ThrillhouseMAX

Michael Brantley is signing with the Astros

Wilson Ramos to the Mets, pending physical

Familia would be a good setup man for Diaz. 

Joe Kelly to the Dodgers on a 3-year deal

Charlie Morton to Tampa Bay. 2 years $30 mill

Yeah, I'm over Realmuto, but I would love to see Grandal in a Mets uniform. 

I'm really just wondering how/why the Marlins are valuing Realmuto the way they are. He's not a Piazza-type, and they're asking for a big return. He's barely even put up better numbers than Charles Johnson, who is the only notable Marlins catcher other than Pudge. I'd be interested to see if he ends up being traded or gets stuck with Miami.

Apparently, Miami and LA were working on a deal to send Realmuto to the Dodgers, but the hangup came when the Dodgers wouldn't send Bellinger in return. It's almost like they over value Realmuto 🤔

I'm gonna lose my shit if the Mets deal Syndergaard just to get back Realmuto. 

😍So pumped

I was coming in here to post about that. It's so sad. The infrastructure down there is so bad. I feel like every offseason, we hear about at least one player in South America dying in a car crash or something. Terrible. 

I feel like the D-Backs could have gotten more than they did for Goldy.

Corbin to the Nats on a 6-year deal, pending physical

This is what the NHL divisions will look like after Seattle joins. I still think Nashville could easily move to the Eastern Conference if they swapped places with Detroit.

Watching the Mets' press conference introducing Canó and Dìaz. They look good in those Mets unis (but everyone does, those colors are 👌). From a fan point of view, really happy to have Dìaz around, and I look forward to hopefully getting some good results from Canó. 

Seems like BVW might have other moves in mind, after he said that he "didn't make this move just to have it be our last move," and I'm just hoping that they A) don't involve trading Syndergaard, and B) give us some good power to put in our lineup. I'm going to go ahead and be cautiously optimistic.

I read a rumor that the Mets are also talking to the Indians about a trade for Corey Kluber, which sounds great, but also makes me worry about who they'd potentially give up. Mets also need to pick up a bat or two. Ideally, I'd love if the Mets could get Harper and Grandal. I know it's probably a long shot, but I'd love to see Harper as a Met. I'm not sure where he'd even fit into the lineup, but I've always liked Marwin Gonzalez, and I think he would be a good Met, too. 

Following up on the Marlins: new jerseys look almost the same as the old one except there are blue ones now.

https://twitter.com/Marlins/status/1063431843733635073?s=20

So, so, so happy about DeGrom being Cy Young 😍

Marlins have new logo and colors (in spoilers bc of size)

Colors are listed officially as Caliente Red, Miami Blue, Midnight Black, and Slate Grey. Kinda sorta reminds me of the Heat's Vice jerseys 

Probably won't happen, but it'd be interesting to see an all-black road or alternate uniform that looked something like this. 

I like them both, but this one is perfect! Thanks a bunch, guys!

Nice!

Hi everybody!

Would somebody be able to mock up a banner for an upcoming diary I'd like to pursue? Looking for a banner that says WWF Split, preferably in the middle, perhaps in the style of the most recent Spike TV logo.. Hoping to have the left side, the Raw is War side, be red and black, and the right side, the Smackdown side, be blue and black, which each brands logo in the background if possible.  Would love it if I could get attitude-era version of Undertaker, Steve Austin, Vince McMahon, and British Bulldog/Davey Boy Smith on the Raw side, and The Rock, Ken Shamrock, a DX version of Triple H, and Chris Jericho on the Smackdown side.

Thank you in advance. Any help given is greatly appreciated. 

2 hours ago, Buschie Van Wagenen said:

I know that negativity tends to be what I default to for the Mets given their history (well, negativity is what I've been defaulting to for ALL of my teams of late), but I'm cautiously optimistic about the Brodie Van Wagenen hire.

Was he my top choice to be the GM?  No, that would be Chaim Bloom who I think is going to be a stud once he eventually lands that gig somewhere.  But BVW was an outside the box choice, and I appreciate the bold decision over going with the "safe", completely uninspiring choice that would've been Doug Melvin.  It would've reminded me of the NY Giants so much, their whole GM interview process was a sham and they knew they were hiring Dave Gettleman from the outset, they only trotted guys like Louis Riddick out there to try to show the fans that they were looking at different perspectives.

Does BVW have concerns?  Absolutely.  He's never worked in a front office role, and in this particular case the union has already raised concerns that he had access to information that GMs can't normally obtain (medical history, etc.)  Also it sounds like he won't even be allowed to partake in contract negotiations with his former clients, so stuff like a potential deGrom extension would be handled by Assistant GM John Ricco or somebody else.

But I also see reasons for hope.  I expect he'll be cool as a cucumber in the contract negotiations he's allowed to be in.  Agents always try to shoot for the moon in negotiations, but he's been through enough of them to know where a likely settling point is.  Much like Bloom, BVW is said to be a big proponent of analytics which is as big a reason as any why I didn't want Melvin.  But while Bloom is used to operating on a shoestring budget and might not have pushed back on ownership, I feel like BVW will.

While I don't know this for sure, my gut tells me that BVW wouldn't take this job without assurance from ownership that they'll pony up the dough to spend like a big market team. Imagine being an agent, leaving your lucrative job for a huge pay cut to be GM, and then having to bargain bin hunt.  It's not like other agents don't notice that - Scott Boras described the Mets' recent Winter Meetings approach as them shopping in the fruit and nuts section while the rest of the league was at the meat market.  I just don't see BVW taking this role if he was going to set himself up for ridicule from his peers.  But we'll see.

I think I'm okay with Brodie as GM. Hoping he puts his foot down and makes sure guys like DeGrom her locked down so we can actually win. 

I don't know what I expected, but in Brodie's interview with Mike Francesca, Mike came off like a total douche. Brodie sounds like he believes in our guys, and I guess I can appreciate that. Hoping for a much better 2019.

This game is still going! Almost 3AM on the East Coast. I went to bed at 9ish, wake up just now, and game is still on. 

I'd rather not root for the Dodgers in the World Series, so to prepare myself, I'll be watching the Utley slide on repeat and listening to Yankee fans talk about how much they hate Boston.

Uncle Phil was Shredder on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. 

Holy shit, Mets.