Frayed Knot

Game 147; Saturday , Sept 15 - Philly @ Mets (game 2 of the 17) Phils 5 - Mets 3 Lohse (5 IP, 3R, 7H) vs Pedro (6 IP, 1R, 7H): - Phils get 1 in the 1st on 3 singles - Mets load the bases w/none out in the 2nd but score only once: LoDuca - FC at home; Milledge - HBP; Pedro - K; Reyes - PO - Mets score twice in the 3rd - leadoff single by Cstillo and RBI singles by Beltran & LoDuca - Met 6th - get 3 walks in the inning ... but also get caught stealing twice, including Reyes trying for 3rd w/2 out and Wright up - Feliciano relieves Pedro to start the 7th and immediately gives up a leadoff 2B then an E3 for a run (3-2 Mets) - In the 8th Rowland ties the game w/a leadoff HR Sosa then replaces Feliciano and walks two then serves up a 2-out/2-RBI triple to Rollins (5-3 Phils) - Mets vs Myers in the 9th get 1st & 3rd with one out, but Wright Ks and Beltran flies out Lead = 4-1/2; N-HOP Pct jumps from 35.5% to 37.9% More little stuff killing us: caught stealings, leaving runners on, etc Mets get 8 hits (7 singles) plus 8 walks but score only 3 Bullpen = 3 innings, 4 runs (3 earned), 4 hits, 3 walks

Phostponed in Philly phor Phriday

Braves - in 4th place at 66-85, 18 games out of 1st (that's us btw) in their final visit to Shea EVAH!! Friday 7:00 (if it don't rain) Santana vs Hampton (2-2; 5.60 in 9 starts) Saturday 3:55 FOX (for some of you anyway) Pedro vs Jo-Jo Reyes (don't know if he's a dancer?) - 3-10; 5.96 in 19 starts another lefty, probably another day sitting for Castillo Sunday 1:00 Ollie vs Jorge Campillo (7-7; 3.70) Finally a RHP - Has been having a decent year for them and we've faced him twice early in the year (1 start, 1 relief) and have yet to score a run off him. 8 IP, 0 R, 3 Hits, 1 BB, 11 K Lineup: C - McCann mostly 1B - Casey Kotchmann was the return in the Teixeira trade. He then got hurt but is now back 2B - Kelly Johnson SS - Yunel Escobar 3B - Chipper RF - Francouer The rest of the OF has been a ptchwork, manned most recently by two callups: Brandon Jones - LHB, Braves draft pick (so he's got to be from the south-east ... yup, Panama City, Fla), 24 y/o, .268/.314/.412 in 97 ABs Josh Anderson - also hit LH, out of the Houston system, 26 y/o; .288/.345/.400 in 80 ABs You now know everything about those two guys that I do. So do we miss Ruben Gotay? ... Eh, not too much: .223/.311/.340 in 94 ABs

I actually like this N-HOP concept. We started the final 17 game stretch last year with our N-HOP at 33%

Yes it does, as does the health questions of Zambrano & Harden. Also, the Cub rotation also could be changed depending on how, if, and when their games with Houston are re-scheduled.

And what does the first half of the season have to do with it? In May or June most Met fans would have been estatic if told they'd secure a playoff spot ... ANY playoff spot. Game 2 tonight: Parra vs Hamels Hmmm, not a good matchup.

Game 146; Friday , Sept 14 - Philly @ Mets Moyer (7 IP, 2R, 4H) vs Glavine (7.2 IP, 2R, 5H): Mets jump out to a 2-0 lead on Wright's 2-out solo HR in the 1st and then a 4th inning Castillo leadoff BB; steals 2nd w/1 out, Beltran BB; Alou RBI 1B. Further run-scoring was killed by a Jeff Conine (remember him?) GiDP Glavine is perfect in the 1st, 3rd, 4th, & 5th Philly 6th - Nunez leadoff BB, Utley 2-out, 2R HR Mets 8th - Load the bases on 2 HBPs and an infield single but Beltran Ks w/2 out Wagner & Gordon pitch perfect 9ths Philly 10th - Heilman pitching: Werth 1B Ruiz reaches on sac bunt attempt (1st & 2nd) Nunez = Sac Bunt (2nd & 3rd) Dobbs (PH) = Sac Fly Rollins = Lineout Met 10th - Milledge GO; Green K; Reyes K Nothing outrageously painful about this one - except for the usual early lead/late loss, the part where we weren't able to hit Jamie Moyer, and getting burned by bunts. - In the 9th Carlos Gomez couldn't get a bunt down (force out at 2nd after a leadoff HBP) - and then the Phils run in the 10th was set up by the Mets getting NO outs on a sac bunt attempt right after the batter (Ruiz) had his AB kept alive by an E2 Lead = 5-1/2

]NHOP: Necessary Happy Outcome Percentage And here I was thinking that that pancake place had cut back on their overseas operations.

... at least for the first two games on Friday & Saturday With the Astros suddenly back in the picture they're going to have to make them up. Both have a mutual day off on Monday so they may try to get 3 games in over 2 days on Sunday & Monday.

Good for Howie but did FOX just lose an announcer and need to pick someone up to fill out their sked? I mean I know Joe Buck has bailed now that it's football season (apparently announcing a football game takes 4 or 5 days of preperation even though they won't let you talk to the players and the coaches never tell you anything) but he's only been there occasionally since April anyway.

Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it -- George Santayana This thread (Memories of Collaspe) has taken over as worst thread ever, IMO. -- Holy Chicken No, THIS one has. -- Frayed Knot So, as you may have noticed, we have Seventeen games left! ... a number which oughta ring a few bells. OK so some of you are going to hate me for this (at least those of you who don't already) and, no, this wasn't neccessarily inspired by the 'Memories of the Collapse' thread (I was going to do this anyway). But I don't believe in jinxes and have no qualms about reliving last season's end, if for no other reason than that this year can't possibly be as bad and will look great in comparison. The 'Memories' thread shows how fuzzy our recall can be at times - especially since many of those games seemed to be a 'Groundhogs Day' of bad baseball over and over again. So I thought a day-by-day real-time look at how that disaster evolved would be fun ... or torturous, whatever. The Set-up: What some might not remember is how up-and-down wacky the whole last month+ was. We actually first reached the high-water mark of a 7-game lead on Aug 25th. Then, after losing the next day to LA, came our first disaster against the Phils, a 4-game sweep in Philly and the lead was quickly down to 2 (Game 133, Aug 30). So we took our devastation from that and proceeded to win 10 of the next 12! -- sweeping 3 in Atlanta, taking 2 of 3 in Cincy, sweeping Houston, and taking 2 of 3 from the Braves again and suddenly the lead was back to 7 games (Game 145, Sept 12). And that's where the trouble started. - 'The Collapse' started in a situation just like today; Mets idle, Phils playing. Phils went on the win that game chopping the lead to 6-1/2. - We then proceeded lose 5 straight and lose 5 games off the standings in the process. Of course it helped that the first 3 of those games were against Philly so we arutomatically lost a full game each day. - We actually then WON 4 of the next 5 but only gained a game in the process! It takes two to erase a lead that big and Philly was winning at that point more often even than we were losing. - That was followed up by a second 5 game losing streak which killed the lead entirely, before splitting the final two games after we had put ourselves in the position of needing both. So on this day in collapse history (not actually the same calendar day, but on our day off between games 145 & 146) the Phils (who had just lost 6 of their last 7) thumped the Padres 14-2 behind rookie Kyle Kendrick, HRs from Howard & Coste, and 5 hits from Jayson Werth. Lead = 6.5 Next up: The Phils come to Shea

One of the things prospect pundits look at with young OFers is whether or not they'll be able to handle CF because, if not, you have to really love their hitting to see them as a future star at one of the corners. With Milledge (like Fartinez now) people seemed to be on the fence as to his ability to stay in CF. I'm not sure that's been answered yet. Milledge is still fairly young (23) and, between his late signing, various injuries, and before-he-was-ready call-ups, he never got the volume of minor league ABs & repititions he should have. Now throw in the fact that the lack of talent on his team has forced him (and others) to be playing and hitting in spots (clean-up?) where he's not ready. That said, I have no idea why he was SO ridiculously deep. Seeing as how we've seen it before I gotta believe that Acta either approves or figures that deeper is more comfortable for inexperienced types and that he'll move in as he gains more reps. In the meantime, I think we should enjoy it while it's helping us.

My lack of CAHNfidence last year had to do with what would happen once we go TO the playoffs based on how things had gone over the previous 3 months or so. But while it was still '7 with 17' with what looked like a favorable schedule it didn't occur to me that we wouldn't get there.

Smith - 0.7 Ayala - 0.5 Beltran - 2.2 Easley - 0.4 Reyes - 0.4 Schnieder - 1.0 Smith - 0.7 Tatis - 1.8 Wright - 3.0

... have been credited to Joe Smith. I have no real point here, just found it interesting.

Sure, but it (Wagner's money) is still a major expense which is going to affect how much you can spend elsewhere just as it would in any business. It also brings up the question of whether (the reported) $15mil for FRod is a good idea no matter what the budget says. In other news, Wagner underwent "successful" surgery yesterday. Did you ever hear of a case where the doctors come out and say; "Geez we really screwed that one up" ?

There's also a difference between "purse-tightening" and saying that you don't want to be dedicating $25+ mil to the closer's spot for next year.

East: TB beats Sox in 14 innings, jumps to 2.5 GA of Boston Tor = 9.5, MFY = 11.0 Central: ChiSox & Twins both win. Sox stay 1 game up West: Angels clinch. The only part that sucked is that they had to wait for Texas's loss in a later start so the jumping around didn't take place w/the Yanx on the field. WC: Boston up by 5 over Twins Toronto 7 back Yanx 8.5 back

Those 6 games we played against them last September when they averaged [u:557052a6f1]9.5 runs/game[/u:557052a6f1] seems to be repeating on us. No explanation for it, but it would be nice if we'd cut it out.

Wright telling those complain' bout no clutch hittin' fans to shove it up their pooper.

Ah yes, my bad.

metirish wrote: At what point is it the coaches fault for Lastings playing so deep? He was doing the same thing early in the season - so Acta must want him there either by direct order or at least tacit approval.

Add in Texas. As of this afternoon the Angels have clinched the ALWest

Got away with this time but that was another bad send IMO. Yeah you're winning and can afford to be more agressive but LFer had the ball before Tatis had even reached 3rd

Tough to overstate how much Tatis bailed the team out this summer.