Frayed Knot

I'm sure Jarred Kelenic has been mentioned in this thread somewhere. And he's in the news this week because, after spending most of the 2025 season on the Braves' AAA team, and not doing well there or in the majors, he was outrighted to the minors by the Braves and has chosen to become a Free Agent. w/Braves this season: 65 PA, 10-for-60 w/two 2Bs & two HRs plus 5 BB/23 K [.167/.231/.300 // 531] w/AAA Gwinett: .not a lot better 213/.286/.309 even with a much bigger sample size [399 PA] Sometimes the expected path must never materializes. - 6th overall draft pick in 2018 - traded just six months later in the Diaz/Cano deal (formerly the Cano/Diaz deal) - immediately shines in Mariners system jumping from mid-60-ish prospect status (pre-2019) to top-10 (pre-2020) then top-5 (pre-2021) - ML debut in May of '21 still just 21 y/o and was given regular playing time (377 PA) though not much success - ditto in '22 although with less playing time - '23 seemed to maybe be a breakout year (400+ AB / 111 OPS+) for a guy still young, but it wasn't going to be w/Seattle following an off-season trade to the Braves It was at this point where I figured the Braves, at worst, got themselves a good platoon OF'er and maybe a rising star. But an 679/87 OPS/OPS+ despite another season of 400+ ABs just didn't cut it and he both regressed and barely played in '25 Now he's job seeking and anything better than a split contract w/a ST invite seems like an overly optimistic scenario for the just-turned 26 y/o

Albert Pujols to interview for Angels managerial job.

I tend to view Actual vs Pythag differences as more random than anything, particularly when the number isn't all that high. So two things I found looking at the league's Pythag numbers overall: 1) MLB teams as a whole had eight fewer Pythagorean wins than actual wins. That seems odd in that one would expect the positives and negatives to more or less cancel each other out. Not sure what would cause that other than an accumulation of rounding errors, although you'd think that those errors wouldn't collectively tilt in one direction enough to skew things about 1/4 of a win per team. 2) A difference of three wins (in either direction) isn't that much. Eight teams won four or more games more they were 'supposed to' [8, 7, 7, 6, 5, 5, 4, 4] based on Pythagorean projections, and five showed a negative Pythag of more than three wins [-4, -4, -7, -9, -11]. So if the Mets Win total is different from where it 'should' have been, it's a variation of less than what nearly half of all other teams (13 of 29) saw this year.

If the damaged ligament requires a replacement will that make it Tom Thumb surgery?

Jonah Tong - Minor League Pitcher of the Year Nolan McLean - Minor League Breakout Player of the Year

And once you know that it's predictably easy to figure out which game goes where. DET @ CLE: 1:08 - ESPN SDP @ CHC: 3:08 - ABC BOS @ NYY: 6:08 - ESPN CIN @ LAD: 9:08 - ESPN (And the schedule would have been the exact same if it was NYM @ LAD) They could never do this schedule prior to the speed-up rules era because when 9:08 came around the Yanx/Sawx game would have been in the top of the 6th. I mean they still would have done it this way but the CIN/LAD game would get bumped to ESPN2 and stayed there until it was close to half over thereby ****ing up anyone who didn't think ahead when setting their DVRs.

Stearns, speaking to reporters today at CitiField: (posted 3:45 by NY Post/Justin Tisch): “I believe Carlos has all the same traits and assets that I believed in when I hired him two years ago,” Stearns said. “I still believe he’s a very good manager, and I think he’s gonna demonstrate that.” “I’m the architect of the team. I’m responsible for it,”

Sports betting commercials running on any and all sports programming (like that's ever going to happen). Those ads aren't openly dishonest but they creep right up to the line while implying it's merely a matter of how often you cash in, never if.

Padres (5) @ Cubs (4): Tues 3:08; Wed 3:08; Thursday TBD Reds (6) @ Dodgers (3): Tues 9:08; Wed 9:08; Thursday TBD ___________________________________________________ Red Sox (5) @ Yanquis (4): Tue TBD; Wed TBD; Thu TBD Tigers (6) @ Guardians (3): Tue TBD; Wed TBD; Thu TBD All games one of the 56 ESPN platforms (check your bookie for time and channel in your area) except for games #1 & #2 in Chicago which will ride on free TV via the ABC television network.

Going to the 9th in Milwaukee

4-2 Brews and still batting. But this is starting to matter less and less.

Brews have runner on 3rd, one out ... and now they have no one on base because the ball just landed in the LF seats Brews 3 - Reds 2 And now the Reds pull their starter.

One run in, two outs, runner on 3rd for MIL, Durbin at the dish ... and he flies to RF Reds 2 - Brewers 1, end of 3 5 LOBsters for Milwaukee

Still 1-0 after two as the Brewers have now left two runners on in each inning.

Brewers get out of the 2nd without any more damage, so 1-0 Reds heading to bottom 2 The rEds briefly had 1st & 3rd/1-out but the call at 3rd was reversed for out #2 and the 3rd out happened on the next batter.

The Alonso HR, along with the subsequent Peterson save, ended the Brewers season thereby denying Uecker the chance to be behind the mic as his hometown/lifelong team possibly marched to their first ever WS title. Instead, that 9th inning wound up being the last one Uecker ever got to call, so I think it's pretty obvious that it was Pete's HR that killed him. iow, I made it up.

Reds are 8-2 over their last 10 despite scoring just 3.8 runs/game. But they've allowed just 2.2 RA/G on average. In their last nine they've won games where they scored 1, 1, 2, and 3 runs. Plus the Brewers probably aren't too anxious to help out the Mets after last post-season. And they hold Alonso responsible for killing Bob Uecker, so there's that too.

Top 3rd recap E-1 Single turned into a double by ill-advised dive K RBI Single (1st & 3rd) Short F-7 Walk Infield Single Bases Loaded Walk 2-RBI Single plus E-7 5-3 6 runs, 4 hits, 2 walks, 1 K, 2 Errors I mean, SHYEEET, could make them earn it at least a little bit?!?

Gasser finally out after dancing with danger everywhere. The good news: only one run allowed The Bad: he's leaving the bases loaded/two outs for his successor and, yes, it's Les Mis. And a ****ing two-strike swinging bunt makes it 2-0!! Walk -- 3-0 Single: two runs + an error (no one covering 3rd which is where the throw went) = 3 runs 6-0 Reds, still batting.

Two misplays by the Brews put Reds on 2nd & 3rd w/no one out. 1) pitcher error on an easy 1-3 2) a dive and a whiff on a low liner to LF

So it's essentially a 50/50 shot now. Mets win Sunday (50%) - Reds win two (25%) REDS 12.5% Mets win Sunday (50%) - Reds win one (50%) METS 25% Mets win Sunday (50%) - Reds win neither (25%) METS 12.5 Mets lose Sunday (50%) - Reds win two (25%) REDS 12.5% Mets lose Sunday (50%) - Reds win one (50%) REDS 25% Mets lose Sunday (50%) - Reds win both (25%) METS 12.5%

Gasser still in for the 2nd inning. I wonder if he's any relation to Steve Gasser. That Gasser was one of three pitchers the Twins dealt to the Mets in exchange for Wally Backman. It was considered at the time to be one of those 'Rich get Richer' deals where other teams couldn't believe the Mets were able to land three of Minnesota's hot up and coming minors league arms. Except that none of the trio ever reached the show. Meanwhile the younger Gasser just weaseled out of and 2nd & 3rd/one out jam (out #2 was Elly De La Cruz being thrown out at home on a grounder). Scoreless going to bottom 2 oe: Dang! Quick 1-2-3 bottom 2. Game on Big FOX

Padres hung on to win, so the DBacks find themselves the third team in a WC chase for the second year in a row. They're two games behind both the Mets & Reds but lose a tie-breaker to Cincy and so are a non-factor now. So it's Mets & Reds and the odds are with the Reds. Mets have to go 2-0 while the Reds lose at least once: odds = 0.1875 OR Mets go 1-1 while the Reds lose both: odds = 0.125 0.1875 + 0.125 = 31.3%. Or a shade less than one chance in three. So, as Harry Callahan might have said, you've got to ask yourself one question as we go into the weekend games, "Do you feel lucky?" Personally, despite all their other problems which are both real and numerous, this is about the UN-luckiest team I've ever seen. So that's a 'No' from me.

Padres (in their pastel unis) have closed to being only down 2-1 and are still batting in bottom 4th with runners on the corners and two outs vs Zac (where's my K?) Gallen. And a walk loads the bases for Tatis w/2 out. GRAND SLAM TATIS!!! 5 - 2 SDP

Middle relief is almost always a parade of new faces from year to year with only a couple of holdovers. And the one consistent truth is that most of the fans will wind up hating most of the guys on their team. And while I'm not saying any are 'must haves', I would have no problem living with Soto, Brazoban, Rogers, or Raley going forward.