Mack - From The Desk...

Good morning.

Vince Ruggiero - @VINCE_RUGGIERO - According to ex-Met GM Steve Phillips, the combined ERA of every pitcher Jacob deGrom has started against is 2.49. "That's like facing Scherzer or Nola in each game," says Phillips.  "That's why deGrom is the leader in the clubhouse at this point for the Cy Young."

Vince Romero asked me a question that I literally did not know the answer to part two:

          Let's say a player is under a 2 year contract in which he is paid $12mil a year.

1. Is his paycheck $1mil a month over a 12 month period or is it prorated over the length of the season

2. (the part I don't know) - if the player is sent down to AAA and he is signed to a fixed $12mil/yr contract, who is financially responsible for the time spend in the minors? Does, let's say, Las Vegas, have to pay the freight?

I reached out to David Rubin to explain this:

          For Part 1 - MLB players receive 2 checks per month while the season is on. They don't receive payment for Spring Training, other than daily per diem, and they don't receive money in the off-season. Many agents change how their players are paid internally, so that they don't blow all of their money during the season and therefore have their payments spread out across the whole season, but that's something the agents themselves (or business managers) do. The team's responsibility ends when the season ends and begins when the season begins.

          Part 2- when they sign a major league contract, they are no longer subject to the split deal between major/minors. Therefore, if Joe Blow signs a 2-year, 24 mil deal and the team sends him down because he needs to work on his baserunning, or because he's injured, he's still paid at the major league salary he signed for and the AAA team is not responsible for any of his salary.They changed that deal because agents were suspicious of motives of owners in sending down players just because they didn't want to pay their salaries that month.

Young Ideas - @DickYoungsGhost - The Mets are on pace for their worst attendance since 1971, and the worst ever at CitiField. So why in the name of insurance fraud is Employee #5 still in limbo?

JJ Cooper - @jjcoop36 - When discussing service time and free agency in MLB, we're ignoring the obvious. It makes no sense that one party in a collective bargaining agreement completely controls the decisions that drive free agency eligibility.

One thing about the Peter Alonso fiasco that is going on. Both the Blue Jays’ Vlad Guerrero and the White Sox’ Eloy Jimenez will also not be called up next opening day due to their team’s manipulation of the service time clause in the agreement between the owners and the players.

Daniel Wexler - @WexlerRules - Really strange to see Jack Reinheimer pass Luis Guillorme on the depth chart. Must have a fan in the organization. Sadly, I expect Guillorme to lose his 40 man spot this off-season Mets

Sadly, I agree with Daniel, regardless of if Rottweiler is still around. Sometimes the Mets just seem to turn on players. Some make public statements against the team. Some are disrespectable to the rules of the clubhouse. Others, like Kevin Kaczmarski, are unexplained.

 I don’t exactly know what Luis did wrong here. He was late once. Do you lose your entire career for being late once? Do you lose your job if you lose the excess weight you had on prior that everyone is obsessed with is gone? And do you lose your job if you hit well as well field well at both your old and new position?

I believe Luis’s future will be with another team.