Wow, what a week! Baseball is back and Spring is in the air. Today I’ll give you three questions.
With the first week of Spring Training completed, has any player impressed you so far either on the field or in front of the press? Is there a player that disappointed you?
Here is our bonus question for the day: Fred Wilpon was quoted this week saying that he will be ”vindicated” with the Madoff Scandal. My question to you is simple: Will he be vindicated?
Let’s here it Met Fans!
7 comments
rustyjr
2/20/2011-9:32am at 9:32 am (UTC -4)
Carlos impressed me the most by being open honest and candid – no player disapointed me . Castillo might have some family issues or visa problems that we dont know about so i think it’s too soon to villifiy him
In the case of Wilpon – I have no idea
hazmet
2/20/2011-10:17am at 10:17 am (UTC -4)
I haven’t been paying much attention to the early reports since everytime I see them on the nice green field I say to myself, “you got enough guys there, get a pickup game started. And oh by the way get SNY to televise it so I can see some baseball already”.
I guess early impressions, D. Murphy’s hard work around second. Really not a surprise there. But I do wince everytime they show the little crow hop turn at second video clip from these early camp days. I think he topped out at about a 4 inch leap to which I’ve taken to calling him “Air Murphy” the past week. Real concerns there much as I like the guy. I know it’s like shooting fish in a barrel but man Ollie looks out of shape to me still. Kudo’s for trying to get in to camp early, even when the place was locked but I think he’s got some pounds to drop. Which not good considering he was playing winter ball, or it’s the baggy shorts – as I said I’m not paying much attention yet so that’s the best I can come up with.
For the Wilpons. Define what vindicated means. If it means he’ll be proven that they didn’t know what was going on, then yes I think they will be. That doesn’t necessarily mean they still won’t be paying out though. Being vindicated and not having to pay are not necessarily synonymous in so called white collar cases. Francessa does have a great spot on Friday’s where he has a lawyer who’s an expert in these area’s come in and discuss the weeks events. Last Friday was interesting in stating the Wilpons argument that “hey the SEC didn’t know and they regulate the activity. So even though we’re saavy investors how did you expect us to know even as saavy as we are” That is a great simple defense. Also leveraged it with “why would we have steered the likes of Sandy Koufax and a number of our family, children and grandchildrens future’s into this if we new it was a ponsi scheme”. Those 2 points are excellent and can vindicate them, but, who knows if that will matter monetarily.
stickguy
2/20/2011-11:13am at 11:13 am (UTC -4)
haz, I thought ollie looked pretty good. maybe I am wrong? He does seem to have the body type that will never look chiseled (always more rounded).
as to murphys jump, hard to judge being just a drill. maybe that is all he is supposed to do thee?
actually, I think you are approaching from the wrong angle. Murphy is a pretty big, heavy guy, and probably has big feet. With metal spikes on the bottom.
If I was him, I would keep them feet close to the runner. make sure that they know if they want to come in hard, they are either getting poked with a spike, or 220#s of danny boy crashing on top of them!
stickguy
2/20/2011-11:19am at 11:19 am (UTC -4)
Impressed? But how good Carlos looked, and was apparently crushing the ball. His comments were fine too. And Ollie, if the glowing reports of his BP sessions were true! And yes, I realize I am the only person that will say anything nice about him. OH, and Reyes. Looks to be in phenomanal shape, and has said all the right things.
I am expecting huge, vintage years out of reyes and beltran. If that happens, and pagan, wright and bay just have “normal” years for them, Ike makes evenincremental improvements (at least stays ore consistent), Thole gets on base and 2B is not a complete black hole again, this lineup will score a lot of runs. Or, it should score a lot of run! Nice mix of speed, power and OBP.
VIndicated? I will say yes, if that means they will end up settling (or going to trial) and end up paying back the profits, but nothing crazy beyond that (the billion $ penalty picard wants).
darknova306
2/20/2011-11:39am at 11:39 am (UTC -4)
I’ll be honest, between heavy studying and drinking, I haven’t had the time to pay attention to much that’s going on in PSL. I think I’ll wait to be impressed or disappointed by players until they start playing anyway.
And no, a good BP session is not enough for me to have a glimmer of hope for Ollie.
metsfan4decades
2/20/2011-2:39pm at 2:39 pm (UTC -4)
So far, I’m encouraged by what I’m hearing out of the Pagan, Beltran and Collins camp for CF.
- Pagan apparently has no problem with Carlos playing CF.
- Beltran looks ready to go and so far, no brace!
- Collins said he’ll give it 10 days to 2 weeks look-see at Carlos in CF. If he feels there is a problem, he’s going start playing him in RF. Collins said he wanted that OF set by opening day. So it appears to me there won’t be any of this wishy-washy mindset of waiting around to see if Carlos is on board for moving to RF, if necessary.
- Gotta love Thole’s enthusiasm for all things baseball – especially catching that knuckle ball.
- I’ll give KRod 2 points for asking the fans to ‘give me another chance’.
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As far as the Wilpons……I think they’ve got a strong case for being vindicated. From investing monies not 3 weeks before Madoff went down, to offering Madoff himself a piece of the team in 2002, to ‘how should we have known if the SEC didn’t?’. Now….whether they go to court or not (which IMO is the only way they could be vindicated) time will tell.
metsfan4decades
2/20/2011-2:57pm at 2:57 pm (UTC -4)
Just an FYI…just read the Post’s story:
Castillo blames late arrival to Mets camp on brother’s surgery
Note the use of ‘blame’ instead of ‘explains’. Almost like they believe he used that as an excuse.