Frayed Knot

Willie Mays

No runs that inning, but give 'em 17 or 18 more ABs w/RiSP and they'll get a man across the plate eventually.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Sometimes it's to distinguish a son from his father when they both have the same name. Yes, that seems to be increasing common with the initial J even in cases where the middle name doesn't start with J at all but rather is there as a stand-in for 'Junior'. In this case it's not for Junior although I suppose he could also be Thomas Javier Rivera Jr. and this not only beat having two Tommys in the house but pops decided he was too old to start calling himself T S Rivera. In other cases the given name just seems to morph into initials for a variety of reasons. In R A Dickey's book he offered no other explanation other than people just started calling him R A instead of Robert or Bobby or whatever. It didn't seem like it was his choice although one would assume that he's OK with as he doesn't seem to have taken any actions to change how he's referred to now that he's an adult. Then there was an episode in MASH where Hawkeye went nuts trying to figure out what B. J. stood for as it was even that way on his official army records. Hunnicut's explanation was it was from his parents Bea & Jay although Pierce wasn't buying it and continued to assume there was some deep, dark secret behind it.

Who is T J Rivera? -- Thomas Javier Rivera I always find the preference of initials over names to be an odd choice. Not negative, I just find myself wondering how the thought process or evolution went.

I'm not getting the money angle here. Gomez would have been slightly cheaper last year than was 'Plan B' in Cespedes and was under control for this season at about 1/3 of what they wound up paying Cespedes. Plus he would have been targeted as the everyday CF for 2016 which would have freed them to trade Lagares during the off-season and get out from under his escalating contract. So if the story is that they balked on Gomez because they were unwilling or unable to take on his contract, the evidence to support it is very thin.

bmfc1 wrote: Remember almost-Met Carlos Gomez? Flores crying... that guy? The Astros DFA'd him today. What a strange up-and-down career he's had - started with the Mets where he seemed like the type who might never harness his uber-athleticsim - went to Minnesota in the Santana deal and pretty much confirmed that line of thinking - from there went to Milwaukee and briefly turned into a monster: single digit HRs morphed into mid-20s; his speed and HR-stealing prowess won raves (and a gold glove) for his CF play; sub-.300 OBP levels became .350+; twice he got MVP votes (9th & 16th) despite being on sub-.500 Brewers teams. It all looked like previous attempts to mold him into a leadoff style hitter stifled his true middle of the order skills. - and then the trade to Houston after the botched trade back to NY resulted in plummeting power, a return to sub-.300 OBPs, and now his being pushed out by younger, more promising players even though still just 30 y/o Sometimes the best moves you make are the ones you don't make ...

Ashie62 wrote: I am tired of Terry's lefty/righty righty/left stuff. Somebody destroy his manual. I suppose one could make a case for Loney to stay in even though the Snakes are throwing a LHP, but Flores hits them particularly well so it's certainly a reasonable day to give him the 1B job. Other than that, the only real 'regular' sitting because it's a lefty is Conforto and his 5-for-46 against them pretty much makes Terry's case. As for the rest who aren't in the lineup card but ideally should be, well Terry has other reasons for not writing in Yeonis & Juan & Asdrubal & David.

After Girardi got all caught up in the emotion of the teary press conference and said he'd play AR as often as he wanted over these last four games, he then apparently sobered up and/or changed his mind. The plan now seems to be that he'll play Thursday in Fenway then in his finale on Friday in NY. btw, with the Sox up by 3 in the 9th last night, freaking Kimbrel comes in for the save but [u:1sdzjm66]four walks[/u:1sdzjm66] and a passed ball later (plus a K and a line-out) the are bases loaded and it's a two run game with tying and go-ahead runners on. Fortunately John Farrell had the good sense to yank him at that point and replacement Matt Barnes got the final out.

And as if on cue ... nothing official yet but it's apparently going to be Nimmo down and TJ Rivera up for tonight's game. In other news: Cespedes IS on target for his earliest return date, Cabrera is NOT, Reyes's rehab is being delayed, Wheeler to throw again probably on Thursday http://nypost.com/2016/08/10/mets-send-down-brandon-nimmo-call-up-a-third-baseman/

I was pretty shocked a the PH move myself ... but on the other hand d'Arnaud has all of eight XBHs this season and just five (3 2Bs, 2 HR) since his return from the d'L (see what I did there?) nearly two months ago (June 21) so maybe TC has a point, although with two outs already it's not like a potential GiDP was an issue.

On PH'ing Kelly for Travis (NY Post): Collins admitted it was �hard� pinch-hitting for Travis d�Arnaud with two out and one on in the ninth inning of a 5-3 game. �He�s struggling � so many ground balls,� ... he hoped Kelly could �get a walk and maybe get the go-ahead run to come [up]. It�s very hard because this guy is a big part of our lineup. We�ve got to get him going. He�s far better than a .230 hitter.� d�Arnaud: �I did want that shot, but I�ve got to play better. Terry made the right decision and whatever he chooses to do I support. I just have to keep working hard and soon I�ll get out of this funk.�

bmfc1 wrote: That's not what I said. Sandy failed to procure another bullpen arm as he promised. Perhaps if Sandy got off his ass and traded for a reliever we wouldn't have to automatically see Robles in the 7th. First of all I don't see where Sandy "promised" anything. Nor do I see ongoing use of Robles in the 7th as a problem; he failed last night, it happens.

bmfc1 wrote: Terry should have used the new bullpen guy that was Sandy's #1 trade priority... oh that's right, he didn't get a reliever. Pathetic. We don't really think the problem with this game was that poor pen construction forced Terry into using Robles for the 7th inning, do we?

Trying to see if they can go 0-for-9 vs a nondescript bullpen. More than halfway there already. oe: well, they tried

He is not retiring sources tell MLB Network Insider Ken Rosenthal: -- Fielder, 32, had surgery for a C4/C5 herniation in his neck on July 29, ending his season. He also underwent a similar procedure in 2014. ... he is medically disabled and doctors will not clear him to play. So NOT leaving money on the table. Retires with the same number of homers as his estranged Dad, Cecil. I bet it pisses him off that he didn't pass him. I remember he made some less than kind remark about it when he passed the 50 mark in a season the way Cecil had.

Did Prince get called 'safe' on that bottom one? Looks like he should have cuz like that's obstruction dude - even if the belly flop trying to sell it is too comical even for lower level English soccer leagues.

Centerfield wrote: So a week plus into August, the answer is...no one. No one has been an unexpected hero. Not that he's been All-Star material or anything, but Loney has been a whole lot better than expected, we'd be a whole lot worse without him, and he certainly came to us out of the blue. That's as close to the definition for 'Unexpected Hero' as I need. Addison Reed's been better than most if not all expected, but he's at least been doing it in the role where he was expected to be.

Mets Guy in Michigan wrote: Just saw a bulletin that Prince Fielder is expected to announce his retirement tomorrow. The Mo Vaughn example would be to remain on the disabled list and continue collecting the salary. Prince is leaving a lot on the table. That's having just undergone his second neck/disc surgery in just over two years. Fortunately for us David's only on his first at the moment. Of course, then there's the spinal stenosis thing but we'll just ignore that for now.

Centerfield wrote: One thing I just realized about him this week, he's played 16 seasons in MLB, plus 9 in Japan. That's 25 years. He's 43. Holy crap, he was playing in the Japanese big leagues at 18 years old. Yeah, he had partial seasons at age 18 & 19 in the JPL (166 total PAs) then was a full-time player from age 20 on, hitting .385 in his first full year and then essentially duplicating that type of season for each of the next 17 years on both sides of the Pacific before starting to fade even slightly. And while it's always possible that he could have achieved similar results had he started in the U.S. right out of the box, I think it's unlikely that he would have made such a splash so early. Those sort of young stars seem to be more common in Japan than here so I don't think it's as simple as just adding up his hit totals from both. His Japanese league time is certainly part of the picture but not necessarily the same. And remember how they made a big fuss about how Jon Niese was born the day the Mets 1986 WS ended? Well Niese practically qualifies as a veteran now and, while I don't want to say Ichiro's been around for a long time, he was born the day after the Mets 1973 WS ended, and that's like ancient history now.

Clearly he's HoF material, I don't think anyone doubts that. I see CF's question here (and he can certainly jump in here if I'm misinterpreting) more as one about how he ranks among the greats considering that his strengths of BA and 'counting stats' like the raw number of hits aren't as highly prized on their own as they once were. I heard one talk show, for instance, take the opportunity of them both being in the news this past weekend to toss out the question as to whether Ichiro was as good as ARod ... NO he's not as good as ARod you dummy (and, no, we're not going to do Stonehenge either). Rodriguez has more HRs among his 3.100+ hits than Ichiro does all XBHs combined and a 23 point gap in OBA despite a 19 deficit in BA And where I don't want to use the word 'over-rated' because, well because it's a silly term to begin with and because it's not what I mean anyway, but I do think there was a kind of over-emphasis of him, particularly early on, by some of those still wedded to 'old school' style stats combined with being enamored by his unique status as the first Japanese position player. Winning the MVP in his first season (albeit narrowly) over Giambi despite being on the wrong side of a 100 point gap in both OBA & SLG as an example. Not sure he deserved quite as many Gold Gloves as he got either, although rubber-stamp GG voting is certainly not a problem unique to him. Now the major question ... WTF are his stats doing nearly 100 points higher across the board this year as compared to last? What, the Marlins outfield wasn't good enough already so they had to have their 42 y/o 4th guy raise his BA by 87 points, his OBA by 106, his SLG by 100, his RC/G from 2.6 to 6.0 in the season where we're battling them for the division and the WC? And while I know he's no longer a full-time player, this is his 3rd highest OBA of his career and he's going to be 43 in two months!! I mean, WTF dude?!?!?!

Games of some import whilst we were taking a night off from baseball - WC-leading Dodgers beat Philly. Two more HRs from ROY fave Corey Seager. Also was the first game vs the Phils for Chase Utley (although in LA, not Philly) - first AB = HR - Marlins lose to the Giants in 14 innings. Miami had a 5-1 lead behind Jose Fernandez but pulled him after 6 innings (106 pitches). Giants then scored 4 times in the 7th to tie it. Big story in the game was the [u:2n2r1el9]7 for 8 night[/u:2n2r1el9] by SS Brandon Crawford (5 singles, 1 double, 1 triple) including the game-winning hit in the 14th. Crawford had had 6 hits in his previous 9 games combined. You just can't explain baseball Suzyn. Ichiro grounded out PH'ing in his first home AB since getting #3,000 - Cardinals were down 4-0 to Cincy w/2 outs in the 9th and a runner on 1st ... and won the game. Tying and winning runs scored on a bases-loaded walk followed by a HBP Cards & Miami tied for WC #2, 1.5 games ahead of NYM

Centerfield wrote: Still, you wonder what his place in history will be considering he never walked much and hit for no power. Not only did he (as mentioned above) have the largest percentage of singles of his 3,000 hits (81.5%) but nearly 1/4 of his hits were infield hits - acc. to BB-Ref, 699 of Suzuki's hits never left the IF, that's 23.3% of all his hits and 28.6% of his singles. Even Jeter, by contrast, was under 15% for his IF hits. Carew I suspect might be close to Ichiro (he's 3rd in pct of 1Bs) but 'Hit Location' data is only available for the most recent players.

Gwreck wrote: CORRECT ANSWERS 6. Tampa (Boggs), Houston (Biggio), Kansas City (Brett), Montreal/Washington (Rose), Giants (Mays), White Sox (Collins), ____________ LWFS (3), HahnSolo (2), metsmarathon (1) Aaron seems to be the only Brave, whether it be the Atlanta, Milwaukee, or Boston version

DBags are the only NL we've yet to play this year. Greinke got off to a rotten start to the monster six year contract he signed this past winter (two 7-run games in his first five starts probably had Arizona fans grumbling in their Tequila sunrise's) but then seemed to be turning things around in June before missing all of July on the DL. Would have been nice of him to hang out there a few weeks longer so we could miss him entirely in 2016 (although we'd probably get 2-hit by the call-up replacement anyway) but he came off the list just to see us as this will be his first game since June 28 Not sure if we're getting a KTE for this series but what I do know about the 2016 Snakes is that they really stink. Started off the year not very good and then got worse. 9-21 since July 1st and are in danger of being caught by the Braves in the race for worst record in the NL

Edgy MD wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: Centerfield wrote: All of this is so strange ... I guess he is so unlikeable that this is his fate, but it's just strange to see a Hall of Famer (by stats anyway) see his career end in such a shitty way. Unlikeable ain't got nuthin' to do with it. If he were hitting he'd be playing and he'd be returning in 2017. Yeah, but, Teixeira isn't hitting a bit and he's getting regular playing time, while A-Rod, as you note, can't even get off the bench for a tailor-made pinch-hitting opportunity. But the fact that Teixeira can play a position and has just eight weeks left on his contract makes him easier to deal with than the diva who can't with eight baseball months of payments still to go. Next they just have to figure out a way to ease Brian McCann into a warm bath, although now that they brought up Gary Sanchez (the guy who was DH'ing instead of ARod) you may see McCann at 1B more often. Ellsbury they seem to be stuck with but at least he's occasionally good.