Frayed Knot

Would be nice if Wright & Sheffield were coming up after this ... instead of Tatis and pitcher. Hell, I'd settle for Beltran & Delgado too.

And speaking of shaky closers ...

'nother blown save for Lidge - this one due mostly to his own double-error on a sac bunt (first he bobbled it, then he threw it away)

I think they'll do it too. I'd just prefer they not.

OK bottom of the lineup, who wants to be a hero-aire ?

Piazza at least fits the sort-of defining conditions of being a Met more than half his career, being at or near the top of several team records, and is headed to the HoF (as opposed to Hernandez and Carter who miss out on all 3, and 2 of those 3 categories respectively). That said I'm fine if they don't and would probably vote no if they left it up to me. And, yeah, the H-o-F plaque insignia has absolutely nothing to do with it.

If something disappears that I've never heard of am I still allowed to miss it?

Parnell - 4.3 Stokes - 0.4 Feliciano - 0.4 Rodriguez - 0.4 Pagan - 1.2 Wright - 1.0 Castillo - 1.0 Sheffield - 0.3 Francouer - 1.0

Yay Us!!

="Benjamin Grimm"]... the 1981 settlement was the one that abolished the "re-entry" draft. Remember that? A draft would be held that determined which teams could bid on which free agents. I remember getting all excited when the Mets "drafted" Reggie Jackson. Of course, they had no intention of ever talking to him. (Like there was any chance at all that the de Roulet Mets would sign a Reggie Jackson.) The stupid thing was that when FA-gency was first forced on the owners they tried everything in their power to limit it (FA "Drafting", limits on how often a player could declare FA, etc) which is exactly what the players wanted; by reducing the supply (fewer FAs each year) the demand and therefore the prices went up. The owners were so far in over their heads on that issue that Miller had them both coming and going.

Beane, it turns out, was for losing Andy Hassler; Gibbons for Skip Lockwood. I think ML player compensation (via the pool process) was a result of the '81 strike. Owners wanted direct team-to-team compensation to act as a drag on FAgency, the pool process was the compromise. The current system of draft picks and supplemental picks (tweaked several times since) did away with that and was either a result of the mini-strike in '85 or put in a short time after that.

Huber again is hitting decently at AAA: 35 of his 92 hits for XBs and 16 HRs in ~350 ABs and again can't get any time in the majors, barely 150 ABs scattered over the last 4 seasons He lost his "prospect" status a while back when he could no longer pretend to be a catcher and is long ago out of options and presumably will be a FA at the end of the year. I could see him in consideration for a PH & platoon partner w/Murphy if they don't go out and get a full-time 1B this winter Turns 28 next summer.

There were compensation picks going back, but the rules were different than today -- I don't know the specifics. The Mets, for instance, had multiple 1st round picks in '81 when they picked Strawberry with #1 and Billy Beane at #18 'Pool' compensation was the compromise reached when the players' association wouldn't agree to direct ML player transfer for a team losing a FA. Later that was dropped in favor of draft picks, although maybe it was a pool player AND a draft pick prior to that.

"The funny thing is how many of the scenes in this film you may have seen in other Clint Eastwood films" Clint estranged and/or distanced from his adult children? Absolute Power, Million Dollar Baby I liked the little co-written by Clint theme ditty at the end.

I never heard that story either. Wade Boggs (originally from Oklahoma) used to tell one like that early in his career but he also had a reputation as a bit of a bullshit artist among those who knew him back then.

BA lists the players still unsigned from the top ten rounds. Included are NYM draftees: - Steven Matz; LHP (2nd round - #72 overall) along with a comment (also seen elsewhere) that he "may get seven-figure bonus" - Damien Magnifico, RHP (5th round - #164) - "May get over-slot bonus" - David Buchanan, RHP (6th round - #194) - "May get over-slot bonus" - Jeff Glenn, C (9th round - #284) - "May get over-slot bonus" A report repeated yesterday in several places had the Mets optimistic of signing Matz. I have no idea on the odds of the others signing or if there's anything in particular which makes them worthy of getting an "over-slot" bonus, but there you are. Deadline is midnight Monday/Tuesday

I like the 'What did I do?' look on the guy's face as he's being carried out. That and the fact that a lone Philly phan out there is pelting him with peanuts as he goes.

Wednesday, August 13 - Astrodome: Astros 8 - Mets 2 -- Gary Gentry vs Larry Dierker Gentry gets jumped by Dennis Menke for a 3R HR in the 1st inning prompting Gil to waste no time PH-ing for him in the top of the 2nd -- and getting a 2-out RBI 1B by Bobby Pfeil as it turns out. But Koonce and DiLauro don�t fare much better and by the time Curt Blefary�s 3R HR lands while there are still no outs in the 3rd the rout is on. Dierker goes all the way on a 5-hitter with only an Agee solo HR doing any further damage. Game Time = 2:24 62 - 51; 3rd place; 10.0 games out of 1st, 1.0 game behind 2nd place StL, 3.5 ahead of 4th place Pittsburgh (Cubs beat Padres 4-2; Cards beat Dodgers 5-0) This was it. This was the (soon to be) famous turn-around spot, the one that represented the low point of the season. Swept out of Houston in 3 games and losers in 12 of the previous 19, they had fallen into 3rd place and were now double-digits out of 1st. True they were heading home, but also still had a 10-game west coast swing in front of them and they never did well in those back in them days. My very young self was on vacation in rural central Virginia when this series was going on - in a house with no TV and a daily newspaper which carried box scores (often a day late) and maybe a line or two from AP as my only description of the action in those pre-internet, pre-cable days. Those conditions made it a very depressing week to follow from afar the slipping away of the first promising season in team history. A losing streak at this time of This season brought a different kind of disappointment than similar ones did in other years and it looked like this one was going to be the crusher. So they needed to get something going if they were going to be in it and they needed that something to start right away.

Perez - 2.5 Stokes - 0.4 Santos - 0.8 Sullivan - 1.2 Wright - 1.2 Sheffield - 1.1 Tatis - 1.5 Castillo - 1.1 Rodriguez - 0.2

As frustrating as Ollie was today (Wednesday) I'm going to give him at least of couple of sips for getting out of his jams most of the time. Also Omir had a tough day with the stick but had two very nice blocks of the plate (absolutely stole one run away) plus a sac bunt - yeah, I know, but it was well-timed, well-done, and it stayed out of a DP and built an insurance run late in the game.

I heard some geek on ESPN radio (don't even know who) saying the exact same thing today: 'if Jeter's dirty I'm done with baseball' Two things; 1) Grow the Fuck up!! 2) Most ESPN geeks or similar nationally-oriented sports guys hate baseball anyway and statements like this are just an excuse to either knock the sport or brag about how you're thisclose to giving it up. Latching onto Jeter is an attempt at claiming 'old skool cred' because he's the guy (or so they've been told) who represents a "throwback" [ooh how I hate that term] to when all baseball players were pure and good and never switched teams or made a lot of money so that they can claim to be making a moral judgement against a sport gone wrong. All of which leads us back to: Grow the Fuck Up!!

The other thing about the Mets adherence to the slotting system is that, while it is stupid and frustrating, it's also getting blamed for virtually every weakness in their system and that's way over-emphasizing its effect. There are basically two types of players who can demand - and get - over-slot money. 1) A legit upper-half, first-round talent who scares enough small market teams (the ones who often have the best picks) with his supposed demands and and falls to either a later 1st or even 2nd/3rd round pick for a richer team. The team gets a better pick then they had a right to expect and the player gets himself on a better team while at least getting close to the money he wanted. But the Mets have never skipped over this type of obvious 1st round guy in favor of an easy sign of lesser talent. All their picks (when they've kept their 1st rounders -- Pelfrey, Humber, Milledge, Kazmir) were, at the time, considered worthy of their selection. 2) the other is the raw, yet athletically intriguing kid - usually a high-schooler - who isn't polished enough to be high-round material but could pay off in a long-term way for some team willing to risk big bucks in a later round to buy him out of his college scholarship or away from his other sport(s). This is where the Mets have NOT challenged the system and instead settle for the mostly filler-type guys that normally populate those rounds. Not that throwing big bucks at one of those guys is a high pct move, it's still a long-shot that will miss a lot more often than hit. But when a team that has the money won't at least attempt to pick a spot here and there to try for the big-bucks and maybe big reward stud simply because of an arbitrary system that not all your competitors adhere to then it's time to reevaluate where the priorities are. As for Matz, nothing I read suggested he should have been anything other than a 50-100 pick (he was 72nd) so I'm not sure if he's really worth what he's asking (approx $1.1mil or ~ double that spot's usual bonus). He has a college scholarship offer although it's to Coastal Carolina - a team that made it to the CWS last year but hardly a traditional powerhouse. Sounds like he'll get something over slot although maybe less than his asking price. Part of the problem is that the commish's office decided to [u:3ha55bf8]CUT[/u:3ha55bf8] bonus "suggestions" this year (about 10%) and naturally agents/players aren't happy about that. Signings all over are going slowly this year although a bunch have been announced over the last few days, including a lot of over-slot deals from the likes of Pittsburgh and others.

1 run thru 2 innings. A couple of doubles (one bloop, one long) and an RBI bingle. Up over 90 w/fastballs (assuming those gun things are even remotely accurate).

There was a NY Islander who had an extra large (mostly higher) helmet for some reason or another. His teammates took to calling him the 'Great Gazoo'

It would be very impossible today. See the documentary - there's a discussion of it in the Film forum.