Frayed Knot

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Edgy MD wrote: What must Valverde be thinking? "How did I wake up this morning with a job? What's that on the back of my neck? Smells uncannily like the breath of Vic Black." Did the Mets really pull a salary dodge on Farnsworth twice? A nasty little part of me wants them to float him a minor-league contract offer again and record the phone call. And then leak the contents to TMZ ... cuz that's just what folks do these days apparently.

Sure, but it's the trying to get there (scholarship, draft, pros) that causes many of the problems (gotta throw harder, faster, longer) both in the young MLers who are only a few years removed from that age group (Harvey, Fernandez) who may have done much of the damage during that time only to have it show up later on, and in the spike in TJ surgery on teenagers who either want it to keep the dreams of future baseball alive or just so as to have their elbows not hurt for the rest of their lives.

--- It's hard to define when a closer strategy "works." What save percentage do you demand to see to validate the manager's choice? 80%? 85%? Which is a large part of the point. No strategy is perfect but you get the idea that all it takes is one blown save by a guy without the term 'designated closer' stamped on his forehead for half the world to pronounce the 'closer by committee' to be a failure. By blown save #2 the other half jumps in. --- Or, since not all save situations are equal (one-run-lead-bases-loaded-no-out-in-the-sixth and three-run-lead-bases-empty-two-out-in-the-ninth being the most extreme examples), do you demand a subtler metric? It strikes me that saves blown by secondary figures in the earlier innings help obscure the argument. Such failures do not tend reflect on the manager with the standard designated-closer strategy, but they would on a manager that uses multiple players in save situations because those men blowing it in the earlier innings are also part of the mix of potential finishers. That's why I tracked only the one-clean-inning save situations last year (and am doing it again this season). It's both the most common type of save that 'closers' (however you want to define them) are brought into and it's the most even playing field on which to judge.

That Farnsworth vote not looking too secure right about now. For right now anyway, I certainly wouldn't have an objection to Terry simply going with whichever among Mejia/Familia/Valverde who is freshest / looked best during side sessions / matches up best Meanwhile I wonder how long a committee closer situation would have to work before someone would admit it even could work? There's probably no amount for some (heard Leiter the other night dismiss the thought entirely) as they'd simply use every blown or even shaky save as evidence against the system ignoring the fact that one in every six to eight one-inning saves are being blown now and only around one-in-three are 1-2-3 innings.

Saw Dr James Andrews on the air last week saying how he thought that pitchers throwing too hard while too young --aka: trying to light up the radar gun in order to secure college scholarships and/or higher draft pick status-- was the major cause of the rise of TJ surgeries. For years we all heard about the danger of curve balls and such but, while certainly not ruling those out, the tendons & ligaments that hold your arms together are still developing at that age. He didn't specifically mention pitching too long as well but I think that's pretty much implied, not just the too-many-in-one-day/week scenario but also the full year skeds that have youngsters pitching 12 months/year on HS teams, travel teams, showcases, etc.

I wouldn't expect him to be happy about it, but jeez Kyle, you're 38 y/o, in your 16th ML seasons and your 5th team since 2010; you were picked up via a minor league deal, were cut once already then got back in through an injury and pitched up and down in the meantime - so this really couldn't have come as a total shock. I understand that you're probably pissed at the timing/money part of things but the fact that you were in that situation to begin with was due to your lack of options at the outset.

TJ surgery is official for Fernandez. To compensate the Marlins picked up 37 y/o (I would have guessed older) Randy Wolf who managed to secure his own release from AAA Reno (DBacks' org). The Fish wasted no time throwing him into a game, using him in the final three innings of a Miami blow-out on Wednesday night: 3 IP, 1 R, 3 H

[YOUCAN'TDOTHATIT'LLNEVERWORK]I like the idea of closer by committee...[/EVERYBODYEVERCONNECTEDTOBASEBALL]

Calm down Gary, Jeter holds the franchise marks for hits, singles & SBs. Let's not act like he's re-written the entire record book.

If I were given three chances to pick the player most likely to get a 14 ft RBI single I'd guess Jeter 1st & 2nd and wouldn't even take the third.

Zvon wrote: Tanaka looks solid and all but he don't look unhittable. They've had some loud outs and some at 'em balls - and then erased one of the few base runners they did have with a dopey running play. Got three more cracks at these guys so this is far from over.

I think at this time yesterday it was still the bottom of the 4th

So when was the last time: 1) the Mets starters in back to back games were ML debuts? 2) a NYM game consisted of opposing starters both making their ML debut (Yanx are expected to call-up Chase Whitley for tomorrow's game. If Greg doesn't know this off the top of his head then maybe Grimm can look it up. And if neither gets around to it I'm sure we'll learn it from Gary prior to first pitch on Thursday. As predicted, Gary wastes no time in getting us the dirt Question1 -- Never Question 2 -- Yes, on Sept 7, 2010 for Dillon Gee's debut against Yunesky Maya for the Nats. Gee = 1 run on 2 hits over 7 IP for the W. Maya = 4 runs over 5

And although I think Recker was slated to start tonight anyway, d'Arnaud is going to undergo concussion tests as the result of getting beaned by Soriano's backswing late in yesterday's game. He reportedly had "a light headache" after the game.

And he comes from the land of the three-named people.

So when was the last time the Mets starters in back to back games were ML debuts? And when was the last time a NYM game consisted of opposing starters both making their ML debut (Yanx are expected to call-up Chase Whitley for tomorrow's game. If Greg doesn't know this off the top of his head then maybe Grimm can look it up. And if neither gets around to it I'm sure we'll learn it from Gary prior to first pitch on Thursday.

Brett Gardner, lf Derek Jeter, ss Jacoby Ellsbury, cf Mark Teixeira, 1b Brian McCann, c Alfonso Soriano, rf Yangervis Solarte, 3b Brian Roberts, 2b Masahiro Tanaka, rhp No Beltran, no Ichiro, and it's questionable whether either is available, leaving the bench with the intimidating quartet of Kelly Johnson, John Ryan Murphy, Brendan Ryan, and Zoilo Almonte

This is the one -- and only one -- of the four game series (we'll see their call-up on Thursday) where the pitching matchup favors them: a rookie call-up facing a guy who hasn't lost a game since sometime in 2012 on another continent. And even if things don't turn out that way, it was nice winning back-to-back games where we gave up 7 runs in each but that's not going to last. OTOH, Mark Simon from ESPN.com chimes in with this note via Elias: "the Mets are the first team in the modern era (since 1900) to have a streak of three straight major-league debuts by starters who pitched at least five innings and held their opponents scoreless." -- so Rafael Montero will be challenged to match what Matt Harvey, Collin McHugh and Zack Wheeler did in their first games. Montero was 5-for-35 as a hitter this season

Edgy MD wrote: Is the lovefest program for Jeter going to be tonight or tomorrow? It's hard to believe that after a career which spanned SEVEN GAMES at CitiField that Jeter will never play another one after tomorrow night. Things will just never be the same.

Matsuzaka - 2.3 EYoung - 0.5 Murphy - 1.8 Wright - 1.5 Granderson - 1.8 Lagares - 0.4 Duda - 1.0 Tejada - 0.7

Rice - 0.6 Mejia - 0.7 Farnsworth - 0.5 EYoung - 1.8 Granderson - 1.6 d'Arnaud - 1.0 CYoung - 1.6 Duda - 1.0 Campbell - 0.5 Murphy - 0.5 Wright - 0.3

More What to Expect from Montero stuff - this time from BA Their scouting report: Montero has achieved minor league success with solid-but-unspectacular stuff. He doesn�t have a plus pitch, but at his best he has three average pitches he can throw with above-average control and average command�and very few minor league pitchers have present average command. Over the last few weeks, Montero hasn�t been as fine with his control as he usually is. Pitching from the extreme glove-side of the rubber, he�s generally able to locate his fastball to both the arm and glove side of the plate with some sink. He�s shown the ability to cut his fastball to give hitters another look. But recently he�s been missing his target, never badly, but just enough to fail to get the strike zone on pitches that usually catch the black. Even in his last outing, where he allowed no hits in 5 1/3 innings, he would have had a more dominant outing if the umpire had a slightly more generous strike zone. Montero�s average changeup is good enough to keep lefthanders honest, but his long-term development will revolve around how his slider develops. At its best, it�s a solid-average pitch, but it�s more erratic than his change up.

OK, that game sucked ... BUT Any Met win is a good win. Any game where those bastards lose is a good game.

Ashie62 wrote: I am starting to cramp up.... That's what happens when you reach 'Seaver level' during a game.

Oh good, I was starting to think this game might actually slip in under the four hour mark.