Frayed Knot

HI, I'm [crossout]Enrico Polazzo[/crossout] er, Placido Polanco and I'll be your enemy 3rd baseman this weekend. So far this season I'm sporting all of 5 singles and a walk although it's not like I hit for much power or take a lot of walks normally. However I still have a good glove and am consistent enough to rack up 500+ PAs every season since 2001 except for 2006 in Detroit and even then I had 495. On the other hand, I turned 36 just 5 days after my over-grown 1st baseman was seen flopping around on the ground between home & 1st, a moment which signaled the end of our embarrassing dismissal by the vastly inferior Cardinals so maybe the 22 & 47 point drops in my BA & SLG numbers last year as compared to the season before were merely the sign of baseball seasons yet to come.

MFS62 wrote: Has Roy Oswalt signed with a (new) team yet? No, although in his case it's semi-intentional. He turned down several offers over the winter because they weren't the "right" ones - only to find that there were no right ones coming behind them. IIRC he only wants the south or south-east, the National League, good weather, lotsa money, comfy blankets in the locker room, and a few other assorted amenities like that. So as of now he's sitting at home, biding his time, and probably driving around the tractor he once got as part of a contract he signed in Houston. What he's hoping for is for some team to decide they need him desperately at which point he can take a page from the 'Roger Clemens School for Aging and Stamina-Challenged Pitchers' and do the half-year deal.

First road trip of the year Friday - 7:05 -- Dickey vs Lee Lee pitched 6 innings, 1 run on 2 hits, 4 Ks & 2 BBs vs Pitt in first start (ND) Saturday - 4:05 (NOT in the FOX game time slot) -- Niese vs Worley 6 innings, 1 run, 5 hits, 5 Ks, 1 BB vs Pitt (ND) Sunday - 1:05 -- Pelfrey vs Hamels 5.1 innings, 4 runs (3 earned), 8 hits, 9 Ks, 0 BBs vs Miami (L)

The 1967 draft - 1st round Matlack (4th overall), John Mayberry (father of current Phil) (6th), Ted Simmons (10th) and Bobby Grich (20th) look, in hindsight, to be the best of that 1st round. 6 of the 20 picks never reached the majors which is right around a normal ratio; might even be better than in most years. The 1st overall pick Blomberg (your typical Jewish boy from Georgia) did indeed go on to become the first ever DH although that was merely the result of the timing of 1973's opening day games. He could hit a bit (topped .300 three times) but was strictly a platoon type hitter* and that added to his lack of secondary skills were the main culprits in his limited career. * Career = .304/.367/.500 vs RHP -- vs -- .215/.306/.272 vs LHP That he only had 180 of his ~1,500 career PAs against LHPs could be seen as either the effect of his inability to hit lefties or the cause of it. Maybe the Yanx simply didn't believe he could and therefore never let him try which in turn led to a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. I remember there was this one spot early in a season where he was hitting over .400. The Yanx were desperate for good publicity in those days and so were trumpeting his BA for all the world to hear while neglecting to mention the part about him sitting out every game against pitchers they thought would give him trouble and therefore was forever teetering on the edge of even having enough ABs to qualify for the lead. He of course didn't hold onto that perch for long anyway.

The Nats win today was 3-2 on a 10th inning wild pitch. This was all after Lidge blew a 2-0 lead in the 9th. So while I don't want to say the Nats are getting lucky here cuz they're certainly getting good starting pitching (7 shut-out innings from Gio Gonzalez today on the heels of 6 from Strasburg & 5 from Detwiler) but, geez, that's 5 of their last 7 runs scored (and 7 of their last 11) that were "driven in" via walks, errors, short fly balls, ground outs, and WPs

Lady came from Baltimore all she wore was lace KSu44UMcB8c There seem to be like a million covers of this song.

Santana - 3.0 Rauch - 0.4 Byrdak - 0.3 Tejada - 0.4 Murphy - 0.6 Davis - 0.7

Gee - 2.0 Cedeno - 2.0 Turner - 1.0 Tejada - 1.0 Bay - 1.0

Hard times in the city in a hard town by the sea ... Oh Baltimore man it's just hard to live -- Randy Newman yhdh8kSM7lY

Edgy DC wrote: Heilman returns to Seattle. In more recent transactions: April 1 - Released by Seattle April 4 - Signed by Texas Is currently 3 appearances and 3 innings (and 7 base-runners, 1 HR, and 2 earned runs) into his stint with AAA Round Rock

Johnny Damon "close to signing" with the seriously, I just used a racist word when I really meant "Guardians". Guess that knocks Vlad out of contention for that spot. Past All Star vets who are still jobless in 2012 (AFAIK) [crossout:f3ikdeha]Johnny Damon[/crossout:f3ikdeha] Derek Lee Magglio Ordonez Miguel Tejada JD Drew Mark Grudzelanek Hidecki Matsui [crossout:f3ikdeha]Omar Vizquel[/crossout:f3ikdeha]

Have you seen attendance at A's games recently? Frenchy could afford to buy pizzas for everyone in the stadium just on whatever he carries with him.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: difference in this game, Nats walk on 10-pitch abs, Mets whiff in theirs. And when you're making the Nats into a patient walk-taking team then something's wrong.

Edgy DC wrote: Boom. Ugly game over. Ummm, one more inning. Double-switching out Bay was telling. Was that while Collins was still at the wheel or was that (technically, anyhow) Geren's call? It was Collins, and while he was out there making the switch he got into the ump. Not sure what was telling about the move, it was the logical choice during a double-switch.

The Ike Watch -- .059

We finally found a DP that Murphy can't screw up.

On the good side, Johan is settling down too.

Ruben's leadoff hit remains our only hit - and he was definitely struck-out on the pitch prior. Since then, Strasburg is gaining control of his fastball and it's gaining speed as well.

1:10 'Condom' Game -- Strasburg vs Santana

While I agree that the Marlins made their own bed by hiring a guy with a track record of being out-spoken and then being shocked, SHOCKED! when he turns out to be out-spoken, the thing about the Ozzie situation is that what he said is distinctly not the same as some random employee spouting some odd or unpopular opinions in the company cafeteria or on his own time. This was in Time magazine, and the reason Time magazine was even talking to him in the first place is because a big league manager is in many ways the public face of a franchise and that Ozzie in particular was brought aboard for that reason and specifically for the franchise which is trying to remake itself by attracting a following in south Florida.

3-1/2 hour game and it's still shorter than the Yanx/O's ... who are still going at it in the 9th.

Yeah, although it didn't help that Duda wasn't exactly in position to throw and so got off a weak one from a spot that shouldn't even need a cut-off. And of course watching that catchable fly ball land for a double (or was it a triple?) earlier on makes him the #2 culprit of the night. But, Geez, Murph did what at the plate?, something like: K, K, GiDP, Pop-Out -- and in the field managed to turn 3 potential DP balls into a grand total of two outs.

Frayed Knot wrote: PotG Murphy: -6.0 Am I allowed to give a minus 8.0 ?

PotG Murphy: -6.0

Centerfield wrote: TransMonk wrote: John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: **** climbs mountain. I wish she would close that fucking gate. All kidding aside, do people really do stuff like this? I mean, that seems suicidal. Sometimes it is.