Frayed Knot

It's certainly disturbing to hear that the owners (Manfred is just their mouthpiece whether he agrees with this notion or not, he probably does) have not only NOT given up on the idea of a salary cap but may be more determined to get one despite the fact that they've never come close to even coming close to getting one while also showing that they'll fail to stay cohesive long before the union does. I'm sure Manfred's message here, as he bunny-hops from clubhouse to clubhouse, is to try and make the case that their (yet-to-be) propsed cap will also come with a floor and therefore the net result will NOT be total lower payrolls overall but merely the same amount (or more!!) distributed differently and more uniformly. But this is a similar type of theoretical scheme that politicians sometimes offer where they think that they're really, really good at manipulating the economy and that they know what prices and wages should be much better than that pesky free market does. And how well has MLB's pseudo-salary-cap, the luxury tax plus revenue sharing system that's been in place in one form or another for years now, resulted in more equitable payrolls? This attempted next step sounds like: 'OK, our attempts to 'correct' the inequalities have so far failed miserably, so what we need to do now is to take the same concept and expand it further!!!'

So you'd just release them all now?

1) anyone who treats every player who ever had a 'prospect' label attached to him as some kind of promise of future greatness deserves all the disappointment he/she gets 2) betting against EVERY prospect in every system is going to make one right a lot more often than wrong so stop acting as if you're being lied to against your will 3) didn't know that the book was closed on all these guys. When was it decided that this (partial) season is the truth on Vientos and last season (the larger sample size) the mirage ... other than, y'know, for purposes of cherry-picking evidence so as to confirm a predetermined conclusion?

This one seems appropriate right about now. [YOUTUBE]7xBxZGQ1dJk[/YOUTUBE]

Suarez was hit on the hand by a pitch in the 9th inning of today's game in Detroit - thus causing at least half the teams in MLB to hold their breath and/or change their plans. But X-rays were negative, so 'Day to Day'

Ryne Sandberg - 65 He had dealt with cancer off and on in recent years.

But none of them when it Really mattered .... or so I heard somewheres

KCR reaches an extension agreement with Seth Lugo so he's not going to be available at the deadline.

I hadn't heard of that one ... and now that I know I wish that I didn't. At this point in the band's existence the drummers are going to be dying of natural causes in Florida retirement homes.

Clase came in vs the Royals today with a one run lead and the ghost runner on 2nd in bottom 10 and went: Walk, Pick-off (2nd), Walk, 3R game-losing HR (Jonathan India) So 3 runs (2 earned) in 1/3 of an inning and retired none of the three batters he faced. Just sayin'

Every once in a while I check in to see how Hollywood's march towards putting out absolutely no original material at all is progressing. So currently in theaters, or soon to be, are: - SUPERMAN: no ordinal or Roman numerals here so I don't know how you differentiate this one from the (who knows how many) other iterations of this near 100 year old idea - JURASSIC WORLD REBIRTH: I have trouble remembering whether it's been 66 million years since dinosaurs went extinct or if that's just how long the first of this franchise was released. - I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER: This is at least the third one here. I know this because I remember that the first sequel was called I STILL KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER, a flick which picked up the same story a year later. Which means that it was no longer 'Last Summer' that the incident on which the whole thing was based occurred so the proper title should have been I STILL KNOW WHAT YOU DID THE SUMMER BEFORE THIS MOST RECENT ONE ... but I guess they figured that was a bit unwieldy for movie marquees and that the audience, based on the fact that they paid their way into this movie, was too dumb to know the difference.. - SMURFS: I have no clue if this is an ongoing thing or not. But I'm guessing 'Yes' so am including it here - 28 YEARS LATER: So is 28 YEARS LATER a sequel to a movie that came out 28 years earlier? I think it is. - M3GAN 2.0: Fill me in here, is this the sequel or the prequel to M2GAN 3.0 ? - THE NAKED GUN: Apparently someone has decided that Liam Neeson is the new Leslie Nielson. 'Hey, same initials ... it's Gotta Work!!' But just wait until Trump finds out that this is the second non-American actor playing this role. There will be hell to pay! - THE FANTASTIC FOUR: This is either a movie about four fantastic people or it's the third sequel to a movie called THE FANTASTIC - NOBODY 2: NOBODY was a Bob Odenkirk vehicle from a couple years ago trying to cash in on his fame as Saul Goodman. But, as far as I know, nobody saw NOBODY so it's likely that nobody will see NOBODY 2 too. - FREAKIER FRIDAY: Because there's no shortage to the number of people clamoring to see what kind of actress Lindsey Lohan turned into as an adult. - HAPPY GILMORE 2: Judging by the buzz among those populating sports talk radio stations, this one will play to packed houses for months. I'm sure there are several (dozen) I've missed, and by that I mean missed out on putting in this list. As far as missing the movies themselves I plan on missing all of them.

I think there's at least a 50/50 shot that those two names rhyme.

The last ballplayer I remember with that issue was Pittsburgh (and LAD, HOU, NYY) pitcher Rick Rhoden. His, IIRC, was more severe to the point where it affected his gait in a noticeable way. Might have had something of a club foot too though don't quote me on that. Edwin's, for all we know, may be barely noticeable and 'fixed' by a small adjustment in set-up or stride. Despite Rhoden's "deformity" OTOH, he lasted 16 seasons in MLB, won 151 games, 3 Silver Sluggers, and once placed 5th in the CY award. He also totally dominated the celebrity golf tour after his retirement that catered to athletes, actors and other celebs. Some of the participants would refer to it as 'The Rick Rhoden Tour' on account of how everyone else was usually playing for second place. oe: [from Wiki] Rhoden overcame a childhood bone disease, osteomyelitis, and he wore a brace until age 12. I think that should, but doesn't, read 'leg brace' oe take two: He has qualified for the U.S. Senior Open ... and also played a number of Champions Tour events and has three career top 10 finishes: T-5 in the 2003 Allianz Championship, T-6 in the 2006 3M Championship, and T-8 in the 2005 Constellation Energy Classic. His career earnings on the Champions Tour exceed $250,000. iow, he was doing more than merely holding his own against, not just other current and ex-athletes, but also against guys his own age who were professional golfers during the time his first athletic career was going on.

You forgot the most important factor: the fans inside are Canadian and therefore too polite to make noise.

And now he belongs to us again. Sounds like he'll be back tomorrow to replace Herget who'll likely get a ticket to SYR following his contributions tonight.

Cubs are said to be in on the hunt for Suarez.

It brings the game to a city that's not within 300 miles of any ML city potentially exposing the game to some who have never seen a live ML game, and does so in a state where possible future movement/expansion is possible.

There's gotta be a decent amount of money for the players/orgs involved here cuz how else do you convince a bunch of guys from the DR & PR to play in NYC in mid-November.

Heard Kurkjian saying the other day that the DBacks are the big wild card in this year's trading deadline. They currently sit right at .500 (50-50) and 4.5 G out of the final WC slot but with StL (-3.5), SFG & CIN (both -2.5) between them and current 3rd WC slot holder SDP (Mets are #2 at +1.5). So do they see themselves as buyers or sellers at the deadline? Or is that decision still TBD and subject to change based on what they did in the previous game ... or inning!

Let's not lose sight of the fact that this will be one game this year out of 2,430

The back side of the field part of the stadium is where the pre-game Tim McGraw/Pit Bull concert is going to be. (Finally, those two together at last!!) It's unclear to me if one ticket gets you into both or not. As far as the tiered stadium goes, my guess is that there are so many seats you can get out of just one tier given the MUCH bigger plot of land the "field" takes up to begin with (Wiki sez that Bristol has a capacity of 146,000 though not all of that is seating) that there's simply no need to build second deck. btw:https://phpbb3.ultimatemets.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=33641&p=166027&hilit=Bristol#p166027

But his ML BA/OBA, after pieces of four seasons and nearly 1,000 trips to the plate, is .223/.298 with only his power getting his OPS+ close to average (98). That kind of low-average/decent power numbers profiles more as a perpetual backup catcher (only without the good defense) and in this season even the power wasn't there (29 hits / 23 singles). Now the 2025 numbers are a small sample size which might have justified him being sent down but shouldn't be tagging him as a career second string label, especially for one still just 23 y/o. But what I am saying is that, at some point, he'll need to show he can improve or risk getting hung with a rep as a platoon C/DH vs LHPs or, even worse, as a AAAA player who'll bounce around looking for work in between getting released on a regular basis. So there's still time for him (especially seeing as how his FA year just moved one year further away) but there's also no time like the present for him to get going.

So that's seven HRs in a six game span in AAA for Alvarez vs six XBHs (3 2B, 3 HR) in a 35 game span in MLB It would be nice if some of that translates to the higher level because his profile is starting to trend towards that of a low-BA/low-OBA catcher with occasional puncher's power. And that kind of profile is usually how they refer to ML backup catchers, except that those backups are also usually top-notch defensively which F.A. is not. He's still young (24 in Nov) so none of this is set in stone. But you don't want to see him top out at as a poor-defensive feast/famine backup or as one with a rep as a AAAA hitter.

Wasn't Jared Porter the one who had a few too many shots ... and chasers?

Never saw it. My aversion to all things Madonna-related started early.