Frayed Knot

Roy Oswalt - who never became a NY Met despite being traded-via-rumor here about twice a week over at least a four-year period. And in case you were under the impression that he already had retired, he actually pitched in nine games (starting six) for the Rockies in 2013.

Ceetar wrote: Benjamin Grimm wrote: I think the "Doctors Calls" is a courtesy to the doctors themselves. In those days before cellphones and beepers, this would allow doctors to be reachable in case of an emergency to one of their patients. I don't think it was intended for the doctors to be on call to treat other fans. Back in those days, sick patients had to call the Mets to get a hold of a doctor. Fuckin' government-run Johnson-care!

OPJA!!!!! Maybe it was F-Troop. They never once realized that their cannon blast wasn't going to knock over the lookout tower (y'know, the one with the nearly-blind Private Vanderbilt seemingly always stationed in it). * OPJA = Old Person's Joke Alert

Word has it that Francesa's show will soon start being simulcast on the 'Fox Sports 1' channel - giving that fledgling outlet a foot in the door in the NYC market even if just in the minor slot of daytime programming. That channel seems to currently have some original programming in the late afternoon hours and there are no specifics yet as to where & when they'll carry the big man's show. Ironically this puts Francesa in the same corporate family as Michael Kay's simulcast partner seeing as how YES is now owned by FOX. That means there could be some serious Diet Coke flinging going on at some future company outing.

This Guy fits any definition of "The Only" player.

I heard just in the last few days that something like 42% of the profits of Disney Corp are via ESPN Both FOX & NBC have launched or acquired cable sports networks in the last year so there's at least there's the hint of real competition. Not that either is anywhere close to knocking the four-letter boys off their perch anytime soon, but if one or both are able to simply achieve the cable equivalent of sharing a tiny amount of shelf space with the existing distributer who owns both Coke & Pepsi, it'll be a start.

I don't even think they're about misinformation so much as they've developed a skewed view simply by living in a world where they only talk to their own kind. Just the other day ESPN's two draft specialists came out with their (three months early) draft predictions, a story which in turn led off that night's SportsCenter broadcast. But as if that in itself isn't bad enough, the kicker comes the next day when one of their talking heads cited the draft predictions as the lead story as a testament to how much football had totally taken over the landscape -- as if the whole thing wasn't an ESPN-created story in the first place. It's like: we here in Bristol talk about football so much because it's so popular. How do we know it's so popular? Well it must be because look how much we talk about it!!

Story over at MLB.com about a few hundred souls gathering near Fenway at the crack of dawn on a recent and obviously cold morning in order to watch them pack up the team's gear in a truck for its upcoming south-bound journey. Why do I get the opinion that if this were a football story that ESPN would, a) televise it and use it as proof of football's never-ending hold over the country

Remember that the team only gets a draft pick for a leaving player if they are willing to make him one of the top certain number of players in the league (forget the exact number) by offering him an arbitration amount that reaches that level. That minimum level this year was $14.1 million (it was something like $13.5 last year - the first year this particular system has been in effect - so it may be closer to $15 next off-season). IOW, gaining a pick for a leaving FA is hardly an automatic thing so it's not something a team can plan for when it originally signs him. If Drew, or someone in a similar situation, doesn't have a good year then his team is going to be less likely to make that qualifying offer, and if you do make it you have to be willing to use him at that price if he accepts.

I was wondering if Ralph was the oldest living Ho-F-er at the time of his death; turns out he was 3rd oldest behind Bobby Doerr who is 95, and Monte Irvin who will turn 94 in a few weeks. Red Schoendienst, 91 last week, is the only other living Cooperstown inductee over 90

Nymr83 wrote: ... I'm glad the Yankees will still be on the hook for him NEXT year when he'll be 40 years old and 18 months removed from his last major league at-bat. And on the hook for the season after next ... and the one after THAT.

Reportedly he kept firing lawyers and hiring new ones when he wasn't getting the answers he was looking for--the answers presumably being: 'Oh you are so right Alex, everyone IS against you'--so the lawyers that aren't crying in their double martinis over this are probably laughing at him right about now.

Bronson Arroyo inks a deal with Arizona -- 2 years plus an option: $23.5 minimum, $28 max. Of the "name" FAs at the start of this off-season, I believe that leaves just Nelson Cruz and Stephen Drew* (have we mentioned him before?) still unsigned. Both are 'compensation' FAs, Arroyo was not. * oh, and AJ Burnett too

Rodriguez withdraws his lawsuits vs Selig, MLB & the Players Assoc. Looks like he's resigned to accepting the terms of the suspension.

Elsewhere on the once-a-closer front, Carlos Marmol heads to the Marlins, Fernando Rodney to reign in Seattle.

Statue in Alamansor Park in hometown of Alahambra, CA

Started in pro (minor league) ball [u:32fxeyuf]73 years ago[/u:32fxeyuf] this season. Has been and was still "in" baseball, however tangentially, ever since. That's a nice run.

duan wrote: how many of those deals would you claim on waivers? Longoria, Pedroia, Tulo (ish), D Wright, Monlina, Carlos Gonzalez, Philips ?, McCutchen, Holliday, Bautista, Cabrera, Beltre, Justin Upton. Would probably be where I'd be at. As noted earlier, almost all of the most attractive ones are pre-FA contracts.

MFS62 wrote: He immediately jumps to the top of MY list for manager-in-waiting in the organization. Can we wait and see until he proves himself to be any good at this player/game management thing first before we go installing him to run the big team based on nothing but name recognition?

Finishing up the winter signing season--although additions may still come as seen by yesterday's long-term deal for Freddie Freeman--by adding the new Five-Year-Plus deals to the existing (hitter only) ones below. The Freeman deal, which is obviously not a true FA deal but a buy-out of arb years plus his first few potential FA seasons, was the longest and costliest in Braves history. Also on the original list we can add Prince Fielder and Ian Kinsler (dealt for each other) to those who were traded away (**) by the team that signed them before that deal had the chance to run out. PLAYERCONTRACTAGE 2014YEARS RemAvg $ / Yr Brain McCann5 Years / $85305$17Robinson Cano10 Years / $2403110$24Jacoby Ellsbury7 Years / $153307$21.86Shin-Soo Choo7 Years / $130317$18.57Freddie Freeman8 Years248$16.875JOSE ABREU6 Years / $696$11.33 PLAYERORIGINAL CONTRACTAGE 2014YEARS Rem.AVG $ / YRJOEY VOTTO10 Years / $225301022.5EVAN LONGORIA6 Years / $10028914.4ALBERT PUJOLS10 Years / $24034826.5BUSTER POSEY9 Years / $16727819.25ELVIS ANDRUS8 Years / $12025815DUSTIN PEDROIA8 Years / $11030813.75PRINCE FIELDER **9 Years / $21430724 RYAN BRAUN8 Years / $4530717.85TROY TULOWITSKI10 Years / $157.7529716.57DAVID WRIGHT8 Years / $13831715.875MATT KEMP8 Years / $16029621.33RYAN ZIMMERMAN6 Years / $10029614.67STARLIN CASTRO7 Years / $602469.17ANTHONY RIZZO7 Years / $412466.71JOE MAUER8 Years / $18431523ADRIAN GONZALEZ **7 Years / $15432521.2HUNTER PENCE5 Years / $9031518ADAM JONES6 Years / $88.528515YADIER MOLINA5 Years / $7531514.8JOSH HAMILTON5 Years / $12533424.5ALEX RODRIGUEZ10 Years / $27538421.5JAYSON WERTH7 Years / $12635420.75CARL CRAWFORD **7 Years / $14232420.63JOSE REYES **6 Years / $10631420.5ANDRE ETHIER5 Years / $8532416.88CARLOS GONZALEZ7 Years / $8028415.88BJ UPTON5 Years / $75.2529415.7MIGUEL MONTERO5 Years / $6030412.5BRANDON PHILLIPS6 Years / $72.533411.75IAN KINSLER **5 Years / $7532411.25ANDREW McCUTCHEN6 Years / $51.527411.06RYAN HOWARD5 Years / $12534325MARK TEIXEIRA8 Years / $18034322.5MATT HOLLIDAY7 Years / $12034317JOSE BAUTISTA5 Years / $6533314JAY BRUCE6 Years / $5127312.5MIGUEL CABRERA8 Years / $152.331222ADRIAN BELTRE5 Years / $8035217.5NICK MARKAKIS 6 Years / $66.130216.25JUSTIN UPTON **6 Years / $52.2526214.37DAN UGGLA5 Years / $6234213ALFONSO SORIANO **8 Years / $13638118ALEX RIOS **7 Years / $69.83533112.5

Edgy MD wrote: ... However, according to Gammons, Boston is asking Drew to essentially be a utility infielder, playing shortstop, third and second base. [Drew is] reportedly willing to play multiple positions, but I assume that is simply a way to get more teams involved. In the end, I have to think he�d prefer to be a starting shortstop, which is something the Mets can offer him that Boston cannot. This is where I think the Mets' advantage has always been. It's why I never bought the (probably Boras planted) Yanqui stories and if I'm Boston I'm putting Sander Bogaerts* at SS and looking for an easier to find (and pay) 3B stick that can approximate what Drew gave them in 2013 while also getting an extra top-100 (70-ish) draft pick out of it all. Doesn't mean they wouldn't take Drew back, but that they can afford to do it on their terms and not Boras's. * Bogaerts seems to be emerging as the #2 prospect in all of baseball according to the lists this winter and certainly had an impressive (even if short) trial run late last season.

... I guess if you're working at home or not working it's easier to flip on the TV than the radio these days. Yup. I'd bet a lot of households now have more TVs in more rooms than they do radios. Plus TVs all have remotes making them especially convenient for dropping in and out of wallpaper-type programming. As far as original programming goes, the problem is that it's not cheap and that to fill the daytime hours (essentially 10AM to 5PM is when most of these simulcasts occur) on your typical sports stations you're generally reaching an audience of dozens so there's not a lot of way of getting your money back. Is having one of these shows 'prestigious'? Probably not, but it's beats running infomercials.

Kay & LaGreca not exactly being subtle with that Coke bottle, were they? Why are shows like these simulcast? -- because there are more sports networks then there are programs to fill them so duplicating a radio show is a cheap and easy way to fill the daytime hours when actual sporting events are rarely being played. I think there are fewer shows NOT being televised than ones that are.

Edgy MD wrote: Allyson Satin, definitely not part of Shayla's set, appears to either be part of a sect (Orthodox Jew, Pentecostal, some strain of Mennonite) who covers full legs and full sleeves, or more likely is really conscious of mosquito-borne illnesses. Hey, with the number of mosquitos that can hide in her guy's eyebrows just laying in wait for their chance to strike, I'd cover up too.

Nine blondes out of the 14 chicks in that shot. What's the over/under on actual blondes? I'm going no higher than two-point-five.