Frayed Knot

Gotta like Joe Buck and his intentionally misleading 'stat' about how the team with the home field in the WS has won the last five times -- while failing to mention that only once in those five did the series go to a seventh game.

MVP vote is over.

Mcutcheon fails to heed the script.

btw, do we KNOW FOR SURE that this is Jeter's last ASG? I mean, what's to prevent the fans and media from voting him in next year and demanding that he play ... and then the year after that ... and the year after that ... and ... ?

Player Origins NL 4 - 1st round draft picks 1 - 1S pick 4 - 2nd round 6 - 3rd thru 10th round 2 - later than 10th round (Matt Carpenter - 13th 2009; Daniel Murphy - 13th round 2006) 5 - Int'l FAs: 3 DR, 1 Venz, 1 Cuba AL 4 - 1st round picks 2 - 1S picks 1 - 2nd round 5 - 3rd thru 10th 2 - later than 10th round (Jose Bautista, 20th round 2000 Pirates; Ian Kinsler, 17th round 2003 Texas) 11 - Int'l FAs: 4 DR, 4 Venz, 3 Cuba

metirish wrote: http://metsblog.com/metsblog/mets-looking-for-ss-and-lf-help-via-trade/ All MetsBlog is doing there (Hell, all they EVER do really) is merely repeating and linking the original Adam Rubin line which I'm sure is the one that got this thread started in the first place: - namely that as we approach the July 31st deadline the Mets "will listen on trade proposals involving Bartolo Colon" (no surprise there) ... - and that they "MAY ultimately end up dealing him" (or maybe not) ... - and that if they do deal him they'd be looking for close-to-ready type players (Sandy has said as much publicly) - and that their preference would be either a SS upgrade or a bat for LF (logical assumptions).

OK, when I say that Bartolo was necessary it didn't mean specifically that HE was necessary, only that somebody was and he was one of a short list of somebodies - the Bartolo Bunch if you will despite the fact that this winter's group admittedly aren't as outwardly similar as the 'Benson Bunch' of years gone by (even considering Bronson Arroyo's hair of gold) But this was the crew (chime in if I've missed any) who were available via FA-gency last winter, so chances are if the Mets didn't sign Bartolo they were going to have to sign someone. So far things have worked out fairly well with the one we did sign, starting with the fact that Colon has made all of his starts--something Niese & Gee haven't been able to do, Mejia was pulled from doing, Matsuzaka hasn't done that well, and Montero, Syndergaard, or deGrom weren't ready to do. And by looking at the other contracts, I don't quite get the "going cheap" comments; only Tanaka was substantially more expensive and I think we all knew the Wilpons weren't going there (and maybe that's a good thing based on this week's developments) and it's tough to complain about Bartolo representing the cheap route and being overpaid at the same time. So here's the Bartolo Bunch with contract outlines and Y-t-D starts, ERA & WHiP (bold numbers show where the numbers are superior to Colon's 3.99 ERA, 1.18 WHIP) PITCHERAGEYRs$$/YrTEAMGSERAWHIPUBALDO JIMINEZ30412.50BALT184.521.54HIROKI KURODA29116.00YANX194.101.21HIRO TANAKA25722.14YANX182.511.01ERVIN SANTANA31114.00ATL174.011.26TIM HUDSON38211.50SFG182.871.10JOSH JOHNSON2918.00TOR0�-�-DAN HAREN33110.00LAD194.231.27RICKY NOLASCO31412.25MINN185.901.62PHIL HUGHES2838.00MINN193.921.21SCOTT KAZMIR30211.00OAK192.380.98SCOTT FELDMAN31310.00HOU164.331.37MIKE PELFREY3025.50MINN57.991.99MATT GARZA30412.50MILW193.691.18BRONSON ARROYO37211.75ARZ144.081.29AJ BURNETT37211.25PHIL203.831.33 So the ones clearly better so far are -- Tanaka - although the elbow injury throws all that into question; Hudson - although not much younger and coming off a broken ankle was at least as big a risk; Kazmir - virtually the same deal by the team that let Colon go, he's certainly younger and fitter although arguably less durable and one of the rumored reasons Oakland was so keen on the Samardzija deal was due to questions about Kazmir's durability; or about the same -- Hughes - so far anyway, and yet still the counter will be made about how he wouldn't have been able to do this in New York Garza - for twice the length .. plus, do you want to look at that facial hair for the next four years?!? Burnett - ummm. whatever Meanwhile Josh Johnson never got out of ST and will miss the entire season, Pelfrey's been a disaster, Arroyo just went down to TJ surgery, Jimenez has been markedly worse, Santana would have cost a draft pick on top of the money, and none of those signings look as bad right now as Ricky Nolasco's.

Mets Guy in Michigan wrote: And yet Colon has been quite necessary for 2014 and quite capable. Absolutely. I wasn't trying to give him the boot. I just was wondering if he was at potential peak value and if the benefits of trading outweighed the benefits of keeping. I was more addressing some of the recent posts that Colon's original signing was a bad or a give-up move. Look, whether the raw numbers offend us or not, $10 million/year is more or less the going rate for middle of the rotation starters on the open market - and Colon has been every bit the solid starter to date: made all his starts, avg of nearly 7 innings/start, sub-4.00 ERA, 1.18 WHiP. IOW, I'm not buying that this was some kind of white towel signing nor do I think it was sold as a Harvey replacement. Of course it was partly done because Harvey was going to be out, but that doesn't mean he was there to duplicate Harvey. Hell, if Harvey were never injured his 2014 season was unlikely to duplicate what he did in 2013. That doesn't mean you don't listen to or even troll for offers as obviously he has a limited shelf life. But I think it's clear that it wouldn't be some sort of addition by subtraction move that you want to make as soon as possible.

And yet Colon has been quite necessary for 2014 and quite capable.

- aside from the caveat that you can't trade a player you sign to a FA contract for the first half-season (without his permission anyway), I think the Mets have been willing to listen to offers for Colon since about five minutes after signing him. IOW, I doubt there's any new news here, only that it's the time of year for this sort of speculation. 1) I think, and Sandy has more or less specifically said, that the mode of the Mets right now is not to deal vets for down-the-road types of prospects but rather more ready to plug in pieces, or at least something closer to that end than the two+ years away Wheeler or Syndergaard were at the times of their trades. IOW, adjust your trade wants toward that way of thinking if you're trying to predict what comes back. 2) Not if #1 is achieved 3) deGrom's emergence certainly helps you cover the hole that trading Colon would blow in the rotation, but I don't think it's a direct link 4) Matuszaka for now, Sydergaard and/or Montero and/or Hefner if/when they show they're ready. 5) It's not like there are only two extremes here: trade him now or keep him through 2015. If not traded this month he'll have a spot on the roster as long as he proves worthy of one or until a better offer shows up 6) Yes ... or no. One or the other.

seawolf17 wrote: Ian Kennedy to pitch on Friday, followed by Ross on Saturday and someone named Odrisamer Despaigne on Sunday. Against what should be Colon, Gee, then Wheeler Kennedy was one of the 1-0 losers this past weekend to LAD, Overall he's 7-9 with a more than respectable 3.47 ERA and 1.19 WHiP

Meanwhile, back to looking forward to the Padres rather than back to the managers of Christmas past: The Friars cemented their rep for good pitching matched with pathetic hitting by losing back-to-back 1-0 games to the Dodgers over the weekend - and neither was a Kershaw game. Overall, they are not just dead last in RS/G in the NL but are last [u:2vu9rya4]by nearly a full run[/u:2vu9rya4]. They're averaging 2.94 RS/G, a whole lot behind 14th place StL's 3.75 The Mets, btw, have snuck a hair above league average thanks to their recent hitting spree: 4.03 vs 3.99 On the run prevention side, the Pads are at the head of the league by a slight margin, 3.46 RA/G leads Washington's 3.51 Park factors at Petco shirley contribute to all this, but I'm not sure we've seen those kind of scoring numbers from a ML team since the days of the Nixon/Humphrey race.

Sort of supports me. I was originally thinking that there were several really hot streaks going into the break in recent years where, like this year, Met fans would curse the whole idea of the break and its timing. But 2009's 9-1 looks to be the only one that truly fits that category, and even then there wasn't a post-ASB swoon either in the short run (6-4) or the long (August = 18-11) as newly installed Jerry made the most of his honeymoon period (55-38) and was rewarded by the contract that came out of it.

Even if the original film is one that I like (sometimes Especially if it's one that I like) I tend to either shy away from, or quickly grow weary of, sequels, updates, and other next generation type 'franchise' remakes to the point where I'd normally just dismiss this as one in which I have no interest. That said, the commercials and trailers for this flick look pretty darn cool.

Between the now universal four-day break and the fact that we're ending on the east coast and starting on the west, I'd have to think that this will be the longest in-season time frame without NYM baseball aside from the forced break caused by 9/11? Approx 130 hours between last pitch today and first pitch on Friday ... ARRRRGGGHHHH!!! I may just be mis-remembering, but it seems like we've gone into ASBs on a roll recently a lot more often than not. It would be great if somebody would check on this ... and by 'Somebody' I mean, not me. And I KNOW we've had a lot of problems coming out of ASBs in recent years. I don't need to look anything up to know that.

I like this late-inning running. A four-run lead is NOT enough to shut things down and just hope to hold on. We've done that enough this year (consciously or otherwise) and we don't need to see it again.

Wow, so that turned out to be an obstruction at 2nd call rather than a plate-blocking call. I think a better case can be made for the latter rather than the former, but it at least explains why the rookie ump came running in from 120 feet away to overrule his colleagues.

Zvon wrote: So we were probably all thinking the same thing. Boy is TC gonna look like shit when CYoung strikes out. Amazin'. Nah, it was the right move no matter how it turned out. Maybe one can make the argument that Nieuwenhuis (and Duda for that matter) should be getting more ABs against LHPs so they'd learn to hit them better, but until we reach that point he's a career .150 hitter with virtually no XBHs when facing a lefty so a critical time like that is the perfect spot to use Cy Oung and if he went down swinging I wasn't going to blame Terry for the move. Pissed at Young maybe, but not at Terry.

Matsuzaka - 0.9 Murphy - 0.3 Torres - 0.3 Black - 0.3 Mejia - 0.5 CYoung - 2.3 Tejada - 1.0 d'Arnaud - 1.7 Campbell - 1.5 Nieuwenhuis - 1.2

Not sure we've had a bolt out of the blue like C Young's HR since Nieuwenhuis hit that game-winner vs the Cubbies last June. Sure this only tied the game, but it was just so quick and so unexpected. Bad OF muff by Lagares.... No it wasn't. If he lays back on that the run scores anyway. He went for it but couldn't get there is all. Make sure to give a few sips to Muffy for that line drive snag even though he went hitless otherwise. Tejada too for the bunt. Terry pushed a lot of right buttons in this one: the squeeze, C Young to PH, Campbell for Nieuwenhuis

Wheeler - 3.0 Wright - 3.2 Lagares - 2.0 Duda - 1.8

Problem right now is, while we've got others who can play CF and play it pretty well (not Lagares well, but well well) I don't have any confidence in their offense either. Nieuwy & MdD K too much and haven't shown any ability to hit LHPs, Brown & Soupy are bats only, Cy Oung is considerably worse with the glove and can't hit either, Grandy's decent out there but then we'd need a serious corner basher, and even if Nimmo turns out to be the decent power/OBP-machine that we hope, he's at least mid-2015 away and it's questionable how well he'd handle CF

Bonus IGT as we go to Baltimore O's get a leadoff double (Machado) in the 10th, Buck then decides to bunt the runner over to 3rd but his guy Ks, ... AND THEY GET THE GAME-WINNING HIT ANYWAY O's 3 - Yanx 2 shouldn't have bunted Buck, but you got the win despite yourself.

Loved Gary's lack-of-K's lately stat. Swinging more and earlier = lack of swinging and missing ... what a concept!

Odd time to pull Wheeler. And just as he was one out short of qualifying for not just the 6-inning/<4 runs Quality Start but the 7/<4 Super Quality Start