Frayed Knot

Halladay is handed a 3-0 lead in Cincy, but gives up 1 each in the 6th & 7th then a 2R HR to Jay Bruce in the 8th. Phils down to their last out - runner on 2nd, Victorino up ... and he grounds out and the Reds win.

Bay - 3.5 Wright - 1.0 Thole - 0.5

Niese - 2.8 Francoeur - 1.7 Dessens - 0.25 PFeliciano - 0.3 Parnell - 0.25 Wright - 1.7 Davis - 1.0 Bay - 0.6 Barajas - 0.4 JFeliciano - 1.0

Francoeur - 1.2 Igarashi - 0.5 Dessens - 0.5 Barajas - 0.4

Oh yeah, and how many grand slams served up is that now? We're going to have to borrow one of those signs from McDonalds before long just to keep track. Or let's put it another way; have NYM pitchers loaded the bases this year without surrendering a slam?!?

Every Marlins run scored after two outs and nobody on.

FUCK!!

G-Fafif wrote: ... what the hell is CB doing on the ballot? Murphy was penciled in 'til the final weekend of spring training, OK, but Beltran's been out since January. Because MLB expected him to be back a month or so into the season and the Mets probably would have objected had he been left off. As always, MOST of the problems with AS voting can be traced to the fact that they start the process too early in the season.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Does this mean we're not picking up Zambrano if he's dumped in Cubland? I effin' hope it does.

Barrett's also the one who had an in-dugout dust-up with Zambrano. Not this week's dust-up but an earlier one - just in case you have trouble keeping your Carlos Zambrano freak-outs clear.

And there's the 'Punch AJ' moment just mentioned in another thread minutes ago.

That MLB has apparently no problem with each team just blatantly begging for votes with no question as to whether they are actually deserved or not just disgusts me. The only team-led campaign I liked was for the one "extra" spot that they started doing a few years ago when ChiSox catcher (and all-around pest) AJ Pierzinsky was one of the choices. This was coming off a week where AJ had been sucker-punched in an IL game vs the Cubs following a home-plate collision. The Sox encouraged their voters to go out and 'Punch AJ' for the duration of the voting period.

metirish wrote: I really can't be bothered voting 25 times......did I hear correctly that at one point in the late 50's early 60's they held two All-Star Games in the same season? For a few years that was the case. The money raised by the games was (at least partially) going towards a players' retirement account - back when the idea of that was just getting going - so the players were pretty keen on the idea. As a real pension plan started to develop the two-game idea wasn't needed.

Keith said he's going to go check out Old San Juan today. Go over there and maybe you can hang out with him.

OK, Strasburg is really, really good but his team is really, really bad -- can't relieve, can't hit, can't field. Ian Desmond is looking like a disaster at SS lately and tonight he blew a GiDP ball which loaded the bases. Then a Sac Fly, bad throw, single, squeeze play, and whatever and it was 5-0 Atlanta. 4 runs to Strasburg, 3 earned. Philly down to their last out in Cincy down by 4

All them Minnesotans look alike.

Keep that tag on him Ruben. If he slides off the bag (and I think he did) you might get the call.

Back to NL play!!!! Once again we could be in 1st place before the night is over. Washington at Atlanta -- Strasburg v Hudson Nationals getting themselves some national TV exposure (it's the ESPN game tonight) ... wonder why? Philly @ Cincy -- Kendrick v Cueto Also Ubaldo going for win #14 late tonight in Sandy Eggo

metsguyinmichigan wrote: I was in Puerto Rico only for a short while back in 2005, as it was a cruise stop. The ride into Old San Juan, past the castillo, is stunning. Was it limping?

It's obvious - assuming all are eventually healthy - that Pagan should play as much as possible when Beltran comes back. Where he plays is of little importance to me. The 'RF will be better for Carlos' argument is highly speculative at best, and even more so seeing as how the RF at Citi is hardly your usual small ground to cover field. IOW, rotating Angel among three different positions isn't the same as saying he's being confined to strictly backup duty and I don't think LaPointe's piece says he will or that Francoeur is destined to get preference. I mean, I like the approach that a lot of these independent sites take but there's also a certain arrogance among some of them where they simply assume themselves to be just so much smarter than ML front offices and are willing to twist things to "pre-prove" it. The "bad IQ" complaint they cite is out of date too. Personally, I'm going to wait and see what happens before I panic. On the same topic viewed from the other side, I caught about 5 minutes of Joe Benigno (for the first time in months and months) the other day when he and his partner had Darryl Strawberry as a guest. Now you have to understand that Benigno worships Strawberry and despises Beltran (always has) so it killed him when Straw scoffed at Joe's notion which is that Beltran should be riding the pines in favor of Pagan and the others. "What do you mean what do you do when Beltran comes back?", Straw said, "you play him"!!. JB then tried playing the "but what about the chemistry" card and that's where Straw basically laughed at him.

As always, once you do something purely for pr reasons things wind up looking even more forced than had they not been done at all. Meanwhile up above the field, someone (Mushnick in the Post I think) pointed out that it took Michael Kay more than half and hour into Friday's game before he even spoke the words Joe Torre. I think one of these days Joe is going to find himself disappearing from MFY photographs like some disgraced Politburo member from the Stalin era.

I meant that the defense in relation to Luis Castillo's was game-changing... the upgrade, IOW. I miswrote. (I was going to let it go because it's minor, but if you'd like to split hairs: are you really bringing up his hitting into a triple play once as representative of his skill with... I don't know, anything?) Tejada has more power than Castillo NOW and he's got a 17-year-old's frame at age 20; he's also put up a .330 (and climbing) OBP compared to "OBP specialist" Castillo's .347*. He's put up the same amount of WAR and more Fielding Runs (both cumulative stats) in a fraction of the time on the field. I realize you're more or less playing devil's advocate here. Still... you're wrong. Parse my language all you'd like, but make no mistake-- he has been an upgrade. But "half-decent" represents a significant upgrade over "useless;" a lamed Castillo having a down year is useless, while Tejada's been half-decent (and as long as he keeps up a modest level of production offensively, he'll continue to be so). If you disagree about that... man, we're watching different games. Yes I'm partially playing devil's advocate here, and of course Tejada is an upgrade over an injured Castillo, and of course at 20 y/o he's got the better future ahead of him. But just like CF's post earlier about how we shouldn't get too giddy and talk about Ike = Olerud yet, and like the premature cries from earlier seasons about how Argenis Reyes was the future, I just think that anyone not named Castillo is too quickly given credit for everything up to and including the sunrise based on the name alone. I don't believe the Met record would be even one game different had Castillo not gotten hurt and Tejada were still in Buffalo; I think the trade in offense is probably a wash at best (and not as good as Castillo v.2009) and the defensive upgrade is being exaggerated - turning DPs is one area I think both Castillo and Cora do quite well. My only point in bringing up the several errors (including dropping a peg from RF for a sure out) and the triple play is to imagine the reaction if Luis had done either much less both.