Frayed Knot

But Murph is freakin' GOLD! Nice running by Argenis too (I figured I'd say something nice about the guy seeing as how much I've been killing him lately)

If nothing else Tavarez is half-nutty, so maybe this hit and error will get him off his game and get him to do something really stupid.

Phils lose!!

This is a frustrating game. I don't think Atlanta has a hard-hit ball all night; walks, errors, seeing-eye hits, opp field cheapie doubles, at least 3 infield hits, yadda yadda.

Jo-Jo was a man who thought he was a pitcher but Reyes knocked him on his ass

]Any word on the fate of the Zephyrs? Assuming the finality of the Mets move to Buffalo and the similarly impending Dodger shift from Las Vegas to Alburquerque, three AAA cities remain open and three teams waiting to sit in one of those chairs when the music stops: Las Vegas -- New Orleans -- Syracuse Marlins -- Nationals -- Blue Jays so two East teams will wind up with a PCL team and one of them with a far west squad.

[u:17604e4062]Phils are in Florida[/u:17604e4062] Brett Myers against Jason Johnson for Friday's game Saturday (7:00) = Blanton v Anibal Sanchez Sunday (4:10) = Moyer v Volstad [u:17604e4062]Brewers are in Cincinnati[/u:17604e4062] Suppan v Ramirez on Friday Saturday (3:55 FOX Game - although I believe NYC is slated to get StL-Chic) Parra v Cueto Sunday (1:15) = Sabathia v Arroyo

="metirish"]Mets win and the bullpen didn't blow it...yeeeeeeeeeeees I've seen coin tosses screwed up before. Former NY Jet Joe Klecko did it once. If you win the coin toss in football you're allowed to choose whether you want the ball first or which side you want to defend. The losing team gets the 2nd choice. Well it was one of those real windy Meadowlands days and so the Jets decided that they'd opt for side rather than ball if they won the toss. They did win the toss and captain Klecko, figuring that choosing the wind meant the other team would opt to recieve the kick, makes his choice but phrases it wrong. - He tells the ref; "We want to kick and defend that goal". - Ref replies; "you can only choose one or the other so we have to take your fist choice ... to kick". - Then, turning to the other team, asks them which goal they want to defend first. They quickly chose the one which gives them the wind advantage, ergo the Jets wound up winning the coin toss and getting NEITHER of thier choices. I wonder how Klecko's arm is?

Ahh, I looked too quickly and thought SD was leading the West. I forgot that the Central was the bad division last year and the 1st place Cubs were several games behind even 2nd place clubs from the East & West.

[u:7a095e0215]Game 153; Friday , Sept 21 - Mets @ Marlins[/u:7a095e0215] Mets 9 - Marlins 6 Pedro Martinez (5 IP, 4 R, 8H) vs Scott Olsen (5 IP, 8R, [u:7a095e0215]0 Earned[/u:7a095e0215], 7H): Who says the 2007 team couldn't bounce back from bad losses? This game actually reversed the usual pattern as it was the Mets falling behind early then coming back late against a sloppy team - SIX Marlin errors - and having the bullpen toss zeros. - Down 3-0 in the 3rd the Mets tie the game on a single, error, passed ball, error, single - and then three more times in the 4th on 2-out singles by Castillo & Beltran after the inning was kept alive by an error. - and then twice more in the 5th on a Reyes single after the inning was kept alive by an error - A Delgado solo HR in the 7th (the only Met earned run of the game) gives a big enough cushion as the pen throws 4 innings of 1-run/2-hit ball including the first ever NYM save for Scott Schoeneweis. Phils get HRs from Rollins, Burrell & Howard to beat the Nats 6-3 Lead stays at 1-1/2; Magic number slides to 8 N-HOP Pct adjusts itself slightly 47.4% to 47.1% as we need 8 of the remaining 17 possibilities to go our way. Phils, btw, hold a 2-game lead in the WC race at this point meaning that we supposedly have a bigger cushion than needed.

Both Evans & Murphy were drafted as 3rd baseman and played at least some of their minor league ball at that spot. Considering that I don't want Argenis's bat at 2B I certainly don't want it at 3rd - and if we're talking about post-season I don't even want to see him on the roster unless forced to by Easley's absence.

Murphy and/or Evans are clearly the 3B backups if it comes to the unthinkable but there's no way they're benching Wright at this point, even for a game. Yeah he may have looked like shit in Washington and is 1 for his last 18 but he also had 12 hits (5 for XB) in the 18 ABs before that.

Santana - 3.9 Schneider - 1.9 Reyes - 0.8 Murphy - 0.8 Beltran - 0.9 Delgado - 0.8 Chruch - 0.9

The radio guys mentioned last night that his stuff - specifically the fastball - just wasn't there. Not sure why they just figured that out NOW but I guess they just wanted to see him over a longer sample before deciding.

I wonder if Chuckles Schumer, considering that he made a fairly big show out of championing Syracuse as a way to move the Mets to NYS, will take credit for their arrival even though I don't believe he ever mentioned Buffalo? Knowing the unusually strong and scientifically unexplainable magnetic attradtion between the Senator and TV cameras I suspect he might. Mets announced that they've re-upped their agreement with South Atl Lg affiliate Savannah, GA for their Low-A team. I believe all the other affiliates have already been extended so, aside from awaiting the offical word on the AAA shift, the rest of the lineup will be the same for the next two years.

Twins score 5 in the 9th to beat the Rays ruining Evan Longoria's 3 HR night. Twins aren't dying easily, the other day they came back from a 7-0 defecit to the seriously, I just used a racist word when I really meant "Guardians" only to lose it in extras. And the ChiSox lost tonight (to some team that plays in the Bronx) so Ozzie's south-siders lose a full game off their lead (now down 1.5) while Tampa gives back a half game to the idle BoSox and also lead by 1.5. Boston still has a 6.5 game lead in the WC

Met Hunter wrote: I wrote that because I'd heard that was the Yankees plan once they landed the Scranton rights. Move the team to S.I. The loophole being that they wouldn't need permission because they already had minor league approval. I guess it's not that simple. I suspect that any rumors of moving AAA to Staten Island either came from the type of bragging Yanqui fan who thinks rules don't apply when it comes to his team or from the type of paranoid Met fan who sees pinstripes around every corner the same way Joe McCarthy did with communists. 'Minor Legue Baseball' is one big umbrella organization but it's made up of a bunch of different leagues operating independently and on different levels so teams can't just unilaterally decide to cross from one to the other.

Some good signs tonight: - a couple of nice ABs from Church - Reyes continues to come out of his Sept swoon - 87th straight solid game from Johan - Schneid - Murphy determined to prove he's no fluke - Argenis got one out of the infield (just one though ... and it was still an out)

Just seeing some brief highlights now. - Ryan Braun might be a less awful fielder in LF as compared to 3B but he's still pretty awful. Dude can hit but I don't think I've ever seen a liner go through an OFers legs on a fly before. Ug-Lee - Soto's HR was a bomb. He's the easy RoY this year. - How big were the TWO runners the Brewers had thrown out at the plate? One in the 9th (with no outs!!) and one more in extras.

I'm very slowly incorporating the idea into my head that these Brewer games are every bit as important to us as the Philly games. All we have to do, afterall, is to get/keep ahead of either team from here on out and we're in (barring a ridiculous charge from Houston and/or Florida). Obviously we still have to play well, but if it's just one team that you don't play anymore you could easily get screwed by having them go off on a run and doom your chances no matter how well you play.

Met Hunter wrote: I say move to either Buffalo or Syracuse, then move the NYPenn team to that city and move the AAA team to Brooklyn. This has been discussed here before but it seems to get brought up all the time. Promblem is the Mets can't simply do that. The ownerships in Buffalo and Syracuse are the ones who have membership in the Int'l League, not the Wilpons. The road to pull off what you're suggesting involves a lot of steps and outside approvals. They would have to: - Find someone willing to sell them a AAA franchise and buy it - Expand the park in Brooklyn so it meets Int'l Lg standards (if possible) because it doesn't now - Strike an agreeemnt with the Int'l Lg to make Brooklyn one of their teams (they control who's in their league the same way MLB does) and, if granted, move their newly-owned franchise there And even then I don't think they can do it without permission from the Yanx of all people because I believe NYC territorial rights cover the ability to control both MLB and MiLB teams in this area. The Mets & Yanx basically granted each other the right to allow NY-Penn lg teams here because both benefitted the same. Don't think the Steinbrenners would look too fondly at a AAA in Brooklyn. I'm also not sure if the Wilpons would be into it either. They might thing that giving fans a close-to-MLB option nearby would have an affect on attendance in the big park.

Cubs leading the league in French All-Stars: Fontenot - DeRosa - Theriot

or at least the ones I happen to know about off the top of my head: Mark Teixeira ATL - 381 ABs: .283/.390/.512; 20 HRs LAA - 156 ABs: .353/.441/.628; 11 HRs Jim Edmonds SDP - 90 ABs: .178/.265/..223; 1 HR CHC - 231 ABs: .255/.375/.563; 17 HRs (plus one more so far today) Manny Ramirez BOS - 365 ABs: .269/.398/.529; 22 HRs LAD - 160 ABs: .400/.485/.738; 12 HRs CC Sabathia CLE - 122 IPs, 18 GS: 3.83 ERA, 1.23 WHiP, 13 HRs MIL - 109 IPs, 14 GS: 1.82 ERA, 1.23 WHiP, 6 HRs

[u:b5705b5cda]Game 152; Thursday , Sept 20 - Mets @ Marlins[/u:b5705b5cda] Marlins 8 - Mets 7 Tom Glavine (5 IP, 4R, 11H) vs Dontrelle Willis (6 IP, 3R, 5H): I warn you right now, this one's gonna suck. 3 hours & 52 minutes worth of suck. - Mets jump out to a 3-0 lead with 2 in the 1st (Alou 2-RBI 2B) and another in the 3rd (Reyes & Wright 2Bs) - Glavine dances through trouble in the first 4 innings but then get blasted for 4 in the 5th: 2B - 2B - 1B - 1B - HR - 3B and his night is done - Marlins continue to get runners on in each of the next 4 innings (they'd wind up with [u:b5705b5cda]21 hits[/u:b5705b5cda] altogether) but are kept off the board by Smith, Schoeneweis, Mota & Heilman - So the Mets, trailing 4-3 entering the 9th and facing Kevin Gregg, get going: LoDuca 2Bs, Gotay reaches somehow on an FC, and Green walks loading the bases. Reyes Ks, but then Marlon Anderson hitting for the pitcher's spot clears the bases with a 2B and a 6-4 lead. Wright grounds out but Beltran drives in Anderson for a 3-run cushion. - Of course there's still the bottom half of the 9th and Wagner is supposedly unavailable one day after throwing 21 pitches with a 5-run lead, but tonight we have a 3-run lead so that shouldn't matter, right? - Wrong! Feliciano allows a leadoff single to the lefty Hermida. Out he goes, in comes Sosa. - A 2B puts runners on 2nd & 3rd, a GO scores one and a 1B scores another. Another 1B moves the tying run to 3rd where a groundout brings him in and we're going to extras. - Mets get a leadoff walk in the 10th but Gomez fails to bunt him over (1-3 forceout) and they don't score. - Bottom 10 w/Sosa still on the mound: Hanley Ramirez leads off with a single and Uggla doubles him in - Game Over!. Wagner's "replacements" (Feliciano & Sosa) faced 9 batters and retired 3. And while all this is going on, the Phillies get 4 in the 7th and 1 in the 8th to steal a 7-6 win from the Nationals Lead = 1-1/2; Magic number stays at 9 N-HOP Pct jumps up from 42.9% to 47.4% as we need 9 of the remaining 19 possibilities to go our way.

I suspect Jerry is fraidy-scared of Marlon's defense. Thing about Castillo's running is that he always looks like he's hobbling even when he's not injured, something about one leg shorter than the other I read once. He did look bad coming to a stop at 3rd last night but he scooted around 2nd real well so unless he aggravated things when hitting the brakes he may be OK.