Frayed Knot

"We did need an inning eater so Ill give this the 'ol wait and see." Except he's not really an innings eater, he's more of a high pitch count/take forever, always teetering on the edge of disaster/lucky to get 6 out of him even when he's good type of guy. Think of a cross between the worst aspects of Trax and what Bannister was early on. Ah hell, I suppose it won't be too bad. The downside is minimal and there could be some up if he locates his bouts of goodness. Just not a guy I'm looking forward to rooting for.

Edgy DC wrote: Nineteen Fifty-Nine is the year Castro took power. I thought about that. Seems odd for a 'tribute' considering he's an escapee, although maybe it's to signify the last year of a free Cuba - wasn't Castro's takeover on New Years 59/60?

Soler - 2.0 Beltran - 2.0 Wright - 2.4 Wagner - 1.1 Reyes - 1.1 Heilman - 0.8 Feliciano - 0.4 Woodward - 0.2

"It's weird to see anyone numbered 59 in baseball" I'm just hoping it's not a tribute to his birth year; ya just never know with these 'I left my birth certificate back home' immigrants. Although even if it were Franco would still get to call him a youngster.

The only guy who suxx worse than Randy Johnson is Matt Clement -- Good Lord he was awful. Unit tried real hard to lose this game but Clement would have no of it. Staked to a lead with another several Manny HRs + one from Youkilis, he proceeded to start walking the likes of Terrance Long, hitting Kelly Stinnett w/the bags loaded, and throwing wild pitches every batter or so just to keep everyone from getting bored. At one point they showed the career active leaders in WPs; all old guys (not surprisingly: Johnson, Wells, etc) plus Matt Frickin Clement who has about 1/3 the # of innings pitched as those other guys. He didn't survive the 5th. Also doesn't help that the Sox ran themselves out of at least 2 runs and ... lost by 2 runs! Papi 0-5 w/4 Ks.

My initial inclination is that I don't like this deal. Listed at 36 but widely rumored to be 40, El Ducky has had some great stretches during his time here (almost all of it in the Bronx) but is also moody & high-maintenance who reportedly could be a pain to deal with in a complaining, prima-donna kind of way and was unavailable for various lengths of time. He did, however, (as much as I hate it being touted as a predictive factor) have a ton of "big game" success, first w/the MFYs and even with the ChiSox last year. Ozzie brought him in during the 1st round playoffs last October when the BoSox loaded the bases (against another pitcher) w/no one out. Ducky danced out of it w/o a ball leaving the infield and the Bostonians never recovered from it as they got their collective asses swept. Chicago dealt him over the winter for Javy Vazquez and I had pretty much lost track of him since then (Snakes have been totally off my radar screen) but those numbers look pretty ugly aside from the whole home/road split thing. I guess I kind of wanted to believe in Julio's "STUFF!!" even if it would have probably driven me nuts in the long run; or maybe I'm just reacting to the fact that something about Hernandez always rubbed me the wrong way and I always expected him to turn back into a pumpkin at any moment. But I suppose he could be useful either as a reg starter or a fill-in so long as his Clemente-like hypochondria gets put on hold for a while.

I agree about Madson (we should be keeping track of how many different ways we've spelled his name just in this thread alone). It's not like Manuel had a ton of options at that point. Only closer Tom Gordon was left (Cormier = unavailable) and I doubt he's been stretched out over more than 2 innings in at least a decade. If Madson was PH'd for and Gordon brought in and the game continues - Then What? The alternative was to use Gordon earlier but then he's open to criticism of burning his closer in a tie game on the road. Willie had the advantage there.

Beltran - 2.0 Reyes - 1.6 Oliver - 2.0 Floyd - 1.3 Wright - 1.0 Sanchez - 0.6 Wagner - 0.3 Julio - 0.3 Feliciano - 0.3 Bradford - 0.3 Matsui - 0.15 Franco - 0.15

That is/was our one and only lead for the night!!!!

Well, Jeremi Gozalez is er, just was, warming up in the pen and he's Thursday's starter. Oliver was to be Soler's "long man" for tomorrow.

"How do you describe Fasano's facial hair" Garage mechanic. I like how the Phils pr their "fast" catcher for their slow one.

Sal Fasano looks like a catcher from the 1970s

It's midnight in Manhattan, this is no time to get cute.

Gary got deked on that liner. Started calling it a hit before it found grass ... er glove.

Damn, the Braves-v-Pads are in the 7th inning and they're on the left coast!

Doesn't really matter at this point. You're down to one catcher or the other w/no subs left.

Nice quick inning from Bradford but now we have to hit or him. Kills the last position player AND brings in the last pitcher.

I forgot we still had Bradford in cold storage. Nice play Kaz ... even though you can't hit.

Good arm on Abreu in RF. Don't know much about Victorino or the new guy in LF On edit: ShitFuck!

]They may do that anyway Well they wouldn't push the winning run to second. But now that it's already there there's no reason not to.

Gwreck wrote: Wouldn't be shocked to see Wright try to run here... They'd walk Cliffy

OK it's hero time. Who wants it boys?

I also like the fact that Burrell's bat and Bell's glove & bat are out of the game at this point.

I like using Wagner here. Use him for this inning, then next if neccesary, then use Oliver to PH for him when his slot comes up and keep him in the game after that.

Chavez, pitcher's slot (Nady?) and Reyes