nymr83

]When is it ok to leave the game early? When you need to because of kids. girls are never an excuse. if a girl wants to leave early i don't take out my keys, i take out my metrocard and point her to the subway.

i know i'm the predictor of doom and gloom for sequels so here i go again: this movie wont live up to its predecessors and the enormous hype it will receive, people will be leaving the theaters as disappointed as they were after Star Trek V.

I'm happy if the (W)right guy wins.

i think they were still overpriced and more importantly not effective. the Giants WILL regret the length of the Zito deal if they don't already. Schmidt is on the operating table. The Mets did just fine putting a rotation together this year even if the 5th spot has been in flux all season. Giving out bad deals longer than a year is what could kill a team (other than the yankees who can just send Kei Igawa's 45 million to the minors after a month!) I'd rather re-sign a Glavine for 1 year than give 5 years to a guy who probably doesnt deserve them just because he's the best on the weak market.

i think you might as well bring him back, as long as it just for next year and not a longer commitment. the crop of free agent pitchers is very weak this year

i saw it back when it was in theaters (or am i thinking of another movie?) it was good, not great.

jus got home, looks like a great outing by Perez

whoever said "low 90's" might have beenat thegame and been looking at the (generally absurd) stadium guns displayed for the fans.

Colorado is my preferred wild card opponent.

Pythagorean karma has been catching up with Seattle lately. Maybe it'll catch up with ARZ in the playoffs.

illegal does = cheating, but cheating need not = illegal. ] mean, was keith hernandez cheating when he was snorting coke? or was he just breaking the law? breaking the law and cheating if it was enhancing his performance, just like baseball doesnt need to say "don't take a knife and stab the pitcher to increase your performance" they also don't have to say "don't snort coke" its already illegal, baseball does not need to go out and delineate all the illegal things you can't do, only the legal ones that are against baseball's rules.

Art Shamsky is managing in Israel!

Milwaukee... I like Fielder, Sheets, Hart, and theres really nobody on the team i dislike. The fans deserve to see some playoffs. Chicago... no thanks. I don't want the Mets playing playoff games at Wrigley. St Louis... I HATE this team, you shouldnt make the playoffs at 82-80 and its even more disgusting that they might be given the chance to defend their title with a similiarly disgusting record. On the other hand, They'd be the easiest opponent for the Mets out of these 3 teams.

no there isn't, but i think anyone with a brain between his or her ears can recognize that if Utley, Burrell, and Howard are due up in the 8th THAT is the most important relief inning... but the save rule has distorted that and made people including idiot managers say "well the 9th must be more important, its a save!"

Yancy Street Gang wrote: You'd waste a day making a television commercial if you were financially set for life? Why? you can't have too much money. sure you could have enough for yourself, but what about your family? your friends? your place of worship? other charities you may like? theres always somewhere to send the cash.

Edgy DC wrote: I'm OK with a crazy game for all the marbles, just use such tiebreakers to determine home field advantage. when i said "break the tie" i meant "determine homefield" i realize that was unclear. what they really need is better rules for 3-way ties, because right now theres a team that has to only win one game while the other two teams would have to win 2.

agreed. my list would look like this: To break division ties: 1. head to head record 2. record vs. division opponents 3. record vs. NL teams 4. Run Differential 5. coin flip To break wild card ties: 1. head to head record 2. record vs. NL teams 3. Run Differential 4. Coin Flip

illegal is WORSE than banned by baseball. were greenies illegal in Aaron's day? they weren't banned by baseball. and if the answer is no then he was operating within both the law and the rules of the game so he's no cheater. Bonds is.

]But it shouldn't be overlooked (but is in most pitching stats) that the third out of every inning is more inportant than the first two, because it's the only out that erases baserunners. thats a good point. ]david wright had an awful april this year. would you rather he have an awful september instead? if that meant the Mets would have won more then (and by consequence been up more games in the standings now) it may have been worth it. ]look at it this way. at the end of the season, if you had a 0.333 batting average, you could say that at any point in the season, you had a 1 in 3 chance of getting a hit. but if you entered an at bat with a 0.300 batting average during the season, you would think that your chances of getting a hit were only 3 in 10. only after the at bat do you know what your probability of getting a hit there really was by that logic you don't know your chances of winning the game until its over either and your next paragraph makes no sense. your expected win% tables are as useless going into an inning as you'd say a player's BA is going into an AB. ]but you may be wrong. and you may enter the ninth with still only that one run lead, and your best reliever has already been used up. and then, was the 7th inning really all that important in retrospect? you can't go back and a manage a game in retrospect. bring your best reliever in at what you BELIEVE is the most important part of the game AT THE TIME... you say you might still only have a 1 run lead later, well i say you might have no lead at all if you let Mota face Utley, Burrell, & Howard in the 8th because "omg iz not te 9th i cant uze wagnor!"

I have no problem with the Mets caring more about the Cyclones than the Sand Gnats (as long as they don't stunt any player's development unnecessarily by holding him down too long.) As Norfolk proved most minor league affiliations are temporary, but the younger Wilpon is part-owner in brooklyn (as Steinbrenner is in SI.) Those teams are with the organization to stay, theres no reason NOT to treat them like they matter more.

the 6th inning is a little more questionable, since that heart of the order may come up again... of course you may have a bigger lead by then as well. but anyone who thinks the 9th inning of a 1-run game is more important than the 8th inning when 2-3-4 or 3-4-5 are due up in the 8th has, imo, been brainwashed by the save rule. edit- and i'm not a strong believer in that whole "chance to recover" thing... if you are trying your hardest all the time theres no reason that you arent equally likely to add 1 to your lead in the 6th as you are to come back and score 1 after they've tied it in the 9th. play like you need more runs to begin with.

Rick Ankiel with 2 more homers a double and 7 RBI tonight, what a story this guy has been!

NONONO, the idea that the 9th inning is more important has to END. when the heart of the order is coming up in the 8th THAT is the big inning and the one into which the taem's best reliever should be inserted.

]So now that we've got that point settled, here's another of our longtime gripes. This stat no longer merely measures the performance of closers. It has somehow hijacked managers everywhere. It has made them slaves to one of the worst stats in baseball. And it has turned into the only number in baseball that actually dictates strategy. Watch any game on any night. You're almost guaranteed to see more absurd evidence that the way closers are used "has now been defined pretty much entirely by the save rule," says Baseball Prospectus' always-insightful Joe Sheehan. "It is the most ridiculous case of a stat driving a tactic in baseball history, and how that has been lost in the discussion boggles my mind." Amen. Kill the save ALTOGETHER and award holds to any relief pitcher who does their job under a better defined rule, and forget about who finishes the game.

]His office is big and open and looks like an airplane hangar. It has cubicles for dozens of officers and even has inert display missiles. every office needs missiles on display.