Frayed Knot

I think they like the Rod/Blanco combo very much and aren't anxious to break it up. That said, I don't know why Omir either. I'm assuming Carter will get a number of the DH ABs or a different move will be made for that reason. 3rd string catchers don't make good DHs

Santana - 4.5 Bay - 2.0 Francoeur - 1.0

Is currently the bench coach in Baltimore but is expected to replace manager Dave Trembley before Friday's game.

Yeah, let's calm down a bit here. I'd like to see the guy succeed in AA for more than three days at a time without getting hurt before we start revving up the Promotion-of-the-Month Club.

A "high grade tear" of a ligament but no surgery. That sounds odd.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Babe Ruth is another pitcher who pitched a perfect game that didn't count. (Because his was as a relief pitcher. The starter's name, I think, was Ernie Shaw.) Actually I believe it was the other way around. Ruth started, walked the first batter, and then got his ass ejected for disputing one of the calls. Shaw came in the relieve, the runner was caught stealing (or picked off) and Shaw went on the get the next 26 batters. There were a whole bunch of quasi no-hitters which were erased by a committee some 20 years back. The Ruth/Shaw game was one of them. The most notable was the Harvey Haddix gem which he lost in the (13th?) inning on an error, an IW, and a HR-turned-2B. Because Haddix didn't finish the game with no hits allowed it was ruled neither a no-hitter nor a perfect game even though he was perfect thru 12.

Strasburg out of the game after 5 IPs (not surprising). 0 runs, 3 hits.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I know that, if Jim Joyce's name is going to remind me of anyone, it should be James Joyce, the author of Ulysses and other works. But my recent experience with Joyce Kilmer gets in the way, and I find myself wondering if this umpire is a man or a woman. [overly macho]Well, Joyce is reported to have cried both last night after he realized his error and again today when Galarraga brought out the lineup cards ... so, yeah, he is a girl.[/joke] tweet from heyman via Keith Olbermann "selig involved , will have statement today, commissioners office meeting to discuss "imperfect game" Olbermann is among those who want Selig to "fix" this (ie. overturn the call) so it's no surprise that he's passing along this info, probably in rapt anticipation.

Except that that was a closed bidding process so it was impossible to know how high was high enough and high enough always runs the risk of becoming too high. Valentine thought the world of Kaz Matsui too. That he didn't work out over here was Ichiro certainly did is fact but also only knowable in hindsight.

Well, my main aim in setting up the "rules" for this thing was to try and stay away from speculation as much as possible. You, at least, defend the ARod [u:2lictuhg]contract[/u:2lictuhg] in addition to just the idea of signing him which is certainly better from those who would argue that they'd sign him but only at a much friendlier price than he eventually agreed to based on the notion the he was so dying to come here than he'd had given up maybe $100 bucks just for the opportunity. The caveat still is that his coming here wasn't something that was solely controllable by the Mets since we have no way of knowing what his final decision would be, something that leaves you arguing that the biggest mistake of the decade was the team making the rather early decision to stay out of the fray. Personally I'd choose something more concrete than that but yours is a legit entry.

metsguyinmichigan wrote: I suspect Joyce has just worked his last Tigers game, possibly ever. Unless you count the fact that he'll be working the plate in today's game.

HahnSolo wrote: Was the pine tar game the last time a commish "overturned" an outcome? That decision--despite the fact that it turned an MFY win into a loss--was far more ridiculous I think, than were Selig to change this. Though I really can't see where changing the call would in any way be in the "best interest" of the game. The 'Pine Tar' game was the league (AL office actually, not MLB as powers were distributed differently then) upholding a protest which was filed at the time by the aggrieved team over an umpire's interpretation of a rule not the reversal of a judgement call. Throw in the fact that if this were to be overturned it would be for the sole purpose of making the game a more tidy and happy story rather than correcting a wrong done to one team which potentially affected the outcome of a game and I think this case would be much more interventionist.

I predict Valdes will not repeat in June.

I have no memory of NOT being a Met fan.

No, this isn't about Jim Joyce (ump or writer) or about last night's horrid game. Rather it's about the decade of 'the aughts' which just ended and the idea that if you had the ability to go back and change some move by the Mets during that time what would your choice(s) be. So pick one NY Met move - or pick several and itemize them if you prefer - from the 2000-2009 time frame that you would most want to un-do and, as always, explain why you make that your #1 choice for a mulligan. My only restriction here is that they have to be actual moves that were made (trades, signings, releases, drafts, hirings, firings, etc.) and not speculative stuff that wasn't. So answers like; I would have signed ARod back in 2000 for half of what he eventually signed for ... or: made the rumored X for Y deal that was all over the internet at the time; or: have Beltran smack that Wainwright curve into the gap - are highly speculative wishes if not outright fantasies, not actual events, and therefore ineligible for this exercise.

not to be confused with Throb Rod. I think it finally hit me what's so G-D agonizing about watching him pitch. This was occurring to me even before tonight's 9th inning blew up and then the results of that inning (small sample though it was) seemed to confirm. All baseball fans know how favorable or unfavorable counts make batters much better or worse hitters. Tom Boswell recently had a column on this particular topic noting that simply by dividing the data in into 2-strike counts (any two strike count: 0-2, 1-2, 2-2, 3-2) and NON-2-strike counts (again, ANY count with less than 2 strikes) basically made the batter the equivalent of Mario Mendoza or Stan Musial. But with Rodriguez the count seems to make no difference at all. Maybe the stats won't back me up on this, but I'd swear that he's just as likely to give up hits on 0-2 - as he did tonight to both Gwynn and Eckstein (and it would be excusable if it were the old, fat Gwynn but he was facing the young skinny one) - as he is to get guys out and/or make them look silly after falling behind. It's like the same things that make him an unpredictable and effective closer: the electric though wild stuff and a variety of pitches not often seen in a short reliever; are the same things that make the results unpredictable when he gets ahead or behind hitters.

And now we get to stew over this for 45 hours until the next game. Seems to be a correlation between cock-punch losses and off-days. I'll have to look into that sometime.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: But regardless of whether he SHOULD have been out or not, the fact is he was called safe and in order for that 27th Indian batter's AB to be ruled an error and not a hit so as to give Galarraga a no-hitter even if not the perfect game IS a matter for the scorer. I don't see where MLB has any say in that. I see what you're saying. Hasn't that happened before? Haven't there been instances where a hit/error call was changed after the game was over? I'm sure there were. Yes, but (as far as I know) they were changed upon further review by the same guy who originally made them, not by some suit in MLB's Park Ave offices going over his head.

But regardless of whether he SHOULD have been out or not, the fact is he was called safe and in order for that 27th Indian batter's AB to be ruled an error and not a hit so as to give Galarraga a no-hitter even if not the perfect game IS a matter for the scorer. I don't see where MLB has any say in that.

At one point in the 9th inning three batters in a string of four were named Junior: Gary Mathews (final out in top 9), Tony Gwynn, [Matt Stairs], Jerry Hairston

Nymr83 wrote: I'm not sure if MLB has ever over-ruled a scorer to do something like that. they've change hit/error calls in the past and added RBIs, etc. Official scorers have changed their own prior decisions after the fact, but has MLB ever gone over the heads of one and over-ruled an official scorer?

Extra inning games on the road are not Jerry's friend.

Edgy DC wrote: An afterthought, but if the ruling (however incorrect) is that he beat the runner but didn't have possession, can't MLB rule that an error and at least award him the consolation prize of a no-hitter? I'm not sure if MLB has ever over-ruled a scorer to do something like that.

Nymr83 wrote: could someone protest the game to MLB? Hell no.