Frayed Knot

Bonafacio to the DL with a sprained thumb. Rumor has it he hurt it hitting all those triples against us.

OK, I have no idea if Baxter is for real or just a flash in the pan but, until he falls off the cliff, you've got to ride this horse until he drops. Dude is just all over every pitch he cuts at.

Y'know what's really stoopid about inter-league games? ... Game announcers citing IL stats for players as if there's some sort of cause-and-effect to it all.

More adventures in closer-land: Dusty brings Aroldis Chapman in for the 8th inning up by 3 runs at YSIII and he promptly retires the side K, K, Pop-out (Granderson, Cano, ARod) ... so of course this means he can't possibly pitch the 9th. Two pitchers, one replaced closer, four hits, two runs, and two LOBs at 2nd & 3rd later the Reds escape with a 1-run win.

Early Mel - before he became a **MOVIE STAR!!** and prior still to turning into an idiot - made some pretty good flicks. This one and Gallipoli from a year earlier are long-time faves.

" ... sounds like maybe a bad call got us on the Baxter play (I didn't watch and don't wanna see)" The tag was within a foot or so of his shoulder; maybe even as close at 8 to 10 inches. Ump was on the blocked side. I thought Baxter was going to pull a Lawrie with his helmet. "but isn't kind of hugely important that he finishes that play safely* somewhere?" Yeah, but so was getting to 2nd, that being the tying run and all. That play was almost identical to our only other hard-hit ball of the day, Duda's from several innings earlier. In both cases a liner down the RF line caromed off the jutting stands and towards RFer Bautista. Duda wasn't safe by much and the bounce on Baxter's was even more favorable for the Jays. Bautista got to it quickly and didn't have a very long throw. To Baxter's credit he was busting it all the way and was still safe. The end result was turning a 2nd & 3rd/1-out situation into a man-on-3rd/2-outs. Murph then smoked a liner right at the SS for the final out. So what's the plan? We kinda need tomorrow's game. Try to bunt our way on? What? You can pretty much chalk today's N'offense up to Morrow. Helped by a slightly generous zone, he was very tough all day and was economical to boot.

And by doing so helps you fill in the holes of your '80s film knowledge outside of the John Hughes/Molly Ringwald catalog.

2nd base ump screws us out of the one tiny chance we did have all afternoon. Obviously we're a bad Canada/astro-turf team.

Does anybody on this fucking team ever get old? - Jeter, 38 in a few weeks, is having his best season in about a decade while leading the ML in hits - Rivera is already 42 fer chrissakes and, in a position where no one dominates for more than a few seasons, was, prior to fucking up his knee, maintaining sub-1.00 WHiP and sub-2.00 ERAs throughout his late 30s and into his 40s - Raul Freakin' Ibanez turns 40 next week and, after signing for dirt cheap, is on pace for 30+ HRs (after hitting 36 over the last TWO seasons combined), has had half of his hits go for extra-bases, and is averaging nearly an RBI per hit - and now Pettitte, 40 next month, tosses a 4-hit (8 inning) shutout w/9 Ks in his 2nd start in 18 months.

The generic 'Win Pct' figures from this game - after 1 inning (3-0 Jays) NYM win chances = 22% - after 2 innings (5-1) = 14% - after 3 innings (8-1) = 3% - after 4 innings (8-1) = 2% - by the time Rajai Davis hit the 1st of his 2 HRs* in the game with two outs in the 5th the chances had decreased to essentially 0%, a spot they'd stay at for the remainder of the game not even ticking up on account of our 4-run "outburst" in the 8th seeing as how of the decreased number of outs remaining was enough to cancel out the only slightly reduced deficit. * also the first 2 of his whole season and just the 14th & 15th in the 7-year/1,700 AB ML career for the #9 hitting 31 y/o

Murphy - 0.6 Hairston - 2.3 Wright - 0.6 Johnson - 1.1 Carson - 0.4 Torres - 1.0

Are you re-visiting a bunch of movies you just haven't seen in a while or is this some kind of attempt to catch up on the '80s flicks you missed the first time around? I really liked this one.

Orioles tried to give it away but couldn't - so at least someone from the division besides us lost. Meanwhile, 86 y/o Andy Pettitte tossed an 8-inning shutout on 4 hits w/9 Ks - and Niese can't get out of the 1st unscathed.

Since this mess occurred in Canada, what does Niese's ERA tonight translate to in metric?

Markakis HRs in the top of the 11th - now 2-to-1 O's Something named Strop in to attempt the close-out for Bal'mer ... and he promptly hits the first batter. Marlins, Braves, & Phils all won

Funk that, give him Niese's next start.

Hey lucky us ... the only NL teams to be leading today are Miami, Philly, and Atlanta. All others have lost, are losing (most of them big), or are tied (O's/Nats = 1-1 in extras)

Dekker makes this week 'Hot Sheet' in BA for his 10-25 w/2 HRs & 5 2Bs week: Den Dekker's hot week at the plate extended his hitting streak to 11 games and bumped his batting average up to .305 for the season. The Mets' 2010 fifth-round draft pick had a three-hit game yesterday and a ninth-inning leadoff double on Wednesday that set the stage for a Binghamton walkoff victory. He hit just .235 in 72 games with Binghamton last season, but this year he leads the B-Mets in almost every offensive category and sits atop the Eastern League in total bases. The center fielder out of Florida still has a high strikeout rate, but his improving average and power numbers show signs of promise. Then, during a Q&A about Dekker's future BA writes: Fourth OF is probably the safe bet, but with the numbers he's putting up in Double-A (.305/.363/.543 so far), we'll have to reconsider that projection if he sustains it. He has the range to be big league center fielder, how much he'll hit has been the question.

Cubs still batting in the 8th down by one - although Wood can't get the win because he didn't finish the inning.

True, but for the most part Castillo needed to be passive. I mean, what's the result going to be if he ambushes a pitcher -- a slightly longer single? It would be a different story if Murph or Duda or Ike could sit on a particular pitch and whack it if they got it, particularly with men on. Keith makes this point a lot too when someone looks at a fastball down the middle in a favorable count; 'hey, anticipating pitches like that in order to jump on one is what you worked the count in your favor for!'

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Here�s Ricky Romero�s girlfriend, a former Miss USA and wannabe pro wrestler Rima Fakih. Born in Lebanon, Rima was raised in Jackson Heights and I�d be if we took her top off we�d find the beating heart of a MLBS. And if we didn't find it, well then we'd still get to have a gander at her with her top off. Morrow is a type-1 diabetic. He once threw a 1-hitter with 17 strikeouts. His fastball has been clocked at 100 mph. He�s second in the AL with a 2.22 ERA. He is� the most interesting pitcher in Toronto. Morrow is the guy the Mariners drafted while passing on local product Tim Lincecum. That he didn't get off to the same ridiculous start probably sealed his fate at ever making it while in the Pacific north-west. Brett Lawrie is the reg�lar third baseman but will miss the entire series as a result of a suspension for throwing his helmet at Bill Miller. Which is nice because Lawrie is 5th in the AL in WAR and been the Jays� best hitter this year. Lawrie is considered a great prospect but also has an attitude and tons of douchy-looking tattoos so his suspension should be at least twice as long just on that basis alone. 45-year-old Omar Vizquel also fills in in the infield. Can you believe that? The Jays actually had Vizquel manning 3B last night where he robbed Cano of probably a double.

Whoa, didn't see that coming (although perhaps I should have). Cetainly had a nice career which shouldn't be overlooked for never matching the expectations of that 20K game, a game that was his 5th start in the majors.

Vic Sage wrote: i'm sick of Ojeda and Darling, and many others in the media, bashing the team's selectivity as being "passive", calling for a more aggressive approach. Except that there's also such a thing as being too passive even as one is working the count. As long as the hitter has the discipline to limit himself to a particular pitch in a favorable count, plate discipline doesn't always mean seeing as many pitches as possible, sometimes it means jumping on a 2-0 or 3-0 pitch and smacking the snot out of it. Now it's true that a non-power hitting team has less up-side in that approach. But going nearly two months while never once swinging at a 3-0 pitch suggests maybe too much the other way. IOW, maybe the lack of power from the likes of Duda or Murphy (Ike's too screwed up at the moment to use his data for anything) is a result of working themselves into counts where they have to swing at anything close and no longer have the ability to zone in on something. High rates of two-out singles w/men on base is driving much of our run scoring these days and it's tough to count on that continuing as time goes on.

That Brewer logo was the one where both Gary & Keith admitted a few days ago that it took them years to figure out that there was an 'M' and a 'B' in the design for Milwaukee and Brewers The Expos logo always looked like it said ELB to me.

Once they start going to year-round IL next year rather than just in pockets like now it'll be interesting to see how often teams that are scheduled to play an IL team in a 2-team city get scheduled back-to-back with those teams. So if the Mets travel to the ChiSox have them stick around for a Cubs series too. Ditto LA/LA, SF/Oak, etc. Seems to me that the players would tend to like and endorse that set-up - especially seeing as how it would only occur in the bigger cities - but yaneverknow.