12/19/09

Bay-O, Bay Watch, Gil Hodges, 26-man roster... and almost Rising Sun Mets


Johhny Damon:

It’s time to tell Jason Bay and Bengi Molina we’re not interested. Call both their bluffs in fact just tell Bay’s agent “sorry we’ve had second thoughts” then call Molina’s guy and Rod Barajas guy and the first one to say yes to a 2yr incentive laden deal gets that deal. The reason I’m ready to “Bay-O, Bayyyyyyyyyyyy-O we’ve got no deal so you gotta go home”, is I want the Mets to sign Johnny Damon to play LF in 2010 and 2011 -
link 





Jason Bay:

Now that Milton Bradley has been traded to the Mariners and the Red Sox have officially signed Mike Cameron, the Mets are the only team that has displayed public interest in free agent outfielder Jason Bay, offering him a four-year deal earlier this month. It's unclear whether any other team lurks, but the Mets, according to various published reports, are wary of upping their offer with no one else in on the chase.- link





Gil Hodges:

The case for Gil Hodges in the Hall of Fame is both statistical and emotional. It also points out all of the inconsistencies that go into the flawed process of choosing Hall of Famers.

Considered by many to be the finest fielding right-handed first baseman in the history of baseball, and certainly among the top five of all-time, Gil Hodges is currently the best player eligible for the Hall of Fame who is not in. There are at least 10 players less deserving of enshrinement gracing Cooperstown’s hallowed Hall.

The questions is when will the veterans’ committee, made up solely of members of the Hall of Fame correct this mistake.
After his first year on the ballot (at one point writers kept deserving players off their ballots in the players first year of eligibility, reserving first year votes for only the best of the best) no player who ever finished ahead of Hodges in the balloting has not been elected to the Hall of Fame. Of those who finished ahead of him in his initial year on the ballot, only Marty Marion, Allie Reynolds and Johnny Vandermeer were not ultimately enshrined. (Joe Gordon was on this list when this was initially written in 2006, but was since enshrined.)

link for No. 14


26-man Roster:

To me, the 26-man roster in the age of huge pitching staffs is a no-brainer. However, baseball would have to institute one more rule to prevent abuse of the extra spot: Teams could carry no fewer than 10 pitchers (few, if any, would do that anyway) and no more than 12 (sorry, 13 pitchers would defeat the purpose of the roster increase and if a team has to carry that many pitchers they don’t deserve to compete in the bigs anyway).

I can’t imagine that the Players’ Association would have a problem with adding 30 more players to major league rosters. In fact, I’m sure an increase in roster size has been on their radar but they probably haven’t suggested it because they feel they have bigger fish to fry with the owners (like staving off a salary cap movement or getting bigger and bigger contracts for the Jason Bays of the world). The owners would probably try to negotiate some kind of give-back in return for adding more players to the payroll, but really, don’t you think that 26th guy would be a rookie or a player making close to the MLB minimum? -
metsmerized


Almost Mets:


Mac Suzuki was actually a Mets, but never appeared in a game. He was acquired for Allen Watson and waived four days later. Anyone have an idea what was going on there? I had the chance to see him nearly melt down for the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs this October when they played the Long Island Ducks in the Atlantic League playoffs. Also, Norihiro Nakamura agreed to a two-year, $7 million contract with the Mets, but, after word leaked out before he could formally notify the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes management, he rejected the deal and re-signed with Kintetsu. Apparently the Japanese have higher standards and don’t like the American rumor mill. Obviously he should have known this before he dealt with the Steve Phillips front office which was notorious for leaks from what I understand. No big loss since when Nakamura signed with the Dodgers in 2005 he hit .128 in 39 at bats. Maybe the Wilpon’s still have the $7 million in savings and can use it to land a big free agent this offseason. Let’s also not forget the Mets lost out on the bidding of Daisuke Matsuzaka after the 2006 season.

http://nybaseballdigest.com/?p=19160



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