Frayed Knot

So whilst we're in Cincy ... - the Marlins host the Phils for 3 games starting this afternoon at 1:00 - [u:3tc04ctq]Cardinals are at Pittsburgh[/u:3tc04ctq] so we'll be getting mixed results from that series, but I think we need to mostly send good vibes to the Pirates now that we have a 2.5 game gap on them. 4:00 game today. - Giants (now just 2.5 ahead of us) go to Denver. 4:10 start - Dodgers host the DBacks, Greinke vs Maeda starts it off at 8 EDT tonight - Braves head to Washington for a 4:05 game where they get to face Scherzer. Better them than us.

Wilmer trying to get thrown out for the cycle.

So, what you're saying is, that's Bart's scoreless streak Kihn-tinues

In the words of that great American philosopher Warren Zevon: 'I'll sleep when I'm dead'

That would be Robert Stephenson, the Reds 1st round pick out of a California HS who's been their #1 prospect over the last few years and a top-30 overall prospect during that time. This will be his 3rd ML start but the first since early in the season. He started the year with the Reds, pitched twice in April, won both starts, and then spent the rest of the year in AAA Louisville. Not quite sure what the story behind all that was. If it was an injury it was a minor one as he's thrown pretty much a full season (24 AAA starts plus 2 ML ones). Pitched only so-so in the minors this year. Other stuff 'bout the Reds - who we haven't seen since sweeping a three game series in late April: #1 catcher Devin Mesoraco is out for the season. The duo of Tucker Barnhart & Ramon Cabrera alternate. 1B - Joey Votto and his league-leading .435 OBA plays every day 2B - Brandon Phillips still hanging in there at age 35 although is less than he once was SS - Zack Cozart; good glove, so-so offense 3B - Eugenio Suarez; 20 HRs LF - Adam Duvall. The 28 y/o (just yesterday) had 8 career ML HRs coming into this season. Exploded for 29 this season alone although only 7 since the end of June. CF - speedster Bill Hamilton can run 'em down in the OF and run all over the bases if and when he manages to get on RF - something named Scott Scheduler is Jay Bruce's replacement. And now you know as much about him as I do.

Today's loss for the Pirates, for instance, was their [u:28pqpbqg]sixth straight[/u:28pqpbqg]!!, including three to the lowly Brew Crew. They win just two of those six and we're one spot lower in the packing order right now.

Cuervo Rum touts itself as the official drink of the Rolling Stones tour in 1972 with their song not released until six years later.

Zvon wrote: Rockin' Doc wrote: Reed gets it done in the 8th. Terry likely goes to Familia (especially since he has had him up and throwing) in a non-save situation to close out the game. I could have done w/o seeing either tonight. If they got the tying run on I would have then summoned Reed. Fammy? Same deal. I could make a decent argument for Reed. Nats had the middle of the order coming up [Werth, Murph, Harper, Rondon, and, as it turned out, Ramos]. Even with a four run lead, Terry would kick himself (and we'd join in on the kicking) if he blew that game by going to second tier relievers. Now with just one inning to go and the bottom of the order, I'd prefer not to see Familia with the quick turn-around tomorrow, but aren't going to storm the castle over it.

Heisey is a power hitter* who's PH'ing with a runner on, one out, down by four, and he's bunting!!!!! Wow, thanks dude. That's a far worse move than Bruce trying for 3rd earlier. * 8 HRs in just 130 ABs, and 12 of his 25 hits this year for XBs

No matter what you say to him out there Mike Maddux, Latos will still suck and he'll still be an ass.

When did Mat Latos get on this team?? (looking it up) June 29th as it turns out, either I missed that when it happened or totally forgot about it since. One of my least favorite players in MLB over the last decade or so, so now I have extra reasons to root against him. I hope Cespedes hits a liner up the middle so hard that it knocks all his tats off.

I'm watching the French language channel. Boy do they love Jeff Francouer there. And their Nap Lajoie film clips ...

I'm not that down on that (Bruce out at 3rd) play. Yeah you don't want to make the last out there, but when it takes a perfect throw to get you by a hair then you're going to gain by that chance more often than not. Think about how many times when our precious few hits w/RiSP didn't even score a run.

And now two quick innings has Lugo's pitch count in order (58 thru 4) Meanwhile the other guy probably doesn't survive this inning if he allows another baserunner. Not that that matters as much this time of year when you've got 14 or so guys in the pen.

That was one long-ass 1st inning for just one run being scored.

Yup. Both the Marlins and the Giants took leads into the 9th today but neither could hang on to the lead. seriously, I just used a racist word when I really meant "Guardians" scored three times in the 9th. Cubs tied up their game vs SFG with one in the 9th then walked it off in extras. Pirates got blown out by the Brewers today which completed the sweep! Cards won today, as did the Dodgers.

They put up a graphic in the middle of sat night's game showing how all the NL WC contestants have below .500 records since some date in early/mid August - about 20 or so games. Last night's win moved the Mets up TO .500 during that stretch while most of the others moved an extra notch lower so we've actually been gaining even going back to the beginning of that bad ARZ/SF road trip although most of that during this recent 9-4 run.

And Lopez is going up against the guy we should start call 'The Disc Jockey' because his spin rate is so high. Highest ever they say - although 'Ever' is a relative term since they've just been measuring this stuff since last season. But despite that short time frame, not only does Lugo already own the highest-spin curve yet recorded but he's got seven of the top 10, and 18 of the top 25, and 32 of the top 50, ... and all despite his own short time frame of only 34 2/3 Major League innings so far.

Blame MLB more than ESPN. They either need to put restrictions on which games the network can grab for their Sunday Night showcase or they have to force Cincy to change the start time of Monday's game. Don't know anything about this Reynaldo Lopez guy who we're seeing instead of Scherzer (bet the Cards, Pirates, etc. aren't happy 'bout that!) 22 y/o, 6' 0", 185, R/R Signed by the Nats as an 18 y/o out of the DR in 2012. Progressed steadily if not spectacularly through the system. 14 starts in AA Harrisburg this year [4.13 ERA, 1.23 WHIP] then five in AAA Syracuse [3.27, 0.94], and five spot starts w/Washington [2-2; 5.33; 1.70] Started off his ML career by getting drubbed by the Dodgers back in July [6 earned in 4.2 IP] and is coming off a bad outing vs the Orioles [6 runs (4 earned) never got out of the 3rd] with three better outings in between.

And, btw, the Mets winning while the Nats, Pirates, Marlins, Cardinals AND Yanquis lose ... that's like a sextuple* happiness day. * although FMan may have a different definition of 'sextuple'

Pitt just lost. Also Cards & Marlins earlier so they gain a game on each. Giants won this afternoon and Dodgers are winning now so nothing on either of them. Be nice to have one or both of the West teams within reach, both as a hedge against someone else getting hot and also for a possible home field in the one-game play-in if they do happen to secure a WC slot.

Giants lost to the Cubs (again) this afternoon so we've already gained a half-game on the WC ... of course so has everyone else but we'll ignore that little fact for now SFG, who had the best record in baseball at the All-Star Game (56-33), have the worst record post-ASG as this loss drops them to 16-29 since the break and 72-62 overall They went from up 6.5 on the Dodgers to now 2.5 in back all while the Dodgers were Kershaw-less Someone cue Petty's Free Fallin'

If not him, then who? From Page 1 of this thread: Wilmer Flores is slugging the ball all over the place, OPSing .866 in August after a .957 July. He also brings a sugary magic with him to the ballpark every time he plays. José Reyes has been a freaking dervish and the leadoff hitter this team hasn't had since ... José Reyes. Gavin Cecchini is a number-one draft choice hitting .330 / .391 / .454 // .845 in Las Vegas. T.J. Rivera has hit over .300 at every level he's seen, except the big leagues where he's currently 11 points short. Give him time. Meanwhile, he's at .347 / .388 / .508 // .896 in AAA. Ty Kelly is playing for the same team, going .328 / .409 / .435 // .844 and he's funny. He's hit a little in the bigs too. Phil Evans is a middle round draftee who got early round money to forego college, hitting .328 / .367 / .475 // .842 in Binghamton. He's fifth in the league in batting average. Amed Rosario is a consensus top 20 prospect, top 10 on at least a few lists, hitting .324 / .375 / .473 // .848 at 20 years old in the Eastern League. L.J. Mazzilli Also, not mentioned, Matt Reynolds. Some of these are more likely than other of course. I don't think Rosario, for instance, is playing anything other than SS and probably not until late 2017 or '18 And while I wouldn't exclude Walker (although he'll probably be looking for a L-T deal this winter) the worst move teams often make is assuming that there aren't other options, including going outside the organization just like they did for him this year.

Edgy MD wrote: That 1-2-3 double-play was, like, the only truly hurtful outcome possible at that moment. I didn't even think about it as a possibility. I did. I thought specifically about that very outcome just prior to ... well, to it out-coming.

Nats in town, first time we're seeing them since a four-game series at CF in early July. Mets out-scored them in Game 1 of that set where neither Bartolo nor Lucas Giolito, then making his 2nd ML start, were any good. They then proceeded to lose the next three while scoring a total of four runs in what was pretty much their standard operating procedure back in July. After a mediocre July (13-12) the Gnats are coming off a 17-11 August and are headed for a 95-win season, and I think I may have stumbled across their secret for having five consecutive winning months and just their overall successful season in general (stay with me here cuz this gets complicated): HAVE YOUR PLAYERS STAY OFF THE DISABLED LIST AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE!!! Then, as a side note, when you do need the 15-day DL have that stay actually take just 15 days. Both are radical concepts, I know, but, just to illustrate how helpful this can be, here are the highest number of consecutive games missed by each of their opening day starters: C - Wilson Ramos -- 7 (bereavement list) 1B - Ryan Zimmerman -- two DL stints, missing 13 games & 16 games (and I think it helped the team more than hurt when he was out) 2B - Daniel Murphy - 2 SS - Danny Espinosa - 1 3B - Anthony Rendon - 2 LF - Jayson Werth - 2 (from a guy who I believe was once a roadie for 'Buffalo Springfield') CF - Ben Revere - 27 (starting on opening day) RF - Bryce Harper - 5 (mostly a string of Dusty-mandated mental health days IIRC) I wonder what color the sky is in such a world where DL news doesn't require nightly updates? We do actually catch a break in that Steven Strasburg is on his 2nd DL stint -- more a precautionary trip than a required one and, like his first stint, this one is expected to last exactly 15 days. So tonight we'll see AJ Cole instead vs Syndergaard in what will be the only game where we have the decided edge in pitching match-ups. Cole is a guy the Nats originally drafted, then traded away (for Gio Gonzalez) then traded back for. This will be his 3rd start of the year, his 4th of his ML career. Saturday - 7:10 -- Tanner Roark - Robert Gsellman Roark actually has the lowest ERA on their staff this year despite Strasburg's 13-0 start and Scherzer's seemingly weekly no-hit bids. Sunday - 8:10 (ESPN) -- Max Scherzer vs Seth Lugo ... and won't it be fun for the players if this one gets delayed by rain given the short turn-around time?!? The biggest change since we last saw them is that Trea Turner, supposedly their SS of the future, is playing pretty much everyday in CF and he's given them a boost in their leadoff spot (.344 BA, .364 OBA) which had really sucked for the first half of the year when manned by Michael Taylor and/or Revere with their combined .266 OBA !! And we all know the problem, that our shitty mid-season has put us in position where winning 1-of-3 while 'hanging tough' or moral victories won't cut it. We need at least two of these here (or one plus a lot of rain).