Frayed Knot

You also continue to accrue ML service time when you're DL'd while on a ML roster - something that could pay off later on down the road.

Lefty Specialist wrote: [Lincecum] won't be looking for fifth-starter money, that's for sure. There will be plenty of other pitchers who'll be able to fill that slot for a fraction of Lincecum's price. I think that's the biggest point, that the Mets will (especially if Harvey gets the surgery) quite likely be looking for a veteran 4th-5th starter type probably on a one-year deal. The most recent example of this is the Nats who employed Edwin Jackson in 2012 and then replaced him with Dan Haren this season. Neither came cheap and the results have been decidedly mixed. Jackson 2012 - 28 y/o - 1 year/$11 million -- 10-11; 4.03; 1.22 WHiP -- My recollection was that he was more than acceptable during most of that season then started to wear down towards the end which helped drag down the overall numbers. Jackson then parlayed that season into a 3x$13 deal with the Cubs Haren 2013 - 32 y/o - 1 year/$14 million -- 8-12; 5.02; 1.28 -- Kind of the opposite of Jackson: started slow then got (somewhat) better. Haren had a better career to date than did Jackson but also more miles on him and some down years since his really good ones. So will Lincecum, who turned down long-term money w/the Giants 2-3 years ago and made the big bucks with one-year deals instead, be satisfied with another one-year 'make good' kind of deal with hopes of hitting the FA market next year in better shape? I tend to doubt it but I suppose it's not out of the question. And even if the price tag will no longer be $20, it'll likely be 70 or more percent of that. I know Sandy mentioned looking to a vet to fill in a potential Harvey hole but he also hinted that such money could take away from whatever else they're trying to do so I think a lesser light than Lincecum will be a likely target if NYM plans come to that.

With the races in the East (16 games) & West (12) effectively being over for a while now, the action is all in the Central plus the outside shot that either Washington or Arizona (7 games out each) gets hot enough to snag the final WC slot. Pirates --- Cardinals -1.5 Reds -3.0 * Pittsburgh looks for win #82 tonight but, seeing as how they're in St Louis for the weekend, they kind of have bigger [crossout:61ex1wwq]fish[/crossout:61ex1wwq] birds to fry right now than merely worrying about the formality of notching their first winning season since GWH Bush was in the White House. Cards are coming off losing 2 of 3 to Cincy which keeps that division a three-team race at least for a while. Final series of the year between the two teams. Burnett vs Kelly tonight. * Cincy hosts the Dodgers for the weekend. Capuano vs Leake * Nationals are in Miami. DBacks in San Fran

The only other 'winner' last night in the AL pennant/WC race was the Orioles by virtue of it being their turn to beat up on the ChiSox. By winning they picked up a half-game on idle Cleveland and a full game on Oakland, Yanx, & Tampa The best part of the Yanx/Sawx last night (I was in and out of the game so only saw part of it) may have been Soriano walking w/one out in the 9th right after Mariano's blown save. So, sitting on 1st as the winning run, he promptly gets picked off ... except that Boston messes up the play giving him a free pass to 2nd. And now that he's been given a reprieve and is sitting in scoring position with one out ... he just as quickly gets picked off of 2nd!! - and this time the Sox infield did not mess it up (although they tried). He may lead MLB in RBIs since being traded to the Yanx (that's right, more than Miggy) but he's still a dumb-ass. Final time of the game: 4:32

TheOldMole wrote: How did Dice-clay get any votes at all? His RBI single?

You could probably say about a lot of orgs that their overall record is skewed by one team within the org doing really well or really poorly. But, without looking at all of them, it would be tough to think that any one org is more helped than the Nats are by the [u:t5n3hb42]49-9 record[/u:t5n3hb42] of their Gulf Coast affiliate.

BoSox break out their secret weapon in the 10th inning ... Joba. 9-8 Sox, Boston still batting, 1-on/1-out

The Sawx could totally break the game wide open right here (but Stephen Drew Ks). The game is just over two hours in and it's already the top of the 5th!!. In the old days, the results of this one would already be certain to miss the morning editions of your local paper. And now Girardi signals for his 17th pitcher of the game so far.

Darling himself admits as much, although, in fairness to him, he was hired at the last minute during the upheaval of the move from Montreal to Washington and so went into the job totally unprepared on account of it. They log hours together before and after games. Except for Keith who, starting around the sixth inning, is plotting ways to beat the fans out of the parking lot.

Yeah, I was wondering if the inevitable sign-off scenes where the audience is told what became of the crew in the years after the voyage would mention that the success of the trip hardly settled the debate on the topic. It didn't. To its credit it also didn't claim the journey as proof of Heyerdahl's theory even if it tacitly implied it and did manage to credit the trip with spurning a new era of exploration as demonstrated by everything from the Everest expedition right around the corner and up to the space era, something which is probably at least as arguable as the lag in exploration was probably more due to the two world wars over the previous two decades than from some era of indifference just waiting for a spark. One thing that was interesting about the movie is that it was shot with an entirely Norwegian cast (at least the leads) but with large portions of it shot twice with the bilingual actors doing one take in Norwegian and one in English in order to be able to release the same movie in different markets and different languages without either subtitles or dubbing.

Before even reading the piece, my take on Lagares is that his shallow positioning and aggressive charging of balls allow him to often make shorter throws than many CFs which, when added to a quick release and unerringly accuracy, combine to pile up the assists even though if one were to arrange a 'throw-off' kind of contest among ML OFs it would probably show him to have a good though hardly super-human arm. Sort of the opposite of young Vlad Guerrero who could out-throw anyone but was as likely to miss the cut-off men or heave the ball into Row F behind 3rd base as he was to get the runner.

Yes, this is, of course, about the Norwegian explorer/scientist Thor Heyerdahl and his attempt to show that the Polynesian Islands of the south pacific were settled, not as conventional wisdom dictated by Asians from the west, but by South Americans from the east. Scholars doubted that theory because those living in and around present day Peru didn't have the type of sailing boat necessary to travel the 5,000 or so miles 1,500 years earlier. Heyerdahl countered that they did have rafts, and that rafts could float even if they lacked the technology to steer them to much of an extent, and that those people knew the winds and the prevailing currents could have taken them that way. So how does one 'prove' such a theory? Why you attempt to duplicate it naturally. So off he went right after WWII with a crew of five other Nordics to build a copy of a raft that would have been known to the south Americans at the time using only materials that would have been available to them (balsa wood logs; twine but no cables; bones but no nails) and either get there or die trying. Movie does a decent job of portraying Heyerdahl as a mixture of serious scholar and wild dreamer (yeah, he's a bit out there at times) whose vision endangers both his marriage and the lives of him and his crew. Aside from that it's a pretty straight-forward tale of him trying to raise money and buck conventional thought at the time. And then of course there's the trip itself. Great looking film if nothing else.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I have to say, Dillon Gee's turnaround is one of the highlights of the season. Back on May 1 (or thereabouts) I never would have expected that in September I'd be saying, "Oh, good, Gee is pitching today!" Quite a turn-around indeed. All starting, as Gary is oh so fond of pointing out, with his game vs the Yanquis on May 31 Here is a synopsis of his starts prior to that 5/31 outing, and then the ones of 5/31 and since. The K-rate is virtually unchanged while every other number is dramatically better and has been for almost twice as long. GSIPH/9ERABB/9K/9HR/9BAAOBASLGA 1049.212.56.343.086.701.46.329.390.519 18123.28.02.401.896.331.02.236.278.368 Now if we could just keep him away from the Phillies in general and Ryan Howard in particular he's be a CY candidate.

Lefty Specialist wrote: That was the first IGT I ever started. I should probably quit with my 1.000 winning percentage intact. Uh-uh, they won the game so you can't break the streak. Start it now if you wish but you HAVE to start it.

A bunch of blond guys head down to Peru in 1947 to do some rafting.

Byrdak - 0.3 Hawkins - 0.3 Black - 0.1 Young - 0.5 Murphy - 0.6 Lagares - 1.1 Recker - 0.5 Satin - 1.2 Lutz - 1.0 Duda - 0.6

Niese - 2.0 Young - 2.0 Murphy - 2.0 Duda - 2.0 den Dekker - 2.0

Wheeler - 2.3 Murphy - 1.7 Young - 1.7 Lagares - 1.7 d'Arnaud - 0.7 Satin - 0.9 Quintanilla - 1.0

A crisp-[u:2ro4izca]ish[/u:2ro4izca] game today. Certainly OK from the Mets viewpoint - although all those LOBs, the offense shutting itself down with more than half a game to go, and that the Braves were resting half their starters wasn't too comforting. But the Braves in general and Loe and the Uptons in particular seemed to pretty much take the day off. Man those Upton boys are frustrating at times. Both seem like they should be better players, better hitters, better fielders. Y'know something I noticed about the Braves today? - on their pitching staff only Maholm (31) & Hudson (37) are over 30 (of those with at least 25 IP) - and on their offense, only Uggla (33) is out of his 20s among the starters. Throw backup C Gerald Laird (33) and Reed Johnson (36) if you're counting the subs.

So where are our odds of pulling out this game? I'm thinking it's around 50/50

Freeman's swing doesn't look like it should be able to hit high pitches, particularly high hard ones. It can.

Stole it on the first pitch too. Probably would have scored on the following double anyway, but it's still fun to steal a base when the entire world knows you're going.

The biggest thing with that contract is how back-loaded it is: 2014 = $16M, 2015 = $22M, 2016 = $22M, 2017 = $22M, 2018 = $22M/club option ($4M buyout) after getting in the range of $10-$12 for these past two seasons. Then there's a bunch of (relatively minor) bonuses for each Gold Glove, All-Star selection. Silver Slugger, LCS MVP, MVP, WS MVP That's too much for a 30+ SS He, of course, did NOT get a no-trade clause in the deal and won't be 10+5 for another three years.

Nice hitting today and it's one of those games that seems 'safe' - but still too many LOBsters. And now that the starter Loe, the source of all this goodness, is out ...

And, did anyone notice that we had a Turner crossing home plate sighting today? Got on twice so far, scored once. That 50% rate is about 45 points above his norm this season.