Frayed Knot

If we can't make our own runs I'm perfectly content to have them handed to us.

One more comment about the Rasmus brothers: let's just say that neither one of them are going to be taking any of Anthony Recker's romance novel cover jobs away from him.

Swan Swan H wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: Do you suppose current big-leaguer brothers Cory & Colby (OF - Toronto) Rasmus argued as kids over who had the sillier name? When they do, their brother Cyle tells them both to shut up. Their brother Casey just laughs. But then the four Clemens boys show up and bring all prior discussions to an end.

Do you suppose current big-leaguer brothers Cory & Colby (OF - Toronto) Rasmus argued as kids over who had the sillier name?

Between the walks, the K's, the foul-offs, and the deep-counts, this Wood guy has thrown around 75 pitches thru 3 innings yet the Mets have only hit six, or maybe seven, fair balls so far.

Not surprisingly, Zack Wheeler gets John Sickels' 'Prospect of the Day' treatment. http://www.minorleagueball.com/2013/6/18/4439450/prospect-of-the-day-zack-wheeler-rhp-new-york-mets-debut-braves

batmagadanleadoff wrote: From 1998 ... through 2012, the Mets have hit three walk off home runs -- Three come from behind walk-off HRs

TransMonk wrote: The Mets and Braves are poised to become the first teams to have three games completed on the same calendar date since the Cincinnati Reds on Aug. 23, 1996. The kicker about the Reds that day is that they did it in two different cities. After completing a delayed game in Atlanta on the night/morning of Aug 22/23, they then flew to Miami for a DH.

Look at Buck catching the day game following the morning game.

The more I think about it the more I think Costas simply thought he was being funny. I didn't see the original report (I was in and out of the golf) but those in-event breaks usually give him half-a-minute or so for a rest-of-the-world in sports update so he chose to focus on the hi-light combining the best visual and the best opportunity for a combination old-school admonishment/wise-crack. He missed his mark and probably wasn't prepared for the mini shit-storm that followed but I don't think there was anything particularly malicious about it.

Chris Carlin lol. And in a few years he'll be Alfred Hitchcock. He seems to be right in the middle of saying: "Good Eeeeven-ning" in that shot.

Zvon wrote: As painful as it was I still think [Veldespin] needs more time at second to be properly judged. But if that's all the time Collins has for that experiment then so be it. I imagine that Terry is also being judged and he needs to win games. It's not his 2B play that's being judged as wanting here, it's his hitting.

Weather expectations for Atlanta: Hot, humid, upper-80s to low-90s at first pitch, dropping to upper-80s to low-90s later on. 50% or more chance of thunder storms. Repeat daily through September.

Been looking for an excuse to spring that line. JCL's "Be There" comment gave me the opening.

Those who are tardy do not get fruit cup.

I also Bats is seeing almost an equivalency in what I see as a gulf-size difference between a display of self-aggrandizement for a play within a game (especially one which may not wind up having any affect on the game) and the reaction to winning a game. It's the outcome the Mets were celebrating yesterday, not Nieuwenhuis celebrating himself for the HR, not for a sack in the middle of the 2nd quarter, or even Valdy's HR in a blow-out. MLB should follow the NFL's approach and prevent players from deciding what is and isn't offensive and then self-enforcing supposed affronts like some Old West posse. Everything goes unless the umps say otherwise. My only reaction to this is that if you're happy with that rule I suspect you're one of the few. To me (admittedly only a casual football fan) it seems like an image-polishing stunt by the league but the line between what's acceptable and what's over the line is far from clear and I don't hear too many hardcore grid fans who like it either. It all kind of strikes me like the federal gov't trying to define what's art and what's smut. Usually unworkable and it makes no one happy.

Speaking of Olberman, he'll be in the studio for TBS's coverage of their portion of this year's post-season. Make of that what you will.

Yeah, I think Costas would have had more of a case if he decided to trash the whole jump-dance/pie-in-face/pummel-the-run-scorer celebration thing at home plate over some bloop single rather than a bolt out of the blue. A mob following the former might seem more manufactured than one after the latter. Still not quite sure what prompted him to even bring this whole thing up in the first place. For whatever Costas's faults he's a genuine baseball fan and, although I suppose one could make the argument that he's saying this because he's a fan, it still smells more like something I'd expect out of one of the legion of baseball haters in the national sports media.

During the game a few days ago I posted the question (only half sarcastically) whether Nieuwenhuis had even made contact since his return. The answer, as it turned out, was yes, although just barely: 6 Ks + 6 Ground-outs (1 a GiDP) plus an intentional walk. The next day (Saturday) he had that PH single which marked the first time he had gotten a ball out of the infield since April; Sunday's HR four PAs later marked the second time (with a K, Pop-out, and BB in between). So probably not something we should count on as some kind of turning point - even if it was a helluva moment.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: The more I read this forum, the more I think I'm out of touch with just about everyone here. 'Cause I agree with Costas, and it's not a Mets thing. A team practically buried in last place, and one of the worst in a 30 team league -- a National laughingstock --wins one game in the longest schedule in organized team sports and celebrates like they're the 1980 US Olympic Hockey team after beating the Russians. And everyone's inured to this because it's become routine. Where's the limit to this? The NFL had choreographed ballets when some wide receiver, his team down by three TD's, caught a first down pass -- until the league put a stop to that by enforcing unsportsmanlike conduct penalties. It's not my world anymore. At times there occurs obviously pre-planned celebrations that overrun any supposed spontaneity right out of the park (I remember one courtesy of Prince Fielder and the Brewers a few years back); but, at the same time, there's a difference between a play that ends a game--particularly when that play turns what looked like sure defeat into final victory in one brief second--and what the NFL tried to crack down on which were often ridiculous and over-the-top celebrations of a single play within a game that were mostly designed for the sole purpose of calling attention to oneself. Once the game's over, I don't have a problem with whatever they want to do. I was just afraid that Kirk was going to Kendry Morales himself.

Zvon wrote: That's great. ^^^ I was trying to figure out who he looks like with that beard and I think you nailed it. Y'know, in addition to my planned obnoxious comment about Byrd's "meaningless" HR, I was going to throw in a snarky post after the top of the 9th about how Bobby Parnell picked this 'just to get his work in' opportunity to put up a 1-2-3, 6-pitch inning. Needless to say, I was in a rotten mood for about 170 minutes of this 171 minute game.

That, btw, was only the 4th [u:1lq1ejzx]1-inning/3-run[/u:1lq1ejzx] save blown all year in MLB. Prior to today there were 125 games where a team brought in a fresh pitcher for a close-out inning with exactly a 3-run lead and in 122 of them that team protected the lead. From my own POV today, because the recent inept displays of hitting general and the extreme ineptness in runners-on hitting in particular that, even after the inning started HR - BB - 1B, I was so disbelieving of even a possible game-tying single coming through that I don't think I've been yanked out of my chair so unexpectedly in a very long time, Hell, I was even going to post a sarcastic comment about how Byrd's shot into the upper deck was so typically meaningless window dressing, but I couldn't even sum up the energy to get off the couch to do it.

I was giving about one chance in ten of Nieuwenhuis making contact.

At this point I'm barely looking up from the crossword puzzle during these "rallies" because I already know how they're going to end.

Slight change in M.O., this time it ws the first two guys on and ONE ball left the infield (where it was, of course, caught on the warning track). Same result though.