Frayed Knot

Ex-Nat Michael Morse gets re-routed back east (to Baltimore) just in time for the other NYC-v-mid-Atlantic showdown this weekend. Not having near the year he had last season. Be nice if he goes on a Soriano-like HR binge this weekend.

The funniest statement from the whole article may be Seaver saying: "There�s just too much damn money in the game now." I think he may have stolen that line from M. Donald Grant.

[seaver] cited the examples of all his Hall of Fame pitching cohorts in the �60s and �70s � Juan Marichal, Steve Carlton, Ferguson Jenkins, Jim Palmer, even Warren Spahn ... I notice he leaves out Koufax, who threw his last pitch at age 30, and Drysdale who was 31, just to name a few who don't fit in that preconceived box. Also Marichal, cited in the 'tough guy' list above, was effectively finished as a top pitcher by age 33. Doesn't mean Tom (and others) aren't right about certain things in this no-easy-answers topic. But the use of selective evidence to prove the point is maybe more prevalent here than in most other arguments. Oh, and how did Gary Gentry's career pan out?

Jayson Werth, in particular, has been ridicul-hot for the Nats: .412/.505/.671 in August

Ceetar wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: I think GK&R should make a big deal about every time he gets on for the rest of the year just to see how each episode will end. tweet at Kevin and/or Ron. Maybe you can get 'em to bring it up. I would, but that would involve me tweeting ... which would involve me first learning how to tweet ... which would, ah it would just be too much fucking trouble. Feel free to do so yourself and claim it all as your idea. Gary's aware of it, he brought it up at least twice in the last few days. I just figured that tracking it more closely each and every time Turner gets on would give them something to do and might even inject a wee bit of drama into the next month of increasingly meaningless games.

seawolf17 wrote: Only Chris Coghlan has a higher BA, and nobody has a higher WAR. And the number of hits from the rest of the 5-runs crowd range from 1/3 to barely over half of Turner's 41. I think GK&R should make a big deal about every time he gets on for the rest of the year just to see how each episode will end.

Lost in yesterday's walkover against Philly was a startling piece of news ... JUSTIN TURNER SCORED A RUN!!!! He walked two batters in front of Recker's HR and was able to trot home for his 5th run scored of the year!! That's right, FIVE (and only three since mid-April), a number that seems almost impossible. And while the initial reaction from some is going to be: 'well sure, he sucks and don't play that often', he doesn't suck that much, has more than 1/4 of his hits go for XBs, has hit in every slot in the lineup except 3rd, has only once been thrown out on the basepaths (trying to stretch a single which, IIRC, was a bad call), never been caught stealing and doesn't get PR'd for. Tale of the Tape: 71 games; 29 Starts vs 42 as sub. 171 PAs, 157 ABs; .261/.312/.338 41 Hits including 10 2Bs + 1 3B; also 11 walks, 1 HBP, and reached once on an error - He's scored just one more run than Jon Niese, and fewer than Colin Cowgill (7), Rick Ankiel (7) (admit it, half of you forgot those two were even Mets this year) and Wilmer Flores (6) despite more than twice as many ABs as each. - He's scored a lot fewer than Recker (14), Valdespin (16) and Brown (12) despite more ABs than any of them. And while it's easy to cite JT's zero HRs as the reason, he's also significantly behind the likes of Baxter (13 runs, 0 HRs, fewer ABs), Satin (20, 2, fewer) and even Tejada who has of course no HRs and a .209/.267/.262 line with only 30 more ABs yet has scored 18 times. Once you take away the five times he's actually managed to round the bases safely, I found that he was erased on a force play 3 times and erased himself once (the stretched single) leaving him to be stranded the other 44 of the 53 times he got on including 27 of those 44 in scoring position (20 at 2nd, 7 at 3rd). I then wondered if he was somehow managing to get on when there were already two outs but, no, he's been on 15 of those times with no outs, 20 more with one, and is even hitting .300/.344/.433 when leading off an inning . Four different times he's reached base three times in a game (with a total of two runs to show for it) and once he got on four times (and was stranded after all four). My only conclusion to reach from all this is freaky bad luck. With near identical ABs and slash stats last year (slightly more power) he at least managed 19 runs scored which seems to put him more in line with others of his use and production. I had a similar year like this once on a softball team. I hit leadoff, was one of the fastest guys on the team, hit decently if not anything noteworthy. But I wound up scoring just a few runs during the whole season because on days when I hit the guys behind me didn't and vice-versa.

Nobody wants to give him a High-Four.

MLB.com is listing this under its 'Transactions' data so I'd have to assume this is all officially official at this point, and there's no way Sandy would be talking about it on team stationary otherwise. Not sure why Black was the player who dare not have his name spoken two days ago but is firmly out of the closet now, but that appears to be the case. Whatever paperwork needed doing apparently done got done.

Gary & Ron talking earlier about how few runs -- [u:2bubpcav]4[/u:2bubpcav]!! -- Turner has scored this season. So who's the only guy to get on base that inning and not score? .... Turner of course. He got HBP'd but was then forced by Dekker's grounder. den Dekker, who has one day in the majors and a .000 OBA, now has 1/4 of the runs scored in 2013 of Justin Turner.

Sickels chimes in on Vic Black now that he's been ID'd as the PtbNL ... Black is having a fine season down at Triple-A Indianapolis: 17 saves, 2.51 ERA in 46.2 innings, 63 strikeouts, 21 walks, only 28 hits allowed. He's held International League hitters to a .169 average. He's had a rough patch over his last few games, giving up three runs in three innings with four walks, but overall it has been a very successful season. The Pirates got a brief look at Black in late July when he made three relief appearances out of the big league bullpen, giving up six hits, two walks, and two runs in four innings of work, fanning three. Unlike many minor league closers, Black does not want for stuff: he has one of the best fastballs in the system, clocked as high as 101 MPH in the minors; he hit 98 during his major league trial and averaged 95. A supplemental first round pick in 2009 out of Dallas Baptist, he struggled with control problems, a substandard change-up, and persistent arm trouble early in his career and at one point looked like a bust. He revived his career by converting to relief, posting an excellent 1.65 ERA with an 85/29 K/BB in 60 innings with 13 saves last year in Double-A, followed by consistent success this year. He's had fewer problems throwing strikes and staying healthy with relief use, doesn't have to worry about the change-up, and can just come in and blow people away for an inning or two with his fastball and a slider that can touch 90. Black clearly has closer possibilities down the road if his command holds up. At worst he should be a good middle reliever.

den Dekker: 3 ML ABs, still looking for his first fair ball (K, K, foul out)

vtmet wrote: why do teams like the White Sox, A's, Astros, Indians, and Padres consistently have some of the ugliest uniforms in the history of sports? Because they mistake brief trends (splashy colors, wide lapels, etc.) for timeless fashion.

Edgy MD wrote: Both Youngs batting leadoff. Managers failed to coordinate their Browns however. Terry is batting Andrew 3rd; Domonic sits in the 4th slot

Edgy MD wrote: Turner batting fifth. What gets into a manager's hormones when he falls in love with his backup infielder? He looks at the choices for 6th, 7th, and 8th.

"But these tears don't heal right?" -- Correct. Unlike muscles, ligaments don't 're-grow' and heal themselves. "I feel like not getting the surgery would be a time bomb ticking away." -- Maybe. But every pitcher beyond HS has some tears somewhere. The question, yet to be determined, is how bad this one is. Is a future full tear inevitable or just possible? "But I don't have an MD so what do I know." -- I watched 'HOUSE' so I'm qualified to speak on all medical situations. "If given the choice, I'd much rather have him miss 2014 than 2015." -- If only the question were that simple.

Wasn't there a story (on some SNY show or another) about how some local shop in Queens was the one who did all the patch/letter-type embroidery for NYM uniforms? And, if that's the case, how come they can't whip up a bunch of lower case letters for d'Arnaud and den Dekker? It would certainly look cooler.

I had no memory of Bump being as good a player as he (briefly) was, but he had six full and pretty decent seasons in MLB before disappearing. I was thinking he was more a 300 AB/yr Tony Gwynn Jr-ish type of player who probably only got as much time as he did on account of the name. I guessed him/them because after you gave the life-long NL-father clue Maury was the first guy I thought of.

Shirley & Maury ... no wait, that's not right, it's Maury and Bump.

Gary ran down a list the other night of guys who have had partial tears and opted NOT to go the surgical route. Some eventually needed it down the road but others didn't. Bottom line (in the case of elbows or just about anything else) is that if you can avoid surgery you probably should avoid surgery. No matter how "routine" TJ operations have become in recent years it's still a very invasive procedure [transplanted tendons, drilled holes in bones, re-routed tissue, etc.] that requires a ton of rehab, a lot of time, runs the risk of infection, and even today doesn't always return the pitcher to where he was prior to the injury.

MFS62 wrote: I'm pretty sure Vic was named by his parents when he was born. Why did he have to be named later? Shouldn't it be "Player to be Identified Later"? Dick (don't me me Richie) Allen and Albert (don't call me Joey) Belle were players to be named (by themselves) later. Vic "Is The New" Black It didn't take long to name that player to be named. Or nicknamed.

Young - 1.0 Murphy - 0.5 Brown - 1.0 Davis - 1.0 Lagares - 0.5 Turner - 1.5 Feliciano - 0.5 Aardsma - 0.5

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Ohandbytheway... the game's been on for two hours and change, and we've got four more regulation innings to go, at least. Looked at another way, by this time yesterday last night's game was already over.

Between Ruf, Orr, and Lee, the Phils look like they're hiring guys who will save them the most money on lettering.

Well, it was a relayed throw from Young through Turner. Mostly is was a dumb play by Rollins, his second of the game. Charlie had to set Jimmy straight a number of times over the years. I wonder if Ryno is going to have the guts/freedom to do the same.