Frayed Knot

Not sure about the health benefits, but I can see how this Cups thing can increase hand-eye coordination. [youtube:yyqe61gt]6y1aOg_UO_A[/youtube:yyqe61gt]

Montero Tuesday night vs Sacratomato 8 IP, 1 Hit, 11 Ks, 2 walks, retired the final 12 hitters he faced, 105 pitches/73 strikes. But did they win? Yeah, wise ass, Vegas won 3-0. Overall AAA stats: 6-3, 3.28 in 15 starts/75 IP

Fister, acquired from Detroit in the off-season, missed all of April with injuries, then sucked in his first start of the year (7 runs on 9 hits & 3 HRs over 4-1/3 IP vs Oakland). Since then he's made 14 starts and has held the opposition to 2 runs or less in 11 of them (and just 3, 3, and 4 in the others) so his ERA is around 2.30 if you ignore that first outing. He won't strike out a lot, but also doesn't walk many, keeps the ball in the park, and gets a ton of ground balls. We need to kick his ass.

- Adam Dunn made the first pitching appearance of his 14-year career on Tuesday night, coming in in the 9th inning of a game his White Sox were already losing 15-0 To his credit the Sox were only losing 16-0 when he left. Final line: 1 inning, 1 run on 2 singles plus a walk. - The Cubs called up one of their top prospects yesterday, SS Javier Baez (although he's going to be playing 2B for at least the time being) Baez went just 1-for-6 in his debut, but that one hit was a game-winning 12th inning HR in Colorado.

Jeter is so classy, ain't he? Keith Olbermann explains: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rK8jw4jR_0 And what goes unmentioned by Olbermann is that one of the more prominent graffiti-like things on those shoes is: MVP ... which is all well and good until you remember that Jeter's never been an MVP* * despite attempts by writers a few years back to get him one in the style of a lifetime Oscar even as they admitted he didn't deserve it for that year

MFS62 wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: Well if I think that the puppet/wife is hot, does that make me weird? I thought it was just me. Yeah, the voice is great. But, there's something in the way she moves ... Attracts me like no other puppet.

Yeah, until his more than walk-an-inning + hit-an-inning + run-an-inning pace* got his ass booted back to upstate New York. Has somewhat improved his BB/IP rates in Bingo 2014 as compared to Bingo 2013 [4.1 per/9 from 4.9 per] so now he gets to show if he can continue that at the higher level. * 29 IP, 29 walks, 32 runs, 33 runs allowed (25 earned)

Promoted to AAA

So that's one in a row against Washington. So now we only need 9 of the final 12* * not that that alone would be enough to put us over the top, but with a little help it'll go a long way towards doing so

I saw Barry Bonds run himself into a triple play at Shea one time. 1st & 3rd (Bonds on 3rd), a double-play ball is hit but for some reason Barry didn't run immediately (wrong dosage perhaps). So as the ball is being whipped around towards 1st he breaks for the plate and is thrown out 6-4-3-2 (or something like that). I think that was the only one I saw live, but maybe not. My softball team turned several over the years though.

Zvon wrote: Do we have 3 or 4 games against them this series? 3 this week, 3 more in NYC next week. Then 7 more in September.

In addition to the low calls from the other day, we've been screwed on some half-swings lately.

Ooooh, I think that one went off Cabrera's asdrubal.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: From where I stand, it either makes you very particular, or not at all particular. Either way, it beats FMan's thing for Flo the insurance lady.

Lefty Specialist wrote: It just seems like teams give up early runs to the Mets before realizing, "Hey, wait a minute, these are the METS", and then proceed to shut them down the rest of the way. I almost think it's more like the Mets saying; Hey wait a minute, we're the Mets, and then quickly cease all scoring.

I'm starting to think that every single play at the plate from now on is automatically going to go under review.

I think Wheels finished that inning with fewer than triple-digit pitches.

Not a one sentence summary, but you know those cable commercials trying to sell you on the idea of wireless connections for your TV even though the guy's wife (and his kid and a grandpa in different versions) is, ironically enough, a puppet on wires? Well if I think that the puppet/wife is hot, does that make me weird?

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Criminy. Can you imagine what the Nats would have done there if they'd had a hit in that inning? Technically they did as the hit-the-runner play is scored as a hit for the batter and a putout for the closest fielder (Tejada). But, on a more general point, yeah - no Nat even got the ball out of the outfield (in either inning) until Gonzalez flied to CF on the final pitch.

The thing is, the 'veteran-ness' of a guy like him is only worthwhile if he does well at those things where savvy vets supposedly have an edge: like pinch-hitting. But he had a horrible track record in the PH role - yeah, it's only a small sample, but anything in that role is going to be a small sample so if you're going to count the good times you have to also hand out demerits for the bad. Then throw in that his one HR was from his very first week here, that he was being yanked for LHPs, that he doesn't field or run particularly well and you find yourself running out of reasons to keep him around. Nieuwy and/or MdD can K against LHPs just as well as Abreu, but at least they brings legs and gloves to the party.

Surprisingly low score for Murphy, not just that he was in 6th place for the month but that there's such a gap points-wise between him and the top. Lucas Duda, suddenly a contender for 2014 PotY!!

Not sure about a sweep, but with 6 of the next 10 coming against the Nats, and 13 of the final 50, we will have to take a big chunk of those.

[u:2qyr02nt]What's Gnu with the Gnats[/u:2qyr02nt] They're starting to pull away on top of the NL East (currently a 3 game lead) but that says a bit more about the Braves then it does the Nats. Atlanta faltering on the west coast has allowed Washington to gain ground even while going just 4-6 over their last 10 games. And with a +76 RS/RA they should really be much further ahead of the Braves and their measly +9 but, for the second year in a row, the Nats as a whole seem to be less than the sum of their parts. - 3B/LF Ryan Zimmerman out with a severe hamstring pull so we won't see him in this series or the one next week, or quite possibly for the rest of the season. This means Rendon permanently at 3B - former Cleveland SS Asdrubal Cabrera was a trade deadline acquisition who'll play 2B more or less every day for them. This means Danny Espinosa back to the bench - C Wilson Ramos is out on paternity leave (he's looked pregnant to me for a while) and will miss this entire series - OF/PH/disappointment Nate McLouth has been DL'd. Prospect Steven Souza Jr has been called up. Apparently a power threat. 1 for 8 in ML so far. Hot: Jayson Werth -- NL PotM in July Anthony Rendon -- probably their best hitter going forward and may already be Denard Span -- OBA shot from .317 in early July to .354 now upping their leadoff position from Suck to Not-Suck Not: Adam LaRoche -- .159/.238/.227 w/1 HR in July Bryce Harper -- yeah he missed all of May & June, but still only 3 HRs all season in 200 ABs and without power hes really kind of average and his occasional primo donna quirks become less cute and more annoying Rotation: Tues -- Gio Gonzalez (6-7, 3.38, 1.26) vs Wheeler. Up and down season for a guy who was battling for a CY two years back Wed -- Doug Fister (10-3, 2.68, 1.09) vs Niese. After missing the first two months of the season, Fister has been their best starter Thurs (12:35) -- Jordan Zimmermannnnn (7-5, 3.00, 1.17) vs deGrom. Zimm recovered quite nicely following the sprain of his 'I don't want to go to the ASG' joint a few weeks back.

Carlyle - 0.5 Wright - 0.25 Flores - 0.75

Gee - 2.7 Black - 0.2 Edgin - 0.3 Carlyle - 0.1 Lagares - 2.0 Murphy - 2.0 Wright - 0.7