Frayed Knot

I'm just afraid of the next Aaron Small showing up out of somewhere. Small was the journeyman 33 y/o RHP who had pitched for 5 teams over pieces of 8 seasons but appeared in only 8 ML games between 1998 & 2004. The Yanx signed him off the scrap heap in 2005 then brought him up in July due to pitching injuries (replaced CM Wang IIRC) where he proceeded to go 10-0 in 15 games/9 starts. He, and the almost as obscure Shawn Chacon (7-3; 2.85) saved that team's hide that year. Small never won another ML game and retired after the following season.

Mejia - 4.4 Rice - 0.3 Torres - 0.3 Farnsworth - 0.7 Tejada - 1.2 Wright - 1.2 d'Arnaud - 1.5 EYoung - 0.4

Wheeler - 1.4 Rice - 0.3 Torres - 1.0 Matsuzaka - 2.0 Farnsworth - 0.6 Valverde - 0.6 Wright - 2.0 Duda - 1.4 Granderson - 0.4 Nieuwenhuis - 0.3

Colon - 1.5 Wright - 2.5 CYoung - 2.0 EYoung - 1.0 Murphy - 1.0 d'Arnaud - 1.0

Bernie of Bird Bytes agrees with you, and more... From St Louis Post-Dispatch: http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/ ... &cid=print I think that guy, Bernie Miklasz, has been covering the Cards since around the turn of the century ... and I'm talking about the previous turn, not the one just 14 years ago.

Cool new feature (or maybe I've just noticed it) on BB-Ref When you look up a minor league player, next to his age for each season it lists the age difference between him and "the weighted average" of the rest of the league he's in that year (hitters and pitchers calculated separately). So, for instance, Met fans who proclaim themselves to be "tired of waiting"* for Wilmer Flores can see at a glance that he's been from around three and a half to nearly six years younger than his league virtually every season and at every level as he's progressed. * "If he were any good he'd be up here already" -- M. Francesa (at least two years ago)

Obviously it�s early and just as obviously we�ve only seen this team for one game so far, but my early observation is that these self-proclaimed �Best Fans in Baseball� better hope their guys pitch and field REAL well this season because I think they�re going to find runs tough to come by. In 2013, StL was on top of the NL in runs scored, averaging nearly one run/game above league average and more than 1/2 run over the 2nd place team (COL). I think you�d be hard-pressed to find a gap that large in most seasons. But their offense was based on good to great years from just about everyone �as a team in 2013 they hit a very nice .269/.332/.401 �but especially that it jumped to .313/.369/.463 with men on base and a reedonculous .330/.402/.463 w/RiSP. Now you can talk all you want about �good approaches� and �the Cardinal Way� and all that but, I don�t care how good you are, those rates are unsustainable and can�t simply continue to be conjured up whenever you need them. Right now they�re 4th from the bottom in NL runs/game (and that didn't get better after tonight's game), below league average, well below NYM levels, and ahead of only Arizona (and how bad did THEY look last week?), the Cubs (who are, after all, the Cubs) and San Diego (who I think are the caboose on this list every year). I�m not suggesting that they�ll stay down at these levels the whole year, but if I were them I wouldn�t count on it rising automatically. Right now their only real �swap� was Beltran for Peralta and I think that�s going to be a net negative plus whatever decline they'll see if they only hit at 'normal' rates with runners on. The other hope they've got is their top prospect, Oscar Tavares, is an OF who's considered one of the top hitting prospects in baseball and who'll probably be ready to come up soon.

No justice for Jon Jay

[shawshank Prisoners]NEW MEAT. NEW MEAT. NEW MEAT[shawshank]

In Atlanta tonight, Freddie Freeman just popped out with the bases loaded and one out in the 7th inning of a one run game. I didn't think he even had that move in his repertoire.

El Torrez!!!

An inning with two walks, two singles, an error, and two fly balls should result in more than one run.

Zvon wrote: Satin!? Satin hesitates with the wave over and C Young hesitates and GAH. Chris Young waits for Satin never reaching the base ...

Ike Davis: Grand Slams in April 2014 = 2 Derek Jeter: Grand Slams in Career = 1

I was afraid he was going to rush that throw and heave it into the stands even though, with Yadier running, he still had like fifteen minutes to spare.

Collin McHugh (if you blinked as a Mets fans you missed him) just called up by the Astros.

TransMonk wrote: I can certainly say that I didn't hear anyone within the Brewers organization mention anything about winning 90 games before the season started. I didn't hear anyone from the Brewers crowing early on either. But several national writers, when asked during preseason talks to do things like pick a 'surprise team', named the Brewers as looking much better than they or anyone else expected. Not that this means it won't all fall apart for them soon. Like I said, a nine game winning streak does better things than usual to an overall record when the season is still new.

New to Cards lineup: - Jhonny Peralta at SS The former Cleveland Native American and Biogenesis client signed a big four-year deal, displacing Daniel DiScalso mostly. Is so far hitting a Grandersonian .179 but oddly with 7 of his 11 hits for XBs - Peter Bourjos in CF Former Angel is an excellent fielder and runner but also isn't hitting [.190/.261/.310]. His presence shoved Jon Jay to RF although Jay will still play CF on days when the RH-hitting Bourjos is grabbing some bench - Kolten Wong at 2B A 1st round StL draft pick (#22 over in 2011) he showed up at the tail end of last year, most notably when he got picked off to end WS game #4 w/Beltran at the plate representing the tying run. If he had a shovel at that point he'd still be digging.

I'd start Abreu as rarely as possible both because of his age and his (lack of) OF prowess. Besides, the good thing about using him late in games is that he'll take a walk as well as anyone and that tends to be a skill you don't lose with age.

Writers--more than one of them that I heard--started talking about the Brewers during ST, saying they looked a lot better than they expected. They then reeled off a nine-game winning streak which, during the first three weeks of a season, tends to puff up ones record quite nicely. They then lost a couple but followed that by taking 3 of 4 in a tough series w/Pittsburgh this past weekend - all wins by one or two runs and all via saves by one F. Rodriguez. Strangely enough it's been good pitching that's kept the Brew Crew afloat. 2nd best ERA in NL ... whoda thunk it?

And Thursday's game, as the finale of a midweek series often are, is a day game.

The New York Mets organization would like to acknowledge the contributions of Dan Uggla without whom this win would not have been possible.

metirish wrote: That is where the term pond scum came from, the 80"s? Yes. It was from that era that a bunch of Cards fans publicly declared the Mets to be "Pond Scum". I believe it was originally done via a newspaper ad in those pre-internet, pre-twitter days.

Fman99 wrote: The "Cardinal Way," the YLDBs of the National League, Yadier F. Molina. I still hate all of these assholes. I can't say I ever paid them much mind prior to 2006. They were pain in the asses in the mid-80s too.

And they have the 'Best Fans in Baseball'. It's true, just ask them!