Category Archives: Baseball

Twitter Q&A-type thing

Posted on by
Reply

Obviously it depends on who you’re getting back — no need to trade a guy who can help the team win games this year for Single-A roster filler. But yeah, I’d say if the Mets could get anybody that might contribute to a future club, they should be willing to deal Jason Isringhausen or Tim Byrdak — even given the current state of their bullpen.

Right now they’re still an extreme longshot to make the playoffs, even as good as they’ve looked lately. If they can get something of value in return for a reliever in his late 30s (who hasn’t even been exceptional), they might as well. If the Mets were sitting in the Wild Card spot and Isringhausen were dominating opponents every night, I might be less certain.

But as it is, they’re still 6.5 games out with a ton of other teams in the mix, and neither pitcher has been irreplaceable. Justin Hampson has dominated lefties in Triple-A and could probably effectively fill Byrdak’s role. Isringhausen would be tougher to replace, but he can’t pitch every day and presents a perpetual injury risk.

I’m not willing to assume that, for a variety of reasons. More on “buyers” and “sellers” here.

I think it would be incredibly foolish for the Mets to mortgage any part of their future in an attempt to make a run in 2011. They’re too far from contention. If they want to hold onto their cards and keep playing for the Wild Card hoping that David Wright and maybe Ike Davis or Johan Santana come back and make an impact, or make a couple of deals that better the club in the short- and long-term, that’s one thing. But if you’re talking about going all in on behalf of this season, trading prospects to try to make a run — no way.

As for the question: I’d still say the Mets need starting pitching most of all. The guys in the rotation have done a fine job, but one more strong arm could push a starter into the bullpen, strengthening the whole staff. But any of the rumored-available starting pitchers better than the ones they have are going to cost a lot, and the last thing the Mets need to do right now is gut the farm system.

I’d like to have my own TV show. I haven’t really figured out the format, but probably a variety show of sorts. I know you might not think it’d be that awesome based on the goofy web videos we do here, but trust me, it would be. Just waiting for the right sucker to hand me the reins. Speaking of: If you’re a big-time TV studio exec, email me. We can make this happen.

Oh, and if that doesn’t sound like “realistically speaking,” consider that I currently have a job that pays me a living wage to — among other things — cover the baseball team I grew up loving, troll newspaper columnists, review sandwiches and weigh in on just about any topic I want. Hard to imagine anything much better than this.

The password is ‘fidelio’

Posted on by
Reply

Multiple sources with knowledge of the process told The Post yesterday that indications are the Mets have begun -— or will soon begin —- secret talks with the Reyes camp in hopes of reaching agreement in the coming weeks on a new contract with the All-Star shortstop.

– Mike Puma, N.Y. Post.

OK first of all, how much knowledge of the process could these multiple sources possibly have if they don’t know if the secret talks have even begun? I mean, I suppose it’s pretty impressive that they’re aware of the clandestine conversations at all, though.

But seriously, some secret.

I take it that in this context, “secret” actually means “something none of us is all that eager to blab to the media about because none of us feels like suffering a whole lot of nonsense while we endeavor a complicated contract negotiation in which we may not ultimately come to an agreement.”

Or maybe they’re legit secret meetings conducted in some musty underground hideaway, Skull-and-Bones style, and Sandy Alderson and the Greenbergs wear purple cloaks and paddle each other while reciting lines from Moneyball in Latin. In that case, good job by Puma for infiltrating.

Anyway, it certainly makes sense for the Mets to try to negotiate with Reyes before he hits the open market. It makes less sense for Reyes and his camp, but presumably his agents won’t accept much less than what they believe to be fair market value for the player. Plus there’s something to be said for capitalizing on Reyes’ outstanding first half while they can.

The Wily Mo Show

Posted on by
Reply

Still, a derby without Wily Mo just doesn’t seem right. The timing is too fortuitous. In the season MLB opens up the derby to non-All-Stars, the hardest-hitting man in baseball comes to the major leagues after a 2½-year absence and bops five home runs in 39 at-bats for the team that’s hosting the game. Wily Mo doesn’t need a metal bat to hit balls 500 feet. He would steal the damn show.

– Jeff Passan, Yahoo! Sports.

Passan compiles a list of suggestions to improve the All-Star Game, and I’m on board with all but one of them (more on that in a sec). I’m especially fond of the recommendation that Wily Mo Pena be included in every single Home Run Derby, because that’d be hilarious. Plus the guy can hit the ball really far.

But I’ll take it one more step and say if baseball really wants to use home-run diplomacy to reach out to new fans, why not pull Pena and a squad of his fellow masher-types from the affiliated ranks and pay them to tour the country and world as baseball-crushing ambassadors? The Wily Mo Pena Longball Show, coming soon to a ballpark near you. Yeah, it lacks the subtleties of the actual sport but it’d be a veritable real-life highlight reel, plus a great way to keep Russ Branyan gainfully employed.

The one thing Passan suggests I cannot abide, though — in the Home Run Derby, this fantasy-world Wily Mo Pena Show or elsewhere — is the use of metal bats. C’mon. You’re going to want to hear that crack on every 480-foot homer, even if it means giving up a little bit of distance. As a great man once said, “it’s the wood that makes it good.” I’d rather they use juiced balls if they’re going to abandon regulation equipment.

Via Ben.

File under: Awesome stuff Bo Jackson has done

Posted on by
Reply

Bo Jackson was on first base and we picked him off. He didn’t even try to go back to first; he just took off running to second. They threw the ball to me and we had him out by 15 feet. But Bo is still running at me full steam. I’m thinking, “You’ve got to get in a rundown, dude.” But he’s running like he’s going to run me over at the plate. I’m thinking, “What are you doing, dude? Well, I guess he’ll slide.” But then he’s five feet away and he’s still in full stride. And I’m like, “Holy s—, what the hell’s going to happen?” And I jumped back out of the way. And then he came to the base at full speed and went “pop!” — stopped right on the bag. He was safe, but they called him out because the ball beat him. That’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. I had the ball 15 feet before he got there, waiting for him, and he made me not tag him. He said to me, “Boonie, you know I was safe.” I said, “You’re right.” He just scared me.

– Bret Boone.

Awesome. Via Rob Iracane via Chitwood & Hobbs.

Always bet on black

Posted on by
Reply

I mentioned Baseball Prospectus’ playoff odds yesterday. They’re a fun way to keep the season in perspective, and they seem particularly valuable this time of year when assessing a team’s best approach to the trade deadline.

Anyway, the cool thing about the Mets’ playoff odds is they’ve slowly been going up over the past month or so. The not-as-cool thing is they’re still pretty long: 2.8 percent as of this morning.

What struck me today is that, if you’re looking to contextualize what a 2.8 percent chance looks like, it’s not terribly far off the chances of hitting any one number on an American roulette wheel. Technically 2.8 percent is about a 1 in 36 chance and hitting a 7 on a roulette wheel would be 1 in 38, but, well, close enough for jazz.

Of course, a roulette wheel is (in theory, at least) entirely random and the remainder of the baseball season is not, so it’s not a perfect comp.

Twitter Q&A-type thing

Posted on by
Reply

That’s a really good question, and one I obviously can’t answer definitively. For tomorrow’s Baseball Show, I talked with Peter Gammons about the Mets’ approach to the trading deadline and he made several interesting points. I don’t want to scoop that here, but I’ll say this: He noted that no team last year took on as much money as Beltran stands to make after the deadline this year.

That obviously doesn’t mean Beltran is immovable, especially given the season he’s having. But how many teams in contention that need an extra bat in the outfield (or at DH) have the financial flexibility to take on Beltran’s contract? Plus remember that Beltran’s contract includes both a no-trade clause and a clause saying he can’t be offered arbitration after the season, meaning it could be harder to work out a deal and any acquiring team doesn’t stand to get draft picks when he leaves.

This could be wishful thinking on my part, imagining a scenario wherein the Mets determine they’re best off keeping Beltran around for the asses he’ll help put in seats for the remainder of the season. Or they could take on some of his contract and try to get a better return. But that doesn’t really answer the question.

Last year the Yankees gave up Mark Melancon and Minor Leaguer Jimmy Paredes for Lance Berkman. It’s not a perfect comp for a variety of reasons: Beltran is more valuable in the field but comes with greater injury risk and Berkman was in the midst of a down year by his standards. But maybe that’s a reasonable expectation: A potentially useful young arm and a marginal-at-best prospect? Or am I being too pessimistic? I’ll admit I suck at this.

As for Rodriguez: Gammons sounded pretty optimistic about the Mets’ ability to trade him, even despite all the money he’s owed. I’ll leave the haul part of it to him. You’ll have to tune in tomorrow for that. CLIFFHANGER!

So we’re looking for a surprisingly good sandwich that’s still not great, with a couple of exceptional elements but a couple that are holding it back. OK… off the top of my head:

The Mets are a ham and cheese sandwich on white bread with spicy mustard, with a single slice of incredibly flavorful imported prosciutto on there. Obviously the prosciutto here is Jose Reyes. Oh, and the cheese is really good too — a fine Havarti, we’ll call that Beltran.

The ham is a fine, thin-sliced Boar’s Head deli ham. That’s the rest of the lineup. It’s getting the job done but it’s not overwhelmingly awesome. The white bread is the pitching staff, and it’s doing the best it can with what it has and no offense to white bread but man, this sandwich would be better if it were on something other than plain old white bread.

The spicy mustard is Terry Collins. That strikes me as appropriate for some reason. Like all sandwiches, this would be better with bacon, or David Wright.

In truth, probably Madden. But that’s a boring answer, especially since I still play Madden today (BTW, the lockout did not seem to impact the undefeated 2011-12 Jets in my franchise mode).

I always played more sports games than anything else, so I’m going to give some love to Micro-League Baseball on the Commodore 64 — the nerdiest game ever invented. It was basically Moneyball before Moneyball; you didn’t even play the games yourself, you just put a bunch of stats into the computer and then let the computer play them out for you. But I created teams of me and my friends and pitted them against the 1927 Yankees and such. Ah yes, “my friends.” I swear.

How many people go on a roast dais? None of these people know me so they wouldn’t have anything funny to say about me, but if I’m picking I guess I should just pick the people I think are funniest since I’m going to be sitting there anyway so I might as well enjoy some good standup: Dave Chappelle, Louis CK, Jake Johannsen, Mike Birbiglia, David Cross, Norm MacDonald and Stephen Colbert.