Frayed Knot

So Dickey is prevented from wearing a, what, 1/4 inch thick?, brown leather strap around his wrist and yet Kris Medlen, pitching for Atlanta tonight in Washington, is wearing a shiny chain around his neck, and outside his shirt to boot, that's thicker than ones I've used to lock up expensive bicycles.

Rochester, previously the only IL AAA franchise aside from Buffalo with its affiliation agreement up for grabs beyond this year and said to be considering replacing the Twins, instead re-ups with the with the Twins. This means that the list of AAA affiliate choices going forward includes Buffalo plus and any one of eight different PCL cities: Alburquerque - current agreement = Dodgers for the last four years running but also for a number of years before that. Agreement said to be working well. Fresno - Giants since 1999. Obvious logical local affiliation with Giants, although city hit hard by recession and attendance down significantly. Las Vegas - Blue Jays since 2009. Jays expected to opt for move to Buffalo. Vegas said to be the most out-of-date stadium in the PCL Memphis - Long-time Cardinals affiliate in the middle of Cardinals country. Unlikely to change. Nashville - Brewers. Change called unlikely. Possibility of new stadium in the works makes market attractive. New Orleans - Marlins since Mets left. Change possible Oklahoma City - Houston since 2011. Change possible. Tuscon - Padres. Whole franchise is in question since it's owned by outgoing Padres owner Jeff Moorad and had been in Portland, Oregon through 2010. The two-week "Free Agency" period when teams can begin negotiations with un-attached affiliates begins on Sept 16

In other MFY news, Jeter had four more hits last night (and is hitting .400 in August) giving him 3,255 for his career. That tied him with Eddie Murray for 12th place overall although that's not really the significant part. The significant part is that his next hit puts him exactly 1,000 hits behind Pete Rose's record of 4,256 Jeter turned 38 not quite 2 months ago. Rose's total at the exact same age as Jeter is now? 3,242. IOW, Rose, starting at the same point, stroked another 1,014 hits before hanging them up, meaning that if Jeter matches the same pace he'll have the record by 13 hits -- although I don't guess we'll be doing a countdown for this one. Of course the trick is to staying around as long as Pete did (45 yrs + 5 months) and managing yourself helps out in those cases. - Rose turned 38 at the beginning of the 1979 season (Jeter in the middle of this one) a year which turned out to be his final 200-hit campaign. - After that he dropped to 185; then had the strike year in '81 where his 140 hits still managed to lead the league. - He had two more full seasons at ages 41 & 42: 162 games/720 PAs for the '82 Phils and 172 hits, then slumped to 121 hits in 151 games/555 PAs - Then both the games and hits dropped pretty drastically: 121 games/421 PAs/107 hits (.286 BA) in a year split between Montreal and back in Cincy, followed by another season of 107 hits (.264 BA), before his final 52-hit/272 PA season (.219) in 1986 at age 45 In August of '86 Rose's Reds faced the Giants in a 4-game series in Cincy and Rose went 8 for 11 (7 singles) with 4 RBI and raising his average 25 points. (it was nice of his manager to hit him 2nd in the order despite the .204 BA) But then he went 0-for-10 against the Padres in the following series and never batted again. Last hit: single to LF against Greg Minton Last AB: a bases-empty strike out in the 8th inning facing Goose Gossage. I don't remember if it was known at the time that that would be his final AB. Side note found in research: Pete Rose Jr played 21 seasons in both affiliated and unaffiliated minor league baseball and amassed 1,877 hits. He was 2 for 14 as a major leaguer.

Meanwhile, the Jonathan Herrera bunt/error which essentially lost the game for us was also a head-first slide into 1st. My conclusion is that head-first slides tend to work so much better when the defense makes bad plays as opposed to when they make good ones.

The reason behind delaying one's HoF eligibility would be based on the hope that maybe five years down the road public sentiment on this topic will be less harsh than it is today. Attitudes change over time so those writers, ex-players, and other keepers of the flame who actually lived through the era and aren't viewing the pre-roids time as some bastion of purity may start to come around to the idea that total banishment of anyone who ever used, thought about using, or knew about others who used is maybe a bit over the top. McGwire was a different boat IMO. The idea behind his return was more just to get him back in the game and in uniform to rehab his image somewhat. Clemens would have to save a few bus-loads of nuns and orphans before he could even get his image to approach the level that McGwire's started at, and ditto for Bonds who recently floated the idea of naming himself SFG hitting coach at some unspecified future date.

So the Nats won in the 13th on three consecutive infield singles with a little defensive help from the Braves thrown in (what is this, a Yanquis opponent?). Chipper & Janish collided with kicking the second one which allowed the first runner to go 1st-to-3rd on a ball behind the mound. And the winning "blow" was somehow ruled a hit even though bobbled by Dan Uggla at least three times as the run crossed the plate. Now a 6-game lead for Washington. Strasburd & Maholm today. Giants held on for a 2-1 win to flop the 1st place standings in the west. Lincecum vs Blanton tonight.

SteveJRogers wrote: LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: The Second Spitter wrote: The Antichrist is still active.. I wonder whether the fucker's taking an outside shot at postponing his HoF ballot introduction. Actually, I outright suspect it. That rule about Professional baseball is no longer in affect for HOF ballot inclusion, it's just MLB. But if he can parlay this re-introduction to competitive ball into a (however brief) stint somewhere in the majors (Houston?) that would 're-set the clock' for his HoF vote for another five years and would allow the whole steroids issue to be argued with other guys' names involved rather than his. It would also 'de-link' his name with Barry's on next year's ballot ("of all the dramatic things ...")

If you don't count what's going on at Citifield this week, it should be a fun week in baseball in general. * Braves @ Nats in the most important series the Nats have ever played during their brief life-span and maybe the most important series the city of Washington has seen since the great depression. Although, in reality, the Nats come in with a 5 game lead and as long as they don't get swept they'll finish with a lead of at least 4 games. Game 1 began with another rain delay, and now they're tied at 4-4 and are headed for the 11th * the Yanx are visiting the Chicago Venturas. Yanx jumped to a 4-0 lead but then Freddie Garcia remembered that he's Freddie Garcia and the Sox put up a 5-spot in the 5th against 4 pitchers that Girardi trotted out in that inning. Currently 8-6 Sox in the 7th. The first six innings alone took just short of 3 hours so the results of this one may not make your morning papers. * Tampa won their 5th straight and 12th of their last 14 since the return of Longoria to keep the pressure on the Yanx. If the results from Chicago hold up (and if someone named Daley is counting them they certainly will) the MFY lead slips to 4 games * Giants at Dodgers on the left coast. LA with a half-game lead entering tonight. 1-0 Giants in the 5th on an Angel Pagan HR Kershaw vs Bumgarner

Once again: soft hits and soft outs. Too many of the latter, not enough of the former.

Other than the Torres IF single and the Baxter bloop double, I think the last time we actually got a ball out of the infield was about the 3rd inning.

And now none of it matters.

And now in the 9th we'll have: Torres - who hasn't had a hit in like a week Shoppach - who'll almost certainly be facing a RHP and the pitcher's spot which means either Cedeno or Bay Oh joy!

smg58 wrote: Eric Young Jr., who was rumored to be coming this way for Justin Turner in the preseason, has a .316/.377/.448 line. Yeah, "EY-Jr" (as they call him on BB2N) has had like a ridiculously hot last three or four weeks. Nothing prior to that either this year or before indicates that that's going to keep up. Other than him, apparently every name you recognize from this team is hurt and every name you don't recognize is currently playing, except for Giambi who's still fat and still PH-ing.

CarGo is on bereavement leave and will miss at least the first game of this series. Other than that I don't got nuthin'

Ceetar wrote: That's not what I'm questioning. Just that there was an encroaching doubt he would seriously make it at the major league level ... While you can always find SOMEBODY who'll take a counter opinion (although I can't imagine anyone who would admit to that one now) there wasn't much on Jeter and none at all that I ever heard about from within his own org Within a year of being drafted BA ranked him as the 44th best prospect in the minors. By year 2 he was 16th, then 6th, then 4th, then Rookie of the Year by age 22. That's about as good as it gets for a prospect, especially a HS one. ... and the existence of rumors that the Yankees were looking at other options. You always look at other options and I'm sure every player in the history of the game has been mentioned in trade talks at one time or another. But that's not the same as actively trying and/or being willing to move him, something they definitely did with Cano. The Rivera trade stories have been printed before. He was having a nothing-special minor league career which was then interrupted by surgery. But, when he came out of his rehab throwing harder and with a newly found cutter, the Yanx pulled his name off the list of the guys they'd give up in trades. The rumored deal with Seattle was one of those things which, had it been proposed just a few months earlier, they would have made it without thinking twice. But, as the saying goes, timing is everything.

He was a top prospect, but weren't they questioning his ability to actually play, particularly defense at SS (well, they might've been right on that)? I thought there was a rumored trade for Nomar or something in like the '94 offseason? Or was that just a Steinbrenner "OMG this guy kicked the ball around a bit and doesn't look like he has bomber power!"? Jeter made a ton of errors in his first pro season but just about every young SS does that. He was the 6th pick in the nation in his draft (and would have been the 1st if not for a last-minute change of heart by the Astros) and the Yanx never wavered on him after he unexpectedly fell to them.

Excerpts from John Sickel's archives - April 15, 2005 - or about three weeks prior to Cano's ML debut Cano was signed out of the Dominican Republic in 2001 ... went to the Gulf Coast League for his pro debut, and did not play particularly well, hitting .230/.330/.364 in 57 games. Moving up to the full-season Sally League in 2002, he improved significantly, boosting his numbers to .276/.321/.445 and hitting 14 homers. 2003 was a split season: .276/.313/.377 in 90 games for Class A Tampa, then .280/.341/.366 in 46 games for Double-A Trenton. Cano split '04 again, hitting .301/.345/.497 in 74 games for Trenton, then .259/.316/.403 in 61 games for Triple-A Columbus. He's off to a hot start at Columbus this year: 12-for-34 with 3 homers in his first 8 games. Cano is 22 years old [who's] shown steady development up the ladder, and has handled himself well in the upper minors at a young age. Scouts say he has above-average bat speed, and should be able to hit for average with plenty of doubles at the major league level. The main question about his bat is how much home run power he will develop. His home run totals the last three years are 15, 6, and 13. He seems to be whacking the ball for power quite well so far this season, granted the perils of small sample size. I know that some scouts project him to be a 20+ homer guy with maturity, while others believe he will settle into the 12-15 range. His plate discipline is average at this point, although his strikeout rate is reasonably low. I could see him hitting anywhere from .250 to .300 at the Major League level; he is young enough on the age curve to do that, but he'll have to keep working the zone well for it to happen. One team that considered trading for Cano last summer decided that he would be a fine hitter, but that his glove was going to be a serious problem; the trade fell through for this reason. Cano has enough arm strength for third base, but his range is a serious question. Yankee sources say that his range will be at least average, and that he can handle either third base or second base with no problem. Sources from other clubs disagree; one told me that Cano would be a first baseman by the time he was 27 [he's currently 29], and that his bat wouldn't be good enough for him to start at that position. I haven't seen Cano enough myself to know which opinion about his range is the correct one, but the doubts among other clubs have been strong enough to hurt his trade value. In my book this year, I gave Cano a Grade B-, noting that he "is young enough to improve his offense quite a bit more, but it is unclear where exactly he will fit on the diamond." I still think that's a fair assessment. Now, make no mistake, this is still a good prospect report for a 22 y/o especially from Sickels who is not one given to gushing over the flavor of the month simply so he can say later on that he was the first to tout a particular player while hoping you'll forget about the 90% that he whiffed on. A 'B-' from him is a well-above average grade. But, at the same time, it's clear that Cano almost immediately became much more than Sickels or the other scouts & touts he's quoting thought he'd ever become in terms of BA, power, or even defensively. Does that mean he had chemical help? Not necessarily, but given the sudden improvement, the company he kept (is keeping?), and the era in which he played, it certainly raises questions especially in the wake of the media shifting to full "How can you fans be so stupid as to not have suspected Melky?" mode.

Doesn't that describe Jeter too? Jeter Was a top prospect from the moment he was drafted. Cano, while promising, was never close to that. And the Yanx never were trying to trade Jeter the way they were trying to, or at least were certainly open to the idea of, deal Cano. So, no, I don't see where the two are remotely comparable in this sense. Not that any of this makes Jeter above suspicion or Cano guilty; as far as I'm concerned, anyone who debuted since about the mid-80s is worthy of suspicion and the idea that we fans can sniff out ahead of time who is and who isn't is, for the most part, a waste of time guessing game. But the specific circumstances with Cano -- the associations and his rapid improvement (never .300 BA or 10 HRs in the minors but has achieved both every season since his promotion) -- certainly make some more worthy of speculation than others.

Edgy DC wrote: I have to say, a timeline of Melky getting released by the Braves, to Melky working out with Alex Rodriguez and Robinson Cano, to Alex getting caught in a web of lies, to Melky getting similarly disgraced... It looks bad for Cano. You mean that guy the Yanx were trying to give away in several trades* before calling him up as a last resort** even as Gene Michael admitted they didn't expect much from him? You mean that guy? * I know they tried to move him in the Randy Johnson deal but the DBacks insisted on catcher Dioneer Navarro instead I believe he was later on the list of throw-ins the Rangers could choose from in addition to main bait Alfonso Soriano in the ARod trade, but Texas opted for the 'true SS' in Joaquin Arias who was lower in the minors but they thought maybe had the better upside because of his position. ** IIRC it was when their FA acquisition Tomy Womack got injured and was sucking that they summoned him for lack of other options. He had been something of a prospect during his time in the minors although considered a bit of a 'tweener' as touts weren't sure if he had the glove to play 2B or the bat to play 3rd. And, yes, he and Melky were best-buds when Cabrera was still in the Bronx.

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Acosta - 0.5 Parnell - 0.4 Turner - 0.9 Davis - 1.3 Shoppach - 0.9 Cedeno - 2.0

Niese - 5.1 Rauch - 0.5 Francisco - 0.75 Davis - 2.6 Baxter - 0.7 Wright - 0.35

Gwreck wrote: The Mets have 13 outfield assists That's about 12.5 more than I would have guessed. tied with the Giants for 28th in MLB this year. Only Miami (12) and San Diego (11) have fewer. Hmmm, all big outfields. Quite possibly that's not a coincidence. How much did TC talk about "fundamentals" and "playing the game the right way" in Spring Training? I think this is more about shitty arms than about instructions. I hear Ceetar is blaming it all on Warthen. for what it's worth, Met outfielders have made 14 errors this season, only two of which are of the throwing variety. I wonder how many "runner advanced on the throw" bases have been given away that a better throw (or, in certain cases, a non-throw) could have prevented even though no error was charged?

Frayed Knot on 7/23 wrote: [ichiro] has 4 HRs to date this year and I'll bet he trumps that in his first 15 home games with the MFYs. Following his 2 HRs tonight, he only made it to 3 HRs in his first 16 home games.

Pirates score 3 in the 19th to beat the Cards 6-3 -- this was after the teams traded single runs in the 17th The win keeps the Bucs 2nd in the NL Central, on the good side of the line for one of the two WC berths, and 15 wins away (out of 40 games remaining) from their first winning season in 21 years. 14 wins will take them to exactly 81 wins while 15 nets them a true winning season, although I hope their fans are setting their sights a bit higher at this point.