Frayed Knot

Wagner's never been one for keeping his mouth shut all that much. He used to raise a few hackles when he was with Houston; speaking out about what mgmt should do, or about what they just did wrong, etc. Stuff like that is usually tolerated to the degree of the player's save pct.

I surprised none of them abused Leiber on the length of the HR he gave up to Balco-boy last night. Holy Shit that thing went a long way!!

The off-days over the next 3 Mondays will help out a bit ... but we'll still need a 4th & a 5th approx once per week depending on how they sort things. - Bannister's eligible to come off the DL by Friday but Howie Rose kept saying 'another two weeks' (meaning this week & next) before he's ready to pitch -- although it wasn't clear whether that was just his opinion or an informed estimate from someone in the know. - Maine is, of course, shot until at least 2 weeks from yesterday (Sunday the 21st vs MFY) - If you figure that Bannister won't be around until say Thurs 18th - the 2nd time it looks like we'll need a #4 guy - then they need to find guys for this Fri & Sat. I'm sure Lima will be one of those; no idea about the other - Oliver? By the next time the back-end guys are needed we should have Bannister and then only one from the Lima/pitcher X duo. - What I suspect they DON'T want to do is bounce Heilman back & forth between the rotation & the pen so they'll look to others for the time being.

"Did we protest yesterday?" No, there's nothing to protest. "Are there any mechanisms in place for getting rid of a bad, unionized ump?" Only if some union genius once again convinces his/them that a mass resignation is a shrewd negotiating ploy.

When someone hits the ground and loses the ball while rolling over there's no way that's an error. btw, re: Angel Hernandez: (from the Yahoo story connected with the PotG boxscore) "After the game, both Lima and Lo Duca said that Hernandez told them that he was calling pitches farther off the plate strikes for Smoltz, but not for Lima. "When the umpire said 'I'm going to give you a couple of inches off the plate, but I'm not going to give you 4-5 inches because you're not John Smoltz,' I'm trying to protect my pitcher," Lo Duca said." I can't belive an ump would actually say that.

Oliver - 2.7 Zambrano - 0.3 Beltran - 1.7 Reyes - 1.8 Matsui - 1.8 Julio - 0.7 Delgado - 0.7 Fortunado - 0.3

Beltran - 1.0

Yes, Zambrano was 60-day'ed which took care of the replacement on the 25-man as well as the 40-man. ]Well its funny looking at the 25 Mets in their official 2006 MLB mug shots and Pedro is the only one A) in a different hat and not facing directly into the camera! He's also barefoot and out of step ... meaning that he must actually be dead and we've been seeing a look-alike double all this time.

Heyman may get unnecessarily nasty at times but his sources are generally good and Newsday seems to break a whole lot of stories (or at least gets certain ones earlier than others) and doesn't always get as much credit because I think some tend to treat them as if a crummy suburban paper not on a par with the big city rags. Whatever the case, while he may not name the source, there is a direct quote used which means it would be more than just a bit of shoddy journalism if it were never said. IIRC, the "handshake agreement" story w/Clemens (sourced, I believe, as 'people close to Roger') was intended to illustrate that IF things went south in Houston that Clemens had McClain's word that he could get dealt to the Yanx - not that such a deal was pre-determined to happen. And it made sense for both sides also; Houston got out from under the money if they were no longer chasing a pennant and Roger would get to go somewhere he liked instead of spending his (final?) half-year pitching in meaningless games. McClain and the Astros denied any such agreement existed but that doesn't mean it didn't or just that someone in the Clemens camp didn't want people to believe it did.

I don't doubt Heyman's sources, but I do think it's reasonable to read "we're going to pick it up" as 'we intend to pick it up' seeing as how things are going quite nicely for Glavine now. Nowhere does it say that this is already a done deal and presumably they can still decline if things go south in a hurry. Unless there's an early season date on that option it doesn't sound like something they need to decide on now merely that they foresee doing so.

What's your point? Which pitcher was available for $12-15mil at the beginning of the year that you would have wanted? -- Clemens wasn't.

Houston has reportedly offered him $20mil already (not sure if it's an actual $20mil or a pro-rated portion of $20/year). Whatever the case, $12 ain't gonna get it done.

I dunno what to think about Zambrano. Sprinting off the mound like that complaining of elbow pain just screams; 'Call Dr. Andrews and we'll see you in 18 months' -- but that's a get bit a head of ourselves at this point. ]I'm pretty sure Andruw was taken out of the game because he dogged it to first on his DP ball in the 6th. He wasn't even halfway down the line by the time Delgado caught the relay throw. My first thought too but he actually tripped - twice even - trying to break out of the box. He was def a loafer earlier in his career (I was watching a TBS game one night when Cox pulled him in the middle of an inning a la Gil/Cleon) but has been much better behaved for the last few years. Not sure if the trip caused an injury or not. Good thing for us either way; he probably gets to Nady's bloop which started the big inning (plays shallower, gets a better break) so there's no telling how the rest of that inning plays out.

And I'm signing off by mentioning how freakin' stupid it is that every other NL game today (and most if not all of the AL games too) is being played at night ... In early May ... Even the ones in the northeast.

Never in doubt. BIGTIMEFREAKINGWIN!!!!

Edgy DC wrote: They call me Mister Foresight. Which so beats the hell out of being called Mr. Foreskin that it's not even worth discussing.

Gwreck wrote: Willie should double-switch again and put Woodward in at 2nd. Nah, cuz if the Mets bat again it's because Julio screwed up and so you're going to PH for him anyway.

So it's the 9th inning, in a tight game, against the Braves, Jorge Julio is coming in to try and close it, ... and Met fans are happy to see him. Put THAT in your month-old pipe and smoke it!

Nickname Alert: Villareal = Truetown

Nymr83 wrote: LaRoche will bat with the tying runs on.. And he will look so bad doing so that he'll be tempted to quit the game right here.

Re Chadford: Oh well!

Bradford was responsible for several last night but he was as unlucky as he was shakey; got beat by some bleeders and dunks. I like going back to him here and maybe finishing out the game if he gets thru inning 8 unscathed.

C'mon Cliffy, smack this crococile hunter around.

That's all for Hudson as KazMat sends him up the river

- Maine DL'd - Fortunado up for today's (Sat) game to beef up the pen - Presumedly he'll go down immediately afterward in order to activate Lima for Sunday - Also Braves DL Chuck James (the lefty who walked off the mound after turning his knee last night) and Smoltz will be moved up to pitch tomorrow instead of Jorge Sosa who came in last night just in time to lose the game.