Benjamin Grimm

He's probably under her vampiric spell.

Yes. I liked it a lot. (Gave it four stars.)

They've also shortened the commercial breaks between innings by 20 seconds. That will automatically shorten each game by at least five minutes. And... As part of the shortened commercial breaks, pitchers can throw as many warm-up pitches as they want before the timer runs out, though they are no longer guaranteed eight warm-up pitches.

Looks like we have an announcement: MLB pace-of-play rule changes: Mound visit limits, no pitch clock, shorter commercials After weeks of negotiations with the MLB Players' Association, Major League Baseball and commissioner Rob Manfred announced a series of pace-of-play rule changes Monday. There will be no pitch clock in 2018, but there will be a limit on mound visits. In an effort to cut down on downtime within games, each team will now be limited to six mounds visits per game, plus one additional mound visit for every extra-inning played. Here is the league's official description of a mound visit: A manager or coach trip to the mound to meet with the pitcher shall constitute a visit. A player leaving his position to confer with the pitcher, including a pitcher leaving the mound to confer with another player, shall also constitute a mound visit, regardless of where the visit occurs or the length of the visit. That means going forward, a mound visit will include visits by coaches and managers, as well as visits by other players. If the catcher goes to the mound, it counts as a visit. If an infielder goes to the mound, it counts as a visit. Also, the second mound visit of an inning requires a pitching change. That remains the same.

I'd say that having the payroll come close to last year's means that the rumors of major cutbacks were, as some of us suspected, unfounded. Whether that translates to winning enough games is another matter, and only time will tell.

I think the fact that he went 13 days without starting, even with a four-day break in the middle, indicates that he missed a start. Or at least, that there was a longer-than-usual gap between his starts, which is really what the graphic is looking to indicate.

The broken chain occurs if a pitcher goes seven or more days and seven or more games without starting. In 2015, deGrom started Game 86 on July 8, and then Game 94 on July 21.

Yeah, I'm thinking more like 15 for Harvey. Of course, this kind of stuff is impossible to predict with any real hope of accuracy. Just for laughs, I pulled the distribution of starts over the course of the 2017 season, which went very poorly, and 2016 and 2015, which went much better, and 1986 and 1969, which went really well. In 2017, the five leaders in starts started 66 per cent of regular season games. In 2016 it was 77.8 per cent; 2015: 88.3 per cent; 1986: 91.4 per cent; 1969: 88.9 per cent. Here are the numbers: 2017 Jacob deGrom 31 Robert Gsellman 22 Seth Lugo 18 Rafael Montero 18 Matt Harvey 18 Zack Wheeler 17 Steven Matz 13 Chris Flexen 9 Noah Syndergaard 7 Tommy Milone 5 Tyler Pill 3 Adam Wilk 1 2016 Bartolo Colon 33 Noah Syndergaard 30 Jacob deGrom 24 Steven Matz 22 Matt Harvey 17 Logan Verrett 12 Seth Lugo 8 Robert Gsellman 7 Gabriel Ynoa 3 Rafael Montero 3 Jon Niese 2 Sean Gilmartin 1 2015 Bartolo Colon 31 Jacob deGrom 30 Jon Niese 29 Matt Harvey 29 Noah Syndergaard 24 Dillon Gee 7 Steven Matz 6 Logan Verrett 4 Sean Gilmartin 1 Rafael Montero 1 1986 Ron Darling 34 Dwight Gooden 33 Sid Fernandez 31 Bob Ojeda 30 Rick Aguilera 20 Bruce Berenyi 7 Rick Anderson 5 Randy Niemann 1 John Mitchell 1 1969 Gary Gentry 35 Tom Seaver 35 Jerry Koosman 32 Don Cardwell 21 Jim McAndrew 21 Nolan Ryan 10 Jack DiLauro 4 Tug McGraw 4

I know. But I do think that Dom will be feeling pressed by Alonso, unless he has a breakout 2018.

Frayed Knot wrote: John Sickels: ETA 2019. Poor Dominic Smith!

I don't know about 2018, but in the few years after that it will be interesting to see what happens with Alonso. It may be that Dom Smith makes his way past Adrian Gonzalez just to very quickly hear Pete Alonso's footsteps behind him.

Centerfield wrote: As for Mickey, I can do without the brush off he gave this topic. He should go talk to his first baseman and find see if he thinks this is no big deal. He can talk all the bullshit he wants about how he’ll manage the pen. This was his first test and he failed it miserably. I agree. Very disappointing. I saw somewhere that two Mets players said that they were glad that they skipped the shark-hunting trip because they wouldn't have wanted to associate with Trump Jr. Six honorary Schaefer points to those two players, whoever they are. If I was in that situation (and I wouldn't be, because I wouldn't hunt sharks) I wonder what I would have done? Would I have been polite to Uday Trump, or rude? I think I would have at least said, "Sorry Uday, but I don't want to be photographed with you."

I don't see Harvey or Vargas as "locks" at all. I think the rotation will be Syndergaard and deGrom and three other guys to be determined.

Born December 2, died June 30.

Well, we can hope that he learned a knuckleball!

Well, we can hope for R.A. Dickey 2012, can't we?

Apparently Topps wasn't doing traditional "manager cards" in 1976 and 1977, so Joe Frazier never got a dedicated card of himself as a Mets manager.

I'm okay with them having to battle for it. If enough of the other guys are healthy and pitching well, then maybe Vargas becomes the long man/swing man. A modern-day Pat Mahomes.

Yeah, I just don't buy that you're Rusty Staub's baby mama.

Or that he needs Tommy John surgery.

No, that just wouldn't be practical. I do refrain from posting certain things. There have been a few where someone says that they're a former player's love child or baby mama. I don't post those.

Someone who might be Mike Vail posted a somewhat cryptic memory of Jay Kleven to the UMDB today.

Ceetar wrote: Vargas is better than Cobb or Lynn. Really? I hope so. If true, then this is a brilliant move. Vargas was an All-Star last year, but he was terrible in the second half. That second-half dropoff is concerning. Hopefully it has a benign explanation.

I have a hunch that TJ Rivera (or Wilmer Flores) will replace Cabrera at second base. Next year if 2018 goes well (and Cabrera is productive) and next year if not. Or maybe they'll sign Daniel Murphy as a free agent.

I think that it's an open competition for the three spots behind deGrom and Syndergaard.