Frayed Knot

After missing the 2nd half of last season I think it's probably wise to keep Nieuwenhuis in AAA for a while. Loewen, already 28 y/o and trying to be the next Ankiel, is a more likely candidate for experimentation. Or maybe we can just combine the two of them which will also give the announcer the opportunity to say: 'Tonight, let it be Loewenhuis' whenever he/them come into the game.

MLB.com -- Marlins reportedly presented [Cuban FA OFer Yeonis] Cespedes with a six-year, $40 million contract offer to consider. This follows his visit to them a few days ago. The 26 y/o defector has not yet been cleared to sign a ML deal although he has established residency in the DR and can talk to and even negotiate deals with ML clubs.

Ceetar wrote: Edgy DC wrote: The good news, I guess, is that minor league ball is slowly returning to Canada. I wonder if in a non-Madoff world the Mets would be considering purchasing a AA team and moving it to Binghamton. Or is there a rule against owning the AA/AAA teams? The only rule is that one ownership can't own more than one team in any one league. Nolan Ryan, for instance, is (partial) owner of the Rangers and also the AAA team in Round Rock, TX, plus the AA team in Corpus Christi. When he purchased the AA franchise located in Edmonton for the purpose of moving them to the Texas League he first had to upgrade the stadium in Round Rock so it would qualify for AAA status. IOW, he had to move the Round Rock from AA Texas League to AAA Pac Coast Lg before he could take charge of the new AA team. Most big league squads DON'T own their own minor league franchises except for those at the lowest levels where teams are generally not all that profitable for outside owners to bother. Supposedly the 'Pons looked into buying a partial stake from the Syracuse group a few years back but opted for the better facility in Buffalo instead. The Wilpons obviously own the NYPenn Lg Cyclones. The Braves, I believe, do own most of the teams in their system (except AA) which allowed them to easily transfer their AAA team from Richmond, VA to a new joint right in suburban Atlanta a few years back. all very confusing indeed. so, the question at the end of the day is.... where's the mets AA affiliate going to be? The whole Maj/Min agreement system is essentially a game of musical chairs played out every two seasons. All agreements are for at least two years with some being in multiples of two although rarely more than four at any one time. So if Bingo disappears as an Eastern League option that doesn't mean the Mets automatically go to Ottawa (particularly if Ottawa is targeting the Blue Jays) it just means they need to strike a deal with whoever else is available at that time. The Blue Jays are currently in New Hampshire (Portsmouth I assume) so that spot could be open and if someone else grabs that first then that city becomes open and the dominoes start falling all over the place. The only real sad part about this is that Bingo was a good location for upstate NYM fans and that the NYM/Bingo agreement is one of the longer ones currently running.

Edgy DC wrote: just what is it you're purchasing when you buy? A license to compete in the Eastern League? Yes.

I think both were kind of funny

Note that most of those great pitchers coming up on the finish line were NL guys most or all of their career. Couple them with the half-generation older and again mostly NL ones who had already petered out (Koufax, Marichal, Gibson, etc.) and I think you can tab 1979 as the rough end of the nearly two-decade long era of the NL as the stronger league. Part of that supremacy was the quicker/earlier embrace of black players and the more aggressive speed game (Halberstam: October 1964). But the bigger share IMO was that - for whatever reason - NL ace pitchers were simply better and/or better better for longer than their AL counterparts. Koufax, Gibson, Seaver, Carlton, Marichal, Sutton, Drysdale = much > than Guidry, Kaat, Chance, Tiant, Palmer, Hunter, McDowell

The music of 1979 Disco wasn't quite dead but it was surely dying (although not fast enough for some of us). It's whole life-span was really just about 2-3 years and featured both a steep upward slope and a downward one. In the in-between, NEWSWEEK Magazine laid out its 'DISCO TAKES OVER' cover on the nation and an aging radio station with middle of the pack ratings changed its format to disco and its call letters to WKTU and almost immediately rocketed to the top spot in NYC ... only to die almost as quickly.

Police say they found him slumped over the wheel of his car and when they woke him up he drove away slowly and nearly hit a utility pole. Officers say his speech was slurred and he smelled of alcohol. So lemme get this straight: the cops find someone passed-out and slumped over the steering wheel of his car but then allow him to drive away and don't get around to arresting him until after he does a slow-speed crash into the utility pole thang?!? The article doesn't make it clear at what point they noticed the smell of booze and slurred speech so we'll refrain from holding that one against them pending further details.

The thing about Hamilton is that he was already a religious, boy-scout, stable family-type before he ever got into drugs, drink, etc. Tough to make the case that adding one or more of those things is suddenly going to change much in his case. The other problem is that he and the Rangers were into contract extension talks (he can be a FA after 2012) and now that, at least for the near future, is on hold

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Peh. Howie will do the job. The signal is a big deal! Staying away from anything to do with ESPN is important as well. And, yeah, I realize it's just the local affiliate and not the mother-ship of corporate ESPN HQ. But still, the more layers of removal the better.

The Dodger selling price also includes a [u:1xm7wogd]paid-for[/u:1xm7wogd] stadium plus some surrounding (primo location) land - so be careful about drawing too many equivalencies to the Mets.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: And we have the year's first Dickey Face photo !!

Edgy DC wrote: Brad Penny goes to the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks. Does he have to change his name to Brad Yen?

And now with the girlfriend/stalker in jail, Mrs. Cash quickly follows up with a divorce filing.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Why not just invite Jim Grey to host and call it The Scission ? Aaaaaand we have a winner.

Just a small sample, but the off-season seems to be more trying for him than in-season. If so, it wouldn't be too surprising.

Ryan Gosling stars and drives cars. He drives get-away cars, he drives race cars, he drives stunt cars ... and he does it all while managing to utter fewer lines of dialog and interact with fewer people than anyone who's in every single scene of a movie since Robert Redford in 'Jerimiah Johnson'. Then one day he drives his cute little neighbor home because her car is on the fritz and his strictly-ordered life becomes a lot more complicated.

Dickey, Yogi, and, um, either Lou Carnesecca or Warren Christopher I'll take 'Guys to Hang Around with When You Want to Look Tall' for $400 Alex

"I think [Opening Day is] more than a reach ... If [Ryan Howard] is back by sometime in May, I'll be happy." -- Ruben Amaro Jr.

Ron Washington gets a bump from the Rangers. Nice to see that making the WS twice in a row has its rewards. Also find it interesting that the details of Ventura's contract with the ChiSox still haven't been made public. At least that's how it's still being listed over at Cot's Contracts - they list it only as a "multi-year" deal with no specifics - and that place usually seems to have all the info as is up to date. Cot's, btw, looks like it's now under the 'Baseball Prospectus' umbrella. TEAM2011 MgrSTATUS2012 MgrRED SOXTerry Francona - since 2004Option not picked upBobby Valentine - 2 year dealYANXJoe Girardi - since 2008Signed thru 2013Same ORIOLESBuck Showalter - since 2010Signed thru 2013SameRAYSJoe Maddon - Since 2006Signed thru 2012SameBLUE JAYSJohn Farrell - Hired Oct �10Signed thru 2013SameTIGERSJim Leyland - Since 2006Signed thru 2012SameWHITE SOXOzzie Guillen - since 2004Contract terminated via mutual consentRobin Ventura - "multi-year" contractTWINSRon Gardenhire - Since 2002Signed thru 2013SameROYALSNed Yost - Since May �10Signed thru 2012SameINDIANSManny Acta - Since 2010Signed thru 2012 + 2013 optionSameRANGERSRon Washington - Since 2007Signed thru 2012Extended thru 2014MARINERSEric Wedge - first seasonSigned thru 2013SameA�sBob Melvin - hired June �11Signed thru 2014SameANGELSMike Scioscia - since 2000Signed thru 2018SameMETSTerry Collins - first seasonOption picked up thru 2013SameBRAVESFredi Gonzalez - first seasonSigned thru 2013SameMARLINSJack McKeon - since 6/20/11Not re-hired for 2012Ozzie Guillen - signed thru 2015NATIONALSDavey Johnson - took over 6/26/11Signed w/org but not as managerOption picked up for 2012 PHILLIESCharlie Manual - since 2005Signed thru 2013SameCUBSMike Quadde - since 2010Signed thru 1012 - FiredDale Sveum - 3 year deal thru 2014BREWERSRon Roenicke - first seasonSigned thru 2012 + �13 optionSamePIRATESClint Hurdle - first seasonSigned thru 2013SameCARDINALSTony LaRussa - since 1996RetiredMike Matheny - 2 yrs + 2014 optionREDSDusty Baker - since 2008Signed thru 2012SameASTROSBrad Mills - since 2010Signed thru 2012 w/option for �13SameDODGERSDon Mattingly - first seasonSigned thru 2013SameDIAMONDBACKSKirk Gibson - hired Aug �10Signed thru 2012 + �13 optionNew deal thru '14 w/options for '15 & '16GIANTSBruce Bochy - since 2007Signed thru 2012SamePADRESBud Black - since 2007Signed thru 2013 + options for �14 & �15SameROCKIESJim Tracy - since May �09Signed thru 2013Same

I remember looking through Burrell's stats against the Mets a while back (prolly in the archives somewhere) and finding that his BA and most other stats were within normally expected range ... except for HRs. Part of it has to do with ABs of course as he was a long time NLEast player. But even accounting for that (his totals against the Braves, Marlins, and Expos/Nats are only a little more than half) when he connected against NYM pitching the ball just left the park at rates far above even his usual pace.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Oswalt to Cardinals. Cardinals still denying that even as various reports claim the two sides are close to a deal.

There were a couple of 2000-ish era subway signs which I absolutely contemplated trying to swipe at one point. "Were You There?" (or something similar to that) was the campaign's theme as that slogan accompanied in-action shots of Ventura's GS-Single or Rey making a stab in the hole. Those will probably find their way to EBAY in a decade or so which means I coulda made a lot of dough by going through with my plan ... or spent some time in Rikers, one or the other.

A one-time 3rd round drat pick, he was considered a somewhat hot prospect for a brief time. Unfortunately that was back when he was still 20 years old, was still a SS, and had the advantage of the hitting-friendly California League to put up good offensive numbers. IOW, round about 2006. Other than that ... his name makes for a good SCRABBLE vowel dump.

Lidge on the Nats may be nothing more than their 7th inning guy with Clippard & Storen backing him up.