Frayed Knot

Forgetting Tim Hamulack. Perfectly understandable.

Well I didn't necessarily mean to limit the discussion to just him or Cora. But the point is that everyone [u:3l74deip]Needs[/u:3l74deip] a backup who can play SS - for a sustained stretch if necessary - and those types are never going to hit much so scouring the wires and trade markets for someone to fill that role is unlikely to turn up someone a whole lot better. The only difference would be if they decide that the spot should go to a glove-first man in which case you probably don't want either guy.

No real big point here (mainly I just wanted to experiment with making a table) but the stuff below shows the so-far career of Anderson Hernandez split into his first stint here as a roster-filling auto-out and the time since he was dealt away and re-acquired. Nothing stunning certainly, but it does show a metamorphous from 'putrid' to 'acceptable for a backup's role' and his 72 ABs as a Met this season are actually slightly better than his combined lower line of DC & NYM put together. AndyHandyPAABH2B3BHRBBKBAOBASLG 2005-2007898712111217.138.157.207 2008-200942638410517313862.273.336.341 I suppose there's still a question about whether he can really handle SS since you always need one of those, plus we keep hearing about how much they love Cora and all. But he's out-hit Cora and will turn 27 this winter as opposed to 34 (I would have guessed Cora was older than that).

Misch - 3.5 Wright - 1.8 Pagan - 1.7 Thole - 0.6 Murphy - 1.3 Feliciano - 0.5 AHernandez - 0.6

Muffy screws Frankie out of another save opp. -- good for him.

I think at this point he'd settle for the ol 'W' Not only is he winless in his ML career but his [u:3g53g9f1]team[/u:3g53g9f1] is winless in his 12 starts. He took 5 losses and 7 No-Decisions in those 12.

Right wrobbed by CFer Gonzalez. The only surprising part is that Pagan knew enough to tag and score rather than leaving early and being halfway home by the time of the catch. 6-0

What's that for Misch now, like 1 run on about 7 hits over 13 IPs as a starter? I ain't Misching you at all.

This year's Mets have been overstocked with guys who simply can't hit home runs anywhere. Castillo, Cora, Steve Reed, Cory Sullivan, and Anderson Hernandez have 2 HR's between them as Mets To be fair, only one of them was supposed to start and only 2 even began the year as ML Mets. I suspect there may be some minor, mostly cosmetic, changes to the fences but nothing major. They should fix the visiting pen and a few other spots but I doubt we're going to see any overhauls. The growth in front of the apple is needed to hide the apple since it's in the batter's view - and I hate "HR lines".

Nothing is beneath me. Meanwhile the younger folks here are reading that and saying ... Fotomat?!?

Wednesday, September 3 - Dodger Stadium: Mets 4 - Dodgers 5 -- Jerry Koosman vs Claude Osteen Koosman - starting on short rest on account of his 0.1 IP start two days earlier - gives up single runs in the 2nd & 3rd innings - both on Wild Pitches! He later gives up 2 more in his six innings of work and the Mets head into the 8th down 4-0. But 2R HRs from both Agee and Clendenon tie the score. Ryan dances in and out of trouble in the bottom 8th but gives way to Jack DiLauro after he�s PH�d for in the 9th. The Dodgers quickly win the game in typical 1960s LAD fashion: a Maury Wills single; a Manny Mota sac bunt; and a Willie Davis double. Get 'em on, get 'em over, get 'em in. Jeff Torborg has been your LAD catcher for games 1 & 3 of this series. Game Time = 2:27 77 - 56; 2nd place; 5.0 games out of 1st (Cubs lose to Reds 2-0) So the deficit which shrunk from 10 games down to 2-1/2 briefly in just 14 days went back up to 5 and has now stalled there for several days and they're in the exact same spot as they were six weeks earlier. 19 games remain. And those remaining games will all be in the east and this game ends not only the west coast portion of the road trip but all inter-division play as well. From here on out it�s strictly east-v-east and west-v-west for the Mets and for all teams (barring the odd rain-out make-up). Love that schedule.

Well, sure, blame him, it is his call after all. Just don't delude yourself into thinking that changing the manager would make a difference.

Redding - 4.0 Pagan - 1.5 Francoeur - 1.2 Castillo - 0.4 Feliciano - 0.3 Rodriguez - 0.6

Clickable box score www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/COL/COL200909020.shtml

This is the second game - well, it's about the millionth really but second one recently - where the "real" save was in the 8th inning; tie game on the road, middle of their order coming up; got to shut 'em down NOW or else you're in trouble, etc. The Misch-v-Cubs games was the other I'm thinking of from just this past week. Anyway, it's a situation that cries out for using Frankie Rodriguez in that spot rather than "saving him" for the lead which may never - and in both cases DID never - materialize. Of course he eventually DID go to him last night but the horse was already out of the barn at that point. Now I know it's tough to blame Jerry solely for it because we all know that every single manager in MLB would play it the exact same way: managing by the 'save rule', and, yeah, the real culprit was not scoring enough runs, but jeez it would be nice to see some time.

And how about Timmy Redding holding his own here?

Since I was crawling all over Pagan's bone-headedness last night I feel obligated to give him his due for that play to end the last inning. Nice player but jeez is he an idiot baserunner.

Was it really his likeness or one of the Bob's Big Boy statue? ... because they're really kind of the same you know.

hyperlink to the boxscore www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/COL/COL200909010.shtml

Tuesday, September 2 - Dodger Stadium: Mets 5 - Dodgers 4 -- Gary Gentry vs Don Sutton 1st & 4th inning solo Clendenon HRs and a 6th inning 2-RBI double from Swoboda give Gentry a 4-0 lead. Gentry eventually takes a 5-1 lead into the 9th when things start to get a little hairy; he leaves with one out and two on; Taylor comes in to get the 2nd out but then 3 consecutive singles later it�s a 5-4 game with runners on 1st & 3rd and Willie Davis at the plate. Hodges summons Tug from the pen who strikes out Davis to preserve the win. In the midst of their 9th inning rally, the Dodgers use a 19 y/o pinch-runner making his ML debut (and scoring his first-ever ML run) by the name of Bobby Valentine. Game Time = 2:32 77 - 55; 2nd place; 5.0 games out of 1st (Cubs beat Reds 8-2)