Frayed Knot

Edgy DC wrote: A case could be made for always swapping out your fifth starter the day after his start. Rotate two or three guys into that spot throughout the year and always have an extra hitter or reliever available to you. Certainly while the 5th starter situation is in flux/tryout mode it's worth doing that, at least as long as you take care so as to not hang yourself with 40-man and/or 10-day assignment snafus.

'I'm coming back ... there's no way I'm going out like this" -- So says Mr. Rivera. Prior to this season he had been cagey about his plans for 2013 even though he claimed to have already decided - so either this injury changed those plans or just moved up the announcement of them. That means a lengthy rehab plus gearing up for a season having turned 43 and with an 11 month or so lay-off. I believe this also entails negotiating a contract for next season as his current one runs out at the end of this year. And does he automatically get his old role back even if Robertson is good there? Should be interesting to follow.

32 years old is Rottino. Had several stops around but I have no specific memory of him. Has hit in the minors - just not so much during his very brief time in the majors That he's caught ever simply means he becomes your emergency 3rd catcher. That he hits righty helps us out.

metsguyinmichigan wrote: Supposedly Andy Pettitte is wrapping up his minor league warm-ups now that he's done defending Clemens. Think he'd be a candidate for them to throw out there for the ninth? Nah, they're even more desperate for starters. Once you get past Sa-bathtub-ia and Rookie Carroca (I once knew a lethal Bantamweight by that name), they're left with Phil Hughes who they'd like to demote to the pen but can't; Freddie Garcia who they'd like to dump in the river but can't; [crossout]Michael Pi[/crossout] oops, not him, and Ivan (not-so Super) Nova whose wins are going to go down rapidly as soon as he stops stumbling into games where he gets 12 runs/game scored for him. Even their vaunted prospects Manny Banuelos & Dellin Batances -- whom they've cleverly dubbed with the highly original name 'The Killer Bees' -- have been injured and/or sucking in the minors so far this year. is AP considered part of the famed "four core"? Yes. Also is considered part of the field in the Kentucky Derby tomorrow. As in; "Hey Andy, why the long face?"

Nick Fury heard his name mentioned here and wanted to drop by and say hello, although if you ask me he looks a little out of it.

Cory Vaughn is #2 this week in Baseball America's 'Hot Prospect' list. Why He's Here: .367/.424/.900 (11-for-30), 5 HR, 1 2B, 9 RBIs, 6 R, 2 BB, 7 SO The Scoop: Vaughn homered in three straight games from April 27-29 and went deep in five of the seven games he played last week. He has a Florida State League-leading seven bombs already this season, which is even more impressive when you realize he hit nine in a half-season for St. Lucie last year. Counter-balancing the power binge, however, Vaughn struck out seven times last week, including three times in one game. Swinging and missing will be an acceptable trade-off for home runs at the big league level, but Vaughn still has to graduate from three minor league levels to get there. He's got a chance, but keep in mind that his father Greg, a four-time all-star, already had reached Milwaukee by the time he was 23.

I'm looking forward to the panic involved over that idea and if Robertson dares to have a shaky outing soon (which he's probably due for too since no one's perfect). Especially from those raised in the Mike Francesa school of critical thinking, the one that teaches that good relievers do not necessarily make good ninth inning relievers, or about how good players in the regular season not automatically being good October players. So it'll be the graduates of that school - and certainly the teacher himself - who are going to be quickest to express the thought that Robertson, because he's going to a new role, is currently nothing more than an unproven commodity until he shows otherwise, and that his the first stumble is not just a bad day but rather the first piece of "evidence" that he's out of his element meaning that a real 9th inning replacement must be found so that Robertson can be moved back to the 8th inning that therefore back to being good. As Captain Queeg put it about missing strawberries: "and I was proving it with geometric logic..."

David Robertson - the obvious choice to slide into the 9th inning role - has been pretty damn good, essentially throwing to an ERA of 1.00 since the beginning of 2011, a span covering nearly 80 innings. Where losing your closer really hurts (for anyone really but especially so in this case) isn't that the 9th innings will suddenly become disasters, but that now some lesser light has to move in and cover Robertson's innings and on down the chain. Yanx have a 137-to-86 starter to reliever innings ratio through 25 games: IOW, their starters are covering just 61% of the innings (AL avg = 66%) so things were already a bit tight. Last night they had to press David Phelps into a start because of the failures of Freddie Garcia. Phelps was a starter in the minors but not a particularly top-flight one and, while he wasn't bad last night, he went through a ton of pitches before having to be pulled after four IP. Bottom line is that losing Rivera, as valuable as he is by himself, hurts more because it's another brick in the cumulative set of problems the Yanqui staff has going on.

Wheeler to the 7-day DL with (wait for it) a torn fingernail on the middle finger of his right hand.

2-0 Phils top 8 Thome, btw, is now on the DL

* The best part about the Philly-Atlanta marathon yesterday (11 innings, 14 pitchers, 28 runs, 36 hits, 4 hours even) is that they get to do it again today ... at NOON !! Blanton vs Delgado * Marlins & Nats also play today so we're the only East squad sitting out. Marlins finish up their series in SF (3:45) with Sanchez vs Vogelsong Nats have one more at home with Arizona (7:05) Kennedy & Detwiler

Phillips, as the front man, I'm sure was just the main voice in trying to sell it to the public & press. When told by the money guys upstairs that he could release Bonilla and have the $6mil still taking up payroll space or simply have some smaller chunk of it taken out and invested in some sort of long-range payoff there's no reason why he wouldn't be for it. "Pay him under my watch or pay him in 2030 when I'm either dead or being nursed by whatever mistress I'm hanging with at that point? HELL YEAH I'm for it!"

Fman99 wrote: Bobby Bo outsmarted the Wilpons. Good for him. More like the Wilpons outsmarted the Wilpons.

Just because our game sucked and was essentially over by mid-afternoon doesn't mean all baseball was boring and frustrating yesterday. * Jered Weaver tossed a no-hitter vs the Twinkies. Only a 2nd inning K/passed ball and a 7th inning walk separated him from a perfecto. Albert had a hit, just one and it was a single. Still HR-less through nearly a month with five - count 'em - five RBI * Orioles - that would be the currently 16-9 Baltimore Orioles - shut-out the Yanx to take the series. Jake Arrieta (8 IP/5 hits) was the author. O's took two of three as the Yanx were lucky to get the one win considering that they scored all of 3 runs total in the 3 games. * He didn't get tagged with the loss, but the Royals beat Verlander yesterday 3-2. That's two straight non-wins for Justin Brooks Verlander as the highly touted Tigers sit at a very mediocre 12-12 * Tampa completed a sweep of Seattle (I know, big deal, right?) but that's now 10 of their last 11 in the win column which pushes them to a tie with Texas for the AL's best record. They may need the cushion as Evan Longoria is out for the next 6-8 weeks with a hammy. Also former #1 overall draft pick Tim (Suspend 'em like) Beckham got hit with a 50-game suspension for a 2nd positive for "recreational use" substances. So if I have this straight, you're already under-achieving as a 1/1 pick and you get caught smoking dope ... so you go out and do it again?!?! * Dodgers get a two-run double with 2-out in the top of the 9th to tie their game in Colorado ... only to lose it on a 3R PH walk-off HR by Jason Giambi. Jamey Wright (two walks to lead off the inning) and Scott Elbert (the LHP brought in specifically to face Giambi) are your LAD culprits. The game was 2-1 Rox after 7 before the Dodgers scored two in their half of the 8th & 9th only to see the Rox answer with three each. Giambi becomes the oldest player ever to hit a walk-off HR * ... speaking of blowing leads, the Phils were up 6-0 in the 5th with Halladay on the mound - and wound up losing 15-13 on a Chipper walk-off in the 11th. 8 earned on 12 hits in 5.1 was the final line for Roy (a McCann GS did him in). The Philly pen (mostly Contreras) gave up 5 more in the Braves' 8th forcing the Phils to get a 2-out run in the 9th just to send it into extras. Phils back below .500 at 12-13 * Marlins won in SF in the 10th on a [fill-in name] Stanton HR. Reyes 0-3 and sitting at .216/.307/.316 Odd to see that his walks are up while his hitting is down. * Nationals also won on a walk-off: Ian Desmond with 2-outs down by one with a man on. That man on was Bryce Harper following his 3rd hit of the day; 2 screaming doubles to go along with a swinging bunt. The win stopped the Nats' five-game losing streak - a stretch which had seen them score just 7 runs. Old friend JJ Putz was the victim in this one; following a lead-off 2B by Harper in the 9th he K'd Ramos & Ankiel before getting beat by Desmond on a 1-1 pitch.

Ivan Nova (I like to call him New John) in danger of actually losing a game in the Bronx tonight. Such a loss would break his streak of like 89 in a row or something despite only pitching well in about 1/3 of them. This season, for instance, he was 3-0 in 4 starts coming into this game even though his ERA sits north of 5.00. All the O's have to do is hold on to their 5-0 lead through the final two innings. IOW, it's about a 50/50 proposition.

PHIOld MoleWASHbmfc1/Edgy DC=#00BF00]FLA=#40BF00]GWreckATLFrayed KnotCINEdgyDCPITTEdgy DCCHICattgigStLMFS'62HOUMGiMMILWTransMonkLADG-FaFiFSFGFrayed KnotSDPSeoCOLLWFS=#FF0000]ARZ=#FF0000]LWFSNYYFMan99BALJCLTORJCLTBRLWFS =#BF0000]At Bat On Deck =#008000]In the Hole

The problem with our attempts to mount comeback via sneaking singles through the hole is that you get to the point when you'll need about 15 of them in a row.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: At this point, I'd let Valdespin finish the game for Wright. Except that we may need him to pitch.

Our HR deficit now stands at 27-18 while the runs driven in via HRs gap expands to 49-24

I have to say that the weak ground-ball practice they've apparently been taking is paying off really nicely.

It's come to the point where as soon as I see a dinky swinging bunt up the 3rd base line I instantly know what's coming next.

I think I've detected the Mets' pitching plan: Follow each shitty hit you give up with a HR

Here's the team's other problem with HRs ... their timing sucks. The Mets are being out-homered this season (including tonight's shots) 25-18. Not good obviously but hardly deplorable. But an overwhelming 11 of those 18 have come with the bases empty despite coming from a team that's been at or near the top in getting base-runners (OBA). Six more came with one runner on base, leaving just one with 2-on and of course no grand slams (I've accepted the fact that we're allergic to those). On the other side of the ledger, the 25 the NYM staff has served up includes 11 solos, 8 with one-on, 3 with 2-on, and 2 grand slams. So while the HR edge is a somewhat modest 25-18, the runs scored via those HRs is a lop-sided 44-24 oe: Looked at another way, the 10 HRs the Mets have served up just since Friday have accounted for as many runs as the ones NYM batters have hit all season.

Edgy DC wrote: I keep hearing about Brian Bogusevic and thinking he must be the son of former Cosmos star Vladislav Bogi?evi?, but no. Mike Nickeas remains the only NASL offspring in the park. Bogusevic is like Smith over there*. * "Over there" being wherever eastern-European ethnicity (Serb I'm guessing) whence that name emanates.

This game not only sucks, but it's boring too. It's got two innings to become un-boring.