Meet the Mets (For Mets Fans Only!)

Now, let's snap up Dusty Baker while the man remains available.  

Moammar said:

Now, let's snap up Dusty Baker while the man remains available.  

no.

Eduardo Perez would be a good candidate. Actually had success managing in Latin America, and he was apparently the Mets second choice back in the fall.

If they wait a couple of days the two best candidates, whoever they are, will be managing in Houston and Boston.  The Mets will get the third choice.

ml1 said:

Soul_29 said:

 I suspect that it was more than Beltran's testimony that incriminated Beltran. 

 imagine if the county prosecutor gave you immunity for testimony that incriminated yourself, and then when it was over, handed the evidence to the feds to prosecute you under some other statute.  Pretty crappy isn't it?  

Let's not conflate Beltran's actions with real crimes.  The guy got fired because he's a liar and a cheater.  He's not be prosecuted for anything.

The Mets blew it when they hired him.  But Beltran is probably going to walk away with a lot of money, he'll eventually get another job in baseball, and he's got millions of dollars in the bank.  Boo hoo for Beltran.

ml1 said:

Soul_29 said:

New Carlos Beltran related topic: Will the sign-stealing report and the blowback effect Beltran's Hall of Fame chances?

Discuss.

(Edited to add)

I can sense ml1's head exploding...

 I'm sure it will with some voters. Clemens and Bonds still aren't in. 

I think it should be taken into consideration.  He cheated while he was a player.  Voters can decide if or how much to consider it.

FilmCarp said:

If they wait a couple of days the two best candidates, whoever they are, will be managing in Houston and Boston.  The Mets will get the third choice.

 who knows who the best candidates are?  Most Mets fans wanted Joe Girardi.  And the smartest man in MLB fired Girardi after his team had a bazillion winning seasons in a row.

yahooyahoo said:

Let's not conflate Beltran's actions with real crimes.  The guy got fired because he's a liar and a cheater.  He's not be prosecuted for anything.

The Mets blew it when they hired him.  But Beltran is probably going to walk away with a lot of money, he'll eventually get another job in baseball, and he's got millions of dollars in the bank.  Boo hoo for Beltran.

 if MLB did a real investigation of rule breaking over the length of everyone's careers and fired every guy  who cheated in some way (PEDs, doctored baseballs, altered bats, sign stealing, etc.), who'd be left?  

One of my objections to this is the hypocrisy of fans and media people's indignation over this, when other types of cheating are "colorful," like Joe Niekro's sandpaper, or the pine tar on Michael Pineda's neck, Graig Nettles' bat full of rubber balls, etc.

I feel like fans really need to figure out what stuff they condemn as "cheating" and which stuff is "looking for an edge."

ml1 said:

Moammar said:

Now, let's snap up Dusty Baker while the man remains available.  

no.

Eduardo Perez would be a good candidate. Actually had success managing in Latin America, and he was apparently the Mets second choice back in the fall.

Agree with ml1 on no to Dusty.

Train_of_Thought said:

Agree with ml1 on no to Dusty.

 Mark the calendar!

I had mentioned Curtis Granderson previously, but I don't know if he still thinks he can play. I wanted Girardi, but I would be ok with Perez or Rojas. And it better not be Mendoza. 

Seriously, the way to stop sign stealing is to stop using one finger for a fastball and two for a curve. Even without cameras, that makes it just too easy to steal. 

How is that they're more concerned someone will read their lips than that someone will steal their signs?

One thing I know for certain, Beltran wasn’t wearing a buzzer or gettin messages from his dugout when Waino threw him that third strike. 

I don’t envy the pitcher and catcher who have to grok a sign system that’s simple enough to follow while the ball is in play (distractions, distractions) yet complicated or changeable enough to prevent “signs + pitch = ?” from being decoded by someone who has it all on video.

ml1 said:

Seriously, the way to stop sign stealing is to stop using one finger for a fastball and two for a curve. Even without cameras, that makes it just too easy to steal. 

This! 

jeffl said:

One thing I know for certain, Beltran wasn’t wearing a buzzer or gettin messages from his dugout when Waino threw him that third strike. 

Too soon, Jeff. Too soon. 

DaveSchmidt said:

I don’t envy the pitcher and catcher who have to grok a sign system that’s simple enough to follow while the ball is in play (distractions, distractions) yet complicated or changeable enough to prevent “signs + pitch = ?” from being decoded by someone who has it all on video.

 the Nats did it. All a team needs to do is to put some doubt in the opponent's mind that they know what's coming. Nobody wants to be leaning in for a curve and get an up and in fastball. 

jeffl said:

One thing I know for certain, Beltran wasn’t wearing a buzzer or gettin messages from his dugout when Waino threw him that third strike. 

 even if he knew what was coming, he couldn't have hit it.

here's some food for thought.  If Jose Altuve was getting pitch signs relayed to him, it doesn't look like it was helping.  Beleow are his 2017 and career home/away splits.  Probably why the report says the team eventually gave up on the system because many of them found it distracting.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.fcgi?id=altuvjo01&year=2017&t=b

ml1 said: 

If Jose Altuve was getting pitch signs relayed to him, it doesn't look like it was helping. 

For what it’s worth, Boras said Altuve didn’t take part (or at least stopped) because he believed that knowing what was coming made him too aggressive at the plate. 

DaveSchmidt said:

For what it’s worth, Boras said Altuve didn’t take part (or at least stopped) because he believed that knowing what was coming made him too aggressive at the plate. 

 the evidence backs it up.  He struck out a lot more at home in '17 than he did on the road.

there's the (probably) apocryphal Ted Williams story in which an opponent decided to tell him which pitches were coming.  The catcher said something like "We can't get you out when you don't know what's coming, so today we decided we're going to tell you what pitches we're throwing.  First one is going to be a fastball."  So the catcher proceeded to tell Williams exactly what pitches were coming, and they got him out every time up that day.  Maybe it's true and it crossed up Williams enough to break his concentration.  But I'm inclined to disbelieve the story because Ted Williams probably would have hit 1.000 if he knew what pitches were coming.

No trash can required.

Then there's this, from last year's World Series.

Nats' Stephen Strasburg says possible pitch tipping led to altered delivery

and from earlier in the postseason

Video appears to show Astros knew about Tyler Glasnow tipping his pitches

.

Train_of_Thought said:

.

 why is he wearing a Doug Flynn jersey?

My friends and I went to see the Mets face Boston while Mahomes was on the Mets. One of my friends ended up staying in the same hotel at the Mets. He saw Mahomes heading back to his room with a drink in both hands and a woman on both arms. I would take his stats from '99 for the Mets this year. 

It's Rojas.  Under the circumstances, a good hire.  He's managed several Mets players in the minors, and they had very positive things to say about him.

Mets hire Luis Rojas, formerly their quality control coach and long time minor league manager.

Oh, and the son of Felipe Alou, brother to Moises Alou.

Rojas has managed a number of the younger Mets stars, he knows the system, he knows the front office, and he knows the expectations.  On all these counts a good choice.

On the other hand, he was passed over in the process that hired Beltran, and was not even one of the finalists.  And he has no MLB experience as either a manager, bench or base coach, or player (highest Minor League level managed was AA).  

So what made the Mets suddenly like him so much that they are offering a multiyear contract now?  Why not a one year contract, let them all see how it works out, get the players going hard to get him renewed?  

Anyhow, the Luis Rojas era is starting, and I hope that he turns out to be one of the best young managers in baseball.