Frayed Knot

Can't lose this one now, can we?

Rox snapshot: - tied w/Arizona for worst record in NL - no Tulo, no Cargo, although apparently a fresh off the DL Cuddyer - Morneau & LeMahieu at 1st & 2nd probably speak to each other in French so the runners can't understand them (although maybe d'Arnaud & deGrom can) - Nolan Arenado (good) and something named Josh Rutledge (yeah, I don't know him either) are at 3B & SS - OF seems to consist of Corey Dickerson (nice stats), Drew Stubbs (350 ABs / 120 Ks), Charlie Blackmon (didn't he once play for the Knicks?) and Cuddyer - catcher Willin Rosario is just off the DL

Ceetar wrote: I mean, 15 or so innings is mostly irrelevant as a ridiculously small sample size (Which makes relievers so hard to judge as is) you could find 15 innings where _anyone_ sucked I imagine. Sure, and, again, the main point here wasn't who was better or worse but in the difference in how the two are regarded. P.S. - the fact that April is the quickest example we find of Bentiez sucking* kinds of explodes the myth that he was lights-out until September rolled around, don't it? * the other rough stretches I found for him were one in May, in August, and, yes, one in September before he finally collapsed in 2003 with the worst month he ever had as a Met in, once again, April. (take note if you would, Gary Cohen)

Nymr83 wrote: as of now, nobody really has any reason to remember anything Mejia has done wrong because the Mets suck. Except that it's easy to remember because it's happening NOW, and yet few if any words have been spoken that treat Mejia as anything other than a solid closer both currently and going forward. starting 2000 through 5/6/00 17 G, 17 IP, 13 H, 13 ER, 11 BB, 5 HR, 6.88 ERA I took a quick look and found several months (4/00 being one of them) where Armando had similar months to what Mejia had in August although AB's seemed to be from a few very bad games as opposed to Mejia who's had few clean ones recently.

The whole problem was, of course, set-up by the tradition that dictates yanking Familia even after he tosses a 3-K/14-pitch 8th (and was NOT PH'd for). Once you make that switch, you've got limited (and presumably worse) options if/when Mejia does get into trouble. And then, even as Mejia got into all kinds of trouble in the 9th, he's probably the best (remaining) bet to finish the inning as he did: Pop-up, weak IF single, K

MFS62 wrote: I described the insult to the feelings of Mets (and probably the Red Sox) fans in the area. I wouldn't even have gone there. Just say that they are, in effect, selling you something you didn't sign up for & don't want, and if they insist on charging you a dollar for it that you intend to pay by taping a dollar bill to a brick and depositing it through the front window of their office. OK maybe not that last part, but there's no way in hell they'd get my dollar and that if they insist it would be the final dollar they see from you.

Did the broadcast go off without commercial interruption? The broadcast WAS a commercial interruption. Every time I clicked over to the game and it was between innings (or, Hell, maybe it was between pitches) the ad running wasn't your normal sponsor's ad but rather one hawking Jeter-related memorabilia. Anything with a #2 stamped on it was being offered--BUT JUST FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY!!!! On a related note: Big article in the Sunday NYTimes sports section on Steiner Sports and his relationship w/the Yanx (which I haven't read yet).

A fairly neutral weekend on the whole in the AL races, except of course that three more games were erased from the skid which ultimately benefits the front runners. Cleveland was the biggest winner (that's what happens when you get to play the ChiSox) going from 5.0 out of the 2nd WC to 3.5 while jumping the Yanx in the process (weren't these guys sellers at the deadline?) and also the Mariners switched slots with the Tigers as to who is a half-game up and who is a half-game out Oakland pretty much killed their shot in the west by losing twice vs Houston while LAA was romping on the Twinkies, but they were pretty much out of it anyway and managed to lose just 1/2 a game off their WC lead WC Race: OAK + 2.0 SEA + 0.5 _____________ DET -0.5 CLE -3.5 NYY -4.5 TOR -5.0 Today's hi-lights: Angels are at Cleveland today for an afternoon make-up game (Go Tribe!!) Royals (2 games up in Central) are in Detroit (also day game today) for the first of a three game set

Apparently the big news from yesterday's [crossout:3llbr01a]beatification[/crossout:3llbr01a] er, ceremony was that Andy Pettitte was a no-show. How long do you suppose it is until all references to AP's existence on the Yanx is erased and he starts disappearing from old photos like some disgraced ex-Kremlin-ite?

Lazy Feets is apparently Flores. Muddy Waters I can only assume means that we've got someone in our minor league system named McKinley Morganfield oe: Obscure musical reference cheat sheet

Seems odd at first glance that a guy like Herrera needs protection where Reynolds doesn't even though he's nearly four years older, but when you sign 'em early you have to protect 'em early and the teenage contracts that many of the Caribbean kids get means their time comes up sooner, particularly as compared to college draftees (U-Ark) like Reynolds.

I would have liked to see some of the highlights from the other games today but I know if I turned on the 7:00 BB2N I would be inundated with Jeter-fest as if the other 14 games never occurred, so I boycotted.

Disagree with which part? Reynolds was just drafted/signed two years ago which means he can be kept off the 40-man this winter and still be safe from poaching. If he were to be brought up now he'd have to be added to the 40 first which translates to one fewer guy this winter who can be protected, or it means that Reynolds himself would have to be removed from the 40 which exposes to waivers and/or the Rule 5 draft. How is any of that worth seeing him play 3rd string SS plus PH occasionally for three weeks, or take away starts from the guy they're already trying out at that position? Abreu simply gets a handful of PH ABs then gets cut at the end of the season, no muss no fuss.

I consider today to be .18 of a save so maybe he'll reach your exact projection after all.

Since Aug 1: 16 Games, 15-2/3 IP, [u:cxoe71w0]10 Runs allowed on 22 Hits[/u:cxoe71w0] + 4 BBs & 18 Ks That stretch includes 1 blown save where he not only gave up the tying run but the winning run also, plus 2 more losses where he entered tie games and immediately coughed up the game loser He's given up runs in 7 of his last 16 outings. Not that any of this means it's panic time, or that he needs to be swapped out although I'd be OK if we did--hell, Washington & Boston removed Soriano & Uehara from the 9th inning slots this week and they've got longer track records then him-- and I don't mean to dredge up the whole value of a closer debate or anything. It's just that I find it kind of fascinating that none of this seems to be coming down on Jenrry to this point. Fans seem to be treating him as if we've secured the closer of the present and future while Gary & Keith were saying nothing but good things right up until the moment he started putting out the fire with gasoline this afternoon ... AGAIN! The irony this brings up is, of course, Armando Benitez who somehow managed to become the most hated man in Met-dom even though, until his final disastrous half-season in Queens, I'd be willing to bet that he never had a stretch as bad as the one Mejia's currently right in the middle of. He could have ONE game like today's (one where he didn't even lose the lead) on the her;s of a dozen straight clean ones and peeps would be calling for his head.

Zvon wrote: bmfc1 wrote: Abreu is getting called up. What is the purpose of giving him any ABs at this point in the season? Since 40-Man roster is so precious, how can they find a spot for Abreu but not for Matt Reynolds who earned a callup. Moves like these really confuse me with this team. I mean, wtf? It may be precisely because of the 40-man that it's Abreu. If Reynolds doesn't need to be protected this winter (I'm not sure one way or the other) then bringing him up now means you'd have to protect him or risk losing him and then that's one fewer slot to protect a guy who might need it. Abreu's not going to be kept past this season so it doesn't matter what you do with him. He'll just be an extra LH PH off the bench (if he starts with MdD and Kirk up here then that's on Terry, not Sandy) and get removed from the roster three weeks from now. NBD here IMO.

Do we get two wins from that game since we had to win it twice?

Let's knock a few of Latos's tattoos off.

If at the time of adoption, you had asked someone (like the Commissioner) an absurdly specific question like "In an attempted steal where the runner is called safe, but his position and the fielder's position block the umpire's view of the runner coming off the base briefly while the fielder's glove with the ball in it is still firmly touching (but not with excessive force) the runner's body, and the camera clearly shows a moment when the runner's foot is off the base while the glove is on him, would this be included among the plays that this new rule is intended to cover?" , I think the answer would have been "Yes," And I'm SURE his answer would have been "Yes" (at least to the degree that any of us can be sure of such things) My point is that I don't believe most fans & media types who were replay proponents even thought of such conditions when arguing for its adoption because they were too hung up on the grail of correcting obvious goofs. I agree that they SHOULD have seen what was to come, but based on the number of comments we're hearing in this first year of the rule along the lines of: 'well yeah, I was for replay but I didn't think it was going to work like this', I think far too many failed to realize that the concept of limited replay is like trying to stay only slightly pregnant.

A sampling of headlines from the Daily News [u:n3288ndq]just from today[/u:n3288ndq] HE'S SO MUCH MORE THAN JUST A BASEBALL PLAYER JETER SHINES BRIGHTEST IN THE CONSTELLATION OF NY SPORTS STARS CLASSY YANKEE CAPTAIN WAS OUR OWN JOE DiMAGGIO SPORTS GREATS FROM YESTERDAY AND TODAY SHARE THEIR FAVORITE JETER MOMENTS TEN JETER CAREER MOMENTS THAT WILL LAST A LIFETIME

You're talking about what the rule IS - and on that note the umps* had no choice but to overturn yesterday's call. What I'm talking about what folks had in mind when they supported the implementation of replay and I'm sure that it was not the intent of most to stop the game for 1, 2, or maybe 5 minutes while evidence was microscopically examined off site to determine whether or not a slider's spikes lost contact with the base for a split-second, or whether a throw had settled into the mitt as the runner hit the base or was still just within the air space of the glove at that moment. If the league and fans think that the whole of the relay rule is a net positive then fine; they're just going to have to realize that they can't have it halfway. * or whoever's making these calls in their NY studio - the league is being very UNtransparent about this

Trachsel My Tears wrote: If the Mets had picked off 3B the tying run in the 9th on a review call, I doubt this messageboard would be begrudging of an instant of wasted time, somehow. Not calling it a waste of time and I'm not talking about it simply because the ruling went agains the Mets. In fact I admitted that it was the correct call as the rules are being enforced as of this season. I'm merely saying that I KNOW this kind of call is NOT what replay proponents envisioned when the rule was argued for and implemented but that once you open that box there's no way keep this type of play from being included in the reviews. The league and the fans just have to decide whether the occasionally corrected obvious botched call (the ones that got replay implemented in the first place) is worth all the delays and/or overturns of calls that virtually no one would have objected to a year ago. And as I type this the final out of the Angels/Twins game is delayed for 2 or 3 minutes while the office back in NYC decides whether the final out was really the final out (it was).

A call like that one is absolutely NOT what anyone who was proposing or advocating replay reviews was thinking of, but once that can of worms is open there's no way to keep those type of minuscule misses from being pulled along in the storm. As the rule is written it was correct to overturn the safe call. MLB and its fans just need to decide whether they think all the interruptions, fishing expeditions, and micro-managing of these ticky-tacky "injustices" are worth the cost.

Edgy MD wrote: Philly goes up 8-7 in the eleventh over Washington. They've got enough of a lead to where it almost certainly won't matter in the long run (esp w/Atlanta reeling) but what a brutal loss for the Nats. - Up 5-0 against the last place club w/Strasberg on the mound, Matt Williams pulled him after 6 IP/95 pitches only to see the Phils chip away against four relievers to get things to 7-4 in the 9th - closer Soriano then blows the 3-run save via a 2R HR by Ruiz on an 0-2 count, then a 2-out, game-tying HR by Ben (1 HR in my entire 2,000 AB career) Revere - then Philly's game-winning rally in the 11th starts when Harper runs into Denard Span on a routine fly ball putting the leadoff batter on 2nd. Span did not look happy with young Bryce. Phils go on to score twice with both runs unearned thanks to the OF gaff, before Papelbon does the 1 walk + 2 hits save act, finally getting Harper for the final out w/2 on Between the blown leads, the game-losing error, the Eight relievers who couldn't close out what was looking like an easy cruise, and the 4-1/2 hour game time on a hot night, that could not have been a happy clubhouse afterward, even with the comfortable lead and Braves loss.

Pretty good night overall for 'ABY' fans of AL baseball centering mostly around the fact that KC's James Shields, with 9th inning help from fill-in closer Wade Davis, shut out the Yanx 1-0 on 3 hits. The NYDN seems to take great pleasure in pointing out that the game ended 'AGAIN', as they put it, with Carlos Beltran looking at strike three. Also good: - Cleveland danced out of bases-loaded/one-out trouble in the top of the 10th then got a walk-off win in the bottom half vs Chicago to pull even w/the MFYs at 4.5 games out of the 2nd WC - Seattle jumped up to the lead in that race with their win in Texas On the bad side of the ledger - Oakland (13-20 since Aug 1st) lost to Houston and the West race is looking pretty done to them (6 games back) - Tigers got smacked by the Giants and are currently sitting out of the playoff picture - and Toronto blew two runs leads in both the 8th & 10th innings in Boston to torpedo their chance at moving up in the WC race and ahead of the Yanx