Frayed Knot

Under suspension you ARE allowed to participate in team activities so long as it's not a regularly scheduled game in some sort of league. IOW, nothing that goes on in front of paying customers. --- I'm sure that's not the official wording of the rule but that's more or less the gist of it. 'Extended Spring Training' is essentially a bunch of intra-team scrimmages.

Edgy MD wrote: Wonder how long it'll be before the next Hall of Fame player becomes a manager. Prior to Sandberg, who was the last? Must have been someone between Ted and Ryne, no?

There's something very heartwarming listening to YLDBs bemoaning a free agent who left for more money elsewhere. oe: Fernando Rodney tried real hard to blow a four-run lead in the 9th, but had to settle for K-ing Jeter & Beltran as the tying run to end the game. 6-3 Seattle final.

OFFICIAL!!

Ashie62 wrote: Hamels first time out... Lunch! Second actually. He took the loss giving up 2 runs over 6 innings vs the Dodgers last week. (86 pitches)

I'm also not sure it's too wise to have two current, and therefore supposedly unbiased, announcers acting as cheerleaders. I mean, I think we all know that home team announcers are NOT akin to Cronkite & Brinkley, but the idea that they're being morphed into part announcer/part pr flack smacks as a bit dicey. Having Cleon, Kooz, Ed Charles, etc., saying things to rally the troops if fine ... even if it all comes off as, at worst, somewhat desperate, and more than a bit silly at best.

Game in Baltimore (just 100 miles south) has already been canceled, as is the one in Minnesota for the second time in three days (not that that one affects us as much). Games tonight in the Bronx & Boston probably in danger as well.

Since the deal Ike: .185/.290/.333 -- 5 Hits, 1 HR, 1 2B, 7 K Lucas: .235/.308/.382 -- 8 Hits, 1 HR, 2 2B, 10 K Slight edge Mets. Neither is anything to write home about.

* Flores cleared for action after sitting out with a jammed finger * Lagares played nine inning of CF in LV last night. Is eligible to return from DL as soon as Wednesday but it is unclear exactly when he will

I was sitting not all that far from Nixon at one game (late 80s I'm guessing) when he was sitting near Mookie's wife in a game where Mookie HR'd The celebratory black woman in proximity to the ever-stoic Nixon was an amusing sight.

... aside from the fact that we stand a decent chance at being rained on, rained out, rain delayed, or rain interrupted in one if not both games of this two-game series. Between them being the last NL East opponent we see this year, and them spending so much of their time not only on the road but largely out of the time zone (trips already to Arlington, Chicago, Arizona, Denver & LA) I basically haven't seen more than a pitch or two of Phightin Phils ball this year and have read even less. I'm not usually as ignorant of our closest neighbor as I feel right now. I think part of it also is that their lineup has stayed virtually the same seemingly for the last decade, with maybe a change per season at most, so we don't feel the need to scout them. So, looking through the stats we find ... 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

I like how BB-Ref is including overturned plays as part of the p-b-p descriptions. From Saturday's 9th inning: Bunt Groundout: 1B-2B/Sacrifice Force Play Challenged by NYM manager (Terry Collins): Original call (S3/BG.1-2) overturned as shown.

Gee - 4.7 Torres - 0.2 Duda - 1.3 Wright - 1.3 CYoung - 2.0 Murphy - 0.5

Matsuzaka - 0.6 Rice - 0.3 Abreu - 1.6 Murphy - 1.0 EYoung - 1.0 d'Arnaud - 1.0 Wright - 0.5 Duda - 1.0

Wheeler - 3.2 Familia - 0.2 Wright - 0.7 d'Arnaud - 1.0 Murphy - 0.7 Quintanilla - 1.2 Nieuwenhuis - 1.1 Granderson - 1.0 Duda - 0.3 EYoung - 0.6

The irony of Bryce Harper and his celebrated (though ultimately meaningless) bout of non-hustle isn't just the ad campaign the Nats have where Harper is described as "Nothing but Hustle", but that he was very much hustling himself into a triple a few days later when his head-first slide injured his thumb and landed him on the 15Day DL. Now comes word that said thumb is going to require surgery to repair a damaged ligament and he'll likely miss at least two months.

This Abreu--Jose, the White Sox version, the Cuban defector who was open for 1B signing this winter--hit his ML-leading 10th HR today. His BA & OBA are about on a par with where Duda is right now, but 17 of Abreu's 26 hits have gone for XBs

d'Kong76 wrote: ..... and two Popes were canonized as saints. Much more likely than two Saints being canonized as Popes ... y'know, with the recent Bountygate controversy and all.

* Nats lost today (split 4 this weekend w/the Padres) so we gain back the game we lost to them on Saturday and re-leap-frog them back into 2nd * Braves win 1-0 in the 10th on a Freddie F Freeman walk-off double (turns out he doesn't just do it to us) so we remain 3.5 back * Phillies still phightin' it out in the Valley of the Sun, so their gap behind us either remains one game or jumps to two depending on that outcome as we prepare for the two-game head to head starting Tuesday * the weekend dropped the Marlins 3 back of us Good weekend overall; could have been better but also could have been worse. 14-11 is OK, although a bit more than OK when you remember that it's off an 0-3 start. 14-8 is a nice 22-game run, especially when six of those were vs Atlanta and there was a west-coast trip thrown in You can see the intrigue in Chris Young even if he's destined to be frustrating at times

Some hitting would be a nice change of pace. They flashed up a stat last night saying how it had been like a zillion games in a row they've lost at home when they give up 5 or more runs. IOW: pitch poorly and we lose; pitch well and we sometimes lose. Been a long time since we've won a slugfest, or even a semi-slugfest, in Queens.

Hard to call this the first "give-away" loss of the year when we've been ahead in virtually every game at some point. But this one felt like more of a a give-away than the others even though we did that thing again where we only get one or two hits after building a lead. Disappointing night.

I guess C. Young's flu-like symptoms were helped by some cure-like remedies.

I'm not looking forward to 20 innings tonight. Somebody needs to end this.

At least we've got a couple of RHBs up against Dunn this inning

Nymr83 wrote: Abery looked afraid of the where the wall was on the Stanton HR and on that double in the corner, but that's his M.O. to begin with so Its hard to know if I would even be thinking that with a guy who didn't carry t h w reputation. That double back in the 6th was going to be tough to get to for anyone, it was just placed perfectly. But, yeah, Abreu just doesn't go after ones like that very aggressively and never has.