Frayed Knot

I very much approve of saves where no one hits a fair ball and leaves the slugger on deck.

Woulda been nice if we could have knocked across an extra run or two during that long stretch of hitless Gigantes.

Things to do today (and seemingly every day): - Get into a first-inning deficit ... Check!

That time-slot has become a huge fucking mess for FAN and it sounds like it will continue to be one for the foreseeable future. In addition to M&MD, they must have trotted out about 15 different guys for various length trials and auditions and it's been mostly a disjointed parade of mediocrity. Even some of the veteren news-hounds, who you figure would know what to do with a microphone in front of their noses, have sounded lost.

When we were as old as the Jays are now - two months into season 21 - we had 466 different players (acc to GWreck's list). Or, to put it another way, our #500 didn't come until opening week of season 23 (April 1994)

]I guess my problem is that I don't think that the modern 9th-inning closer is that important a role. He's in a no-win situation where when he succeeds it's not a big deal. (He just has to pitch one inning, and often he can even give up a run or two.) But when he fails he's the guy who spoiled everything. He's the guy who turned a win into a loss. Everything was going fine until this schmuck came into the game. All true. But the oddity about Armando is that he is treated as if he is now and always was uniquely lousy and untrustworthy when compared to the subset of his fellow closers - instead of it being recognized that his foibles were no worse than many and were actually better than most. I've said before that in any given year the fans of about 25 teams hate their closer since, as you say, HE is the guy who ruins everything for your team and you don't feel it when the other guy does so. But it's now gotten to the point with Benitez where the rep about him - and not just from bitter Met fans but also from supposedly more neutral and rational media members - is that his career has been nothing but a string of epic failures. Some wise-ass doing the highlite stuff on SNY the other night peppered his on-going description of Tuesday's game with: ".. and then the Giants brought in Armando Benitez - although why I have no idea" It's like all logic and sense of proportion gets lost whenever his name is brought up.

"I heard a `Mine' call and so I let it go," [thrid-baseman Clark] said. then, once he saw it fall, realized; "that it wasn't [sS] Johnny Mac[Donald] and then I realized what had happened." ARod went on to say that it's not a big deal because; "All my guys in here think it's good" {they do???} ... and "I'm not that concerned because it happens to me three or four times a week." {I'm calling bullshit on that one} The other kicker to this whole deal was that it came as the pitcher was making his ML debut. That pop-up was the first batter he ever faced. Instead of the inning being over (there were two outs at the time) he gives up another hit before ending the inning. So instead of: 0.3 IP, 0 R, 0H it's : 0.3 IP, 2 H, 1 ER + 2 inherited runs allowed

Benitez, seemingly more than any other closer, would get the "mental weakness" tag assigned as the reason for any game in which he wasn't virtually perfect. It was never a bad night with him, it was always that he "melted" or "couldn't handle it". Paul O'Neill works out a walk after a tough AB and everything else that happened afterward was due to a mentally rattled closer. But try this on for size - just one World Series later: - Rivera is handed a one-run lead but gives up a lead-off single ** and it's just so obvious that he lost it at that point ** - because then came the bunt which he threw away - then, after another bunt, he gives up a ringing double to Tony Freakin' Womack ... - and then Mr. near-Perfect control hits tiny Craig Counsell before serving up the eventual game-winner to Gonzalez I mean GEEZ, the guy is perfect all year and then - in Game 7 of the WS and with NYC's post-9/11 pride on the line - he faces 6 batters and gets only one of them out, and that's with two of those batters trying to make an out !! See how much fun it is when you pre-write the story and then twist the facts to fit the pre-determined conclusion?

Back to the ARod running play (and God I wish people would feel free to start new threads on occaion) -- the Blue Jay infielders are all swearing he yelled "Mine" which ARod is denying. All of which reminds me of the swatting the ball out of Arroyo's mitt and then standing on second pleading; What did I do?!?". Thing is, if you want to claim that doing something like that is a piece of 'all's fair in love & war' strategy then you ought to be able to stand up and say; "Yeah I yelled that; we needed the runs and up yours if you don't like it". But of course he won't which makes the play look even scuzzier and himself even more image-concious.

Bell's been good, but Ring's pitched all of 2 innings and has spent most of the year in the minors. Meanwhile (to no one's surprise) Mota up -- Burgos down.

The bulk of Inter-League still remains to be played so we'll have to see how that turns out. The AL had the edge in the early rounds already played and I expect they'll get the better of the whole thing when all is said and done although I'd be surprised if it were as lop-sided as last year when the AL won 61+% of the games. No other year had been as high as 55/45 split for either side. The bulk of the imbalance is coming from the one sorry division. The Brewers, after fattening up on almost exclusively NLC teams had lost 6 in a row and 13 of their last 17 (starting with their Shea visit) until their win last night. And the kicker is that they haven't been caught by anyone in that time and still have a larger division lead than anyone except Boston. Collective records to date: NL-E = +10 (10 games over .500 as a division) NL-C = -36 NL-W = +20 ======= -6 AL-E = Even AL-C = +8 AL-W = -2 ======= +6

Delgado - 4.2 Perez - 2.5 Beltran - 1.0 Reyes - 0.9 Heilman - 0.7 Wagner - 0.4 Feliciano - 0.3

Considering the beating Rodriguez took last year for having the nerve to be spotted in Central Park - with his shirt off no less!!!! - in the afternoon prior to a night game, I can't see the hounds just allowing this one to blow over either. Some were even trying to connect the sunbathing episode with his hitting slump at the time. Not for nuthin folks, but if you lived across the street from CP and had a night job, where would YOU spend lunch-time?

After watching the replay I'll stick with my choice. The way the ball was hit and where he was positioned (holding on the runner) he could barely have thrown home any quicker without stepping on 1st than he could have by doing so.

I still haven't seen either balk.

Choice #2 is def out, and I like both 3 & 4 better than 1. My instant reaction (which is all the player has after all) was that #3 (1st then home) was the best because he was so close to the bag to start with.

* The Set-up: 1st & 3rd, tie game in extra innings at home, 1 out and decent but not great speed at 3rd * The Play: Hard one-hopper to 1st practically on the bag; should Carlos have? 1) Gone to 2nd then to 1st for the 3-6-3 DP, knowing that it you don't pull it off the go-ahead scores 2) Stepped on 1st then went to 2nd for the tag, knowing that it's a timing play at that point betweent he tag and the runner coming home 3) Stepped on 1st and gone home, figuring that getting the sure out kills the big inning and you may get both outs w/o a run scoring 4) Gone home immediately for the tag play, figuring that it's the surest way to cut off the run but knowing you'll still need to get another out with two on Make your choice and state your case

THE MONSTER IS OUT OF THE CAGE !!!!

As they say in Russia: HOLY SHITSKI

I especially don't like the bunt there off of someone who hasn't found the plate yet. Just pull the damn ball and maybe you get a hit by accident.

Gotta run here ... and let Endy swing!

Right choice by Delgado IMO to get the out first and then go home As Maxwell Smart would say ...

Yes, just Castro at this point. Gotay, Johnson, Franco & Newhan have been used. Smith, Burgos & Sele left in the pen ... and here comes Smith

That was closer to a called strike than it was to a swinging strike!! No way did he go around.

Remember also that he started his career in Milwaukee when the Braves were still there (just one year too late to have been a [u:b9de2f5f58]Boston[/u:b9de2f5f58] Brave in fact) and that the Brewers were an AL team in those days. So Aaron's return there was a combination of going back to his original fans and having the chance to use that new-fangled DH rule. Also the Brewers owner - guy by the name of Selig - saw the pr value in the whole thing.