Frayed Knot

Piniella's problem (besides the one where most everyone leaves the second 'i' out of his name) was that his true rookie season didn't occur until the year he turned 26 w/the Royals. That 1964 debut is a bit misleding as he only got 6 ML ABs over the next 4 years. Real hard to get 2K hits while starting that late. Plus, in all those year with the Yanx he only once got as many as 500 ABs. Remember that he was mentioned a couple of times in the Spring Training portion of 'Ball Four'. The expansion Pilots had selected him in their draft but then dealt before the season ever started to the other expansion team because, at least in part, they thought he was a hot-head. Not untrue, but he then went on the win the ROY with KC.

Reyes - 1.0 Green - 1.3 Gomez - 1.0 Delgado - 0.5 Mota - 0.5 Feliciano - 0.7

Not exactly the best spot for a bunt there young Carlos.

One problem is that the expansion/realignment took place a few years prior to the implementation of interleauge and I'm sure they weren't interested in realigning back. With two 15-team leagues you could actually schedule fewer IL games than they have now (approx 175 total IL games as opposed to the current 250 or so). The negative is that you'd have to have one series going on at all times of the season. I have no idea how easy or difficult that would be to inter-weave with everything else.

The problem with Young is that - although he was considered almost an anti-establishment writer in his early days - he became the symbol of old-school status quo as time went on and his "Young Ideas" became anything but towards the end. That retro outlook put him dead against the free agency era - despite his jumping from the News to the Post (or was it vice versa?) at a hefty salary increase during that time - and he spent much of the rest of his career railing against the new era and the players who used it to do exactly what he did for his career. He, like Grant, was too fond of the decades-long rigged system that kept the player compensation "in line" and resented the new breed getting rich via the new rules. Not surprising then that, in addition to taking Grant's side in the Seaver dispute, he also harped on the Strawberry bonus money.

I was thinking about Dick Young a week or so back. The return of Guillermo Mota brought a lot of talk-radio chatter from fans - about how they were going to boo his return on account of his drug use and all - and it reminded me that that was exactly what Young was calling on Shea fans to do upon the first re-entrance of another NYM druggie ... Dwight Gooden: Boo him when he first takes the field to show your disapproval, then cheer his exit to show that we all can be forgiving. And the kicker to the whole thing is that Young was roundly castigated by Met fans for even suggesting a harsh reception. Now I realize that the type of drug use probably has something to do with it; recreational and addictive vs performance enhancing and "cheating". But, of course, a larger part is that fans are often selectively outraged depending on the popularity of the player and his relative BA/ERA. I listened to see if anyone remembered enough to bring up the contradiction but no one did.

From BA: Mets infielder Jake Gautreau had a career night at the plate in Triple-A New Orleans’ 19-4 win against Iowa. Gautreau went 6-for-7 with four doubles, a home run and drove in eight. The Zephyrs’ 19 runs and 25 hits both set franchise highs for the club. Gautreau = Good name for New Orleans

I was home, hoping that midnight would arrive without a deal. And for a while it looked like that was going to happen (wishful thinking mostly) but then around 11:30 or so there was an announcement that the team had called a press conference. Once you hear that you don't have to wait for the morning papers. Then when I did read the papers the one thing that summed it up best was the line about the Reds adding Tom Seaver while not touching anyone from their everyday lineup. At that point I think I went from mad to depressed.

Speaking of player comparisons, I wonder how the Yanqui fans - many of whom were foaming at the mouth at an early-season rumor of an A-Rod for Joe Crede trade - would feel about it right about now: ABRHHRRBIBAOBASLGA-Rod23056702463.304.407.674Crede1671336422.216.258.317

I remember being pissed off because I didn't understand why it [u:89821d44da]had to[/u:89821d44da] happen. It all just seemed like a big ego-driven pissing contest which, in effect, it was.

Edgy DC wrote: Would a top link to the last page in this thread do it? I was thinking of a seperate page more along the lines of the FAQ. I realize that probably means hosting it off-site which opens up a can of worms (told ya I was causing trouble) and probably makes it tougher to update and so on. The problem with linking directly to this thread would be that the reader would have to hack through all kinds of extraneous chat (like this post for instance) just to get to the latest update. But if it's just a whole lot easier than an off-site spot then maybe a link could go to a seperate single-post (and locked) thread - created and stashed in some out of the way forum - which would consist of just the current major & minor league rosters. This thread could still be used to announce call-ups and send-down while the permanent one need only be edited to reflect the current state of the roster as a result of those changes. The purpose, in my mind, would be not only to give the folks here a one-click entry to current roster info, but also as an attraction that the CPF is a place that has a complete and accurate overview. Seems like most of the work is already being done and that a new spot for just the current info could be done with a small amount of cut-n-pasting. * No wonder I'm a troublemaker ... I just became George Foster!

That's my main objection too. Think about it this way; we went from having 9, then 11, different opponents in the first 30 years of our existance who we saw 4 to 6 times each, to having 20 now but where 15 or 16 of those are either a one-visit each way situation or a one-and-done who we may not see for another 5 years. Obviously you don't want to swing too much towards either extreme, but I think the baseball sked works better when you play fewer teams more often.

Wright - 2.2 Gomez - 1.8 Reyes - 1.1 Franco - 0.9

[causing trouble here] Would be cool if a version of this thread - one with all the pretty pictures for the active guys plus the longer agate list for the backwoods teams - were reachable via a direct link at the top.[/causing trouble] We could still have a thread for the in and outs and ups and downs, but a more permanent spot for the full list would make it a kind of one-stop shopping spot for EVERYTHING you need to know about the current state of your New York Met players.

I could certainly do without it. Or at least would prefer a reduced IL sked -- like why does it need to be 18 games per team? Playing about half that many would still preserve the novelty of "new" matchups they seem to want but not take such a huge chunk out of the regular schedule. btw, the AL is kicking the NL's butt so far this season -- which would make it the 3rd year in a row that they've held a significant esge.

The difference between Delgado and Burrell is that this season-to-date is a total outlier for Carlos yet part of a years-long trend for Burrell so, while they might look similar for the past 2 months, Carlos still has a better track record to fall back on. And if this is a start of a decline for Delgado and therefore a sampling of what's going to be his new norm ... well then we're going to have a very expensive mediocre 1Bman for the next year and a half.

I think that's the first hard ball I've seen Carlos III hit since his call-up. Funny how many fans seem to be calling for more of him while, last year, they were ready to ship Milledge out even though he had a better (well ... less worse) opening few weeks to his career. Other than that, everyone (except Wright) on this team sucks right now.

Does the devil appear disguised as Willie Randolph?

Remeber that Sunday July 1st game in Philly that was changed from a day game to night for TV purposes? ... Well they changed it back. I guess ESPN doesn't love us anymore.

We can now add Francisco Cordero's name to the ranks of those who [mad-dog]can't be trusted in a big spot[/mad-dog]. The Brewers - losers of 18 of their last 24 now - obviously can't count on this guy to save them. Even though it was his first blown save of year, it certainly came at the worst possible moment. Texas batting, bottom 9, down 3-0 * Frank Catalanatto Ks * Ian Kinsler grounds out TWO OUT, NOBODY ON AND A 3 RUN LEAD * Brad Wilkerson singles * R. Vazquez walks (1st & 2nd) * Greg Laird Singles (1st & 3rd) -- 3-1 * Kenny Lofton Singles (1st & 2nd) -- 3-2 * Marlon Byrd Singles (1st & 2nd) -- 3-3 * Michael Young Singles -- Rangers Win !!

Good AAron showed up today: 2 IP, 2 K, 1 baserunner (seeing-eye single)

Wright - 1.6 Reyes - 1.3 LoDuca - 1.2 Beltran - 1.0 Ledee - 1.6 Heilman - 1.0 Gotay - 0.3 Valentin - 0.3 Sele - 0.2

Unfortunately we can't pinch-run for Castro Might take 4 consecutive hits to get him in.

Wow! I didn't think that Wright HR was going to be anywhere near going out.

Well that inning could have been better, but at least it got us back into the game. Now the meat of the pen has to redeem itself from their recent transgressions.