Frayed Knot

Hayden Senger in today's starting lineup!!

Carlin's memory was pretty good as far as the Hodges 4 HR game (8/31/50), just a few minor inconsistencies. He cited the score as "22 - 2 ... or something like that". It was actually Dodges 19 - Braves 3 The AB Hodges failed to HR in was his 3rd of five rather than his 4th Pitcher Erskine went 4-for-5 at the plate that day, not 5-for-6 George would have been 13 y/o at the time. btw, I have the same issue with remembering WS result from earlier in my life much better than more recent ones ... although rampant drug abuse isn't the culprit in my case.

Plus we could get that highly anticipated Senga-Senger battery on the scorecard. That alone is too good a situation to pass up.

Anyone who had a 32 y/o*, seven year vet with four ML starts** among his 311 appearances as the opening day starter, please come to the window and collect your winnings. * Turns 32 the day prior to OD ** All as a rookie for PIT back in 2018

So that's what ended Gentry's career so young!! The Kiner/Wheaties commercial made me think about Wheaties for the first time in a long time. Used to have them on at least an occasional basis, but it's probably been two decades since I had them at all.

I think that to properly prep for the season we should all start playing catch this week.

The irony to this whole thing is that the reason MLB expanded to TB/StP in the first place was that they had a ready-made stadium, one that had been built in anticipation of luring either SFG or CHW away from their home cities. Problem was that it was a really bad ready-made stadium, both in terms of construction and location, and that has been at the center of that team's problems for their entire history. MLB seemed to feel sorry for the TB area, first for getting passed over by an existing team and then for being beaten to the first Florida ML team by Miami, so they made it up to them in the next expansion just a few years later. But undoing so they put a team into a stadium ill-designed for baseball which was located a lengthy bridge crossing away from the center of baseball fandom on the opposite side of the bay.

If a FA catcher is currently available even as teams do their final cut-downs towards Opening Day, should we even consider those to be ML quality catchers right now? James McCann, for instance, is on that list. And while he has nearly 1,000 ML games under his belt, a figure likely higher than the combined projected careers of any randomly selected two dozen minors league backstops, would you really prefer his soon-to-be 35 y/o butt over the most available pick from your system for a short term assignment in 2025? Probably not a question that even can be definitively answered. But I'd say that it's probably just as likely that you'd catch some temporary lighting in a bottle from a not-yet-ready-for-primetime youngster as it is that you'd get one final 'dead cat bounce' from an aging vet.

Most of us here (save maybe for those currently in the midst of late winter preparation for Fantasy Team drafts) would have trouble naming the backup catcher on most clubs and have likely never heard of each teams' third string guy. So to automatically assume that the combo of Torrens + TBD represents weak sauce compared to the counterpart #2 & #3 pairs on the other 29 squads is engaging in big time grass-is-greener thinking. Some teams might have a 2/3 duo who could out-perform Torrens + ??? but probably not many and probably would, at best, be marginally better. And there'd be at least as many teams who would be in worse shape if forced to rely on their #2/3 duos for an extended time.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Okay, let's reconstruct this. KC makes a punning reference to Stockard Channing. Frayed Knot replies that Carol Channing could have been referenced instead. MFS62 says, or maybe he could have mentioned Stockard Channing. Edgy says, he did mention Stockard Channing. MFS62: No! I was referring to Stockard Channing, who was in Grease! Stockard Channing and Carol Channing aren't the same person. That's the kind of exchange that traditionally drew replies of: RMPL

Or we could have mentioned Archie, Peyton, Eli, or Cooper Canning ... but maybe it's better if we save one of them for the Fall League.

When Cole came up lame in ST last season (and wound up missing most of the first half of the season) I opined that his loss might be bigger than any one player to his team. I based that on my assessment of the Yanx losing the reigning CY winner combined with their thin rotation behind him. Turned out they had the best staff in the majors while he was out thanks to some serious overachieving by others including the unforeseen (at least by me) emergence of the eventual RoY in Luis Gil. But in the second half the others started regressing to their means and the staff as a whole was actually worse with Cole in the rotation than it had been while he was out. But this time it's Cole for the entire season and Gil is already out for at least the first half. They added a bunch of offensive parts in an attempt to make up for the loss of Soto but really only Max Fried on the pitching side. And while he'll surely help, they're then dependent on a combo of Stroman, Clarke Schmidt, Carlos Rodon, and ... ? Rookie Will Warren? NRIs Carlos Carrasco and/or Alan Winans?? And then there's old favorite TBA.

I'll add that it really should be considered unusual for time frame and the persons who ended up finding them. These may have been recluses, but they certainly were not a pair of Eleanor Rigbys. They certainly have living loved ones and friends, etc. Yet NO ONE bothered to see how they were!? While a week (nine days?) is a long time to be dead inside your house, it's not necessarily a long time to not hear from a friend or family member. Lots of things about this story were odd. That one is way down the list IMO.

Well of course the coverage of Gene Hackman's death is because he's Gene Hackman. But I'd call the circumstances -- where a couple of differing ages die of completely different causes just a few rooms apart and, most notably, A WEEK apart, and where the longer survivor either doesn't realize or can't process that the other is dead -- as extremely unusual. If one of them isn't Gene Hackman then it's merely a local story rather than a (inter)national one. But that certainly doesn't make even remotely a common one. More like something perhaps the writers for CSI: Santa Fe might make up.

=kcmets post_id=186938 time=1741635013 user_id=53] Stockard Canning (RH) P

That two people died in the same house a week apart without it getting reported is pretty unusual.

btw, for kicks I just looked up Kris Bryant's ML service time on BB-Ref: acc to them he now has 9 seasons under his belt plus 171 days. Cubbies mgmt didn't make their purpose in keeping him down for two extra weeks of "seasoning" back in 2015 too obvious, did they?

Not quite on par with the Alavrez injury but ... Zimms is having "lingering knee soreness" which is keeping him out of the lineup and keeping his running down to "85% capacity". He's had just two ABs this Spring and also underwent an MRI last week which showed "no structural damage" so he received a "gel injection" this weekend [and is] "still shooting for Opening Day". Mendy expects him to be playing again within a few days. https://nypost.com/2025/03/09/sports/brandon-nimmo-not-quite-ready-to-return-to-mets-lineup/https://nypost.com/2025/03/09/sports/brandon-nimmo-not-quite-ready-to-return-to-mets-lineup/

Just saw my first pitch challenge. Clay Homes challenged a ball called on an 0-2 ... and lost. Struck the dude out on the next pitch anyway.

After some intensive Jackson Reetz research: - 29 y/o; 5' 11"/205; R/R - drafted in the 3rd round by the Nats in 2014 out of the baseball factory that is Norris HS in Firth, Nebraska - spent the decade since being drafted almost entirely in the minors with typical backup catcher stats: low BA, high walks, puncher's power [.239/.350/.413] - 2 ABs w/the Nats in 2021 but then dropped at the end of the season - signed with the Brewers (2/21) then dropped, signed with the Royals (8/22) then dropped, resigned w/the Royals (12/22) then dropped, signed w/the Giants (6/23) and got 14 ABs with the big club in 2024, then dropped - signed as a FA by the Mets 11/21/24

6 - Zip Mets, still batting in the 1st after a Bugs Bunny Bat Around! Starting pitcher for the Nats removed in favor of reliever Marquis Grissom Jr.

Or maybe Jackson Reetz. I mean, sure, he's a 29 y/o with just 16 ML ABs to his name ... but HE JUST HIT A 1st INNING GRAND SLAM!!!! so I think he should be handed the job and we'll just see if Francisco can earn it back when he returns.

So I turn on a ST game for the first time this year just in time to see a Vientos 2R 1st inning HR. I think that means it's going to be a fun year.

That damn WBC! (oh wait)

Yeah, when you start off by comparing a guy with 40 ML PA who's never cracked the top-50 in anyone's prospect rankings to two HoF'ers (one current, one probable future) then you're going to be disappointed A LOT more frequently than not. Some of us here (and elsewhere) were disappointed to see Dilson Herrera dealt away at the 2016 trade deadline (for Jay Bruce) because we had similar (if not quite so grandiose) high hopes for him as a middle infielder w/some pop. Then his post-NYM ML career turned out to consist of a .174 BA w/5 HRs over 92 ABs I'm not down on Acuna, he's a nice prospect right now. But there are nice prospects everywhere and most of them never wind up in an ASG much less Cooperstown. And to reiterate what I said to the original question in this thread: I don't think he's the type of player where you make decisions on his inclusion/non-inclusion to the ML roster to start the season based solely on how it affects his future ML service time. It may work out that way anyway. Right now he doesn't have a position to call his own so it's more likely than not that he spends enough time in the minors to keep his ML service time by the end of '25 below a full season even without intentional manipulation. I just don't think doing so is the Mets primary, or even secondary, concern with him right now.