In typically classy fashion, Wright responds to Fred Wilpon’s claims that the Mets’ third baseman is not a superstar.
David Wright, superstar
Reply
Category Archives: Baseball
Twitter Q&A type thing
Dude, c’mon. You’re just going to lay the slices out flat on the bread so you end up biting into a lunchmeat steak? That’s amateur-hour stuff. You definitely want to maximize surface area by, as you suggest, making sure there’s texture to the distribution of the meat.
But that doesn’t mean rolling or folding the meat on the sandwich either. It takes a delicate touch. Let one end of the meat hit the bread and sort of droop the rest of it on top of it, slightly shaking your hand as you do so. You need to put each slice of meat on there individually. You might think I sound crazy but it’s all in the name of the best possible sandwich. This is serious business.
Well, I like to imagine I’ll be laying in a comfortable bed, surrounded by family — hopefully some grandkids, maybe even great-grandkids — still conscious, listening to beautiful music, watching that Asdrubal Cabrera play over and over again.
Oh wait you mean tomorrow, like because of the rapture? Oh, I don’t know. Hadn’t really thought about it. What time is that happening anyway? I’ll probably play some Madden in the morning. If it’s nice out, maybe I’ll go for a bike ride or do some gardening, then I guess if I have time I’ll get about repenting before I am forever judged.
I didn’t skip an answer in here; I put these two questions together because they struck me as somewhat similar. Here’s a pretty straightforward question OH AND A QUALIFIER THAT MAKES IT MUCH MORE DIFFICULT.
I’ll still take Hanley Ramirez for the first, though — even if Heyward and Stanton are in play. Yeah, he had a down season last year and he’s off to a brutal start to this one. There are probably cases to be made for Heyward, David Wright, Ryan Zimmerman and maybe Jose Reyes, but Ramirez has the best combination of youth, health, and evidence of awesomeness.
As for the chicken, I guess that’s got to be fried but not breaded chicken, then. I mean like Buffalo wings. Those count, right? But smoked chicken is delicious too.
All of them had their moments, but I go with the UCB. I’ve linked this here before, but this is my favorite comedy sketch of all time. Vaguely NSFW. Note that it’s all one take:
Ass Pennies – watch more funny videos
Subway Series preview
Important stuff with Alex Belth:
The three fallacies of Jose Reyes
Over at Amazin’ Avenue, Rob Castellano investigates a few of the fallacies perpetuating the nonstop talk that Jose Reyes will inevitably be traded at some point this summer.
I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it a bunch more times: All the decisions — on all sides — regarding Jose Reyes’ future with the Mets are nuanced ones, and dismissing them by saying, “Oh well he’s X type of player and Sandy Alderson is Y type of general manager” is just silly. Alderson, Reyes, and Reyes’ agents are smart people. They’re going to spend a lot of time with this.
That doesn’t mean he’s certainly back in Queens next year, but it doesn’t mean he’s as good as gone either. It does mean no one should go about moving Reyes to second base to make way for Ruben Tejada just yet. Holy hell.
Wither the Fernanchise?
Martinez is only the first outfielder to get at least 100 plate appearances by his age 20 season and not be qualifying for a batting title by his age 22 season. No hitter regardless of position with at least 100 plate appearances by age 20 has failed to become a big league regular. Most became all-stars.
Fernando Martinez is getting about a plate appearance a day, which doesn’t seem like the pace you want for a 22-year-old prospect.
I suspect he’s the guy to go when Angel Pagan returns. I know a lot of fans are eager to run Willie Harris out of town, but with Chin-Lung Hu gone, David Wright out and the infield stretched thin, Harris’ defensive versatility becomes more valuable to the club. Plus obviously Martinez should be seeing regular playing time somewhere.
We get to see two games’ worth of Martinez’s bat in the lineup this weekend, as he’ll be DHing in the Bronx. Pagan played the last two nights in St. Lucie and the Mets want him to play four nights in a row there, so if all goes according to plan he should rejoin the club Tuesday in Chicago.
Jason Giambi puts the people of Denver on his back and carries them to discounted-taco glory
In the event, Giambi exploded for three home runs and drove in all seven Colorado runs in the Rockies’ 7-1 blowout of the Phillies. He’s now got 419 round-trippers, but this was his first three-homer game.
Look: It’s awesome that Jason Giambi, a really nice guy and a massively entertaining masher of baseballs, became the second oldest man in baseball history to hit three home runs in a game last night. And it’s even more awesome that he did it against the Phillies.
But the most important thing here — and the thing that will be overlooked in the history books, I fear — is that whenever the Rockies score seven or more runs, Denver-area Taco Bells serve discounted tacos between 4 and 6 p.m. the next day. And the Rockies didn’t really need Giambi’s last two home runs and four RBIs, what with Jhoulys Chacin cruising like he was. Giambi did that for the people. So the people could eat cheap tacos.
And if Jason Giambi heroically securing discounted tacos with a home run sounds vaguely familiar, it’s because it has happened before.
Oh my Asdrubal
Asdrubal Cabrera made one of the most ridiculous plays you’ll ever see. How awesome is baseball?
Awesome
A 14-year-old fan on Twitter suggested Brandon Phillips come watch his youth-league team play. So he did.
Baseball Show asks the important questions
One last thought about prospects
One last thing, and I imagine this point has already been made. I strikes me that it must have been, at some point:
People often discuss which Minor League transition is the biggest jump. In this Scout.com roundtable from a few years ago, most of the experts argued that the biggest jump is from High A to Double-A, and I’ve heard as much elsewhere.
But the biggest jump of all almost has to be from Triple-A to the Majors, no? Is that just common sense? Here’s how I figure:
There’s no talent ceiling in the Majors. Dominant players at every level can advance to the next level, until they reach the big leagues, but dominant players at the big league level have no place else to go.
If in some weird scenario a guy as good as Josh Johnson is in Triple-A — and I mean Josh Johnson now, not when he was in Triple-A — he’s only going to make his way around the International League once, tops. Awesome players stay in the Majors for as long as they’re awesome (and then some).
Tedquarters 