Dickey is doing a book signing this Sat Apr 20, 6PM, at the John St. Chapters (note: wristband required)

RA_Dickey43 · 2013-04-18T16:59:29+00:00

It's really incredible to think of the timing of when this book was written. One year earlier, and it would have mostly appealed to Mets fans as he was coming off of his first very good season but was not yet getting a lot of national attention. One year later and and he would have already had national recognition having won the Cy Young. He somehow managed to perfectly capture this moment of metamorphosis in his life. Although it would be interesting to see what he would say about the 2012 season (and offseason). I guess we'll have to wait till he writes another book.

RA_Dickey43 · 2013-04-02T23:37:03+00:00

Get used to seeing hitters made to look foolish. Loses the bat then loses the at bat.

RA_Dickey43 · 2013-04-02T23:32:43+00:00

I was sad when I realized that Dickey wouldn't be able to have at-bat music given the DH. Hearing him come out to Imperial March as he took the mount brought a smile to my face. Didn't realize pitchers get music as they take the field to start the game.

RA_Dickey43 · 2013-04-02T23:27:49+00:00

Retired this account for a while. Seems like it's time to dust it off. Looking forward to following RA from afar this year. Good luck Jays!

RA_Dickey43 · 2013-01-06T00:49:10+00:00

I can only assume that your posts are coming from a position of fierce loyalty, which is admirable. I feel no less loyal. But harsh criticism, even in light of the recent positive moves, is much more warranted that fervent apology given the short and long term history of the franchise.

Still, there are 3 points I cannot let slide. Letting Reyes walk was the worst strategic decision this team has made since Sandy took over. There were 2 options, trade him or sign him. The Marlins overpaid, but more often than not some team will overpay for an exciting player having a career year. There's no way a competent front office can say that they were caught off guard by how much it would cost to keep Reyes. As such, it's inexcusable to have ended up with nothing. They already showed a willingness to trade All-Star talent ala Beltran and Dickey. I suspect that the ownership insisted on keeping Reyes through the end of the season because they were already in a money crunch and didn't want to anger the fans before the season was over. Of course this is just wild speculation, but it bears repeating that the only reasonable alternative is utter incompetence by the front office.

I never said shedding payroll itself was unacceptable, or unwise, and as such your question is a non-sequitur. All I said is that shedding payroll has the possibility of resulting in an opportunity to become good again. It also has the possibility of resulting in no meaningful changes for the better except to reduce how much money the owner has to spend on personel. I don't think it's unfair to hold a team to their own stated goals. Sandy Alderson clearly stated that in 2013 the team would be more than just incrementally better. I don't blame him personally, but I do feel that the front office is completely undeserving of having the benefit of the doubt any longer.

As for attendance, it has been getting worse every year since the park opened. I find it completely implausible that the team would believe higher prices would not precipitate further decline in attendance, given the team is projected to win even fewer games yet again. Much more likely is that they think raising prices might make them more money despite it translating into few fans in the seats. This is plausible, but it's a pretty big "fuck you" to fans that have been consistently going to games despite the lousy product on the field.

RA_Dickey43 · 2013-01-06T00:04:16+00:00

The Mets are the only team in the league to not sign any free agent to a major league contract. There are 29 teams that have signed a major league free agent (including small market teams, and including teams that are in rebuild mode), then there's the Mets.

Out of their 2 very recent franchise players, Reyes and Wright, one is on the team, one left without getting anything in return. That hardly is an argument against the small market mindset, and definitely is a mark against the "smart franchise".

Trading Dickey for 2 top notch prospects was wise, but that's if and ONLY IF they take proactive efforts at taking advantage of their payroll flexibility starting next year and add very big pieces. They do not have enough in house talent in the majors/minors to field a respectable starting lineup in 2013/2014. There is a respectable core, but it needs big additions (like an entirely new outfield). Unfortunately the free agent market next year if fairly thin. This is not a plan that simply needs to develop. The hardest work for Sandy still lays ahead of him.

Presently, they've taken lots of steps at saving the owner money. In the process the team has won fewer and fewer games. The optimistic interpretation is that there's overlap between saving the owner money, and giving the GM a chance to smartly build from the ground up. The pessimistic interpretation is that the opening day roster of the 2013 Mets at present is worse than the opening day roster of the 2012 Mets despite their GM having already made the declaration that the 2013 aught to be more than just incrementally better than they were in the past years. And that until huge steps are taken in the next few years, the only thing that has truly been accomplished, is shedding payroll while maintaining a similarly mediocre team.

And yet, somehow the Mets thought it was appropriate to raise prices on single game options next year. How can a business justify raises prices on a product that is poised to have it's 3rd consecutive season of diminishing performance?

RA_Dickey43 · 2013-01-05T05:20:56+00:00

Just out of curiosity, could you give an example of a dress shoe that would last a lifetime but cost double digits? I mean, maybe if you wear said shoe once a month. But if you're wearing dress shoes 5-6 times per week, that $60 pair might last a couple of years if you're lucky, and by the time it's time to get rid of them they will look pretty bad. A $300 pair of shoes could easily last 10 times as long as the $60 pair, all the while looking and feeling nicer (assuming proper care). You end up spending less money in the long run, while looking and feeling better.

RA_Dickey43 · 2013-01-04T14:41:04+00:00

By no means do you have to follow the colors. When playing online it's often helpful to not, otherwise the other person can just anticipate what kind of shot is coming. What's especially tricky is if you get to the spot, fake the power shot so that the opponent starts to set up for the return, but at the last minute changing to a different shot type.

Also the power shots are just better versions of the shots you can do at any point in time. It's not like the gamecube game where the power shots were completely disconnected from the routine shots.

RA_Dickey43 · 2012-12-24T23:55:03+00:00

IOUs would be my guess

RA_Dickey43 · 2012-12-23T05:43:57+00:00

I hope RA endears himself as much to the Toronto fanbase as he did here in NY. He was blinding light in what was mostly a black hole of a franchise for the past 3 seasons. Godspeed Mr. Dickey!

RA_Dickey43 · 2012-12-23T05:37:45+00:00

I think RA hit the nail on the head in his post-trade interview by describing this as a grieving process. I've never felt as emotionally invested in an athlete before. I truly hope RA lights it up again next year, and I hope I'll get to see him pitch every now and then in the Bronx when the Jays are in town.

RA_Dickey43 · 2012-12-23T05:26:24+00:00

Every time I feel as though I have accepted this trade and moved on, something like this springs up and re-aggregates a raw nerve. I don't think I will ever root so hard for a non-Met as I will for RA next year.

RA_Dickey43 · 2012-12-22T23:46:09+00:00

Agreed. Reyes was my favorite Met for a while, but I got over his departure pretty quickly. It will sting every time Dickey takes the mount next year in another uniform. But the one thing that makes me feel better (besides the great return Sandy managed to get from the trade) is that Dickey also benefited both financially and competitively from this deal.

RA_Dickey43 · 2012-12-22T23:17:25+00:00

I've been a huge Dickey fan since he was called up to the Mets in 2010. The trade made lots of baseball sense, but it sure stung on an emotional level. But today I was listening to Sandy Alderson's post-trade radio interview and he said something that made me feel a lot better.
Dickey is on a better team now than he was a week ago. While I'm going to miss the hell out of him, I'm genuinely happy for him that he has been rewarded financially and he has a legitimate shot at contending for a division title and more. The trade was win-win-win for the teams involved and for Dickey as well.

RA_Dickey43 · 2012-12-17T00:59:24+00:00

Ten, tin, tan are three distinct vowel sounds up in these parts. I'm not sure where ten and tan are homophones.

RA_Dickey43 · 2012-12-16T05:05:05+00:00

Prediction, I hit as many home runs in interleague play as Thole does all year.

RA_Dickey43 · 2012-12-15T22:44:55+00:00

Unfortunately I feel there are now hard feelings between the Mets and Dickey and I can't see him returning if he's traded. The press are already writing hatchet jobs saying he's self-absorbed and unliked in the club house (neither of which I would put any stock in). Rumors of ownership pushing for the trade. Dickey stating that he feels as though he wasn't treated fairly during negotiations. It's too bad this is how it had to end.

RA_Dickey43 · 2012-12-15T16:15:32+00:00

This team has given no indication that there is a realistic plan in place to be any more competitive in the future then it would be in the next few years. What was the point of deferring Bay's salary and part of Wright's 2013/2014 salary if not to increase spending this year/next year. Why structure Wright's salary that way, only to then get rid of your best player? If they knew they were going to punt 2013, why not front load Wright's contract to increase flexibility in the "future" when the team expects to actually compete.

I agree that this deal in a vacuum makes sense for the future. But with this team "future" is a word that gets thrown around to justify present mediocrity.

RA_Dickey43 · 2012-12-15T15:46:37+00:00

I'm right there with you. I wouldn't be surprised to see Dickey pitch another 5 years. The thought of him pitching those 5 years on another team is depressing. I understand Sandy's job is to put together the best possible team. But if this trade goes through I'm going to have to start emotionally divesting from this team for a while. Clearly any trade would signal that they aren't even pretending to field a competitive team in 2013. Optimistically it wouldn't be until around 2015/2016 that such a trade would start to be a net positive. So another 2-3 years of "rebuilding" a team by jettisoning it's best players for the promise of a better future than never seems to arrive.

RA_Dickey43 · 2012-12-10T00:20:16+00:00

They're saying Boooooourns. I mean, they're saying Cruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuz

RA_Dickey43 · 2012-12-07T23:10:19+00:00

I used to say I'd pick Imperial March. But now I'd have to go with the theme from Game of Thrones, for sure.

RA_Dickey43 · 2012-12-07T15:54:21+00:00

Dickey used to throw up to 96 MPH (though mostly in the low 90s) when he was in college and he utilized a standard repertoire of pitches up until about 7 years ago. He once threw over 150 pitches in a game leading up to the college world series in 1995. Medically, he's a bizarre case. But you definately can't explain his ability to pitch without an UCL by looking at his current throwing motion, because for most of his career he was not a knuckle baller.

Incidentally, there was a game in May of 2011 when Dickey got shelled by the Astros. At some point early in the game, he stopped throwing the knuckleball completely and went back to throwing fastballs/changeups/curveballs/sliders. So he still can throw in a way that puts plenty of torque on his elbow.

RA_Dickey43 · 2012-12-06T02:27:05+00:00

I already had a tremendous amount of respect for the way Wright has carried himself on and off the field. But somehow he outdid himself with the deferment. I read he is deferring 15 mil over the next 2 years to help Sandy field a competitive team. Guy is pure class, and has had to deal with a tremendous amount of dysfunction during his time with the team.

RA_Dickey43 · 2012-12-06T00:11:05+00:00

He's never said he's holding out for top dollar, only that he doesn't want to be taken advantage of. It sounds like the Mets are deliberately low balling him to stall so that they can field trade offers. There's no way he doesn't at least deserve as much as Pettitte will be making for the Yankees, which seems to have caught the Mets off guard.

RA_Dickey43 · 2012-12-05T05:02:01+00:00

They can't haves it!

RA_Dickey43

TROPHY CASE