Frayed Knot

The Nationals announcing team is almost annoying enough to make me root for the Phils.

Maine - 4.2 Santos - 4.1 Wright - 1.0 Sheffield - 0.5 Green - 0.2

My feeling would be that you keep a guy at a tougher defensive position for as long as possible (for trade bait purposes) unless he is embarassing himself. a switch to 2B (or some other position that is "open" on the big club long-term) would likely indicate that the team sees a guy as part of the future here as opposed to bait. You keep a guy at the tougher position until he proves he can't play there and not strictly for trade bait purposes; the guy might just learn to play there. In general I don't think players should be shifted around simply to fill a perceived opening until they're much closer to the majors. We're still talking about A-ball here.

Reese is good enough to make #7 of BA's 'Hot Prospect' list this week. Team: high Class A St. Lucie (Florida State) Age: 22 Why He's Here: .333/.462/.714 (7-for-21), 2 2B, 2 HR, 2 RBIs, 7 R, 5 BB, 0 SO The Scoop: The second of two Mets' first-round picks last year (22nd overall), Havens has been one of the FSL's most productive hitters thus far. A lefthanded batter with a grinder mentality, he leads the league with seven extra-base hits as part of a .320/.407/.600 start as St. Lucie's shortstop. The fact that he's playing the field again is just as encouraging as his hitting, after he spent his time DHing with short-season Brooklyn in his debut last season. Havens lacks classic shortstop actions, though, and already has committed five miscues in 13 games.

Looks like at Wrigley dates in late August plus both Houston series (there in late July and the season ender at Citi) are the only ones still unclaimed. Mole? Lunchbucket?

Kind of a quick hook for Fossum but that's what giving up 3 hits & 3 BBs in 2.2 innings will do for you.

Feliciano 0.4 Stokes - 0.4 Reyes - 0.7 Beltran - 0.7 Delgado - 0.7 Church - 0.3 Santos - 0.3

Ollie has options - meaning they wouldn't have to risk waivers by sending him down - but also, I believe, enough seniority to where he could refuse to be assigned there.

Well, for those who said there would never be a HR hit to CF in this stadium, you're wrong. Of course we're still waiting for the first NYM HR up there, but at least we now know it's possible. ]Anyone for sitting Beltran or Wright for a day each in hopes of waking up the motley crue? Umm, no.

Pelfrey - 2.8 Parnell - 0.5 Stokes - 0.5 Beltran - 2.7 Church - 2.7 Wright - 0.5 Reyes - 0.15 Castillo - 0.15

="Edgy DC":wy4ic25t]Better control than Saberhagen is hard to conceive.[/quote:wy4ic25t] It was a comment from a prospect blog back when he was working his way through the minors saying that his control was even better than Saberhagen's had been at a similar age & level. Duplicating Bret's a the ML level would be quite a feat. Ashie62 Apr 26 2009 01:45 PM Tom Seaver Benjamin Grimm Apr 26 2009 01:46 PM I should point out that we had to pay Tom Seaver for the right to use his name in this thread. G-Fafif Apr 26 2009 04:10 PM Whitey Ford does everything from the goodness of his heart for the benefit of the community. batmagadanleadoff Apr 29 2009 04:32 PM OlerudOwned Apr 29 2009 04:57 PM Greinke on Greinke �There�s a lot more interesting stuff going on right now,� he said. �They should have something else on the cover. Playoff basketball or something else. �So it�s a mistake. They�ll probably sell their least amount of magazines in a long time � except when NASCAR was on the cover.� Edgy DC Apr 29 2009 08:12 PM Aaron Michael Heilman, inning for inning, is pitching better than Johan. Number 6 Apr 29 2009 11:06 PM Watched Greinke's game tonight. 7 innings, 5H, 4BB, 8K, 2ER. He didn't even look like he had his best control and Mike Winters had a tight zone. Only a couple hard-hit balls. Scary. Nymr83 Apr 30 2009 06:41 AM ="Edgy DC"]Better control than Saberhagen is hard to conceive. Saberhagen BB/9 career= 1.65, he twice led the league at 1.5 and .7 Guess who is right behind him on the all-time list? our old friend Rick Reed! Edgy DC May 08 2009 10:55 AM What I didn't realize is that the Royals signed Greinke before the season for four years at $12.5 million per. People who scratched their heads at that would line up to pay that kind of money for him now. Nymr83 May 08 2009 12:12 PM better not check the archives as i'm afraid i'd be on that list

Santana - 4.2 Parnell - 0.4 Feliciano - 0.2 Putz - 0.6 Castillo - 1.4 Murphy - 0.9 Beltran - 1.1 Tatis - 1.1

Lotsa DL-ing going on in da Bronx all of a sudden. - Set-up man Brian Bruney is in NYC to have a sore elbow examined and gets the 15-day sentence. - ARod replacement (and surely the reason they're winning right?) Cody Ransom out with strained quad - and whattayaknow, they found an injury with which they could shelve CM Wang. They couldn't demote him without exposing him to waivers (which they weren't about to do) so they "found" a strained Schwartzenmeyer joint (or whatever) and put him on the 15-day 'What the fuck do with do with this guy' list. Phil Hughes to start in his stead for now. - Nady still out with his elbow problem although it's not looking like a season-ending deal as first thought.

Gwreck wrote: Maybe Jerry doesn't realize that Church is hitting two hundred points better than Sheffield. That's gotta be the reason, right? I expected that exact move all along: replacing both Sheff & Tatis w/Church & Reed after the former two got their last ABs. The idea at this point is to get everyone their ABs and Sheff has been having good ones lately. ]Also thought it was strange that Acta walked Beltran intentionally in the 8th with 2 outs and a righty up to get to Delgado. Maybe the matchup numbers were favoring the pitcher. I hate that move (unless there's a big batter advantage) for the exact reason it came back to bite the Nats: No room for error. ]Parnell's fastest pitch was 98 on the stadium gun. Was not in favor of lifting him for Feliciano. It was against Johnson right? -- I'm OK with looking for every advantage vs him plus Dunn a batter later if things continue.

At the moment it's Royals RHP Zack Greinke Last night: Beats Tigers 6-1; Complete Game, 1 R (Unearned), 10K; 1 BB Season: 4 GS, 29 IP; 19 H; 1 R; 0 ER; 6 BB; 36 K; 0.86 WHiP; .133 BAA; 0.00 ERA Couple this stretch to the tail-end of last year and he's got a 38 inning no-earned run streak. The unearnie last night (throw to 3B trying to get an advancing runner got away) means he's got no shot at the Hershiser record. I wish we had an ace like that!!!!! (j/k) Actually it's good to see this kid coming through. A highly touted prospect a couple years back - they were comparing him to Saberhagen coming through the same org only with better control! - he fell victim to some anxiety issues and was on the shelf for a while looking like he might become a 'what ever happened to?' guy. Last year was really his coming-out party. This season looks to be his star-making year.

2R HR by Bay to dead center off Mariano w/2 outs in the 9th to tie it up !!!! A cutter that didn't cut. I was just about to write a lament about how the Sawx had 11 hits & 5 BBs (9 & 4 of those off Joba in the first 5-1/3 innings) but only 2 runs. Make that 12 hits and 4 runs. And all this was just after the Yanx had the sacks loaded w/0 outs in the top of the inning but didn't tack on.

Phillies 9th: Matt Lindstrom pitching - R Howard grounded out to second - J. Werth doubled to deep left center - R Ibanez walked - M Stairs (hitting for P Feliz) singled to right, J Werth scored, R Ibanez to third - M Cairo (yes, THAT M. Cairo) ran for M Stairs - L Marson walked, M Cairo to second - E Bruntlett (hitting for C Condrey) struck out looking - J Rollins walked: R Ibanez scored, M Cairo to third, L Marson to second - S Victorino HR to right ... M Cairo, L Marson and J Rollins scored - C Utley HR to right R Pinto relieved M Lindstrom - R Howard doubled to deep center - J Werth walked - R Ibanez struck out swinging

Was glad to see Frankie put an end to that one before Nick Johnson came up. Batting AndyHandy leadoff came back to bite Acta there in the 9th. JMO but I think .200 OBA guys should be given as few ABs as possible.

Uggla with a 3R HR in the 1st inning and the Marlins lead the Phils 3-0 in the 5th

Neil Best in today's Newsday[/url:2aq3rzp9] on MLBN's nightly show. He does this every once in a while: goes the entire day (or a good portion of it) watching one sports-TV related thing just to see how sane he comes out on the other side. I know he's done the NFL draft (I'd shoot myself by hour 2) and once did MSG on a summer day not long after they lost the Mets and had nothing but the winter sports teams remaining. Lotsa informercials and cheesy in-house stuff IIRC.

Speculation on when/if Reyes & Wright reach various all-time NYM records is analyzed Here -- and actually started with a similar post about a year earlier.

Stokes - 0.3 Beltran - 2.3 Cora - 1.2 Church - 1.6 Wright - 1.0 Reyes - 0.6

So if I have this straight, MLB - which has for years encouraged higher ticket prices by way of new (and often paid for by taxpapyers) stadiums with luxury boxes and "premium" seating - is going to discuss with two of its marquee franchises what can be done about the problems created by higher prices at new stadiums that were built specifically for the purpose of including larger amounts of luxury boxes and premium seating?

Only LaRussa could turn this game into a 6-pitcher outing.

metsguyinmichigan wrote: Freaking Sheffield. Has he done anything besides his homer? He also hit in some bad luck today. Got robbed once by Ankiel in CF. Then again on a smash to 3B. And, yeah, the GiDP was bad but he also got dicked on a call and had to protect 0-2 instead of (where it should have been) at 1-1