Frayed Knot

OK Terry, so Parnell got the first three of those nine outs with minimal fuss and muss. So how 'bout leaving him in to pitch the 8th too rather than taking a chance with an unknown? (assuming he isn't PH'd for)

The scariest seven words in the Met fans' vocabulary: We need nine outs from our bullpen

Not exactly smacking this chump around here, are we? Especially considering his BAA vs LHBs is about .900 I do believe instead that we are going for the single-game ground-out record.

Does the fact that he's currently on the DL mean that he and his team get some "free" suspension time since he'd be unable to play anyway or does his sentence not begin yet?

Consecutive One-hitters = Johnny Vander Near

David Wright and the eight lefty swinging dwarfs.

Cardinals lose Pujols (and Berkman for that matter!) and are 5th. Angels gain Pujols and sit in the 14th spot. Yaneverknow!

TransMonk wrote: Ceetar wrote: I'm okay with it via skipping Chris Young... Or Gee...until Young shits the bed, I have the least amount of cahnfidence in Gee's starts (although, I'm still optimistic with Gee). But, I'm in agreement...after the All-Star break, Dickey should be pitching every 5th day. Whether we're skipping Johan, Young or Gee should really depend on the standings and how each individual pitcher feels and performs. I suppose a lot of this depends on whether they think a guy like Young needs more work due to his lengthy lay-off or would better off with less due to the problems that caused it. With Gee a case could certainly be made that he faded last season at least partially on account of hitting innings totals not previously reached. Throwing in a five-day break here and there might help that.

The story on Dickey transforming into a knuckleballer - and it's consistent in both RA's book and in recent Showalter articles - is that Buck and then pitching coach Orel Hershiser agreed that Dickey was one of the few they thought to be competitive enough and willing enough to put in the work to make a go of it, the implication being that most pitchers wouldn't or couldn't and, with a lot of failure and frustration sure to follow, that only with a select few would it be worth the effort. I think just about every big league pitcher (and probably half the position players as well) can throw a knuckler, but that's a long way from being able to pitch with one.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: So far in June, Ike is hitting .280 and slugging .460. And OBA-ing at .429 - meaning, of course, that he's taking his walks too. That makes his 'Walk Rate' (OBA - BA) this season on a per/month basis at: April - .056 May - .060 June - .149 And while there's always a lot of S^3 (small sample size) involved in any month-long stats, that he went from slightly below norm (current NL avg at .066) over the first two months to well above so far in June is a good sign also. IsoP (Isolated Power) stats increasing over time too although less dramatically. April - .124 May - .128 June - .160 .146 is current NL avg He's now also matched his HR total from last year ... unfortunately, he achieved that by May 10 last season.

[table:3up2u59i][tr:3up2u59i][td:3up2u59i]Year[/td:3up2u59i][td:3up2u59i]Strike%[/td:3up2u59i][td:3up2u59i]Contact%[/td:3up2u59i][td:3up2u59i]GB%[/td:3up2u59i][/tr:3up2u59i][tr:3up2u59i][td:3up2u59i]2008[/td:3up2u59i][td:3up2u59i]57%[/td:3up2u59i][td:3up2u59i]82%[/td:3up2u59i][td:3up2u59i]47%[/td:3up2u59i][/tr:3up2u59i][tr:3up2u59i][td:3up2u59i]2009[/td:3up2u59i][td:3up2u59i]57%[/td:3up2u59i][td:3up2u59i]80%[/td:3up2u59i][td:3up2u59i]49%[/td:3up2u59i][/tr:3up2u59i][tr:3up2u59i][td:3up2u59i]2010[/td:3up2u59i][td:3up2u59i]65%[/td:3up2u59i][td:3up2u59i]79%[/td:3up2u59i][td:3up2u59i]55%[/td:3up2u59i][/tr:3up2u59i][tr:3up2u59i][td:3up2u59i]2011[/td:3up2u59i][td:3up2u59i]66%[/td:3up2u59i][td:3up2u59i]80%[/td:3up2u59i][td:3up2u59i]53%[/td:3up2u59i][/tr:3up2u59i][tr:3up2u59i][td:3up2u59i]2012[/td:3up2u59i][td:3up2u59i]69%[/td:3up2u59i][td:3up2u59i]71%[/td:3up2u59i][td:3up2u59i]54%[/td:3up2u59i][/tr:3up2u59i][/table:3up2u59i]

In addition to now leading the league among qualifying pitchers in ERA, Winning Pct, CGs, Shutouts (tied), Quality Start Pct (13 of 14), Strike-outs and WHiP, last night's win also makes RA 52-51 for his career and puts him above .500 for the first time since May of '04 when he was 13-12 Even winning his first six decisions as a Met in 2010 only got him back to .500 but never above. He's 30-23 as a Met. Lowest avg pitches/inning as well at 13.9

The other unexpected team marches on as Kent State eliminated top-seeded Florida. They now go on to face reigning champ South Carolina

What, you don't think 'Winner' is part of BB-Ref's sabermetric calculations? Then explain why Derek Jeter's 'Most Similar' is Meadowlark Lemon!

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I'm afraid that I'm drawing a blank on Francisco Liriano. Was he, is he, any good? Briefly

G-Fafif wrote: If everybody stays in place, R.A. figures to have three starts before the ASG: Sunday night vs MFYs, Friday 7/29 at LA and Thursday July 5 home to Philly. July 10 is the All-Star Game. - So, at least pre-ASG, moving him up a day or so is NOT going to but him an extra start so it makes sense to stick with a strict rotation for now and not change things around after Thursday's off day. - Re-ordering things after the break is a possibility but the break itself buys everyone a few extra days anyway so I'm not sure you want to give the rest of the staff even more. - Down the road if/when pennant/WC implications are involved it's worth considering.

Guys get above-slot money for one of two reasons: 1) they're perceived to have more talent - or potential talent - than their slot would indicate yet were still available later in the draft 2) they have alternate plans to fall back on like a college scholarship and/or another sport (an invitation to the NASA rocket science program is also possible but less common) which simply gives them the leverage to ignore the club's offer and demand more cash And frequently the answer is some combination of the two as the reason for condition #1 is usually found in #2 The one trend draft watchers noticed in this first year of the new rules was an increase in middle-round college seniors drafted as they generally have zero leverage and therefore can be snagged extra-cheap. A handful of those helps to off-set the occasional above-slot guy.

Edgy DC wrote: Baseball-Reference really likes Willie too. Probably turned a helluva lot of DPs. Well, that and the fact that he was a winner all his life.

I think it was Duda who actually cut it off. I was thinking as it was developing that for Reyes or another similar runner that's maybe a double even though it never got near the wall.

Tuesday's NY Daily News Headline: SABATHIA TOSSES COMPLETE GAME 7-HITTER

Dickey 5.7 Davis - 3.2 Valdespin - 0.8 Wright - 0.3

Only the Braves playing tonight in the NL East and they're in the process of losing in the Bronx. So we'll gain a half-game on everyone and once again leap-frog the Braves from 1/2 game back to 1/2 ahead. I'd sprain my brain if I had to figure out the WC possibilities. I'll start paying closer attention to that stuff after the AS break.

Other 'Thoughts on the Game' - Prior to the no-hitter being broken up, none of the NYM outfielders had touched the ball defensively, nor had Wright. All the outs to that point where either Ks involving just Dickey & Thole, plus a bunch grounders to Quintanilla to Ike and one from Valdespin to Ike. The rest of those dudes could have taken the first half of the game off. - Dickey getting back to 3B on Wright's liner kept the inning alive long enough for Ike. Should have frozen instantly of course and not made it nearly as close, but it's not like he spends a lot of time on the bases for practice. - And speaking of Ike, a couple of nice things tonight. You start with the Grand Slam obviously. But what I really liked about it was that may have been the first HR from him this season that reminds me of the ones he hit during his first year+ here: the kind where it doesn't look like he got it all until it finally comes down 400 feet later. His HRs this season have mostly been pulled balls where you knew they were instantly gone. Nothing wrong with those really, except that they're more likely to be the the result of simply guessing correctly and getting the cripple pitch. They still count but they don't give you the idea that he's seeing the ball or thinking through things really well. And then there was the line-out to LF in his previous AB. Haven't seen him hit many hard to the opposite field this year. As long as we can ignore the strike-out where he went fishing for the plate-high curve I'm almost tempted to say that he's on the way back.

Edgy DC wrote: TransMonk wrote: Sign RA Now So what you guys are saying is that we should ... wait for it ... Sew him up!

A Really Afficient 2 hours 7 minute game on your clock. Or, if you're like me and were busy for the first 45 minutes so were watching via DVR until you caught up, that game took just slightly over an hour and a half.