Frayed Knot

Eveland - 1.0 Edgin - 0.4 Familia - 0.4 Germen - 0.3 Duda - 1.5 Granderson - 1.5 CYoung - 1.5 Campbell - 0.7 Tejada - 0.7

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Game zipped by: In the 6th I checked up on the Mets and Wheeler was getting pinch-hit for. Games started at the same time. I like to think that this is a result of some sort of top-down directive designed to train minor leaguers into NOT developing the kind of time-wasting, step-out/step-off habits that some of their prima donna ML cousins now display on a nightly basis ... but I suspect it's just a case of a quick game for no particular reason other than random chance.

You have to wonder why a guy who can throw like this -- from the left side no less -- was ever NOT a pitcher.

Chris Young: Punisher of mistake pitches

Granderson since May 1st: 164 ABs, 47 Hits, 8 2Bs, 1 3B, 9 HRs, 34 BBs, 45 Ks -- .287/.399/.512 // 911

Flicked by Francesa's show for literally ten seconds or so this afternoon and caught the tail end of some caller complaining about Murphy NOT bunting. Since I didn't hear the beginning of the call I'm not sure of his exact beef but it seemed to be about the 1st inning last night when Muffy K'd after EYJ's leadoff single before he later got picked off. Caller seemed to think that instructing your top BA hitter to intentionally make an out in the 1st inning was both a proper and necessary move. To Francesa's credit he wasn't buying any of it. And, yeah, it wasn't good to hear both Keith & Ron agree with the no-bunt edict during Colon's last AB, but nor was it surprising. Old habits die hard and here you've got two 60 & 55-ish y/o ex-players whose time was now a quarter century or more ago and learned the game from their fathers whose time obviously goes back a quarter century or so before that. And since they both played there seems to be less of a chance that they're going to be open to thinking they can learn new things from those who didn't play at their level.

Centerfield wrote: Things I think are ok in baseball. 4. Not stealing, bunting,taking the extra base with a big lead. It's dumb. Play hard at all times. Unless you are up by a lot. But if they catch up a little, then play hard again, until your lead is big enough, and then stop playing hard again. Play hard. All the time. Fuck the other team. I always liked it when the manager of a running team would say that his guys would stop running with a big lead just as soon as his power-laden opponents promised to stop trying to hit HRs.

seawolf17 wrote: We're so jaded, we ANTICIPATE the Mets screwing things up. When it comes to sports marketing in general and the Mets in particular, yes, I expect well-intentioned though ultimately clumsy attempts at instructing the fans exactly when and how to be spontaneous with a unique routine which they wholly appropriated from somewhere else. it's a ritual the players engage in while in their own dugout, not out on the field. It's not directed at anybody but themselves. It's got nothing to do with the other team, or with the fans for that matter. And these in-dugout routines--different variations on similar themes mostly--seem to be increasingly common these days in the various stadiums throughout MLB, so it's not like this particular one by the Mets (assuming this becomes an ongoing deal) is going to stick out or should piss opponents off to any degree.

If this were a longer home stand I could see this catching on by the weekend. My fear is that, with a lengthy road trip starting tomorrow and the ASB not far away, it'll give the front office time to prepare a gimmick around it before it ever gets a chance to succeed or fail on its own and then it WILL seem all forced and artificial.

The towel waving that was going on in the dugout in response to big hits and especially HRs last night seems to be something that started organically with the players (maybe beginning with Bartolo's 1st hit last week?) meaning I could see it catching on with fans in short order. Ordinarily I tend to back away from that sort of thing and see it as a kind of cheesy, small-town act not worthy of New York, and especially so because it's often as a result of a marketing ploy driven by a lame front-office idea of fan unity (see: NBA arenas and their color-coordinated fan nights for instance). But the fact that this seems to be a from-the-dugout act I don't think I'm going to recoil if I suddenly see a couple thousand towels being whipped around in the stands. Now that doesn't mean this won't become a cheesy marketing ploy quickly enough via a hastily arranged towel give-away day complete with some car dealership logo on strip of cheap cloth and scoreboard directed prompts to WAVE YOUR TOWEL!!!!, ... but at least it's not starting out that way. Of course the players still have to worry about overdoing it to the point of getting a fastball in the ribs in response, but I'll let them worry about that.

deGrom - 4.2 Familia - 0.5 Mejia - 0.3 Duda - 2.0 Wright - 1.8 CYoung - 1.2

Colon - 4.4 CYoung - 2.0 EYoung - 0.7 d'Arnaud - 1.2 Murphy - 0.7 Granderson - 1.0

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I'm hoping it will inspire Chris Young to hit three homers on Tuesday night. 2/3 of the way there and four innings still to go.

Ceetar wrote: caught a Yankees play in the bar area when I was getting a drink. Reyes made a nice play at short to get someone, 6-1 Jays at the time. And then Reyes made an error which not only let in two runs and tied things up 6-6 but nearly got his 1st baseman killed in the process Reyes then led off the 9th with a double and scored the game-winner via a bunt+error on the very next pitch ... so I guess it was a good night on balance That's actually two in a row for the Jays over the Yanx and four straight losses overall for da bombers.

And, see, it's actually possible to have a high-scoring game in less than 1-1/2 hours.

Zvon wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: Joe West displaying that high-energy that he's known for from coast to coast. How did that not hurt? 75 pounds of padding up front?

Joe West displaying that high-energy that he's known for from coast to coast.

Zvon wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: And remember - no Met has ever had a 3 HR game at home. That might win me over. Be kind of funny if it finally happens by a guy who has one foot in the grave and another on a banana peel.

And remember - no Met has ever had a 3 HR game at home.

Eric Young Jr., lf Daniel Murphy, 2b David Wright, 3b Eric Campbell, 1b Curtis Granderson, rf Chris Young, cf Travis d'Arnaud, c Ruben Tejada, ss Bartolo Colon, rhp Coco Crisp, cf Josh Donaldson, 3b Brandon Moss, 1b Yoenis Cespedes, lf Stephen Vogt, c Jed Lowrie, ss Josh Reddick, rf Alberto Callaspo, 2b Scott Kazmir, lhp

MFS62 wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: Closer Sean Doolittle's numbers are ridiculous (most notably his 50-1 K/BB ratio) I wonder if he had Angel Hernandez, who has been known to miss more than a few pitches, behind the plate in any of those games. It's actually possible to look stuff like that up these days, and the answer to that question is ... No. I did hear once that when things weren't going so well for him that Doolittle contemplated jumping to the Giants in the Japanese league but then quickly dismissed the idea. In fact they say he was over Tokyo in 30 seconds.

Matsuzaka - 3.0 Edgin - 0.3 Familia - 0.5 Nieuwenhuis - 1.0 Wright - 1.2 Murphy - 0.7 Granderson - 0.8 Campbell - 1.0

Wheeler - 6.0 Wright - 3.1 Murphy - 0.3 Granderson - 0.3 EYoung - 0.3

Edgy MD wrote: That background on Doolittle makes almost no sense. It really doesn't, does it? He was, at least at times, a two-way player at Virginia, but that's not at all uncommon in college. The odd journey started when he was strictly a position player from the time he was drafted in 2007 through 2009 - he then got injured and didn't play at all in 2010, or again in 2011 with the exception of 1 inning as a pitcher - by 2012 he was a 25 y/o who had sat out two full years and was not only a full-time pitcher but was in the major leagues by June after a brief sprint through the minors that consisted of just 6 appearances/10 innings at A-ball (0.87 ERA); 8 apps/11 IP at AA (0.82), and 2/3.2 at AAA (0.00) Doolittle spent a season and a half (2012-13) as one of their set-up men. Over this past winter the A's traded Jemile Weeks to the O's to get their former closer Jim Johnson - but wound up switching to Doolittle to finish games before mid-April.

Oakland has a ridonculous +135 RS/RA differential not yet at the halfway point. It's the best in the majors by far and one that says that their league best 47-29 record should even be five games better than it is. They do a lot of platooning. Norris is their #1 catcher but has started only 43 of their 76 games, John Jaso has started 29 Also 4 different players have started at least 10 games at 1B. Sogard has started just over half (44 of 76) their games at 2B, and they'll switch things up at several other positions as well. Closer Sean Doolittle's numbers are ridiculous (most notably his [u:1gas6mko]50-1[/u:1gas6mko] K/BB ratio) but even more so when you realize that he didn't start pitching until 2012. He was drafted as a position player in 2007 (41st overall out of UVA), then missed virtually all of 2010 & 2011 with injuries, and only after that did he start anew as a pitcher. He reached the majors after just 26 IP in the minors yet has a 2.00 ERA this season and a ML career ERA that's sub-3.00