Frayed Knot

https://nypost.com/2019/08/21/mlb-warns-of-stiff-penalty-as-gas-station-sex-pill-problem-spirals/Phrases you don't often read: "MLB issued a hard warning to its players this week: Stay away from gas station sex pills." It seems that some players are buying these things. Either that or are simply claiming to have used them as a means to cite the reason behind recent positive PED tests. At least two players have recently made such a claim (players in question not revealed) according to a memo obtained by ESPN. 'No, I didn't take any steroids ... it must have been those erection pills I picked up at the Route 66 Gulf Station!!' Wait, you mean those pills aren't always pure (Who knew?)! And, Double Wait, ESPN covers baseball! (Who knew?) And of course leave it to the Post to work the phrase 'Stiff Penalty' into their story.

https://nypost.com/2019/08/21/mlb-warns-of-stiff-penalty-as-gas-station-sex-pill-problem-spirals/Phrases you don't often read: "MLB issued a hard warning to its players this week: Stay away from gas station sex pills." It seems that some players are buying these things. Either that or are simply claiming to have used them as a means to cite the reason behind recent positive PED tests. At least two players have recently made such a claim (players in question not revealed) according to a memo obtained by ESPN. 'No, I didn't take any steroids ... it must have been those erection pills I picked up at the Route 66 Gulf Station!!' Wait, you mean those pills aren't always pure (Who knew?)! And, Double Wait, ESPN covers baseball! (Who knew?) And of course leave it to the Post to work the phrase 'Stiff Penalty' into their story.

You've got the NYM & PHI RS/RA numbers swapped (they're correct in the Wild Card set-up but not in the division standings) It is the Phightins' who are actually at a run deficit and therefore the negative Pythag record. The NYM record is right where it 'should be' given the RS & RA figures. That, plus the favorable H/R sked remaining (25/12) is likely what most accounts for our high WC probability.

Since I've never heard of him, and I suspect many of you haven't either, here's a quickie bio on Adam Plutko (which BB-Ref suggests is pronounced PLET-ko rather than PLOOT-ko) 27 y/o from Upland, CA. 11th round draft pick by Cleveland in 2013 out of UCLA ML debut in 2016 (2 games) but then no majors again until 2018 [17 games/12 starts] Called up in mid-May, 12 starts since; 5-3, 4.67, 1.19. Not a high-K guy (5.3/9) but, like Bieber last night, hasn't walked many this season (1.4/9) but gets bit by long balls (2.4/9) So basically he's been one of the guys filling in due to the injuries and trades on that staff (Bauer, Carrasco, Clevenger, Kluber) but without the pedigree to suggest he'll be a whole lot more than that. I also just noticed that Tyler Clippard is on the Indians (I had no idea) and active at the moment and is actually pitching quite well [2.64 ERA, 0.86 WHIP]. And, with him, if the game ever gets too quick Tito can bring him in in order to slam the brakes on.

Frayed Knot wrote: The Nats behind Strasburg, up 1-0 heading into the 8th, have just had their pen cough up a four-spot to the (still batting) Pirates. So Strasburg was at 0 Runs / 4 H / 1 BB / 6 K / 94 pitches when he was pulled after the 7th last night. The result for Pittsburgh in the 8th: Single - Wild Pitch - Walk - Bunt Single [out goes Wander Suarez, in comes Danial Hudson] - Sac Fly - 3R HR Why are these managers seemingly so anxious to get to their pen? Particularly THAT pen?!? It's reminiscent of Matz in Atlanta last week when Lugo melted down, except that here Davey Martinez needed six outs from that crew with no margin for error. So they wound up serving up a four-spot before recording even a second out. Plus they don't have anyone there as good as Lugo (or at least as good as Lugo usually is). In Boston's 3-2 loss to Philly at Fenway last night the Sox had two runners thrown out on the base paths in the 9th inning. Bogaerts followed his leadoff double by trying to cross over to 3rd on a grounder hit in front of him. Then a pinch-runner gets doubled off 1st on an infield liner to end the game. Really dudes!?!. No wonder you're 57 games in back of the Yanx. Kershaw became the Dodgers all-time winning lefthander with his 166th career win. Had been tied w/Koufax (who of course did it all by age 30). Also Claude Osteen - 147. Fernando - 141

The one thing Paul Seawald didn't want to see was Mickey being forced to get someone up and warming. Nice to see that he made sure that didn't happen.

The one thing Paul Seawald didn't want to see was Mickey being forced to get someone up and warming. Nice to see that he made sure that didn't happen.

The Nats behind Strasburg, up 1-0 heading into the 8th, have just had their pen cough up a four-spot to the (still batting) Pirates.

We saw him pitching in the sixties, the little lefty from Waco town. We've been seeing Al Jackson, ever since the team's been around. We're talking Jackson ..

We saw him pitching in the sixties, the little lefty from Waco town. We've been seeing Al Jackson, ever since the team's been around. We're talking Jackson ..

Multiple hits PLUS a hard out PLUS a walk! on the night for Rosie. We got a base-running issue to talk about over beers later on, but everything else is looking up.

=LWFS post_id=19403 time=1566349081 user_id=84] Justin Wilson vs. Francisco Lindor. I have nervous.

This Cimber guy is very limber ... as Ronnie drops a GOODFELLAS reference in there that both Gary & Keith appeared to miss.

Yeah, as of now I'm just comparing them to league averages. Too much work to have to look up the Starter/bullpen splits for all 15 NL teams. Maybe I'll look at that once the season is over, although, even then, ERA isn't the greatest way to judge a pen.

For the first time all year, and right in the midst of our best stretch of the season, I missed one of my multiples of 20-game cutoffs for the tracking of these stats. Oh well, only four games late so you're just going to have to pretend that this past segment is the same length as the others. Not perfect, but still reasonable. And look how much the staff as a whole has jumped recently! Now actually slightly better than a league average ERA (and considering where they started ...) and up to 7th best in the NL instead of the bottom few as they've been all year. Only the second set of 20 games was comparable to the recent stretch while the others weren't even in the same area code. The pen is still lagging behind but at least some of that was runs allowed in blowouts which, while making things uncomfortable, didn't outright blow games. ERALg AVGDiffERA+RA/GNL RankStarter ERARel ERABAA-A Thru 20 Games5.614.28-1.33726.3515th5.565.91.280 Games 21-403.27——————3.50——————.215 Thru 40 Games4.424.31-0.11884.9310th4.294.75.248 Games 41-605.17——————5.15——————.283 Thru 60 Games4.664.34-0.32865.0012th4.405.19.260 Games 61-805.04——————5.25——————.255 Thru 80 Games4.754.38-0.37865.1313th4.405.44.259 Games 81-1004.30——————4.50——————.247 Thru 100 Games4.664.40-0.26894.9712th4.285.28.256 Games 101-1243.47——————3.79——————.244 Thru 124 Games4.404.45+0.05954.737th3.985.21.254

=ashie62 post_id=19386 time=1566339665 user_id=90] Nice to see J.D. Davis out there. Could have been a one month calf strain.

=bmfc1 post_id=19373 time=1566328975 user_id=73]Nimmo is in Syracuse (not for vacation or to visit the Fman99's, he's playing).

Series of interest to kick off the week: Nats go to Pittsburgh for four games (Mon-Thurs) Scherzer may (or may not) be back sometime this week. Cardinals & Brewers square up in StL (Mon, Tues, Wed). Brewers start the series 2.0 games in back of both the Cards & Cubs and dead even with the Blue & Orange. Philly @ Fenway for 2 games (Mon, Tues). The Phightins complete the three-way tie in the standings (NYM, MIL, PHI) Marlins @ Braves (Mon, Tues, Wed). A sweep wouldn't be surprising - although they did split a four game last week. Cubs hosting the Giants (Tues, Wed, Thurs). Cubs are 2.0 games ahead of us, Giants 1.5 behind. Yanx in Oakland (Tues, Wed, Thurs) for the start of a trip that will later take them to the Dodgers and then the Mariners And it looks like Chris Sale will NOT need TJS. Simple inflammation is the diagnosis.

I'm surprised that none of the Tarantino-ites here have gotten around to talking about this one yet. Set in LA, or, more specifically, in Hollywood (duh!) in 1969, the story, such as it is, follows the antics of a semi-talented actor (Leo Dicaprio) and his stuntman/gofer (Brad Pitt). So it turns out that the fictional Rick Dalton (Dicaprio) lives next door to the very real Roman Polanski and wife Sharon Tate in the Laurel Canyon section of SoCal (the title does contain the phrase 'Once Upon a Time') and so events in the lives of these two (DiCaprio/Pitt) are leading up to an intersection with a certain August night in 1969. My main complaint about Tarantino films in the past is that they've been too long and that that extra time is often filled with gratuitous violence, seemingly for the sake of itself. This one is also long (2:41) although it didn't feel long. And, yes, there's cartoonish violence towards the end, although it's not as over the top as usual, and, considering the actual events of that summer, the stylized violence doesn't depict what you think it might depict which, had he gone there, would have been in really poor taste, even for QT. I guess the main complaint would be that it's a film of nothing more than Tarantino wallowing in Hollywood nostalgia of his youth. But, y'know, even if that is the case, it's kind of a fun ride through QT wallowing in Hollywood nostalgia of his youth. Leo DiCapio Brad Pitt Margot Robbie Emil Hirsch Bruce Dern Al Pacino

=G-Fafif post_id=19275 time=1566164115 user_id=55] Difference between today and MIL-WSH last night, from Keith's perspective, is Keith was doing this game.

It's not surprising to me that this suggestion comes out of the Bronx where the Yanx have long considered the majority of regular season games (like all those except vs the BoSox) to be a bother. I believe the idea that they might tire out a pitcher who'll they'll need in October and/or get a player injured during an unnecessary game against some inferior (in record and in status) opponent gnaws at them in the same way the lack of the DH in the NL gnawed at Hank Steinbrenner after Chin-Ming Wang inured his foot when, in addition to walking from the dugout to the mound six or seven times a game, he once* had to actually stand on and then move between bases. * Looking it up, Wang had no hits and no walks in 15 plate appearances as a Yanqui. But he once had a Sac Bunt where the defense got the a force play and Wang found himself on 1st. Several hits later he was scoring on a Jeter single but got an owie on his tootsie crossing the plate and didn't come out for the next inning. It was (at least as far as I can find) his lone time on the bases as a Yanqui. That mid-June 2008 game also turned out to be his final game for the season because of the foot issue. He'd go on to make just 9 more starts for the Yanx, all in 2009.

Rosario to LF ... I like it!

Edgy MD wrote: Let us take a moment to honor the man who worked his way from kindergarten to the Major Leagues with the name "Richard Lovelady." So I guess that in the Wifey-Watch section of the BBBF (the Base-Ball-Boni Forum) they post pictures of Lovelady's lady love.

Four more runs and this game will be Diaz-proofed.

The NYM offense really perked up after the Royals lost their spark, man.