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Wow

j/c...

See, months can be weeks.

Rondon no-hit the Tribe with mostly his fastball. Miley did it with his changeup. That has been a theme against the youngest roster in the majors, too anxious. Until they prove otherwise, expect to continue to see pitchers using a lot of changeups against us.

Yeah, the youth shows a lot. It’s tough to decipher what’s youth and what’s a lack of talent sometimes too

What in he world has happened to Frankie?

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/mets-...n-as-not-ideal/

Those who argue that the future is not already predetermined must now contend with this: The New York Mets are enmeshed in an evolving controversy involving star shortstop Francisco Lindor, an animal that may be a rat or a raccoon, and a rumor of fisticuffs.

During the Mets' eventual 5-4 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks in 10 innings on Friday, some sort of commotion -- purportedly involving Lindor and his double play partner Jeff McNeil -- unfolded in the tunnel leading to the home clubhouse:

According to the Associated Press, Lindor and McNeil had "an apparently heated exchange" in the tunnel, which as you can see above attracted the urgent attention of several teammates. Lindor later homered for the first time at Citi Field, which came the day after he snapped an 0 for 26 slump at the plate. It's certainly possible some frustrations bubbled up given those recent struggles.

Lindor, however, has a different version of events. Hear for yourself:




So according to Lindor, he observed a critter of indistinct taxonomy in the vicinity of the dugout. He insisted it was a rat, but McNeil -- more tenured in the fauna of Queens than Lindor is -- tut-tutted that it was a raccoon and not a rat. They possibly yelled about this matter, which caused other Mets to rush to the scene.

As alibis go, file this one under "maybe too dumb to be true, maybe too dumb to not be true." Mets general manager Zack Scott cast his vote on Saturday, saying that Lindor and McNeil's handling of the apparent confrontation was "probably not ideal," per Tim Healey of Newsday.

Scott added, seemingly as a confirmation that the two were heated for non-mammal reasons, and also according to Healey: "Just like a family, sometimes there's disputes and debates and arguments."

Maybe Lindor and McNeil got in a mostly jovial exchange about whether they'd seen a rat or a raccoon. Maybe they got legitimately heated about something else. Maybe they got legitimately heated about whether they'd seen a rat or a raccoon. Lindor's subsequent comments suggest that McNeil was indeed pretty agitated about what he perceived as erasure of the racoon's lived experiences:




Whatever the truthful specifics, the most inevitable part of all this -- and perhaps the only thing we know for sure -- is that this is the most quintessentially Mets subplot until the next most quintessentially Mets subplot comes along.

Lindor has been bad so far ... and yes, weird. Strange story

Thing is, that's New York.

Had something like that happened almost anywhere else (except maybe LA), everyone would have smiled and nodded. They fought, it's a team (family) thing. The outside world doesn't need to know everything.

But in New York the press is smothering.

Watching Dodgers vs Angels today. Jeez, Trevor Bauer is good. I sure wish there was a way we could have kept him, like in some alternate universe where MLB had an NFL-style salary cap & floor, along with true revenue sharing. Oh well ...

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Las Vegas, I'd guess.

Yep. Or this forces Oakland's hand because it'd be a heck of a blow to lose a third professional sports franchise.

Cleveland could support another MLB team, no?

Tom Hamilton was just talking about Oakland on the Indians' radio broadcast. He thinks the A's wind up in Vegas, and then the league "takes care" of the Tampa Bay Rays, allowing them to move to the next most lucrative market (I would assume this to be Nashville.). After that, Tom thinks the league will expand by 2 teams (@ $2 Billion per team) to help teams recoup losses incurred during the pandemic. No idea which cities would get the expansion teams, but I would guess Charlotte and Portland.

They don't support the one they have.

San Antonio?

It was just a guess. I have no idea, although I do think Charlotte is a hot spot. San Antonio or Portland? I just don't know.

455. (I think Memphis was being facetious.)

Wasn't criticizing. Throwing out SA as another option.
Along with Vegas and Nashville that were mentioned those are the 5 top options.

Hard to believe that 455 ended 20 years ago... seems like yesterday. Sadly, support for the team has been crap ever since.

The team has been run (read: financed) on a lick and a promise since the Dolan family took ownership. The excellent front office has still been able to maintain a "competitive" team, despite the constraints of the budget imposed by ownership. But the fans know what is going on and how the team is staying viable minimally, but not in reality.

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For as bad as we suck, we currently have the 6th best record in baseball.

One of the things the broadcasters have talked about is how hitting is down across MLB. They cite changes to the ball. I don't know what changes they are talking about, and in the past MLB has denied making changes.

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Indians win ..... buy Clase made it ...... interesting, before Shaw came in and got the huge rescue.

Cincy?

Clase can throw 100+ mph, and that's an awesome weapon. But if he can't figure out how to close games without allowing baserunners, Karinchak is going to take the job from him. I actually prefer Karinchak.

Karinchak makes me a little nervous with his command too, but his WHIP is much lower than Clase's (by about 1.0 per inning). His fastball isn't quite on a par with Clase's, but its still 96-97 and he has the great equalizer - a legit 12-6 curveball.

A buddy called him The Kraken. Imagine a chant of "Release the Kraken" as he walks in from the bullpen to start the 9th.

From what I have seen of Clase, he has tremendous velocity but his pitches come in flat. Not a lot of movement. Because of this I think batters make more contact than you would expect from someone throwing so hard.

Not sure what you've seen, but Clase's fastballs are usually cutters that move away from RH hitters and towards LH hitters. His ball moves a lot, at 101 MPH, but it stays on the same plane. His problem has been with command and having it finish in the strike zone. Its a wipe-out pitch if he's able to locate it accurately.

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Jose was a question mark coming up. He was a AAA SS trapped between Asdrubal Cabrera in front of him, and Francisco Lindor behind him. The Indians viewed him as the lesser talent of the 3, and started to groom him as a super-utility player. They played him at 2B, SS, 3B, and even a few times at 1B. When they brought Frankie up, Kipnis was injured so Jose filled in at 2B. They considered him a defense first player.

But Jose wouldn't settle for that. He drove himself to be a better hitter. His career has been a lesson in how to never stop improving. He has become better than Cabrera in his prime, and arguably better than Lindor.