Frayed Knot

Lefty Specialist wrote: And hey, $90,000 in 1965 was a pretty good piece of change for a manager. 'specially when you're managing a bunch of ballplayers making $10 - $20 K A sampling (via BB-Ref, maybe not 100% accurate) young Ed Kranepool - 11K; vet Roy McMillan - $35K; Jim Hickman (doesn't say but 18 K the following year); Jack Fischer (6th year in MLB) 19K

At this point in the calendar, who gets called up or not has to be done with an eye to having those on your roster who you also want to be eligible for any post-season work. Not quite sure how all the rules work concerning guys who have previously been up but aren't currently: Reynolds, Conforto, etc., although there are always loopholes where swaps can be made.

Yeah, I wasn't too encouraged when I first saw the Gee vs Pineda matchup but the good thing about Pineda is that he frequently tosses in a turkey of an inning in an otherwise good outing and he did that last night by coughing up 3 runs in the 1st before retiring 16 straight after that. But by then Gee was out of the game with a 3-1 lead and KC bats then went to work of the Yanx rebuilt (read: gutted) bullpen. KC's usually good bullpen tried blowing a 8-1 lead by allowing 5 in the Yanqui 8th (an inning started by Ellsbury's leadoff Catcher's Interference call) and then allowing the tying run to get to the plate in the 9th, but ultimately survived.

Jacoby Ellsbury reached 1st last night on catcher's interference for the 11th time this season!!. a) yes, that not only leads the league but is an extension of his own ML record. Hell, that might even be more than every other hitter in the league combined this season although I have no idea how to find such minutia there has to be some sort of intent to this on his part (gotta earn that $21 mil somehow and hitting .260 w/5 HRs ain't cutting it); shit like that can't just be happening by accident c) you'd think catchers would adjust by now and move back a few inches d) you'd think pitchers would get pissed off and start drilling him. 'Oh, so you want to get on 1st base that badly do ya? ... Here ya go, wear this one!' oe: a bit of quick research via the interwebs finds: - the all-time leader in reaching via CI is Pete Rose with 29 (in 14,053 ABs - or once per 484 ABs, aka: about one and change per season) - Ellsubry, whose previous season high was 4, is now second with 23 (in 4,383 ABs, once per 190 ABs, around 3 per full season) - no one else has more than 18 for his career - previous season high was Roberto Kelly with the 1992 Yanx, 8

seawolf17 wrote: Walker: 3-10, four BB d'Arnaud: 7-17, homer Reyes: 1-3, homer Cabrera: 3-7, homer Now we just have to see how many of the above guys can/will answer the bell tonight. Cespedes, somehow, has not homered off TK yet even though everyone else in the league has. No, but I'll take 6 for 14 w/3 doubles and a triple.

Koehler�s actually been on a nice run in the second half of this year � 2.57 ERA in eight starts since the ASB with a .217 BAA � although he still rarely goes beyond the 6th inning. For his career this will be the 20th game and 17th start facing the Mets In all those games he�s managed a decent 4.13 ERA and 1.30 WHiP over 98 innings; only 85 hits in those 98 innings (.235 BAA) and just 9 HRs, but the 42 walks have hurt him and is probably why he rarely gets a decision (just 2-6) and why he hasn�t gone past 6 innings the last 7 times we�ve faced him. Most recently we saw him on June 4th where he gave up 3 in 6 IP in a game the Mets won 6-3, and then again on July 4th where he left after 5 innings with a 6-2 lead until the Mets got to the Fish pen for six runs and an 8-6 win.

Lefty Specialist wrote: One thing about Montero's start was that he was definitely getting squeezed by the ump (in fairness, both pitchers were). With a bigger strike zone he might have gone longer. Yeah, the mental clicker in my head that "calls" balls & strikes prior to seeing the ump's official call was wrong a whole bunch of times last night; both strikes that I thought were balls, balls that I thought strikes, and across the board in both the top and bottom of innings.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Big kudos due also to Gilmartin & Smokie, who each threw good innings when a bad one wouldn't be entirely unexpected. Especially Gilmartin. If there was a moment I felt like a crappy Mets team would break it was then. Third outing in three days for Smoker too. Good thing the calls to demote them both (or maybe it was deport them, I forget) after rough outings last week went unheeded.

And, after we all crashed last night, the Pirates wound us losing to the Cubs in the 13th, giving up 2 runs to lose it after taking the lead in the top half. This was all after the Pirates had given up two in the 8th then one more in the 9th just to send it to extras. Hmmmm, ya think maybe dealing off Mark Melancon for a mediocre lefty and some 22 y/o in A-ball in the midst of a pennant race wasn't such a good idea after all? So, in the great WC chase of 2016, last night's win means that we caught one team that started yesterday ahead of us (MIA), gained a game on another (PIT), gained a half game on one (SFG), and stayed neutral with one (StL) Also brought the Dodgers one game closer in case they should happen to stumble out of the West lead and back into the WC shuffle.

cooby wrote: I think it's a stupid idea. What's it going to accomplish? Hopefully it'll keep him from having a third disaster game in a row.

Centerfield wrote: (Why would you pitch to Cespedes there? Wtf) Because the toughest thing in hitting is still getting to 1st base so you don't want to award the potential winning run with a free pass there ... even when it's Cespedes.

It's DEFENSIBLE They cited mechanical issues and potential fatigue as reasons, as well as pointing the second wind he's had following short rests in the past. And, after 13 runs and 25 hits over 2 starts/9 innings, it's not like you can just turn your head and say 'eh, it's just [crossout:clzq37em]one[/crossout:clzq37em] two of those things'.

The most amazing thing about that GiDP is that Mattingly didn't challenge it. I was sure he'd object to a blade of grass being out of place or something. It's not like him to allow force outs at 1st to stand without closer examination.

Lefty Specialist wrote: Shaky first inning, but he got through it. Have the bullpen ready, Terry. Well the good news is a one-hitter thru 4 The bad news is nearly six innings worth of pitches to get through those four innings. So, yeah, get the bullpen ready. Fernandez is a bit high with his count too (52 thru 3) and, as a result, we've got a game trending as over three hours even though a scoreless tie. Speaking of which, the Cubs & Dodgers somehow managed a 1-0, 8-1/2 inning game on Sunday which took 3:08 ... 2:08 used to be the norm for games like that.

Why does Mattingly always seem to get replay reviews that are initiated by the umps so that, even if he loses, that he continually gets more later in the game? I was just thinking the same thing: he'll talk the umpires into looking into a play before the game is over. He may not even have to talk them into one because it's not clear whether this one gets charged against him or not. It seemed like it should have been but, if so, why the 20 minute conference first?

Why does Mattingly always seem to get replay reviews that are initiated by the umps so that, even if he loses, that he continually gets more later in the game? and, btw, MLB is going to tell us that that was a 45 second review when it really took 5 or 6 minutes.

Mets Guy in Michigan wrote: Who got sent down to make room [for Montero]? TJ Rivera - although with rosters expanding on Thursday, he may not even leave town. Asdrubal Cabrera is your NL Player of the Week. Now we can just hope that wasn't his last week of the season.

bmfc1 wrote: Tonight is the first of 7 straight night games. I don't want to get all Mushnick-y here but I'm surprised that the final game of the Miami series isn't during the day. Saturday should be a day game but the Mets don't schedule Saturday afternoon home games. Sunday is a night game courtesy of ESPN... and then the Mets play on Monday in Cincinnati at 1 PM. There are only seven day games left for the entire regular season so the fact that there are a bunch in a row isn't surprising: they are the four Sundays not including this upcoming one, plus Labor Day Monday and two mid-week road games; a get-away 12:35 start in Cincy (Wed Sept 7) and then the following Wednesday in Washington (a 4:05 deal). Oddly enough both those get-away day games both come in front of NYM off-days and with short travel (Cincy to Atlanta, and D.C. to home). The real crime is this coming Sunday night, not only night but the later 8:10 start, followed by the day game in Ohio. That's gotta be a 3 AM or so hit-the-pillow situation at best with first pitch only 10 hours later. Gary C. teed off on this a few days ago. If MLB is going to let ESPN cherry pick their Sunday Night games with no regard to where the teams are headed afterward then they got to be ready to force Cincy into changing their Labor Day game to a 4 PM start. Washington also hits the skies after that game, in their case heading to Atlanta, but at least they do have the later 4 PM game.

On the flip side, Giancarlo is out, 1B masher Justin Bour is still out, the 42 y/o Ichiro has been exposed as a 42 y/o while trying to play everyday in the absence of Stanton (.196 in August) which in turn forced the Fish to set up a platoon by dealing for Jeff Francoeur. Also DL'd is Derek Dietrich who filled in ably at 2nd base while Dee Gordon was on suspension and then was filling in at 1st. Meanwhile something named Xavier Scruggs is playing 1st these days, at least presumably when he's not busy as the opening act for Florida-Georgia Line on the SummerSlam Tour, coming soon to a Sprint Cup track near you.

Not the greatest pitching match-up from our view obviously, although Fernandez continues to have his ridiculous H/R splits: 1.91 ERA vs 4.42; 558 OPS-against vs 714 He's not a bad pitcher on the road but he's at least human, so there's, y'know, that. It would also help greatly if we play tonight with only three of our regulars out instead of six like on Sunday but we'll have to wait until the latest casualty reports are updated first.

bmfc1 wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: I was thinking of proactively pulling Gsellman after six innings even though he was sailing at that point.... If d'Arnaud gets on, Cespedes pinch-hits and Gsellman never starts the 7th. Yup. But even after d'Arnaud ended the inning I was thisclose to calling for him to not start the 7th anyway - and had the bench not been short today and Robles not been lost at sea lately I would have. I don't normally advocate for pulling a guy pitching well in favor of one who may or may not have his good stuff that day but in this case -- between being Gs's first ML start, pitch count getting up there, third time through the lineup, etc. -- I thought giving him the 7th was tempting fate.

They blew some chances early, but then again the Phils might have blown even more. I was thinking of proactively pulling Gsellman after six innings even though he was sailing at that point, and probably would have had advocated for it ahead of time if Robles and, to a lesser extent, Reed been their pre-August selves. BMFC wanted to fire Terry when he did bring in Robles; two days ago CF wanted him fired for NOT bringing him in. Sometimes you just can't win. Of course it the rules of baseball allowed managers to bring in closers in the 7th inning if that's where the biggest fire occurs then maybe TC would have been able to go to a different choice. But the bottom line is they totaled one walk today despite a ton of full counts plus a whopping seven hits, all of them singles and most of them in the early innings. Can't win 'em all but they've put themselves in a position where they have to win most and, going into Miami then Washington with unproven pitchers and Jose Fernandez starting off, this would have been a nice one to have. Pitt won, SF is winning, Dodgers in a scoreless tie mid-game. Wash, Miami, & StL lost so the day isn't a total disaster.

Jerry Koosman is 4th on the all-time NYM CPF ranking project. WE don't under-rate him Gary!

OK, we've got 4 innings (edit: 3-2/3) to beat up on an already beat-up bullpen.

Pete McKanin shaking his head in the dugout right now talking to his SS: Galvis, son. Oh Galvis, son.