Frayed Knot

Lefty Specialist wrote: I like stress-free games. We get them so infrequently. There's actually been the potential this year for several comfortable games, but in those instances the pen has given up a bunch of garbage runs that then forced Mickey to get the important parts of the pen warming up. Be nice to avoid that with just two frames to go. This has also been the rare game that's actually moved quicker as it went on.

After years of complaining about a lack of depth and about why we didn't have a dynamite-hitting backup at each spot, and about how shortsighted it was that we had only [fill-in blank] to play while [fill-in blank] was hurt, too many bats for too few positions is a Good thing. Make the most of it.

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: 20, 30 and 40 hitting consecutively in this lineup Quick, resign Benny!!

=41Forever post_id=7956 time=1555987282 user_id=69] What did Harper do to get run, other than being Bryce Harper.

=Fman99 post_id=7953 time=1555987012 user_id=86] Jesus, has Guillorme ever had an MLB hit? He's brutal as a batter.

Luis Guillorme's walk-up music is not the obvious 'Louie Louie' but rather the Stories version of 'Brother Louie' [YOUTUBE]wmF3jDwSTmI[/YOUTUBE]

Quinn K's on 3 pitches in his first AB of the game, and is heard to remark in the dugout afterward that he'd not seen nuthin' like that. I guess those pitches just weren't his cup of meat.

Matz obviously better in this game than the last one but, even with just one run allowed thru 4, he's still up near 80 pitches, normally you'd like to see that get him through 5-1/3 And now is going back out there following a very quick bottom 4th

A Boy Named Seo wrote: Has Ramos been using that orange and blue catcher's mitt the whole time and I've just noticed it? I think he's been using different mitts for different pitchers. Not five different ones I don't think, but more than one. And, yes, that is Mr. Zeile Or, as our old on-line frenemy METSSC used to call him, UNZeile, for what he perceived as Todd's low energy type of demeanor.

'The Cro' was a very entertaining fellow in his day. Were I getting an organ transplant I'd want him in the room with me fer sure.

aka: your routine 8-2-6 DP That announcer at the very beginning, in case you didn't recognize him as a former ballplayer or even as a fully-formed human being, was ex-Oakland hurler Dallas Braden

So the one thing we knew going into this season — Hell, the one thing everyone in baseball knew going into the season — was that the Mets were going to have one of the top pitching staffs this year. So naturally, three weeks into the year, they sit DFL in all the NL (includes games thru Saturday 4/20). They are, however, ahead of both Boston & Baltimore … so, y'know, there's that. And not only is it the worst in the NL in 2019 but it's worse than any full season in NYM history … by a lot! Their 5.61 is more than a half run in back of the 1962 team's 5.04 That year, along with 2017, were the only seasons in team history where they posted an ERA north of 5.00 And to top it off, the defense hasn't given the staff much help as the RA/9 mark of 6.35 is also currently the worst in the league and the franchise's worst ever (1962 = 5.89) Now you figure it can't possibly continue to be THIS bad (it can't, can it?!?), so what I'm going to attempt to do here is measure the staff's progress (or lack thereof) in roughly 20 game intervals throughout the season and see where that takes us. Hopefully I'll remember to keep up with it as the season goes on. Feel free to remind me if I don't. So here's the opening installment (again, this does not include Sunday's game where additional ERs and UERs were allowed). ERALg AvgDiffERA+RA/9NL RankStarter ERARel-ERA 5.614.28-1.33726.3515th5.565.91

Goal Syndergaard, Assist Fowler

Syndergaard, meanwhile, is looking to bust through the 100-pitch limit by the 5th inning.

McNeil = 2 ABs with 2-outs and a total of 5 runners on base: K, FO Little bitty singles in one and/or the other and the Mets are at worst tied, likely ahead, and quite possibly into the StL bullpen already.

-- Christian Yelich hits HRs #s 12 & 13 Saturday in a 5-0 Milwaukee win over the Dodgers He's currently on pace to hit 96 this season -- So what's the answer to the age old question of how many Indian pitchers does it take to totally fuck up a big 9th inning lead? Apparently 'Four' is your answer. The Braves, having already dropped the opener of their DH in Cleveland (rained out Friday night), found themselves down 7-0 after 2 innings in the night cap. Still down 7-3 entering the 9th, they then scored five times after two were out and got out of there with a split. Single , Line-out, Walk, Walk, K, 2-RBI Single, Walk, , RBI Walk , 2-RBI Double, Walk, Fly Out Really Cleveland pitchers, five runs on Three hits and FIVE WALKS? Geez, at least make them earn it! But least the Cleveland bats then made a fight of it in the bottom of the 9th: K, K, K vs the renown shut-down closer A. J. Minter

What choice do they have? If teams were interested in giving up anything for Gio he wouldn't be have signed a late-spring minor league deal in the first place and he certainly hasn't enhanced his attractiveness in his three AAA starts [6.00 ERA; 11.4 H/9] The bigger problem with Gio is that he's not really, how you say ... good. Had a nice career including a good season as recently as 2017, and maybe the best thing about him was that he consistently made all his starts every year [between 27 and 33 each year for nine straight] But showing up regularly isn't all that enticing a quality if he's not likely to pitch well. It also means he's put a lot of mileage on those tires since being drafted out of high school 15 years ago and ML-debuting 4 years later

Most recently he is "said to be open" to a one year deal ... which by this point is more like a 7/8 of a year deal and that's only if he's ready to jump right into things which he likely won't be. One theory on the problems in Boston, where their staff is challenging the Orioles for the worst ERA in the majors, is the idea that none of their pitchers were ready to answer the bell on account of the decision to 'save' their arms by essentially having all of them skip spring training. Turns out that maybe a bunch of simulated and intra-squad stuff doesn't get you as ready as real competition, or even fake real competition. iow, it'll be tough to expect Kuechel, now 31 y/o, four seasons removed from his CY year and more than six months since throwing his last pitch in anger, to just hit the ground running wherever he winds up.

When it Rhames, it pours.

Four innings = Two hours (OK, more like 1:45, but still) Doesn't help that it's also one time zone removed. Say goodnight Gracie

Nearly three innings worth of pitches by Vargas to get through two (even though scoreless so far) and nearly four innings worth by Wainwright to get him through the first two frames. iow, we're busting through the three hour barrier once again for the 17th time in 19 games.

He'll be IL'd but with backdating that could mean his next start as early as a week from today to open the Milwaukee series at home. Or in 2021 ... it's still up in the air.

- The BoSox travel to Tampa (St Pete actually) for a weekend series starting tonight where they'll face a Rays team that's already eight games ahead of them! Obviously this is an important series for the 6-13 Sox who are trying to reverse their early season slide. But one could argue that this also represents the first ever BIG series involving Tampa Bay and the month of April! The 14-5 Rays currently hold leads of 5.5 games (over the Yanx), 6.5 (Balt), 6.5 (Tor) and 8.0 (Bos) - a couple days ago, Cincy's Joey Votto did something he had never before done in the nearly 7,000 PA he's had in his ML career to date ... He popped out to 1st Votto doesn't pop out a lot anyway; I think 88 in total was the number I read which translates into not much over 1% of his overall trips to the plate or closer to 2% if you just want to separate out his balls put into play. But even with that, it's quite a statistical anomaly to have had NONE of those--fair or foul (this one was foul)--wind up in the mitt of the opposing 1st baseman. And maybe the more interesting part of this to me was the idea that someone (or maybe even numerous someones) knew of this quirk and have been obsessively following Cincy box scores all this time just waiting for this to finally happen, and then of course were then all set to pounce on the news as soon as it did.

So Friday's start, already pushed to Saturday, now gets pushed to ... ? Well at least this gives him extra time to get over his strep.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Did the Mets own the rights to the games that aired on Channel 9 decades ago? Or did WOR own them? If so, the ownership of the games would have passed to whatever corporate entity has inherited whatever WOR used to be. I guess it depends on the language in the contract. I'm guessing that today, a team would retain rights to its local broadcasts. Maybe back then, this right wasnt considered as valuable. Heck, game films weren't even preserved. They taped right over old games. I remember when Johnny Carson was nearing the end of his run he lamented about how the early years of his show were completely gone. Film was considered expensive so the natural inclination was to reuse it. And that's a big part of all this. Not that the Wilpons don't have a knack for treating the history of the Mets as if it began only after they became majority owners, but a lot of this argument presumes that copies of old games even exist. I'm guessing that not more than a handful do.