Frayed Knot

I know I've said this on these airwaves before, but I remember liking Wally when I first started reading him back when he was mostly covering boxing for Newsday. I didn't even give a shit about boxing but liked reading his stuff. Sometimes however it seems like guys get their own column and either quickly or eventually become lazy Bill Madden. Oh, did I just type that out loud?

Which just further emphasizes how the 'coupla prospects' line is nothing more than the lazy man's way of "equalizing" a one-sided trade. Mathews is essentially saying: 'Yeah, there are probably some guys down there who could be attractive to the other team, I just can't be bothered to learn who they are so I'll demand that they deal SOMEBODY(s) now while reserving the right to pan exactly who they send once I get five or six years worth of hindsight'.

One of the original conditions that marked a trade as a 'WATP' was the inclusion of the phrase "and a couple of prospects" because, as in Mathews' proposal here, it essentially acknowledges that the major pieces of the trade aren't even close to equal and so you toss in some un-named and undefined 'prospect(s)' so as to give it the illusion of fairness. Not identifying the prospects also gives the inventor of the trade an out later on if a deal is made and the prospect turns out to be the real deal since he can always claim; "I didn't say to deal THAT guy!"

Pujols meeting the Cardinals for the first time got me to thinking of this: Albert since leaving StL: 1,036 PAs; .274/.336/.484 [career w/StL = .328/.420/.617] StL 1B-men 2012-13: 1,060 PAs; .294/.346/.479 Then throw in that Pujols has (and in many cases has had to) DH'd 84 times for Anaheim while playing 151 times at 1B This gives credence to the 'Moneyball' adage that it's easier to recover from the player you fail to sign than it is to recover from one you sign at the wrong price. I'm sure Cardinal fans were crushed at the time by his departure but, at age 33 with still eight and one half years to go on his deal, it looks like they didn't just dodge a bullet but a freaking cannonball.

Except with Adam Wainright.

Edgy MD wrote: A quick check of three players --- Jeremy Hefner, Eric Young, Matt Kemp --- and they all have 2013 splits and game logs. 2013 game logs & splits weren't the problem, earlier years and career breakdowns were. But it seems to work better via some systems than others. Working only sporadically in Safari which is what caused my concern. Looks like we can call off the move to Def-Con Five

... or are some of the previously available functions on Baseball-Reference not working? Specifically I can only seem to be able to access this year's splits and game logs for player, nor can I get things like overall team splits (IOW, at least some of the pull-down menus aren't operating). Also the feature where you can separate out of few years from within a player's careeer isn't working either and who knows what else!!!! Is this just my computer for some reason or some overall temporary glitch? Did anyone hear of a change in policy where this stuff is hiding behind a pay wall? Inquiring minds [crossout]want[/crossout] NEED to know.

Homer Bailey's 2nd career no-hitter reminds me of the winter when he and the Yanx' Phil Hughes were pitching prospects 1 & 1A (in either order) according to the prospect watchers at the time. BA, for instance, ranked Hughes as their top pitching prospect and Bailey as their 2nd (4th & 5th overall) in 2007. So I thought a little comparison was in order between these same age/same sized RHPs Both were drafted in the 1st round out of HS in the 2004 draft: Bailey 7th overall and Hughes 24th although neither exactly set the world on fire once they got to the big leagues (words of caution to World-Wide Wheeler watchers) after making their ML debuts about six weeks apart. Bailey career: 128 Games (all starts) 755 IP. Record = 43-39; 4.36 ERA; 1.34 WHiP; 617 K; 248 BB Hughes career: 168 GP (119 starts) 726 IP. Record = 56-43; 4.41 ERA; 1.30 WHiP; 611 K; 228 BB Like I said, neither is contending for CY awards but those careers are pretty fargin' even although one could claim that Bailey has been better more recently [ERA of ~ 4.6 since the beginning of 2012 as opposed to Hughes's ~4.35] Hughes can be a FA at the end of this season, Bailey at the end of next.

Howie Rose wrote: On more than one occasion, I'd be in a restaurant having lunch, and then I'd ask for the check and be told, "It's already been taken care of." "What?" The waiter or waitress will point to the corner and there's David Wright. Many among the Mets' contingent share that story. Sounds like he's trying to buy good publicity to me. Take care of the team's announcers and they'll take care of you. Why he's nothing but a fucking media whore!

Zvon wrote: I really thought it was silly to start this one up again after the delay but I'm glad they did. It was a one run game at the time, it would have been crazy not to resume it.

In other news: - Brews get 4 in the 8th after Strasburg is pulled and shut-out the Nats - Braves thump Marlins - Phils over Pitt - Pujols 0-2 so far w/2 Ks in his first games against StL (although not IN StL). Angels winning though 5-1 in the 4th - and it wouldn't be a Yanqui trip to Minneapolis without the Twins gagging. 7-1 in the 9th

FO - K - GO Second no-hitter for Bailey. 26th (I think they said) pitcher with >1 in his career. Bailey also now has the last two no-nos. He got the final one of last season and now the first one of this year.

Homer Bailey no-hitting the Giants into the 9th No longer a perfect game - but gets the come-backer for the first out

Which teenagers signed where http://www.baseballamerica.com/international/where-the-top-30-international-prospects-have-signed/

And the one game which could have completed in barely over two hours will be delayed for who knows how long. If it does resume I'm assuming that Recker will NOT hit against Corbin. And if it doesn't ... Yippee!!!

Byrd continues his streak of NOT scoring from 2nd base on doubles: two and counting,

I find the whole secrecy behind these things to be a bit maddening. I mean, I get why MLB wouldn't specify the details of the drug use itself, but did anyone even hear that he was released from their roster even though it was three weeks ago now?

Does Satin raising his eyebrows affect the tides?

Tonight's 1st inning considerably quicker than last night's. And Keith started early tonight with the not listening thing. Not ten seconds after Gary talked about Goldschmidt striking out four times after his 1st inning HR, Keith announced the four K night as if it was previously unmentioned news.

The thing about Pythagorean variations (plus or minus) is that I don't think there's any one trend to constantly beat and/or fall short. Bullpens are often cited but I wonder some time if a [u:333b8ahx]bad pen[/u:333b8ahx] can ofter skew things to the good as 4 and 5 run leads become 1 and 2 run victories. The 90s Yanx constantly exceeded their "earned" win totals which I attribute to Torre's bullpens of extremes. Those Yanx would pull out Rivera, Stanton (yes, he was good for a while) and Jeff Nelson if games were close. But the back half of their pen often consisted of a band of no-names (this was where Steinbrenner would put his foot down in saving money) who Torre would only go to if they were behind. If they succeeded that day the bats had enough time to battle back, but if they didn't they a five-run deficit became a ten-run loss. Or maybe that's all bullshit and I have no idea what I'm talking about. This year's Orioles are playing above their Pythag target although by a much smaller margin than last season -- they're plus three games at the moment with a better RS/RA margin (+28) than what they had after 162 games in 2012.

If you were to include Chris Russo in this topic he'd retire the trophy inside a week.

HahnSolo wrote: Reminding me a bit of last year's Os. Veteran manager, strong division, average to young lineup with guys ready to put it all together, closer who comes out of nowhere and is virtually untouchable. ... Also like the 2012 Orioles, out-playing their pythagorean projections (5 games at the present) but so far showing no signs of reverting to the norm. Last year's O's finished the season 11 games ahead; 93 wins for a team that out-scored its opponents by just 7 runs for the year.

I brought them up in another thread a few days ago - but it's fine with me if they have their own. Their walk-off win in the 14th on Sunday gave them an ML Best 51-30 record in their quest to at least finish above .500 for the first time in more than two decades and, at best, hold on to their division lead and their 100+ win pace. As we all know, they looked like they were going to bust through at various points over the last couple of seasons as well before falling apart late. Last year they were 45-36 at this point before hitting a high of 16 games over on July 28th (58-42). Then an 11-17 August and a 7-21 September killed it for them.

Yeah, today is the opening day in the int'l signing frenzy. Be nice to see the Mets throw around some of the supposed money they have available here - although these guys are for the most part very young so returns on these investments are less predictable than the draft and those that do work out tend to be even further into the future.

I thought they had closed the mental facility in Kings Park?