Frayed Knot

Part of it is also the byproduct of simply having the larger pen as you've now got a lot of guys who need work on a semi-regular basis. IOW, the lack of length from starters begets a larger pen but also the larger pen gives you an excuse to not let the starters go long.

FWIW; comparing last year's PotG composite to those who voted in the year-end rankings project, it looks like the PotG tended to: - undervalue relievers: PotG put Wagner, Heliman, Sanchez, Mota, Feliciano & Bradford 4 or 6 spots lower on the Top-30 compared to where the post-year overview decided they should be. - and overvalue starters: OHernandez (+4), Trachsel (+10!), Soler (+6) were considerably higher acc to PotG, and Pedro slightly higher (+2) There were exceptions though as PotG had starters Perez and Maine lower, and reliever Bell higher For positions players, while there are always going to be variations, there didn't look to be a pattern of PotG either consistantly under or over rating them.

I don't know how well these sport-specific channels (NFL, NBA, Golf, etc) are doing, but all these sports want one because it gives them the ability to control their own product and, even if they're mosey losers now, they see them as the wave of the future. As usual the NFL channel is likely the most popular and, because that sport has the smallest inventory (256 games/yr vs 2,430 for MLB), moving a handful of games to their own channel will always be the bigger draw and have the bigger impact. But even they can't get the cable systems to clear a spot for them and are relying exclusively on DirecTV for distribution.

Maine - 4.9 Reyes - 1.2 LoDuca - 1.2 Beltran - 1.9 Wright - 0.2 Green - 0.5 Burgos - 0.1

]a deal that likely will allow the sport's new TV network to be available in at least 40 million homes when it launches in 2009 "40 million" certainly sounds like a lot when quoted w/o any context but really isn't when compared to all cable-wired homes in the country. Sounds to me that the new MLB channel will NOT be put onto the most basic tier for most systems and that MLB caved somewhat from their initial stance.

Edgy DC wrote: Was this the sweepiest sweep the Mets have ever laid on St. Louis? Well there was that mid-April '86 ass-kicking that wound up putting the defending NL champs in the rearview for good.

Milledge, Franco, Burgos & now Sele poke their heads up for the first time tonight. Me thinks that leaves Castro as the only player not to appear so far. One of the Newsday writers used to track every year the last player who was on a ML roster from the very beginning to get in a game. He'd make a note of it whenever the last guy got off the bench.

Gwreck wrote: Braden Looper: Most irrational hate for an ex-Met in the last 10 years. Agree or disagree?Maybe not the most irrational (that field is VERY wide open) but for a guy who had one pretty good year here to go along with his one pretty lousy one, there's an awful lot of fans who act as if he's one of the most incompetant pitchers in MLB history.

I no longer have any clue as to what is being argued here.

Yeah, I'm surprised too that facing 3 batters and retiring one didn't result in a flood of votes.

]First inning, Reyes on second no outs. Why is LoDuca laying down a sac bunt? It's the first inning, he's my #2 guy, I've got my meat coming up, why am I giving up an out to move a runner to third in the first inning?I don't like it - although I hate moving the runner to 3rd w/a bunt less than I do moving him to 2nd. The bunt wasn't on until Reyes got to 2nd via the wild pickoff throw and, in this case, it did help build a hitless run: BB, E, SacB, SacF Maybe it's because I've seen more of Alou over the years than Green, but I can't imagine Green being considered the poorer fielder or the one who covers less ground. Also, given their spots in the lineup (so far anyway), Green's spot is always going to be further away except on those occasions where Alou himself is the final out of the inning - at which point double-switching for anyone else wouldn't make sense. As it is now, and based solely on lineup construction, Green is the logical OF guy to be rotated out if the inning ends on any of the other 8 spots so I'm not sure that simply keeping a running total will tell us much about Willie's opinion of their gloves.

OHernandez - 5.8 Beltran - 0.9 Reyes - 1.0 Heilman - 0.8 Wagner - 1.0 LoDuca - 0.5

Well that's what happens when you start threads like that too early ... but we're still gonna find that fuckin' GSLC and feed him to that hungry octopus. Phillies - Gwreck Marlins - Seawolf17 Nationals (first series) - EdgyDC Braves (first two April series) - Rockin' Doc Brewers - TransMonk Cubs - KC Pirates - GYC Reds - Astros - Cardinals - Rockies - OlerudOwned Giants - SteveJRogers Dodgers - A Boy Named Seo DBacks - Frayed Knot Padres - Oakland - DocTee Twins - Tigers - MFYs - Frayed Knot

Gwreck wrote: ="iramets"]What's the thinking behind Endy coming for D for Green rather than Alou?Simple: Alou is a better hitter and will be up in the order sooner. Yeah, it's just a double switch and Green was the last out. Green may not be the fielder he used to be but Alou never was particularly good and certainly isn't getting better at age 40.

His new nickname, btw, is Inseckstein, because he's a small and annoying pest.

WAGs: 1) Elroy Face 2) The '58 Reds

X-man takes Lidge deep (very deep) to tie up the Pitt/Hous game in the 9th, ruining a nice game by Oswalt. Not too many other nice games by the ace and ace-wannabes on opening day. Twas a bad day indeed for the likes of Zambrano, Contreras, Schilling, Kazmir, Lowe, Bedard, plus obviously Carpenter from yesterday. Even Santana is struggling a bit.

From what I heard/read from writers & talkers during the Spring they were as much against moving Wright as they were for it. Keef & Ronnie boy both lined up for keeping Wright at #5 for instance.

Yeah, all those ex-Oakland hurlers look alike to me. Just because Mulder's a 6' 5" lefty and Hudson a smaller righty is no reason why I should keep them straight.

Matsui (batting 2nd btw) walked on 4 pitches in his first AB They're a-scared of him ... A-SCARED I tells ya! So I guess he's still got that first 'official AB' thing going for him.

Braves shut down Phils in 10th for the win ARod HRs in the 8th giving Yanx & Mariano a 4 run lead for the 9th

Rentarea w/a 2R HR (2nd of the game) puts the Braves ahead in top 10th

metirish wrote: What Morgan said was that it was a bad play if Eckstein doesn't get tagged out,but as it was he said it was a great throw and tag .If he's saying that the play was bad because the throw was too high he's (somewhat) right. If he's saying that not getting him alone makes it a bad play then he's wrong. ]When Reyes got picked off Morgan said it was a balk...fair enough but then Miller shot his argument to pieces ,IIRC Miller said that it was ok to deceive the runner once the pitcher was not on the rubber(after stepping towards third. Who's right?Once breaking contact w/the rubber the pitcher can do pretty much anything he likes. Balk rules are kind of funky. You CAN step to 3rd and NOT throw (unlike home or 1st) but you'd then have to break w/the rubber before turning to 1st and throwing. Looked to me like Carpenter did.

Glavine - 3.7 LoDuca - 1.7 Beltran - 0.9 Delgado - 1.6 Valentin - 1.1 Alou - 0.7 Feliciano - 0.3

Most of the change in this year's Cards vs last year's is in the pitching staff. Gone are Jeff Suppan, Jason Marquis & Jeff Weaver. Tim Hudson is on the shelf for a while. - Wainwright (who we'll miss) was always a starter in the minors and a highly regarded one at that. He was the main bait when the Cards sent JD Drew to the Braves a few years back, it just took him longer to come around than they expected. - Looper, who will pitch Wednesday against Maine, is another story. This will be his 1st start ever after 9 years and almost 600 games. A lot of Met fans seem downright giddy about facing him because they're (big surprise) obsessing on his 1 bad (and likely injury compromised) year as Met closer, they're ignoring his good year in '04 and his decent one last year (3.56 ERA, 1.3 WHiP) in a setup role. - Kip Wells brings his very shakey at best stuff over from Pitts & Texas last season and will start Tuesday's game opposite Hernandez. Kip hasn't really been decent since 2003. Their offensive part of the Cards is virtually the same as last year even down to the bench players. - Adam Kennedy replacing Ronnie Belliard as part of the 2nd base platoon is the only real change. - OFer Juan Encarnacion will miss the early part of the season.