Knuckleball Applesauce - Barajas signs with Mets, Santos not in plans, Dickey is sideshow

“Now, I’m afraid I just screw myself. And my teammates.”

to continue his development while he’s pitching in the bullpen rather than allowing him to lean to heavily on his fastball to the detriment of the development of his off-speed stuff. And to be willing to not overuse him, should we somehow end up in a play-off race, at the detriment to his long-term health/development.

So I’d say he should be as far away from the ml team as possible. Lets send him to New Zealand in fact.

But right now it should be out of the question. He’s still too raw. He has a major league fastball, and overall when he’s spinning the ball at his best his secondary stuff is probably major league caliber too, but he’s still yet to throw 100 innings in a pro season. Putting him the pen now could really set back his development as a starter. First of all, he’s not going to be getting his secondary stuff more consistent as a reliever. He’ll probably be mostly fastball-changeup, and his changeup right now is still too hard. Sometimes it hits 90, which is okay when you’re throwing your fastball 97-99, which he’d probably do consistently in relief, but not when its dialed back in the mid-90s as a starter. That would basically make his changeup a batting practice version of his fastball. His curve also has plus potential though too, he’s just really incosistent with it. If he can learn to repeat it better, and develop his changeup more and get it a bit slower, he could have three really awesome weapons. Letting him work on that while he builds up his workload this year into triple-digit innings is really the only choice the organization should be considering for his development at this point.

We’ve gotta try to make that stick. EL INFIERNO!

I will not have sympathy for someone who refuses to get treatment for mental illness. Not even making an attempt to understand what’s wrong with you, much less saying you won’t seek treatment is stupid. Thank god he’s not bipolar.

I’m not the type of person to ignore the existence of low-key mental illnesses. My mother has suffered from clinical depression for years, so I know first hand some of the shit that life hands people who have such problems firsthand.

Now, I’m not his doctor or anything, nor am I a doctor, but in Willis’ case, I find his blanket “anxiety disorder” somewhat suspicious. If you presuppose that he didn’t ‘magically’ develop the illness during his last year in Florida and the Winter he was traded to Detroit, he would have been dealing with it while with the Marlins. I’d posit that, the pressure was greater on Willis with the Marlins than with the Tigers, and as I understand them, most mental illnesses aren’t things that just randomly spring up, like colds. Add to the fact that he doesn’t know much about his medical problem, nor does he take any medicines for his medical problem, and all of that leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I’m not conspiratorially minded by any means, but something here just isn’t adding up. Compare to, say, Joey Votto, who also had legitimate mental health-related issues this season.

and I used to think it rhymed with pole.

the guy just doesn’t seem cut out for the Major Leagues. With all the bitching about the Castillo & Cora contracts & the inevitability of the 15 year Francoeur extension, it almost seems like we’ve forgotten how god-awful that Ollie contract was. In a way, I’m rooting for Ollie to go out there and prove it to be the worst contract in baseball history – 2 or 3 epic shellings, then the Mets just bite the bullet and get rid of him forever. I’m sick of him and Spring Training hasn’t even really begun.

It’s called lifting weights, people. Some hard working athletes ACTUALLY do that. They’re just jealous because now he’s a beast at baseball, gorgeous, and buff. You all know you’re thinking that.

I’d sign up for a 50 homer season from Wright. Hell, I hope the whole team is doing steroids. Nobody could ever say they don’t want to do what is necessary to win again.