Frayed Knot

I recall of story from a year or two back about him dealing with a host of medical issues and then read recently that he was in hospice care so not really a surprise. And, y'know, 85. He was a Met when I was very young but also already learning about baseball and the Mets so he was one of my early favorites.

Certainly part of the answer is not just limiting pitches/game but in trying to reign in cumulative innings for a pitcher coming off an injury. - in his first season ('22) after being drafted, Scott threw 59 innings across two levels plus the AZ Fall League - in 2023 he totaled 88 innings across three levels. Not sure if there were missed portions in either of those seasons or if he was just being slow-rolled (or rick-rolled) - in 2024 he totaled 90 innings between 9 starts each w/Syracuse and the big club. But his season ended on 7/21 of that year and he went on to miss not just the rest of that season but all of '25 plus the first month this year - now with 60 innings under his belt this year and approx 1/3 of the season still to go, he's on pace to throw as many or more innings than he ever has following about a 21 month layoff/rehab. At least one school of thought is that it's not the number of innings that's the problem it's how big a jump over whatever you had thrown before.

So, number retirement ceremony on the 24th then?

Sham-Wow!!

Now 6 hits + 4 walks + an error ... and all three who scored had to drive themselves in.

Nine baserunners thru six [4 hits, 4 walks, 1 error] but the only one to score had to drive himself in.

Out of challenges by the bottom of the 5th

All those who bet the 'Under' on runs scored once the Mets had bases loaded/none out please come up to collect your winnings. The O/U was 1.5

The Philly pitching came out for a mound visit and he looks like he's wearing pajamas.

But the ratio between prospects and teams wouldn't have been any different. And, besides, that isn't my point. The point is that if the Mets are going to be dealing away any of their under-performing pieces and/or FAs-to-be then it's not going to land them the 2026 equivalent of Steve Henderson: a 24 y/o dominating AAA but yet to have ML experience on account of being stuck behind two in-their-prime corner OFs [Griff Sr. and MVP to-be G. Foster].

Well, sure, but Henderson wasn't some mere 'top-30' prospect. He was a 24 y/o with a 900+ OPS at AAA (60 G) which tacked onto the near-900 OPS he had across 134 games the previous season in AA. He would have been at or near the top of not only Cincy's list but likely an upper echelon prospect in all MLB.

And yet he seemed to go out of his way to act as if all ties he had with Houston were immediately severed as soon as the 27th out of WS Game 7 was recorded. Between that and the Boras Corp hat, none of that smells like an accident even as acting that way accomplished nothing and changed nothing going forward. It was just weird.

I was going to say that the 'help sooner than later' philosophy is at least part of what went on in the off-season where Stearns made trades that many of us didn't like then and like even less now that they've struggled or been injured or been both. And if it's lower-upside but closer to ready types, those guys aren't likely to be any more promising than Baty or Vientos (or Alvarez or Luisangel or Mauricio). They'll theoretically be younger, cheaper, and with six years of control rather than around three (although who knows if that will all change with the new CBA). iow, anyone who is close to ready but is no better than the back half of some team's top-30 list could very well be a downgrade from what you're giving for him(s).

McCullers has been injured -- seemingly forever -- as he's appeared in just 8 games this season and a total of 32 since the start of 2022. But maybe he's ready to come back (hasn't pitched since mid-May) so the Astros are looking to cut ties with their former 1st round (41st overall) draft pick and the Tigers are hoping for short term contributions in a year with a winnable division and a weak AL overall. McCullers will be a FA this winter.

But then he had that weird moment in the post-game locker room interviews where someone asked him about the game (the WS Game 7 clincher for the Nats) and his answer was that he didn't think it was his place to answer because once the game was over it meant that he was technically no longer a member of the team. If any Astros fan heard that it was quite obvious that there was a snowball's chance in a Houston summer that he was coming back. A Yanqui fan all his life (despite being a SoCal kid his family drove his 11 y/o self to Phoenix to attend a one of the 2001 WS games -- and he has a picture to prove it) his next move was likely the most obvious one ever.

I remember when we used to talk about the post-ASG Wednesday as the longest day of the year as there was no baseball scheduled and that was before they made it even longer by making the break a four-day affair. And now, when we get a break by being in the one game that only takes a three day break, I find myself feeling like the break this year wasn't nearly long enough.

That tends to happen when the post is made on a word sheet of some sort then cut 'n pasted onto the forum. So either the reader needs to switch to dark mode to read it or the poster can color his post at the source before transferring it here. Every once in a while you'll see me put up a thread with Magenta type which is a clue that I wrote it on a word doc before moving it here. I wouldn't have guessed Cole because I figured he wasn't in Houston long enough. But the Astros got their money's worth with him (even if he mentally checked out of the team about five minutes after the 2019 WS was over) as he made 65 starts and pitched 413 innings in those two seasons AND turned in by far the best K-rate of his career while he was there.. - five seasons in Pittsburgh = 8.4 K/9; six w/the Yanx = 10.3/9; And in between there were those two seasons w/the 'Stros where he put up 13.1 Ks//9 which is just honking ridiculous for a starter to maintain for that long, but 400+ innings at just shy of a K+1/2 per is how you get over 600 in such a short time.

Not that the 98th game of the season really the start of the second half, but hopefully it's a restart of something. This game was moved up from Friday to Thursday so as to give ESPN a stand-alone game because they really, really wanted one. Actually I suspect it's so most of their employees (y'know, aside from the few baseball guys who remain at the station) can spend an extra day in Las Vegas following the ESPY awards tonight [aka: the Four Letter Network's annual salute to themselves] And, btw, who but ESPN would have an hour long preview show for themselves. What do they do in that, ask each anchor who he's wearing? Ask them to twirl on the red carpet while wondering if that's his wife or daughter on his arm? Christian Scott faces Aaron Nola who is basically their only pitcher NOT having a good season. Of course that didn't stop him from holding us to two earned over five back in mid-June, although the Mets later tallied three runs in the 8th to win the game 6-4. So perhaps it's better to say that he's having a rough go of it this season against Good teams. So it's Thursday at 7:10 exclusively on ESPN, followed by an off day Friday, then Saturday at 4:05 and Sunday at 1:35, both on SNY

...

Jim Kaat

So hopefully we'll see some of these names on the big club three or four years from now when maybe the team isn't dwelling in the cellar. Round 5 / Pick 152: Luke McNeillie, RHP U Florida, 3/17/05 6 / 181: Alex Petrovic, RHP, Auburn, 5/27/04 7 / 210: Aidan Keenan: RHP, Stanford, 3/7/05 8 / 240: Landon Koenig, RHP, Mississippi, 11/23/04 9 / 270: Ryan Tayman, C, R/R, Cal Poly, 8/26/05 10 / 300: Nate Isler, RHP, Dartmouth, 10/25/04 11 / 330: Kuhio Aloy, OF, R/R, 7/13/05 12 / 330: AJ Krodel, RHP, UC Santa Barbara, 5/11/05 13 / 390: Jacob Madrid, C, HS/CA, 11/02/07 14 / 420 15 / 450 16 / 480 17 / 510 18 / 540 19 / 570 20 / 600

Your 2026 New York Mets: Finding new ways to lose on a daily basis. Today it was: Bloop, Pop-up, E-6, Walk, Walk, Bloop ... THEN the double play! That they weren't going to score in the bottom of the 10th, even with the Gift runner, was a foregone conclusion.

Joe MiQing

Ask not for whom relieves the starter, the Tolle's replaced by Bello

Jose Oquendo