Frayed Knot

Real nationwide audience for that one.

metirish wrote: I look forward to original programming live from the Winter meetings , the draft should be a big show for them. There's 4 days down, 361 still to fill.

I had forgotten about Joe Neikro's death also. And, in fairness to Benigno (even though I believe he truly is a dope), WFAN has been doing their shows from this Fan-Fest thing since about Friday for the purpose of getting baseball-related guests to drop by and chat -- so it probably wasn't a case where they knew in advance he was coming on and did any kind of prep work.

="Vince Coleman Firecracker"]I don't have the NFL Network, so I don't know what they do. If it was a bunch of classic NFL films productions, I'd probably wind up watching it way too much. Dun-dudahdudah DUN DUN DUN The frozen tundra... The NFL channel runs a ton of old stuff - mostly playoff and every SB - seeing as how their games were all network deals to start with so they own the rights to everything that's ever been televised. It's not like they have to first buy the rights to them from a local station. ]Anyway, yeah it'd be cool to be able to watch old baseball games, but I suspect the programming will be more of the "talking heads with wrong-headed opinions" format. Yup, because a big reason behind all these owned channels is to try to cut into ESPN's current near-monopoly as the place to go for pre/post-game analysis/highlights and general yapping.

I love the media types who trumpet the importance of the ASG by blindly citing empty stats like; 'the team w/the home field advantage has won X of the last Y times' ... - as if the recent 4-game sweeps ('04, '05, '07) had anything to do with who had Game 7 in their park, - or thinking that the '96 WS helps prove the theory even not only did Game 7 never happen there either but that the home team lost 5 of the 6 games that were played.

]If they show classic games and baseball movies and documentaries, that would be interesting I'm sure there'll be lots of that stuff too. These specialty channels are essentially self-promotion vehicles and have so much air-time to fill they'll show just about anything and buying up the rights to most old movies is generally cheap. MLB needed to get the thing on basic cable packages because they knew very few would pay for it seperately. The NFL channel is mostly on the pay tier because DirecTV gave them a fortune for exclusivity rights to their 'Sunday Ticket' package (the 'Extra-Innings' equivelent which is where the real money is) and the cable companies, pissed at being shut out of that, are in no hurry to pay for the NFL's lesser, self-promoting offering even now that they've added exclusive weekly games to it.

I generally watch - but it's not like I hang on every pitch. After the intros and first inning or so it'll become sort of background sound unless and until it gets tense at the end.

RE: the one-sided contracts I've been getting a kick out of this whole Favre situation. Yeah he triggered the whole thing thing by retiring and unretiring within a short span. But while changing your mind might be annoying it's still legal and now the phony long-term contract mess is going to restrict him from having any say in the upcoming year. IF he wants to play he has to do so for Green Bay because his contract has several years left on it and they own his rights. Of course if it was the team who wanted to sever the relationship that multi-million dollar contract would be worth exactly one NYC subway ride (as long as it was augmented by $2). So Green Bay is taking the, 'we won't let you play for us and we won't let you make a deal with anyone else either' approach, leaving Favre in the usual player position of getting the downside of the long-term deal and none of the upside. GB can trade him (which is apparently what they want to do) but he has no say in where, or when, or even if. Or, if they don't like the price (draft picks most likely) they're offered, they can force him to play for them only and on their terms only or not at all.

Too lazy to look it up, but it's my recollection that Seaver never started an ASG - or at least never as a Met

"[seaver's] his final appearance in a Mets @ Tides game...and a simulated game where Barry Lyons went 6-for-6." Lyons wondered afterward if that meant he was destined for the simulated Hall of Fame

Probably could have gone without a 7th Cub but I guess they'd just make the argument that he was only replacing a teammate anyway. The other thing about Marmol is June + July = 16.1 IP, 17 ER, 14 H, 13 BBs, 4 HRs He's got like the reverse-Heilman splits.

Then there's the All-Star statute where Jeter gets to bat #2 even in lineups where he's the worst offensive player on his squad, and even when his manager isn't calling the shots, and even though some mid-lineup guys always have to take the 8 & 9 slots, and even though .... Oh wait, it says S-t-a-t-u-e-s ... Never mind.

Seems to me that Jerry's still bunting as much as Willie ever did. Maybe there's not as much early inning stuff but that might be due more to Castillo not being around (and he did some of that on his own) than any real change in philosophy. Making Castro catcher #1A to the starters' #1 is something I've been wanting to see for years now although, in fairness, Ramon himself was rarely healthy enough to make that happen even when the chance did pop up. Credit to Jerry though for not being as tied to Schneider's "superior defense" to try alternatives and you get the idea that he won't lock himself into other roles that way even though there have been no other real lineup changes. Pitcher use seems pretty much the same to me. Again, it seems like he's willing to go longer with the starters but I doubt any evidence exists that he has. And the pen roles (such as they are) seem virtually identical. Funny how much better the mgr looks when the identical crew in identical spots is simply better or when their one recent blowup (last night in Philly) came the same night when the bats gave them a 9-run cushion. I do seem to detect an extra layer of hustle. Nothing major and not all the time (see my in-game note about Reyes Sun. night) but Delgado looks more alive even when not knocking them over the fence and there hav been a few other instances here and there as well - so maybe he is "reaching" these guys a little better.

So let's use the the break here to put Jerry up on the lift and look around under the hood for a while and give him his 26 game check-up. Obviously the pre-ASG streak makes the W/L record a whole lot better compared to before he took over and the scribes in this town seem unanimous in their praise of Jerry's "open-ness" not only to them but to the players as well. Or at least that's their story and they're going to stick to it at least as long as things are going well. But how about his mgmt during the game itself? Among topics to consider: - does his in-game strategy differ from Willie and, if so, how? - Are starters being used differently? Longer leash / quicker hook? - Are there really more strictly defined roles for the relievers or is that just talk so far? - How about the lineups - any trends or tendencies changed since the change? - Big ball vs small ball - Are the players hustling more and/or playing smarter?

And my only point in bringing Delgado up wasn't to 'out' those who trashed him before but merely to show how the 'addition-by-subtraction' route usually isn't as obvious as it sometimes seems and that the answer to the question; 'Can we do any worse?' is quite often, "Yes".

... and now on the heels of today's 'Futures Game', BP's prospect guru Kevin Goldstein chimes in: Fernando Martinez put on a show in BP and pulled a single through the 3/4 hole in the game. Health as much as talent and performance is going to determine his arrival time in Queens, but when you consider the Mets� holes in the outfield, �2009″ seems like as good a guess as any. I think he�s become something of an underrated prospect. iow; FM received a bunch of hype due to the initial high signing bonus from a NY team plus his advanced league at a young age that a number of scouts and touts began to pull back and start trumpeting the negatives to the point where, if he stays healthy and gets more repititions, his talent will come out and maybe make those doubters seem like they were under-rating him.

One good thing about the mini-resurgence from Delgado is that Joe Badabingo "boldly" bet so heavily against it. Following his 9-RBI game vs NYY, JB went out on a limb to predict he wouldn't get 9 more over the next 20 games. So not only is that not not a very bold prediction in the first place (9 in 20 isn't that bad a pace) but he'll probably lose it anyway. Delgado's 2 tonight give him 8 in the 17 games since.

Darling was saying the other day that Seaver told him, as they briefly crossed paths during their Metdom, to always volunteer for Sunday before ASG duty as he (GTS) vultured up a handful of wins that way over the years.

If a team or a player stinks and someone keeps banging the drums by saying "no, its NOT a slump" despite no logical evidence to the contrary, then yeah that does not make the person right = zero sense

Striking out Holliday -- would be so nice Pelfrey's dealing folks!

Seems like Easley's been in on at least half the plays in this game - both offensively and defensively. He's either turning two; breaking up two; legging it out so THEY can't turn two and thus being on for Delgado's blast; or just by fielding a ton of grounders.

="AG/DC"]Anybody who had given up on **Delgado** and would've been fine to release him this year, get your hands up. Way up so we can see 'em.

We haven't seen any Nick Evans power yet - all his ML hits have been to opposite field IIRC - but the minor league stats* and the rep says he has some. Be a nice spot for it. * 39 of his 92 hits this season are for XBs (.250 IsoP)

WOW!

Y'know what Reyes [u:3c8dc4b9c2]doesn't[/u:3c8dc4b9c2] do that kind of bugs me? ... when he has the next base made easily (like on the Evans bingle to RCF) he doesn't go at that base agressively so as to put pressure on the defense. Getting to 3rd with a some intent to it sticks the idea in the defense's head that they might get burned by another base unless they get teh ball back in quickly and without a bobble or a mis-throw. By cruising in like he does he lets them off the hook and kills his chances of taking advantage if they ever do screw up. Most of the time it won't matter but it bugs me anyway.