Frayed Knot

And you folks thought I forgot the three game winning streak and thus the IGT was on me. Well I did. But then I remembered and it slides in here with some 45 minutes to spare so quit sweatin' it. One guy will pitch for each side, and the Reds feature Joey Votto plus ... some other guys.

=MFS62 post_id=102869 time=1659918905 user_id=60] The Cardinals complete their sweep of the MFYs with today's 12-9 victory.

Safe to say that we can pronounce the new-look Padres shot at elevating themselves to an LAD rival was an epic fail. Not just getting swept in the three game series but out-scored 20-4 in the process.

^ Even Felix thinks that's funny! ^ ^ ^ It would have been great if there was a hot mic near Strider when he let loose a string of ranting following Pete's off-the-base double. Not that they could have put it on the air. Let's just say he wasn't pleased at the result.

There was a maybe four or five second shot of Strider cursing up a storm into his glove (at least I assume that's what he was doing) after one of those hits. That was maybe the best shot in the entire game.

I've had the ESPN game on (in the background, sound off) for about a half hour now ... and I don't think they've had the game in a full screen for more than a few minutes, like maybe five, the entire time. SNB has become three-plus hours of ESPN being ESPN with a baseball game occasionally interrupting. Oooh look, a full screen!! I just saw a pop-out.

One problem with numerical rankings is that it only tells you how relevant a prospect is relative to others in that organization at that moment. But a #1 guy in a weak system may not be all that good while a 5th or 6th guy in a different year might be much more promising.

Between the 4-1 series result on top of the Yanx getting swept by StL, this was like a long weekend version of Super-Triple-Happiness. Mets & Yanx now have identical records (70 - 39) When July started the Yanx were 8.5 games ahead.

So with Jake being pulled when he was, who thought to themselves: 'Let's go with Joely for the next seven outs'? Sometimes I think Buck can intentionally make the elevator go up even by pushing the down button.

@$#%& auto-correct!!

It's almost tempting to think of this as Game 5 of a playoff series. It isn't of course (if it was we would already have advanced), there are still 50+ games remaining including seven more with the Braves, all at their place: 4 stating next Monday and then 3 more to end the season (critical or meaningless??) But in the meantime there's today's game: Jacob deGrom vs Spencer Strider The good thing about this being a home game is that, in addition to not having to listen to 'the chop' and that silly accompanying war chant, during Spenser Strider starts at home the fans in the stands--male, female, young, old--are wearing imitations of Strider's mustache, some are costume makeup, others are drawn on. I guess they think it gives them superpowers or something. Strider's one of those guys that the Braves seem to find regularly, one of not particularly blue-blood origin (4th round draft pick) but one they promoted aggressively and who immediately hits the MLB ground running. The only thing unusual is that he's not actually from Georgia but he was born in Ohio, then went to HS in Knoxville and college at Clemson so he's been getting closer to Atlanta all along. After being drafted in 2020 he was in the majors by 2021 and now is a front runner for RoY consideration, that is if his OF teammate (3rd round pick out of HS in 2019 and the youngest player in MLB, Michael Harris, who IS from Georgia) doesn't beat him out. 23 games pitched this year, 12 starts. He's 6-3, 2.79 ERA, 0.99 WHIP, and strikes out a ridiculous amount of hitters: 133 in 87 innings We faced him on July 12 and sort of got to him in that he threw over 100 pitches and so couldn't finish the 5th. On the other hand we managed 5 hits plus 3 BBs but K'd 8 times and tallied just 1 run. We were then no-hit the remaining 4+ innings by the bullpen and lost 5-1. Jacob deGrom, in the other hand, is good.

The appearance of Racial Iglesies the other night (game 2 of the ATL series) reminded me that one of the guys the Braves traded to get him was RH reliever Jesse Chavez. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Chavez is one of those spare parts, one who'll turn 39 in a few week, but he's also one who's lasted 15 seasons (and counting) in the majors. He's now pitched for nine teams (not a record) including several of them twice, including the Braves three times, and appeared in over 100 games for just one of them (OAK, 101). And the only reason I'm noting him here is that this was the ninth time he's been traded in his career. Not the ninth time he's been moved, just the ninth via a trade in which he had no control including the second time this season alone. There were other transactions as well: he's been flat-out purchased once; selected off waivers once; grantees free agency five times; signed as a free agent six times; released once. Below is his full transactions resume (trades in red). Not sure if veteran character actor James Hong has a resume much longer than this one for Chavez. That's a lot of packing suitcases for not quite 20 years of base-balling. June 5, 2001: Drafted by the Chicago Cubs in the 39th round of the 2001 amateur draft, but did not sign. June 4, 2002: Drafted by the Texas Rangers in the 42nd round of the 2002 amateur draft. Player signed May 17, 2003. July 31, 2006: Traded by the Texas Rangers to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Kip Wells. November 3, 2009: Traded by the Pittsburgh Pirates to the Tampa Bay Rays for Akinori Iwamura. December 11, 2009: Traded by the Tampa Bay Rays to the Atlanta Braves for Rafael Soriano. July 31, 2010: Traded by the Atlanta Braves with Gregor Blanco and Tim Collins to the Kansas City Royals for Rick Ankiel and Kyle Farnsworth. October 21, 2011: Selected off waivers by the Toronto Blue Jays from the Kansas City Royals. August 24, 2012: Purchased by the Oakland Athletics from the Toronto Blue Jays. November 20, 2015: Traded by the Oakland Athletics to the Toronto Blue Jays for Liam Hendriks. August 1, 2016: Traded by the Toronto Blue Jays to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Mike Bolsinger. November 3, 2016: Granted Free Agency. November 14, 2016: Signed as a Free Agent with the Los Angeles Angels. November 2, 2017: Granted Free Agency. February 23, 2018: Signed as a Free Agent with the Texas Rangers. July 19, 2018: Traded by the Texas Rangers to the Chicago Cubs for Tyler Thomas (minors). October 29, 2018: Granted Free Agency. November 30, 2018: Signed as a Free Agent with the Texas Rangers. October 28, 2020: Granted Free Agency. February 25, 2021: Signed as a Free Agent with the Los Angeles Angels. March 25, 2021: Released by the Los Angeles Angels. April 17, 2021: Signed as a Free Agent with the Atlanta Braves. November 3, 2021: Granted Free Agency. March 14, 2022: Signed as a Free Agent with the Chicago Cubs. April 21, 2022: Traded by the Chicago Cubs with cash to the Atlanta Braves for Sean Newcomb. August 2, 2022: Traded by the Atlanta Braves with Tucker Davidson to the Los Angeles Angels for Raisel Iglesias.

So it's down to two choices: do we want to gain one game in the standings from this series or three? I vote we take the 'three' option. Fate TBD starting this afternoon starting at 4:10

Yanx lose 1-0 to a combined two-hitter by recently traded LHP Jordan Montgomery (and his new StL friends). Meanwhile, the return for Montgomery, Harrison (Master) Bader, remains on the IL.

Nicely done, Tomas.

The Naquin Experiment was one of Robert Ludlum's lesser known efforts.

And just like that they claw back the Givens run.

Gotta get somebody up besides Joely, no?

Good spot for the SB. You're ahead, push the issue.

Suxx to leave several potential runs out there ... but we didn't hit a single ball well that whole inning so we kinda were lucky just to get the one R.

Wow!! Did that look 'clear and convincing' to anyone?

Apparently it's national 'Throw Past 1B' day.

The best part was him reading the whole thing perfectly. He instantly realized he couldn't go for two, then quickly read TdA's bad break, all the time knowing that he had the bail out option at 1B. But what he didn't do was commit to going home ahead of time.

Shyeeet, that was a gutsy call by Guillorme!

Fried might be feeling a bit Vizzy after that face-plant.