Is it a sandwich?

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In the comments section for the first Sandwich of the Week? post (a feature which will heretofore be known as Sandwich? of the Week, thanks to Tom’s suggestion in those same comments), Catsmeat suggested I post a photo of the candidate earlier in the day and allow readers to vote on whether it is a sandwich. This is a good idea. Interactivity!

Of course, by the time I post the poll I will have already eaten the possible sandwich and judged whether it is a sandwich (not necessarily in that order), but I will save my opinions for the later post to avoid swaying the poll results.

Anyway, today’s candidate is the Shackburger from Shake Shack. It looks like this:

The Shackburger is a cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato and “Shack sauce” on a bun. But is it a sandwich?

[poll id=”49″]

 

 

Get the F! out?

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One-time top prospect Fernando Martinez as well as left-hander Daniel Herrera may be in their final days with the organization. A source told ESPNNewYork.com that both players are on waivers to clear the roster spots for Scott Hairston and Ronny Cedeno.

– Adam Rubin, ESPNNewYork.com.

Interesting. Seems like there are any number of guys with less upside than Martinez that the Mets could cut to make room for Hairston and Cedeno, but I suppose it’s not worth fretting over until Martinez gets claimed elsewhere. If he doesn’t and can be sent to Triple-A, the move’s less curious, but would speak to the not-undocumented way Martinez’s stock has plummeted.

98% of chambers reporting

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This post will bump the Wu-Tang poll off the front page of TedQuarters, and I’m now willing to call this one for Method Man.

I didn’t vote that way myself, but I’m not going to get on here and tell you why I disagree because that would mean railing against Method Man, and let me make it perfectly clear right now that TedQuarters is not a forum for negative things about Method Man. Plus, he’s charismatic as hell and has been responsible for some of my favorite hip-hop songs ever, plus he was in The Wire, plus How High was hilarious, plus I once saw him going into my favorite wing place in Brooklyn.

Anyway, in honor of Mr. Mef’s victory I watched the video for M.E.T.H.O.D. Man, which I’d either never before seen or hadn’t seen since the mid-90s. Turns out it’s hilariously literal, up to and including Method Man showing you how he’s got a 40 and he’s got a shorty.

The woman steals the show, really, mostly because she looks like she might be Method Man’s real-life girlfriend participating only to humor him. Her boredom oozes off the screen. Plus she has amazing 90s hair. That part’s at 2:10. Lyrics obviously NSFW:

Something to consider while you watch Eli Manning

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Earlier this week, Mike Salfino at SNY Why Guys pointed out that Mark Sanchez and Eli Manning had identical QB ratings after their first three seasons in the NFL. Then, Chris Matassino added that Giants backup David Carr was only a touch better than the pair.

Sanchez stunk for long stretches of this season, but Eli stunk for parts of his early career too and now looks like one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. I think the most important thing to remember is that a quarterback’s performance — and stats, of course — is massively impacted by the play of his teammates and the schemes in which he plays.

It’s not entirely sensible to defend Sanchez for the way he played this year, but given the woefulness all around him on the offense, it’s also probably not fair to cite this season as evidence for why he’ll never be a successful NFL quarterback.

 

And we’re talking about the Mets’ last bench spot on Jan. 9

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The Mets bench now looks something like this:

C — Mike Nickeas
IF — Ronny Cedeno
IF — Justin Turner
OF — Scott Hairston
OF — ?

As it stands right now, Mike Baxter seems likely to edge out Josh Satin for that fifth spot, if only because Baxter’s lefthanded-batting-ness and outfielder-ness fit better on the righthanded-hitting heavy bench.

– Patrick Flood, PatrickFloodBlog.com.

Yikes — doesn’t look so pretty when you spell it all out like that. Each guy is defensible in his role, but outside of Hairston there’s really not a lot of offensive might there. Turner can get on base a bit, which is useful.

But like Patrick points out, they’re all right-handed. And given the way Terry Collins relies on platoon matchups with his pinch-hitters, expect to see a left-handed hitter given that fifth spot, and expect that left-handed hitter to get hell of a lot of opportunities off the bench.

After the Hairston signing last week, some discussion surfaced over whether the Mets should or should not (and would or would not) re-sign Willie Harris, but if they’re going to carry Cedeno and Turner, there’s no real solid case for adding Harris to the roster. With two backup infielders in the fold, Harris’ defensive versatility becomes less valuable, and it can’t be that hard to find a better hitting lefty bat on the cheap.

Based on the Mets’ needs, they’ll likely be looking to fill that last spot with a guy who can hit left-handed and play at least a vaguely passable center field, depending on how comfortable they are with Hairston as the backup in center. Looking at the remaining free agents, it doesn’t seem like there are a lot of guys in their price range likely to do either of those things way better than Mike Baxter. Plus Baxter brings the additional upside of being 27 and under team control, so if he succeeds in the role he could fill it for a while.

Of course, a lot can still happen between now and Opening Day, and something almost always does.

Food for thought

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Jon from Brooklyn baseball brought up an interesting discussion at the bar on Saturday night. Say instead of separate sports with distinct teams, the professional sporting ranks were operated like his summer camp, where kids were split into teams at the beginning of summer and had to compete against each other (always in the same teams) in a variety of sports.

For the purposes of debate, narrow it down to the four “majors” in the US: football, baseball, basketball and hockey. So say for some reason the NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL (and all international leagues) crumble, and you’re named a GM in the new all-encompassing super-league. The ping-pong balls fall your way and you get the top overall draft pick. Who do you take?

Lebron James seems like the obvious call, but a) we have no idea if he can ice skate or hit a baseball and b) then you’d have to have him on your team. Also, how valuable are the most specialized skills — pitching, for example — when they only pertain to 1/4 of the activities?

Oh, and I guess you’re going to have to split that up somehow. Let’s say these teams play four football games, 40 baseball games, 20 basketball games and 20 hockey games — essentially 1/4 of each league’s season — but they’re weighted so that the outcomes in each sport count evenly. So the schedule’d be something like: Baseball, basketball, baseball, hockey, baseball, basketball, baseball, hockey, baseball, football, baseball, basketball, baseball, hockey, baseball, basketball, baseball, hockey, baseball, basketball, hockey. Repeat.

Current players only, or else we all want Bo Jackson.

Mets close to signing Ronny Cedeno for some reason

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Yeah?

I guess that would mean the Mets feel Cedeno is that much more valuable than Omar Quintanilla at the minimum, and hey — maybe he is. Cedeno can’t hit, but he seems to be a pretty good defender at shortstop and second base. UZR has him a tick above average at short for the last three years, for whatever that’s worth, and Dave the Pirates fan from my baseball game in Brooklyn references Ronny Cedeno whenever anyone makes a nice play on the infield. (Dave’s a pretty astute baseball guy so that probably carries similar weight to UZR.)

Get up for the Ronny Cedeno show. Suck it, Jack Wilson.

I should’ve slept more last night.