Frayed Knot

There wasn't a problem in the NHL either until that girl was killed. And fine print disclaimers only go so far legally and even less far from a public relations pov. Look, I'm not saying I think this needs to be done immediately only that I think it IS going to happen (to some extent) eventually, and if that ball had smoked and either maimed or killed one of those guys yesterday then eventually may have been pushed up to, say, tomorrow. Certainly a dialog on the topic would have started and teams/cities would have to start answering questions like why nets and/or screens are an anathema in certain spots while similar protections are universal in others, particularly as more and more seats march closer and closer to the batters box.

The only reason I said that I had no idea what you meant because I had no idea what you meant.

Yeah, I don't think of plexiglass as any better to look through than netting. I've sat behind the netting the NHL started putting up a decade or so ago to guard the higher seats behind the goals following the death of that fan, and you don't even notice it. Since your eyes are focused for the distance of the ice, the nearer netting simply 'disappears' in the same way your thumb does if you put it up at arm's length in front of your face but focus on the scene in the middle distance. Hockey of course also still uses glass for protection of the first few rows all around the rink but they also have to replace panels every once in a while when they either break or get knocked out of their frames. And, yeah, they're often not great to look through, particularly if you do so at an angle.

7th walk-off loss for the Mets in this stadium in just its third season of operation.

Nice relievin' so far. But whoever gets the 9th inning is going to have to deal with Stanton and even worse (for this week anyway) McGehee.

I suspect the walk to McGehee was semi-intentional but still, four walks in a six batter span ins't a good sign and he needed more than twice as many pitches to get through innings 4-6 six (73) than it did for him to get through 1-3 (31)

Frayed Knot wrote: 31 pitches thru 3 for Wheeler. Bet he's never been that low before. It then takes him 50 pitches just to get through innings 4 & 5 - but the scoreboard is still unblemished so it's OK. Would have been nice, though, had he not walked Mathis w/2 outs and left himself with the pitcher leading off the 6th

Koehler being just as good and as efficient as Wheeler.

Well, of course nets and barriers exist now, the question will be if and how far to extend them beyond the current behind the plate area. You wouldn't have to encircle the entire stadium obviously. But it'll be hard to prevent a groundswell to more them at least to the dugouts after someone gets either seriously injured or killed after being smoked by a foul ball.

Nymr83 wrote: Edgy MD wrote: And... anutter out. have we already shattered that record? Shattered it and left it broke and bleeding on the side of the highway.

31 pitches thru 3 for Wheeler. Bet he's never been that low before.

There were three people in that shot who absolutely were not looking--the two where the ball went right between their necks and the one in the blue hat two rows back-- and they were three of the four most likely victims. Everyone who wasn't likely to get smoked at least were paying attention enough to react. At some point netting is going to start going up beyond just where it exists behind home plate. It took the death of a young girl for them to start doing just that in hockey and had this ball gone eight inches to either side this may have been the incident which started that ball rolling in MLB.

Edgy MD wrote: You know, we have these text-editing tools for a reason. I have no idea what this means

Some may recall that when Scott Brosius announced his retirement--during the off-season, not long after the 2001 WS loss to the DBacks--it took all of about 20 minutes for Rivera (and I believe Torre) to suddenly chime in with 'fact' that ol' Scotty B let them down by not turning a double play on the second of the two bunts* the Snakes put down in that infamous 9th inning. Now maybe that's accurate and maybe it's not (tape doesn't prove things one way or the other) but the fact that it was open season for criticism the second he was no longer part of the tribe seemed kind of ... what's the word I'm looking for? - oh yeah, Classless. It's also kind of funny/classless that YES announcers have suddenly "discovered" that Cano didn't/doesn't hustle. Yeah, he didn't do it for eight years while in the Bronx but that was scarcely mentioned at the time. * to recap: leadoff single was followed by the bunt on which MR made the throwing error putting runners on 1st & 2nd w/0 outs. The next batter, Jay Bell, also bunted but Rivera was able to throw to 3rd for the force. Rivera then felt free to say (but only after Brosius's announcement) that after throwing to 3rd he turned towards 1st expecting to see a throw whiz across the infield to get the batter - but a throw never came, Brosius simply got the force and called for time therefore dooming the entire inning/season.

We had the first (to my knowledge anyway) game-ending video reversal tonight. Tie game/9th inning in Pittsburgh when Sterling Marte hits a leadoff triple. When the throw to 3rd gets away he breaks for home but is called out. Clint Hurdle challenges the play, the call is reversed, and the game is OV-AH Probably not the way the fans want to celebrate a win - but it's better than no celebration at all.

Well, at least it was quick. (2:08)

Day 1, 05/01/2014. Starting outfield: Granderson, Lagares, Chris Young. Sitting: Eric Young (1). Day 2, 05/02/2014. Starting outfield: Granderson, Lagares, Chris Young. Sitting: Eric Young (2) Day 3, 05/03/2014. Starting outfield: Granderson, Lagares, Chris Young. Sitting: Eric Young (3) [crossout]Day 4, 05/04/2014. Starting outfield: Granderson, Chris Young, Eric Young. Sitting: Lagares (1).[/crossout] Day 4, 05/04/2014. Starting outfield: Granderson, Lagares, Chris Young. Sitting: Eric Young (4) Day 5, 05/05/2014. Starting outfield: Eric Young, Granderson, Abreu. Sitting: Lagares (1), Chris Young (1) Day 6, 05/06/2014. Starting outfield: Chris Young, Lagares, Granderson. Sitting: Eric Young, Abreu

If all Abreu & Young were going to do is ground out then strike out, Terry could have left Tejada & Colon in to do that.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Does Colon look like he's going to suck again tonight? Shaky start, but definitely didn't suck. Now the bats have to start: - getting some RiSP hits - stop hitting into GiDPs

Does McGehee ever hit a ball AT someone? It seems to me that his BABiP this season must be about .850* * Looking it up - .384

His stretch so far in PSL has been so hot that I have to fight the urge to look up his stats on a daily basis, something that's fun to do but ultimately not always the best way to follow a prospect's progress.

Well I didn't actually make the poll, I just suggested that it be pulled out of the general purpose thread and given its own turf. One of the mods poll-arized it.

Edgy MD wrote: .250 / .318 / .290 // .608 And the Rey Ord��ez farewell tour continues. And that's off of 2 hits last night (including a rare double) This situation bears watching as the season progresses and maybe sooner than that. The Yanx have essentially been going without a backup SS since they've been playing a man short (they're One Player Short!!) during the Pineda suspension. But with that due to end this week and Pineda on the shelf injured, glove-man Brendan Ryan is the likely man in. Now Ryan can't hit at all but if you're going to get a 600-ish OPS at that position anyway you might as well get superior defense out there rather than the decaying carcass of Derek Jeter. The question is how often he'll opt to do that and/or pull El Capitan late in games for defense. Girardi certainly didn't show Posada a lot of deference at the tail end of his career what with first hiding his catching equipment and eventually shoving him to the bottom 1/3 of the lineup (although reportedly those two were never warm and fuzzy even when they played together). Jeter, so far, has lost his #2 spot but how long can that continue without a rebound?

Well now you're shifting your argument to Terry's use of him rather than Matsuaka himself which is where you started things. You wanted him pulled earlier? - I'm OK with that. I'm just arguing against this notion that his failure last night was somehow pre-ordained or that he needs to be farmed out because we don't like his warmup routine. So just to put a bow on the stats (however limited) of Dice-K's life as a reliever to date: - in 7 outings prior to last night only once did he not go at least a full inning and that was when he was brought to close out an inning when there were already two outs - he had only been charged with 2 runs all season and one of those was a time he went 2-2/3 - 5 of the 7 times he didn't give up a hit. Hell, he had only given up 4 in total over 10-1/3 innings For a guy "not prepared for the role" he seemed to be muddling along all right until the 8th inning last night.

Well prior to yesterday DiceK was probably the best thing we had out of the pen (best ERA, WHiP, H/9, etc.]. Small sample to be sure but that's all we have on anybody in the pen at this point is small sample. I would have preferred to stick with Niese going into the 8th--although the pitch count and a few hard hit balls in the 7th probably killed that idea in Terry's mind. But once the decision was made to yank the starter I didn't have a problem with who we went with. It's not like Germen, Familia, Farnsworth, Valverde, et al haven't had their moments this year also or that it was somehow pre-knowable that Matsusaka was more likely to implode than anyone else.