Frayed Knot

Brad Chadford is Chad Bradford's evil twin. We called him that here when he'd have a bad game (fortunately rather rare during his lone NYM season).

Time for the 54-game (1/3 of the season) check-up. TEAMProj O/UWins thru 54Proj thru 162TrendNYM93.52781UNDERPHIL87.53090CLOSEATL84.52987CLOSEWASH70.52369CLOSEFLA68.53193WAY OVERCHIC87.53399OVERMILW84.52678UNDERCINC79.52575UNDERStL78.53193WAY OVERHOUS72.53090WAY OVERPITT68.52575OVERARIZ86.53090CLOSELAD87.52781UNDERSD84.52060WAY UNDERCOLO82.52060WAY UNDERSF71.52369CLOSE

Pelfrey - 3.4 Beltran - 2.3 Wright - 0.7 Delgado - 0.7 Tatis - 1.0 Wagner - 1.1 Sanchez - 0.8

[u:dceaf8f28f]Manny 1/2 K[/u:dceaf8f28f]: Manny hit HR #500 Sat night. Since it was Manny I believe the ball was caught, fought over, and finally sold on EBay prior to him reaching 1st base - but that's all part of M-being-M I guess. [u:dceaf8f28f]BRUUUUUUUCE[/u:dceaf8f28f]: Check out the start of Cincy OFer Jay Bruce's ML career (prior to Sunday's game): 5 games, 11 for 19 including 3 2Bs and a HR + 2 SBs -- .579/.680/.895 He only went hitless in one game so far. Meanwhile, he's had 2 3-hit games plus one w/4-hits. In Friday's game he scored the winning run in walk-off win. Then on Saturday he hit a walk-off HR in extra innings to win a game. It's not supposed to be that easy.

]Any word on Castillo? Strained hip flexor We could have survived a shaky Maine OR a messy Heilman tonight but not both. Heilman continued his pattern of either being perfect or perfectly awful. Hoping for a CH Park appearence backfired.

Maine - 2.0 Castillo - 2.0 Reyes - 1.5 Muniz - 0.5 Schoeneweis - 0.5 Wright - 0.5

mario25 wrote: I have been saying Heilman is not right for the 7th and 8th innings for a long time Then you've been wrong for a long time. From Duaner's injury on he was almost exclusively an 8th inning guy for around a season and a half and when he was he posted numbers that look like this: 123 IP; 97 Hits; 96 Ks; 31 BBs; 9 HRs; 1.04 WHiP; 2.92 ERA The situations he's being used in aren't the source of his problems, lousy pitching is -- unless you've got an explanation why his desire to start or the inning is suddenly affecting him now but didn't up until now.

Joke reportedly making its way through the Met clubhouse yesterday: Q: Where's Ryan? A: In the parking lot asking for directions to the stadium

]I've never posted here, but I've been lurking for a while Seen you lurking and figured you'd chime in at some point (although I also put up some new curtains in the bathroom just in case). ="holychicken"]I think he was cheered because everyone knows the Yanks treated him like crap and he basically told them to F-off. Every Met fan can appreciate that. I think that - plus his status as a long-time baseball man and former Met player & manager - fits the bill for most cheerers. Were I there last night I don't think I'd have cheered or booed but rather taken a bold stand of total indifference. There also might have been a smattering of MFY fans on hand specifically for his return.

I think that because so many are convinced that the total contract package is eventually going to bite us in the ass there's been a bit of a premature rush to declare that it already has. The off-season knee surgeries threw an extra scare into all that also. The thing about Castillo is that he's been so absurdly consistent over his career that, until he stops doing what he's always done, he probably deserves the benefit of the doubt. He'll always be a limited player on account of the almost total lack of power but, until further notice, he is what he is. YEARBAOBA 1999.302.384 2000.334.4182001.263.3442002.305.3642003.314.3812004.291.3732005.301.3912006.296.3582007.301.362 Except for 2000 (higher) & 2001 (lower) his BA & OBA have fallen within a very narrow range every season. And, while he's certainly not getting any younger (who is?), turning 33 at the tail end of the season hardly makes him ancient.

Vargas - 2.3 Wright - 3.1 Castillo - 1.2 Beltran - 0.9 Delgado - 0.9 Schoeneweis - 0.9 Smith - 0.7

'Catcher's Interfernce' generally refers to the catcher's glove impeding the batter's swing. I missed it too so I'm not sure and none of the in-game sites seemed to be working tonight. * On edit: ESPN just showed it and it was glove/bat interfernce

Bazooka Joe gets out a couple of leftys in the 9th - both on Ks looking - to close it out.

I remember noting last year at some point that Heilman tended to have feast-or-famine quality to his outings - far more so than most relievers it seemed. His appearences tended to be either perfect or perfectly lousy. This year is like last year only with more bad outings than good plus wilder extremes.

Speaking of Schoeneweis, anyone notice that he's sporting a 1.35 ERA and 0.90 WHiP this season including only 1 run allowed in his last 13 IPs? He's faced approx 50/50 RH/LH batters this season compared to about 60/40 last season so maybe the usage pattern has helped him. His R/L splits are still pretty wide but he appears to be managing it better.

The only problem with Lofton's defense is that his days as an everyday CFer are long behind him -- but of course that's not what we'd be using him for. ]1050 yesterday was breathless with "exclusive breaking news" ESPN would claim credit for predicting a morning sunrise.

OK, so we've got a team hovering around .500, a manager with hated MFY ties, a disappointing high-priced CFer, a constantly injured big-name pitcher, and a volatile mixture between younger and older players. Oh yeah, and they're in town this week to play the Mets. Ladies and Gentlemen, your Los Angeles Dodgers!! That would be the Dodgers of a 26-26 record, Joe Torre managing (I'm going out on a limb and predicting a Torre/media frenzy this weekend), Andruw Jones stinking up the joint, Jason Schmidt never seeing the light of day, and their well-publicized clubhouse strife from last season. The LA Torres have been pitching well lately but barely scoring at all, giving up only 17 runs over the past week but losing 5 of 6 to the Cards & Cubs because they scored just 1, 0, 4, 1, 1 & 1 runs over that time. They're probably in a foul mood seeing as how they're coming off a sweep in Chicago and last night blew a 1-0 lead by serving up a run in the 9th and another in the 10th. That also means they got into NYC very late (heh heh) which, being from LA, will seriously cut into their tanning bed time. We faced them out in their crib early in the month, losing 2 of 3. Each time we got to their starters but left a small village of runners on base in both games 1 & 2 and before getting totally shut down by their pen: 4 IP - no hits in game 1; 6 IP - 3 hits w/11 Ks in game 2 Finally in game 3 we smacked Brad Penny around like some rap-video skank while Maine cruised into the 9th M*A*S*H Notes: - Andruw Jones: 15 Day DL, meniscus tear in knee caused by excessive fat Hell, he's doing THEM a favor by getting hurt (.165/.273/.271) - Rafael Furcal: 15 Day DL, lower back strain This one is doing US a favor as he's the rare Brave who actually got better after leaving Atlanta - Jason Schmidt: 1,458 Day DL, elbow or shoulder or crankcase or something Is rehabbing in the minor leagues ... is rehabbing in the minor leagues ... is rehabbing in the minor leagues ... lather rinse repeat. - Nomar Garciaparra: 60 Day (or maybe 60 year) DL, strained calf Wow, Garciaparra AND Alou hurt at the same time ... whoda thunk it? Who's on First? No, Hu's on Short The Taiwanese born Chin-Lung Hu is manning SS while Furball is on the DL. A good glove with speed but is finding hitting tough on this side of the Pacific (.179/.250/.214 in 84 ABs) Who is Blake DeWitt? The 22 y/o 3rd baseman is one of those annoying call-ups (annoying when they're on the other team) who's been hitting better at the ML level (.300/.372/.457) then he ever did in the minors. Game 1: Thrus 7 PM EDT - Claudio Vargas vs Brad Penny (5-5, 5.32 ERA, 1.48 WhiP) It may be the last start for a while for Vargas (or maybe not) Penny's been our personal punching bag (5-12, 6.21 ERA) seemingly since he thought beaning Shinjo was a good idea. Game 2: Fri 7PM EDT - John Maine vs Clayton Kershaw (6 IPs, 2 ER, 5 hits, 2 BBs, 9 Ks!) Kershaw is probably THE most heralded pitcher to debut this season. The #7 overall draft pick out of a Texas HS in 2006, this 20 year-old 6'3" lefty blew through both low-A and (skipping A+) AA ball last year (89 hits & 163 Ks in 122 IPs) and continued his destruction of the lower ranks with 9 AA starts this season before his ML debut last week against StL. Book says: blazing fastball and a killer curve. Game 3: Sat 3:55 EDT (FOX) - Mike Pelfrey vs Chad Billingsley (4-6, 3.68 ERA, 1.36 WhiP) That's national TV for you out-of-towners. Make or break for Pelfrey? We should have kicked Billingsley's butt more than we did during the LA series. He'll walk a bunch if you let him. Game 4: 8:00 EDT (ESPN) - Johan Santana vs Hiroki Kuroda (2-4, 3.29 ERA, 1.30 WhiP) (I once knew a lethal bantamweight named Hiroki Kuroda) Another national TV game We REALLY let this guy off the hook last time, scoring 4 in 4 innings but left 8 on base (including sacks drunk twice) before getting our ass handed to us by their pen (mostly Kuo) Poison Pen Pals: Leftys Hong-Chih Kuo (2.32 ERA) & Joe Biemel (1.13) have been solid, as has closer Takashi Saito (1.99) and (surprise!) Chan-Ho Park (2.37 over 30 IPs) Torre favorite Scott Proctor (5.25 ERA - 1.42 WHiP) and the big-butted, man-child Jonathan Broxton (4.22 - 1.39) not so much. What to root for: The Dodgers left here crying 50 years ago - let's see them do it again.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: ="Frayed Knot"]So how are those tattoos help your pitching Miller? Come on, the joke here was: Tatis 1 Tattoos 0 Yeah, I blew that one. I think Miller's one of those guys they make wear long sleeves the whole year because of how many designs he's got on his arms.

Perez - 1.4 Reyes - 1.1 Castillo - 1.5 Tatis - 2.2 Chavez - 1.2 Schoeneweis - 0.5 Wagner - 0.5 Heilman - 0.7 Sanchez - 0.5 Beltran - 0.4

So how are those tattoos help your pitching Miller?

Elster88 wrote: That's a lineout if Wright's not running. And Beltran's been real good at line-outs recently.

Face it Miller, you're a dead man.

You gotta be fucking kidding me!

Unfortunately AA in CF was deep too

Tell them guys to be quiet. I don't want the Fish to know JJ is too deep!!!!