The Buscher

I'll probably still wind up going to Pittsburgh because A) I'm a sap and B) I can't really afford to go on a proper vacation this year anyway. So I'd just go hoping it's a fun long weekend with good games even if the teams involved suck. At least PNC is meant to be one of the nicest parks in the Majors. I'm also going to Wednesday's game as I found seats a few rows behind the dugout for ridiculously cheap before the season started. Beyond that though I'm going to have to try really, really hard to not head out to the ballpark if the team continues to be shit. I want to stop giving the Wilpons money. But yeah, it's going to be a longgggg road back. As much as I want the team to succeed, if they suck enough to trade away Reyes to a contending team for some really good prospects (I want to keep him but let's but real, Alderson ain't giving him Crawford money) and Beltran for a decent prospect, it'll be for the better. Hell I even hope K-Rod pitches well enough for a team to roll the dice on his $17.5 million option and pick him up for the playoff run. I'm willing to give Alderson's attempt at Moneyball a chance...but unfortunately I feel like the fanbase is going to run him out of town since it would mean sacrificing at least next year and possibly even 2013 while the Yankees and Phillies continue to dominate as their fans rub the Mets' fans nose in it.

Might cancel my planned trip to Pittsburgh for the Mets/Pirates series in June. Already have tickets to the games but they were cheap despite being good seats and can be StubHubbed. Not sure it's worth the other expenditures, time, and travel to watch the Mets play at this point.

Damn. Feels weird to lose on Opening Day. First time since 2005. Not surprising though. Pelfrey always sucks against the Marlins. Good to see them show some fight in the 7th by knocking Johnson out. Not a fan of pinch-hitting Thole for Scott Hairston, who promptly K'ed. I get that Hairston mashes lefties and had a great spring - but it reeked of Jerry Manuel-esque overmanagement. Hopefully they bounce back tomorrow.

Gotta say, I absolutely love the fantasy team I just drafted. Auction draft, got most of the guys I was targeting. This isn't my starting lineup, just listing the players at the positions they are eligible: C: Jorge Posada 1B: Adrian Gonzalez 2B: Dan Uggla 3B: Casey McGehee, Martin Prado (Prado is also playable at 2B and will be playable in the OF soon enough) SS: Jose Reyes OF: Vladimir Guerrero, Jacoby Ellsbury, Manny Ramirez, Carlos Beltran (will simply DL Beltran if necessary and pick someone else up) SP: Josh Johnson, Justin Verlander, Chris Carpenter, Tim Hudson, Matt Garza RP: Joakim Soria, Francisco Rodriguez, Jose Valverde, Joe Nathan, Jonny Venters, Aroldis Chapman The one guy I was targeting that I didn't get was Delmon Young. Got into a surprising bidding war for him. In retrospect I wish I would have given the extra buck to grab him since I finished the draft with money leftover. Also I really didn't want Posada, there was a huge Yankee homer in the draft so I figured I'd bait him and it didn't work out. Hopefully he bounces back.

aaaaaand Oliver Perez is gone too! ZIPPITY DOO DAH, ZIPPITY AY! MY OH MY WHAT A WONDERFUL DAY!

Luis Castillo has been released! You're next, Ollie.

The Show is amazing. I was playing against Halladay and he threw a borderline pitch that was called a ball. Eric Karros then said: "Well he might have gotten that call if he weren't on the cover of the wrong game."

aaaaaand 2 days after finally DH'ing in a game, Beltran is shut down with tendinitis in his OTHER knee. Unreal. He is physically incapable of staying healthy, his knees are shot. I feel bad for the guy because he works hard to get out there but he's turning into the new Moises Alou. Mets are downplaying it of course and saying he'll be back in games within a week - but truthfully I see no way he's in right field on Opening Day. The thing that worries me more is that these Beltran and Santana injuries make it even more likely that Alderson (who already is against long-term contracts) won't re-sign Reyes. Hell, Wright's a free agent after 2012 and he'll want a huge deal too. Good thing Sandy's got good draft reputation.

The second go-around worked. Glad to see the only issue was a brainfart by my computer. Anyway, surveying the roster the one suggestion I'd have is to put Jackson Andrews in FCW (he starts on the active Raw roster). I think they aborted the idea of him as Kidd's bodyguard back in early January. If A-Ri isn't back up on the main roster by the end of this month I'd probably start him in FCW too for the next update. Possibly McGillicutty too but that probably depends on whether or not he's still listed on the Raw roster page.

Well, I started loading the game and then left the room to eat. It had finished loading when I came back. You're probably right though, probably something with my PC caused EWR to mess up. My bad, should have tried a second time before reporting. I haven't d/led one of these updates in quite some time as I've been immersed in my current 2002 game. Gonna go try re-starting.

I don't know if there's something I'm doing wrong, but there appears to be a game-killing problem with the Staff. I started a game with WWE and every single staff member started with 0 months on their contract. This wouldn't be a big deal, except for the fact that every single staff member starts with 0 morale. Because of this, they'll refuse to negotiate a new contract and because of that you can't even use Arsenic to switch their morale and force them to re-sign. I went ahead and checked the editor and there is no way to edit morale or contract length through there. So yeah, until this gets fixed there's no way to play longer than a month before the entire staff leaves. I'm guessing it's the same deal with the other promotions as well. There are also a few other wonky things (probably a good 50 or so WWE workers have 0 months on their deals and nearly everybody else has a 27-month deal. also Masters and Morrison have never debuted apparently). Looks great otherwise. (Y)

I re-set the rosters and "started clean" at the Rumble, watching the all-CPU Rumble match. Put 15 guys from Raw and 15 from SmackDown in the Rumble. I've done enough simmed Rumbles to know that when selecting participants, the first 3 you pick will ALWAYS be #30, #29, and #28. So I rigged it slightly by putting Morrison, Barrett, and Del Rio in those spots for storyline purposes. Del Rio won, narrowly beating out Vladimir Kozlov who nearly ruined all of my plans. But it worked out nicely. Miz and Edge retained their belts at EC. Miz beat Triple H to retain the WWE Title in a simmed match, which shocked me. Then Edge retained over Del Rio only for Christian, fresh off his MITB win, to cash in and win the big gold belt.

I was planning on moving the entire current WWE roster to Raw and filling up SmackDown with alumni and funny CAWs (Ninja Turtles, Homer Simpson, etc.) But of course the server is down every time I try to download aforementioned CAWs. Ugh.

WM seems to be right around the cutoff date every year. So looking over the roster, I wonder if the Nexus are gonna get the Spirit Squad treatment in the next game (where they miss the cut due to not wanting to tie up so many spots for one stable). Assuming the roster size is the same next year - there are 10 active people that won't return next year (Jericho, Batista, MVP, Hardy, Knox, Shelton, Archer, Gallows, Shad, Finlay). Wade Barrett, Justin Gabriel, Heath Slater, Daniel Bryan, and Alberto Del Rio are basically locks. Chris Masters is a safe bet too especially since they've already got a model made for him from this year's DLC. By that same token, Otunga could sneak in. That leaves 3 spots to use on Harris, McGillicutty, and Ryan although I just don't see them all making it especially since the group might disband at or around Mania. Then again, pickings are slim. They could also always punt out some of the mega-jobbers like Primo but it seems like being in the previous year's game always makes you a front runner to return. The Legends should also be awesome. Austin, Rock, and HBK are probably always going to be in - but this year they could throw in Lawler, Booker, Diesel, etc.

Looks like the Mets' CF race is over before it ever really started. Beltran initiated a meeting with Collins and Pagan and informed them that he thinks it would be best to move to RF. Good on Carlos. He hasn't even played a game in center yet this spring and he realizes that even if he gets good mobility, Pagan is just better suited for the spot. Hoping he gets into some games starting next week because even though it's still the outfield, he's gotta learn the nuances of playing in right.

Haven't played this in ages. I have Axxess but I still haven't bothered to turn the game on and try out the Nitro arena or anything like that. Feel like I'd just get bored within a few matches again. Good game overall but I can't see me buying the next one unless there is some kind of massive overhaul. The replayability just isn't there for me.

I wasn't sure on The Show this year since I got 10 and found it wasn't much different from 09. But then I read about all the improvements they made to RTTS and I'm sold. Those tweaks will be fun.

K-Rod would most likely file, and win, a grievance if the Mets were obviously avoiding using him when he would have been used otherwise. All he would need to do is argue that the option was a huge reason for him signing with the Mets to begin with. 54 games finished not only means saves, but any game in which they won where he was the last pitcher. If it's, say, a tie game at home - teams usually bring in their closer. If K-Rod pitched the 9th and the Mets then won in the bottom of the 9th, it counts as a games finished. In that instance, 54 isn't that much...and honestly I thought he needed fewer than that. I'd be surprised if it didn't vest. It'll suck paying that absurd amount to a closer but at least K-Rod is decent and they weren't going to spend all of the money they are freeing up in one off-season anyway.

Wow...that IS bold. Frankly I don't even think Perez is going to make the Opening Day roster. Alderson has said that Castillo and Perez will be released if they don't earn their way onto the roster, and I just feel like there are too many guys ahead of Perez on the depth chart. If he looks even remotely like he has the last 2 years during ST, he's a goner.

I really love spring training. Just knowing that baseball is right around the corner makes me a happy camper and fills me with optimism. I'm a more optimistic Mets fan than most. Just about everybody from newspapers to MLB Network to other Mets fans have them ticketed for a 4th place finish. The Phillies obviously have the best team on paper but I really don't see what the big deal is about the Braves and especially the Marlins. Alderson and Collins get a pass this year no matter what but I can't write them off - if everybody stays healthy the Mets should have their best lineup since 06/07. I also like their 1-3 starters and have a good feeling that one of Young or Capuano, probably Young, will have a serviceable year since his game works well for Citi Field. I'd argue it's a better looking rotation than the '06 one that got them to the playoffs. If nothing else I think the Mets can stay in contention for longer than anybody is giving them credit for. Lineup SS Jose Reyes RF Angel Pagan 3B David Wright CF Carlos Beltran LF Jason Bay 1B Ike Davis C Josh Thole 2B Daniel Murphy/Brad Emaus Rotation RHP Mike Pelfrey RHP R.A. Dickey LHP Jon Niese RHP Chris Young LHP Chris Capuano Bullpen RHP Francisco Rodriguez RHP Bobby Parnell RHP D.J. Carrasco RHP Taylor Buchholz LHP Taylor Tankersley/Tim Byrdak/Michael O'Connor RHP Manny Acosta/Pedro Beato LHP Pat Misch Bench C Mike Nickeas (Ronny Paulino when he gets off suspension) IF Daniel Murphy/Brad Emaus IF Chin-lung Hu OF Scott Hairston OF Willie Harris/Nick Evans

Yeah, Lemieux's statement was ridiculous. I thought the suspensions were fine. Gillies' hit on Tangradi was comparable to Wisniewski's on Seabrook which received an 8 game suspension. Martin's was an attempted cheap shot, and given that the league has consistently (lol) based suspensions on whether the player was injured or not, 4 games isn't a terribly low amount. A lot of Pens' fans have whined about Haley, which I don't understand since he did nothing wrong other than making Letang look like an AHL defensemen. What Godard did was an automatic 10 so no need for further discussion there. And seeing as how the league overturned both Bylsma's automatic one game suspension and his $10,000 fine, Lemieux really doesn't have a leg to stand on. All of that is even ignoring the obvious hypocrisy of Lemieux questioning the integrity of the league and overall quality of play when he is the one signing the paychecks of cheap shot artist extraordinaire Matt Cooke.

Michael Grabner is on fucking fire.

My bracket is fucked as I had the Saints going to the Super Bowl, but I don't care. More reasons as to why I'd be beyond depressed if there were a lockout next year.

Bagwell not getting in on his first ballot has me a bit worried that Piazza is going to be screwed and left off on his first try in 2013. Some voters have basically said that they will blackball every steroid era slugger even if they have no connections. Anybody who says that openly should be stripped of their right to vote. Also, maybe its the Mets fandom in me but John Franco being one-and-done is kind of ridiculous. I can live with him not getting in but how does a guy with 424 career saves not get enough votes to stay on the ballot for more than one year?

Hmm, come to think - there are one or two players on the volleyball team from California. Athletic scholarship or no, I cannot fathom picking Danbury over Cali. Much worse weather and absolutely nothing to do in the area.