Frayed Knot

smg58 wrote: The radio said that Robles said he felt numbness in his fingers. So why did he keep pitching? I know he seemed to look at and feel his fingers after the final pitch, but I took that to be more akin to looking at your glove after you make an error as if it were the one at fault.

Just when you thought is was safe to go back to the Robles. He throws an 8-pitch 1-2-3 8th ... but then in the 9th he hits the leadoff hitter after getting up 2 strikes, then, following a Sac Bunt and IW, walks each of the next two with the final one after also getting the first two strikes. The fact that the final pitch of the game hit the Durham Bull mascot didn't help matters either.

We're setting ourselves up for another walk-off loss. We're 4-7 in walk-offs this year.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Until last year, nobody had accepted a QO, so the Mets probably felt that they were safe to assume that Walker wouldn't. But he did, and I think a few other players on other teams did as well. So that's now no longer a safe assumption to make. Until two years ago no one had accepted a QO, but three players did so in the year prior to Walker so his acceptance, while still the exception rather than the rule, wasn't precedent breaking. Of course the QO system isn't all that old so there's a limited history on them anyway.

Edgy MD wrote: Ten unanswered runs! And six scoreless/three-hit/zero-walk innings from the bullpen.

Marquez is a 22 y/o rookie RH'er who's made 17 starts so far this year and reportedly throws hard. That's all I got. Just six more games out of the eastern time zone after this one: three in Houston Sept 1-3 (8:00, 7:00, 2:00) and three in Chicago Sept 12-14 (all 8:00). The only other "late" game from here on out is this Sunday where we're shunted off to ESPN-land vs the Dodgers.

From the 'Why couldn't they have done this LAST year at this time' file, the SF Giants have DFA'd 3B Conor Gillaspie Injuries and poor hitting [.163/.281/.288] limited him to just 80 ML ABs this year with 2 HRs I don't think I realized that Gillespie is now 30 y/o and had been kicking around the majors since 2008, first with the Giants, then the ChiSox where he was a full-timer in 2013-14, then did a season with Angels before going back to the Giants in 2016. It just seems like he appeared out of the ether last October as someone sent to annoy us and now is disappearing again.

First three innings for NYM bats: Zero baserunners Next three innings: 10 runs on 11 hits (five for XB) plus one walk and one error

d'Kong76 wrote: What are people thinking reaching into field of play for an $8 baseball? I hope he got ejected. Ejected, and if there's a way to keep him/her from EVER sitting in the front row again I'd do that. And I'd have him tased.

Nice call on that fan interference call ... you rarely see anything other than an automatic double even though that's not the rule.

Well he actually was R.J. within the '80s clubhouse -- Keith still refers to him that way occasionally -- but rather that being for Ronald Jr. it was after the R. J. Reynolds tobacco company although I forget the convoluted logic that got him that moniker.

Anything but a GiDP by Cespedes there and this is a whole new ballgame. Still not out of it obviously this early and at this park, but man that was bad timing.

Back to Wright for a second: Wright has recently begun "low level baseball activities," Mets assistant GM John Ricco announced Wednesday. He has started to field ground balls and hit off a tee.

Meanwhile, we're looking for [u:v8xk6lhe]A[/u:v8xk6lhe] hit.

What's that now, about nine hard-hit balls in a row? Even the two outs were on smashes.

Mets are currently sitting at 48-56 with 494 Runs scored and 545 Runs allowed. That record translates almost exactly (one game better) than what the so-called Pythagorean baseball formula says our record "should" be (47-57). That Runs scored figure is 6th best in the NL, 0.11 R/G above league average. But it's the Runs allowed where we all know our problem has been: 2nd worst in NL, 0.59 R/G worse than Lg avg. So where would our record be if we got anything close to the pitching we all thought we were going to get? Glad you asked. - if we had received just league average pitching (4.65 RA/G) it would cut the RA number down to 484 where PT says we'd be sitting with about a 53-51 record, 6.0 games out of the WC - with run prevention that would put us at 3rd best in the NL (4.23 RA/G) RA would reduce to 440 giving us a projected record thru 104 games of 57-47, 2.0 games behind ARZ for WC #2 - and with 2016 NYM pitching numbers (3.81 RA/G) we'd be at or about a 62-42 record 2.5 games ahead of Colorado for the 1st WC slot and 1/2 game in back of the Nats But of course we weren't counting on everyone not named deGrom sucking for most of the season while getting 5 starts out of Syndergaard and 9 innings from Familia, all while needing 15 (and counting) starts out of the likes of Montero, Milone, Pill, Wilk, and Flexen OK, so maybe that wasn't so much fun after all.

MFS62 wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: Why does every team decide to get stupid and play like shit when they face the Yanx? Because they know, that from somewhere on high, Derek Jeter is watching. And they feel intimidated. Last week they're playing against the Reds who are down by two but get two on in the 8th against Betances. Runner on 1st is Zack Cozart who was an All-Star this year but wasn't starting because he had a bum leg and he's the tying run. So of course they pinch-run for him right? Nope ... and predictably a double goes into the corner which would have tied the game if a Molina brother were the runner but not a limping Cozart. So I had just turned the game on and figured that maybe the Cincy bench was depleted ... except it wasn't because NOW they decide to run for Cozart even though even he can score on anything at this point AND THERE ARE TWO OUTS so it's not like a Sac Fly is going to work. Needless to say that the Yanx won the game. Cozart has since gone on the DL

Centerfield wrote: I don't think it makes zero sense. And I know you didn't mean it literally, ... No, I pretty much did mean it literally - at least as far as trying to keep both. The only way to keep Duda -- and which you mention towards the end -- is to commit to him completely with a FA contract and hope that you can deal Smith off for a similar type prospect at a different position, a condition which carries the caveat that whatever middle of the field guy you'd get for Smith is going to be a lesser hitting prospect because of the positional advantage so you'd need to adjust your expectations accordingly.

I'm going to go out on limb here and guess that this is probably the first time Doug Gottlieb has talked about baseball in .... well how long has he had his own show? He's a basketball geek, which is fine in itself but it's a group who are at least as bad as the football geeks at avoiding the topic of baseball entirely unless they have something negative to say. Gottlieb, btw, played college hoops at three different schools due to drug and theft issues that got him kicked out of Notre Dame before diverting himself to some backwater college while the heat died down then finally winding up at Oklahoma State. But since he brings it up: Beltre from age 20-29: 273/328/462 from age 30 thru today: 305/355/507 Not exactly "an explosion" especially considering that he hit 48 HRs as a 25 y/o, a number he hasn't come within a dozen of during his "questionable" years, and that those age 32 and up seasons correspond to his home park being in Arlington Texas. Or we could point out that Beltre's HR rate is lower now than it was a decade ago but that of course would require research on Gottlieb's part and he'd prefer to come up with simplistic conclusions in advance, saves time and effort that way.

- Despite both hitting their first career HRs on Tuesday AND being handed early 6-0 leads, neither Max Scherzer nor Jon Lester stuck around long enough to get a Win Scherzer, first HR in 262 career ABs, left after one inning with 'neck spasms', something you normally associate with giving up HRs, not hitting them. The Nats went on to blow the lead and lose the game to the Marlins Lester, 197 ABs, took over 100 pitches just to get through the 4th and never came out for the 5th despite an 8-1 Cubs lead in a game they'd go on to win 16-4 - The starting pitchers last night in the Philly/Angels game were Aaron Nola and Ricky Nolasco I think MLB should have been forced the teams to move the site of that game to New Orleans

2018 = $20 mil; 2019 = $15; 2020 = $12 -- and no one is going to simply retire and walk away from that kind of cash. If he's been told that he can't play again, a la Prince Fielder, then his career would already be over, he'd still gets what's remaining on the contract but would no longer be occupying a spot on the roster/DL or sitting in the dugout at home games. So that obviously hasn't happened yet and unless and until it does he remains on the DL and in some stage of rehab with an eye toward playing again.

Well, he'll probably be a defensive upgrade over the long haul but he wasn't tonight.

Edgy MD wrote: Let's get Rubbles a WIN! Yes, definitely [fimg=300]http://www.sitcomsonline.com/photopost/data/822/Flint1003.jpg[/fimg]

Jay Bruce: Nothing but net [fimg=200:2hefvpqa]http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/2070375/254996.jpg?_ga=2.147429940.221734084.1501643932-1529750792.1389977781[/fimg:2hefvpqa]

Rockin' Doc wrote: I wish him luck with Boston and hope he helps them to slay the evil dragon that resides in the Bronx. Made his debut for Boston tonight in the 8th inning with a one run lead ... and promptly gave up a HR to his first batter. Got out of the rest of the inning OK but not a great first impression as the new kid in school.