Frayed Knot

Xavier Nady may be a lot of things, but a good defensive outfielder isn't one of them. Amazing how quickly some have forgotten that.

smg58 wrote: I think he's earned the right to play the second half of the year in New Orleans. I wouldn't ask him for more than that right now. As for next year, let's wait and see. I concur. A nice half-season so far but it's just that, half a season. Repetition in the minor leagues to build up ABs or IPs is something our young, promising players haven't been getting enough of (Milledge, Pelfrey, Humber, Gomez - and even back to Reyes).

Kevin Goldstein, the minor league guru over at Beaseball Prospectus, takes stock of Mike Carp: In a system running quite low on prospects, at least Carp continues to enjoy the best rebound in the system. Last year, he was one of the organization�s biggest disappointments, batting just .251/.337/.387 at Binghamton, but in his defense, he was just 20 years old at the start of the season. This year he returned to the B-Mets, smacked a home run on Opening Night, and has never looked back since. On Friday night he had a strange game, going 4-for-4 with a double yet somehow not scoring or driving in a run. He made up for those counting stats on Sunday by slugging two home runs (driving in six), which helped raise his season averages to .351/.404/.553 on the season. The Mets have tried to increase his value even more this year by trying him some in left field, but scouts have characterized that as something of a disaster. Offensively, though, he�s a smash hit who could get a shot at being a cheap replacement for Carlos Delgado in 2009.

I was at this game

* Griffey = 600 * Dontrelle Willis is still a mess

Martinez - 1.5 Vargas - 0.7 Schoeneweis - 0.6 Delgado - 2.2 Easley - 1.6 Castiillo - 1.2 Chavez - 1.2

OlerudOwned wrote: He looks like he's playing in a prison jumpsuit. Well it's Cuba so he kinda is. Baseball America quotes some scouts who have seen him, with mixed reviews. Most see a good bat, but some also caution about a bad body 1B/DH type even though he's played 3B up to now and is still young. His agent is also trying to claim that because he was in the U.S. prior to the just completed draft then he was technically undrafted and therefore should now be a FA. No one thinks that's going to wash however seeing as he wasn't on any draft-eligible list beforehand.

Alou claiming he'll "definitely" be back Tuesday. Marlon maybe within a week. I have no idea what's up with Pagan. Wasn't his a "bruised shoulder"?

This was truly a weird game - not to mention Murphy's Law all over the place. - Virtually every Padre hit (until Clark's of course) was either a bloop or seeing eye. They had a ton of hits but they were all singles until the 8th when they got that bloop "double" and then Clark's HR. Many of the outs were harder hit than the "safes" all game long. - Two plays that weren't made (three really) cost us runs: 1) Delgado getting caught between hops and not getting the out at 1st 2) Reyes getting turned around on that bloop 3) Home ump Laz Diaz not calling Clark out on the 2-2 pitch (looked good on the overhead shot) My only solace is that I don't think it can get any worse.

KC wrote: Half of us want it. Half of us expect it. The other half of us will come around when it goes down. It's that third half that's usually the critical swing vote. In fact, Hillary still thinks they're gonna come around to her side before the convention settles things.

Also gone are the days of roommates in hotels on the road so you can't even rely on your buddy to wake you up if you over-drink ... I mean sleep.

Rockin' Doc wrote: I'm still a little confused on how Castro could oversleep and be so late to the park. Does Castro stay in a seperate hotel from the remainder of the team or something? Many of these newer downtown ballparks the hotels are within walking distance and it's pretty much up to the players to get themselves there. Even when there is a team bus - like from Manhattan hotels out to Shea - it's not required that one be on it as long as you get to the park on time via some other method. Lots of players will cab or even subway themselves out there. I can imagine football coaches blowing a gasket at just the thought of players not taking a team-arranged transport.

Endy woke up this morning and got himself a gun

We got our run. Now Pedro and the defense have to hold them there.

]Wrong Ledez(s)ma Not sure we'd hit either at this point.

And if you're going to offer him arbitration you had better be prepared to take him back at a rate pretty close to what he's making this year (20% max cut) if he accepts. IOW, to get a pick (or picks) you'd have to: 1) decline the option 2) pay the buyout 3) offer arbitration 4) have him reject said arb and sign elsewhere And even then it's not clear what picks you'd get for him. It would depend on where the Mets finish the season, where the teams that signs him finishes the season and what other FAs they might sign, plus how Carlos ranks compared to others at his position (Type A, Type B, etc). You might wind up going through all that for a pick that's no better than somewhere in the 60s or so.

Pedro vs Aaron Ledezma (0-2, 4.43)

Grote15 wrote: Talk around the Sports Illustrated office is Omar has talked to Colorado about assuming some of Beltrans money in return for Matt Holliday I don't buy a word of that.

On any potential scoring hit I almost always go into 'coach' mode and try to make immediate decisions as to whether to send the runner home or not. From the moment Delgado's hit went into the corner I'm thinking that if Wright gets sent he's gonna be a dead man and we'd be crawling all over Alomar for sending another one to the gallows. So I know Keef talked about there being two outs and all but I'm not gonna kill Sandy for this one. Going with Wagner tonight (Sat) in the 10th was a better idea than the game when Schoeneweis went on his walk-a-thon. At least then you could match SS up against a slew of LHBs and save Wagner for the potential save since even if Wagner gets through unscathed he'd likely have to go to Schoeneweis at some point later on and not at a time where he'd have the luxury deciding who he'd face. That Schoenweis sucked that night doesn't negate the strategy IMO. Tonight Willie was probably thinking along the same lines with Feliciano for Gonzalez & Giles, except that this time he had to face two RHBs before ever getting to them and, of course, he never got past #1.

Perez - 2.4 Delgado - 1.5 Beltran - 0.8 Chavez - 0.8 Schneider - 0.4 Sanchez - 0.7 Schoeneweis - 0.5 Smith - 0.4

I'd say this was the most frustrating game of the year except I think I've said that about 5 times already. - I couldn't believe Hairston caught up with Wright's drive. I already mentally put all 3 runs on the board. - Those two plays at 3rd killed us: 1) The one that shouldn't have been made but was - Endy got a bad break off 2nd. Plus that was the Pads' only play cuz Johan was going beat Wolf to 1st and everyone would have been safe. 2) the one that should have been made but wasn't - Johan's bad throw - The 2nd hit-by-ball play in a row was nice but all it did was delay the run anyway. And if that doesn't hit him maybe it's a DP (although it was hit kind slow) I wanted at least 5 of 7 from this mini western trip, but now we need to sweep the final two just to go 4-3. Right now we're 3-5 against the worst of the West (Col, SD & SF) and those are the teams everyone else is beating up on.

Santana - 3.3 Reyes - 0.5 Wright - 1.0 Chavez - 1.0 Feliciano - 0.4 Schoeneweis - 0.2 Heilman - 0.2

The Braves draft list is amazing - almost all HS or Comm Coll players and fully half the list from either Georgia or a neighboring state. It's like they do their shopping by ignoring all the major department stores and instead buy their gifts at small boutiques in their immediate area on account of a limited travel budget. But they do the same thing almost every year and somehow make it work better than most. The full Met list Any friends of yours? Two New Yorkers and a handful of Connecti-kiters.

Valentin has recently started playing. He's listed as being 8 for 25 (4 doubles) at St Lucie, and also 0 for 4 at New Orleans. So I'm assuming that means he's nearly ready to come back, so between him and Alou also almost set to go maybe we can fianlly start getting some age on this team.

"Are you referring to the catcher-falling-into-the-dugout rule?" Yes. I find the explanation (speculated by Cohen) that the rule is different for a catcher going into the dugout on his feet versus falling in to be silly beyond belief.