Frayed Knot

Frayed Knot wrote: That walk to Reyes didn't really mean much. The extra runner doesn't matter and I'd rather have Jose up ... except that LoDuca's been hot, I'll give him that. Damn, what am I saying ... I lost track of the score.

That walk to Reyes didn't really mean much. The extra runner doesn't matter and I'd rather have Jose up ... except that LoDuca's been hot, I'll give him that.

Franco, not Nady?

Remember that the choice was between him and Tike Redman -- the vote would have been close.

There was a book out a few years back (I forget the name and never read it) on the early days at ESPN which was apparently (and perhaps not surprisingly) a haven for sexual harrassment and other such frat-boy highjinks. After a while they supposedly got very strict over there and installed rigorous rules concerning such stuff. Although, as Phil Mushnick is fond of pointing out, that despite such rules ESPN still likes to bring various low-brow stuff into your living rooms (witness last week's ESPY awards) even as it would get the proprietors fired if they brought it into their own offices.

I remember an investment advisor suggesting I buy stock in one of the baseball card companies (forget which one). I got the idea he wasn't a sports fan and I told him I wanted no part of it since most of the companies in it were fly-by-night and a shake-out in the industry was sure to follow since the value of those things was based almost entirely on the fact that people thought the value would forever increase. One of the few good moves I've made in my life.

He was often the token All-Star on those bad post-expansion/pre-Griffey Mariner teams.

Now who will love Derek Jeter and sing his song?

Delgado - 1.3 Valentin - 0.5 Wright - 0.5 Nady - 0.7 Beltran - 0.8 Bell - 0.4 Sanchez - 0.5 Bradford - 0.5 Floyd - 0.7

Or Fats Domino's; I'm Walkin

Pelfrey, Bradford, and Heilman all using intro songs older than them. Julio Franco considered going that route also but he couldn't find an original copy of Cosi Fan Tutte

- The noise from the banging Aluminum bottles also annoys the Cub fans in front of you - Tonight's game's sponsor/giveaway was 'Popcorn, Indiana': [u:1df6c97aff]America's Best[/u:1df6c97aff] All Natural Kettlecorn No it isn't.

On the pre-game today Willie specifically negated the idea of a 6-man rotation for now -- saying that it was maybe a September consideration. It's Maine sked for Wed, an off-day on Thurs, Pedro back on Friday, and presumably Pelfrey on Saturday. By Sunday it would be Glavine's day again but El Duque's spot - so either Ducky gets bounced to the pen (remember someone has to get sent down when we re-activate Petey) or someone from the Ducky/Trax/Maine/Pelfrey crew needs to disappear.

Delgado - 2.5 LoDuca - 1.0 Floyd - 0.8 Oliver - 0.8

]ESPN has close and late stats going back to 2002. From 2002 to present, A-Rod is 97 for 379 in the clutch. Jeter is 90 for 351. Yeah but much of that production from ARod didn't happen as a Yanqui - and we all know that NYY clutch hits are different than clutch hits in Texas. Geez CF I didn't think you were that stupid! On BB2N (Sun night) both Phillips & Harold Reynolds were backing the 'They Gotta Trade ARod' angle, arguing that he's lost it and it's clear that he'll never get it back!!!! It's like no one else has ever had a slump before - including Jeter if you recall, a slump big enough to land him on the cover of SI. You know it's getting bad when John Kruk becomes the voice of reason on that show.

Not only an ugly game but about 3-1/2 hours worth of ugly. Games like that are tough to watch even if you're winning. The Heilman play is an example of where I think it's not only appropriate to boo your own man - but virtually mandatory! On the other hand if you went dumping a player every time he made a dumb play you'd have no one left after a short time.

Nice going Joel Sherman: I've been complaining about this for years, but at least now someone with an audience says so too. And it's not that I think we fans or the law should be more lenient on baseball and their drug problems, just that the overall media treatment is totaly lopsided as compared to other sports in general, and football in particular. As he mentions, a doctor was just sentenced to a year in prison over a conspiracy to distribute steroids and other illegal drugs in a case involving 7 memebers of the then Super Bowl bound Carolina Panthers. And while it might be understandable that it hasn't generated as much national interest as the Bonds case, the fact is it's generated virtually no publicity - not even as much as the Jason Freakin Grimsley affair. So while the baseball press was late with their mea culpas about not being more pro-active in searching for the story that was there are along, the football press is being handed a story which surely goes beyond this one incident and they're as silent as can be.

Fine, but just keep in mind that a trip back to the minors for Pelfrey means we need to either keep Duque around or find a suitable replacement for him reeaaall quick. And assuming that one replacement is enough to cover us also assumes that Maine's last outing was a sign of things to come -- as opposed to say Soler's CG shutout was earlier in the year.

So if El Ducky's 7inn/2ER performance rates him a boot out of the rotation, what did Pelfrey's outing today do for him? And - before anyone brings it up - I'm not talking about the long-term future between the two.

I pretty much agree with Mathews here. He's painting with too broad a brush - as do most articles that purport to describe what one type of fan is like tend to do - but he's not wrong in that there's a certain pct of fans who spend their time actively looking for targets (things/players/situations) for their venting.

Basing game points on what a particular player has done in past games kind of defeats the whole idea of selecting the Player of the [u:0516a7db10]GAME[/u:0516a7db10]

Don't think Zambrano's an automatic FA either. His debut in June of 2001 gives him only 5+ years in as of the end of '06. Of course they could very well cut him loose and make him one since his availability (not to mention his desireability) for next year is already in question.

OHernandez - 3.1 Nady - 3.1 Delgado - 0.8 Sanchez - 0.9 Wagner - 1.0 Valentin - 0.6 Beltran - 0.5

]Meatloaf has shown up at all sorts of ballparks this week - it was on the MLB.com site Which means that there's some sort of cross-promotion deal working here. I said this before in another thread, but we can complain about FOX all we want I just think it's a bit naive to believe that if MLB handed the package to a different network that they wouldn't be doing pretty much the same sort of stuff, and promoting their tie-ins, and "finding" actors in the stands who just happen to be in a show on their network which debuts right after the World Series, and so on. The El Duque executioners were a bit premature today - and the old geezer may have saved hisself of job with today's outing. It would be nice to assume that the young'uns are going to improve with every start and that the aging end of the staff is going to remain healthy & happy from now until October ... but let's not be too eager to throw out servicable starting pitchers until we're sure that all of the above is true. P.S. Was thinking (at the time) about PH-ing Wright for Woodward in the 8th in that bases-loaded/2-outs/1-run lead situation. No doubt it gives you the better chance to widen the lead (and therefore win the game) and Willie didn't take it - even though Wright could just simply slot in for Woody in the field for the 9th. But you also don't want to discard guys like Woody by yanking them whenever the heat's turned up and a July game with a double-digit lead hardly qualifies as a do-or-die game. I agree with him sticking with Woody there.

Maine - 5.3 Valentin - 2.3 Floyd - 0.6 Delgado - 1.4 LoDuca - 0.2 Beltran - 0.2