Frayed Knot

It's been a good week for reminiscing in the papers as NYDN's Anthony McCarron does an oral history of the Piazza deals which ultimately landed him in Queens.

1:10 start, Matz vs Jose Urena Arena is a 24 y/o Dominican RH making his 2nd start of the season after being recalled from AAA post-ASB. He started in the minors but it's been mostly relief (37 G/10 GS) since his ML debut in April 2015 We let Fernandez weasel out of some jams last night, but you can at least partially write that off to him being Jose Fernandez. No such excuses today.

I remember that Sale was one of the loudest, angriest, and most public about it when the players and mgmt got into a verbal war over the Adam LaRoche kid/retirement issue back in Spring. This can't be about that of course but Sale was none too subtle about mouthing off both to and about Kenny Williams over what he thought of their handling of the situation.

FOX reporting that he's [u:1pwst9zl]not[/u:1pwst9zl] out because he is ill, and that the team will release a statement later. Rangers, who have been falling like a rock lately and have half their team on the DL, have surfaced in C. Sale rumors just recently. UPDATE: FOX now saying he was scratched from the start and [u:1pwst9zl]has been sent home[/u:1pwst9zl] due to a 'non-physical clubhouse incident' ... and that they'll have no further comment. Well that clears up absolutely nothing.

Dennis Springer - all 11.1 innings (and 11 earned runs!!) of his NYM career (2000).

Nats win on a Stephen Drew walk-off 2B in the 9th Can't count on the Padres to beat them every night.

Mets now 3 of 7 tonight w/RiSP, which sounds kind of good but those 7 ABs have come with a total of 11 runners on 2nd and/or 3rd and only one of those 3 hits actually scored a run. One run. This is either the weirdest sting of bad luck ever or a steak of incompetence which is quite possibly unmatched in ML history.

De Aza's actually gotten on base in 7 of his last 15 PAs

The one day we actually sorta/kinda hit Fernandez (2 runs ties the most runs we've ever scored against him in now 7 starts) deGrom picks that day to stink it up. The Mets have actually pitched well is all but one game vs Jose F, losing 1-0, 2-1, 2-1 in 20 innings, 4-3, and 4-3 in 15 innings. The only other stinker was a Collin McHugh start where the Mets lose 8-1

Tonight's HP ump Ted Barrett is a big boy -- he seems to be at least 2 inches bigger than Fernandez who's listed a 6' 3" and closer in stature to that of Stanton's 6' 6" -- and, even though will turn 51 y/o next week, still looks like he could be one tough Mofo in a scrap. He captained his football team at Cal State Hayward where he earned a degree in Kinesiology. He was also an amateur boxer who occasionally sparred with some pros including a guy we like to call Evander Holyfield. He now has a Maters and a PhD in Theology and helps to run a Christian Ministry. Edgy MD wrote: I've never seen a left fielder eaten up by a grounder. Welcome to the world of Giancarlo Stanton

SteveJRogers wrote: Ashie62 wrote: I hope Seaver makes it there this year. His FB page has been silent since January. According to the Hall site's returnees list, Seaver is not among the attendees. GTS always talked about how much he liked those weekends so one could make an assumption that, unless he simply feels that there are fewer and fewer of his contemporaries attending these days (although that list shows a decent number), the fact that he's not going to be there isn't great news concerning his present condition.

MFS62 wrote: John Franco (or did he throw a screwball?) A good change-up, because it rolls off the smaller fingers of the hand, often has a bit of a opposite break 'screwball' action to it. Franco's and Ojeda's in particular are the guys I think of with that kind of movement but neither really 'turned the ball over' in the way of a classic screwball. There are probably a few others but my list of NYM screwballers pretty much starts and ends with Tug from the left side and Mike Marshall from the right. Not sure if there's even anyone in baseball throwing a true scrooge today, much to the dismay of the previously mentioned and self-appointed pitching guru Marshall. He claims it's healthier for arms but there's certainly debate on that and it's not exactly a natural motion, next time you turn a door handle do so in the 'opposite' direction from how you'd normally do it (counter clockwise for righties) and you'll know why. The Greg Maddux-Style 'cutter' now the preferred method for pitchers who want back-up movement on their pitches. The best known screwball artist was 1930s NYG ace Carl Hubbel. I remember seeing a posed picture of him once, just standing straight with arms at his side, and it was until you looked closely that you noticed a quirk in the picture, namely that both his palms were facing in the same direction, the right one faced inward towards his thigh the way you'd expect but the left one hung with the back of his hand closest to the leg. All those years of turning his pitching arm outward as he threw had permanently stretched/contracted the muscles in his (left) pitching arm that his southern paw naturally faced outward.

Hopefully they'll go on enough of a run to be aggressive buyers... So far it looks as though CF is getting his Yanquis wish as the 2 of 3 they lost to the Sox looks like the outlier right now. Since then they beat Baltimore 3 of 4 and got past the Giants last night* with Bumgarner on the mound. Combine that with the 3 of 4 they won from Cleveland just prior to the ASB and that's now a 8-4 streak against 1st place (or 1st-place-ish) teams over the last two weeks where a bad stretch would have absolutely buried them. I still can't find a spot in my brain that allows me to even temporarily root for them but -- at 2 games over .500, 6.5 out in the East, 4.5 in back of the 2nd WC slot -- this recent string shirley puts a damper on those within the org who may have been in 'Full Dump' mode. * Giants played like shit last night: Bumgarner allowed 7 hits + 3 walks in 7 IP and the Giants made 4 errors including 3 by SS Brandon Crawford Tanaka wasn't much better than MadBum but the Giants were as bad as us w/RiSP (1 for 12) so that even after Bettances gave up a run in the 7th, Miller gave up 1 in the 8th, and Chapman started the 9th by serving up a leadoff double, SF Still found a way to lose the fuckin' game.

[youtube:yklqgcy9]jZfAik7wP8U[/youtube:yklqgcy9]

Nats lose, THAAAAA Nats lose!!! 5-3 to Sandy Eggo at home. Good karma for our 9th inning here.

Loney hit that one so hard I think it straightened out Rodney's hat!! YUGE insurance runs as Familia is set to face Miami's big boys coming up.

Ten pitches from Reed: ten strikes, fouls, and/or easy outs.

I seem to be doing a solo act tonight. That was a hard-working 5 outs for Robles. It took him over 30 pitches and a bad base-running play to get through it, but he did. Meanwhile the Mets tacked two more non-productive non-hits (both Ks) onto their RiSP totals for the night. Now 1-10 w/RiSP and no hits in 12 PA

Well it's a good thing we didn't waste any early opportunities ... oh wait, we wasted Multiple early opportunities!!

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Sunday at 2:20, Matz v. Jose Urena. I don't even think I know Urena, but his numbers suggest he sucks. 24 y/o RH, pitched part of last year, more relieving than starting, and again out of the pen early this year before being sent down at the end of May. Just recalled post-ASB (essentially replacing Justin Nicolino) for his first ML start of the year, held Philly to 1 run over 5-2/3. This will be his 11th ML start of his career, his 2nd this season. - Slugging 1B Justin Bour (DL ankle) and speedy 2B Dee Dee Gordon (PED suspension) will miss the series. Gordon eligible again in about a week or so. Don't suspect we'll see more than one start this series from Ichiro, and maybe not even one. The rest of their OF is going too good right now.

Just to keep the theme going here: An actual Hit! w/RiSP, an astroturf hit without astroturf gets a run in. Other than that, two more non-hits w/RiSP: 1 for 8 plus a SF in 4 innings

And now six shots in w/RiSP in three innings and, aside from the Sac Fly, none of the ABs have gone for hits, none have left the infield, none have even moved up a runner. Being up 1-0 in nice and all but, as Angelo Dundee once told Sugar Ray Leonard; "You're blowing it kid!"

Four cracks with RiSP in the first two innings and no hits (although a SF as one of the outs helps a bit). IOW: Standard Operating Procedure for this team this year.

Zvon wrote: Yikes. Lets get that guy a double-U. ????? [fimg=230]http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/11/03/article-2486045-192AA42700000578-668_306x423.jpg[/fimg]

New spot for retired numbers, up above the upper deck in LF. [crossout:1fjotot2]Party City[/crossout:1fjotot2] M & M's deck getting too crowded. [fimg=550:1fjotot2]https://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/metsnumbers.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&strip=all[/fimg:1fjotot2]