Frayed Knot

Centerfield wrote: And for what it's worth, it's not just the MFY's that do this. Jon Niese is getting a nice two week paid vacation as we speak. Niese wasn't going to the All-Star Game - or at least probably not. Tanaka had already been named. Also, a surprising number of MFYs are deemed as 'not quite ready' every time the WBC rolls around. Ahh, it's no big deal, I'm sure Panama has lots of top notch relievers they can slot in there instead.

btw, on the Astros rebuilding program: Carlos Correa (2012 Number 1/1 pick) - recovering from a broken leg Mark Appel - (2013 # 1/1). Looking for all the world like there's little chance of him living up to the 1/1 pick.. From a BA Q&A: ... [have talked now to] six pro scouts who have seen him. Best report I�ve gotten from any of them is that he�s a backend of the rotation starter�maybe a good innings eating No. 4 starter. ... he�s now over a year into his pro career. At this point, there�s a lot of experienced pro scouts who have seen him and think there�s a lot of reasons to be concerned. The best hope is that what we�ve seen from Appel so far is not an indication of what his stuff and command will be long-term. Brady Aiken (2014 #1/1) - HS LHP. Remains unsigned at this point, at least in part because there's already talk about elbow problems. Not that any of these problems are, by themselves, critical. Correa was playing well prior to the injury and his leg is expected to recover completely; Appel could still contribute or surprise (although they'll almost certainly rue those they didn't draft instead), and of course the jury is still out on Aiken. They've hit big, it seems, on 2011 #11 overall George Springer (19 HRs in his first <300 ML ABs) and could actually climb out of last place with a win tonight. But, yeah, it's way too premature to declare their turnaround a success.

Wheeler - 3.5 Eveland - 0.2 Black - 0.2 Mejia - 0.5 Familia - 0.3 Recker - 2.0 Nieuwenhuis - 1.3 Tejada - 1.0 Duda - 0.5 Murphy - 0.5

Granderson - 1.0 d'Arnaud - 1.5 Murphy - 0.5 Wright - 0.5 Abreu - 0.5 Tejada - 0.5 Nieuwenhuis - 0.5

Torres - 2.0 Black - 0.5 Familia - 0.7 Mejia - 0.4 Campbell - 1.8 Duda - 1.8 d'Arnaud - 1.8 Granderson - 0.5 Abreu - 0.5

Gee - 4.5 Black - 0.5 Majia - 0.2 Murphy - 1.3 Wright - 1.0 d'Arnaud - 2.0 Nieuwenhuis - 0.5

bmfc1 wrote: It seems as if d'A goes to the mound as often as Y. Molina. And if he can just up his trips to where he's making three or four more per inning than he is now he may have a shot at Posada's single-season mark, a record generally considered by baseball historians to be more unbreakable than DiMaggio's '56'

Ceetar wrote: Hey, any word on if Jeter is going to this All-Star game or finding an excuse to bow out? Nah, Jeter always attends as do the majority of MFY position players. Besides, since the moment he announced his decision to retire this ASG was set-up to be a virtual three-day party specifically to honor him. You think he's going to skip out on that? It's the Yanqui pitchers who always seem to come up with some well-timed early July injury -- ** Oooooh, I think I just sprained my Tripoli joint** -- which land them on the DL over the break thus enabling them to get a two-week rest but often miss just one start. It's also an action which gives the Yanx an opportunity to remind MLB that they're above all that league cooperation shit and will allow their guys to participate in league-wide events if and when they feel like it. Now maybe this Tanaka thing is actually something and will turn out to be more serious than just the usual mid-season hi-jinx ... or maybe it won't.

Zvon wrote: I'm looking for Edgy at the Nats game. I hope you don't have an orange shirt on Ed. It's difficult enough. Look for red pants.

Time to settle in and watch the Cleveland Native Americans try to walk-off the Yanx 4-4 in bottom nine (how'd they get through 8-1/2 innings so quickly?)

Are we even allowed to play sub 3 hour games these days? 2:23 of crispy goodness that one was.

Both from Brindgehampton, NY - although by the time Pierzynski got to HS he was in Florida. Yaz came via Notre Dame.

Maybe in a few minutes you can dare say that.

There was virtually no sign of this kind of talent anywhere either last year after his call up or in the early parts of this season, but suddenly it's everywhere. You've got to figure that all those repetitions he missed by being out the latter half of 2012 and the early part of 2013 stunted his progress a bit.

btw, AJ Pierzynski, the second best ML player of Polish descent from Long Island's east end. Readers?

We're beginning to see what the scouts 'n touts saw in d'Arnaud for the last couple of years.

Braves hitters fade to Black

The thing is that all those FA signings for not-so-big names allowed the Sox to retain their top prospects, many of whom are cutting their teeth this season. So it seems that the Sox could win big again with their up-an-coming crop in a few years after winning big with the temporarily-restock-the-team FAs. Of course, the youngsters could all go bust, but overall I think it was still good planning. My point wasn't that the Sox's plan was flawed or that they plain got lucky with many of those signings--I mean, they DID get lucky but every team that wins has a big slice of luck on their sides--only that a strategy that can best be described as 'Sign guys who all have better-than-anticipated seasons simultaneously' is not exactly an easy thing to pull off and win with in the first place much less replicate, and signings like the ones they made in 2013 can just as easily go wrong in 2014, the Piersynzski DFA'ing being an example. Sometimes the strategy remains the same but the results change and you go from looking really smart to really stupid with the same actions. And the larger point being that those NY writers, who used the Boston WS win to reflexively pen columns telling the Mets & Yanx to simply 'do what the Sawx just did' as the path to winning were just plain being lazy. Not surprisingly there were a similar number of pieces touting the runner-up StL Cardinal plan as a blueprint to success, that plan being: make a lot of really good draft picks so that they all blossom into solid ML players and/or stars at the same time. That's a bit like telling NFL teams that the best way to improve your franchise for the next decade-plus is to draft a Tom Brady quality QB in the sixth round. Gee, thanks Ace, I'll remember to do it that way next time.

Didn't see any of their game last night (when the seriously, I just used a racist word when I really meant "Guardians" hit Tanaka up for 5 runs) but caught about a minute of Francesa's intro today and he was saying it was the first time all year that Tanaka looked less than good ... and then added, 'he looked pretty bad in fact' (10 hits, a couple of HRs, etc.) Don't know whether the MRI is in response to something he's actually feeling or from Cashman et al deciding that if he's not dominant then he must be injured like he's some sort of high performance sports car and they need to go under the hood and find out why it's not purring quite right. But if HE ain't gonna be winning games for them on a regular basis in the 2nd half ...

Edgy MD wrote: AJ Pierzynski is now DFAJ Pierzynski, because it looks like Boston is moving on. This reminds me of the end of last season when many columnists took the time to 'instruct' the Mets & Yanx about how, if they wanted to improve, they needed to follow the Boston template. Problem was that the 2013 'Boston Template' basically consisted of simultaneously having every one of your pickups and FA fill-ins perform up to or better than expectations. - add Drew to play SS ... he has the best year of his career - take a risk on the aging Shane Victorino? ... he bounces back to his Philly years - Mike Napoli fails his physical so you withdraw the three-year contract offer? ... so he signs a one-year make-good deal instead and becomes the heart & soul of the club w/27 HRs thrown in for good measure - have your fourth choice for closer turn lights-out for a half-season? ... Check! - Need Jonny Gomes to drop in 30 XBHs in 300 ABs? ... Check - get Saltalamacchia to hit 40 points over his career norms across the board? ... Check; - Jose Igleseis, Daniel Nava, Mike Carp all hit .300? ... Yup, just like you drew up the script during ST. None of which means the org doesn't deserve credit for hitting on most or all of their moves and winning the WS. It's just that, as hard as that is to do, it's even harder to get the stars to align two years running and the fact that they're currently sitting with just about the worst record in the AL is kind of proof of that. So how's the Boston Template looking now Bill Madden?

Just as long as deGrom never tries the white-boy corn-rows thing.

Yeah, through his first six starts this season (two of those vs the Mets) Santana had an ERA of 1.99 In the ten starts since then it's been 5.20

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Is Matt Reynolds someone we should start getting excited about? I dunno. College pick in 2012 (U Arkansas). Had a partial season in 2012 then his first full one in 2013 where his bat was nothing special [.225/.300/.335]. As such he wasn't mentioned prominently in pre-season prospect stuff but he was moving quickly up the ladder (low A in 2012, A+ and AA in 2013) and I think the reports on his glove are good. Now his offense just seems to have exploded this year (well, not a lot of power but otherwise good -- .358/.425/.443) in AA & AAA. So while the track record isn't long, he's still only 23 and, if he can handle the position defensively, maybe there is reason to wonder if he's at least a piece of the future.

Trade Update: Duda (Full season) - 262 ABs; .260/.359/.485; 13 HRs Ike (Pitt portion only) - 201 ABs; .244/.357/.398; 4 HRs Quite similar until you get to the HR part - and if you're going to be Ike Davis and not hit HRs then ... Zach Thorton (since deal) -- 32 G; 39.2 IP; 45 Hits; 15 BB; 43 K; 3 HRs; 3.86 ERA; 1.51 WHiP aka: Welcome to Las Vegas. Mainly what's worse since the deal is his walk rate [3.4/9 after being a bit over 2.0 during his previous 4 minor league seasons] and his HR rate slightly [virtually none to still under 1.0/9] Blake Taylor (GC Mets) -- 3 Games, 1 Start. 10.2 IP, 1 Hit YAAAAY!, 7 BBs Booooo, 10 Ks IOW, welcome to the world of 18 y/o hurlers (turns 19 next month)

Black - 0.4 Edgin - 0.2 Mejia - 0.1 Familia - 0.2 deGrom - 2.1 EYoung - 1.5 Lagares - 1.0 Granderson - 0.5