Frayed Knot

Now all we have to do is get Harvey to quit walking guys and for the bats to quit hitting into GiDPs

TV alert for out-of-towners or others not otherwise connected to SNY or EI packages -- this game will be on MLBN tonight (at least for much of the country) And then Sunday's game is the ESPN national telecast as well.

Knowledge is Power. Or, in the words of Emil Faber: Knowledge is Good

BA notices Montero on this week's 'Hot List' Nearly 8 innings of no-hit ball will do that for ya'. Team: high Class A St. Lucie (Florida State) Age: 21 Why He's Here: 1-0, 0.00 ERA, 7 2/3 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 3 BB, 5 SO The Scoop: Montero put together a solid first half with low Class A Savannah, but he has flourished with St. Lucie since being promoted in late June. The 21-year-old Dominican has limited Florida State League hitters to a .196 average while striking out 56 in 50 innings. After fanning 14 in six innings last week, Montero held Palm Beach hitless over his 7 2/3 shutout innings on Tuesday night. After yet another dominating performance, the righthander has now registered seven quality starts in just eight appearances at the level.

Most if not all of the 'This Year' is just like 'That Year' comparisons are too forced to mean much. Analyze your current problems on their own merits and take the steps that will hopefully fix them under the conditions that exist now.

Some advance notice for next week and beyond PHIGroup ProjectWASHbmfc1/Edgy DCMIAGWreckATLFrayed Knot=#FF0000]CIN=#FF0000]EdgyDCPITTEdgy DCCHICattgigStLMFS'62HOUMGiMMILWTransMonkLADG-FaFiFSFGFrayed KnotSDPABN-Seo=#008040]COL=#008040]LWFSARZLWFSNYYFMan99BALJCLTORJCLTBRLWFS =#BF0000]At Bat On Deck =#008000]In the Hole

4th series of the year against the Braves 4-5 so far (after starting 3-0) with two series to go after this one. The last time we saw the Braves was coming out of the AS break when we were in 2nd place a game ahead of them. They proceeded to sweep us and then finish July with an 18-8 mark while we staggered through at 7-18 and pretty much killed the season. IOW, they�re hot, we�re not. All of which finds us 11 games behind them as we head into this weekend series at CitiField Braves are 3rd in the league at scoring runs and, despite numerous pitching injuries, still better than average (6th best) and still better than us at preventing them. Those pitching injuries mean that we�ll be facing three starters this weekend who have made a combined total of 8 starts for them this year ... although I don't know if that's a good thing. One is a reclamation project from the medical scrap-heap; one a refugee from the Cub scrap-heap; and one a middle-reliever just pressed into service. So naturally those three are averaging 6+ IP/start and have combined for a sub-2.00 ERA over 50 innings And if any of those three re-treads fails I�m sure they know some peanut vendor from the stands with a decent arm or will find some teenager on a beach in Curaco with a nice release on his stone-skipping technique and have one or both of them ready in time to shut us down over the weekend. All night games is the word for this weekend - Friday - 7:10: Paul Maholm faces Matt Harvey in his CF debut The left-handed Maholm was dealt at the deadline to Atlanta from the Cubs where he was having a decent season [9-6, 3.74, 1.24]. His one start for the Braves so far continued that decent but not great streak when he took a loss vs Houston giving up 3 runs on 6 hits w/8 Ks over 7 innings. - Saturday - 7:10: Righty Kris Medlen faces the returning corpse of Johan Santana Medlen was in their pen all year - and most of the time since 2009 for that matter - but has taken a turn in the rotation the last two times around, holding the opposition (MIami & Houston) in both games to just 1 run although lasting just 5 innings each time. - Sunday - 8:05 ESPN game: The once-again thriving corpse of Ben Sheets squares off against Jonathon Niese Sheets, I�m sure you�ll remember, started against us in his first game since like we were typing on the CPF with Commodore 64s. It was right after the ASG and held NYM bats to 2 hits over 6 innings. Well he�s now started 5 games total for the Braves and has pretty much repeated that trick, holding the opposition to one run or less in 4 of them and now sits at 4-1 with a 1.41 ERA And I don�t want to say that they�ve got an edge in the pen or anything, but while the Braves� staff as a whole has given up 64 fewer runs this season than that of the Mets, the gap in the bullpen is responsible for ... ALL OF IT !! From the 7th inning on, the Braves have given up a total of 114 allowed, NYM pitchers have allowed 179 (there's your 64 run difference right there plus one) . Another way of looking at that difference is just over 25% of all runs allowed in the 7th inning or later vs 35% Closer Craig Kimbrel�s numbers alone are sick and getting sicker to the point where I don�t even know which one to highlight: 43 IPs, 75 Ks, 11 BBs, 17 Hits, 6 ER Leading up to him they�ll have the usual anti-NYM arsenal of three LHPs to fill in the gaps: Johnny Venters, Eric O�Flaherty, and rookie Luis Avilan From the right side they�ll go with the likes of veteran Chad Durbin or scrubs like Cory Gearrin, or Christhian (no, I didn�t mis-spell that) Martinez who I�m sure will throw up a bunch of 1-2-3 innings The lineup features the (mostly) usual suspects: C - Brian McCann After a slow start, his offense has picked up as the year has gone on. Now slashing at .241/.316/.447 w/18 HRs 1B - Freddie Freeman Also having a better 2nd half than 1st -- .279/.349/.461 w/13 HRs 2B - Dan Uggla The Sultan of Streakiness still reigns, a decent 1st half gave way to a .160 BA in June and .115 (9 for 78) in July!! -- but better so far in August and still gets walks even when not hitting. He had 22 hits in June & July combined but 61 walks. I didn't think that was possible. Hell, at that rate you'd think it would be smart to pitch to him every time but might that strategy could backfire big time. SS - Paul Janish An emergency trade from the Reds just as we were playing them last and their other short-stops were falling down by the minute. Never much of a bat (including now - 16/81 w/4 2Bs w/Atlanta) but an excellent glove 3B - Chipper Jones with the occasional dose of Juan Francisco Older, slower, and takes more time off ... but still dangerous -- .316/.395/.508 RF - Jason Heyward Bouncing back from his sophomore slump season in 2011 - is on pace for 60+ XBHs over a full season CF - Michael Bourne - Slowed down a bit from his hot 1st half, although still a good season overall [.289/.347/.424]. LF - Martin Prado most often [.296/.358/.415], but maybe lefty-swinging Cro-Magnon Eric Hinske vs our RHPs Injuries: Brandon Beachy - out for season Matt Diaz - thumb injury, will miss series Tommy Hanson - back strain, will miss series Jair Jurrgens - groin, will miss series Andrelton Simmons - pinky, will miss series Jack Wilson - pinky, could be back for this series

The PCL certain is a more hitting-friendly/pitching-tough league than the IL so everyone has to keep that in mind when evaluating those on both sides of the ball. However that generalization doesn't apply evenly to every stadium. New Orleans was actually more pitcher friendly than not. Not sure about OKC

HahnSolo wrote: I don't know the answer to this, but can a AA city "move up" to AAA? Why does it simply have to be an existing AAA city? It can and does happen (although not often) because, as GWreck says, only a certain number of cities (ownerships really) have a contract with the Int'l League and the PCL. So something like Binghamton simply 'moving up' to become a AAA city (I'm assuming you're thinking something along these lines) could only come about if the IL were to opt for Binghamton instead of one of their existing cities/groups. Round Rock, Texas (essentially Austin) was the last city I remember doing that. Nolan Ryan owned the AA Round Rock team and wanted to put a new AA team in Corpus Christi -- except that rules prevent one ownership from controlling two teams in the same league. So he solved that by buying the AAA team that was located in Edmonton, Alberta and worked out an arrangement to transfer them to Round Rock (probably wasn't too hard to convince the PCL of the benefits of that move). At the same time he transfered the AA team from RR, Tex to CC, Tex and, presto, he had one team at each level. Then there's also the problem of meeting the requirements for each level of play. Binghamton might not have the minimum size of either its market or stadium to qualify for the Int'l Lg. Brooklyn would have the city size but not the stadium size and then there's the whole problem with the Yanx having territorial rights (just because they agreed to a single-A team doesn't mean they'd agreed to let a AAA team in "their" city). The Round Rock/Austin area had grown enough in recent years to where it became AAA sized but Ryan still had to expand the existing stadium to get it up to AAA standards as well as arrange for a new one to be built in Corpus Christi in order to make all the above moves work.

Mets � Willets Point wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: comparisons to a certain Alex Rodriguez. Does he have a portrait of himself as a centaur? Not sure. The comparisons I've heard have all involved size, position, heritage, and location. No one that I've read has said anything about them also having rampant narcissism in common.

Or, the Marlins could simply not start Stanton at all and make it easier all around (until he comes off the bench later on with the game on the line). In the meantime, Thole singles in Davis and the Mets have a real live lead.

You Orioles backers get a boost (or maybe not) by the big club announcing the promotion of Manny Machado today. Machado, who just turned 20 y/o a month ago, was the 3rd pick of the 2010 draft out of HS where his size (6' 3"), position (SS), Spanish name, and Miami upbringing drew comparisons to a certain Alex Rodriguez. The timing seems a bit odd in that, while doing quite well for his age, he hasn't dominated at his current level in AA Bowie (.266/352/.438) You assume they didn't bring him up just to have him sit around so I guess that means the bench for the low-OBA but decent power JJ Hardy who's been the more or less regular SS most of the year. Definitely a 'Go-For-It' move and hope he sparks the club over the final 50 games while the Yanx are in their current state of just waddling along. oe: apparently Machado to play 3B for now, at least on a platoon basis with Wilson Betamit.

Billy Hamilton update: 3 more thefts last night to bring his season total to 131, he's been caught 27 times (83% success rate) Now at AA Pensacola in the Southern League after spending most of the year in High-A Bakersfield (Cal Lg), Hamilton has a potential 24 games remaining and at his current pace would finish with 157 steals The minor league record is 145 (caught 31 times) by one Vince Coleman (you may have heard of him) in 1983 for Macon (Low-A So Atlantic Lg), the same year Donnell Nixon swiped 144 (caught 24) in Bakersfield (High-A California League) Because the minor league system is less extensive than it was in years gone by very few all-time records have much of a chance to get broken these days, meaning we're not likely to see a season with 72 HRs or 254 RBIs (1954 & 1948 - both in 'Class C' ball( anytime soon. As it is, Coleman's SB mark and Gary Redus hitting .465 for Billings in 1978 are said to be the only significant single-season minor league records under a half-century old.

Getting him out would be a better idea, as would not walking guys in front of him.

* That above 'Keystone Kops/bunt play' was from the first Astros-Nats game this week (Monday night). What made it worse was that that play was in the 11th inning and that Houston left the tying run on 2nd in the bottom half to lose 4-3 * Then on Tuesday they lost by giving up a run in the top of the 12th inning (a legit one this time) and then proceeded to get the tying and winning runs on in their half before losing on this play. 3-2 was the final PhhIUGxEYh8 * Last night they lost again by one run (4-3) although in regulation this time, giving up runs on: - a balk - a 2R/2-out HR to the opposing pitcher, Gio 'I've been in the American League my whole career before this season' Gonzalez. - a 2-out 7th inning error They then scored one of their own in the 9th to close the gap to one but stranded runners on 2nd & 3rd to end the game. I don't know if they should be praised for hanging tough against the best team in the NL right now or mocked for how they're losing them. Either way, as a reward, they get a 4th game against Washington tonight. Wonder how they'll screw this one up.

I've heard that even mad dogs and Englishmen are refusing to go to this game even though it'll be in the noon day sun. J. Johnson vs RA Dickey

RRamirez - 0.8 Wright - 0.6 Valdespin - 0.6 Hefner - 0.5 Tejada - 0.5

It wasn't a pretty debut, but Garrett Olson became the 936th NYM on 8/8/12, facing 5 batters and actually retiring one of them. I suppose there's some relief to the 'kid' (now 28 y/o) that it wasn't his ML virgin effort.

That's 4 losses in the last 5, and to two of the worst teams in the NL

Hey, a lead-off double! We're already on our way to stranding two runners this inning too!!

Youse guys pretty much summed it up already. A well done movie but ultimately not all that interesting and certainly not destined to be looked back on as one of those memorable Oscar winners in years to come.

metirish wrote: I'd like to pick the A's too but I thought the criteria was one per division when it's not the NL East.....bit confusing to me anyways.... Right, one team from each of the other five divisions. You could pick the A's but would have to do so instead of your earlier pick of Texas The only division you failed to pick before was AL East

Niese - 1.8 Murphy - 2.0 Parnell - 0.3 Acosta - 0.3 Rauch - 0.3 Torres - 1.0 Bay - 0.4 Davis - 0.4

Rays - because I don't believe in the Orioles and the Boston Valentines are too far out and too injured. Plus they just got Longoria back for the first time since May ChiSox - for Robin and just to be anti-Tiger (although there's always the temptation to root for the best anti-MFY medicine and that might be the Detroit Verlanders) A's - I don't believe it (they just don't hit enough) although it would be fun Pirates - just a race between them and Cincy would be fun, and I'd pull for an Astros comeback before picking the Cardinals Giants - more anti-LAD and Snakes than anything specific, plus seeing all that pitching in the post-season would be fun

Reese Havens falling off the map. How about Domingo Tapia? Low A is low A. But no homers in 86 innings is... no homers. Reese just couldnt stay healthy..Not even a prospect anymore at 27... Havens is 25 And remember that this is merely a progress report on Sickels' pre-season list (compiled last December to be specific) not necessarily how he would rank them today. At that time, Havens was on what seemed like a semi-permanent shelf with less than 400 ABs over the previous two seasons. So, yeah, that's going to knock you down a few pegs, although he's still listed 9th there with a (much better than average from Sickels) 'B-' grade. Tapia, with barely 100 IPs combined in DSL and rookie leagues prior to this year, was barely even on anyone's radar 9 months ago.