Frayed Knot

In both Milledge's head-first slide yesterday and the one today (both CS) he's starting his dive way too early and therefore skidding to a crawl by the time his hands each the base. Wouldn't have mattered yesterday, definitely would have today.

Pelfrey sent down, DiFelice "en route" Also, Adkins DFA'd, Newhan back up

Delgado - 2.5 Wright - 2.0 Pelfrey - 1.0 Gotay - 1.5 Mota - 0.5

At least that seems to be the current thinking acc to Newsday's David Lennon. LoDuca claims he'll be ready for Tuesday although some kind of roster move is likely to bring Mike DiFelice up to cover at least today's game. Beltran seems a little more iffy. "[his return] could be Tuesday" says Willie. Also, that they chose to demote a position player instead of a pitcher for Saturday's game implies that they're not ready to DL Beltran, although not necc that they won't.

Alou - 1.0 Green - 1.0 Easley - 1.0 Adkins - 1.0 Heilman - 1.0 Delgado - 1.0

OHernandez - 4.3 Reyes - 1.0 Milledge - 1.2 Gotay - 1.5 Heilman - 1.0 Wagner - 1.0

Speaking of getting thrown out on the bases killing an inning ...

btw, Milledge now has more hard hit balls in the last week then Gomez did during the entire six weeks he was playing.

I'm not so sure that I agree with Keith that Castro was such a slam dunk to go down to 2nd on that throw (high throw home on a short fly for those not watching). With his (lack of) speed I'd hate like hell for him to even have the chance of being thrown out there. Now by not moving up it costs us a run as Milledge followed with a 2-out 2B. But the other side is Milledge never coming up because tubbo was caught trying to get adventurous.

Also - I forgot to mention in the first post - after the first guy (Yunel Escobar) caught the Snakes sleeping and swiped 2nd to set up the tying run, Willie Harris, the guy who drove him in, immediately tried the exact same thing and just missed being safe. The way they were pulled off - particularly the first one - were just too funky to have been called plays from the dugout, but Cox certainly keeps his guys alive and they were gutsy fucking moves to try, much less pull off, while trailing (or tied) w/2 outs in the 9th.

We're having our second "Nooner" in three days. Now we just need to remind Tim Redding that he's really not a very good pitcher.

I caught part of the Braves/DBacks game late last night. Snakes jump out to a 7-0 lead, smacking around Atl LHP Jo-Jo Reyes (rumored to be part of the proposed Teixeira deal). But then the Braves started coming back against one-time Met famhand Yusmeiro Petit, getting 2 runs at a time - including several RBIs from Julio Franco - until it was 7-6. Arizona then loads the bases w/0 out in the 7th ... but can't score. Then get 2 on w/1 out in the 8th ... but again can't score. So in the 9th the Braves get one of their young callups on who, with 2 outs, steals 2nd while no one in the infield is looking. The pitcher is adjusting his socks without calling time out while the 2nd baseman has his back to the IF for some reason, so this kid just takes off and was 3/4 of the way towards 2nd before anyone even looked up. That OF COURSE was followed by a bloop hit tying the game and I'm tearing my hair out. So it's at least good that I woke up this moorning to discover that Tony Clark - also a culprit during that sneaky SB (he was standing in foul territory for some reason) - hit a walk-off in the 11th, bailing out not only the DBacks asses (they're in the WC hunt) but ours also for losing that pathetic game last night and "getting away with it" for another day.

If Brave LHP Jo-Jo Reyes is part of this deal (some sources say yes, others say no) then he might be making Texas change its mind; He's getting pounded by Arizona to the tune of 7-0 in the 4th.

ONE Barry hits #754 in the 1st inning against Florida

It's going to take me at least that long to remember what he looks like.

"Can someone explain this move to me too?" Options is part of it. Not everyone else can be sent down. But they're also reportedly concerned that is velocity is trending down as his IPs are headed up toward a level he's never been at before. Remember that he was just drafted last June so he's coming off a year that consists of a much shorter college season plus a partial year of minor league ball. In the minors they can use him a little more judiciously and then bring him back if he straightens himself out.

Rangers deal Kenny Lofton to the Indians (his 3rd go-around in Cleveland) in exchange for a minor league (A-ball) catcher.

I usually find the Top-10 bits funny ... just not this one.

Perez - 2.0 Wright - 0.4 Milledge - 1.0 Reyes - 1.4 Castro - 0.7 Mota - 0.5

I was just about to note the fall that Smith has taken recently - and that it had gone pretty much under the radar - when the news came that he was dropped down. So here it is anyway since it illustrates things very well. -----IPERHBBWHiPERAApr & May23.241480.931.52

Seeing as how he was able to play the rest of the game after the break it probably isn't too bad as breaks go, but I love it when players give out medical estimates as if they're basing it on something tangible. Of course maybe he stayed at a Holiday Inn Express the previous night.

="G-Fafif"]I think this is mostly a symptom of the [pundits] .. needing to be "on" all the time, never being able to say "I haven't seen [enough to know] but I better protect my image as all-knowing and sound authoritative." It's an insidious practice. If media pundits - whether in sports or politics - would have the guts to say "I don't know" even a little more often the world would indeed be a better place. Of course it would also eliminate most of their jobs so it's not going to happen. Just think about football alone. Since virtually all of FB talk is aimed at gamblers and therefore is about what they think is going to happen in that week's games, the logical (and only correct) answer of; "Well let's wait and see", would make about 95% of pre-game studio shows irrelevent and unneccesary.

The Met/Brave clue leads me to Greg McMichael. Also, for some reason, Ken Dayley springs to mind.

Picket fence scoring proves no match when up against big, ugly innings.

Pittsburgh has apparently been practicing their infield hits