Frayed Knot

Ashie62 wrote: G-Fafif wrote: Second feed of the night just disappeared. Fuck Cablevision, fuck Fox, fuck Selig. Fuck, Cablevision, Fox, Selig, the World Series and baseball. I could care less. Football blows baseball away. Good thing football isn't on FOX ... oh wait!

O'Connor is probably figuring that asking for apologies a decade-and-a-half after the fact worked so well for Ginni Thomas last week that he'd jump on that train too.

Thanks, I forgot the Knicks season started tonight. I have never heard of John Legend. Is that his real last name? No, Wikipedia says it's a stage name. Apparently he figured that: John Greatest Guy in the Whole Fucking World was far too long for marquees so he went with Legend instead. Will Smith played him in the movies.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Yeow! That's 7 earnies for Lee in 4.2! Rout is on. Only 6 earned actually. One of the 3rd inning runs was UE due to that Young error which started the 3rd. And now the Rangers are fighting back with a bunch of 2-out runs of their own. Lee doesn't survive the 5th and Lincecum gets yanked before finishing the 6th

Lefty Specialist wrote: YES! It only took them until the 5th inning to mention that Elvis Andrus patterned himself after.................Derek Jeter. They just can't stay away. There's got to be some drinking games or pools going on based on whether Jeter gets mentioned in each of the games of this series.

It just kind of keeps with the Phillips philosophy that only the best prospects were worth protecting and anyone else not on the verge of helping the major league club were just chips to be swapped according to need without a second thought. No distinction ever seemed to be made among those type of lower-level kids as to which ones were more likely to maybe break through one day. More often than not you'll get away without getting burned by those deals but not paying attention to the progress of Jason Bay cost them and various stories (later confirmed by then-Jays assistant Keith Law) had Phillips offering up the Single-A version of David Wright.

Remaining teams needing managers: Milwaukee -- Bobby? and if not him have already interviewed several others including Joey Cora & Bob Melvin Marlins -- I'm assuming they're likely to re-hire their interim from last season Rangers -- Almost certain to re-up Mr. Washington Yanx -- Will have Girardi re-signed before the week is out ... which leaves the Mets & Pittsburgh to fight it out over whoever is remaining.

Yanx & Girardi near a three-year deal acc. to various sources. Total contract value expected to be between 9 & 10 mil - which is interesting only in the way it might affect the Valentine/Brewers negotiations. Can Bobby realistically - after being out MLB for so long - expect higher pay than one coming off two straight playoff appearances including one championship, and is Milwaukee the type of team that would pay it? That's all assuming the reports of his demands in the neighborhood of 3/10 are accurate.

Edgy DC wrote: And that's a post-season chock full of excellent pitching. Plus Yanqui games.

According to a source inside the Milwaukee Brewers organization, the team has agreed in principle with former Mets manager Bobby Valentine to become the teams next manager. Now the two sides must finalize a contract agreement. The source says Valentine is looking for $10-million over 3-years which may or may not throw a wrench into the deal.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Even in a down year, he was th fifth-most-valuabl reg'lar shortstop in the AL last year. In part because the good SS were all in the NL this past year. Taking those with 300+ PAs and sorted by OPS, the top Seven were NLers, followed by Alexi Ramirez for the ChiSox and then Alex Gonzalez who split his time in both leagues. Jeter came in 13th behind Jamie Carroll and JJ Hardy and just ahead of Jhonny Peralta.

In the WS, there is 2 and a half minutes between innings instead of the usual 2 minutes for national broadcasts of regular season games and 90 seconds for local broadcasts of regular season games. It's actually 2:05 between innings for reg season games, 2:25 for nationally televised games (FOX Sat & ESPN Sunday), and 2:55 for the post-season. That's partly why just 7 of the 27 post-season games this year finished in under 3 hours (Posada is the next biggest reason) 7 more were between 3:00 and 3:15, leaving 13 which took 3:16 or longer including 6 that clocked in at 3:45+ (1 of those was extra innings)

I guess the fireworks are hailing over little Eden tonight ... er, this morning, whenever.

Jon Heyman tweets: * #mets are hiring with alderson as gm, sources say. (9 minutes ago) * #mets went with the chalk. alderson getting the call is tough to dispute. announcement could be friday. alderson gives mets instant added credibility. (6 minutes ago) * will be shocked if alderson hires wally back as manager. will show right away he isnt running things, and i dont see him doing that. (1 minute ago)

So that would set the Yanx back approx $50mil for just Jeter & ARod in the season (2014) they turn 40 & 39. COOL !!! Beyond that, [u:1xrn799w]with no decline[/u:1xrn799w] in either effectiveness or playing time, Jeter ends that contract at 40-1/2 y/o and 3,600 hits.

seawolf17 wrote: Not for nothing, but Jeter DOES print money for the Yanks. They'll pay him $23 million a year and he'll be entirely worth it on the back end, even if he hits .180. It's not like Yanx fans are going to suddenly stop showing up the minute he's gone. Oh a handful will, but if they stay a good team despite - or even because - he's no longer there in his fading years (and, say, Hanley Ramirez is) the fans will still come and they'll still print money. Obviously he is worth something to them over & above market value for what he provides which is the part that makes this so interesting. How much and for how long is that good will worth?

Edgy DC wrote: He's going to get his 3,000th hit this season. With a healthy dose of good luck and the DH available to them, he's young enough to make a run at 4,000 and the all-time record. That's too much for a smug publicity machine to give up, and they'll pay through the nose for him. For 4,000 he'll need next season (when he turns 37 mid-year) and then five more maintaining his 2010 hit pace. He's then 42 and two full-ish seasons away from catching Rose. I certainly don't think they give him a deal for that many years in one chunk.

O'Connor's sometimes over-the-top analogies aside, he's right in that this will be one of the more interesting contract discussions in recent memory and he hits on the factors why. Age, ego, the economy, 'branding', good-will and other pr components are all going to play a role above and beyond the usual laws of supply & demand and perhaps the most interesting thing is the question of who gets hurt more if it comes down to either side holding to their particular number and walking away.

Once again I'm amazed. Not by the stuff in the article but by the the fact that someone takes the time to both remember and find a nearly year-old thread. It always fascinates me when that happens. As far as the topic, the only playoff expansion I'd like to see would be a double wild card situation where the two WCs would have to survive a one-game 'Play-in' round for the right to join the three division winners. This accomplishes several things: - Makes winning the division a HUGE advantage over merely qualifying as the next best record. At least one division "race" each year isn't a race at all because the loser knows there's little downside to losing. This year it was the AL East. - Puts the WC survivor at enough of a disadvantage (extra game, 50/50 shot at even advancing, less rest, burning of their best pitcher most likely) so that this silliness over worrying about how to rig home field advantage is lessened. If you're going to let non-winners into your playoffs you're going to have to accept the idea that they're allowed to win also. Besides, home teams lost some 60% of the post-season games this year so far anyway; it's pretty much a phony advantage. - Allows one more team to "be in it" and probably more than that who have a shot at it down the stretch but does so without having to extend the post-season (what, it's not long enough?) or cut down the regular schedule.

RE: Wilson -- Nothing like proclaiming your intention to keep your body "poison free" ... and then celebrate and announce that credo by injecting ink into your skin.

I can't decide if Josh Hamilton is a douche or not. He looks like a douche, but everytime I see him in an interview, it seems like he may be have a rare case of looking like a douche but not actually being one. Maybe the best explanation is that he's a drug-induced douche. The story is that, during some downtime he had while injured as a minor leaguer and not always with his team, he started hanging around a group who hung around a tattoo parlor (always the highest class crowd). It was then that he - at least according to his version of things - got drunk for the first time, got his first tattoo, and first tried cocaine - all on the same night. Prior to that he had apparently been a pretty straight arrow; after that it was a pretty rapid downward spiral. The tattoos eventually numbered over two dozen (helping to explain the 'looks like a douche' part) and, between the physical rehab, the drug rehab, the suspensions, the bottoming out and the recovery(s), it was four more years before he had another professional AB.

I'm guessing that the actual (or at least planned) 1st pitch is going to be 7:57 for those 7:30 times (FOX seems to like that '3 minutes of' slot), 6:57 on the Saturday, and 8:07 on Sunday I was close. The Sunday 1st pitch time is 8:20, the rest of my guesses were correct. Not sure why later starts on Sunday nights are considered in fashion these days. It used to be that things were shifted an hour earlier on Sundays as the so-called 'Prime Time' hours began at 7PM as compared to 8 on every other day.

Willets Point wrote: Is anyone else flabbergasted that game 3 is starting at 6:30 (which is 5:30 local time)? There could be daylight at a World Series game in the first time in forever. I'm hoping these start times are actually for first pitch and not just when FOX pregame coverage begins. Those are pre-game coverage times I'm sure. Still, that Saturday start will still be prior to 7PM which is the earliest in years. I'm guessing that the actual (or at least planned) 1st pitch is going to be 7:57 for those 7:30 times (FOX seems to like that '3 minutes of' slot), 6:57 on the Saturday, and 8:07 on Sunday

I'm actually excited about the World Series for the first time in a couple of years. According to the mainstream sports media, you're the only one. Everything I heard about baseball today involved virtually nothing the games or teams and was instead all about the "fact" that no one is going to care and about how FOX execs are ready to slit their wrists due to a lack of NE teams in general and the Yanx in particular. That history doesn't bear out this theory at all doesn't seem to faze the commentators. Regional World Series tend to over-saturate that one area and shut out the rest of the country and the fact that THEY don't know or care about the Rangers & Giants seems to put them in the mindset that no one else does either. Can someone remind me what the rationale behind switching the opening day of the WS from Saturday to Wednesday a few years ago was? Why would MLB want to go up against Monday Night Football? It's more about avoiding having four games on the traditionally dead for TV weekend nights. The theory is that momentum builds over the course of a 7-game series but, in recent years, the 4-game sweeps (98, 99, 04, 05, 07) and 5-game near sweeps have killed momentum and you never got to the 2nd weekend anyway. By starting mid-week, they hope to build interest heading into the weekend and, if it's still going towards game 6 & 7, put the theoretically most exciting games in the traditionally stronger viewing nights with little competition from other sports. Next year's reg season sked has been altered to reflect this change (Friday opening day and mid-week close) which is designed to flow into this new post-season sked with fewer of these built-in off-days that have crept into these past two years.

The opening line from Mushnick's column today: First things first: Before the Yankees can make roster changes, ownership must decide whether to bring back Mike Francesa as general manager and manager, no?