Official 2013 New York Mets Thread

[NJDevs4978]

I mean Gil Hodges isn't in the HOF but his number's retired by the Mets (and rightly so) so that shouldn't be the issue.  Everyone knows the pink elephant in the room with Mike, that's why he isn't in Cooperstown yet.  That's probably also what's holding up retiring his number here too

[nmigliore]

This has been such an amazing, tear-jerking ceremony. Very well done.

['7']

The ceremony was tremendous. And glad to see the Mets pull out a win.

 

Was at the game...good to see the stadium full...ish (several thousand empties) Won't bitch about the parking situation.

 

They didn't show a replay, but that blown call on the DP groundout looked atrocious. But did Duda come off the bag?

[nmigliore]

Rubin already hearing Eric Young could be back as a starter: 

 

How would the Mets adjust to trading Murphy? Fans may clamor for Wilmer Flores to take over at second base, but the early insider speculation is that Eric Young Jr. most likely would handle the position. 

While not labeling it a mistake to let Jose Reyes walk given the contract he received from the Miami Marlins, Mets execs recognize they have lacked a speed element since his departure. At least, they lacked a speed element until Young arrived in a June 18 trade with the Colorado Rockies for Collin McHugh. 

So absent another leadoff hitter and deficient in speed throughout the lineup, Young likely is a starter somewhere on the Mets next season -- even though he may be best-suited on a top team as a fourth or fifth outfielder. 

 

I'm perfectly fine on listening on Murphy; he's solid but there's no way he's some kind of untouchable player. But EY Jr. as his replacement, or as a starter anywhere? That would be ridiculous. I hope this is just all bullsh!t and, at most, Young returns as a utility player. 

['7']

EYJ would be the perfect supersub backup. And we could definitely use his speed on the basepaths late in games where we're trailing or tied. But he's not an everyday player, he's not a leadoff hitter and frankly I'm disappointed the Met could be so stupid to think that he is. Young strikes out way too often and brings zero power to whatever position he plays

Edited September 30, 2013 by '7'

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

Rubin already hearing Eric Young could be back as a starter: 

 

 

I'm perfectly fine on listening on Murphy; he's solid but there's no way he's some kind of untouchable player. But EY Jr. as his replacement, or as a starter anywhere? That would be ridiculous. I hope this is just all bullsh!t and, at most, Young returns as a utility player. 

 

 

This is exactly what I'm afraid of...for some reason EY has gotten WAY more mileage out of that first month here than he ever should have, in way too many circles.  If he's being penciled in as a starter next season, then I've lost all respect for Sandy.  Being fast isn't much of a help if you can't get on base to actually use it. 

 

Check out his August and September numbers (which are damned near identical).  Sub-.240 batting avg.  Sub-.290 OB%.  From the LEADOFF HITTER no less!  Oh yeah, he also has a combined 15 BB and 41 K in those two months.  Sorry Sandy, if you think for a second that you're going to sell us on Eric Young, then you really must think the Met fans are clueless.  We're not.  Like others have noted...want to keep him around as a pinch runner/fifth outfielder-type, fine.  Anything more than that, it's a joke.

 

http://espn.go.com/mlb/player/gamelog/_/id/29759/eric-young-jr

Edited September 30, 2013 by Colorado Rockies 1976

[nmigliore]

Howard Dolgon, who owns Syracuse's American Hockey League affiliate, told the Syracuse Post-Standard that the Mets are a natural partner for the Triple-A Syracuse Chiefs in the International League. 

 

"Why aren't the Mets here?" Dolgon told the newspaper. "Why are the Mets 3,000 miles away when you could be on SNY and promoting your brand that way? If you are asking me, one of the things that I would do 100 percent is see if those New York Metropolitans are available." 

 

 

The Nats are the current Syracuse affiliate, but like the Mets, their player development contract ends after 2014 (I've noted before how this can essentially be like a game of musical chairs). Syracuse would be a fantastic landing spot for the Mets; back in the International League and in NY would be great. Dolgon has no affiliation with the MiLB team, he's basically just stating his opinion, but I agree with him. 

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

The Nats are the current Syracuse affiliate, but like the Mets, their player development contract ends after 2014 (I've noted before how this can essentially be like a game of musical chairs). Syracuse would be a fantastic landing spot for the Mets; back in the International League and in NY would be great. Dolgon has no affiliation with the MiLB team, he's basically just stating his opinion, but I agree with him. 

 

I'm all for getting the Mets out of Vegas...and Syracuse would be great.  No downside to that one...hope it happens.

[nmigliore]

Harvey officially will have TJS. 

 

It sucks, but this is the right call. I would have HATED to see him enter 2014, pitch through a part of it, and THEN need TJS, forcing him to miss parts or all of 2015.

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

Agree, glad they didn't fvck around with this.  2015 it is (hopefully) for Harvey. 

['7']

Well I'm glad, we won't be in limbo in 2014 over Harvey. We have a definite answer.

 

Only wish he didn't beat around the bush for so long. Surgery could've been done already.

[NJDevs4978]

Wouldn't have mattered if they did surgery now or last month, the end prognosis is the same anyway.  That's why I'm glad he took the time and wound up accepting this.

[NJDevs4978]

btw for a little off-topic levity and because I've been dying to post this and don't really know where else to post it that anyone'll care, here's an all-time hilarious Mike Francesa spoof I'm sure at least a couple of you will love (ostensibly what Francesa would have sounded like during the Revolutionary War):

 

Edited October 6, 2013 by NJDevs4978

[nmigliore]

Wow that is amazing. Can't stop laughing. I thought this was funny but that blows it away. 

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

God-DAMN, that was hilarious.  This guy absolutely nailed Mike 100%.

 

I will never understand why Fatso continues to somehow garner ratings.  He is by far and away THE worst radio personality on that station.  I loved how this guy picked up on that idiot's more subtle speech patterns:

 

Constant use of "I mean" and "you know".

 

Lousy interviewing skills (constantly interrupts his guests, and tramples over their answers).  Also terrible at interacting with callers. 

 

Repeats himself constantly.  Does this to make it sound like he's saying something with a lot of words, without really saying much of anything at all. 

 

In light of all of the above, it's even more laughable that he's often condescending to callers, as Fatso doesn't come off as nearly as intelligent as he seems to think he is. 

 

 

The only thing this guy missed was Francesca's Butt-head like "uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"s.  I really don't get what ANYONE sees in Fatso...Joe and Evan's show is LIGHT YEARS better, as are others. 

[Derlique]

Holy hell that Francesa parody is gold.

 

CR1976- I used to hate Mike and am kind of annoyed he dismisses hockey until the 2nd round of the playoffs, but he was amazing during Sandy. Keeping thousands of people entertained with sports and doing everything he could to get information from power companies. He is really arrogant and presumptuous but Mike knows his stuff and asks tough questions. He does need to work on his caller interaction though!

[nmigliore]

Some excerpts from this NY Post article from Reggie Jackson's new book. It's mostly not Mets' related but lots of interesting stuff about Billy Martin and the feuds with Jackson and some other teammates: http://nypost.com/2013/10/06/reggie-details-yankees-rivalries-mets-racism-in-tell-all/

 

According to Jackson’s new tell-all, “Becoming Mr. October” (Doubleday), in which he details feuds and resentments toward his old Yankee teammates, the New York media and especially his old manager Billy Martin, the only reason he did not become a Met was because his girlfriend, Juanita Campos, was Hispanic.

Jackson recalls how his coach at Arizona State, Bobby Winkles, broke the bad news.

“A day or two before the draft, Bobby Winkles sat me down and told me, ‘You’re probably not gonna be the No. 1 pick. You’re dating a Mexican girl, and the Mets think you will be a problem,’ ” Jackson writes. “ ‘They think you’ll be a social problem because you are dating out of your race.’ ”

Jackson was especially baffled because he’s part Hispanic — his grandmother is from Puerto Rico and his middle name is Martinez. But that didn’t matter, even to the perennial cellar-dwelling Mets.

“No, you’re colored, and they don’t want that,” Winkles said.

 

 

Jackson wishes he could have been directly inspired by Mets’ veterans and managers of that era, including the late Gil Hodges, whose team won the 1969 World Series, and Yogi Berra, who managed the overachieving 1973 squad. “Unlike Billy Martin, Yogi didn’t need to be the star all the time,” he notes. “He already was the star.”

His desire to have been a Met comes off as almost romantic. “I think about that sometimes. I would’ve been coming up just as that team was finally improving. They had all those great arms: Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, Jon Matlack, Nolan Ryan, Tug McGraw. Oh boy!”

 

Jackson recounts a litany of Martin’s evils, including anti-Semitism Martin directed toward a player Jackson doesn’t name but who is clearly Yankee pitcher Ken Holtzman.

“I was standing near the bat rack early in spring training, and I heard some of the worst anti-Semitic remarks and jokes directed at one of our own players. This went on far too often,” writes Jackson. “When this player was pitching and doing well, he was ‘the great lefty.’ When he wasn’t, it was the name of his ethnic group and religion, ‘the Jew.’ ”

 

Just after reliever Goose Gossage joined the Yankees in 1978, they played a spring-training game against the Texas Rangers. Gossage was about to pitch to a rookie outfielder named Billy Sample when Martin told him, “Hit this blankety-blank in the head” for no apparent reason.

Gossage refused, telling him, “Sample never did anything to me. I’m not gonna fight your fights,” then added, “I hit Sample in the head, I could kill him.” Martin replied, “I don’t give a s–t if you do kill him!”

“He called Gossage every name in the book. A really vile tirade,” Jackson writes. “Martin never got over him refusing to hit Sample during a spring-training game. From then on, Goose and Billy had no relationship.”

 

Increasingly, Martin derived personal glee from humiliating his star free agent. After a ball dropped between Jackson and second baseman Randolph during a game, Martin went to the mound to make a pitching change.

Both the pitcher, Mike Torrez, and Munson later said that as he did, he told Torrez, “Watch this . . . I’m gonna go get that son of a bitch,” then shocked Jackson by removing him from the game as well.

The screaming that followed between the two on the dugout steps concluded with Jackson telling him, “You are not a man,” Martin threatening to kick his butt by replying, “I’ll show you whether I’m a man or not,” and Jackson saying, “If you think you’re gonna kick my butt, you must be crazy” as he walked away.

“He knew he was acting. He didn’t want to take me on,” Jackson writes. “It would’ve been like ordering an ice-cream cone and getting a whole gallon.”

 

 

 

Edit: sorry for the poor formatting; this board's quoting feature is seriously the worst.

 

Edited October 7, 2013 by nmigliore

[NJDevs4978]

Yeah it's been public knowledge after the fact that George Weiss (running the Mets at that time) was a racist during the Yankees' great years and slow to integrate there so it doesn't surprise me that's why they passed on Reggie.

 

Billy Martin, yeesh.  Could you imagine him managing in this era?  He wouldn't have lasted two seasons.  Great baseball mind when sober but his demons would have been too much for the PC, 24/7 news society we're in now.

Edited October 7, 2013 by NJDevs4978

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

Holy hell that Francesa parody is gold.

 

CR1976- I used to hate Mike and am kind of annoyed he dismisses hockey until the 2nd round of the playoffs, but he was amazing during Sandy. Keeping thousands of people entertained with sports and doing everything he could to get information from power companies. He is really arrogant and presumptuous but Mike knows his stuff and asks tough questions. He does need to work on his caller interaction though!

 

The funny thing, Mike DOESN'T know nearly as much as he thinks he does, and when he's proven wrong about something, he just glosses over it or dismisses is, as though it never happened.  It'd be nice if he actually showed a sense of humor about himself from time-to-time...if someone mentioned the 1776 spoof to him, all he'd have to say is "Yeah, saw it, it's pretty funny, the guy was pretty good."  But instead, he'll probably blab about how he's been doing this forever, how great his ratings are, blah blah blah.   

 

I'm not saying he's Satan...you are right, he was terrific during Sandy...it's not like he's all bad.  But I do think there are hosts on that station who are much better listens than Mike...much more down-to-earth.  There's a reason why Mike has a rep as being a pompous know-it-all, and it's ironic that he's a know-it-all, mostly because he's such a poor speaker who isn't particularly great at putting sentences together...he doesn't come off as a terribly bright guy himself. 

 

He is very quick to dismiss callers too...the other hosts, if the caller is trying to make a reasonable point, will at least engage the caller for a minute or so.  Mike often gives a short nothing answer, even to guys with something worthwhile to say.   

[nmigliore]

Mets made some 40-man cuts today, among them was Mike Baxter who was claimed by the Dodgers.

 

Never forget The Catch: http://wapc.mlb.com/play/?content_id=21940177&c_id=ml

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

Sean Henn, Robert Carson and Greg Burke are also gone.  Carson was also claimed by the Dodgers:

 

http://risingapple.com/2013/10/17/mets-remove-robert-carson-mike-baxter-greg-burke-sean-henn-40-man-roster/

 

More bodies will be following shortly.

[nmigliore]

Mets moving to WOR:

 

The Mets are “close to a deal” with Clear Channel Media to be broadcast on WOR (710 AM), according to Neil Best of Newsday and Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News.

Howie Rose is expected to move to the new station, though “it’s less clear” if Josh Lewin will join him, Best writes.

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

http://espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/story/_/id/9841115/chicago-white-sox-agree-record-deal-cuban-free-agent-1b-jose-abreu-reports

 

Evan and Joe went off on Sandy today, saying this is a deal that Sandy should pursued, and both feel that he's not going to do much of anything, that he's completely non-creative, and that this offseason is going to be full of disappointment.  I remain optimistic, but at the same time, I can't say that I see Passive doing as much as many Met fans will hope for. 

[nmigliore]

Abreu would have been an intriguing add but at the same time he's a 1B/DH type with zero experience in American ball. There is a lot of unknown and plenty of downside there to be investing ~$70M into. I'm all for getting on Sandy for being too passive, but not so much here.

Edited October 18, 2013 by nmigliore

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

Abreu would have been an intriguing add but at the same time he's a 1B/DH type with zero experience in American ball. There is a lot of unknown and plenty of downside there to be investing ~$70M into. I'm all for getting on Sandy for being too passive, but not so much here.

 

To tell you the truth, I was kind of surprised that they both were so upset about Sandy not getting involved on this one...I thought this was a huge risk on the White Sox's part.