Frayed Knot

Plays. Not. Made.

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.

So corner OF JD Martinez nets the Tigers three prospects from the DBacks. Martinez, 4 months younger than Bruce, was hitting .305 with 16 home runs and 39 RBIs for Detroit but played just 57 games this season. Adjust your Granderson and/or Bruce WATPs accordingly. MLB.com: Arizona sent prospects Dawel Lugo, Sergio Alcantara and Jose King to Detroit. Lugo, a 22-year-old third baseman and shortstop, was ranked the D-backs' No. 4 prospect by MLBPipeline.com and is currently in AA Alcantara (High-A) the D-backs' No. 15 prospect, is a 21-year-old shortstop. King is an 18-year-old shortstop.

Tipping pitches is the first conclusion folks go to whenever a pitcher struggles, at least in part because it's the easiest and least painful 'solution' to imagine. I suspect it's also the wrong one at least 95% of the time.

It's hard to remember now but there was a time long ago--way back on May 10 to be precise--when Hansel was rolling right along with a 1.42 ERA and just 11 hits/1 HR allowed in 19 innings pitched. His walks were a bit high at 9, but that's against 20 Ks and it still pushed his WHIP at the time to just a bit over 1.00 Since that date he's appeared in 4 ML games (May 13, 15, & 21st, plus last night) faced a total of 22 batters and retired 8 of them. He has more hits (10) and XBHs (9) allowed than he does outs recorded and as many walks as strikeouts (4 each). The fact that his ERA only jumped from that 1.42 to its current 6.45 is due to not being charged with all the inherited runs he allowed to score (5 of 6) and his getting credit for 3-1/3 innings pitched in those four games rather than 2-2/3 thanks to the two outs he got due to runners caught stealing on his watch. Why run on him when you can just wait a few pitches and walk home? I know that relief pitchers tend to be mercurial and that small samples often exaggerate the highs and lows, but how a guy goes from a solid set-up man to worst pitcher in the western hemisphere in the blink of an eye is a total mystery

Twins call up Bartolo and will start him vs the Yanx tonight. To make room for him the Twins sent down Dillon Gee Twins are actually the team right on the Yanx tail in the WC race now just 1/2 game back for WC #2 after last night's rare Twinkies win vs the Yanx. How rare? That win pushes the Twins record up to 29-74 over the last 15 years.

Losses like this wouldn't happen if Yeonis Cespedes were still alive and playing.

Cecil came into the game with a one run lead on Sunday in Pitt: 1B, GO, RBI-2B, GO, IW, RBI-1B ... Ballgame! Of course that was against a team who gets, y'know, hits and stuff with runners on base.

And STILL no hits w/RiSP!! Speaking of which, the reason why the Sawx have sucked so bad vs the Yanx this year? Because they're [u:2hrfylo9]2-for-51[/u:2hrfylo9] w/RiSP on the season!!

Frayed Knot wrote: Robles coming in ... are we taking odds on a 1st pitch HR? I was close.

Robles coming in ... are we taking odds on a 1st pitch HR?

Herb Gardner wrote: They all look alike Racist!!

Wheeler retired 15 of the first 18 he faced, and then 2 of the next (final) 9

The 2017 NYM: We wait until the bases are empty .. THEN we pounce!!

Gary once again skewing what the "stats guys" say about BABiP/Three-True-Outcomes

Lotsa chances for TJ so far tonight ... and he's gotten each and every throw all the way across the diamond!!

Gotta like Ronnie's [u:28zb3b3w]F-Troop[/u:28zb3b3w] reference earlier.

Edgy MD wrote: Tonight's trivia question: Keith is one of five players with 25 or more homers with both the Cardinals and the Mets. Who are the other four? Um ... Bernard Gilkey, Carlos Beltran, Joe Torre, and ... Ken Boyer? Jefferies?

Yes. Also complicating matters is that Alfonso Soriano is neither active nor was he born in the U.S. of A. Albert Pujols - Dominican Republic - 605 - 9th overall Miguel Cabrera - Venezuela - 458 - 37th Adrian Beltre - DR - 453 - 38th Carlos Beltran - Puerto Rico - 432 - 48th Edwin Encarnacion - DR - 329 - 107th Jose Bautista - DR - 324 - T-112th Matt Holliday - 311 - T-126th (tied w/Ivan Rodriguez) Adrian Gonzalez - 309 - T-129 (tied w/Edgar Martinez Granderson - 306 - T136th (tied w/Free Lynn, Richie Sexson, Ruben Sierra) Nelson Cruz - DR - 303 - 142nd

Bit of a different StL team from the one we saw pre-break in that OFs Randal Grichuck and Steven Piscotty have both been DL'd so that their OF these days is Pham & Fowler in LF & CF with either the 28 y/o rookie Jose Martinez or the guy whose name Keith & Gary were tossing around yesterday, Magneuris Sierra, covering RF. 2B Kolten Wong, who was not active in the last series, has since been called up and started two of the three games since the break. They came out of the break losing 2 of 3 in Pittsburgh with both losses coming via walk-offs Carlos Martinez pitched on Sunday so he should be the one guy we miss in this four game set - although he was also the one guy we hit in the earlier series so go figure. Looks like we'll get Wainwright followed by Wacha. After that Wednesday & Thursday both say TBD but it'll probably be some combo of Mike Leake and Lance Lynn

Adrian Gonzalez -- who was [u:kizfvzty]born in San Diego[/u:kizfvzty] actually and went to HS in Chula Vista despite doing at least some of his growing up in Mexico -- is in fact the #8 man at 309 He was initially drafted by Miami with the 1/1 pick in 2000

Albert Pujols - Dominican Republic - 605 - 9th overall Miguel Cabrera - Venezuela - 458 - 37th Adrian Beltre - DR - 453 - 38th Carlos Beltran - Puerto Rico - 432 - 48th Edwin Encarnacion - DR - 329 - 107th Jose Bautista - DR - 324 - T-112th Matt Holliday - 311 - T-126th (tied w/Ivan Rodriguez) ——— Granderson - 306 - T136th (tied w/Free Lynn, Richie Sexson, Ruben Sierra) Nelson Cruz - DR - 303 - 142nd So now that you've got the local boys, the third one is a bit tricky.

Albert Pujols - Dominican Republic - 605 - 9th overall Miguel Cabrera - Venezuela - 458 - 37th Adrian Beltre - DR - 453 - 38th Carlos Beltran - Puerto Rico - 432 - 48th Edwin Encarnacion - DR - 329 - 107th Jose Bautista - DR - 324 - T-112th ——— ——— Granderson - 306 - T136th (tied w/Free Lynn, Richie Sexson, Ruben Sierra) Nelson Cruz - DR - 303 - 142nd

The top six active career HR hitters (and 7 of the top 10) were born outside the U.S. [#buildthewall] Albert Pujols - Dominican Republic - 605 - 9th overall Miguel Cabrera - Venezuela - 458 - 37th Adrian Beltre - DR - 453 - 38th Carlos Beltran - Puerto Rico - 432 - 48th Edwin Encarnacion - DR - 329 - 107th Jose Bautista - DR - 324 - T-112th ——— ——— ——— Nelson Cruz - DR - 303 - 142nd Name the U.S. born players who currently sit 7th, 8th, and 9th in career active HRs ? (only names needed … I just threw in the totals and placement for context)

They put up a five-spot in the 1st every game. OK maybe not quite that, but going back to the last game prior to the break they've had: - a 3-0 lead in the 1st (vs ATL) - 4-0 lead after 3 (vs CIN) - 3-0 after 4 (then 10-0 by the 7th) - 4-0 after 2 - and now 5-0 after 1 Why risk spending prospects on replacing the starting pitcher (Ross) they just lost? They could probably just toss the peanut vendor out there on the mound and still be able to get the 'W' oe: today they started: 2B, 1B, HR (Harper), HR (Zimmerman), BB, 1B, Sac Fly So it was 5-0 after just one out and Strasburg got an AB (he made the last out of the inning) and had the big lead before throwing his first pitch.