Colorado Rockies 1976

I watched the video and started welling up, I admit it...you could even see that the players were really fighting it. The older woman in the crowd who was crying got me too, but once I saw the woman waving the flag...man that one REALLY got me. When the Mets played the Marlins the game after Jose Fernandez passed, I'm pretty sure that's the most emotional that I felt watching a sporting event...in the pregame show (just after a tribute to Fernandez), Gary Cohen's voice just cracks and you can tell that he's just barely keeping it together...even now if I watch that, it still gets me. And then Dee Gordon hits a leadoff home run and is bawling as he's circling the bases and his teammates and the fans are all in tears...I actually had to leave the room for a while.

I feel for the fans and others in a big way, but the Yotes aren’t the first franchise to move and they won’t be the last. Our own Devils are already on their third stop since 1974 and almost moved to Nashville. Hell, in this case, Arizona got their team because the original Jets left Winnipeg. As raw as it is, fan emotion won’t ever be enough to keep certain franchises in their current locations…like you alluded to, lots of moving parts that lead to this actually happening.

Man the woman waving the flag who was crying...that was heartbreaking to see.

It's been said plenty, but that CANNOT happen. If it does it's pretty much impossible to defend Fitz from that point on.

Player A's last 6 GP: 3-for-20 (all singles), 2 BB, 11 K in 22 PA, .377 OPS That would be Jarred Kelenic, who's apparently getting back to his usual form. BTW that crazy hot start that he was off to? His BABIP was .733...this is the equivalent of an NHL grinding forward scoring 8 goals in 10 games on about 60% shooting. Basically, I'm not all that worried about this guy suddenly figuring everything out and becoming a star. He's still the whiff machine who got off to a surprising start last season, but slashed .233/.312/.353 over his last 77 games. He'll have occasional short bursts, maybe even the occasional nice month (like last April), but from month-to-month, he'll put up OPSs of .727 (last May), .588 (last June), .686 (last July, before getting hurt), and .653 (last September). Got lucky, in that in the end, it turns out that he's simply not very good. That trade wound up not being the complete disaster that it could have been, really. No one that the Mets gave up have done much, and fortunately with Cohen buying the team, he was able to eat Cano's remaining money. The best player in the deal is the one still pitching for the Mets.

Even if Arizona gets a "new" Coyotes team in however many years, is anyone going to get the warm and fuzzies with the same owner hanging around? Sad is that most feel that is wasn't really lack of fan interest that got the Coyotes to this point (I had almost assumed that had played a role). Yeah seems more like a Cleveland Browns situation...or maybe even Brooklyn Dodgers?

Funny thing about Soto...he's obviously off to a ridiculous start AND the guy can get on base like no one else... BUT, I get the feeling once the BA drops a bit (he's a .286 career hitter), as good of a pure throwback hitter as he is, he's going to draw some criticism at times for almost being TOO scientific at the plate, for leaving things up to Judge (who does whiff a LOT) instead of occasionally breaking out of his "draw walks" MO. But man, I do loooooove the guys who live on the basepaths. Especially since when they're slumping, it's not like they're completely invisible, the way guys like Javier Baez are...he has a .296 OB% for his career, and since signing for nice money with Detroit, he's slashed .226/.268/.353...he doesn't even get ON BASE 27% of the time. Baez is basically Rey Ordonez at the plate with more power and a lot less contact...that's really fvcking terrible. And of course when the low-walk, low-OB% guys start to decline, it gets very ugly very quickly; by contrast, even though Mickey Mantle's final two seasons were rough compared to the rest of his career, he still got on base almost 39% of the time. Check out a former player named Gene Tenace. He's the true "Greek God of Walks". He was only a .241 career hitter, but owned a career .388 OB%, as well as a .817 OPS (he hit 201 HR for his career) and 136 OPS+. Probably among the best .241 hitters ever to play the game.

Pirates were actually off to a nice start to their season: 11-5 coming into this series. Hopefully the Dodgers don't do to the Mets what the Mets just did to the Pirates. But at least a bad start didn't snowball...nice that the Mets don't NEED to rip it up on this trip. I'll take 3-3 with no complaints.

Yeah that would do it. And he definitely did not look right for a while.

Oh no doubt, the Yankees had some really sh!tty people playing for them back then, or guys who simply weren't worth what they were being paid. Remember Danny Tartabull, who went for Ruben Sierra in what was more or less an a$$hole-for-a$$hole trade? I remember Suzyn basically saying the Yankee clubhouse pretty much ignored him his first time around, but he did come back many years later, apparently a changed man.

The Mets BP so far in this series: Game 1: 3.2 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K Game 2: 4 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 9 K Game 3: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K 9.2 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 17 K That's a hell of a run. Pirates with only 5 runs for the series with one inning left. And another scoreless inning. 10.2 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 17 K - damn. Outscored the Pirates 18-5 for the series. Who knows if this will last, but at least they've made April interesting.

Kinda nice when Lindor (good lord when is he REALLY gonna start to hit?!) and Alonso aren't lighting it up today, and the Mets find a way to score six runs. Nice to see the Mets have this surge, after such a painful Devils season. Hope they can take this sweep home, especially with the first WC swing coming this Friday.

For that last WC2 spot, let's face it, ALL of the teams that didn't get in have several games that can be pointed to, in terms of why they didn't make it (and why they didn't deserve to). What's bad for a team like Philly is that they went 13-19-5 over their last 37 GP (much closer to original predictions). Yes, it's expected that they'll make changes this offseason, but do they have another massive-overachieve 25-14-6 start in them? Or a stretch like that in them at any point next season? Given their plan, they might not come as close to a playoff berth as they just did for another couple of seasons.

Oh I'm with ya, I didn't mention that specifically because I already consider that an absolute no-brainer given. Still hoping for an announcement that the Devils are moving on from Green sooner than later.

As far as player transactions go, I'm not expecting much of anything until the season ends. Maybe some signings (think Fitz just signed some undrafted college player to a two-year deal). Curious to see if Luke gets an extension ahead of his final ELC season, but I can see his camp waiting until he's a RFA before signing; if he takes a big step forward, hard to imagine he won't be among the top-paid Devils, on a max-term deal, come 2025-26. The situation that's going to be interesting to see play out is Mercer's...assuming that he's not moved. I wouldn't go more than two years for him at this point...Fitz doesn't have to lock up EVERYONE long-term. I think 2 years $3 - 3.5 million is pretty fair...that's still a big raise, and he really finished out this season in meh fashion. If he puts up numbers closer to 2022-23 (and can become more consistent), then maybe he gets bigger money. BUT, gotta admit, I have a feeling this is all going to become another GM's deal to figure out. If the Devils have to pay a top-end veteran goalie and are expecting to have to pay Luke and Nemec and eventually plan re-up Nico (he's already four years into his current deal), hard to think that Mercer won't become the odd man out...just a "Can't pay everybody" kind of scenario.