Frayed Knot

Cardinals were eliminated last night - by the Cubs on their own field just one night after the Cubs clinched the Central on that same field so all of this couldn't be going down too well in StL Lots of Anheiser-Busch products needed to wash all that down. Brewers still with a chance to catch the Rox for the final WC slot, 2 games down with 3 to play each. Milwaukee is in StL for the weekend while the Rockies host the Dodgers

But with only four fingers on each hand he has a more limited vocabulary.

Well some still consider it to be 61, which means if Stanton ties or passes that mark those Yanqui fans who claim that as "their" record won't be able to do so anymore.

Even though he wasn't officially fired, Mother Torresa was decidedly NOT treated well on his way out of the Bronx. They basically told him that it was his fault that the team had slipped since their run of championships and either he accepts a pay cut and increased oversight (read: second guessing) from the brass our he could shut the door on the way out. He took the door.

Spray the champagne, then drink some (maybe with some fried chicken), and then go play the game!! They can't catch the Astros anyway so WTF Astros, btw, 1.0 game behind the Indians for best AL record but Cleveland holds the head-to-head tie-breaker so Houston has to win it outright.

bmfc1 wrote: The Post has it's own version. It does although, as I mentioned above, it seems to have been ripped directly from the Newsday piece without acknowledging so - at least in the version they had up last night right after the Newsday piece broke. The Daily News had one too but they were at least honest enough to credit Newsday as the source. You're right the "nooz" inning is jammed with potential conflicts. Those things are always a potential problem. The Daily News -- between doing those in-game chats for years on the Yanqui broadcasts, coupled with the on-air commercials Torre used to do for them, coupled with Madden sitting in George's box one day and writing a pro-George piece the next that -- always made you question whether they were able to be a fair voice on all things MFY or were closer to a pr firm disguised as a newspaper. The Mets ran into this during the Torborg era when at one point Jeff was disputing the facts of something Newsday had run but was also at the time doing regular commercials for them. This put him in an awkward situation one day where he was essentially calling the paper that paid him a liar but of course didn't want to say so in so many words.

btw, the Phils signed McKanin to an extension for 2018 with an option for '19 just four months ago - so something went south there in a heck of a hurry.

So, hey, one more candidate as a possible replacement for Terry.

Just as an aside, both the Post & Snooze are now carrying this story also. The NYDN piece cites Carig/Newsday as their main source for the story. The Post does no such thing even though it doesn't seem to have any original, or at least additional, reporting or quotes of their own.

Red Sox got crushed by Houston but the Yanx lose also (both were 7:00 games so naturally both just ended). That clinches at least a tie for the BoSox putting the Yanx in a position where they have to run the table on Fir-Sat-Sun while hoping Houston does the same just to force a play-off game which they'd have to win just to avoid the one-game WC play-in game. Didn't see either game but I feel much better about this now than I did a few hours ago when I saw that both the Yanx and Astros had jumped out to early leads.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Oh! I wasn't aware of that. I thought they had gone back to alternating years. Nope. Best record between the two leagues winners - so whether the WS starts in the AL or NL city won't necessarily be determined until both LCS are over. Bud Selig used to claim that couldn't be done because the logistics required much more lead time (he said that even not knowing until the ASG cut it close) but apparently that problem has been solved now (and they say Trump hasn't done anything yet!!) and so now two days is enough notice.

THOUGHTS ON THE THREAD!!! 1) It's rarely a good thing to have the owner intervene in areas where he supposedly hired people to handle. I think this has been perhaps the biggest overall problem with the Wilpon era is that he (now they) get caught in between how much they want to delegate and how much to meddle 2) "Discord" between him and the players -- I hear this in James Cagney's voice from 'Mister Roberts' as "Disharmony aboard this ship!!" -- is a new one on me. Maybe it's true, but hearing about it for the first time with three days left in a seven year run?!?! And more discord this year during a losing season? Wow, whoda thunk that!! 3) Not sure how to react to the notion that the young players felt he was favoring the veterans. Who was he supposed to play through to the trade deadline? Plus it's not exactly like the was a dugout full of rooks spraying balls all over the park who were forced to sit while some past his prime vet was taking his ABs. 4) "Misuse of bullpen" is a complaint made only by about 30 fan bases; it's generally code for 'the guy he brought in just got hit'. Not that there aren't IGTs we my voice and others asking 'why this guy, why now?' but you really thing those are going away with someone else? Biggest problem with the pen, certainly this season anyway, was the starters habit of giving up 6 runs and 9 hits plus 2 walks on 37 pitches in the 1st inning every other night. Well anyway, this seems to be a done deal now and if this article is even 20% accurate then it's time. He had a long run and, IMO, a more than decent one. It's a shame that the finger pointers come out in the closing days, but when was this org ever able to keep anything under wraps if there were competing factions trying to score points somewhere?

Right, so the league with HF advantage for the WS could change depending on which teams do/don't advance.

#58 And then 4 innings later #59

The ChiSox also tried that deal during Ventura's watch where they signed a bunch of FAs (2015) in an attempt to jump from zero to sixty in one season. OF Melky Cabrera, DH Adam LaRoche, SP Jeff Samardizja, and RP David Robertson were all imported at the same time as they hoped to combine them with the hot start of Cuban 1B Jose Abreu the previous year. Problem is, not only does that strategy typically fail -- and this one did as did the SDP who tried the same thing -- but it tends to become an even bigger drag as you get into years two & three at which point you're forced to break things down and start over again, something the ChiSox really just completed this summer and it'll probably be at least 2019 (if then) before they start to see the benefits. No manager who winds up in charge of failed experiments like that wind up looking very good.

Christopher John Nitkowski

2016 was one of those seasons where everything went pear-shaped for Hale's DBacks, particularly the pitching -- Greinke wasn't good, Corbin sucked, Shelby Miller sucked, CF AJ Pollack essentially missed the entire season, etc. -- not unlike the 2017 NYM It's certainly easier to see that year as the outlier rather than his previous improvement year or this current jump once they dumped him.

11 of the 12 have NYM connections -- only Brad Ausmus doesn't -- plus one more (Manny Acta) from among eight he lists as "field" candidates.

I think Don Robert was the guy who helped broker the peace between Don Corleone and Don Barzini during that meeting they had upstairs from the bank.

Alejandro "AJ" Ramos

Joseph Clinton 'J. C.' Martin

Wilmer David 'Vinegar Bend' Mizell

Joseph Jason Putz

Derrell McKinley 'Bud' Harrelson

metirish wrote: Does this group have the $$$ to splash big on players? Considering that their immediate plans seem to be to slash payroll drastically in order to stop the club's money bleed and/or to start to recoup their own investment, initial indications point to a 'No' on that one.