Frayed Knot

He played a nice CF. On a day where we managed 2 measley singles until Delgado's too-little/too-late HR in the 9th and the starter gave up 6 BBs & a HBP, a little defense is worth a few sips of beer.

Endy deserves a little glove love for his role in a one-hitter in Sunday's beer polls

OHernandez - 3.4 RHernandez - 0.5 Chavez - 0.4 Valentin - 0.2 Reyes - 0.2 Delgado - 1.0 Mota - 0.3 Oliver - 0.4

The NYY 2000 division lead was never really in danger - it was their late free-fall that made it as close as it was. But it absolutely was a free-fall. They weren't just losing, they were losing big and doing it to some lousy teams along the way. Specifically their pitching was falling apart (I remember Pettitte in particular getting his butt kicked all over the place) and Paul O'Neill was looking very old. Met fans can blame Timo & Benitez all they want, but a huge factor in that WS was that O'Neill - waking up in what would be his penultimate season - suddenly started playing like Edgardo Alfonzo [u:5856af435f]had been[/u:5856af435f] playing all along, while Fonzie hit in the WS like O'Neill had been during that September. Fonz was 3-21 (all singles) w/1 RBI. If those two had kept to their form of that season, that WS - where all 5 games were decided by 1 or 2 runs - may have had a very different outcome.

This race should be fun to track for a while. As of Sept 3rd: TEAMRECORDPCTGBPADRES70 - 66.515---PHILS69 - 68.5041-1/2MARLINS68 - 68.5002REDS68 - 69.4962-1/2GIANTS68 - 69.4962-1/2ASTROS67 - 70.4893-1/2BRAVES64 - 72.4785D'BACKS64 - 72.4716ROCKIES63 - 73.4637BREWERS62 - 75.4538-1/2 And the best part comes when a lot of these teams face each other as they will in the coming weeks. - Phils have 6 remaining against Houston who have beaten them in the [u:cab060dcd2]last 12 straight[/u:cab060dcd2] - The Phils and the Marlins have [u:cab060dcd2]10 games[/u:cab060dcd2] against each other remaining. That's 40% of their remaining skeds. - Marlins just reached .500 for the first time since being 1-1. Plus they're the first team in over a century to fall 20 games below then reach .500 again in the same season - Brewers were only kind of on the fringes of the race anyway and have now [u:cab060dcd2]lost 10 straight[/u:cab060dcd2] to pretty much put even that idea on ice [u:cab060dcd2]This week[/u:cab060dcd2]: * Padres: host Rockies then go to SF * Cincy - coming off a 2-8 trip to the west coast - get the Giants & then Pirates both at home * Giants go to Cincy then host the Pads * Marlins host D'Backs then the Phils (4) * Braves: at Shea (where Wild Card dreams go to die) then host Cubbies (4)

I'm pretty sure that's a nickname that origniated on this board - although I don't know who specifically came up with it. I just saw the replay of Oswalt's bases-loaded GO to Valentin ... he was safe.

btw, we were two batters away from getting to Woodward's spot and THEN I would have joined you in calling for a PH appearance by Wright. THAT's when the game would have really been on the line. Until then, let Woody grab some ABs and have Wright's day off truly be a day off.

]Last game in Houston for 06 Mets Probably, but not neccesarily.

Maybe, but Reyes's GO prolly ruined the best chance we were going to have.

Yeah, but Woodward is going to be part of the post-season bench (most likely) and getting him some ABs doesn't hurt - esp when the game isn't exactly do-or-die. He hasn't been good this year but was very useful last season and we could use some semblence of that player going forward. Meanwhile, Mota also auditioning for a post-season slot.

Maine - 3.4 Floyd - 1.2 Wright - 1.8 Feliciano - 0.7 Heilman - 1.0 Wagner - 0.7 Beltran - 1.2

If it were Cliffy they'd have hauled him off on a stretcher, or a gurney ... or maybe even a hearse.

Glavine - 0.6 Wright - 2.6 Valentin - 1.3 Delgado - 1.2 Bradford - 0.8 Heilman - 1.0 Wagner - 0.5 Mota - 1.0 Chavez - 1.0

So the team that didn't have enough problems had young pitcher Jon Lester diagnosed with Lymphoma yesterday. It's treatable but obviously ends his season. Papi said he was going to be back on the field Saturday but his doctors say "not so fast" Then the closer Papelbon walks off the mound last night holding his shoulder. Oh yeah, and Schilling's being pulled from his next start

One advantage to having SNY is simply to give you an alternative to SportsCenter. Just TRY getting baseball news/highlites via SC on a weekend. Even though the only football games right now are exhibition pro games (oh, excuse me, "Pre-Season" games - the NFL gets all bent out of shape if they're referred to as exhibition) and the earliest of meaningless non-division college games, SC treats those as much more important. I'm watching SC last night after the game and wind up sitting through 15 minutes worth of the likes of Toledo Univ playing SW Oregon State (or whatever) plus 3rd string pros in games even the guys playing don't care about before they concede to showing 10 or 15 seconds worth of games with direct bearing on the pennant race. And God forbid if T.O. sneezed or actually uttered something because then there'll need to be 10 minutes of analysis there too.

The implication in the pieces I read isn't that he never was a good fielder, but that he no longer is.

With rumors of Milledge & Stinnett to follow - although maybe not until next week when the AAA season if officially over. I don't expect too many after that.

I've lost track of who's supposed to be doing these things and they've taken on less importance as we play out the string anyway - but here's an emergency education lesson for Houston. We faced them about 5 weeks ago at Shea, winning 2 of 3 as Maine & El Ducky won the first 2, then Pelfrey lost to Oswalt. This time we get: Fri 8 PM: Wandy Rodriguez (9-8, 5.46) vs the returning TomGlavine Sat 7PM: Recent callup (4 ML starts) Jason Hirsch vs John Maine Sau 2PM: Roy Oswalt again - this time with his fat new 5 year contract after his team either did, or didn't depending on who you ask, try to trade at the deadline - vs Trachsel, although at least one paper today suggested that El Duke would return for Sunday pushing Trax back to Tuesday. Yes, we'll miss the big steroid abusing asshole plus Andy the rat-faced boy. Also Brandon Backe who's about to be introduced to Mr. Tommy John and we'll see you in 2008-ville. The 'Stros have won 6 straight (Pitt & Milw) and are (like most of the league) on the fringes of both the WC race (2.5 out looking up at 4 teams)as well as their division (6 GB behind StL + 1 GB Cincy). IOW, these games are important to them. - CFer Willy Tavares - he of the recently ended 30 game hitting streak - has been hot even though that was pretty much a vitamin streak (one-a-day) and almost everything he hits is a single. - OFer Luke Scott has been hot also, getting much of the ABs from the recently departed Preston Wilson - But middle IFers Adam Everett & Craig Biggio have not (.221 & .193 BAs in August despite 7 Aug HRs from the aging Biggio) - Lance Berkman's still the team's main offensive threat, with a splash of mid-season pickup Aubrey Huff, the reverse comeback PotY Morgan Ensberg, © Brad Ausmus, and IF/OF Chris Burke & Mike Lamb rounding out their usual lineup. No one quite knows what to make of closer Brad Lidge these days - although he's been reasonably good, though hardly dominate, of late. Feel free to throw in anything else you can think of.

Reyes - 1.9 Wright - 1.9 Chavez - 0.8 Oliver - 0.7 Bradford - 0.4 Feliciano - 0.4

I know a couple of guys who had it for trumpet.

A piece in 'The Hardball Times' suggested that the reason the league wants to do away with FA compensation picks for lost FAs is to de-link the draft with the CBA. The way things stand now, because drafts picks are a factor in the rules governing the movement of ML players, the player's union gets to have a say in how the draft is conducted. By de-linking the draft with anything that goes on with existing unionized players, MLB would be free to do what they want w/the draft w/o getting approval from the MLBPA. Most likely it means that things like capped bonuses and slotted money can be codified instead of the much looser "suggested" guidelines that exist now. IOW, they're trying to 'Boras-proof' it.

All this means to me is that Wilpon is still lying to us. Once again, there will be no meaningful games in September.

]I mean 1999-2000 and this coming October probably couldn't come close to matching the addreneuline that time had. But then again, maybe I am falling prey to the nostalga waxers. In part you are.I mean I'm sure it was a great time to be a NY baseball fan but sports simply commands a much bigger slice of America's attention now than it did then. NYC might have had nearly 20% of the teams in MLB at the time as well as a stranglehold on the post-season tourney most years, but attendance also spent much of the '50s in particular plummeting for all 3 teams (and attendance in the Bronx continued to fall even after the Dodgers & Giants left).Shea & YS will draw over 7 million paying fans this year while I don't think the 3 stadiums then ever drew 5mil combined even at their peak.People writing about sports frequently pick the era of their youth as the best ever and the elder spokesmen of the NYC scene are of the age that trumpets the late '40s thru the '50s as that time.

I also thought Perez was a bit unlucky tonight ... at least for a while anyway. A bunch of infield hits which weren't scored errors but were plays that could have been made, plus there were more than a few bloops falling in here and there. He's still got to find the plate more often and continues to have a hand in digging his own grave, but his acquisition has always been more about next year than about this year anyway. He's going to be a project.

Francis can be a pretty good pitcher at times and this pitching matchup could go against us if Perez gets all wild again (although we did managed to get to him last time)