Frayed Knot

Ollie Perez, during his 1st & 2nd years with Pittsburgh, was untouchable as a young player. He couldn't have been had for three Cabreras You may not have been able to land him with Conforto as bait.

On Franklyn Kilome From John Sickels as written in pre-season (March): Franklyn Kilome, RHP, Grade B- Age 22, signed out of Dominican Republic in 2013, posted 2.83 ERA with 103/52 K/BB in 127 innings between High-A and Double-A, 121 hits; throws very hard, up to 98, mixing in an inconsistent curveball (which is sometimes very good) and change-up; strikeout rate should be higher given how hard he throws, indicator of need to improve secondaries; might end up in bullpen; high-ceiling no question; ETA 2020. From Amazin' Avenue written today.

Best Asdrubal in club history, and it's not even close. But seriously folks, I remember a bunch of apprehension at the time of his signing but I think he gave better than most or all of us expected and was a good soldier along the way. Fun to root for and gave off an aura of a team leader even though he rarely spoke publicly.

Jackson was hot stuff for a while. Drafted in the 8th round by the Yanx out of a Dallas area HS, IIRC he was a basketball player mostly but became an example of successfully drafting in later rounds based on athleticism. He hit it big enough to reach top-50 status in prospect-ville and when he did the Yanx spun him off as part of a multi-team deal that involved Max Scherzer and landed the Yanx Curtis Granderson. Five years later Jackson was involved in another multi-team trade, this time involving David Price 'mongst others. Still only 31 y/o and coming off a good year in a part-time role for Cleveland in 2017 [.318/.387/.482 in 318 PA] while playing all three OF positions, he's not quite 'dumpster diving' material even if his 150 ABs for the Giants this year are nothing to write home about. Hey, he's got 36 hits this season (8 doubles) which is 36 more than den Dekker.

What, youse thought I forgot? Was kidnapped maybe? Incarcerated? (understandable) Had another coronary? Nope, just busy. Going for our fourth straight at 7:05 featuring Jason Vargas vs John New (Ivan Nova) Vargas: 2-6; 8.20 (I don't think that's very good); last pitched on 6/19: 7 runs on 9 hits in 2.1 vs Rockies, but, y'know, it was in Coors. Former MFY Nova: 6-6; 4.28. HIs 7-run performance was three starts ago vs LAD. Since then he's been better in starts vs MIL & CIN [3 runs on 12 hits in 11-1/3] Rosario - SS Cabrera - 2B Conforto - LF Flores - 1B Nimmo - CF Bautista - RF NcNeil - 3B Plawecki - C Vargas - P Luplow - LF Harrison - 2B Polanco - RF Diaz - C (Mr.) Freese - 3B Bell - 1B Rodriguez - CF Mercer - SS Nova - P

Odd that this game -- high scoring and slow-going as it was early on -- is going to come in at only a few ticks over 3 hours (assuming we can get the 3rd out). Wednesday's game was the second shortest of the year and both of the last two were in the quickest ten.

I didn't realize that Hamels is already 34 y/o (35 in Dec). The Rangers are including some money in the trade meaning that three teams are contributing to his paycheck this season as the Phils are also paying part of the freight as per that agreement when they traded him three years ago. Has a vesting option for 2019 although it doesn't look like he'll pitch enough 2017-18 innings to make it automatically kick in.

Edgy MD wrote: Is Jordan Luplow any relation to Lyndon Johnson-era Met Al Luplow? Yup! I saw the Luplow name a few weeks ago for the first time and figured that it's unusual enough to likely be a match. But then I couldn't find anything so I figured maybe no. Turns out he's a grand-nephew of Al (grandson of Al's brother?) according to Gary during the first inning tonight.

Looks like Hole Camels is headed to the Cubs.

* Wednesday's Oakland comeback vs Texas merely involved erasing a 5-1 deficit after six innings rather than Tuesday's 10-2, but they still did it. This time it was a 3R Khris Davis HR in the 7th and then a 2R Khris Davis HR in the 9th * Twins were batting in the top of the 11th inning of an (obviously) tied game in Toronto Wednesday afternoon. Their first two hitters made quick outs ... but before the Jays could get the 3rd out the Twinkies put up DOUBLE, WALK, WALK, HBP, DOUBLE, DOUBLE, SINGLE, SINGLE and hung a six spot on the home team. * Steven Strasburg (neck) and Kris Bryant (shoulder) each go to the DL Strasburg just came off the DL after the ASB meaning that he'll have started just one game between June 8 and at least sometime in mid August * After Sergio Romo got the final two outs of the 8th inning vs the Yanx on Wednesday, they moved him to 3rd base to start the 9th while they brought in a left-hander to face the lefty-hitting Greg Bird. Bird grounded out to (alas) 2nd base in his AB at which point they returned Romo back to the mound where he recorded the final two outs for the save of Tampa's 3-2 win. Given Tampa's recent trend of starting relievers in games, this made Romo the 5th and 7th pitchers of the game for the Rays.

Edgy MD wrote: Let's catch these guys. Hey, we're as close to them as they are to the Phillies (7.0 games in each direction).

That the Padres were in town this week makes it a logical time for writers to think about possible trades. The NY Post took advantage of their visit this week to do just that suggesting that "... as the Padres’ advance indicates, plenty of interest will still exist in the offseason [and they] are particularly poised to act because they have six of the top 33 prospects, according to MLB Pipeline, and 10 of the top 100. Also, under GM A.J. Preller, they have shown boldness in going for it ... such as when they went for Craig Kimbrel, Matt Kemp, James Shields and Justin Upton, and signing Eric Hosmer last offseason. I should probably add here that none of those moves actually worked but perhaps it's still a part of their mindset. Also, according to the MLB.com mid-season update on prospects, the Padres have the #3 overall in Fernando Tatis Jr. Also the #s 15 in newly acquired (C/OF) Francisco Mejia; #29 2B/SS Luis Urias; #32 RHP Cal (son of Paul) Quantrill; and #33 RHP Michael Baez That's an impressive group although these things are always based on potential so you'd want to look into each to find out how far away, etc. Sometimes the higher the potential the farther (and therefore the less likely) a player is from reaching that level.

I do hope that this remains a non-NYM trading deadline thread and that, should they decide to deal off major parts to the current team, that those moves would be worthy of their own threads rather than be lumped into some all-purpose jumble. Having gotten that off my chest, the Jays on said to be on the verge of finding a new employer for RHP JA Happ although the specifics on his new address have yet to be revealed. The Yanx, the Cubs, and the Brewers are said to be hot on the trail of his tail.

Coming off A SERIES WIN and a two-game IGT winning streak for me, a streak which raises my number of winning IGTs since the beginning of 2015 to (checking the math here: take the seven, carry the four, square the remainder) ... two! The Pyroots got shut out by Cleveland (or 'The Land' as the cool kids call it these days) on Wednesday afternoon bringing their impressive 11 game winning streak to a halt. Maybe LeBron pitched, I dunno. During that streak they averaged nearly 7 R/G and out-scored their (not-insubstantial: WAS, CLE, MIL, CIN) opponents by a 71-24 margin. Oddly this recent stretch has only lifted their heads (and their run differential) slightly above the break even point (53-50; +6) as it's been an up-and-down season for them. This is a team that gave up 17 runs in two games just four days apart earlier this month. But all good things must come to an end as the Mets head to PNC Park for four games: Thurs - Sat all at 7:05; Sunday at 1:35 Thursday's opener sees Steven Matz facing 26 y/o rookie Nick Kingham: a one-time rumored NYM trading target IIRC although I can't remember the specific circumstances. A 2010 4th round draft pick out of a Las Vegas HS, Kingham has made ten ML starts in his season/career where he is 5-4 with a 4.11 / 1.105 ERA/WHIP. 8.5 / 2.2 Ks & BBs per 9 Three pretty good starts recently -- all wins for him and the team -- since getting lit up by the Dodgers back on July 2nd So far no reports of any Mets coming down with Cholera in the last 24 hours.

Ashie62 wrote: Fernando Tatis Jr McKenzie Gore & Urias are all top 100 MLB Prospects. Just make sure to look back through previous Top-100 lists and see how many of those names you don't recognize because they never became anything, or even those names that you do recognize but are playing niche roles rather than as stars.

If this Phil Maton guy now pitching for the Pads were to become a lights-out closer he could be nicknamed 'Auto' Maton

And for a second day in a row deGrom is saying; "Really guys. Now?" "You can't score at all for me and now you put together a four-run/two-out rally and quite possibly steal a 'W' for Corey Freaking Oswalt?"

A baserunner, a baserunner!! Not a hit yet, mind you, but a real live baserunner.

One of [u:2p126jbr]TEN[/u:2p126jbr] day games in MLB today, it'll be a high noon start in Queens (well, 12:10 if you want to be an asshole about it) as the Mets will see their third straight SDP lefty when Corey Oswalt faces Clayton Richards Mets faced Richards [7-9; 4.82] back in April and hung an 'L' on him [3 runs over 6.2] as he and the Padres got deGrommed that night 5-1. More recently he's coming off a 7-runs/3-IP thumping by Philly in SD's first game after the ASB

Oakland keeps rolling. Down 10-2 in Texas after 6, they score 3 in the 7th, 4 in the 8th, get a leadoff HR (Steve Piscotty) in the 9th to tie it, then 3 more in the 10th for a 13-10 win!! Oh yeah, and Familia racked up his second 'W' in two outings after a perfect 8th & 9th innings. A's are now 13-5 in July, 30-15 since June 1, and 1.5 behind Seattle for the #2 WC spot The Dodgers got themselves into a relief bind in Philly - at one point using four arms to get six outs after the Phils tied the game in the 7th. So by the time the 16th inning rolled around and the Phils were sending starter Vince Velazquez to the mound, LA turned to OF/IF Kike Hernandez. The result was Walk - Walk - 3R walk-off (Trevor Plouffe) Was a tough day for Kike as he was also 0-7 at the plate. And having previously played RF & 2B, Hernandez became the first guy to play the IF, the OF, and allow 3 runs in a game since some guy named Ruth back in 1921. At least after that 5 hour and 55 minute marathon those two teams don't have a 12:35 start today ... oh wait, they do!! Phils now 1.0 game in front in the NL East while the Dodgers are just 1/2 game ahead of Arizona who were off beating the Cubs

Phil Hughes doesn't look like he's missed many meals in the last few years.

Orioles deal their once good but now struggling LH closer to the Bronx. Like Familia he is a FA at the end of the year. Be interesting to see what the price for this one is. Two years ago he pitched to an ERA of 0.45 and a WHIP of 0.84 while finishing 4th in the CY This season is a more pedestrian 3.45/1.34 and was no longer closing oe: Right-handers Dillon Tate, who is the Yankees' No. 9-ranked prospect, and Cody Carroll, who's ranked No. 15, and Triple-A left-hander Josh Rogers are in the package for Britton, according to sources. The Orioles were still reviewing medical records, a source told MLB.com, so it was unlikely a deal would be announced on Tuesday night.

A second Cardinal rookie, 24 y/o Austin Gomber, took a no-hitter into the 7th. But this time he blew it on his own: 1B then HR to tie the game at 2 in Cincy

Keith is correct about the beginning of that '84 season: 9 straight on the road to open the season and 14 of the first 17 They hit Cincy, Atlanta, Houston, and Chicago all before the home opener. And then after 3 vs Expos at Shea, it was off to Philly (3) & Montreal (2)

Rockin' Doc wrote: Sometimes, I wish I lived in Ceetars optimistic world of blue and orange. Plus there's a lot of beer in Ceet's world ... so, y'know, there's that. Beer: Because You Can't Drink Bacon