Frayed Knot

Also though, to add to Solo's 'Fuck the Twins' rant from earlier in the week: Fuck the Angels too! Started this past series with a 16-11 record then wound up getting swept at home. And it's not like they can claim to have been Stanton'd, Judge'd, or Sanchez'd to death (well, they did get smacked around in the middle game). Instead, they decided it was a good time to score a grand total of 5 runs in the three game set - one of those coming via an Ohtani HR as a DH. Meanwhile Trout (among others) was a total non-factor.

But it's racial (ethnic?) prejudice, not bad umpiring, that's kept him from getting a crew chief job ... or so his lawsuit claims.

Centerfield wrote: Maybe you give [Alonso] a 3B glove? From what I've read about him, he has enough trouble with the 1B glove.

OK so it was actually four years plus 11 days ago, but I was reminded of it today when Pirate pitcher Nick Kingham carried a perfect game into the 7th inning in his ML debut! I knew I had heard that name before but I couldn't figure out where until it occurred to me that he was one of the names we talked about as the possible PtbNL in the Ike deal. Kingham was the guy we wanted (or one of them anyway) but he was a top-100 prospect at the time so Pitt was understandably balking on including him. The other guy we were hot for back then was OF Austin Meadows who had been Pitt's 1st round (9th overall) pick nine months earlier. Not surprising that the Pirates weren't anxious to include him either. Meadows has still yet to appear in the majors although was named a top-50 prospect over the winter and is currently hitting well in AAA Infielder Alen Hanson was the other guy we were talking about, but he's since racked up 250 nondescript ML ABs spread over 3 seasons and 3 organizations, and virtually none as the SS he once was. And of course the idea of waiting for any of these guys until the far-off 2017 or 2018 seasons was more patience than we had at the time. Zack Thornton was the guy immediately named in the deal but he was last seen racking up a 7+ ERA in Vegas in 2016 then toiling in the Atlantic League last year, having never made the majors. LHP Blake Taylor turned out to be the eventual PtbNL, having been the Pirates' 2nd round (51st overall) draft pick the year before, but he was a 17 y/o HS pick so he was a long way from the majors at the time, and then pitched just 20 innings total in 2015-16, all in short-season ball. To his credit he's still plugging away having apparently gotten over whatever it was that was keeping him out of the lineup. Not that the numbers have been pretty in either low-A Columbia in 2017 or so far in 3 PSL starts this year, but at least he's gotten a full 100 innings under his belt and he still just turned 22. On the other hand, we never really missed Ike, did we?

Hey Sandy Eggo, we'll see your 12-2 and raise you a 14-2 (and counting)

And just as we were getting ready to take Adrian out to the glue factory, he comes through with a Five-RBI game! Which just goes to show the wisdom of the renowned British philosopher Pete Townshend still holds true: Here by the sea and sand, nothing ever goes as planned.

He's not throwing a bad game today, the hits (6) have been soft/seeing-eye for the most part and with some better decisions/defense he could still be scoreless. But, as usual, too many walks (2) and deep counts (lots) so it's taken him Five-1/3 innings worth of pitches (80) just to get through Four.

bmfc1 wrote: Bring up any 3 of the 51s starters and they couldn't do any worse. I'm not anxious to test that theory.

Annnnnnnd, Cespedes is out of the game. G-Fafif wrote: Cespedes's thumb! Precautionary measures! I forget whether "precautionary measures" is six weeks or eight.

[Trax] Steve Trachsel once went 11 minutes between pitches [/obligatory Trax was slow joke]

I just looked up [u:33i77rkv]the career[/u:33i77rkv] SDP records where Santiago does have the record for catcher HRs - but that doesn't necessarily mean he has the single season mark. btw, the club record is only 163 by Nate Colbert who had a short but dangerous peak as a slugger. Only two behind is Adrian Gonzalez.

My first reaction was Benito Santiago

Edgy MD wrote: Just tuning in. Have the Padres really gone back to these colors? Friday night duds.

Halfway through the game in 1:05 ... is that even allowed these days?!?

Nymr83 wrote: Keith just gave the finger on air! San Diego was the site of Keith giving his 'no girls on the bench' rant only to find out later that she was part of the training staff. He had to do a public apology for that one, although anyone who demands he do the same over this 'incident' simply wasn't paying attention to the context. But hey, at least tonight it took Keith two whole innings to repeat what Gary had previously said (the part about Richards being a former U-Michigan backup QB). Sometimes he spouts some piece of information while being oblivious to the fact that Gary just said the exact same thing only seconds earlier.

HahnSolo wrote: Fuck the Twins. Really. Can someone in that clubhouse grow a pair? But at least their traditional ineptness vs the Yanx in the regular season gets much worse when October rolls around. - speaking of the Yanx, in a rarity this weekend they are on the west coast at the same time as the Mets, specifically in SoCal to face the (16-9) Fighting Ohtanis of Anaheim They won't, however, face the pitching version of Ohtani as, even though he last pitched three days ago, they're keeping him to his once/week pace. They may see him two or three times as a batter though. - Braves are in Philly for the weekend. Not sure how to root in this one. The Phils are closer to us (-1/2) and could conceivably be in 1st place by tomorrow if things don't go well over the next few hours, but I fear the Braves more long term. So far in the opening game, the titular Ace-v-Ace matchup of Nola and Teheran produced 3 runs for each in the 1st inning. - Nats hosting Arizona where the Snakes touched up Strasburg for 2 in the 1st - And remember Jung Ho Kang? The Pirate 3Bman last played in 2016 before a drunk driving conviction (not his first) in South Korea kept him from securing a work visa to get back into the U.S. Well, proper papers now in hand, he is now back with the Pitt org. I suspect he'll need some minor league time before he plays although I have no idea what he's been up to in SK (except boozing a lot that is).

Rhame back up, Oswalt down.

Baseball's version comes up on June 4-6, and, as in that other sport, it's never too early to hear over-analysis from folks who pretend to know what they're talking about and/or cite the opinions of others as if that knowledge is their own ... and that's where we come in. From Jonathan Mayo at mlb.com: Coming into the spring, scouts were enthusiastically optimistic about the talent in this year's class. That's still the case, though it's a scout's job to be critical, and every spring scout will poke holes in any class. This year's crop appears to have more depth than elite talent at the top, with the prep set -- particularly pitching -- leading the way. "It's a high school dominant Draft," one National League scouting director said. "There are some good college players at the top of the Draft, though maybe not the star potential of some of the Drafts of the past." That last sentence flies in the face of the 'all this winning is terrible' attitude from late last season. At the moment, Casey Mize is being talked about as a cut above the rest Anyway, here's what mlb.com's current top ten looks like: 1. Casey Mize, RHP, Auburn 2. Carter Stewart, RHP, Eau Gallie HS (Melbourne, Fla.) -- I truly hope that school is pronounced: Oh Golly! 3. Nick Madrigal, 2B/SS, Oregon State 4. Matt Liberatore, LHP, Mountain Ridge HS (Riverdale, Ariz.) 5. Brady Singer, RHP, Florida 6. Shane McClanahan, LHP, South Florida -- if he busts the team that chooses him will Rue that pick 7. Travis Swaggerty, OF, South Alabama 8. Jarred Kelenic, OF, Waukesha (Wisc.) West HS -- we expect a full scouting report from Monk in this guy 9. Joey Bart, C, Georgia Tech 10. Jonathan India, 3B, Florida ... and then here are the rest of the top 100 in case you want to keep alive a CPF tradition of latching onto the coolest name and rooting for him to still be around when the Mets pick at #6. Kumar Rocker is the leader in that clubhouse for now. Draft Order: 1. Tigers 2. Giants 3. Phillies 4. White Sox 5. Reds 6. Mets 7. Padres 8. Braves 9. Athletics 10. Pirates 11. Orioles 12. Blue Jays 13. Marlins 14. Mariners 15. Rangers 16. Rays 17. Angels 18. Royals 19. Cardinals 20. Twins 21. Brewers 22. Rockies 23. Yankees 24. Cubs 25. D-backs 26. Red Sox 27. Nationals 28. Astros 29. Indians 30. Dodgers The Mets will next draft 48th, 83rd, 110th, and then every 30 picks after that.

A Boy Named Seo wrote: Keith said he thought he lost it in the sun, too. It looked like a crappy jump to me, Juan didn't really get too close to it. Well I think it was a crappy jump because of the sun. He didn't take a great angle to the ball and then wound up jumping both late and ultimately short. On the other hand, it was also a smoked liner off the wall in dead center. Would have taken a nice play to get it under any circumstances. But we are talking about Juan here so I'd say he probably gets to a ball like that 7 or 8 times out of 10

Fman99 wrote: Yup. Down by 8 runs in a late start game already past the two hour mark by the top of the 6th ... that's signing off territory.

Two more run-scoring "hits" that don't leave the infield.

Does Keith listen to ANYTHING Gary says? Seconds after Gary mentions that Oswalt is from San Diego where the Mets are headed next, Keith suddenly discovers that Oswalt is from San Diego and comments on the coincidence of the Mets going there next.

It would be nice if we could force the Cardinals to at least get the ball out of the fucking infield in order to score their runs. That's two sac bunts turned into zero outs and both then had errors attached to them allowing further runner advance. And there have been two infield hits. And the guy who had to replace Tommy Pham has been on base twice in two ABs on a walk and a HBP

The Jays have him in left field which is so obviously where he belongs, so that helps a bit. The funny part was that when I saw the highlight the voice-over didn't even say who the OF was but I instantly recognized him by his throwing motion (mine was better at age 37 than his - I didn't fry out my shoulder until some 2-3 years later)

Lefty Specialist wrote: Grandy hit a walk-off HR for the Blue Jays last night against the Bosox. Off Craig Kimbrel too. First walk-off vs Kimbrel in nearly five years. Grandy even threw out a potential go-ahead BoSox run at the plate to end the top of the 9th. No, really, he did, and without even needing a relay!