Frayed Knot

Coors is definitely still a hitter's park and likely always will be. It's just not the 'OMG it's like nothing we've ever seen before' anomaly it was for the first decade or so it was in use. The 'Park Factor' numbers in this 'humidor era' of the place have mostly been in the 107-110 range (IOW, offense about 7-10% better than normal) as opposed to the absurd 115-to-135!! scores it was racking up in the mid-late '90s. As for Holliday -- hits the FA market at around age 30, only plays corner OF (and only marginally), doesn't run real well, etc. IOW, his main asset is the bat and as a corner guy coming to a pitchers park as he enters his 30s for presumably big money it better be a REAL good bat and I don't think it is. Certainly not someone you want to target as Plan A.

]I do largely agree with you about look-at-me ownerism (as I believe most Forum members would); there are some to whom that matters, and more than a few semi-reasonable Met-following folk I know have made decent arguments to me for a more media-savvy owner. I have nothing against better media-savvy. It's just that when fans (and I realize this isn't your only objective) support moves - whether they're player, manager or front office related - and spout as their primary objective for doing so as, "it'll get us more backpage headlines" then they probably need to rethink their reasoning, or at least add to it.

="LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr"]The Mavs are doing quite nicely with Kidd co-helming this year. Had they given up something else passable instead of Devin Harris, they 'win' the trade, hands-down. IOW, had they made a different trade then the one they did it would have been more in their favor. Ummm, OK. My point was (and I'm not a hoops-head - the "correct me if I'm wrong" line was serious not just a figure of speech) that the Kidd trade was the same sort of youth for experience 'win now' maneuver as the Kazmir trade was and had a similar not good enough in the short run AND detrimental in the long run outcome that the beginning of the thread complained about. OK it certainly wasn't AS bad but I suspect this grass-is-greener 'if we change owners those things won't happen anymore' attitude is more wishful thinking than anything. ]My larger point is, Cuban's not only done a credible job, he helped turn Dallas from inconsequential to a destination franchise in its league and its city-- wresting a decent share of attention away from the 'Boys in Texas is an achievement in and of itself. FWIW, his presence as a Met owner would almost guarantee more ink/airtime. I'm not anti-Cuban - I don't really have much of an opinion about him one way or the other. He could be fine and I certainly don't like MLB black-balling him (if they truly are). But owner-generated ink is the last thing I care about. Plus, just like MFY fans are now longing for the days when George would DEMAND!!!! changes now that they're floundering even as they cite his lack of interference as a huge factor during their late-'90s salad days, Cuban's type of 'Look at Me!' meddling would be seen as cute and inspirational during winning times but irksome and destructive if they're not. I mean Jeez, people don't like it now when Jeffie even gets quoted in the papers, imagine if he went running on the field?!?

Maine 2.4 Takahashi - 0.5 Reyes - 1.3 Beltran - 1.2 Delgado - 0.9 Wright - 1.0 Sheffield - 0.9 Tatis - 0.9 Castillo - 0.9

The starting job isn't out of the question although that remains to be seen. It's not like this guy has some enviable track record as a minor leaguer suggesting that he's been deserving of a job just merely passed over for some unknown reason. The RoY stuff needs to be taken with a big glass of calm-down juice.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Howie and Wayne agree: Takahashi "knows what he's doing out there... he really looks like he knows what he's doing." This time, I agree with their agreement. (I'm thinking the decade-plus in big-league ball helps.) Ken Takahashi: a Professional Pitcher. A semi-efficient 25 pitches for 2 full innings is nice to see also. I know it's a small sample but it's a change from what we get from a lot of our guys - starters & relievers.

I thought it was weird enough that Maholm even hit. I know the guy can swing the bat but how many pitchers [u:24d645a8e4]don't[/u:24d645a8e4] get pulled when they're due to lead off an inning after coughing up a 5-spot?

Someone mentioned the hockey connection on the air the other day. Having never heard of it before I did some digging. I think this is a great backstory: black kid from California gets hooked by watching Olympic ice hockey on TV and winds up not only taking up the sport but making it into the 'Junior' circuit route throughout the Canadian prairies before switching to baseball and coming through that system and eventually landing in the Major Leagues. http://www2.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/news/sports/story.html?id=9811e4a2-6475-4a32-bb59-78e2a7e66188

How stupid is it that this is the only 1:00 game in the entire country?

It's a hit parade!! And Castillo continues to silence his critics - and probably faster than most imagine it could have been done this early in the season.

Aneurysm surgery (in the arm) for Ian Kennedy (so we can put away all those Schneider/Castro/Santos to the NYY trade ideas)

Niese - 3.0 Parnell - 0.5 Takahashi - 0.3 Delgado - 3.8 Reyes - 0.7 Castillo - 0.7 Beltran - 0.4 Santos - 0.4 Green - 0.2

Went to that curve-ball well once too often me thinks.

And now it's more or less a moot point. Thx CarlosII

="Swan Swan H"]Putz didn't shave off that landing strip of his to sit in the 'pen. Oh I know what's going to happen. But (assuming we don't get to the 9-hole and PH) we KNOW Parnell is on today and we don't know what Putz will be so there's no point in making the switch

So now that we got a lead aren't you tempted to run Parnell out there again for the 9th? I would

Fernando-mania indeed as the Buffalo OFer makes BA's 'Hot List' one week, their 'Not Hot List' the next week, and is back on the good side of the ledger this week: FERNANDO MARTINEZ, RF METS Team: Triple-A Buffalo (International) Age: 20 Why He's Here: .458/.480/.917 (11-for-24), 2 HR, 3 2B, 1 3B, 6 RBIs, 6 R, 1 BB, 2 SO The Scoop: Martinez earned not-so hot honors last week for going 1-for-18, but even then we noted that he was just as likely to crack the Hot Sheet on the positive side of the ledger the next time around. Mission accomplished. While the Bisons remain mired in last place in the Northern Division at 5-20, they have won three of their last six games, which amounts to a hot streak for them. Martinez has been a big part of their renaissance, chipping in four multi-hit games on the week, while homering twice. He now leads the IL with 11 doubles and 16 extra-base hits, but most encouragingly, he's slashed his strikeout rate from one every 3.8 at-bats in April to one every 12 so far in May.

Pelfrey - 2.4 Feliciano - 0.3 Rodriguez - 0.5 Wright - 2.7 Beltran - 1.6 Delgado - 0.5 Reyes - 0.5 Castro - 1.5

I didn't have a problem with using him either. It just suxx that the ump put us into a situation that led to using him.

Pirates started out 11-7 on the strength of the NL's best pitching. They've since lost 5 in a row and 9 of their last 10 during which time their pitching dropped to 3rd best. Not quite as schitzoid as the Marlins so far in 09 but kinda close. ]I once came across, in a press release, a person who had a semi-colon in his name, as in Robin;on Diaz. We checked and checked again and it was really his name. What's up with th;t? He was named by someone who was only semi-conscious at the time.

]How good was Dom DiMaggio? , did he play in his brothers shadow? Quite good - particularly defensively from what I hear. But, yes, he obviously was eclipsed on the field to a large extent by Joe (although he was a much better person from all accounts). On the other hand, Dom had it all over brother Vince. Plus there was at least one more DiMaggio brother who never played.

The on-paper reputations and the relative payrolls between the two teams implies a should-be sweep a lot more than the actual pitching match-ups do. I suppose it's best that our shakiest crew be out there for the Pirates rather than against someone else but that's not exactly an awe-inspiring group we're throwing this weekend.

Four Met games in a row would be the tougher deed and the one I think we're looking for here as that's what Rodriguez just did. I would think most closers have, at one point or another, chalked up saves in at least four appearances seeing as how they pretty much only get used in save situations.

I don't know that it was a whim, but the Kazmir trade was a classic example of exactly what some (though not necessarily you) advocate: ownership overriding their GM - or at least applying group pressure to - to make a major deal which he may not have made on his own. On top of that you can throw in the bureaucratic creakiness that occurs whenever there are multiple minds involved making it more difficult to reverse a decision like that as the circumstances for it change. In the Kazmir case it was the Mets losing a bunch in a row between the time the decision was apparently made but before the trigger was pulled which made the "we're only 1-game out - Let's go for it!" mindset seem silly once they were suddenly 6 games out and floundering (or whatever the exact conditions were). The biggest complaint about the Randolph firing involved the hour of the day - a silly notion when you consider it was west coast time and where midnight is a perfectly normal post-game wrap-up hour for a business that often conducts itself from 7PM to 10. That east-coast based sportswriters were inconvenienced by the timing and their morning editions out of date by the time they were published in this internet age shouldn't be a concern of the GM.