Frayed Knot

metirish wrote: Question, if a player gets called up from the minors is he automatically in the MLB union?, and what happens if he is on the minor league shuffle? Being on the 40-man roster is what puts you in the player's union. IOW, those players on the NY-to-Buffalo shuttle down again don't gain admission, then lose it, then gain it again as they yo-yo back and forth.

sharpie wrote: are there any publications that have the Mets picked for any finish other than 5th? I think several picked them for sixth.

1. First Mets hit of 2012 -- Daniel Murphy 2. First double - Lucas Duda 3. First triple - Andres Torres 4. First home run - Ike Davis 5. First run batted in - Jason Bay 6. First stolen base - Jason Bay 7. First caught stealing/picked off - Daniel Murphy 8. First multihit game - Andres Torres 9. First RBI sac fly - David Wright 10. First sac hit (bunt) - Ruben Tejada 11. First infield single - Andres Torres 12. First ground-rules double - Scott Hairston 13. First to draw a walk - Daniel Murphy 14. First Met to strike out - Ike Davis 15. First to hit into a double play - David Wright 16. First pitcher to get a hit - Jonathon Niese 17. Pitcher with first win - Johan Santana 18. Pitcher with first save - Frank Francisco 19. Pitcher with first wild pitch - Tim Byrdak 20. Met player to commit first error - Daniel Murphy

An exclusive CPF investigation has uncovered that the baseball season begins in earnest on Thursday (not quite sure where earnest is but it also begins in New York, in Chicago and several other cities that people actually care about) so it's time to familiarize ourselves with our first opponent who, it can now be revealed, is the Atlanta Braves When we last saw Los Bravos they were turning in an 89 win seaon in 2011, a total which wouldn�t have been so bad had they not lost 9 of their final 12 games including the last 5 in a row to choke away the WC race by 1 game to the eventual champ Cardinals, a race which went down to the wire as, in their very last game, they managed to cough up the lead in the 9th inning before eventually losing in the 13th. All of which must have really sucked for their fans, particularly for all those who already had plans to NOT buy tickets to the 1st round games. But when we next see them it'll be at CitiField for a season-opening three-game, all day-game, set beginning tomorrow. Thursday - 1:10 PM EDT Tommy Hanson vs Johan Santana Hanson is 3-3 vs Mets in 7 career starts but we beat the crap out of him last year: 2 starts; a total of 8.1 innings; 10 ER Saturday - 1:10 Jair Jurrgens vs RA Dickey The 26 y/o Curacao native has already made 13 starts against the Mets over four seasons and is 8-4; 2.94 ERA although he lost 2 of 3 last year. Sunday - 1:10 Mike Minor vs Jonathon Niese Minor, the Braves 2009 1st round (7th overall) draft pick, has made 4 starts vs the Mets and has managed to go 2-0 with 2 NDs even while giving up 15 runs in 20 innings. IOW, Minor is a major PiTA. * Gone from the 2011 squad - Nate McLouth, Derek Lowe, Scott Linebrink, Alex Gonzalez * New to 2012 team - RHP Livan Hernandez; RP Chad Durbin; 3B Juan Francisco * Currently on DL: Chipper Jones and pitchers Arodys Vizcaino, Peter Moylan, Julio Teheran [u:2ov0x5tu]Projected starters[/u:2ov0x5tu]: C - Brian McCann -- 466 ABs @.270/.351/.466 (in 2011) Now 28 y/o with 6 solid ML seasons under his belt Also fat and bald 1B - Freddie Freeman -- 635 PAs @ .282/.346/.448 22 y/o coming off a 2nd place RoY season He kind of looks like a guy they got off the same assembly line they once tapped for Dale Murphy. I suspect both are voting for Romney. 2B - Dan Uggla -- 672 PAs @ .233/.311/.453 Now 32 y/o, had a solid end of the �11 season following a horrid first half (.296 BA vs .185). Still pretty much sucks in the field 3B - Martin Prado -- 590 PAs @ .260/.302/.385 Subbing in for the injured Chipper, the 28 y/o utility guy played 40 games at 3B last year The Braves also traded just this week with the Reds for Juan Francisco meaning Prado could be seen in the OF SS - Tyler Pastornicky -- ML Rookie A 22 y/o Floridian who was a 5th round draft pick of Toronto before being dealt to Atlanta late in 2011 will be making his ML debut. Glove is supposedly more ready than the bat at this point although his hitting took a step up last year at AA & AAA LF - Matt Diaz/Eric Hinske/Jose Constanza Diaz (34) is the designated LHP-crusher Hinske (34) is his LH-hitting, knuckle-dragging, over-the-top tattooed counterpart and Constanza (28) is the real speedy pest we saw some of late last year. CF - Michael Bourn -- 722 PAs (led league) @ .294/.349/.386 split between Houston & Atlanta. Led the league in steals (61 of 75) RF - Jason Heyward -- 456 PAs @ .227/.319/.389 Injuries and the dreaded sophmore slump took his near RoY season stats in 2010 and pummeled them to the tune of 50, 74, and 67 point drops in his slash stats in 2011 Still doesn�t turn 23 until past mid-season [u:2ov0x5tu]Can their pen do it again[/u:2ov0x5tu]? The combo of Craig Kimbrel and lefties Jonny Venters & Eric O�Flaherty all turned in ridonculous ERA & WHiP stats last year even as some wondered about the long-term effects of their collective workload (avg of 80 appearances each) Phormer Philly Chad Durbin comes over to teach the young Braves penners how to grow vaguely pornographic facial hair.

The other kicker here is that this isn't just a ten-year deal, it's a ten-year extension being added onto the two years he still had remaining (at about $30mil combined) meaning that they're locked into him for an even dozen years starting at his age 28 season. Not sure that they had to go THAT high particularly seeing as how they weren't yet under the gun.

And there was much rejoicing (yaaaaaay)

And Ike - playing the whole game - ends it with a walk-off !!

Pelfrey does the 1-2-3 top 'o one ... but there was no Jeter in there so it really doesn't count.

Let's also not make the assumption that the dearth of advertising on the Marlins' board is the result of some sort of high-brow aesthetic choice. To paraphrase the fake Mark Zuckerberg from 'Social Network'; if they could have sold more advertising, they would have sold more advertising

Irish said it all - "Good for the Reds and their fans." Assuming, of course, that this doesn't put them behind the eight-ball for all future contracts of any size to the point where their future lineup consists of Votto and eight guys named Joe. It's like the Dodger sale price: great for the fans ... unless it turns out to be way too high a price and suddenly isn't so great. PS - Votto made his ML debut by K-ing against Guillermo Mota during a 6th inning PH appearance in a game the Mets won 11-7 on Sept 4 2007

I saw this a week or two back - I'll give it a solid *** Not great, but a nice little story where even the turns that look stoopid going in - like the stoner boyfriend-ish dude becoming virtually a temporary family member - wind up being OK in the long run. Older girl was good, and a nice little part by Beau Bridges as cousin Hugh.

Nice target for Ike to shoot at. Also Matt Cain - was due to be a FA this year and is currently the longest tenured Gigante - snags the largest contract ever for a RH pitcher: 5/$112 + options.

Well that's 2 HRs from him this spring which I think makes him tied for 2nd on the club.

Edgy DC wrote: Hi, I'm Frank Francisco. Ask me about my MRI! Are there some facts to this situation you care to share?

Padres at least get an opening day starter out of dealing away Mat (what happened to my other T?) Latos. DATETEAMSTARTERvsTEAMSTARTER3/28MARINERSFelix HernandezA�sBrandon McCarthy4/4CARDINALSKyle LohseMARLINSJosh Johnson4/5RED SOXJon LesterTIGERSJustin Verlander4/5BRAVESTommy HansonMETSJohan Santana4/5PHILLIESRoy HalladayPIRATESErik Bedard4/5MARLINS2nd GameREDSJohnny Cueto4/5NATIONALSSteven StrasburgCUBSRyan Dempster4/5BLUE JAYS---INDIANSJustin Masterson4/5DODGERSClayton KershawPADRES=#0000FF]Edison Volquez4/6CARDINALS2nd GameBREWERSYovani Gallardo4/6WHITE SOXJohn DanksRANGERSColby Lewis4/6TWINSCarl PavanoORIOLES--- 4/6YANKEESCC SabathiaRAYSJames Sheilds4/6ROCKIESJeremy GuthrieASTROSWandy Rodriguez4/6GIANTSTim LincecumD�BACKSIan Kennedy4/6ROYALSBruce ChenAngelsJered Weaver

btw, this question came from this morning's George Will column which happens to be his annual trivia quiz in advance of opening day. http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/batter-up-the-annual-baseball-quiz/2012/03/30/gIQADLU6lS_story.html I wasn't tracking my answers as I read through this but probably got about half.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Yount? Or did Fielder beat him out in HRs? And we have our winner. Nicely done folks. Yount, like Brett, is miles ahead of all other Brewers in most categories but also, like Musial, was in danger of losing his lead in HRs before FA-gency came up and stole the Princely one away just 21 HRs short of Robin's total.

Moore is also the the top pitching prospect in baseball right now; different situation than Niese. And I don't mean to say that I mind them talking turkey with the hawk -- if you're going to do so with a arb or pre-arb pitcher, he's the one to do it with -- just thought they'd want to see a bit more before diving in is all.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: I'll sub Ripken and Ryan Zimmerman (Nats only/no Expos stats) for my Mays and Aaron picks. Triples once again is the problem with Cal. Not even in the Orioles top ten. And this is a franchise question so the Zimmerman thing doesn't work.

The team lifer thing, btw, is a merely clue for elimination purposes and not a qualifier in the question. Mays doesn't lead the Giants in triples either - Mike Tiernan of the 1890s era does.

George Brett/Royals is correct - and by a lot in each category save for triples where he out-legged Willie Wilson by just four!

Of the other answers: - Aaron (aside from not being a Braves lifer) doesn't lead the franchise in triples (he's 7 behind Rabbit Maranville) - Triples also tripped up Todd Helton as he's 4th in Rox history - Yaz, as mentioned, is behind Teddy in HRs - Gwynn, while he leads the Padres in hits by a factor of nearly 3, is 5th in HRs (Nate Colbert still leads that one!) - and Kaline has to contend with the specter of Ty Cobb

Of the answers so far, only Musial/Cardinals (mentioned twice) is correct. And Stan got a bit lucky this winter as Pujols was only 30 HRs behind. He surely would have lost that part of the record had Albert stuck around the gateway to the west.

In a way this doesn't surprise me in that I think - and I think they think - that Niese could be on the verge of becoming a very nice pitcher. He'll be arb-eligible after this season so the team would be looking to lock up some cost-certainty. On the other hand I am surprised about the timing. Given that he's yet to go wire to wire in a year I thought they might wait one more year to see how this season turned out first in order to get a better gauge on how much he might stand to earn over the next few years.

The pen might, right now, be the least of my worries. Currently it's the starters and offense which have me staying up nights.