Frayed Knot

Zito claims that it's actually a new, 'old' windup. IOW, he's gone back to one he was using back in CY days but had drifted away from since. Probably not a big deal, but it does seem odd to just spring it un-announced on your new team and pitching coach like that. Wonder what Rick would have said/thought had he done that here?

- Signed a major 4/yr FA deal with Boston prior to the '04 season He was the best FA closer available that year. It was the same time we signed Looper and I remember saying at the time that if it took 4 years to get him then they could have him and I had no problem "going cheap" in that case - He then went on to have a great season w/them during their magical WS run but was never the same health-wise after that. Tough break

Sounds like his agent gave him a quickie lesson on the economics of closing doors: Carlos Zambrano backed off recent comments that he would leave the Chicago Cubs as a free agent after this season if he doesn't get a multiyear contract during spring training. Although he would rather get a new deal done by opening day, the pitcher said Thursday he would be willing to negotiate next fall. He won't discuss a contract during the season, though. "They have the first look," Zambrano said ... "I didn't say that if they don't sign me before the end of spring training I will not sign with the Cubs. I didn't say that. I just said they have till the beginning of the season; if not, I don't want to talk about (a) contract during the season." IOW, never mind what I said then, this is what I'm saying now.

The whacko injury list for this season has its first entry and, perhaps not surprisingly, it's Kerry Wood. The Chicago Cubs pitcher is not expected to throw off the mound for a few days after he slipped this week getting out of a hot tub at home. Wood landed on his stomach and chest.

43 = TC Technetium sounds like one of those synthetic elements at the top end of the table that really only exist in labs and for fractions of a second ... but, actually, it's a radioactive byproduct of uranium decay. Technetium is a silvery-grey metal that tarnishes slowly in moist air. Until 1960, technetium was available only in small amounts. The chemistry of technetium is related to that of rhenium.

The Hardball Times sorts through the stats in an attempt to determine the best and worst outfield arms in baseball. You may get a bit lost in their methodology (or decide to skip it all together) but basically they're trying to measure arms based not just on assists but also on how often runners attempt (or not) to take an extra base on hits to their area. Well anyway, you probably see where this is leading, Green ranked dead last -- and by a lot!! -- among RFers, costing an estimated 13 runs over a full season. Beltran looks much better among CFers. I guess no NYM LFer played enough to qualify. There was also a small tidbit in the papers the other day that the Mets had decided NOT to pick up Green's option for [u:bb2bb58541]2008[/u:bb2bb58541]. I'm not sure if there was a deadline on this which called for a decision to be made this far in advance (sometimes there is) but the team opted to pass it up now so the contract is dead after this year. The Mets can, of course, still sign him later on, but now they're not locked into whatever number was set when they inherited his LA contract. There was some speculation that Green would retire after this season but he now says he wants to play at least one more year.

Reyes debut = June 10, 2003 Heilman debut = June 26, 2003 And all of Reyes' time was continuous as either ML service time or on the DL (which counts as ML) while Heilman spent a good chunk of '04 in the minors

These aren't the usually longer, fan-written blogs, but rather the daily blogs popping up from the beat guys which often have little nuggets in them that are more interesting - during ST especially - than the generic story-du-jour that seems to read the same from every source. WFAN - Ed Colman NY Daily News - Adam Rubin Newsday - Dave Lennon New York Post - Kevin Kernan Add more if ya got 'em. The admins can move this to the 'Permanent Links' section once it's run its course.

Yup © From today's Newsday: Wright admits one of his role models in that respect is Derek Jeter, another homegrown prospect who became a New York icon at a very young age. ... "Mets fans aren't going to like to hear this, but Jeter's the guy," Wright said. "Jeter is the prime example. He always takes care of business. He always prepares for the year, but also he has fun. He does some of the things off the field that are privileges you get to do in New York."

Between the trip to Norfolk and the back injury that derailed him in early '05 he was much better than Met fans gave him credit for; and, while he was often deliberate (esp w/men on base) his slowness was often exagerrated IMO. But the bad memories are going to survive longer than the good ones because both the beginning and the end of his stint here were pretty ugly. Maybe the details of how his marriage apparently fell apart means he was revealing something when he mentioned the 'sexy mistress'. He leaves the team as a Top-50 Met acc to the CPF Ranking project.

Roses are red Violets are blue We love you dear Carlos It's that strikeout we rue Roses are red Violets are blue How much we miss Cliff will depend on Alou Roses are red-ish Violets are blue-ish We'll win lots on Saturdays 'cause our Rightfielder's Jewish Roses are hot Violets are cool LoDuca's got a new love but she's still in high school Go

Edgy DC wrote: Kelvin Chapman is the second guy he thinks of? I remember from back in the day that Noble would talk about how Chapman was one of his favorite guys to deal with. And, yeah, that list is alphabetical.

Baseball Prospectus takes each team's Top-Ten prospects (see first post in this thread) and adds a glance at the rest of each system to comes up with an overall ranking of minor league talent Mets come out 8th overall (and best in the NL East) with the usual caveat thrown in about good top talent but weak depth. Few teams in baseball have two outfielders to match Fernando Martinez and Carlos Gomez or two righthanders to match the duo of Philip Humber and Mike Pelfrey. So they get huge points for top-level talent, but there is little to talk about after that.

Stallone again ... naturally.

]you don't see the difference between "sign me now or you'll have to talk to me along with everyone else after the season" and "sign me now or you never will"? I don't think that's what he's saying, and if it is what he's saying then it's not what he means. I read "pay me now or I'll go" as; - I'll go the free-agent route or as - I'll have the freedom to go and then you'll have to bid for me Put it this way; if he reaches the FA stage and the Cubs decide to be major players ... he'll listen.

No one who's in competition for the back of the rotation this spring has a big enough contract to even factor into things. Options, on the other hand, can and often do figure into who goes where to start the season -- and, at times, they should. There's nothing wrong with having a youngster cooling his heels in the minors for a short spell - especially if the alternative is losing a player who might come in handy at some point later on. As Capt Renault said to Rick after he blew off Yvonne; 'you shouldn't throw away women like that Ricky, someday they may be scarce' And, coming off a season where we burned through 13 starters, it should be obvious that the same logic can apply to hurlers.

We're falling behind here (one of the by-products of starting so early): Tuesday was PD day Palladium is a steel-white metal, does not tarnish in air, and is the least dense and lowest melting of the platinum group metals. When annealed, it is soft and ductile. Cold working increases its strength and hardness. It is used in some watch springs. At room temperatures the metal has the unusual property of absorbing up to 900 times its own volume of hydrogen. Hydrogen readily diffuses through heated palladium and this provides a means of purifying the gas. and Wednesday belongs to RH Rhodium metal is silvery white. Rhodium has a higher melting point and lower density than platinum. It has a high reflectance and is hard and durable. Upon heating it turns to the oxide when red and at higher temperatures turns back to the element. It is a major component of industrial catalytic systems such as the BP-Monsanto process

"i know players have often said in the past "i won't talk contract during the season" but thats very different from this, do you think this becomes the new standard negotiating ploy if Zambrano succeeds? " I don't see how this tactic is new or different

And what makes you think that they'll be "automatically locked out"?

I associate this thread with 'Georgie Girl'

"Humber threw 73 innings last year" Which makes it about 150 or so professional innings since his drafting approx 32 months ago!! Oh yeah, and there was that surgery thing. Just how badly do we want this guy to go wire to wire while throwing 200+ IPs this season? And the 'take time away from kids' in ST reasoning is silly.

Katie's girl-next-door cuteness def wasn't right for that part.

ML yes (at least I assume so) but even the low 600K base salary only kicks in if he actually makes the squad. They can cut him before opening day and not be on the hook for much more than what amounts to meal money these days.

Gwreck wrote: It's good to know they made a sound financial investment, but I wonder who exactly Adam Rubin is thinking is in the lead for that 5th spot -- Pelfrey? I just think his point was that it's very much an open competition for #5 and that Park doesn't have a leg up simply due to a contract situation as many initially assumed. The Mets are certainly hoping that Pelfrey and/or Humber step up and grab it during ST but that Park & Sele & Vargas, etc are there in case they don't.

There was that story Ralph used to tell constantly (Ralph told all his stories constantly) about (I think it was) Manny Trillo. Some players give 5% of their contract to their agents, and some give 10%, but Trillo's agent gets 100% of his money ... that's because his agent is his wife!! - heh, heh, heh