Frayed Knot

Mel Brooks' 'History of the World - Part 1' OK, I'm actually kidding on that one, although I remember when it first came out somebody saying to me, 'I can't believe that this movie isn't even out yet and they're already planning for the sequel' All I could do was shake my head.

It was the best altered reality movie I saw this year. Translated, that means it was better than 'Source Code' which I found only OK, and 'Inception' which I bailed on part-way through.

The might not have said Jeremy Brown in the movie, but they did say 'our 250 lb catcher who no one else wanted' (or words to that effect) and the story about the unseen HR was Brown. And, yeah, they definitely over-did the size thing for dramatic effect. He was big, but he wasn't that big.

I read a story about the Justice actor being a star in HS who went on to play some minor league ball* - although I don't find any record of it in BB-Ref, at least not under his acting name of Steven Bishop. Funny also how much different he looked than he did while singing at the frat party in 'Animal House'. The story of the blimpy catcher who didn't realize he hit the HR was from the book and it's the somewhat famous case of Jeremy Brown, the 2001 draft pick none of the scouts wanted -- 'he wears a big pair of underwear' -- but Beane made the 35th overall pick and thus the symbol of the 'Moneyball Draft'. He's listed in BB-Ref at 5' 10" - 226 (I think the movie bumped that up to 250) and was in Visalia for most of that season. He wound up getting 3 ABs in the majors before retiring at the end of the 2007 year. That was one of those points in the flick where I was wondering if the scene was shot of the movie or was actual baseball footage because I was watching that saying; 'I didn't think Jeremy Brown was THAT big'. * oe: now that I think about it, it may have been college ball and not pro ball that he played. It would also explain the absence in BB-Ref

Both former Met Howe & current one DePodesta less than pleased with how they're portrayed. Howe (to InsideBayArea.com): �I�m very disappointed, very disappointed, ... I look at it as character assassination. It wasn�t even close to my personality,� ... �They just went out of their way to degrade me.� �I spent my whole career trying to build a good reputation and I think I did that but this movie certainly doesn�t help it," the mild-mannered Howe said on Sirius/XM Radio. "And it is definitely unfair and untrue. If you ask any player that ever played for me they would say that they never saw this side of me, ever.� DePodesta: "I can't take it seriously and I certainly can't take it personally. We'll see when I actually see it, but I'm determined not to take it too seriously." DePodesta had asked the producers not to use his name in the picture -- "I was asked and saw some different iterations of the script, and I realized the character that was in there wasn't even me. At that point I had to remind myself, 'It's a movie. It's fiction.' " However, a Los Angeles columnist who covered DePodesta as Dodgers GM says actor Jonah Hill "nails DePodesta ... his shy mannerisms, his uncomfortable silences, his awkwardness in sharing his newfangled theories with old men spitting tobacco into cups, his fear in dealing with players."

Your details are a bit off but, yes, that moment is built into the movie although not as the big payoff/climax as would be the case in a typical sports flick.

Vic Sage wrote: A quiet, contemplative, deliberately paced movie with much to say, that avoids most (if not all) sports movie cliches. I liked it alot. And Pitt's perf as aging jock seemed pitch-perfect, working well off of goofball gone straight Jonah Hill. Just enough baseball to keep it a baseball movie and not a business movie. and it makes a folk hero out of Scott Hatteberg. Yeah, pretty much this. It's not the book, which is OK because I didn't go in expecting it to be. Beane's relationship with his daughter, barely mentioned in the book, is played up as a sizable part of the story to bring the human element into things. Other parts from the book are left out (the amateur draft portion) and naturally timelines are skewed, simplified, or condensed from actual happenings. And what that all means is that those who misinterpreted what 'Moneyball' means because they misread or never read the thing it in the first place (Joe Morgan, Mike Francesa) are going to have a whole new set of reasons misunderstand it. Particularly well done are the virtually seem-less transitions back and forth between actual footage of 2002 baseball scenes and shot footage, sometimes to the point where it's tough to tell which is which. Met connections/sightings: Beane of course. Not just as A's GM but also in flashback scenes to his signing and his NYM career (wearing #35 with shots of Straw in the background) Art Howe. Played by Philip Hoffman as much more grouchy than the sunny if bland Art we all knew and ... tolerated. Chad Bradford. One of the few players with significant speaking parts. Paper NYM David Justice. A prominent player/actor in the flick. Izzy. Often mentioned but never shown.

Haven't seen it in like a million years but my memory is one of 'Serpico' where the lines separating the good guys from the bad are not nearly as distinct.

The recent call-up gets a write-up from John Sickels: -- Mets prospect Chris Schwinden was unheralded pre-season, but finds himself starting games down the stretch for New York and will have a chance to contribute in 2012. Schwinden was drafted out of Fresno Pacific University in 2008, as a 22nd round choice, essentially a roster-filler pick for the minor leagues. He performed very well in the New York-Penn League that summer, posting a 2.01 ERA with a 70/12 K/BB in 63 innings, demonstrating sharp control. Command remained his key attribute in 2009 as well: he went 10-6, 3.34 in 127 innings between Low-A Savannah and Double-A St. Lucie, with a sharp 92/18 K/BB, although he gave up 138 hits. He returned to St. Lucie for 2010 and was great, with a 1.83 ERA and a 23/5 K/BB in 34 innings. Promoted to Double-A, he ran into a wall at Binghamton, posting a 5.56 ERA and giving up an unsightly 100 hits in 79 innings. He kept his K/BB ratio solid at 69/19, but going into 2011 he looked like a guy whose stuff was short of major league quality. Schwinden was undeterred however, and ended up having a fine season this year for Triple-A Buffalo, with a 3.95 ERA and a 134/48 K/BB in 146 innings, allowing 138 hits. He was promoted to the majors for this month and gave up eight hits and five runs in five innings in his first start, though he walked just one and fanned four. There is nothing special about his velocity, his fastball is just in the 86-90 range. He mixes in a cutter, curveball, and changeup, relying on sharp command of his secondary pitches to succeed. He has little margin for error and needs a strong defense behind him, but there are pitchers with worse stuff who have made careers for themselves due to superior command, and he's shown the ability to make adjustments to higher level competition. Schwinden really snuck up on us this year, but I don't see him as a total fluke. I think he projects as a fifth starter or long relief type as long as his command remains strong.

From BA -- Low Class A Savannah CF Darrell Ceciliani, 21, is finishing 2011 with a flourish, batting .320/.421/.443 (31-for-97) with nine extra-base hits and 16 walks in August. The Mets 2009 fourth-rounder batted 11-for-21 (.524) this week with two doubles and three triples

More 'honorable mention' ink for Puello: . . . The Mets shifted 20-year-old Cesar Puello to center field on June 22, and, coincidentally or not, the erstwhile right fielder found a new gear on offense. In 54 games since the switch, he's batting .281/.339/.474 (48-for-171) with 18 extra-base hits (including six homers) and eight steals for high Class A St. Lucie. (He went 10-for-23 with a homer, two doubles and four steals this week.) Scouts believed in Puello's power potential even as he hit only one homer in low Class A a year ago. Now he needs to tighten his strike zone (18 walks, 100 strikeouts) . .

As a college SS said to have the glove for that spot just not the range, I suspect that even if Havens never turns into a plus defender at 2B that he wouldn't fall to Uggla-liscious levels of suckdom.

Mid-2012 reinforcements could come in the form of Harvey, and/or Mejia, and/or Wheeler. On the other hand, you know what they say about good young pitchers; the best way to get one is to sign five of them.

From BA's 'Daily Dish' today: Double-A righthander Matt Harvey, the Mets' top pick in 2010, opposed [Tiger prospect Drew] Smyly in a prospect showdown in Binghamton [last night]. Harvey struck out five and walked two, but more importantly he shut out the [Erie] SeaWolves over seven innings, allowing four hits, to win his fourth straight start. After a rough introduction to Double-A, he's been downright mean in his past five starts, logging 29 innings and allowing 22 hits, seven walks and seven runs (2.17 ERA) while striking out 31

MFS62 wrote: Mark Prior is the latest example of pitchers using that motion experiencing serious arm injuries. Most of the world knew that Prior was a major arm injury waiting to happen ... and most of those who claimed to know in advance were only too happy to share their knowledge right after it occurred. Prior to that (no pun intended) he was the greatest pitching machine ever built.

John Sickels jumps on the Satin bandwagon (ummm, if there actually is one) by naming him his Prospect of the Day Excerpts: - What do you call a guy with a career minor league line of .309/.399/.473, including .347/.410/.453 in Triple-A? According to many scouts, you would call him "not a prospect." You won't find his name on many prospect lists, at least pre-season ones, but New York Mets farmhand Josh Satin is ripping up Triple-A and has little left to prove in the minors. - So why haven't scouts given Satin his due? There are several reasons. He's a 6-2, 200 pound right-handed hitter, 26 years old, so he doesn't have classic age projection. His physical tools are nothing special, average to below average. He lacks speed. His body looks like a third baseman's, but he's spent the majority of his time at second base. He does have some experience at third base, but his arm is limited for the position and he lacks the range for shortstop. At second base, he avoids mistakes and doesn't make many errors, but his range is mediocre at best. The Mets have groomed him as a utility player, and he's seen playing time at second, third, and first base this year. He's not great anywhere, but versatility is an asset in itself. - Satin's offensive numbers are quite good, obviously. He's hit at every level, has doubles power with occasional home run pop, and controls the strike zone well. There are a lot of moving parts in his swing which turns some scouts off, but minor league pitchers have been unable to exploit this or find consistent holes in his approach. He's considered highly intelligent and works hard at his game. - Satin has nothing left to prove in the minors and I'd love to see what he'd do with 500 major league at-bats. I'm not sure how he will get them, but he deserves a look as a bench player at least.

Reese's week gets him some love from BA's 'Prospect Hot List' Why He's Here: .435/.536/.739 (10-for-23), 7 R, 4 2B, 1 HR, 3 RBIs, 5 BB, 3 SO, 1-for-1 SB The Scoop: In an alternate universe, a healthy Reese Havens might already have claimed the Mets' second base job. ... But when he's healthy, as he's been lately, Havens still has the potential to be an above-average offensive second baseman. He draws some walks, has some pop in his bat and can hit for average. If healthy, he could be in the mix for the Mets' second base job in 2012, but the "if healthy" caveat applies more to him than almost anybody else.

Yeah, the specter of Dylan is in the movie on a few occasions, particularly early on. The two were both rivals and, for a time at least, somewhat friendly although tales of Dylan using Ochs as a punching bag to promote himself came out as well; "he [Dylan] was such a prick", I believe was a quote from one of the Ochs-ian commentators. Several of the voices from the Ochs camp also seemed determined to preach to the camera about how it was Phil who was the true committed protest singer of the era as if there exists a need to remind everyone that Dylan was only briefly an in-your-face social issues writer/singer and combat the occasional broad media portraits that still pigeonhole him as such to the detriment of the likes of Ochs and others.

In keeping with the string of recent documentaries for industry-respected but under-appreciated by the public and ultimately self-destructive singer/songwriters: Townes Van Zandt (Be Here to Love Me); Harry Nilsson (Who is Harry Nilsson), comes There But for Fortune, a family-authorized docu on the all-too-short life and career of 1960's socially conscious fokie Phil Ochs. (I think I just set a record for hyphens used in one sentence) Certainly not bad as you did get a sense of what made Phil tick. But I think the family authorized part (produced by his brother and obviously had the cooperation of sister, ex-wife, daughter) might have sanitized things a bit. Also there was heavy concentration on the political part of the era accompanied on-screen with numerous contemporaries (along with some more recent vintage like-minded types) as talking heads reminding us how the Vietnam war was controversial (gee, thanks) and how they were there on the front lines (Chicago in '68 etc.) all of which had the effect of shoving the music to the background - both literally and as part of the story. Call it peace or call it treason call it love or call it reason but I ain't marchin' anymore SVCJC5wIFbA

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Bend your cap brim, son. Keith chided the subset of non-brim-benders this past weekend. I think it was one of the Braves pitchers who set him off.

No Mets on this week's 'Hot Prospects' list in BA, but Puello does merit the honorable mention section - Mets RF Cesar Puello might finally be starting to get on track after going 10-for-25 this past week with a double, two triples and two home runs (.400/.423/.840). The 20-year-old Dominican outfielder entered the season with high expectations after a strong 2010 campaign in the Sally league, but Puello's strikeouts ticked up (85) while his efficiency in stealing bases (14-for-22) ticked down.

Vic Sage wrote: still to come -- COWBOYS & ALIENS ADVENTURES OF TINTIN Any chance of Olivia Wilde getting nekkid in this one?

Glen Campbell announces that he has Alzheimer's

Valdespin makes BA's 'Prospect Watch' (#7) for the week Why He's Here: .423/.464/.846 (11-for-26), 3 HR, 2 2B, 6 R, 6 RBIs, 2 BB, 3 SO, 4-for-4 SB The Scoop: Scouts never questioned Valdespin's raw tools, but they cautioned that the young middle infielder's game required a lot of refinement. Playing shortstop every day at Double-A may have afforded Valdespin that extra incentive he needed to mature. He's swiped 16 bases in 19 tries on the year, and in June he's turned on the power (five homers, .733 slugging) and tuned down the strikeouts (11 percent of at-bats). His performance may prove to be a statistical blip, but the Mets have to be happy with what they've seen lately.

From John Sickels: "... slumping in June is New York Mets outfield prospect Cory Vaughn, hitting .163/.241/.245 with four walks and 11 strikeouts in 49 at-bats for Low-A Savannah. He'd been hot early, hitting .303/.413/.434 in April and .356/.496/.510 in May, so his overall season line of .297/.419/.428 is still solid despite the slump. His strikeout rate is a touch higher than ideal with 55 whiffs in 229 at-bats, but he's also drawn 35 walks. The son of former major league outfielder Greg Vaughn, Cory has excellent tools but his erratic college performance at San Diego State dropped him to the fourth round in the 2010 draft. He has an especially sharp platoon split (1.066 OPS against lefties, .777 against right-handers), and has also been much more effective on the road (.946) than at home (.756). Even at this point of the season, the sample sizes with these splits aren't necessarily meaningful. Scouts were pleased with the improvements he made to his swing after signing last year, and while his isolated power is down in the Sally League, but I remain pretty optimistic about his chances."