Frayed Knot

I find I'm sometimes conflating Brett Lawrie with Brett Wallace. Both were former 1st round draft pick in 2008 (Wallace by Milwaukee 13th overall out of Ariz State, Lawrie by Toronto 16th overall out of HS) as infielders with good bats but not much defensive value - and then neither really lived up to the bat rep. I even had to look up that it was Wallace who was the one mocked at the time of his drafting for having, as publications often delicately put it, a 'big lower half' (aka: huge butt, listed at 6' 2" - 250) while Lawrie clocks in at a still husky though relatively svelte 6' 0" - 210

Giancarlo answers in bottom 6th. 2 innings, 3 singles allowed for Matz in his debut He was followed by scoreless and even perfect innings from Molina and Roseboom and then a one-hit inning from Goeddel before Montero served up the HR in his lone inning.

Edgy MD wrote: The real Metly heroism came when 2016 B-Met and Las Vegan (but currently a free agent) Josh Zeid came on to pitch the last three innings, getting in and out of trouble, giving up a hit and two walks in the first two innings, but putting them down in order in the 10th, striking out the last two. The odd story about that outing by Zeid is that there's a 50 pitch ceiling for pitchers in this opening round. They're allowed to pass that limit but, if so, they're not permitted to pitch for the remainder of that round. Zeid got the 'K' to end the game on pitch #49 meaning that, if Israel should find itself in a must-win game to possibly move on to the next round, Zeid remains eligible to pitch. Whether he would have been yanked had he NOT retired that final batter may go forever unknown.

Hard to see what kind of role he'd fill, especially considering that the Mets has to figure out pretty soon what they've got in players such as Cecchini, Nimmo, Plawecki, Reynolds, Flores, etc. A story that's kind of getting pushed to the side right now but is creeping up on us quickly is that, because we hear so much talk about how the youthful pitching staff is set for the next few years, it's easy to forget that this team is going to have to do some wholesale changes on the field on account of how most of the position players can be FAs following this season: Cabrera (tho they have a 2018 option), Walker, Duda, Granderson, Bruce. That leaves Cespedes under team control for 2018 and beyond along with Wright who they can't count on plus the catcher's slot which they're still unsure about. Rosario is the one obvious replacement they assume they can slot in but beyond that though and it's a bunch of ????s meaning that at some point you'd prefer to see some of these youngsters thrown into the fire to see what they got rather than give those ABs to a Lowrie/Johnson type of vet.

And Israel is your surprise 2-1 winner in 10 innings

Team Israel -- consisting of some players who may or may not have been to Israel at some point in their lives -- is tied with host Korea 1-1 in the 10th in the opening game of this year's tourney.

Rockin' Doc wrote: Word in scouting circles is that Kim Kardashian runs so slow she makes Prince Fielder look like Billie Hamilton. That's because Prince has a smaller butt than K.K. Tebow to show up in the big league camp this week to fill in as the WBC boys clear out and is rumored to be targeted for the starting lineup maybe for the games on Wednesday and/or Friday of this coming week. I wonder if, during his ABS, ESPN goes to live break-ins of whatever program they're running at the time?

[fimg=200:2st0wi0h]https://ioncewasarower.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/im-not-deaad-yet.jpg[/fimg:2st0wi0h]

Lefty Specialist wrote: These days, Mat harvey is at best the Mets third best pither. And what a good thing that is.

[fimg=160:32bu76ye]http://static.nfl.com/static/content/static/img/combine/headshots/2558125.jpg[/fimg:32bu76ye] [fimg=135:32bu76ye]http://d3k2oh6evki4b7.cloudfront.net/req/201602120/images/headshots/7/7bc3f19c_davis.jpg[/fimg:32bu76ye] The article I read this in mentions him more as a possible backup QB for the Giants than for the Jets (mainly, I assume, because the Jets don't know who their starter is yet) but a possible 2nd or 3rd round pick in this year's NFL draft is Texas Tech QB [u:32bu76ye]Patrick (son of Pat) Mahomes[/u:32bu76ye], the 1999-2000 NYM hurler perhaps best know for his unique "ability" to vulture up wins as a reliever despite some pretty mediocre secondary stats. Patrick Sr. wound up 13-3 in 92 NYM appearances (5 starts) with a 4.74 ERA and 1.54 WHiP although, to be fair, his '99 season was a lot better than his 2000 campaign and he was a major contributor that year. I also remember him as a pretty good all-around athlete (9 for 33 as a NYM incl. 4 doubles -- .273/.293/.374) so that the kid is also should be no surprise, he was also drafted by the Tigers in the 37th round coming out of HS despite not playing as a senior. The other NYM connection is that Latroy Hawkins is the kid's godfather. The two pitchers came up through the Twins system and were ML teammates for two seasons.

Tony Clark specifically isn't battling pitch clocks. He's opposing the no-pitch walk. No, the automatic IW is part of the changes going into effect this year because it was the one pace-of-play type proposal that the union DID agree to. Where Manfred is getting his back up is that he feels the union has nixed the idea of even discussing other changes. At least part of this has to do with there being disagreements within the union on whether or how to move on these issues just as there were in the steroid era. Manfred's stance is that prior agreements give the league power to implement future changes without the players consent if no joint agreement can be reached so the players would do better to voice their views now rather than simply declare any change to be a non-starter and have something forced on them later.

Don't scream into the tornado, man. Send that shit to MLB headquarters. I sent Selig a laundry list like the above several years ago. Right now it seems to be more the player's assoc. who are dragging their feet so maybe they should be the target. Similar to their resistance and insistence twenty years ago that ANY steroid limitations were a violation of civil rights and would result in a travesty of the game, I think Tony Clark is battling (with or against is hard to tell) the forces within the union who are insisting that they MUST have their pre-pitch routines or their careers would be in jeopardy. Pitchers don't want a pitch clock because they think it'l give an edge to hitters, hitters think making them stay in the box is akin to capital punishment, and catchers don't want robo-ump technology because they all see themselves as above average pitch-framers whose "skill" would suddenly be negated. The pitcher pitches. And if the pitch isn't hit, the catcher throws the ball back to the pitcher. And then the next pitch usually comes in within no more than 15 seconds of the pitcher receiving the ball back from the catcher. And that's it in a nutshell. There are about 75 batters who come to the plate in an average game, so do the math as the kids like to say (do kids actually say that? ... I have no idea): for every four seconds shaved off per AB -- not per pitch mind you but merely off each AB as a whole -- the game becomes five minutes shorter at the expense of nothing but empty air. That's FOUR SECONDS!! folks, and I think they have the ability to do even better. Now combine that with quicker pitching changes, quicker replay, and a cap on mound visits and we'd be in business, I'd shut the fuck up, and not one thing fans currently like about the game would be altered. And that's the thing about this whole topic, that no one* is trying to change the game into something it isn't, nor are we pining for some version of the game as it was played during the McKinley administration. Hell, I'd settle for the game as it was during say the Reagan years just so I wouldn't have to bitch at my TV because I saw just nine pitches of baseball over the previous five minutes due various committee meetings breaking out on the field every few seconds. * no one aside from those either advocating the silly beer-league softball rules which aren't intended for anything but the lowest level of the minors anyway, or the 'make it a seven-inning game' crowd who are generally the ones who hate the game in the first place and wouldn't watch if you made it three innings.

Stop fucking with the game. One of the beauties of baseball is you really never know what you're in for. Some of the best games are short pitchers duels, some are fourteen inning crazy-ass games with three costly errors and football scores. See here's the thing: I've been as vocal as anyone about wishing games were more often around 2-1/2 hours and less often 3+, but in no way do I want to go changing any basic rules involving strategy. There's nothing wrong with a long game it just shouldn't be the norm even for low-scoring pitcher's duels that used to be under 2 hours. So while I'd prefer not to see 14 man pitching staffs, teams that want to do that have made a risk/reward decision to weaken their bench by doing it and I'm willing to let them. Same with multiple changes and throws to 1st, etc. All I've ever been bitching about is getting rid of the dead time. It's not the length of the game it's what has caused it to get that way; it's what has caused us to go from 25% of games ending in under 2:30 to less than 4% just during the lifespan of of some of your teenage kids. And, yes, TV commercials are part of that but even they haven't increased in length any time recently so there are other culprits. - stay in the fucking box. I once heard Tim McCarver describe Hank Aaron's hitting routine which involved him never leaving the box once he got in. And I may have to check the books on this one but I think ol' Hank was kind of successful anyway. Now we've got .240 hitters who insist that without their "routine" they can't do their jobs. a) yes you can, and you may want to look into getting a new routine cuz your existing one ain't working so well. - pitch the fucking ball without going through a checklist of gyrations first. You only have four pitches and probably two of them suck anyway so you're choosing from a small menu here. I don't want to see pitch clocks installed, but if football teams can get up from the pile, have a huddle, re-line-up, go through a set of signals then call a play in under 35 seconds (or whatever it is) then you should be able to throw two to three pitches **NOT ONE** in that same amount of time. Go get some films of Jim Kaat and note that he won a few (hundred) games that way. - I'd be for limiting mound conferences (I'm flexible as to the details) and if you want to claim that that's a change affecting strategy then I'd counter by saying that they need to get their strategies straight before the game starts or between innings. There are too many damn time-outs in (ALL) American sports and I'd much prefer a game where the players who have been playing this game their entire lives can be trusted to make on-field decisions. George Will once said that football combines the two worst aspects of American culture: violence and committee meetings. Baseball used to have little of both, let's get back to that. - if you want to keep unlimited pitching changes then make them quicker. There's no reason for eight additional warm-up pitches once you get to the mound, those are a holdover from days when the bullpen mounds were either sub-standard or non-exsistent. Pitching change times can be cut in half and those breaks are NOT pre-paid ad time that would involve a make-good from the TV network. - if you're going to have replays then I want a challenge inside 10 seconds or we play on. That would mean only the real bad calls get overturned and we don't wind up pouring over the replay like it's the Zabruder film to determine whether the runner's toe came a 1/2 inch off the base for a 1/2 second during his pop-up slide and whether the fielder's glove was in contact with the runner's pant-leg at that exact moment. And once we eliminate the piddling shit then the review itself goes quicker too. - But as much as any rule or procedural change I think the sport just needs an attitude change that'll bring it back to the original intent where the ball is assumed to be live unless stated otherwise rather than the other way around. I'm not quite sure how to accomplish this as it didn't come about overnight and it won't go away quickly either, but hopefully the changes they've put in at the minor league level will produce a new generation of ballplayers who never develop the tics and routines that cause the next pitch or AB to happen "when I get around to it".

Well beyond just the tie-ins that MLB is going to go after, Syndergaard has been a long-time fan and apparently used his fame to wrangle himself a 'walk-on' role in the upcoming season, filmed back in November.

Edgy MD wrote: I mean, they're in the orbit of St. Lucie, so we see them frequently enough in the spring time (this will be the second of seven matchups in Florida) ... Even closer now that they just moved into the new place that they're sharing with the Nationals in W Palm Beach

Edgy MD wrote: Strange how the Astros have become one of the most foreign teams from a Met fan perspective. I have to keep fighting this feeling I have that when the team was moved from the NL Central to the AL West that the city of Houston itself had to physically relocate. I'm not quite sure where this notion in my head thinks it now is except that it's somewhere between its actual location and Seattle. The Mets travel to Houston for a series late this season so I hope the pilot at least knows where it is and doesn't choose me to be his navigator on that trip.

And not once during that entire time did his left arm even come off the rail where it was resting pre-aerial assault. Not as it was flying towards him, not as he was snagging it, not as he was casually tossing it back whence it came.

I noticed that the small tattoo he's had on his left wrist for several years now grew significantly over the winter to where it's at least up to his elbow now and maybe further. How that'll affect his performance going forward is still unknown.

Filmmaker Richard Linklater has clearly moved on from his early template of Texas kids getting blasted on the occasion of celebrating their final day of high school circa 1976 (Dazed and Confused). This one instead is about a bunch of Texas kids as they get blasted in anticipation of their first day of college circa 1980. Specifically it follows a crew from the (fictional) college's baseball team -- some freshmen, some returning -- as they party and test each other and bond and get the lay of the land (among other things) over the weekend prior to Monday's start of classes and formal practices. And, yes, the official title does have the double exclamation points in it. Blake Jenner (no, no relation) a veteran of the TV show GLEE (no singing here) and Zoey Deutch (daughter of Leah Thompson) are the semi-leads in the otherwise mostly male ensemble cast which includes the likes of Juston Street (brother of ML hurler Huston) and Wyatt Russell (son of Kurt & Goldie, half-brother to Kate Hudson, and himself a former minor league hockey goaltender) Soundtrack includes contributions from (among others): The Knack, Sniff and the Tears, Sugar Hill Gang (yeah, that one), ZZ Top, Peaches & Herb, Blondie, Foreigner, Steve Forbert

so if ya got one to spare ... Says he's been a diabetic for the last several decades and has recently had a big toe removed due to an infection. But now the 72 y/o is also on the waiting list for a kidney. http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/beloved-mets-legend-ed-kranepool-waiting-list-kidney-donor-article-1.2987486

Edgy MD wrote: Notable that they didn't touch the September roster expansion rules. Well these (relatively minor) changes are the ones MLB is apparently able to make without player union agreement. More far-reaching stuff such as roster expansion, pitch clocks and the like are they ones they tried to negotiate but either couldn't come up with a specific change -- for instance apparently everyone agrees that something needs to be done about Sept rosters but there are a dozen or more proposals of how to do so with none approaching a majority -- or it's something the union is flat-out rejecting. It's these tabled changes/proposals that Manfred is threatening to impose unilaterally in a year's time if the union, in his view, continues to simply stonewall any and all changes.

Even that second video in the link of the more modified version of Capps's delivery doesn't look like it should be legal to me.

On Thursday, MLB and the MLBPA announced a number of new rule changes for the 2017 season. Here are those seven changes: The start of a no-pitch intentional walk, allowing the defensive team’s manager to signal a decision to the home plate umpire to intentionally walk the batter. Following the signal of the manager’s intention, the umpire will immediately award first base to the batter. -- We've pretty well discussed this already. To me it serves no purpose other than to make it look like something is being done about pace of game by catering to those who were crying for this change since the days when games were 30 minutes shorter. A 30-second limit for a manager to decide whether to challenge a play and invoke replay review. -- The idea is to prevent the dance where the manager holds up the game while deciding whether to hold up the game further by asking for a review. But since the entire (stated) purpose of replay was to correct the egregiously incorrect calls, I don't see a problem in demanding a decision within 10 seconds. When a manager has exhausted his challenges for the game, Crew Chiefs may now invoke replay review for non-home run calls beginning in the eighth inning instead of the seventh inning. -- a manager out of challenges now has a slightly smaller safety net where the umps can bail him out. I call it the 'Mattingly Corollary'. A conditional two-minute guideline for Replay Officials to render a decision on a replay review, allowing various exceptions. -- Ahh yes, the old "conditional" limit. MLB hasn't publicized what those limits are but, as the NFL has shown us for going on four decades now, unless there's a strict cap on how long the reviews can take they're going to take until the umps/refs think they have the required proof. A prohibition on the use of any markers on the field that could create a tangible reference system for fielders. -- I didn't even know this was a thing, but I approve of it anyway. An addition to Rule 5.07 formalizes an umpire interpretation by stipulating that a pitcher may not take a second step toward home plate with either foot or otherwise reset his pivot foot in his delivery of the pitch. If there is at least one runner on base, then such an action will be called as a balk under Rule 6.02(a). If the bases are unoccupied, then it will be considered an illegal pitch under Rule 6.02(. -- could be dubbed as the Carter Capps and/or Jordan Walden rule for those pitchers who combine their pitching motion with their triple jump workouts. Not sure exactly how it'll be determined what's legit and what isn't but at least they're acknowledging that it's an issue which needs addressing. An amendment to Rule 5.03 requires base coaches to position themselves behind the line of the coach’s box closest to home plate and the front line that runs parallel to the foul line prior to each pitch. Once a ball is put in play, a base coach is allowed to leave the coach’s box to signal a player so long as the coach does not interfere with play. -- Yeah, whatever. The late Doug 'The Lord' Harvey was a stickler for rules like these. Not sure anyone of today's 'Blue Crew' will bother.

A theatre in London showed the opening half minute or so of LA LA LAND to an audience who paid to see MOONLIGHT before 'realizing' their mistake in and switching to the correct film after some mock fumbling and apologies. Now THAT'S funny!

Yeah, I don't think they're moving Cabrera off the position to make room for Reyes who is 2-1/2 years older and has played all of 57* games at SS since the end of 2014. oe: 114 actually (I ignored his brief Colorado stint). But still, his last full season at SS was 2014 (134 starts) and his last full one on grass was 2012