Frayed Knot

TransMonk wrote: I'll never understand what Star Wars has to do with baseball ... Star Wars makes money and baseball teams like money.

Further details on Familia - can begin throwing again in six weeks but will not be able to pitch in competitive games for three or four months - the surgery was to repair a "blockage of the posterior circumflex humeral artery" Sounds odd that he can begin throwing as soon as six weeks but that any return is still put off for a minimum of six to seven weeks after that, but if that's what the docs say then that's what they say. Three months puts us in mid-August. Four obviously goes to the middle of September.

Welcome to the land where leadoff doubles don't score, but two out doubles score on the very next pitch.

Remember when our biggest worry about Harvey was how quickly he was going to split for the Yanx once he became a FA?

No sense in getting in over our heads so early in our first non-EDT road trip - so this would be a nice game to win. 7:00 start -- Robert Gsellman [2-2; 6.54] vs Zach Davies [3-2; 5.60] Davies is that 150 lb / 16 y/o-looking (he's actually 24) right-hander who shut us down on 3 hits over 6 innings in a game last year even though he looks like the ball boys can all beat him up. In general, both pitchers are getting their share of beatings from NL hitters so far this year. Despite a bunch of higher-profile problems to our staff this season (Harvey, Syndergaard, Matz, and now Familia) Gsellman has been as big a disappointment as any of them. In his six starts he's essentially had one decent one with the other five being just slight variations of suck. Giving up 3 or more runs in every start so far (emphasis on the 'or more' part) and going past five innings only once is a good formula for winding up with a 6.54 ERA and WHIP of 1.64 (last year = 2.42, 1.28)

Current rumors have the Bush/Jeter team now slipping into 2nd place behind a group led by Tagg (sonn off Mitt) Romney and his celebrity investor, Tom Glavine. MLB rules require a certain amount of up-front money and less of it as borrowed debt and the Tagg-team appears to have the edge in that matter leaving the Jeter group as Numbah Two http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/derek-jeter-group-no-longer-expected-win-marlins-bid-report-article-1.3160564

Well today's game has already been called off so Sunday will be a day-night DH with the coronation in between. A lengthy, extra-innings Game One could send all those plans into a panic.

Edgy MD wrote: I don't buy this Adriana thing, but he sure seems to be broken somewhere. Bu ... but, "baseball sources" confirmed it was on account of her!!! Gary also described his outing last night as 'pretty good until it all fell apart' - or words to that effect. Keith seemed overly praise-worthy as well. No boys, he was, at best, mediocre thru the 5th: 97 pitches (20+ more than average much less 'good') including 5 walks (one semi-intentional) even if only 4 hits and 6 K's

5-1 Houston is your final in da Bronx. Be a shame if Coronation Night were to coincide with a four-game sweep. And by 'shame' I mean not a shame at all.

Well at least he's not giving up second deck shots to weak-hitting middle infielders ... oh wait.

No one on this staff can seem to avoid the give-back inning this year.

And again it's the real problem with our now-depleted bullpen: that our starters are going to leave them so many innings to cover. Harvey needed about 4-1/2 innings worth of pitches just to get thru 3, meaning he's not going deep into this game even if he holds them to no more runs.

cooby wrote: what time does this start? 26 minutes ago.

d'Kong76 wrote: I know the clot condition is serious and dangerous but I'm surprised the recovery time is as long as some predict. I'd think these days they'd go in there 'minimally invasive' or whatever and bing bang boom. What do I know. I think it's just the time needed for the blood vessel itself to re-knit itself together enough to withstand all the tension a big league pitcher will put it through. Certainly not something you'd want to fail on you. Stitches coming out on a skin wound or even a muscle tear is one thing, but from a blood vessel presents a whole 'nother set of problems.

Yeah, the real problem isn't losing Familia as much as it's who replaces Reed as he replaces Familia and then who fills in for the Reed fill-in, and on down the line.

Mets RHP Jeurys Familia had surgery on Friday for a clot in his right armpit, which was performed by Dr. Robert Thompson in St. Louis, GM Sandy Alderson said. Familia will be out for several months and could miss the remainder of the season, according to Alderson, who said Familia's surgery was not the same type Dillon Gee underwent in 2012. http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/mets/jeurys-familia-has-surgery-to-remove-arterial-clot-1.13626552 And so it goes.

Brewers put Ryan Braun on the DL as of today, so that's one bat we won't have to deal with this weekend. He had been in and out of the lineup recently. This also removes one of the names on this team I actually knew. Mini-KTE: Catcher is being swapped between Manny Pina and Jett Bandy, who both sound like characters in some kid's TV show. Both are actually hitting OK though whoever they are. 1B - Eric Thames, the reclamation project who spent the last three years in Korea and was leading the majors in HRs over the early going. Still OPS'ing 1173 2B - Jonathan Villar ... not hitting SS - Orlando Arcia ... 22 y/o 2nd year player, also not hitting 3B - Travis Shaw ... acquired from Boston in a mid-year deal last season CF - Keon Broxton; RF - Domingo Santana ... or so it says. Carlos Torres is in their bullpen Kirk Nieuwenhuis was released earlier in the year.

Edgy MD wrote: Are we on the cusp of something? Is TOS surgery about to become as commonplace for pitchers as TJ surgery? If overdevelopment of shoulders is a contributing factor, then maybe so. As weight-training and other strengthening exercises have diminished shoulder problems (fewer rotator cuffs, etc.) it's certainly been a factor in the increase of TJS. Not sure if TOS is a byproduct of that as well. Cone (as a MFY) in the '90s was the first blood clot I remember but that wasn't also TOS. Carpenter of the Cardinals had TOS, not sure about how many others.

A HS righty has never gone #1 overall (Josh Beckett = #2) but that may change this year with Hunter Greene, a slugging SS who also throws 102 Ward Melville was known as a big lacrosse school back in my day. If we wind up with any of the above they've got the potential to be the best Sam, Keston, Tanner, or Logan we've ever had.

Mets draft 20th, 59th, 97th, and then every 30th pick after that. I demand they draft the guys who'll never get injured for their careers. Shirley that's part of the scouting report; if the box next to 'Gets Injured a Lot' is checked, simply pass him by.

Edgy MD wrote: Is this the sort of thing that can be attributable to being a professional pitcher? Or is it just a thing? NY Times: causes of arterial clots include "trauma, repetitive motion, or a build up of scar tissue". So, sounds like it's a thing, but it's a thing more likely to occur if you do his thing for a living. "If it's truly arterial", says a Mt Sinai Med Center aortic surgeon Not connected with the case, "it's generally going to be treated with surgery." Sandy apparently to address the issue prior to tonight's game.

Well sure, that too! I like how Steve's linked article mentions, in the midst of a Jeter tribute, how Bregman moved to over 3rd base. How very un-Jeterian of him!!

MLBN (Costas/Smoltz) did the same thing, putting up a graphic of all the MLB infielders currently wearing #2. I was only half-listening at the time so I don't know whether they definitely said they were all in tribute (some, Tulowitski for instance, have said his was) although they did point out that Bregman was drafted #2 overall so that could be his inspiration as well.

Edgy MD wrote: Supposedly, though, that Glenn scene is one of the more accurate moments of the film. At least, by some accounts. If it was then they needed to stage it better so that it didn't come off looking like it was a bit too convenient. And shouldn't Coster have been taking the crowbar to the 'White Only' bathroom sign?

Checked out Game 1 of one of the early *BIG* series of the year as the Astros visited the Bronx last night for the first of four - culminating with the Sunday Night Jeter-fest which is gong to be unwatchable even by ESPN production standards ... definitely a must-mute and by all means skip the (1/2 hour longer) pre-game situation. Dallas Keuchel, who beat the Yanx back in the 2015 AL WC game, seems to be back on his CY form from that year and was helped out by Carlos Correa hitting a wicked opposite field 2R HR off Pineda in the 1st Keuchel was cruising until a walk, hit, and error in the 5th (Cuban 1B Gourriel just clanked a toss from Altuve that your six year old snags with no problems) led to Ellsbury pulling his specialty, that is he chalked up another catcher's interference, this time with the bases loaded. He had 12 of those last year - nearly 1/3 of all those called all season (acc. to Costas on the national broadcast). I don't know quite how he does it but, at those numbers -- Ellsbury had something like 0.3% of all plate appearances last season and gets nearly 33% of all catcher's interference calls!?! -- it's obviously no accident. Nice trick if you can pull it off and get away with it. But it all worked out in the end as the Yanx, down 3-1 heading into the 9th, got a potential 2-run/2-out single but the tying run from 2nd, Ellsbury, got his ass thrown out at the plate to end the game. It was the right move to send him but he was dead meat courtesy of late inning defensive replacement Jake Marisnick's throw. Nice game all around as long as you ignore the fact that it was a 3-2 game which got turned into something needing over 3 hours (3:09) to finish. Astros now 24-11, Yanx at 21-11, a half-game behind the Orioles who got their finale with the Nats rained out last night.