of its current flair and IF we can avoid it becoming a carbon-copy baseball forum or a watered down click-bait buzzword farm that exists solely to draw superficial eyes and superficial ad revenue, then there is some potential for success. However altruism is often a thin veneer when money is a true driving force. 3,000-4,000 members is doable, because at any given time only a few hundred at most are 'active,' and of those 'active' members a strong core will be actively posting in any quantity. I used to post on Baseball Fever, a site with nearly 30,000 members, but at any given moment only a few hundred at most were active...so it still had an actual culture.* *But much like this website, the METS subforum on the site had maybe 5-10 solid contributors But what would be a total bummer is if this site became a Reddit, where the goal isn't to post anything meaningful, but to post what will get them the most upvotes and Reddit gold, or a Quora, where people can write entire essays that say absolutely nothing because all they are are empty buzzwords that get them clicks and ad revenue (I have never seen people more capable of turning a four-word answer into a six-paragraph screed of meaningless fluff like the members of Quora). A big issue is you're not bringing a forum that has 300 solid members and bumping it up to maybe 3,000. Those 300 would offer a solid base that could carry with them the culture of old. We have like 10 people here that post regularly and 10 people will easily be swamped by even a modest, sudden influx. And I will say to those that think ditching CPF is a good idea due to attrition or whatever...please take note that one of the guys being most vocal about not losing it (me) is the one who's been here just about the least amount of time (~3 years), so there's clearly still a lot of value to be had, even in this website as it currently exists, for newcomers.

Dixon Machado has retired.

Who was Bill Mazeroski? Bill Mazeroski (1936–2026) was a Hall of Fame second baseman who spent his entire 17-year Major League career (1956–1972) with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Renowned primarily for his extraordinary defense, Mazeroski became one of the greatest fielding second basemen in baseball history, winning eight Gold Gloves and earning ten All-Star selections. He set major league records for double plays by a second baseman, including 1,706 in his career and 161 in a single season (1966), and led the National League multiple times in assists, fielding percentage, and double plays. Though his offensive numbers were modest—a .260 career batting average with 2,016 hits and 138 home runs—Mazeroski delivered one of the most iconic moments in sports history. In Game 7 of the 1960 World Series, he hit the first and only walk-off home run ever to end a World Series, defeating the New York Yankees and securing the championship for Pittsburgh. The dramatic blast cemented his legacy and remains one of baseball’s most celebrated moments. He also helped the Pirates win another title in 1971. Born in Wheeling, West Virginia, Mazeroski rose from humble beginnings to become a defensive standard at his position, known for his quick hands and mastery of the double play pivot. After retiring as a player, he served as a coach for the Pirates and the Seattle Mariners and remained involved in player development for years. Mazeroski was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2001 by the Veterans Committee, a decision that sparked debate due to his relatively modest offensive statistics. However, many historians and players argued that his defensive dominance and historic World Series home run justified the honor. He died on February 20, 2026, at age 89, remembered as one of baseball’s greatest defensive players and the author of its most famous championship-clinching home run. Arturo León Lerma died. https://www.tribuna.com.mx/deportes/2026/2/19/la-lmp-el-beisbol-de-luto-fallece-el-expresidente-del-circuito-arturo-leon-lerma-430022.html Who was Arturo León Lerma? Arturo León Lerma (1937–2026) was a leading figure in Mexican professional baseball and public life. Born in Álamos, Sonora, he began his executive career in the 1970s and went on to serve two terms as president of the Liga Mexicana del Pacífico, as well as spending 14 years with the Naranjeros de Hermosillo. A respected author on the sport, he was inducted into the Mexican Professional Baseball Hall of Fame in 2011 and the Caribbean Baseball Hall of Fame in 2013. In addition to his baseball leadership, León Lerma was a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party and served as a federal deputy representing Sonora from 2000 to 2003. During his term, he supported civic development projects in Hermosillo. He died there on February 19, 2026, at age 88, leaving a lasting legacy in both sports and public service.

Why swoop in and take this one over and not just start a Mets forum and site of your own? That's the question. There's an ulterior motive as to why he wants this site; he's not going to give the full answers because to do so would likely mean saying things that would make more of us say 'no.' There's a reason he wants to monopolize all these sites. Why. If money is a driving reason why we're considering this move, I'd pitch in, too, to avoid it. If it's low-engagement, then there's other ways to boost traffic. If running the site is just too burdensome and onerous, then find someone with an independent flair who will maintain the feel of an independent website, lumps and all, not someone who wants to turn this into his version of just another baseball forum.

I think we're more distracted by the fact that another massive change at this board and website we know and love so very much is in the works again. Everything else seems so trivial, ya know? Don't make me go back to holding cardboard signs with my opinions of the New York Mets on street corners again.

Because no one expects much from him, I'm sure ... Craig Kimbrel.

So we do have really short memories.

Oh yes, because regrouping after the first rodeo really turned out well. I hate to get harsher, it's totally out of my character as people know me and particularly love me for being a genius (I have a very high IQ and my mom still puts my drawings on the fridge), and also very humble, easy going and never sarcastic, but dude, how short are our memories? Is there now a concerted effort to break up the gang for good? We're just going to get washed away with a complete and total rebrand if a sale takes place. And since there seems to be zero desire to seek alternative methods for more organic, less (culturally) destructive growth, it seems like the goal or at least assumed forgone conclusion is the dissolution of this website as we know it. Why? If you don't want to own it anymore, see if one of the members who actually has some love for it wants to take over. Or at least put feelers out to see if one of the other strong (independently-owned) Mets websites might want it. It seems like the powers that be have it in their heads that there are only two possible outcomes now: Ceding CPF to a third party who will totally upend it and destroy the core of what it is, or just let it die from attrition. We've already seen one of the most important and in-depth archives of all that is Mets obliterated with the stroke of a domain name transfer and now we want to see it happen again within just a couple of months? We don't post a lot and what we don't have is a lot of posters, for now, but what we do post is some good stuff. My main source of Mets news is the CPF, not Mets.com. Ben, for the sake of all that is good and holy, even if this does happen please at least maintain the UMDB archive you created. And Brock, despite my attacks, this is nothing against you personally. I bet you are a wonderful fella with a great personality, and I mean that from the bottom of my heart. "Nothing personal, strictly business."

How many times have you asked me to stop? Once? Perhaps it is those unnecessary attacks and persistent condescension from moderation, which literally happen all the time, that drives a lot of people away? (I literally only post AI biographies in the single thread. I started. And primarily post in. LOL. Quite the non-sequitur and dig considering the rather serious nature of this thread.) Maybe what this forum needs is a change in moderation? Not ownership? Anyway, these two: "I see contributions for the WHO DIED? thread being a forumites just rushing to be the first to post a name after a death is announced publicly, with no commentary, like checking a box. I put up a MEMORIES thread and folks can't be bothered to write a specific memory and just write that a player sucked. I get rid of our most toxic poster after years of malicious abuse and our best posters leave with him. That's the price we pay and that's their right, but who is going to replace their contributions?" Could possibly be because it's the offseason.

Mets sign 31-year-old minor leaguer Bryce Conley, a pitcher.

Well, RIP CPF.

No acquisition like this is ever done altruistically. The goal isn't some nice guy coming in to help some down-and-out forum. The goal is to make $$$. To make $$$, this site will have to offend the least amount of eyes possible. Which means all the quirkiness and edginess of this site (aka, the character) will have to be removed. Which means it will be watered down. Is anyone actually lending this idea credence? How many times has this played out in real life and no one likes it? "I liked Old John's Bakery until it was bought out by Megacorp, now it's just not the same." If we want more visitors, why don't we just advertise on Wordpress or Google ourselves? I was getting hundreds of extra views on some articles I was writing just by putting $5 to $10 into a 24-hour Wordpress cycle. There's better ways to improve traffic flow than selling out. "Absolutely. We work with the community, and value its input." ... but what wasn't said was "but that doesn't mean we'll actually do anything the community says because haha you don't have control anymore, we do."

Growth is good, but we don't growth that's so fast it'll lose the culture and flavor that has been fostered over the years. If you give in to centralization you lose any level of independence a site such as this has; we don't want to become too watered down we become a Reddit or a MLBTradeRumors.com comment section. And it's like clockwork, the bigger you get the more watered down you become. If we want growth we can get that while still not selling to someone who has had zero skin in this game. It's like giving up a website to the people who bought UMDB, or a dang corporate raider. They might say they're going to do this or that, until they actually get control of it and have total say. We could do journalism and writing on our own. Let the old UMDB be the ashes, let something that WE create be the phoenix. Not some guy who jumps in out of nowhere who has no idea about the flavor or feel of the site. I know I myself have only been here a few years but even I have become accustomed to the way the community maneuvers. I've seen this happen before on another forum I used to go to and though I couldn't stand the owner, he fostered a certain atmosphere that the new owner, who swept in and bought it out of the blue, just eviscerated (and I eventually left that forum). "I'm pretty zero-tolerance on mouth-breathers and loud *******s; this place survived this long for a reason while so many other places faltered. Keeping that is core to the idea." <-- see, that's what I'm talking about. Who's to define a mouth-breather? Brock? The self-anointed king who has no idea how this place interacts and communicates? He's admitting he's open to censorship. That right there is why THIS site is the one I gravitate to, because it is one of the FEW where you can actually say what you want to say without recourse. That is literally an admission he'll turn this into a Reddit. Where free speech is tolerated, oh but not really. This is a no no no from me. Control of a part of this site has already been ceded once. And we saw how that went. Have we learned nothing? Viva CPF, viva freedom, viva independence.

I remember he was fast and that the Mets had him previously in that fun, but ultimately disappointing, year of 2022. Back then they gave him too much playing time; this time maybe they didn't give him enough (4 G, 1 AB).

I remember him being a big guy who, despite his 2.35 ERA, was still very shaky (1.761 WHIP). He was the epitome of "got lucky" with that ERA. I also remember how he went away and came back, just to be let go again.

I remember he was a real strikeout ace in the minors and I kind of always wanted him to get another big league shot with the Mets, but it never happened. Even with the Mets he averaged over 16 K/9. I called him Goose Mountain.

I also remember the trade with Duda and how he was one of the few connections to those mid-2010s teams left. I remember always thinking it odd how, out of all pitchers, they stuck with Drew Smith for so long for some reason.

Mets have inked Mike Tauchman to a minor league contract. This is a good signing. He's coming off a year in which he hit .263/.356/.400 with 9 homers and 40 RBI in 335 at-bats for Chicago. Since 2023, he's hit .255/.359/.381 with 24 homers, 117 RBI and a 108 OPS+ in 310 games. Surprised the best he could muster was a minor league deal. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/02/mets-mike-tauchman-agree-to-minor-league-deal.html

Gary Sanchez, Sandy Alomar, Jr. Perhaps other teams do, too, but the Mets have really loved giving veteran catchers cups of coffees over the years. Lots of catchers kind of fit the theme of this thread. Gary Bennett, Robinson Cancel, Raul Casanova, Michael Perez, Chance Sisco, Robinson Chirinos, Jose Lobaton, Taylor Teagarden, Kelly Shoppach, Rob Johnson, Mike DiFelice, Kelly Stinnett (also a mid-90s "he was really a Met?" Met), even Devin Mesoraco, who had a bit more than a cup of coffee. And this list just goes back to 2000. Also, the 2020 team had a good number of players that one can hardly believe was ever a Met. Brian Dozier, Eduardo Nunez, Billy Hamilton, Guillermo Heredia, Rick Porcello*, Erasmo Ramirez, Hunter Strickland. *Michael Wacha, brought aboard for 2020 as well, doesn't require a double take from me, at least, because in my brain he's one of those Mets that stunk with New York but became really good elsewhere. So I'm well-aware he was a Met.