Frayed Knot

One would think that if they were inclined to go with Ed Coleman they'd have done so already. He's openly said he wants the job. Of course, they'd then have to find a new Eddie to be Eddie.

]NYDN: Mets -Report on trade offer for Johan Santana is off the mark Both times now that there have been public reports claiming that the Mets could get Santana for an all-prospects (read: no Reyes) package it's been shot down soon afterward by seperate sources. It's part of why I generally try to not take these breathless off-season rumors too seriously.

Neil Best; Newsday: Veteren baseball announcer Wayne Hagin, who most recently called games for the Rockies and Cardinals, is the leading candidate for the vacant spot in WFAN's radio booth opposite Howie Rose, a person familiar with the search confirmed. Anyone even hear or know anything about this guy?

Considering the prices that good, but not great, OFers are getting lately (Torii, Rowand) I think it's about time to file away the notion that decent ones are grow-on-the-trees cheap.

I never like to tab any one player - particularly those still minor leaguers - as untouchable. But there is ALWAYS a price at which you should be prepared to walk away no matter how tempting the prize. So, assuming the demand is correct as listed where F. Martinez gets ADDED to a package of 4 prospects, I think this one is too high, especially when a huge contract needs to get tacked on to the end. But mostly I'm upset, first with myself for the earlier Santana thread and now with Rotblatt for this one, that no one thought to use a subject heading of: 'Visions of Johan-ah'

soupcan wrote: Dad pitched one year at Single A almost 40 years ago. If he was a big-leaguer we would've heard, but this was pretty obscure. Only a guy like Yancy with UMDB could've found it. Yeah, but you figure that the NYM pr dept would have come up with and publicized that little factoid which, it turn, would have then been related to us (probably ad infinitum) by someone from the Howie / Gary / Eddie crew.

AG/DC wrote: M&MD seem to be American League fans. Mike yes, Mad Dog no. ]And not deep thinkers. Both guilty.

I got a kick out of the different POVs that I heard/read in just a few hour span yesterday. - Listened to 'Mike & Mad Dog' on the radio extol the likes of Morris and Rice while declaring Raines to be a close miss and describing Blyleven a total non-candidate - And then checking in on this Q & A with the more stats-oriented Jay Jaffe at Baseball Prospectus who treats Raines & Blyleven as no-brainers but is more wishy-washy on Rice & Morris

Derek Jacques of Baseball Prospectus (a former lawyer - or so I gather from his piece) talks about the legal nuances in any potential Clemens case. A claim of defamation (usually broken down into slander for spoken statements and libel for statements made in writing) accuses someone of saying or writing something untruthful that is then "published" to a third party, for the purpose of injuring the reputation of the person making the claim. Because a statement can't be defamatory if it's true, the truth of the allegations McNamee made against Clemens is the main issue of the suit. ... The Clemens complaint calls McNamee's statements in the Mitchell Report "defamation per se," which isn't just the egregious use of Latin to make things sound fancy. Defamation per se is a legal term which refers to certain kinds of defamatory statements that are so bad that the person bringing the lawsuit can skip the step of proving that their reputation was harmed by the statement—such as an accusation of criminal conduct, or of giving someone a venereal disease. Claiming that an athlete used illegal performance-enhancing drugs certainly seems to fit. Defamation is a notoriously hard case to prove. In this situation, the allegations are all about the actions of two men alone in a room together with no other witnesses, and likely no physical or documentary evidence to connect or divorce them from what McNamee says they were doing. Clemens will face an uphill climb making his case, both because he bears the burden of proof and because he has to prove a negative—that an event that McNamee doesn't tie to a specific date and time didn't happen.

I suspect Rickey's presence on the ballot (next year) will hurt Rock as there may be a certain portion of voters who don't want to want the lesser of the two similar players to go in first or together. It's an idiotic way to think but I bet it's the case for at least some. Rock's pct might start to go up the year after Rickey's in.

mario25 wrote: I am a life long Mets fan and will be leaving for Florida this Monday the 14th for Mets Fantasy Camp...I am thrilled 1) Don't pull "a Kramer" 2) We expect a full report upon your return

Next year is Rice's last shot via the regular process and he'll probably get in then. Of course why someone would vote for him simply because it's the last time around when they didn't during ballots #1-14 is beyond me ... but I suspect that's what'll happen. The vote total for Raines is shockingly low IMO. The 'no one on the first ballot' theory is another one I find perplexing but, even for a 1st try, the pct is so low that it doesn't bode well for 'The Rock' joining the fraternity anytime soon.

Cubs & White Sox fans fight over the entire John Hughes catalog of films. Winner gets the first draft choice from the quartet of actors (Moore, Perkins, Lowe & Belushi) in 'About Last Night'

Very strange press conference. - They played a tape of the entire 17 minute phone conversation between Clemens & McNamee from a few days ago (the one Newsday leaked the existance of). In it McNamee sounds upset (pathetic really) about having ratted on Roger but at no point in the transcipt does he either condemn or exonerate him. Nor does Clemens specifically ask BM why he "lied" to Mitchell. Both sides were obviously aware that the conversation was being recorded so the words seem to be chosen carefully. - Clemens will go to the Congressional hearing next week. - And basically he playing the angry man defense, angry that he's being put through this and determined to clear his name. He took some Q&A from the assembled press after the tape played and his lawyer yapped for a bit but cut it off after 10 minutes or so as he appeared to be on the verge of losing his temper. Sounds like a guy determined to fight this thing right down the line. Of course so did Pete Rose.

Barry Levinson is the starting pitcher for Baltimore, coming at batters with his 3-pitch repetoire of 'Diner', 'Tin Men' & 'Avalon'

He came, he talked, he denied. Nothing particularly new (or interesting) in the 60 Minutes interview. He never took 'em ... doesn't know why McNamee claims he did ... wasn't aware that Pettitte did ... yadda, yadda. The only real interesting news on this subject (if you're under the impression that there's ANYTHING interesting on this subject) was a report in Newday that Clemens & McNamee had about an hour-long phone conversation in the last day or two. No datails were available, however, of what was discussed or even who contacted who first. It did label the coversation as "emotional". The '60 Minutes' interview was taped several days ago and was done prior to this supposed phone call.

I just got around to this one -- and I'm pretty much with Vic here. Ya gotta swallow hard and get past the part about her ever spending one waking moment with that dork once she's sobered up much less want to have his kid. Once you buy (or at least hold your nose and ignore) those parts it's got some decent moments and scenes.

AG/DC wrote: Bruce Benedict, 1997-1999. Reffed major college basketball during the off-season

Or at least [u:714572b917]A[/u:714572b917] Pagan anyway Mets deal two minor leaguers: OFer Corey Coles and pitcher Ryan Meyers in exchange for the man with the wonderfully contradictory name: Angel Pagan The switch-hitting Pagan, 27 in July, was a one-time NYM farmhand who has spent the last two seasons with the Cubs. Decent pop, not too much OBP, and better as a LH batter over his 300+ ML ABs (so maybe not such a great platoon candidate).

The 2007 Rankings list is now complete and the results have been combined into the overall ranks. These changes have already been uploaded into the system and the links to the new alpha & numeric sorted lists also now include the results of this season. In the meantime, a quickie summary of how the landscape has changed: In all 10 new names received points this year - making the entire list 565 names long - although only 9 crack the top 500 and therefore get onto the posting status list. So welcome to: Aaron Sele, whose lone point puts him at #551 and not on the honor roll Mike Pelfrey just barely sneaks on at #499 Carlos Gomez debuts at #467 Scott Schoeneweis at #446 Joe Smith - #408 Reuben Gotay - #351 Damion Easley - #316 Jorge Sosa - #303 Luis Castillo - #279 and Moises Alou wins the top newcomer award by checking in at #194 So to make room for these new names we wave goodbye to: Jim Gosger, Hobie Landrith, Tom Grieve, Eric Gunderson, Tony Torasco, Gary Templeton, Luis Rivera, Jimmy Piersall, plus Moises's Uncle Jesus as they fall out of the top 500, off of our list, never to be heard from again. Cracking the Top-100: Carlos Delgado, Aaron Heilman, Billy Wagner Ousted from the Top-100: Danny Heep, Don Cardwell, Rico Brogna Movin' on up (or not): Guillermo Mota actually managed to FALL from slot #404 to #407 (that's what happens when you only get enough points to pass by a few guys ... but then even more who were either behind or were not even on the list jump ahead) Marlon Anderson moves from #315 up to #278 Lastings Milledge - #427 to #258 Ramon Castro - #272 to #223 Shawn Green - #343 to #195 Endy Chavez - #170 to #166 Pedro Feliciano - #233 to #164 Jose Valentin - Drops from #156 to #158 (see Mota, G.) Oliver Perez - #388 to #127 Orlando Hernandez - #214 to #116 Paul LoDuca - #127 to #106 John Maine - #200 to #102 Billy Wagner - #137 to #99 Aaron Heilman - #113 to #84 Pedro Martinez - #81 to #76 Carlos Delgado - #116 to #74 Carlos Beltran - #64 to #43 Jose Reyes - #52 to #31 Tom Glavine - #40 to #29 David Wright - #50 to #26 That Wright is the highest ranking active player means that the Top-25 remains unchanged. Wright also takes over the title of best ever 4-year Met with a sizable lead over Gary Gentry. Glavine held that post after last season but now he sits behind the likes of Armando Benitez & Tommie Agee on the list of 5-year Mets, just ahead of Rick Reed & Jose Reyes. Carlos Beltran was last year's best ever 2-year Met but this year he couldn't quite nudge out John Olerud for best 3-year guy. Meanwhile the other Carlos does take over that spot by getting his 2-year score above that of previous leader Eddie Murray. Mileposts: #50 - Steve Trachsel #100 - Carl Everett #200 - Claudell Washington #250 - Jay Hook #283 - (midpoint of the overall list) Mike Fitzgerald #300 - Shawon Dunston #400 - John Christensen and the new leadoff man at #500 is Lute Barnes Last (#565) - now and forever - Gus Bell

I've been in a Bruce mood lately ... which is probably the same answer I would have given in [u:645a97099d]1980[/u:645a97099d] !!

He's a Philly writer (not sure where he's orig from) who became one of ESPN's stable of basketball guys. From there he graduated to a regular slot on espn radio where he comments on all sports and has proclaimed his Yanqui love.

"Roger took bunches of his shots over his career, much the way racehorses do" And, apparently, much of the same medicine as the horses too. "The reason he hasn't stepped out personally before now was really our decision, not his, and that was to more deliberately look into how in the world the Mitchell report could have reached what we believe was this totally wrong conclusion before we started talking out." Ever stop to think that maybe Mitchell reached that conclusion because you refused to speak to him in the first place? "Now we're more comfortable with all of that, and he's going to answer whatever questions they have.'' You mean, now that his entire legacy has been trashed leaving you no other choice you're going to HAVE to answer these questions.

Roger's 60 Minutes interview is going to trot out the Bonds/Sheffield/Tejada defense: 'yeah MacNamee injected me with some stuff, but it was just pain-killers and vitamins ... no really, I swear' Meanwhile, MacNamee's lawyer says if Clemens calls his client a liar on air then they're prepared to file a suit.

I'll email youse tonight ... I was going to do so anyway.