Frayed Knot

He's certainly not fast, but he's also not AS slow as some led me to believe. Like I said at the beginning of this thread, I had heard '25' speed from some sources but I thought that had to be absurd and it was. With 50 representing ML average on the 20-80 scale, 60 & 40 would translate to somewhat above/below average, 70 and 30 to well above/below average, and 80 & 20 to Billy Hamilton and Mo Vaughn, Flores at worst seems like 35/40 now who could very well fall to 30/35 as he gets older. Olerud was slower than him, as is Miggy Cabrera, most catchers, a number of 1st basemen, and everyone named Molina.

Zvon wrote: I was looking over where Flores played most of his games in the minors the other day. Why was he moved from short never to go back? For the same reason that virtually everyone who tries SS gets moved away. If you were to make a list of the RH-throwing position players in the majors who were once short-stops in amateur ball or lower minor leagues, the percentages might reach 40%

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Where's the old guy with the brooms? For an old man he's quicker than you. First home (3 or more) sweep of the year.

Go put Yor Vit up on a chair Torreabla, you're done for the day.

Aardsma gets an A for his performance. Ah hell, give him a AA

That was truly a serving of minute Rice.

Some Met fans, and not a small number of non-Met fans (cough Francesa), have been trying to move Wright over to 1st base since about 20 minutes after he reached the big leagues. I have no earthly idea why that would be considered a good move.

And just as I was about to get the idea of back to back complete in my head ...

Ralph walks up to guys like Canseco and Verlander and says: "Madonna ... Upton ... pffffft, I dated REAL movie stars"

There's no way Eric Young is a SS How do we know that? I would have bet the house that Murphy would never have the grace to handle second base either. Because as Eisenberg/Zuckerberg snidely said in 'Social Network': "If you could have invented Facebook, you would have invented Facebook". IOW, if anyone thought Eric Young could have played SS they would have at least tried him there. But he never played an inning at SS even in the minors, and if you can think of anyone who started learning SS at age 29 I'd like to hear about him. Plus he doesn't have the arm for it.

Kong76 wrote: Kiner was a Navy pilot in WWll? Is there anything this guy didn't do in his wonderful life? Baseball HoF, Navy pilot, dated Liz Taylor and Debbie Reynolds. You can stop right there.

There's no way Eric Young is a SS

metirish wrote: Interesting last night when Gary mentioned Duda getting optioned to LV he and Keith then talked about the organization changing philosophy, or at least in their opinions that might well be the case. It's not so much that they're 'changing their philosophy' as it is just altering the bluepriint on the fly. Duda was part of their plan but then he got hurt and the OF, at least for right now, is working well all around. That doesn't mean Lucas will never again be in their plans, just that between the current alignment working and Davis (sort of*) hitting again there's no room for him at the moment and therefore no reason to try to force-fit him back into the line-up. * y'know, except for those home-run things that he used to hit on occasion

Perhaps with visions of 2011's late-season collapse dancing in their heads, the Braves have been riding Craig Kimbrel HARD lately despite the HUGE lead they have in the NL East. They actually held him out of Monday's game vs Nats and let Jordan Walden close even though it was a 'save situation' (and just a one-run lead at that) but that was Kimbrel's only day off in the last six and they went to him again with a three-run lead in the 9th last night where he survived but only after an arduous 36-pitch trial. In all he's thrown a total of 99 pitches over the last five games/six days - including twice where the Braves had three-run leads.

I saw the 9th but then cashed it in before the extra inning fireworks. Looking at the line score ... BOTH ChiSox rallies (9th inning & 12th) started after two outs and no one on. And it all ruined what was Sabathia's first decent start in about a month.

smg58 wrote: ... but pitch recognition is the key to whether he'll be more than that. The one thing he hasn't done in the minors is draw walks. Or hit for a lot of power* - and that's why ideally I'd like to see him somewhere other than 1st. And, yeah, having him there for 2014 certainly doesn't mean he's anchored there permanently but I think it becomes harder as time goes on to move a guy to a tougher spot on the defensive spectrum once he starts out on the easier side, plus it would be nice if we saw SOME kind of resurgence (or, hell, even a surgence) from either Davis or Duda so Flores isn't forced there simple by lack of a better option. * There seems to be a divide amongst those who follow this sort of stuff about if/how-much pop he'll develop as time goes on. HR power is often the last thing to develop and, although Met fans have been hearing about this guy for so long and some have had their perspective skewed by the early success of Harper & Trout, it bears remembering that 22 is NOT old for a prospect. Just for comparison, Trout turned 22 yesterday so he's actually one day younger than Flores and he has not 3 RBI but 169, a RoY, and probably should have an MVP - and Harper is 14 months younger than that. But, again, folks have to remember how freakish those two have been at their ages.

A pitcher is doing well if he can keep his average pitches/inning under 15. Harvey tonight had [u:3nio2xy4]no single inning[/u:3nio2xy4] over 15 pitches.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I find myself hoping that he can be next year's first baseman. Ideally he could find a position elsewhere as whether he'll ever develop the power you'd like at 1B is a lingering question.

TheOldMole wrote: My internet crapped out just before whatever happened happened. So I missed it. What happened? 2-out/2-strikes and on pitch #100, Rockie batter lined a shot off Harvey's leg (looked to be just above the knee) and the ball bounded on a fly out to short RCF for a single. Stayed in after a quick visit and one practice pitch, then got a pop out three pitches later for the final out of the game.

Does that alone make him a racist or is there something specific that he's said along those lines?

Why, is there a nuclear explosion on the way?

I have absolutely no memory of Kit Pellow. oe: that hit they're talking about that broke up a Tom Glavine no-hitter was one of 52 hits that Pellow had in his ML career.

Shitty call by the umpire there. And it's erased just as quickly.

And now some of the high heat is starting to come out.

We've played so many long games this year that it's almost weird to check the scores of the other games in progress between innings and see that our game is ahead of every other one. [crossout:2wfew8af]Nearly[/crossout:2wfew8af] seven complete innings yet still well under 2 hours. 2 hours lately has meant the top of the 5th.