Frayed Knot

Man, I wish Yoenis Cespedes were alive today to see how much the offense misses him.

WILMERED!

Dealing away reliever David Phelps nets the Marlins four Seattle Mariner prospects headed by 19 y/o OF Brayan Hernandez, Seattle's No. 6 prospect although he's yet to play above rookie ball. Also RHPs Brandon Miller (22 - Low-A), Pablo Lopez (18), and Lukas (son of Calvin) Schiraldi (23 y/o at High-A) Phelps will be arg-eligible next year and not a FA until the end of 2018 so not quite an equivalent status to say Reed

sharpie wrote: Looking at that Cardinal lineup only the top 3 hitters and the pitcher are players I was familiar with before the last couple of weeks. Very few players are as anonymous as Yadi Molina's backup.

The question wasn't really Reed so much as whether it was necessary to go to Blevins with two on and lefty-lefty (Wong, Sierra) coming up followed by the pitcher's slot with no one left on the bench. One could make a good argument that it was still a six-run game so why not leave Seawald in, although if he wanted to finish the inning he probably shouldn't have walked those two guys and if the game had gotten out of hand with Seawald still in there pitching to the LHBs then we'd be killing Terry for that. I don't think that Matheny managed his pen any better than Terry, it's just that his guys covered 7 innings giving up 0 runs, 3 hits, 0 walks while our guys were busy serving up 2, 3, 3 over just 2-1/3 Sucky pitching makes all decisions look bad.

As I mentioned at the time, I was thinking the exact opposite concerning the Carpenter/Voit swap. Not that Matheny planned it or anything but, just when the blow-out was chipped down to a four-run gap, the early switch brings up the guy most likely to 'run into one' as the tying run w/the bases loaded. I mean, sure, Carpenter is more likely to keep the rally going than Voit, but at the time I was more worried about a dagger slam and was counting my blessings that it wasn't Robles out there. In all though, Matheny [u:vsj17y4s]was[/u:vsj17y4s] quick with his player hooks which was odd in that he was slow to pull Leake who obviously didn't have it from the git-go. And that all looked especially worse in retrospect as NYM bats did their usual disappearing act against place-holding middle relievers: 2 hits and 6 Ks over 5 innings vs the non-descript trio of John Brebbia, Kevin Seigrist, and Sam Packofvowels

Man, Matheny almost fell UP the stairs there. He pulls three of his starters with 5 innings to go in the game and when the unlikely tying-run situation appears his power-hitter replacement is the guy coming up.

Terry had to go to Reed here because if he went to Robles the game would have been tied after the first pitch.

The inning has been far too interesting for my tastes.

Two more 'hits' (in front of Cespedes, to the left of Flores) that are probably outs I'd guess 75% of the time ... but not on this team, this year.

Matheny is quite reluctant to take a Leake tonight.

I think I see the problem with Cespedes ... HIS FUCKING HAIR IS BLUE!!!

What are these 2-out/run-scoring hits of which you speak? Modern baseball oddity: Not only did that first AB by Carpenter take 13 pitches but, because each of the strikes (including, I believe, the first two) was a foul ball and the only 2 balls during the AB were both in the dirt, I'm pretty sure that that AB used 13 different baseballs. That's gotta be a record! I'm sure there were early 20th century games where they used fewer than 13 balls in the entire game.

* Clippard * Blake Rutherford, OF, 20 y/o, BL/TR - 1st round (18th overall) pick in 2016 out of HS in CAL. Mid-40s rated prospect pre-2017 based almost entirely on potential since all he had played was 1/2 season of rookie ball. Now in Low-A Sally Lg * Ian Clarkin, LHP, 22 y/o,- 1st round (33rd) pick in 2013 out of HS in CAL. Pitching well this year with Tampa in the (High-A) Fla St Lg * Tito Polo, 22 y/o OF from Colombia playing at High-A Tampa * Todd Frazier (31) - his BA has taken a big fall over the last couple years -- going from his usual .250-ish to .225 in 2016 and now .207 -- but still power (31 of 58 hits for XB) and walks (.328 OBA) Will either be the full-time 1B or may take some of Chase Headley's time at 3rd and switch off at 1st with the guy Cooper they just got from Milwaukee * David Robertson (32) - 2.70 ERA 0.96 WHIP; RH reliever had his best year w/Yanx in 2011. Goes from ChiSox closer to 7th inning man for Yanx and should be a vast improvement over Clippard Is signed thru 2018 at $13 mil which likely makes him trade bait again this winter as the 2018 MFY try to get under the lux tax number. * Tommy Kahnle - RHR, 27 y/o, 2.70 / 0.97 in 37 games / 36 innings Looks like the Yanx have punted on trying for a top-line starter (they were supposedly in on Quintana before the Cubs got him) and hope to patch their way through games and the short starts they're getting via the depth in their bullpen: Chapman, Betances, Robertson, Kahnle, Adam Warren, Chad Green, Chasen Shreve Rutherford is the key player for Chicago but none from that crew are likely to be helping the big club anytime before 2019 at the earliest except obviously for Clippard and even that stretches the definition of "helping". And Frazier, the Toms River, NJ native, has already been touched by MFY greatness. Heck, he might already be a 'True Yankee' [fimg=300]http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.3337128.1500441396!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/article_1200/jeter.jpg[/fimg]

Big Sexy had a nice four innings but then fell apart in the 5th and wasn't helped by his pen which allowed all his leftover baserunners to score. Final line: 4 IP, 4 Runs, 8 Hits, 0 BB, 3 K Meanwhile the Twins remembered that they're the Twins and are contractually obligated to suck against the Yanx so they managed just 3 runs in a game where they had four doubles, a triple, a HR, and six walks but went an astonishing [u:2qd58t44]2 for 18[/u:2qd58t44] w/RiSP

Ashie62 wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: Not sure why he'd be cheaper. Duda has the longer/better track record while Alonso more the late bloomer. But both are BL/TR 1st basemen who would be just two month rentals and are having seasons pretty much on par. Well, Alonso's WAR is double Duda's and Alonso's OPS is .921. Past performance is no guaranty of future performance however. In all these years Duda's oWAR is 10.6 and dWAR -7.6. Give me Dominic Smith! Which again begs the question as to why Alonso would be cheaper if you're arguing that he's in fact better. Nevermind. They're both fairly comparable players as this point unlikely to distinguish themselves as high above or below the other during such a short run. My larger point being that there's only so high a price you can ask for Lucas without driving a potential buyer to say 'Pass' and instead go after another option. Anyway, the latest reports have the Yanx closing in on Todd Frazier (who I guess they could use at 1st) plus relievers David Robertson and Tommy Kahnle from the ChiSox.

MFS62 wrote: If they want Duda and Reed, the deal starts with the Mets getting the MFY medical and training staffs Yeah, because the Yanx never have injuries (as Greg Bird misses his second consecutive full season).

I know you were kidding but at least half the fans and about 3/4 of announcers (or maybe the other way around) are going to cite Judge's 20-some ABs as proof positive of a stone-cold cause- and-effect while conveniently ignoring those cases where evidence says exactly the opposite.

Yeah I can't see Houston panicking here, especially with Correa at least slated to be back by early-mid-September. btw, this was one of those deals where he hurt it initially on a (say it with me folks) head-first slide into home!! back in early July but continued to play with it until re-hurting it on a swing. So it turns out that he lost a couple weeks of potential rehab time. Wonder if Houston fans are blaming the doctors and/or training staff?

Edgy MD wrote: The HRD Curse strikes again. Cody Bellinger says he'll call your HRD before throwing down his post-ASB .417/.462/.917 The HRD curse is definitely real, except when it's not.

Y'know I heard some boos following a foul ball but couldn't figure out what was going on and the booth left it unmentioned. I thought maybe some adult grabbed one from a kid or something.

1-2-3 1st inning for Bart including a 3-pitch K of Judge. btw, Judge has 1 hit (an infield single) in 22 ABs with 8 Ks since the ASB ... just sayin'

Hey Matheny, if Molina's "baseball IQ" is so high why do you insist on calling every move from the bench?

duan wrote: I feel strongly compelled to defined Robles. He's been good in large stretches with a few bumps in the road. That's not that unusual. What's unusual is that this disaster came seemingly out of nowhere and that this 'bump' is Everest-sized. I mean two baserunners allowed/inning would be bad enough, but he's been just shy of two baserunners per out recorded over the last four outings and was barely better during his stint in AAA. And when nine of the ten hits have been for XBs (5 2Bs + 4 HRs) it's not like he's been unlucky and is merely getting burned by cheapies.

Plays. Not. Made. x4