SB Nation User Blog: kendynamo

Player salaries and ticket prices

kendynamo — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:15:28 -0000

Player salaries and ticket prices

Nothing in particular brought this up except I read it today and thought it was a good article. It coincides with my opinion that if fans of baseball are disgusted by obscene and immoral behavior of pro players (like steroids, huge salaries etc) then they should go watch their local high school team and shut up. and then take the money you wouldve spent on MLB products and donate it to charity.

whoops, slid off into a semi rant there. anyway, the article is good and includes a Bill James quote and is not related in any way to the Mets' super sucky suckfest of June.

Plax Was Giants' Resource Curse

kendynamo — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 15:22:32 -0000

Some of you may know me I was one of Plaxico Burress most fervent and possibly irrational supporter. That very well may be the case, however, since I essentially root for laundry, I'm ready to now move on san-Mr. Harris Smith.

Obviously, so are the Giants, but coming up with a new game plan will be tricky as Plax was a big part of their offense and whether the two are correlated or not, it's undeniable that the offense suffered last year when Plax was not starting. That said, something CJ mentioned in an earlier post got me thinking:

The problem wasn't so much that the Giants didn't have Plaxico, it was that they weren't prepared for not having Plaxico.

That too me sounds like a text book case of a Resource Curse. A resource curse, for those not interested in following the link to wikipedia, is when a country becomes too reliant on a natural resource to the detriment of their overall economic health. Similarly, the Giants had such a tremendous singular talnet in Plaxico Burress that they failed to effectively develop their myriad offensive weapons. Additionally, Gilbride was unprepared to cope with the situation after Plax was gone. Despite having one of the best lines in football, a competent and confident QB and one of the most dynamic running back combos in the game, our O sputtered into the playoffs and failed to develop a credible threat once the receiving corp lost thier #1.

In other words, we were screwed once you took away the 'F it I'm going long' play.

There is plenty of blame to go around, Gilbride, Eli, Coughlin, the other receivers, but ultimately it is an failure of the organization, much like the state itself is to blame when nations find themselves at the mercy of the vagaries of commodity prices when they should have used their natural boon to invest in infrastructure and technology.

The good news is the Giants are a far more nimble an institution than the plodding bureaucracy of a sovereign nation. Furthermore, Jerry Reese is a far more capable leader than his counterparts in say, Venezuela, Iran or even Russia. The fact that the Giants didn't just go back to the well and look for another Plax-type receiver so they can continue strip mining the same section of the playbook should be seen as a smart, forward thinking strategy and Reese and Co. should be commended for again, being a step or two ahead of the general consensus.

So while I miss Burress as much as anybody, I'm glad the Giants are taking positive steps to remedy an untenable course and are repositioning the franchise for the future.

Hope I didn't bore everyone to death with this.

Go Giants, Die Eagles.

Marchman on Chemistry and Winning Streaks

kendynamo — Thu, 21 May 2009 14:07:29 -0000

Marchman on Chemistry and Winning Streaks

Simple, concise and totally awesome. Damn, his science is too tight!

Poz: "Screw Steve Phillips"*

kendynamo — Tue, 19 May 2009 15:57:46 -0000

Poz: "Screw Steve Phillips"*

*well he kinda says that.

Anywho, Steve Phillips' job now is to talk about baseball players and he totally sucks at it. Poz tells us in his usual entertaining way just why Phillips totally sucks.

Livan a fat piece, rest of team just ugly, says neyer

kendynamo — Tue, 19 May 2009 13:41:16 -0000

Livan a fat piece, rest of team just ugly, says neyer

robby neyer watched ALL of last nights game, then examined our poo poo line up and came to the same conclusions we all have. jerry may suck at game managing but omar sure didn't give him much of a bench to work with. anyone got any positive mets stories to post? this is getting a little redundant.

Jonah Keri tells the scotties of the world to STFU

kendynamo — Fri, 01 May 2009 17:44:46 -0000

Jonah Keri tells the scotties of the world to STFU

a stern admonishment to the DAVID WRONG crowd. found via neyer's not so sweetly named blog.

Piazza didn't defend his manhood against Clemens

kendynamo — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 16:16:46 -0000

Piazza didn't defend his manhood against Clemens

Or so says ex-teammate Darryl Hamilton in an excerpt from Jeff Pearlman's latest book on Clemens, found in a typically gossipy Deadspin post.

I know I was personally hoping for Piazza to go ape and stab Clemen's head off with that chunk of broken bat, but I think the restraint Piazza showed was definitely the wiser decision. Also, Darryl Hamilton? That was the best player willing to dish on Piazza? Not terribly impressed by your source work, Pearlman. Also, die Clemens.

Met's have 20th best farm system

kendynamo — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 15:02:41 -0000

Met's have 20th best farm system

Tied with the Yanquis.

I agree, nice job with the international sugnings, but WHY don't we pay over slot in the draft? Throw you're weight around why don't you, you large market wimps!

Wilpon might not be broke afterall

kendynamo — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 22:52:21 -0000

Wilpon might not be broke afterall

Tom Tango points out that since Madoff had been paying dividends for a while and Wilpon was a long term investor, he might not be so screwed after all. Ponzi, or pyramid schemes, only really bone the last people to sign up before they collapse, so given how numerous portfolio's of various ilk lost 50% of their value or more in the recent global financial turmoil, Wilpon's Madoff investment may have even provided a greater rate of return then others. So don't look for the Wilpons to sell their stake in the Mets any time soon, or at least not because of the Madoff fraud anyway.

What if a Met pulled a Harris Smith (Plax)?

kendynamo — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 17:13:48 -0000

Apologies if people are totally sick of this topic but I'm curious what the Mets fans from this site's reaction would be in someone of comperable value to the Mets did something as incredibly stupid as Plaxico Burress.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I am a huge Plax fan and hope that 1) the charges get dropped or at least reduced and 2) he suits up or the Giants next year, but that is neither here nor there. What I am curious of is how we would react if a current Met pulled a Harris Smith. So here is the scenario:

The Mets are in the middle of a playoff race in late August. Jose Reyes and D Wright go out partying in Manhattan. Jose decides to drive home drunk. He ends up smashing his car up and non-severely injuring his leg (or foot or whatever) but no one else is hurt. He is going to be injured for the rest of the year and criminal chargers have been filed against him. He may serve jail time. D Wright did something like hand keys to an obviously drunk Jose or something.

What do you think should happen to Jose?

Feel free to quibble with the finer points of the analogy or just thank jeebus no one currently on the Mets is that stupid. Maybe if Milledge was still around we'd have a better 'what if'.

Poll

What should happen if Jose Reyes pulls a Plax?

Jose's contract is terminated. Mets owe him $0 and he is released from the team.

1 votes

Jose forfeits the rest of the year's salary but is healthy enough and comes back for next year's spring training.

3 votes

Mets do nothing and Jose is able to come back and play in the playoffs that same year.

2 votes

Jose Reyes is executed by firing quad.

1 votes

Ignore issue. Blast DragonForce out speakers and air shred the rest of the season away.

1 votes

8 votes | Poll has closed