Frayed Knot

Down just a hair acc to BP's odds. Prior to Monday's game the Mets were at 83.7%, the Cards at 60.6%, the Giants at 55.6% Today it's 83.3%, 49.6%, 66.8% So obviously the Giants were the real winner of the day by process of sitting out. The increase in their playoff odds just barely (to the point of statistical irrelevance) washes out the decrease in StL's Oh, and the Marlins jumped on the board with a 0.3% chance by virtue of their win so maybe you could say that's where our decreased shot went.

bmfc1 wrote: Wilson Ramos left tonight's game with an injury. It would be a shame if this hurt WSH's playoff chances. You sound oh so concerned. Meanwhile, Keith & Ron totally disagreed with my above assessment on the Kang fake tag thing. Now I'll have to admit that I was going by only the description and have yet to see the specific play, but I was surprised, especially by the vehemence of their reaction and Ronnie even more than Keith.

Nymr83 wrote: I think there are players missing - I remember reading that 2 players, not 1, died in WW2 I remember hearing/reading that too, but that both were marginal players (and far before my time) so I never knew who either were and therefore don't know who the 'missing man' is. On the other hand it's good to see that there are far fewer ballplayer deaths from tuberculosis these days as compared to a century ago.

Frayed Knot wrote: On the plus side it's 10-1 Reds in the 5th 14-1 and Cincy is still batting in the 5th!

Those are the type of chances you can't blow after digging yourself a big hole. On the plus side it's 10-1 Reds in the 5th

Frayed Knot wrote: 6-0 with Cincy still batting with runners on in the 4th 8-0

6-0 with Cincy still batting with runners on in the 4th

Yanx down 3-1 vs Jays in the 4th, and they're also down one pitcher, one manager, and two coaches after all were ejected following the 3rd beaning of the night: Yanx hit Jays batter, Jays retaliated, Yanx re-retaliated. Less than friendly hi-jinx ensued.

Votto & Duvall go back to back in the 1st vs StL 2-0 Reds going to bottom 1st. Could have been more but for the caught stealing prior to Votto's clout (originally safe, reversed on appeal).

Ballplayers who died during their careers Not all listed were major leaguers.

Marlin bats are saying that Colon has no zip on his pitches tonight.

And this is why sports fiction so rarely works, it's not as good as the real stuff. dinosaur jesus wrote: Did Bart groove that pitch? Classy gesture, I guess. I tend to think not (who'd think that Dee Gordon would park one even with it grooved?) but yaneverknow.

Nymr83 wrote: Among right-handed pitchers whose careers began since World War II, do you know how many had a better ERA+ through 70 starts or more? That would be none. Zero. Behind Fernandez you'll find the likes of Dwight Gooden, Tom Seaver and Roger Clemens. Fernandez was off to a greater career start than all of them. Wow. I don't know about that stat. Gooden's ERA+ through his first three seasons (99 starts) was 155 (and if limited to just his first 70 it would be better still - like 180-ish) while Fernandez's through his career of 76 starts was 'only' 150. Not sure what exactly it is he's comparing here and it might take a bit of creative math to make things work. Like can you root around and find a point in JF's career when his ERA+ is better than a particular point in the careers of others? Maybe, but what does that show? I just found a couple of points when it didn't within five minutes and that was checking on one guy that he already dismissed. Something's not worded correctly somewhere.

I figured they'd be Maple Leaf fans (I know Geddy is a big Blue Jays guy) but I guess they know how to suck up to local audiences. BP's playoff odds put the Mets at 83.7% (a bit better than 5 of 6), the Cards at 60.6%, the Giants at 55.6% Neither of the other non-eliminated teams, Miami & Pitt, have any odds at all (or too small to put a number on).

G-Fafif wrote: Edgy MD wrote: Wright is perhaps even more out of sight, but has not been as removed from the psyche of Mets fans or their spending habits, I imagine. Part of that is Wright's longer tenure, to be sure. But I imagine that, taking away each of their ready ability to perform, Harvey doesn't leave you as much left to hang your hat on. A lot of the Harvey stuff is of the "this guy is huge, let's print up more!" variety. Not HARVEY 33 as much as "Happy Harvey Day!" and ancillary gear. Yeah, I suspect there was a thought over last winter that the second year back from TJS would result in a CY-caliber season from Harvey (I was on that train). But then the effect of a rocky first half followed by the nonexistent second is a ton of overstock. Wright #5 shirts are, I'm sure, not only already on more backs and in more closets in NYC than any other single piece of NYM merch but the rate of sale likely more predictable and not as given to rushes and droughts.

Time for our weekly re-visit of this thread. 21-11 since we laid down the mark of needing 25-13 to close out the season - and it's looking like that 87 win projection will be right about on the nose even though, at the time, I was likely thinking of that as good enough for the second WC mark rather than the first because we were in no position to be that greedy back then. So a 4-2 finish from here probably does the trick and would mean that: - the Giants could go 4-2 AND the Cards 5-2 and we'd be in the #1 WC slot with those two fighting it out for who gets to come to CitiField - if the Cards cooperate by losing at least two then the Giants could even go 5-1 and we'd still be WC #1 by virtue of the tie-breaker - as long as EITHER of SF/StL loses at least 2 more games then we'll clinch one of the WC slots even if the other runs the table

Reminds me of one of the NASCAR drivers who said, during the first race following the death of Dale Earnhardt (paraphrased to the best of my memory): 'I found out today that the only thing worse than seeing the black #3 car in your rearview mirror is not seeing it'

Ceetar wrote: 79-76 I'm still rooting for the losing season. Yup! Stuff I missed on the AL side yesterday, BoSox pitchers struck out 23 Rays in a 10-inning game, including K's on 17 straight outs in a row at one point (with a couple of walks, HBP, singles mixed in). I don't think this qualifies as any kind of record both because of the extra inning (2 of the 3 outs in the 10th were Ks) and because it was accomplished by six different pitchers (13, 5, 1, 0, 4). Someone named Heath Hembree K'd all five batters he faced, and then of course was replaced by someone else. This game is both a sign of the year and of the time of year.

Among the stuff I missed yesterday amidst the 17-0 blow-out and the fact that the high-light shows were short on high-lights on account of the news involving Fernandez and later on Arnie, the Gnats & Buccos got into a dust-up over Harper getting a boo-boo on his thumb. Harper led off top-3 with a triple and, when the relay throw to 3rd went awry, Pirate 3B-man Kang slapped down a fake tag to fake Harper into not knowing about the overthrow. The tag allegedly caused an awkward slide by Harper resulting in a jammed (but not broken) thumb and cries of 'Dirty Pool!!' by the Nats. So then in the bottom of the 3rd, the first pitch to Kang whizzed in back of his head. Pitcher AJ Cole got ejected immediately and the dugouts emptied almost as quickly. No fights but a lot of yapping and pushing with Sean Rodriguez and, not surprisingly, Francisco Cervelli & Jayson Werth were the main yappers. FWIW, I don't think the fake tag stuff is dirty pool at all. It was illegal in all the softball leagues I played in but everyone in those games had to go to work the next day. This, seems to me, is no different than Muffy, or any one of a million 2B-men, faking fielding a grounder to keep the runner from 1st heading to 3rd.

Tonight is San Fran's day off, so we'll be one ahead in games played to both other teams until our final off-day on Thursday evens things up again. SF finishes things out at home: COL x 3, LAD x 3 - Late night starts Tues-Fri but the final two vs Dodgers will be afternoon games (4:15 / 3:15) so we all should be awake enough to follow along if necessary. StL also home throughout: CIN x 4, PIT x 3 - also 4:15 / 3:15 for Sat/Sun So in many of the cases the results of our game will precede the conclusion (and maybe even the start) of the others. As mentioned around here somewhere, our game Saturday is now a 1:05 start And, as with last year, they'll be doing all 15 final games on Sunday as simultaneous starts.

All true, but that hardly explains Maddon's odd penchant for continuing to bunt, even after there are two strikes, at times that are questionable bunting situations in the first place. CUBS WIN!!!!

Maddon just had Heyward bunting with 2 strikes [1st & 2nd / no outs / up by one / bottom 8] and he K'd Maybe you could say that Heyward's just had a bad year and was facing a lefty, but I saw him do the same thing with Zobrist a few weeks back. I know we'd get pissed off here if Terry called for a bunt in a similar situation even with zero or one strike.

metirish wrote: Yeah, I guess I don't think of him as a Cub and more of a Braves player...... He's not a guy I ever associated with any one team. 15 seasons in total and never more than four in one place. Ranked by plate appearances: Reds, Braves, Cubs, Dodgers, Red Sox, Pirates, Padres But they seem to like him at Wrigley so who am I to say they shouldn't honor him however they want?

Benjamin Grimm wrote: The Cardinals next play the lowly Cincinnati Reds, in St. Louis, so they may not lose again for a few days. Cincy has been better in the second half, 'better' being a relative term but at least they've been within shouting distance of .500 since July as opposed to the 29-51 they started the season with. They've also been 7-8 vs StL this year so maybe this series won't be a total walkover. Rox have been about the same in the second half [4 games below Apr-Jun, 6 games below Jul-Sept], but no one has been as bad as the Giants post-ASB (25-41).

It's his final (reg season) home game, so you take the guy out in mid-inning to get his own applause in a year when he's already announced his retirement. The odd part is that he's been a Cub for only the last two of his 15 year career, but he's apparently been very popular there despite the short run and both the fans & players seem to love him ... so why not?