Frayed Knot

Man is this a shitty game. Slow, tons of pitches with most of them out of the strike zone, lazy running, poor fielding, ...

If Jose gets released by the Mets he'll be searching hard for another gig rather than just meekly hanging it up. He has children to support, including some with his wife.

Edgy MD wrote: I think it would be awesome if Hernandez, Cohen, and Darling did this. Tailors should be climbing over each other to dress them. [fimg=250]http://cdn1.sbnation.com/assets/674801/NelsonMurphyKinerLegends.png[/fimg] Thanks to today's wider screen TV sets they'd be able to get all the lapels in the same shot.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Phillies booth also speculating whether Jose will be a Hall-of-Famer. Tell them they can stop.

Pirates OF Starling Marte received a half-season suspension for testing positive for some (un-named) PED. The 28 y/o OF, signed to Pitt thru the 2019 season with team options thru 2021, had taken over in CF this year as the Bucs moved Andrew McCutcheon to Right. Suspension starts immediately and will make him ineligible for the post-season should Pittsburgh qualify. The Pirates are off to a 6-7 start this year and were already short one of their players from 2016 as Korean native Jung-Ho Kang remains on the 'Restricted List' after failing to get a visa clearance to re-enter the country following multiple DWI arrests. He has a hearing scheduled in Korea next month.

Zach Eflin sounds like a member of some Disney-owned boy band. Instead he's a former 1st round (33rd overall) pick of the Padres -- in 2012 out of a Florida HS -- but was traded twice on consecutive days in December 2014 before reaching the big leagues with Philly. From SD to LAD in the Matt Kemp deal, and then with another minor leaguer to the Phillies for Jimmy Rollins. Really, LA, you deal two minor leaguers including a recent 1st round pick for the aging carcass of Jimmy Rollins?!?! I suppose one could argue that they needed a SS and JR played there almost every day for a team that went to the playoffs (and lost to the Mets) but he hit all of .224/.285/.339 while doing so.

With their best pitching prospect, Alex Reyes, out until sometime in 2018 with TJ surgery, and no one seemingly sure whether Michael Wacha is the stud he looked like pre-2016 or the one with the 5.00+ ERA last year, Carlos Martinez is StL's best young (25) pitching hope right now, but it's safe to say he's still a bit erratic yet. Anyone see his pitching line vs the Yanx in Saturday's game? ... 5.1 IP, 3 Runs (2 earned) on 4 hits, but with [u:1u9qdwpv]8 Walks + 11 Ks[/u:1u9qdwpv] (on 118 pitches)

Cardinals off to their worst start (4-9) since 1988 so you might see a test of how far that famed mid-western politeness and boosterism of the crowd will bend. I suspected St Looie for a team due for at least a bit of a fall this year off of last year's 86 win non-playoff team -- Alex Reyes injury, Wainwright & Molina getting old, shaky defense, too 'lucky' with non-repeatable RiSP & PH success in recent years, etc., plus there are only so many [crossout:143myn76]rabbits[/crossout:143myn76] rookies you can keep pulling out of hats whenever they need one -- but they really look like shit so far, something which would be fine with me if only part of that hadn't come vs a three-game sweep by the Yanx this weekend. At one point there were Yanx running all over the bases courtesy of Molina passed balls and I'm thinking, 'Who da fuck are these guys?!?'. Bottom Line: 2nd worst in NL in RS/G (only slightly ahead of SDP and they're barely trying) [u:143myn76]PLUS[/u:143myn76] 2nd worst in RA/G just ain't gonna get it done.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: It's worth seeing ... But they just wrote themselves into a dead end and just tacked on an episode of the Brady Bunch for the last 22 minutes and really threw it away. I'd say that's pretty accurate.

As in MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, Mr. Phelps is self-destructing.

Since these have all been one run games this series, I think we're due to score one here in the 9th and therefore lose by one.

Well that slide by Bour was a nice break. Now if only I had the CAHNfidence that we'll actually take advantage of it.

Not only would a hit be nice but they barely have a hard hit ball so far. Lots of pop-ups and weak grounders. Even Wilmer's fly to the wall was more high than far and Ozuna made it look a bit more dramatic than it actually was.

d'Arnaud -- Between the 16 inning game Thursday and the DGANG on Sunday, it's probable that Td'A is only going one of the Fri thru Sun games anyway, so I don't suppose it matters wether he sits Sat and plays Sun or vice-versa pitching -- as mentioned, I wanted to see deGrom out there to at least start the 8th - low pitch count, strong 7th. But if that's not in the cards (for whatever reason) why not go straight to Blevins. With Dee Gordon leading off* followed by Ellis & Yelich (good L - weaker R - very good L) you give yourself good odds for that inning and have a RH warm for Stanton in case things go sideways. But, like most managers, Terry allows himself to get locked into the "roles" thing and not only is Salas his current '8th inning guy' but Blevins isn't seen as a 'full inning guy' even though there's no reason to think he can't at least occasionally be that too. * oe: actually it was Ichiro leading off followed by Gordon and Ellis and then Yelich/Stanton but the point still holds (although probably someone else PH's instead of Ichiro if Blevins starts the inning)

Quick game, no? About an hour and a half and we're already into the 7th. Yup, might even get it in -- GASP!! -- in under 2:30 if things don't go haywire from here. Of course games with and only 5 runs, 8 hits, and 3 walks combined should finish in under 2:30. On the other hand I noticed a couple of (non-NYM) games this week which were 2-1, 8-1/2 deals that took over 3:00 to complete. I have no idea what the fuck they were doing all that time. oe: Cabrera makes that 6 runs, 9 hits, 3 walks combined

I'd send JdG out there for the 8th. Why not?

This Miguel Rojas guy now has 10 hits this year, 9 of them vs the Mets, and I don't know that he's hit a ball hard yet. Infield hits, bloops, seeing-eye singles, rinse, repeat.

The biggest problem last night* was somehow getting only 2 runs out of 5 hits + 4 BBs in less than 5 innings off of a very shaky Volquez. Three baserunners in each the 2nd & 3rd resulted in just one run off a Sac Fly. And then, in between all those baserunners, comes the requisite solo HR. I think a Cabrera day-off was already penciled in for this weekend, just a question of which switch-hitting SS Terry wants to see against the lefty today and against the righty on Sunday. With Reyes on base three times yesterday maybe you go with him today now that he's "hot" for the first time all season. * aside from a 3-2 game going 3-1/2 hours

Annnnnd, we weren't the only ones to notice: http://nypost.com/2017/04/14/marlins-man-was-the-real-winner-of-mets-game/

Lefty Specialist wrote: Well, he's 'Loman' on the totem pole. I think like others that he just ran out of gas in the 5th. At which point the fans were asking; "Where's the Biff?"

Keith was all over Walker for that too. Of course someone could be out there waving semaphore flags but it doesn't mean Cespedes is actually going to follow whatever signal he was given. It was a pretty risky send to begin with.

Defense didn't do him any favors last night. Two separate grounders scored as hits (one egregiously wrong, the other questionable) could have made things a lot easier and certainly helped push his pitch count up (over 30 in the 1st inning alone). The four runs in the 1st inning was essentially on one hard-hit ball, although his biggest crime was walking AJ Ellis in front of the big boys.

btw, the NYM 'Win Percentage' was 14% following Marcell Ozuna's 1st inning GS*. Eight Marcell Ozuna ABs later, his 16th inning fly out raised the winning percentage to 100% Just in case the ESPN booth is, y'know, keeping track. * the win pct low point (13%) was reached when Blevins issued a walk to load the bases in the 7th with one out. He followed that up by getting Rojas to pop-out then K'd Ichiro

If you bet on Adam Conley to lose Friday's game, do you get to collect? He was, after all, the losing pitcher after coming in on Friday.

So how often do you win back to back games in which you serve up Grand Slams? Hansel Robles: Great American Hero (even though he's not, y'know, actually an American - but don't tell Trump that)