Frayed Knot

Any truth to the rumor that the Rangers apple in Zucotti Park has already been covered with graffiti, tipped over and trashed because it's seen as representative of the 1% ?

Nymr83 wrote: I would suspect that as far as guys outside the first few rounds go, the Gold Glove SS with no bat ends up useful more often than the guy with some bat who doesn't have a defensive position, particularly for an NL team. The lack of foot-speed is concerning, as it probably precludes him becoming a super-sub who can give you great defense at 6 positions. A guy with this kind profile isn't the guy you look to shift among different positions. Either he learns to hit at least marginally and he becomes at minimum a backup SS known for his glove, or he doesn't and never sees a ML uniform. But if the reports about his defense hold up then he's a guy who, when he's on the field, it's going to be as a SS; it was the only reason he was drafted at all. Checking back over nine years (270 players) of 10th round draft picks (2000-2008) it looks like an average of between five and six each year find their way to a ML club with maybe one per becoming a starter at least at some point.

Put up the big goose egg in 35 of the last 39 innings.

Teams would draft Hitler's son if they thought he could play. If some guy's kid wasn't drafted it's because no one thought they're good enough or signable enough to make it worth a pick. And as drafts have gone from 60+ rounds, to 50 rounds, and now down to 40 rounds, there aren't as many throw-away picks as there used to be.

1st inning, two runs already in, bases-loaded, chance to break it open, Nieuwenhuis hits one hard up the middle where Kozma is inexplicably playing and the inning is over. They've had three singles since.

Edgy MD wrote: I see the suck bug has bit Nieuwenhuis. Third game in a row you've mis-posted an in-game comment.

And the 6th inning begins with another grounder NOT at a fielder. Of course this complaint rings somewhat hollow when, in the 5th, they actually hit them at our fielders but no one could field anything cleanly.

So the Mets have scored in what now, 3 of the last 35 innings?

I think I'm beginning to catch on to the secret of the Cards success: except for that DP ball an inning earlier, I don't think they've hit one ball AT somebody yet. And on the other side I don't think the Mets have hit one ball hard (other than Q's) that WASN'T right at a fielder.

Apples On Parade I didn't know apples could walk.

seawolf17 wrote: John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: It was one of those half-solution type guys, like Rick Ankiel. Not worth it to move heaven and earth for an extra bullpen arm, so here's a guy who used to do it and maybe he still can. He was quite bad IIRC. That's funny that you mention Ankiel, because midway through the 2017 season, I'm sure I'm going to post "Rick Ankiel was a Met?!?" at some point. Wait, Rick Ankiel was once a Met?!?!?

Vic Sage wrote: Ordonez is the comp? but not as good? And we paid over slot for him? Hey Sandy, the fucker can't hit... whaddya doin? Well, at 18 y/o (or thereabouts) there's always the slight chance that he could learn to hit. Not a big chance most likely, but 10th round picks don't have a real big chance to begin with so maybe it's worth the shot that he'll go through some Ozzie-like learning curve with the stick.

86-Dreamer wrote: Many seem to be writing off Satin based off very small major league sample size from last year. I see a prime age player that has consistently put up a 400/450/850 line at every level of the minors who could give the team similar production as Murphy from the right side. I hope they give him a real shot. That's just the many being many.

We have our first reported signing of the draft in 10th round pick Luis Guillorme Only one problem ... This Fucker CAN'T Hit!

Whether it's Yadier or not (conventional wisdom used to give a lion's share of the credit to pitching coach Dave Duncan), the Cardinals lose their previous closer--one who was a converted catcher--to injury and never lose a beat by plugging in Mujica who was a decent, though hardly dominating, middle reliever with Miami but has more or less halved his ERA & WHiP since last year's trade to StL. In fact, the Cards are en route to having a fourth different saves leader in the last four seasons. 2010 = Ryan Franklin 2011 = Fernando Salas 2012 = Jason Motte 2013 = Edward Mujica Franklin & Motte have essentially not pitched at all since being replaced, Salas only sparingly. It's like they've got a box of spare parts somewhere and, whenever needed, they simply dispose of the old piece before breaking into the box where the new part works perfectly as soon as its plugged in.

Dodgers

I've been tracking closers this year with the idea of getting some season-long data on save situations and the percentage of successes and failures*. So towards that end I've been checking out box-scores and line-scores of games other than ours and marveling sometimes as the stuff that goes on in late innings and how it's so much easier to take when you don't have a personal stake in the result. To wit, last night in Tampa (well, actually it's in St Pete): - In a game that started with the BoSox jumping to a 6-0 lead before Rays hurler Alex Cobb could record the first out, and one that was well past the three-hour mark by about the 7th inning ("Forget Jake, it's Beantown"), the Rays fought all the way back to tie the game at 6 in the bottom of the 8th (Sox got seven hits in the 1st then two total in innings 2-thru-9 ... sound familiar folks?). Anyway, game goes to the 10th and the Sox score twice in top half and in comes 'designated closer' Andrew Bailey for the relatively simple (near 90%) two-run save. Except that Bailey starts the inning: HR, Walk, Walk, Single, Walk and now not only has Tampa tied the game but the bases are loaded, none are out, and, oh yeah, Evan Longoria is due up. But Bailey stays in (he was already Boston's 6th pitcher) and gets Longoria to hit into a 5-2-3 DP and then gets the next hitter as well and it's on to the 11th!! Sox later won it in the 14th. Game clocked in at 5:24 * But you're going to have to wait until the season is over for the results

Edgy MD wrote: I imagine we're all more comfortable outfielders when we get to play deeper. It would be a strategic surrender to have him play generally deep as a rule, but it would be strategic. Yeah, I'm not suggesting a permanent no-doubles strategy; just one which allows him to be a bit deeper than where you'd normally station your LF just so the ratio of balls he needs to come in vs the ones he has to turn on tip a bit in favor of the ones he not only can make but seems comfortable making. And then maybe gradually and with repetitions he moves towards normal positioning. And if 1B becomes open territory (and we actually find ourselves a few ML-capable OFers at the same time) then, Hell Yeah, consider him a candidate.

metsmarathon wrote: i like duda a lot, but, unless the metrics are wrong about him, his defense really is so bad that it's detracting from his entire offensive worth. (I think it was) Ronnie who pointed out the other day that Duda never looked so smooth and confident on defense as when he, along with the rest of the NYM OF, were in one of their countless innings of no-doubles defense over this past weekend. His point was that, when forced to play extra deep, everything seemed to come easy to Lucas because he was coming in on every hit. It's the going back on balls that seriously flummoxes him meaning that maybe he's just the kind of guy who needs to play deep more often than not. Yeah you'll increase the number of singles dropping in front of you (which will probably still be reflected in one or more of the defensive metrics) but it beats getting beat on doubles & triples all the time. Davey pretty much reached this same conclusion with a young Strawberry back in the day. He never really stated as much except to make occasional references to the fielder's "comfort zone" whenever complaints via the then new media of sports talk radio starting yapping about how the Met OFers all played too deep.

smg58 wrote: Ruben was walking more and striking out less relative to previous seasons, and not doing much worse where extra base hits were concerned. Basically he's been hitting less singles. I think he's been unlucky to this point with the bat, and I wouldn't demote him when he comes off the DL. His lapses on the defensive end are a bigger concern. Unfortunately, Ruben's sad descent into pop-up-aholism keeps him far away from the 'unlucky' category as far as his hitting goes. Maybe there was some ill fate back in April but, since about May 1 or so, one can tell the second the ball comes off the bat in most cases that there's no chance of that swat becoming a hit.

Yeah, but how many [u:87aymgf1]Saves[/u:87aymgf1] is future Ike Davis going to amass after the search for his once-potent swing proves futile and he remakes himself as a devastating left-handed closer?

Obviously a big reason the Cards are tops in the NL in RS/G despite seemingly not being stacked in killer talent is that they're at or near the top in league BA (1st), OBA (1st) and SLG (3rd). But an even bigger part is that their overall .276/.312/.365 splits suddenly jump to [u:12e01ikn]a stunning .341/.411/.464[/u:12e01ikn] when runners are in scoring position. Compared to the RiSP prowess (or lack thereof) of the team we watched over the weekend I think we can appreciate how much difference that makes. I even commented a week or so back on some other thread that these Cards seemed to have some of that late-'90s MFY-type voodoo going on where an average number of hits result in a ton of runs because the hits often tend to get stacked all in a row. Sunday night was an example when their game in Cincy was in a 4-4 tie until a five hits + two walk outburst in an eight batter span resulted in a seven run 10th inning and an "easy" extra-inning win.

It looks as if this Cardinals series in unclaimed on the big KTE board so we should tackle it the way we tackle most things around here, haphazardly. Cards beat us 3-of-4 in mid-May out in St Looie and are currently sporting the best record in MLB at 41-22 even if they've slightly fallen behind the pace of the '86 Mets Tuesday 7:10 PM -- Wacha vs Hefner Michael Wacha, who won't turn 22 until July 1st, was the Cardinals' 1st round draft pick (19th overall) out of Texas A&M just last year. He advanced rapidly--just twenty minor league games and only eleven of those were starts--and was StL's top pitching prospect coming into this season. This will be his 3rd ML start; in his first two outings, both losses, [vs KC & ARZ] he's managed the small sample size oddity of giving up a bunch of runs even while not allowing all that many base-runners: 12 hits plus just one walk in 11.2 innings, but seven of those runners scored. In particular it was his second start where he got beat up pretty good by the Snakes, not lasting the 5th inning having served up six earned. Wednesday 7:10 PM -- Miller vs Gee Shelby Miller, 22, was StL's hot pitching prospect heading into last season and all he's doing right now is leading the league in ERA (1.91) while riding a 7-3 record and a sub-1.00 WHiP He started the second of the three losses in StL, leaving the game in the 6th with a 2-0 lead. The Mets tied the game on a Rick Ankiel 2R-HR only to lose it later so Miller did not get the win. Like seemingly most Cardinal pitchers Miller doesn't walk many (2.0 per 9 IP) Thrusday 1:10 PM -- Wainwright vs Harvey Speaking of issuing few walks, Adam Wainwright has issued SEVEN in 98 innings so far this year. That's vs 91 Ks btw, a 13/1 K/BB ratio for those of you scoring at home (or even if you're alone). And even though it seems like he's been around forever, at 31 y/o he's the oldest starter on the Cardinals' staff by over five years even if on the Yanx they'd be yelling at him to get off their lawns. On the other hand, the Mets beat Wainwright for their only victory in the earlier four-game series, forcing him out of the game after six behind 4-1 in a game that would eventually end 5-2 Mets. He represents one of the few hurlers that the Braves let get away who seemingly didn't immediately turn into shit right afterward. The 29th overall pick by the Braves in 2000, he was dealt by Atlanta (with Jason Marquis) before ever reaching the majors for JD Drew plus a couple of scraps, you'd have to say that the Cards got the better of that exchange. Now if only I knew something about that teams' bullpen and hitters

The sum total of the Mets "offense" following Wright's [u:ac1vx6a2]3rd inning/one-out[/u:ac1vx6a2] 2-RBI double: 8 Ks; 10 GOs; 3 Pop-ups (2 of them foul); 3 Fly-outs; 1 BB; and 1 infield single (which could have been scored an error) IOW -- 25 batters; 1 hit; only 15 managed to hit even a fair ball and only 3 of those left the infield - much of which came against a 27 y/o 18th round draft pick from five years ago with 6 starts and 55 innings pitched on his ML resume

Cavan Biggio - 29th round to the Phillies Enjoy campus life son.