Frayed Knot

Kevin Kernan plows a lot of the same Greg Burkian ground as that Amazing Avenue article linked above, but then throws in the added bonus of some ammo for all the wifey watchers out there.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: What do you expect of Greg Burke this year? I expect to soon find out who Greg Burke is.

The best explanation is: opinions vary. Fulmer (spelled with one L) is a RHP out of an Oklanhoma HS who was the 44th overall draft pick the same year Nimmo was 13th (2011). That he was a compensation pick from the Yanquis in exchange for their signing of Pedro Feliciano makes his progress a win-win-win situation so far. But once you get to that part of the list you're really just hair-splitting anyway. I'm sure someone else could make the argument that Nimmo deserves to be on the inside of the top-100 and Fulmer outside and it's not like it's going to make any difference.

He's 0-fer-7 with 6 Ks so far this spring, a performance that got him out of yesterday's lineup and onto a back field for remedial help to hope he can "find his swing" [Kernan - NY Post]. Various quotes follow talking about it being a 'timing issue' which could be attributed to the off-season wrist injury and the lack of swings because of it.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Probably St. Lucie, right? Savannah most likely; he hasn't played in a full-season league yet so it's almost certain that he starts there. Whether he gets to PSL in the high-A FSL before the season is out will of course depend on how things go in the low-A Sally Lg.

Baseball Prospectus: Zack Wheeler - 6 Travis d'Arnaud - 15 Noah Syndergaard - 28 Michael Fullmer - 98

Is it true that Terry Collins was nominated for best animated short?

So has Hank-en-steinbrenner called for a ban on spring training games yet? Or sanctions against whatever team/pitcher did that to him? Or did he cut right to the chase and once again demand that the Yanx be given a pass directly into the post-season each year so as to not have to endure such wrenches thrown into their carefully drawn-out plans?

They were uranium round fragments that hit Bond's chest/shoulder, and those are, like, totally easy to shrug off. The action IS totally preposterous at times, but other than that the flick was entertaining enough - and this from someone who had pretty much given up on Bond in recent years. I skipped much of the Dalton & Brosnan era and was less impressed than most seemed to be with Casino Royale even though I thought Craig up to the task.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Blacked out! Can't watch! MLBN !! I thought it was a 1:00 kickoff and so wound up missing the first hour. Hate when that happens. Did tune in just in time to catch Wheeler's bacK-to-bacKs though.

fwiw, SCRABBLE accepts GIP and GIPPED; GYP and GYPPED, but not JIP or JIPPED

And then there's always the option of seeing whether you can go without starving to death by not eating at all over a three hour period. Risky, I know, but sometimes you just have to push the envelope.

Ashie62 wrote: I'm more concerned about D'Arnauds disc issue from 2010. I hope these injuries aren't the reason the kid is on his third organization at such a young age. Considering that the two times he's been traded have both been for CY award winners it's not exactly like he's being dumped like last night's fish leftovers. Besides, a decent pct of the prospects who do make it do so in their 2nd or 3rd organization.

A little bit anyway, although folks should take note as to whether the injuries are flukey or look like they're leaning toward chronic. This catcher prospect smackdown discusses his strengths, weaknesses and injuries in conjunction with those of Seattle prospect Mike Zunino. Those two are considered the best catching prospects right now, in which order is subject to discussion.

Frayed Knot wrote: The first of the Top-100 lists are out with Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com revealing his: Noah Syndergaard #29 Zack Wheeler #8 Travis d'Arnaud #6 Baseball America: Wheeler = #11 d'Arnaud = #23 Syndergaard = #54

"Reese Havens, a 26-year-old second baseman, popped the question to his girlfriend, Leigh, on Dec. 29 while sailing his family�s boat." Let's hope he didn't hurt himself in the process.

Brewer Mat* Gamel, who missed almost all of 2012 with a knee injury, heard a pop in that same knee during BP this past weekend and will now miss all of 2013 as well. Drafted in the 4th round out of HS in 2005, Gamel tore through the AA Southern League in 2008 and reached AAA by the end of that year. By 2009 he was Baseball America's #34 prospect heading into the year and saw his first ML call-up that September where he racked up 128 ABs. His biggest problem, prior to the injuries anyway, was that although he came up as a 3rd baseman he really wasn't one which, in Milwaukee, meant he was in a waiting line behind Prince Fielder for the other side of the diamond to open up. So he wound up spending almost all of 2010 in the minors (just 15 ML ABs) and most of 2011 as well (26 ML ABs); not the usual timeline or path for a top prospect, especially one putting up a AAA stat line of .301/.374/.512 in over 1,200 PAs across three seasons. Gamel then finally gets his chance when the Princely one skips out to Detroit, only to go on the shelf after May 1st last year and now it looks like it'll be at least April of 2014 before he plays again. At that point it'll be nearly nine years after he was drafted and more than five after reaching AAA in what seemed like just a procedural step into a regular big league job. * he spells his nickname Mat (with one T) because he spells his full name as Mathew - also with just the one T

Hey, 'Obnoxious' is a kind of talent. I actually heard Rome has toned down his act since his early days although I haven't heard him in years so I can't say and, even if true, it still could be just a relative thing.

The story here is that CBS has been slowly rolling out a new national sports radio network, one which will launch in the NYC market sometime the next few months. When it does that will end the AM/FM simulcast of WFAN which has been going on since November or so, but what remains to be decided (or maybe just announced) is how the national vs local content is divided between the CBS-owned 660 AM and 101 FM frequencies. Will the current locally-oriented format remain on its long-time 660 slot where it's resided since the late 1980s, or will the corporate bigwigs want the stronger/longer signal to go to their new baby with whatever talent they've managed to so-far hire away from ESPN (Jim Rome, Doug Gottlieb) and remand WFAN to the FM side only? It is also possible that some kind of 'mix-and-match' thing will go on where local programming will get the AM chair for certain hours of the day while the national show gets other hours; or maybe a weekday/weekend thing. The other wrench into this work is that both the Mets and Yanx radio deals are up after this coming season. CBS shirley would want one and maybe both so how those would be assigned to AM and FM will be a big deal. Plus you figure ESPN is going to bid for one or the other. Michael Kay as the lead-in to your New York Mets games anyone? as per Phil Mushnick

Ceetar wrote: yawn, chalk this up to "good problem to have" it's also why I floated the gamble of renegotiating his contract into a 3/36 type thing. Santana is set to pull down $25.5 this season plus another $5.5 in a buyout even if he doesn't reach the automatic re-up. I don't think he's going to lock himself up for the next two years for what is essentially an additional 5 mill. Best at this point to just let this season play out and re-evaluate then.

Edgy MD wrote: It was a banned substance. It was not a steroid. But, again, you take something on the banned list, you�re going to get caught.� Being the one major leaguer who chose to work with the Victor Conte in the post-BALCO era tends to get you caught too, Marlon.

... Since 1991, only four [NYM] pitchers have pitched at least 215 innings: Hampton in 2000; Martinez in 2005; Santana in 2008; and Dickey in 2012. In three of those cases, the pitcher in question had thrown at least 215 innings the previous year as well (something which clearly won't be the case with Johan here) and Dickey in 2011 was almost there with 208 innings thrown. Those same four 215+ seasons were followed up with years which saw the pitcher: - jump ship and experience a near doubling of his ERA (Hampton) - make eight fewer starts and throw just 132 innings (Pedro) - make seven fewer starts and drop to 166 innings pitched (Santana) - get dealt away and ???? (Dickey) Not that I'm suggesting a cause and effect here based on those pitchers exceeding 215 IPs. Like the WBC data this is just too small a sample to start cherry picking conclusions, however tempting that might be.

12 pitchers threw 215 or more innings last season Verlander - DET Hernandez - SEA Shields - TBR Kuroda - NYY Peavy - CHW Vargas - SEA Dickey - NYM Kershaw - LAD Cain - SFG Richard - SDP Cueto - CIN Hamels - PHI Only Dickey, Peavy, & Kuroda were over 30

A year from now the next HoF vote will be known making that perfect timing for a paperback release with a new chapter - particularly if that vote goes his way. Keith's 'If At First' paperback release came approx a year later and took the obvious addition of including a chapter on the '86 season.

Oh good, I was waiting to see which side of this issue Medgal came down on.