Colorado Rockies 1976

Damn, two-out rally to take the lead! Impressive!

Ending the season the way I started it: hanging in my basement on the couch with my daughter, and hoping for good times ahead (starting with a nice draft position announced in four short days).

Well Ramos just killed that inning...hard to get on him though, he’s been terrific.

Sandy’s Mets for sure

Cano...don’t you know... thank god their pen sucks too!

And then there’s Alonso. Guy is damned fun to watch.

He’s got a lot of Benitez in him. Seriously, fvck that guy. Losers have a way of wilting in the big spot, and that’s Familia. If you’re serious about contending, that’s the kind of guy you move on from. You don’t sign him to 3 years and $30 million for fvck’s sake.

Yep, thank god Familia is here for three years. Loser.

Gotta go more than five Steven. Bullpen is obviously going to be a problem. No one outside of Diaz who’s fully trustworthy.

And good for her, because I think Carton probably has some very sociopathic tendencies...they'll say and do anything to try to talk and weasel their way out of situations...make up or embellish a situation to garner sympathy, turn on the charm (many sociopaths can become quite charming and relatively pleasant when they need something from you), etc. And yeah, that Judge was having NONE of that. But she hears sob stories every day in a job like hers I'm sure...and deals with her fair share of sociopaths. https://www.wikihow.com/Spot-a-Sociopath

Yeah, Mueller is definitely NOT part of that category...I made the mistake of throwing him in there because the price to bring him in was about the same as it was for Palms and MoJo. That was more of a "former first-rounder who didn't succeed with his first team, so maybe he will here" move. Guys picked that high tend to get second, third, and even fourth chances.

Yeah I remember them doing quite well crowd-wise during their 2006 SC Championship run...and that's when I really started to not like that franchise. 2002 obviously didn't help, but I'm sorry, if Kevin Weekes is too much for you to overcome, then there's bigger issues than your opponent...and that team did get enough horseshoes up its ass to get all the way to the SCF that year. The 2005-06 'Canes were so whiny/entitled, and that spread to their fans...they seemed to think ANY contact made with one of their players should lead to a penalty. That 2005-06 NHL season was so screwy to begin with anyway...refs initially calling legal body checks penalties (especially early on), new rules like the trapezoid (this one pretty much aimed right at Brodeur), etc. It came as no shock to me that once the league started to settle back down, that the 'Canes went right back to being meh.

And today Carton gets sentenced. Phil Mushnick (who's clearly willing to buy into the whole "disease" crap with gambling addicts) reporting that Carton will have a 5-minute video released after he's hauled off to prison, in which he (honestly?) chronicles his missteps, and everything it has cost him. I'm usually not one to judge too harshly (people do fvck up, we're all human, and sometimes it takes a hard fall to come back a better person), but he was yet another guy who professed his innocence and was telling everyone how this was all going to be proven as bullsh!t. I kinda hate that crap. It makes you wonder what he's really sorry about...that he couldn't somehow play the usual arrogant celeb game, usually involving paying some high-priced lawyers to find some technicality or loophole to nab him a Get Out Of Jail Free card? I guess it's gotta be a good thing that he at least appears to come to grips with what he truly was and how much he fvcked himself over (not to mention many others), but it's kinda hard to feel terribly sorry for him. I guess for ONCE, I'd like to see someone like him not play the "I'm really innocent, I swear I did nothing wrong, this is all a big misunderstand...oh sh!t, turns out I've been found guilty, so now I feel very badly about everything, I'm really a super-swell nice guy underneath it all, I just made a bad mistake!" card. Hopefully he comes out of prison a changed man. And he's sentenced (3.5 years, $4.8 million in restitution, community service)...and of course, it's not his fault, because he has a "disease"...fortunately the judge saw right through that crap: https://nypost.com/2019/04/05/craig-carton-gets-three-and-a-half-years-in-prison-for-7-million-ticket-resale-scam/ “Your honor, my name is Craig C. and I’m a compulsive gambler,” he told McMahon. “I’m truly powerless over this disease.” The 50-year-old shock jock begged for no prison in Manhattan federal court but couldn’t sway Judge Colleen McMahon. “Colleen from New York. First time, long time,” the jurist greeted Carton. Then, she laced into him. “Your marriage is over, your kids are terrified … reputation in tatters,” she said, as the dad of four sat expressionless. “Craig Carton, you have indeed descended into a hell of your own making.” “I never intended to take money from people and not pay them back,” he said in court. “I had grandiose plans about how we would all make money together.” But in a lengthy lecture, McMahon noted, “A gambling addiction is not an excuse for stealing from people or defrauding people.” “You broke the compact, so you have to take a timeout from society,” she added.

Yeah, get the feeling at least one "young vet" trade is coming this offseason, for a package of picks (like Palms, MoJo, Mueller, etc). Devils also have enough warm bodies that they can throw one in as well. Gotta think some among the Q-types won't be back next year.

To kinda piggyback onto what DM84 is saying, yeah, what can Hynes really say at this point? His team is currently loaded with meh-ish AHLers who weren't exactly shredding in the AHL either, many of whom weren't slated to be part of the big team if everything had gone according to plan...more than a few are warm bodies at this point. Not like Hynes (or any coach in his position) is going to say "Well look at what I have to work with...any building with a sheet of ice and an opponent is going to be tough for us to win in!" Cory finishes out his season with a 2.28 GAA and .927 save% over his last 14 GP. Team went 6-6-2 in those games, and we know why...not like the Devils are putting many pucks in the net right now. He got his GAA down to 3.06 for the season, which seems pretty damned miraculous considering how rotten his numbers were less than two months ago. We were talking about buying him out, and how he might be finished. Take out Blackwood's Calgary disaster, and he's put up a 2.26 GAA and .927 save% overall in 21 out of 22 games...that trainwreck knocks his season save% down to .917, but clearly this is a case of one dreadful game dragging down a relatively small sample and making it look worse than it really was. At least it looks like Blackwood and the current version of Cory can be part of the solution next season...Devils definitely had significant goalie issues in both 2017-18 (despite making the playoffs) and 2018-19. Hopefully they can both stay healthy, with neither one regressing. I'll very happily take a .920-.930 combined save% from the two of them.

...and then there were two for second (worst)... In some ways, hard to believe this season is winding down this way...but then considering all that went wrong, not so much...

Oh well, not gonna win ‘em all. Lugo is becoming an early concern. Cano’s been pretty quiet since Opening Day.

Weird game...only 1 hit each per side through six. And I swear Noah might be the only guy capable of somehow allowing just one hit, but also 2 ER, and throws 98 pitches in his 6 IP. It just never comes that easily for him. Hope the Mets get into the Nats’ poison pen soon...

BTW here's what the 'Stros would be awarded if another team signs Keuchel...a "Pick after Competitive Balance Round B" https://www.mlb.com/draft/order/2019 Sounds like the team that signs him would have to give up its second-highest pick? For the Mets, that'd be the 53rd player overall. So the 'Stros would get the 53rd and 79th draft slots, and the Mets would cough up their second round pick.

Yeah, teams REALLY hate giving up those compensatory picks these days...they really treat them like precious commodities. And though I'm intrigued by Keuchel (especially since he'd be displacing Vargas), his last three seasons have kind of been all over the place, and he missed starts in 2017 and 2018. Just enough red flags that I can see why GMs wouldn't mind adding him, but only for money, and not at the cost of any player assets or picks. Guess we'll see if some team steps up, in the case of an emergency. Assuming that having to cough up a pick ends with the draft, that would be June 5 I guess? Draft is from June 3 through June 5 this year.

So which one of these guys is Dellow?

When is that?

The chances of this probably still border on remote, and not so long ago I would've ruled it out entirely, based on the Mets being the Mets...but I don't think Vargas gives anyone the warm and fuzzies (and not like Matz is a sure thing either), and if Keuchel decides that he REALLY would like to start drawing a paycheck soon...well, I guess I could say that I wouldn't be nearly as surprised as I once would have been if this guy's actually a Met (on a one-year deal) by May. https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2829402-dallas-keuchel-rumors-mets-in-continued-contact-with-free-agent-pitcher He was up and down last season, but in a 15-start stretch from 6/16 to 9/3, he went 8-2 (team went 11-4) with a 2.57 ERA, and an opposing OPS of .626...his traditional numbers weren't quite dominant (94.2 IP, 89 H, 27 ER, 4 HR, 24 BB, 70 K, 1.19 WHIP), but plenty solid, and suffice it to say that I would kill for a run like that from either Vargas OR Matz. Gotta figure Keuchel would probably benefit from both facing a pitcher in opposing lineups AND having a more pitcher-friendly park to call home...he could take a bet-on-himself deal to spend a year with the Mets, and could appear to be pitching "better" due to the aforementioned factors. Only downside is that I'm sure this would kill any chance the Mets might have to fill needs down the line, should the team be in contention around the trade deadline...but it's hard to think that Keuchel wouldn't represent a nice (though costly) upgrade over Vargas.

Fair point Has...fact is that Riggleman might already be doing a fair amount of “managing”...it seems like at least half the time that Mickey’s on camera, Riggleman is in his ear. And yeah, Riggleman would be your classic retread-type. He brings experience through accumulated years in the game, but I’m not sure what else. If anything, if Mickey was given the ax, I could see Riggleman being named the interim guy to start, and technically being auditioned while a search for a replacement gets underway. If the Mets respond to him and BVW doesn’t find someone to his liking, maybe then the job is Riggleman’s. His presence gives BVW some flexibility at least.

And I know it’s early but Gsellman deserves to fall down the depth chart. Guy is getting hit all over the place. Unfortunately Lugo’s been iffy since his first appearance as well. BP apart from Diaz is a little scary right now.