Frayed Knot

That's a pretty good list, although you did leave out a few people so I fixed it for you Centerfield Depth Chart [crossout]Andres Torres Scott Hairston[/crossout] Adam Loewen Jason Bay Kirk Neiuwenheis Mike Baxter Ronny Cede�o Matt Den Dekker Raul Reyes Lorenzo Scott Jonathan Malo Darrell Ceciliani Sean Ratliff =#0080FF]Mike Piazza Nancy Pelosi Nelson Mandela That guy in your office who walks kind of funny Snooki Vic Sage

Ashie62 wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: Of course the jury is still out on whether Nieuwenhuis will ever be a major league CF too. Many think he'll wind up in a corner spot - either from the very start or at least eventually. Either way, my instincts tell me he'd be better out there over a short/medium run than Loewen. Kirk has had his own health issues... Well, he got hurt last season which set his readiness back somewhat but isn't, at least as far as I know, anything that's an ongoing concern. What IS still up in the air for those planning who's going to be the CF in CF over the next number of years is that not everyone is sold on the idea that Kirk is ever going to possess the skills to be an everyday ML CFer; that his speed, glove, instincts, etc. are more suited to one of the corners over the long term.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: and isn�t merely doing the bidding of baseball�s most unpopular (and tone-deaf) ownership group. I mean, this happened yesterday. This shit is fucking amazing. "Not only did I rip those idiots off, but now I'm going to crow about it since it's too late for them to get their money back."

Of course the jury is still out on whether Nieuwenhuis will ever be a major league CF too. Many think he'll wind up in a corner spot - either from the very start or at least eventually. Either way, my instincts tell me he'd be better out there over a short/medium run than Loewen.

Farmer Ted wrote: The Yankees have a plan. While the stadium in Scranton undergoes a year-long renovation, the Yankees will use a SIX city rotation next year for triple-A home games. Rochester, Buffalo, Batavia, Syracuse, Allentown, and Pawtucket. Happy travels, Costanza. Due to the fact that most (60 of 72) of the "home" games for the nomadic AAA Yanx will be played inside the borders of NYS (see above list of cities) the once and future Scranton-Wilkes-Barre team (I always thought they should be named the Hyphens) will adopt the name 'The Empire State Yankees' for this year only. Barfing can commence immediately. And, yes, 'special' merchandise will be available in the lobby - in fact, it already is.

Then, using the same analogy, even if circumstances find him there I wouldn't expect him to be the answer up the middle for anything other than the shortest of short-terms. Not that being Adam Dunn-ish in proportions automatically means he moves & fields like him too, but I suspect it's not coincidence that you don't see a lot of CFers of his size and shape.

And is the Duda-(maybe more)-sized Adam Loewen really a potential CF candidate? A quick perusal of his BB-Ref pages shows him playing there over a handful of games during his (admittedly brief) minor league and major league stints, but has been much more likely to, unlike baby, find himself in a corner.

They actually exhibited there already, Marlins against some college team. Hanley bagged the first HR. Tonight probably represents the first ML-v-ML game there.

Edgy DC wrote: JonaTHON Niese checks out with two hitless, scoreless. One walk and two whiffies. One pub I was reading picked Niese as one of its "breakout players" for 2012. Of course such lists probably have the accuracy of long-range weather forecasts, but whatever. The other name with NYM connections on that list: Fernando Martinez. Boy it would suck if that happens.

Lifetime achievement award: Steve McQueen � the Tao of Steve required maintaining a detached cool even astride a Harley vaulting barbed wire fences to evade Nazis, flying a car over the hills of San Francisco, racing at Le Mans, on the run with Ali McGraw, bounty hunting atop a train, shot flying a jet as Thomas Crowne, financing a documentary on bikers, and generally living his life at maximum RPM. I just re-saw (for about the 50th time) The Great Escape the other night. I also read, more than once when I was younger, the true-account book from which it was derived. And while the movie states up front that many of the characters are composites and/or changed somewhat from the source material, McQueen's character and his role in the plot has no real basis in the book and was completely made-up for the film. Nothing really wrong with that of course, any studio at that time would obviously want McQueen in its blockbuster action flick and sticking in an American character into a camp which was, by that point, almost entirely British is also good for the old U.S. box office. So then the supposed story goes that one condition of getting McQ to agree to the picture was that they write in a scene where he gets to show off his motorcycle riding. Studio, of course, agrees; they get their man, he gets to add to his macho/cool image and everyone skips off happily to the bank.

Don Mincher - 73 A 13 yr MLB career spanned five AL franchises and included being a member of the final year of both the first and second versions of the Washington Senators. He also played in the one and only year of the Seattle Pilots where his southern good ol' boy persona became one of the more quotable characters in Jim Bouton's 'Ball Four'. So it must have seemed for a while that if you hired Don Mincher your team immediately left town. His career included stops with the Senators/Twins, A's (twice), Angels, Pilots, Senators/Rangers and tallied exactly 200 HRs and two All-Star team selections. He later went on the GM his native Huntsville, Alabama AA team and was president of the AA Southern League until just last year.

Fman99 wrote: I may bag half of Tuesday instead, work here and watch the game then. Or spend Tuesday half in the bag.

Maybe he just has the milder strain known as Napa Valley Fever which can be cured by simply cutting back on the amount of wine you drink. Or maybe 'Valley Stream Fever', a malady caused by spending too much time in suburban shopping malls.

Really? ... I would have assumed that it was something California teenagers claimed to have as an excuse for why they didn't have their homework done. Well apparently it is real, and Marty Noble just continues to bring the good news today: from mlb.com [ike] Davis is not the picture of health. He has, in fact, contracted Valley or Desert Fever, a malady that can interfere with a season and even end a career. His illness has set off no alarms in the Mets' camp. Truth be told, the diagnosis is not a topic of public discussion or much private dialouge. But there is an awareness, and, behind that, a concern. Davis said Saturday that the results of blood tests administered in New York 11 days earlier have not yet been returned, and that he has received no official diagnosis. But manager Terry Collins acknowledged Saturday the club is treating Davis as if Valley Fever has been diagnosed and the Mets are monitoring their first baseman. "We're treating him as if that's what it is," Collins said. "We can't let him run down. That's what we've been told. We'll give him some days off. He says he can go, and he's been doing everything he's supposed to. But we need to be sure he doesn't push it." Davis, reluctant to speak publicly about the illness, did so Saturday. "I have to keep my immune system strong," he said. "No one has told me for sure what it is, and I haven't asked. But they're pretty positive it is [Valley Fever]. I'm trying to be positive about it. I'll just be careful the way they tell me to be careful." A Mayo Clinic website states that symptoms can appear one to three weeks after exposure and can include fever, cough, chest pain, chills, night sweats, headache, fatigue, shortness of breath, joint aches and a red, spotty rash. Davis, who lives in Arizona in the offseason, says he has experienced no symptoms. "I feel normal. I don't feel anything," he said. The Mayo Clinic website goes on to say that "Valley Fever, even when it's symptomatic, often clears on its own. Yet for older adults and others at high risk, recovery can be slow." Davis, who turns 25 in three weeks, believed he had no such problem when he returned from New York. The club characterized what had been detected as an infection in the lung. It said no antibiotic treatment was necessary. At the time, Davis already was quite aware of former Diamondbacks player Conor Jackson, who missed most of his 2009 season because of Valley Fever. And Collins had witnessed the debilitating of Joe Vavra, now the Twins' batting coach, when he and Vavra were with the Dodgers. Collins noted that, in Vavra's case, one of the symptoms that developed was a hole in the lung. Vavra's playing career never resumed. At the same time, Collins worried about possibly playing another season without his primary source of left-handed power if Davis became unavailable. Davis missed most of last season after suffered a bone bruise on his left ankle May 10. The manager immediately made contingency plans for first base. "Had to," Collins said. "Have to be prepared. Can't be blindsided." And blah, blah, blah. -- don't think it's anything serious ... but have to make alternate plans Complete article here

I like Lucas's off-season acquisition of palm hair.

Asking about it is part of their job description.

Mets � Willets Point wrote: ESPN really likes to cover themselves, don't they? ESPN exists to cover itself.

Wright skips intra-squad game with "stiff rib cage" (isn't it supposed to be stiff?) Noble @ mlb.com -- ... Wright provided half-answers and spoke vaguely, and with each word he spoke Saturday morning, the WhatEverItIs that caused him to be scratched from one of the intrasquad game lineups became more curious. Official word from the Mets is that Wright has stiffness of the left rib cage. Mets manager Terry Collins pointed to his own side and indicated that was the troubled area for his third baseman. Wright wasn't even that precise. He called in stiffness, period, end of diagnosis. And, of course, the usual caveat of: "If these were real games I'd be playing", was thrown in for good measure -- a phrase which might trail only "I'm in the best shape of my life" and "flu-like symptoms" in the pantheon of vague fitness claims.

That Ted Berg character wrote: Kirk Nieuwenhuis just hit a monster home run to left off Danny Herrera. Probably the biggest step between Captain Kirk and the major leagues is his weaknesses hitting off LHPs - so this is a decent sign no matter how minor.

Ceetar wrote: Too many tie-breakers might mean too much rest before division series for the top team though. Another reason why a one-game play-in for the WC teams is better than a two-of-three.

He needs to throw in the standard Kurkjian interview sign-off of "OK, see ya" in order to complete the impression.

metirish wrote: Bunting a ball off your face and needing surgery to fix your orbital bone is not a great way to introduce yourself to your new team, A.J. Sounds like Pitt needs to rethink the opening day starter thing. wow, this blogger on yahoo thinks the NL should use the DH to stop things like this....no fucking way http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/j-burnett-fractured-face-still-ok-nl-used-183054621.html video http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/yankees/post/_/id/28320/video-a-j-bunts-ball-off-face Is that blogger's name Hank Steinbrenner by any chance? Remember he wanted to instantly mandate the DH in both leagues after CM Wang hurt his foot running the bases in an inter-league game a couple years back.

Bunting a ball off your face and needing surgery to fix your orbital bone is not a great way to introduce yourself to your new team, A.J. Sounds like Pitt needs to rethink the opening day starter thing.

Molina gets his [5/$75] deal, one which turns out to be five years in addition to the one he already has covering the 2012 season (essentially making it a 6/$82 deal) plus a mutual option for one more at the end. That puts it into a bit more dicey territory age-wise. Now 70% of the deal covers him past birthday #32, as opposed to just 50% had the new deal started with this season.

The way I look at this Willets is as a kind of subtraction by addition. By doubling the number of WC teams but then immediately throwing them into a single-game death match, no longer will the WC team head into the playoff as a virtually equal partner to division winners. This not only gives a great incentive to actually compete for the division rather than resting down the stretch but it also makes both WC teams have to make a risk-reward decision as to which pitcher to use for the play-in game. The winner is likely weakened as they go on to meet their next opponent, and the loser disappears the day after the reg season ends and we're left with the same number of teams competing for the ultimate prize as we've had for nearly 20 years now.