Frayed Knot

... again - although it can be backdated several days (Friday?) Nothing specific "wrong", just feeling out of sorts. Nick Evans back up. Also Alou to play at AA tonight (in Norwich, Conn)

]Despite their never-ending struggle in the American League East, the hostility in the northeast corridor has clearly diminished in the past two years. If by "diminished" you mean "reversed", then yeah.

There was an 'Em Boozers - 32' Lounge' (or something like that) in Huntington Station for a number of years - although it was prior to me being old enough to attend such places so I have no first-hand tales to tell. Looked a bit on the seedy side if you ask me and wasn't in a great part of town. I guess an athlete's paycheck wasn't automatically enough to afford the finest locations back then.

Keith and Ron last night were both talking up former NYJ running back Emerson Boozer as a childhood idol -- a bit odd for a couple of boys from Massachusettes & California but they seemed sincere.

BP definitely takes run differential and schedule into consideration. ESPN might not look at either.

Back when Met fans were whining about Benitez many of them were convinced that just about any closer would be better, such as that Wagner guy down in Houston ... boy, if only we had HIM instead. And when that happened I would tell them that the two were virtually statistical twins and that their dreams that other closers would somehow only blow saves in UNimportant situations was, just that, a dream, mainly because there's really no such thing. And now if we compare their Met careers we find that they're still statistical twins: CloserIPHRERBBKWHiPERASvsBlSvSv Pct Benitez347.02251111041684561.132.701602586.5% Wagner172.21425948522161.122.50941685.5%

Armando actually went more than a year here without turning a lead into a loss. He did turn some leads into ties during that streatch plus some ties into deficits/losses but managed to stay away from turning the impending win into an immediate crusher. Somehow, however, his official bio says he did that twice a month - until September of course when it started occuring three times a week.

What Wagner has done 4 or 5 times this month is something that closers rarely do and that's to blow multi-run leads despite being right on the cusp of shutting the game down - including several 2-out/2-strike HRs w/men-on in situations where only a HR will kill you. He also seems streakier to me than most. First year here he had a much better 2nd half than 1st Second year here things were reversed. And this season he was almost perfect for 60 games and now has had the month from hell. The good news; our closer just had two perfectly awful nights back-to-back and we won both games. Not often THAT happens.

I wonder about Beltran's baseball IQ sometimes. At times he seems like a reasonalbly smart guy and certainly didicated to baseball and all that. But then he'll come up with the occasional air-mailed throws over the cut-off man, inappropriately-timed bunts, or overly deep shading in the OF, and then combine those with an inability to ever say anything other than; 'That's part of my game' - and it makes it seem like he either doesn't know the difference or is just overly reluctant to admit it when he screwed up.

- Bruntlett shouldn't have run - Beltran shouldn't have thrown it - Reyes should have cut it - Wright should have knocked it down instead of attempting a swipe-tag - and Wagner should have backed up 3rd ... other than those minor details it was a good play all around.

Eh, players have played without necks before.

Martinez - 3.0 Reyes - 0.9 Chavez - 1.5 Wright - 2.4 Easley - 0.7 Delgado - 0.7 Tatis - 0.8

soupcan wrote: Gary just said MRI of Church's neck and head came back negative. So they examined his head and found nothing? That's not a good sign.

I turned this thing off at 10-2 and kept peeking in every once in a while ... and every time I did it was getting closer even though I missed all the scoring. Then I watched bottom 9.

Piece of cake

Hey, once you drop your dinner you no longer have to feed the dog. Considering the defense they're getting tonight, the Phils would be better off with Trooper Dobbs at 3rd

Zvon wrote: Pitcher R.J. Swindle will replace Gordon on the roster. Sounds like what they'd name the dishonest lawyer in a bad sitcom.

by the way, has anyone heard that the game's going to be in YANKEE STADIUM this year?

]The Murphy thing is interesting. I wonder if they're thinking that they'll need him frequently as a backup to a Castillo who's prone to missing time, or if the thought is more towards finding a replacement for Castillo. Or simply the realization that if Murphy is going to be a major league player in this organization he's going to have to learn some position other than 3B

Maybe because my conscious thoughts about Madonna have amounted to maybe 5 or 10 minutes of my life, but this whole discussion reminds of of a story Michael Kay related back when Jose Canseco briefly played with the Yanx. He said the team's bat boys were impressed with Canseco because he dated Madonna "back when it was still cool to do so" And that was like 8 or 9 years ago.

Baseball America talks about the results of high-bonus foreign teens in this week's Q&A They refer to it as an "extremely risky" way to aquire talent, saying that; "... projecting high school players is difficult enough, but at least they're a couple of years older and can be measured against some quality competion on the showcase circuit. Investing heavily in international amateurs requires a lot of faith in being able to determine what they'll be like 7-10 years down the line." They go on to note that Miguel Cabrera ($1.8 million bonus from the Marlins in 1999) is the only one who has been able to carve out a role as a big league regular, let alone a star and that for every one of him there's a pile of those who don't: Wily Mo Pena ($2.4 mil, Yankees, 1999), Joel Guzman ($2.25 mil, Dodgers, 2001), Jackson Melian ($1.6 mil, Yankees, 1996), Ricardo Aramboles ($1.52 mil, Yankees, 1998) and Willy Aybar ($1.4 mil, Dodgers, 2000). Melian and Aramboles didn't even make it to the majors. MLB teams have cut back on their big-bonus signings of amateur Pacific rim talent for the same reason.

Also, this team has put itself in a position where these 'we did OK' splits of 4-game series aren't getting us anywhere. Lose tonight and that's 3 of those in a row.

Well sure, but he's a mean, nasty, ugly, double-crossing analyst who hates the team that's paying him and the fans who are listening to him. Aren't you paying attention here?

]Gallo's still alive? 85 and going strong. btw, while listening to the radio yesterday waiting for the game to resume (or not) I was getting a kick out of the newest take from Met callers: that Keith Hernandez is not only a horrible announcer but actually despises the Mets and never misses an opportunity to knock them. And this seems to go beyond just the recent stuff with Reyes. His covert status as a double agent is apparently revealed in such things as his public pronouncement of his love of the Cardinal uniform and his criticism of defensive alignments.

Perez - 4.0 Tatis - 1.8 Beltran - 1.8 Smith - 1.1 Reyes - 0.8 Heilman - 0.2 Feliciano - 0.3