Frayed Knot

The auction sale for the bankrupt Texas Rangers ended yesterday with a group led by Nolan Ryan beating out the one headed by Mark Cuban. http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100804&content_id=13024390&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb This has been a ridiculously under-reported story that's been bubbling up for the last few weeks; not just in the national press - most likely because it didn't involve anyone named LeBron, Brett, 'T.O.', or Ochocinco - but also the baseball media treated this very casually considering it not only involved the ownership of a first-place franchise but also had the possibility of turning real ugly. MLB openly favored the Ryan group and lawsuits were sure to fly if (as rumored) they were set to ignore the highest bid and take the 2nd one if the final results didn't go the way they wanted. But, in the end, the "right" group won and Cuban's boys seem to think they at least had a fair shake.

Takahashi - 0.5 Valdes - 0.5 Castillo - 2.0 Thole - 0.5

Dickey - 3.0 Acosta - 1.4 Rodriguez - 1.0 Francoeur - 1.8 Carter - 1.1 Reyes - 1.0 Castillo - 0.7

Santana - 1.0 Beltran - 2.0 Davis - 0.5 Castillo - 0.5 Blanco - 0.5 Carter - 0.5 Reyes - 0.5 Pagan - 0.5

Checking out the 500-club for the first time in a long while: - 25 members now. When I first learned it there were four Four? That surprises me. I guess you're more than a couple of years older than me. I just looked it up, and the fifth player to hit his 500th home run was Willie Mays, on 09/13/1965. (The first four were Ruth, Foxx, Ott, and Williams.) By the time that I first started paying attention, in 1971, the list was up to nine, with the additions of Mantle, Mathews, Aaron, and Banks. During the 1971 season, Frank Robinson and Harmon Killebrew hit their 500ths, but I have no memory of being aware of it. I was a baseball nerd at a very young age. Not that I have a specific memory of Mays hitting his 500th, although I do remember when Denny McLain served up - and we do mean served up - #535 to Mantle so he'd pass Foxx. I also would have had trouble pegging the order of many of those guys, a thought which sent me into some research. So, in order of HR #500 NAME500thTOTALRUTHAug 11, 1929714FOXXSep 24, 1940534OTTAug 1, 1945511WILLIAMSJun 17, 1960521MAYSSep 13, 1965660MANTLEMay 14, 1967536MATHEWSJun 14, 1967521AARONJul 14, 1968755BANKSMay 12, 1970512KILLEBREWAug 10, 1971573ROBINSONSep 13, 1971586McCOVEYJun 30, 1978521JACKSONSep 17, 1984563SCHMIDTApr 18, 1987548MURRAYSep 6, 1996504McGWIREAug 5, 1999583BONDSApr 17, 2001762SOSAApr 4, 2003609PALMIEROMay 11, 2003569GRIFFEYJun 20, 2004630THOMASJun 28, 2007521RODRIGUEZAug 4, 2007600THOMESep 16, 2007577RAMIREZMay 31, 2008554SHEFFIELDApr 17, 2009509 Huge 15 year gap between Ott & Williams. Biggest one since was the nearly 10 years after Schmidt and before Murray. Been a year and a half since the last new inductee and looks like it'll be at least a 4 year gap until the next one.

No sense in ending the game with more hits than errors. Where's the fun in that?

Not sure what's worse here; - that Pelfrey seemingly pitched around everyone EXCEPT the guy with multiple XBHs off him, - that he then hit the next dude - or that the Braves were forced by injury to bring in their third best LHP and the heart of our lineup has two broken-bat infield outs and two pop fouls off him

That Pelfrey has given up 5 hits while retiring only 4 batter so far is certainly disturbing. The GiDP & pickoff have bailed him out.

The statement issued by one of the Steinbrenner boys was almost as comical. It congratulates Rodriguez for his accomplishment in one sentence and then takes several more lauding the fact that this happened as a Yanqui and about how it adds it MFY history.

btw, I looked up Chipper's stats the other day: 9.28% of his plate appearances came vs the Mets and a slightly larger 9.91% of his HRs came against them but at the same time a somewhat lower 9.13% of his RBIs I bet that's not nearly as lopsided as most fans think. Without going into each season, what I suspect happened is the same as what happens in a lot of these cases; that much of that damage was done early and the rep continues to linger long after it's no longer true. See also the court documents for: McEwing, Joe vs Johnson, Randy

That May 1st deadline doesn't apply anymore. It used to be that if you cut ties with your own guy you were unable to sign him until May 1 while other teams could hook up with him at any time, but that clause has been removed. So the first half of that is correct - that in order to get Maine at some greatly reduced price not determined under the threat of arbitration they'd have to cut him and allow him to be a FA. But once they did they'd still have the same opportunity to pursue him as anyone else - unless he's pissed off in which case none of this matters.

Checking out the 500-club for the first time in a long while: - 25 members now. When I first learned it there were four 3 at 700+, 3 more (heh, heh) at 600+; and 19 more between 500 & 599 - Sheffield was the last to reach and stalled at 'just' 509 - and it looks like it'll be a while before anyone new joins. Chipper is the active leader (of those not there yet) but it's looking increasingly like he'll not reach (66 short). Nor would I bet on Vlad (428) or Giambi (412) That leaves Albert as the next likely candidate but, at 392, he's still probably three healthy seasons away so mark your calendars for mid/late-2013 StL fans. - Other than that the next possibility is maybe Adam Dunn at 342. Everyone else in the 300+ group is closer to the end than the beginning. Not that this is a HR club which should be breached every season or two, but for a while there it seemed like it was. And, btw, I seemed to have mis-read the headline which led to this thread in the first place. Turns out that it was Ivan Rod's 307th HR the other day but his 300th as a catcher. Oh well. I fucked up the facts but it all just served to allow me to get a joke in at ARod's expense and, really, isn't that the most important thing?

metirish wrote: Not surprising that MLB would pop to the game , but I don't think there is a big buzz surrounding Rodriguez , not even sure if espn has Pedro Gomez following him around like a dog for all the insights that no one cares about. Pedro issued a statement that while he'd like to be on the Alex over America tour, for the foreseeable future he is hopelessly camped out on some guy's lawn in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Are there that many people who care about seeing his 600th home run? I imagine Yankees fans do, but they're watching the Yankees game; they're not watching the Mets and the Braves on MLB Network. It's the MLB network and they're going to carry MLB news. I don't have a problem with it. As far a 'who cares', the steroids stink and better knowledge of stats has definitely diminished interest in 'counting records' over the years, but he'll still be just the 7th to that spot ever and it is a significant milestone. The Daily News printed a list of the top ten all-time home run hitters, and I was a little surprised to see that I had seen nine of the ten play, either live or on television (or both). All except for Babe Ruth. Off the top of my head you've potentially seen every 500+ guy except for Ott, Mantle, Foxx & Williams, which would mean like 27 of the top 30 at this point or somewhere around there. Remember that when Kiner retired with his 360-something he was 6th on the all-time list.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Michael Kay is practically in tears calling these games, gotta love it. I thought Kay was going to bawl about a week ago when ARod didn't get his HR before the team went to Cleveland - mainly because Kay wasn't doing the Cleveland trip (a 4 gamer too) and he figured he'd miss it. But that was about 10 games ago now.

Congrats to Pudge on his 300th HR last night. Oh, but that ARod guy is still stuck on 599. At the beginning of this "drought" he was at least hitting just not hitting HRs. Now he's like oh for his last 17 or something. Yanx lost again tonight and fall to 2nd place. Tonight Pettitte's replacement got kicked around, but that wasn't as much fun as the Jays putting up an ML-record six 2Bs in one inning on Monday, most of them off Burnett. Buck wins his debut in Bal'mer.

Well, we can add one of those "perfect saves" I was talking about the other day to Frankie's total.

I would've left Thole in. LHP or not, all you wanted was a single there. And now let's walk a few more leadoff hitters and see how long we can keep that from burning us.

I see that Farnsworth is over his "injury" - the one that caused his right arm to be in a wrap the entire time he was with the Yanx. He and Giambi both.

Edgy DC wrote: What is with all this faith in Wally Backman? We know what it is with most Met fans, - he's an 86'er and therefore a "winner". - he's "gritty" and therefore better than the laid-back trio of Manual, Howe & Randolph. - he's a Met and therefore better than guys who were brought in from outside and aren't Mets and, because Jerry is at this point being blamed for every decision he makes, doesn't make, considers making, or doesn't make when we think it should be made, his theoretical replacement will do all those things correctly for the same reason the backup quarterback wouldn't have thrown that interception.

metirish wrote: A bit weak no? And more than a bit picky. (I just got around to reading the link - or part of it anyway) I mean if you're going to go nuts over the pronunciation of 'Roof' I think it's reached the point where you long ago made up your mind and are now in the mode of trying to hang the guy for every announcer equivalent of jay-walking you can find.