Frayed Knot

Chin-Ming Wang, the favorite to start Opening day for the Yanquis: out with a "Grade 1" hamstring strain, will start the season on the DL. Probable late April first appearance.

You might want to point out to your friends that the list of ours they saw was two years old but has now been updated to include the last two seasons. So there's been some movement, particularly among recent players like Piazza. The differences between our list and theirs are fairly predictable and largely explainable through popularity & longevity. When we first concocted this project, the idea was to get as close as we could to some kind of objective list of all time Mets instead of letting personal preferences creep into the outcomes. IOW, we looked at the individual years and then saw how they added up to the whole rather than attempting to judge the whole in retrospect. That sum-of-the-parts approach also rewards the longer lasting players via the cumulative result of all his years as a Met, while the top-down method is sometimes affected by the fact that familiarity often breeds a degree of contempt among fans. Carter is one of the best examples. He was obviously popular as a result of being an '86-er, but was only here 5 seasons and was really only any good in 3 of them. It would be almost impossible for someone like him - or the even shorter lasting Olerud - to finish ahead of the likes of Franco or say Sid F. who combined for some 26 years in the uni. Meanwhile a guy like Benitez was a polarizing figure during his time who will never win any popularity contests, but he was judged to be one of the top performers during 4 of his 5 Met seasons.

Looks good mon, thanks. You probably want to kill the thread that has the links to those out of date lists that's currently in the Rankings forum.

OK - what Yancy said.

Edgy DC wrote: You don't see "Totally out of the question," he said. "It's the big-league level or I'll go home" as having an implicit demand to go north?No.

]The ridiculous part is his seeming expectation that he's done what he needed to do to win it.I don't see where he's said that, or even implied it.

Anyone remember who Tatis had his 2 Granny inning off? ... That's right, it was Chan Ho Park!! (what's amazing is that he was still in the game) Maybe they can re-create that feat down in Zephyrland. I remember FT as mostly a feast or famine type of guy. Doubt we'll see him in Met-land unless it's under some unusual circumstances. Sele signed a minor league deal simply because there was no reason to sign him to anything else. But I think he was up front all along that he was fighting for a ML job - either here or by attracting enough attention to get one some place else.- and that it was all or nothing. This statement sounds like it just makes official what was pretty much expected all along.

The other problem is that their farm system is pretty barren at the moment according to those who follow that sort of thing. Kasten and co have a lot of work to do down there.

"Speculation is that they're thinking of keeping teenager David DeJesus, though I'm doubting it." The DeJesus you're thinking of is Ivan Jr. - son of the former major leaguer. David is the KC Royal OFer from New Jersey - the guy who essentially replaced Beltran Not sure if Furball is going to be out long enough to merit drastic moves. All not sure if anyone still considers Betemit a SS (although he could prolly handle it in a pinch)

However one suspects that if he had much left in the tank that he wouldn't be getting released from the Reds - Dodger SS Raphael Furcal carted off the field yesterday after an ankle injury. No timetable set for return. - Angel Chone Figgins broke a finger, out indefinitely - Red Sox re-re-re-change their minds and will move Jonathan Papelbon back to the closers role, all after insisting since late last year that it was medically neccesary to have him start.

IOW, even if this is good news (ie; just scar tissue) it's see ya in May at the earliest ... and Padilla probably not that quick.

You could, but the 3 & 4 spots are usually reserved for the better power hitters and Beltran is coming off a 40+ HR season while Wright was in the mid-20s somewhere. And if that's not enough there's always the real reason where "honor" of the #3 slot goes to the established vet, higher paid *star* type.

I think I heard throwing error on the radio - but was barely paying attention. Wright also threw one away yesterday and was saved on another by a Delgado scoop off a really bad throw

patona314 wrote: too many k's for the 2 hole. reyes will cover his butt if he stays healthy. but, if anything happens to mr. reyes .............. If something happens to Reyes the offense is going to take a hit no matter who's hitting 2nd ... or 3rd, or 4th, or 5th for that matter. The number of Ks don't bother me. I'll take those in exchange for more hits & more Xtra base hits anytime.

I'd like to see him hit 2nd - not because I think where he hits will affect how he hits but because him hitting there is better for the lineup as a whole than LoDuca hitting there. Simply put, he runs better, hits w/better pop, and will make fewer outs.

When ABNSeo says the game is on locally, he means that HIS local team is showing it, not ours. It's on FAN here. Wright batting 2nd again. Now LoDuca isn't playing, Castro is - but it is encouraging that WWSB isn't sticking Easley or someone else up there just to be the #2 hitter du-jour. Reyes running wild. First the play ABNS mentioned, then he stole 2nd on his next AB then got up from his dive and took 3rd when the catcher (Lieberthal) didn't retrieve the passed ball quickly enough. Then scored on a groundout. oe: slow typing

- Jered Weaver, Angels SP, to start the year on DL (shoulder) - Mike Timlin, Red Sox RP, to start the year on DL (oblique) - Paul Wilson released by Reds (sad)

'Not so fast' says 'In Demand' "IN Demand said Wednesday it will offer to match the terms of DirecTV's $700 million, seven-year deal with Major League Baseball on behalf its owners, who are affiliates of the companies that own Time Warner, Comcast and Cox cable systems ... iN Demand also said it would carry The Baseball Channel when it launches in 2009 to at least the same number of subscribers who will get the channel on DirecTV." Bob DuPuy, baseball's chief operating officer, said he would have to find out details of iN Demand's offer before commenting.

Reyes tripped too, but we're pretty much used to that. All the hits off Pelfrey were singles (I think) which is likely to happen with his sinker working. That'll also allow him to get away with the (*small sample size warning*) low K rates that he's been having so long as it also keeps the BB & HR rates down.

Well there are still a few kinks to work out - like re-inserting those top-50 player icons which, some may have noticed, have suddenly gone missing - but not only have the 2006 Rankings been merged into our all-time list but (after falling two years behind) we've also updated the system to include both the 2006 AND 2005 results into our ranking levels project. In all, there are 30-some new names among our 'Top-500' list - which naturally means that 30-some chumps fell off the back end. There was also some shifting of inactive players within the list due to re-adjusting some old results. [u:bh6m1myh]SUMMARY[/u:bh6m1myh] This is the first year in a while (with Piazza, Franco & Leiter now gone) that we have no active players near the very top of the list. We do, however, have three new players cracking the Top 50 ... so get those personalized icons ready for: #40 Tom Glavine (Willets will be thrilled) #47 Steve Trachsel (already has one I believe) and #50 on the nose ... David Wright!! 2006 was a busy year for newbies, so welcomes for: #116 Carlos Delgado #127 Paul LoDuca #137 Billy Wagner #156 Jose Valentin #170 Endy Chavez #200 John Maine #214 Orlando Hernandez #227 Duaner Sanchez #343 Shawn Green #369 Julio Franco #388 Oliver Perez #404 Guillermo Mota #427 Lastings Milledge [u:bh6m1myh]Other current players[/u:bh6m1myh]: #52 Jose Reyes ... wait til next year for your icon kid #64 Carlos Beltran ... replaces Eddie Murray (#83) as best ever 2-year Met #81 Pedro Martinez #113 Aaron Heilman #233 Pedro Feliciano #272 Ramon Castro [u:bh6m1myh]Over & Out[/u:bh6m1myh]: #60 Cliff Floyd #220 Roberto Hernandez #240 Chad Bradford #273 Darren Oliver #287 Xavier Nady #351 Chris Woodward #448 Brian Bannister #501 Alay Soler (JUST MISSES being our opening guy in the rotation!!!) [u:bh6m1myh]Mileposts[/u:bh6m1myh]: The overall list now contains 555 names (500 of which are used for our levels project here) #100 - Rico Brogna #200 - John Maine #278 (the midpoint) - Jim Fregosi #300 - Mardie Cornejo #400 - Matt Ginter #500 - Jim Gosger (the new "lead-off" man) #555 - Gus Bell (forever the anchor man) As usual, about half the list consists of guys who only garnered points in one season. The 1 year Mets (273 of them) range from Mike Hampton at the 111th spot (Delgado falls just short) down to Gus Bell at the bottom (#555) 2 years: 109 players: Carlos Beltran at #64 (replaces Eddie Murray as the best 2-year man) to David West (#520) 3 years: 61 players: John Olerud (#37) - Dave Schneck (#383) 4 years: 38 players: Tom Glavine #40 (replaces Gary Gentry as top 4yr dog) - Tim Bogar (#261) 5 years: 26 players: Armando Benitez (#24) - Teddy Martinez (#189) 6 years: 14 players: David Cone (#20) - Mike Jorgensen (#213) 7 years: 9 players: Keith Hernandez (#12) - Ken Boswell (#94) 8 years: 9 players: Darryl Strawberry (#4) - Wally Backman (#55) 9 years: 4 players: Cleon Jones (#7) - Rusty Staub (#19) 10 years: 4 players: Sid Fernandez (#9) - Craig Swan (#41) 11 years: 2 players: Dwight Gooden (#2) - Jerry Koosman (#3) 12 years: 4 players: Tom Seaver (#1) - Ron Hodges (#132) 13 years: 1 player: John Franco (#6) 16 years: 1 player: Ed Kranepool (#11) Will try to get copies of both alphabetic and numeric version of the entire list posted in the near future.

- 4 scoreless IPs for Victor Zambrano against the Yanx today - one of those hits was by Doug Meinteyechart, making him something like 2-fer-25 this spring

Cubs hoping for good and healthy years from Prior & Wood

Can't say that one's a big surprise. Next you'll tell me that Gary Sheffield is complaining.

Lost in this latest version of offensive A& defensive suckitude was that El Ducky left the game before his scheduled departure time due to what's being called "a cramp in his hamstring" that cropped up as he was running out a sac bunt attempt. The official word is that it's not serious and supposedly he even did some extra throwing afterward ... but, as Joquin Andujar once observed, juneberno.

One of those Reyes errors extended an inning (dropped a foul pop w/2 outs) so a lot of those Park runs are going to read 'Unearned' ... but that's not the same as saying he didn't get hit hard. Sele apparently started by giving up 7 straight singles ... and then finished his outing by retiring 14 of the last 15 or something like that ... but it may be a case of TLTL for him.