Frayed Knot

Are those WHOMP scores adjusted for different eras? I mean the bling factor is certainly higher in the '90s & '00s but the clothing factor will never match some of the outfits strutted around in during the late 1970s all of which makes it tough to objectively measure the pimpness factor over different times. Just as it'll be virtually impossible for a pitcher to match Gibson's 1.12 ERA from '68, it'll be just as tough for a modern day player to come close to Clyde Fraizer's duds from back in the day. I won't accept WHOMP as an accurate metric until I'm more convinced it can adjust for these variables.

Due to pitch count limits that's going to be everyone's strategy. It virtually has to be. Always fun to see Mt. St. George erupting all over the papers today about this tourney and about his "disappointment" in the few of his players who the Yanx didn't threaten (I mean encourage) out of participating. I wonder what he's actually more mad about?: that they might get hurt; or that those marquee names won't be in Tampa to ramp up attendance in ST games.

I was reading a story the other day about places where phone companies have been permitted to enter the cable market and compete with established providers. In places where it's already happened the existing cable companies wound up dropping rates by 25%. By the same principle, if programmers had another outlet to reach Cablevision customers there'd be very little hard-ball playing and denial of services. But of course the cable systems all deny acting as monopolies.

ARod wasn't a dodged bullet, although the price tag was. I believe that deal would have been a bad one for whatever team signed him, and this notion that exists among some Met fans that he so loved the idea of coming here that he would have cut his price tag by $100mil or so to be a fantasy.

A few more details Mainly: - roof idea, retractable or otherwise, scrapped, although a partial covering over some of the seating - a look inspired by both Ebbets Field and the Hell's Gate Bridge - 42,500 ("wider and deeper") seating capacity, a number which apparently doesn't include lux-boxes, private suites, some standing rooms, and restaurant seating - yeah restaurants, two of them There's a public hearing at Flushing Town Hall on Feb 27th if any of you civic minded types want to go make a nuisance of yourselves. Still shooting for a 2009 opening.

Nymr83 wrote: Any deal that involved trading away David Wright is a huge bullet dodged. 'Cept I don't think there have been any. ]the rumored Soriano for Reyes deal would have sucked Agreed, although I suspect this was more fan/media speculation than actual talk between the teams. And that's part of the problem with this exercise; deciding what was actual and what is made-up fantasy. ]put Ramon Hernandez on the list...if he'd gotten even as much as the Mets offered they'd have come to regret it. We'll need to see how the next few years of his career goes before we pronounce this one a dodged bullet, not to mention how the progress goes for LoDuca and those who were dealt for him..

I also remember that there were more than a few Met fans who were so down on Floyd at this point last year -- ["ya just KNOW he's gonna get hurt"] -- that they were urging that trade to be made, if for no other reason than Sammy would only be with us for 1 year and it would get us "out from under" Floyd's deal for 2006.

Guillen was a yappy sort to begin with and his WS win is just giving him a bigger stage and some extra chutzpah to expand his act. These days, the list of those he hasn't taken shots at is like the list of those who haven't been linked to Angelina Jolie; it's small, it's getting smaller by the minute, and, just by process of elimination, might get around to you at some point in the near future.

Like I said it was mostly in runners-on situations early on, and it got him tabbed as the type who could hit ... but "never when it counted" yyybbb

McReynolds was in that unenviable position of being better than he was given credit for while never being as good as he he "was supposed to" be. Joe McIlvane was the guy who wanted him saying that he was the best amateur player he ever saw (he wasn't around when they were scouting Strawberry). He envisioned him as a 40+/125/.325 guy w/speed & defense. That shortfall plus his personality (or lack thereof) explains his lack of popularity here. I'd see him win games by running over a catcher, by crashing into a wall, by throwing someone out on the bases, ... and then walk off the field looking like someone had run over his dog and inevitably he'd be accused of not caring. One of my subtle favorites was a tied 9th inning game at Shea: bases loaded/1 out, KMac on 1st. Batter (forget who) hits a grounder to 2nd and it looks like a DP and extra-innings ... except that McReynolds knocks the SS about 9 yards into short leftfield and he never gets off the throw as the winning run scores. The other problem is that he got off to a rotten start in his first month here, particularly with runners on, thereby almost immediately acquiring the virtually impossible to shake (cuz it's self-fulfilling as Mr. A. Rod could tell you) "no clutch" label.

Aside from old Met games, I'm not sure I've ever turned on 'Channel 9' even once in my life.

Team USA announced their final 30-man roster yesterday. Only Wagner is on it from our squad. Wright & LoDuca got the boot as they cut down from the initial 50-some roster. [u:7ed22b1613]Pitchers[/u:7ed22b1613] Rogers Clemens Jake Peavy C.C. Sabathia Dontrelle Willis Chad Cordero Brian Fuentes Todd Jones Brad Lidge Joe Nathan Scot Shields Huston Street Mike Timlin Billy Wagner Dan Wheeler [u:7ed22b1613]Catchers[/u:7ed22b1613] Michael Barrett Brian Schneider Jason Varitek [u:7ed22b1613]Infielders[/u:7ed22b1613] Derrek Lee Mark Teixeira Chase Utley Michael Young Derek Jeter Chipper Jones Alex Rodriguez [u:7ed22b1613]Outfielders[/u:7ed22b1613] Johnny Damon Jeff Francoeur Ken Griffey Matt Holliday Vernon Wells Randy Winn, of Giants Decent starters, good bullpen, great IF, so-so outfield

IT'S LIMA TIME!!!! Or maybe not. Actually, hopefully not. He'd probably be real popular in NYC if he can still pitch. I remember having some field level LF seats a few years back when he was still with Houston and he was making a whole buncha young friends by enthusiastically signing 'graphs. Problem is, aside from a brief span a few years ago he hasn't proven that he can with any kind of effectiveness. As mentioned above, it's a no-risk move. But if we need him it prolly means things aren't going well.

You're running a taped show tonight?!?!?!Now where am I going to call when I want to discuss luge?

Neil Best's column in Newsday (last Friday?) mentioned that industry insiders thought that things would get done by the start of the season. The agreement that eventually got hammered out with YES pretty much established the going rate and that a channel of this type should be part of a package as opposed to on a seperate pay tier should grease the skids for the new SNY. They also don't think Cablevision has the clout to fight this as hard as they may have in the past since they can't afford to lose more customers to satellite. That said, none of the involved parties are saying anything except "we're negotiating".

ABG wrote: PNC is breathtaking. Of course, one of the homey things about it is that it seats only about 35,000. I doubt the Mets will go that far in replication. Rumors have it that they're looking at something on the order of 42,000 in seating. I think that's too few for NYC. Doesn't have to be another 56,000 monstrosity but it seems to me you'd want something a bit closer to 50K. ]I just finalized my summer vacation plans the other day, and now I almost regret that it doesn't include Pittsburgh! That might be the first time that sentence has ever been uttered.

Seems like Jeffie suffers from PNC envy. Of course, as the article mentioned, it's never going to have the view. It'll be too far away to see Manhattan (and will face the wrong way to boot) and there's a highway in the way of the waterfront at Flushing Bay.

I think that maybe they just didn't list saves in box-scores at that point. There's not really any discretion involved in that stat (unfortunately). Other oddities from today's viewpoint: 1) 4-1/3 IPs for "closer" McGraw 2) An extra-inning playoff game played in just 3:07 !!!

Doesn't appear that it's been officially released yet. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3646489.html

But, of course, that's part of the question; whether the Wilpons are going to have a say in any potential re-hire or if Mr. 'Full Autonomy' will make that call independantly.

I remember the batter in that liner off Matlack's noggin as being Atlanta's Marty Perez. Bases were loaded at the time and it wound up as a 2-run double as the ball richocheted into the NYM dugout. Maybe some digging on Retrosheet or UMDB can confrim any of the above but, either way, the date on that commemorative card is definitely wrong.

Zvon wrote: I dont know how, but Peterson always comes off like guru when things are goin good and when things are goin bad the press sharks ignore him and go after others blood. That doesn't explain why he took the lion's share of the blame for the Kazmir trade even though it's illogical to think that the pitching coach is dictating major trades. ]The only thing he's proved to me is that he never thinks he's wrong. This is the part of his rep that I don't get. I can't think of anyone who is more soft-spoken, more media-adverse, and blows his own horn LESS than Rick Peterson.

I'm not too bothered by this. Yeah the IOC is dominated by stuffy and corrupt Europeans diplomats who don't care about baseball in part because they have little chance at winning and are busy stuffing the summer games with junk like rythmic gymnastics. But the best fits for the Olympics have always been those sports where the Olympics are that sport's biggest stage: track & field, swimming, skiing, skating, volleyball, etc. For basketball, baseball, soccer & tennis it's a minor sideshow that means little in the pecking order of accomplishments. To that end, I'd prefer seeing softball stay than baseball, those players have no other major venue. Besides, we've got the WBC all ready to roll.

Yeah, but he hides it so well.

Two words: Broken Bats When he was on his game there were lots of 'em.