Frayed Knot

Seems that he threw already this morning and has been pronounced ready to go again in a game by Saturday, something which would keep him on track for game 2 of the season. "I was pretty rusty," Pelfrey said about his throwing session. "Physically I felt it a little bit, but it's a lot better.". He also added that the pain in his lower leg, originally described as "an 8 or 9", is down to "1 or 2".

Edgy DC wrote: I wonder if they'll blame A-Rod. Of course -- he didn't show up and they lost therefore it's his fault. Just like if they had lost and he HAD showed up it would be his fault too. Didn't you get the memo on this?

Four games remain in Round 1, three today: Pool 'B' features Mexico-Australia (10EDT - MLBN) in a rematch of the 17-7 thumping Mexico took in front of the home folks a few days back. Loser goes home; winner joins Cuba in Round 2 after facing off on Thursday for 1st/2nd seeding. the only Pool 'C' game remaining is today's USA-Venezuela tilt to determine 1st/2nd seeds (6:30 - MLBN) Canada & Italy are out and in Pool 'D' the flying Dutchmen take on undefeated Puerto Rico for 1st/2nd seeding (5:30 ESPN2) Dom Rep & Panama are out Round 2 action starts Saturday in Miami (Pools C & D) and Sunday in San Diego (A &

Jim Kaat: "You ain't much if you ain't Dutch"

* Game ended in a 5-5 tie; Mets rallied from a 5-0 deficit, tying the score in the ninth on pinch-hitter Daniel Murphy's single off Jesus Colome that scored Nick Evans. John Maine allowed all five runs in three innings, on homers by Elijah Dukes and Brad Eldred. * At least Maine sounded less suicidal today; �I felt good out there, ... I wasn�t throwing the ball all over the place. If I was missing, I was just barely missing. I threw good changes, a couple of good sliders. I threw the ball well. It could have been just as easily 0-0 as it was 5-0. That happens.� Jerry Manuel also noted Maine was the victim of shoddy fielding, including a pair of misplays by Jose Valentin at shortstop. * Pagan on the shelf; ... will have arthroscopic surgery on his right elbow to address a bone spur, acc to Omar Minaya. Above all via Adam Rubin's blog (NY Daily News)

="Centerfield":3jmd4ma5]Billy had, what, 7 blown saves before he went down? Overall, he pitched very well, but had more blown saves than you would expect.[/quote:3jmd4ma5] Yeah, Billy had a near-flawless first 1/3 of the season followed by a shaky 2nd 1/3 where most of his blown saves and bad games came (sign of the injury?) before the non-existent final 1/3. But the biggest fall was Heilman's as both his walk & HR rates went through the roof in 2008 for no apparent reason. OlerudOwned Mar 10 2009 02:48 PM Duaner getting hurt meant the end of X-Man and the beginning of the Ollie. From an analytical standpoint, Perez is the most valuable player out the three. Otherwise, I don't know what's good or bad. Change is change, names and personalities come and go. G-Fafif Mar 10 2009 03:06 PM One game in mid-June (recounted a bit here[/url:sqo4ing2]) when Aaron, Duaner and Billy retired the Phillies nine up, nine down, throwing almost exclusively strikes. Ended that magical 2006 road trip 9-1 and essentially wrapped up the division. Saw some dude without goggles last season in the middle of the Tatis walkoff celebration vs. the Marlins and had no idea it was Duaner. Fman99 Mar 10 2009 05:25 PM Didn't he try and knock a batted ball down once by hucking his glove at it? That might've been when he was still a Dodger. LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Mar 10 2009 07:13 PM ="G-Fafif":cm9n5hc9]One game in mid-June (recounted a bit here[/url:cm9n5hc9]) when Aaron, Duaner and Billy retired the Phillies nine up, nine down, throwing almost exclusively strikes. Ended that magical 2006 road trip 9-1 and essentially wrapped up the division. Saw some dude without goggles last season in the middle of the Tatis walkoff celebration vs. the Marlins and had no idea it was Duaner.[/quote:cm9n5hc9] Nice celebration of the all-too-brief Real Duaner era over at the FAFIF, sir-- You do eulogies all too well. Rockin' Doc Mar 10 2009 08:11 PM Duaner was practically unhittable in 2006. Then came the ill fated cab ride that ended his season. He never seemed to recover from the injury and regain the form that made him a near sure thing during the 2006 season. I wish him well in the future.

Sure, but it wasn't too great before that either. Neither Heilman nor Sanchez (and to a lesser extent Feliciano) were anywhere near what they were in '06 and that points to the fluctuating nature of bullpens even when the personnel is more or less the same.

]He should remind us of how fragile and enigmatic bullpens can be Like the fact that the great 2006 bullpen was anchored by Wagner, Sanchez, Heilman, and Feliciano as opposed to the lousy 2008 bullpen which was anchored by Wagner, Sanchez, Heilman, and Feliciano

Edgy DC wrote: Korea hanging on for the 1-0 win over Japan is something. Kind of a little less meaningful as both knew they were advancing to the next round before the game even started. Each club trotted out about 5-6 fresh pitchers which helped keep the scoring down.

="Edgy DC":1fno8q78]But Redding has failed at every turn.[/quote:1fno8q78] Hasn't he only made one turn so far? Redding had a real good first half last year. Whether his poor second half was due to wearing out or related to whatever foot/toe problem he got corrected over the winter I'm not sure, but I suspect he's going to get a decent amount of rope this Spring. Edgy DC Mar 10 2009 08:39 AM Redding has had two outings. The first was an intrasquaddie and the second was against a college team, so neither is on his "official" spring training record. Gwreck Mar 10 2009 08:53 AM ="John Cougar Lunchbucket"]Duaner was awful last year and he's been awful this year, and they certainly gave him all the rope he needed and more following his accident, even as he showed up in camp out-of-shape last year. That was two years ago that he showed up out of shape. Hard to believe it was so long ago that he was a dominant set-up man. Duaner earned a lot of good will from me for that amazing start to the '06 season and I still believe that had he not been hurt things might have turned out differently, if not in '06 than certainly in '07. Relive the pain of the taxi accident here. John Cougar Lunchbucket Mar 10 2009 09:10 AM Yes, right. But the point was, they'd been through that with him and still didn't release him. Gave him every chance even then. Some good Cranepooling in the car crash thread. attgig Mar 10 2009 09:23 AM not only does it give duaner time to latch onto another team, it gives us more time to audition more guys. now, where do we spend that 1.6 mil? LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Mar 10 2009 12:36 PM ="attgig":1hmlwfzr]not only does it give duaner time to latch onto another team, it gives us more time to audition more guys. now, where do we spend that 1.6 mil?[/quote:1hmlwfzr] Ohman, presumably. Failing that, any way we can get a Manny timeshare, last-week-of-Septemberish? TheOldMole Mar 10 2009 02:47 PM Thanks for the good times, Duaner, and damn that taxi. John Cougar Lunchbucket Mar 15 2009 01:36 PM ] Padres pick up reliever Sanchez GM Towers says former Mets pitcher will compete for 'pen role By Corey Brock / MLB.com PEORIA, Ariz. -- In their quest to solidify their bullpen, the Padres signed 29-year-old right-hander Duaner Sanchez to a Minor League contract, general manager Kevin Towers confirmed on Sunday. Sanchez was released by the New York Mets on March 10. The general consensus was the Mets were concerned about his velocity and doubted that he could reclaim the form that he had in 2006 as a rookie. Sanchez has a career record of 18-10 with a 3.91 ERA in 276 games since breaking into the Major Leagues in 2002 with Arizona. He spent the last two years with the Mets and went 5-1 with a 2.60 ERA in 49 games in 2006. It was after the 2006 season when Sanchez was injured in a taxicab accident that would necessitate two subsequent shoulder operations. He missed all of 2007 and part of '08 as well. The Mets saved about five-sixths of Sanchez's $1.6875 million salary by releasing him before March 18. Towers said Sanchez's velocity ran about 87 mph and that he has complimentary pitches that could make him the late-inning reliever the team is looking for, possibly the eighth-inning specialist to set up former Mets teammate Heath Bell. "I know I have it," Sanchez told The New York Times on Monday of his velocity. "I've got no problem with that. I just don't want to come out of the chute throwing hard. That's not me. I want to make sure that when I reach back, I know I have it there." OlerudOwned Mar 15 2009 02:03 PM Duaner wasn't a rookie in 2006, Corey Brock. Wasn't paragraph you wrote immediately after saying so evidence enough? Benjamin Grimm Mar 16 2009 05:06 AM Duaner signs a minor league contract with San Diego. SteveJRogers Mar 16 2009 10:10 AM ="OlerudOwned":2urk8egz]Duaner wasn't a rookie in 2006, Corey Brock. Wasn't paragraph you wrote immediately after saying so evidence enough?[/quote:2urk8egz] Not to mention the accident occured during the season, not after it. Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy!

Summary to date: Pool 'A': All finished for round 1 China & China (T) are out, Korea (1st place) and Japan (2nd) advance. Pool 'B': So Africa is out. Cuba & Australia play a 'winners game' today. Loser of that faces Mexico in an elimination tilt. Pool 'C': The 'True North Strong and Free' was booted off their home turf while the Red White & Blue advance to round 2. Venezuela & Italy face off today; loser goes home, winner faces USA for 1st/2nd Pool 'D': Panama ousted without scoring a run. DR gets a loser-goes-home rematch tonight with the Netherlands. Winner then faces Puerto Rico (already assured of advancing) for 1/2 seeding

="Nymr83":cr7i448y]... might this have been an economic move disguised as a baseball decision?[/quote:cr7i448y] They could have released him next week and saved the same, or a few weeks from now and saved almost as much so the specific timing isn't a money issue. I just think that 2-1/2 years and two surgeries after the taxi deal they see little or no improvement and have enough other pieces that they at least hope can cover the same ground. Nymr83 Mar 10 2009 07:58 AM thats fair enough, it just seemed a little unusual to me that they wouldnt wait and see right before the decision actually had to be made, but they're the ones down in camp not me so i guess maybe they see something in his command or especially velocity that just tells them he will never get back to where he was Edgy DC Mar 10 2009 08:03 AM I'm going to go ahead and assume they cut bait when they did because they saw it as his best interest and the team's to tear away the band-aid and move on decisively. MFS62 Mar 10 2009 08:06 AM I think fman99 nailed it. I think Omar has always liked Sanchez. And although he still had time to make the financial decision, Omar wanted to give him time to catch on with another team before the other teams had finalized their rosters. Or, as Michael Corleone might have said, "This was personal, Sonny. Not business". Later smg58 Mar 10 2009 08:27 AM ="MFS62":1249j1la]I think fman99 nailed it. I think Omar has always liked Sanchez. And although he still had time to make the financial decision, Omar wanted to give him time to catch on with another team before the other teams had finalized their rosters.[/quote:1249j1la] That seems right to me too. The arbitration rules gave the Mets the option of auditioning Sanchez without committing to the full price, so it made sense to give him the shot but not to keep him around if things weren't working out. I think it guarantees a spot for Redding even if he's not the fifth starter. Stokes also looks safe to me right now, which leaves one spot wide open and another dependent on Redding's ultimate role. Also keep in mind that Joe Beimel and Will Ohman are still available and would happily take the money the Mets won't be paying Sanchez. Edgy DC Mar 10 2009 08:28 AM But Redding has failed at every turn. Frayed Knot Mar 10 2009 08:35 AM ="Edgy DC":1fno8q78]But Redding has failed at every turn.[/quote:1fno8q78] Hasn't he only made one turn so far? Redding had a real good first half last year. Whether his poor second half was due to wearing out or related to whatever foot/toe problem he got corrected over the winter I'm not sure, but I suspect he's going to get a decent amount of rope this Spring. Edgy DC Mar 10 2009 08:39 AM Redding has had two outings. The first was an intrasquaddie and the second was against a college team, so neither is on his "official" spring training record. Gwreck Mar 10 2009 08:53 AM ="John Cougar Lunchbucket"]Duaner was awful last year and he's been awful this year, and they certainly gave him all the rope he needed and more following his accident, even as he showed up in camp out-of-shape last year. That was two years ago that he showed up out of shape. Hard to believe it was so long ago that he was a dominant set-up man. Duaner earned a lot of good will from me for that amazing start to the '06 season and I still believe that had he not been hurt things might have turned out differently, if not in '06 than certainly in '07. Relive the pain of the taxi accident here. John Cougar Lunchbucket Mar 10 2009 09:10 AM Yes, right. But the point was, they'd been through that with him and still didn't release him. Gave him every chance even then. Some good Cranepooling in the car crash thread. attgig Mar 10 2009 09:23 AM not only does it give duaner time to latch onto another team, it gives us more time to audition more guys. now, where do we spend that 1.6 mil? LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Mar 10 2009 12:36 PM ="attgig":1hmlwfzr]not only does it give duaner time to latch onto another team, it gives us more time to audition more guys. now, where do we spend that 1.6 mil?[/quote:1hmlwfzr] Ohman, presumably. Failing that, any way we can get a Manny timeshare, last-week-of-Septemberish? TheOldMole Mar 10 2009 02:47 PM Thanks for the good times, Duaner, and damn that taxi. John Cougar Lunchbucket Mar 15 2009 01:36 PM ] Padres pick up reliever Sanchez GM Towers says former Mets pitcher will compete for 'pen role By Corey Brock / MLB.com PEORIA, Ariz. -- In their quest to solidify their bullpen, the Padres signed 29-year-old right-hander Duaner Sanchez to a Minor League contract, general manager Kevin Towers confirmed on Sunday. Sanchez was released by the New York Mets on March 10. The general consensus was the Mets were concerned about his velocity and doubted that he could reclaim the form that he had in 2006 as a rookie. Sanchez has a career record of 18-10 with a 3.91 ERA in 276 games since breaking into the Major Leagues in 2002 with Arizona. He spent the last two years with the Mets and went 5-1 with a 2.60 ERA in 49 games in 2006. It was after the 2006 season when Sanchez was injured in a taxicab accident that would necessitate two subsequent shoulder operations. He missed all of 2007 and part of '08 as well. The Mets saved about five-sixths of Sanchez's $1.6875 million salary by releasing him before March 18. Towers said Sanchez's velocity ran about 87 mph and that he has complimentary pitches that could make him the late-inning reliever the team is looking for, possibly the eighth-inning specialist to set up former Mets teammate Heath Bell. "I know I have it," Sanchez told The New York Times on Monday of his velocity. "I've got no problem with that. I just don't want to come out of the chute throwing hard. That's not me. I want to make sure that when I reach back, I know I have it there." OlerudOwned Mar 15 2009 02:03 PM Duaner wasn't a rookie in 2006, Corey Brock. Wasn't paragraph you wrote immediately after saying so evidence enough? Benjamin Grimm Mar 16 2009 05:06 AM Duaner signs a minor league contract with San Diego. SteveJRogers Mar 16 2009 10:10 AM ="OlerudOwned":2urk8egz]Duaner wasn't a rookie in 2006, Corey Brock. Wasn't paragraph you wrote immediately after saying so evidence enough?[/quote:2urk8egz] Not to mention the accident occured during the season, not after it. Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy!

Well they're about to be toyed with again because Johan says he's feeling good and aiming for Opening Day (a phrase that should always be capitalized, btw). He used all his pitches in yesterday's throwing session and is scheduled for a Thursday start. So the thousands of trees and E-trees that were killed in order to make room for the multitude of columns and blogs detailing the dire consequences and medical malpractice in connection with Santana's left wing turned out to have given their lives in vain all over a soreness which required that miracle of modern medicine ... a 3-day break.

Pedro to Mets: "Call me" Newsday: Pedro Martinez said Monday he'd like to be the Mets' fifth starter, but "I'm not going to go chasing the Mets. I'm not in that bad of shape." However, Martinez said he would love to pitch in Citi Field, which he called "the new Shea," making no secret that the Mets are on his wish list of teams. And he certainly knows they need pitching. "If they want a fifth starter, I've been there. I don't know how much they want me but I'm available," Martinez said. "That's all I can say. But at the same time, I'm available for every team out there." Martinez, who threw three scoreless innings against the Netherlands on Saturday, also said he's open to being a reliever, though it's not his preference. He also said the other day that he wasn't going to stoop to a "Glavine contract", one where he signs for a small amount with incentives. But, still, there appears to be no talk coming from Met camp. Just from Pedro ... and the Post.

And Rene Rivera wins it w/a walk-off HR in the 9th.

Redding is the only one of the #5 candidates who is on a guaranteed contract. Yeah his pitching line looked like crap but it's also his first outing in a while following the off-season toe surgery (or whatever he had). He should still get regular turns and will probably have to pitch his way off that spot. Most of Garcia's money is tied up in incentives - but if he doesn't get his velocity up it's never going to reach that point or maybe even opening day. As per the standard agreement they owe him about 1/6 of whatever is guaranteed if he's dropped by mid-March at some point or about 1/4 of that total if dropped by April 1st. And, despite my suspicions, I read where there is NOT some clause that dictates he be released if he isn't on the 25-man by a certain date. Livan I don't think was in the plans for anything other than roster filler for a WBC-challenged spring training and a hail-Mary if all the others fell on their faces. If he's the guy it either means that he's pitching really well (not so far) or that things are going really wrong elsewhere.

In game 1 Davey swapped Jeter out for Rollins so it seems mostly like a time-sharing thing. Funny part was that both O'Brien & Sutcliffe assumed that taking Jeter out could only be the sign of an injury and stuck to that story until they got word from the bench that it was nothing more than a simple substitution. I don't get annoyed by announcers too often but Sutcliffe just about busts the annoyance meter. It's not that he's biased (Met fans see bias more often than Joe McCarthy saw communists) it's that he decides on the story-line beforehand (almost always the simplistic cliched one) and then sticks to it no matter if the facts back it up or not. - so stories like Jeter making the team gel isn't pro-Jeter bias as much as it's rote recitation of cliched nonsense. - and that McCann going the other way w/a pitch must have been on account of a tutorial from Jeter because he saw them talking before the game (imagine, a catcher and SS talking before a game!!!) - and Pedroia & Youkilis bring "grittiness" to the U.S. team that didn't have it 3 years back, a dopey statement implying not only that the USA not winning last time was due to being gritty-challenged but that he could somehow sense both the difference and the source of that difference halfway through Game 1. ... btw, credit to Jeter after game 2 who answered the always dopey; 'Is the team winning because you're having more fun?', question with the honest; 'No, we're having more fun because we're winning' - and Phil Mushnick's column today catches Sutcliffe citing Peavy being "tense" on the mound as the source of his wildness even as the camera shows him smiling and laughing. - and on and on ...

Gotta love the NYPost inventing a story where none exists. They start with a headline of: 5TH-STARTER FIASCO SPARKS PEDRO TALK and then state a few sentences into the piece that no one on the Mets has expressed any interest in Pedro. IOW, even though they're not talking about it the fact that we're talking about the fact that they're not talking about it means there's talk about it.

Well they could have used him because Taiwan (Taipei) lost to the commie China and is the first team eliminated from the tourney. Japan thumped Korea in the winners' bracket game so Korea faces China in the next elimination contest.

A Boy Named Seo wrote: That stupid Olympic extra-innings rule was adopted this year and will be in effect for every inning starting with the 13th. Hopefully we won't even see it. Hopefully they're not using that in the later rounds. I don't like in the earlier rounds either but at least there they're using the multiple games needed in a short period of time logic.

Korea mercy-rules Taipei (9-0 in 7 innings) setting up a Mao-v-Chaing elimination game.

="Benjamin Grimm"]So it appears they were available during Darryl's prime. Maybe they were less widely known and/or available? At that time they were certainly available but also less known to the point where you probably needed to know someone, or someone that knew someone, etc. Probably a lot of players were still ignorant as opposed to later when they were more general knowledge. ]Except the Mets were employing a key (and so far the most notorious) distributor. But weren't his distributing days after his NYM employment days? Not that the one necessarily disqualifies the other but I believe his 'roids education and connections came after leaving the Mets and getting into body-building. He then looked to his former mates as likely clients for his new fun business. Either way I don't think he was distributing as early as the '80s

="metirish":39cnszoa]Rodriguez has a torn labrum in his hip but they won't do surgery , not a Doctor but it seems to me they are putting off the inevitable.[/quote:39cnszoa] Yeah the cyst has supposedly been drained, but the labrum is a bit more problematic. IIRC, the labrum is the soft tissue that cushions the interior of the ball-and-socket joint that forms the hip joint (also the shoulder) so the problem is that it's very invasive just to get to it. bmfc1 Mar 09 2009 06:57 AM If Jeter was as great as MFY fans and the media says he is, then he should play BOTH SS and 3B until Rodriguez gets back. metirish Mar 09 2009 07:02 AM Cashman said Rodriguez was "excited" about the surgery , he's probably excited about the prospect of getting a "Bob the builder" band aid to show his friends. Centerfield Mar 09 2009 07:34 AM How come his prognosis changed from being out 4 months, to now 6-9 weeks? John Cougar Lunchbucket Mar 09 2009 07:39 AM Because all they are doing now is a scope -- poke a few small holes in there and shave some loose cartlilege out which should free-up his mobility some. Then after the season he goes in for the complicated stuff.

Nymr83 wrote: Japan is playing what i can only assume is a rerun on espn2 right now. Yeah, the far east games are on espn2 live at about 4 in the morning or something. ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN deportes, and MLBN will be carrying all the games in varying combinations.