Frayed Knot

Igarashi - 1.0 Dessens - 0.5 Reyes - 2.0 Duda - 1.7 Pagan - 1.1 Wright - 2.0 Carter - 1.1 Nickeas - 0.5

Best the Mets can now finish in an overall rank of teams is 15th - not the spot you want to be in if FA signings are in your mind as falling one more spot will drop the draft pick you'd lose some 40 spots. 1 Met loss (or rain-out) and/or 1 Detroit win drops them to 16th. Are also tied with both Florida and Oakland and a game in back of the LAAs & the LADs

Tuned in to see if Luis Gonzalez's hit fell over the infield again. It did.

Why are we getting shut-out by Dave Bush?

Nice "cheat" by Ike at 1st to get the front end of the DP

Seems to me that we've had a bunch of games like this this year, games where we've 'gotten to' their good pitcher only to have our starter or the pen (or both) have an even worse day at the same time. It's probably happened less often than I think, but I know there were two Halladay games that fit. Very frustrating.

Niese has been killed by the 'One Big Inning' syndrome. And, no, it's not just that it seems that way to us. Today was his 6th time this season allowing an inning of 5 or more runs, the most in MLB this year.

Chris Carter is not a major league outfielder. And if you are going to use him there out of necessity keep him the hell out of Right. I think Bengy Molina could go 1st to 3rd on a one-hop liner to C.C.

With the Rox now dead -- that's what happens boys when you follow your 10 straight wins with a 4-10 stretch -- it's down three teams for two spots in the NL. Atlanta: 89-69 -- 4 games left: home vs Florida this afternoon then 3 home vs Philly Realistically they've got the best chance for the WC. To start with they've got a 1.5 game lead over SD plus SF & SD play each other for their final three games and the Braves have only to outlast one of them. But whatever they do they're going to have to do so without Martin Prado who was lost for the rest of the reg season AND post-season with a torn oblique muscle. San Fran -- 89-68 -- 5 games left: 2 hosting Arizona then 3 hosting SD A 2.0 game lead in the West, probably two wins in the final five would get them in as long as at least one is against the Padres Have held their opponent to 3 runs or less in 19 of the last 20 San Diego -- 87-70 -- 5 games left: 2 hosting Chicago, then 3 at SF Probably need both against the Cubs plus at least two from the Giants - and even then they might need help Other than that everything else is already decided except for the vastly overblown 'positioning' questions. - Philly has the #1 seed sewn up in the NL - In the AL, Minny is stumbling in the race for best record but is probably more worried about the health of Mauer & Morneau. - Texas is almost certainly 3rd ranked of the four but also has more immediate concerns with Josh Hamilton's ribs. - Which leaves the Yanx/Rays as the most interesting non-race race because the winner/loser probably means 1st seed vs 4th. Plus there's that whole humiliation factor thing we all love so much. Most YLDBs still haven't reconciled themselves to the fact that they actually have to stoop to pay attention to the likes of Tampa Bay much less lose the division to them. Yanx have one more in Toronto then finish with three in Fenway. Rays and their half-game buffer host Baltimore today in front of lots of trucked-in fans and then go to KC for four.

Pelfrey - 3.0 Tejada - 2.4 PFeliciano - 0.3 Dessens - 0.5 Wright - 1.8 Davis - 1.0 Thole - 0.5 Duda - 0.3 Carter - 0.2

As both TB & NYY win Courtesy of Jay Bruce's HR

Reds clinch on a walk-off 9th inning HR by Jay Bruce to beat Houston.

Interesting - and ultimately correct - PR move by Jerry to run for Thole as the winning card and not for Davis as the tying run.

And all I'm saying is that Thole has a greater margin for error simply based on the position. My CAHNfindence in Murph was always tempered by the level of offense needed for his position just to be middle of the pack.

SHUT UP FRAYED !!!!!

Now HERE I wouldn't mind seeing a bunt.

He (Thole) is also at a position where offensive matters a whole lot less than it did with Muffy either at 1B or in LF. If he merely matches what he's been doing over the last (his first) 250 or so ABs in the majors then he's if not a true #1 then at least a 1A.

OK, who's doing more silly L/R switching, Jerry or Macha?

I went with option B - #1 until (or unless) we find a better one. I'm not totally sold on him being an everyday guy but I am getting there quickly. His defense, in particular, has taken giant leaps since we first saw him in mid-2009 and the more he hits ML pitching the more he shows us that his BA & OBA skills aren't a fluke.

A Boy Named Seo wrote: Is Ken Burns very sexy for Jeter? This thing sez he luvs the BoSox. The Irishman is pulling your chain a bit, although reportedly the 'tenth inning' is very NE-centric, or at least most of it that's not concentrating on the strike and steroid issues. And as much as the rest of the country will complain about (yet more) east coast bias, it is kind of justifiable. Ripken, the Yanx late-90s run, 9/11, the Boston miracle and its sequel, etc., were the biggest stories and all happened to happen mostly on the east coast. The '50s edition was almost entirely about baseball in NYC too. It's been 12 or 13 years since I saw the original, but I liked it. The orig ran in 1994 running, though not intentionally, during the strike.

If you just wont to look at offense and compare him to other NL 1Bs w/more than 400 PAs, Ike lands 9th of 16 in RC/27 (Runs Created per game) Votto (9.49) - Pujols - A Gonzalez - Fielder - Huff - Dunn - Howard - G Sanchez ** IKE (5.54) ** LaRoche - Helton - Glaus - Loney - Lee - Cantu - G Jones (4.17) Not bad for a rookie with less than 300 PAs in the upper minors who was called up probably a half-season before things were planned. The hope is that he improves with time and increased ABs rather than stalling out there. His strong finish following a mid-season swoon/adjustment period could be read as a positive sign of that. And, yeah, the glove helps too.

IIRC the club released a statement that day - either prior to the game or at some point during the early innings - that neither Hernandez nor Carter would be offered contracts that winter. Not that that had anything to do with the fight and I'm sure the statement was not news to either Keith or Gary, but it must have made for an interesting last day.

Tippi's daughter can't act either, nor is she as hot as mom was in her day.

Andy McCullough writes in the Ledger today how to fix the Mets. http://www.nj.com/mets/index.ssf/2010/09/better_drafting_support_of_dav.html I love proposed "solutions" that essentially say the way to get better is: 'Get better players'. Gee thanks, Ace. Aside from the (by now common) stuff about potential front office-v-ownership conflict there's little there that's unique to the Mets. And also I could swear that the NYM minor league system ranked a lot higher than 25th in BA this past year as this guy claims. It wasn't real high on the list IIRC but more up around middle of the pack. Besides, who DOESN'T want more young/cheap players from their system and the one that saw either the introductions or graduations to full-time status the probable 2011 starting 1B & C (Thole & Davis), possibly 2/5th of the rotation (Niese & Mejia), and maybe even a solid bullpen man (Parnell) and starting 2B just in one season can't be dumped on too much.

Teams that finish 16th to 30th in regular season record get their 1st round draft pick protected. Teams finishing in the top 15 do not. Mets are currently 18th in number of wins and are within a game of both Florida and Oakland. In order to "unprotect" their pick they'd have to catch both those teams plus at least one of StL, Toronto, or Detroit who are all 4 games ahead. In cases of tied records the team picking first would be the one with the worse record last season so, since only the Nats, Pirates, Orioles, Royals, Indians & DBacks finished below the Mets last year and all are going to do so again this season, any potential ties would result in the Mets getting the earlier (more protected) pick. Looks like Pittsburgh, Seattle, Baltimore, KC, and Arizona (probably in that order) for the top five picks next June.