Frayed Knot

And Wilmer also gets the season send-off in BA's (final) weekly 'Hot Sheet' Why He's Here: .481/.517/.889 (13-for-27), 4 R, 3 2B, 1 3B, 2 HR, 3 RBIs, 2 BB, 4 SO The Scoop: With international prospects, the key word is patience. We live in a golden era of prospect information, perhaps no more evident than in the scouting reports we now have on international amateur prospects�but it's imperative to remember that the path of Jurickson Profar or Starlin Castro zooming to the big leagues is incredibly rare. Take Flores, whose name has appeared on the pages of Baseball America since he was 15. One of the top international prospects in 2007, Flores signed with the Mets out of Venezuela for $700,000 on his 16th birthday, then made a huge splash the next year in the Rookie-level Appalachian League, where he hit .310/.352/.490 in 59 games playing most of the season as a 16-year-old. By the time Flores was 18, the Mets had already pushed him to high Class A St. Lucie. Yet when the 2012 season opened, Flores still found himself in St. Lucie. He had struggled the previous year, but at 20, he was still one of the youngest players in the league and had the same preternatural hand-eye coordination that drew the Mets to him. Now the breakout has arrived. After a strong first half in the Florida State League, Flores got the bump to Double-A in June and has hit .323/.374/.506 in 62 games for Binghamton. His power has surged, with his 17 home runs nearly doubling his total of nine from a year ago. The Mets have shuffled Flores around this year at third base, second and first, with third base likely the perfect-world scenario given that he has the arm strength for the position but not nearly enough range to profile at second. So while it may seem like Flores has been a prospect forever, just remember that he just turned 21 a few weeks ago.

If the right situation comes up, why not.

Dickey - 5.4 Davis - 3.5 Wright - 0.3 Tejada - 0.3 Murphy - 0.5

MUST BE 17 OR OVER TO BE ADMITTED -- aka: RATED RA

Plus the game took like 2:08 Plus the Yanx are getting 4-hit in the 8th up in the Bronx.

Thole ends August with 6 hits (all singles), 6 walks, and also 6 GiDPs And I don't feel like going back and tracking how many of his outs actually made it out of the infield ... but that might be about 6 also. Hell, Terry could have decided to just "Forfeit" his ABs each time he came up and it would have produced right about the same result for the team overall.

Hey, I'll take a 4-hit win. I'm not proud.

Swan Swan H wrote: Murphy has made three really nice plays on balls to his left, despite throwing one of them away. And the one he threw away he rushed. Had more time than he realized. Meanwhile, getting Jose & Carlos Lee was huge there. Now the 9th starts with Giancarlo but with the bases empty

OK ... THAT wasn't a bloop!!

Well, three whole hits so far (all soft bloops) into the top of the 7th Nice Dickey inning in the 6th: 4-pitch walk (Reyes) - 3-pitch K - 3 pitch K - 0-1 pickoff

Not quite sure of the benefit of a hit tracker to folks who are at the game and actually see those hits.

Ruben Tejada - SS Daniel Murphy � 2B David Wright � 3B Ike Davis � 1B Lucas Duda � LF Mike Baxter � RF Andres Torres � CF Josh Thole � C R.A. Dickey � RHP

Hah. I neither saw that 'performance' nor was thinking of it here. The new flick seems to fit at least the 'estranged and/or distant from his adult child(ren)' portion of the Clint formula checklist*. May fit several others as well, although we'll have to wait until release time to know. * Clint formula checklist - as per Edgy in the 'Gran Torino' thread Old Clint tinkering around his garage -- mm, probably not here Clint staring down punks -- younger scouts, GMs, execs probably yes. Full-fledged punks, doubtful Clint walking masoquistically and coolly into a showdown even though he's hopelessly outgunned -- maybe in a job sense but not a live or die one Clint walking masocquistically and coolly into a showdown even though he's hopelessly too old -- probably this one Clint having a big enough pair of balls to spit in God's face - ?? Clint ominously coughing shit up -- doesn't sound like it Clint abusing an ethnic minority while begrudgingly growing in affection for them -- could be, depending on who he's scouting Clint being disgusted by the younger generations -- oh almost certainly Clint estranged and/or distant from his adult children -- sounds like the movie's theme

Clint, despite recent claims that he was through performing in front of the camera, gets the lead role in a forthcoming film which is not his and which is, of all things, a baseball movie. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2083383/

Giancarlo Stanton since August 7th (after spending a full month on the DL): .316/.345/.785 -- 25 hits, 17 for Xtra bases, 10 HRs

Gwreck wrote: This will be [Eovaldi's] third start against the Mets in the past 6 weeks (1 with LA, 1 with Miami). Threw 5 scoreless innings at Citi Field earlier in the month during the 13-0 loss to Miami. Has a 1.67 WHIP on the season and walks a lot of batters however, so there's really no reason why the Mets shouldn't be able to do better. Well, no reason except for the part about how they can't hit. Let's not allow ourselves to get too giddy about the nine-run (five during regulation) outburst the other night, that's still the only one of the last dozen games where they've managed to plate more than three - and most of that was against lousy pitching.

Niese - 2.0 RRamirez - 0.25 Carson - 0.25 Baxter - 1.3 Hairston - 1.6 Wright - 0.6

John Sickels does an update on Wilmer Flores ... http://www.minorleagueball.com/2012/8/30/3279956/minor-league-prospect-report-wilmer-flores-3b-new-york-mets#storyjump ... and there's some pretty good stuff in there - First is the reminder of how young he is. Scouts talk about a phenomenon known as �prospect fatigue� where fans begin to turn away from a promising player simply because it seems like he�s been around forever, something that�s more common with Latin players simply because they tend to sign so young. But Flores is still just 21 with a half-season of AA under his belt and would have the 2nd highest OPS in the Eastern League if he had enough ABs to qualify. That�s a guy who�s not only past his sell date but it�s still solidly in the young for his level territory. - That his power has picked up. Power is often the last thing to emerge from hitters and the whole �will he?/Won�t he?� question colors the opinion of the player since how much he develops down the road goes a long way in determining how valuable he�ll be. Flores has always had good contact rates but now he�s maintaining that while adding some punch to go along with it (17 HRs in <500 ABs). - That he�s getting at least decent reports for his defense at 2B & 3B. No one thought he�d ever stay at SS, but many speculated that his skills and lack of foot speed left him no other eventual destination but 1B where the bat would need to be that much better just to maintain some value overall. He still rates as a bat-first guy, but if can he hang at either of those IF spots so much the better.

OK, we've been slacking off on our KTEs lately (for a bunch of rather obvious reasons) but there's still a full month left and changes in team rosters certainly don't let up at this time of year. PHIGroup ProjectWASHbmfc1/Edgy DCMIAGWreck=#008040]ATL=#00BF40]Frayed KnotCINEdgyDCPITTEdgy DCCHICattgig=#0000FF]StL=#0000FF]MFS'62HOUMGiMMILWTransMonkLADG-FaFiFSFGFrayed KnotSDPABN-SeoCOLLWFSARZLWFSNYYFMan99BALJCLTORJCLTBRLWFS =#BF0000]At Bat =#0000FF]On Deck =#008000]In the Hole

Mets � Willets Point wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: My view on numbers 8, 17, & 24 1) either retire them or put them into circulation 2) put them into circulation For the Mets, I like the idea of only issuing 24 to aging future hall-of-famers who join the team near the end of their careers. 8 and 17 should be in circulation. Carlos Baerga and Luis Lopez weren't that good. I have no problem if they want to selectively circulate certain numbers, just as long as they actually do something with them.

We desperately needed a HR there but had Thole up instead. Now in an 0-fer-25 stretch - although did get two balls out of the infield today. The sad part is that that represents progress.

My view on numbers 8, 17, & 24 1) either retire them or put them into circulation 2) put them into circulation

MFS62 wrote: The Yahoo box score shows Niese with 97 pitches through 6, and Kendrick about 2/3 of that. Is Niese getting squoze by the ump No, he's giving up lots of hits.

Ah yes, Torve in the briefly-issued #24 That's another uni that should be taken out of mothballs and given to some guy as soon as possible ... but that's a whole 'nother argument. So any word-word-word on whether Hamels is recovered or are they sticking with Kendrick regardless?

OK, I originally read that as the WC team having the overall home-field advantage in the first round. If it's just the order of the games that's moved not only don't I mind but I actually prefer the 2-3 format to the 2-2-1.