Frayed Knot

See I thought I've heard that Terry isn't comfortable with him at 3rd. Wasn't aware that Cuddyer himself ever said so. Hell, he came up as a 3B and started over 150 games there in his ML career including 3 just last year.

Nats, desperate for middle relief help, deal a middle infielder -- 24 y/o Tony Renda -- to the Yanx for the recently DFA'd David Carpenter. The Yanx had traded for Carpenter over the winter but couldn't find a spot for him despite the fact that they too have had problems with getting to their end of game guys. Also from the recently completed Yanx/Nats mini-series: in the midst of his 4th season and 415th game in the majors, Bryce Harper for the first time on Wednesday faced a pitcher younger than him when he batted in the 8th inning against Jacob Lindgren. Lindgren was the Yanx 2nd round draft pick just a year ago and is younger than Harper by 7 months. Harper flied out to LF.

So still no backup infielder - at least in the short term. They (GKR) were talking last night about Recker in an emergency although I don't understand why Cuddyer isn't an option. Hell, when Wright went down I wanted him as the first option (both because he's played it before and also in an effort to get Nieuwenberry some semi-regular work) but apparently the powers at be think that ship has sailed even in a pickle.

He starts off by citing, in quotes no less, Kernan's line from a column last week about the team targeting 2016 as the real year for contention, something Kernan never backed up or indicated where it came from, or qualified whether it was an assumption, an opinion, a flat-out statement, or something voiced (even anonymously) from within. But Medgel goes ahead and runs with it as if now a universally agreed upon fact then adds that "Sandy Alderson has been turned down many times when asking for funds to go get a player". Really? When did that happen (and apparently happen again, and again, and again ... )? You'd think THAT would make news if and when it occurred or when it became public knowledge but, even though I don't claim to read every press released, I never heard anything resembling that to the point where I've more often heard exactly the opposite even if I dismiss such stuff as more akin to public relations that stated policy.

Tough to bet on a 40 y/o (next month) coming off several hip surgeries and without his favorite drugs (at least theoretically) who's logged less than 200 ABs since the end of 2012. Arguments could be made that Teixeira has been at least as valuable (he at least plays the field), same with Ellsbury until his injury, but I'm sure ARod wouldn't have been the top choice among YLDBs. He hadn't turned in OBA numbers like this since 2009, and if he notches 30 HRs that will be a first since '08

Saw yesterday where ABs against Harvey feature the highest pct of 1st-pitch swings - some 41% IIRC. Not sure how any of this fits into a couple of poor games in a row (probably doesn't at all) but it's not something I would have guessed.

Career to date WAR of the top 5 draft picks in 2008: 0.0 + 4.9 + 7.1 + 2.4 = 14.4 < Posey's 25.4

Doing it with an entirely home-grown infield Buster Posey - 5th overall draft pick by the Giants in 2008, behind Tim Beckham (TBR), Pedro Alvarez (Pitt), Eric Hosmer (KCR), and Brian Matusz (Balt) Brandon Belt - 5th round draft pick 2009 Joe Panik - 1st round (29th overall) in 2011 (one selection after Sean Gilmartin by the Braves) Brandon Crawford - 4th round 2008 Matt Duffy - 18th round 2012 and selected OFs who went through several other teams before blossoming by in the city by the bay Aoki - FA from Milwaukee and Japan who has suddenly upped his BA. OBA, and SLG 50 points each in a pitchers' park. Pagan - Mets and Cubs and of course Hunter Pence. [u:jbiqug51]HE[/u:jbiqug51] was the guy the Phils opted NOT to sign and keep?!?!? What, not old enough for them?!? Originally w/Houston All the starters except for Hudson and the DL'd Peavy are SFG drafts, as is closer/set-up Sergio Romo and the currently DL'd Matt Cain And when they have had clunker seasons in the last decade or so that resulted in Top-10 draft picks, they didn't miss on them: Lincecum (10th in 2006), Bumgarner (10th 2007), Posey (5th - 2008) and the only one they let get away, Zack Wheeler (6th in 2009)

Flores - 1.6 Granderson - 1.0 Lagares - 1.2 d'Arnaud - 0.7 Campbell - 0.5 Gilmartin - 0.5 CTorres - 0.3 ATorres - 0.2

And to think, we're seeing these guys and missing both Pence & Bumgarner. So, like I said, pretty damn good. Of course I also said, one no-hitter from a fill-in fifth starter ago, that their pitching was nothing special. Of special note, Sydergaard and Harvey faced a combined 55 hitters and struck out a grand total of four of them. Shyeeeeet, the Mets had two separate three-K innings. And while this could partially be explained (as Ronnie did during one of the games) that the Gints are a cut down on the swing and put the bat on the ball kind of team (as opposed to the Padres where Syndergaard K'd 10 and got bombed anyway) SF also managed to eke out five HRs among their 27 hits over two games, several of them on 2-strike counts. Now all we have to do is get to Lincecum while praying that Niese doesn't shit the bed. Nats head to Milwaukee for a four game series starting tonight. Braves have a noon-er vs the Pads which they may try to rush through on account of being overly anxious to get on a plane and get a crack at our suddenly generous pitching staff.

Well this game may be boring and sucky, but at least it's only going to take four hours or so.

Well, the Giants sure did switch up from getting infield hits. And now Aoki gets his 17th hit of the series so far. And, unlike NYM leadoff doubles, I'm betting the Giants are going to figure out a way to bring him in.

What's that now, 14 infield hits or 15 for the Giants over the last two games? It's like they practice swinging bunts or something - and then they follow it with balls hit too slowly for GiDPs

From the 'Nobody saw THIS coming' department, one could make a good argument for ARod being their MVP so far.

3 hits tonight would bring Duda's total for the past week to right up around 4 ... hate to bust on the guy as he's been terrific all year, but he's picking a bad time to go all a-slumping on us.

Td'A got 28 PAs in the minors so it shouldn't be too bad (although 18 of them were at PSL and only 8 at Vegas)

Back into a 1st place tie as the Nats end their losing streak and the Yanx winning streak with an 11th inning win today in da Bronx. In wondering whether we'd hold onto 1st place or slip below .500, I was beginning to think the answer was going to be 'Both'

Witt Haggard is from Delta State in Mississippi. Of course he is. Just as 32nd rounder Dustin Beggs is from the only place he could be from: Kentucky For 30th rounder, Jackson Wark, we went all the way to Alberta, Canada (the true north strong and free) so take that you deep south elitists!!

Rounds 10-22 yield 11 pitchers and a 2nd baseman, most of them college boys including Thomas Hacker (RHP) from St Johns. The 2B is Vincent Siena from UConn (Mazzilli's successor/replacement?)

Syndergaard - 0.25 Gilmartin - 0.75

deGrom - 3.5 Robles - 0.4 Familia - 0.4 Granderson - 1.8 Lagares - 1.4 Flores - 1.1 Campbell - 1.4

Colon - 3.7 Leathersich - 0.3 Lagares - 2.0 Campbell - 0.75 Cuddyer - 0.75

I think they mentioned last night that Dilson is traveling to NYC but that his activation won't necessarily be immediate, as opposed to Travis who's going to be put into the lineup ready or not.

The only argument I could make for NOT bunting is that if it's bad strategy at that point in a game that wasn't a no-hitter. Some manager got pissed about a half-dozen years ago after I think it was a 9th inning bunt, but it was also a one or two run game IIRC so I had no problem with it. But we know that Keith is 'old school' to a fault at times and therefore ascribes to the chivalric code.

If it's any consolation, we're still in 1st place as the Nats are about to go down to the Yanx, trailing 6-1 in the 9th. and I don't care if 1st place is on the line, I still can't bring myself to root for the pin-stripers.