Frayed Knot

Mets = 9-5 over last 14 Yanx = 3-7 over last 10 Phils, who were briefly behind us in the standings, just reached .500 So it's not totally over folks. Things can change, sometimes rather abruptly and without warning..

Bellinger's gonna Bellinger.

NYM contributions by ex-Yanx [Soto, Weaver, Holmes] > NYY contributions by ex-Mets [Blackburn, Rosario] ... so I'm calling that a win.

Weaver looked quick -- and a nice stretch. They should use him as a pinch runner on days he's not scheduled to pitch, I don't care how many fingers he breaks sliding into bases ... OK, maybe not.

Nice read by Bichette on that grounder.

Partly because the last two nights have been 'network' games and partly because they're Yanqui games, the pace of them both has been slow and both are/going to be over 3:00 despite neither being high scoring.

Dream Weaver, I believe you can get us to the ninth eighth Gotta work on my rhyming.

The K of Rosario lowers the need for a triple play down to just a double play.

Soft double followed by soft two-base error followed by HBP followed by lucky bunt.

This might have been better had I started this right at the nadir of our season at the end of that 12-game losing streak (at least we hope that was the low point). But it didn’t occur to me until week or so ago so this is a ‘joined in progress’ project. “It’s gotta get better” is a phrase we’ve used early in this season to describe the lack of hitting and scoring. Towards that end I’m going to try and check in on this on a semi-regular basis so we can see how much things are ‘regressing to the mean’ or if that actually happens at all. So two charts here: one tracking our ranking among all 30 ML teams in the various offensive stats, and then the raw numbers in those same metrics compared to league average. The data shown is for the season-to-date games including those on the date listed. Not a lot of change so far but you don’t expect there to be much after only nine days. I’m aiming to update this thing twice a month, hopefully on or around the 15th & 30th. Dang it! The subject heading was supposed to read NOffense but it auto-corrected on me and now I can't edit.

The 'feel' from the old board, as it has been for the past 26 years, is one of discussion. We haven't hung around this long by not giving a shit what each other thinks. Feel free to say whatever you want but also be prepared to discuss it and back up what you say if necessary. Yet, despite doing this act of mocking Stearns each time some minor league roster filler doesn't have the resume to match the one just lost, you repeatedly evade any query as to what kind of player you think is available on the waiver wire or as a minor league free agent. Not that it stops you from going into the same act the next time you see an opportunity or from dodging any conversation when challenged again. That's not discussion, it's graffiti. Do better. Or at least make an effort.

Forcing Rodon into 88 pitches just to get through 3-2/3 is a decent sign.

The network guys didn't mention this but Gary would have been all over it: Rodon winds up giving up one run on his own Wild Pitch and then a second on his own error. First run counts as earned, second is not.

He did this where?

I think he's already tall enough.

This act of yours got old months ago.

It's a 'Let's pretend it's a rivalry and maybe no one will notice' kind of thing.

Eh, it's OK, it's not like he was our best pitcher this year, and there are plenty of obvious replacements is Jonah Tong who, in his last start, was dominant allowed seven runs in 1-1/3, plus Senga will be ready to return any day now in a few months and there's a good chance tiny long shot that he regains his All-Star form.

A very dull and slow-moving game.

This has been dubbed 'Rivalry Weekend' (is it Homecoming next week?) which includes ... Philly @ Pitt, O's/Nationals, Cincy/Cleveland, BoSox/Braves, Miami/Tampa, Cubs/Sos, Rangers/Astros, Angels/Dodgers, Royals/Cards, plus, and when these teams meet you can throw out the record book, DBacks @ Rockies

Hey Apple, get that fucking betting line off the screen!!!

Nice to see Dontrelle Willis set a new ML record for most cliches within a 3 minute open.

I thought FMan was going to do a KTE but maybe the censors deleted his submission. I think the key to holding the Yanx 4th best offense (5.07 RS/G) down may actually be to keep the lousy hitters off base. They've got a kind of A-Team/B-Team going on in their lineup so if you can keep the bases empty when the big boys are up it can at least limit the damage. Really good this year: Judge, Ben Rice (both over 1,000 OPS) and also Cody Bellinger. Rice has over half of his hits go for XB (22 of 40) and nearly 1/3 are HRs (13). But those are the only three active starters sporting an OPS+ over 100. [181, 197, 137] (also Amed Rosario and Paul Goldschmidt but they're part-timers). On the flip side of the coin is both catchers [Wells = 67 OPS+, Escarra = 47], 2B Jazz Chisholm [69], 3B Ryan McMahon [62], CF Trent Grisham [89] and now newly recalled SS Anthony Volpe, the 2023 RoY/GG who has fallen out of favor, seemingly with both mgmt and fans, and was injured/demoted until a recent injury to Jose Cabellaro. Ashie mentioned the recent debut of 25 y/o (yesterday) Spencer Jones who is promising and gives them a matching bookend to Judge (Jones is 6' 7"/245) but is just getting started at 1/12 w/6 Ks On the pitching side they're 3rd best in MLB [3.5 RA/G] led by Schlittler, and good seasons so far from Ryan Weathers, Will Warren, and the now IL'd Max Fried. In the pen their main set-up corps seem to be the strength rather than the two guys they dealt for at last year's trading deadline, David Bednar and Camilo Dovel closer(s)

For the team OPS? Yeah, there's an outside shot at it if everyone gets hot at the same time.

McLean was here last season. He's a toddler Met.