Frayed Knot

It was about time we gave that pitcher an Aneuryism. Getting no-hit (even for half-games) by guys with 5.50 ERAs suxx

Nice of Capuano to get out of that w/o more than one run ... although retiring just 3 of the first 8 hitters isn't exactly a good sign.

Jose Reyes, ss Josh Thole, c David Wright, 3b Carlos Beltran, rf Jason Bay, lf Daniel Murphy, 1b Justin Turner, 2b Jason Pridie, cf Chris Capuano, lhp Need this one just to finish the year vs Houston at 3-3 - also need it for our psyche. It's also my first IGT of the season so they better not fuck it up!

So I was liking the three separate set-ups and all, and then when they all came together .... what exactly? He does a reading for the kid even though he doesn't want to because he feels sorry for him standing outside all that time; then he meets the woman because he sees?/imagines? a future with her (seems like he acquired a new set of power suddenly) on account of I guess that he can tell her something about what she experienced or maybe that he liked the first chapter or two of her book he picked up just hours earlier? And for her I guess that letter he jotted down on the fly to her must have had a helluva punch. Better set-up than pay-off.

Edgy DC wrote: Didn't make much sense to me. I don't know what happens to me, but a lot of times in sci-fi/fantasy, we get to the climax, and I have no idea what's going on. I mean I know who the good guy and the bad guy are but I don't understand what they're doing and why. I was like that on whichever one of the Batman movies I saw (the Heath Ledger one - I have no idea what it was called).

The only post-game quotes I heard were Posada claiming he needed the time to "clear his head".. When a follow-up asked if this one game accomplished that he added something along the lines of, 'no, I'm going to need more time'. OK this could get interesting. Not least of which because between the DH spot and the Yanx carrying 13 pitchers Girardi starts the game with just 3 bench players: Posada, the backup IFer whathisname, plus and Cervelli the backup catcher.

metirish wrote: Never heard of him...... You will. Big article on him in the NYTimes (last Sunday I think) which is how I happened to know the answer - although I missed out on all the exciting prizes for knowing such on account of how I wasn't on line at the right time.

... about something. Slated to hit 9th in today's lineup, Posada told reporters prior to the game that he wasn't mad about it and how he realized that his hitting put himself in that position. But then he went into Girardi's office about an hour before first pitch and told him he wasn't ready to play. "There's no injury" involved is about all Cashman will say. Apparently Posada will have something to say after the game. Speculation ranges from a retirement announcement (and walk out on $13 mil - not bloody likely) to a suspension from the team for refusing to play, to the team taking steps to terminate his contact unless this mini-strike ends.

Misch - 1.2 Rodriguez - 0.9 Wright - 2.2 Martinez - 2.0 Bay - 1.4 Reyes - 0.3 Turner - 1.0 Pridie - 1.0

His first year here was an off year for him for whatever reason so he didn't get off to a great start. And of course in the two most recent seasons he's been a hobbled version of himself which barely added up to one complete season. Add those to the fact that he was pre-written off for this year by many and it's logical to take the view that the team didn't and won't get their money's worth with him. But in the three seasons in between all he did was average .278/.372/.537 while totaling 101 HRs and 221 XBHs while playing a terrific CF - and during that time there was still only a slight slackening in the drumbeat that the team would somehow be better off without him. "Geez", I'd hear, "if only we could trick Boston into giving us Jacoby Ellsbury for him ... maybe if we added a couple prospects to the deal". Joe Benigno, in particular, never mentioned his name without also trying to figure a way to run him out of town. Even throwing in the strikeout against Wainwright (like that was the reason we lost) I've never been able to get my head around the depth of the anti-Beltran faction.

Wallace was dead there in the 9th if he tried to go so it was the right call. But that [crossout:3l0wr11o]1st[/crossout:3l0wr11o] 2nd inning decision was atrocious. No one out and you're sending Carlos Lee?@?@?!?!?!

Very nice win - especially after things looked lifeless for about 6 innings there - and maybe the start to a nice weekend. Tied the Nats for 4th and within 2 games of Atlanta. The Fartinez HR was really the big moment even though Wright's was the eventual game-winner. My KTE contributions called the Bay HR (the first of several this weekend) although Lee is still making unexpectedly good catches against us which I swore were a thing of the past.

metirish wrote: How about the Indians ... did anyone see that coming? Know won !! 3:35 is the time on the Yanx/Sawx game in case anyone bet the over/under

Pridie's not getting a ton of hits, but he sure is making 'em count.

Bahston holds on to win 5-4 Verlander carried a no-no into the 6th then had to settle for a 2-hit shutout (8 innings his, 1 inning relief) Atlanta leaves the tying run on base and lose 6-5 to Philly

- The rest of the NLEast gets to beat each other up while we clean up in Houston. Nats host the Marlins (Volstad v Gorzelanny) -- Phils visit the Braves (Hamels v Beachy) - Justin Verlander takes his shot at 'The Vander Meer' at home vs the Royals - And the network sports geeks pretend to pay attention to baseball for a few days anyway as the Yanx host the Sawx. Buchholz vs Colon start things off. MLBN shows the game to the nation tonight; FOX-TV gets the exclusive on Saturday [u:2q380g8t]NIght[/u:2q380g8t]; and ESPN takes the ball on Sunday. The Sox come in to da Bronx 3 games under .500 while the Yanx find themselves in 2nd place after taking it on the chin from the Royals. Meanwhile, the Rays have very quietly completed a long slog from their 0-6 start and slipped into 1st as of yesterday by taking 2 of 3 from the red-hot Indians.

Ashie62 wrote: Had a combined 2007 of a sick 26 HR 105 RBI .337 OPS 1.001..then to dust. Much of that looks like it came while playing high-A ball in the notoriously hitter-friendly California League. A promotion to AA and with it a trip back east and out of the high desert sure put a damper on things.

seawolf17 wrote: One of the forgotten baseball greats, methinks, because of when/where he played. Kinda overshadowed by everybody. I never immediately think of him when I think of the Greats, but he's in the discussion. Also was never the complete player that some of the guys he overlapped with were. Mays, Mantle, & Aaron were, of course, a few notches above, but also the likes of Frank Robinson, Kaline, Banks and others. He could slug with any of them but just wasn't the runner, defensive player compared with the real elite class. He didn't go un-noticed by the folks at the time though: One MVP plus five other top fives in a nine year span.

Mark Melancon was one of those Yanqui pitchers destined to win about 15 Cy Youngs acc to various unbiased (cough ... Suzyn Waldman) sources. He was "the future" before Joba was and before Ian Kennedy was and before Phil Hughes was. And, while on the subject of Astros traded for Melancon, how about the start Berkman is off to in Saint Louie! He not only looked D-O-N-E with the Yanx but in his previous season or two with Houston too. I don't mean totally done, but I was surprised to see him even offered a full-time job by a decent team and assumed he'd have played his way out of one already. Instead he's .357/.444/.705 with 10 HRs and nearly half (19 of 40) his hits going for extra-bases. Hunter Pence has some talent but he's given to dopey mistakes at times and both looks and plays like some un-tamed colt. The way he swings, the way he runs, the way he throws, everything, has that 'I'm not quite in control of all my limbs' sense to it. The guy doing a preview in the Astros site suggests that a Hunter bobblehead give-away should have not only the head bobbling but its arms and legs too.

Playfully derided as "The Fat Kid" among some of the characters in 'Ball Four', the 5' 11" (and that might be kind) Killebrew represented Mutt to to the 6' 8" Frank Howard's Jeff when those two were the premier power duo in the AL in the era following Mantle's demise. If you were a National League fan in those days of limited TV coverage, the raw power those two threatened was a big part of why you'd tune in to the All-Star game. Fans of a certain age will long remember the split he did in one ASG as he stretched for a throw at 1st; tore a hamstring doing so and missed a ton of time afterward.

Carlos Lee is the Astros' LFer and he's just really awful at this point. Oh, he can still hit a few jacks now and then, but he's currently raking to a tune of .229/.268/.366; IOW, low average, few walks, and only occasional power from a guy who plays a power position in a home stadium where the only LF walls that are closer are covered with the name of the local Carvel so as to cue all the players where to bug their parents to take them after the game. Lee is listed at 265 lbs but the team is probably just reprinting that figure each year the way American men of a certain era reflexively quoted the weight from their army induction physicals long after that figure was closer to their belt size than actual poundage. Meanwhile I seem to remember him making two fairly nice catches against us in the earlier series - at least one with several on base that probably saved the game for them - but since those two represent at least one nice catch over his usual seasonal total we can pretty much count on that not happening again. The aforementioned small left field in Orange Juice Park is perfect for him though since he has the range of a lawn gnome. In fact, the LF is so small there that OUR left fielder is going to hit multiple HRs this weekend. You heard it here first.

I'm having a hard time buying the idea that whatever the Mets do, or don't, pay for a closer in 2012 is going to be the make or break factor in whether they sign Jose Reyes for the next 6 or 7 seasons or whether the Wilpons are able to hold onto the team.

Any time you chalk up nine runs on just six hits you're getting some breaks along the way. Yesterday those breaks came in the form of walks - nine altogether including six by Ubaldo who was just turrible. Stuff like a lead-off walk to Niese in one inning and later on the two-out/two-on walk to Niese which led to Reyes's 2 RBI single were absolute gifts. smg58 wrote: A nice win. I think it's clear that Beltran is all the way back with the bat, and from the small bits I've seen of the games he looks to be running better now than he was in April. He's certainly trotting better.

Niese - 1.0 Buchholz - 0.2 Isringhause - 0.2 Rodriguez - 0.2 Beltran - 6.0 Harris - 1.4 Reyes - 1.0

Nice if Izzy to dance out of things there, but what he did was to bring CarGo and Tulo around again in the 9th