Frayed Knot

And the pattern continues: 16 batters faced, half of them reached base, and 67 pitches (and counting) just to get 10 outs

It also shouldn't go uncommented upon that we have two, count 'em TWO, non-solo HRs today!! I think that raises our total of multi-run HRs in the past month to two.

Pete doesn't deserve as many "He did its" for this HR as Howie gave him for the one in Milwaukee last October. But, He Did It!

I'd like to thank Jurickson Profar for personally directing his batter into a DP to end the top of the 3rd there. It's like he already knew he screwed up the beginning of the play and so he figured if he could get Baldwin to 2nd then it would take him off the hook. Instead, he made it worse.

Of course if the starters keep pitching the way they've been pitching then it's not going to matter When they pitch, only that they pitched. Last 12 NYM games (of which they've lost 11 as I'm sure you're aware), looking at just the combined stats of starters*: 55 IP; 44 RA; 7.20 ERA; 1.60 WHIP 88 baserunners allowed of 254 batters faced (34.6%); they lasted an average of 4-1/2 innings and threw 18.1 Pitches/IP (20+% higher than you'd like). Looked at another way, it's 12 games and in that time they threw just shy of 1,000 pitches (995) which is essentially 1,000 pitches thrown to get through just six games seeing as how they ate up almost exactly half the innings. I know there's a desire to see pitchers go deeper into games but it's not like any of them are making a case for it. * ignoring the 'opener' and treating Frankie Montas and his three run/72 pitch outing -- 72! ... in Three Innings!! -- as the starter in his last game

One memory I have of seeing TLW for the first time was that it was in a college lecture hall that they'd use for movie nights on weekends. So when the credits are going up during the film's intro each succeeding name was cheered ... until there were a substantial bit of booing for Neil Diamond, presumably because his inclusion apparently offended the hipper-than-thou crowd and they were afraid that Neil's lack of (perceived) coolness would rub off on them somehow if they didn't register their complaints. It bothered me then and it still bothers me now on the rare occasions I think about it. Anyway, those who turned their ears off during his 3-4 minutes on stage missed a nice performance from a song of his I didn't know then and don't think I've ever heard anytime since except for when seeing that Last Waltz performance. [YOUTUBE]RurccWvJiS8[/YOUTUBE]

Billy Martin once put his paranoid mind to use by accusing 'Bernie' of being a signal-stealing spy for the Brewers from his perch behind the CF wall. The story went that someone from the Milwaukee org later pulled Billy aside and told him that the guy inside the Bernie get-up in those days was somebody's flunky nephew who couldn't steal signs if you gave him a pair of binoculars and a chair to sit in right behind the pitcher. Not sure if that assuaged Billy or not as GMS III was at least as paranoid and may or may not have planted the idea in Billy's head in the first place.

cut and pasted from the 8/9 IGT Put it this way, with five full and two partial (this one and the Covid one) seasons under his belt, Pete in the next few weeks will pass Piazza and then Lee Mazzilli and move into 12th place on the all-time NYM games played list. He's already 12th in plate appearances. At the top of the list are two lifelong Mets, one a mediocre player in Ed Kranepool (#1 in G/#2 in PA) and then David Wright (#2/#1) whose career was famously cut short. Nimmo, in 11th place, just a slim 61 Games and 73 PA ahead of Pete, is the only other full time Met ahead of him on either list. Reyes (12 seasons a Met/4 yrs elsewhere) is in 3rd. Buddy Harrelson (13/3) and Jerry Grote (11.5/4.5) (both defense-first players at defensive positions during a pitching friendly era) are 4th & 5th. Then Cleon Jones (12/1), Howard Johnson (9/5), Mookie Wilson (10.5/2.5), Darryl Strawberry (8/9), Edgardo Alfonzo (8/4), and Nimmo round out 6th thru 11th. So the numbers of offensive 'stars' who played even the majority of their career as a Met is fairly limited for going on 6-1/2 decades, which was pretty much Keith's point. Two Mets who were among the best offensive players ever for the team played only about half their careers in blue/orange: Piazza (slightly over 50%) and Keith (a bit under).

Yes, we don't KNOW ... but 'Hey Pete, Scott here. The Mets want to sign you to a contract that will postpone your FA status by three years and give you your first chance at the open market as a 1B/DH at age 33'. Pete: **** yeah, jump on it!!" I'm betting 'No' on that scenario.

It's tough naming a highlight from that movie since essentially all the performances are highlights. There may have been a few lesser gigs that wound up on the cutting room floor but if you want to call any particular number (whether from by The Band or from one of the guests) as the best of the bunch and you won't get an argument from me.

A five year deal signed in the winter of '22-'23 might have been an ideal length of contract for the Mets as it would have paid for Pete's final two arbitration seasons plus the first three years of his FA-gency before ending just as he was turning 33 years y/o. All of which also stand as reasons why Scott Boras would have talked Pete out of signing it even on the off chance that he was inclined to do so in the first place. oe: and now he ties the NYM record as I'm typing.

Replacement 1st baseman are easier to find than short-stops. And to take someone who has the range, footwork, throwing arm, hands and instincts to play top-notch SS and move him to a position where most of those skills aren't required in anywhere near the same quantity is, as I said before, a colossally dumb idea.

A. J. Ewing is a guy 'on the rise' in the NYM system according to the prospect gurus at mlb.com Another small-ish (5' 11" / 160) offensive guy, he was a 4th round draft pick in 2003 out of an Ohio HS between Cincinnati & Dayton. Listed as a 2B/OF, he is said to have "plus speed" and is starting to look like a "potential plus defender" in CF. He's also cut down on the K-rate in his 2nd year of pro ball which has been split 2025 between low-A & high-A where his .312/.413/.436 slash line shows a very good walk rate though with below average power. Turns 21 on Sunday

Anthony DiComo (mlb.com) discusses Sproat, McLean, Tong https://www.mlb.com/news/mets-prospects-mclean-sproat-tong-climbing-ranks

Vientos put up an 837 OPS (136 OPS+) at age 24 across 454 PAs last year. He's 200 points below that now (641/83) but the odds of his '24 season being an unrepeatable one-off are small. Maybe his 'true' self winds up somewhere in between, but the guy was out-HR'ing Alonso last year on a per/AB basis. That can't have been a mirage. Soto is 80 OPS points behind his career mark and 120 behind last season. Lindor is ~60 & 100 down in the same two categories.

Moving Lindor to 1B is a colossally dumb idea.

From New Jersey, played softball (catcher) for Hofstra, and then high level amateur softball. Also umpired college softball before turning to baseball. When she started in minor league ball in 2016 she was just the 7th female to do so. Article didn't mention how many are currently in the system. 48 y/o

Yup. Instead of the OPS w/Runners coming up to match the overall OPS the overall OPS has slid towards the other. When I looked at this in late June the Mets were 6th in OPS but 14th in RS. Now, six weeks later, the gap between those has closed but both are lower. Soto, who was the worst offender at the time with an OPS a stunning 500 pts lower w/runners on, is now just a mere 350-400 pts lower: Empty = 1034; Men on = 650; RiSP = 690 so I suppose that can be considered some progress even though his season OPS has dropped 100 pts since then. Today's lone run came via his 26th HR, 20 of them are solo so 26 HRs nets just 32 RBIs. The other six had one runner on so his next 3R or GS as a NYM will be his first.

Problems in dealing with 'Third Time thru the lineup' data: - small sample size: Lots of pitchers go through the lineup once and twice but fewer even start to go through a third time and if you're limiting yourself to only complete third trips thru than that reduces your sample size even further - as mentioned above: those partial third time thru trips are likely to involve only the theoretical better hitters so hitting [bAA, OPS, etc] numbers would likely skew higher In addition to teams looking at data (shaky as it might be) to make their decisions, pitching staffs are much more bullpen heavy than they used to be, both in terms of size (five has morphed into eight which becomes more like 15 as shuttle services are factored in) but also in quality. There are so many high octane arms out there who are (ideally) only going to throw 10-20 pitches in a game that it makes the gap between a starter, even a good one, with north of 75 pitches under his belt and a [6th, 7th, 8th inning] reliever is not what it once was, particularly in this era when starters are usually all-out, all the time. Back in the day the only bullpen pitcher who might be considered an improvement over a top half of the rotation starter was your end of the game "fireman" (before they called them closers). Managers might pull 4th & 5th starters in favor of someone from the pen ('they all used to go 9' is a gross exaggeration) but few out there were going to be better than Seaver or Kooz on their 3rd/4th lap around thee scorecard. Many bull penners back then were often either hopeful future starters still on their way up or aging starters on their way out. And many were simply failed starters on board to fill mop-up, long relief, or spot stars rolls. Now teams can run a conga line of dudes with nasty stuff out there starting in the 6th or 7th that it gives the manager reasons for a quick hook. Not that I'm advocating for it as a knee-jerk reaction as certainly the particulars of the pitcher and of the game need to be considered. A starter might be given the chance at the 7th/3rd-time-thru but it usually comes with a short leash which often means 'until someone gets on'. If and when that happens to the first few hitters it further negatively skews the 3rd-time data which in turn can be used to justify both a switch in that game plus the wisdom of an early switch as a matter of course as you start to breed a 'better too early than too late' kid of mindset.

No official announcements that I've heard about, but it just occurred to me that Anthony Rizzo isn't playing anywhere this season, major league or minor, after 14 ML seasons and 18 years after being drafted in the 6th round by the Red Sox. The Yanx bought out his option last winter at which point he became a FA. He turns 36 on Friday.

I suppose that depends on how interested you are in him. It's quite comprehensive, or 'long' if you prefer that term, dealing with everything from childhood to the present. It does get a little repetitive at times, as in, What's Billy depressed about now? [father abandonment, bad record deals, life on the road, failed marriage(s), bad reviews, dishonest financial manager/brother-in-law, etc.]. But it's not a total inside job. The film makers appear to be free to discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly. All four wives chime in, as does his adult daughter, some ex-bandmates (even the one whose wife he stole and the one that sued him), plus thoughts from Bruce, Sting, Jackson Browne, and others in the industry. So I probably wouldn't recommend trying to pull it off in one sitting, if you're interested in the subject you'll probably find it worthwhile.

I hope you realize KC that you just schooled an Irishman about potatoes! This is true! We were looking to retain the name of our college team and come up with a mascot. I met with consultants who worked with us on ideas. I have to imagine that actually changing the names has about five more layers of complexities. The food things are all "alternate" identities. Some are neat, lots not so much. Then they all have the "Cupa de Diversion" latino identities, also with some neat, and lots not so much. I think Rumble Ponies is not a great name, but the Brooklyn Cyclones is brilliant! Almost all of those cutesy two word names for minor league sports teams emanated from the same marketing firm. I forget the name but, IIRC, they were based in San Diego. So, yeah, they'd find something 'unique' about the location and hunt around for a name off of that: 'Hey, I hear horsey carousals are big in Binghamton ... I've got it, Rumble Ponies!!!!' And the Jacksonville Suns abandoned their longtime name in favor of Jumbo Shrimp, and then there's the Yard Goats, Iron Pigs, etc. There's nothing like acting like everyone else in an attempt to be unique.

This two-part (Some 4 hrs+) docu on Joel is currently running on HBO

You wouldn't know there were ANY problems from watching/listening to Davis & Smoltz in today's intro. One the one hand they were likely shuttled to and from their 5* Hotel and may not even know about logistical issues. On the other hand, if they do know they're probably under strict orders not to mention them.