Frayed Knot

I've seen Nady take some less-than-optimal routes to fly balls since he's been here but he always manages to wind up where the ball is. That one throw was lousy but his arm seems at least adequate. In short I'd say he's maybe mediocre out there but much less mistake-prone than Diaz who has a tendancy to be a train-wreck at times.

I want the big bats in my lineup starting more than 130 games/year and am not real anxious to have my #1 prospect sitting even more often instead of playing everyday at AAA.

There is a certain amount of trust that is supposed to exist among GMs where they at least try not to be unethical with each other concerning things like player health. Yes, you still have your own doctors check out the guy (no trade goes through w/o it) but a physical can only tell you so much and I get the idea that the TB guys were less than honest concerning Zambrano's history leading up to the trade. That the TB crew (now being replaced w/new ownership) were considered somewhat as pariahs within MLB circles was probably the biggest caution sign that Duquette ignored while making that deal. I think it all probably goes back to the fact that the decision to deal for Zambrano seems to have been so set in stone that they then agreed to whatever conditions it took to make it - including ignoring who they were dealing with.

Hence the 'Jr.' part

"I can't see why anybody whould have a large problem not starting once every fifth or sixth day instead of every tenth" Re-phrased that could read as; 'we're developing a plan where we make sure our multi-million dollar sluggers (Beltran, Floyd, maybe Delgado) miss at least 17%-20% of our games'

Met lineup: Reyes - SS Woodward - 2B Delgado - 1B Wright - 3B Nady - RF Castro - C Valentin - LF Chavez - CF Glavine - P Meanwhile, we can't complain too much as the Braves go with a ST/split squad looking IF 1B - Brian Jordan (LaRoche sitting w'the lefty Glavine going) 2B - I forget already (just heard it earlier) but Giles may have broken a finger sliding into 2nd last night SS - Tony Pena Jr 3B - Betemit, moves to 3rd while Orr sits cuz of the lefty

Minaya's quoted in one of the papers as saying it'll be next week before we'll see Matsui.

]I can never remember the rules though about call-ups and call-downs and how many times it can be done before other teams can snatch him and when his free agency clock starts. Conditions vary depending on the status of the guy you're calling up, but here's what would be involved with Milledge: - He's not yet on the 40-man roster so would need to be added first. That would entail taking someone off it such as was done when adding Feliciano (and while I doubt too many are crying over the loss of Iriki, with the lack of starting depth at the ML level you never know when a guy like him might be valuable - even if only temporarily). - 2006 would become his first "option year". This is probably small potatoes as I suspect we'll see him at some point this year anyway even if it's not until Sept call-ups. Plus, if he's as good as projected than you're not going to be worried about have the ability to farm him out 3 years down the road. And if he's not as good as projected ... - You'd also "start the clock" on his ML service time which *MIGHT* speed up his eligibility for Arb and FA. If it's only a temp call-up the 10-15 days he's active won't change a thing. I doubt we'll see him anytime soon. If Beltran needs DL-ing than Diaz comes back and if Beltran isn't DL'ed than there's no room for him. The '4-into-3' theory works OK if you've got guys who are mix-n-match types but it's not like a healthy Beltran, Floyd or even Nady as he's hitting now are going to sit out much and you're not going to bring Lastings up just to platoon. At least not yet.

Well, Piazza talked to "press gatherings" virtually every day; otherwise known as groups of reporters gathered around his locker, as they did on a regular basis for all of the "name" players and a number of the lesser ones as well. If we want to label that "a press conference" than Mike held one almost daily on almost any subject you want to name. Even the 'I'm Not Gay' "announcement" was more an answer to a hanging question while a group of scribes and mikes were around than it was a formal press set-up.

Feliciano - 1.5 Woodward - 1 Julio - 0.5

Leiter's actually pretty good (IMO) on the mike - at least for a neophyte. He was good in the playoff games he did a year or two back. But here's the thing, the Yank pub machine is trying to pass him off as if he has some great Yanqui pedigree on account of him starting there (late '80s) and ending there (late '05). But do they realize that he has all of ELEVEN wins as a NYY!!! His MFY career was so brief and interrupted that last year was his winning-est year in pinstripes (tied actually with one other year at 4). He's also like the 15th color analyst they have over there in some sort of seemingly random rotation: Murcer, Singleton, Kaat, O'Neill, and probably some others I can't think of right now. Mostly he seems to be appearing at the expense of Kaat who's my fave over there. I think Kaat's either being pushed out or cutting back on his own (I've read both).

Various Observations: 1) If you're gonna not hit and gonna not pitch ... you might as well do them on the same night. Less frustrating that way. 2) For all of Zambrano's "STUFF" he really seems to lack a killer out pitch. Every RBI tonight was w/2 outs and many of them were with 2 strikes. It was an overall sucky game which was actually within the realm of actually being a good game except that he couldn't put 3 or 4 hitters away when he had to (I know ... other than that Mrs. Lincoln how was the play?). More frustrating that way. 3) I like both Keith and (to a lesser extent) Darling but I've never been a fan of 3-man booths. These 3 aren't as bad as most but I still prefer 2 and it would certainly avoid some of the confusion of voices and kissy-face stuff that was being talked about. 4) Best line of the night: Keith: 'If David Wright were born in the '50s he'd have been a Mouseketeer' 5) Not that it mattered tonight, but I'm always amazed at how many balls are hit directly at Atlanta fielders. I know you can study charts and play to your pitchers' strength and all that but it still seems to happen for them more often than can possibly be explained by forethought. Baseball's just not that predictable. 6) At least the Yanx got embarrased. After 4 or their first 5 batters scored in the top of the 1st: (Jeter triple, Sheff single, ARod HR, Giambi HR) staking the Big Eunuch to a big lead before he even took the mound ... he didn't make it out of the 4th and they wound up getting whomped 10-5 7) At least it was quick (2:10)

ESPN in general - and not just a few commentators specifically - are def carrying the water for Bonds. It's not just the show and their almost knee-jerk reaction of cross-promoting everything connected with the ESPN/ABC/Disney world, but they think all of us are still hanging on every HR he hits as they break into SportsCenter, other games, and certainly BB2N in order to bring us **Live Coverage** of Barry's current AB. I do believe it was someone however at ESPN that suggested that the series be re-named [u:d74aa88ef4]Bonds on Bond[/u:d74aa88ef4] if these perjury charges go through.

Wanda Feliciano needs a shave

Elster88 wrote: Can Franco play the outfield or second? He could and did play 2nd during the Reagan administration. Not so sure about now.

I'm just speaking in general here. Same, btw, goes for the Benson/Julio-Maine deal.

Let's be careful about declaring winners (or losers for that matter) in trades after jsut two weeks. These things have a habit of changing either rapidly or eventually.

Martinez - 3.1 Delgado - 1.5 Nady - 1.8 LoDuca - 1.4 Floyd - 0.1 Sanchez - 1.1 Wagner - 1.0

Diaz's plane could turn around and bring him back but only if the Mets [u:45f0de354a]DL somebody[/u:45f0de354a] -- not just to come back whist Cliffy & Carlos sit for a few days riding the stationary bike. Without a DL situation I think it's 10 days before he can return. I suspect the plan - the orignial one anyway before Cliffy's whatever - was to get an extra pitcher for the 'Lanta series and then swap out one of them for Matsui when we hit the left coast.

"what benefit do WE, the taxpayers, get out of it?" A better ballpark that the team owners are paying for most of. Perfect? Probably not, but a damn sight better than the deal most cities have struck with teams.

Not obvious at all. The silly part is pretending that re-jiggering a few thousand seats will provide the team with the same benefits as a new park.

This discussion is getting very silly.

"you can rip out ALL the seats and put new ones in facing wherever you want for a relative pittance (relative to the cost of a new park that is.)" And then all you'll have to deal with is the rows of seats in the back of the Loge section where there are restricted "letter-box" type views, and the rows in the back of the Mezzanine section where there are restricted "letter-box" type views, and the vast sections of the Upper Deck where the seats are in a different zip code.

WFAN not saying nothin bout it

So that's just 60 out of 236 (by my count) home games ... well I should certainly hope they'd nail that one. It makes sense that the home record would be better than the road and that tracking the 'Shea' portion of it eliminates the two worst years ('62 & '63) but I'm surprised the record's that good seeing as how we're nowhere near a .500 record overall. Which reminds me that I read somewhere that the Astros/Colts franchise has a chance to go above .500 for their existance this year. They'll need another approx 90-win season but they're knocking at the door either way. Intereting hwo the routes of the two expansion cousins have differred: - one franchise has little hope of sniffing .500 unless they ring up about 15 consect winning seasons ... but has 2 WS championships and 2 other NL Pennants - while the other is on the verge of evening-up their record; but has never won a championship and, until 2 years ago, were without even a playoff series victory.