Frayed Knot

If nothing else, this was a great looking film. Not sure that I enjoy movies pouring out all that emotional baggage.

Staub is one, and one of the ones with a NYM connection (his post-40 HRs were as a Met). Mays made his ML debut 3 weeks after turning 20 and so did not HR as a teenager in the majors. Kiner's career was cut short by back injuries so he barely made it into his 30s (retired at age 32).

A write-up of Meisner from John Sickels' site (although not by Sickels): http://www.minorleagueball.com/2015/7/27/9052001/the-oakland-as-rebuild-continues-with-casey-meisner From the outside looking in, it may seem like the Oakland As could have gotten more than a 20-year old right hander who has yet to throw a pitch in Double-A. Don�t be fooled, Meisner has the goods to succeed and make it to the big leagues. It just won�t be any time soon. Meisner was selected in the third round of the 2013 draft. He put together a nice season with the Brooklyn Cyclones in 2014 going 5-3 over 13 starts while posting a 3.75 ERA and striking out 67 in 62.1 innings. He finished the year with a WHIP a tad bit higher than desired at 1.36 but that didn�t seem to concern the Mets. Meisner was amid a solid 2015 before being traded Monday evening. He sat at 10-4 over 18 combined Sally and FSL starts, with a 2.35 ERA and a 1.14 WHIP. He has somewhat struggled with command since being promoted to St. Lucie, posting the highest walk rate (3.60 per nine) of his young career. He has also posted his worst strikeout per nine rate thus far in the minors at 5.91. Despite receiving a C+ from John Sickels heading into 2015 [an above average grade], Meisner was still considered a top 20 prospect in the Mets system. He also came into the season with serious sleeper potential. Part of the reason is his age and frame. At 20 years of age, Meisner has time to grow into his massive 6 foot 7, 190 pound frame and add some heat to his fastball and the rest of his arsenal. Meisner entered the league with a fastball that regularly sat in the high 80s and since his first season, has already added a few ticks to his velocity. His fastball now tops out around 94 mph, and he throws in the low 90s consistently. His curve � which looks a bit more like a slider � has improved dramatically since his debut year and has become a useful secondary pitch, though as Meisner grows, so should the accuracy of the pitch. His changeup still needs some work in the consistency department, but Meisner is still a project and won�t be asked to fill any rotation spots in Oakland anytime soon. As with most tall, lanky, young pitchers, Meisner is still working with consistencies in his delivery. The improvement he has shown since entering the Mets system is certainly trending in the right direction and he should find that repeated motion and be an able strike thrower. It seems that he also may have to learn how to pitch around hitters as opposed to simply pitching to them. This adjustment may be a factor as to why he has seen an increased number of walks per outing. It�s quite possible that he isn�t necessarily more "wild", but instead learning the ins and outs of the strike zone. While Meisner�s past few starts have shown some concern, it is important to keep in mind that the young righty has thrown a significant amount of innings more than he has in his first two professional seasons COMBINED. A combination of being at a higher level as well as his first full season has certainly shown his weaknesses, but by no means does it mean that he is any less the pitcher that he was at the start of 2015.

Alex Rodriguez HR'd tonight which, seeing as how it comes on his 40th birthday, makes him the 4th major leaguer to homer in his teens, 20s, 30s, and 40s. Can you name the other three? (two of which have NYM connections)

Could we eventually get burned by this? ... Sure. But the odds say that we won't, and if you operate with the attitude that you should never make a move you may regret in the future then you're never going to get anywhere. With the super slim margin of error that our staff is operating on, one extra reliever could make a lot of difference. And it would be one thing if Vic Black wasn't sucking, or Montero were healthy, or Parnell had more of a post-surgery track record under his belt, pr if Mejia wasn't an idiot, or if Leathersich had flourished, or if Blevins & Edgin not gone down, etc. ... but those things didn't go our way this year so we are where we are.

Shane Victorino from BoSox to Angels

Clippard will join the team just in time for the upcoming Nats series.

Clippard's annoying in that he slows down the pace of the game the second he comes in. That said he's good a lot more often than not and he could slide in just about anywhere in the pen, including closer if needed.

seawolf17 wrote: Edgy MD wrote: Finnegan struck me as purty good. But they've used him only out of the pen. I've been playing OOTP16; in June 2015, I traded Daniel Murphy to the Royals for Finnegan straight up. Murphy played out the string in KC, then signed a two-year deal in LA, followed by a one-year deal in MIN. He went 8-for-41 as a Twin, got hurt, and retired. It's 2021; Finnegan has been an ace lefty out of my pen, even finishing third in the 2020 Cy Young race as a middle reliever. I just signed him to a three-year, $26M extension. So what you're saying is that Finnegan left Murphy in his wake?

Mets � Willets Point wrote: I'm surprised there aren't more Mets on this list, but I don't really pay attention to the rest of the league. Well the original list was just one I made up so others can certainly be added or subtracted. That crew I came up with just seemed like the most likely candidates at this point in the season (while acknowledging that more than 1/3 of the season remains) and I think it's clear that deGrom has been the best hurler to date from our side. And with CY ballots allowing just five names (used to be only 3) usually only a half-dozen guys get meaningful votes anyway as most of the ballots list pretty much the same names in varying orders.

It's far too early to start dissecting this year's CY Award ... but it's an off-day so I'm going to do it anyway. PITCHERTEAMSTARTS--IP--- W/L ---ERA---WHIP--K/9--BB/9-GERRITT COLE PIRATES2013214 - 62.241.088.81.9JACOB deGROM METS1912710 - 62.050.889.01.6MAX SCHERZERNATIONALS2014310 - 82.330.8310.41.0ZACH GREINKE DODGERS201389 - 21.370.837.81.6 CLAYTON KERSHAW DODGERS201408 - 62.510.9411.91.7MADISON BUMGARNERGIANTS2013111 - 53.161.109.01.8SHELBY MILLERBRAVES201275 - 72.271.137.62.9CARLOS MARTINEZCARDINALS1811911 - 42.341.239.13.6JOHNNY CUETOREDS191317 - 62.620.938.32.0 Probably have to give the edge right now to Greinke with that absurd ERA (which got a touch higher yesterday - heh, heh, heh) and the just-ended streak. And shirley Gerritt Cole will get support by having the best record (plus some pretty durn good peripherals himself). But our boy should be right in the mix along with those two plus Scherzer & Martinez. Kershaw and Bumgarner have the biggest names though are slightly off their top forms this season while Shelby Miller is going to have to overcome a losing record and Cueto just got shipped to the AL which takes him out of the running.

Ashie62 wrote: SN Nation, not sure who they are, has Wheeler going for Cespedes or Bruce. Sounds like SN stands for 'Speculation Nation' to me. Actually 'Sports Nation' is an umbrella grouping for all kinds of sites so that "info" can be anything from sourced rumors to fan-boi blabbering. Regardless of which, dealing Wheeler now would be all kinds of problematic. He won't pitch in the big leagues for nearly another year still so it's both tough to figure teams giving up too much to get him and it would be an ultimate 'sell low' situation for the Mets. He may ultimately be traded, I just don't think it's going to be now.

The unofficial/official birthday of the CPF was Nov 1st, 2001 It technically existed for a few months prior to that but more as a mental respite from the increasingly strident MoFo site rather than as a place to discuss NYM baseball. But in the madness following the 9/11 attacks and some of the ugliness that ensued, and then during that year's delayed World Series and the ultimate dethroning of the Yanx in that series, those taking respites here realized that the folks you wanted to discuss these topics with were the other ones seeking solace here too.

Smoltz made a nice plea for young players (and parents of young players) not to push themselves into playing year-round: 'Major surgery shouldn't be the norm for 15 year-olds'.

Chad Ochoseis wrote: _ U-RBI!!!!![/bigpurple] And we have a winner in the 'Guess the NYC Tabloid headline for tomorrow' contest.

SANDY'S A GENIUS!!!!

43 Ks vs 3 walks in just 20-some innings for Jansen. WOW!!

Note to Terry: WE SUCK AT BUNTING!!!!!

SWING AWAY!!! Ruben's the best singles hitter on the team at this point.

And there's part of the price of the double-switch that removed Puig.

Three LHPs was the price for Cueto: Brandon Finnegan (who pitched part of last year and this w/KC), plus minor leaguers John Lamb (a 24 y/o who was 9-1, 2.67 at AAA Omaha) and Cody Reed (22 y/o, recently promoted to AA).

Don't have stats to back this up, but it seems that sac bunts against us succeed at about a 90% clip while our bunting is more like 10% successful vs 90% un-. And it looks like those trends are going to cost us the game today.

Van Slyke in for Puig weakens the Dodgers OF defense and takes maybe the best arm in the league out of the game.

3-1 Final in Pittsburgh - Pirates win. Need this one to close the gap.

PH Lagares for Nieuwenhuis vs the LHP?