Frayed Knot

For all the Bay love that's gone on over the last few years - especially seeing as he was once Met property - he is a BAD outfielder (and is coming off a fairly lousy season at the plate too). Bay's brief All-Star career might start to look a bit like that of Gibbons over in Baltimore who was once on everyone's 'must have' list but was just released even though they still owed him some $12mil.

="Valadius"]ESPN basically saying that Andruw Jones got fat in the offseason. GOT fat? Hell, they could have said that on opening Day 2003 !! - Fukudone did have a bit of that 'my bat's too hot to handle' on his HR ... Great debut, except they're still the Cubs! - That Gagne signing not looking too good early on huh? Him & Wood basically played trading suck. - Sabathia's not getting the huge deal he thinks (OK, he probably will anyway) if he keeps blowing 7-run leads he's been handed. seriously, I just used a racist word when I really meant "Guardians" won anyway, but that's a bad job. You just can't be doing that Mikey - You wouldn't expect Verlander to cough up his lead either against the Royals. Eh, shit happens. - I like to think the Yankee final OD rainout is karmic payback for thinking that Reggie is the appropriate one to throw out the ceremonial 1st pitch.

But I was fine with NOT jumping immediately to Feliciano & Heilman (and later Wagner) when you've got a 4-run lead. The only real problem was Wise giving up the 2 hits (1 deserved, 1 not) to his 3 batters. Without those runners you don't have to wear out a path to the mound and do the whole LaRussa dance.

Santana - 5.0 Wright - 2.6 Beltran - 1.6 Pagan - 0.6 Sosa - 0.2

"Little too cutesey with relief pitching in the 8th there" Except that if Willie had left Schoeneweis in there against a RHB with 2 on (even w/a a 4 run lead) and the worst happened we'd be ripping him several new ones right about now. I had no problem bringing in Wise - who got a bit unlucky with that infield single. At that point, Schoeneweis for the lefty and Sosa for the righty all made sense. And yeah, it wound up being a LaRussa-like 5 pitchers over an 7 batter span, but it kinda had to be done.

According to some radio discussions I was hearing the other day, a handful of NYY seats are going for 2,500/per. No, that's not a typo.

Nice to see 30 of the 32 teams in action today (only the early starting BoSox & A's are off) and that Gay Dames are the rule for most of them. Nothing worse than having the entire country celebrating OD while your team is forced to wait an extra day. The Braves/Nats tilt last night was strictly a 1-game deal to open the new crib. Braves return home to host the Pirates (7:00) while our current 2nd favorite team Nats go to Philly (3:00) - D'Backs @ Reds (2:00) - Brewers @ Cubs (2:20) - Giants @ Dodgers (4:00) - Rox @ Cards (4:00) - Astros @ Padres (10:00) - Bjays @ Yanx (1:00) - Royals @ Tigers (1:00) - ChiSox @ seriously, I just used a racist word when I really meant "Guardians" (3:00) - Rays @ Orioles (3:00) - Rangers @ Mariners (6:40) - Angels @ Twinkies (7:00)

Ladies and gentlemen, YOUR 1st-Place Washington Nationals !!! (and your LAST place Atlanta Braves)

And the Braves tie it in the 9th when substitute closer Jon Rauch gives up a double - groundout - then passed ball (LoDuca) with two outs!! No word on why Rauch and not usual closer Cordero. I say it's time for Blastings (hitting 2nd in the inning) to be a hero.

NYMPHILATLWASHFLACHICMILWCINCStLHOUSPITTARIZLADSDCOLSF93.587.584.570.568.587.584.579.578.572.568.586.587.584.582.571.5F KnotOverOverOverOverOverUnderOverUnderAG/DCOverUnderOverUnderOverOverUnderUnderJCLUnderOverOverUnderOverOverOverOverNymr83OverUnderUnderOverUnderOverOverUnderTriple DOverOverUnderOverUnderUnderOverUnderSharpieUnderOverUnderUnderOverUnderUnderUndersmg58UnderOverOverOverUnderOverOverUnderbmfc1OverOverUnderOverUnderOverOverOverGWreckOverOverOverUnderUnderOverUnderUnderB.GrimmOverOverUnderUnderUnderOverUnderOverDocTeeOverOverOverUnderUnderUnderUnderUnderGYCUnderUnderOverOverUnderUnderUnderOverOld MoleOverOverUnderOverUnderOverUnderUnderHahn SoloUnderOverUnderOverOverOverOverUnderMendoza LineOverOverOverOverUnderOverUnderOverNumber 6UnderOverUnderUnderOverUnderOverUnderKCOverOverOverOverUnderUnderUnderUnderBoy Named SeoUnderOverOverUnderOverUnderOverOverSeaWolfOverOverOverUnderOvderOverUnder

TheOldMole wrote: Where's Sanchez? Shouldn't he be DL too? Yes. Knew I'd forget someone.

OlerudOwned wrote: ="AG/DC"]The blogosphere was boiling with anti-Tatis-ness. Oh, well.Was it? Hm, I don't see why he's any worse than Brady Clark. Neither do I, and he's better in some respects - notably power and the ability to be a RH bat at 1B. FWIW talk radio has been EXTREMELY anti-Tatis, viewing the loss of Gotay as somewhere between those of Mel Mora and Nolan Ryan and the inclusion of Tatis as nothing more than someone being handed a job on account of being a friend of Omar (never mind he was on the AAA roster all last season and his buddy Omar left him there with nary a promotion). Not quite sure I see what Clark brings to the table that's not already here but it's a small potatoes move and he's the most vunerable if (when?) Alou is ready. Smith has plenty of options and is the likely candidate to be sent down when Sanchez is back. Meanwhile it gives him a chance to pitch his way permanently onto the team although I'm not sure at whose expense. This all leaves us with: Starters (8): Delgado Castillo Reyes Wright Pagan Beltran Church Schneider Reserves (5): Casanova Easley Anderson Clark Chavez Starting Pitchers (5): Santana Martinez Perez Maine Pelfrey Relievers (7): Wagner Heilman Feliciano Smith Schoeneweis Wise Sosa DL: Castro O Hernandez Alou Vargas Burgos - those last two being probable (if they're not already) candidates for the 60-day DL/removal from 40-man roster

"The Amazing Shea" = Predictably superficial I bet Simmons knocked out the narration in about 5 minutes and the flunkies at the station set up the video to match the sentence. Some comments added from local (at least part-time) residents Harrelson, Staub, Shamsky, Kranepool, Hernandez & Charles

Another off-location exhibition game played yesterday was the Dodgers-Red Sox duel at the LA Coliseum. Meant as an acknowlegement that it's now been 50 years since Brooklyn sluck off to LA, the Dodgers played in their first few years prior to the current stadium being built. The kicker is that it's a football/Olympic stadium so totally ill-suited for baseball that it was said to have room for 100,000+ fans but only 2 outfielders. Torre did, in fact, play Andruw Jones as a 5th infielder for at least parts of the game. The 60-foot screen built to stand above the barely 200-ft away left field wall (both yesterday and back in the day) was designed to reduce both cheap HRs and expensive medical emergencies from spectators not sufficiently trained in handling hot liners off the bats of strong RH hitters. I heard that Wally Moon - the former Dodger OFer who turns 78 this week - was going to be taking batting practice before the game but I don't know if that came off. Moon was the lefty-swinger who learned to slice cheap fly balls over the netting to the point where 38 of his 50 HRs over a 3-year span were hit during home games.

It's the lonliest number that you'll even know

3PM today (Sunday) is roster deadline time. Morning papers suggesting the the Clark/Tatis issue isn't definitively settled, that there are Clark fans among the decision makers. Also that El Duque to start the year on the DL is still an option -- although what exactly would happen when he came off (particularly if Pelfrey were pitching well) seems a bit unclear.

I'm much closer to Sharpie's review of this one than that Edgy guy did (glad that schmuck's no longer around). If fact, while thinking about what to write (and not having read either of the reviews prior to seeing it), I found myself seeing many of the issues almost totally opposite from the way EDC did; from the view that I DID see the plot as telling a reasonably coherant story and even extending to my planned use of citing 'Forrest Gump' (only more favorably) as a device for a trip through the age(s). Agree with both that the pyschedelic scenes were the weakest part. I had to check the credits before I was sure that 'Sadie' wasn't being played by Joan Osbourne.

I like the unis

Enjoy N'Awlins Pelf. See you at the first injury.

Steven back to the Rockies Also Anderson Hernandez to the minor leagues and, as noted elsewhere, Ruben Gotay sent to the home of the Braves. So it looks like it's down to Tatis vs Brady Clark for position player spot #13 to go along with: Delgado Castillo Reyes Wright Schneider *backup catcher* Church Beltran Chavez Pagan Easley M. Anderson

From GWreck's 'Mets on TV' post: - Saturday's game -- the final preseason game -- is the "Civil Rights Game." ESPN National telecast, 5:00 PM -"The Amazing Shea" - Sue Simmons hosts a look at the amazing history of the stadium. Saturday 7:30 PM on WNBC4. -CW11 has a "2008 Mets: Built to Win" preview at 7:30 PM on Saturday; Conflicts, Conflicts !!!

On edit: it occurs to me that maybe I should have used this one for 'Six'

I think Sue Simmons was hired back when stations thought it was edgy and cool and demographically advantageous to have someone bi-racial behind the desk. Not that any of that explains why she's stayed in that job for so long. I don't have any particular against her, she's just one in a long line a plastic local news anchors that makes me not watch local news programs.