Frayed Knot

Gotta at least get SOMETHING here!!

Jose = Clueless

"Why Conine and not Milledge?" Probably subscribing to the school of thought that vets make for better pinch-hitters. That may be accurate or maybe just one of those things that most just assume is true. Either way, Conine is certainly has a lot of experience PHing compared to Lastings who has virtually none.

Nice to escape futher damage there but JEEZ can we have a 1-2-3 inning once in a while? Fish have had something like 14 baserunners thru 6 and have hit maybe 4 balls hard. Walks, HBPs, infield singles and plays not made are killing us here.

One other set of circumstances needs to be added to the possibilities up top, and that's that one of those Mets & Phils tie scenarios could actually be part of a [u:af7fad2dc7]4 Way Tie[/u:af7fad2dc7]. Mets win two + Phils win two + Rockies win two + Padres win one That means the DBacks would win the West and there'd be, in effect, two two-way ties: 1) Mets & Phils playoff to see who wins the East 2) Pads & Rox playoff to eliminate one of them Then the Pads/Rox [u:af7fad2dc7]Winner[/u:af7fad2dc7] would play off against the Mets/Phils [u:af7fad2dc7]Loser[/u:af7fad2dc7] to determine the WC So it's actually possible to tie with the Phils after Sunday, then lose a Monday game to them, and STILL have a shot at post-season. Of course it would all be much easier if we'd just throw up a 3-game winning streak. We have the technology.

'98 was a little weird in that, yeah, we could have gotten at least a part of the WC with 1 win in the last 5, but that wasn't a given at the time. The Cubs also lost a string of games down the stretch to create that scenario. This one is closer to '99: We lost 5 straight to go into that final weekend down 2 games to the Astros & Reds and had to outplay either of them by at least 2 games just to force a WC tie. Mets swept Pitt while Houston was winning 2 of 3 (to give them the Central) but Cincy lost 2 of 3 to Milwaukee which is what forced game #163

We just became really big (temporary) fans of several out of town teams. The Central race is irrelevent to us as neither Chicago or Milwaukee can catch our record if it comes down to that. It's just that the Brewers are playing the Padres so we're beermakers for the weekend. And we're fans of the D'Backs because they're playing the Rockies who are closer to us ... unless the Rockies want to REALLY beat up on them (I'll explain later). But first, the NL East possibilities which are pretty simple: out-win or at least win even with the Phillies Phils = 0Phils = 1Phils = 2Phils = 3Mets = 0Tie EastOUTOUTOUTMets = 1Win EastTie East**Mets = 2Win EastWin EastTie East#Mets = 3Win EastWin EastWin EastTie East Then there are those exceptions: * = Also need San Diego to lose all 3 AND Colorado to lose at least two: Rockies lose two = 3 way tie for WC (NYM, SDP, CR) Rockies lose three = 2 way tie for WC (NYM & SD) # = Need San Diego to lose at least two AND Colorado to lose at least one SD = 0-3 & Col = 0-3 OR 1-2 ------>> Mets as WC SD = 0-3 & Col = 2-1 ------->> Mets & Colorado tied for WC SD = 1-2 & Col = 0-3 OR 1-2 ------>> Mets & SD tied for WC SD = 1-2 & Col = 2-1 ------>> 3-Way Tie for WC As for that Rockies/D'Backs oddity: There also exists a way in by having the Rockies beating the Snakes but only if they win all 3. That, plus Mets winning twice and the Padres losing at least twice gives the Rox the NLWest crown and: a) puts us into a WC tie with Ariz if SD loses all three OR into a 3 way tie with the Snakes & Padres if SD loses two. Hope you got all that because there's going to be a quiz later

Losing ground in the Wild Card chase too. Padres beat Brewers Rockies leading Dodgers

Martinez - 4.0 Wright - 1.0 Heilman - 0.5 Feliciano - 0.5

At least this one was shorter. That's all I got.

Cubs lose their game. Man. losing three straight to some chump team, who do they think they are??!? Meanwhile, Smoltz & Atlanta having the first inning from Hell: single, error, error, HR

Appeal denied. Marlon out today & Friday.

It's not a round-robin type system, it's a one-and-done. In that example, the Rox are the "first among equals" by virtue of their best head-to-head. That gives them the choice of: a) playing twice: first meeting one team (eliminating the loser) and then the other but having both games (if you live that long) at home OR opting out of game 1 while the others play first and going up against the winner for the div title - but having to do so on the road. This system has been in place for several years now but has never been needed. I think you'd be crazy to take option 'A'; fuck home field and go for the one less game would be my choice every time.

You complaing or bragging?

If we get our act together and string together some wins none of this stuff should matter. If we keep tripping over our own dicks then we probably won't get enough help for any of it to matter either. But the likely scenario of falling somewhere in between means that any or all of these could be critical. Couple of gay dames to start us off with: - Arizona avoided the sweep by Pittsburgh by winning the final game this afternoon This throws them back to 1-1/2 ahead of SD & 2-1/2 north of Colorado - Cubs are also looking to avoid the sweep (and have yet to beat Florida this year) have an early 1-0 lead. Other stuff tonight, the most important of which: - Braves v Phillies (7PM EDT): Smoltz facing Kyle Kendrick - Padres @ Brewers (8PM): Jack Cassel(?) vs hot rookie Yovani Gallardo - Rockies @ Dodgers (10PM): Franklin Morales v Estaban Loaiza

I think Gomez has been out there in deference to Beltran's reduced speed.

And apparently today is "Emergency Coin Flip Thursday" Jayson Stark has all your info - including all that weird multi-team stuff that's just too horrible to contemplate and too complicated to predict.

Beltran - 3.0 Castillo - 1.3 Alou - 2.0 Schoeneweis - 0.7 OHernandez - 0.5 Heilman - 0.6 Humber - 0.4

The team that insisted for years that celebrating merely clinching the playoffs was beneath them and that only a division championship was worthy of such stuff looked like they were celebrating rather hard last night, complete with champagne and the requisite amount of Torre tears. - Cleveland split a "home & home" DH (both were played in Seattle but the Indians batted last as the "home" team in game 1 as that game was the final make-up from that set that was snowed out the first week of the season) 94 - 64 (4 remaining) Anaheim got their clock cleaned by Texas for the 2nd night in a row: 92 - 67 (3 remain) Boston won big v Oakland: 94 - 64 (4 remain) - Magic number for division = 2 The First Round is all but set in cement: Yanx @ Cleveland Sox vs Angels - most likely starting in Boston So the last question to be settled is one for best overall record which will allow that team to choose the 'more off days - vs - fewer off days' format for round 1 (if you think such stuff matters) and then determine who gets the home-field advantage in certain round 2 match-ups. Yanx: 91 - 67

]not sure why the Cubs are showing a zero for the Wild Card. They can still end up in a tie with the Padres for the Card, unless there's something I'm missing What you're missing is that the Pads & Brewers finsih up against each other. So if the Cubbies win out to "catch" SD that winning streak will make them them Central champs, not the WC.

A 3 K day from Castillo -- that's usually about 2 weeks worth.

Why do I have this suspicion that we're about to explode for [u:f8cd4022ea]Exactly[/u:f8cd4022ea] two runs?

I don't know what the fuck to say anymore.

This Belliard is being a fuckin pain in the ass! Didn't anybody explain to these guys that they all have like .310 OBAs??

metsguyinmichigan wrote: We'll need a pinch-hitter next inning. Wonder if he'll use Green for Gomez, then Conine for Aaron. Anderson, then Green.