Frayed Knot

Yeah, I think that unless they have reason to suspect he'll not be healthy by both the end of this year and into next then a one-year deal is the likely scenario. Non-tender occurs if he doesn't recover sufficiently. A trade is almost the least likely seeing as how it would have to involve him recovering and then re-establishing himself enough for someone to agree to give up a warm body for ... but at that point there's less reason for the Mets not to keep him unless the behind the scenes stuff is so poisoned that you pull a 'change of scenery' deal. So I vote: 1) one year deal; 2) non-tender; 3) trade; 4) multi-year, in that order of likelihood

I like it when I wake up to news that the Yanx lost their late game out on the left coast. Wednesday I knew they had jumped out to a 4-0 1st inning lead vs the Angels so it was nice to learn the next morning that they wound up on the short end of a 7-5 score. And now I get to read today that last night in Oakland they somehow found a way to lose despite scoring 3 times in the 6th and then once each in the 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th. It doesn't erase three DL assignments in a 24 hour span or that we have Scherzer, Strasburg, and Kershaw to face over the next four days with a patchwork team ... but it's something.

I'm beginning to think that maybe this comeback ain't gonna happen tonight.

Good thing you had to make a lefty/righty switch with a six run lead and four outs to go in the game, eh Dusty?

btw, I just realized that I left Flores off the original list - missed 11 games

CF - No if Granderson. No if Conforto, The first 9 games of the season if Lagares, and now a second stint lasting ???? Mr. Nimmo to the white courtesy phone. Mr. Nimmo

Quickie insta-analysis from John Sickels New York Mets 1-20) David Peterson, LHP, University of Oregon 2-59) Mark Vientos, 3B, Plantation, Florida 3-97) Quinn Brodey, OF, Stanford University 4-127) Tony Dibrell, RHP, Kennesaw State University 5-157) Matt Winaker, OF Stanford University 6-187) Marcel Renteria, RHP, New Mexico State University ANALYSIS: Peterson destroyed college competition this year thanks to mechanical refinements boosting command of his fastball/slider/curve/change combination. He could reach the majors quickly as a number three or four starter. Vientos is one of the youngest players in the draft and has a highly promising bat but questions about his defense; he’ll need time but the upside is quite high. College picks were the following theme, with the Stanford pair offering power (Brodey) and a good eye with some athleticism (Winaker). Dibrell needs more polish than some of the other college arms but can hit 95 while Renteria can hit 96. SLEEPERS: Connor O’Neil (7th round, Cal State Northridge) and Trey Cobb (8th round, Oklahoma State) offer versatility while Matt Duce (14th round, Dallas Baptist) is a catcher with a strong glove and a chance to hit. IMPRESSIONS: Vientos is the big upside play while Peterson consistently exceeds expectations. Both Stanford bats bear close watching.

This game is reaching the level where it might even be Nats bullpen proof.

Does the team get a volume discount on thumb surgeries?

Gsellman was only going to get away with high wire act for so long. It's all catching up to him now.

Were you the bald guy with the beard sitting in front of me?

I suppose the booth could try to be a little more positive by focusing on the anniversary of Keith's trade instead of Seaver's, except that if Keith is being honest he'd have to admit that he hated the trade and briefly threatened to retire rather than report.

We definitely got our pop-out shoes on tonight.

No Gary, NOT the entire ballpark was rooting for Seaver in his return. I was in the park that day and [u:35q8k5wm]I[/u:35q8k5wm] wasn't rooting for Seaver!

Players by their planned season-opening position: Starting Catcher - Check, out for 17 games (out of 64 played to date) 1B - Check, 18 games 2B - Check, ??? games starting today SS - Check, 9 games the first time, now 2 and counting 3B - Entire season plus the final 125 games from last year if you're counting Wright as the presumed starter. No if you're counting Reyes LF - Check, 37 games CF - No if Granderson. No if Conforto, The first 9 games of the season if Lagares RF - No #1 Starter (NS) - Check, 40 games (approx 8 starts) and counting #2 starter (JdG) - No #3 Starter (MH) - Check, ??? games starting today #4 Starter (SM) - Check, the first 59 games of the season #5 Starter (ZW) - No, although at some point the innings limit will kick in. #6 Starter (RGs) - No #7 Starter (SL) - Check, the first 60 games of the season Closer - Check, 31 games and counting

Then there was the guy who (for several teams anyway) wore his birthday on the back of his uniform. http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/mayca01.shtml

Not brawl related but, speaking of an angry Frankie, I saw where Frankie Rodriguez is blaming his lack of effectiveness this year over being stuck in the set-up role rather than as a closer. Of course this ignores that he was the closer for Detroit until being removed following 4 blown saves in his first 13 games at which point his ERA was 8.50

[responding to 41] Yeah but that was to replace Smoker in the pen, not be a starter. Even if Harvey misses a turn or three with whatever this is, there's still Wheeler, Lugo, Matz, deGrom and Gsellman for now so there's no way they'd be looking to jam a sub-par sixth starter into that mix. Meanwhile, no word yet on [u:vyam4ack]Walker: Hamstring Strainer[/u:vyam4ack] except for rumors that Cecchini was a late scratch from his game in Vegas and was presumably on his way to an eastward bound flight.

... and boy are his arms tired! Matt to see doctors due to "arm fatigue" he admitted after last night's game. "I'm just pretty tired -- my arm's just not working at all. In past games it's taken awhile to get loose, ... That's kind of been the issue. But tonight it got loose and kind of progressively felt really tired. ... It's frustrating for me to be taken out that early and not feel great physically, and I have to get checked out by a doctor. It's the last thing I want to have happen, but I'll put my trust in them and we'll go from there." Sometimes I think that all you need to do is mouth the words "six man rotation" in order to have one of the six go down. I can't remember a six-man set-up that didn't break down after one or two turns at most. He obviously wasn't scheduled to go in this upcoming series anyway so how this affects things is a next week on the west coast question at this point.

KTE - June 15-18 It's the start of a big four game series tonight and we haven’t seen these guys since the end of April so let’s check out what they’ve been up to lately. They score runs; best in the NL at BA, OBA, SLG (and naturally OPS) HRs, and RS/G, several of those by a sizable margin. Individually, Harper is over whatever bugged him last year, Matt Weiters, Trea Turner and Anthony Rendon are all over their slow starts; Murphy still enjoying his middle-aged renaissance; and there’s simply no explanation for Ryan Zimmerman who’s just a couple RBIs shy of a Triple Crown lead and is on pace for 50 HRs in a career which has only once topped 30 and even that was several years and multiple injuries ago. They’re also 4th best at preventing runs in the NL which, considering the state of their bullpen, pretty much says how their starters are doing. The pen was the team’s big Achilles heel coming into the season and has only gotten worse since. They’re so bad they’d kill to have our bullpen issues. Players in the Nats clubhouse have recently been quoted as saying “it’s like we have to win each game three different times” on account of leads given up and often re-given up. Bullpen ERAs tend to be a bit better than that for starters (league-wide splits = 4.13 ERA for relievers vs 4.45 for starters) but the Nats have that completely flipped at 5.20 ® vs 3.80 (S) And even that doesn’t tell the whole story. I wish I could remember the exact stat I heard the other day about how many games they’ve lost after holding leads of 2 runs or more in the 8th inning or later. Suffice to say it was a lot and is by far the highest in baseball. But despite all that (mostly) good news they have "only" the third best record in the NL and come into town losers of 5 of their last 6 (swept by Texas, lost 2 of 3 to Atlanta) These should be the pitching match-ups for the weekend even though several of the games are still listed as TBA on mlb’s site. Gio Gonzalez vs pinch-running specialist Robert Gsellman [5-1; 2.91; 1.32] Gio seems to alternate good years with so-so ones and is on a good cycle right now. He’ll also be our third straight LH starter faced Max Scherzer vs pinch-hitting specialist Steven Matz [7-4; 2.36; 0.85] Scherzer totaled 32 innings and 48 strikeouts over his last four games the most recent of which he inexplicably lost, only partly due to the pen. Steven Strasburg vs spin specialist Seth Lugo [7-2; 3.27; 1.06] Strasburg got batted around in his last start vs Atlanta — 6 runs, 7 hits incl. 3 HRs in just 5 IP — despite K’ing 10 Joe Ross vs hair care specialist Jacob deGrom [3-2; 6.39; 1.53] Ross pretty much sucks (see numbers) but is 3-2 because on days when he pitches Nats bats are averaging a redonculous 12 runs per game!! Injured: Nats are currently missing 2/3 of their starting OF plus one backup OF. So Michael Taylor is playing pretty much everyday CF while a combo of Adam Lind (a hitter disguised as a fielder) and recent call-up/2011 1st round draft pick Brian Goodwin cover LF They also picked up utility man Ryan Raburn from the ChiSox a few weeks back. Jayson Werth - left foot contusion. Can come off the DL as early as today but I don’t think he’s scheduled to Chris Heisey - right biceps rupture … which I think is Latin for “steroid miscalculation” Koda Glover - their hoped-to-be future closer strained his back in a bizarre [crossout]gardening[/crossout] showering accident No, seriously, he hurt himself reaching for the body wash in the shower, then only fessed up to the 'tweak' after blowing a game that night. Adam Eaton - out for year with torn knee

And not that this small sample sways the evidence in one direction or the other, but Eric Young Jr. has three HRs this season in just 51 ABs (for Anaheim). The former NYM pinch-running specialist had a total of eight in his career prior to this season (half of them in 2012) and a total of three from 2013-2016, yet currently has two in the last three days.

bmfc1 wrote: I went to the Nationals-Braves game and saw the Nationals lose. Came home and saw the Mets win. This was a good baseball day. Nice!! This game didn't end in the manner I wanted it to (#Reed) but he hadn't pitched in three days and it wasn't a totally taxing inning for him (19 pitches) so I don't think it should affect him going forward providing we don't need him for three consecutive or anything (which we certainly might which is why I would have gone with Edgin).

I shirley hope all this scoring keeps Reed out of the game. We gots four tough ones coming up, starting in less than 24 hours.

Camptown ladies sing your song ...

If Gsellman's hair beats the throw to the base, is he still safe?