Frayed Knot

Tejada - 0.5 Duda - 0.5 Murphy - 0.5 Nicheas - 0.4 Dickey - 3.5 Carson - 0.3 Edgin - 0.2 RRamirez - 0.1

Pirates won in Chicago last night in a game that [u:2q5eym95]didn't start until 10:42 PM[/u:2q5eym95] due to rain. That gave them a split of the 4-game series which are their only two wins in the last eleven but it does keep them both on the fringes of the WC race and on the right side (+2) of the .500 mark. The one big advantage Pittsburgh has going forward? -- They have a four-game series with the Mets next week. That seems to be a tonic lately for NL teams who are looking to either secure (Wash, Atl) or fight for (Milw, Phil, Pitt) a post-season berth ... come on by and beat the Mets.

"... they also worry about his impact on other young players in social settings away from the ballpark." Well now there's a sentence that's subject to a lot of speculation. Keeping late hours? Drinking? Whoring? Cross-dressing? Attending neo-Nazi rallies?

Wins at CitiField since the ASG 1st place - Nationals = 6 2nd - Braves = 5 T-3rd - Mets = 4 T-3rd - Rockies = 4 5th - Dodgers = 3 6th - Marlins = 2 T-7th - Astros = 1 T-7th - Phillies = 1 Games remaining = 8 Phils 2; Miami 3; Pittsburgh 4 So the good news is that no one ahead of us has anymore games at CF and of those behind only the Marlins can catch or pass the Mets in these "standings". IOW the worst they can finish is in a tie for 4th place, and that they still have a shot (an outside one anyway) at either first or second. The bad news, of course, is that all those teams played six or fewer games at CF since early July with the exception of the Mets who will have played thirty-five by the time the season is over.

Edgy DC wrote: Well, I'm marking this in my book as Jason Bay's last ever start for the Mets. We should instead start guys who CAN get the ball out of the infield. Oh wait, we don't have any of those.

Well, it's not like they were having great success by looking at strike one go past them each time.

Wright's last 42 hits: 1 HR, 9 doubles, 32 singles

Edgy DC wrote: OK, Murphy. Make a story here. I've already read that book. I didn't like the ending.

Gwreck wrote: Vegas is official, per Burkhardt tweet. I'm surprised that Moe Green agreed to sell. On the other hand, maybe not so surprised.

It would be easy to bitch about the fact that their two HRs made it over the fences by like a combined 8 inches or so - but until one of our batters actually makes their OFers back up to make a play (whether on a hit or not) we're not going to get those breaks. I think so far only Duda's 2B and one fly out (forget who) made an OFer move in any direction other than in.

Speaking of MFY articles, I realize that writers don't often get to choose their own headlines so we probably shouldn't crush good ol' Bryan Hoch too much for this one -- but did someone really think that Through injury, Jeter's singular focus is winning was a unique or fresh angle just crying out to be covered?

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Terry needs the home-losses streak to end to keep his job and Fred/Jeff to keep their money. T'would be nice if we could also finish up this 2nd half by having the most wins of any team at CitiField. Someone posted the to-date totals a couple of days ago and we were like 4th. 10 home games left.

Mainly it seems to be the pitching that's much better lately and the return of injured vets that has fueled their rise, rather than some youth-infused surge. On the mound, in addition to the improvement of Lee noted above, it's been an improved Kyle Kendrick and the return of Halladay that's helped the most - although we're going to miss both of the last two. On the hitting side, aside from recent Rollins surge (noted above), it's been the return of Utley & Howard. Of the guys getting most of the ABs as replacements for Victorino & Pence, Domonic Brown has been only mediocre (same as his last call up) as has no-longer-so-young John Mayberry Jr. They just called up righty-swinging Darin Ruf (yes that's the correct spelling) - a guy who's not really considered much of a prospect based on the fact that he's already 26y/o and really has no position to play. But he also went off for 38 HRs in the minors this year, despite never before hitting more than 17, so we'll probably see him off the bench this week. He's 0-for-2 so far as a major leaguer.

One would think that, by mid-September, we wouldn't really need to "know" the Phillies any better than we already do. But after being a big, giant, gaping hole of suck throughout the first half of the season and then suddenly turning into a winning juggernaut after trading away some major pieces, it's almost like I don't know this team at all, or at least I don't know what's been making them tick lately. I think we need to put our heads together and figure it out by 7 PM tonight. A few months after pretty much declaring Philly to be dead in 2012 (see: 'Phils' thread) and then wondering if their post-trading deadline, late-August/early-Sept run made them un-dead, the Phightins' got a gift in the form of a four-game series with woeful Houston ... and promptly laid an egg. Yes, the team that was coming off winning 7 straight and 15 of 19 just lost 3 of 4 to the (99 losses with 15 still to play) Astros while allowing 24 runs in the process. Meanwhile, our side, after pretty much locking up the WC spot for the Braves by sucking big time against them; and after all but guaranteeing the NL East crown for the Nationals by laying down against them; and then after helping the Brewers stay in the midst of the 2nd WC hunt by losing 2 of 3 there, maybe we can salvage a wee bit of pride here by actually kicking someone one out of post-season contention for a change. Monday 7:10 -- Cliff Lee vs Dickey Lee has had a somewhat better (and healthier) 2nd half than 1st although not stunningly so when you consider that he only won 1 game in his first 14 starts. He's 4-2 in the 12 starts since the ASG with an improved ERA [2.66 2nd half vs 3.98 1st half] a better WHiP {1.08 vs 1.19} and a markedly better K/BB ratio [10.9 vs 4.9] Tuesday 7:10 -- Tyler Cloyd vs Harvey Cloyd has made 4 ML starts including his first ever against us on Aug 29. He took the loss in that one although we didn't exactly smack him around the park [3 runs on 7 hits over 6 IP]. Since then he's won one game and taken 2 NDs while lasting on 4 & 3 innings in his last two outings. Wednesday 7:10 -- Cole Hamels vs Hefner Good season for Hamels although he hasn't been all that great recently, giving up around 3 runs/game over an average of 6 or 7 innings over his last 5 starts. He won their only game in Houston although it wound up a 12-6 slug-fest.

That was 5 innings, 2 runs on 4 hits & 4 BBs for Gio tonight -- and no 20th win as the Nats get swept by the Braves. One thing that might hurt Gio's chances at the CY is that his walks - even though down considerably from his past [5.1/per 9 in 2010 to 4.1 to 3.4 this year] - are still higher than most of the other contenders and that also serves to get his pitch count up and keep his innings down. He was just 17th in the NL in IP starting tonight and is still outside the top 10 approx 20 IPs or so behind the likes of Dickey & Cueto & Kershaw. That gap should at least be considered as a factor.

Tampa probably played its way out of the playoff picture by getting skunked by the likes of Ivan Nova and Rookie Caroca while losing 2 of 3 to the Yanx and 5 of 6 to their main contenders if you go back to the previous series when they got swept by the O's. They now sit 5 back of the Yanx & 4 behind Baltimore and 4 back of the 2nd WC spot. Yeah they were further out last year but also had fewer teams in the way. ChiSox sweep Minnesota to stretch their Central lead over Detroit to 2 games.

Ashie62 wrote: I dont know how to do splits on BBR..anyone care to do one on Wright for after the break? Under a player's hitting starts you click on 'Splits' and then can choose career splits or on a per/year basis. Once there you've got everything from 1st half/2nd half to success in various counts, base-runner/out, leverage, etc. Wright in 2012 1st half/2nd half is pretty ugly: 1st - .351/.441/.563 w/11 HRs & 59 RBI 2nd - .260/.344/.402 w/6 & 22 .... although that is somewhat misleading as not only is the 2nd half unfinished but the 1st "half" is up to the AS break which is usually past the numerical half-way point, so Wright's 2nd half is currently 100 plate appearances behind his 1st half stats, something which certainly exaggerates the counting stats gap.

Has Wright looked at more called third strikes recently or swung through more? Either way, when he had 16 HRs he was on about 60 Ks for the season (late July). He now has 17 and 105

Brewer batters have three HRs Met batters have six balls out of the infield - one of which is a hit

Tejada-SS Murphy-2B Wright-3B Davis-1B Duda-LF Baxter-RF Thole-C Torres-CF Young-RHP Now we have to see if we can get this game in: a) with the Mets on the winning side and in under 4 hours

Only 2 hours 15 minutes so far and we're almost through 5 innings!!! I might catch the end of this one with breakfast.

18 errors short heading into today's games. With 15 contests on today's schedule it'll probably happen in one of them. Likely candidate Dan Uggla is playing in one of the afternoon games which takes him out of things. Jeter is DHing again so it won't be him and Nunez at SS also is in a day game making him unlikely. So, if this happens today, it'll probably come during one of the night games. Terry better tell his guys that they don't want to get sloppy and become famous.

Niese - 3.2 Tejada - 0.25 Edgin - 0.25 Rauch - 0.1 Murphy - 2.2 Duda - 1.6 Wright - 1.3 Thole - 1.1

Harvey - 2.5 Carson - 0.6 Francisco - 0.3 Hampson - 0.4 Wright - 0.7 Torres - 0.5 Duda - 0.5

Funny how on the same day and in the same game that Jeter passes Mays to get to 10th on the all-time career hits list prompting mentions and plaudits that stop just short of a Congressional vote for a new national holiday, Alex Rodriguez passes Gehrig to takeover 9th place on the all-time career runs scored list and is greeted by the sound of .... crickets. btw, Jeter's 'record breaking' hit hit the 2nd baseman right in the glove.