Frayed Knot

When I hear CF talk I think it's KC - they always say the same thing.

Jose Hernandez takes Isringhausen deep w/2outs in the 9th to tie the StL-Pitts game at 3. Cincy shutting out Washington 5-0 in the 9th Florida leading Cubbies 3-1 in the 4th

He's really just been the occasional fill-in prior to this. Maybe 40/year at most? Fewers still when he was first starting.

I suspect (or maybe just hope) that Keith's knowledge of, and therefore his references to, current MLB players and trends will update themselves as he does games semi-regularly from here on in. His problem coming in - and Seaver's also to an even greater extent - was that they weren't immersed in day-to-day baseball when only working part-time. He's making the effort fom what I can tell; he's talking to the coaches (unless he's lying about it) and gethering info about the who's hot/who's not kinda stuff so perhaps the mid-'80s flashbacks will start to decrease. I echo Vic's comments (from the other thread) on McCarver.

I realize you weren't advocating PH-ing Trax for Floyd but you were advocating using a snap-shot of current stats to "prove" who had a better chance of driving in a big run. Based solely on that, Trax had a better chance than Floyd too. I could make arguments both for & against PH-ing in that spot last night. Trax was pitching well and was tough to remove but so is our pen which makes that risk more palatable. As I said in the IGT, what I was against was first giving up the out by having Chavez bunt and then PH-ing after you were down to 2 outs. Hell, send the runner (Matsui I think), hit-&-run, do anything to give yourself 2 chances at it rather than leaving it up to a choice of cold hitter - vs - pitcher as a last resort. ]I was a fan of the [Valentin] signing. We gambled that he had a little something left, but it's looking like this move didn't pay out. Not a huge deal, but we're going to have to cut bait and upgrade soon. Hey, I'm all for upgrades too - wherever and whenever I can find them. But, in the meantime, Valentin is our main - hell ONLY - LH/PH on the bench and you can't just lock him in the bathroom and pledge never to use him.

And speaking of promotions; ... if you're looking for someone who the team is either real high on or maybe is hyping for purposes of mid-season trade bait it might be Carlos Gomez; the speedy, just turned 20 y/o, OFer who the Mets recently promoted from Hagerstown directly to Binghamton. Off to a slow start so far: .197/.300/.263; 9 SB w/2 CS; 18 Ks/8 BBs in 76 ABs

Trax has a better BA than Cliff at this point too but I'm not PH-ing the former for the latter. And if we're going to beatup Valentin and point out at every opportunity how he's suxxed in his (brief) time here can we at least acknowledge that he has close to 500 XBHs in his career and can switch-hit and play several positions? Look, I want young/cheap/5-tool players on my bench just like anyone else but those seem to be in short supply right now. So before we dump JV in the nearest trashcan and have hurlers hit in his stead, let's realize that if he's here he's going to be used and if he's not we'll need a replacement first -- prefereably one who can fill in at several roles and can swing from the left side with at least the potential of a little pop.

Trachsel - 4.0 Floyd - 1.4 LoDuca - 0.7 Matsui - 0.9 Sanchez - 0.9 Wagner - 0.6 Nady - 1.0 Reyes - 0.5

Damn!, I was just Grant Roberts until a few minutes ago. I guess I'm not invited now.

That kayaker just doesn't go back on a ball very well. That 8th inning single means that Bonds bats in the 9th. Just make sure there's nobody on Mr. Wags.

That wasn't just in the cove ... that landed about 100 ft off-shore!

FISH FOOD!!!! Way to shove that bad call up their asses Cliffy!

Edgy DC wrote: Is Chavez making a lot of difficult plays, or is he making a lot of more routine plays look difficult? He's playing a very nice CF. I'm a little late here, but the part I don't like about that last inning was; if you're going to PH for Trax don't give up an out by bunting AND THEN PH for him. One or the other is defendable but the combo doesn't sit well.

Mike Pelfrey to start for Binghamton on Saturday

Well, if that's the case then it shows that they thought the hammy was no big deal when it happened - or at least not as immediate a problem as the extra pitcher they wanted for this stretch.

* The Diaz/Feliciano swap occured first - before Beltran's hammy acted up. * I don't see how the med staff takes a hit here. Once they diagnose how there's no injury it's up to the player to assess how bad it is. They can't rate "soreness", or know how it feels if/when he runs, or how his head feels worrying over whether it's going to hurt if he pushes it. Either Beltran truly thought it would be better in a day or two of it first happening or he did a really poor job of communicating what he felt to Willie/Omar.

LoDuca - 2 Nady - 1 Matsui - 1 Heilman - 1 Glavine - 0.75 Reyes - 0.25

Diaz sprained an ankle in Norfolk and is currently unavailable -- not sure for how long.

The med staff's job is to examine the patient and evaluate what - if anything - is wrong. They did that - confirmed via an MRI - and found no injury: no tears, no fraying, etc. Beyond that there's not much [u:7f800b43b3]they[/u:7f800b43b3] can do so it's up to the other parties involved; meaning Pedro ... I mean Willie, Carlos & Omar, to project how it's going to feel 2, 4, 8, or 10 days down the line. I suspect what happened is that they initially thought it would only a day-to-day thing. The Diaz/Feliciano swap happened just the day before so the only way to bring him back was to DL him which they likely thought was risky seeing as how it would scratch him from the SD, SF & (most importantly) [u:7f800b43b3]TWO[/u:7f800b43b3] Atl series - leaving them in a position of having a healthy Carlos sitting on his ass all that time if it did turn out to require only 2-3 days. Beltran, meanwhile, seems very skittish after last year's (unrelated) leg problem and doesn't want to come back until he's sure it's 100%.

Alou has long been one of the great "hands" hitters in MLB. He has a knack for adjusting his hands during a swing - either pulling them in so as to not get jammed or otherwise correcting in mid-hack. He would have had an even better career if not for at least 2 devastating injuries which wrecked 2 full seasons and pieces of others.

Kaz's hits this season - other than his HR - haven't exactly been things of beauty, but it's a start.

Willets Point wrote: Glavine's going to give 'em back. Not yet.

FUCK!!!! that ball's outta here in about 27 parks.

And that Benitez was like ... good. It's amazing how the history re-write just continues to mount re: Armando. Anyone w/o first-hand memories trying to learn about him from reading NYC sports writers - who have referreed to him often during J. Julio articles - could only conclude that his Met career was indistinguishable from Mel Rojas and up there as one of the worst pitchers in MLB history rather than someone who chalked up ~4 years with a 2.00-ish ERA a 1.10-ish WHiP, 12 Ks/9 and a near 90% save pct.

'WHO THE FUCK IS MEL KIPER JR?' That SportsCenter tease was a typical ESPN P.O.S. They take a piece from a newspaper (at least they acknowledged where they got it from which they don't always do) that's already a day old (although they said it ran today) and talk about it as if it's current news (even though the piece said the "deal" was briefly proposed then rejected weeks ago) Had this actually been true, of course, they would have reported it as; ESPN has learned!!!! ... I had a feeling that that was what they were teasing but of course fell for it anyway.