Frayed Knot

I see Wilmer continues his penchant for being unavailable right as a position is opening up for him.

Edgy MD wrote: I guess that's a theory, but I disagree. Your typical hitter is much better at taking a pitch outside of the strike zone when he starts a bunt than he is when he starts a swing. Bunting makes you more selective, and so is as likely to put you ahead in the count as behind. I've seen enough bunters going after stuff out of the zone to just accept as fact that bunting makes one more selective. But even if that were true they'd still have to make contact and place it well. Missed bunts and foul bunts are what's going to put a batter in a hole. How do we know who is and who isn't if nobody tries to do it? Nowhere have I said I'm against them trying, just not as a reflex with all hitters in all situations.

Yeah, but I don't want a power hitter bunting with 2 outs and nobody on. Bruce chose the right time to do it in a game last week and, yes, there are going to be others where it would help too. The other thing, of course, is that they have to be decent at bunting which I believe a NYM last was sometime during the Ford administration. Attempting those so-called 'gift' bunts only to fail at them is going to do nothing more than put struggling hitters into a hole with the count.

The latest story has it that, rather than being rivals, the Jeter & Jeb groups are now joining forces in an attempt to become the next Marlins owner(s). Earlier stories had them as two of three groups trying to be the buyer. The third, now second, group remains anonymous thus far.

MFS62 wrote: Serena Williams announced today that she is 20 weeks pregnant. That means she won the last Australian Open while pregnant. It also means she should have been playing doubles.

You bunt against shifts when the score/inning/lineup situation makes it advantageous for you to do so. Bruce pulled it off last week at an exact perfect time but I certainly wouldn't want him to do so in every AB and his two HRs last night beats the shit out of about 14 bunts. But do it just enough that it makes the defense think twice about shifting automatically and you'll find a more open field for your regular swing. Sluggers Schwarber & Rizzo both pulled it off in a Cubs game the other day. On Schwarber's the 3rd baseman, stationed somewhere near 2nd, had zero chance to field the ball so he let it roll hoping it would go foul which it was justabout to do before it nicked the very outside corner of the base. A thing of beauty I'm telling you.

I read some column touting Rosario as having "nothing left to prove" at AAA and so should be called up immediately, something which is wildly overreacting IMO Not only is Reyes going to get at least 100 ABs (currently 53) but Rosario has all of 51 AAA ABs (with barely 300 in total above the A-ball level) and, though hitting .353, his hits are all singles and he's walked just twice. No, I think he has a lot left to prove yet and is very unlikely to be the first move made even if Reyes is cut/benched/demoted/whatever.

It's official Mets fans, you can stop hating him.

At this rate, our starters just might all finish this season with fewer than 10 decisions.

It was Gsellman not sliding, Cespedes not running, the whole team not hitting, two players going down in the same half-inning, and just the whole suckitude of the team which was just about to totally deplete my brief spate of optimism earlier this afternoon. ... and now Gsellman not bunting!!

Just when I was starting to mutter some really nasty stuff 'bout this team to myself ... and was almost as close to me [crossout:jhw7ho4r]sharing[/crossout:jhw7ho4r] inflicting such rants on you folks.

Game is not even half over and they already have a hit! Of course that hit also ended an inning and killed the [crossout:7an5lbgp]best[/crossout:7an5lbgp] only scoring chance they had, but baby steps.

Zvon wrote: He was bookin' tho. Wasn't doggin' it. He wasn't booking it as fast as he would have been had he not been looking behind him while trying to run. AND HE SLID!! -- Well, there's that I suppose.

Centerfield wrote: Was it close? Well, he was close to listening to his coach but decided instead that looking over his shoulder while running between 2nd & 3rd at the ball in the RF corner was a better idea.

- it's early - the losing streak has merely dropped them to .500 - faring better than several of the other 2016 playoff teams*, including that one that won 103 games and broke some kind of curse - and mainly that the 7 losses to date are essentially two games where they played like shit and five where they lost via the other side's final AB: two in extra innings, twice via walk-offs, and the Marlins getting 3 in the 8th at home. IOW, we've been ahead or right there in 12 of the 14 games and really only "stole" the 15-inning one Now, granted, those kinds of losses are more frustrating than most, especially since the Familia suspension can be seen as a factor, but they don't count against you any more than does a "normal" loss. The disturbing part has been the pen (again, help is coming) where it seems like each night it's someone else's turn to suck, and as much as we want the heads of Montero and Edgin on pikes, it's not like Robles, Salas, Blevins, and Reed have spotless records either. * Cubs = 7-7 (and losing as we type) Indians = 7-7 Blue Jays = 2-11 !! Rangers = 5-9 Giants = 6-9

Rickey as a NYM 1999: 526 PA; [u:3e5gev14].315/.423/.466[/u:3e5gev14] 2000: 124 PA; .219/.387/[u:3e5gev14].229[/u:3e5gev14] He also had turned 41 during the interim and, aside from walks, wasn't bringing much to the table; indifferent LF'er, 5 steals in 7 attempts, etc. And, IIRC, his final straw was a liner he hit off the base of the wall where he put down his head and went into his HR trot. By itself that was bad enough, but his claims after the game that he hit the ball well enough for it to go out so therefore it was neither his fault that it didn't go over the fence nor that he wasn't on 2nd.

The point is that options are removed when benches get smaller, options which go beyond just platoon-type issues of whether X should pinch-hit for Y Maybe you try a steal there with a faster runner, maybe you don't. I DO know that I would have liked to have a pr if Duda got to 2nd somehow but the only two benchies left were even slower. And I'll add that I don't think there's a Right/Wrong answer to how the player mix should go, but I'd like it better if teams weren't forced into feeling that they had to carry so many pitchers. Nor am I in favor of added rules that would dictate/limit how many of each you can have because, like defensive shifts, there's a risk and reward to each side and teams should be able to play them on whichever side of the line they choose and live with the results.

When Duda got on as the winning run in bottom 9 last night w/one out there was essentially no one to PR for him -- Lagares & Granderson had already been used, leaving just Wilmer and R. Rivera. That's an example of a by-product of a shorter bench.

Remember that Jose was never brought in here to be an everyday starter, he's just kind of morphed into one due to Wright's continued unavailability. Last year's semi-unexpected bounce from him sort of earned him the main 3B job coming into this season but I don't think that's cast in stone and, yeah, I'd prefer to see Wilmer out there more often with the occasional TJ Rivera thrown in (even though he looked like crap in his one start). Benching is a better option right now than flat-out release since Jose's legs and ability to play SS makes him useful off the bench ... providing of course he shows that he can do something with the bat other than hit "elephant ass" pop-ups (so named by a former softball teammate of mine for being both 'high and stinky'). And if he doesn't the good news is that mgmt shouldn't feel any ties to him (financial or otherwise) and so even his bench spot can be filled by either Cecchini or Reynolds. What I don't see is his problem as one of motivation or effort. He's not being lazy (no chance that was a triple last night) or even hesitant (he took off for 2nd when he saw the ball hit the dirt but then had to shut it down when it caromed off Travis and directly back to the catcher - both the initial attempt and the reversal were the right moves IMO. Lucky maybe, but still correct) and to some extent this is small sample size (Kris Bryant is hitting .228, Longoria .200, Cano .220, Miggy .222, etc.)

Edgy MD wrote: Montero shmontero. I'm telling you. Offense. Yeah, fine, but he also faced five batters tonight and every one of them hit a rocket even though most if not all were behind in the count. And even that would be excusable if this game was an outlier for him this year but it's far too close to the norm for him so far. But, like I said earlier, this game has sucked since about Pitch #1 and it's about to be a shitty loss as it passes the four-hour mark. And the Nats won. At least the Yanx got their winning streak all busted up.

Zvon wrote: 41Forever wrote: That's an error on Lagares? No way. Agreed. Wtf w/these scorers these days? That's gotta be on d'Arnaud. He not only inexplicably backed up so as to play that throw into a second short-hop instead of one longer one, but the damn thing still hit him right in the glove.

Pitchers not doing themselves any favors so far this year: Rafael Montero, Josh Edgin

cooby wrote: Is that guy named Vinyard Barbour? Actually it appears to be Barbour Vinyards. And if your name is Barbour Vinyards your career path is pretty much mapped out for you.

If you're in the box Odubel you need to be ready for the pitch!! The pitcher is NOT required to ask 'Mother May I?' before throwing it to you.

Ashie62 wrote: Do the Mets starters have to leave early? Wheeler was over 100 pitches thru five innings. He's lucky he got to last as long as he did tonight.