IGT 6/21/2011: OAK @ NYM -- Let's Get All Dillongee

[Frayed Knot]

Edgy DC wrote: Duda and Pride on the bench. They've probably got to let Tejada bat.

Duda to 1B, Murph to 2B

[Guest Edgy DC]

Nope, they courageously go to Duda.

[Frayed Knot]

Frayed Knot wrote: Edgy DC wrote: Duda and Pride on the bench. They've probably got to let Tejada bat. Duda to 1B, Murph to 2B

Or Harris to 2B

[Guest Edgy DC]

Or Moify to thoid and Toiner to second.

[Frayed Knot]

Hey Grant, what's your last name again?

[Guest Edgy DC]

Josh Thole, make your momma proud.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Gary-- "no home runs this year"-- reverse-jinxing with all his might.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Don't need no homer. Just keep it goin'.

Oooooh.... foul.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Boogers.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Fartnuggets.

[Frayed Knot]

That's the problem with not starting rallies until there are two out - it just takes one AB to kill it.
For all that noise we never even got Bay in from 3rd

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Really bad night offensively for the catchers -- a hit in nearly any AB they had some extra good potential. Also, Reyes is cooling down.

Anyone else have the feeling this team peaked momentarily before Frankie blew that ATL game, and this is what it's been like since then?

[Ceetar]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Really bad night offensively for the catchers -- a hit in nearly any AB they had some extra good potential. Also, Reyes is cooling down. Anyone else have the feeling this team peaked momentarily before Frankie blew that ATL game, and this is what it's been like since then?

They've basically been playing slightly better than .500 baseball since the slow start, and since Ike and David went down. I think getting them back goes a long way, because we've lost a lot of close games where we just didn't hit. Even the last couple that weren't that close would've been different games with a little more offense. Hopefully it's only a temporary slump for the bunch of them, but if Bay 'wakes up' then that'll surely help.

crossing my fingers on Ike Tomorrow..or was it today?..and David Thursday. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect them cleared and back in 10-14 days.

If the Mets want to go 'overslot' maybe they should think about offering contracts to the Phillies coaches that get subpar hitting and subpar bullpen guys to overperform consistently. Not that i'm begrudging Hudgens anything, I do think he's done a pretty good job. Still think Warthen is useless though.

[MFS62]

Gee had a 4.96 ERA in AAA last year, so I thought he might have a tough time against that AAA lineup Oakland put on the field tonight.

Later

[Gwreck]

Frayed Knot wrote: OK, here's an interesting scenario -- supposing the original call on something like this was that it hit the wall and therefore not a HR. But the replay rules that not only did it not hit the back wall but that it never hit any wall at all but just Crisp's glove and that Crisp caught it on the way down (he didn't, but just play along for the moment). Does the video then allow the umps to change the call to an out even though it's only supposed to be used for boundary calls not out/safe calls?

Yes, a replay can be used to turn a call to an out, but can only do so on balls that are initially called as home runs but that fans interfered with.

I can't ever see your scenario actually happening. It would require a ball initially being called "in play, not a homer" but actually having been caught. It would require a colossal screw-up for an umpire to miss the ball actually being caught in that scenario. (A play initially called "out" is not replay reviewable).

If they ever really did screw that up so badly, I do think they can overrule the call after conferring (but not with the benefit of replay).

[Gwreck]

Not a fan of tonight's game. Not a fan of pitchers walking leadoff batters repeatedly. Not a fan of pitchers throwing 100 MPH but with no control. Not a fan of out-of-town scoreboards that don't work properly because it's interleague time (they simply declined to show the MIN-SF game). Not a fan of the Citi Field gestapo making people take down their signs. Not a fan of parks that have too much advertising, leaving no place to hang signs.

[Frayed Knot]

OK, here's an interesting scenario -- supposing the original call on something like this was that it hit the wall and therefore not a HR. But the replay rules that not only did it not hit the back wall but that it never hit any wall at all but just Crisp's glove and that Crisp caught it on the way down (he didn't, but just play along for the moment). Does the video then allow the umps to change the call to an out even though it's only supposed to be used for boundary calls not out/safe calls? Yes, a replay can be used to turn a call to an out, but can only do so on balls that are initially called as home runs but that fans interfered with. I can't ever see your scenario actually happening. It would require a ball initially being called "in play, not a homer" but actually having been caught. It would require a colossal screw-up for an umpire to miss the ball actually being caught in that scenario. (A play initially called "out" is not replay reviewable). If they ever really did screw that up so badly, I do think they can overrule the call after conferring (but not with the benefit of replay).

I agree it would need to be an unusual situation: something on the order of the umps initially calling that the ball hit the fence and then fell into the OF's glove only to discover that it hit his glove in front of the wall and then fell into his glove. Bay's drive last night did, in fact, appear to hit only Crisp's glove and not either the front or back walls but of course he did not cradle the rebound.

But as I was watching things unfold last night the thought occurred to me that Terry could come out an argue for a review only to have the call wind up worse for his team than the one they originally made (triple turned into an out rather than the hoped-for HR) and more generally about the slippery slope you get into when you decide to employ replay but only for limited uses. IOW, what if you go looking for something but then find something else that's not specifically under the replay guidelines? In this case the rule, which is in place only be used for HR questions, would overturn a catch/no-catch call simply because that was near the wall where a similar out/safe question where the OFer is coming in could not be settled via replay.

And, btw, what would you do with any runner(s) in the above (or similar) hypothetical? Naturally they see the safe call and run. Can they now be blamed for not retreating even though they were following the ump's call at the time? Do you place them back at their bases free of charge so to speak because the wrong call was made? Is it a judgement call as to whether or not they could have made it back based on where they were at the time of the call, a ruling which could place some runners back on their base of origin but others not?

[Guest Edgy DC]

If this is just a brief oasis in a desert of failure for Bay, this team is in trouble. Seems to me that they reallly need last night to be real. Too many guys had been playing over their heads and can carry him no longer.

[Ceetar]

Edgy DC wrote: If this is just a brief oasis in a desert of failure for Bay, this team is in trouble. Seems to me that they reallly need last night to be real. Too many guys had been playing over their heads and can carry him no longer.

I agree. Even if he's gonna be mostly 'eh' all season, if he could sorta blast a couple of home runs in the next say two weeks and hopefully Davis and Wright come back then? If he could just help keep the team afloat for a couple of weeks?

[Guest Edgy DC]

Just grab a paddle, Jason!

[TransMonk]

He's hitting .353 over his last nine games (since sitting the two out). The Mets are 3-6 in those games. The Mets were better when Bay was sucking.

[Frayed Knot]

TransMonk wrote: He's hitting .353 over his last nine games (since sitting the two out).

Problem is that, until last night, all his hits were singles - and most of them were simply grounders that found their way between 3B & SS (I remember one hard liner up the middle), grounders that could just as easily been at someone instead. So it wasn't just that he was sucking, it was that he was sucking while showing no signs of breaking out.
Last night at least was a change of pace.