Frayed Knot

They'd still be the worst WS winner in history ... by a significant margin.

"As for Soriano, the source indicated the lack of interest would not be because of money. Rather, the person said the Mets have not pursued Soriano that much in the past." But, but, but ... Omar's obsessed with Soriano. Everyone knows that! (or was it Manny? ... I lose track)

This all kind of begs the question as to why the Padres so passive in letting Bochy walk over to a division rival with a year still left on his current deal? 'Specially coming off two straight division crowns.

This almost certainly sets Donnie Baseball up to be Torre's successor - maybe as soon as this time next year. Although (last I heard, at least) Mazzilli had NOT been kicked out of the organization and could still stay with them in "another capacity" as they say.

Eckstein had 4 hits tonight and they figured into most or all of the StL runs ... and every one of them could have, or even should have, been outs, yet none were errors. In the next 20-some hours somebody (or numerous somebodies) are going to point out that the last two times the Cards had 3-1 leads in World Series play they wound up losing the series in 7 ('68 vs Detroit, '85 vs KC). What's going to be interesting is to see which idiots (cough * Russo * cough) will actually see this as a predictable pattern that has some sort of bearing on this one.

Re: Pudge Well catchers with short, squat "pudgy" bodies aren't exactly uncommon. That name got hung on Fisk, IIRC, as kind of a joke since his young self was anything but the stereotyped backstop's build.

Cards go ahead again in an inning extended by a 3rd strike/3rd out passed ball followed by -- say it with me -- another 2-out RBI hit, this one by Eckstein off the glove of a diving Monroe in LF

Cards grab the lead on yet another 2-out hit - one that should never have happened in this case cuz of the error. 4-3 heading for the 8th, Looper in for StL

JEEEEE-ZUS!!!! - Tiggers take an early 3-0 lead as they got to Soupbone early. - The Cards then peck away with two seperate 2-out RBI hits. - Now in the 7th, Eckstein leads off with a lazy fly to CF, but Granderson falls down and it goes for a double, then pitcher Rodney throws away Taguchi's sac bunt (and he had all kinds of time: Cue Fountains of Wayne) and the game is tied. That's the 4th error so far in this series just by Detroit pitchers

ABC had the LCS that year (both of them) and NBC the WS Al Michaels worked the ALCS with ?? Jackson & McCarver did the NLCS Scully & Garagiola did the NBC coverage of the WS

Boxing great Don Dunphy, in particular, had a tough time adjusting to TV as he said he felt kinda stupid saying; 'left jab', when he knew everyone could see it was a left jab. I think it did take a while for announcers to learn that occasional silence can indeed be golden ... and then a short time to forget those lessons.

- Seems to me that is was just a year ago that Gary was bitching about the possibility of his option NOT being picked up. I'm surprised the Yanx are doing this; I guess they figure it's their best chip to land some pitching. - I can't see him getting more than $13mil on the open market either, although he could get more than a one-year deal (2 certainly, although 3 is doubtful). He turns 38 next month. - He's also been morphing towards defensive liability-ville in the last few years. Covers increasingly less ground in the OF and the 1B experiment didn't go well although, in fairness, it was a bit rushed.

Acc to the book from which this is based, Healy was Reggie's only friend in the clubhouse. Nettles, on the other hand, was anything but. Sounds like they're working both ends here, trying for the balanced view.

The 'announcer-less' football game was nothing more than an experiment from producer Don Ohlmeyer. He wanted to check out some things with crowd and other ambient noises so he took an otherwise-nothing game towards the end of the season and ran his trial w/o having to deal with any voices getting in the way and, in turn, generated a ton of publicity for himself and the network. It was never meant to be any kind of trend-setting statement. It anything, the 'letting the scene speak for itself' method school of announcing with its blessed stretches of silence has decreased since then having been lost to a bunch of post-Cosell era wankers who think of themselves, rather than the game, as the main attraction and would rather give up their padded expense accounts than let 5 seconds go by without their "imprint" being plastered on a scene to be preserved in perpetual highlight reel eternity. Current sports announcers who realize - at least on occasion - that less is more are a rare breed deserving of protection from the 'Endangered Species Act'.

It's just politcally incorrect. The proper term is now Asianization process

"Does postseason performance factor in?" [from the first post] ... "- post-season performance SHOULD be considered in your list, although to what degree is your choice" "These are nearly the same trait" Byte Me!

I usually start sorting through the year by looking at the pitchers and position players seperately. Merging the two lists together is the tough part. Here's what I'm thinking for the position players. Go ahead, tell me how delusional I am. Beltran - Had the best year from start to finish. Led team in Runs Created & Win Shares, and played a very good CF Reyes - A shade behind Wright in RC & WS, but played a better SS than Wright did 3B plus had a better post-season Wright - 1st half MVP, slumped somewhat in the 2nd half then bombed in the NLCS Delgado - I get the idea that the press view is that LoDuca is a near team MVP; "heart & soul" of the team and all that. But - his two month/mid-season slump aside - Delgado was a MUCH better hitter that all the "intangibles" plus the difference in defensive spectrum can't make up for. LoDuca - Successfully manned the 2-slot in the lineup despite fears (from me & others here) that he couldn't. Only a decent defensive catcher really, but showed up every day and was very consistent. Valentin - Best surprise of the year, falls below the other full-timers due to rough start and weak finish/playoff. Chavez - He and Floyd had near identical ABs, but Endy had an edge on everything - speed, defense, versatility - except power Floyd - Was either in a slump or getting hurt just as he was pulling out of a slump Nady - Inconsistent and sometimes a scary fielder, but lots of big hits in the first half Franco - #1 PH-er all year, had some big hits early despite obvious limitations. Green - Not as good as fans wanted, but also not as bad as many acted Woodward - big comedown from last year rates him the lowest of all the position players who were on the roster all year Milledge - Better stats than Woodward, but looked overmatched at times and couldn't be trusted enough to get a post-season spot Castro - Early season thoughts that he should have played more gave way to the reality that he was barely missed as he sat out the last 1/3 of the season In a toss-up for the last 2 spots that could possibly survive until the final list, Tucker edges Matsui for being less of an out-machine plus a couple of post-season ABs. Outside looking in: Marrero, LeDee, AHernandez, DeFelice, Stinnett, Diaz None of these guys have a chance at cracking the final list once the pitchers are integrated.

metsmarathon wrote: but the merchandise sales would go to the team... as well as any royalties for using team imagery in marketing with the player. Most merchandise money is treated as league-wide money also. The benefit to a team like the Yanx with a big Japanese star is more indirect than direct. If/when Japanese TV carries games they're more likely to be NYY (or Seattle) games which "spreads the brand name" to a new market.

] ... of course, a way to game it would be that some team could conceivably keep on taking away perfectly good high draft picks from other teams, consistently fail to sign said player, and keep on getting multiple picks in the top of the draft. and then, after so many iterations, could totally clean house in a given draft by selecting 6 guys in the first round. Nope, can't happen ... that "make-up pick" only carries for one year. So say you have a lousy year and get slotted in the 3rd pick a year after failing to sign the 7th overall pick. Sure, you'd then have both the #3 AND #7 the following year (although the #7 doesn't take one away from any team, it merely bounces everyone down the line one slot). But then if you don't sign the 7th pick this year you're S.O.L. - it can't carry over a 2nd year. Interesting scenario though.

* I don't believe that individual teams can make TV deals in Japan * Any media money that is generated overseas is league money - ie. spread around among the 30 teams

"does this take effect this year or next: ?" Starting with the next draft. And those 'replacement for unsigned picks' rules already existed. They're just changed and expanded somewhat. "not sure what effect this [Rule 5 changes] will have other than letting you wait a little longer before you give up on a formerly well regarded prospect gone bad." It doesn't have anything to do with "giving up" on players. What it does is allow teams an extra year before they have to protect players by putting them on the 40-man. In the long run it'll probably make fewer 'Rule 5' players available, although the ones who are might be closer to ready and more likely to be picked.

I'd have to be reminded about what all those dates were for. In the meantime, Baseball America gives a more complete (and, of course, better written) over-view of the changes to the draft portion of the agreement. Among questions we were discussing here earlier: - Clubs have for years wanted a system of prescribed, slotted bonuses for every high pick but learned early in the negotiations that the union would not accept it, so instead focused on stronger compensation rules. - Several ideas that have been discussed over the years, such as the trading of draft picks and an either supplemental or combined draft of all players worldwide, were not adopted. Also, the draft will continue to be held in June rather than be moved to July.

] ... that Delgado again declined to decline his right to demand a trade. Rubin speculates Delgado may be trying to put a little pressure on the Mets to pick up his 2009 option. Yeah, but a player has never followed through on those demands. A couple of teams have made trades for players in this spot - Javy Vazquez a year or so back comes to mind - but no one's ever taken it to the deadline. If Carlos continues to demand, the Mets have until a particular date (March 1?) or he becomes a FA thus voiding the final 2 years of his current deal. He'd have to be pretty durn sure that he could snag hisself a better deal at that late date - at which point most teams will already have most of their lineup set and allowance spent - before he's willing to take it to the limit. I don't blame him for not renouncing his right up front, but I'm also not worried about how this will all shake out.

- I'm more insulted by seeing Placido Polanco hitting 3rd. - Not that any of the Tigger lineup is known for their patience and count-working. Not only did no one walk, but not one saw a 3-ball count last night, nor did one see as many as 5 pitches in an AB. - Top 3 in the Detroit lineup are 0-for-33 so far - 82 pitches over 8 innings for Carpenter. He really - wait for it ... nailed it down!

Just looking at the draft part of things: ]1. Clubs that fail to sign first or second round draft pick will receive the same pick in the subsequent draft as compensation. Club that fails to sign a third round pick will receive a sandwich pick between rounds three and four in the subsequent draft as compensation. This has been stepped up. Prior, teams failing to sign a 1st round pick were "compensated" by being given a supplemental pick in the following year's draft; ie. if the #10 pick chooses a college scholarship the drafting team would only get a 30-something pick to make up for it the next year. Now, it seems like you'd grab the 10th pick the following year - I assume in addition to whoever already has that pick (picks 10 & 10A?). Makes it easier for teams to walk away from a pick making high demands. ]2. Period of time before a Player must be protected from the Rule 5 Draft is changed from three or four years from first minor league season to four or five years from year of signing. Were teams really complaining that they were losing too many guys via 'Rule 5' drafts? I guess this makes 40-man roster mgmt easier. ]3. Signing deadline of August 15 for draft picks other than college seniors. Sounds like this eliminates all "Draft & Follow" guys and sets a concrete date for the end of eligibility instead of doing the dance where it stopped when said student attended his first day of classes.