Chad ochoseis

Nats playing not two miles from where I'm sitting right now. Was thinking of going, but life got in the way.

Adam Wainwright, who's been hot, faces Logan Verrett, who's been good enough. MLB.com's preview notes that Wainwright pitched successfully against the Mets once in 2006.

And Cabrera's off the schneid!!!

Bartolo gets a nice easy 1-2-3 first.

Challenge Granderson's arm, pay the price! Yeah, yeah, I know it was Johnson's doing.

Think Antonio Bastardo, righthanded and sidearming. No, thanks.

I'd like to share a few of my thoughts on yesterday's game: I think it's safe to say that replay saved our collective asses last night -- first the play at home, then Walker's negated GiDP -- and, as much quarrel as I've had with the rule since expanded beyond HRs, it was nice to see it work as designed: - the two calls in question were simply horrible and not some 'Oooooh I think maybe possibly his spikes lost contact with the base for 1/4 second' type of call for which the rule was never intended - quick calls by the team to ask for the review rather than going into a game stall while the bench coach waits on the phone for their review specialist to examine the evidence from nine angles looking for possible loopholes - reasonably quick decisions from the Chelsea headquarters although you still wonder why it wasn't even quicker. Would have been fun to see the umps put on the headphones and then take them off like 5 seconds later because their colleagues in NY already knew that they so obviously blew it - and no rules were spontaneously ignored allowing additional reviews for a team after their supposed quota was spent Today, it's our hero Bartolo Colon up against Kyle Hendricks. Hendricks was supposed to be the weak link in the rotation, but currently has the best ERA among Cub starters and has not given up an earned run since June.

We're gonna win and we're gonna win big. I like teams that win. Winning. Wins. Big wins. This is a team that wins. A hopefully rejuvenated Syndergaard goes up against some guy named Jake Arrieta.

I'll be optimistic and guess that Syndergaard and Céspedes are OK. I see a lot of games with weak teams like the Phillies, Marlins, Padres, and Yankees on the SHaMS schedule. So I'll go with 43. D'Arnaud stays in the lineup and silences the doubters.

Frayed Knot wrote: Edgy MD wrote: ... May be the whitest ballpark crowd since integration. Especially so considering that it's at a ballpark smack in the middle of Chicago's south side. It's the south side, but the Comiskey (OK, US Cellular) neighborhood is about as white/working class/Irish as Chicago gets. The Daleys were from there.

bmfc1 wrote: Prediction of a 2017 Spring Training storyline: Cabrera teaching Rosario how to be a major league SS That would be great. Be nice to find a spot for Cabrera in the org after his contract runs out, too. He seems to have a better head than most and will probably be more valuable off the field than on the field by the end of 2017.

On the other hand, five players from the 2015 Mets were picked for the team, which isn't bad at all.

Frayed Knot wrote: I'm not going to go all revisionist history on either Zobrist or Murphy* simply because each are having better years than anyone expected and quite probably of the best of their careers -- certainly so in Murph's case and at least close in Zobrist's. Definitely. I can't blame Sandy for not figuring out that Murphy was going to go from an above-average offensive 2B to one of the league's best hitters. Has any player in the history of the game suddenly started consistently OPSing 200 points over their career numbers after age 30? Well, yeah, someone did. But let's restrict that question to players who didn't play in the steroid era. And Murph had an awful WS, giving some weight to the belief that the Cubs and Dodgers series were flukes. The consensus on Walker was that he was an upgrade over Murphy, and most of us were happy to have one year of Walker over four years of Zobrist. I didn't weigh in then, but knowing what Sandy knew in 2015, I wouldn't have done anything differently. Hindsight is always...well, you know.

Edgy MD wrote: The real question is why I'm blacked out on the internet because I live in Baltimore, which is an hour outside of DC, but in a different media market, even though it's a damned national broadcast. Count your blessings. I'm not blacked out in Cleveland, but I'm beginning to wish I was.

Montero isn't pitching well. My adoptee Gsellman just got promoted from AA and is injured (strained quad, I think...quads are the new obliques). Except for a few blips, Sean Gilmartin has gotten guys out at every level. I'd be fine giving him a shot in the rotation if it comes to that. And he's actually in the majors this week. And Ynoa? Sure, ynot?

David Lennon writes in Newsday: There are bad days, and then there are the stomach-turning, waking-nightmare, crawl-under-the-bed-type days that the Mets experienced yesterday. How terrible was it? Put it this way: Losing Matt Harvey to season-ending surgery was the least of their problems. Harvey's gone for the season. Cespy has a quad strain. Syndergaard's been diagnosed with "arm fatigue". Life is awful. Fanstats.com* predicts that the Mets will finish 23 games behind the Nationals. Sandy needs to make a move NOW!!!?!##?!?!?!? I call bullshit. It's no fun to lose Harvey, but we haven't been getting anything out of him this season, so it's not making this year's team any worse than it already is. And what it already is is a team that would still make the playoffs if the season ended today, and is still within striking distance of Washington. Losing Cespedes sucks. But we've won without him before. Nobody has any clue what's up with Syndergaard. But, you know, maybe we can win the odd game anyway. Logan Verrett has a knack for winning games as a spot starter. Flores is hitting. Walker is hitting. Granderson is getting on base. We had a bad day yesterday. Bad days happen. I'll just ignore the fact that Scherzer is pitching tonight. Me, I feel better now. I feel better than James Brown. -TxHInkyNpg *There's no such thing. I just pulled that out of my butt.

Jeez. 14 guys left on base. Why can't this team hit with RISP?!?!? I shouldn't have to say this, but sarcasm content = 100

I'm spending the day doing volunteer work for my professional society in Las Vegas (which is a strange place to put a bunch of actuaries). I won't have time to update the KTE - if anyone knows of any updates, feel free to post them here. Gerrit Cole last pitched on June 10, so we'll probably see him this series.

Triple for Curtis! 2-3-4 hitters coming up, runner on third, 0 out. We gotta score here, right? Right???

cooby wrote: Why don't you like cervelli? Just wondering He just always seemed to be the yankiest of Yankees when he was here. He's probably no worse than most other jocks, but yankeeness breeds contempt.

Without checking too much, I think the Mets just happen to draw them when the A-lineup is particularly weakened. Here's the lineup we ran out there on May 24 last year: Granderson, RF Flores, SS Cuddyer, 1B Murphy, 2B Mayberry, LF Recker, C Ceciliani, RF Tejada, 3B Niese, P Nuff said? Even in August when a Céspedes-enhanced team was swept, it looks like Wright and Duda were out. And the Parnell experiment was still on (the 2015 incarnation doesn't qualify as "not too shabby") - he lost two of the three August games.

Akeel has been putting up awful numbers at Bingo. I saw him blow a save in Akron this season and, based on that small sample size, it looks like he's coming by the bad numbers honestly. So I'm thinking of this as only slightly higher risk than the Loney pickup - a little bit of upside and pretty near zero downside.

Yeah, I never did get around to researching old Pirates now on the Mets and Pirates who once sailed in Flushing Bay. The Mets' lone reformed Pirate, besides Neil Walker, is Antonio Bastardo. I have no memory of him being anything but a Phillie, but bbref tells me he played for Pittsburgh last year. Also, Terry started his baseball career in 1971 in the Pirate org.

Welcome to your Pittsburgh Pirates. They hit. They walk. They lead the league in OBP. Not many of those guys score once they get on base, as they’re not big in the power department once you get past Andrew McCutchen. And their pitching? Well, Jonathan Niese is the best starting pitcher we’ll be seeing on our brief trip to the Steel City. So… At first base, we have plucky John Jaso, former walk-on from a junior college in California. I vaguely recall this guy played for the Oakland A’s. Here’s how he got on his college team: "I ended up taking BP (batting practice), and they saw I swang left-handed, and it was 'Let's get this guy on the team.'" Yep, he swang left-handed. And now he’s swanging for the Pirates, often in the leadoff spot. A former catcher who runs like one, he’s not your typical leadoff guy. But the one thing he does well is get on base against righties (.372 this year). He suxx against lefties, so we may be seeing utility guy Sean Rodriguez at first tonight against Matz. At second base is third baseman Josh Harrison. Hits well, fields well, even at his new position. Not much else to say about him. I salute you, Josh Harrison, in solidarity with short, bearded guys everywhere. At shortstop, there’s Jordy Mercer. He gets on base a lot. I’m having a really hard time finding anything interesting to say about these guys and I’m on a deadline here. At third base is some guy who also gets on base a lot, I think. Yes, it’s Jung-Ho Kang, KBO phenom. He got Tejadaed in the knee last September and was out of commission until about a month ago, but he’s been playing pretty good ball since, with a home run in each of his last two games. Behind the plate is well-known douchebag Francisco Cervelli, who is also – wait for it – getting on base a lot (.366 OBP). He’s returning from being hit by a pitch Thursday. A breaking pitch. Feel free to comment on his toughness below. The outfield. Is it the best outfield in the majors this year, or is it the best outfield ever??? Neither, probably, though it’s not bad. Andrew McCutchen looked like he was starting to come around, but is 3 for his last 17 and hitting .250 for the season. Gregory Polanco is picking up the slack in right field; at .308/.391/.557, he’d probably be getting some All-Star votes if the Pirates drew any outside media attention (the Altoona Mirror doesn’t count). Starling Marte is the reigning Gold Glover in left and, yes, gets on base a lot (.370 this season). The pitching? You know about Jon Niese, who is on one of his occasional streaks where he starts to trick people into thinking he’s good. So let’s score a run against him early and watch him give Jordy Mercer his whiny face and then blow the game. Juan Nicasio is eh. Allegedly has great stuff, and Ray Searage thinks he can fix him. Still, eh. Francisco Liriano has had some flashes of greatness in his career, but on the whole hasn’t been very good at baseball since 2006, when he turned himself into Exhibit A on why teams keep close tabs on rookie pitchers’ pitch counts today. He was expected to be the #2 pitcher behind Gerrit Cole this year, but has an ERA of 5.25. Can bad hitting beat bad pitching? Let’s hope so. The bullpen is solid. Setup man Tony Watson has been giving up runs lately (at least one in each of his last three appearances) and small sample size lovers have been clamoring for Neftali Feliz, he of the 2.61 ERA in 20 2/3 innings. Yankee reject Mark Melancon has become possibly the best closer in the majors without anyone noticing. This year, 1.93 ERA, 17 saves