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Matz 6.0 Granderson 2.0 Monell 1.0 Campbell 1.0

Harvey 2.5 Granderson 2.0 Duda 1.5 Verrett 1.0 Familia 1.0 Lagares 1.0 Tejada 0.5 Plawecki 0.5

Syndergaard 5.0 Familia 1.5 Granderson 1.5 Herrera 1.0 Campbell 0.5 Duda 0.5

Lefty Specialist wrote: Elbows and armpits are tricky things. Jeff Wilpon agrees. He doesn't know his one from his other.

deGrom 6.0 Familia 1.0 Granderson 1.0 Flores 1.0 Duda 1.0

Granderson 1.0

The week spanning June 17 to June 23 respectfully requests no player represent it as such.

I didn't realize two editions of Brewers Homage could be so fulfilling, but they have been. Echoing Kase's thanks to Batmags.

Terry prefers Kevin catching Jacob in the day game tomorrow, thus Here's Johnny!

I love everything Bryan Curtis writes for Grantland. His winning streak continues here as he examines about how politicians can't stop swinging at baseball metaphors. This spring, when Harry Reid announced his retirement from the U.S. Senate, he could have picked any number of rhetorical flourishes. He could have gone full statesman, � la George Washington. He could have shivved his old b�te noire, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. He could have again insisted, for the hell of it, that Mitt Romney didn�t pay taxes for a decade. But Reid, as they say, threw a curveball. �I want to be able to go out at the top of my game,� he told the New York Times. �I don�t want to be a 42-year-old trying to become a designated hitter.� Reid had deployed a baseball metaphor. And a rare, bipartisan caucus decided the metaphor was � really good. �That�s about the most articulate thing I�ve ever heard from Harry Reid,� the conservative writer Charles Krauthammer told me recently. �It�s not bad,� agreed George Will. �He should aspire to be Edgar Martinez.� Two weeks ago, Reid sat in the minority leader�s office, with hands clasped and ankles crossed, talking about the baseball metaphor in American politics. It was Seersucker Thursday in the Senate. On a muted TV, McConnell wandered the Senate floor in light-blue pastels like a man trying to give away a mint julep. �That�s not really Reid�s style,� an aide told me. Reid had opted for a plain black suit. The dark glasses he has worn since a January exercise mishap gave him the air of an aging creative writing professor. Behind Reid hung a portrait of Mark Twain, who once said baseball was the perfect metaphor for �the raging, tearing, booming 19th century!� Did you have any 42-year-old DHs in mind when you came up with that line? I asked Reid. �Rodriguez has surprised me, I�ll tell you that,� he said. �He�s only 40, but he�s surprised me. As far as we know, without juice.� When Reid ventured a baseball metaphor, he joined one of the few unbroken traditions in American politics. During Abraham Lincoln�s 1860 presidential campaign, a political cartoon cast Lincoln as a �run� and his three opponents as �outs.� Warren Harding asked the American public to �strive for production as Babe Ruth strives for home runs.� At an exhibit at the George W. Bush presidential library in Dallas, great baseball metaphors of the POTUSes are painted on the walls as if they were choice cuts from the Gettysburg Address. Some baseball metaphors, like Reid�s, transcend mere filler. They�re fiendishly clever or awfully strange and help us understand the labyrinthine world of politics. And some baseball metaphors � as McConnell was saying on the Senate floor that day, about a slightly different subject � constitute a �threat that is literally impossible to overstate.� These metaphors are the cheapest form of rhetorical base-covering � or, in some cases, a complete whiff.

Cuddyer was apparently given a choice of a day off and chose this one. He can go on extended holiday and it's debatable how long it would take to notice he was as invisible as his bat. TC said his meeting message, like that of Frankie three decades back, is relax. Frankie went to Milwaukee and collected an easy save last night.

Pot luck -- meaning somebody was high when he put this lineup together: Curtis Granderson � RF Ruben Tejada � 2B Lucas Duda � 1B Wilmer Flores � SS Darrell Ceciliani � LF Juan Lagares � CF Johnny Monell � C Eric Campbell � 3B Bartolo Colon � RHP

Gwreck wrote: I recall Howie doing a few SNY games in 2006 (?) when Gary had some sort of surgery (maybe an appendectomy?) Solid recall. GKR was new, and Howie had done fairly regular FSNY games as recently as 2003, so it wasn't out of line to wonder about the road not taken. I clearly remember the chemistry not being there when it was temporarily HKR. Howie was used to teasing out Ralph's recollections (and making the best of Fran) so he came off as more of "the announcer" than Gary did in the still developing SNY booth. Maybe they would have gelled over time. I think each man found his niche in the roles they've occupied ever since. Since this is ostensibly a Brewers thread, I also remember that same season, a little before the appendix situation (Xavier Nady had the same malady at the same time, necessitating the callup of Lastings Milledge), Keith took ill in Milwaukee on a Sunday afternoon and lo and behold, Ed Coleman showed up in the TV booth with Gary. He had to borrow a tie (for the eight seconds he was on camera).

After six consecutive losses in three cities representing three different divisions, the Mets shall meet to hash out what's wrong, though their manager has implied nothing much will come from it. And with that as backrop, the Amazins attempt to not lose their seventh in a row, this one to the worst home team in baseball, the one that beat the second-worst road team in baseball. Bartolo Colon will take on generically named Jimmy Nelson.

Niese 2.0 Granderson 1.5 Plawecki 1.0 Parnell 0.5 Duda 0.5 Herrera 0.5 Lagares 0.5

In seven seasons as a Brewers outfielder, Darryl Hamilton drove in 253 runs, stole 109 bases and slashed to a tune of .290/.351/.384. His OPS+ was exactly league average. Hamilton delivered a career-best WAR of 3.6 in 1992, the last year in which the Brewers contended for the American League East crown. As for the current Brewers, they're still in last place, sporting the second-worst record in the N.L. Tuesday: Niese vs. Fiers Wednesday: Colon vs. Nelson Thursday: deGrom vs. Jungmann Thursday's a day game. Gary Cohen will be back for the Mets.

The man was quietly huge for the 1999 and 2000 teams. Hit .339 in platoon duty in '99 (while Shawon Dunston hit .344). In a year when every last iota was needed to build a winner, I'm not convinced Mets make it past October 3 without him. And, as noted, the double off Felix Rodriguez in Game Two of the 2000 NLDS was one of the clutchest hits in franchise postseason history. A slightly more extensive recollection here.

Harvey 4.5 CTorres 1.0 Granderson 0.5 Lagares 0.5

d'Arnaud 2.5 Granderson 1.5 Gilmartin 1.0

Nelson joins Ralph...in late September of 1985, I mean. [youtube:3gh6ih1i]z9S19YlPYz8&feature[/youtube:3gh6ih1i]

deGrom 4.5

Seaver appears on the cover in 1969 and more than 40 years later suffers the effects of Lyme disease. Definitely the jinx.

Duda 1.0 Verrett 0.5

Niese 1.0

Small thing, but changing Doubleday Awards to Sterling Awards (unless it was to honor Roger Sterling) was slightly nauseating.