Frayed Knot

And inning 2 features 2 hits, a walk, a stolen base ... and, of course, no runs.

MFS62 wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: Over/Under on bunt plays screwed up = 2.5 Is that Mets on defense, Mets on offense, or combined? 2.5 if strictly defense. The line for defense + offense is 3.5 The Rox bunted with the 2nd batter of the game and Ike tried to mess it up but bucked the recent rend by recovering in time.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Leadoff runner, stranded, to a pitcher who let up 10 runners in 4 innings' work last time out? And once again because no one could get the ball out of the infield (OK, the last out was technically to LF but it was shallow enough to be caught by the SS)

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: VENTURA 2012 MFY's swept on the South side The only thing that's salvaged this week so far. Yanx had a 10-game lead in late July. Now it's down to 3.

Molina in 2006 was more than 1-1/2 younger than Thole is now and was already a top-notch defensive catcher. Thole's main asset (maybe his only one) is that he's a contact hitter. But, while his K-rate is still low, that asset is negated when the contact looks like it's being made with a rolled-up copy of an old Sporting News both on hits (.057 IsoP this season ... that's Castillo-esque power!) and outs (dribble-dribble). Soon-to-be 26 year olds aren't supposed to regress like this and if they do it's not a good sign.

1:10 first pitch -- so we're gettin' the pain over early today. Most notable thing about today is the ML debut of Collin McHugh (must be Italian) I hope he can hit. Tyler Chatwood is the opposing pitcher who I think is the same guy who hit the game-winning bucket for Hickory HS in the Indiana state hoops championship. In the baseball part of his life he's made just 4 starts this season and has an ERA of 5-1/2 and a WHiP of 1.63 ... IOW, we're dead. Over/Under on bunt plays screwed up = 2.5

That's just what the Mets are in right now: Catching Hell. Exhibit A: Thole has 6 hits (all singles) plus 5 BBs in 39 ABs during August [.154/.250/.154] - and the worst part is that that's not even the worst part. Aside from those hits he's managed to get the ball out of the infield only five other times several of which are described as going to "short" whatever-field; IOW: weakly hit bloops. His remaining August ABs consists of 22 infield ground-outs + 6 Ks. Not very august.

Young - 2.4 Tejada - 1.0 Murphy - 0.5 Torres - 0.5 Valdespin - 0.6

Harvey - 4.0 Hairston - 1.2 Davis - 0.8 Tejada - 0.5 Edgin - 0.5

One more and we get our HR hitter up ... you know, the one who hasn't HR'd in a month.

1) Throw the fucking pitch on time 2) if you don't, first time warning ... second time ejection Now THAT would get these pitchers from fucking around like this. It would also end Papelbon's career, so it's a win-win situation.

The sad part is that, when Gary says that they just need another base-runner to bring the tying run to the plate, you say; "Yeah, so what? We've got no one on this team that can hit the ball out of the park anyway!"

Well back-to-back hits (both hard too!!) cuts the deficit in half. Note that this doesn't increase our chance of winning, it merely increases the odds that a different reliever will get absorb the loss.

I've never seen a team hit fewer balls hard (or even sort-of hard) than this one over the last two-three weeks. Five hits today, none were particularly hard, 4 were singles, 2 of those were by the pitcher, and the double was a soft bloop over 1st base. And it's not like the outs have been well-struck or the result of great defense from the other side. Somebody exchange the bats for wet rolled-up newspapers?

I think the Rox have more total bases this series via bunts than the Mets do on actual swings.

You knew that run was going to be cashed in ... and you knew it was unlikely to be via an actual hit. But at least this time we held the bunter to only 1 base.

GAME OVER

Time to bat Harvey clean-up. Hey, nothing else is working.

Has anyone else noticed that, aside from: - their catching crew which, prior to the recent trade for the Hawaiian-born Kurt Suzuki, rotated between three different Latin-born players - the black (and German-born) Edwin Jackson who was just brought in this Spring on a one-year deal - and fourth outfielder Roger Bernadina from the Caribbean island of Curaco that the Nationals are otherwise all white and all-U.S. born? Not making a judgement here or anything, just something I've recently noticed and something I'm sure has got to be an oddity in today's game - particularly the dearth of Hispanics. The last overwhelmingly white team like this that sticks in my mind was the 1993 Phillies crew.

Ike has to catch that throw from Hairy. I don't care if he was surprised or what. Maybe so, but it's ANOTHER throw from the OF (and a short one at that) that missed the target by several feet oe: and so was the Torres throw right there but at least he had an excuse as he had to rush the throw ... (still a lousy chuck though)

Leadoff double in the 1st -- only one ball out of the infield follows Leadoff single in the 3rd -- no ball leaves the infield afterward Gee, and I wonder why we're having trouble scoring.

Mets � Willets Point wrote: Two prizes left for him to steal: Pete Rose's hit crown.Tom Seaver's HOF vote percentage crown. These things are connected in that some voters submitted blank ballots in protest against Pete Rose's banishment thus denying Seaver an even higher percentage of the HOF vote. Yeah, Seaver received five 'No' (blank) votes and I recall at least one writer admitting to submitting a totally blank ballot to protest the exclusion of Rose from consideration. The other four are, I suppose, subject to speculation although there always seemed to be several in those days who would 'proudly' proclaim to never casting a 'Yes' vote for any first-timer, often based on the idiotic logic that if DiMaggio didn't get in on the first ballot then no one should. That the Rose issue won't be there for Jeter's vote and that the no-first-timer mindset seems to be going away (not to mention the widespread Jeter-love among media-types) both add to the idea that Jeter could very well surpass Seaver's vote pct (total votes casts vary per year).

So that's 104 starts over five seasons for Johan as a NYM - and just 70 over the last four. The four seasons leading up to the trade (his only ones as a full-time starter) he made 144

Quickie updates from John Sickels on the progress (however brief) of early 2012 draft picks Round 1 - Supp 35) Kevin Plawecki, C, New York Mets: .252/.356/.371 with 19 walks, 16 strikeouts in 159 at-bats for Brooklyn in the New York-Penn League. Has thrown out 32% of runners. Not great, but showing plate management skills that were present in college. Round 2 71) Matt Reynolds, SS-3B, New York Mets: .258/.331/.348 with 12 walks, 25 strikeouts in 155 at-bats for Low-A Savannah in the Sally League. Playing well at shortstop after projecting on draft day as a third baseman. Hitting stats aren't great, but he's jumping from college to full-season ball. Round 2 75) Teddy Stankiewicz, RHP, New York Mets: Didn't sign. Off to Seminole JC. Round 3 107) Matt Koch, RHP, New York Mets: 5.52 ERA with 12/6 K/BB in 15 innings for Brooklyn Cyclones in NY-P, 15 hits, 0.94 GO/AO. Pitched well at first but roughed up in last couple of outings. Round 4 140) Branden Kaupe, SS, New York Mets: .174/.373/.193 with 34 walks, 35 strikeouts in 114 at-bats for Kingsport in the Appalachian League. Has struggled in conversion to 2B. Other than drawing walks, he's been terrible so far, but you know the next phrase: he's just 18.

Bringing him up in the next week or so - even if strictly to be a pr for Cincy's stretch drive and/or post-season - is being openly discussed by various pundits. Not sure how much/if any of that talk is coming from the club itself.