Frayed Knot

KTE update: Phils have actually had a decent (and by 'decent' I mean approaching mediocre) month of May, going 11-12 so far buoyed by a five game winning streak where they took the final two games of a series from Pitt (see, it CAN be done) and followed that up with a sweep of Arizona. More recently they split four with the Rox then lost 2-of-3 in Washington. The only real change to their lineup is the promotion of their top prospect Makiel Franco (not to be confused with John, Julio, or Generalissimo Francisco ... he's still dead) at 3B to replace Cody Asche who's back in the minors trying both to find his stroke and to learn how to play the OF. Other than that, the same usual characters: Howard at 1st w/Ruf vs LHPs Utley at 2nd and, yes, he's still hitting sub-.200 Galvis at SS Ben Revere in LF, Odubel Herrera in CF, and a platoon of Francouer & Sizemore in RF Ruiz catching Looks like we're slated to see Mon -- Severino Gonzalez making his 4th ML start. After a disaster of a debut [7 runs in 2.2 IP vs StL] he's won twice going the minimum 5 innings both times while allowing 2 & 1 runs to Miami & Colorado. Tues -- the well-traveled Jerome Williams: 3-4 in 9 starts w/a high ERA (5.44) & WHiP (1.60). Mets beat him earlier in the season nailing him for 5 runs on 10 hits over 5 IP Wed (day game) -- Sean O'Sullivan (damn these Latins are taking over the game!! 1-3 over 5 starts but with decent peripherals: 3.54 ERA, 1.14 WHiP which all means that we miss both Cole Hamels & Aaron Harang, clearly their best two hurlers this season.

Ordinarily my first response here is that you lost me at, 'Adam Sandler plays ...' But that it's a Tom McCarthy project could be enough to turn things around.

intrigued by the Zobrist bit though, since you could always move him to SS, or elsewhere, as guys get healthy. What would it take? might be Matz right? I like the Zobrist idea, I'm not sure Tampa Bay would. Can't hurt to ask. Anyone who trades Matz for Ben Zobrist should be horsewhipped on the spot. Look, Zobrist has been a nice player, one known primarily for his versatility (enhanced by Joe Maddon's willingness to use him as such) as he not only played at but started games at every position except P & C over his now 10 year career. But he's also a 34 y/o (or will be as of tomorrow to be exact) dealing with a knee injury whose only truly top-notch offensive year was back in 2009. That doesn't mean he shouldn't be looked at, but at this point he's essentially a super-utility guy who you'd be getting for (at best) 100+ games. I know things have been rough here lately but let's not start looking at outside help as knights in shining armor riding in to save us. btw, Zobrist is in Oakland these days as Tampa dealt him over the winter along with Yunel Escobar (a real SS) for the immortal John Jaso plus two (not highly rated) minor leaguers in A-ball.

McGehee in 2015: 110 ABs, 22 Hits, 24 Ks, [u:15upfd8d]12 GiDP[/u:15upfd8d] That's nearly 1/4 of his ABs that don't result in contract and right about 1 in every 7 contacts that results in a DP ... he'll fit right in!

Mets Guy in Michigan wrote: Interwebs saying Monell goes back to Vegas and Muno back up. Deck chairs on the Titanic.

So now that Tejada have his yearly HR, I guess this means we can expect his next 75 ABs are going to consist of him muscling up and hitting medium-deep fly-outs to the OF.

Ks in this series: [crossout:2qsbb264]34-18[/crossout:2qsbb264] Whoops, there's goes Campbell: 35-18 Guess which one is ours

.171/.252/.292 with 39 walks + 101 Ks in 412 PAs Those figures are the total coming into Sunday's game. It's not the stats strictly from the bench but the combined output, whether as starter or off the bench, from all those who came into the year as backup players or were brought up to replace injuries, specifically: RECKER, TEJADA, PLAWECKI, MAYBERRY, NIEUWENHUIS, HERRERA, MONELL, CECILIANI, AND MUNO

They are making a very mediocre team look like world beaters this weekend.

And now Tejada does the same from 3B!! Is this some sort of new "strategy" where we simply decided not to go after any lead runners? Maybe they made that choice at the same time they decided not to try and throw out base stealers.

Forget hits with RiSP, at the moment I'd settle for Contact w/RiSP.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Think we also need to shop for a Campbell upgrade. Yeah, don't look now but he's under .200 Of course his REAL replacement has been a "week away" for like 3 weeks now - and will be there for at least two more as things are going.

Not a good day for those who are/were supposedly staff aces. Harvey -- 4 IP, 7 ER, 6 H, 2 BB Strasburg -- 3.2 IP, 6 R (5 ER), 7 H, 1 BB Sabathia -- 2.1 IP, 6 ER, 7 H, 1 BB The only saving grace on our end in this is that this is an isolated case in Harvey's year (1.98 ERA coming in) but increasingly common in the cases of Sabathia (4.67 before today's game) and Strasburg (5.98 - and heading north!)

Oh there's no need to bunt in this game, but we should fuck one up anyway just to keep in practice.

Until this 4th inning I was beginning to get worried that we were going to go through the entire game without hitting into soul-destroying double plays or let their runners advance at will. Now all we need to do is fuck up some sac bunts and our standard trifecta will be complete.

2. Mets 3B David Wright and C Travis d'Arnaud both took batting practice Friday and are expected to play in minor-league rehab games next week. So I'm thinking early July at the latest ... barring set-backs of course.

The Pirates, meanwhile, have been selling t-shirts with Burnett spelled out in the shape of a bat. Apparently he's a big batman freak but, whatever the case, it looks like Saturday afternoon will be an all-bat affair on the mound at old Fort Duquesne and probably a lot of bat attire in the stands from fans of both sides. Hope the Mets remember to bring their utility belts this time. Six singles last last night ain't gonna cut it.

Zvon wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: Y'know, there's no harm in challenging that call at 2nd. What ya got to lose? I really don't understand why they didn't. I'd have loved to see the Bucs have to take the field again after the fireworks. I didn't see any replay, so I'll take a look later. In real time I thought he was safe, no question about it. Oh I was positive that he was out. It's just that in this era where nothing is considered to have happened until an electronic review of them confirms that they really happened, we're starting to expect a review of anything that even smells like it was close and if you're down to your last out and haven't burned your challenge yet, well then whatthehell! I suspect that that type of 'Hail-Mary' challenging just for the sake of challenging is considered bad form among managers in the still evolving mores of replay etiquette, so one manager throwing water on another's celebration (particularly at home) will invite others to do the same to him and before you know it everyone's got their Officially Licensed MLB panties in a bunch. Nice hustle by Ceciliani though.

stRangers try real hard to lose in the Bronx tonight, nearly blowing the game after having a 7-0 lead after 3 and a 10-5 lead after 7 before finally hanging on to win 10-9 7 different HRs in that joke of a park where it's gotten to the point where you almost expect lefty hitters to hit one out (and the Yanx had 8 LH or SW hitters in their lineup tonight). Tampa won tonight* maintaining their hold on 1st place in the AL East so the Yanx have fallen to the same 1-1/2 games out situation as us. * against Oakland who is a stunning 14-30 this year!!

So in the baserunning battle: - they stole three bases, took another one on an errant pick-off throw, took another on a shortish Sac Fly - we, on the other hand, gave two away on steal attempts and four more on GiDPs

Y'know, there's no harm in challenging that call at 2nd. What ya got to lose?

Good News: Tying run is coming to the plate in the form of our best HR hitter Bad News: The double play is still a possibility.

Hell, with Granderson throwing it back he probably could have made it home.

And now the last 42 outs have required retiring only 34 NYM batters.

So between Thursday's game (8 times up) and the first 5 innings of today's the Mets have come to bat 13 times, or 13 x 3 = 39 outs. But between the DPs (4) and caught stealing (3) opposing pitchers have only had to retire 32 hitters to get those 39 outs. We don't get enough baserunners to play like that.