Frayed Knot

I've said this before, but I don't get the purpose behind pre-announcing the 'finalists' for these awards.

Strasburg had a 72-hour window so that he was going to declare, and that he did so now, was pretty much a given. The prevailing thought is that he's overwhelmingly likely to stay and that this maneuver is just a contractually abetted way to get a raise and/or a longer deal, which of course is the whole purpose of negotiating an opt-out in the first place.

It's a self-congratulatory kind of town. What's amazing, particularly to long time Washingtonians, is how the Nationals plus the Capitals Stanley Cup from two years ago has pushed the Redskins to [CROSSOUT]second[/CROSSOUT] third hand news status, something that was unthinkable not all that long ago. Not that the Redskins didn't help push themselves down to 'below the fold' territory, but a sure sign of spring in DC used to be when the Washington Post sports section cut back to only 85% Redskins coverage. They're lucky if they can scrounge that much now in-season and on game days.

Dick Williams won two in a row for Oakland ('72 & '73) but then walked from a team that was on its way to wining its third straight. Of course Williams wasn't through with managing forever, or even for very long, as he resurfaced (by the end of) the very next season with Anaheim and went on to manage all or parts of 15 more seasons with the Angels, Padres, Expos, and Mariners. He was just through with Charlie Finley.

The April 30th covers of: NOBODY'S PERFECT and ONLY HUMAN should win just for being the last time anybody would use or see the phrases "Normally Reliable" or "Usually Reliable" associated with Diaz for the remainder of the season It just goes to show you, there was April and then there were other months that weren't April.

A few comings and goings over the last few days. These will be the first of many. - Yanx decline option on slugger Edwin Encarnacion, bought him out actually ($5M) rather than pay him $25 - Indians pick up the option on RHP Corey Kluber despite the fact that he'll turn 34 y/o just after Opening Day and pitched just 35 innings this past year, none after May 1st. - Brewers Yasmani Grandal © and Mike Moustakas (1B?, 2B?, 3B?) both decline player options and will be FAs this winter

https://nypost.com/2019/11/01/carlos-beltran-is-brodie-van-wagenens-latest-bold-mets-move/Sherman's take (no word yet from Peabody) - once they moved away [me: or were moved away on] from the 'Safe Choice' of Girardi it became a question of risk vs upside. This choice is likely higher on both. - marks another step in the BVW era [think the Diaz/Cano and Stroman deals] of being 'bold', of shunning any outside noise and sticking to his 'process' - Carlos grew better as the rounds of interviews went on - he was a "low-pulse/high-intelligence' player; other players 'gravitate' to his knowledge & persona - bilingual, was a star, lives in NY, positive relationship with reporters - this choice shows the Mets to be less concerned with public and/or media feedback than prior history indicates

=HahnSolo post_id=25727 time=1572635882 user_id=63] Official? I only see that guys on twitter are saying Sid Rosenberg broke the story. And well, he's not the most reliable source.

Don't like Beltran or don't like a tacked-on Terry? oe: nevermind. you pretty much answered it in another thread.

=Centerfield post_id=25686 time=1572618562 user_id=65]I think it's hard to compare results over different sports.

... that MLB has, over the last 20 seasons, had 13 different WS champions and 20 different franchises who reached the WS in that time. Those numbers for the NFL, btw, are 12 and 19. For the NBA it's 9 and 14. In fact where MLB has had 13 champs in the last 20 years, the NBA has had their last 40 titles spread among just 13 different franchises. So you can see how well a salary cap promotes parity. I mean, it must be true since I hear it all the time. Getting back to baseball, this season's results also means that: -- the original Washington franchise (1901-1960 in DC; 1961-2019 in Minnesota) has three WS wins: 1924: Senators beat NYG 4-3; 1987: Twins beat Cardinals 4-3; 1991: Twins beat Braves 4-3 plus three other losing WS appearances: as WAS Senators in 1925 & 1933; as Twins in 1965 -- the current Washington franchise (1969-2004 as Montreal Expos; 2005-2019 as Nationals) obviously now has one WS win in their only WS appearance. -- but it's the middle Washington franchise (1961-1971 as Washington Senators; 1972-2019 as Texas Rangers) that remains winless. The Rangers did reach the WS in back to back seasons but lost to the Giants in Five games in 2010 and to the Cardinals in Seven in 2011 But during their 11 seasons in DC, the 'Senators II' (if you will) finished over .500 just once [86-76 in 1969] and never saw a post-season game. This series now reduces the number of franchises never to win a World Series to six: the aforementioned Senators/Rangers; the Rays/Devil Rays (1997-2019); San Diego Padres (1969-2019); Seattle Pilots/Milwaukee Brewers (1969-2019); Colorado Rockies (1993-2019); and the Seattle Mariners (1977-2019). And just by making the WS, the Nationals left those Mariners as the lone franchise never to even reach a World Series Closer to home, this year's Series leaves your New York Mets as the NL East team with the longest drought as WS winners (1986). This as compared to the Braves (1995), Marlins (2003), Phillies (2008), and Nationals (yesterday) - although not the longest stretch in the division without reaching a WS (2015); Braves (1999), Marlins (2003), Phillies (2009)

Willets Point wrote: =smg58 post_id=25588 time=1572527263 user_id=62] Bottom line: the Nats manager put the game in Corbin's hands. The Astros manager trusted the game to somebody not named Gerrit Cole. At least he'll be well rested for whichever teams signs him. I really don't understand why Cole was warming up and then not brought in when the Astros needed to stop the bleeding?

Well look at it this way: the Braves crashed and burned in the post-season.

Edgy MD wrote: Well, that's likely Rendon's last plate appearance as a National. The Yankees probably already have his uniform measured. Of course last winter they already had Machado & Harper measured as well ... or so we heard. And then they had Gio Urshela [889 to 796] and (until the very end of the season) Mike Tauchman [865 to 882] out-OPS those two high-priced guys who wound up instead on losing teams.

So between last night and tonight, Will Harris's last 8 pitches have resulted in 2 HRs (Rendon on Tues, Kendrick tonight) plus Asdrubal's single.

Frayed Knot wrote: =41Forever post_id=25537 time=1572488166 user_id=69] Still time, but the Nats are starting to have a look of defeat about them. The Nats have come from behind in like four different elimination games this month, including by getting late inning runs off of guys like Hader & Kershaw & Jansen oe: and on cue Rendon cuts the lead in half

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: Good non-turnover As pissed off as some were about how the interference call at 1st base last night violated the 'spirit of the rule' even if it was technically the right call ... that's how pissed I would have been if they had overturned the call at 3rd tonight.

=41Forever post_id=25537 time=1572488166 user_id=69] Still time, but the Nats are starting to have a look of defeat about them.

=LWFS post_id=25528 time=1572484126 user_id=84] Joe Morgan Honorary Obvious Color Observation: the Astros will rue not hanging crooked numbers on Scherzer in these first few innings... he's giving them every opportunity to do so.

Tim Bogar -- currently still working w/the Nats -- remains the lone candidate not to have his 3rd round/Fred round interview. Beltran, Perez, and Shelton have had the 3rd go-round. It's unclear whether Luis Rojas & Pat Murphy have. [sherman] So we're probably looking at the end of the week at the earliest.

KC/OAK [and briefly TEX, CAL, NYY] SS Bert Campaneris played 19 ML seasons / 2,300+ Games / 9,625 PA and hit 79 career HRs. 22 of those 79 HRs (28%) came in one season (1970). In no other season did he top 8 HRs (only four times as many as 5) and he wound up with more career triples (86) than HRs

DEADSPIN has never been on my radar, so I'm pretty much ignorant and/or indifferent to all of this.

HP ump Jim Wolf (brother of ex-hurler Randy) has some big-ass arms on him. He's also had a better strike zone (so far anyway) than the last several HP umps.

Whenever Keith talks about great-fielding 1st sackers, Fairly is his go-to guy from his youth. =G-Fafif post_id=25502 time=1572469588 user_id=55] ... first-year Los Angeles Dodger, first-year Montreal Expo and first-year Toronto Blue Jay.

I think Smoltz is quite good. And though he's not particularly a favorite, the level of Buck-hatred, around here and elsewhere, escapes me.