Dave, Dick, and Dump Trucks of Money.

     Word came in baseball this week of two things I am very happy about, to the point that I am posting about it. 

     Firstly, that Dave Parker and Dick Allen were elected to the hall of fame. These two men are long overdue to be in Cooperstown. Parker was a great player with a sublime peak.  His great downfall to those pesky writers was he may or may not have enjoyed cocaine a little too much. But hey, in the 1980s, it was the law to do cocaine once you made a certain amount of money and after all, he was the first player to make a million dollars in a year. 

 

I hate to play the if/then game when it comes to the hall of fame, but if Jim Rice and Harold Baines are in Cooperstown, then there was zero reason to keep Parker out. 

His pages in my book are also a fun way to see how my brain works in terms of organization. That first page has him all in a Pirates uni - where he began his career and made his biggest contributions as a player (Stargell was the leader but Parker was the most dangerous hitter). That makes sense. He then was traded to Cincy after the Pittsburgh drug trials, so maybe that next page would be all Reds cards, well not quite. You see mostly Reds but also cards that match cards on the other pages. 

Parker did bounce around a lot at the end of his career, didn't he?  Have bat, will travel. I am glad the veterans committee, or whatever they are calling it this week, came to their senses and immortalized a great player while he was still alive. The same cannot be said for poor Dick Allen. 

He died in 2020 and he belonged in the hall way before that.  His numbers are the perfect illustration of why you need to "normalize" for era. He did all his damage in the 60s and early 70s, when pitching dominated the league. He also committed the cardinal sin of being an outspoken black man in the 60s when all the writers were stuffy old white dudes and Philadelphia was not exactly into loving the brothers. So his family will get to enjoy his enshrinement but he will not.  They did this more recently to Ron Santo as well, so I can't decide if this move is pulling a Santo or pulling an Allen.  The opposite is waiting until a player dies because they don't deserve to reap the benefits of being a hall of fame member; this is now pulling a Rose but someday will probably be pulling a Bonds. 

The second thing that happened is that the Mets backed up the dump truck full of money and unloaded it in the yard of Juan Soto. 

Fun fact: the two world series MVPs in Mets history also wore #22

This signing is obviously a very expensive undertaking for my hometown team to partake in and it is also unique for them.  The Mets usually make big trades for big players (Carter, Alomar, Piazza, Lindor) and then sign them to big deals but have never really signed the prime free agent for the right reasons. The only other time this happened was with the now infamous Bobby Bonilla and they did that as a knee jerk reaction to not signing Darryl Strawberry - when they should have either just given Straw the money or waited a year and paid Barry Bonds. And we all know how Bobby Bonilla turned out in Mets history.  But here they have signed the "generational talent" (they passed on A-Rod) to the biggest contract (and outspending the Yankees to do it) and it actually has a chance to work out for a change, both as a player and his fit on the team. I am hopeful, but with the Mets, it is always tainted with caution.

Trending Upward.

     When I logged into Facebook this morning I saw this.  It is rare and refreshing to see any positive story about the Mets trending, much less two of them.  First, the really good news, yesterday Jacob deGrom was named National League Rookie of the Year, the first Mets player to win the award since 1984 when some pitcher named Dwight Gooden won it. 

I only have these three deGrom cards right now, but I am sure that will be remedied soon.

I am gonna be 100% honest here, before he was called up, I wasn't even sure if Jacob deGrom was a lefty or a righty, he was that far off my radar.  But after his first 4 starts, when he was 0-2 with a minuscule 2.42 ERA, I was intrigued - never mind that the Mets anemic offense was doing him no favors; he easily could have been 4-0.  Though, after his first 8 starts, he was 0-4 and the ERA doubled and I was worried the league had already caught up to him.  Then starting when the calendar turned to July, in his last 14 starts, he was 9-2 with a 2.16 ERA and he just kept looking stronger and more confident with every start and deGrom became yet another great young pitching stud on a team that is just dripping with them. Having too much starting pitching is never ever a problem.  No offense to Kolten Wong or Billy Hamilton, but the writers picked the right player to be ROY, deGrom has a chance to be a good pitcher for a long time. 

Ah, but what of that anemic Mets offense?  Well, secondly, yesterday the Mets were the first team to dip into the free agent waters this year, pulling Michael Cuddyer out of the pond with a 2-year contract. 

This signing makes a ton of sense.  Cuddyer is a professional hitter who plugs nicely into right field, moving Curtis Granderson to a more sensible left.  In fact, it parallels the Bartolo Colon signing from last year in that two of the Mets best prospects are outfielders (Brandon Nimmo and Michael Conforto) who aren't quite ready for prime time and Cuddyer is a safe bet to do a good job filling in until they are ready.  Plus, Cuddyer is old buddies with David Wright, so that should go to improve an already tight clubhouse.  And of course, if Cuddyer does end up breaking down, it is only a two year deal (unlike the horrific 4-year deals of Oliver Perez and Jason Bay) so if it all goes wrong, I won't be screaming about him in 2018.  Since very few players ever get to free agency in their prime anymore, this is the kind of player that gets out on the market that can make a difference (and it beats the pathetic Chris Young experiment).  While I sure as hell hope it isn't the only move the Mets make this off season, it is a very nice beginning and a decent sign that they are actually going to make serious moves to add real players and improve the offense so we don't lose every damn game 2-1.

And amongst all this positivity, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Juan Lagares won the Gold Glove last week becoming just the third outfielder ever to win one for the Mets (Tommy Agee and Carlos Beltran being the others).  No team ever won because of what happened in mid-November, but it's nice to see things might be looking up.

The Wright Decision.

The following headlines were also considered for this post:

• Do the Wright Thing.

• Mr. Wright.

• Wright and Wrong.

• Might makes Wright.

Having a couple of names myself that lend themselves to puns and mockery, I can sympathize with poor David, who I am sure has heard all of these and dozens more based upon his last name.

       Anyway, the real reason for all this is that the Mets, yes, my New York Mets actually loosened the purse strings for half a minute and paid market rate for a player in his prime.  I know! I am as shocked as you are.  After watching player after player, year after year, decade after decade, walk away from the Mets, David Wright here has a chance to become a rare thing indeed: a lifetime Met.  The Mets drafted him, he came up through the system, and hopefully in eight years he will own all of their records and be thought of in the same realm as a George Brett in KC or a Robin Yount in Milwaukee.  The two best things about this announcement are a) I don't have to put my #5 jersey in the back of the closet like I have had to with so so many others (Darryl Strawberry and Jose Reyes come to mind immediately) and b) I do not have to reorganize my Mets binder to phase out yet another superstar.  David has earned the right to be at the head of the binder and with any luck, he may very well earn one of his own like a few other favorites have (Gary Carter and Mike Piazza). 

Here now in celebration are the nine complete pages I have of the new Mr. Met, David Wright:










































































































































































































































































































































Now I am just waiting to see how they screw up the R.A. Dickey situation.  But for one evening at least, I am a very pleased and satisfied Mets fan.