Frayed Knot

So the answer to whether we'd see Lindor, Soto, both, or neither is choice 'D', at least for the first game.

No, but he was on that topic.

So what better to drop into the latest shit show that comprises this season but a split day/night DH vs a team we can't beat? In four games vs the Cubs this year the Mets are 0-4 while being out-scored 13-27 The day game -- or 'Morning Game' as Keith calls it -- portion of this June Wednesday kicks off at 1:10 with Nolan McLean facing ... I dunno yet. Shota Imanaga will apparently pitch one of the two games but the Cubbies are hush-hush so far as to which one. McLean, meanwhile, promises to try and hold Chicago's 8 & 9 hitters to fewer than six RBIs and four runs scored which, if he manages to do so, would represent an improvement on yesterday.

The Bichette HR reminds me of those -- Tim McCarver was one -- who would argue that a HR there is a bad thing because it 'kills the rally' and that a walk or single would have been the better outcome. Those people are idiots.

The reason it is controversial, and I've talked about this in the past, is because of the slow morphing of baseball from a game where the ball was considered live and in play unless specifically stated otherwise, to one where the opposite was true or at least assumed to be. Those who found themselves confused did so because they assumed that nothing was allowed to happen once ball four was indicated.

It won't clear customs.

So those three guys combined for seven hits while the actual Mets combined for four.

OK, so that call reversal at 2B that confused the entire booth. Keith kept saying the the ball was 'dead' which was never the case. That it was often treated as if it were, the example of umps telling/signaling runners to slow down if/when they were running on ball four was mentioned, should have never happened and was part of the problem leading baseball into the age where the time between ABs and even pitches was treated as dead time even though it wasn't. Yes, the runner 'is awarded' 2nd base due to ball four but if he chooses, by choice or via ignorance, to go in with a head-first dive he does so at his own risk and there's no reason why he shouldn't be subject to being put out if he comes off the base.

Seven of the nine Cubs runs scored with two outs.

Well, we don't want him to play too many games with Lindor. They've already appeared in the same lineup nine times over the first 78 games. I think that's enough for a while.

3-2/3 IP, 98 pitches, seven earned ... and that's starting with a 1-2-3 1st I don't know what you do with this guy.

Cubs have five now six walks plus a HBP. Four of those seven free passes have scored with one currently on base.

And a two out RBI hit of our own ... whoda thunk it?!?

NYM pitchers have allowed a solo HR, a 3R HR, a 2-RBI Triple, a 2R HR, and now another 3R HR -- ALL WITH TWO OUTS -- just in the last 20 innings. So that's 11 runs that could have been prevented by retiring one batter but weren't.

The Cardinals were so impressed by Wise's feat that they traded for him a year and a half later even-up for some scrub named Steve Carlton . OK, there was more to it than that. Both pitchers were coming off good seasons in 1971: Carlton = 20-5, 3.56 ERA; Wise: 17-14, 2.88. Wise had turned 26 late in the '71 campaign, Carlton would turn 27 that winter. But perhaps their biggest similarity is that both wanted more money in those pre-FA era days so both were at odds with their respective front office and threatening to 'hold out' as spring training was about to get underway. The reaction by both clubs was something along the lines of, 'You guys can't tell us what to do cuz we hold all the power' and so their solution was to trade them even-up for each other with each, in effect, saying, 'He's your headache now!' The trade was made on February 25th, 1972 Of course the deal lopsidedly favored the Phils as Carlton immediately rung up one of the greatest pitching seasons ever and outlasted Wise by is seasons on the back end on the way to the HoF even while not having a single friend among voting sportswriters. Wise had a nice career. But then there was Carlton's.

Stepping aside from offensive woes for a moment to look at a pitching issue that's been in the back of my head for a while but am just now getting around to see if it holds up under scrutiny. The season-to-date league-wide pct of PAs taken with 0 outs, with 1 out, and with 2 outs are: 34.5%, 33.2%, 32.3% and the numbers for NYM pitchers mimics those percentages with only minor differences: 34.1%, 32.9%, 33.0% (less than 1% variation in each case). The overall pct of Runs Allowed with 0, 1, and 2 outs is 24.2% / 38.6%, 37.2% -- that runs are scored at a lesser rate w/no outs is not surprising since a larger pct of those ABs take place with no one on (leadoff ABs) while RA rates with 1 out and 2 out occur at a roughly even frequency. Now look at how the NYM staff RA rates fare and we find just 20.8% w/0 outs (nearly 4 pct points lower than lg avg), 36.0% w/one out (also lower tho closer to the MLB pct), and then a whopping 43.3% with 2 outs, more than six pts above lg avg. What this shows, or at least implies, is that our staff is often failing to get that 3rd out on the first or second opportunity to do so and so are almost-but-not-quite getting out of innings with at least lesser damage. Saturday's disaster is a perfect example as 10 of the 15 Philly runs, including the last 8 straight, came after two were out. Those include the Harper HR, the 2R Harper triple, and two of Schwarber HRs. That's eight runs from four ABs that coulda but weren't prevented. Now in a blow-out game like that one even theoretically turning around a couple of 'What if' ABs was unlikely to have changed the W/L outcome. But the overall numbers show that game to be not an isolated instance and more like part of a season long trend..

A monsoon just hitting late in the first half of France/Iraq WC game in Philly France up 1-0 btw on a goal by MmmmBop

Or not.

So maybe we tired this Duran guy out yesterday (he threw 17 pitches)

We're still not making great decisions on ABS challenges ... but we are getting a little more accurate (lucky?) recently.

Wheeler's getting gray hairs in his beard. Of course I had gray creeping into my beard at a similar age too. The difference is, I was no longer getting big league hitters out by that point.

2 runs in, still just one out, 1st and 2nd, not a single ball out of the infield.

Oh good, I was hoping for TWO leadoff walks in front of Harper.

Oh good, I was hoping for a leadoff free pass in front of Schwaberharper

See my above post Meanwhile I see that NBC thinks the intro deserves its own song. I just hope the estates of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer get some royalties from that one.