Frayed Knot

Reportedly that bunt last night was his idea and not Willie's. I know it wasn't mine.

The Phillies have my permission to win as many games in the MFY series as we win in our upcoming one.

Beane's point was that those teams picking at or near the top of the draft were the ones who could least likely afford to take chances on those ever-popular HS studs - the ones who can make scouts drool but also had a much longer road in front of them. That they've also made it past what some have called the 'injury-prone' years (roughly 18-21) is at least theory if not quite gospel.

Milledge's stint here is most likely done wtih Floyd's return which, I believe, can come as early as Friday. I suspect he'll play most if not all games day until that point.

AL teams whomped the NL this weekend to the tune of 29-13, (including a number of sweeps*) which - when added to the 22-20 edge the NL had in the first go around - gives the AL an overall 49 - 33 lead to date. That all, of course, skews the standings by depressing the overall NL win pcts while raising the AL pcts. * Tiggers swept Cubs * Oakland (10 straight wins as they rev up their annual June drive) swept the Dodgers * Twins (8 straight wins) swept the Pirates * ChiSox swept Reds * BoSox swept the reeling Braves (7 straight losses) * Texas swept Arizona * Mariners swept Giants * Tampa Bay swept the Phils

Glavine - 2.6 Wright - 2.7 Marrero - 1.1 Castro - 1.0 Reyes - 1.0 Bradford - 0.7 Heilman - 0.3 Franco - 0.3 Sanchez - 0.3

Cincy's been 'bout the streakin'-est team in the bigs this year. Earlier in the season they had a stretch of 11-2 which sent them to the best record in baseball ... before following that with a 4-9 stint. More recently, they've spent their last 17 games going 8-0 followed by 1-8: they took the last game of a series from the Cubs, then swept 3 from Astros, swept 3 from Cards, and beat Cubs in game 1 of the next series ... they then lost final 3 straight to Cubs, lost 2 of 3 to Brewers, then got swept by ChiSox. Brandon Phillips is an odd case. He was the main bait in the Omar-made Bartolo Colon deal between Expos & Indians. He was being touted as a great SS prospect before Reyes. But he pretty much flopped in Cleveland (even as the "throw-ins" Grady Sizemore & Cliff Lee shined) and was eventually cut loose. Cincy picked him up, installed him more-or-less full-time at 2nd (Gee, another team realizes that Tony Womack wasn't the answer!!) and he responded with .303/.345/.455 and is a perfect 14/14 in SBs

Must have been a fun weekend for the Washingtonians. Full houses, Yanx in town for the first time in 30+ years (all games are more exciting when the Yanx are involved don't you know) and they take 2 of 3 while coming from behind in late innings twice in a row. Beat Rivera once, and then beat them the next day because Rivera wasn't available because they had to go to him the previous day after blowing a 7-run lead.

I've been meaning to bring this up for several weeks now because it's struck me on more than one occasion. It's a bit weird in that the two don't actually look anything like each other ... but: - when you look at hitting coach Rick Down, particularly when he's wearing his sun-glasses, there's something in the way he laughs or even just smiles, something in his mannerisms and head-movements, and even something in the cadence of his speech, that is VERY reminiscent of ... Ray Charles!! check it out next time he's interviewed on TV.

He took a somewhat less-than-optimal track to that ball at first which made it a bit tougher than it should have been, but still a helluva catch in a big spot. Coupla nice catches by the new guy today.

Ummm, something's off with your 'Glavine end of the season' and Glavine now' totals in the all-time Mets wins column. He has 10 wins this season.

I don't think this is a case of one hand not knowing what the other is doing since the guy who said it wasn't likely and the one who eventually decided it needed to be done are both the same person. Denying that a DL assignment is likely is virtually required GM-speak since to say otherwise tips the other team off to the fact that he's not available for that game/that series. They're either being too optimistic when these injuries first happen or the boo-boos simply aren't progressing as fast as initially expected.

Would those who know absolutely nothing about the NPR radio series which inspired this be at a disadvantage here?

Darryl Ward - who didn't even start the game but was a replacement for Nick Johnson who (what else?) hurt himself again - also hit a monster HR off something called T.J. Beam; a call-up the Yanx made when farming out Aaron Small (who will have to pass thru waivers btw). It wasn't quite Hondo territory but it was in those red seats in the upper deck in front of the yellow ones. That's the kind of stuff that made him a popular target a handful of years back including being linked to NYM trade talks seemingly at least once a week for a while. Unfortunately he only occasionally looks like that player these days.

These arguments about booing genrally bore me ... but whatdahell. On the one hand you can make the case that they're booing the individual performance and not the player. A 4-run 7th inning is pretty ugly. On the other, it usually strikes me more as; 'WAH ... everything's not going perfectly so I'm gonna blame the goat-du-jour as loud as I can' So, particularly after close to two weeks of near-perfection, the reaction just seems so disproportionate to the "crime". That was my beef with the late-night radio chatter I heard briefly. I have no problem with 2nd-guessing the manager (or whatever), I just thought it sounded too much like; 'WAH ... I disagree w/Willie's pitching change therefore he's a losing, choking, ex-Yanqui scum who should be fired immediately!!!!'

* Yanx jump out to a 9-2 lead ... only to lose 11-9 Soriano was on 1st (he actually walked) when Mariano was brought in w/0 outs in the 8th. He promptly stole 2nd, then stole 3rd and came home with the tying run when that throw sailed into the OF. Rivera then walked Darryl Ward (remember him?) and then gave up a triple to Jose Guillen just barely scoring Ward (slowest black man I've ever seen). Then a Zimmerman single brought him in. Nice waste of a Damon 4 hit + GS game, plus a monster 2R shot by A-Rod who I'm going to nickname 'Lightning Rod" for all the abuse he's attracting these days. * Sox beat Braves again. Manny was sitting but Beckett pitched well (he seems to alternate). That's something like 15 of the last 18 for Atlanta. I'm almost starting to feel s .... NAH! * AL won a whopping 12 of 14 IL games Friday night. NL took the earlier 'round' 22-20

="cleonjones11"]media lives on fear and consumption Or, if there's a TB epidemic around, they live on fear OF consumption.

Rickey was famous (or infamous) for using the (grossly unfair) hammer the owners had with the old reserve system to his advantage. He was also first in implementing the concept of the farm system - particularly when he ran things in St Louis - giving him control over huge numbers of players. StL, along with several of the other rich teams, had [u:debbc03edc]Dozens[/u:debbc03edc] of teams worth of minor leaguers under their control - making players easily replaceable. That all led Ralph to one of his favorite sayings about Rickey, that; 'he controlled all of the players and all of the money - and did his best to keep the two apart'.

Soler - 3.0 Reyes - 2.0 Bell - 1.0

First time all year I can remember second-guessing Willie because I thought he pulled a starter too early. Soler was cruising and the pitch count wasn't all THAT high and was due to hit next inning. I would have like to see him start that inning and pull him if/when he got into trouble. That said we lost because Heilman suxxed, Delgado got a case of the fumbles, and we got a whopping total of 5 hits. Listening to late-night talk radio however, we never have won or will win another game as long as Willie is at the helm. 2nd loss in two weeks and it's downright fuckin' vicious.

I agree A-Rod can be a weenie although I see nothing wrong with any of those quotes. Jeter saying those same things in a slump would be characterized as a "stand-up guy" not afraid to "take responsibility" for his short-comings. Yet A-Rod gets gets treated as a whiner simply because it fits the stereotype going in. In-game situations are also treated this way: Jeter hitting solo HRs while his team is down by multiple runs (as he did several times while getting beat by the Angels last fall) is treated as examples of his never-say-die attitude. A-Rod does the same and it's stat-padding worthlessness. Nice also of 'Captain Clutch' to back up his 3rd baseman this week huh? Claiming that pleas to the fans to lay off him would go unheeded he basically said; 'get over it' ... even though he did go out on a limb when Giambi was struggling (MUCH worse) last year; 'we're going to need him to win', etc.

Met fan contacts ASK BA wanting to know about Evan MacLane Q: Mets fans have been hearing about Mike Pelfrey and, to a lesser extent, Philip Humber as potential future stars in the New York rotation. However, I've noticed that a prospect I'm not familiar with, lefthander Evan MacLane, has put up very impressive AAA numbers this year and was rated by Baseball America as having the best changeup and control among Mets prospects. What can you tell me about him and his ceiling? Josh Marker - San Francisco A: MacLane has a humble draft pedigree. A 25th-round pick out of Feather River (Calif.) CC in 2003, he went 23-10, 2.74 in the lower minors and reached Double-A in mid-2005. He seemed to hit a wall there, going 3-2, 4.14 in nine starts. MacLane didn't fare any better in six starts at Binghamton this year, but he has been lights-out since arriving at Triple-A Norfolk, posting a 6-0, 2.11 mark in seven starts. His other numbers (47 innings, 42 hits, 14 walks, 33 strikeouts) aren't as impressive as his record. MacLane, 23, is a typical finesse lefthander. His mid-80s fastball and his curveball are fringy pitches most notable for his ability to locate them in the strike zone. His changeup is his best offering and he has little margin for error. He'll probably pitch in the majors but I don't see a huge ceiling. He looks more like a middle reliever than a starter to me. -- Jim Callis

btw, if 3rd party validation is what you seek just listen to virtually anyone on the topic. I don't think I've heard a national analyst over the last week or so: Gammons, Stark, Kirkjian, as well as scouts/GMs they've quoted, who have referred to the Mets as anything other than the best team in baseball.

What it looks like is that a bunch of SoSHers each grabbed or were assigned a team at the beginning of the year and are responisble for following them throughout the season. We did something like that here a few years back although we didn't make it a year-long project. Instead, we were just trying to mock the rather generic pre-season previews that were on some site (ESPN.com I believe) and tried (or in many cases [u:b7520c79b8]pretended[/u:b7520c79b8]) to make the case for said team winning all the marbles that year. So it's quite likely that the 'Best Team in Baseball' heading has been hanging on that thread long before it was even arguably true. I had the Angels in '02 which made my pre-season post look particularly prescient when it was, in fact, mostly optimistic bullshit. Maybe this is something we should consider for next year? Each person grabs a team or two and then gives periodic updates on that team's season, trades, call-ups, etc. You would also do that team as a KTE if/when we played them since you'd be up to speed and wouldn't need additional research.

="KC"]I need to find a picture of the three boobed lady from Total Recall to whip out one day for this thread. Different set, same idea (from page 2 of this thread):