Frayed Knot

Dodgers go up 7-0 in game 2 then hang on to win 7-5 in a game which saw a total of 14 pitchers used and took 4:01 Good thing both teams were already scheduled to leave town because they may have been forced to by the locals watching that game. btw, both these games were classified as Arizona "home" games meaning that the Dodgers were able to throw their weight around in the same way the Yanx did a few years back and not lose any home attendance out of this trip. The DBacks, on the other hand, will have only 79 games at their park this summer.

Great line from Mushnick today: Horrible dream last night. All 2015 cars came with Mike Francesa�s voice and directions on navigation systems. They weren�t optional. Francesa's WFAN show starts simulcasting Monday on 'Fox Sports 1' with the later hours (I think starting at 4PM) moving to 'Fox Sports 2' Meanwhile his old partner begins a show on MLBN the following week.

Turner also made an E Probably not a good thing if Turner is to be your full-time #2 hitter and 2B-man as he was today. Probably not a good thing for Arizona if Martin Prado is your clean-up hitter. Kind of odd to see him sandwiched in that slot between the likes of Goldschmidt & Trumbo. Trumbo & Scott Van Slyke -- Name two guys who are NOT winning gold gloves in left field (or any other field for that matter) - although, in fairness to the Dodgers, they're currently dealing without Matt Kemp or Carl Crawford so SVS isn't going to be out there too often. Trumbo on the other hand ... When you're mostly a 1B/DH since your early 20s it doesn't speak well for mastering the OF as he heads for 30.

Well, sort of. Dodgers & Dbacks at 4AM from Australia, and then again at 10PM. Games are actually being played on different days in Aussie-land, but they wind up on the same day here. MLBN.

Brownie's doing a heck of a job.

9-1 is your final 5.1 IPs from Gee: 1 run, 5 hits, 4 Ks, 0 BBs Scoreless relief innings from Rice (2/3), Germen, Familia, & Torres 3 hits by Ike, 2 from Lutz

Met bats hang a 7-spot on Ricky Nolasco and the Twins in the top of the 1st. Lagares hit lead off and made the 1st and last out of the inning. In between those two ABs: - Tejada doubled - Lucas HBP - Ike doubled - Brown doubled - Lutz singled - Nieuwenhuis tripled - Teagarden HR'd - Quintanilla GO - Lagares lined out

Sat - Mar 22 Dodgers / DBacks � Clayton Kershaw vs Wade Miley Sun - Mar 30 Dodgers @ Padres � ??? vs Andrew Cashner Mon - Mar 31 Cubs @ Pirates � Jeff Samardzija vs Francisco Liriano Royals @ Tigers � James Shields vs Justin Verlander Nationals @ Mets � Steven Strasburg vs Dillon Gee Phillies @ Rangers � Cliff Lee vs Yu Darvish Braves @ Brewers � Julio Teheran vs Yovanni Gallardo Red Sox @ Orioles � ??? vs Chris Tillman Twins @ White Sox � Ricky Nolasco vs Chris Sale Cardinals @ Reds � Adam Wainwright vs ??? Blue Jays @ Rays � RA Dickey vs David Price Rockies @ Marlins � Jorge de la Rosa vs Jose Fernandez Giants @ DBacks � Madison Bumgarner vs ??? Mariners @ Angels � ??? vs ??? Tuesday - Apr 1 Yankees @ Astros � CC Sabathia vs Scott Feldman Indians @ Athletics � Corey Kluber vs ???

- 3 hits by Tejada including a double - Ike back playing tho no hits - HR-saving catch by Lagares - scoreless/1K inning by Black - not so good outings from Rice, Farnsworth & Valverde

Take THAT Taylor Teagarden!

3R Walk-off HR from Dreamboat An(tho)nie

Walk to load the bases, then GO, GO and Farnsworth/Wheeler are out of the inning damage-less. 4-2 Mets heading to bottom 6

Wheeler goes 5-1/3 (longest by a NYM starter so far I thinks) - 2 runs on 5 hits - leaves with 2-on/1-out in the 6th. Farnsworth currently trying to bail him out.

Ooops Fixed Thanks

Surgery today for "facial fractures". Expected to be out of the hospital by Saturday, out six to eight weeks from baseball.

... and other sweet things that go on between umpires and managers and players. How does one confirm this? ... why you hire a lip-reader of course

In an age-grouping exercise, BA lists Dominic Smith as 3rd best among 18 year-olds and OFer Ricardo Cespedes as 5th in the 16 y/o group (bet that list has a high swing-and-miss rate over time). Full list up to age 25

The Puma Sez: Parnell, Rice, Valverde, Familia, Torres in fer shure to start the season. Lannan & Black in the lead for the final two spots with Farnsworth and Germen remaining in contention. Mejia likely to start the season starting in Vegas. Farnsworth can ask for his release if not on the 25-man by Sunday (I guess it's THIS Sunday the 24th although that's not totally clear in the article).

Yup, Matt Williams waited until just after I posted this to make his announcement. I swear some of these managers show no courtesy for the work I do. Gio Gonzalez & then Jordan Zimermannnn to fill out that opening series for the Nats, and they'll be facing ???, ???, and ??? ... in that order.

At least we're not the only ones still up in the air over this question. Sat - Mar 22 Dodgers / DBacks � Clayton Kershaw vs ??? Sun - Mar 30 Dodgers @ Padres � ??? vs ??? Mon - Mar 31 Cubs @ Pirates � Jeff Samardzija vs Francisco Liriano Royals @ Tigers � James Shields vs Justin Verlander Nationals @ Mets � Steven Strasburg vs ??? Phillies @ Rangers � Cliff Lee vs Yu Darvish Braves @ Brewers � ??? vs Yovanni Gallardo Red Sox @ Orioles � ??? vs Chris Tillman Twins @ White Sox � Ricky Nolasco vs Chris Sale Cardinals @ Reds � Adam Wainwright vs ??? Blue Jays @ Rays � RA Dickey vs David Price Rockies @ Marlins � Jorge de la Rosa vs Jose Fernandez Giants @ DBacks � Madison Bumgarner vs ??? Mariners @ Angels � ??? vs ??? Tuesday - Apr 1 Yankees @ Astros � ??? vs Scott Feldman Indians @ Athletics � ??? vs ???

I've thought all winter that a trade was coming, and that when it comes it'll be a big one rather than just one-for-one. Not necessarily blockbuster big, but one involving a multiple player mix of MLers, minor leaguers, throw-ins, and quite possibly more than two teams. I still think that although I have no idea where, when or who.

All you pitchers heading north with up take one step forward ... not so fast there - Noah Syndergaard Rafael Montero Cory Mazzoni Ryan Reid Joel Carre�o Miguel Socolovich Also cut were catcher Juan Centeno along with 1Bs Brandon Allen and Matt Clark

This is all getting very NFL-ish, both in terms of the team treating an injured player as if invisible and where the club puts restrictions as to who the media can talk to and when. Heard of a story from this past winter where a reporter was trying to ask Peyton Manning something only to be told by the club that Peyton only speaks on Thursdays. 'But Peyton's standing right there and it's a quick question' protested the scribe. 'But it's not Thursday', he was told as if by some jock-ish version of Sheldon Cooper, 'therefore you can't talk to him'. In this case I think the press, knowing that the've had only David Wright as their go-to guy for so long, see Harvey as not only a legit star in his own right but one who's obviously not skittish about publicity. The Mets, perhaps fearing reporter-overload for a guy who's not even going to play until at least September, don't want him subjected to repeated and inane inquiries of 'How's the arm coming along Matt?', or, perhaps even more dangerously, have him go off the tracks and start yapping about Russian models, Howard Stern, Malaysian airliners, and god knows what else.

I tend to think that Mejia is going to be a starter or in Vegas - although he could certainly be in the pen for a short spell, particularly early in the season. He pitched in only 2 formal ST games so far this year, both starts for a total of just 4.1 IPs with not very good results: 4 runs on 5 hits + 4 walks. 1 scoreless inning each for Familia (1 walk, 1 hit, 1 K) & Parnell (no base runners, no K's) today.

Doesn't seem like many of the starters have been going very deep into games so far - like even less so than normal for ST games. I can see them packing the pen in the early part of the season for that very reason. We could see 13 pitchers to start. GW hit for Brown today, adding to his good spring stats.