Frayed Knot

Bob Raissman was speculating in the NYDN about whether, during the NYM clinching celebration, the SNY directors were going for the cheesy shot by keeping their cameras on the dripping wet Julie Donaldson a bit longer than they did with a soaking Chris Cotter. Ummm, of course they did Bob!!

Discussions during both Sunday's game and tonight's mentioned Darling's wife being in/returning from Seattle for the Giants/SHawks game. Is this current version of Mrs. D some sort of on-air personality or just a faceless cog in the machine? What a stupid term: "On-air personality"

It all beats the hell out of our pre-season discussions (spawning at least 3 lengthy, and often heated, threads) which had us hoping that he could even reach an OBP of .311

The most obvious reliever-as-temp-starter candidate was Heilman; who they seemed to: A) view as too important to the pen to yank back and forth and quite possibly have doubts about as a starter In either case, they saw enough between A and B to view taking shots with Lima/Gonzalez as better options when it was going to be just fill-in work The other was Oliver. Not sure why they didn't see him as a fill-in here or there. I guess they liked the pen's "set-up" too much to screw with it.

[u:34c09128de]Monday's Games that Matter[/u:34c09128de]: * Cubs (Miller) @ Cincy (Arroyo) {Day Game} -- the Reds are closer to the division crown than to the WC at this point * Astros (Albers?) @ Philly (Wolf) -- A one-game series (rain make-up) Houston is in same boat as Reds, though can make up grounds on both races with a win * Padres (Wells) @ St Loo (Suppan) -- One division leader loses ground while the other gains * D'Backs (Gonzalez) @ San Fran (Schmidt) -- Gints still alive in theory only * ChiSox (Garland) @ Cleveland (Lee) -- the King is dead, long live the king (unless it turns out to be the MFYs) * Royals (De La Rosa) @ Twinkies (Bonser) -- Minny is in the playoffs in one form or another unless their starter totally 'Boofs' up

Valentin - 1.7 Feliciano - 0.8 Bradford - 0.5 Ring - 0.8 Humber - 0.7

* As of right now, the Mets 1st round opponent is StL. They're about the only one we weren't considering but they're playing like crap these days and have been getting the crap kicked out of them by Houston this weekend. I kinda like them as our initial test - even though it means facing Pujols and that Philly wins the WC. Cards also have to face the Padres for 3 games this week who obviously need the games themselves. * Philly, meanwhile, has won 5 straight and 10 of their last 12. They're also just behind SD for the 2nd best record in the NL (so much for the weak NL East) and ahve virtually the same record as the Red Sox. * Giants got the crap kicked out of them this weekend by Milwaukee despite 2 HRs from Bonds (passed Aaron for the all-time NL record) and about 10 RBIs, plus Moises Alou's 2,000th career hit. Their pitching just died. * Dodgers took 2 of 3 and won on another walk-off HR from Nomar on Sunday. * Padres had a big weekend sweeping Pittsburgh. Trevor Hoffman tied then broke Lee Smith's all-time saves record. * Houston refuses to die even though it's probably too little, too late for them. Clemens is just now taking his bows in his annual "last ever" home game.

Not that it's important anymore ... but for accounting purposes, last night was TH #16 for the year. Sept 23, 2006: Mets 12 - Nationals 6 DevilRays 8 - Yanx 0 Rockies 10 - Braves 9

Usually with a broken bone the idea is to immobilize the next highest joint - which is obviously the hip in this case. Whatever the case, this isn't going to be a fun time for Mr. Johnson. He's been spooked by injuries during his short career to date.

"But when the sides are chosen for a game that matters, A-Rod stands with his hands on his hips while Scutaro, Chavez and a hundred other guys get picked ahead of him." I don't believe a word of that. Rodriguez may indeed be personally unpopular, but this "chokes when it's on the line" stuff is getting out of hand.

'Cept that Trax has hair. But when both have their hats on that's not a bad one.

Heilman - 0.4 Reyes - 2.2 Wright - 2.2 Franco - 1.0 LoDuca - 1.2 Milledge - 1.3 Green - 0.9 Woodward - 0.8

Wagner only gives up hits & runs in crucial situations.

This O'Connor guy skunked us back in early May Faced off against Maine that day too.

Yup. The only remaining question in the AL is the Central race to see who wins the division and gets the A's in the first round, and who gets the Wild Card and draws the Yanx. The Angels technically still have a chance in the West only because they have a bunch of head-to-head w/Oakland; but then they promptly lost the first of those last night and they pretty much needed to run the table.

OHernandez - 3.5 Chavez - 1.5 Ledee - 1.0 Woodward - 0.5 Mota - 0.5 Heilman - 0.5

I was going to mention that Reyes has been thrown out on something like 5 of his last 8 steal attempts. Not that that's a worry by itself, but it does point out the downside of the SB and that fans shouldn't be looking at Reyes's SB totals as the biggest weapon in his game. As long as he's hitting and getting on base I wouldn't care if he doesn't attempt a steal the entire post-season. On the other hand, my brother just e-mailed me saying: "I'm not gonna panic, but the Mets look like shit! And have for about 2 or 3 weeks now." ... although, despite his claims, he does tend to over-react at times.

Dodgers finally tally a win (and Pitt finally loses), Padres win, Giants lose, Phils had the day off: Padres lead the NLWest by 1.2 game Cardinals lead the NLCentral by 6-1/2 (that's ovah!) and the Padres for better record by just 1/2 At the start of the day Friday: TEAMRECORDPCTGBDODGERS80 - 73.523---PHILS79 - 73.5201/2MARLINS76 - 77.4974GIANTS75 - 77.4934-1/2BRAVES75 - 78.4905REDS74 - 78.4875-1/2ASTROS74 - 78.4875-1/2 Remaining Games: Padres: Pitt (3), @ StL (3), @ Arz (4) Dodgers: Arz (3), @ Col (3), @ SF (3) Phillies: Fla (3), @ Hou (1), @ Wash (3), @ Fla (3) Marlins: @ Phil (3), Cin (3), Phil (3) Giants: @ Mil (3), Arz (3), LA (3) Reds: Cubs (4), @ Fla (3), @ Pitt (3) Braves: @ Col (3), Mets (3), Hous (3) Astros: StL (3), @ Phil (1), @ Pitt (3), @ Atl (3)

Chavez - 1.5 Delgado - 1.7 Pedro - 1.0 Feliciano - 0.6 Bradford - 0.7 Oliver - 0.5

I just got rid of the one I had for the last 3 or 4 years (which followed years of doing a winter-on/summer-off thing) mainly because that's where all the grey guys were congregating. Congregating hell, they had plum taken over!

This is why I wasn't real big on the idea of 'covering Pedro in bubble-wrap and sitting him until mid-September'. There are limits obviously but pitchers need to pitch and it's tough to just turn it on in a 2 week stint.

I wonder if Ron Swoboda is still doing color for the Zephyrs TV games? Sand Gnat can now be our on-site correspondant for Sally League games assuming the move to Savannah takes place ... and assuming that SG checks in more than once in a blue moon.

It's not like the Mets/Wilpons can simply decide they want to put a AAA team in one place or another. The big league club doesn't own their higher-level minor league affiliates (hence the word: affiliate). So, even though they do own the Cyclones and could theoretically move them to anyplace that would have them, they couldn't just stick a AAA team they don't own into Keyspan Park - even if it does meet AAA standards (and I'm not sure it does). The word on Norfolk is that apparently that the Tides Prez is part of an ownership group that has recently bought several Maryland-based teams - all Oriole affiliates - and want to also link the Tides to the O's chain as well. The Mets made several attempts to strike a new agreement with Norfolk - even to the point of having Wright make a few pleading phone-calls - but almost certainly to no avail. They also made a play for Scranton but that's been locked up with the Yanx for weeks now - even though nothing official yet. That basically leaves N'Awlins as the last girl at the dance. Columbus to the Nat'ls and the Phils heading to Ottawa (for a two-year stint) look like done deals as well. The Mets & Norfolk had been the 2nd-longest active affiliation in all minor league baseball, having been there since 1969. P.S. We'll need a new low-A affiliate as well as it looks like the Nat'ls are gobbling up Hagerstown.

Yeah, but he still should be short of FA-gency -- meaning the team would have control of him next year if they so choose.

="cooby"]I think I have a general idea of what Frayed Knot looks like