Frayed Knot

Braves finally lose 3-2 (in barely under four hours - their announcers didn't seem to know what to make of games like that). Yanx were out-hit (as they frequently are during their wins) but Atlanta left like 13 runners on. So we gained on both Miami & Atlanta and stayed even with the Nats all for the second night in a row. Philly still battling in Mini-soda (maybe that's where Bloomberg should be Mayor) leading 9-8 in the 9th.

Earlier in the season when his BA was higher and he was ringing 2Bs all over the park the HR outage seemed more like a statistical quirk. More recently though (like for the last month or more) his swing seems designed more to NOT strike-out than anything resembling an attempt to drive the ball. Even his slicing double tonight was a middle-in pitch where a more aggressive approach and swing pulls it with authority. Now maybe he didn't see that particular pitch well and in fact did well to just fight it off the other way with good results, but it seems that stuff like that has been happening too often lately to the point where it's got to be intentional to a degree.

If I were the Nats I'd move Strasberg to a once a week schedule or something like that to keep him from reaching their self-imposed innings limit. Makes more sense to me than simply ending his season in late August or whenever. Meanwhile, that team just can't do anything wrong lately. Adam LaRoche has been super-hot after missing the entire season in 2011, but was hurt today so he was replaced with rookie Tyler Moore -- who promptly hit two HRs (the first two of his career). In short, their pitching has NOT cooled down, their bats are heating up, Morse is back, Lidge is now back, and Storen should be back soon.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Fucking interleague play -- I'm rooting for the fucking Yankees tonight. I'm torn. I know it's best for us the the Skanks win but I just can't bring myself to do it. Braves have left all kinds of runners on all night and the Yanx are leading on, what else, a 2R HR. Which reminds me, even before ARod hit his Grand Slam last night, the Yanx had the lowest BA in MLB with bases-loaded yet at the same time led everyone in grand slams. It's like every meaningful hit they get goes over the fence - and most of those are preceded by walks and/or squibs.

Kong76 wrote: John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Um, this is a better game than Johan pitched by a long shot. Yes Double yup. These Rays batters are both clueless and helpless.

I've only been to Omaha once and it wasn't during CWS time (and it was really only to the airport before a quick trip across the river to my actual destination of Council Bluffs, Iowa). But, from what I've heard/read, the folks out there have a good time with it. Baseball's not exactly a foreign sport as they do have AAA ball (the Royals top farm team) but I think it's different when a national event comes to a small-ish town like that on an annual basis. The locals tend to embrace it and the travelers are reasonable enough in number that they don't overwhelm the area like they would for a BIG event like a Final Four and Bowl game or something. So things become a nice mix of rabid rooters and others just there to enjoy the tourney and something like folks choosing to 'adopt' a school like Stony Brook fits right in with the whole attitude.

I'm getting so used to Dickey dominating like this that, at times, I forget to be stunned at how easy he's making this look and how ridiculous it is for a 37 y/o to be doing this for essentially the first time in his career.

Nymr83 wrote: ... will we Like Ike again? Gonna party like it's nineteen fifty-six

That's seven of the last nine Mets with hits as Rottino plates one.

BAY-bee !!!

Speaking of shifts, it's funny watching a guy like Pena strike-out (as he has twice tonight so far) from the CF camera angle and then see Nickeas throw the ball practically past Dickey's right shoulder because that's where Wright is positioned.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: themetfairy wrote: TransMonk wrote: Another defensive misplay by Wright. Ruled an infield hit, but looked like a bad decision to barehand to me. Keith agreed that there was no reason for him to barehand the ball. Not so sure I agree with Keith there. I doubt he gets him if he gloves it. Interesting also that they called it a hit, because if they didn't ... Whoa. I was wondering where that 1 in the H column came from. There's no way that shouldn't have been an error. I thought it was a hit.

The Price is wrong

themetfairy wrote: TransMonk wrote: Another defensive misplay by Wright. Ruled an infield hit, but looked like a bad decision to barehand to me. Keith agreed that there was no reason for him to barehand the ball. Not so sure I agree with Keith there. I doubt he gets him if he gloves it. Interesting also that they called it a hit, because if they didn't ...

Nymr83 wrote: Wright must have had a terrible jump, they rarely throw for the trail runner on a double-steal. He did. Almost looked like he wasn't quite ready for it. Was also a perfect throw.

He had Rauch up in the 6th yesterday, so there's that. The major problem with most managers who break up the role system is that they tend to do so only to say; "OK, from now on, YOU are the 8th inning guy instead of the guy I just took out of there" ... and so nothing really changes.

Ceetar wrote: also, on the Russo thing, the 1950s sports fan was a much different beast. They watched games differently, just culturally. Even just wearing mets stuff to games for instance. It seems to me that fans in those days were a little more formal in their watching of sports. Whereas nowadays its a more casual atmosphere. Well now you're into a whole separate topic. Yes, we as a nation dressed a lot more formally in the 1950s - hell, my grandfather worked in his garden in better clothes than I've occasionally worn to the office. The reason team-related sports gear wasn't worn to parks wasn't just because it was considered too casual but because it never really occurred to teams to sell it, and those that did consider the concept tended to reject it. They treated it as an elitist thing; the idea of some kid walking around on the streets in a Yankee cap was abhorrent to the team because they thought it reduced the 'specialness' for the handful who actually earned the right to wear one. But what Russo was talking about was not the game itself but how it was presented. That it had no screaming announcers, no piped-in music, no splashy graphics, and no miked-up crowd noise signaled to him that this somehow wasn't an important game even though he obviously knew it was.

Some I'm sure wouldn't miss it. I just tend to think that teams are so afraid of adverse reactions from those who would that no one wants to be the one to go out on a limb and try it.

Ceetar wrote: Have we been conditioned to expect that or have stadiums/arenas been conditioned to think that we expect/want that and we don't actually care? I believe there is a portion of the public who have never experienced a game without the noise and one would suddenly feel the game was lacking something if it weren't there. I remember Russo one time talking about a 1950s era World Series Game that was being shown back when 'Classic Sports' channels were brand new. His comment to Francesa was that, while he enjoyed the action, it "just didn't feel like a big game" to him. Mikey, there was no buzz, no energy' What he was saying in effect, even if he didn't realize it, was that the re-broadcast lacked all the bells and whistles --Graphics, sound effects, replay, slo-mo, loud announcers trying to "define the moment"-- he had come to expect from modern network TV. And while you could certainly say that 'well, that's just Russo' I don't know that anyone represents the modern sports fan better.

Edgy DC wrote: Just the idea that a team would consider a variety of viable ways to present a ballgame, and varying among them, is pretty great. Yes. Part of the problem in the way games are presented (again, at large, not specifically to the Mets) is that organizations are too afraid to stray from 'established' formulas for fear of maybe falling on their faces. I always found it amazing that hockey arenas, for instance, refuse to allow silence for the 13 seconds it takes them to line up for a face-off.

The Mets are considering adding a designated "quiet" seating section with lower volume PA Announcements and no music or cheerleading. The seating section would be located in the Left Field Landing. OK, so am I the only one here confused as to how you can designate one section for "lower PA volume"? The stuff they pump through the speakers of that stadium can be heard in Astoria. How do you block it out of one area? The "throwback" idea is great. The only problem they may run into is that so many people (in virtually all sports and all stadiums) have been conditioned to expect and accept ear-splitting volume and every interlude of more that six seconds to be filled with some sort of "entertainment" that you run the risk of having at least a portion of the audience interpret those interludes as translating into a game that's 'flat' or 'dull'.

Ceetar wrote: positionally, are 3-4(6)-3 DPs significantly more common than 5-4-3? No, but, assuming the stat you're reading denotes DPs that said player is involved in, the 1st baseman gets "credit" for being in on most of the DPs his team turns whereas the guy on the other side of the diamond only gets in on it for those around the horn jobs (that sounds dirty) plus the odd line-drive DP.

Phils now losers of nine of their last ten, have fallen to five games below .500, and currently sit 9-1/2 games out of 1st in the East (losing 7.0 off the pace to Washington just over the last 10 days). On the bright side for them, Chase Utley played in a Class A rehab game last night.

Krane has 31% more triples than Wright in 25% more ABs A bit surprising at first considering better speed and Citi being a better triples park than Shea -- but then you have to figure that more HRs means fewer balls in play which means fewer opportunity for triples. The DP disparity is, of course, easily understood.

Young - 2.8 Nieuwenhuis - 1.8 Valdespin - 2.2 Davis - 1.8 Duda - 0.4 Quintanilla - 0.6 Murphy - 0.4