Frayed Knot

Obviously, getting one dinky hit isn't going to get the job done no matter what else you do ... but we've just been getting killed by the running game lately; both ours AND theirs. - Endy getting picked off - Franco getting picked off last night - the strikeout/throw DP with Valentin (who was out by about 10 yards) - Reyes getting tossed at home on a play which he should never have been sent - Reyes also got picked off last week and caught stealing as well (pitch out) - Meanwhile Bernie Williams is 65 years old and steals one virtually uncontested, as did Coco yesterday and it's happening with LoDuke AND Castro Giving away outs, and giving up extra bases

Getting ready to resume. Looks like Mussina will NOT return. Looks like El Ducky will - at least to finish off this inning.

The game intro on YES today showed this year's home/road IL breakdown. I didn't write it down or anything but the AL was winning in their own parks at about a 3-of-4 clip while the NL was just short of breaking even in their home games. And that's about what you should expect. The usual 55/45 home/road record assumes that the teams (or in this case, leagues) are playing more or less even. But a team playing around .620 ball against a .380 or so opponent (what the AL/NL are doing now) would win around 70-some pct of their games at home and just over 50% on the road.

This was buried in one of the other threads: Here are the yearly records since it started. YEARALNLWin Pct199797117.5471998114110.5091999116135.5382000136115.5422001132120.5242002123129.5122003115137.5442004126125.5022005136116.540TOTAL1,0951,104.502 Last I checked, the AL is on their was to approx a .620 Win Pct this season - which is huge compared to what's gone on before. It's like a 100-win team is playing against a 60-some win squad. This doesn't show home/road stats but I'd be surprised if they're anything out of the ordinary ~ 55/45 split that most MLB games show. These things are usually pretty cyclical but there seems to have been a lot of NL --> AL migration in the last few years.

The only one I remember was Alvin Davis - Seattle's ROY that year. He was the last one IIRC.

I love crap like this: Bob Raissman reports that higher-ups at YES are scripting A-Rod rip jobs for post-game commentator David Justice and possibly others. He also speculates that when Jim Kaat was talking about Questec saying "nobody likes someone over their shoulder judging their every move" he may be talking about himself ... and he retired decades before Questec was ever introduced.

Gooden's appearance was cool because he was still only 19 and just in his rookie year so, in those pre-ESPN saturation days, it was the first chance much of the country had to see him. He came in to relieve in the middle innings somewhere then: Bang-Bang-Bang! and the whole stadium just lit up while the broadcast booth plus many viewers at home got a big 'ol WOW! Met fans of course were already getting used to it but it was still a point of pride.

One of the announcers opined that Reyes wasn't lined up properly - although the throw air-mailed him anyway so it may not have mattered. Just the fact that the heave is low enough to be possibly cut is what would have kept Manny on 1st. Turned out not to matter because Manny never scored that inning but even he was an astute enough runner to know he could go as soon as that ball left Beltran's hand with a too-high angle on it. Nice running all around by Papi btw. I wasn't so sure he was going to get to 2nd on his hit much less to 3rd on the fly. The one that got him home was more of a gimme.

Was young Gooden's 3-K performance in the '84 AS game a 9-pitch deal? I suspect it wasn't even though I remember it as being about as dominating as it gets. That and the sight of (then Mont Expo) catcher Gary Carter bouncing out from behind the plate after #3 with a "WOW" look on his face.

The NL came into this year with an overall edge since interleague began. The AL caught up a bit last year which, when added to the huge edge they're headed for this year, might be enough to wipe out the lead the senior circuit built up since 1997. What I don't have is the exact "score" (it's pretty close) or the home/road breakdown - but when the AL comes out on the short end, as they have for I believe 6 of the 9 years, they always make a point of claiming it's a bigger disadvantage for them in NL parks then the other way around since, by losing the DH, they're out a guy who's a regular part of their lineup. Home teams in MLB usually win about 55% of the time and I'd be surprised if the IL games vary a whole lot from that despite the forced lineup alterations. These things tend to be cyclical and I don't think there's any other reason for it but that - but I think the AL's just been better for the last two seasons and this year in particular shows a bigger margin than I can remember between the two leagues.

"Next time I have a ticket to a Mets game and Glavine's pitching I'm giving it away. " Yeah, he was the problem. "Has Beltran hit a cutoff man even once this year?" No

The perfect bunt by Crisp, and his perfect catch the next inning, were the difference. Remember that Boston was without him for nearly two months as he got hurt the first week of the season. The optimistic was to look at it this is if we were bound to split these 6 games at least we lost the "correct" 3. Of course we still need to sweep this weekend in order to have the split ... but that's a minor detail. In all, our "rep" - and in part that of the Nat'l League - took a bigger hit this week than our lead in the division did.

8 times this year we've lost 2 straight - and so far we're 8-0 in that position. Which means .... absolutely nothing.

This has been the crew most responsible for the lopsided AL/NL interleague stats. Tiggers: 54-25 (best in MLB) * 6 wins in a row, 9 of their last 10, 16 of their last 18 * Lowest league ERA (by .75/RG), lowest BAA ChiSox: 51-26 (2 GB) * 13 wins in their last 15 * 6.5 Game lead in Wild Card Twins: 42-35 (11 GB) * 7 in a row, 9 or their last 10, 17 of last 19 (and not gaining ground) *Joe Mauer: 2 for 3 last night, now hitting .392!! (.392/.458/.538) as a plus-defensive 25 y/o catcher -- well justifying their decision to take the local boy as a #1 overall pick, ahead of the much more heralded Mark Prior.

A ruling has been issued from high atop Mt. MFY that because ARod's game-winning HR came against a bad team it still falls short of qualifying him for "TRUE YANKEE" status. Also, in a related statement, the 'Turning Point of the Game' for yesterday's game was decreed to be a 4th inning groundout to Jeter. He was like so totally in the right spot.

Some stuff from Baseball Prospectus on the Mets in general and Reyes in particular - including some stuff we were talking about the other day (I think in one of the IGTs): Two-time reigning NL Player of the Week Jose Reyes has been otherworldly for the past couple of weeks. After missing two games on June 6th and 7th with wrist discomfort, Reyes came back and hit his generic .286/.333/.429 over three games. The following game, he went 0-3, but drew three walks, which is quite astounding given his well-documented lack of plate discipline. Till that point, in 356 career games, Reyes had drawn three walks in a game once (earlier this year no less) and two walks in a single game just four times. He drew three more walks (two intentional) the next game, but also supported that on-base effort with a single and a double in three at bats. That game set Reyes off on an amazing 13-game stretch (just snapped) in which he amassed 32 hits (13 for extra bases) in 57 at-bats for a.561/.583/.912 line while scoring 19 runs. Reyes still hasn’t drawn a walk since that hat trick game, but it’s hard to criticize him for not getting on base via four balls when he’s smoking the strikes to the tune of .561. Besides, walks aren’t the goal anyway--they’re the byproduct of a good hitting approach. To wit, at the beginning of the season, Reyes was noticeably looking to take walks, which he attempted to make happen by robotically taking pitches. On the surface, that had the look of progress. However, the point isn’t to just take pitches, it’s to take (and subsequently swing at) the right pitches. Reyes’ deliberate attempts to coerce bases on balls often worked against him, as he took a lot of hittable pitches and later in counts remained just as over-anxious and willing to chase a bad pitch as ever. However, as a phenomenal athlete with extremely fast wrists and hips and excellent eye-hand coordination, Reyes has never needed to anticipate pitches, whatever the count may be. His anxiety also tended to make him pull off a lot of pitches, and so he fouled off many hittable pitches. His problems were also compounded by some bad luck on balls in play as he stroked a number of liners right at fielders. His BABIP of .264 before the streak was significantly below his career mark of .306. Contrast his early-season approach to his more recent approach. In this admittedly short stint, Reyes isn’t just deciding in advance whether to swing or not. He’ll still rip at a hittable pitch early in the count, but he’s laying off pitches just out of the zone or even right on the edges. He seems much more comfortable in his ability to wait for a better pitch, which he’s getting and lacing. Later in the count, he trusts his quickness and eye, staying back just a tad more and avoiding chasing terrible pitches. Reyes has been in the league for four years, so it’s easy to forget that he’s still just 23 and capable of further, equally significant improvement. This is especially true since he was rushed and injured; in the meantime, fans waited impatiently for stardom and analysts continually questioned his placement in the lineup. With all the talk of unachieved potential, it’s easy to overlook Reyes’ steady, if slow, improvement over those years. He’s tightened up his defense considerably and his leg injuries, which were verging on chronic and threatened to end his career, are well behind him. Now, he seems to be whittling away his last major weakness. Clearly, Reyes isn’t going to going to continue to hit .500, or .400 for that matter. But the longstanding hopes of .300+ with 70 walks a year and some decent pop all of a sudden might even be conservative.

Delgado - 1.0 Oliver - 1.0 Valetin - .75 Chavez - 0.5 Bradford - 0.5

Holy Nightmare 1st innings Batman! Lastings looks like he wants to crawl in a hole right now. Of course had Pedro not brain-locked earlier (and given up 3 hits) it wouldn't have gotten to that point. Time to get on yer hittin' shoes boys.

Beckett's one of those guys - like Clemens or Brad Penny - who just looks like the typical big, dumb, jock-asshole that you didn't like in High School and isn't likely to be any more pleasant now. Reminds me of the line from 'Heathers' after Winona and whazzisname offed the two football players: "Don't worry about it Veronica, now that football season's over the only thing left they had to offer the school was date-rape and aids jokes"

LoDuca DH?!? btw, it's an ESPN game for all you out-of-towners P.S. Either you have your SS & 2B reversed or we're going to check with Willie's shrink.

Well, as mentioned, I think the biggest problem in finding data on that is figuring out what's a #1, what's a #2, etc. But, using Dickshot's 33% norm (NORM!!!!!) I'd guestimate that you should probably expect half or more from front of the rotation guys, while treating any that you get from the #4/5 dudes as if found money.

It was also a ridiculously windy day in Boston (and NY) yesterday.

Overall I believe that around 25% of all starts qualify as quality starts (I believe Dickshot has the actual numbers on this. I suspect most fans think it's higher than is actually is) Obviously the majority of those would come from front-of-rotation guys and much fewer from the back end - although I have no idea of the breakdown.

Latest I heard was "intensive care for the next 10-12 days".

Iubitul wrote: ="Nymr83"]would met fans boo Seaver (did they?) Apples and Oranges. Seaver didn't willingly leave. Well he did pretty much force his way out of town. Now you can re-hash all the 'who started it' details but I do remember being somewhat resentful of him at the time. I was at his return game also and while I didn't boo him I was upset at all the Met fans who were cheering for him over the team as he out-dueled Koosman that afternoon (and hit a double btw).