Frayed Knot

metsmarathon wrote: ]Randolph is very unstated ... i can't tell if that's a misprint, or not... With the understated Willie it can be left unstated that Met fans were unsated.

I haven't decided yet. Sometimes I start watching it hoping for a good series and just unconsciously find myself pulling for one team or the other. Considering that the last four WS have gone 4, 5, 4 & 4 games I'll settle for anything that makes things a little more interesting.

Of the cities with franchises is all four major sports Philly has gone the longest w/o a championship ('83 Sixers) This makes the 6th different AL team in the WS in the last 10 years: NYY (3), Bos (2), + LAA, ChiW, Det, and now TB and the 9th different NL team: StL (2) + Atl, NYM, Ariz, SF, Fla, Hous, Col, and now Philly ]Fox's worst nightmare for the 2008 postseason has been realized I think this whole concept is vastly over-played. If they get a good series they'll get good ratings and it's not like Philly & TB/StP are minor TV markets. Plus I think the folks in the hinterlands get turned off by the thought of the same teams from the big East Coast cities in it year after year and historically some of the better rating series have been from "non-sexy" matchups (Cleve-Fla '97, Atl-Minn '91, etc.)

Iwamura got a nasty hop there ... nice play.

Nothing like going with a Sept call-up to try and close out the pennant ... even if he was the #1 pick in the nation last year.

The fact that Delgado's only on a 1-year contract makes him more attractive to a number of teams (or at least attractive to more teams) since the risk is less.

Sawx have just the one hit (Pedroia's HR) thru 6

If Garza keeps taking 30 seconds or more for each pitch even when it's the 3rd inning and the bases empty it's going to take at least until midnight. It's bottom 4, the game taken nearly 1-1/2 hours already and there have only been 4 baserunners total. Oops, now 5 baserunners and it's a tie game.

The Yankee Sipper

Willets Point wrote: ="John Cougar Lunchbucket"]I'm rooting for Game 7. Me too. So am I, mainly because I wanted the drama even though I've been pulling for Tampa to go to the WS all along. Now, just like in last year's ALCS, my dogma might find itself run over by the karma. Meanwhile, the dumbest statement of the week contest ended early when Chip Carey, after apologizing for the technical snafu, tacked on; "you haven't missed much". Fuck you asshole.

The other thing to consider is his very favorable home/road splits Career Home: 2.37 ERA, 1.09 WHiP Career Road: 3.90 ERA; 1.28 WHiP SD is maybe the best place to pitch in the majors these days. Now maybe moving to CitiField won't be as much of as a contrast as all that (assuming CF is the pitcher's park as promised) but it's something to consider.

Might as well get it out there since Sandy Eggo has publicly said that they're listening to offers for Jake Peavy. Kind of an odd situation in that they're seeking to trade someone before his new contract extension even begins. He inked a new deal last December that tacked onto the 2009 option already picked up. So he's signed thru 2012, plus a club option for 2013 2009: $8M; 2010: $15M; 2011: $16M; 2012: $17M; 2013: $22M club option ($4M buyout) So why are they dealing the 2007 CY winner who doesn't turn 28 until next season and is signed for not-outrageos money? A couple of reasons: 1) they're looking to revamp and restock the team after the disaster that was 2008 2) the SD owner is going through a divorce and money is suddenly an issue for that reason. So while the team is under no obligation to deal him, conventional wisdom seems to think this is going to happen at some point this winter. Why he's real unlikely to wind up here: - Emptying the farm system for the 'best pitcher on the market' one season makes it tough for same team to deal for the 'BPotM' the next year. SD is obviously going to want the always popular package of young/good/cheap players in return - Peavy also has full no-trade protection for now (partial in later years) and has a hand in directing where he goes. - He's a southern boy (Mississippi) who reportedly isn't interested in the big eastern cities. His agent has already floated the Astros, Braves, Cards, Cubs, & Dodgers as favored destinations. So while I certainly don't want to stop anyone from making up deals to get him, it'll probably all be just an exercise in futility. P.S. He missed about half-dozen starts this season with what I believed was described as "tightness" in his pitching arm but has otherwise been a 30+ starts/200 IP guy for several years.

I don't even remember Heathers. The title doesn't even sound familiar to me. Was it some kind of a chick flick? It was a movie about chicks, but probably has more male viewers than female (or maybe not, what do i know?) It's a black comedy about HS cliques and outsiders taking action against insiders. Very dark, lots of good lines ("Dear diary: my teen angst now has a body count") and some funny teenage stereotypes get skewered. Not a big box office flick.

Oooh, two simultaneous lengthy (and mostly congruent) answers.

soupcan wrote: I think it also had to do with Petersen's belief that Kazmir was prone to injury and Zambrano had been a solid ML starting pitcher. There is/was no evidence that Peterson ever said or even thought this. He did take him down to the Andrews clinic for that motion study thing but, other than that, by his own admission he had barely seen the guy pitch (Kaz was only briefly in the major league camp at that age). Peterson's only public statement about him was that it was his experience that HS-drafted pitchers like him needed some 5-600 innings before they were ready for ML work and Kaz had something like 200. As far as 'what were they thinking?' - they seem to have made a decision to "go for it" in early/mid July when they were only a game or two out of first and the still-years-away Kazmir couldn't be part of that. Then, as the deadline approached and they slipped to 5 or 6 GB, they never came off that view and were making all their decisions by committee (Wilpon's wise old men) as they wouldn't allow Duquette to operate w/o training wheels. It's like the old analogy about taking a while to turn around an ocean liner; without one guy overall guy in charge no one wanted to take the initiative and negate their earlier decision. The real crime, of course, was why Zambrano - and it seems that one of Wilpon's wise old sages liked him for years. Truly a study in bad organizational structure/communication.

DH was better than most 'Lets blow up a bunch of shit' movies featuring a beyond-the-rules type cop and the evil crooks he battles. But I got a huge kick out of 'Heathers' even though its setup was far better than the payoff as it got lost there at the end. What's your damage?

Dundee's knife couldn't get me to vote for Dundee That "Knife" line was the only good line in the whole movie and the commercials for the film gave that one away before you ever went to the theatre. BttF was good enough to overcome its built-in goofiness.

]I don't mean to knock, just putting it out there. I don't believe Baldelli can play the field because of that condition he had. I do think once it gets to 7-4, you get your 3 best outfielders out there for the 8th. Maybe Gross is that guy, and just had a bad couple innings. Perez is considered the better defensive OFer so I think a knock on Maddon here is justified. The throw was probably just bad luck but maybe a better glove could have prevented one or two of those hits. Baldelli still can play OF these days, just can't handle a bunch in a row and doesn't look to have that same smooth-running stride he did as a rookie. Shame.

]Has J.D. Drew been everything he wasn't with the Dodgers or what? I guess the overall answer is ... sort of. He still frustratingly blows hot and cold and still sits out long stretches with hard to pinpoint injuries. Missed the last month or so with a "bad back" and still only 500 ABs once in his career. The jury is probably still out as to whether or not this was a good signing (3 years still to run). But when he does get in there he hits and gets on base a ton. Plus I'm guessing it'll be a while before the Boston fans derisively refer to him as "Nancy" Drew the way they did when he first got there. P.S. I'm also not expecting a Francesa (or Russo) mea culpa today since they both not only were sure of his failure in Boston but specifically knew that he'd fail in those always popular "BIG" spots ... like last night for instance.

]Rays fans are probably wondering why Kazmir was pulled, although in Maddon's defense, the top of the 7th inning was more than 30 minutes long. Maddon's pitching decision are taking a few hits via the post-game insta-analysis. Why did he pull Kazmir? ... Why no LHP to pitch to Papi? ... Too early for Wheeler? In Maddon's defense: - Kaz was up over 110 pitches already (what else is new?), plus the long wait. - I'm betting he'd take some hits for "over-thinking" the pen if he started situationally matching L/R pitchers when he still had a 6-run lead. Papi hadn't gotten around on a fastball since maybe August before he swatted that Balfour pitch into the seats. ="HahnSolo"]do the Rays not have a defensive replacement in RF for Gross? He made a horrendous throw on Crisp's single to tie the game, then didn't come close to a catchable game - winning hit. Baldelli possibly, although he doesn't seem to be moving as well as his pre-injured self to me. The other is Fernando Perez, a rookie who seems to be an Endy type of defensive sub for them. I heard someoe say that Gross's foot slipped as he made that throw. I didn't see that but it almost had to seeing as how the throw from only medium RF basically two-hopped its way to 1st base. I think Buck Martinez was saying just before that that Gross has a good arm in RF so maybe this one was just bad luck. Not having a better fielder in for the 9th to possibly catch Drew's drive is the more knock-worthy non-move IMO.

Dancing in the Streets of Hyannis

WOW!!!!

I'm finding that I barely even listen to play-by-play announcers. They're just kind of white noise during the game but as long as they're not overbearing (Chris Berman) not much they say bothers me. The color guy(s) make or break a team much moreso for me and Darling & Martinez are good enough so that I barely notice Carey.

Rays put two on in top 9 but Sox get the GiDP ball and nwo have a chance to win it in their half.

This reminds me a bit of last year. I was pulling for Cleveland but when Boston got down 3 games to 1 I started rooting for them simply to make it a better series. 3 games later and it was the seriously, I just used a racist word when I really meant "Guardians" who were going home.