Frayed Knot

TLaR: "Oops" Man, what did Napoli start eating this year? 2010 - .238/.316/.468 2011 - .320/.414/.631

Yeah, the Nationals folks were pretty high on this guy when they had him. I think sometimes it was as much wishful thinking based on radar gun readings as it was a jen-u-wine assessment of his readiness, but he's definitely a guy who's got ML potential in him. As for what happens to him this winter, it depends on several factors: - what type of surgery and what's the recovery time? - will the Mets have 40-man roster room? - if not will others take the chance on Rule 5-ing him again?

MFS62 wrote: The NFL game is a quick rout (21-0). The WS game might get some decent ratings. I think that stuff is overblown. For the most part, football fans are going to watch football, and baseball fans are going to watch baseball.

Not that you should be afraid to put your DH into use, only that it's hardly the ideal situation which makes it hardly the ideal spot to put your most versatile fielder. I also find it hard to imagine that Napoli - and now Moreland (see below) - are better 1Bmen than Young. [u:2glyfk4b]GAME 4[/u:2glyfk4b] Rangers: Young at DH again, only this time it's with Moreland at 1st & Napoli back behind the plate. All else is how it was including the batting order which still features the cold Andrus & Hamilton up top and the hot Cruz & Napoli down in the 6th & 8th slots. Lefty Derek Holland starts Cards: Exact same as last night with Craig in RF and Berkman DH-ing. Edwin Jackson on the mound - leading to what could be an even quicker LaRussa hook than normal.

Of course the corollary to that is if someone else gets hurts at virtually any other spot on the field your most versatile glove is tied up in the DH spot and unavailable to sub in unless you want your pitchers batting for the rest of the game. Look, maybe Washington has done this on a semi-regular basis - I don't see enough Texas games during the reg season to know - but it just struck me as odd when I saw the lineup several hours before the game and then that oddity re-entered my mind the second Napoli threw that ball away ... although Sir Albert did kind of make it all academic in the end.

Yeah Tony, better change pitchers now. Never know when that eight run lead might just disappear on you.

[u:1ob2fpaa]GAME 3[/u:1ob2fpaa] So now that the Texas defense is falling apart just like the Brewer D did (with some help from the ump at 1st) is anyone besides me surprised that Ron Washington went with their usual catcher Napoli at 1st and all-purpose IFer Young at DH instead of the other way around?

Rodriguez Acosta Beato Isringhausen Parnell

Pujols also got prickly with the NY media back in '06 IIRC. Sherman's got a piece in today's NYPost about how incidents like this/these show Albert to be unsuitable for NYC should he follow through on this FA stuff ... at least that's what the headline implies it's about seeing as how I didn't read it on account of my being turned off by NY media types writing articles about how tough it is to survive the NY media. At some point they're no longer writing about the subject but about themselves.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: While I won't miss the Mo Zone either, I think I'll be most glad to see the end of the orange home run line that takes an arbitrary 90-degree turn. Yeah, given the choice between changing the LF area or the RF I'd go with the LF first. I have no particular beef with a far wall or a high wall - the problem with that one is that it's both. Plus I hate home-run lines, those are just asking for trouble.

Ceetar wrote: good job by Rubin, repeating the exact same information that was rumored a month ago, and misrepresenting where Wright hits his home runs. Yeah, you're right. He should have ignored this info entirely and not said anything.

GT sounds like my kind of baseball fan.

attgig wrote: Benjamin Grimm wrote: I think that will soon take care of itself. When I was in Japan in 2006 I noticed that many of the younger locals spoke English. Not only those that I'd normally encounter as a tourist (in hotels and restaurants) but also those I'd meet on the street. In Japan, English has become part of the high school curriculum. English has been in school curriculum (i think it starts earlier than hs actually) in japan, korea, and taiwan i believe. but i know i took 4 years of spanish in highschool, but i can't really carry on a conversation. i don't think by the time they make it to america that they would really be able to speak it that well... what they should do is ditch the translator so that they're forced to learn rather than always having a crutch. it would suck at first, but it would take less time for them to pick it up.. Complicated by the fact that these are ballplayers we're talking about and not necessarily the best students. Whenever this subject gets brought up it brings to mind my brother's HS friend who wound up in Japan teaching English. Now Jimmy S is a good guy and all but he has the classic NY/Italian accent and I always imagine his Japanese students speaking English like extras from a Scorcese mob film.

Yeah, I'm sure every org does. They also start teaching their Spanish signees English real early on, if for no other reason than the fear that if the first english words they learn are "Supersize it" they'll eat their way out of a career before it ever gets started. The difference in Asian players is that most of them are coming over as older and fully-formed players so you don't have the lead time to break them in. Also the numbers are so comparatively small (and languages and dialects many) that it's not nearly as cheap and easy.

TransMonk wrote: Holey jeans, Batman! I wonder if they got those matching duds (at probably $115 per) in the pre-distressed section of the 'Mommy & Me' jeans store on the upper west side. "Look son, we'll get you a pair that are torn in the same place as mine so now we can both pretend we're not part of the 1% that all those unwashed people downtown are complaining about"

Lance Lynn? Seriously, it's like they forgot to pat down Genius at the postseason gate, and he snuck in, like, five extra random relievers in his coat pockets. Lancelot Lynn: Secret Reliever

Well this makes the weekend games more interesting. Woulda sucked the other way unless you're ga-ga for the Cards

Good thing Washington took that bunt off. In comes Authur Lee (Colossus of) Rhodes

Mike Adams* - 2006 Norfolk Tide - in for Texas * Got him in May of that year from Milwaukee in a deal for (the late) Geremi Gonzalez, then lost him on waivers to Cleveland a few weeks later

My main memory of that series is that we shouldn't hit them a lot better than we did. Not only was that staff not all that good but it looked perfectly suited for a lefty-heavy lineup of Mets to tee off on.

So now that the Cards PH'd for their starter and have the lead, how many pitchers does Tony use to get through the rest of the game? - two - three - four - five - six or more (one is not an option)

Keith would be lecturing Michael Young for not getting off the base there after holding on the runner and into position to field that hopper by Punto. Young played his way into a backhand and couldn't make it.

G-Fafif wrote: Andrus-Kinsler: Beautiful. X 2

[u:2ktwa7yq]GAME 2[/u:2ktwa7yq] Colby Lewis vs Jamie Garcia (L)

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Here's to blowing up every stupid lefty-righty switch, extraneous hit-and-run, and delay-of-game tactic out of the Best Dugout In Baseball. This is growing unsettlingly NLCS-shaped at rapid speed. Results the same too. Cards only gave up 6 hits - and used 6 pitchers to do so. The 5 relievers got 9 outs while giving up 1 hit and 1 walk (to the 2nd & 3rd batters they faced). The last 4 relievers got the final 8 Texas batters in a row (1, 1, 2, and 3). Starting to smell a bit like the '96 Yanx: a bunch of not very heralded middle relievers who suddenly turn virtually perfect when needed.