Frayed Knot

50% blondes. Dammit, do the Mets have to be sub par in everything?!?! MLB averages, I believe, well over 80%

Ceetar wrote: bmfc1 wrote: Holy crap, there's a 90 second Gatorade commercial where Jeter, in part, cavorts with regular people, as we hear Frank sing "My Way." At the end, he tips his cap at NMFYS. I didn't watch the whole thing because I couldn't. I won't link to it on principle. Have you noticed how all of the most promoted Jeter moments this year have all been about advertising and selling things? But all of it is against his will.

This pretty much sums up how it's going for Oakland these days -- they have a 1-0 lead over Texas last night heading for the 9th, so in comes stud closer Sean Doolittle (31 saves out of 34) to protect the 1-run lead. Rangers send 12 hitters to the plate against Doolittle and two other pitchers: get 6 hits, 2 walks, 1 HBP, and win 6-1

Gee - 1.8 Torres - 0.1 Familia - 0.3 Mejia - 0.3 Duda - 2.0 den Dekker - 0.5

Niese - 3.4 Flores - 0.8 Lagares - 0.3

3-2 Marlins now. Duda w/a 2-run/2-out single. Gee's been both unlucky (seeing eye hits, bloopers, swinging bunts) and a bit lucky (3 GiDPs) so his run count could easily be higher or lower. Alvarez has just plain been lucky, the Mets could easily have 4 or 5 on the board by this point.

I dunno. I'm rarely a fan of three in the booth. This one happens to work but on days when one of the jocks is missing I don't necessarily want to import someone just to have three again or just so Keith's mind doesn't wander (if indeed it is more common sans Ronnie).

Unfortunately I think the era of sideline/in the stands reporters are here to stay and we're going to get a Burkhardt replacement whether he/she is any good or not. Football uses them because they hire so many people to cover a game that they had to go inventing jobs for the ones they were already paying anyway. And now baseball feels they must copy the lead so everyone must have one even though Burkhardt's the first one I ever thought added anything to a game aside from distraction. Be nice if SNY decided to buck the trend and go without but I think we have better odds of finding a rapper who uses his given name when he performs. I'd like to see KB take over for Joe Buck on MLB's GotW (assuming FOX holds on to the package) but if he rises that high it'll mean they're going to want him on NFL games even more and we know which one will rule.

Yeah, they're an over-.500 team since Aug 1st (23-19)

Braves now sub-.500 after being in the playoff picture seemingly just a week or so ago. That we have one more game vs Miami and three more vs the Braves makes 2nd place more possible. That we have three more against the Nats makes it less so. And, yeah, I know they clinched last night, but even if they sit all their regulars next week, their pitchers and backup catchers have a better-than-average shot at out-HR-ing our position players in any given series.

Man, is there anything that's killed Detroit more over the last couple of years than their bullpen? Tigers were getting shutout last night when they got a 9th inning/2-out/3R HR from JD Martinez to take a 1-run lead ... only to have Joe Nathan give up 2 in the bottom half and lose to the Twins Fortunately for the Tiggers, the Royals also went down to a scrub team (gave up 3 in the 7th to the ChiSox) so the ALC stays at DET +1.5 A's also lose to a chump (Texas) while the Mariners whomped up on the Angels so that race gets closer (A's +2.0) WC: OAK +1.0 KCR --- SEA -1.0 TOR -5.0 CLE -6.0 NYY -6.0 The Yanx--losers of 5 of their last 6 and 7 of 10--still can't manage to lose their way out of this race yet, not officially anyway.

Zvon wrote: How does a pitcher give up 12 hits and only 1 run? I'm gonna have to look this one over. See what happens when you vow not to watch another game because of the previous night's blown lead? ... you miss a lot of good shit.

Better BA for Pearce in Baltimore this year but more power on the road, a result which is pretty much the opposite of what you'd expect. The closer alleys and smaller overall OF at Camden are generally thought to increase HRs but reduce singles & doubles.

Orioles OF/1B Steve Pearce is 31 y/o and is in his 8th ML season - although this is the first one where he's reached more than 170 PAs Drafted by the Pirates out of Comm Coll in Florida in 2005, he reached the majors part time in 2007 and played part time for a few years. He was released by the Pirates at the end of 2011. He was then picked up by the Twins, released by the Twins, signed by the Yanx, sold to the O's, plucked off waivers by the Astros, purchased by the Yanx, and claimed on waivers by the O's ... all between March & Sept of 2012 He got 119 ABs for the O's in 2013 ... then was released by them again in April of this year. Baltimore then re-signed him two days later and will clinch the AL East tonight with Pearce playing 1st (in place of the suspended Chris Davis) and hitting his 18th HR/43rd XBH of the year in <350 ABs .294/.393/.535 He had just 17HRs/66 XBHs in his career before this season. That defies any logic one can think of.

Somebody picked a bad day to demean the skills of Wilmer

Olbermann hit on this topic on his nightly show tonight - so it now has at least some degree of national exposure. Frankly I'm having a bit of trouble getting worked up over it.

I like NYM HRs I like HRs off of Brad Penny I really like NYM HRs off of Brad Penny

Ummmm, it's the 5th inning and we're winning. 4-1 Lots o' singles and a couple of doubles off Bartolo but he's bending not breaking so far. RBI double by Flores, Two RBI double by Tejada Kirk replaces Lagares in CF after Juan "hyperextends" his right elbow. Not quite clear when/how he did that. Just now chasing Eovaldi w/1 out in the 5th

I think the role thing -- that Kirk excels at PH-ing therefore that's how we should use him -- maybe have something to do with it. Mainly though I suspect they want to see more/showcase MdD. Remember that as recent as early 2013, prior to his ST injury, he was considered the possible CF future ahead of Lagares. If he would hit even reasonably during this trial (time rapidly running out) it could make he more attractive to a team looking for at least a platoon CF candidate.

"I'm not saying he's irreplaceable, I'm saying at the moment the Mets don't have the parts to replace him with and his contributions are very much needed. I mean, the next best option right now is probably Tejada." --- So you're not saying that he's irreplaceable, only that the Mets' current situation makes him currently irreplaceable. Again, you need to avoid getting hung up on that idea. They have several in-house options to replace him and then there's always outside help. Maybe the options don't exactly match current production but that's hardly a given. "But Murphy machinations aside, this is about Flores, and him not having shown anything approaching major league ability. -- I don't buy that at all.

Ceetar wrote: Trading Murphy ain't letting him walk. is it a gamble? Sure, all trades are. Certainly with somebody as ridiculously consistent and reliable as Murphy. But can they get an offensive upgrade? By packaging him with Niese or Gee or Colon, they sure can. Err, Murphy's not a free agent. We're not actually suggesting the Mets might just say "fuck it, no arb for you." are we? As if this needs answering: No, no one is suggesting non-tendering him this winter.

'Play his Position' doesn't mean they'll replace him exactly, only that there are other options there and that even if there's a decline from him to [Fill in Blank] it may be worth it to strengthen the team elsewhere. The worst thing teams can do is to convince themselves that a particular player is irreplaceable. Very few are, and Murphy's not one of them. He hits but doesn't walk a lot; he hits doubles but not many HRs; he plays an up-the-middle position but not particularly well; he's on OK runner but gets dopey now and then; he's dependable except for when he's not (1 completely missed season and a big chunk of another); and he's about to turn 30.

Dealing Murphy, if it happens, isn't about saving money, it's about deciding whether to make a long-term commitment to him or not. We--and Sandy, and Fred & Jeff, and everybody else in the world--know what Danny Boy is at this point. He'll turn 30 by opening day 2015 and can become a FA a year and a few weeks from now. The options are whether to keep him for another year, to sign him long term sometime in the next year, or to deal him away this winter in an effort to plug other holes while there appear to be several candidates who can play his position. I'm not advocating that one choice here is the lone correct one, only that a number of other moves may depend on how they pursue this one.

- I think he can play 2B - not sold on him as an everyday SS although more sold than I was that he can at least fake it there part time - not sure how big a hitter he'll eventually be - remember that he's still young, [u:31wfq433]several years[/u:31wfq433] younger than the likes of Lagares, deGrom, Harvey, Nieuwenhuis, Mejia, Familia, d'Arnaud, den Dekker, Satin, Campbell. Of current Mets, only Wheeler, Tejada & Montero are within a year and a half of his age, and only Herrera is younger. - I agree that Herrera needs a half year or more of AAA ball and so not to pencil into the April lineup All that said, I'm not averse to trading almost anyone for the right price and don't view Flores as a 'Must Keep'. As I and others have been saying much of this year, a lot of these decision pivot on Muffy.

Both the Tigers (v Minn) & Royals (v ChiSox) scored twice in the 9th to win games. Detroit's two runs busted a game that they allowed to be tied in the 8th after leading 6-0 at one point, while KC twice used pinch-runners in the 9th to score from 2nd on an SB (steal of 3rd plus a throwing error) and an infield single (just never stopped running - Mookie style) to pull their game out. So no change in the ALC race (Detroit +1.5) but every other WC contender either lost (CLE, NYY, TOR, SEA) or didn't play (OAK) which makes this essentially a One-One-Two situation where one from the DET, KC, OAK, SEA group is going to lose out entirely, Two are going to wind up as WCs to face each other in the game of death, and One (either DET or KC) gets to sit back and wait for the winner. All the others: TOR -5.0; CLE -6.0; NYY -6.0; TBR -10.0 are effectively, even if not yet officially, out of it. I'd prefer to see KC take the Central and have Oakland hang on to one of the spots, but am willing to just enjoy the ride in any case. One other AL goal for this year ... a sub-.500 MFY team. 5-10 would put them right on the number so I'm looking for 4-11 or worse. That's not too much to ask from a team whose RS/RA deficit (-30) means they should already be 7 games under, is it?