January 28, 2021: The Citi Just Got a Little Less Strong Island
January 28, 2021: The Citi Just Got a Little Less Strong Island
Mets Got a New GM Who Traded Steven Matz and Signed Aaron Loup, Reddit is Hurting Steven Cohen's Wallets, and Noah Syndergaard is Starting a Book Club. There's more!
Steven Matz no longer plays for his hometown team.
BP had Josh Winckowski as the 9th best prospect in the Blue Jays system last year. He would not have made the top 10 this time around, according to Jarrett Seidler.
He looks super young and did he just admit he’s injured?
Classic Mets!
Matz had his moments. His major league debut, co-starring Grandpa Matz, will remain to be a stone cold Mets classic until the end of time. He was always in extremely good shape. I think back to the time Gary Cohen said he tried to get Vin Scully to say Matz, who wore #32, reminded the longtime Dodger announcer of Sandy Koufax. Scully said Jon Matlack was the comparable.
That’s still a compliment! But I think Met fans and their announcers saw Koufax-ian brilliance that never materialized, at least not consistently. If you saw his first two months of 2016, you would be forgiven.
Yes, I remembered that awful first start too. That is what made Matz’s next seven starts all the more fun. And it was super sneaky, because we were all focused on deGrom, Syndergaard, Bartolo, and Harvey.
Guy’s ERA starts 2 through 8 was 1.13. 1.13! Koufax wishes.
Then Matz fell from Strong Island to Earth, with a slightly over four ERA the rest of the way, and then his season ended because he needed to get rid of bone spurs in his elbow. We can guess when those spurs started to develop and bug him.
Last season, Steven’s ERA was high. I don’t even want to type it. Just too obscene for Substack. He was sent down to the bullpen, and only Seth Lugo was happy about it. Matz’s tendency to get down on himself after letting one runner on base tended to snowball into a disasterous inning that made you wish you never even heard of baseball. It made Matz more human. So I am a little sad about this transaction. But I understand.
The Blue Jays visit Citi Field July 23-25. Grandpa Matz should have gotten his two vaccine shots by then.
Loup, There He Is!
Loup, there he is!
Shaka-laka-shaka-laka shaka-laka shaka.
The Mets signed left-handed reliever Aaron Loup to a one-year deal, so I guess Justin Wilson will not be coming back.
When God closes a Brad Hand pun door, he opens a Tag Team window.
His Wikipedia page gives me whiplash:
An avid bowhunter, Loup prefers hunting deer with a compound bow.[4] He has also been known to fish and hunt with a gun in the off-season.[22] He is known for having a quiet and reserved personality,[60] but says that he has become "a little more comfortable" with his teammates by spending time and "connecting" with them, which he says contributes to his success.[5]
Ah yes, a dude as cool as the other side of the pillow who shoots fish with a gun. I thought fishing was supposed to be relaxing, an activity you tell yourself you need because your day job makes you pop an eye vessel or two. Aaron Loup seems to have it all backwards, and not in the cute left-hander weirdness backwards way.
The info is from articles written all the way back in 2013; maybe these days Loup makes coffee nervous and melts weapons down into heart-shaped steel shacks to create the hippest deer habitat in town.
The news of Loup’s signing was broken yesterday afternoon; the Matz trade was made official last night. Really seems like Steven Cohen is treating the luxury tax as a salary cap.
Not to Ask An Obvious Question But: Is Reddit Helping the Mets Avoid A Sentient Monocle Emoji?
Hedge funds have been shorting GameStop big time, because it’s GameStop. A subreddit has managed to get GameStop’s stock to skyrocket, and soon those hedge funds are going to have to pay. I’m pretty sure that is what’s going on? Look it up. Get Margot Robbie to explain it in a bathtub. Do both?
Cohen’s hedge fund Point72 just joined Ken Griffin’s Citadel in putting $2.75 billion into Melvin Capital, the hedge fund of Gabe Plotkin, a former Cohen protege. Melvin is having a terrible January (double-digit percentage losses, according to the FT) that just got a lot worse: it’s one of the funds with a big short position on GameStop.
Cohen’s Point72, which had already invested $1 billion in Melvin, added $750 million to Citadel’s $2 billion, and now has a significant non-controlling stake in Melvin.
Seems bad. But I am not a gazillionaire. We are going to need a gazillionaire’s take.
Not a denial! More like an answering of a question with a question.
If Reddit causes the Mets to walk away from Trevor Bauer on account of not having money to pay him, it would not be the worst thing.
The Angels are out on Bauer, because he still hates Mickey Callaway, and Callaway is the Angels pitching coach. Here is a gif of me enjoying the drama, pretending this doesn’t mean the Mets are more likely than ever in signing Harassy Von Smarm Supergeniusman.
The Mets Have a New General Manager
I guess this is important?
It’s Zack Scott. He was made assistant GM a month ago.
He looks like Chris Eigeman, who you may know from The Last Days of Disco and definitely should know as Jason “Digger” Stiles from Gilmore Girls.
I liked Digger. He got royally screwed by Richard.
Just last week Sandy Alderson said the GM position would not be filled for awhile. Today’s announcement reminds me of the time Sandy Alderson said the Mets were going to hire a President of Baseball Operations, and the time Alderson said it was too hard to find one so he’ll just do it.
I’m assuming in the past week the organization asked at least one woman about Zack Scott. One would hope.
The Previous GM Has a Job!
Nonononononoonono, the previous to the previous GM. Brodie Van Wagenen is now the COO of Roc Sports Nation. I know most of you were worried if BVW would land on his feet.
Noah Syndergaard Has Started a Shirtless Book Club
I like this (except for the shirtless part)! He’s endorsing reading! No snark! I like to read. What do you mean you don’t? You are reading right now!
I recall Syndergaard talking to Steve Gelbs a few years ago about George Mumford’s The Mindful Athlete. Mumford worked with the 90’s Chicago Bulls and seems like a cool no-bullshit zen dude, and no-bullshit zen dudes are my favorite types of zen dudes.
Keith Hernandez is Still Not in the Hall of Fame, A Perfect Excuse to Post This Video That I Think About All the Damn Time
IS IT SOMEONE SPECIAL’S BIRTHDAY TODAY?
Yes! Tsuyoshi Shinjo is now 49 years young! He seemed to be a lot more fun when he played in Japan than with the Mets. That is probably because Japanese baseball is a lot more fun than MLB. Fun is a mirror.
He was, perhaps still is, an underwear model. He tried a comeback in 2019. Not in America. America is boring when it isn’t a nightmare.
Well This Got Dark. Let’s Hop on the Loup de Loup Express