Frayed Knot

Sometimes you're the windshield Mr. Taylor, sometimes you're the bug.

That's a quick promotion for Taylor: ML debut & hitting 8th one day, starting in CF and leading off the next.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: ... I also blame a good deal of my lack of interest on the wild card slots also introduced that year. To my way of seeing things, it cheapened the title considerably. I hate to say this, but I think that baseball is a deeply flawed sport because of the amount of luck involved in determining the outcome of any game -- significantly more so than in any of the other major team sports I'm aware of. The way to counter this is to keep the # of playoff teams at a minimum -- otherwise the sport won't be rewarding excellence as strongly as it ought to. Of course, the powers of the game care about $$ more than anything else, and more playoff teams brings in more $$ -- so whenever it's $$ versus the purity of the game, or $$ versus anything -- well we all know which factor is going to override every other one. The last NINE NFL seasons have produced more Super Bowl winners from the bottom of their playoff structure [Two 4th seeds, One 5th seed, Two 6th seeds = 5] than from the top half [Two 1st seeds, one 2nd seed, one 3rd seed = 4] and remember that those 5 & 6 seeds wouldn't even make the playoffs in MLB's 1995-2011 system. Looked at another way, that's as many LAST seeds as first and 1/3 of the most recent 9 champions were somewhere in the 7th to 12th best team that season. But, as usual, a trait which is cited as an asset in where football is concerned (PARITY!!! ... Oh those wacky playoffs) is treated as a negative in baseball (What a shitty sport, the best teams don't always win!) I don't dispute your point about too many 'post-season' teams having a negative effect that's usually not discussed among playoff-happy leagues and the networks that flog them, only that this is neither unique to baseball nor, IMO, more pronounced. NHL hockey (if you're one who considers that a major sport) is MUCH more random come Stanley Cup tourney time. The NBA is probably less so (even as the playoffs are double the size and length) but that speaks more to the sizable gap between the top shelf teams and the also-rans that make up the back end of the 'non-lottery' gaggle. Roughly half of their playoff teams (and often more) in any given year have no chance to win and everyone knows it going in.

A = Werner B = Manfred C = The other guy

Coincidentally to this being Strike-aversary week, the owners start meeting today in advance of an expected vote tomorrow to select Bud Selig's replacement. Current MLB COO Rob Manfred, Red Sox chairman Tom Werner, and MLB executive vice president of business Tim Brosnan are the leading candidates. Manfred is Selig's choice, and is considered to be the front-runner and the one most likely to continue along the current direction of the late Selig regime. And while there probably isn't enough opposition to make one of the others the winner, there may just be enough to prevent Manfred from getting the 23 of 30 vote minimum needed and force a stalemate. As usual, White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf is said to be involved and if he could put together a big enough faction to oppose Manfred it would signal that there is at least a sizable minority of owners NOT all that happy with the current path and maybe instead hold out for someone who'll bring a more confrontational tact with the player's union.

THE BEST OF TIMES has gone unmentioned here. Certainly not a great movie but one that's better than that type of movie usually is. Robin Williams convinces his friend and HS star Kurt Russell to organize a replay of 'The Big Game' 20-some years after the fact so that William's character can at least partially erase his big HS failure and, in the process, those of his small home town in the years since.

Watching Fister deliver a pitch every 8-10 seconds like he does (and being successful at it) pretty much sticks a knife into the argument/excuse that enforcing a pitch clock would somehow not allow pitchers "to properly do their jobs".

No damage to Verlander's shoulder, "only 1 to 2 starts" missed ... at least as of now. IOW, more deGrom than Santana so far. The bigger problem for Detroit is that Verlander wasn't that good prior to this problem. And that Anibal Sanchez is DL'd. And that the just acquired Jochim Soria is DL'd. And that Joe Nathan is 64 y/o and blows about as many saves and he saves. And ...

Must have heard from a dozen or more pitchers over the years following their return from TJ surgery about the best advice they got about recovery from previous TJ patients, and almost inevitably it was: DONT. RUSH. IT.

A number of reports, particularly from those with a sports angle, are portraying RW as a "huge SF Giants fan". Now maybe that's true as he was raised and lived much of his life in that area. Plus the team's been good in recent years and he certainly wouldn't be the first celebrity to jump on a sports bandwagon. But if it is true then it's a later-in-life conversion. I remember he and Crystal on a NYM telecast a whole buncha years ago (maybe back to the Tim & Ralph days) where Williams admitted to knowing next to nothing about the game other than what Crystal had prepped him on prior to the show. He also said that the significance of the 'Fisk game' had to be explained to him so he could understand the scene when his character in 'Good Will Hunting' is telling Damon's about having tickets that night but skipping it to be with his future wife. Not a big deal either way really. But when I hear about claims of celebrity fandom I instinctively wonder how much of it is real and how much is image.

-- That Michael Taylor in the Nats lineup will be making his ML debut tonight. A 23 y/o 6th round pick in 2009, his minor league career was going only so-so until suddenly blossoming this year at both AA & AAA [.315/.401/.547 combined. 45 XBH in < 400 ABs] He is starting in place of the somewhat banged up Jayson Werth and replaces that Steven Souza guy we saw briefly last week who managed to run hisself into a wall over the weekend. Not a great way to stay in the bigs kid. -- Starting catcher Wilson Ramos is back after missing the entire series last week in DC while on paternity leave. -- Bryce Harper got into a minor amount of hot water in Atlanta when he "accidentally" dragged his spikes at least twice over the 'A' logo behind the plate on his way to the batter's box. The really dorky part is him denying it afterward. Shiiit, boy, I know you're still just 21 y/o and all, but if you're going to do it--and it's so blatantly obvious you did--then just own up to it. -- [from above] The Nationals have won eight consecutive road games in this series, outscoring the Mets 60-17 This needs to change.

Ceetar wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: Or they could make their medical decisions based on, y'know, what the medical people think rather than on where the team currently sits in the standings. but then what would be complain about? That they, who got their medical knowledge via watching reruns of 'House' and/or 'Gray's Anatomy', know better than the actual doctors who, y'know, examined the actual patient.

SteveJRogers wrote: Among those who never played again after that day: Rich Gossage - final game was on Aug 8 Gossage has the distinction of being an active MLBer during every labor related work stoppage. So then clearly all the labor problems were his fault.

That would be your [u:2ngix5xt]First Place[/u:2ngix5xt] Kansas City Royals

Among those who never played again after that day: Rich Gossage - final game was on Aug 8 Jack Morris - Aug 7 Bo Jackson - Aug 10

deGrom - 2.5 Black - 0.5 Carlyle - 0.7 familia - 0.5 Edgin - 0.2 Mejia - 0.4 Murphy - 2.0 Nieuwenhuis - 1.2 Flores - 0.5 EYoung - 0.5 Granderson - 0.5

Fisher King on the top of my list too. The strong director thing is something I always thought was key. We often hear about movies with gratuitous sex or gratuitous violence. Well some movies suffered from gratuitous Robin Williams, where the lack of reining him in could throw the whole flick into a mash-up between coherent film and RW stand-up routine.

Or they could make their medical decisions based on, y'know, what the medical people think rather than on where the team currently sits in the standings.

Josh Willingham from Minnesota to the Royals. Only batting .210 now at age 35 (.253 lifetime) but still knows the strike zone (.345 OBA) and still packs some punch (18 XBH including 12 HRs out of his 47 hits)

Sometimes that level of genius comes with some bad baggage, in this case drug & alcohol abuse and apparently depression. Which isn't to say that ordinary folks don't have those problems too, but one does wonder about the connections.

"Rotator Cuff Tendonitis" Asst GM John Ricco none the less calling this "good news" and that the remedy is rest and anti-inflammatory meds. Montero, already in New York apparently, has been called up and will take Tuesday's start and presumably several other turns as well.

Granderson definitely means nothing. Niese probably means nothing as, even if the Mets were inclined to deal him in an attempt for an SS or LF, I suspect that would be more an off-season type of thing than a stretch-drive move. Colon would mean something as it would expand the pool of trading partners. He could still be dealt w/o clearing waivers but only to the claiming team and that claiming team might just be pulling a blocking move.

Edgy MD wrote: This is interesting. If interference is ruled, is that a double or an out? Clearly a double. Granderson was nowhere near it and made no try for the ball except maybe to hope for a rebound.

Ruben Tejada: late inning defensive replacement (helps that Flores made the final out) And Buddy Carlyle is your 8th inning man today.

It was a ridiculous send by the Philly coach. Brown on 2nd, Phils down by 3 w/2 outs and the big hitters coming up, single up the middle, and Brown hadn't even reached 3B by the time Lagares was picking up the ball. It wasn't even a particularly good throw (several feet to the 1B-side of the plate) but Recker had oodles of time to slide over and tag him out by 15 feet.