Frayed Knot

Ceetar wrote: That really wasn't that interesting. His grades were mostly 'meh, but with potential' until he figured out how to maximize the power stroke the scouting reports demanded based on his physical appearance. Which he did, and ta-da! But, to me, that's precisely why it is interesting. Most star players -- and while it's a stretch to call Lucas a 'star', a 30 HR year followed up by his current early season numbers mean we could be looking at the birth of one -- tend to come from those who were high draft picks and then highly touted as prospects. But here we have a modest draft round (7th) and a bunch of C/C+ grades all through the minors (remember, this is only one man's opinion) for a player who didn't even have a full time job until age 28. Those are the types where it can be fun to go back and look at what was being said about him all along. There's not nearly as much to be learned from analyzing the reports on kids who were superstars in HS, great in college, and then were top-10 overall picks before speeding through the minors.

John Sickels takes a look back on the development of, and expectations for, Duda as he made his way through the minors. http://www.minorleagueball.com/2015/5/4/8497883/lucas-duda-is-good-did-anyone-see-it-coming-new-york-mets

But of course RA vs Unearned RA hardly tells the whole story. Sunday's lone run scored only after the infield twice failed to turn DPs; in Saturday's game the Nats scored while never getting the ball out of the infield.

Ceetar wrote: John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Could be the lefthanded bench player is Muffy once David Wright comes back. can backup outfield too. No he can't.

So the last update on this chart was for the Brewers picking up manager Ron Roenicke's option for 2016. But that's not looking like such a smart business move right now as the Brewers canned Roenicke on Sunday night just 25 games into the season. It's almost hard to remember now that the Beermakers were as much as 5-1/2 games in 1st place in mid-June of the '14 season. But, between the 2nd half of last season and the early part of this one, they're 38-64 since July 1st, 16-35 since September 1st, and 7-18 this year. Former Brewer (and Rockie, and Marlin, and DBack, and Dodger) Craig Counsell is expected to be named as the replacement. He's been in the Milwaukee front office although has no managing or even coaching experience. TEAMMANAGERSIGNED THRUSTATUSHiredMETSTerry Collins2015 + option for '1611/23/2010BRAVESFredi Gonzalez201510/13/2010PHILLIESRyne Sandberg2016 + option for '178/16/2013NATIONALSMatt Williams2015 + options for �16 + �17Option for 2016 picked up10/13/2013MARLINSMike Redmond2015Extended through 201711/1/2012CARDINALSMike Matheny201711/20/2013PIRATESClint Hurdle2017 + option for �1811/15/2010CUBSJoe Maddon201910/31/2014REDSBryan Price201610/22/2013BREWERSRon Roenicke2015 + option for �16Option for 2016 picked up - Fired 5/3/1511/4/2010DODGERSDon Mattingly20169/17/2010GIANTSBruce Bochy2016Oct 2006PADRESBud Black2015Nov 2006DBACKSChip Hale201610/13/2014ROCKIESWalt Weiss201611/7/2012RED SOXJohn Farrell2016Extended thru 201710/20/2012YANKEESJoe Girardi201710/30/2007ORIOLESBuck Showalter20187/28/2010BLUE JAYSJohn Gibbons2015 + option for �1611/20/2012RAYSKevin Cash12/04/2014TIGERSBrad Ausmus2016 + option for �1711/4/2013INDIANSTerry Francona2016Extended thru 2018 w/options for '19 + �2010/8/2012ROYALSNed Yost20155/13/2010TWINSPaul Molitor201711/4/2014WHITE SOXRobin Ventura201410/6/2011ANGELSMike Scioscia201811/17/1999RANGERSJeff Banister201710/17/2014MARINERSLloyd McClendon201?11/7/2013ASTROSAJ Hinch9/29/2014ATHLETICSBob Melvin20166/9/2011

Well, yeah, that too. So a better way to say it would be that even if you do get rid of him [by sliding him through waivers, by releasing him, trading him, whatever] what you'll want as a replacement for him is essentially a version of him: a lefty bat, preferably with some power potential, who can play the OF. IOW, yeah he's been bad (in a limited sample) but it's not like there's a better option just sitting around back in the storage closet somewhere waiting to be dusted off.

Yeah but Kirk was hardly the only problem today. Over the last three innings - especially after Fister left - none of the Washington relievers were getting the ball over the plate but our guys were making outs anyway; Duda, Murphy, Cuddyer, and more were ahead in the count and swinging at bad pitches, often with men on. That bullpen is very beatable and in four days we barely touched it. Nieuwenhuis is in the Catch-22 of needing more ABs to get hits hits but then he needs some hits if he wants more ABs. You could send him down but then who fills the LH/PH spot? Johnny Monnel is hitting in Vegas (although everyone hits in Vegas) but isn't as defensively versatile.

Would have been nice if maybe one or two of the NYM hitters had forced any of the Nats pitchers to actually throw a ball over the plate during those last three innings.

Just a small non-scientific note on pace of game: Saturday night's game was the first time this year I joined a game late and watched the early innings via DVR and 'caught up' by skipping commercials -- and, based on what I saw, things seem to be looking up. -- The 'four clicks' method of skipping ahead 30 seconds at a time between half-innings used to bring you to the end of the commercial break but still maybe 20-30 seconds from the first pitch as pitchers were still finishing warmups, batters hadn't approach the box yet, promos were still being announced, etc. But last night that same 2-minute jump ahead took you right about to the first pitch of the inning. -- Jumping ahead that same 30 seconds between outs is something I usually don't do although have in the past if I was way behind in the game. I tried that a few times last night just to check and most times it would cause me to miss the first pitch to the next hitter, something that didn't use to happen. Now what we need to hope for is that this non-dragging method of play becomes second nature to all concerned as opposed to the scenario where it all goes by the wayside by mid-season and we're back to the same ass-dragging pace they got used to over the last couple decades.

Three runners were called out on Saturday after being hit by batted balls, twice to end games! - in Angels @ Giants, LAA's David Freese was hit between 1st & 2nd on a potential single w/2 outs in the 9th and the tying run on 3rd. - in DBacks @ Dodgers, the tying run was at the plate for Arizona w/2 outs/top-9 when runner Jordan Pacheco was hit between 1st & 2nd

It's like a Game of Thrones with Desmond & Flores manning SS in this series: The night is dark and full of errors

According to what was aired over YES during Saturday's game (one wonders whether Michael Kay was reading this with an actual gun to his head or just a figurative one?): �It is the sole discretion of the New York Yankees to determine whether each of these milestones is commercially marketable as the home run chase. � The Yankees have the right, but not the obligation, to determine whether it�s a commercially marketable milestone.� If accurate, that wouldn't bode well for the ARod camp.

For the second game in a row I foresaw the out at home but, unlike last night, this time I wouldn't have sent him. Would have left them with 2nd & 3rd/1-out. Never know what's going to happen from there but it couldn't have been as bad as it was. Obviously the 1-0 score exaggerates the importance but I was saying before the relay was even made that he should have been held. 8th & 9th innings were disappointing as well. Never even had anything that smelled like a hit. Gonzalez was better than Niese tonight but just barely. Nats got a lot of seeing-eye hits including the one that built their only run. Not sure if Flores makes either of two plays that Ruben did in this game. Unfortunately he doesn't get the benefit of the doubt.

Five outs but only 19 pitches total - barely more than a normal inning's worth unless you count the double-warmup thing.

Oh I don't think it's that they don't WANT to market this, they're just no longer convinced they can make enough money here to cover what they agreed to pay out so their only recourse now is to act as if they thought they were getting Prince Charming only to find out it was Walter White in disguise. Good luck with that.

Well the agreement apparently calls for a lump-sum payment of $6mil in the next 15 days meaning, however the arrangement reads, it's clearly NOT a one where Alex gets paid $X per commemorative HR-660 ball sold or anything like that. IOW, it's sounds, looks, and walks very much like a pay per threshold clause. The tack the Yanx are going to take is that ARod's repeated steroid use (and general asshole-ish-ness) have rendered their marketing opportunities useless - hashtag: breach of contract, yadda yadda. His counter, I assume, will be that they didn't agree to this payment (and future payments) only if their marketing efforts were successful money-makers. It was more like: he hits hit, they pay him, and if they then make $30 million back on their marketing then good for them. If, on the other hand, they can only make 84 cents off it then that's their problem, not his.

I can't believe this whole thing was ever allowed in the first place. Pay-for-stats clauses are supposed to be illegal and this one was exactly that just in disguised language. Exactly how that language reads is going to be the deciding factor in the end. You understand why the Yanx don't WANT to pay him but they should have thought about that earlier when they had stars (and blinders) in their eyes thinking that ARod was going to be their knight in shining armor who was to return the magical HR record back to pinstriped glory where "it belongs". Their problem is that their only real defense essentially involves believing that the then admitted steroid user (admitted that is only after confronted with evidence following repeated denials) had used right up until the moment he joined your club but sworn off them then, logic that is akin believing that the married guy who's cheating on his wife to be with you would never stoop so low as to cheat on you with someone else. ARod, for his part, at least appears to have wised up and is saying nothing while the behind the scenes stuff goes on, although who knows how long that will last. His HR last night was a PH, 8th inning, game-winner, in Fenway. But the reason he was PH-ing is that he had cooled off after his hot start and how willing each side is to say nothing publicly derogatory about the other often depends on how well things are going on the field. If nothing else, it should be fun to watch from a distance how all this plays out.

ARod hits #660 (at Fenway). Yanx have 15 days to pay the obligated (or not) $6 million bonus. Gentlemen, start your lawyers.

I don't know what to make of Flores's throwing. His arm isn't weak, but his throws seem to wind up either perfect or perfectly horrid with little in between and with no correlation between whether he's throwing on the run or with time.

Edgy MD wrote: I'm not certain Werth catches the Murph shot if he stays on his feet. Well he first misjudged it and broke in, then slipped and fell trying to correct himself. I think he could have overcome one of those boo-boos or the other, just not both.

THOUGHTS ON THE GAME!!!! 1) Scherzer probably isn't any more intense than Harvey, but he's certainly more overtly intense. 2) Duda led off innings twice. Would have been a good time to bunt against the shift, especially when facing a pitcher like that. 3) Does Murphy get that tag down as quickly as Dilson (on the Harper play)? I'm betting no. 4) I was reasonably sure that Grandy was going to be out at home but was in favor of sending him anyway. 2 outs, very few hits in the game, gotta try. 5) Plawecki doesn't seem to come out of the chute all that fast on his throws but he does seem to get the ball down to 2nd in short order. It's a very compact motion that's not likely to get all out of whack. 6) I was thinking about getting Flores out of the lineup after 7 when he made the last out. But then if Murph didn't get those runs in it would have been that batting slot w/2 outs and the bags juiced in what was still a one run game, so maybe not. 7) But then he wasn't out after he made the last out in the 8th too. Of course it was a four run game by that point but I still would have done it. 8) A-Torres in with all RHBs coming up ... hmmmm. I know he's not a strict LOOGY. 9) Would be nice to have at least one hard-thrower in before Familia. At least one from the Black / Parnell / Mejia trio would suffice. 10) We've already beat Scherzer x 2 !!!!

And now we can add the Dodgers' Brandon McCarthy and Homer Bailey from Cincy to this year's list. McCarthy, who pitched for the Yanx last year, seemed like an iffy signing to begin with (4 yrs x $12 per). He had a decent season last year but not a consistent track record before that. And now this blows nearly half that contract out of the water. Bailey, who along with the Yanx Phil Hughes were once the top pitching prospects in all of baseball, signed a six year extension just a year ago which will take him thru 2019 (plus a 2020 option) w/Cincy

Hit it to Uggla !!

So hard drinking' Ike is doing all right for himself out in Oakland: .314/.380/.443, though just one HR and is in a strict platoon situation - just 4 ABs vs LHP all year. But Oakland itself is having a tough time: 9-14 though losing some tough games as they're +13 in RS/RA to date and Pythag sez they should be more like 13-10. So on those two notes, Ike comes up in the bottom of the ninth last night, facing tough closer Huston Street, A's down by one, 2 outs, bags loaded, deep drive to CF ... and he's gets 'Trout-ed' http://m.mlb.com/news/article/121577536/mike-trouts-game-saving-catch-keeps-los-angeles-angels-at-500

Am worried about the defense long term, but at the moment am at least as concerned about the offense. After my post last week about the bats seemingly sitting out the first time through the lineup, we've now gone several games straight where they've tacked up a couple of early runs but then gone into shut-down mode, all of which helps to put more pressure on the defense, and on our own starters, and on the pen.