Frayed Knot

So it turns out that, even after missing most of two complete seasons, ARod is a much better 40 y/o player than Jeter as well. .278/.384/.505 vs .256/.304/.313

Is there anybody on the entire planet who didn't see that coming?

Pulling deGrom NOW? Really? And today's game continues the recent trend: Plays. Not. Made.

deGrom, plus Tejada and Cuddyer (2 hits each) are, but almost no one else. That's their 2nd run since early on Tuesday.

Edgy MD wrote: Wisler's mother is expected to be in attendance. I think the mic's broken. Or maybe the joke was already used earlier in the day in the Braves thread.

And it's not just that wholesale votes are allowed, but we're now three or four years into the era where teams are openly encouraging (instructing?) their fans to vote the straight party line. Even those clubs who did so in years past were somewhat subtle about it, but now you simply log onto 'VoteRoyals.com' or whatever and -- Surprise, Surprise -- votes tend to go for the home team. You made this bed MLB, deal with it.

Edgy MD wrote: Mets have six of the first nine draftees signed. Unfortunately, the missing three are the first three. Interesting is that some of them took seriously lowball offers � lowball, at least, compared to the recommended slot amount. I don't know what that all means, and I don't really want to know, as the whole system stinks, but maybe it means they're stockpiling money to go over slot with somebody who slid down based on assumptions of college commitments. Pure speculation, that. RoundPlayerSignedBonusSlot AmountDifferenceTwoDesmond Lindsay, OFJun 19$1,142,700$1,142,700ThreeMax Wotell, LHPJun 19$775,000$666,500FourDavid Thompson, 3b$474,800FiveThomas Szapucki, LHP9-Jun$375,000$355,500+$19,500SixChase Ingram, RHP11-Jun$195,000$266,200-$71,200SevenCorey Taylor, RHP13-Jun$20,000$199,500-$179,500EightPatric Mazeika, c13-Jun$125,000$171,900-$46,900NineKevin Kaczmarski13-Jun$5,000$160,700-$155,700TenWitt Haggard13-Jun$5,000$150,000-$145,000 Lindsay & Wotell sign, Lindsay for right at 'slot' money, Wotell for somewhat above. Story

Harvey - 5.0 Parnell - 0.5 Lagares - 1.3 Ceciliani - 1.0 Flores - 1.2 Tejada - 1.0

Syndergaard - 3.4 Duda - 1.5 Lagares - 1.5 Tajada - 1.5 Herrera - 0.8 Leathersich - 0.5 CTorres - 0.5 Robles - 0.3

Alvarez was counted last year.

duan wrote: So is there anyone on the current 40 man roster who hasn't been counted yet? Gabriel Ynoa - 22 y/o RHP currently in Binghamton Steven Matz - 24 y/o LHP who's due for a call up any day now, or not until next year, or anytime in between Cesar Puello (OF) - although he's currently accruing ML service time while on the 60-day DL

As the Braves continue to re-make themselves on the fly, we'll be seeing two new pitchers this weekend. Note the ever changing start times. Friday; 7:35 -- deGrom vs Matt Wisler. Wisler (but not his mother) was part of the booty the Braves received in their pre-opening day deal for Craig Kimbrel and he'll be making his ML debut tonight. A 7th round pick out of HS by SD in 2011, he got some recognition and onto some top prospects lists as he pitched well through the lower minors. His recent numbers in AAA haven't been all that good (5.01 ERA for El Paso in 2014, 4.29 this year for the AAA Braves) but the scouts still seem to like him as a solid future starter. He's replacing Mike Foltynewicz whose butt we kicked back to the minors last week. Stuff about Wisler Saturday, 7:10 -- Syndergaard vs Williams Perez. A 24 y/o RH rookie out of Venezuela who's made 6 starts and 9 total appearances this year. We actually saw him in relief last weekend when he wound up with the save in the one Atlanta win although only by dancing around trouble after giving up consecutive leadoff hits when Mayberry lined into a DP w/Ceciliani getting trapped off 2nd. He's pitched well though in 5 of his 6 starts and is 3-0. Sunday; 5:05 -- Harvey vs the suddenly shaky Julio Teheran. Teheran hasn't had a good start since mid-May and has been flat-out bombed several times recently which has raised his season's ERA to 5.07. He's 1-1 in 2 starts vs Mets this season and 4-3 in 9 starts over his career. Other than that, the same cast of characters we saw last time with a few minor bench changes. Chosen catcher Christian Betancourt has been demoted in favor of former BoSox backup Ryan Lavarnway but we'll probably see a steady diet of AJ Pierzynski anyway. And speedy/slappy Eury Perez (briefly played with both Nats & Yanx) was called up to essentially fill the EY Jr role of being the speedy/slappy CF.

Many of us would have been satisfied with a split coming into this series against the best scoring team in baseball on a hot streak. But after winning the first two and scoring a grand total of 8 runs in 38 innings (including just one run over the final 24 innings) a split suddenly doesn't look all that good. Typical Jays series in a lot of ways though, they lose close and they win blow-outs. On to Atlanta

No Geddy Lee sightings in any of the boxes behind the plate. Maybe they're on tour now.

That banner three posts up is already out of date.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Your heroes have put, like, three balls in play this evening through four innings. After sneaking out that first game then jumping out to a 3-0 lead in Game 2, I got worried that they missed several chances to add onto their lead. Well not only did they NOT tack on any runs then but they haven't scored since while being out-scored 17-zip. Other than that, things are going just fine.

seawolf17 wrote: MFS62 wrote: And maybe the first time two 40-somethings with last names of body parts have started against each other. Later That made me laugh out loud in public. Wasn't it one of those guys from Duck Dynasty who suggested that Dickey and Colon should never go against each other?

Except that Phillips initially rejected it based on the idea that Hundley was due back at some point and therefore the price it would take to get Piazza would be better off spent in some other way. Now maybe that was just public posturing in SP's part but at some point Doubleday suggested/demanded to Phillips that he was worth pursuing and which point Russo & Francesa went on a days-long campaign to get momentum behind the idea. Or it was M&MD who started the whole thing which in turn prompted Nelson to go to Phillips. Since no one version is the known truth, fans were free to choose their own genesis of the idea and to what degree -- a suggestion or an order -- Doubleday was involved.

Thole's in the minors right now (AAA Buffalo) as he has been off and on since the trade.

Edgy MD wrote: R.A. Dickey. There's a guy with a body part for a last name. "That's disgusting" -- Bobby Cox

METS RELEASE BALDING PITCHER Clearly team management is just a bunch of hair-ists.

I dunno. Did Bill Hands ever pitch against Elroy Face?

And, now, my [crossout:3n01c9pp]watch[/crossout:3n01c9pp] IGT streak has ended. I think this is the point where you all set me on fire.

Good piece (as usual) by Marty. Lefty Specialist wrote: My wife worked for Doubleday Dell Publishing back before it was sold to Bertelsmann. Nelson was a man who, to put it politely, liked his drink. He wasn't exactly dedicated to the publishing business, and the Mets were like a toy to him. He got completely outmaneuvered by Wilpon for control of the team, and he resented it bitterly. He was a bit of a dilettante and wasn't accustomed to dealing with sharks. That's the impression I always got too, including from someone I knew who worked for the team during the later years of NDD's ownership; that he was only a casual baseball fan and owning a team to him was akin to a rich man's toy that he'd eventually tire of and sell. None of which made him a bad person, just that I always pushed back against some of what I considered to be revisionist history, which somewhat understandably popped up as the Wilpon brand wore down, that had him him as the driving force behind the NYM good years and if only he'd never left those times would have never ended. Noble mentions the Piazza FA resigning but it was the trade that brought Mike to NYC which is often cited by the Doubleday-ians as proof of his hands-on, midas touch management style even though, by Nelson's own admission if IIRC, his role in the deal was nothing more than a suggestion to Phillips that he look into it following Phillips' initial statement that the Mets weren't going to pursue Piazza on account of already having Hundley under contract and rehabbing an injury and so the resources it would take to land someone like Piazza would best be spent elsewhere.

Nats down 5-0 in the rain in DC. Steven Sousa Jr, who was the guy who made the catch to seal Jordan Zimmermann's no-hitter on the final day of the season last year and later was dealt away over the winter, HR'd off Zimmermann and later bunted a 2-R HR (courtesy of 2 Nat errors). Neither error was Desmond's although he did commit another one earlier in the game (on a potential DP). What a train wreck of a season he's having. Marlins just had a run taken off the board via a replay review (one of those 50/50 calls) - so it remains 2-1 Yanx in the 8th.