Frayed Knot

Lefty Specialist wrote: Met bullpen vs. Pirate bullpen. Urk. Yeah, but we've already got Malancon out of there and Grilli probably isn't used for more than an inning himself. IOW, even if we're held scoreless in this frame we just need to survive the bottom of the 9th and then we're into their weaker half while we'll have only tapped into Aardsma. Besides, Grilli is due for a beating.

Swan Swan H wrote: I think Valdespin's ability to play shortstop is the only thing keeping him around. He's been dreadful lately. Yup. Tejada is now available to be called-up but neither he nor Q, whichever isn't starting on that day, gives you much coming off the bench. Valde's status probably depends on the recovery of Turner or maybe a small trade for some bat that can play you some SS in a pinch.

Tampa Bay has a [u:13575hu4]KC + the Sunshine Band[/u:13575hu4] post-game show on their schedule.

Nymr83 wrote: WHY DID THEY PULL HEFNER??? he was fucking cruising!! DUH!, so Valdespin could strike out.

Swan Swan H wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: I don't think I've ever seen an outfielder quite like Marlon Byrd, specifically the way he immediately removes his glove with the ball still in it after catching the 3rd out and trots back to the dugout with the glove tucked under his arm. Has he been doing that all year? I only noticed it over the past few days. I can't say for sure that he does it EVERY time, but it's something I've been noticing for a while now.

I don't think I've ever seen an outfielder quite like Marlon Byrd, specifically the way he immediately removes his glove with the ball still in it after catching the 3rd out and trots back to the dugout with the glove tucked under his arm.

Lots of 1st inning scoring in the NL East tonight. - Nationals gave Strasburg a 3-0 lead in the top half of the 1st, but then Strasburg quickly gave FIVE back in the bottom. - Cincy got three off the Braves and Kris Medlen in the opening frame - Philly, hosting the ChiSox, have been rained out. I assume they'll have to double-up some time this weekend since it's an IL/one-visit opponent.

Edgy MD wrote: So rushing him back before the All-Star break, with his rehab unfinished, and with zero complete games in the minors --- not looking bright. Especially since the Yanx have seven off days in a row starting today: three games against the Twins and then the four-day break.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: They['re] not up on who else in the midst of a good season because they're too busy ranking the best quarterback in July and counting down the days until training camp openings. I see your point, but so what? My mother gets to vote, if she wanted to, and the only baseball player she could name is Tom Seaver. It's a popularity contest, baseball knows it, and having considered all the alternative methods of selecting an ASG roster, wants it this way. I must be getting old, because none of this matters to me any more. For all I care, Harvey and Wright could wear the embarrassing and hideous black drop-shadow unis with the even hideous-er black cap with the multi-colored logo that blends into the color purple. Of course it's a popularity contest (to a certain extent anyway) and the popular vote chose not to choose Puig. And again, I don't have a problem with those who DO want Puig and it would be fine with me if he winds up going. What I'm railing against here is the idea that this game will be some kind of travesty without him put forth by folks who barely follow the sport (in some cases are openly hostile to it) and only latched onto this story as a kind of issue-du-jour.

I also think CitiField was friendly to him in a way that the Toronto Dome could never be. The film of him giving up an Opening Day HR to Asdrubal Cabrera (served up another one to him yesterday) shows an RA who is absolutely shocked that the ball went out. Plus, the surest bet in the world is the one where you bet on the athlete NOT being able to replicate his career year; that's got to be a winner 85% of the time if not more (that slacker Gibson never duplicated his 1968!!) It's fair to say that the Jays had a right to expect better than what they're getting, just not to expect a repeat of 2012. But, as all the great philosophers in the world say, "Shit Happens".

SteveJRogers wrote: The thing is though, this is an extreme case of R.A. Dickey last year, Hideo Nomo from his rookie season, Fernandomania in 1981, Fydrich in his rookie season, where the press gets galvanized over a perceived "transcending the game, and entering the cultural zeitgeist" of these athletes they cover. Almost trying to appear more important than they actually are (hey, we are covering things relevant to pop culture, not just frivolous entertainment).. It's not even so much that as it is plugging Puig over all others because they don't know who the others are! If one were to give, say, Mike & Mike, a quiz on the AS roster where, given the name of the reserves, they then had to supply the team and position of each, Greenberg would miss on maybe 1/3 of them and Golic on probably twice that number. They and their colleagues aren't wrong in that Puig is a big story, just skewed in that they think he's the only one. They're not up on who else in the midst of a good season because they're too busy ranking the best quarterback in July and counting down the days until training camp openings. Clued in to Puig by those baseball nerds down the hall, they latched onto his story to the exclusion of just about everything else because they've got so little basis for comparison. Plus harping on this gives some the license to knock the baseball establishment for being too old and stodgy to include the likes of Puig. That's why it was particularly irksome to them when the internet-voting fans, presumed to be the younger and hipper ones, failed to vote the way ESPN assumed was a choice of one. Hell, Puig being left off (and he still could get if via injuries etc.) isn't even the biggest injustice among LA Dodgers. Hanley Ramirez, who also is short on ABs (due to injuries in his case) has the same number of HRs in fewer ABs and is "out-slashing" [.402/.458/.726] Puig across the board. And, oh yeah, he's a SS who's already been a batting champ.

Manning 1st plank for the Buccos: LHB Garrett Jones (49 starts) and RHP Gaby Sanchez (41 starts) split the time Jones has hit 20+ HRs three different times (while only once getting as many as 500 ABs) but is below that pace this season [.255/.306/.424 w/8 HRs] and will play some corner OF when not at 1st Sanchez, who used to kill us when he was with Miami IIRC*, is a lower BA guy but draws a bunch of walks and has at least gap-type power [.230/.344/.408] * Sanchez vs NYM career = .322/.391/.567 over nearly 200 PAs vs overall career numbers of .256/.334/.419, so, yeah, he used to do more than kill us

What's been driving the Pirates this year is pitching. Best in NL in RA/G at 3.37 2nd (to Cincy) in WHiP - 1.183 (Lg avg = 1.279) Fewest hits allowed by more than 50 2nd fewest HRs allowed Although they have allowed the 2nd most walks in the league We'll see: Friday - Charlie Morton - vs Hefner This will be just his 6th start of the year since making his season debut on June 13th. He's 1-2 with a 3.38 ERA and 1.33 WHiP Saturday - AJ Burnett - vs Torres Burnett, now 36 years old, is getting credit for being the elder statesman/savvy veteran on this staff after spending most of his career being thought of as an underachieving child. This will be just his 2nd start since a month on the DL. 4-6; 3.05; 1.12 Sunday - Jeff Locke - vs Gee Probably the best pitcher in the NL this year that you don't know. The 25 y/o lefty pitching his 1st full season with the Pirates is 8-2; 2.15; 1.13 over 18 starts. Originally a 2nd round pick seven years ago out of a New Hampshire HS, he was sent to Pittsburgh in the Nate McLouth deal (hmmmm, maybe the Braves DO give up good pitchers on occasion) That we're missing LHPs Wandy Rodriguez (injured) and Francisco Liriano (just pitched) this time around is a good thing in my mind. And their back of the bullpen 1-2 punch of Jason Grilli (closer) and (one-time MFY) Mark Melancon (set-up) may be the best in baseball. They've combined for 81 innings pitched, 56 Hits, 13 ER, 12 BBs, 105 Ks, and just 3 HRs. Morph those together and you get a 1.44 ERA/0.84 WHiP covering much of the 8th & 9th innings.

Ashie62 wrote: Carpio vs. Cecchini.... With a three and a half years of age difference and where the older one has yet to reach full-season ball and the younger one is years away from even doing that, it'll be a long time, if ever, before there's anything resembling a competition between these two.

The mainstream sports guys tend to get pissed when the flavor of the week players who are among the few that they actually know get passed over in favor of other guys who they haven't heard of but who just may happen to be, you know, good.

Burke - 0.5 Buck - 2.4 Quintanilla - 1.5 Murphy - 1.7 Byrd - 1.9

Blue Jays reliever Steve Delabar and .... Freddie Freeman are the winners of the final spot vote-off. So, contrary to what seems to be unanimous proclamations from the media, I guess not ALL baseball fans want nothing more than to see Yasiel Puig in the All-Star Game.

The Mets have signed Venezuelan shortstop Luis Carpio, the No. 30 international prospect, for $300,000. Carpio, who turned 16 today, is 6 feet, 155 pounds and showed improvement in both his tools and skills as July 2 approached, which is why some scouts thought he was one of the more underrated players this year. He�s an athletic player who runs well, shows a line-drive swing from the right side and projects to play a premium position, with those highest on him believing he can play shortstop. Several sources raved about Carpio�s work ethic and hard-nosed style of play that should endear him to managers. Carpio trains with Andres Mujica.

NEW YORK -- They rose by the thousands to cheer Derek Jeter as he ambled to home plate on Thursday, discarding the weight hugging his Louisville Slugger and digging in for his first big league at-bat in nearly nine months. --- Not many thousands because that place was pretty damn empty. Wearing his pinstriped uniform with No. 2 stitched on the back, the Captain was finally back on familiar turf. As general manager Brian Cashman put it, "Everyone knows this is where he needs to be." --- Yup, everyone knows it ... except me. That's why I was able to hardball him and dare him to go elsewhere during his last contract negotiations. Jeter jumped on the first pitch he saw this season for an infield single and the Yankees did plenty more damage of their own later on, rallying from behind to post an 8-4 victory over the Royals at Yankee Stadium. --- The Yanx did indeed do plenty more damage. Jeter never got the ball out of the infield. Legging out an infield hit that was fumbled by third baseman Miguel Tejada, ... and later contributed an RBI groundout, but he played a supporting role as the Yankees fought to take Andy Pettitte off the hook from a rough start. --- His RBI was a grounder to SS with one out and the infield in. The only reason it produced a run was that the SS bobbled it and no longer had time to cut down the run at home. And, look, this is all just small sample noise. The only reason I even brought it up was because it was the most obvious thing in the world that, no matter what actually happened, Jeter's return was going to be noted as a catalyst.

If nothing else, this is the first season in several where I don't have a sense of dread that the second half is going to be a crash and burn. That doesn't mean that suckitude won't happen only that I'm not expecting it to. Last year as things were sailing along decently (Seven games over .500 thru the end of June) someone posted, right around this point in the season, a prediction poll for the 2nd half. When that post made me stop and think about what was ahead I suddenly froze with the realization that they were going to really, really suck, so much so that I don't think I even entered a prediction because I couldn't bring myself to put down in 'writing' what looked so obvious was going to be the case. And, as we all know now, a 7-18 July was followed by an 12 win August and an 11 win September; essentially a .373 2nd half. Put another way that's winning at the pace of a 60-win season or about 28 games worse than what they were headed for based on their first half. If anything this year I get the opinion that the worst is behind them and, barring some soul-crushing injuries (Wright, Harvey), they should be at least competitive throughout. And while that doesn't mean I think they're the best team going forward, or that they didn't dig themselves too big a hole early on to truly get back in the race, if a bunch of stuff all goes right things could be more interesting than just a sad team playing out the string.

Jeter already in mid-season form (and, why not?, it's mid-season) as he dribbled a 60-foot swinging bunt base-hit in his first AB of the year. He's starting but DH-ing in this afternoon's conclusion to the four-game series with the Royals. Yanx hurler Andy Pettitte was so inspired by 'The Captain's' return that he coughed up a three-spot in the top of the 1st.

soupcan wrote: They were originally named the 'Saltine Warriors' in a nod to the indigenous Onondagan tribe of central New York. Because the school mascot was a student dressed as an American Indian with makeup and orange-y skin, they became the 'Orangemen'. And the 'Saltine Warriors' brings to mind the name of a very different stereotype name from Southern League baseball: The Atlanta Crackers

I am (as usual) behind on my PotG voting - like two series worth. But with the off day today and the ASB just around the corner the next few days should be a good time to catch up. And remember that with Grimm out of town there'll be no one [crossout:3r5dh164]bugging[/crossout:3r5dh164] reminding us to get these done. So, if you're a voter, take note of older games floating back to the front page as I (or others) cast ballots to see if there are any you've missed. Once these things slide back to page two or beyond you're likely to forget about them again and then Ben will return and tabulate them all at once at which point it'll be too late.

Fman99 wrote: Finally someone taps the market of bulletproof vests for insane women with giant tits. Makes you wonder whether the synthetics used in the making of the vest are the same ones that were used in the making of her tits. If so that would cut down significantly in your materials and manufacturing costs.

From a Q&A in BA --How does Noah Syndergaard compare to Zach Wheeler? Can we expect a similar time table next year? -- Jim Callis: Wheeler is about two years older than Syndergaard. At the same stage, Wheeler had better stuff while Syndergaard had more polish. Syndergaard has quality stuff, too, and I could see him beginning 2014 in Triple-A and reaching New York later in the year.