Frayed Knot

Reds and Marlins in extras in Florida thanks to Cantu flying out w/the bags loaded & 2 outs in the 9th Finally underway in NYC (yeah that'll end before 1AM) 2-0 Sawx early on

..Got this one? The 1986 "book" by Darryl and Dan Castellano, complete with a forward by Keith Hernandez. 79 pages of pure literature (about 2/3 of it photos) that must have taken upwards of two days to "write".

Whenever Gary Sheffield starts to talk I hear the same 'Waa waa waa waa' sound that one hears whenever the parents speak in a 'Peanuts' cartoon. I long ago stopped listening to him as a speech by him generally sounds like someone combined the deep thought of an 'I Dream of Jeannie' plot with the coherence of a Brittany Spears interview. The few times I have actually tried to follow his line of reasoning my hair starts to hurt since by the time he's getting around to his third sentence he's already contradicting what he said in the first one. But the Mets needing "an edge" ... or a killer instinct, or "heart", or "character", or better "chemistry" is the topic of the week right now so what better to run with coming off a rain-out Sunday than getting a guy who likes to hear himself talk talk about what the writers want to hear talked about.

Lots of youth sports would be better with less parental involvement.

I remember having a "tryout" in my first year in L.L.; a maybe 5 minute set of drills given to me by some older kids to determine which of the lower leagues best fit my entry level "skill". Not sure how accurate that kind of thing is but it did keep me out of the lowest rungs where much of my age-group got sent. After that you just kind of progressed up to the higher rungs as you aged just like school promotions (I can't imagine there were ever any demotions). And there was never any "draft" either. Basically if you were in the 'Orange' group in one league then you were an 'Orange' in a higher league the following year, and the players on a Red team graduated to a higher red, so what level you were in automatically determined which team. Nor were there any fights over team names since they didn't name them after MLB squads (I assume they have to pay a fee for the use of those?). In our L.L., they'd name each team in one entire level birds (Falcons, Ravens, Owls, etc.) while the next was all animals, and another was all Indian tribes, and I forget what the others were. Both the non-draft and the neutral names probably saved a lot of hand-wringing for both kids & adults. Of course LL didn't start as young back then. IIRC it was limited to 9, 10, 11, & 12 year olds (or 8 - 11 if your birthday was later in the year) but I'm sure there were no levels for 5 to 7 y/o. By 13 you moved up to 'Babe Ruth' level and the bigger field.

="LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr":19k9poyd]="Benjamin Grimm":19k9poyd]="Fman99":19k9poyd]I detest the Phillies and their fans. It took going to a Mets-Phils tilt at Shea in '07 just to see how obnoxious they were.[/quote:19k9poyd] I was at a Mets-Phillies game in 2007 too. I'm not going to go back. It was such an ugly atmosphere I don't want to go there with my kids. (Carlos Gomez, I remember, injured himself and the fans were whooping and hollering with joy.)[/quote:19k9poyd] There's a difference between actual Phils fans-- a loyal, pretty well-informed group-- and college kids/dropouts who need somewhere to drink between Flyer season and Eagle season (steadily increasing in number since 2004 or so, roughly coincident with the rise of Utley and Hamels and Howard). I went to yesterday's game via public transport sporting the usual complement of regalia (away Santana jersey, trad blue-and-orange hat), and ended up having a nice little chat with two Phils-cap-wearing strangers comparing the relative bench strengths of the '69 Mets and the '08 Phils. Thanks to a train delay, I got inside the game in the bottom of the first. I asked a group of twentysomethings in red if they knew how the Phils' runs scored, and got called a "New Jork (think bad imitation of a Hispanic accent) queer" by a leering dude in a "World Phucking Champions" tee for my trouble. There are some in every fanbase... the ugly ones are just as bad when they're wearing blue and orange camo.[/quote:19k9poyd] I think the sports media in Philly tends to drive a lot of that kind of stuff. Even the worst of WFAN sounds like 'Masterpiece Theatre' compared to most of WIP. Encouraging callers whose sole point is to say 'Cowboys Suck' seems to be considered standard programming on some shows. I've always thought of Philly as more a football & hockey town as compared to baseball & hoops so maybe the macho attitude of those two sports help give the city its rep. The anti-Met thing I think it more just an extension of an overall anti-NYC bias that exists in a lot of places - just even moreso when your city is only 100 miles down the road. Perhaps the attitudes in Philly - like Boston in many ways - were formed way back by people who never got over NYC supplanting their towns as the dominant city on the eastern seaboard all those years ago. Kong76 May 03 2009 06:09 PM This was really funny ... seawolf17 May 03 2009 06:10 PM I've always loved Greg Luzinski -- my coach in baseball camp one year called me "Bull" because my power, speed, and remarkable ability to strike out reminded him of Luzinski.

A no-loss Sunday!!

]Not really, in late 2006 the Mets were starting to show signs that they really were a "paper champion" and a team that couldn't take a punch. You mean while they were cruising to a easy NLEast championship? What "signs" - aside from not winning every game by double-digit scores - were those? ]This year's round of "Mets have no heart" is a culmination of the Mets not getting the job done in the aforementioned NLCS, the worst choke job in the history of professional sports, and another choke job last year. Despite the use of small sample size stats, this is really the same tune that has been said about the franchise since 2007. You can actually pinpoint where it all fell apart to the sweep at Atlanta just before the trade deadline in 2006. Pretty much the last "important" games the Mets dominated and showed that they could be "championship material." This is all after-the-fact nonsense, part of a popular theory where something is declared to be fact by those who know they can't be proven wrong because the causes and turning points are retroactively determined only after the scenario plays itself out.

IIRC, the 'not managing for the save stat' remark came in answer to a question of whether he would hesitate to use Putz in a "closer's situation" even though it would cost Rodriguez a few. He said nothing about his willingness to use both closers in the tricky 'tie game on the road' situation - one that managers apparently feel will leave them vulnerable to the ridicule which comes from having to close a game with a guy not pre-screened for such hazardous duty.

Scott Eyre pitching like Jane (and who doesn't like a little literary humor on a Saturday afternoon?)

Nice 2-out/none-on rally: HR, HR, 3B Got rid of the old man - now we need at least one more hit here and we're really cooking with gas (whatever that means).

]And who is "that guy"? Cora

That the backup middle infielder has the lowest (or among the lowest) RC/27, ... or OPS, or VORP, or M-O-U-S-E as compared to the regulars shouldn't exactly surprise anyone. My point in starting the thread was that there seems to be far too much hand-wringing over the fact that he's even playing (because of short-term injury) or that he's batting 2nd. Look at it this way: he's not sucking NOW, and as long as he continues not to suck I see it as a case of the backup getting rewarded for doing exactly what one would hope he'd do when he was pressed into service: getting on base and playing decent D. No one (as far as I know) is trying to make the case for starting him on a regular basis. Indeed if he winds up playing full time it means that something else has gone wrong that'll make the exact lineup order seem trivial. In the meantime, a few games here and there keeps him fresh so that Jerry won't have reservations about sitting Reyes for a day if/when he shows the need.

No, not Phil Rizzutto's wife - but that guy who seemingly caused so much teeth-grinding in the IGT. Can we not lose sight of the fact that he's the [u:2nlzfnu9]back-up middle infielder[/u:2nlzfnu9] around here?!? With Castillo missing as much time as he did last season (and now again this week) plus needing someone who has the ability to be [u:2nlzfnu9]a legit fill-in at SS[/u:2nlzfnu9] he, or at least someone like him, is a necessity on the roster not some spare part who should be replaced with a 3rd catcher or 19th reliever. Now, if someone can come up with that stud-hitting 23 y/o w/a legit glove to man that spot I'm sure Omar would be happy to hear about him. Until then I think that maybe I'll wait until he actually sucks before complaining that sooner or later he's going to so I'll beat the summer rush and start whining about it now. Is he the ideal #2 hitter? His long-term track record suggests no, but he's also unlikely to be there long-term and at the moment he IS getting on base for the middle of the order guys (12 times in his last 23 PAs) so I'm not sure it's worth the amount of hot air spent bitching about it.

Pelfrey - 2.4 Feliciano - 0.4 Putz - 0.4 Rodriguez - 0.4 Beltran - 2.3 Cora - 0.7 Wright - 1.2 Church - 1.2 Santos - 1.0

That's right, it was Cora cuz Reyes was in the hole. But Beltran was directly in line for an overthrow and Church was right behind him. Nice sign even if it never came into play.

Bet the Angles want Frankie Rod back right about now. Brian Fuentes blows the save in da Bronx without even getting an out.

THOUGHTS ON THE GAME!!!! (only kidding) - I can't believe Utley's HR left the park. Looked like a jam-job pop fly to me. - That Chinese fire-drill of a play was obviously huge. Someone said that the throw was a foot from sailing over Reyes's leap and two runs insta-Philly runs but did you notice that both Beltran & either Church or Cora were backing up and in perfect position for any overthrow? Nice group effort there. - Re: Beltran tagging and his slow start: I think he was sort of reading how Werth fielded that ball and was ready to slam on the brakes if he didn't like how it was developing. But going all out was the right move there. I sometimes wonder about Beltran's instincts. He'll make 10 smart plays and then throw in a real klunker.

Fernando Martinezmanages to have a 1-for-18 week (.056/.150/.056 with two walks and five whiffs) which brings his overall season numbers to .233/.288/.411 and lands him on BA's 'NOT-so-Hot List' for the week. "He still leads the International League with eight doubles, and he's still just 20, so perhaps his next appearance will come on the positive side of the Hot Sheet ledger."

="John Cougar Lunchbucket":6ea5az97]I ask this question a lot, but it would be interesting to see a breakdown of the success rate of all sacrifice attempts. I don't think I could guess how successful they are given how many outcomes are possible. It seems though that people just assume success at sacrifices is as simple as calling for one.[/quote:6ea5az97] That's long been one of my anti-Sac arguments: that the SB [u:6ea5az97]pro[/u:6ea5az97]ponents assume virtual 100% success in their what/if scenarios. Of course that argument is secondary to the one about even the successful bunts not really being all that successful - but that's a whole 'nother argument. Overall it'll probably be tough to get a definitive answer seeing as how some bunt attempts are screwed up on the first or second try until the play is taken off and the batter swings away. That brings up the question as to whether that gets counted as a sac attempt or a swing away since it's essentially both? And then the kicker is that the swing away in that case is probably less successful than had the batter not been asked to try a Sac in the first place since he's almost certainly in an 0-1 or 0-2 count. Edgy DC May 01 2009 12:21 PM On the other hand, what are the odds that Maine swinging away would have less costly? David Wright, also to be fair, would have the advantage over pitchers of not bunting in against a drawn-in infield.

Karstens & Ohlendorf are the two guys pitching now from the Yanx system that they got in the Nady trade. Both are contributing though I'm not sure either one has a real high ceiling. IOW, they may be useful but probably not build-around guys. The key to that deal for them was minor-league OFer Jose Tabata. Signed very young and very talented right around the same time as the Mets inked Fernando Martinez, they mirrored each other's progress on the prospect sheets until Tabata started to fade last season amid reports of not being in the best shape mentally or physically. He seemed to perk up after the trade but is off to a rough start this year. In the Bay deal Andy LaRoche is the guy who'll make or break that deal from their viewpoint. 3B Andy (brother of 1B Adam) came out of the Dodger system as a fairly highly touted hitter but stumbled badly in his first sustained ML action. Seems to be off to a better start this year.

Neither Castro or Santos going anywhere anytime soon as the NYPost declares[/url:13iqze91] that Schneider now adds a strained calf to his bad back and his return will be delayed.

]It's Pablo, not Pedro Sandoval. Told ya I didn't know him. For the record to close out April: - the Dodgers win again (over the Giants) meaning they've still yet to lose at home. - and the Cards beat the Nats on - stop me if you've heard this one - a 9th inning bullpen meltdown.

I wouldn't want a total balanced sked because I think it's always better to play your own division opponents more often. It's just that between the increased number of teams plus the (gimmicky) IL games the ratio has become so lopsided. The old 18/12 (in division and cross) was fine, the current 19/6 (and even that's not consistent) not so much.

Already getting some love and attention about a dozen threads down. (Merged from Adopted: Josh Thole, 5/1/2009)