Frayed Knot

Mr. Koo pitched 2 scoreless for the win. CH Park with the save. Ichiro stuck a rather large foot in his mouth over this game. Seems that a few weeks ago Ichiro not only predicted a Japanese victory but went on to explain how Japan would play in a manner which will show why countries like Taiwan & Korea won't be on their level for at least 30 years. Oops. Both Korea & Japan will advance to the next round so this game didn't have a lot of immediate meaning ... but the Koreans were pretty damn happy over it. Both Chinas (communist & otherwise) are eliminated.

Yeah not great, but I kinda liked it. It was also my first introduction to Katie Holmes (I never saw that teen TV show she was in) and she was cute as a bug in it. Now her hookup and pregnancy with Tom Cruise (and subsequent breakup?) makes her seem kind of, I dunno ... tainted.

Some notes from game 2: - Mets lose to Cards 11-8 - Steve Schmoll (the other guy in the Seo deal) coughs up 4 in the 9th - Julio Franco gets plunked on the elbow. Leaves game but expects to be OK. No truth to rumors that X-Rays revealed clues to the Dead Sea Scrolls - Yusaku Iriki (don't lose that number) started and pitched 2 scoreless ("he's short", says Eddie Coleman) - A KazMat error and several HBPs from Darren Oliver lead to early runs - Something named R. Cova gave up 4 StL runs in an inning of work - Delgado remains perfect as a Met; now 5-for-5 And if you get a chance to check out any highlights, see if they show the HR that Ryan Howard hit off the Yanx. He hit 2 actually; the first cleared the RF fence and landed near the back of the grassy knoll behind it. The 2nd one cleared the fence, cleared the knoll, cleared the wall behind the knoll, then it cleared the area behind the wall and the fence behind that and maybe a 2nd fence as well. It was at this point that I pretty much lost sight of it but it looked to be headed for the highway which runs well beyond all that stuff. Impressive.

I tuned in briefly to the Korea-China matchup and at one point the Korean lineup had Lee, followed by Lee, followed by Lee. I think Lee was pretty good.

Fathers: Mookie Yogi Gus Bell (father & grandfather)

]I don't guess we'll ever know, but I wonder what $$ figure young David and his agent had in mind? Half-a-mil maybe? Not sure how many 1+ year players have reached that. Upon a little research: Jeter: $550K following R-o-Y season & coming off a much lower ($130K) ML min. Only 1 year of service (as opposed to Wright 1-1/2) I remember the Yanx renewing Jeter in his 3rd year (at $700K) when he wanted more causing some grumbling on his part. He was then arb-elg for the next 3 years as they went 1 season at a time and didn't go long- term w/him until his FA year. Pujols: $600K off one of the great R-o-Y years of all time and a $200K ML min Also just 1 year ML service StL went long-term w/him after his 3rd season

Well, I think Wright's point (and that of those who are objecting here) is that he's NOT being rewarded for a stellar rookie-ish season. Essentially they're giving him a salary based on service time more than on what he accomplished in that short span. If there were another player with the same year-and-change time but mediocre stats how much less could they pay him ... 350K?, $340K? ML min is already something like 325K so that's the point you're starting from. Like I said, the 2nd yr salary based on service time is pretty much standard practice around the league apparently - but the counter argument is that Wright's the type of guy for whom you'd make the exception. They chose not to.

Back to topic; I don't guess we'll ever know, but I wonder what $$ figure young David and his agent had in mind? Half-a-mil maybe? Not sure how many 1+ year players have reached that. On a good note, the one thing that did NOT happen (though occasionally does in these cases ) is that the team didn't "punish" the player for not accepting their number by sticking him with an even lesser figure. "Oh ... so you don't want to sign for 374K eh? OK, in that case we're renewing you at $330K" We now return you to your discussion of large, hairy moosecocks, already in progress.

Korea shuts out Taipei 2-0 with JW Seo getting the win. Japan then thumps mainland China 18-2 in a game halted after 8 on the mercy rule

My Cablevision FitTV is ch 64 while 73 is some Spanish language station -- but they can always just swap things around cuz they do like keeping those like channels together. I'm just pissed that I won't be able to watch the hot chicks on their exercise balls anymore.

Isn't Tito just one of those all-purpose ethnic (Spanish? ... Italian?) nicknames meaning something along the lines of 'kid' or 'sonny-boy'? BB-Ref, like 'The Baseball Encyclopedia' before it, lists players by the name they're best known by. I never heard the father referred to as anything but Tito hence its use as the main heading. And while I've heard the son called Tito (moreso recently then during his playing days) it's not the first thing that comes to mind ergo it's listed as a nickname

Renewal is a fairly standard practice everywhere. Wright's still 2 years away from arbitration and probably at least as far from being offered a long (or even long-ish) term contract. You can argue that he's a special case because of his success over his first year and a half but the Yanx & Marlins did the same with Jeter & Cabrera who had starts at least as good. Jeter, as I recall, did his share of grumbling over it at the time.

From Mets.com: "The Mets have sold the contract of left-handed reliever Dae-Sung Koo, who wasn't very effective in most of his 33 appearances with the Mets last season, to the Hanwha Eagles in Korea." Well, that's one lefty out of the sweepstakes. So long Mr. Koo. Also: The Mets "renewed" the contract of David Wright, for $374,000 Essentially, because Wright has no power in negotiations for another two years ("I've got no hand" says David, "I need to get hand!") he can negotiate for what he thinks he deserves but the club has the power to simply assign him a contract amount with or without his agreement if it doesn't want to meet that price. The Mets decided to not make a special case for Wright and instead stuck with "their formula" basing the amount on service time with a cost-of-living increase. As a result his salary was upped from last year's $322,500. Wright's only comment on the matter was "respectful disagreement". It's the team's first salary renewal since Butch Huskey in 1998. All other remaining contracts were dealt with as well - all for the "3 & under" guys. Reyes, with a year & change more service time than Wright, signed for $401,500

Johnny Dickshot wrote: Are you saying "more and shorter" beats "fewer and longer"? I would, and for reasons having nothing to do with archiving.

FWIW, my Cablevision is running an announcement (since last night I think) that they are dropping one channel at the end of March (the FitTV network) which certainly gets you thinking that they're doing it in order to clear space for a new channel to be added.

I should have read Rubin's column first instead of repeating things I heard from various radio sources - most of which turned out to be incorrect; "Players on WBC active rosters are not permitted to participate in Grapefruit League games once the tournament begins. So even though the Mets got special permission for Martinez to remain in Port St. Lucie during the tournament and to join the Dominican team only for his games, Martinez would have been barred from spring-training games, potentially setting back his preparation for the season." Only for injury or bereavement replacement can a player be added to the tourney at a later stage.

"Do you believe in miracles?" YES!!!!

Except that the reason Pedro isn't pitching is that he's way behind in where he should be at this point. That's a bad thing, not a good. I'd rather he be healthy and pitching for the DR.

OK, maybe that rule applies to exhib-games after a particular date. ARod, Jeter & Damon are playing too.

I just find it funny that most of the last 10 people to register (including several in the last few days) have never posted at all.

No you're right, I had it wrong. Turns out there's even a rule for this WBC where a player who participates in an exhibition game with his reg team CAN'T then go join his national WBC team. Not that Pedro has been in an official ex-game yet (nor have the Mets even had one) but the speculation I heard (and then repeated) that he had the option of doing one then the other isn't true. Bottom line: he's out of WBC entirely.

]The first thought has to be to tie the game first. Also to not be redundant.

An intentional HBP in that spot is a bad move. The first thought has to be to tie the game first. An HBP is a dead ball and no run scores. I suspect his move was mostly instinctive but probably with some forethought as well. There are times when I'm sure players go to the plate knowing that an HBP is a good thing and my guess is that they'll remind themselves of that in certain spots in order to supress the regular instinct of getting out of harm's way. Did Mookie KNOW as he was doing it that skipping out of the way results in a passed ball? ... Probably not -- but w/o that forethought to remain IN the way it turns out to be the smart move. An HBP results in a new batter w/a fresh count and the winning run closer but they were well aware that Stanley's sinker (and perhaps Gedman's less than great blocking skills - I still think that one was more his fault than his pitcher's) could hand them what they needed there on a platter. Harrelson at 3rd reportedly said as much to Mitchell. I don't buy the idea that the ball-in-face ST incident had anything to do with it.

Pedro now apparently out for all rounds in addition to the previously announced 1st-round no-show. I suppose he'll remain on their roster so could conceivably decide that he's OK and parachute in in the DR reaches a final, but he's almost certain to skip the whole thing. Big bad Vlad also out due to recent deaths in the family. BA presents the WBC's five best players you've never heard of

Do you EVER have anything intelligent to say?