Frayed Knot

That was just a lazy throw by McNeil. 5th game in and the 'Plays Not Made' tally is already starting to grow.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: =nymr83 post_id=41998 time=1595976360 user_id=54] Atlanta DFAs Mike Foltynewicz - should the Mets be interested? I'd love to bring him in and see if he has anything left. I hope they're at least thinking about it. Their rotation depth isn't what it used to be.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: Meanwhile, Andrew Cuomo is saying https://nypost.com/2020/07/28/andrew-cuomo-invites-all-mlb-teams-to-play-in-new-york-state/C'mon up to New York y'all and play all your games here. It won't happen of course as a "bubble" set up was the first thing the player's assoc rejected. And the proposed "bubbles" were in Florida and Arizona (and Texas), states where the disease is thriving. Right, although those were also the proposed spring time bubbles when both the Covid and weather situations in the south were vastly superior to those of New York By now both things have reversed themselves as the virus is the one who will continue to dictate terms. Or it'll all go away in April when it gets warm ... or when we start gargling bleach and injecting fertilizer (or whatever Tweetopotamus was suggesting back then).

Part of this has to do with my brain still needing time to re-adjust to baseball mode after so many months away (or maybe just senility), but I don't recall ever having heard of Erasmo Ramirez even though he's been in the league every year since 2012. Partly that may have to do with him being in Seattle and Tampa most of that time but, still, 192 games pitched including 92 starts. Oddly, his BB-Ref picture is one of him in a NYM hat although he doesn't seem to have been part of the organization even at a lower level.

Well what's going to happen for the immediate future is that the Marlins won't play through (at least) Sunday, and while the Phillies have all passed their first round of Covid tests (all negative) they still need to be tested further, so the Yanx, idled due to the Phillies being on hold, are going to play the Orioles on Wednesday and Thursday since the O's are suddenly free from their 2/2 home/home series w/the Marlins. Yanx & O's weren't scheduled to play each other this week but of course they would at some point so this creates a couple of open dates later in the schedule for make-up possibilities. Perhaps the Phils & Nats will do the same this weekend if the Phightins' get a green light. The regional schedule and the closeness of all these northeast teams certainly makes last minute adjustments like this easier. Meanwhile, Andrew Cuomo is saying https://nypost.com/2020/07/28/andrew-cuomo-invites-all-mlb-teams-to-play-in-new-york-state/C'mon up to New York y'all and play all your games here. It won't happen of course as a "bubble" set up was the first thing the player's assoc rejected, but it allows him to brag about his 'lowest rates in the nation' status.

Just the whole idea of colleges saying that it's NOT safe for regular students to come back to campus but it's mandatory for football players to do so is too outrageous for words. On the other hand, the college Presidents and the like have very little control over the football teams that their universities sponsor so I could see it happening and it's not like the players have much in the way of power to prevent it. On the flip side, it's never crossed my mind that the NFL wouldn't play. - no sport has more of a history of 'the show must go on'. They played a full slate less than 48 hours after the death of JFK even as the entire country shut down. When the players went on strike in the '80s the NFL was back 12 days later with players they found off the streets and called them real games. - no sport is less dependent on a live gate. They already pretty much don't give a shit about paying customers so as long as they have their TV money they'll be fat and happy - and, let's face it, pro players might have more power to demand safety from the owners but no union has shown less ability to come to a consensus and make it stick. Plus it's not like the players don't already put their health at risk every week. A virus?!!?, Hell, that's about 15th on the list of of concerns which starts with brain deterioration and goes through the prospect of being in pain and limping for the rest of your life.

Back to .500; gain either a half or a full game on each of the division rivals; undefeated on the road; straightened out our really bad looking Pythagorean projection (and isn't that what's really important?) So a good night all around.

Phillips Valdez ... maybe he was named for the oil tanker that crashed in Alaska a bunch of years ago?

This straight-in CF camera at Fenway shows the pitcher in direct side-view and really accentuates how much bulk Familia lost over the winter.

Nats are down 4-1 in the 9th vs [CROSSOUT]Toronto[/CROSSOUT] Buffalo And the Rays seem to have figured out how to hit Atlanta pitching cuz they're thumping los Bravos 12-5 in the 7th down in Florida The rest of our division, as you might have heard, is taking the night off.

So McNeil hits twice against the shift ... but manages to hit it directly at the lone fielder on that side both times ... and yet still winds up on base at the end of each.

Hope Springs eternal off this reliever.

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: Conforto clobbered that one Over the wall, over the pen behind the wall, and then about ten rows beyond that.

Chad ochoseis wrote: Why aren't they flying? Chartering a few planes for an hour is probably safer than six buses for five hours, and the cost difference should be rounding error for a major league operation. You get to avoid airports for one. Plus bus service gets you essentially door to door - or at least Citi directly to their Beantown hotel.

Wacha Wacha = 1,097 [FIMG=300]https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/muppet/images/b/b5/Fozzie2.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120410231906[/FIMG]

So are they going to play "Sweet Caroline" to an empty stadium tonight? And, if so, who's going to do the "So Good, So Good' parts?

Yeah, nice idea by Rosie but the reaction by Bogaerts was quicker than expected. And while he probably did tag him I'm not sure there was enough there to overturn but that whole "conclusive evidence" standard went down the tubes practically from Day One of the replay rule. Ya just hate to see a team that can't get on base so far running into two outs in the same inning.

Quickie KTE Boston is coming off losing two of three to Baltimore and their pitching is a mess at the moment ... as a bullpen game in the 4th game of the season should probably tell you. David Price is sitting this year out; Chris Sale had elbow surgery and is on the injured list as is 19 game winner from 2019 Eduardo Rodriguez. Also gone from last year is Rick Porcello (oh wait, that's an asset!!) so they signed ex-NYM'er Collin McHugh to help out but then he decided to Covid it out this year. Hard throwing but erratic Nathan Eovaldi won their opening day game but then they lost 7-2 and 7-4 while ex-Ranger Martin Perez and journeyman Ryan Weber toed the rubber. Oh yeah, and they don't have that Mookie feller anymore and Dustin Pedroia continues to do his best David Wright impression. Former Blue Jay Kevin Pillar takes over for Betts (they used to have Kevin Millar and now they have Kevin Pillar). Benintendi & J Bradley Jr round out the OF Raphael Devers & X. Boeaerts at 3rd & SS are familiar but not so much Jose Peraza (ex Cincy Red) at 2nd or 2014 1st round pick Michael Chavis at 1st Definitely being looked at as a transition year for the Sawx

An earlier story had Trump backing out because players kneeling apparently offends him so. Him and Mike Ditka. And, btw, if Captain von Steingrabber were still alive he wouldn't allow kneeling either. In fact I was thinking earlier today about how George would have reacted to today's MFY/PHI postponement: a) ranted about how this never would have happened if it weren't for anti-Yanqui bias in the MLB office which forced his team into the indignity of starting the season on the road. blamed the inferiority of the other clubs (Yanx would have the BEST cleaning services) and especially those NL clubs which his pinstripers shouldn't be lowering themselves to play against anyway c) All of the above

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Benjamin Grimm wrote: They really should not have let them play games in Florida. I just realized that they haven't played any official games in Miami yet; the Marlins games played so far have been in Philadelphia. I guess I should have said that they also shouldn't have let the Marlins or Rays hold their summer camps in Florida. Let's face it, they never should have admitted any teams into the league from Florida. It just brings too many Floridians into the mix and you never want that.

And now the Yanx game in Philly is off tonight.

Back to baseball for a moment if I may, a few highlights to recap the opening weekend of the return: - each series finished 2-1 (or 1-2 depending on your POV) with the exception of LAD/SFG which finished 2-2 … meaning that for the first time since 1954, when the league was barely half the size of today, not a single team got off to a 3-0 start. - four Marlins tested positive on the eve of Sunday's game including Sunday's scheduled starter Jose Urena. The worst news for those guys is that now not only are they subject to quarantine but they have to do so IN PHILADELPHIA!!!! - Shohei Ohtani made his first start since early 2018 on Sunday (the Angels have designated him as their Sunday pitcher for the time being) but didn't retire a single batter: Single - Walk - Walk - Walk - Single - Single and got hung with 5 earned on the day (infinite ERA for 2020 so far). At the plate he's 1-for-5 plus had a bad base-running mistake while serving as the designated extra-inning runner. - Anyone remember Daniel Bard? He came up as a future-stud relief pitcher for the Sawx back in 2009, racked up two seasons of sub-1.00 WHIP in '10-'11 but then lost the plate in 2012 and was gone from the majors after just one outing in 2013 with only brief minor league stints since (13 innings pitched in total including 2/3 of an inning w/4 earned as a Gulf Coast Met in 2017). Well he resurfaced with Colorado this winter and got into a ML game for the first time in 7-1/2 years and got the win on Saturday with 1-1/3 innings of relief (0 Runs, 2 hits, 1 K) - And finally Justin Verlander either is or is not out for the season after just one start with an elbow injury depending on who you ask. Verlander himself is, perhaps not surprisingly, in the 'Not' camp.

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: And Chili Davis They'll have to fire Chili remotely.

Frayed Knot wrote: ... mostly just a bunch of stuff dropping in front of outfielders. And since I wrote that they've switched to dropping a bunch of soft stuff behind our outfielders.

Lefty Specialist wrote: Porcello not exactly inspiring confidence. GiDP was well-timed though. He's not exactly getting ripped all over the field; mostly just a bunch of stuff dropping in front of outfielders. Really only that RBI liner by Adams was solidly hit. Meanwhile, we've got 2 HBPs to show for our noffense.