Frayed Knot

Even our (lack of) base-running can't stop the run onslaught.

Those stats are from less than 40 ABs last year. He's in extended instructional league right now which is nothing unusual for a kid in his first year drafted out of HS and not signed until the deadline. Expect to see him start in one of the short-season leagues come mid-June, probably Brooklyn - something which should be a nice culture shock for a Wyoming kid.

Hey, you never want to miss a chance to slide in a Warren Zevon reference. A catching prospect might exist right around the time that the 1st round supp pick comes up from, of all places, the Univ of Buffalo. In fact, a mock draft on John Sickels site sent the U of B's Tom Martin right to the Mets with the 35th overall pick. -- The Mets could use a catching prospect, and there's an intriguing home-state talent available here with University of Buffalo backstop Tom Murphy. He has considerable power, a good measure of athleticism, and has made progress with his defense this year. Draft starts on June 4th - three weeks from Monday.

John Sickels takes note of Harvey in today's notes: On the season, he is 3-1, 4.00 ERA with a 32/16 K/BB in 36 innings with 36 hits and a 1.15 GO/AO. Harvey has been inconsistent from start to start, mixing strong outings (such as seven shutout innings on April 25th and a 10-strikeout game on April 20th) with weaker games where his command wobbled. He's holding his own overall, working to refine his command and improve the changeup to complement his low-to-mid-90s fastball, slider, and curve. Harvey needs more time, and I don't think he is a candidate for rapid promotion barring disasters on the major league staff.

Former MFY OFer (and out-spoken Christian IIRC) Chad Curtis was in the news recently over some accusations involving youth players. The charges over that one sounded a bit more iffy although he dissed Jeter once so the odds of him ever getting an OTD invite were already in the toilet.

Ceetar wrote: Can we race the Texas Rangers? they're at 941. Not sure that's a race we want to "win".

I forgot to note that the Mets notched an actual 3R HR two games back - marking only the 2nd HR worth more than two runs this season (as opposed to the seven they've given up) This (when coupled with Pence's 2R HR last night) brings the Season HR gap to 30-19 and the Runs scored off HRs to 54-27 and going back twelve games it's 16-6 and 35-9 Wow, much better!

And remember, a sweep is as lucky as lucky can be. Already taken 4 of 5 from the Phils so far this season as we head into the always popular Lee vs Gee game. Not expected to be in attendance today however are singers Cee-Lo Green, Fee Waybill, or Bobby Vee. Other no-shows for the game will be actress Ruby Dee, former South Korean President Syngman Rhee (he's dead although I don't see how that's an excuse), one-time quarterback Tee Matin, Yi Jianlian from the NJ Nets, or, for that matter, me. Cliff Lee is coming off the DL and is reported to be limited to around 80 pitches tonight. Prior to his DL stint he had started three games including an April 13th start where he surrendered 4 runs on 5 hits over 7 innings including HRs to Jason Bay (3R) and Scott Hairston in what was eventually a 5-2 NYM win. Surrounding that game he pitched to two no-decisions, both in games the Phils eventually lost: - April 7 -- 1 run over 6 IPs to Pirates in game 2 of the season - April 18 -- a 7-hit, 10-inning shut-out of SF that the Giants won in the 11th. That was the game where he hooked up with Cain who tossed a 9-inning 2-hitter. That was the last game Lee pitched prior to tonight.

Didn't know he had that many pinkies. Most folks just have two. He really is special!

Batista - 1.0 Acosta - 0.5 Ramirez - 0.5 Byrdak - 0.3 Rauch - 0.3 Nieuwenhuis - 1.8 Wright - 1.7 Duda - 1.6 Murphy - 0.7 Valdespin - 0.3 Baxter - 0.3 Torres - 1.0

As per Sandy, Thole will be out more than 7 days-- he's supposed to be completely idle at least that long. And as per Gary last night, the special concussion DL needs to be renewed in 7-day chunks. IOW, no simply deciding that the guy needs more time and keeping him DL'd on an open-ended time frame or through minor league rehab games. Of course they can always swap Johnson out for someone else at any time, but at the end of 7 days Thole needs to: 1) be activated; or 2) be re-7-day DL'd (not sure how many times you can do that) or 3) be transferred to a different DL list (regular 15 or 60 day)

btw, the number of Hamilton's HRs that went over the short porch in RF at Camden Yards? None. One to LF and three were straight-away.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Nats lose on Barajas walkoff in Pittsburgh Cool thing about that game is that LaRoche put the Nats on top with a 2R HR in the top of the 9th, only to lose it in the bottom to the 2R/2-out Barajas jack. Braves just won, but it's still a "+3" night for us in the NL East -- picked up games on Wash, Phil & Miami while staying neutral with Atlanta

batmagadanleadoff wrote: ESPN's playoff odds gives the Mets a 15.8% of qualifying -- the Mets best odds so far, this season. Though I'm not sure whether those are odds for the Mets being one of the final four teams or final five teams in the league. Add up the odds for ALL the teams (in one league). If those odds add up to 500% then it's for five teams. If they only total 400% then they never got around to updating things to the new format.

It appears that we're getting this winning formula thing down pat: 1) Get the lead-off runner on 2) Leave him there while we strike-out or maybe walk, but never even sniff an XBH that might possibly drive him in 3) Then get eleven-teen straight two-out singles.

Reminiscent of Elaine's reaction to 'The English Patient'

Giancarlo Stanton: 0 HRs in his first 19 games -- 6 over the last 9

On a roll baby! Joe Blanton, coming off his best start of the season, gets the start for Philly against Miguel Batista Blanton's had a decision in each of the six games (5 starts) he's worked this year (3-3) and his last outing was a CG 3-hit/6-K/0-BB shutout of the Braves - although prior to that he had been pummeled by the Giants & Padres [11 IP, 10 runs (7 ER) 18 hits] Batista, as we are all too aware, is trying to hang on both to his spot in the rotation and his career in general. So how much do the Phils miss their big lefty-swingers on the right side of the infield? Well they're sporting the lowest Isolated Power numbers (SlgP - BA = IsoP) in the NL even despite the slew of doubles they hit yesterday and Hunter Pence's 2-HR day on Sunday. Yeah slugging is down all over in baseball over the last few years, but this year's Phils are slugging at just about 1968 rates. Current NL Avg = .138 2012 Phils = .101 1968 NL = .098 The double Rollins hit to leadoff the game yesterday, for instance, was only his 5th XBH (all doubles) of the year among his 27 hits Even the 2012 Mets, coming as they are off a string of 99 ABs without an XBH (broken by Wright's 5th inning 2B) are managing a .113 IsoP

Niese - 2.0 Byrdak - 0.2 Parnell - 0.2 Francisco - 0.5 Acosta - 0.4 Valdespin - 2.5 Wright - 1.5 Nieuwenhuis - 0.5 Thole - 0.5 Nickeas - 1.5 Davis - 0.2

btw, How 'bout Charlie switching out Layce Nix before he ever got to hit in favor of his minor league journeyman/3rd catcher with the go-ahead runs on base in a L/R situation?!!? Apparently the guy has good minor league stats but only 2 ABs this year at the MNL level.

Had people over early so I wound up DVR'ing this one and started watching it about 45 minutes late. I had to stay out of the IGT until I caught up in the 8th inning so wound up seeing the best parts live.

smg58 wrote: Best Mets win of the year so far. YUP!

Frankie Frankie / neat and clean

Caught by the long arm of the Ike.

We owed them that one for the one that Galvis hit in the earlier series. Don't think that dude's had a knock since.