Frayed Knot

Still looking for my first IGT win of the year in this last game before the break. But all streaks must come to an end some time and today is a good time to Bas-steal a win from the first-place Pirates. We may have been Harvey-less on Saturday but the Pirates are all out of Locke today as scheduled starter (and All-Star) Jeff Locke is sitting this one out with back spasms. Instead, Dillon Gee will see former #1 overall draft pick Gerritt Cole as his opponent. Called up earlier this season, Cole has made six starts in his ML career - winning the first four before losing the most recent two against Oakland & Philly. 39 hits, 20 Ks, 7 BBs and 15 ER in 36.2 innings overall for Cole.

- Braves win tonight as their make-shift outfield combined for seven hits. - Meanwhile, the Marlins have crept up by two games over the last two days. After jumping on Strasburg for 7 runs in 2 innings on Friday, Jose Fernandez held the Nats to one run tonight which became enough when Giancarlo HR'd to tie it in the bottom of the 9th. Miami then won it in the 10th when, rather than get the force out at home, the Nats tried but failed for the one-out/Bases-loaded GiDP. - Phils lost their first game with the ChiSox (make-up from yesterday's rain out) and are headed for the 10th in game 2.

Problem with Tejada is that whoever the non-starting SS is for the day winds up not being very useful off the bench. It's not like you'd want to use either to PH. On the other hand it would be nice to have a real backup SS around just so you could PH for your SS every now and then and I don't think Turner is anywhere near ready.

A 'Hot List' Honorable Mention for this past week: • Darrell Ceciliani, cf, Mets -- The 23-year-old missed virtually all of last season, and he hit a modest .262/.309/.367 through June this year at Double-A Binghamton. But then Ceciliani reeled off an 8-for-18 week (.444) with three homers, a double, a triple, eight RBIs, a steal and two walks to remind everybody why he has a chance to develop into a fourth outfielder. All the same, he’ll need to sharply reduce his strikeout rate (26 percent of plate appearances) to avoid becoming Kirk Nieuwenhuis 2.0.

Good week for NYM prospects, Noah Syndergaard checks in at #9 in BA's 'Hot List' for the week. Why He’s Here: 1-0, 0.00, 9 IP, 9 H, 3 R, 0 ER, 1 HR, 10 SO, 1 BB The Scoop: Syndergaard threw just two innings on Thursday, not because of ineffectiveness or injury but because he’s probably going to start Sunday’s Futures Game at Citi Field. He was plenty good in his full-share start last Saturday, working seven innings and allowing three runs while striking out seven and walking one. Syndergaard has responded positively to his promotion to Double-A, notching 26 strikeouts, four walks and 18 hits allowed in 20 innings, pushing his career K-BB ratio to 3.9. And from the Q&A on the list: Q - How has Noah Syndergaard made the transition to AA look so easy? A - He seems to have that scary ability to control a double-plus fastball, which goes a long way against minor league competition. In some ways Syndergaard’s ascension is reminiscent of Zack Wheeler when he was at Double-A last year in that he gets a ton of swings and misses on the fastball and that he can work deep into games because of his pitch efficiency. I don’t want to say that Sydergaard’s fastball has the same late explosion that Wheeler’s does, but he compensates with better feel for a second pitch (changeup).

Not going to win very often scoring two runs a night.

Geez, at least make them earn it!!

Well, some fairly telling evidence has recently gone public suggesting that it's not Harvey.

Lefty middle-reliever Matt Thorton changes his Sox from White to Red as he's dealt to Boston for a 22 y/o corner OF just promoted to AA -- Brandon Jacobs Probably nothing we can use here to apply to what Parnell might garner in return. BoSox are seemingly always dealing for short-term relievers at this time of the year [Andrew Bailey, Joel Hanrahan, Mark Melacon] and may have been considered a team sniffing around Bobby Pee but Koji Uehara has done reasonably well since inheriting the closing job [8 saves and 2 runs allowed over 11 appearances]

That Alfonzian day, when combined by the rest of his week, was enough to get Flores the #6 spot on BA's 'Hot List' .400/.419/.767 (12-for-30), 2 HR, 5 2B, 9 RBIs, 4 R, 1 BB, 7 SO Talk about linear progression�Flores� OPS has climbed from .715 in April to .873 in May to .950 in June to 1.200 through 11 games this month. He placed an exclamation point on his recent performance with a 4-for-5, two-homer, one-double game yesterday versus Tucson. Flores has very quietly climbed to the top of the PCL heap in three categories�doubles (33), extra-base hits (49) and RBIs (74)�and while he�s had considerably more success in Las Vegas, he still has a .288/.333/.440 batting line in road games. Not bad for a 21-year-old second baseman in Triple-A. Prospect watchers may want to take note of the Mets in September if the organization ends up promoting a trio of young position players on its 40-man roster�Flores, catcher Travis d�Arnaud and Double-A right fielder Cesar Puello�to make their major league debuts in tandem.

Twins actually won a game at YSIII this afternoon. I believe the last time the Twinkies won a game in the Bronx the winning run was driven in by Zolio Versalles, but I may have to do a little more research on that one.

Tough week to be a Braves outfielder Jason Heyward strains a hamstring on Thursday night, he won't play again until after the ASB - BOTH Upton brothers had to leave the game on Friday night with leg problems. Like Heyward, neither will be DL'd as of yet but both will sit the rest of the weekend series vs Cincy - Jordan Schaefer already was on the DL with a foot injury and will probably miss another month at least. Today's starting OF for the Braves: LF - Jose Constanza; CF - Reed Johnson; RF - Joey Terdoslavich

Mex17 wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: . . . successful ones that seem to come out of nowhere (Mujica in StL), or that were previously mid-30s journeymen (Grilli in Pitt), or that were suspended druggies who spent four year out of the game working as a bartender (Wilhelmsen in Seattle) Not that I am advocating trading Parnell, but this little factoid could be used as a justification to sell high on him. Just remember that those guys represent the small handful who DID succeed (or are doing so at the moment). Not shown in that little example are the numerous guys who were tried in that role who either failed miserably or thrived briefly as closers only to flame out just as quickly. IOW, tossing a previously non-descript guy into the closer's role CAN work but most likely won't leaving the fanbase to sit around saying; 'damn, I wish we had a REAL closer like _____' [insert name of guy facing us that night].

At least not until someone makes you an offer you can't refuse - and by that I don't mean one where Luca Brasi is standing over your shoulder. The short answer is that if the answer were obvious you wouldn't need to ask the question. Aardsma would probably be the call for the short run as he's done it before (albeit several years and surgeries ago) with some mix and match thrown in along the way. The long term answer is probably someone none of us can foresee at this time. If you're looking at in-org solution it could be someone like this guy who has been K-ing batters at the rate of ~1.7/IP since showing up in Brooklyn three summers ago. Problem is that if you take a glance at his last line of stats you'll see that the results since his June promotion to AAA haven't been so nice. His H/9 have only ticked up a bit and the Ks are down a shade; but it's that 14 runs allowed (10 earned) in 13.2 innings that jumps out at you while his walk rate (which was already higher than you'd like) has nearly doubled. Maybe that's the result of a small sample size, maybe it's the Vegas air, maybe it's better competition - or most likely some combination of the three. Bottom line is that fill-in closers aren't all that hard to find but good ones are. And to further complicate matters there's no distinctive pattern as to where to find them. If there were there wouldn't be successful ones that seem to come out of nowhere (Mujica in StL), or that were previously mid-30s journeymen (Grilli in Pitt), or that were suspended druggies who spent four year out of the game working as a bartender (Wilhelmsen in Seattle)

Swan Swan H wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: Helluva time for a ML debut. What's the deal with Hawkins again? His lumbago is acting up. The [real] Password answer is .... "Triceps Tightness"

Mex17 wrote: . . .who are the closer candidates (short term and long term)? Applications are being accepted if your resume is up to date.

Jordy Mercer - and the angels cry.

Gonzalez Germen uber Sanchez

Helluva time for a ML debut. What's the deal with Hawkins again?

Really Tabata, a Lips tattoo on your neck?!?

Stop smiling Danny, it ain't funny!

David is really going to make some enemies in western PA after he drives this run in.

And, once again, a potential short game has been sabotaged by extra innings. All Met games must be three hours or longer this year. I think it's a new rule.

Q, Lagares, and the top to face someone other than Grilli I'm assuming.

Looks like Rice to pitch to Alvarez then probably someone else to go after Russell Martin. The alternative would be IW-ing Alvarez too then trying to get Martin to GiDP