Frayed Knot

My first reaction was to NOT intentionally walk Trout with the full count after the wild pitch moved the runner to 2nd, but it was probably the right move and it certainly worked out well.

Edgy MD wrote: Cuzzi is squeezing deGrom. How do the Mets keep getting Phil Cuzzi, anyhow? I asked MLB. Their answer was "Just cuz".

LAA pitchers on the DL: Cam Bedrosian - Reliever, son of phormer Phillie Steve, also former 1st round draft pick Andrew Bailey - Reliever Andrew Heaney (60 day DL) - former 1st round pick of the Marlins, dealt to LAA in a multi-team deal involving Dee Gordon and others Mike Morin - Reliever Garrett Richards (60) - Starter, former 1st rounder, missed much of last year too Tyler Skaggs - Starter and former 1st round draft pick Huston Street (60) - Closer with 300+ saves. Hasn't appeared all season Nick Tropeano (60) - One of them Stonybrook guys via West Islip, L.I.. Also hasn't appeared yet this year

Fman99 wrote: New promotional "Orgy Night" at Citi Field this summer. It's OK, they're going to put the tarp over the field first. Yeah, but did they clean the tarp from the last time they did this promotion?

Six or seven shutouts in a row and I think we could rocket up to 12th or 13th place in no time. Well, 13th anyway.

Yeah, it seems like the writer is trying to play both sides of the street with his 'from New Jersey' qualifications. Post-retirement and pre-kindergarten are tenuous connections at best.

Edgy MD wrote: How did Teheran get two throws at a guy and not get kick'd out? Suddenly it's 1975? That was the one part of the game I actually watched, just to see what was going to happen. Basically everyone on both sides and the boys in blue knew what was going to happen. So after Bautista dodged the first attempt, he strolled quietly down to 1st after #2 plunked him. The ump then issued his warnings and everyone went on with the game. If the Jays were tempted to retaliate I think the warnings and the 3-0 early lead made that a bad idea. It was the 2nd batter of the game and so they got it all out of the way early. Self-policing and no one got hurt.

Back to the Freddie injury for a sec, it comes some 10 days after the Braves had released Ryan Howard who was attempting a comeback via their AAA team, so bad timing there although it's certainly not a given that Howard and his .150 BA w/1 HR would have been the replacement. Although all I could think of was the angst of Met fans if, during our series in Atlanta three weeks from now, we had gotten beat by a Howard HR while he was subbing in for Freeman. Jace Peterson played there last night but the Braves are said now to be close to signing ... James Loney. As for the other shit: - Bautista predictably got plunked in his first AB although Teheran missed him with the first attempt and so had to go back for a second try. Joey Bats clearly expected it and strolled quietly down to 1st after taking one in the thigh. The strategy wound up backfiring as the Jays followed with three straight hits and led 3-0 after 1 en route to a 9-0 rout. Teheran is getting thumped early on in his new home ballpark: 10.50 ERA in 5 home starts so far vs 0.71 in 4 road games this year. Yeah I know it's a hitters' park but the other guy has to pitch there too and it didn't seem to bother Marcus Stroman who not only tossed 5.2 scoreless but also took Teheran deep to the opposite field for his 2nd ever hit and 1st ever HR. - Kevin Pillar was suspended for two games over whatever it was he yelled at Jason Motte for quick-pitching him. To replace him the Jays called up brief-NYM Darrell Ceciliani and stuck him right in the clean-up spot despite him hitting a homer-less .145 in AAA Buffalo this year. He went 3-for-5

That's two DFAs for Cd'A in 1/4 of one season (Braves and now Bosox). Baseball is a tough business at times. 1 run on 2 hits, 2 BBs, 3 Ks over 3 innings for Matz in PSL yesterday 3.2 shutout innings for Lugo: 2 hits / 0 Ks / 0 BB Each faced 13 batters. Can't find any pitch count data although just looking at the lines you'd expect it took more for Matz to get through his stint than Lugo

Nats lost on Thursday afternoon. Also the Phils lost, Braves lost, Yanx lost, and we DIDN'T lose. Best day of baseball we've had in over a week!!

This is the first official game (extended ST doesn't count) for the two pitchers which means it also 'starts the clock' on their rehab time. 20 days is, I believe, the maximum time allowed which takes us to June 7th as the latest date they could be activated - 17 games on the schedule between now and then. Of course they can always been re-DL'd if things don't go well but, set-backs aside, we now at least have a time frame for the two which is more than we've had since this whole thing began back in ST That date should also serve as a wake-up call to the current under-performers. The Syndergaard injury and the crashing and burning by in-house replacements (Montero, Wilk) have left Terry with few alternatives to those currently contributing to the league's worst ERA but soon (hopefully anyway) there will be. Gsellman, Harvey & Milone will need to sing for their supper now over the next 2-3 weeks.

And stuff like that will continue as long as it's indulged. Odubel Herrera might be the biggest abuser playing now. Jeter at least always made sure he asked for time with his right hand up in the direction of the ump even though he rarely bothered to turn towards the ump when doing so. Now granted he didn't need to do it prior to Every - Fucking - Pitch but it's like batters now make the assumption that 'Time Out' is the default setting and that it's only 'In' if and when they decide it is and then act as if they've been tricked when that's not the case.

Angels KTE: C - some guy 1B - who cares? 2B - I dunno SS - probably suxx 3B - not TJ Rivera, that's for sure RF - Bet he's a stiff CF - probably can run but that's about it LF - TROUT Even Pujols will probably only play one game of the three because he's pretty much a full-time DH now (2 games this season at 1B) Trout's 13 HRs are almmost triple anyone else's on the team and nearly 1/3 of the team total of 45 He's hitting .341, one other starter is within 90 points of that. His .450 OBA is 100 points clear of all his teammates, and his 755 SLGA tops the others by more than 350 clicks He's also first in walks, has as many intentional walks as the rest put together, and is second in team steals (by one) and HBP (by one) In short, he's a regular one of these guys [fimg=400:ziqyl52y]https://www.timeshighereducation.com/sites/default/files/styles/the_breaking_news_image_style/public/one-man-band-playing-instruments-lancaster-pennsylvania.jpg?itok=oBxcxRhz[/fimg:ziqyl52y]

That, I believe, was over some "quick pitch" incident. These hitters have to get over this. Between that deal with the Phillies and Robles two years back, to Neil Walker just the other day complaining about it to the HP ump, to Pillar last night; if you're in the box you need to be ready for the pitch. I saw the film on Pillar and he had no one to blame but himself. Same with Walker. It's like they not only expect everyone to wait while they take their strolls (once again the 'stay in the box' rule is being ignored) and adjust their batting gloves (even after pitches they didn't swing at) and whatever, but they then seem to believe that the pitcher is required to ask "Mother May I?' before they go ahead and deal. No wonder that 9-inning games over 3:20 are as common this year as ones under 2:50

The Braves & Jays almost went at it last night. After the Freeman HBP there were a couple of close ones all of which triggered a classic Joey Bats bat-flip special after he clubbed one to deep LF. Several of the Atlanta infielders were yapping at him as he rounded the bases, then Suzuki got in his face as he crossed the plate. That discussion emptied the dugouts but things quieted down quickly. Probably wouldn't take much to ignite something tonight. It's the finale of their four game series.

I guess that was the one where Gary and Keith were discussing whether it was teal or turquoise. Gary said the Arizona media guide insisted the trim was teal although I certainly think of turquoise first as a desert blue while associating teal more as a marine shade.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I just looked it up. The team's name is officially "Anteaters". I think that would have been better on the uniform than "Eaters". That trend -- giving your team's nickname a nickname and slapping it on your uniform (your uni if you will) -- is one that's been developing for years now. I suspect it's from copying oh-too-hip ESPN sportscasters who use names like that constantly as if doing so makes them seem intimately familiar with the team. The NHL's Colorado Avalanche getting dubbed 'The Lanche' was an early example. Fortunately the Expos never saw fit to stitch 'Spos across their chest and even the ever-experimenting Astros never reverted to 'Stros. It also at times extends to proper names as fans of 'Nova' and 'Cuse' (Villanova, Syracuse) could tell you. Lately it's become ultra-trendy to call the city of Cleveland simply 'The Land' as if the back half of the city name is enough to identify it. Not sure how Portland and Oakland feel about that, but it's their fault they're not cool enough to have LeBron James.

How many HRs to backup catchers this year is that?

cooby wrote: How did Harvey do, if I may have a quick synopsis before I go do cat boxes You'll find the answer in your cat boxes.

Nymr83 wrote: the walks are what is killing me with Harvey, is he nibbling or just missing? Sucking.

Harvey at least avoids the dreaded give-back inning, even as he put the leadoff runner on for the 4th straight inning and has now thrown a full five innings worth of pitches thru 4

I can't imagine what he was thinking (he wasn't obviously) with the play in front of him like that.

Both pitchers struggling through hits and high pitch counts so far. This looks like it's going to be a long one and into the bullpens early. And Harvey still can't bunt or hit.

41Forever wrote: And supposedly Terry is going to a four-man rotation, skipping Gsellman for two turns. Well you've got off-days in the next five, so why not use him to shore up the bullpen and hope he gets his shit together before you need him again, probably a week from Saturday. And if he doesn't find it soon afterward then hopefully either Matz and/or Lugo will be just about ready to step in.

I feel like the fact that we neither got blown out nor had a full-on bullpen meltdown made this loss seem like it was a step in the right direction. How sad is that?