Frayed Knot

All right, it’s that time again. You’ve ranked the rookies, you’ve ranked the starters, (hell, we’ve even ranked Beatle babes) so now it’s time to rank the whole rank lot of them. As always (or for those who haven’t played before) we’re looking to rank the top 30 Mets as to their contributions to the 2010 season. A reminder, one which may be more applicable this year than in most, is that we’re attempting to measure [u:2lpevgdf]actual contribution[/u:2lpevgdf] to the club this past year and not just how players did compared to salary or prior expectations. IOW, feel free to put Dickey ahead of Santana but only if you think he really had a better season, not just was better only when ‘graded on a curve’ of lower expectations or better bang for the buck. Ditto with, say, Pagan & Wright, or with anyone else who played this past year. Use whatever method you want, just be prepared to back up your choices and logic. Results get compiled into our previous 49 years of ranks and are used to determine the best Mets of all time which show up on your posts under your name. We get to pick our 30 from the 47 players appeared in a NYM uni this year. 27 different position players listed by most to fewest PAs: Wright - Pagan - Reyes - Davis - Francoeur Bay - Castillo - Barajas - Tejada - Beltran Thole - Cora - Carter - Blanco - Feliciano Duda - Tatis - Hessman - Mathews - Hernandez Evans - Arias - Jacobs - Catalanotto - Martinez Nickeas - Turner and 20 Pitchers (seemed like more) sorted by Innings Pitched: Pelfrey - Santana - Dickey - Niese - Takahashi Feliciano - Valdes - Rodriguez - Dessens - Perez Nieve - Maine - Acosta - Mejia - Misch Parnell - Gee - Igarashi - Green - Stoner

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Watched Dial M For Murder for the first time yesterday. Very enjoyable. I've probably seen that one more times than any other Hitchcock movie just because it seems to come around more often. Always loved the plot that tennis dude springs on his unsuspecting ex-classmate that sets the whole thing up. It's just so positively evil.

Psycho / NXNW / Dial M could all take my top spot. I'll have to think about this one.

Tippi's daughter can't act either, nor is she as hot as mom was in her day.

This is the OFer that Burkhardt and the GKR boys were talking about during tonight's game - one I confess I had never heard of prior to now. http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=puello001ces At first glance: - Doesn't turn 20 until next spring but already has a full year in a full-season league under his belt plus a few short seasons. - not much in the way of power and, even with the disclaimer about that usually being the last thing to come around being thrown in, 1 HR and a .067 IsoP doesn't hint that there's a ton to come. - the OBP looks decent although a chunk of that is due to an extraordinary number of HBPs; 22 this season against 32 walks, plus 14 & 5 in partial seasons prior to this year. Maybe that's just minor league wildness but that many (41 in 700+ PAs) points to him having some kind of "skill" at it. - 45 to 10 SB/CS ratio

Probably give it an average-ish grade. Showed me a thing or two about festivals and without any beat us over the head bias of 'waah none of these scum will bow down to our film' But also a bit of overkill at times and while I didn't dislike the film makers themselves they did sometimes run with a bunch of douches.

Sure, but I'm also trying not to paint all indie-wannabes with the same brush and those kiosk terrorists weren't, at least as far as I can recall, from the same group making this docu or the movie they were trying to promote, they were just fellow travelers along the same path. The main group did, for the most part I felt, have a sense of humor about their film and their struggles and were in-the-ballpark realistic about portraying the idea that there are simply too many films to fit into too few venues even if cronyism and incompetent festival screeners didn't exist. In fact, had they tried to make it seem like all indie film-makers were pure and good and right while it was nothing less than the meanness of those Nazi-infused corporations that kept their wonderful art from reaching an audience I would have been more apt to dismiss the whole thing as silly propaganda.

Yeah, guys who just got rejected from Sundance tend to be a natural audience for films about how it sucks to be rejected from Sundance. The flick itself wasn't bad. Got a bit repetitive in spots -- ... and then we did this festival -- to the point where it could probably be 20 minutes or so shorter while losing nothing. It's also, at times anyway, aimed at kind of a limited audience: when submitting your film to festivals, here's what you should do .... But they did it all with a decent sense of humor and got their point across about how at least some of the system designed to promote true independent films is rigged against true independent films. It also kind of makes me want to see their original film, 'Ten 'til Noon', which, like this one, is also on 'Netflix' so the work kind of serves double duty.

From a Q&A in BA: Frank (NYC): What do you think Lucas Duda's chances of hitting in the bigs are? He has absolutely crushed AAA this year. I know he's not a glove guy like Nieuwenhuis is, but reports say he isn't a train wreck in LF. Isn't it worth seeing if he can be an upgrade over Franceour in the order while playing LF for the rest of the season with Pagan in RF. Jim Callis: I'm not sure he's going to be a regular on a good club, but I concur that the Mets should give him an audition and find out.

Even from the 'Fugly' list I like: - Play Misty for Me (1971) -- Back when all the fuss was being made upon the release of 'Fatal Attraction' I was stunned that hardly a mention was made that it lifted virtually its entire plot from PMfM, right down to the abused pet - Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997) -- not a great flick, but took a good source and, while changing it a bit, still kept it interesting and worked in the Mercer music well - Absolute Power (1997) -- A lesser D.C. political-based caper movie than 'Line of Fire', but not bad - Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) -- much better than 'Flags of our Fathers'

"I think that his balls out commitment to the absurdity of his characters works well in a tv sketch ... but is ultimately grating and unsustainable for 2 hours of storytelling. He is best in small doses, as an added flavor, rather than the main ingredient." You could just about wash, rinse & repeat that for most SNL alumni. I was kind of disappointed in Ricky Bobby - such an easy target to parody and only the occasional hit. I found the ice-skating send-up much better even with the absurd premise and maybe more over-the-top jokes. Never got around to 'Anchorman' even though that tends to get better lip service than most, and you'd have to beat me repeatedly before I'd even attempt to sit through 'Step-Brothers'

A Roman Polanski film where a non-political and otherwise under-the-radar type writer is the surprise pick to finish ghosting the memoirs of a former British PM following the death [suicide?/accidental?/other?] of the previous ghost writer Complications and intrigue ensue, mostly triggered by a scandal that breaks just days into the new guy's job.

Good enough recently to make BA's 'Hot List' at #9 Team: high Class A St. Lucie (Florida State) Age: 20 Why He's Here: 1-0, 0.66, 13 2/3, 11 H, 1 R, 1 HBP, 2 BB, 18 SO The Scoop: Where has this been all year? Familia is one of the hardest throwers in the minor leagues, but when he pitches, balls have been been flying out faster than they've been coming in most of the year. Not so in his last two outings, his best two of the season. Familia still needs to develop a reliable breaking ball, and with nearly six walks per nine innings, his control has also gotten him in trouble this year. With his stuff and the effort in his delivery, the bullpen might be in Familia's future, but his most recent starts might be encouraging signs of progress.

OK, I got around to this one via DVD in the last week --and thought it was pretty decent. It's really the Cherie & Joanie story, with the two stars representing why the band worked but also why it could never last. Joan, who formed the band because she had nothing to live for except rock and roll is in contrast to Cherie who - especially with the manipulations and marketing from their sleazy manager - was a main reason for the band's success but, unlike the others, was never really a R&R animal and, like the Bowie lip-sychs she did in HS talent shows, is more playing the role rather than living it. Jett has obvious affection for Currie, perhaps in part because they were occasionally swapping spit and who knows what else together, or perhaps because Jett is behind the story and gets to make herself look good. Either way, she realizes that Currie's presence gave the band life, but at the same time has a different long-term agenda. The rest of the band, as Soupie mentions, are pretty much background. Drummer Sandy West - as a "founder" with Jett - gets some early lines while Lita Ford gets to occasionally yell and scream in her role as the toughest chick in the room. Stewart's Jett is good. Fanning's Currie is portrayed more often as wasted and over-her-head and only occasionally projects the raw power combined with the jail-bait/sex-kitten appeal that was a big part of the band's early fame. Mgr Kim Fowley's role is sufficiently creepy. The movie's main attempt as re-creating a stage scene was 'Cherry Bomb' from a tour of Japan where the band briefly had an intense following: real: movie:

Back from his stress fracture, Lutz is skating enough circles around the pitching in AA to make BA's 'Hot Sheet' for this week (at #12) - Team: Double-A Binghamton (Eastern) - Why He's Here: .500/.538/1.167 (6-for-12), 2 2B, 2 HR, 5 RBIs, 6 R, 1 BB, 2 SO - The Scoop: After rehabbing a stress fracture in his left foot for about six weeks, Lutz made a triumphant return to Binghamton, hitting a home run in his first at-bat. Lutz made a rehab appearance at high Class A St. Lucie before seeing action in two games at Binghamton this week, but he picked up right where he left off before the injury. Lutz, who missed most of his '07 debut season with a fractured left foot, has 18 extra-base hits in 37 Double-A games this year, including 10 home runs.

sharpie wrote: The last word of the movie nearly undid whatever good feeling I had for it. LOL. I see where you're coming from although that line didn't particularly bother me - even if it was delivered by the (rumored) future Mrs. Derek Jeter. The part that annoyed me was the little sister role. Yeah, it wasn't really a big role, but if I wanted to watch/listen to some younger sibling deliver all the precociously smart lines that would never actually occur in real life I'd click on some formulaic sitcom. Other than that it wasn't too bad. Considering that it's the 900th re-telling of the 'is love fate' question there were a enough bright spots to keep it interesting.

John Sickels chimes in with some thoughts on Ratliff: [A] reader asks me about New York Mets outfield prospect Sean Ratliff, currently hitting .340/.372/.614 in 37 games for Double-A Binghamton. He'd hit .275/.331/.432 in 57 games for Class A St. Lucie before his promotion in June, and the reader wonders if his superior performance at Binghamton is a breakout. Ratliff was a fourth round pick in 2008 out of Stanford. The book on him in college and the low minors: excellent power potential from the left side, but hyper-aggressive at the plate and unable to handle good breaking stuff. He fanned 141 times in 496 at-bats last year in A-ball, with just 31 walks, stats which fit the scouting report perfectly. Despite the .340 mark in Double-A this year, his BB/K remains unimpressive at 7/33 at Binghamton, 24/99 overall on the season in 375 at-bats. On paper at least, it looks to me like he's getting lucky right now with the BABIP. That said, Ratliff has solid tools, including a plus throwing arm and decent running speed. He doesn't have to become a walk machine, but even a marginal improvement in his pitch selection could go a long way towards making him successful.

A bit more sobering news in the Q&A session that followed: Q: Is Cory Vaughn better than most people thought heading into the draft, or is this just a hot streak that he doesn't have the tools to maintain? A (Matthew Eddy): This is exactly the question I've been trying to answer, so I turned to college baseball guru Aaron Fitt for more. His response: "Vaughn has always had big tools ... and he's had hot streaks like this in his college career, but sustaining them has always been the issue. As pitchers adjust to him, can he make adjustments? He did not show a whole lot of ability to do so in college."

Mets 4th round pick in 2010 is off and flying in Brooklyn (take that Keith Law!!) enough to place 6th in BA's 'Hot Sheet' for the week: Team: short-season Brooklyn (New York-Penn) Age: 21 Why He's Here: .517/.545/1.270 (15-for-29), 1 HR, 3 2B, 8 RBIs, 4 R, 3 BB, 5 SO, 4-for-5 SB The Scoop: The son of former big league slugger Greg Vaughn�he of 355 career home runs�Cory has launched his pro career in style after quickly signing as the Mets' fourth-round pick. (At San Diego State, he was teammates with some Strasburg guy.) Vaughn is batting .326/.403/.620 through 129 at-bats, with a New York-Penn-leading nine home runs and 32 RBIs (17 of his 42 hits for XBs). And if he connects for seven more longballs this season, then Cory will match his father's output during his pro debut. A 21-year-old Greg Vaughn hit 16 home runs in 1986 for Helena of the Rookie-level Pioneer League.

HTTM got surprisingly decent-to-good reviews upon its release - considering, y'know, how lowbrow, predictable, and stupid it looked to be. The more recent and similar looking Kevin James movie mentioned (also starring every other available supposedly funny actor) ... ummmm, not so much.

From BA's Ben Badler as part of a general Q & A session: -- There's only a handful of position prospects I'd take over [Flores] in the minors. It's a special bat and the power is starting to come around even faster than I expected. I'd get him to third base as quickly as possible because that's his ideal position, but he's just a natural hitter.

I'm in the 'Not very funny' camp too. A few isolated laughs but mostly ridiculous.

Yes it's a TV show. Think of the female equivalent name to Wilmer ... and then look at her necklace.

Knock-knock-knock-knock-knock ... WILLLLL-MERRRRRR

50) Lawrence of Arabia (1962) -- Unlike KWAI, this Lean epic has not dated a bit, due to the moral ambiguity at its core. Not only NOT dated, but maybe less so as time goes on. The seeds of much of why the mid-east in general and Iraq in particular are screwed up to this day are in the scenes where the old men are carving up the spoils of the Ottoman Empire and distributing it as political favors amongst the warring tribes and their corrupt leaders. O�Toole is one of the greatest screen actors who ever lived, and this is his shining moment. Yup