Frayed Knot

I really wish they had waited until tomorrow so Lee could stick it to the Yanx tonight but whatyagonnado? Smoak is the big prize there. He was considered THE big college 1B in the same draft as Ike when about 6 of them went in the first 20 picks -- Smoak went 11th, Ike 18th. He was called up just after Ike but isn't off to as good a start. So figure that any NYM trade for Lee would have likely started with the words: Ike plus ... Do you do Ike + Thole for instance? I would have prior to the season but I don't think I do now. Ike is better than I hoped and Lee has pitched more than half the season with someone else.

I wonder if that's because it gives him the option to bunt as often as possible instead of either swinging lefty or looking bad righty-on-righty

Good move. We got stuck w/o a RH bat the other day and, with Taka in the pen (at least temporarily) and Tatis on the shelf the extra bat is needed more than the arm. Maybe Evans gets a chance to hit his way onto the team permanently.

Half the fun of all this is that Lee is sked to pitch against the Yanx tonight ... or FOR them, who knows.

The 50-35 and in first place by 3 games Braves are in town for the weekend series leading up to the All-Star break. Mets swept a really bad-looking Braves team in CitiField in April with the Mets staff holding the Braves to 3 runs over 3 games (OK, 2-1/2 games as the last one was shortened to 5 innings on account of weather. The two teams then split a pair of 3-2 games in Atlanta in May. But we're going to see a very different team this week. Not in terms of personnel all that much but it looks like most of those parts have gotten their collective acts together over the last 8 weeks. 1B - Troy Glaus: Has actually tailed off lately after hitting far better than the Tomahawks had any right to expect for a long time -- .257/.361/.451 2B - Martin Prado: Only leads the majors in hits but packs a bit of punch as well with 37 XBHs at the midway point. -- .336/.375/.500 SS - Yunel Excobar: Sleeping much of the year, is waking up lately but still no punch -- .237/.336/.281 3B - Larry Jones: Slowing down, not as much of a threat, still taking his walks -- .253/.382/.399 -- and it's not his last series here so we don't even have to think about cheering him Their OF has been all over the place lately due mostly to injuries. Greatest Rookie Ever is on the shelf, as is the largely sucky Nate McLouth. But pain-in-the-ass Matt Diaz is back so he plus Omar Infante, Gregor Blanco, Eric Hinske, and Melky Cabrera are manning the green grass these days. None are all that scary on their own. Collectively they're annoying as hell and both Cabreara & Hinske have MFY stink on them. Game 1 - (uh, that would be tonight) - Tommy Hansen (8-2; 4.19; 1.336) vs R. A. Dickey Hansen is coming off a good performance vs Florida although prior to that had gotten his ass handed to him in two straight outings v the ChiSox & Tigers (15 R in 7.1 IPs) Game 2 - Saturday afternoon FOX game (at least for part of the country) - Tim Hudson (8-4; 2.44; 1.146) vs Mike Pelfrey Great bounce-back from surgery year for Hudson Game 3 - Sunday afternoon - Derrick Lowe (9-7; 4.40; 1.385) vs Johan Santana Lowe's been his usual so-so self, but much better lately as compared to the beginning of the season. Sal Q thinks we should trade Santana for him now. Tough to say we NEED to win the series with nearly half the season to go but it would sure help and a sweep would make the break seem mighty nice. What we DON'T need is a replay of the same series from 12 years ago when we got swept 3-2, 4-1, & 3-2 - the last one in extra innings on the worst call EVAH by Angel Hernandez. Brian Jordan STILL hasn't touched the plate!! On the other hand we went into that series already down 9.5 games and yet still managed to recover and make the playoffs.

smg58 wrote: I'd have thought that Montero's stock would have dropped this season. (He has a lower OPS than Fernando Martinez.) Adams has decent value, but he's hardly earth-shattering. With every buyer in the league talking to the Mariners, I would think that they can do better, or at least demand more from the Yankees. And they might yet. Reportedly the Mariners had just signaled a willingness to lower their demands for Lee and the Yanx - conveniently in town at the time - jumped in with an offer. Sherman of the Post may have jumped the gun a bit on how close to a done deal this is as it's certainly in the M's interest to see what other teams are willing to ante up based on their supposed new standards. All the value's in Montero's bat, too, right? I recall a lot of talk about the defense... moreso than there ever has been about, say, Thole. (Of course, the cynic might say that might be due at least in part to nobody outside of Met fan circles really talking about Thole.) Yeah, pretty much. Montero is a big hulking guy (and was even as a teen) and that bulk mixed with a complete lack of speed not only hurts him as a catcher (reports constantly talk about his defensive 'improvement' but folks wonder if it'll ever be enough) but also means he really has no other options except 1B where the Yanx already have a real one who's signed for the next 457 years. No one thinks he moves well enough for even a corner OF spot now and guys his size don't tend to get a lot quicker and trimmer as they age. He's also off with the bat this year in AAA - particularly in the power dept. On the other hand he was considered an elite bat as he blew through A & AA last year and won't even turn 21 until this season is over. Don't know nothin' about this 2B prospect.

I've also found three games that ended in a walk-off triple! That's got to be rare, because it could only happen if the winning run was on first base, and the batter made it to third before the runner crossed the plate. It's been more than thirty years (6/19/1980) since a Mets game ended on a triple. Were there different rules in effect that would have made a walkoff triple more likely? (The other two were on 6/24/1968 and 9/10/1970.) The 1970 game was the only win for the Mets, and the tripler was Cleon Jones. The 1968 triple was hit by Lee May of the Reds, and the 1980 triple was Jack Clark of the Giants. He was only 25 then, and was perhaps more speedy than we remember him as being. Probably not a specific rule change but more likely a change in attitude. I suspect that official scorers tended to give batters the benefit of the doubt when their hit scored a runner from 1st base, that as long as the batter was even headed towards 3rd he got the triple. Since then, either the scores' attitude has changed -- figuring he only would have made 3rd as a result of the throw, ergo a double, or the that of the batters has -- as now they just pull up into 2nd and watch the play at the plate with no attempt to move to 3rd

soupcan wrote: What's up with Reese Havens? Wasn't he lighting the world on fire with his bat and playing 2B at Bingo? Yeah, but he's also keeping up his streak of getting injured at least once in every six day period.

Votto & Swisher are in as winners in the final man vote. Cano, now, discovers an injury as Yanqui mgmt orders him out of the HR derby that he had previously agreed to participate in.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Ideally, Mariano Rivera's last appearance against the Mets will be as a mop-up pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Mariano would never play for any other team but the Yanquis ... why it would be undignified!! Just like Tim McCarver said last year about Hidecki Matsui.

... Does Gary Cohen think Orlando Cabrera is a winner? [followed by a lengthy montage of Gary talking up O.C.] Write your own Mets-related Geico commercial in the 'Does Charlie Daniels play a mean fiddle?' style.

ESPN game tonight for the out-of-towners with the added bonus of Bobby V at the mike ... along with Chris Berman and Joe Morgan - you can't have everything you know

btw, did anyone notice that "Mr. Unclutch" hit his 3rd Grand Slam of the season and 21st of his career last night in Oakland? That puts him tied with Manny and 2 behind Gehrig for the all-time mark. He's also 3 HRs now short of 600 His 21 have come in 248 bases-loaded PAs, while his teammate and all-time clutchest person on earth has 1 in 244 such PAs

I like how he then tosses the ball back as if that would somehow negate his interference.

I remember Al Leiter saying that an older pitcher worries a lot more about that sort of stuff because he can start to feel how he has less time to make up for it later on, while a younger one is more likely to take the attitude that it'll all even out in the end.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: The Second Spitter wrote: What have you got against Venezuelan beer? I need the word "Schaefer" in the thread titles to help me find them. Besides, we don't want to endanger the sponsorship money we're getting from them.

Santana - 5.9 Bay - 1.8 Reyes - 1.0 Wright - 1.0 Davis - 0.15 Pagan - 0.15

Nieve - 0.8 PFeliciano - 0.4 Pagan - 1.7 Wright - 1.7 Cora - 1.7 Bay - 1.0 Davis - 1.0 Barajas - 1.0

Phils actually had the exact same record thru 81 games this year and last (43-38) The difference is that last year they were 2 games up instead of 4 down. Rockies just scored 9 in the 9th against the Cards for a 12-9 win. A Seth Smith 3R HR ended it. Ryan Franklin's line: 0.1 IP, 6 runs, 6 hits.

I laugh in fate's face

With the number of pitches they've seen from this mohawked freak first time through the order, they should start teeing off on him this go-around.