Frayed Knot

Going a little better now.

Or y'know they could just change the name to the Syracuse [u:3fa4ujfu]Mets[/u:3fa4ujfu] Turns out that this purchase will make it four clubs who will own, or partially own, their AAA franchise. Only the Yanx, who partly own the Scranton Wilkes-Barre Rail Riders (that's a lotta letters for the front of a uniform), don't have the team named after the parent. Elsewhere there's the Gwinnett County Braves and the recently renamed Oklahoma City Dodgers who changed the long time Red Hawks nickname when they partially bought in three years ago. Would have been much better had they left it at Red Hawks

Nats have now scored 12 runs in this series, 10 of them coming on three swings: Harper 2R HR, Zimmerman 3R HR, Taylor 4R HR

So yesterday it wasn't raining at start time but they held off anyway. Today is IS raining in Chicago but they started right on time.

Mets Willets Point wrote: MLBS at Citi Field in '17 I've heard of several of those people.

John Farrell out in Boston TEAM MANAGERCONTRACTSTATUSANGELSMike Scioscia2018 ASTROSAJ Hinch???ATHLETICS Bob Melvin 2019Signed ext for 2019 on 9/28/17BLUE JAYS John Gibbons 2019 + 2020 OptionBRAVESBrian Snitker 2017 + 2018 OptionOption for 2018 picked up on 10/5/17 BREWERS Craig Counsel 2020CARDINALS--- Mike Matheny 2020CUBS Joe Maddon 2019DBACKSTorey Luvello 2019DODGERS Dave Roberts 2018 + 2019 OptionGIANTSBruce Bochy 2019INDIANS Terry Francona2020MARINERS Scott Servais2018MARLINSDon Mattingly 2019METS Terry Collins 2017Will not return NATIONALS Dusty Baker 2017ORIOLES Buck Showalter---2018PADRES Andy Green 2021Signed Extension Aug ‘17 PHILLIES Pete MacKanin 2018 + 2019 Option ---Signed ext in May '17 -- Will not return in 2018PIRATES Clint Hurdle 2021Signed 4 year extension - Sept ‘17 RANGERS Jeff Banister 2018 + 2019 Option RAYS Kevin Cash 2019 RED SOX John Ferrell 2018Will NOT return in 2018REDS Bryan Price 20182018 Option exercised - Sept ‘17 ROCKIES Bud Black 2019 + 2020 Option ROYALS Ned Yost 2018 TIGERS Brad Ausmus 20172018 Option NOT Picked Up TWINS Paul Molitor 2017 WHITE SOX Rick Renteria 2019 YANKEES Joe Girardi 2017

Not all that comforting to realize that THIS* Cleveland team has now lost five consecutive put-away games; they were up 3-1 in last year's WS and now 2-0 in this series. That 22 game winning streak doesn't count for anything right now. * as opposed to stats you often hear quoted where the talking suit tells you about how franchise A fared against B in a series that took place during the freakin' Great Depression as if those games are somehow relevant to the current matchup

Meaning they'll have the Strasburg / Scherzer tag team combo if they get to Game Five, but of course first they'll have to survive Game Four and considering this team is Oh-for-forever in do or die games it would be pretty tough to go out in Round One for the fourth time in six years with your fourth starter on the mound.

Yeah, I think bmfc meant [u:3tpx6v23]Strasburg[/u:3tpx6v23] & Gio rather than Scherzer who went just yesterday. And now the game HAS been postponed until Wednesday so we'll find out soon enough how they, or the Cubs for that matter, will adjust their rotations.

G-Fafif wrote: The series-ender was a classic, but hard to believe a 5-4 game that took nine innings needed 4:07 to conduct. By comparison, the Astros' predecessors in 1986 lost a series to the Mets in an afternoon game that took 16 innings, yet went only 35 minutes longer. Or to look at it another way: the 1986 game saw 123 batters come to the plate and yesterday's game just 82, or right around 50% more at bats in just 14% more time.

Nat bats are hitting .121/.200/.231 across the three games so far and have scored 7 runs in total - 5 of them in one inning. Cubs are barely hitting better but they even survived making four errors in yesterday's game. And tonight (5:40) they put their season in the hands of Tanner Roark [13-11; 4.67]

Someone, or several someones here, like to suss out these things ahead of time each winter. These particular ones come via a projection system which the inventors claim has proven in the past to be quite accurate. The parenthetical figures are each player's time of ML service expressed in Years.Days It is thought that the 'Super Two' cutoff will be around the 2.120 mark but that hasn't been nailed down yet (not sure why) so it's possible that Robles at the end of the list there falls short and won't actually be eligible this off-season. Not that the Mets will necessarily offer arb to all those guys and of course any or all of them could settle ahead of time either with one year or multi-year deals. Nori Aoki (5.148) – $6.3MM Tommy Milone (5.113) – $2.2MM Matt Harvey (5.072) – $5.9MM A.J. Ramos (5.030) – $9.2MM Jeurys Familia (5.024) – $7.4MM Zack Wheeler (4.098) – $1.9MM Travis d’Arnaud (4.044) – $3.4MM Wilmer Flores (4.003) – $3.7MM Jacob deGrom (3.139) – $9.2MM Noah Syndergaard (2.149) – $1.9MM Hansel Robles (2.127) – $1.0MM

According to Wikipedia (so you know it's true) the Syracuse Chiefs has existed in some form since 1934, starting as a AA team (1934-1945), for two seasons as a Single A team (1956-1957), and the remainder at the AAA level (1946-55; 1961-present) which leaves only 1958-60 unaccounted for. The name has been Chiefs since 1934 except for their fling with Sky Chiefs from 1997-2006. No reason is given for either the switch or the switch back. But given both the trend towards the corporatized double names for minor league squads these days* and the Wilpon's penchant for latching onto already well-worn trends, a name/logo/mascot "re-branding" certainly wouldn't come as a surprise. Recent changes, most of them courtesy of 'Brandiose', the California based rebranding company. New Orleans Baby Cakes - formerly Zephyrs Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp - formerly Suns Down East Wood Ducks - name changed after relocation Florida Fire Frogs - cuz who doesn't like a frog on fire Hartford Yard Goats etc.

So Yanx reliever Tommy Kahnle comes in to retire the side on 8 pitches, all strikes -- and yet he and Sanchez somehow required [u:2b7n3sbi]THREE[/u:2b7n3sbi] mound meetings to get through it. They confabbed after the second, fifth, and seventh pitches. Any wonder why they're (once again) headed for the four hour mark in a game that won't even go the full nine innings? When I'm commissioner (or just king of the world) the second mound visit in an inning would be met by immediate tasing of all involved.

Oh good, another error. I was starting to fear for a moment that the Cleveland infield was actually going to field a ground ball before the night was out.

Bauer wasn't good and needed about 167 pitches just to get through the 2nd, but the fact that 6 of the 7 MFY runs tonight are unearned didn't help.

Nice to see the Indians getting on the board. And, btw, welcome to another night of four innings in two hours.

It's like the Indians blew their load making that Game 2 comeback. They haven't scored since.

Dusty went out there and chatted for a while before making the switch, which at least made it look like he went out there without his mind made up and just didn't like what he heard. And now the Cubs have gone ahead on a blooper into no-man's land. Heading to the 9t, 2-1 Chicago

Edgy MD wrote: Point of clarification. Is this the Mets buying the team, or the Wilpons/Sterling? Is there a meaningful distinction?

And the bullpen move fails as the Cubs tie the game!!

GAME 3 The Cubs first hit of the day, a one-out double in the 7th by Ben Zobrist, is Scherzer's last pitch of the game. He had also walked three and hit one Nats lead 1-0 thanks to a double error by LF Kyle Schwarber -- first he dropped Murph's fly ball, then he kicked it. Murph wound up on 3rd and Zimmerman followed with a two-out double.

The Wilpons looked into trying to buy the Syracuse affiliate back in whatever year it was they first moved to Buffalo. IIRC, they were deciding between Buffalo & Syracuse at the time. They wound up choosing Buffalo because they preferred their stadium and would have only moved to Syracuse if they could buy the team, but either it wasn't for sale or they couldn't strike the right deal. Then the whole Madoff thing hit and spare cash for buying assets wasn't exactly lying around at that point. That they're in a buying mode now I suppose says at least some things are looking up on the financial side of things. Hey, maybe that's all the saved money from the Granderson/Bruce/Walker/Reed trades being put to use. Fuck you Yanquis and your unwillingness to pick up contracts!!! So... does this mean that in 2018, the Mets will own the Nationals' affiliate? Or will they have to wait until after the season to officially close the deal? Not sure how that'll all be handled. Minor league agreements are for two year increments (or in multiples of two) so you'd think that means the AAA Nats are there for next season. And of course the Nats would still control the players even if the new owners who are running the stadium, ticket sales, promotions, etc. just happen to be part of the enemy. The Braves are the only team I know of who currently own their AAA team. There may be one or two others but usually it's at the lower levels where you find the parent club as the owner. The 'Pons own or partially own the teams in Brooklyn, PSL, and lower level GCL and Kingston (Appy Lg) clubs; not AA Binghamton or low-A Columbia

Game 4 in Fenway has taken a few some interesting turns. It's just 2-1 Astros in the 5th. The starters each threw a ton of pitches but obviously got out of most of the jams they created. But now, even with heavy rain predicted and a probable stop of the action in the next inning or so, the managers have turned to Chris Sale and Justin Verlander for middle relief! One would have assumed that those guys would be the Game Five matchup but not in today's game. It's Verlander's first ever relief appearance and he's just celebrated that by giving up the lead.

'Trapper' John McIntyre also went to Dartmouth where he played ball and even once threw a two-hit shutout vs Harvard*. Also, like Sandy, he's a veteran and is probably real smart seeing as how he's a doctor and stuff. Not sure about his current availability though. Given his service in the Korean War he's likely to be around 90 years old by now and of the three actors to portray him on small and large screens only Elliott Gould survives. * or so he claimed in the book. He also QB'd the Dartmouth football team and was a low handicap golfer