Frayed Knot

]You didn't get bonus points though, because there was nothing in there about enough of the Rickey Henderson playing cards crap I thought about mentioning that but I was getting long-winded enough as it was. Keith & Mitchell in clubhouse while '86 playoff game going on = cute, funny story because team eventually won Rickey & Bobby in clubhouse while '99 playoff game going on = not caring bastards because team eventually lost

Mark Messier probably meant more from a leadership POV to those mid-'90s NYRangers than any other single player I can think of in team sports (plus a leader probably means more in hockey) and it certainly became fashionable to say how the '94 Cup team wasn't going to lose because "Mark Messier wouldn't allow them to". Of course all that is easy to say when things are all said and done. But it needs to be noted that the Messier-led '92 Rangers were also the best reg season team (as was the '94 squad) until getting themselves unceremoniously drop-kicked in the 2nd round by an inferior Penguins team who were playing handicapped without their injured star Mario Lemieux. The point of all this is that it's easy to crown leaders when things are going well and bemoan their absence when they're not, but that's often an after-the-fact assessment. If Messier was able to "not allow" his team to lose, why did he apparently allow it two years earlier? Or to almost miss the playoffs entirely in the season in between? Keith was a great leader for the Mets but would he be remembered for that w/o the Game 6 comeback or would his 'left the dugout to drink beer and sulk' act have been cited as exactly the opposite if Carter's single carries farther and into Rice's glove? Especially as Keith apparently did nothing to discourage the likes of Kevin Mitchell to head into the clubhouse and make plane reservations home before being called out to pinch-hit? Bottom line: Leadership is key ... except when it's not.

] ... Unless Peterson convinced Minaya that Heath Bell, Brian Bannister, and Matt Lindstrom wouldn't amount to anything, I don't see a reason to blame Peterson for last year. Bell was one of the two guys (JW Seo is the other) where it's been pretty much public knowledge that they butted heads with Peterson and maybe would have been better pitchers with someone else as their mentor. I actually asked Rubin about Peterson's status within the club on a radio talk show a couple years back during his initial contract here (ie. before he re-upped). Specifically I was curious about what was mentioned above: whether he was going to be kept seeing as how he pre-dated both the Omar & Willie eras. His answer was that in the first year of deal he would have bet any amount that Peterson was a goner after (if not before) the deal was up, but that by year 2 going into 3 (approx when we were talking) the anti-Rick clan had either left, faded away in influence, or just plain changed their minds - IOW, no one left to point fingers while yelling 'KAZMIR' just to cover his own ass. Also that while Rick and Willie come at things from different angles (numbers vs "feel") and probably wouldn't pick each other of the top of the heap if given free choice, they had forged a decent working relationship over time. Not sure if last year chenged any of that (apparently it did) but nothing specific sticks out as the reason why in my eyes. ** Oh, and just as a P.S.: Leo Mazzone is doing television these days maybe just waiting for a team to call

Reyes popped up the first pitch of the frame over-swung of course "And Castillo can't hit" cry the fans on the FAN but ya gotta consider the source So when his bloop dropped in he stood there on 1st and he was taking a lead off the base then he swiped a bag off a slow curve ball and the deal looked like less of a waste I watched Wright take strikes for an 0-2 count and thought he looked ready to sit til he fouled one off and let some close ones slide then found a fat one to hit - and a run accrued for the orange and blue

This was partly inspired by Wednesday's game ... but not really. Mostly I just had a few phrases kicking around in my head so I started having some fun with Ollie's control problems and Bobby's lyrics. The thing with Dylan songs, of course, is that they often have an almost infinite number of verses - limited only by the extent of his imagination and that they always come around to the same, or at least a similar, tag line at the end of each. But since I didn't feel like writing any more beyond this initial stab, I figgered it could make for a good group off-day project (well, not quite off - but no game until 9PM). So if anyone wants to play add-a-verse just take what I started and go nuts. Half the roster could have their own verse before we're done. Early one evening I'm watching the Mets Ollie's out on the mound Keith going on about his tootsie-pops 'til I just had to mute the sound Perez his pitches fall around the plate getting a call is goin' to be tough Rick surely don't like his drop-down pitch and no strike-zone is big enough And me I'm sitting on the edge of the couch clouds filling up my mind wondering if I care too much or if I need to search and find - a hobby new to replace the Orange and Blue

DocTee wrote: And, apparently, a dalliance with golfer JOhn Daly's ex Well that doesn't narrow it down much.

Might as well look at the East while we're [u:1139d05a69]MARLINS 15 - 12 (121 RS - 137 RA) ... 1-2 vs NYM[/u:1139d05a69] So who are these guys and what are they doing leading the NL East? Well, by the looks of that RS/RA ratio it probably won't last. And it's tough to credit any brilliance with the Cabrera/Willis trade since the main offensive cog in that deal (OF - Camerson Maybin) is still in the minors and the main pitching prospect (LHP Andrew Miller) is 1-2 w/a 9.12 ERA. But Hanley Ramirez, Josh Willingham, & Jorge Cantu are hitting; Scott Olsen has calmed down long enough to pitch decently, and the no-name trio of Renyel Pinto, Kevin Gregg, & Justin Miller are heading up the best bullpen ERA to date in the NL. [u:1139d05a69]PHILLIES 15-13 (133 RS - 122 RA) ... 2-4 vs NYM[/u:1139d05a69] Rollins is still out, Victorino just got back. Utley & Burrell are still hitting, Howard & Feliz are not. The starters outside of Hamels are shakey, but the pen pair of Lidge & Romero have chucked 23+ scoreless innings. [u:1139d05a69]BRAVES 12-15 (129 RS - 109 RA) ... 3-2 vs NYM[/u:1139d05a69] Pitching looks like it's going to make or break this team. Glavine comes back just as Smoltz goes out. Hampton's actually pitching rehabs in the minors and Jurrgens looks good, but now Hudson looks shakey and maybe injured. Plus their usual bad luck with injuries in the pen continues which may (or may not) account for their 0-9 record in one-run games. But their hitting continues as every time they lose a player a new weed seems to grow in his place (Escobar, Prado, Diaz, Blanco) doing as good a job if not better and in a younger cheaper version. Chipper seems to miss games here and there but then hits .400 when he's in there. [u:1139d05a69]NATIONALS 11-17 (104 RS - 134 RA) ... 1-4 vs NYM[/u:1139d05a69] Terrible hitting from the few guys they were probably counting on (LoDuca, Johnson, Kearns, Belliard, Zimmerman) to take some pressure off the newer guys. Not much of a starting staff although pleasant surprises from John Lannan and Tim Redding. Closer Cordero is on the DL and it sounds like he might be there for a while.

AG/DC wrote: I think Billy considers himself the dean and defender of the bullpen, and he called out somebody for screwing his penmates. In his head (or in my head's idea of what's in his head), he's being a good teammate by speaking up for his penmates who don't have the juice (in terms of salary/tenure/security) to open their mouths. As Irish points out above, it wasn't just Perez that Billy teed off on, it was basically the entire team and Wednesday's "effort" in general. Plus it's no secret that BW was born minus the filter between brain & mouth. He was taking on team mgmt for its player personnel moves back when he was a much younger player in his Houston days. Sometimes he over-steps his boundries doing stuff like that although I'm not so sure this is one of them. In fact, if he didn't say something fans would probably be stewing thinking that the players must be unconcerned by the lousy game since none of them said anything.

Bernazard should certainly "ceast and desist" if for no other reason than simply for the image it portrays. But extrapolating from his personal affection for Acta to thinking there's something afoot is probably stretching a bit. Besides, I saw more goofy in-game moves from Acta in just the few games we played them this year than I've seen watching Willie every night. Plus it's not like Acta's got an unexpectedly good record to fall back on at the moment.

We're about to venture into the West for the first time this year. So what's been going on out there for the last month after we (or many of us anyway) hit the sack? NL WEST DBACKS 20 - 8 (165 - 109) Have roared to the best recond in MLB on the strength of having the best ERA in the NL (led by Webb) - as well as having a bunch of young position players: Upton, Reynolds, Drew, Jackson, who have them 2nd to only the Cubs in the league's offense. DODGERS 14-13 (137 RS - 107 RA) The battles their locker room had last year between the young players and veterens is being won by the young'uns as the high-priced imports like Nomar, Juan Pierre & Andruw (.165/.276/.259 !!) are crashing hard while the likes of Loney, Eithier, Martin and Kemp are hitting just fine. And, yes, Torre's giving the kids plenty of playing time. GIANTS 13-16 (93 RS - 131 RA) Not quite as bad as many expected. Young starters Lincecum and Sanchez partially make up for the disaster that is Barry Zito and the fact that Matt Cain suddenly can't find the strike-zone (23 BBs in 32 IPs) On the offensive side they're fairly putrid. The best player is still their LFer, only it's Fred Lewis's rather modest (.337/.416/.539) instead of Bonds's softball numbers. ROCKIES 11-17 (114 RS - 144 RA) In wondering whether they are the .500 team as they were for most of last season or the juggernaut that ran through September and most of October, the answer, so far, is that they're not as good as either. One problem has been that their best young stars from last year have been lousy, including Tulowitski (.152/.226/.238 - and now out injured), starter Jeff Francis (0-2, 5.01), and closer Manny Corpas (6.91 ERA, 1.75 WhiP) PADRES 11-17 (92 RS - 130 RA) The worst offense in the majors (.225/.296.327) is partially dictated by their home park but c'mon! Only Adrian Gonzalez at 1B has numbers (.288/.353/.471) which aren't seriously below par. Fortunately for them they've got the almost unhittable Jake Peavy (2.09 ERA, 1.00 WhiP) and, to a lesser extent, Chris Young and a seemingly rejuvenated Randy Wolf I wonder if/when they'll consider letting Heath Bell close instead of Hoffman?

Not only is there nobody else available mid-season, there is nobody coming off contract in the next year that would warrant serious consideration ... John Stearns is the type of guy that could lit a fire under this team. Failing that, what about Howard Johnson? Admittedly both these guys are rookies at the ML level, but no more than Willie was when he took over. Which was pretty much my point. I'm certainly not in love with Willie and would be willing to consider almost any angle. But at times I think the focus on the mgr simply as an outlet for frustration takes over to the point where I wonder if we'd making a change with a definite upgrade in mind or just changing for change sake and hoping for a boost in a wishful 'backup QB/Grass-is-Greener' kind of way.

So I'm looking up Micah Owing's hitting stats (he's supposedly OK to go on Saturday btw) and prior to today's game he was at a robust .389/.421/.444 So in today's game against Houston he's not pitching so Bob Melvin puts him in as a PH-er. Houston manager Cecil Cooper immediately responds by making a pitching change just so the righty-swinging Owings wouldn't get to face a LHP - and when was the last time you saw a pitching change specifically because there was a pitcher coming up? So Owings has to face the RHP ... and promptly hits a 2R game-tying HR on the first pitch. There are a handful of pitchers who can hit. This dude is a REAL hitter who also happens to pitch.

{golf clap} plus plenty of points for originality

Only if his still re-habbing knees needed it - but that had nothing to do w/the error. It was just a plain old-fashion bobble while trying to flip that turned one sure out - and quite possibly an inning-ending two - into none and into the 7 run inning that followed.

Well, not that I want to sound like I'm being overly optimistic after a 13-1 clusterfuck, but we are over .500 while both scoring and preventing runs at a better than league average clip ... meaning that our H/P/F can't be all THAT bad. Not what we'd like them to be maybe but hardly a disaster. And geez I know Perez was awful today but I just saw the Castillo error and the situation in which it occured and DAMN! that one was a killer. No telling how differently that game turns out if he makes that play.

"But everyone here knows that there are better managers to be had" And available in mid-season? Who leaps to mind?

Church - 1.0 Feliciano - 0.5 Heilman - 1.0 Beltran - 0.5 Pagan - 0.5

Well, my old adage for putting game like these behind you still applies: If you're going to hit like crap, pitch like crap, and field like crap, you might as well do them all at the same time so as to ruin only one game.

Sucky day games really suck when they come in advance of a day off, and particularly when they come in front of a day off followed by a west coast game ... like this one. That makes it like 2-1/2 days until the next game.

I knew his punch-start the jukebox routine couldn't have been natural.

Figgy as long-man is his most likely eventual destination IMO. And if he has to remain in the rotation it probably means we've got bigger problems than just him.

The defense isn't doing him any favors, but Sosa is still rapidly moving himself into danger of being released whenever they decide Wise is ready to come back. Smith's job looks safer each time Jorge throws a pitch.

Gorzelanny is also the one who came into the game with a walk-an-inning habit, or about double what Perez had been doing.

I think Pitt will eventually trade Nady (for several reasons) but, at this point, almost all the speculation (and that's all it is) seems to be coming from NY fans and media talking to each other. And I'm with Grimm in that he doesn't really have a role here (and does anyone remember how bad a fielder he was?). Plus, he's a full-timer to Pitt even though only a part-timer to us - but that doesn't mean the Pirates are only going to demand scraps for him. To them he's an everyday OFer and whatever trading partner they get has to be prepared to pay for him on those terms.

Seeing as how we've played 19 of our 25 games against East teams it's easy to lose track of what's going on in the rest of the league and I figured that the (alomst) end of the first month is a good time to check on what's happening elsewhere Central CARDS 17-11 (130 RS - 102 RA) Pujols is off to a monster start (.366/.524/.602) despite the possibility of TJ surgery hanging over his head Ankiel's striking-out a lot, but is hitting decently and is tied w/Pujols with 5 HRs - and they're getting some great production from a revolving OF platoon of Chris Duncan, Skip Schumaker, and Ryan Ludwick But mostly it's their pitching that's keeping them afloat as they're virtually tied with Arizona for fewest runs/game despite no Carperter and no Mulder. Wintertime FA Kyle Lohse signed late but is off to a 3-0, 2.36 start Adam Wainwright (2.79) and Braden Looper (4.05) also have 3 wins each while their main pen guys except for closer Isringhausen (Franklin, McClellan, Flores & Villone) are practically unscored upon. CUBS 16-10 (152 RS - 115 RA) Offense, Offense, Offense! ... Best OBP in NL, and at or near top in BA, OPS & RS - thanks to good starts from virtually everyone except the DL'd Soriano. Starters Zambrano & Dempster are a combined 7-1 while Wood and (especially) Marmol are forming a good back-end of the pen. BREWERS 15-11 (121 RS - 109 RA) Not hitting as much as expected (below lg avg in BA, OBA & SLG) - Cameron just became active Sheets is great when available but you're always waiting for that shoe to drop, and last year's rookie pitcher Gallardo has been on the shelf Gagne has been horrible against everyone but us ASTROS 13-15 (124 RS - 124 RA) Surprising many that they're even around .500 even though their RS/RA suggests it's real. Not quite sure how they're doing it as no one is really hitting except for Berkman & Tejada (a .298 team OBA !), their best starter to date is Shawn Chacon (not Oswalt), and their traded-for closer (Valverde) has an ERA of almost 7.00 and a WhiP of nearly 2.00. They've seemed to be a haphazardly put-together team for several years now and are currently a patchwork of the not-quite-ready (Towles - C; Bourn - CF; Pence - RF) and the past-their-prime (Loretta, Erstad, Blum, Cruz) REDS 12-16 (122 RS - 135 RA) Their season is all about their highly praised crop of rookies even though the GM responsible for some of them won't be around to see it. Getting good starts from those already up; pitchers Edison Volquez (4-0, 1.23) and Johnny Cueto (1-2, 4.05), plus 1B Joey Votto (.311/.326/.541 - 4 HR) with pitcher Homer Bailey and OF Jay Bruce soon to come. Good hitting so far from their infield: Votto, Brandon Phillips, Jeff Keppinger, Edwin Encarnacion not so much in the OF: slow starts from Dunn & Patterson, plus a so-so Griffey in RF who's 3 HRs away from 600. PIRATES 10-16 (115 RS - 159 RA) Seeing them now, they're not really very impressive are they?