Frayed Knot

Oh it's not just the FAN guys. Edmonds ABSOLUTELY spreads around the mustard on some of his catches - oarticularly the ones that he needs to come in on - but NO ONE goes back on a ball better than he does and he's been doing that for over a decade now.

None of the current lineup have particularly good career numbers against Suppan. It's not like this is supposed to be easy.

The pitcher for Suppan's only other ML HR? That would be Steve Trachsel Maybe that was the source/meaning of the wink.

]So it's bad enough that our team sucks right now, but to have to listen to shitty announcers at the same time On my system at least, the radio & TV are synched-up time-wise - so you can put on Howie & Tom and mute the sound. Y'know, I was actually thinking that Trax would be OK after inning 1. Most of the balls he threw were semi-close and no one really hit the ball hard. I was thinking; so if this is the worst of it ...

metirish wrote: Is this the end for Lou Piniella or will he be doing the WS?, I hope he's done. You're letting yourself get too hung up on Lou there dude. Let it go. It'll be Buck, McCarver, plus [someone] for the Series. Not sure who the 3rd man will be. Good for Detroit. That city, like Cincy, has a great baseball tradition that's been beat down in recent years due to bad teams and bad mgmt.

Well, we've got our next opponent (assuming we advance) Magglio Ordonez - who had been quiet up til today - just smacked his 2nd HR of the day, this one a walk-off, 3R, pennant winning HR!!!! WOW!

]Like I said in the IGT, Willie got outmanaged tonight. I'm not pissed at him or anything--his calls were all pretty justifiable (although I still question some of them), they just didn't work out, unlike a number of La Russa's moves. Sometimes it's all how they work out. - LaR starts Spezio and he gets 3 hits + 3 RBIs. Then Rolen - who didn't look any better in the field than at the plate in game 1 - gets switched in for the 9th and makes a great play. - He leaves his RHP in to face Beltran in a tie game w/the probable winning runs on & 1-out in the 8th with a LHP warming up that could turn Carlos around to his weak side ... and he grounds into a DP - Then he removes his power guy for a defensive replacement even tho that spot is sked to lead off the next inning ... and the replacement promptly smacks a HR. Any of all of those fall flat and LaRussa's the one on the hot seat today. Basically, we got out-bullpenned.

Now 3-3. Coupla hits plus an error, then a Magglio Ordonez leadoff HR in the 6th tied it off Danny Haren (the former StL prospect they dealt away for the injured Mark Mulder). Not that I mind Steve Lyons being canned (who I've thought was a dope for years now) but that statement seems more stupid than insulting and if you were going to fire him for dumb statements he wouldn't have lasted through the first practice run much less 10 years (or however long he's been at it now). Piniella roots, like many Tampa natives, are, I believe, Cuban.

]- Green: great effort on the Spiezio triple. But if you get there with that much time to spare and get your glove on it...make the catch. I suppose his problem was that he 'drifted' a bit at first while going after the ball - probably not realizing that it was going to be as far into the corner as it was. As a result he was still moving as he reached it, making his attempt wind up as a running, leaping, back-hander off the top of the wall. Tough to fault him for not gloving it at that point although maybe judging it better initially would have made it easier.

]What's the difference? [between a feeling and a hunch] Nothing of course. I'm just tweaking the notion that either is worth much. ]Sitting in the stadium, I didn't have the advantage of access to the stats that you did to challenge my post. I had to rely on memory. And I am a firm believer that if a player gives you problems, you use every game, including spring training, to work on way to solve him (pitcher or hitter). The fact that he once went something like 8 for 8 against the mets in spring training and he later went the 8 for 11 you noted was stuck in my mind. Well I didn't have them at the time either, I only looked them up after reading your post because usually when I hear things like 'Player X always kills us': a) it's often not true, but rather is a generalization based on some small sample from years back (as in this case) and/or even if it were accurate, is this really something you want to base future strategy on? It's just so illogical to me to act as if some player is going to suddenly become some super-ized version of himself merely by seeing a hurler wearing our teams' pajamas (even one he HASN'T hit in the past) that I don't even think it's worth discussing. ]Did anyone else have an uneasy feeling when he entered the game? Honestly? - Uneasy because it was the 9th inning of a tied playoff game? ... Sure. - EVEN MORE Uneasy because some so-so hitting (see what I did there?) defensive replacement who once had a handful of singles & doubles 3 seasons back off some NYM pitchers who are almost certainly no longer on this team was the man leading off the inning? ... Not even a little bit

"I have cautioned about Tagichi before. IIRC he once had a something like 11-12 streak (pre-season games carried over to the regular season) against the Mets." PRE-SEASON?!?! We're counting pre-season memories now as long as it fits into the theory? Taguchi was 8 for 11 against the Mets in 2004 meaning that, yeah, you're right, he ONCE had a streak. "Since then, he has shown time and time again that they still haven't figured out how to pitch to the guy." Well, considering that he followed his '04 'mastery' with a 5-for-22 in '05 and then a 1-for-11 in '06 (that's .182 over 2 years) it sounds to me that they "figured it out" quite nicely. Y'see, you're not only seeing short-term variances and treating them as if rock-solid and predictable trends but then you're ignoring further evidence if/when it contradicts that conclusion. "When he came into the game, I yelled "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO" because I had the feeling he would do something to hurt the Mets." Was it just a feeling or a real hunch? Taguchi, btw, was 0-for-5 in his career against Wagner. So even if he did hold some kind of "hex" over Met pitchers in the past, how exactly would this affect Wagner who had never pitched for the Mets before this season? Do batters hit against pitchers or are their successes and failures determined by the laundry being worn? "I later heard the replay. Howie Rose called the homer "unexpected". Maybe by Howie. Not by me. I wonder if he really has watched the games he has called over the years." Judging by the stuff above, more closely than you. Look, Taguchi has 16 HRs in nearly 1,000 MLB ABs and, as mentioned above, had never even had a hit against Wagner. Can we PLEASE stop treating the outcomes of games and plays within games as if they're pre-determined by some unexplainable force, and, while we're at it, this notion that teams are some sort of unchanging blob that acts, thinks, and plays the same way no matter how much you change the braintrust & personnel over time? Yeah, it was surprising.

Not a whole lot to be gained by pointing fingers here; this loss was pretty much a team effort. Even Delgado's got some blood on his hands w/that 2nd inning error as that was probably a DP ball and who knows what that does for Maine. Throw in Beltran's GiDP and never getting a ball out of the IF, Franco's piss-poor PH-AB, Green's non-catch (although it would have been a beauty), etc., not to mention virtually all the pitchers. - Maine obviously needs to throw strikes. Do that kid and you won't find yourself getting yanked after 4 innings having only given up 2 hits. - I would have liked to see Bradford finish off that inning. Yeah, Rodriguez is a lefty who can occasionally "run into one" as they say about those w/streaky pop in their bats but Bradford rarely gives up HRs and, even with the least-slow of the Molina brothers on base, it'll take more than just a gapper to score him. Next time Chad, don't go giving up bingles to worthless hitters in the 8th slot and you'll get to hang around a while longer. Would have been nice to "save" Pedro F. for Edmonds in the 7th after Pujols got on (the AB before the Spezio 3B). - This staff is striking out almost no one. 3 in game 1 then 5 last night (3 of those 8 were pitchers). And that was particularly taking its toll in looooonnnng ABs. At one point (around the 8th) the TV put up the stat the the StL pen had thrown about 40 pitches while the Met pen was already over 100 (in just one fewer IP). A number of their hits came after being behind in the count, sometimes even in 0-2 holes (Spezio's 3B for example plus the Pujols hit that set it up). Wagner & Mota have combined for ZERO Ks over the 2 games. - You wonder about Wright's CAHNfidnece in throwing the ball across the diamond when he opts for the wacky run-down rather than toss it for the easy out.

My beard - which I started just over two weeks ago - was undefeated until last night. I was starting to think there was a connection.

I didn't catch the details but he was probably the injury replacement when 2B Mark Ellis broke his finger during the first round of play. Because of the injury, any position player on the team's 40-man can be called up for the new round. (Say Cliff had been DL'd between rounds. We could then call up Milledge to replace him even if he had never had his in-season call-up)

Kenny Rogers -- Superstar Are you the same pitcher that we thought you were? Oakland just used some infielder in a late-inning switch who was making his ML debut. First time ever that an ML debut came in a post-season game.

MRI -- "No further Damage" -- Not starting -- Available to PH

* The thing about 'Sweet Caroline' is that it's the stadium mgmt that's doing that and not the fans. On this, I think we all agree; don't "choose" something that's already an established tradition somewhere else! * A handful of fans at Shea have tried starting a Yanqui-style "roll call" on a couple of occasions over the last year or two. It rarely lasts or generates any kind of following - nor should it. THAT is the perfect example of fans attempting to steal something that's unique to another group of fans. * I first remember seeing "K signs" being done for Nolan Ryan - probably from when he was out in Anaheim. It wasn't new to Gooden and the mid-80s Shea, but it's also a generic enough tribute that I'm not sure anyone can really be accused of "stealing" it. * Sandman - This has been beaten into the ground already. The whole "controversy" was stupid from the git-go ... 'nuff said.

They could compare hairlines.

Maine vs Carpenter Small samples in pitcher/batter history to go on here Beltran: 4/19 plus a walk but w/2 HRs (.211/.238/.526) Valentin: 1/15 tho w/4 BBs (.067/.263/.067) Chavez: 0-for-11, 2 Ks LoDuca: 1 single + 1 double in 6 ABs Delgado: 1 single + 1 double in 3 ABs Tucker: 2/9 w/1 HR Wright: 0/3; Reyes: 1/3 and, unfortunately, our best hitter against Carpenter won't play against him tonight. With a single and a double w/3 RBIs in 2 ABs ... Tom Glavine Maine faced the Cards just once, in that game where he basically got Pujols-ed to within an inch of his life until the Mets came back to win.

]Here's another theory -- Peterson and Randolph have seen something in Heliman's mechanics, delivery, mind set, biorhythm, astrological sign, that has convinced them his strongest role is in the bullpen. Conceivably, they may even be right. I don't think I brought up the biorhythms or astrology, but I did once ask (NYDN beat reporter) Adam Rubin via a radio talk show whether he thought the NYM brass was keeping Heilman out of the rotation because they were so concerned with building from their pen on out, or because they were skeptical of his probable success as a starter -- and his view was essentially; 'all of the above' Maybe (thinking back also to JW Seo) Peterson just isn't a great believer that a hurler armed only w/a fastball-change combo has enough to succeed over the long haul & in multiple times thru the lineup.

Glavine - 4.5 Beltran - 2.3 LoDuca - 0.6 Delgado - 0.6 Mota - 0.8 Wagner - 0.9 Chavez - 0.3

]Zeile's gotta take it easy on the gel though. Ah yes, the 'stylishly un-styled' look.

]Mr. "People-don't-realize-how-good-of-a-baserunner-he-is" Pujols. That was my line from the KTE thread and was the first thing I thought of as he was getting doubled up. Note to self: 'Don't look too smart do ya now genius!' Ron Howard is a Dodger fan. He was on that "stadium tour" with Hanks and a few others this summer and one of them let that slip during an in-game interview. In the elimination battle of ex-Mets for an SNY wannabe spot (if indeed that's what it is) Todd Zeile > Tim Tuefel

Meanwhile on the radio side, all those inclined to treat Gary's 2-inning drop in to the booth as a federal crime will be pissed to learn that the Beltran HR fell during his p-b-p inning and therefore it's he - rather than Howie or Tom - who has the signature call of the series so far. heh, heh, heh

]I think Joe Buck said something about the inflated numbers on their radar guns. I don't listen all that closely, but I think he made some kind of a skeptical wisecrack. He said, 'I think they got those guns from BALCO' (or something along those lines)