Category Archives: Baseball

Friday Q&A, pt. 1: Mets stuff

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https://twitter.com/BlueChill1123/status/264371022017466369
Well that’s the reported-to-be-around $125 million question, no? I’ll say that if I had to bet on it now, I’d guess the Mets do re-sign Wright, and that it’s more likely they overpay him then send him packing. But obviously they’ve got to have a limit, and for all we know Wright and his agents will absolutely demand some sum the Mets absolutely cannot afford, forcing their hand.

The best-case scenario for a Wright trade would be something like the Rockies’ end of the Matt Holliday deal a few years ago. For Holliday — with one year remaining on his contract — Colorado received Huston Street, Greg Smith and Carlos Gonzalez. Smith never amounted to much for the Rockies, but Street — already established and well-compensated at the time of the deal — pitched well there and Gonzalez emerged as a franchise cornerstone.

It’s hard to count on any prospect panning out as well as Gonzalez has, which is why it seems silly to argue for trading Wright. Still, if it comes to that, the Mets need to get back a young player of that ilk: Someone who has already performed well in the high Minors and doesn’t appear far from becoming a Major League regular, with the potential to become a very good to great Major League regular.

Due the inexpensive terms of Dickey’s 2013 option, he might net even more than Wright in a trade. If the Mets were to deal him, I’d hope they could bring back an immediate Major League contributor with some upside and at least one more potential Major League contributor.

https://twitter.com/whywhywhy50/status/264374729325047808

Very slim. We love Endy here, but for as desperately as the Mets need outfielders, they don’t really need outfielders that do the things Endy does at this point in his career. Guys who field pretty well and bat left-handed they’ve got.

https://twitter.com/TomHoeg/status/264371865206784000

Wait, an elephant learned to speak? Like, with words? How did I miss this?

The Orioles’ playoff run this year should stand as evidence forever that trying to predict baseball is futile. So… I don’t know, 2014. Why not?

T-shirt cannon technology finally used to launch tacos

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Huge news out of Texas, courtesy real-life friend Ron:

The Torchy’s Tacos taco cannon stands proudly on all-terrain wheels. It is coated in jet black paint, with its long barrel pointing high towards the sky. The cannon’s controller shoots off three tacos in rapid succession. The explosion excites cheers and claps from people hoping to catch one of the tacos. One by one each taco is grabbed, unwrapped and eaten. The smell of drizzled cheese, sizzled chilies and grilled chicken invade the nostrils of its catcher….

“I seriously envisioned a warlike cannon shooting tacos at people,” biology senior Waytao Shing said.

Shing, who attended the FFF Aqua Olympics, an event catered to getting FFF patrons excited for the festival, was surprised to see what the cannon really was: a 12-chambered T-shirt cannon, redesigned to project delectable tacos.

About time, if you ask me. You may have seen similar cannons at basketball games. I know the Georgetown cheerleaders have one. They are awesome, but until now they have been pathetically devoid of taco ammunition. Check this sucker out:

Since the revelation at a Minor League game somewhere that hot dogs wrapped in foil with packets of mustard and ketchup were apparently the same gauge as rolled-up t-shirts, I’ve been quietly campaigning for Mr. Met to put his own gun to better use.

Now that tacos are in play — especially considering how good the Citi Field tacos are — it’s about time Mr. Met up his game. I already have more t-shirts than I need and there’s almost no chance anything fired at me from a hundred yards away will prove worthy of my t-shirt rotation. But I could pretty much always use a taco.

Jeff Kent is not here to make friends

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I’ve somehow missed this until today: Aaron Gleeman at Hardball Talk is recapping every episode of the current season of Survivor, which features Jeff Kent behaving Jeff Kentily. It’s hilarious, especially if you’ve been looking for evidence to confirm your long-held suspicions that Jeff Kent is a massive jerk. It turns out he’s misleading his team about his motorcycling hobby yet again, plus throwing teammates under the bus, and backstabbing, and also still not being very good at defense.

Also, apparently the other people on Survivor do not know that Jeff Kent played professional baseball, which Kent’s apparently trying to use to his advantage but which you have to figure must be eating him up inside. And for the first time in my life, I wish I were on Survivor so I could blow up Jeff Kent’s spot. Also, I think it might be funny to go on there and be all, “I’m here to make friends.”

Just not with Jeff Kent, obviously. Barry Bonds forever.

Free-agent outfielder emotivism

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Tim Dierkes at MLBTradeRumors.com published his annual list of baseball’s top 50 free agents with predictions for where they’ll all land. It’s more or less required offseason reading, assuming you like to stay up on this stuff.

The Mets, we’ve discussed, need outfielders, and several of the players on the list are just that. So since there’s not much else doing in baseball today, I’ll take a cue from our man A.J. Ayer and try to employ the ol’ boo-hurrah theory on the listed outfielders. Obviously every case depends on the deal — Melky Cabrera at six years and $80 million is a very decided “boo.” But I’ll take cues from Dierkes on what these guys are expected to get. And I’ll start at the top:

Josh Hamilton: I’ve seen Mets fans express concern over Hamilton’s history of drug problems and how he’d respond to the big city, but it’s not like the Dallas area (the fourth largest metropolitan area in the country) is without its temptations. Far more concerning about Hamilton, to me, are his age and his expected salary. Hamilton’s an awesome player, no doubt, but he’s obviously not coming to the Mets, so this one’s a non-starter. Boo.

Michael Bourn: As a slick-fielding center fielder who gets on base a bit with great speed, Bourn would fill a bunch of needs for the Mets. But he hits left-handed like almost all their in-house outfielders do, plus he’s a Scott Boras client reportedly seeking a massive payday. Another one that’s just not happening regardless. If they have the money for Bourn, it should be going to David Wright. Boo.

B.J. Upton: I’ve been singing Upton’s praises on the podcast for a while. He’s only 28 so he should have a few good years in front of him, he hits right-handed with power and speed, and he plays a solid center field. Upton’s on-base percentage slipped under .300 for the first time in his career in 2012 and he’s never matched the high standards he set for himself with a breakout season in 2007. But he’s a very good player regardless. It sure doesn’t sound like the Mets have the type of money Upton will require — even if it’s the five years and $75-80 million Jack Moore predicted — and it wouldn’t be my money to spend if they did. But if they did, and if it was, I’d scoop him up at that rate. Hurrah.

Nick Swisher: The upside to Swisher is he’s a good switch-hitter and a capable fielder in an outfield corner who can fill in at first base in a pinch. The downside is that he absolutely always — 100 percent of the time — wants to bro it down. The latter could easily be tolerated if he were available for something way less than the $100 million he’s supposedly seeking. Qualified hurrah.

Angel Pagan: Ahh… have you seen Angel Pagan? It’s almost certainly not happening, but hurrah.

Shane Victorino: Here’s the messed-up thing: If Victorino’s price drops, as Dierkes suggests, basically everything about him makes sense for the Mets except for the fact that he’s chronically, ferociously, and irreparably Shane Victorino. Boo.

Melky Cabrera: Boo on most things about Melky Cabrera. Hurrah on signing him to a massively discounted deal because no one else wants him after his PED supension.

Torii Hunter: I would not have guessed that the five-year, $90-million deal Hunter signed with the Angels before the 2008 season would work out as well as it did. But he doesn’t really make any sense for the Mets now. He’s too old. Boo.

Cody Ross: Cody Ross is the Scott Hairston of guys who are allowed slightly more playing time than Scott Hairston. He gets on base a touch more than Hairston, but probably not enough to make up for the likely difference in their salaries. Hairston’s not on the list, so I’ll give a mild hurrah to Ross for his Hairstonian qualities.

Ryan Ludwick: Ludwick had a really nice year in Cincinnati and hits right-handed with power, but he’s 34 and reportedly looking for a multi-year deal. Boo, with the reminder that Ludwick, who has now been a Major League regular for six seasons, was once the type of player fans frequently dismiss as a Quad-A masher.

Ichiro Suzuki: Ichiro’s sweet, but this doesn’t seem to make sense for him or the Mets. Boo.

Pascual Perez

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Pascual prowls the mound like a restless hyena. Every pitch is accompanied by a flurry of gestures, grimaces and moans. “He looks like he’s pitching at the end of a rubber band,” says Joe Torre, who managed Pascual from 1982 to ’84 with the Atlanta Braves.

Pascual wears enough gold to buy Trinidad and Tobago and flashes the sly half smile of a kid in a pet store who has just set all the puppies free. But he can also be mercurial—bored one moment, expansive the next. “Anybody know nothing about Pascual,” says his old friend Felix Becena. “He’s inpredictable.”

After nearly being decapitated by a line drive last August at Wrigley Field, Mr. Inpredictability threw a pitch into the Cubs dugout. “I don’t do nothing in particular on purpose,” he said afterward. Yet two weeks later, while batting against the Dodgers, he purposely ignored three straight bunt signs and struck out swinging. “I was rockin’ and rollin’,” he explained.

– Franz Lidz, Sports Illustrated, Jan. 8, 1990.

Awful news this morning about former Brave, Expo and Yankee jheri-curl hero Pascual Perez, one of the most entertaining baseball players I’ve ever had the pleasure to watch. With a flamboyant windup and demeanor, and a propensity for throwing eephus pitches and attempting pickoffs between his legs, Perez was easily among the non-Mets most frequently imitated in Wiffleball games among my friends when we were kids.

History of replacement level

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At Baseball Prospectus, Brandon Heipp dives into his library to trace the development and popularity of comparisons to the replacement-level player in baseball. It’s worth a read.

I know the concept is frequently cited as one of the more difficult to grasp, but I find it one of the most useful SABRy ideas to incorporate into everyday life. For food, say, I generally consider the replacement level to be what’s available at Burger King.

Taco hero Angel Pagan eats tacos

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Due to the whole hurricane thing, I did not get to enjoy a free Doritos Locos Taco courtesy of Angel Pagan yesterday. I thought about making the trek to my nearest Taco Bell in the wind and rain, but I realized it was on account of like $1.39 or something and that if I injured myself in pursuit of a free Doritos Locos Taco in a hurricane, I’d never live down the LOLs.

Anyway, a Redwood City, Calif. Taco Bell invited Pagan himself to the restaurant for the occasion, and Pagan showed up. Here’s what he had to say:

“I grew up in the projects. If you believe, you can accomplish anything. Look at me.”

And indeed, look at him:

All you have to do is believe in yourself and someday you too can be signing autographs in a Taco Bell while wearing a Doritos Locos Taco shirt.

Also, it’s hard to imagine any athlete in the world pulling off that look better than Pagan does right there. Dude has verve. That might be history’s greatest instagram.

Furthermore, additional photos show Pagan wearing the very same style of Taco Bell hat favored by Mark Sanchez.

Melky Cabrera: Why not?

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Cabrera not only failed a drug test, at least one associate tried to create a fake website for a supplement company to contrive a cover story that Cabrera’s positive results were from a tainted supplement. So teams definitely will investigate him in a significant way. Still, morality will not stand in the way of most clubs adding offense, especially if the offense is a bargain.

After the All-Star Game, there was talk Cabrera, a 28-year-old switch-hitter, would command a five-year contract worth as much as $75 million, maybe more. But in the group of executives with whom I spoke, one thought Cabrera could get two years at $10 million to $12 million, another said one year at $8 million to $10 million. But the large majority saw Cabrera having to take a one-year deal in the $2 million-to-$5 million range. He will have to use 2013 as a forum to prove he is a quality player.

– Joel Sherman, N.Y. Post.

Well, presumably you know why not: Cabrera tested positive for the use of performance-enhancing drugs in 2012, then had someone set up that fake supplement company. If those are the types of behaviors that could forever prevent you from wanting to watch a guy play baseball, that’s your right, but there’s nothing for you below.

My sense of right and wrong often extends right up to what the Mets need to do to win more games. And while I think breaking the rules of a sport to be better at it (and make more money in it) certainly falls on the darker side of the moral grayscale, it’s a decision I am apparently willing to abide — especially in cases like Melky’s, since he served his league-mandated punishment and will now be financially penalized, as Sherman’s article notes. Plus, I have no idea how other free-agent outfielders spend their free time, so I can’t even say for certain that Melky’s indiscretions are in any way more depraved than the daily endeavors of Cody Ross. I try not to use ballplayers as compasses for anything other than how to play ball. Cabrera’s decision seems like a stupid one, but it’s hard to even say that for sure without knowing how many guys get away with the same.

And if you look at the stats on baseball players suspended for steroid use, it’s hard to discern any atypical pattern of decline after a player’s been caught and (presumably) stopped juicing. (That could mean they just took up steroids again, of course.) Cabrera’s offensive explosion in 2011 may look a bit suspicious with the information we now have, but also came in his age-26 season — an age at which he should be expected to improve. His inflated batting average in 2012 seems to have come more from a flukishly high batting average on balls in play than from a needle, and Cabrera likely won’t repeat that. But even if he regresses to his 2011 totals, he’d be a steal at less than $5 million for one year.

The Mets need outfielders, you’ll remember, and they’re not going to have a lot of money to spend pursuing them. Dumpster diving requires some open-mindedness. Cabrera hits from both sides of the plate with no massive platoon split and can capably field a corner.

The biggest concerns with Cabrera, as far as I can see, are that on a one-year deal he wouldn’t doing anything to help the Mets’ future and that he doesn’t walk enough. The former might even be worth addressing with a club option for 2014 — even if it meant a slightly higher guaranteed salary in 2013. The latter means he could be in for a long season if his BABIP normalizes, a problem that would inevitably be made all the more frustrating when it was chalked up to his lack of steroids. But if Dave Hudgens could help Ronny Cedeno to a serviceable on-base percentage than there’s probably no task too great, and it’s not like the Mets can afford to be too choosy right now.