Frayed Knot

Centerfield wrote: Anyone watching the post-game? I don't think I've ever seen more makeup on one person than there is on Bobby V right now. That's because you didn't run into me last weekend ... but that's a story for another time.

Kong76 wrote: He said Harvey was a funny name. Oh, he did, did he? Hey Ralph, Harvey looks like he's an even better first round Met draft pick than your friend Al Shirley

Let Rice finish the game. He earned it!

That's 500 lbs of lefty hitters hitting four balls about 1,600 combined feet.

There's a Walgreens Pharmacy ad right behind home plate (at the moment) and it's funny to see that "Curly W" juxtaposed with the Nationals logo. It's like we're playing against Walgreens. No wonder we're winning.

Ike be Storin' Drew's pitch in the upper deck.

Ashie62 wrote: John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: This is a bogus redundant thread and may be bad luck. Please merge with previous IGT thread. Why was the link I started for this game yesterday extinguished? Thats not right Fairy had started one earlier. Better to merge than to have two and get confused. It's also better to burn out than it is to rust.

Not sure I would have gone with Rice in this spot -- Werth leading off and Harper can pound LHPs as well as RH -- but the career minor leaguer gets the job done vs 2-3-4 in the order!!

And now those dreaded words: It's all up to the Met bullpen

Josh Lewin: It's the first time in the life of this guy (Strassburg) that he's not been the featured attraction... high school, college, the minors... Not totally true. Strasburg was rare for a 1st round draft pick (and especially a 1/1 pick) in that he wasn't even drafted out of HS. Only after going to SD State did he make a commitment to get himself in shape and eventually blossomed into not only a top pick but probably one of the most ballyhooed picks of the last decade or more.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I'm sure that there's a whole generation who has little idea of who Mary Tyler Moore is. To them, she's probably are remote as Mae Marsh or Dorothy Gish. Oh sure, the quips will decrease as time goes by, but they'll never go away. And the kid was born in 1987 at a time when the extremely popular show that lasted for eight seasons was barely ten years in the rear view mirror. The parents gotta take some lumps for that. the year before he joined Keith and Gary on SNY, Ron Darling was in the Nationals tv booth. I think that may have been his only season in Washington, It was his only year. I never heard him at that point but had heard he was terrible and was therefore apprehensive when I heard he was coming to do Met games, fearing that his connections and the Wilpons over-doing the '86 nostalgia thing were the reasons for his hiring rather than actual talent. Turned out that not only was the DC job his first full-time gig but he was hired at the very last minute and therefore came in cold and knowing very little about what turned out to be an awful club. Even he admits that he was a lousy listen. Now he's got an Emmy for his work plus a national network slot.

* 2B Danny Espinosa has been out with a bad wrist. Not DL'd, but we may see more than our share of Lombardozzi this weekend. * Zimmerman (the 3B version) has been more scattershot with his throws than your average politician tossing out the ceremonial first pitch. * Gio Gonzalez is reverting a bit back to his pre-2012 days and walking a bunch (7 in 16 IP so far). It really started at the tail end of last year and particularly in the playoff game where he couldn't hold a 6-0 lead and one starts to get the idea that maybe his near-CY 2012 season was more the outlier than the norm for him. * Their pen hasn't been particularly good so far (although compared to ours it's a relative thing). Set-up guys Storen & Clippard particularly (maybe Rizzo knew what he was doing with that Soriano signing). Plus Clippard is funny-looking and is one of those guys who can stretch a half-inning into a half-hour. * Did Tyler Moore's parents really not stop to consider that their kid was going to be tagged as 'Mary' for the rest of his life? Wonder if he throws his hat up in the air after wins?

Mets � Willets Point wrote: How is this going to affect the status of the New York based ASG as tribute to Jeter's jeterness? Duh! Honorary Captain.

Edgy MD wrote: No, but... ... any port in a storm.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Not that I root for injuries or anything, but I am getting a kick out of this news solely for the reason that so many thought (and some even stated as if un-arguable fact) that Jetes was a lock to be ready for opening day simply because he was going to be able to will it to be so on account of his high level of overall Jeter-ness. Yeah, turns out that he's subject to the same laws of physics and biology as everyone else. My formula for predicting when a baseball player will return from an injury is to always double the amount of time the team says will transpire before the player returns. Sure, or, at best, I go with a 50% increase: two weeks means three, six weeks means nine, etc. My overall point just was that, in the minds of some anyway, Jeter was was immune to such mortal standards.

FWIW, both Frank-Frank and Perpetual Pedro have started doing rehab assignments this week. Yeah, I know, not exactly a youth movement.

OK, hardly an afternoon delight and the only skyrockets in flight turned out to be those off of Colorado Rockies bats. I am hereby suspending myself from starting IGTs for a minimum of one month on account of the shitty job I did here today.

Not that I root for injuries or anything, but I am getting a kick out of this news solely for the reason that so many thought (and some even stated as if un-arguable fact) that Jetes was a lock to be ready for opening day simply because he was going to be able to will it to be so on account of his high level of overall Jeter-ness. Yeah, turns out that he's subject to the same laws of physics and biology as everyone else.

The movie used a former minor league ballplayer as "Jackie's" stunt double for some of the baseball scenes.

It's an Afternoon Delight!! ... weather permitting of course. Current temp in Denver, Colorado is 18 degrees - which is one of several reasons why they don't play baseball games at 7 AM (local time) By 1st pitch time the temperature is expected to be around 30 with a mere 12 mph breeze (so it'll feel more like 20) and it could even break the freezing mark before the game is over. More importantly, the day should be at least partly sunny with no precip expected, frozen or otherwise. So it sounds like we may actually have our second day of NYM baseball since Saturday - however unpleasant it may be for players and fans alike. And if and when it does come off you can meet me at the Jon - as the Mets are taking advantage of the rain-out to skip Hefner and go with Jon Niese to face Jon Garland

seawolf17 wrote: We were always just hoping for the best with Hefner/Gee/Laffey. Nobody expected Maddux/Smoltz/Glavine out of those guys. I have no attachment to any of them. I don't know that McHugh is going to be any better, despite his nice start. Except that Gee WAS better than the likes of the Hefner/Laffey/Schwinden crew - even if only for a while. The question remains whether he can still be that following the injury, the surgery, the half-year absence, the lousy ST, and now the lousy start to the reg season. Too early, I think, to just toss him on the scrap pile, but if he doesn't get his act together he is likely to find himself there. And the bigger problem is that in this post-Santana/pre-Wheeler era he finds himself in the 3rd spot in the rotation instead as a more comfortable #5 guy.

"No other way to describe Tejada's work yesterday than saying that he threw away a win. His momentum was carrying him toward first, but Davis didn't even have a chance to so much as stab for it." -- And even if one were inclined to write off that particular error to the sub-freezing temperatures it doesn't explain all the other errors, nor does any one thing for that matter (as opposed say to Ryan Zimmerman's surgically repaired shoulder as the source of his errors in four straight games) and that's what is most disturbing. "Cowgill, on the other hand, went 3-6 at the top of the lineup in game two. (Though that's hardly typical.)" -- Not only not typical, but none of the three hits left the infield. Yeah they still count, but it's not like you can easily take last night and project it as a good sign of things to come. 'Twas a nice bunt though. " ... but I get the idea that Valdy is trending up and Nieuwenhuis downward. If it's his glove keeping him in the majors, then he isn't going to be there long, 'cuz it ain't that good." -- Gary Cohen has (in one fashion or another) described Nieuwenhuis as a "not good but great" defensive CF several times this season and I don't know where that's coming from. He was certainly decent enough out there last season during the time when he was hitting enough to play regularly, but I don't remember him as mind-blowingly terrific with the glove; not enough so to keep a job based solely on his glove/arm-work that's for sure.

Obviously not good, but there were so many plays last night that should have been made but weren't. The four Rox' runs that tied up the game were totally preventable; I mean just because Baxter took Duda's place in LF didn't mean he had to take a Duda route to Torrealba's double, and the two runs in the Colorado 8th came after two were out and nobody on and a little squib went off Lyon's glove. He snags that and we don't even get to Tejada's dagger. Obviously the weather had a lot to do with it. Every routine grounder seemed like an adventure and it's not like the Rockies fielders (esp the catcher) didn't hand the Mets several of their runs. What made the whole thing a kick in the gut is that we got all our gifts early but then handed them back late.

Not me. As that game got into the eighth I had the suddenly depressing thought that we still needed to get six more outs and I simply saw too many ways for that NOT to happen. Not that I foresaw two infield errors sandwiched around a cheesy single and inexplicably allowed uncontested stolen base as the culprit, but by no means did I consider this one to be in the bag.

Currently in Denver: 31 degrees, wind-chill 23 Today's forecast: High of 36, windy with 100% chance of snow. 1-2 inches expected Projected game-time conditions: 27 degrees, continued snow, wind North at 17 mph. If they do decide to go ahead and inflict this game upon us, it could involve people by the name of Jeremy Hefner and Jon Garland If not it's doubtful that they'll try to stuff a DH into Thursday seeing as how the Mets need to be back in NYC by Friday - so this'll just get thrown onto the mix with Sunday's Twins games of ones that need to be made-up at some later date.