Chad ochoseis

I'm starting to warm to this idea of batting Reyes leadoff.

themetfairy wrote: But it was fun hanging with Chad for the evening and watching a potential star of tomorrow. It sure beat watching Ollie on TV.... See that? Hanging with me is more fun than watching Ollie pitch. You heard it here first. A good time was had by all.

I saw your boy down in Trenton tonight at a very mini-CPF gathering (metfairy, D-Dad, MK, and me). He had the sad, forlorn look of someone whose adopted father hadn't given him a thought in close to a year. This didn't stop him from striking out eight of the MFY's AA finest in six innings. He gave up a solid triple, but no other hits and no walks. Not much even left thie infield. An amazing performance, though the B-Mets bully blew the game in the seventh.

Rob Neyer wrote: The rise of free-swingers helps because strikeouts mean fewer balls in play and thus fewer possible hits and errors Not fewer balls in play, I wouldn't think - some of those free swingers are going to manage to connect on a bad pitch. I'd go with many more strikeouts and a few more balls in play, at the cost of fewer walks. That could explain the increase in perfect games relative to all no-hitters. Still, though, small sample size, as Neyer implies with his "fair amount of chance" comment.

With Reyes not hitting and Bay probably capable of getting the run in from third, I was OK with the bunt strategy in this case. The execution, different story.

Reyes agrees, apparently.

Two base error, or single plus error? It looked like he would have been safe on first either way.

So, Gary and Keith do the usual game-opening rag on the Marlins' awful defense and, like clockwork, Chris Coughlin makes a diving, hit-saving catch to start the game.

Jeez, Ashie - hope everything's OK.

It looks like Dan Uggla is getting a blow this evening. Your #2 hitter, according to Gameday, is second baseman Brian Barden. Young Barden actually isn't that young; he was a 28-year-old rookie last year. This year, he's 3 for 10. He has a steamin' OPS of 1.333 for May, but that's in 3 at bats. So, doing the math and assuming that no pitcher in his right mind would walk this guy, that means he's probably doubled twice this month. According to the Palm Beach Post, he spent his offseason working with a sports psychologist in Scottsdale, Ariz., who gave him various exercises to help clear his head of all the negative thoughts that result from his struggles with professional baseball. Fredi Gonzalez says he's a good baseball guy who can handle the bat, had a pretty good spring training offensively, and is a solid defender. In other words, this guy is a marginal major leaguer. Look for 3 for 5, with four RBIs tonight.

Does Gaby Sanchez qualify for the "Guys with Girly Names" thread?

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. - Carlos Beltran finally is running again, and with the strides he made Wednesday - both literally and figuratively - the All-Star centerfielder is hopeful that he ultimately can avoid microfracture surgery and rejoin the Mets before too long. Beltran, wearing a brace on his right knee, ran four loops along the warning track, starting in the rightfield corner and finishing at home plate. He only began the running program on Monday, but by the fourth lap, Beltran had increased the pace from jogging to longer, more purposeful strides. Beltran believes he could be sprinting by the end of next week, which would lead to running the bases soon after. But for now, he's pleased to be running without pain - especially after he could not last for a minute on a treadmill only three weeks earlier during a checkup at the Steadman-Hawkins Clinic in Colorado. "Thank God there's no pain," Beltran said at the Mets' minor-league complex. "It's a learning process for me to start running again, so right now I'm thinking about how to make it perfect. Today was the first day I ran and didn't have to think about it. I was happy with today. Today was a pretty good day." Otherwise, Beltran says he is in great shape and has dropped 10 pounds since the start of spring training. He took batting practice off a machine Wednesdayon Field 4 and easily smacked balls over the fence from both sides of the plate. When an instructor told Beltran to treat the final 20 swings as game situations, he went 10-for-10 with seven home runs from the right side. After switching to the left, Beltran went 7-for-10 with five homers, and two caromed off the roof of a utility shed well beyond the rightfield fence. "Hitting I feel fine," Beltran said. "I'm in the greatest shape of my career because I've never worked as hard as I have during this rehab. I'm just looking forward to getting out of here, man. I want to be with the boys. I know they're fighting and they're playing better baseball. I believe with me being on the team, I can help." Beltran revealed that he was given the option of having microfracture surgery this winter, but chose the arthroscopic procedure to "clean out" his right knee instead. Beltran said that microfracture surgery requires a nine-month rehab process before beginning baseball activity and that would have wiped out the entire 2010 season. "They told me, we want to try everything before that," Beltran said. "Before that we're going to try everything from A to Z, different things that we believe can help you. It's been a slow, slow progress, but it's been progress, that's what I'm happy about." Beltran also said the doctors in Colorado determined that his left leg was longer than his right and gave him orthotics to help align his knees. The knee brace is helpful now during rehab, but Beltran hopes to shed it once he's ready to play again. "Right now, it's hard for me to set a date because I'm not doing a lot yet," Beltran said. "It's encouraging because I don't feel the pain. Once I start running the bases, I think I will have a better time frame to when I can be helping the team."

I'm in. Just me. Friday's forecast is for scattered thunderstorms.

The Nats believe that the second coming of Jesus is imminent. So I think they're only interested in short-term solutions at catcher.

A chance to hang with the B-Mets and the metfairies is definitely worth a trip halfway across the state. I'll try to figure out what's going on with my weekend and let you know. I may even bring my Yankee-lovin' girlfriend, as a warmup for the big Met-Yankee night out in two weeks. Does the park usually sell out when the B-Mets are in town?

oh, yeah...about my sig line - just ignore that for now.

HELL YEAH!

Indeed. There's a definite mix of "don't act like a douche" and "don't play the game the way it should be played" in the mix of these rules. "Don't act like a douche" is fine. But being up/down by eight runs is no excuse to quit playing the game. Centerfield wrote: Also, not stealing bases when your team is up by a lot. I think it was Preston Wilson who got reamed in the press by an opposing manager (Felipe Alou, maybe?) for stealing late in a game when the Rockies were up by five runs in pre-humidor Coors Field. That always bugged me. First, why not steal a base if you can? Second, a five run lead in Coors Field isn't exactly safe.

Andy Messersmith Bruce Dal Canton

Seeing "In Play, run(s)" on Gameday makes me happy. Now, what happened?

My sympathies to those of you who aren't at work and are actually watching this fiasco.

LET'S

Congratulations, Wolf! Link to the contest? Strat-O-Matic was launched in 1961 by Bucknell University mathematics student Hal Richman How have I managed to spend the past 24 years of my life as an alum of Bucknell's math department without knowing this? 'Ray Bucknell, 'ray Bucknell 'Ray for the orange and the blue 'Ray, 'ray, 'ray, 'ray 'Ray for the orange and the blue!