Frayed Knot

Name the first 2013 Met to: Hitting 1. Get a hit - Murphy 2. Score a run - Murphy 3. Steal a base - Cowgill 4. Get caught stealing/picked off - Valdespin 5. Hit a double - Ike 6. Hit a triple - Valdespin 7. Hit a home run - Duda 8. hit into a double play - Duda 9. drive in a run - Byrd 10. draw a walk - Ike 11. get hit by a pitch - John Buck 12. sacrifice bunt - Niese 13. pinch hit - Cowgill 14. Get pinch hit for - Niese 15. Reach on an error - Byrd Pitching/fielding 16. Record a strikeout - Niese 17. Surrender a walk - Niese 18. Hit a batter with a pitch - Harvey 19. surrender a home run - Gee 20. Get credit for a win - Harvey 21. Get a save - Parnell 22. Make a relief appearance - Atchinson 23. Commit an error - Wright 24. Record a putout - Ike 25. Turn a DP (name every player involved) - Wright, Murphy, Ike 26. Field the first batted ball in fair territory - Tejada 27. Record an assist - Tejada 28. Surrender a run - Niese 29. Get a "Blown save" - Hawkins 30. Get credit for a "hold" - Atchinson * Bonus/tiebreaker 31. Taste the deliciousness of the first Schaefer of the year - Ike

The way I remember it is that as soon as Arizona got the franchise they insisted on going in as an NL team. I'm not sure what gave that newcomer such clout but had they agreed to go to the AL then that would have been the 16-team league and there would have been no reason for Milwaukee's switch. The 16/14 split was necessary because that new-fangled inter-league thing was still considered experimental and not permanent. And speaking of leagues, the NL is kicking the AL's ass so far as Houston leads 4-0 in th ... oh wait.

I keep having to fight the idea in my head that both the Astros and indeed city of Houston itself were forced relocate to a new locale in order to join the AL West.

Memories: - being short - the hair - being from Odessa-Permian HS in Odessa, Texas; the subject of HS football team in Buzz Bissinger's 'Friday Night Lights' (prior to Buzz, still known as H. G. at the time, being a cross-dresser ... or at least as far as we know)

Almost time to wrap up this off-season thread, so I'll do it by noting that, of the 42 staffers at Baseball Prospectus, only 11 picked the Yanx to make the playoffs at all, and as many picked them to finish last in their division as to finish first (5 each). Gotta go back to the early '90s to find those kind of predictions. The fascinating part of the whole thing isn't just how they finish this season but also how this year sets them up for next year and beyond. Only five of their current players are currently signed beyond this season - and those five aren't necessarily the players or prices that you'd want. Only Teixeira (still good assuming he recovers but expensive and declining), ARod (like Teixeira only expensive-r and declining-er), Sabathia (he's avoided the injury bug ... so far), and now both Ichiro and Vernon Wells of all people are under contract for 2014. Jeter is on the final year of his multi-year deal (although he has an option) as are Cano & Granderson, while Mariano, Pettitte, Kuroda, Joba, Hafner, Hughes & Youkilis are all on one-year contracts this season with enough time to qualify as FAs (or for Social Security). Some of the younger players (Gardener, Robertson, Nunez, Cervelli, Nova, Pineda) will still be under team control beyond 2013 but aren't yet signed and those are hardly their key guys. Now if you plan things right, having a bunch of players on one-year deals can be a good thing. In this case though, they'll have a payroll cap to get under (or so they say) while still having most of their expensive guys AND have to do all that while finding someone to man 2B, SS, DH, CF, Catcher, Closer, and at least two rotation spots in an age when other teams are locking up their prize FAs more often than not, making 2009-like mega-signing insta-make-overs (Sabathia, Burnett & Teixeira all at once) much tougher to do.

I think they're counting on Turner not being out too long and will simply fake it until he gets there or bring up Quintanilla if the Redhead's going to take longer than expected. Larger point being that you NEED a backup SS no matter how your top guy is hitting - and at the moment our guy ain't hitting. You can get away without one for a short span at best. I'd be shocked if Valdespin sees even an inning at SS. They'll stick Dabid there first.

Lotsa little tidbits in that Rubin piece: � Non-roster left-hander Scott Rice beat out Robert Carson as the second left-hander in the bullpen. Rice, 31, makes his first major league roster in his 15th professional season. -- Note to self: find out who Scott Rice is � Omar Quintanilla will head to Triple-A Las Vegas as the shortstop, meaning the Mets will carry no bona fide backup to Ruben Tejada. -- Hmmmm, no backup for the guy hitting .050 in Spring, that won't last for long. Not sure if it'll be Qunitanilla or not but someone will need to fill that role before long � Anthony Recker beat out Landon Powell as backup catcher to John Buck. -- Six of one, half-dozen ... � LaTroy Hawkins and Scott Atchison were added to the 40-man roster. The Mets previously had freed 40-man spots by outrighting Brandon Hicks and trading Elvin Ramirez to the Los Angeles Angels. They now also have successfully placed Reese Havens and Darin Gorski through waivers. The 40-man roster currently is full, but another spot can be created by shifting Johan Santana to the 60-day DL. -- I know it still may be just wishful thinking, but I'm glad to see Havens got through and is still NYM property � Right-handers Jeurys Familia and Greg Burke have made the team. -- Note to self: find out more about this Burke guy too � Shaun Marcum likely to start on the DL but may be activated for Game 6, against the Miami Marlins. It also means they're starting with an eight-man bullpen. Aaron Laffey is presumably the leading candidate if Marcum can't be ready. The remaining spots to be filled by two of the three from Turner, Nieuwenhuis & Lutz

The problem with Young is that he's going to want some assurance of a ML starting job right off the bat -- since if he was willing to bide his time in the minors he could have stayed with Washington -- and do we really think he's a decent step up from Marcum or Hefner? Maybe yes, maybe no - but it's certainly not a slam dunk one way or the other.

$70 million as an operating loss was definitely cited quite possibly for the 2011 season IIRC -- a number which seemed overly large to me in that if you could lose that much in one year turning a profit in any year seemed almost impossible otherwise. IOW, who knows the accuracy of the source of these types of reports.

Well, this news shouldn't change any immediate plans for Wheeler since Johan was already out for April at least with no Wheeler in sight. That this latest tidbit could move things up a bit is certainly a possibility since, as Grimm points out, delaying Wheeler's potential FA sked by a year is a lot more important than merely putting off arbitration by the same amount so we may see him as early as early May if things are going well rather than mid-June or later. Wheeler's main obstacle right now is his occasional lack of control. As such it certainly would hurt to give him a month or more in Lost Wages to deal with it rather than trying to doing the same vs ML hitters in lousy weather in April.

Annnnnd, we're all set. Sunday RANGERS @ HOUSTON Matt Harrison vs Bud Norris Monday RED SOX @ YANKEES Jon Lester vs CC Sabathia MARLINS @ NATIONALS Ricky Nolasco vs Steven Strasburg PADRES @ METS Edison Volquez vs Jon Niese CUBS @ PIRATES Jeff Samardjzija vs AJ Burnett ROCKIES @ BREWERS Jhoulys Chacin vs Yovanni Gallardo ANGELS @ REDS Jered Weaver vs Jonny Cueto TIGERS @ TWINS Justin Verlander vs Vance Worley ROYALS @ WHITE SOX James Shields vs Chris Sale GIANTS @ DODGERS Matt Cain vs Clayton Kershaw PHILLIES @ BRAVES Cole Hamels vs Tim Hudson MARINERS @ ATHLETICS Felix Hernandez vs Brett Anderson CARDINALS @ D�BACKS Adam Wainwright vs Ian Kennedy Tuesday ORIOLES @ RAYS Jason Hammel vs David Price INDIANS @ BLUE JAYS Justin Masterson vs RA Dickey

That would be former 1/1 draft pick Bryan Bullington Pirates went with the "safe" pick out of Ball State Univ that year passing up on the likes of BJ Upton (2nd overall), Prince Fielder (7th), and Zack Greinke (6th) amongst others.

Reportedly the Mets have had a scout or two at all of Young's recent outings. He is refusing the option of the Nats sending him down to AAA and is thus free to try and strike his own deal elsewhere. Between Santana maybe not being close to ready and Hefner getting hit around today it wouldn't surprise me to see him back. He's had a good spring for whatever that's worth.

Tommy John, it turns out, places 3rd among MLB pitchers with wins after having Tommy John surgery. John tacked on 164 post-surgery wins to go with his 124 pre-surgery victories. David Wells (239) and Kenny Rogers (219) are the ones with more post-operation victories. Jason Isringhausen leads all pitchers with 300 post-TJS saves (IOW - all of his). As a pre-surgery starter Jason had 17 big league wins prior and then 34 afterward. Eric Gagne (187) and Brian Wilson (171) are the closest to him in the post-operation saves race although aren't really that close.

IIRC, the Cubs were on the forefront of the movement to establish themselves as their own ticket scalper. A couple of years back they not only pre-sold a chunk of that year's tickets to a broker but did so to one that they had set up and which was wholly owned by the Cubs. That corp, which wasn't really handling secondary market tickets because those tickets had never really been on the market in the first place, was able to sell the seats at above listed rates. That this was ruled a legal enterprise which was not in violation of scalping laws said at least as much about the Illinois judicial system as it did about the Cubs.

metirish wrote: Does Paul Rudd play Paul Rudd? As noted in the 'THIS IS 40' thread, is he even capable of NOT playing Paul Rudd?

MLB.com probables sez: [u:2v3crd08]Sunday[/u:2v3crd08] RANGERS @ HOUSTON Matt Harrison vs Bud Norris [u:2v3crd08]Monday[/u:2v3crd08] RED SOX @ YANKEES ??? vs CC Sabathia MARLINS @ NATIONALS Ricky Nolasco vs Steven Strasburg PADRES @ METS Edison Volquez vs Jon Niese CUBS @ PIRATES Jeff Samardjzija vs AJ Burnett ROCKIES @ BREWERS Jhoulys Chacin vs Yovanni Gallardo ANGELS @ REDS Jered Weaver vs Jonny Cueto TIGERS @ TWINS Justin Verlander vs ??? ROYALS @ WHITE SOX James Shields vs Chris Sale GIANTS @ DODGERS Matt Cain vs Clayton Kershaw PHILLIES @ BRAVES Cole Hamels vs Tim Hudson MARINERS @ ATHLETICS Felix Hernandez vs Brett Anderson CARDINALS @ D�BACKS Adam Wainwright vs Ian Kennedy [u:2v3crd08]Tuesday[/u:2v3crd08] ORIOLES @ RAYS ??? vs David Price INDIANS @ BLUE JAYS Justin Masterson vs RA Dickey

Kyle Lohse, coming off a season where he went 16-3 / 2.86, finally finds a taker days before the new season starts as Milwaukee inks him to a three-year deal. CM Wang finds hisself back with the Yanx in the form of a minor league deal.

And last year's Liberal Arts

[u:3mfaw19q]Sunday[/u:3mfaw19q] RANGERS @ HOUSTON Matt Harrison vs Bud Norris [u:3mfaw19q]Monday[/u:3mfaw19q] RED SOX @ YANKEES MARLINS @ NATIONALS vs Steven Strasburg PADRES @ METS Edison Volquez vs Jon Niese CUBS @ PIRATES Jeff Samardjzija vs ROCKIES @ BREWERS Jhoulys Chacin vs ANGELS @ REDS TIGERS @ TWINS ROYALS @ WHITE SOX GIANTS @ DODGERS vs Clayton Kershaw PHILLIES @ BRAVES Cole Hamels vs Tim Hudson MARINERS @ ATHLETICS vs Brett Anderson CARDINALS @ D�BACKS Adam Wainwright vs [u:3mfaw19q]Tuesday[/u:3mfaw19q] ORIOLES @ RAYS vs David Price INDIANS @ BLUE JAYS Justin Masterson vs

Virgil Trucks was a relative of the various musical Trucks (Butch & Derek) of Allman Bros and related bands fame. Also: prior to this I had no idea VT was still alive. Also also: now that I actually read the link (it didn't work for me at first) I see that it says in there about his relation to Butch & Derek

Well, they're going to have to deal with it somehow and he's likely to miss a chunk or several chunks of time this year. All I'm saying is that the rest of that roster makes the option of 'ahh, let's just stick him at DH' easier to say than to implement.

Ashie62 wrote: I wouldn't be surprised if Jeter missed a couple of months and finishes his career as a DH as a Yankee. Jeter already DH'd nearly one game in six that he played in last season - and that was before the broken ankle. Add that to the idea that there's no reason to think that ARod (who DH'd in 1/3 of his games in 2012) is going to be able to play his position any better when he gets back (assuming he even does) so he'll need to be parked there on a regular basis ... and then there's Travis Hafner who they see as nothing but a DH as they're apparently not even considering him as one of the options to replace Teixeira while he's out during the early (and maybe longer) part of the season. Being able to fall back on the DH is a great option for AL teams but not when they need it for multiple players concurrently.

Ramy-Ramy, on the other hand, has given up 10 earned runs on 11 hits including 3 HRs + 6 BBs over 8 innings this spring. I would have suggested re-signing him here otherwise.

-- The Angels and Yankees are closing in on a deal that would send Vernon Wells to the Bronx, sources confirmed to MLB.com on Sunday. Wells seems like one of those aging vets (aging?, hell, he brings the team average down several notches) and on his last legs guys (although he's still only 34) who suddenly hit like one home-run every six ABs in a part-time role once he hits the Bronx (see GlenAllen Hill, Andruw Jones, Raul Ibanez, others) even though he's pretty much just warmed-over goo coming in: (2011-12 stats = .222/.258/.409 with 26 HRs over 748 ABs) They of course need to work out the money involved (owed $42 mil over the next two seasons) and what if anything goes back the other way (the more of one the less of the other). Wells had tumbled to fifth on the OF depth chart in Anaheim. Think about how much the Angels have paid over a virtually continuous stretch of seasons, first to Gary Mathews Jr. and then to Vernon Wells, and how little they've gotten from either.