Frayed Knot

Albies is listed as a switch hitter but he's also just recently back from a wrist injury and is only hitting left-handed these days (subject to change).

I remember Reisndorf as a hardliner against the players in the mid-90s labor strife, only to then turn around and sign Albert Belle to a FA contract in the winter of '96-'97 in what I remember as the first $10mil/yr deal, a significant jump from whatever the ceiling had been to that point. Do as I say, not as I do. More recently the ChiSox, along with the Padres, tried to use FA signings to jump to the top all at once. Both franchises failed via that route. They then pivoted to trading for other teams' top prospects such as Yoan Moncada (BOS) and Eloy Jiminez (CHC). That worked briefly as they actually won 93 games in 2021 before losing the the Astros in a playoff series. But neither 'future star' worked out in the long term. Moncada has since moved on. Jiminez is still there but was only occasionally good, always seems to be injured, and is rarely playing now. Plus those deals cost them Jose Quintana, Chris Sale, and Michael Kopech so safe to say that they just haven't made a lot of good decisions lately.

Yeah, that doesn't help the credibility of the letter writers. As far as the piece itself, I'm not up enough of Oakland politics and all to take a side as to how much this is the owners' fault and how much the city's. I do know there was a ton of NIMBY-ism at each and every location that was suggested for a potential stadium. The ranter/reporter there puts all of it on ownership, even while (briefly) allowing that local conditions contained lots of roadblocks, but doesn't back up how. Maybe he can and didn't do so here out of time constraints, but I'm not willing to merely take his word for it.

Does this sound familiar? As if something very similar happened the last time there was a late September series in Atlanta with an opportunity to clinch? Well, you'd be right: https://phpbb3.leaptoad.com/mets/archives/31700/f1_t31738.shtmlhttps://phpbb3.leaptoad.com/mets/archives/31700/f1_t31738.shtml Hah! I even made the same lame 'cone of uncertainty / cone of silence' reference then too.

I think the consternation about this year is about walk-up traffic being down despite the performance. Yes, that was mainly Gary's point and at least partially mine. The team has been mostly good and mostly fun since early June with a mix of stars and newcomers so you'd expect something closer to capacity for the final week of games during a great run in September. The only pushback I'd have to the high price of things being part of the problem is that the Mets are falling in comparison to other clubs. They were 7th out of 15 in 2022, 8th in 2023, and 9th now with the possibility of falling one or two more slots before the week is over despite good seasons [101 wins and 90-ish] in two of those three.

I'm sure announced attendance is tickets sold rather than asses in seats so it's quite possible that more people went to the stadium this year than last even if the numbers don't reflect that. I was mainly struck by Gary's comments about how full and lively things were in Philly and how less full they were at CitiField just days later. Then there were Nimmo's comments of 'Hey we need you guys now' as if maybe he (possibly with prodding) felt he had to play the role of salesman. Then to see the black & white numbers showing how they'll wind up behind the majority of the NL including all but one of the contenders (and ARZ might also pass us by before the week is up) made me wonder why.

So there's already thought about moving Thursday's game up to an afternoon tilt depending on the path and timing of the storm currently forming south of Cuba. The current projected 'cone' path (not to be confused with the 'Cone of Silence') for the storm basically has it covering the entire state of Georgia. The decision to move or not in this closing week seems to rest more with MLB than with the home team. It was announced by MLB Monday night that Tuesday's game in Detroit, also one with playoff implications, is being moved to an afternoon game due to poor a weather forecast (not the same storm) saying that “The decision was made in an effort to identify the best opportunity to play the game.” iow, with few teams having any off days left this would leave only Monday as a potential make-up date with all kinds of travel implications involved. No word yet from Trump stating that if he were President this storm would never happen.

Frayed Knot wrote: =Centerfield post_id=171488 time=1727124519 user_id=65] Greg makes a great point. Vientos was definitely late covering the bag on that play in the 9th. If he's there in time, he can block that ball before hit hits the bag. SNY/GKR would have examined if, how, and why Vientos was late. Whether it was the set-up and he just had too far to go or whether he simply didn't break when he should have. But it wasn't SNY/GKR so we got shit and never saw another angle except for the close-up showing that the ball hit the bag. Why it did and if it could have been prevented didn't seem to be on their agenda. They likely had other fish to fry. Like another in-game interview or promoting football or whatever washed up jock is spouting crap on the latest talk show.

With news that MLB's attendance is up slightly (0.7%) over the same point last season which looks to give the league the first consecutive years of attendance gains since 2011-12. Some of this is connected to the change in pace rule changes as this year will be up 10% over 2022. By season's end this weekend it is expected to be MLB's highest attendance since 2017, back up above 70+ million. But what about the Mets? They're 9th of 15 (2,329,299) in the NL with the possibility of going lower as other teams with three or six home dates remaining could conceivably pass them by. Gary mentioned, at least twice last week, the sell-outs and the enthusiasm during the series in Philly. And then days later mentioned a surprisingly small crowd at CitiField, I think it was during the Washington series. Teams above (in order): LAD, SDP, PHI (all over 3M), StL, ATL, CHI, SFG, MIL. Below: COL, ARZ, CIN, WAS, PIT, MIA This topic was briefly mentioned, I think in an IGT, sometime last week. The bigger question is why -- bad 2023, lack of BIG! winter FA signing, poor late April/May could all be reasons. But it's been a successful and exciting summer and yet everyone below us, except for Arizona, is a sub-.500 club. For criss-sakes the Rockies [CROSSOUT]could[/CROSSOUT] will pass us by the end of the week. Not really sure I have a point here except to say that I'm surprised the Mets are below the mid-point on the list with a team going down to the wire in the final week. Also that maybe, once again, the ownership change wasn't the magic elixir many expected.

=Centerfield post_id=171488 time=1727124519 user_id=65] Greg makes a great point. Vientos was definitely late covering the bag on that play in the 9th. If he's there in time, he can block that ball before hit hits the bag.

I was pretty damn tired today right around 5 - 6 o'clock and wondered if I was going to have trouble staying awake until 10 Now I'm wondering if I'm going to be able to fall asleep by midnight.

Obviously we've been concentrating on our side of the ledger, but the AL side has some interesting things going on as well. The biggest difference is that most of those teams are losing more often than not so even a semi-decent run (like the Tigers) has them climbing the ladder. So as we go into the final week: Minnesota lost a DH to Boston today which drops the Twinkies out and keeps the BoSox marginally in. There are some games against each other but the Royals end the season with two National League teams. Seattle and Baltimore have yet to be officially eliminated for their division crowns but effectively are out of time. BAL +4.0 KCR —— DET —— MIN -1.0 SEA -2.0 TBR -4.0 BOS -4.0 Orioles: @NYY x 3, @MIN x 3 Royals: @WAS x 3; @ATL x 3 Twins: Marlins x 3; Orioles x 3 Tigers: Rays x 3; White Sox x 3 Mariners: @HOU x 3; A's x 3 Red Sox: @TOR x 3; Rays x 3 Rays: @DET x 3; @BOS x 3

Supposedly it's to be rookie right-hander Spencer Schwellenbach: 19 starts; 7-7; 3.61 ERA; 1.103 WHIP Been good in four of this last five starts but doesn't go real deep into games: 4.2, 5.2, 5.0, 6.0, 6.0 After that it's Sale then Fried

Six games left for all the NL WC contenders. The only difference is that Arizona plays Monday and has Thursday off while SDP, ATL, NYM all have Monday off before playing six straight ... barring rain outs. (imagine the turmoil a rain out would have this coming week for anyone!) ARZ: Home to SFG Mon, Tue, Wed. Then home for SDP Fri, Sat, Sun, at which point we might all become real big Sandy Eggo fans. SDP: @LAD (Tue, Wed, Thu) then @ ARZ for the closing weekend. And the Pads are only 3.0 G in back of LAD who needed three in the 7th today then b-t-b 9th inning HRs from Ohtani and Mookie (walk-off) to come back on Rox so that might become another factor in this whole deal. ATL: home to Mets, then home to Royals Be nice of KCR finds themselves still in the thick of the AL WC chase by the final weekend.

Stay 2.0 G ahead of the Braves Draw even with the Diamondbacks Stay 3.0 behind the Padres

It's been a while since I did two innings of pacing at the end of a Mets game. Tonight I did.

That single off Bohm's glove might be the first break the Philly IF defense has given us all series.

Gameday only says "injury delay." What happened? Julio fouled one off his thigh ... but he got better!

I'm OK with the move. I think if you go with your (2nd? 3rd?) best reliever,, and for a second inning no less, with a skinny run lead against the best of their lineup and give up the lead you'll be kicking yourself all night and maybe all winter. We need THIS game NOW!

Harper didn't even wait for the 3B ump's call. He just walked away.

The balls off the bat in Acuna's last three ABs [swinging bunt hit, actual bunt, swinging bunt out] probably barely top 100 ft traveled total.

Wheeler, meanwhile, has thrown as many pitches thru six frames as Tylor had thru four.

Edgy MD wrote: Howie's sarcastic anti-ESPN burns are scorching. Do share.

Three perfect frames from the pen.

Mendy likely looking for two innings now from Buttarsky