Frayed Knot

#7 on this week's 'BA Hot List' 7. Michael Conforto, lf, Mets Team: Double-A Binghamton (Eastern) Age: 22 Why He’s Here: .400/.538/.700 (8-for-20), 7 R, 3 2B, 1 HR, 4 RBIs, 6 BB, 5 SO, 1-for-1 SB The Scoop: The jump to the Eastern League has done nothing to slow down Conforto, who has hit safely in 9 of his first 11 games, and he’s also finding it easier to hit for power—he had four extra-base hits this week—now that he’s left the stifling humidity of the Florida State League.

Holy Shit, what a nightmare game for Markakis!!

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Also props to Ceciliani who's becoming the LH bench hitter we've been needing. Already more hits than Nieuwenhuis (7 to 3) in fewer ABs. Almost certainly won't give us the same power potential as Kirk, but that's OK.

We really don't want this game to get to Freddie.

d'Kong76 wrote: I thought he was a big Cubs fan. OE: Maybe I'm remembering he got interested in baseball because the Cubs were on TV a lot in the afternoons. I heard Curtis Granderson in an interview a few days ago saying that he was NOT a Cubs fan even though he grew up in Chicago because he'd get pissed off when WGN was broadcasting afternoon games when he got home from school and 'Saved by the Bell' got pre-empted. So he became a Braves fan instead. Maybe that explains the 3 Ks tonight.

A Toronto boy born and raised. And, trust me on this one, if there's highlight film from a Jays game, brother C doesn't miss it if it includes shots of Geddy

Gwreck wrote: In other news, Milwaukee is putting a hurting on the Nationals tonight. 7-2 in the 5th. And while lately it's been their bullpen that's gotten them into trouble, this makes it two bad games in a row for Jordan Zimmermannnnn who, aside from Scherzer, had been their best starter this year.

I like Dilson's actions around 2nd base. If that boy can hit even decently at this level he's got a shot to be a valuable commodity.

Geddy Lee, btw, huge Blue Jays fan. You can often see him on camera in seats behind the plate during home games.

In your Torres scorebook tonight: C > A

We gotta stop allowing these players to have sex during the off-season. Is there no discipline anymore!?!?

d'Kong76 wrote: Peterson 2B Maybin CF Freeman 1B Markakis RF Urine 3B Pierzynski C Gomes LF Simmons SS Wood P Leaky defense at 3B?

So Syndergaard gets bumped to Monday and the highest scoring team in all of baseball (by [u:1l1dsydi]50 runs[/u:1l1dsydi] over the NYY of all teams in 2nd). Better him than Gee I suppose. Syndy and Harvey get to bat in their games while Niese & Colon get DH'd for in the back half of the home-and-home. I'd like to think the catching situation will be straightened out by then -- most likely with Plawecki either DL'ing or AAA'ing it -- and another bat brought up which almost has to be an IFer. Murphy's at least a week away meaning someone (Muno most likely) is going to get a short term boost in salary and meal money and then go right back down. Of course Tejada will be back by then so who knows after that.

Sew What Snoo with the Braves since we last saw them in late April? 29-31 overall, 15-13 in May, 4-6 in June - traded for Juan Uribe, sending away P Eric Stults and IF Alberto Callaspo to the Dodgers. Uribe is playing most of the 3B these days as Chris Johnson gets increasingly buried on the bench - sent EY Jr to AAA, also RF Joey Terdoslovich - brought up switch-hitting OF Todd Cunningham. The 26 y/o rookie (got a few ABs in 2013) has been splitting LF time with that hairy handed (and heavily tatted) gent Jonny Gomes - Christian Betancourt is taking more and more playing time away from AJ Pierzynski - Called up starter Mike Foltynwicz, a 23 y/o RHP who pitched part-time in relief for Houston last year, and also rookie Williams Perez a 24 y/o Venezuelan - and pretty much are remaking their entire bullpen on the fly. In are several ex-Mets like Dana Eveland & David Aardsma. Other than that, Grilli's still closing, Luis Avilan is their main LHP, while rookie Brandon Cuniff and former Orioles closer Jim Johnson get the bulk of the RH relief innings. Looks like we'll see lefty Alex Wood [4-3, 3.36, 1.43] tonight vs Colon; Shelby Miller who's clearly their best pitcher [5-2, [u:5rdgjf51]1.84[/u:5rdgjf51], 0.98] on Saturday against deGrom (4:10 game) and Foltynwicz [3-2, 4.72, 1.49] on Sunday vs Syndergaard.

Edgy MD wrote: BEAT THE BEARD!! Romo looks like Carmen Ghia from THE PRODUCERS with that chin sculpture. Nats/Brewers tied 5-5,7th After the Nats had a 5-1 lead.

So that's two more unearned runs against Niese's ledger, giving him 11 of the 24 UER that the Mets have given up this year - or nearly half in approx 13% of the innings pitched.

Now isn't that better than a bunt Juan? ... or Terry?

John Sickels' thumbnail review: NEW YORK METS 2-53) Desmond Lindsay, OF, Florida HS 3-88) Max Wotell, LHP, North Carolina HS 4-119) David Thompson, 3B, University of Miami-FL 5-149) Thomas Szapucki, LHP, Florida HS COMMENT: Like the other New York team, the Mets draft brought some ???? reactions from fans. Lindsay is tooled up like few preps and has excellent bat speed with power potential, but missed much of the spring with a significant hamstring injury. He could be a nice value here but reports are mixed on how polished he may or may not be. Wotell is projectable in the low 90s and should be signable away from the University of Arizona this high. Fourth round pick David Thompson, in my view, could be one of the steals of the draft. He has outstanding power and pure hitting skills to match, but his college career was slowed by serious shoulder problems. He may wind up at first base but he could also become one of the best hitters in the entire 2015 class. If that happens no one will care about the glove. Szapucki can hit the mid-90s but needs some polish with the secondary pitches. Late round picks of interest include Kevin Kaczmarski out of Evansville, OF, ninth round, who is an older prospect with an excellent hitting track record. I don�t know if 17th round LHP Sixto Torres is signable that low, but he�s a big kid with substantial arm strength and sleeper potential if they can sign him.

SFG lefty hitters vs LHPs Nori Aoki = .351/.439/.386 Joe Panik: .356/.434/.489 Brandon Crawford = [u:33i4hx46].429/.489/.690[/u:33i4hx46] and that was coming into this game, those numbers have only gone up today. Only Belt has bad numbers vs LHPs which explains why he's sitting tonight.

Lincecum 1/3 of the way to his no-hitter.

Not that we're not getting our asses kicked in every other aspect of this series, but that's gotta be at least the 8th or 9th infield hit of the series for the Giants.

What do you suppose the ratio of successful bunts - both sacrifice and for hits - is for and against in Mets games this season? About 90 to 5 or something like that?

It's obvious that Megdal has developed contacts within the organization who are privvy to top-level information. This was apparent at least since the days after the Madoff scandal broke, when the Mets were shopping shares of the team to interested investors. And in an organization as dysfunctional as the Mets, struggling with enormous economic pressures, it's not so far-fetched that there would be disgruntled employees, working under difficult conditions, perhaps unfairly pressured or blamed for the Mets failing, who would want to leak that info. Granted, you have to take a leap of faith to credit an article based entirely on off the record sources, but the thing is plausible. And consistent with what you can see with your own two eyes. But he's not even using off the record or anonymous sources. He usual move, including the one he uses here, is to cite stuff he finds in the articles of others which either doesn't say or doesn't prove what it claims it does and builds a new article around it as if he's discovered heretofore unreleased photographs from the grassy knoll. And then he throws in statements about Sandy being turned down for multiple player acquisitions with absolutely no proof, no backing, and no examples. If this is actually news then he didn't get the story (as Ben Bradlee would say), and if it's speculation then he shouldn't be passing it off pretending it isn't. And all for the point of what - that the Mets finances have been problematic since the Madoff scandal? Gee thanks Ace. All this doesn't make the topic unworthy of discussion, but it does make it shitty journalism. This sports story has been underreported, especially in proportion to its magnitude and its locale. And especially given the strong similarites with baseball's ouster of McCourt. I'm still amazed at how first Selig, and now Manfred, can sweep this under the rug with nothing more than the dog ate my homework juvenille logic, while escaping the scrutiny of the media. There's scarcely been an article written, or commentary about, the Mets for the last, what is it - 6 or 7 years now, that doesn't mention, if not dwell on, their financial situation and how it affects the team on the field.

Ryan Zimmerman to the DL. Plantar Fasciiitis

Forget the Kernan stuff. The quote from Sandy was telling: "Was 2014 always a target year? Yeah. It should be an important year for us." Sure it was. So was 2013, and 2015, as will be 2016. "Well, he missed on that. That's worthy of discussion." -- Discuss away. Just don't start twisting offhand statements by who-knows-who into evidence that 2015 has already been written off. "So is discussion of the Mets' failure to get sufficent offense. It's not second-guessing to point out now that the Mets are offensively starved when it was clear that they were short on offense following what was done to the team in the offseason." -- But did these things happen because Sandy got turned down for players? He claims it's happened "many times" but offers neither the source of that statement nor an idea of which players, when, or how often. "I'm sure that the Mets' financial picture is more complicated than pointed out in this or any other Megdal article but the results still speak volumes. I agree with TransMonk. I don't really care if Megdal's articles are a "one-trick pony;" there's still a valid point being made. -- The problem is he's laying out questionable and/or unsubstantiated claims and then using them as the foundation for the rest of the piece. He's certainly free to bring up the topic but all he does is say the same things over and over again whenever he finds a new line in someone else's column to serve as a launching pad. Old stories but with no new info.