Frayed Knot

For a one-year deal I'd dump my Atlanta stock for Philly stock. You'd lose with both Jones swaps and probably the catcher but stand a good chance at winning or breaking even on the other 5. I'll take Utley over Giles, Howard way big over LaRoche, Abreu over Francoeur (particularly since it's fantasy), Rollins over Renteria, and Burrell over (isles of) Langerhans. And I like the Philly lineup even more if it's a future thing in addition to just this year.

Also the Chicago Fire (later Winds) The Shreveport Steamer The Philadelphia Bell and the Portland Storm (later Thunder)

And speaking of soft parts of the schedule (and I think we were) I noticed that Pittsburgh is the odd NL-Cent team against whom we get an extra series this year. 10 games vs the Pirates - 6 at home. Also (from the 'getting ahead of ourselves dept) September somewhat rivals April on the Charmin scale. 17 of our final 20 games are against: - Pittsburgh 3 (on the road) - Florida: 7 (4H - 3R) - Washington 7 (4H - 3R) Only 3 in Atlanta break up that (supposed) cake-walk. Of course by then the young Pitt pitchers may have all gotten their acts together and the Nats & Fish could be entirely different teams so who knows. I liked the "old" days when there was no discussion of easy or hard skeds because you always played the same one as all your division rivals.

Not only is jazz not native to Utah but I think it's illegal there. I think it was the WFL (World Football League - one of the NFL wannabe competitors) who decided they'd be unique and go with (mostly) singular names. So now that Bud bought the ex-'Pos for ~$120mil and is selling them for something on the order of $450mil I think maybe it's time for the other owners to quit bitching about having to keep them afloat for these past 5 years. Can you say Windfall?

Martinez - 3.6 Heilman - 0.7 Delgado - 2.3 Matsui - 0.2 Chavez - 1.7 Floyd - 0.1 Reyes - 0.2 Sanchez - 0.3 Bradford - 0.9

'you can't stop Endy Chavez you can only hope to contain him'

Yes, capped by a Tike Redman hit off of (say it with me) Looper!

Who do you suppose is responsible for the attacks in Stone's version? Bush? Exxon? Limbaugh? The Klan? Miltary-Industrial Complex? The same shadowy folks who killed Diane & Dody?

So, if I'm reading Seo's stats correctly, Matsui has (in fewer innings) handled more chances, had more assists, more putouts, and turned more DPs with a better zone rating and range factor than AndyHandy. But I was told ...

Nothing too complicated about it if you ask me -- Sanchez has just been better than Wagner so far this year.

Pelfrey already in Double-A, Soler Next? From BA: The clock is ticking on Alay Soler in the Florida State League. The Cuban defector was dynamite yet again last night in high Class A St. Lucie's 1-0 win against Brevard County, allowing just one hit and no walks while striking out seven in seven brilliant innings. The 26-year-old righthander improved to 2-0, 0.64 with 32 strikeouts, eight walks and a .128 opponents' batting average in 28 innings this year. His command has been impeccable since he walked six batters in 10 innings over his first two starts of the season. Because of his age and background, Soler doesn't figure to be long for the FSL. The Mets signed him to a three-year, $2.8 million contract in September 2004, and he pitched at the Mets' Dominican complex in 2005. A star on the Cuban national team that won the 2002 World University Games, Soler seems to have the makeup to handle the pressure of New York, and his stuff (91-94 mph fastball and low-80s slider with exceptional depth) could put him on the fast track to pitch in the majors later this summer.

Not sure if Jon Krakauer's 'Into the Wild' is on your Alaska book list.It's not exactly a book about Alaska, but the 49th state is the backdrop for a very interesting story. Krakauer - who later became famous via 'Into Thin Air', his book about an ill-fated Everest expedition - traces the story of a kid/young man who chucks it all to live among the wilds of Alaska.Been a handful of years since I read it but it was good stuff as I recall.

It was brought up somewhere. [editorial comment]but that's one of the problems with adhering too rigidly to these 'all-purpose' threads -- newsworthy stuff that c/should stand on it's own gets lost inside some multi-page AP thread[/editorial comment]

LoDuca - 1.6 Maine - 1.0 Beltran - 1.2 Julio - 0.5 Matsui - 0.1

While I never had a "fascination" with Elster (I missed where this topic started) I did think the shoulder injury that derailed his nascent career was a very overlooked factor in the tailspin and decline of the early '90s Mets. Without a solid - even if light-hitting - shortstop they were forced to patch in a series of aging Tony Fernandez/Dick Schofield-types which saddled the lineup with an offensive black hole worse even than an Elster with merely modest progress could have provided.

Rain gets Yanx out of a somewhat unfavorable Beckett/Chacon matchup

Jeter on 1st, G-i-am-bi up. - Giambi grounds one into the hole bet 1st & 2nd, fairly close to 1st actually with that big shift on - Mark (Sweet) Loretta tracks it down on the OF grass and makes a nice spin/throw to a retreating Youkilis to get JG at 1st - Youk sees Jeter making a big turn (anticipating that the ball might get thru) and throws behind him after double-clutching He may or may not have been safe. The ump was to the IF side of the base and was blocked off from the tag as Jeter slid in to the OF side of 2nd. No camera angle showed it definitively one way or the other -- which is why it's comical for anyone except Jeter himself to claim that it was a bad call (and the next call Jeter agrees with will be his first). He may have been safe but it's pure speculation. Russo, of course, knows otherwise.

]The only annoying thing about him is that his co-announcers only ask him questions about his success as a Yankee, which is pretty much limited to his first start against the Sox right after getting traded. That's absolutely the main problem. At one point Kay asked him about how he looked forward to and handled NYY/Boston games as if it was a common thing. Yo Mikey, Al won ELEVEN GAMES as a Yank. His career in pinstripes was so brief, so injured, and relatviely so inconsequential, that last year's partial season as an emergency fill-in was his winningest year (4) on the Yanx!! It's not like there's some great history here. But I suppose it's only a matter of time until the: Al Leiter - Yankeeography kicks in so it's never too early to build up the rep. But Al was fine during his NLCS fill-in spots over the last few years and sounds good so far in the few games I've seen him on YES. The only other problem is that they've got so many color guys over there it'll be tough to figure if/when he's going to work. Maybe they can have some sort of 'Survivor'-style reality show in which every ex-MFY does one series behind the mike and they're voted off until just one or two remain who are given permanent jobs. As it is, they're now emplying Murcer, Kaat, Singleton, Justice, Leiter, Flaherty and O'Neal in one capacity or another.

]Who was the ex-ballplayer in the TV booth for the Yankee telecast? He said he was a teammate of the Yank reliever in the minors. He was very insightful (especially about pitching) and well spoken, but I didn't catch his name. Ummm ... that was none other than Senator Al. ]Not at all. He was booed mercilessly throughout the game. When he tipped his hat, a bunch of people cheered, as I did. . . but for the most part he was booed. I was talking mostly about his first introduction where the reaction seemed quite mixed. Maybe the cheers were more from the expensive real estate which come thru most via TV.

Zambrano - 3.9 Sanchez - 1.1 Wagner - 1.1 Feliciano - 0.9 Delgado - 1.7 Franco - 0.50 Reyes - 0.50 LoDuca - 0.30

="Edgy DC"]Nice. But last time I checked (one post ago), Norfolk needed bats. And Mars needs women, but sometimes you just have to be patient. Actually, from the same blog; ... Tagg Bozied, released by the Padres this month, has joined the Mets organization. The Scott Boras client had received a $700,000 bonus when he joined San Diego after being selected in the third round in 2001. But the power-hitting first baseman ruptured a knee tendon and dislocated his knee in ’04 while jumping onto home plate to celebrate a walk-off homer – an injury he initially feared would be career-ending. Bozied, 26, hit a combined .293 with five homers and 22 RBI in 99 at-bats last season for Triple-A Portland and Double-A Mobile I remember this guy a little bit from a few years back - mostly from the name. He was a prospect of some note back then, probably about the same time as Nady. No word on where he winds up but you'd have to figure it would be in Norfolk sooner rather than later.

Papelbon's had a helluva start - although not enough to excuse BB2N's Jeff Brantley's from saying he'd pick him above every other player in the big leagues today!?! Earth to Jeff. Even Kruk & Phillips had enough sense to pick Pujols. - Damon got more cheers than boos upon leading off the game. - Mirabelli makes it to the stadium just before game time (Varitek was already in his armour) and was changing his clothes in the escorted limo from the airport.

The non double-switching for Wagner didn't suprise me so much as that he didn't go with Sanchez for a 2nd inning - especially since his one inning was pretty quick & clean and that you knew the end of the order would be coming up the following inning. I guess Willie was going w/the tactic of trying to use relievers more often for shorter stints, keeping Duaner & Wags available for the future games (no days off this week) w/o having to sit them due to a long outing. Bobby V used to work that way often also.

Papi to Torre: 'Fuck your lefty specialist - I'll go 3R KaBoom anyway!'

"I haven't heard many, if any, calls for a resignation" Several print reports called for his firing.