Frayed Knot

G-Fafif wrote: Young LG Valdespin 2B Wright 3B Byrd RF Satin 1B Buck C Brown DH Lagares CF Quintanilla SS Wheeler P Young seems a bit too light to be playing left guard.

Centerfield wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: John Wall is only name I know (I wouldn't recognize him even if we were the only two stuck on an elevator ... but I at least know who he is). Well, he'd be the naked one. Duh. What, you think I've never been naked on an elevator before?

The rest of the featured athletes are Kenneth Faried, John Wall, Courtney Force, Swin Cash, Carly Booth, John Isner, Sidney Leroux, Joffrey Lupul, Elena Hight, Agnieszka Radwanska, Chris Sharma and Daila Ojeda. I'm drawing a 1-for-13 on that crew. John Wall is only name I know (I wouldn't recognize him even if we were the only two stuck on an elevator ... but I at least know who he is).

Another rough game for Papelbon as the Phils move out to the west coast. This was wasn't entirely his fault ... but he contributed. Cliff Lee was cruising toward a CG w/a 3-0 lead but when he started the 9th Single-Double, out came the hook. So in comes Papelbon who immediately gives up a 2-RBI single then plunks the next guy. He then got a GiDP with the tying runner moving on to 3rd but w/2 outs ... and a passed ball brought him home. He then walked the next guy before getting the 3rd out which prevented the Phils from losing it right there. They instead lost it in the 10th inning with De Fratus on the mound bringing them to just 3.5 ahead of the Mets That's 4 blown games in a week for Papelbon who's both losing his value to the Phils (8 games out of 1st and falling) and on the trade market at the same time.

Hawkins - 1.0 Lyon - 1.0 Parnell - 0.8 Edgin - 0.3 Wright - 3.0 Brown - 1.5 Quintanilla - 1.2 Satin - 1.2

Torres - 1.4 Nieuwenhuis - 1.0 Byrd - 0.5 Wright - 0.5 Duda - 0.5

btw, in yesterday's Tigers/Sawx game, the exact same dropped-on-the-transfer call was made on Boston OFer Daniel Nava. So a call you might see once a decade comes up twice in one day. "I tell you Suzyn, you just can't predict baseball"

Yanx sitting at 7 games above .500 after splitting a four-game series with the Rays. They've been as high as +12 and no lower than +6 since that high point. But they're also sitting right now at -1 in RS/RA and have been around that break-even mark for a while, while virtually all of their above-.500 record dates from the early part of the season: April = 16-10 May = 15-13 June = 10-11 With a division that's entirely over .500 at this point (Blue Jays currently in last place at 38-36) hanging near or even slightly above the break-even point isn't going to guarantee you of anything and, even assuming they can maintain this pace, six games above sounds a lot better in June than it does in September. IOW, they're going to have to either keep up their pythagorean magic for the next 85 games or the infusion they're counting on from their aging wounded is going to need to be a reality rather than just a hope.

Yeah, that. oe: And speaking of Chapman, something seems to have gone wrong with his control lately. He was handed the "Cookie Save" on Sunday (one inning, three run lead) and almost gave it away even after getting the first two outs. So with two out and none on he proceeded to give up a single, then a steal and an RBI Single, then Wild Pitch-ed that guy over, then HBP'd the next guy, then finally got a fly out with the tying runs on. Maybe those consecutive pitches he winged over Nick Swisher's head a few weeks back during the Reds/Indians series really were accidental.

Papelbon wasn't the only closer to have a tough weekend. - Tigers DFA'd Jose Valverde and will almost certainly be looking for someone between now and the trading deadline. Remember that they essentially released him following last year's series of playoff disasters before giving him another shot once the season started. - And in Saturday's DBacks/Reds game, closers Heath Bell and Aroldis Chapman took turns sucking. Bell was handed a one-run lead but immediately gave up a walk followed by a 2R HR to Jay Bruce leading off the top of the 9th. He got out of the rest of the inning without further damage. So then it was Chapman's turn to try and win the game with a one-run lead but instead handed the [crossout:3nxgz8r6]Reds[/crossout:3nxgz8r6] DBacks a walk-off win with an inning that included two hits + two walks + a wild pitch without ever recording an out. Some days you just never know.

Just keep winning series - especially against the other NL East squads. Treat this somewhat odd two-in-Chicago/one-in-Denver stretch as if it's one series and take at least two of them, then we'll be riding high in time to host the not-very-good Nationals next weekend (Jayson Werth left today's game limping).

Zvon wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: Nice cap to the afternoon, but that was a classic CBP-HR Not sure that's out anywhere else except Houston. Yea, looked like he one handed it. Still, squarin' up the ball all day. I love it. It must be someone's turn to play the Brown Dirt Cowboy today because the captain was fantastic.

Zvon wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: OK, so Revere caught that last out of the 9th and simply trotted in with the ball. Obviously at some point it becomes an out even though it doesn't transfer to his bare hand. I mean, if he were to drop it out of his glove and onto the mound while trotting past would the ump declare it a 'no catch'? I don't think so. That's why it always struck me as an odd bit a rule book minutia. It was an ump getting fancy with the rules, no doubt. If that call was against us (our fielder dropping it) I would have went ballistic. But it's the right call even if an odd one -- and, yeah, I've seen it go against the Mets as well. Just pointing out that there's a practical limit to how long you can enforce the 'clean transfer' thing.

OK, so Revere caught that last out of the 9th and simply trotted in with the ball. Obviously at some point it becomes an out even though it doesn't transfer to his bare hand. I mean, if he were to drop it out of his glove and onto the mound while trotting past would the ump declare it a 'no catch'? I don't think so. That's why it always struck me as an odd bit a rule book minutia.

Nice cap to the afternoon, but that was a classic CBP-HR Not sure that's out anywhere else except Houston.

Byrd & Young certainly doing their best to answer those who want them out of the line-up.

And are suddenly devoid of LF pop unless Niuewenhuis suddenly sprouts wings. For a team that's been LH-heavy for the last few years it's like a brand new world.

Edgy MD wrote: How did this guy lose 10 in the minors? --- Phillies PbP Guy Tom McCarthy That's why forecasting prospects, even as lower lower pros much less as amateurs, is so tough. Harvey, for whatever reason(s), is simply a better pitcher at the ML level than he ever was before.

Zvon wrote: He clearly caught it. Had possession for like 2 seconds. But mishandles it taking the ball from his glove and dropped it. I've never seen it happen quite like that. Ha! Revere sucks! Though technically the rule says he did not complete the play. It always seemed odd to me that that rule is enforced more on outfielders than anywhere else. And even w/OFers it's rare. I have seen it, just not that often (probably 3 or 4 times in my life).

I suppose the gutsy move would have been to call up Flores to play 2nd while shifting Muffy back to 1st for a while although, assuming Duda is out only for the short term, this one probably makes more sense.

"Left intercostal strain" -- isn't that what Turner has? ... maybe it's contagious. So no Ike as of yet (I applaud) and you figure Lutz will be mostly a bat off the bench while he's up.

And that's why you don't save the closer. And not that Parnell couldn't have blown things apart just as easily ... but supposing someone were to put it to the manager this way: In which situation is it more difficult to succeed and has the greater consequence for allowing a run -- Preventing the home team from scoring and winning from a tied game? OR -- Preventing the home team from scoring and winning in a game where they're trailing? You won't get a straight answer of course, you'll get a run-around about how the situation dictates how pitchers pitch and about comfort zones and all that. The sad part about it all is that all 30 ML managers would give you the same gobbledy-gook. (Joe Maddon might give you smarter-sounding gobbledy-gook but I still think he'd do things the same way) The extra sad part is that, unlike many closers (say like Franco, Looper, Wagner, Rodriguez in our recent past), Parnell was NOT a guy specifically hired to be a closer, so there should be no agreements (unspoken or otherwise) broken, no missed bonus clauses for saves, and no agents calling bemoaning the fact that his guy was used in the dreaded 'Non-Save' situation. He wasn't even the closer until Frank-Frank couldn't recover in time; the job more or less fell into his lap in February. And the the REAL sad part about it all is that the Phils were not only reeling by the 9th inning but had run through their pen at least as bad as we had through ours and were left with just two recent call-ups to man the fort for who knows how many innings. Throw up one more Zero on the board and I definitely liked our chances.

Baseball: not so awesome as it was a few minutes ago.

Edgy MD wrote: Baseball is awesome. Woulda been awesomer if Buck had tattooed one there.

Teufel was sending him even before the bobble.