Frayed Knot

HahnSolo wrote: Willets Point wrote: Considering this I think that North American sports leagues should give an award to the teams with the best regular season record that would be considered an honor equivalent to winning the post-season tournament. In baseball, this would mean that the team with the best regular season record would win the Pennant rather than the team that qualifies for the World Series. (Retrospectively, the Mets would lose their 1973 & 2000 pennants, but gain pennants for 1988 & 2006 so it's all square). I think the NHL does this. Yet there's not a single NHL player who would ever cherish that more than the Stanley Cup. Especially since the President's Cup was basically an afterthought; an award made-up relatively recently (20 years?) for the sole purpose of pretending that finishing with the best record in a league where the best teams rarely survive the 10 week playoff scramble actually counts for something.

Jefry Marte - one of those prospects we've seemingly been hearing about for a while even though he's yet to reach drinking age - had a good enough week in Pt St Lucie to attract BA's notice. #13 on this week's 'Hot List'. 9 hits and 3 HRs in a week will do that. Team: High Class A St. Lucie (Florida State) Age: 19 Why He's Here: .409/.481/.864 (9-for-22), 3 HR, 1 2B, 8 RBIs, 7 R, 4 BB, 6 SO The Scoop: St. Lucie has jumped off to a Florida State League-best 13-2 record and they've done so with some of the Mets' finest prospects. Righthanders Matt Harvey and Jeurys Familia have given up a total of three runs in six starts, while the offense features shortstop Wilmer Flores and right fielder Cesar Puello, the system's Nos. 2 an 3 prospects who both appear to be shaking off the rust early in the season. The same is not true of Marte, who paces the St. Lucie attack with a .340 average (17-for-50), eight walks, three home runs and 10 RBIs. Marte spent last season playing in the shadow of Flores and Puello with low Class A Savannah, but he appears to be completely healthy this season as he makes up for a so-so 2010 campaign (.264/.333/.401, six homers in 82 games).

Holt gets hisself on this week's edition of BA's 'Hot List' - as #8 Team: Double-A Binghamton (Eastern) Age: 24 Why He's Here: 0-0, 1.29, 2 GS, 13 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 11 SO, 3 BB, 19/4 G/F The Scoop: In his third try at Double-A, Holt isn't out of the woods yet. But he's off and running after allowing two runs through three starts. He flashed good stuff last year, but a combination of injuries, mechanical issues and lack of focus produced dreadful results (3-14, 8.34, 2.00 WHIP, 7.5 walks per nine innings). Through the early going this season, Holt is throwing his pitches for strikes, getting swings and misses, inducing grounders and generally living up to his No. 3 starter potential.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: First blot on the credibility of J.P. Riccardi. Hopefully the second one will be a long time in coming. Hard to call a two-week trial of a Rule 5 guy to be a "blot". We needed a 2Bman (or at least badly wanted a replacement for the unpopular incumbent) and he was worth a shot. On-line discussions of the Rule 5 labeled Emaus as one of the better bets to stick. That he didn't is disappointing but hardly tragic. The majority of these guys never stick and fewer still emerge as stars.

metsmarathon wrote: i also think the current playoff scheduling is a farce. they should be playing 7 games in 8 days, not two weeks, or whatever it is. the playoffs should be as a continuation of the regular season in terms of pacing and scheduling. no modern pitcher should be getting three starts in a series with any semblance of his normal rest. THAT is the biggest problem. MLB (like virtually every sport except for The Masters) lets TV dictate their schedule instead of the other way around. Networks demand exclusivity and so extra days-off are inserted to keep concurrent series from even the possibility of conflict. The other is that the introduction of the WC teams in the first place meant for the first time that you had teams that were by definition inferior to actual division winners and so all those who claimed to be fans of the concept almost immediately started concocting ways that would prevent them from winning. For most that meant they instantly became slaves to the concept of home-field advantage to the point where not only that the WC couldn't have the edge but they couldn't have the edge at any point during a series. So 2-3 series became 2-2-1 and an extra travel day is suddenly involved.

Selig's always been a 'consensus' kind of leader as opposed to one who gets out in front of ideas, so history tells us that he wouldn't be floating this balloon in public unless he was reasonably sure he has the votes to make it happen. The only real suspense in my mind is whether this becomes a one-game deal or a best-of-three. I'd prefer one. On the concept of the dual WC teams in general: Advantages: - It gives a REAL edge and incentive to winning the division as opposed to the phony and barely existent (and therefore ridiculously over-rated) home-field edge. Division leaders with the WC as their backup couldn't just shift into cruise control unless and until they locked up the division, and non-leaders with the WC locked up would actually have a reason to want to catch the team ahead of them. The current system has produced several seasons where teams separated by a single game throw 6th starters backed by a bunch of call-ups on the season's final day because they don't care whether they win the race or not. - Moving forward, the WC survivor absolutely would be at a disadvantage for having just used its best pitcher either in the season's final game or in the one-game play-in while the division winners get a break. The question of how you use your pitchers even throws some interesting strategy into the works: Do you use your big guy on the final day trying to win the division and avoid the WC play-in?; do you not use him hoping to squeak by and have him either available for the play-in or rested for multiple starts in the LDS? Disadvantages: - There are no complaints that the season is too short ... and this doesn't make it any shorter. And please don't start with dusting off the 154 game schedule of the weekly DH solution; those are dead-on-arrival proposals. - There could be a wild disparity in the records of the two WC (like maybe a 95 win team vs an 87) which you're settling via a VERY short series, although this isn't any worse than having a potential wild disparity between a division winner and a WC team settled via a slightly longer series. - What happens if there's either a three-way tie among non-winners or simply a two-way tie for the 2nd WC spot? We'd then need a playoff to get to the playoff which would lead you to the real playoffs? And don't say it'll never happen because it eventually will and it would be just like MLB to say; 'well we never considered that possibility before putting in this "fix" ' (see: "fixed" playoff structure circa 1981). Not addressing it would almost guarantee it would happen the first year. - If it's a one-game play-in folks will scream about it being too short and too arbitrary. If it's best-of-three you're now into "travel" days both within and before/after that round meaning a delay of the LDS round by the better part of a week. Neither solution is going to make everyone happy. And maybe the biggest problem is that nearly two decades after first introducing the WC team into the post-season this is going to strike some as pulling the rug out from under them, as in you're not really a true playoff team anymore. They would have been much better off going with the double WC format right from the start. Now it's going to seem like they've "Pluto-ized" the best WC team.

There's nothing as meaningless as on-line 'Power Rankings'. That they've grown in all sports like kudzu over the last decade or so is truly a blight on this nation.

So do you think it's a coincidence that Braun's extension comes on Adolf Hitler's birthday? Y'know ... Braun & Hitler, Hitler & Braun. Thank you, I'll be here all week.

John Sickels on Brandon Wood: -- Everyone knows about former top prospect Brandon Wood being designated for assignment by the Los Angeles Angels this week. I think the move is necessary; he wasn't helping the team and he clearly needs a change of scenery to have any hope of living up to his former potential. Anyone who has seen Wood play over the last couple of years can diagnose his problems: his approach at the plate is completely fouled up, he alternates between being too passive and too aggressive (sometimes in the same at-bat), and his confidence is obviously shot. As awful as he's been, I'd still be willing to take a chance with him if I were another team. All the physical tools that made him a hot prospect are still there. He's a good defender at third base and can still play shortstop. And I've seen him, in person, in the minor leagues do the things he can't seem to do in the majors: control the strike zone decently and show power to all fields. Perhaps it really is some uncorrectable swing flaw that makes him an AAAA player, but there's at least some chance that the problem is entirely (or mostly) mental and a fresh team and different coaching staff can help him. We'll see.

A John Sickels write up of Matt Harvey - with accompanying ST video of him pitching against Wilmer Flores and an added bonus of a baby crying audio.

So, even though there's nothing official yet, we assume he's not only going to be activated today but also be in tonight's lineup. If so it'll be for the first time since last July 25th a date which was shortly after Beltran showed up for 2010. In fact, the quartet of Reyes, Wright, Beltran & Bay were all in the starting lineup for [u:2rk7rmiz]SIX[/u:2rk7rmiz] games last year. Not sure if it says anything that the team was 1-5 in those games. At this point I've sort of forgotten what he looks like.

Even before getting to the arguable premise about the upside of even a successful bunt, it's the (quite false) assumption of guaranteed success which has long been my main bone of contention with those who reflexively call for it in such situations. Then throw in the part about using it without consideration for where you are in the lineup and you have last night.

Other than the bunt stupidity, i'm unsure if I should be annoyed at Reyes. He's supposed to be well off the bag and ready to dash to second, with or without Thole bunting. It was a pretty damn quick bunt out and i'm not sure Reyes even had time to read that it was in the air and hesitate and get back. I obviously didn't see any replays though. The problem wasn't that Reyes was too far off the base, it was that, in seeing the 1B & P in front of him for the bunt, he never considered that the 2Bman might be sneaking in behind him and therefore didn't show any urgency to get back until he saw a throw coming his way at which point it was too late.

Just finished watching via tape-delay and I have one thing to say ... BIFFLE!!!! This shit would almost be comical if it wasn't so sorry. You almost have to try to get - what was it, 12? - hits with three of them being doubles plus a HR, plus a couple of walks, plus two SBs and still only manage to score three runs.

Ashie62 wrote: Edgy DC wrote: Biggest game ever. Since yesterday. And until tomorrow.

MLB will take over the Dodgers and appoint a group to oversee the day to day operations. This obviously stems from the problems arising from the acrimonious divorce involving the McCourts.

btw, the wimpy bot bounced the pitch. Time to take that thing back to the supermarket and collect the nickels for the scrap.

Gwreck wrote: Homer was by Polanco (Victorino had singled to put the second runner on base). I knew it was one of those short bald guys.

I think a larger pct of tickets now-a-days are sold via season tickets or partial season packages which could contribute to a gap between sold and used.

OK, and now it's 3-3 via a 3R HR by Shane Victorino

Years ago they separated the "Paid" and "actual" attendance because it mattered as to how the money was divided. And to further complicate things the AL figured their split with the visiting team based on tickets sold vs the NL which did so on bodies in attendance. The merging of the leagues under the Bud era standardized the two under the 'Paid' umbrella at which point the total number of warm bodies seemed to go out the window.

Now 3-0 bottom of 6. And not only is tis in Philly but this is from the same Brewers who are coming off being swept by the Natinals* All this is almost as good as Mariano's blown save last night. * O left out intentionally as a tribute to when they did so on the unis accidently last season

TransMonk wrote: True, Klap sucks, but it sounds like the story of Collins blowing up at Murph could be true. I'm sure it is true (cuz if he's faking that level of quotable knowledge he better turn in his journalistic creds) but -- a) it's deserved and I'm fine with it and it's not the same thing as assuming Collins is holding something over Murphy and would use it against him in PH spots. A manager who does that it hurting himself at least as much as the player. Terry has pretty much said 2B is a straight platoon situation so you assume Muffy is going to get about 2/3 of the starts at least for the time being. I write the PH last night off to a R/L move - something I wish he hadn't done but at the same time aren't going to attribute to even a temporary personal vendetta.

Niese - 2.2 Beato - 0.2 Buchholz - 0.2 Beltran - 1.5 Davis - 0.7 Pagan - 0.7

I didn't have a problem with the relief choice, though did with the PH choice. Two-on/two-out/down-two in the 7th could be your last best chance to get some runs and opting for Hu there over Muffy wasn't the way to go IMO. That smells of either over-playing lefty/righty or because he wanted to save him for later on, a later on which turned out not to matter.