Frayed Knot

Perez - 2.3 Easley - 0.9 Alou - 1.2 Reyes - 1.1 Castillo - 1.4 Wright - 1.4 Milledge - 0.6 Heilman - 0.5 Wagner - 0.6

Owings not only hit 2 HRs but also had a total of 4 hits, 4 runs scored & SIX RBIs. It's been more than two years since any player - *not just pitcher, but any player* - had a game like that. That player was Alex Rodriguez in 2005. 11 total bases (2 HRs, 1 2B, 1 1B) is the most for a pitcher in 50 years One of the HRs was to dead CF and estimated at 440 ft He's also from Georgia and did this all in Atlanta. Gotta figure he had some tickets in the stands Cubs beat the Cards again Brewers finally won Yanx beat Detroit Sox (and Schilling) got down 5-0 to LAAofA but came back to win Cleveland beats Tampa, leads Detroit by 1.5 Mariners still playing out west, currently losing 3-1 to ChiSox

="Nymr83"]10 days of Flores and Alomar may make us want to see if Piazza can get through waivers 1) You of course mean DiFelice and Alomar 2) Piazza already has cleared waivers according to several sources (even though these things are supposed to be secret). But he also hasn't caught in nearly a year (didn't even work at it in ST) and ... how do you say, wasn't real good at it back when he was catching. He is, at this point, a DH and we're a non-DH league.

]In his second career major league game, Tigers uber-prospect Cameron Maybin hit his first career home run - off of Roger Clemens at Yankee Stadium And in his next AB Clemens hit him.

This Lannan kid grew up a Met fan (or so the story goes) in Long Beach, L.I., playing his HS ball in the Catholic school leagues for Chaminade HS (had he gone to the public schools I could have had access to a better scouting report as I knew the basseball coach at Long Beach HS). Anyway, he's making his 5th ML start. He got tossed in his first one after hitting 2 consecutive batters (ridiculous call) against Philly. Since then he's held Cincy, SF & Ariz to 2 runs or less in each start, including NOT giving up the record breaker to Bonds the day before he ultimately got it off Bacsik.

Figuring that this is back-dated to his last appearance, the minimum stay for both catchers puts their returns right about at the same time - some 11 days from now.

Glavine - 4.0 Reyes - 0.7 Alou - 1.2 DiFelice - 1.2 Easley - 1.2 Castillo 0.4 Wright - 0.4 Feliciano - 0.9

Oooh, I don't think I've ever started a PotG before. Yancy's away so we can ignore all the rules by throwing paper airplanes and making funny noises in class while he's gone. Get your Red Hot Box Score right here.

The only Bond I ever read was 'Goldfinger' after picking up a used paperback version in some Jr High era book fair for about a quarter long after I had already seen the movie. I enjoyed it at the time, then picked it up again a few years later and found it incredibly stupid. My memory is that the movie pretty much followed the book, at least as much as those things can. Supposedly that whole series got its biggest boost when Pres Kennedy copped to being a big fan.

My latest snag is that when visiting the Simpsonize site I get a real nice looking robin's-egg blue screen. Nothing else, just a blank blue screen.

- Mets win, Phils win, Braves lose (but you probably knew all that) As mentioned above, the Webb streak continued in Atlanta with a CG 2-hitter. - Cubs hung on to beat the Cards boosting them into first place as the Milwaukee tumble continues. Brewers made about 25 errors while losing to Cincy. - Yanx win, Boston splits, Mariners win, Indians win Boston wins the supposed hard game with a rookie facing Lackey. But then Beckett & Delcarmen get hit up in the nightcap ... only to have the Sawx come back against K-Rod in the 8th ... only to have Gagne blow another one (1 IP - 3 ER) in the 9th Indians back in 1st in the Central despite their pasting from the Yanx last week.

Some good stuff on tap: - We swap places with the Phils as they get Pitt while we go to Washington - Braves take on NL leading Arizona, and start right off with Brandon Webb and his ongoing 30-some inning scoreless streak - Cubs & Cards locking horns for 4 games as both the sCrUBS and the Brewers are letting the still sub-.500 Cards back into the race. Cubbies leading the opener 2-1 in the 8th - Brewers are hosting the Reds. In the AL: - Yanx, suddenly losers of 3 straight, continue their 4-gamer with the Tiggers. Verlander skunked them last night. - Sox get 4 with the Angels at Fenway, including a day/night today. and Boston gets 6 in the 1st and wins the opener behind a rookie call-up going against Lackey And the main Wild Card fighters get a bit of a breather; - Mariners hos the ChiSox - Cleveland goes to Tampa

My favorite along those lines (read: least favorite) was the anti-Bobby V. callers/ranters. Guys would call up barely able to talk without sputtering they were so mad and rant about why BV was the biggest idiot on the planet for not bunting in some spot, or PH-ing X when it should have been Y, etc. ... and the host would generally try to talk him off the ledge by explaining WHY he didn't PH there, or why a bunt was NOT a good move and therefore Bobby's logic was actually perfectly sound in that case. Those kinds of responses would leave the ranter without a case meaning his only comeback was to stammer and stutter like a pissed-off Ralph Kramden until he was finally able to get out the words; "YEAH BUT THAT ****ING LOOK ON HIS FACE WHEN HE DID IT"

No Mad Dog there today otherwise, between him and Omar, we'd need several translators and perhaps closed captioning.

Edgy DC wrote: Joe Smith has only thrown five innings since going down. For Smith it was somewhat planned though. One of the stated reasons for sending him down was so that he could be used when it was best for him and not when the circumstances of the game dictated he was needed. The Pedro on a short leash or not being a favorite reasons don't seem to have logical explanations. Why would either of those be the case?

Absent any steroid controversy, which 1st baseman gets more HOF votes; McGwire or Bagwell? -- I think the answer to that is unquestionably McGwire. Now, if I were to offer you a 1st sacker that would be guaranteed to have the exact same career as those two: same strengths, same weaknesses, same length of career, etc., who do you pick? -- To me, the answer to that one is Bagwell. He ran much better, fielded much better, better BA & OBP, more RBIs, maybe had lower peaks (although did get an MVP and more top-10s) but also a longer prime. Then I wonder how many of the voters would answer that question the same way, but yet not vote that way

Wily Mo has already had some interesting travels for a guy still only 25 years old. - Originally signed by the Mets in 1998 as a 16 y/o out of the Domincan, but that signing was voided for some reason - Then the Yanx signed him as a 17 y/o and gave him not only a large signing bonus but [u:98cd57fb8a]a Major League contract[/u:98cd57fb8a] to boot, meaning that he had to be put on the 40-man immediately and then called up within 4 years or risk being lost. - Sensing that that timetable was way behind schedule, the Yanx then dealt him to Cincy in order to [u:98cd57fb8a]get back Drew Henson[/u:98cd57fb8a], a guy the Yanx had originally drafted (and paid a hefty bonus) but dealt away to get Denny Neagle in the midst of the 2001 pennant race. They then had to sign Henson to another HUGE contract to keep him off the gridiron which resulted in one ML single ... but that's another story. - Cincy kept him up because they had to (to mixed results) before dealing him to Boston a year ago March for Arroyo. The Sox were hoping they were grooming Manny's eventual successor.

... and of course I'm talking about Feliciano. Last night's just one example, but he was brought in the get a lefty out and then was immediately pulled when he gave up a hit as if he's now a LOOGY. In came Heilman who was pretty much required to go 2 innings as Mota was already used and Sosa likely not available, and if you're going to go the Schoeneweis why not use HIM for the one-batter lefty in the 8th and keep PF for if/when Heilman rusn into trouble? This lack of use - he's pitched to 11 batters over 2.1 IPs and 5 appearences during August - seems to have started over a couple off outings in late July the last time we faced Washington. Other pen uses in August: - Heilman: 6 appearences, 6.1 IPs, 30 batters faced - Schoeneweis: 6 app; 3.1 IPs; 15 batters - Mota: 8 apps; 8.0 IPs; 39 batters - Sosa: 8 apps; 12.0 IPs; 48 batters and once more for Feliciano: 5; 2.1; 11 (five of them in one outing) So are they hiding an injury? Any reason to think those one or two bad outings were the start of a downfall? Did he run over Willie's dog? Was there a past incident that I'm not remembering that put him in the 'Chateau Bow-Wow'? btw, Heilman's starting to get the, "I hate that look on his face" trashing from fans at a rate not heard from since the Johnny Franco days.

="Nymr83"]] this is really the first opportunity to do so on a lasting basis. nobody else caught that and laughed? That was actually unintentional. As opposed to many of the jokes I throw in on purpose which are largely uncaught or just plain ignored.

Microsoft Paint, available in pretty much every Windows package since 1990. Not mine

More from the hitting to pitching front: "former catcher turned pitcher Joe Hietpas picked up his fourth win for St. Lucie. Hietpas was named the Mets minor league pitcher of the month in July"

"I would have expected him to adjust to his new role with class" I don't think there's any reason to think that he won't as he's certainly said the right things so far. I'd just like to see Alou, Milledge & Beltran (plus Delgado for that matter) stay on the field at the same time for more than two consecutive days so we can find out how he'd adjust.

Worst. Lost. Of. The. Season. Not only blowing several multi-run leads and doing so to a bad team but to a bad team playing badly.

Not pinch-hitting Delgado for DiFelice probably means Castro can't play. Besides, you're not going to waste hitting Delgado w/bases empty when you're 3 runs down.

I have no idea where to find a large head-and-shoulders shot of Damion Easley nor any clue as to how to re-size a smaller one if I could find one of those (which I can't).