Frayed Knot

A bit more on Ryder Ryan. First of all, how often must peeps see this guy's name written out and mentally put the comma in there while assuming it's Ryan Ryder? In fact, I think we need to call him Ryan Comma Ryder ... 'Comma' for short Anyway, according to BA, he was actively scouted as a HS'er but teams backed off because it was assumed he was going to follow a scholarship offer to UNC, hence the 40th round Hail Mary choice by Cleveland. But his career at UNC turned out to be not much as "he made only one appearance in two seasons (failing to record an out) before leaving the team". Injuries? ... Discipline? BA offers no details here, but that kind of college record doesn't exactly boost the old draft stock. Whatever the reason, when he left UNC after two years (he was older than his class in HS and so was a draft-eligible sophomore) the Indians grabbed him again in 2016, in the 30th round this time. BA: "After making some delivery tweaks, Ryan is touching 97 mph and sitting 94-95 out of the bullpen. He shows an ability to elevate and jam hitters with his heater. His slider is less developed and his control, while improved, has further refinement to come." So this sounds like maybe he's got a bit more upside than the skeletal background suggests, even if it's still a long way and a lot of steps from being realized.

Mets @ Philly: Aug 10-13 Phils are a stunningly bad 42-69 which only gets worse when you realize that they're [u:2vs2bhrp]11-2[/u:2vs2bhrp] vs the Braves which, by some complicated math here, means they're 31-67 against everyone else Thurs (7:05) - deGrom vs Vince Valasquez [14 starts; 2-6; 4.82; 1.65] Velasquez made two starts vs the Mets back in April, Mets won both times Fri (7:05) - Lugo vs Nick Pivetta [16 starts; 4-7; 5.89; 1.43] We saw the rookie Pivetta back in early July and he held us to [u:2vs2bhrp]1 run on 1 hit[/u:2vs2bhrp] over 7 innings. It was clearly his best start of the year and his outings since have been nothing resembling that Sat (7:05) - Matz vs Aaron Nola [18 starts; 8-7; 3.12; 1.18] Their former #1 draft pick (7th overall in 2014 out of LSU) is starting to show shy as he's given up two runs or fewer in each of his last 9 starts Sun (1:05) - Flexen vs Zach Eflin [9 starts; 1-3; 5.67; 1.39] This will be Eflin's second start since being recalled from minors where he was banished in late May Who's new since we last saw them? OF Nick Williams - Their top prospect was called up at the end of June and is hitting well since: .289/.333/.529 with nearly half of his 35 hits going for XB 1B/OF - Rhys Hoskins was just called-up today so likely will make his ML debut sometime this weekend. He's a power-hitting 1B who's been getting a crash course in OF play recently OF Hyun Soo Kim - A trade deadline deal from Baltimore where the 29 y/o Korean FA had a half-season's worth of success last year but not so much in 2017 Lately their OF has been Williams in RF, Odubel Herrera in CF, and about 20 different guys rotating in LF. IF is pretty much the same as we saw early in the year: Tommy Joseph, Cesar Hernandez, Freddie Galvis, Makiel Franco, with Cameron Rupp catching. Gone is 2B/LF Howie Kendrick who was shipped to the Nationals at the deadline Also SP Jeremy Hellickson (Baltimore) and RP Pat Neshek (Rockies)

metirish wrote: #Metstwitter in full meltdown mode last night Is it ever NOT in full meltdown mode?

Not much of a return if that is indeed the actual trade -- neither team has confirmed and the specifics of deals like this are often the last things to becomes accurate. The Indians drafted Ryan twice, in the 40th round out of a Charlotte, NC area HS in 2014 and then again in the 30th round out of UNC in 2016 So far has turned in a very undistinguished year and a half in Rookie and Low-A ball.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: - Seth Lugo, 67: Quarterrican I'm guessing this is Lugo's claim to being one quarter Puerto Rican

Taking Moustakas over the last three seasons (2015-17) normalized to a full 162 game season = an impressive 'average' season of 56 doubles + 36 HRs with a .276/.327/.504 slash line Now you figure than few actually play 162 games so cut those 2B and HR figures back 10 or 20% if you want. But that 51 point gap between his BA & OBA, while definitely below par (65-70 is about the norm), isn't horrible. It's higher than Murphy's (46) over that same span for instance - iow, something you can live with if you think the rest of the package is good enough.

Frayed Knot wrote: Y'know, for all the ridiculousness of this game so far -- 18 Texas baserunners vs 2 for the Mets -- it's hardly out of reach with only a four run gap with four innings left to play. Or they can make the next nine outs on like 20 pitches and the keep the deficit right where it was.

Y'know, for all the ridiculousness of this game so far -- 18 Texas baserunners vs 2 for the Mets -- it's hardly out of reach with only a four run gap with four innings left to play.

I don't tend to get too exorcised over these uniform variations, but this whole idea comes off looking very amateurish and silly. Put another way, I suspect this is something that's not exactly going to looked back on fondly (or that anyone is going to admit to approving) once it's in the review mirror.

Here's what they gotta do with those balls that hit the wall beyond the wall and bounce back: get some of whatever shit Yadi Molina had on his chest protecter and slather it all over the back wall. That way, any ball that clears the HR fence would stick to the back wall making it obvious to everyone that it was a HR and you'd save all that replay time. In all seriousness, there's got to be a way that each park can alter those out of play walls -- different materials, angling, whatever -- that would at least make it more obvious that the ball hit off there and not off the regular fence.

I know it's only the 4th inning, but considering that we've already been [u:mzc9iq88]one[/u:mzc9iq88]-hit this week ...

3-inning pitch count totals: Montero = 87; Perez = 31

At the 73 pitch count I'm thinking that that's usually where you like to see a pitcher after five innings except that Montero at that point had recorded five outs. oe: Perez has now gone through two innings on 25 pitches.

Flores at 1st and Walker at 3rd ... Terry is sure getting his share of mixing and matching in.

All home game noon starts in August automatically become the spiritual descendants of the MoFo game in the picnic area of old Shea. This one in particular is on the exact date of that game now 16 years in the rearview mirror. https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN200108090.shtml The only thing missing today will be the 104 degree temperature - and, yes, that was the ACTUAL reading that day (BB-Ref gives a 'start time' temp of 98) none of this "feels like" index shit that TV idiots use

Oh Joey, what ever made AJ want to come and blow you away.

I'd worry more about the fact that this is the second time in three days that we're trying the 'hit 3 HRs the first time through the lineup then take the rest of the game off' tactic. It didn't work last time either.

Joey Gallo now 31 HRs and 20 singles on the season. That's crazy!! Do you suppose he's going to celebrate his HR tonight at Umberto's?

Speaking of shitty pitching and the reasons thereof: once Flexen & Montero make their starts over the next 27 hours, 'Other' will become the second leading starter on our staff, trailing only deGrom. And 'Other', as I'm defining it in this case, doesn't mean just anyone outside the usual slate of top five starters but outside of the [u:1mtig8un]top seven[/u:1mtig8un] starters that we had (or thought we had) coming into the season: iow, starters who would normally qualify as being in the 'Break Glass Only in Case of Emergency' category, somewhere in the #8-12 range. deGrom - 22 starts Other - 19: Montero (9), Pill (3), Milone (3), Flexen (3), Wilk (1) Wheeler - 17 Gsellman - 14 Harvey - 13 Matz - 11 Lugo - 10 Syndergaard - 5 And unless one or more of the injured come back and do so pretty quickly, 'Other' will soon take over the lead in 2017 starts

Hey, we're going into the series with the dynamic duo of Chris Flexen and Rafael Montero ... how bad could things get? At least we won't have to face Darvish.

Tough to know what was being said there. I guess one would have to ... wait for it ... Ask Siri.

smg58 wrote: Did anybody else know about this? Well I remember the part about him pitching in college and heard a brief mention just recently about him considering the pitching option, although it wasn't clear as to whether this was still just an idea or an actual plan ready to test-drive.

Only 68 y/o - multiple myeloma It's always a bit of a shock when tough guys go before their time. Baylor used to claim that none of the [u:2844tk0w]267 HBPs[/u:2844tk0w] he received ever hurt and he certainly made sure to act as if none did. His 1979 MVP as a half-OF/half-DH was a breakthrough of sorts for the recognition of the DH role Managed the Rockies from 1993-98 and the Cubs in 2000-02, and of course was a NYM opponent in the '86 Series 2.6% in his only HoF ballot - 1994

Now we know how the '86 Pirates felt (1-17 vs NYM) but even they didn't get out-scored by as bad a ratio (slightly more than 2-1 instead of nearly 4-1).

In the 17 innings since the three-HR inning which kicked off Saturday's game the Mets have four hits, three singles (only two out of the infield) and Rene Rivera's meaningless 9th inning HR