Frayed Knot

Lefty Specialist wrote: I hate how they build Jake up as THE GREATEST PITCHER OF ALL TIME. Inevitably he's going to have a stinker; not saying it's tonight but it'll come. And how they harp on THE GREATEST HALF-SEASON IN MAJOR LEAGUE HISTORY last year. He was great, but he broke down and you get the feeling that he's one awkward pitch away from going back on the infinite Injured list. I'm a Debbie Downer, but I hold my breath every time he takes the mound. To me it's not the injury fear so much as the peddling of an expectation of perfection that NO ONE can meet ... even him. You get the opinion that some fans are disappointed when he records out by non-K's.

Jim Kaat, alongside Costas, is doing his final baseball broadcast on MLB.TV tonight (NYY v TOR) They just put up a graphic of a game he once pitched against Randy Jones in May 1977 Final Score Padres 4 - Phillies 1 12 total hits, just 2 Ks, 3 BBs, Time of Game: 1:20

How does Fried go out in public with that pitiful excuse for a mustache?

There are always going to be hits and misses, especially in the int'l cuz you have to sign those guys so young. And the Braves have had their share of 1st round misses as well and particularly seem to miss more on pitching. The rate of their success though with young position players and the speed at which they hit the ground running seems to set them apart. Eddie Harris had barely 800 minor league PAs over one full season and pieces of two others including less than 200 above A-ball and then enters the majors as a five tool ROY candidate worthy of a long term deal in less than half a season. Grissom, from the same draft and virtually the same age, goes from an 11th round pick to ML in right about 1,000 PAs but less than 100 of those at AA Too soon to call either of these a success but they're succeeding right now. I suppose one could argue that rushing ultimately hurt Francoeur's career [23rd overall pick, in MLB at 21] as he succeeded early via his uber-athleticism but neverfully grasping the strike zone forever capped his progress. Maybe the same with Heyward [14th overall, in MLB at 20]. Both had decent careers but both arguably peaked as rookies. And, perhaps tellingly, the Braves didn't go long term with either. On the current team Dansby Swanson is the odd man out. He'll be FA this winter and will do so coming off his best season but his success had a slower path getting there despite being a 1/1 pick (by ARZ) btw, Harris, Francoeur, and Heyward are, not surprisingly, all from Georgia. For Grissom they went overseas and signed him out of Florida.

Prior to Wednesday night's game the Braves signed Eddie Harris II, who is the youngest player in MLB and has just 72 games under his belt, to a seven year contract. That puts him in a group with: - Ronald Acuna: 24 y/o, 8 yrs thru '26 + options - Austin Riley: 25 y/o, 10 yr deal thru '32 - Ozzie Albies: 25 y/o, 7 yrs thru '25 + options They've got other big deals as well but I'm focusing on the pre-FA (even pre-arb) deals for young players. And we all know these contracts are a bit of a risk, but if the player(s) does well it gives the club not just cost certainty but a very friendly number once those late arb-years and/or early FA-years they bought out start kicking in just as the deals are winding up. But I didn't really come here to talk about the contracts so much as I did how Atlanta keeps coming up with players who, even though often not 'blue-chip' amateurs (1st round picks and/or high-bonus int'l offers) who wind up not just being good but real good real quickly practically right out of the box. Harris, as mentioned, is currently the youngest player in the league (21 in March) even though just a 3rd round (98th overall) draft pick in 2019 who, like all minor leaguers, lost the 2020 season to Covid at least as far as true game action went. Riley at least was a 1st round pick (2015) but 41st overall so hardly a guarantee. Albies & Acuna were int'l signings, don't remember either being super high bonus types. And now their most recent call-up, Vaughn Grissom filling in at 2nd, is the 3rd youngest player in the league, and while as far as I know they're not in hot contract talks with him, in his first eight ML games so far she's hitting .414 w/power. And he was an 11th round pick out of HS in 2019 yet was on the express track as well and now has hit the ground running.. Just to put it in a bit of perspective, he and Harris are about 15 months younger than Baty & Vientos. And Atlanta has a history of aggressively pushing their guys through the minors which pre-dates the current front office. Andruw Jones was in the big leagues at 19. Raffy Furcal also comes to mind (though I think it turned out he was slightly older than claimed). Francoeur, Jason Hayward, etc. So my question: How the Fuck are they doing this?!?!? - maybe they're simply better at finding guys, although, like every team, they've also had their share of high draft picks who missed. - and if Harris & Grissom, for instance, looked that great to them, why pass on them multiple times and risk missing out? - or maybe they're simply better at developing players? - are they on to something with this aggressive promotion they do?

Yanx, down 4-0, got some runs in innings 6, 7, 8 to tie it at 4 Rays get a two out bases loaded 2B in the 10th to take a 7-4 lead. Eight pitches later the Yanx had won: single (1st & 3rd thx to the clown car rules), four pitch walk, walk-off Grand Slam (Josh Donaldson)

Wait, doesn't the M.N. go down by two?

Never really recovered from that injury he had as a Yank.

Piece o' cake. What, youse guys was werried?

I seem to remember a day, maybe six to eight years back, when the Yanx and Nats both called games well in advance based on forecasts and it wound up never raining a drop on either city.

Winning nine to five What a way to stop the losing Winning nine to five Watch the Braves pen get a bruising

Gary and Keith saying that if the weather is iffy tomorrow Braves might be quick to call it and not have to face deGrom, willing to take their chances with a game added to the series in late September. The Yanx have been known to call games over breakfast because there was a chance of Partly Cloudy later in the day when they didn't like the pitching matchup. I exaggerate slightly but there have been some shady postponements

How do the Braves not IW Pete once Lindy steals 2nd and you need a GiDP with a 400lb guy on deck?

Easy Peasy

Out-hitting them 10-4; out HR'ing them 4-1 Yet are in a close one.

Edgy MD wrote: But overturning it was the right call. Probably. But it wasn't the 'clear and convincing' evidence that flipping a call was supposed to require.

Edgy MD wrote: I think Max is taxed. Considering his income, he oughta be.

The radio team is reporting that Baty's 'ground out' to SS was the hardest hit ball by a Met Lefty hitter facing a LHP in six years. A bit of an esoteric stat to be sure, but you wouldn't expect that to result in a fielder's choice.

So NOW is the time to root for a game-ending rain. Or we can just kick their ass for another 4 innings.

Ayala, Mike Fitzgerald, Kaz Matsui, Mike Jacobs

=Marshmallowmilkshake post_id=104334 time=1660782387 user_id=119] Hopefully they don't call it before it's official!

Texas's problem was that they tried throwing around big bucks F.A. money this past winter despite coming in being nowhere near competitive. Teams, especially smaller and middle market clubs, need to get decent before they go that route but the Rangers lost 102 last season so even if things went great this season with Seager & Semien* did they really think it was going to be enough to lift them near Houston's level? I guess the lure of that 3rd WC slot was too tempting to ignore. Texas sits 12 games under .500 and behind seven better WC contenders. I seem to recall the Padres and ChiSox tried going from 0 to 60 via FA-gency about a half decade back and they flunked too. * Seager is down a bit from his Dodger days but is still pretty good. Semien is 31 already with just two seasons of >100 OPS+ in his career (and this one ain't one of 'em)

=MFS62 post_id=104290 time=1660766280 user_id=60] Pete Alonso has announced that he will be playing for Team USA in the next tournament.

Ten Cranebucks on GOING BATY as some tab's headline tomorrow morning.

Phils lose 1-0 to Cincy this afternoon. That's the fourth time they've been shutout in their last seven games including two 1-0 blankings. And the Jays have already won (over the O's) as they fly to NYC for a four game set starting Thursday while tracking the results of tonight's MFY/TBR tilt