Frayed Knot

No lone gunman tonight. Evidence points to multiple boomers.

Josh: "Every time Ian Kennedy has a nightmare there's a 1st baseman with a beard in it"

Yanx have signed recently released Mark Reynolds. Desperate? Sure. But you'd be desperate too for RH punch if you had the Yanx track record for this year. Soriano = 7 HRs in 71 ABs - 1 HR/7 ABs NYY RH minus Soriano: 29 HRs in 1,764 ABs; ABs/HR = 61

Montero makes it to the top of this week's 'Hot List' in BA Rafael Montero, rhp, Mets Team: Triple-A Las Vegas (Pacific Coast) Age: 22 Why He�s Here: 2-0, 0.64, 14 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 HR, 2 BB, 17 SO The Scoop: Few Dominican pitchers fly through the minor leagues, but then few have the same background as Montero. The Mets signed him in January 2011 when he was 20�an age that makes him practically ancient in the world of international scouting�but he�s skyrocketed from the Dominican Summer League to Triple-A in just two seasons thanks to his impressive command of a solid arsenal. Little has fazed Montero on that journey, including the hitter-friendly conditions of Las Vegas. The only run Montero gave up this week came on a George Springer home run�he certainly has plenty of company there�but otherwise he overmatched hitters during his two home starts in Las Vegas. Montero sits in the low 90s and can get up to the mid-90s when he needs it, but it�s the late life and the command of his fastball that makes him so effective. He lacks a wipeout offering among his secondary pitches, so scouts aren�t projecting Montero as a frontline starter, but the stuff and command are there to profile as a steady mid-rotation arm.

According to the NY Times story this morning, HR calls will continue to be decided in the current manner under the planned new rules: with the umpires retreating off the field to a replay room in order to confirm or reverse the call themselves. That seems like a bit of an odd decision.

metsmarathon wrote: well, heaven forbid they call the game accoridng to the published rules... I'm not saying it shouldn't happen that way (although most pivot men are so good around there I think that replay scrutiny would show players ARE in contact with the base a lot more often than many fans think) only that it will open up challenges that aren't necessarily the ones that fans think of when they correcting bad calls. Again with a football analogy, what started as 'did the ball hit the ground first?' calls for instance have morphed over time into almost microscopic examinations of whether the ball was moving in the receiver's arms or other similar minutia. The overall point is that it's tough to stay just a little bit pregnant on these matters and what starts off as an attempt to overturn obvious bad calls inevitably becomes an episode of CSI: CitiField for calls that no one would have thought of as wrong prior to the rule change.

Ceetar wrote: Is Terry Collins implying there is an unwritten rule between managers to not bitch about the neighborhood play? I don't think there's an agreement so much as the knowledge that bitching isn't going to get you anywhere. But if a replay shows that the fielder's toe was a half-inch off the base when he received the call how do the powers justify NOT overturning it? And once it's shown that they will overturn such calls challenges will be thrown all over the place for late-game DPs.

sharpie wrote: The close play at the plate with the umpire calling the runner safe or out is maybe the most thrilling part of the game. For that to be only a preliminary call really sucks. I'm agin' it. This is part of the problem I have with watching football - it's morphed into a game akin to being lorded over by lawyers. A guy scores and then--either because of a flag, a replay challenge, or an automatic review--the guys in the striped suits/shirts get together and decide whether or not he actually scored.

Gee - 3.0 Rice - 1.0 Torres - 1.0 Byrd - 2.3 Brown - 1.7 Turner - 0.5 Murphy - 0.5

Harvey - 1.5 Germen - 0.6 Atchison - 0.6 Lagares - 1.5 Buck - 1.0 Satin - 0.8

Zvon wrote: We got two runs. Germen til he hits a bump? Good call. Would like to see him finish this. AND NO WALKS!!!

Buck you Stauffer! We need to put this game away. I'm not sure I have another (really) late night in me so I would hate to hell to see this game tied.

For a guy who I assumed was just a temporary call-up and would be quickly sent back as soon as the next guy was ready, Germen has done alright for himself in the short time he's been up.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Last frame for Wheels? If he even gets through it.

Aside from the gaining the ability to force retirements on a handful of the men in blue who have stayed past their 'sell by' date, it's not like MLB is going to find a group of guys who are suddenly going to be immune to missing some now and then. The question is, can they find a system that will improve on what's going on now without opening up more holes than it closes? I'm hopeful but wary.

The one thing we (Wheeler) didn't need there on offense was a quick inning.

Zvon wrote: I was going to say in my post that as an outfielder if I got that much leather on trhe ball Id feel I should have had it. Except that 99% of the world doesn't even get a glove on it, and it's still an amazing catch even if you do. No, trust me on this one, I am NOT sitting at home saying I could have done that one better. The throw I honestly believe I could have done better (although we'd have to turn the clock back about a quarter century or so).

Now THAT'S an outfield throw!!

What's this now, the 23rd mound conference of the night? A few more and I'll start thinking that Jorge Posada has come out of retirement.

Zvon wrote: Have they ever considered having line umps during the season, like they have in post season play? Have you seen how many line calls are missed during post-season? Maybe it's just because they stand out more because of the importance of the games, but it certainly seems in recent years like line calls get worse in October!

It's like EYJr has infielder genes and instincts with an OFer's athleticism. Poor OF throws annoy me probably more than anything else if for no other reason than I'm convinced that back in my day I had at least an average major league OFer's arm. I have very little ego about my athletic abilities but I know I could throw so bad throws in from the OF are the only situation where I'm saying to myself, "I could have done better than that".

That Young play was the play of the year where an out wasn't made. On the other hand, he didn't get behind that Sac Fly all that well.

The good thing about this kid getting delayed so long is that by the time he finally gets here he'll be ready for 2nd grade. Avoids all that having to arrange pre-school sign-up shit.

Well the 'add cameras' thing should have been in place when they went to replay for HR calls - except that, at the time, they were so intent in getting that aspect of replay into effect (following the Delgado HR-denied on national TV) that they couldn't even wait until the end of that season to implement it much less put cameras at the walls in order to make calls involving the walls. This latest thing they've at least put a bunch more thought and time into it so I hope (but am still wary) that they've thought this through. My main concern (aside from just the general Murphy's Law kind of thing) is that both Selig & Torre proclaimed going back nearly a year ago that MLB [u:10dkrxaz]WOULD HAVE[/u:10dkrxaz] expanded instant replay starting in 2014 before they ever had a plan or anything resembling the even partial approval they've got so far. It's like instead of examining the problem then coming up with a solution, they started with the solution and were prepared to shoe-horn whatever process they could in order to get there.

Edgy MD wrote: I felt like firing Willie Randolph after that last one. Hey, with the game ending at 2 in the morning it would have been the perfect time. And when I say perfect time I mean perfect so as to screw with the schedules of reporters back east.