Frayed Knot

"And of course, the response will be "he did," followed by much silence" Yeah but he never hit them when it reallllllly counted!!! (repeat as necessary)

Those guys were, of course, the ones playing in today's ST game (get it? NLDS preview) Sounds mostly like it was a pitch-off for the final spot between Oliver & Lima

A quick look at how much slack the major players on the 2006 NYM have before the boo-birds turn on their asses. Those getting a semi-pass LoDuca, Nady/Diaz -- Won't get the cat-calls until they struggle from the beginning through mid-May Floyd, Heilman -- Only if still in a funk by late June Reyes, Pedro -- Get a pass until after the A-S Break Wright -- Not unless he dances on the Shea Stadium mound and performs a ritual killing of Mr. Met while wearing a Jeter jersey Those on a Short Leash Glavine, Delgado, Beltran -- Get the raspberries at the first sign of a 2-week slump Trachsel -- During his first poor start Wagner -- First blown save Julio -- First HR and/or 3-ball count Zambrano -- During Opening Day Introductions Matsui -- As soon as the plane from Florida lands at LaGuardia

ABG wrote: Didn't a guy post here a while back desperately pushing a movement to bring back the Brewers' ball-in-glove insignia? Several times in fact. I'm not sure he knew the 2nd time that he had already been around before but it didn't much matter anyway. He expected to find a bunch of tradition-happy fans who would rush to his aid and instead found out that most of the gang here hated the old logo and had no intention of lifting a finger to help him. Poor boy was amotionally crushed.

"As an aside, what do you do when you're the president of the university and one of your professors comes out and says something like this?" Nothing. University presidents have even less control over their professors than Bud Selig has over the player's union. "Is race the reason Bonds is scrutinized? ... Is race a factor? " The main reason Bonds is being more scrutinized than the others is that he's the one approaching hallowed records. That he also seems to be the most guilty and the biggest asshole certainly adds to it.

Monday: low/mid 50s, partly cloudy & breezy* * I hate that word. I think TV stations and such don't want to be seen as bearers of bad news so they use that word because it doesn't sound as bad as 'windy'. Most places need a near hurricane before they'll concede to using 'windy' even though I've been near knocked down by 'breezy'.

Well, it's not like either of those nick-names are all that unique and couldn't have been picked up in places besides the CPF

Don't get so elitist, [url=http://www.baseball-reference.com/m/murakma01.shtml]Murakami is brought up on baseball boards[/url] all the time.

I often wondered if Koosman didn't suffer from a kind of "Seaver backlash" -- as in; 'yeah we gave that award to a NYM pitcher last year so let's go in a different direction this year' kinda thing. Seaver, of course, had won the RoY the year before. In '75 Seaver beat out SD's Randy Jones for CY in a vote that probably should have been closer than it was. Then, in '76, Jones thumped Koosman despite seriously stumbling down the stretch in a vote that I always suspected was partly based on Jones's great first half and partly based on a "make up" vote from the previous year.

<<< Hey, I'm Lenny Harris, who was just released by Florida

Monday Game 1 - Glavine Wed Game 2 - Zambrano Thurs Game 3 - Martinez Fri Game 4 - Trachsel Sat Game 5 - Glavine (on std rest due to off day Tues) Sun Game 6 - Bannister (who'll stay behind in Fla and start this Sunday to keep on track) Then, presumably, it would go pretty much in order (Z - M - T - G - B ... we need an mnemonic) after that as there aren't as many off days in April as usual.

Zambrano's in more of a PU/SU situation than Reyes mainly because of age. Zambrano's already 30 y/o and nearing his FA years which is when things come to a fish or cut bait decision. Reyes is still a year away from even becoming semi-expensive (arb-elg) and guys his age are, for the most part, still in AA. It'll be disappointing if he doesn't show progress but not yet critical to his career.

Except that Kerry Wood was making it a habit of getting injured while Dusty was still managing in San Fran. Don Baylor was his first skipper. There's also the whole 'mechinics thing' where everyone "knew" (most of them right after it occured of course) that Wood was an injury waiting to happen. Not sure any mgr or coach could have prevented it. Prior is tougher to figure - and some of his early problems were leg related. But his first full season was a not extraordinarily high 211 IPs -- although maybe the seeds were planted the previous year when he went right from college (frequently an arm-abusing factory) to a brief stint in the minors, to 19 starts (116 IPs) in the big leagues. That all makes for one long season. THAT's what I want the Mets to watch about Pelfrey. It's not always the amount of innings but sometimes the jump in workload over and above what they've previously done that's the culprit. I'm not sure whether his 8 or so months off is a plus or minus in this case. Humber speculates that maybe part of his problem was trying to do too much too soon in order to make up for his lost time after he also took a while to sign after the draft.

coupla quibbles: and a setup guy who was a failed closer from Baltimore, who'll get way too many chances to blow way too many games; Even if Julio suxx I don't think he's anything more than the 4th option at this point - or 3rd set-up man if you will. Sanchez and Heilman are more likely to be the immediate lead-ins to Wagner so it's not like a call to JJ is going to result in constant 8th inning meltdowns w/o other options. Either way, it beats the hell out of having Mike DeJean as the #1 option going into last year. a rich owner in the biggest media market in the world who requires strict adherence to a budget (eg, see Cameron and Benson trades), thus hamstringing efforts to fix the team in midstream. I don't think the owners are married to a specific budget number that they won't cross; it's more like they want to shed what is considered excess at the beginning specifically so they can add later on. Of course that's not always a good thing.

What number(s) did his dad wear? That answer may have the inside track.

He's not refusing to support the child. And let's not pretend that the paper ran with this out of some concern over child safety or deadbeat dads. This is nothing more than celebrity dirt dishing being passed off as if news.

After the story broke Johnson released a statement acknowledging that he fathered a child years prior to his current (and I believe only) marriage. It was not something that was in general public knowledge and he wanted to keep it that way in part for the girl's privacy. And yes, him filing the suit is what brought this into the public eye but it's still poor (and slimy) judgement to splash it all over a front page and to justify doing it because WE decide that $70,000 isn't significant enough for him isn't any of our business either.

Nymr83 wrote: i dont think its slimy at all, johnson should be called out on his bad parenting. Johnson's parenting doesn't affect his very public job and therefore doesn't need to be a topic for public consumption.

Making fun of Yanquis is fun and all - but this is a virtual non-story and for the Daily News to splash this all over their front page is slimy at best.

I wonder if the fact that Nady has followed up his hot start with a streak where he's currently on something like a 1 of his last 30 stretch affects the Diaz/Chavez decision?

Met bats spot Lima 2 runs in the top of the 1st ... and then man battling for the final spot in the rotation (and possibly his baseball life) coughs up a 5 spot in the bottom

The Astrodome in the Bagwell era had been altered (late '80s I think) and - while still a pitcher's park - was somewhat less punative than in it's earlier days. They probably upgraded the lighting also (as if hitting Nolan in good lighting wasn't tough enough). That deal with Bagwell's mom 2 years back was kinda funny. But, like you said, personal (or family) denials is hardly proof of non-use.

Except that Oliver is a lefty, would - if kept - be used as a LOOGY not a starter, and is pitching well this Spring something Lima is not. Lima is starting today's game btw, with Heilman sked to relieve. Also, it seems that they're still pulling excess starters to fill bullpen needs - even after the Seo/Benson trades - it gets tougher to make the case that reversing those deals would help us out here. That doesn't mean you have to like the return we got, but we def have enough starting pitching to tide us over ... at least for now.