Frayed Knot

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I do refrain from posting certain things. There have been a few where someone says that they're a former player's love child or baby mama. I don't post those. I wondered why my submissions keep getting rejected.

Vargas was an All-Star last year, but he was terrible in the second half. That second-half dropoff is concerning. Hopefully it has a benign explanation. When in doubt, go to the old stand-by: He was tipping his pitches

And now that David Aardsma has officially retired and taken a job in the Toronto front office (he hadn't pitched in the majors since 2015 but, until now, hadn't given up the thought of it and was working towards a return as an L.I. Duck in 2017) Abad, assuming he can land a job, takes over as the reigning ML'er at the front of the alphabet. Aardsma climbed atop the all-time ML roster when he made his 2004 debut and nudged aside some guy named Hank Aaron who had held the "title" for a full half century at that point. So, y'know, there's that.

Yeah, I was just reading that myself. I always like his list in that, rather than just an ordinal list, you get grades on each prospect with definitions to what each grade means in his view, along with a short description of plusses, minuses, and projections. He doesn't offer much comment on the system as a whole except to note that there is no one really close to ML ready right now and that the first five separate themselves from the more or less interchangeable group of 'C+' prospects who make up the rest of the pack. How that rest of the pack develops -- **or doesn't** -- will have a lot to do with how this list looks a year from now. Some of the interchanges in the comments section between Sickels and the prospect hounds who frequent that site can give some insight as well depending on how deeply into this thing you want to dive. 1) Andres Gimenez, SS, Grade B/B+: Age 19, hit .265/.346/.349 against older competition in Low-A, with 14 steals, 28 walks, 61 strikeouts in 347 at-bats; huge jump from Dominican Summer League and he held his own very well; best offensive tool is speed, not much power at this point but his OBP skills look solid so far and he could be a top-of-the-lineup mainstay as he develops physically; more reliable than most shortstops his age and has the arm, hands, and range to stay there; makeup also a significant positive; ETA 2021.

It's current Braves catcher Tyler Flowers, of course.

[fimg=200:x4yg18c7]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Candy_Cummings_plaque.jpg[/fimg:x4yg18c7] [fimg=200:x4yg18c7]https://d3k2oh6evki4b7.cloudfront.net/req/201711150/images/headshots/8/89979ba5_davis.jpg[/fimg:x4yg18c7] [fimg=200:x4yg18c7]https://d3k2oh6evki4b7.cloudfront.net/req/201802130/images/headshots/d/d2490a5f_mlbam.jpg[/fimg:x4yg18c7]

'Tito' (John Patsy) Francona, father of current Cleveland manager Terry Jon 'Tito' Francona -- 84 15 year career (1956-1970) with Cleveland, Atlanta, StL, Oakland, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Detroit, Milwaukee, Chicago White Sox 2nd in ROY in 1956 w/the Orioles and 5th in MVP 1959/Indians

Perhaps all we need to know about this past season is that multiple guys who would have been described as significant pieces of the supposed best staff in baseball as the season began -- Synderrgaard, Familia, Harvey, Matz, and Robles -- are all currently outside of our consensus top 20 and two of those five are looking like they'll wind up out of the top 30 and point-less for this season unless some late voting from outer precincts changes things.

d'Kong76 wrote: Lefty Specialist wrote: If I recall, Lagares has always been able to do this in batting practice. But it hasn't translated to any success on the field. Baseball Prospectus calls that stat BPP. Prospect reports often talk about a player who has 'useable power' and how he's a cut above those guys who may have power but can never seem to make it show up in game conditions.

My first memory of a shortstop was Roy McMillan. I realized, even at that young age, that old Roy didn't hit much, but even I could see the smooth movement in the infield and, with his glasses and his weather-lined Texas face, that "grizzled veteran" look (even though I wouldn't have used that specific term) became what I thought a shortstop was, what I thought a shortstop should be. And then he was gone and his replacement was this skinny, big-eared kid from California. Now suddenly my team's shortstop went from looking like someone I probably thought was my grandfather's age to one who looked little different and no older than the teenagers who lived on the block. How, my young mind thought, could this guy possibly play the position the way it should be played since he didn't look like what I thought someone playing that position needed to look like? That he went on to play it even better was both a relief and a revelation. That he was a normal-sized guy who lived not all that far from me (and others here who grew up in northwest Suffolk County) so could occasionally be seen around town at various off-season functions, made it even cooler. Best of luck Derrel McKinley. It's been a while since D-Day but not long enough for the lights to go out. P.S. he's listed in BB-Ref as the 9,999th player in history to make his MLB debut. Also, currently hanging in there as the #26 all-time Met in the CPF Rankings project.

d'Kong76 wrote: I grew one of those this winter, I call it my salad bowl. Looks more like it might be caused by a lack of salad bowls.

Tommy Davis?

Essentially replaces Arrieta in the Cubbie rotation. Which will be the better pitcher going forward will be an interesting story to watch.

Not everyone is as impressed ... at least not anymore.

Jeter, as DiMaggio did, milked his carefully constructed image with the full knowledge that the public would never know how far the image differed from the actual person

I remember one year reading a Sports Illustrated NFL preview issue, and as I'm going through each team's projected records it struck me that there seemed to be too many optimistic projections. And, sure enough, when I added up the individuals numbers it turned out they indeed had the league as a whole north of .500, an outcome which is quite impossible (unless it's the Lake Wobegon League where all teams are above average). I wrote them to point out what I found and their explanation was that while one guy did the AFC projections, a different writer handled the NFC and, in each case, they gave the majority of the inter-conference games to their own side. What the reply didn't say was whether they simply didn't realize this was the case or whether they did know it and decided to go ahead anyway on the basis that fans tend to get pissed off at predictions of off years for their teams so better to give as many as possible a Gold Star (plus orange slices) rather than risk cancelations and nasty letters.

[fimg=180]http://filmchestmediagroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Cover-Art-MASTER1.jpg[/fimg] The Mets are being named as one of the "seven or eight" teams in contact with Lance Lynn, a list which also includes the Brewers, Orioles, Nationals, Rays, and Twins, although not the Cardinals who have been his one and only organization since they made him their 1st round pick (39th overall) out of Ol' Miss in 2008 To briefly sum up his career, the Cards initially brought him up as a reliever for his first half-season which is something they tend to do with young pitchers (see: Wainwright, Adam) But by year two (2012) he was mostly a full time starter and has been one ever since, notching 29, 33, 33, 31, 0, and 33 starts from 2012-2017, the zero year being the one he missed (2016) to TJS His best year was clearly 2014 as that sported his lowest ERA & WHIP [2.74, 1.26] although every other season has produced good results in the 3.00's and 1.3's Never a real low walk guy [3.5/9 mostly] and I guess around an average K-guy [8.5 - 9.0/per], he does tend to keep the ball in the park [0.6 - 0.7 HRs/9] Back from TJS this past year, the HRs spiked (who's didn't?) to 1.3/9 but he bucked the other trend by having his K-rate dip to 7.4. On the other hand his hits/9 were down to his lowest rate as a starter while his walk rate jumped up just a bit. As has been mentioned elsewhere, 2018 will be his 2nd year back from TJS (having missed just one season for the surgery) Turns 31 in May and will require compensation after he rejecting the QO from StL The thought has been that second line guys like him and Alex Cobb are waiting for Darvish and/or Arrieta to set a market and bargain their position based on that. Presumably those who sign Darvishietta would reduce the potential suitors for Lynn. He's not a top of the rotation starter but he wouldn't be in that role here. "I see [Lynn and Cobb] as No. 3 or 4 starters," said a ML executive. "Neither gets me excited, but I'd take them both on my team."

Nymr83 wrote: If its not walkable it might as well be in Manhattan for most people. And a lot of people [not everyone, just the majority of this country] categorize anything over about 100 yards as 'not walkable'.

MFS62 wrote: Vic Sage wrote: you know something, as long as we're rounding up the usual suspects, i wouldn't be upset by another go-round with Mr. Dickey! Where do I sign up for that? With Ferrari, the fat gent in the corner of the 'Blue Parrot' After all, the buying and selling of human beings is Casablanca's leading commodity.

Lefty Specialist wrote: Boy, you could put together a damned good team from that unsigned talent. The Las Vegas Golden Knights!! The expansion hockey team of that name has already set records for first year team wins/points/etc. This one could do the same.

Yeah, looking at the Duda's last three partial seasons shows a 714 OPS for his partial (172 PAs) 2016 campaign, and an almost-as-bad 729 during his 200 PA post-trade stint with the TBR, which tends to make the 879 (291 PA) he put up in the front half of his 2017 look like maybe it'll be the outlier going forward. And that's before we even get into the platoon splits. In any case, it's not like the just turned 32 y/o (last weekend) Duda is anymore a slam dunk to exceed an 800 OPS either. I think this is clearly a case of allowing AGon the opportunity to show he's got something left which, if so, gives Dom another half-season in AAA. And if Gonzo looks like he's ready for the glue factory then I like a Smith/Flores combo at 1B a lot better than Smith/Duda and at least as much as Flores/Duda

Currently unsigned -- and this isn't even the complete list, merely the most familiar names and those who have, at least more or less, been starting players recently Pedro Alvarez (age 31) Jake Arrieta (31) Jose Bautista (37) Clay Buchholz (33) Melky Cabrera (33) Chris Carter (31) Andrew Cashner (31) Alex Cobb (30) Yu Darvish (31) R A Dickey (43) Lucas Duda (32) A J Ellis (36) Yunel Escobar (31) Andre Ethiker (35) Jamie Garcia (31) Matt Garza (34) Carlos Gomez (32) Carlos Gonzalez (32) A J Griffin (30) J J Hardy (35) Greg Holland (32) Matt Holiday (38) Eric Hosmer (28) John Faso (34) Jon Jay (32) Ubaldo Jimenez (34) John Lackey (39) Adam Lind (34) Francisco Liriano (34) Jonathan Lucroy (31) Lance Lynn (30) J D Martinez (30) Cameron Maybin (30) Wade Miley (31) Logan Morrison (30) Mike Moustakas (29) Mike Napoli (36) Ricky Nolasco (35) Bud Norris (32) Eduardo Nunez (30) Mike Pelfrey (34) Oliver Perez (36) Brandon Phillips (36) Colby Rasmus (31) Ben Revere (29) Mark Reynolds (34) Sergio Romo (34) Bruce Rondon (27) Trevor Rosenthal (27) Anibal Sanchez (33) Michael Saunders (31) Geovany Soto (35) Drew Storen (30) Huston Street (34) Ichiro Suzuki (44) Chris Tillman (29) Chase Utley (39) Jason Vargas (35) Neil Walker (32) Jayson Werth (38) Chris Young (34) http://www.espn.com/mlb/freeagents

Didn't Wilson also claim to be abstinent prior to his marriage to whichever pop star he's currently married to? There's obviously something about sexually pure QBs that appeal to NY baseball teams. I'll let the psychiatrist deal with the 'why' on that one. Russell Wilson's 'career', brief as it was back 7 & 8 seasons ago.

Actually he's merely quoted as saying he feels "more athletic" than at any other time - but that's close enough. The Post's Ken Davidoff joins Smith for a workout and reports on the results. And, no, it's not with Barwis. “I feel more athletic than I’ve ever been" ... “In spring training, I’ve always looked the part, but as far as my mobility and loosening up some hips and being more flexible, more agile as an athlete, I feel like this is the most advanced I’ve been for sure in my career.” ... “I feel the difference. “I feel like my whole posture is better. The way I walk around is better. My body doesn’t hurt. I just feel more like an athlete. And that’s something that I didn’t have in the past.” The numbers reported (which I'm always skeptical of taking as gospel truth) are that Smith is currently at 224 Last year he was said to have reported to spring at 236, down from his previous year's 254, but had gained most or all of that difference back by later in the year.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: It appears that the bobblehead effect is rather slimming. That's true. I'm also much slimmer in my bobblehead.