Frayed Knot

The following inning we got the two-out hit. Of course there was nobody on at that point.

And that inning even had a hit with a RiSP ... but it still didn't score a run because we don't do that.

Once they load the bases, is there even any reason to take the remaining ABs in the inning?

Neither Matz nor Syndergaard will go under the knife for their bone spur issues according to Sandy A. - a statement which I assume is true right up until the moment that it no longer is. Hopefully if that time does come it'll be around Turkey time. The Mets/Sandy had previously acknowledged that Matz is pitching with a spur and now say that Noah has a "very small" one, one which causes him less discomfort than does Matz's. Of immediate news: Matz will have his start pushed back to Thursday -- meaning that Logan Verrett goes against the Nats tomorrow -- while everything appears to be status quo with Syndergaard.

1) I have no faith in this game resuming 2) if it does resume I have no faith in it turning out well

And when given the gift of an erased baserunner, Harvey repays his team by putting the next two batters on.

Looks like that leadoff single by Grandy filled the team's quota for the night.

Hey here's a good idea, let's see if Harvey can get up to 75 pitches by the 3rd inning just like Syndy did last night!!! We'll do that right after we let the slowest runner in the majors score from 1st on a weak double.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Did I dream this, or is he Meadow Soprano's father-in-law? Cutter Dykstra, who turns 27 tomorrow, ended last season at AAA Syracuse in the Washington system but Meadow Soprano (now 35 y/o and the mother of at least one child w/Dykstra) is presumably a housewife in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania as Cutter found himself back in the Nationals' AA team for the 2016 season. Just a couple of crazy Long Island born kids making their way in the world. [fimg=250]http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/11/05/article-0-1934352D00000578-736_634x824.jpg[/fimg] Cutter's 20 y/o brother Luke is currently doing decently in low-A Rome, Georgia in the Atlanta system after being drafted by them in the 7th round in 2014. No word on whether he's married to the daughters of any mobsters, real or otherwise.

Centerfield wrote: health is always a huge factor in pennant races. And it sounds bitchy to whine about it, especially seeing as how the Nats are currently without Strasberg & Papelbon. But when I see a lineup that stays virtually the same every night, where the only off days are scheduled rest days, and the number of different #3 & #4 hitters thru nearly 1/2 season are 2 & 3 rather than our 6 & 7, I catch myself wondering what that must be like; it's a version of reality with which I am not familiar. 8 o'clock start time is the current estimate

d'Kong76 wrote: Revere CF Werth LF Harper RF Murphy 2B Ramos C Zimmerman 1B Rendon 3B Espinosa SS Giolito P Must be nice to be able to write in the same lineup every night. As far as I can tell, Ben Revere is the only position player they've had to put on the DL this year - basically for the first month of the season. Other than that, every regular is at or is approaching 300 ABs.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: * Girardi cries about rain-delay call, thinks umps should have had the sense to call the game while the MFYs were still winning. Girardi, apparently worried about Chapman pitching in the slop, helped talk the umps into that top of 9th delay figuring that maybe he'd get the 'W' without actually having to play the rest of the game. But the delay wound up costing them the use of Chapman which in turn started the whole hit/HBP-athon. The Yanx have been hanging around .500 for a while now, but this four game series with Texas represents the first tough team they've faced in two weeks following a string of Colorado - Minnesota - Colorado - Minnesota where they finished 6-6 total - which, considering they lose to the Twins once every third solar eclipse, isn't all that encouraging for the pinstripe fans. The Rangers had been flying (19-6 in June) but had to DL starters Colby Lewis and Derek Holland last week alone on top of Yu Darvish who was DL'd two weeks ago. So, aside from Cole Hamels tonight, the Yanx get to face three guys with 9 starts this year combined including last night's season debut of Chi Chi Gonzalez who I think was a pro golfer in the 1960s. Nice to see him back earning a living.

You know the guy is young, but you figure that maybe a grandparent could have told him about some guy named Biggio.

Thoughts on the (puke) Game!!!! - d'Arnaud's throwing was, for the most part, decent tonight. A different catcher -- ANY catcher -- and the Nats probably steal 6 of 7 instead of all 7 (or however many they got). They were stealing off of Syndergaard, not Travis - not sure if Ben Revere had 4 hits all year much less 4 in one game. So much for the Nats sucky OBA out of the leadoff slot and I think Revere led off an inning four different times (seemed like 15). - Loney's defense has been weird so far, alternating great games with so klutzy ones plus the occasional head-scratchingly bad decision thrown in. - So many of the Nats hits came with 2 strikes on them (I didn't count how many exactly). Not quite sure what to make of that but it's not a good sign - also tons of foul balls which was just another factor driving up the pitch counts. NYM pitchers suddenly have lost their ability to put hitters away. No K's by Matz in his last start, for instance, for the first time in his career. - this game for our offense was like the one we had a few years ago, lots of hits but almost all singles (13 singles, 1 double) - and, of course, no hits in the clutch. 2 for 11 w/RiSP pretty much matches our year-long ineptness in that category plus threw in a couple GiDPs for good measure. - tough to get 14 hits and lose, tougher still to get 14 hits and get blown out

And then there's the final question concerning Reyes's return ... whether or not he gets to reclaim his #7 Personally I wouldn't mind Travis giving it up for Jose but only if he, as a catcher with promise, gets to wear #8 thereby taking that number out of its current semi-mothballed state. Honor the former player by giving his number to a worthy successor, not by putting the jersey in cold storage for several decades.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday June 27-29 - all 7:05 starts The DL'ing of 'The Orchid' has the scheduled starters for the Nats in this series all 'TBD'. Former NYM farmhand/swingman Yusmeiro Petit filled in for Strasberg's last start but they could have thrown him yesterday but chose instead to move Tanner Roark up. We'll almost certainly see Scherzer on Wednesday as that would be his regular turn. Today & Tuesday will likely be some combo of Joe Ross & Petit unless they go dipping into the minors for help (Giolito?) so it sounds like we get a break there but who knows. Scherzer is still giving up a lot of HRs for an otherwise dominant pitcher, his 20 allowed leads the league, which pushes his ERA to a very non-elite 3.52, higher than every other starter on their staff except for Gio Gonzalez. Whoever they thrown in whatever order will be opposed by Syndergaard, Harvey & Matz Hitting on the Nats: Wilson Ramos, Muffy, Espinosa (at least for power), and Jayson Werth after a very slow start has a 900+ OPS in June - with several game-winning hits Not hitting: Either leadoff/CF man they choose: Michael Taylor or Ben Revere [.200/.251/.315 out of the leadoff slot all season but Dusty shows no sign of changing things up]; Ryan Zimmerman has been pretty much 'Meh' at best all year, and even Bryce Harper whose OPS since the end of April 1 is just in the mid-700s with 6 HRs in May/June combined. 3B Anthony Rendon is kind of hanging out in the middle, not a bad player but also not the budding star he seemed to be two years ago. Basically their lineup hits a lot of HRs as almost everyone is in double digits and they even get a bunch from the bench: the combo of Stephen Drew, Chris Heisey, Clint Robinson have 13 between them. Also out is Jonathan 'The Washington Strangler' Papelbon (Werth's name for him) so they're mixing and matching in a pen which wasn't real good even before the closer went down. Ex-MFY Shawn Kelley seems to be the closer du jour and veteran Matt Belisle is recently back from the DL but it's all a work in progress at this point. This will be their first home game following a disastrous road trip that saw them win the first two games in SD and the final one in Milwaukee but lose seven straight in between: SD x 2; LAD x 3, Mil x 2

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: In all fairness, Norris and Wisler have been pitching better than Scherzer and company over the last few weeks. In part because they had been facing the Mets. Aside from his NYM starts Wisler had given up 15 runs on 24 hits over 12.2 innings in his previous three starts and Norris had been relegated to the pen prior to the last two weeks. At some point you've got to stop 'tipping your cap' to good outings by mediocre (or worse) hurlers and look inward. As terrible as the offense has been and as inconsistent as the 'pen has become... the Mets have actually gained a couple of games in the standings over the last week. (Picking up two just this weekend as the Nationals flail in Milwaukee.) Yeah, counting on the Nats to go on their worst losing streak in like five years is a low percentage "strategy" of gaining ground.

The bottom line from the seven game 'series' that just took place (with a few days off in between) is that the Mets looked like the vastly inferior team, significantly worse in every category including in our supposed strengths of power and the vaunted starting corps. Atlanta Starters: 47.2 IP, 15 ER allowed on 31 Hits NY Met starters: 43.1 IP; 18 ER on 46 Hits Atlanta Pen: 17.1 IP, 3 runs allowed on 13 hits NYM Pen: 19.2 IP, 12 runs on 23 hits The bats, meanwhile, got out-XBH'd by 22 to 13. Braves = 16 2Bs + 6 HRs Mets = 8 2Bs, 1 3B, and 4 HRs And if we care to get into the non-measurables, it seems fairly obvious that we didn't run, field, bunt or hustle as well as they did either. I'd like to write it off to a bad week but I'm not sure we can. There was nothing, aside from maybe Matz's out-of-nowhere meltdown, that seemed out of character for any one player or that seems like it would be easily fixable simply by tossing [insert personal whipping boy here] off the edge of the nearest cliff and bringing the next contestant in from behind the curtain. And now we've got some Good teams lined up from tomorrow until the All-Star break: Nats (3) - Cubs (4) - Marlins (3) - Nats (4) Do we really think that after not hitting the likes of Bud Norris and Wisler's grandmother that things are going to suddenly get better vs Arrieta, Scherzer, Fernandez, Lester, Gonzalez ?!?

It was some $22/year for two years (2017-18) plus some buyout money for '19. The only thing they get 'relief' on is for the time he was suspended - approx the salary for 1/3 of one season - so that's where the $38-ish million comes from. I doubt the Rox had some kind of 'If our guy commits a felony' insurance policy on Jose that would recoup anything beyond that.

Reyes won't be in Brooklyn for his entire 'summer training' session. Probably will spend most of his time in/with Binghamton.

There's a radio guy in DC who alternately refers to Strasberg as 'The Orchid' or '75 and Sunny' because of him seemingly being unable to thrive under anything but perfect conditions.

Previous ML'ers born in Wyoming (only Alaska has had fewer) although it's unclear how many of them lived in Wyoming for very long: - Tom Browning (1984-1995) - but drafted out of Lemoyne College in Syracuse - John Buck (2004-2014) - the one-time NYM was drafted out of HS in Utah - Dennis Debarr (1977) pitched in 14 with the expansion Blue Jays in 1977, but came out of HS in California - Mike Devereaux (1987-1998) drafted out of Arizona State - Jan Dukes (1969-72) pitched a total of 16 games for the Washington Senators/Texas Rangers. Came through UC Santa Clara - Dick Ellsworth (1958-1971) HS in Fresno, CA - Bob Harris (1938-1942) came through Western Nebraska Comm Coll - Jeremy Horst (2011-2013) Pitched for Cincy & the Phils but currently in the Mexican Lg and also came through HS in North Dakota - Bucky Jacobson (2004) Got 160 ABs for the ’04 Mariners but was another one who had abandoned Wyoming before HS (Oregon). - Mike Lansing (1993-2001) Expos, Rox, Bosox. The first to list his HS as being in Wyoming - John McClosky (1906-1907) Pitched for the Phils; died in Pennsylvania - Rick Sofield (1979-1981) OF for the Twins, and went to HS in New Jersey - Dan Spillner (1974-1985) RHP for SD & Cleveland (or ‘The Land’ as it’s apparently now called, at least on ESPN). HS in Washington state. - Zach Walters (2013-2015) Nats, Indians, and currently in AAA Okla City (Dodgers). But, again, HS in Las Vegas, NV - Bill Wilkinson (1985-1988) RHP for the Mariners. HS in Colorado

Edgy MD wrote: And Nimmo swings 2-0? Yeah, that wasn't good. 'bout time Garcia missed one of the pop-ups back of 3rd

Braves have four runs (and counting seeing as how there still only [crossout:1x3934gp]one[/crossout:1x3934gp], now two, out) off the Mets pen in this inning. Kelly's HR last night was the Mets 7th off the Braves pen [u:1x3934gp]This Year[/u:1x3934gp].

d'Kong76 wrote: Sucking is bad enough, but at least man the mound like you've played pro ball. But not like that. If this game goes another 87 innings we might make up the 5 runs (notice that I said 'might')