Frayed Knot

Maybe it's a good thing that the Mets have all but abandoned Saturday afternoon games - because this one might not be done until sometime tomorrow morning.

Uh Josh, Skip'd like to see you in his office.

Yeah I'm not sure what specific 2013 injury BA is referring to, but it would be nice if whatever it was was now behind him and he could get on a steady forward path. And if nothing else the defensive reports (not just here but elsewhere as well) are good enough to where you don't suspect he's one of those who'll need to be moved off of SS down the road which would in turn make his hitting that much more critical.

We're overdue for a little Cecchini news and we get it this week as he checks in a #4 on BA's 'Hot Prospect' list 4. Gavin Cecchini, ss, Mets Team: low Class A Savannah (South Atlantic) Age: 20 Why He’s Here: .458/.462/.875 (11-for-24), 5 R, 3 2B, 2 3B, 1 HR, 6 RBIs, 1 BB, 2 SO, 0-for-1 SB The Scoop: Raise your hand if you saw this one coming. Cecchini, whom the Mets drafted 12th overall out of high school in 2012, ranks third among SAL shortstops with a .168 isolated slugging percentage—behind only 2013 college drafts JaCoby Jones (Pirates) and Pat Valaika (Rockies). This despite Cecchini playing half his games in the hitter’s graveyard that is Savannah and despite entering the season with a career .318 slugging percentage in short-season ball. Fully healthy this season, he’s showing off a rounded tool set that includes feel for the barrel, solid wheels and a strong defensive game. An encouraging write-up even if based on just a small sample

And speaking of the Philly bullpen (I know we weren't but work with me here) check out the weird numbers from LH-R Jake Diekman: 16 appearances, 16.1 IP, 2-1 record. OK, nothing weird there. But he's somehow rung up a 5.51 ERA with that record on only 13 hits + 6 BBs (a more-than respectable 1.16 WHiP) and 27 Ks!! (just shy of 15 per/9 IP) I know ERA for a reliever is hardly a tell-all stat, but what this guy has managed to do is allow over half (10 of 19) of the runners he allowed to reach base this season to score. That's either just freaky bad timing or he's the type who's either on his game that night or a total bust. And it's not like he's just a LOOGY either as most of his appearances have been for a full inning and on occasion has gone longer.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: The Age of Flowers begins tonight. Lagares-8 Murphy-4 Wright-5 Granderson-9 CYoung-7 Satin-3 Flores-6 d�Arnaud-2 Mejia-1 Hmmm, I wonder why Satin? ... Fausto Hernandez isn't a southpaw ... not unless he's gone from changing names to changing hand dominance that is.

And you both missed Kevin Appier at 167 Players with only one year* in the top half of our list 131 - Mike Hampton (2000) 167 - Kevin Appier (2001) 175 - Marlon Byrd (2013) 182 - Tsuyoshi Shinjo (2001) 191 - Tommy Davis (1967) 208 - Chris Capuano (2011) 214 - Mo Vaughn (2002) 219 - Juan Lagares (2013) 221 - Carlos Diaz (1983) 227 - Brett Butler (1995) 230 - Mark Bomback (1980) 231 - Claudell Washington (1980) 233 - Desi Relaford (2001) 234 - Pedro Astacio (2002) 235 - Eric Young Jr (2013) 237 - Hisanori Takahashi (2010) 244 - Kevin Mitchell (1986) 245 - Mark Guthrie (2002) 247 - Zack Wheeler (2013) 250 - Ed Bressoud (1966) * keeping in mind that one year in this case means only placing on our list in one season ending ranking even if you played in more than one -- cough cough Mr Sparkle

And in the meantime, I'd just like to give props to the city of Philadelphia for staying classy as always. It seems that a radio station outing led to "hundreds" of folks engaging in sex and urination (hopefully not at the same time) on the streets and/or on nearby people's property.

Phils lost again tonight to Toronto and RA Dickey 12-6. That's a four game sweep for the Jays. AJ Burnett, who had been pitching well, got knocked around tonight. Phils staff was already 2nd worst in NL at RA/G so tonight's game won't help - although Arizona is so far in the lead (and by lead I mean last) in that category that it doesn't look like anyone will catch them. Philly pen outside of Papelbon looks like its been throwing up some ugly numbers too.

Well it doesn't sound like the team used Darling's name without his OK so it's not like we can blame the team on this one (aside, y'know, from concocting the lame-ish letter in the first place). Ronnie just seems like he was lazy in giving his permission then regretted it afterward when the heat started pouring in and he realized what he put his signature to.

That he never read much less approved of the text of that thing comes as absolutely no surprise to me.

Seeing as how the last Philly KTE was more or less stillborn on account of it being for a rain-shortened one-game series, so I�ll revive the part we had and we can tack on from there. The main point was that their lineup as we�ve known it is pretty much intact C - Carlos Ruiz ... Yup, still there 1B - Ryan Howard ... still 2B - Chase Utley ... still SS - Jimmy Rollins ... still 3B - something named Cody Asche replaces Michael Young who replaced Placido Polanco in the one Phils position that seems to resemble a game of musical chairs LF - Domonic Brown ... now 26 y/o and seemingly a prospect since forever, has been playing pretty much full time since last year CF - Ben Revere ... former Twin now in his 2nd season in the city of Brotherly somethin' or other RF - Marlon Byrd ... off-season FA signee is playing every day and has relegated John Mayberry Jr to the bench Bench: John Mayberry Jr Tony Gwynn Jr Freddie Galvis Jr Jayson Nix Jr Wil Nieves Jr Cesar Hernandez Jr - But Jimmy Rollins hasn't been playing or has been in the DH slot since straining a groin (his own presumably) last Sunday. Galvis & Nix have been filling in at SS - Ben Revere's starting job in CF is on shaky ground after a misplayed ball earlier in the week and his noodle arm being unable to keep runners from, well, running - and Domonic Brown's OPS is a whopping 564 and 6' 5"/230 with 5 XBHs in 112 ABs isn't going to cut it - There's talk of shifting Marlon Byrd to CF and mixing and matching in one or both of the corner slots On the pitching side we�ll miss Lee and we�ll miss Burnett Friday 7:10 � Roberto Hernandez vs Mejia Hernandez is not the former NYM relief pitcher but the player once known as Fausto Carmona back when he was with the Indians This will be his 8th game w/Philly, 7th start; 2-1, 4.50, 1.41 WHiP Saturday 7:10 � Kyle Kendrick vs Gee Kendrick, who we seem to face six times per year*, is 0-3 but the stats show he hasn�t pitched all that bad: 3.58, 1.41 * Actually it�s �only� 22 times faced in his career/16 starts. He�s 8-8 w/a more than respectable 3.43 ERA Sunday 1:10 � Cole Hamels vs Niese Hamels pitched the lone NYM-Phil game this year and we pretty much beat him up: 6 runs on 8 hits + 5 walks in just 4-2/3. He�s only made 3 starts this season having gotten a late start due to injuries and hasn�t fared well in any of them: 13 runs in 16-2/3 IP on 24 hits + 7 walks

d'Kong76 wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: I think if anything, fans, particularly those partially-informed or ill-informed ones, have a tendency to think players can be morphed into anything so long as they're given enough time & reps to learn whatever skill is needed, and by 'enough' they often mean within a span of around six weeks. Or, ya know, a weekend home series with the Phils, and then a mini home and home with Yankees! I want to be talking results next Friday NOW!!! I'm not even talking about that so much (although that's certainly annoying and unrealistic also) but about this idea some fans have that ballplayers can be molded into the type of player you need in order to fill a role. 'Hey I know how to fix the lineup - they should send Murphy down to AAA for a month and make him into a SS'

Edgy MD wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: I'm not even sure that Canseco pitched in college. Jose Canseco went to college? As it turns out, no - although, if forced to guess before looking it up, I would have put him as one of the U-Miami gang, which I'm not sure qualifies as college anyway. Mostly I was just responding to an earlier post about using someone who hadn't pitched since college and then was into his 30s when he threw out his arm on a ML mound

Pitcher Don Robinson had a 16 year career (Pitt & SF mostly) ending up with a career batting line of .231/.252/.330 [146 for 631 including 23 2Bs & 13 HRs] 26 of those trips to the plate were as a PH although he was just 3/24 w/2 BBs & 1 HR. He also played the OF twice As I side note I know I saw him hit a HR and I believe it was as a PH. Prior to looking this up I would have assumed that he had hit more than one.

If Flores fails the complaints are most likely to be of the variety where fans will claim they were "promised" a perennial All-Star bat and what was delivered was a guy who either can't hit enough to claim a full-time position and can't field well enough to hold onto the one position he was handed and where he was needed. I tend to doubt the team will get pilloried simply for trying him SS. I think if anything, fans, particularly those partially-informed or ill-informed ones, have a tendency to think players can be morphed into anything so long as they're given enough time & reps to learn whatever skill is needed, and by 'enough' they often mean within a span of around six weeks.

I'm not even sure that Canseco pitched in college. IIRC his getting onto the mound was more a vanity project on his part where he convinced his manager that he had a good enough knuckleball (EVERY position player thinks he has a workable knuckleball) and he wanted to try it out in a real game mostly just to say he did it and to add to his (then) image of a great all-around player. A guy like Ike is the obvious type of candidate, maybe even more so once he failed (so far anyway) to blossom into the hitter his draft spot suggested. Even if all you'd use him for was the emergency extra LOOGY that you'd swap in for two ABs or so and then right back to 1B. Other guys who come to mind that did and/or could have worked in similar spots: - it was debated whether John Olerud was more suited as a pitcher or hitter when he was being drafted - the BoSox allowed, at his request, 2008 1st round pick Casey (son of ML IF Pat) Kelly play about a year of SS in the minors before restricting him to the pitchers mound - Brooks Kieschnick appeared 74 times as a pitcher among his 260 ML games, although very little of it simultaneously. Like most 'two way' players, he was more of a pitcher only after the hitting proved not enough to keep him employed

Edgy MD wrote: How oft do you think he's going to start? I'm thinking he'll initially get one game in four at short ... I think he'll get a lot more than that, more like three in four. Of course he won't finish all of those games, at least not at SS, but that's OK.

Gee - 3.2 Rice - 0.3 Torres - 0.5 Familia - 0.5 Lagares - 1.5 Wright - 0.75 Murphy - 1.0 CYoung - 1.5 Duda - 0.75

Matsuzaka - 0.7 Rice - 0.5 Murphy - 2.0 Wright - 1.3 CYoung - 1.0 Granderson - 1.0 Recker - 1.0 Duda - 0.9 Lagares - 0.8 Abreu - 0.8

And on the other side of the coin, not only are enemy bats seemingly finding good luck lately, but NYM bats seem to be just the opposite right now, and not just lately but all season. Using info that sorts balls put into play as 'hard-hit' 'medium hit' or 'soft hit' - "The average major league hitter hits around .700 when hitting a ball categorized as hard-hit. The Mets as a team are hitting .592 on their hard-hit balls this season. As of Wednesday afternoon, only the Cleveland Indians (.586) ranked worse this season." And specifically in Miami -- "The Mets had nine hits and 10 outs (.474) on their hard-hit balls against the Miami Marlins, going 4-for-9 in a brutal loss in the series opener and 2-for-6 in the 1-0 series finale [while] The Marlins were 13-for-19." So, no, it didn't just seem that way to you (to me anyway), there really is some truth to it all. This stuff also linked via Rubin's column with some graphs and stuff accompanying it all. The above is one reason I wasn't all that down about this last road trip. I mean, yeah, 2-6 suxx anyway you slice it, but this was one where I did NOT feel like we were out-played and hopeless, we've had enough of those stretches over the last few seasons to where we know what they look like but I didn't feel that this one was one of those. When three losses come via walk-offs and a couple others are close, it's reasonable to think that 4-4 or even 5-3 were possible with just a few hits falling in (or not falling) here or there. And on the plus side, the traveling gets easier after the odd Philly-Denver-Miami route. 14 of the next 19 games are at home (not always a plus I know, but that trend has to break some time) and the only road trips for nearly a full month (24 games) are to Washington for 3, da Bronx for 2, and Philly for 5. They won't leave the time zone again until the road trip to Wrigley starting June 3rd.

Zvon wrote: I don't think Flores is the answer for SS but lets take a look see. If the question is: 'Who can hit better than Tejada?' then I think Flores may very well be the answer at SS. Not the long term answer maybe, but I'm willing to try and find out how long.

Edgy MD wrote: Way to double down on the completely un-necessary condescension. It was a joke. One underscoring what you were saying. Surely you could at least try to be cool about that. Yes, I understand NOW what it meant but I originally didn't know what it meant which is why I said that I didn't know what it meant. And the only reason I 'doubled down' on it was your implication that I really did know what it meant and was for some reason only saying I didn't know what it meant. You know what I mean?

Not that anyone is going to mistake this group for the 1999 NYM infield, but I honestly haven't seen that many grounders that I think should have been fielded NOT be fielded. In short bursts this stuff can just be a string of bad luck and I think that's the biggest answer even if not the only answer. Casey McGehee alone seemed responsible for a lot of that as I swear every grounder he hit this week perfectly bisected the distance between two fielders.

Two reactions 1) WOW!! 2) You wouldn't think Flores is being brought up to compete with Satin for PH ABs, so while Tejada ultimately winds up on top in the battle between him and Q it's not like this move is very good news for him either.