Frayed Knot

DICE!!!!

I'd like to get Nieuwenhuis in for Abreu now that that spot won't bat for a while, but we're already running low on PH-ers and the pitcher may bat in bottom 9

You can't stop Travis d'Arnaud from running wild, you can only hope to contain him.

d'Arnaud just a running fool lately.

NYM XBHs in 2014 Bobby Abreu = 2 in 8 ABs (1 HR, 1 2B) David Wright = 3 in 98 ABs (1 HR, 2 2Bs)

Checked in briefly on the Yanx/FOX game today. In it they were giving the upcoming schedule of Jeterian "lasts" (cuz, you know, it's all about him): last home game, last game in his native state of Michigan, last game at Fenway, etc. In the rundown they included the date of this year's All-Star Game as another Jeter-last. I wasn't aware that the rosters had been set for that game yet.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: And speaking of all over the place... man, does Omar make a great backup-quarterback-to-the-terrible-starter, doesn't he? Great during the occasional start/relief work... right up until you hand-- or are compelled by circumstance to hand-- him the job. There's an energy to Omar's play that's absent at times with Tejada. Not that that's always fair to the Tejada-type of seemless-efficiency player, but it's usually more fun to watch and you tend to be more forgiving when they fail.

The old baseball axiom: If you can hit, you can hit.

Eric Young Jr., lf Granderson, CF David Wright, 3b Daniel Murphy, 2b Bobby Abreu, rf Lucas Duda, 1b Travis d'Arnaud, c Omar Quintanilla, ss Jenrry Mejia, rhp Chris Young apparently be illin' And 'The Visitors' Christian Yelich, lf Marcell Ozuna, cf Giancarlo Stanton, rf Casey McGehee, 3b Jarrod Saltalamacchia, c Garrett Jones, 1b Derek Dietrich, 2b Adeiny Hechavarria, ss Kevin Slowey, rhp

Once you make the decision to go in with Scott Boras you pretty much know this is a strategy going in. Brother J.D. played independent league ball for a year after being drafted #2 overall because they were waiting for a better offer. So while I'm sure this path wasn't his first choice, it's not like he didn't go into this with his eyes wide open either. The next movement we'll probably see at this point will be after the next draft is over (about six weeks away now). At that point the draft pick compensation attachment goes away and money becomes the only obstacle to negotiate.

Edgy MD wrote: Nimmo: 2-2 with three more walks. Buy stock in this guy now. And if you're from the school where walk rates are a great determinant of future success, buy heavily. Nimmo has walked so far this season in more than 20% of his PAs (22 of 101) throwing his 'Slash Line' into a ridiculous .380/.515/.494 ... aka: gets on base more often than he makes outs That .135 'Walk Rate' (the gap between BA & OBA) is about double the ML average. Wouldn't mind seeing his slugging numbers upped a bit -- only 4 doubles + 1 triple + 1 HR among his 30 hits to date, but: 1) both Port St Lucie in particular and the Fla St Lg in general typically suppress XBHs -- Low altitude, humid weather, children playing in big boy sized parks, etc. 2) power is often the last thing to come around on young players so added Pop may still be lurking in his DNA getting ready to blossom at some future time As always, the usual SSS (small sample size) warnings apply, your mileage may vary, past performance is no guarantee of future earnings, yadda, yadda, yadda.

Slowey pitched seven scoreless innings in relief and earned the victory in the Marlins' 2-1 win against the Mets in 19 innings on June 8, 2013. Ahhh, yes. That was this game (20 innings actually) - aka: the game with four "quality starts": * Jose Fernandez (starter) - 6 innings, 1 Run on 3 hits * Matt Harvey (starter) - 7 innings, 1 Run on 6 Hits * Kevin Slowey - 7 innings (13th thru 19th), 0 Runs on 8 Hits (Win) * Shawn Marcum - 8 inning (13th thru 20th) 1 Run on 5 Hits (Loss) Mets = 0-fer-19 with RiSP and 22 LOB. The Marlins left a mere 10 stranded and had just 4 ABs w/RiSP (2-4) Mets had 13 hits and drew Nine walks, yet scored just the one run. Without a doubt the most frustrating game of 2013

Ceetar wrote: I tend to poo-poo lefty/righty stuff a bit, so I'm okay with leaving Germen in, but I feel like Collins goes to the lefty there 18/19 times and that's basically why. As good as Germen's been lately, I don't know that he's earned the trust to go after lefties in tight games? I was OK with leaving Germen in there too - he actually got hit harder in his first inning than in his second (at least up to the point where the HRs started flying). My only question was that why was Rice even up and throwing if not to shut down the inning with 3 straight LH bats coming up. Decoy? And, yes, Q was in there strictly because the 9th slot was leading off. It would very much surprise me if he was thinking about Cishek there (although maybe as a bonus reason).

I immediately thought about PR-ing for Duda (although was resisting) but credit to Terry for seeing far enough ahead that he preferred to have a PH on hand for the pitcher's slot (Abreu) and again for EYJ since he had to stick with Q Those moves were more important than the PR

d'Kong76 wrote: WOWZERS!!! THOUGHTS ON THE GAME!!!! 3) Abreu: That's the EXACT situation you got him for and his AB there was perfect ... only the result wasn't. He nailed that ball, and the booth questioned LF playing so shallow. It's an 'oh well.' I wondered what he was doing so shallow too, but I guess daring a 40 y/o who's been out of the game for over a year to go deep to the opposite field isn't such a bad play on the Marlins' part. Certainly staved off their execution ... even if only temporarily (heh, heh, heh)

WOWZERS!!! THOUGHTS ON THE GAME!!!! 1) Someone asked when Q got in there: he was double-switched in when Germen came in the game 2) Did Germen get rattled at the strike three/3rd-out call he didn't get on Salty? Kinda looks that way, huh? 3) d'Arnaud bunting? Not my favorite move but it's tough to say it was the wrong one and it did make more sense because of Abreu being on the bench 4) Abreu: That's the EXACT situation you got him for and his AB there was perfect ... only the result wasn't. 5) Sending Duda: I'm not so sure he would have been safe had Yelich not fallen but you gotta send him there regardless. Yeah he had to go a bit sideways to get the ball but he still got it on just one hop and wasn't very deep when he was about to unleash 6) PH-ing Kirk for EYJ: I liked it. EY would have had to hit LH where he's not so good, plus his specialty this season has been getting on base but not necessarily via a hit which is what we needed there. Plus better chance for power. 7) NOT Sending Q: Right move IMO. Yeah something could have gone wrong with the relay but on balls that don't even get to the wall and then are right back into the cut-off that's a tall order. Also, once the game was already tied you're in a less desperate situation. 8) Five straight LHBs against side-arming Cishek is certainly the way you want to do it. Only d'Arnaud that inning wasn't and that's another argument for him Sac-B-ing 9) The Yanx are losing by like two touchdowns to Anaheim

Had two runs in, still only one out in the 3rd inning, and Murph on 3rd base after his steal. But we not only never got that run in but have just one hit since that point.

Bit of a second guess here seeing as how Germen had looked so good against the prior couple of batters, but with three straight LHBs coming up, why exactly was Rice even warming up if not for them?

Well, now that we're into the Marlins bullpen we may or may not get this match-up, but if you're playing one of those dice baseball games, in order for it to be realistic, wouldn't you have to roll a snake-eyes in order to have Carlos Marmol NOT walk Bobby Abreu?

Edgy MD wrote: Man, Abreu is a Rusty-type presence coming out of the dugout, isn't he? Both left-handed swingers, same size, same shape, similar batting eyes, ... only real difference is in the color of the wavy hair.

Tejada taking his 'downtown' cut on a 2-0 pitch

d'Kong76 wrote: Edgy MD wrote: "Ike woulda had it." Crossed my mind too Mine too, although I think it would have been far from a sure thing even with Ike. Like his hitting, Ike's fielding didn't seem as good in recent years as it was at the beginning.

d'Arnaud's gotta lead the league in doing that glove-point thing towards his pitcher.

The reason for the pine tar only part-way up the bat rule was so, back in the day when they used as few balls as possible per game, the normal hitting portion of the bat would be clean and therefore not dirty-up the ball when contact was made. That's why the ump's decision in the Brett case was over-turned. Brett's bat was technically illegal but it was clear that there was no advantage nor attempt to gain an advantage as a result of what he did. Hence the ruling was that the negation of his HR and subsequent ejection (following that marvelous tirade) while technically correct, were judged to be against "the spirit" of the rule.

Pitching Match-ups Friday - 7:10 Henderson Alvarez (24 y/o) - Zack Wheeler Alvarez is part of the contingent that came in from Toronto in the big Jose Reyes/Josh Johnson deal. He's coming off a terrific start vs Seattle (a CG 2-hitter), but his other three starts this year were nothing to write home about: 14-2/3, 25 Hits, 12 Runs (7 earned) Saturday - 7:10 (Gee, and no one's coming to our games because it's so cold!!) Kevin Slowey (30) - Jennry Mejia Also a former Blue Jay, although Slowey came to Florida via a one-year deal as a FA prior to 2013 after missing off a 2012, and then re-upped w/the Fish again this off-season. This will be his 2nd start of the year to go with 4 relief outings. Sunday - 1:10 Tom Kohler (27) - Dillon Gee New Rochelle HS and Stonybrook U product is off to a good start this season: 2-1 in 4 starts; 2.13 ERA; 1.05 WHiP