Frayed Knot

Like drafts and hours-long pre-game shows -- ultimately meaningless non-events and therefore in need of constant over-the-top hype -- the HR Derby is right up Chris Berman's alley. It's (one of) the reason(s) I don't watch.

See, it's this thought that, despite already being without Harvey, willingly giving up as many as three starts from Syndergaard and/or Verrett to start the 2nd half and go two turns through the rotation without half of our top 6 starters will all be worth it if it saves us the indignity of eight ABs from Alejandro De Aza (in which he delivered two hits) is where I think the over-reaction and misplaced blame are going here. Look, I understand that ADA has no history or future here and therefore he's the designated boogyman these days. But Nimmo takes and oh-fer on Saturday (while K'ing three times) and then K's again in the 9th inning on Sunday on no one says a word. De Aza gets two hits and a walk on Saturday but then when he K's in the 9th on Sunday everyone knows it was a foregone conclusion and acts as if even allowing him in the stadium is akin to the team offering up a forfeit. Personally, I'm going to do everything I can to avoid giving starts to anyone from the Vegas staff and their near 6.00 collective ERA, and also might want to see a bit more than 50 ABs from Conforto before I decide he's not the same guy who clogged up the middle of the order with his .145 BA and 33% K-rate for the better part of two months.

With the Mets on pace for a club record in HRs it's likely they'll break their solo record as well. Currently, 78 of their 122 HRs are solo (64%), 34 more are 2R jobs (28%). NL averages for those are 60 & 28 percent so, yeah, we mostly suck at meaningful HRs. Some of that you figure is a predictable outcome of our below average OBA: Mets = .311, NL avg = .321, some the result of Granderson batting leadoff followed by Reyes taking up his run of leadoff HRs (2 of his 3 so far have led off the game or inning), and probably a dose of shitty luck thrown in just as the rest of our RiSP hitting has done.

They'll DL Syndergaard if they have to, but they've already decided to sort him to the back of the order, in effect missing one start already. DL'ing him unnecessarily (or at least prior to it being known to be necessary) would have him miss an additional start. Sending down Verrett, who is a permanent member of the rotation until further notice and is currently slated to start one of the first four games after the break, would make him ineligible to return for 15 days except as an injury replacement which would cause them to dig even deeper into the 7th-9th starter territory for at least two of his starts, all during this span where we're already short Harvey and are weeks away at best from subbing in Wheeler. Either or both of these moves all so we can have Ty Kelly or an extra back of the line reliever on board for a weekend strikes me as a really bad bargain. Instead, try looking to the fact that they totaled 13 hits in three games -- one of which was started by a guy who hadn't gotten anyone out recently -- and basically scored on nothing but solo HRs. I know De Aza is the scapegoat du jour these days and would quite likely be gone already if the rest of the OF could stay healthy at the same time and the anointed #3 hitter hadn't hit so shitty over two months that he lost not just his position in the order but his job as well, but, as JCL points out, making this all about having to play ADA for two days (esp. when he had two of the hits) is missing the larger point.

Well the reason we were stuck with De Aza was because Cespedes isn't available and Conforto crashed and burned to the point where he had to be sent down. De Aza might be just 9 for his last 54 but Conforto was an even worse 7 for his final 59 prior to his demotion. Look, there's no getting around the fact that he's failed miserably as a signing and I'm sure if we could ever actually get Lagares, Cespedes, Nimmo, Granderson & Conforto on the roster and available at the same time that ADA will be outta here in a minute. But between the various injuries (large and small) and sucking that hasn't been the case and so, until such time as it is, he's a guy on the roster ready to play while the others aren't. P.S. He had two hits on got on base three times Saturday night which was as many as the rest of the lineup combined.

bmfc1 wrote: Next time I have trouble sleeping, I will think of the Mets batters (other than Jose) today. Instead of counting sheep you can count pop-ups.

So basically the remainder of this game will be an exercise in a) whether we can hold the Nats to no more runs and whether we can hit two more solo HRs

Nymr83 wrote: Edgy MD wrote: Granderson has certainly been hitting, and I implore him to do so now. Granderson gets such a bad rap around here despite being the Mets' best free agent hitting acquisition since Carlos Beltran, what did he do wrong? I was going to say 'Not be Carlos Beltran' but then I remembered that lots of Mets fans didn't like Beltran either so there's probably nothing he could do.

Note to Keith: You've got more than ten pounds to lose.

One thing that would help a whole lot would be to stop walking Werth each and every fucking time he comes to the plate.

I'm not going to go all revisionist history on either Zobrist or Murphy* simply because each are having better years than anyone expected and quite possibly the best of their careers -- certainly so in Murph's case and at least close in Zobrist's -- especially since it's not like they had the option of having these 31 and 35 year old guys for this year alone but would had also had to sign up for the next three as well. So I'm pretty sure the prospect of having Murph under contract into his mid-30s is a large part of what the Mets balked at (What about Dilson/Flores/Reynolds?!?!?!) while the fact that they weren't balking at signing Zobrist for multiple years starting in his mid-30s had many of us scratching our heads at the time and wondering why not. * Murph is also hitting all of .270 since June 1 with an OBA just a tick above .300. Two days, despite what Kenny Albert kept saying over and over again, is NOT a hot streak simply because those are the only two games he happened to watch

Please do remember that Conforto was like 5 for his last 85 before we go treating him as the answer to much of anything here. As far as DL'ing Syndergaard, I'll pass on an extra mediocre reliever for a day to two while also committing to being without Thor for the first week and a half post-ASB on a staff that's already missing Harvey.

I think we need to put away the tinfoil hats here peeps. No one is being yanking their star pitcher in the middle of an inning in the middle of an important game either to get ready for, or as an excuse to weasel out of, the ASG

NYM pitchers last successful sacrifice bunt was? - sometime earlier this year - about a decade ago - during the Bush administration sometime ... the elder Bush. - I don't remember which one specifically, but it coincided with one of the moon landings You may choose one of the above.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Right? From Tom F. Verducci, of all folk. Actually it was Kenny Albert. The bigger question is, how does he know about the site but Gary C apparently not? Gary knew that McKnight had multiple unis the other day but didn't know how many and had to have one of their lackeys look it up for him

Kenny Albert giving MBTN.net a shout out!!!

A power hitter on a hot streak bunting with two outs and a runner on 1st in front of the pitcher!?!?!?! Thank you Danny Espinosa.

He's obviously going for as many LH/SwH bats as he can get vs Scherzer - all but d'Arnaud (and Verrett).

The deadline is still a couple weeks away but the Red Sox -- currently in 3rd place but only 2 games out -- have gotten the early jump on things with three separate deals in the last two days. - Acquired 3B Aaron Hill from Milwaukee for the usual price of several prospects, a 2nd baseman and a pitcher Hill was one name discussed here in various post-Sugarpants replacement scenarios. The Sox immediately stuck him in the lineup and were rewarded with two hits including the eventual game-winning RBI in the 8th - with several of their bullpen hurting (including now Kimbrel) they reached a deal with Arizona for Brad Ziegler, also for a 2nd base and pitching prospect Ziegler had been closing for the Snakes and may do so for the Sox depending on Kimbrel's status. - also traded for utility man (and phormer Philly) Michael Martinez from Cleveland

Yeah, I don't think the rule was meant to say (and of course half the problem here is that no one seems to know exactly what the rule meant to say including those who made it and those in charge of enforcing it) that toes-first slides directly into the the base are the only legal way of going into a base, nor is that what triggered the DP call. What I interpret the "can't alter your path" clause to mean is that a runner running towards the inside of the base say suddenly makes an abrupt zag towards the other side of the bag in an obvious reaction to a fielder who has shifted that way after taking the throw. Absent that kind of move where a fielder gets out of the approaching runner's way only to have that runner come at him anyway, I think that any slide where the runner hits the base should still be legit. What seemingly got Werth nailed was not where he slid but his inability to hold the base afterward which is now enough evidence to deem that the slide was too hard. And, yes, baseball was never defined as a 'non-contact' sport.

Edgy MD wrote: It'd be a shame to lose out on 20th-rounder Carlos Cortes, as he's got a little bit of Mazzilli in him. An ambidextrous thrower, Cortes throws left-handed when playing the outfield and right-handed when playing the infield. OK, that is now officially the strangest thing I've ever heard of in sports. There was once some golfer on the pro tour a few years back who alternated between putting righty or lefty depending on which way he thought the roll of the putt would break ... but this is way beyond that.

Now THAT's a great subject heading!

With no announcement so far on why he left the game, it's up to you to predict the final reason.

Nats transactions for the day - Lucas Giolito demoted - Ryan Zimerman DL'd - OF Michael Taylor promoted - IF Trea Turner promoted Giolito obviously wasnt going to see any more time in this series anyway and the Nats were already carrying one extra pitcher Zimmerman's probably been their worst everyday player this season. I bet we see Muffy over at 1B swapping out with Clint Robinson who played there last night Turner is their top SS prospect, but the surprising resurgence of Danny Espinosa has kept him down on the farm despite good numbers at AAA. Now Turner & Espinosa can man 2B & SS when Murph is at 1st Both Turner and Taylor are real fast so both their speed and defense just got better and it's probably not a coincidence that they're back for Syndergaard day

Centerfield wrote: My point is this. Jayson Werth was not sliding to get to second base. He was sliding at Neil Walker with the intent to disrupt his throw. I don't think these things are mutually exclusive. You can be both sliding into a base (Werth clearly did hit the base) AND intending to disrupt the throw. And even the new rules here say nothing about not disrupting a fielder's throw, it just needs to be done legally. What's changed and what is still subject to interpretation is what constitutes legally. The path he took clearly demonstrates this. Therefore it's interference. I read the path he took as perfectly legal as he went directly to the base. Just because Walker was already there doesn't mean he has to go out of his way to avoid him either. What caused the DP call was that Werth, in effect, went in too hard which was evident in that he couldn't stop in time.