One of the things you can count on in life is the “he’s in the best shape of his life!” stories before and during Spring Training. The Mets have checked that one off with Jeurys Familia losing 30 pounds. Other good news stories we’ve heard include:

Noah Syndergaard’s slider is back!
Jeff McNeil is happy because 3B is easier than the OF!
Dellin Betances guaranteed to be ready for Opening Day!
Yoenis Cespedes thinks he’ll hit 52 HR!

But my favorite was a recent column by Ken Davidoff, built off the premise – Mets find Twitter validating their actions!

Hope really does spring eternal

17 comments on “Wednesday catch-all thread (2/12/20)

  • TJ

    Not that anyone cares, but for the record, I am definitely not in the best shape of my life.

    Despite the off-season managerial follies, sales transaction follies, loss of Wheeler, lack of a big free agent deal or exciting trade, and intensely competitive division with reigning World Series champs, I do have more optimism for this season than I have had for any season since the beginning of the 2007 season. Not exactly sure why, maybe it’s the overall depth combined with a number of low-probability, high-upside guys. Maybe it’s because there’s a decent chance of new ownership in my lifetime.

  • Chris F

    Familia sent his 30 pounds to me, I told him ok if he can get his WHIP down.

    What about the news of Beltran? As I expected he and Cora were the ringleaders, enough to where Hinch as manager couldn’t even get traction. Id ban him and Cora for life.

    So, as I wrote when this originally broke –
    1. what did BVW know and when did he know it?

    2. Hinch and BVW are best friends. Hinch knew that Beltran orchestrated the cheating in Houston.

    3. Is it plausible in a manager search BVW did not talk to his best friend, and the Astros coach in 2017, about Beltran?

    4. Would Hinch, who apparently disliked the cheating instigated by Beltran (and Cora), not tell BVW about Beltran as a cheater?

    5. BVW and the Mets lauded Beltran for his advanced “pitch tipping whisperer” approach, and was a cornerstone for hiring him.

    6. If BVW and ownership knew Beltra was the “El Jefe” of the cheating, doesnt this mean they wanted to hire him to cheat similarly?

    7. 🙁

    • Brian Joura

      My opinion is that all of these questions should be asked. And I’d add one more, this one of the mainstream press. Why didn’t you view it as something terrible when back in November when the news of the investigation broke, that BVW didn’t see how it was a Mets problem?

      We’ve got a press that’s more interested in maintaining access than asking the hard questions. And that’s a problem.

      • Chris F

        Indeed.

      • MattyMets

        Brian – that’s an excellent point. And Chris F, this rabbit hole gets deeper by the day. How long was this going on? We’re there really only 2 guilty teams? As players change teams wouldn’t they take this “secret” with them?

        I agree that the press could have done a much better job with this.

  • TexasGusCC

    I gave you props back then Chris for bringing this into the open, and I repeat them props.

    But, I have either a bullshit story or a “you’ve got to be kidding me” story. Joel Sherman writes that the Mets were going after Betts before he got traded to Los Angeles. The Mets always “go after” players and come up short, but that’s usually in free agency. Supposedly, they offered Nimmo, JD Davis and either Mauricio or Gimenez for Betts. For one year of Betts? So, the Cano trade wasn’t bad enough for our careless GM, he wanted a sequel? For one year of Betts you give up two proven and cheap talents and a top 100 prospect?

    If you compare this trade to the L.A. trade, they are very close, but should the Mets be making it is my point. Comparing the two trades, Downs and Mauricio are closely ranked, Verdugo is better than Davis in production and value by a little bit, and Nimmo is worth more than the catcher in AA, but taking away Price’s millions more than makes up the difference between the two. And originally Bloom wanted just the pitcher from Minnesota and Verdugo? While the values are the similar, I feel Los Angeles overpaid by at least one prospect and possibly both, and I just wouldn’t like to see the Mets do that, nor do I think Betts guarantees them anything. I think the Red Sox ripped them off big time. Not a bad way to start your tenure, instead of giving away prospects.

    • TJ

      Gus,
      I think I saw that Sherman stated either Nimmo or Davis combined with either Giminez or Mauricio. In any event, while I give Brodie tough grades on year 1, I think his showed some good restraint this offseason. Now, that restraint may have been driven by a hard ceiling on payroll combined with little interest in Lowrie and other bad contracts, but the end result was holding the depth and prospects, which is the best choice from my perspective.

      • TexasGusCC

        You are correct TJ, it was one or the other, not both. I read it too hastily.

    • Eraff

      Imagine Alonzo putting together 3 more seasons similar to His debut…and Then Imagine him in a Salary Dump/Prospect Gathering Trade.

      This is not a feel good/smart baseball story…it’s pathetic, really. No matter how you look at it, they traded a Home Grown HOF Arc Player for Cap Relief.

      Baseball’s Salary System drives the tremendous distortion at both the top and low salary parameters.

      The Impoverished Red Sox Traded Babe Ruth for $25,000 in December of 2019— They’ve Celebrated that Centennial by Trading Mookie Betts.

      • MattyMets

        So far, Brodie’s best move has been not trading McNeill. Supposedly every team the Mets have engaged with wants him. I’m glad BVW recognizes his value. Players who hit like that and offer versatility in the field are rare commodities. When he first came up I thought he was the second coming of Keith Miller. But he’s got unbelievable hands. He can hit any pitch like a wiffle ball star. He could be Daniel Murphy with a quality glove.

  • TexasGusCC

    Carlos Correa calls BS on Carlos Beltran ‘bullying’ clubhouse (Video)

    The headline speaks for itself. Good for Correa defending someone that can’t defend himself.

    • Eraff

      He’s not so much “defending him”. After all, Beltran’s biggest offense would be the Cheating itself. What He’s doing is confessing his own guilt.

  • Eraff

    The Black Sox…… Pete Rose……..Carlos Beltran and the Sign Stealers.

    This is profoundly Sad for Beltran…. a Young Baseball Lifer. A great Talent and Teamate…. a Baseball Gym Rat and Junkie….. revered by his peers. He’s headed for a Pete Rose Existence….a Baseball Non-person.

    • Brian Joura

      “If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime”

  • TexasGusCC

    An excerpt from Marc Carig’s article in The Athletic yesterday, where he has a chat with Dillon Gee, one of the nine pitchers released (by the Rangers) or demoted a day after facing the Astros in 2017:

    “Though Gee acknowledged that Fiers could have said something sooner — even as he benefited from the scheme personally as a member of that Astros team — he also scoffed at suggestions that addressing the situation without going public could have led to action. In this regard, he shares some of the public frustration about how cheating has been handled by baseball. “What’s in-house going to do?” Gee said. “Major League Baseball probably knew it was going on. They’re not going to do anything about it. They’re just going to make it go away, keep quiet, tell them to get better at it.”

    While technology has been blamed for crossing the line with sign stealing, Gee believes that technology may also provide the answer. He believes in ditching signs altogether and going to headsets for direct communication between the pitcher and catcher.

    Most of Gee’s sympathies reside not with his own experience fallout from facing the 2017 Astros. “For me, whether I hear them say it or not, I don’t really care,” he said. “There’s nothing I can do about it or gain from it.” He felt “blessed” to pitch in the big leagues. Instead, his strongest thoughts drift to those on the teams that the Astros defeated on the way to the World Series championship. The Red Sox fell in four games in the division series. The Yankees pushed the league championship series to seven games. The Dodgers did the same in the World Series. The players on those teams, Gee said, have been the most wronged by the Astros.

    “I feel for the people that played them in the playoffs,” Gee said. “I feel more bad for those teams. They got cheated maybe out of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go compete in a World Series. That’s a big deal.”

    —————————————————————————

    I agree with the headsets and wrote it last week. This seems to be the most bulletproof way.

  • MattyMets
    • TexasGusCC

      I called it last year! But, they are only worth a paltry $750,000,000.00 between them. Cohen has more spending power. I would love ARod in the same division as Jeter. The rivalry will make their Yankees days together look like JV, and we know Jeter isn’t in a position to keep up with them.

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