The Daily News says the Mets could pursue Jack Cust in a trade. Presumably, as a non-tender candidate, Cust would come cheap, but I’m not certain where he fits. He’s a pretty terrible defender and probably a born DH.
Even in a down year in 2009, Cust still hit righties very well. I’d say he could be a left-handed insurance policy and potential platoon partner for Jeff Francoeur, but I can’t imagine the Mets are thinking that way.
I just can’t understand why this paper parted ways with this guy.
Speaking of the Times, Jonah Keri provides a measured approach to the Yankees’ offseason needs.
I don’t want to think about the Jets anymore. Is there a coach in any sport more detestable than Bill Belichick?
TedQuarters person of bafflement Justin Bieber caused a near-riot at the Roosevelt Field Mall over the weekend. I caused my fair share of near-riots at the Roosevelt Field Mall when I was 15, too, but sadly, they never had anything to do with thousands of screaming female fans.
Tedquarters 
One terrible consequence of the Belichick 4th down brou-ha-ha was how so many Belichick-haters, like myself, were placed in the unfortunate position of defending the guy. I mean, first we had Phillies-Yankees, then this, so what terrible choice is next?
Why did you have to defend the guy?
Yeah, I guess it wasn’t so much defending Belichick but defending his decision. Most of the folks in my office were of the “That was the worst decision of all time” point of view, something with which I strongly disagree.
Worst decsion of all time, probably not, that might have been overblown, but I do think it was a dumb move, regardless of what all the fancy win probability and conversion rate statistics say. All that non sense only started surfacing after the fact by people trying to defend Belichek. I guarantee you non of that garbage ever crossed Belicheks mind when making the decision, which makes it somewhat irrelevant.
Also, football is not a sport IMO where you can rely on statistics like that. Things like home field, the crowd, momentum, situation of the game, magnitude of the moment etc all play to big a role and differential that particular play too much from the avergae games where these statistics were derived from. I thought Bill Simmons did an awesome job explain all this in his very enteratin read last week.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmonsnflpicks/091120
I’ve defended Belichick’s decision, too. I think it’s a move that could go either way, but my colleague Mike Salfino framed it like this:
If you were a Colts fan, which move would you rather them make? I feel like, if that was my team, I’d definitely, definitely want the Patriots putting the ball in Manning’s hands and giving him a chance to win it, even if he was starting from his own territory.
Belichick had enough faith in his excellent offense that he counted on them to pick up a few yards, taking a gamble that he could keep the ball out of Manning’s hands entirely. It didn’t pay off, but I think it was a defensible move, despite the way it’s been portrayed in the media.
I’m not even so much in the purely “statistics say” camp with regard to the call; I just think he wasn’t totally crazy for thinking that his offense could get two yards to effectively end the game.
I agree…. like I said, not the dumbest move of all time, and there are different ways to look at it, but when it happened I was thinking WTF is this guy doing. I just think by doing what he did, it basically turns the game intoone play, and with that much time left, I dont think you take it to that point right yet.
I played ball against Jack Cust in HS and all I can say is that he was a total beast of a ballplayer. His senior year prior to a home game for them, he took a personal BP session for 20 or so scouts, hitting about 40 out of 50 pitches around 400ft. Still not sure how he would fit in on the Mets though.
I would though probably say he was only the second most impressive HS athlete I’ve ever seen in person. My HS played St. Patricks in basketball my junior year when Al Harrington was a seniro there. Unreal is about all I can say.
Does this trade involve the Mets being traded to the American League? (As pessimistic as I am about their chances right now, how depressing would it be if they were in a division with the Yankees, Rays and Red Sox?) Otherwise I wholly agree with Chris in being unsure how he fits.