Frayed Knot

metsguyinmichigan wrote: As a reporter, we are prohibited from using Wikipedia as a reference source. It's just not reliable.The CPF, however, is accepted as an unimpeachable source by news gathering organizations everywhere.

Carlos Lee two slots ahead of Lance Berkman strikes me as very odd. I'd take Lance WAY before Lee if drafting a team.

"I wouldn't have known how to even begin to install new phone jacks. It took those technicians three hours to do it, so I can only imagine how long it would have taken me to do it." Nothing wrong with having it done for you of course, particularly if it's part of the initial service. Plus, part of their expertise in it comes from doing what you said about having to rout the wire through walls, around obstacles and what not. But for simple jobs - like say moving a jack to a different spot in the room - it's usually simple, safe, and requires nothing beyond a screwdriver. Basically the wire that feeds a phone jack has several (up to 4) color coded wires in it which attach to standard screws inside the jack. A new wire can then be led from there and strung to a new locale with the green wire attaching to the same terminal where the green is already attached from the old wire; the new red wire to where the red already is, etc. Single-line phones use just the red & green; if you have 2 phone #s feeding that jack then all four wires will be used.

Sounds like things are just about finalized: - Apparently Pelfrey will stay behind in Florida (remember minor leagues don't start as early) for the first two weeks unti lthe 5th slot is needed. - So that leaves room for the extra OFer; meaning Milledge if his wrist recovers, Johnson if it doesn't - Burgos may have locked up his spot, at the expense of Sele. Without another hard thrower in the pen aside from Wagner it sounds like they want Burgos to make the squad for a different "look". Meanwhile Adkins probably killed his chances. Wonder if they'll try to trade him, cut him, or sneak him to a minor league roster? So, until Pelfrey comes up to replace ???, we're looking at: (4) Starters: Glavine, Hernandez, Perez, Maine (7) Relief: Wagner, Heilman, Schoenweis, Burgos, Feliciano, Park, Smith (8) Starting 8: LoDuca, Delgado, Valentin, Reyes, Wright, Alou, Beltran, Green (6) Subs: Easley, Castro, Franco, Newhan, Chavez, [Milledge/Johnson]

]dinosaur jesusCarl Everett only believes in half your name.

Two things: * Installing or moving your own phone jacks is real easy. For $10 bucks you can buy a length of wire and a new jack or two and simply run a wire from an existing jack to wherever you want to put the new one. Phone wire is all color coded and low voltage so, if you do get caught short, you needn't neccesarily wait for a potentially expensive service call or rearrange your whole house in order to link the two. * Due to a bout of insomnia this morning, I was channel flipping at about 4AM and stumbled across CSPAN in time to see a replay of Sen Kerry's Tuesday hearing with MLB honcho Bob DuPuy and the cable/satellite guys. Nothing was settled of course. - The 'InDemand' spokeman talked about how matching MLB's offer to match the DirecTV deal would saddle it with 60% of the costs for only 40% of the benefits (and other such breakdowns). - DirecTV says they paid extra specifically for the exclusivity of it all and that they had a different price in mind if they were going to share this feature. - DuPuy was very up front about how this is all about pushing the future MLB channel - And Kerry is wondering why they can't all get along and tried to get them to promise to talk further seeing as how the season is 4 days away.

Zambrano's a bit of a loud, demonstrative type so it's probably the thought of being pressured to behave like a Stepford Baseball player that's turning him off. That and having to lick Jeter's cleats clean before every game.

I pay zero attention to this sort of stuff -- particularly when it's all expressed about a theoretical occurance (he may not ever get to FAgency) that won't occur for another 7 months if at all. And even if he truly means it now - and you'll note he left some wiggle room - let's see if he still means when the zeros start to hit the offer sheets. Johnny Damon flat out stated he'd NEVER sign with the Yanquis and did so in mid-season of the year he'd eventually sign. Although I guess it beats hearing the opposite.

2 IPs, 1 run on 2 hits for Park Burgos's turn now

Pena is Tony Jr. - son of the Pirate/Cardinal catcher (and now NYY coack) and older brother of the young catcher the Mets signed last year. Tony Jr. is an infielder. He played briefly last year and will be on the team this season but probably not start. Not sure who 'Clark' is

Mets v Braves Mets going with a parade a relievers - in order to make final cuts presumably. Adkins gets the first chance to play his way out of a job and is succeeding quite nicely so far: coughing up 5 runs in the 1st

His supension was probably automatic based on the conduct of his team. But I do wonder if the MLK & Ghandi quoting Manuel was out there mixing it up during the brawl.

Green certainly hasn't had a good spring and I wouldn't cry if he was dealt for something else useful ... but he's also only 34 and should have a reasonable chance of at least being average. IOW, we probably shouldn't be so quick to stick him in the addition by subtraction category.

I was hoping that Bonds and the whole circus around him would just go away. Of course it won't however and, after spending most of last season thinking that all that time he missed in '04 put him far enough behind the pace to where he wouldn't catch Aaron, I'm now convinced he's going to cruise past that mark. Between the 2nd half he had last year and the reports that his legs are in better shape now than they've been in a while I don't even think it's going to be suspensful. Other than that, the whole Matsuzaka's journey will be fun to watch and the whole Yanqui/Sox soap opera. But mostly I just get a kick out of watching the season unfold and find that the stories that emerge are often better than the ones you expect. - watching teams come out of nowhere like last year's Tigers; - rookies stumbling into jobs and then running away with them; - finding stuff you've never seen before as part of the whole day-in/day-out drama

Not just the East. Except for Florida, Chicago & LA, every team in the NL has a stadium less than 10 years old or has their new one currently under construction. That DC park looks to be a lot further along than CItiField. When did they start?

Keep in mind Slugs that a player's ranking depends on several factors, not just longevity. - the rank (if any) in each year he plays - the success of the team(s) that he's on - the number of years he plays So who you're beating matters to a degree in addition to just where you place. IOW, a lousy player in a lousy year won't score as high as his counterpart bottom feeder in a good year. Same with a middle of the pack guy from 1962 compared to a middle guy from 1986, and top guys vs a different top guy, etc. Trax had 6 years here and had decent to good scores in 4 of them -- and those years were responsible for the bulk of his eventual standing. His last two seasons (not coincidently the freshest in our minds) produced low scores and boosted him only an additional 8 or 9 spots over where he would have been had he not played at all in those seasons. The other thing you have to remember is that MOST of the players in NYM history played just one season (or part of one). Less than 50 players (out of almost 800) lasted as long as 6 seasons as Trax did. So yeah, that alone gives him a leg up on most of the pack.

"several months" is the (Eddie C.) word on Duaner The "pop" he heard was some combination of a stress fracture in the shoulder somewhere plus something with attached ligaments and so on. Sounds the best we're looking at is a September callup.

The one from this year, not the one from 2-3 years back 86Dreamer: Does anyone think that Franco's roster spot should be in jeapordy this season? I know they have made it a point to play him at 3B, but I think our SP mix of 40'somethings and 20'somethings will make it very difficult to carry someone with such a limited role, on what I think will need to be a short bench in order to carry a 12 man staff. NYMR83: It should Dickshot: Yes I'm half keeping my eye on what the Yanx do with Andy Phillips. Currently they're dealing with some form of 4-headed monster to cover 1B/DH. They want Giambi as a (mostly at least) full time DH and hired Meinteyechart for his glove. But Eyechart hasn't hit a lick in Spring (like 2-fer-25 last I saw) and hasn't really hit well since his Mini-soda days. Phillips missed a bunch of time due to a family situation so fell behind both Meinky & also Rule 5 pick Josh Phelps. He's hardly a great hitter (.240/.288/.394 in 240 ABs last season) but does swing RH, has a glove nearly as good as Meinkiewicz, can play both 3B & OF in a pinch, and has enough pop (21 of 59 hits for XBs) to be a semi-threat as a PH -- which pretty much adds up to the type of guy we'd be looking for to backup for a guy who won't miss all that many games. Problem is that if the Yanx dump him it'll probably be this week and - even if Omar is open to easing Julio into that gentle good night at some point this season - it's not going to be anytime soon. I certainly open to other suggestions, but that kind of RH swinger with a decent glove and the threat of power is exactly the type we'd need. IOW, like Franco but ... umm, better ... and younger.

]I don't see anything in that article to support that presumption. Not specifically, but "you've made the team" kind of implies it as opposed to "well you've made the team ... but not quite yet". Not that it's a big deal if Pelfrey first pitches around April 5th or not until April 15th - it just sounds like yesterday's "announcement" makes it seem like he'll be there from the beginning.

]Green would have to be batting .150 in July (about 300 ABs) and Omar-dolls would have to be burned in effigy and Willie-dolls stuck with pinsWell Matsui - who was owed more money than Green currently is - was dumped (w/money eaten) in favor of less promising backups in early June after 130 ABs last season and was removed as a starter prior to that. Not sure if dolls or curses were a factor in any way.

No real surprises at this point. Presumably this means that Pelfrey will be on the 25-man from the beginning of the season w/o spending the first two weeks in N.O. Mike Pelfrey allowed four runs in five innings on Sunday against the Astros ... but shortly after the game, his mood brightened markedly when manager Willie Randolph told him that he has made the starting rotation. Randolph invited Pelfrey into his office, broke the news, then shook his hand. "He's still a work in progress, like a lot of our young players, but I feel like he can help us." Randolph also said that Tom Glavine, Orlando Hernandez, Oliver Perez and John Maine would be the team's other starters to open the season. No order has been established.

I thought of the Cliff analogy too while Milledge was down on the ground like he was shot. I'm betting - now that it's confirmed as not a break - that some of the vets are going to give him a hard time about the rolling around in the dirt part. I suspect the Green death watch is going to start a lot sooner than 150 ABs - like around the home opener for instance unless he manages to net 2 or 3 game-winning hits before then. Green, Park & Sele are prime candidates for the foul-line introduction boo-a-thon.

Not sure what Sosa's "status" is re: options, minor league refusals, etc. Adkins, we know, is out of options so sending him down would risk losing him. The best scenario is where Park & Sele pitch decently enough to make one or both attractive as trade bait (mmmm ... mid-season starters) once the replacement troops start returning: Sanchez (prolly May 1 at best), Padilla (?), Mota (~ June 1). Meanwhile Burgos and maybe Adkins get time to work on whatever they need to work on, while Vargas & Humber get regular starting gigs in N'awlins. In the meantime, I don't have a whole lotta problems with either guy in the long-man/spot starter/mop-up role.

Longevity is an asset in addition to performance. We're measuring (or attempting to) each player's total contribution while a Met, meaning that a guy here for as many as 17 seasons will generally leave a bigger mark than one here for just a few seasons, even if those were real good seasons. P.S. The only manner in which I'm affecting this list is as the project's self-appointed statistician - in much the same way Yancy is with our PotG. My opinions don't carry any more weight about where each player lands than anyone else who decides to participate in each year's discussion. In a way, this thing is a lot like political elections; you may not like the results, but you're largely responsible for them. I just compile the numbers [insert Katherine Harris joke here]

... in the pen that is. Park pulled after just 3 IPs (and only 27 pitches) in Saturday's game despite being scoreless and facing the minimum. Word has it that Willie has told him that his best shot to make this team would be out of the pen and that he was pulled so quickly because he'd like to see him go again maybe on Monday. All that certainly implies that Pelfrey has the #5 slot locked up and that Park is fighting for the long man job with Sele. The kicker is that Park wasn't informed of all this beforehand and apparently isn't too happy about it. Will do the modern athlete deal and talk to his agent. There are always teams who need pitching so there was/is speculation that a trade is afoot. Park's contract - which prolly doesn't kick in until he's officially picked up for the season (except for whatever severence they worked out) - is reasonable enough for just about anyone to take on, but I'm still not sure if there'd be much of a trade market. Some teams who might be interested might just prefer to wait it out and see if he gets released. Park would probably prefer being released to getting traded as he'd get to strike his own deal.