Frayed Knot

Edgy MD wrote: I appreciate trying to get him a win, but Terry might have tried to get too much milk out of this cow. The five-inning rule doesn't apply to Hansel as he's not the starter here and is the pitcher of record as long as the Mets hold onto the lead.

Let Robles go nine!!!! j/k

I'm just hoping that the Mets out-score Messi tonight. I put the odds at about 50/50

RF - Granderson SS - Cabrera CF - Cespedes 2B - Walker 1B - Loney 3B - Flores LF - Conforto C - d'Arnaud P - Colon And, yes, it is Rivera who gets to stick around while Plawecki gets sent to Sin City to await d'Arnaud's next injury (tentatively scheduled for a week from Friday)

Royals since May 27: 6 game winning streak -- followed by 8 game losing streak -- followed by their present stretch of 8 wins in 9 games (all off AL Central rivals) Not sure what to make of all that - but it leaves them 1.0 game behind Cleveland On DL since we last saw them: LF Alex Gordon; 3B Mike Moustakas (out for season); 2B Omar Infante All of the replacements are guys you've never heard of [brett Eibner, Whit Merrifield, Chelsea Cuthbert] but of course most of them are hitting .300+ and can probably run & field too.

Bruce is going to be a big name for a lot of teams in trade deadline talks this summer and has seemingly been on the NYM radar forever - even going back to his draft year when they reportedly passed him over for Pelfrey (JB was taken 4 picks later). But is a meh-BA (.274 this season but .249 career), high-K (150+/yr avg), lefty-swinging OF really what we want for a half-season? Seems to me we've already got our share of guys fitting that description and I'd just as soon take my chances with Conforto-Nimmo (sounds like a cloud of some sort) than spend resources on him. If he did come presumably he'd play RF--where he'd upgrade the arm situation but probably not the glove--while shoving Grandy over to LF and relegating all the younger guys to the bench/Vegas.

Late last night the Nats dropped their 3rd straight on their west coast swing, this time to the Dodgers in what was supposed to be a Strasberg/Kershaw matchup but Strasberg was pulled prior to the game with "upper back soreness". Yusmiero Petit subbed in and did all right but was undone by HRs from Myna Turner (his 4th in 4 games) and Joc Pederson. Also, both the Marlins and the Phillies were finishing up 'wrap-around' series at home - Marlins were trying for a four-game sweep but lost to Colorado thus pulling them back to a tie with us - while the Phils did complete theirs by getting swept by the DBags and scoring just 5 runs combined in 4 games. That's now 7 losses in a row by the (not)Phightins' and 11 of their last 12, 4-15 in June overall. Geez, even we don't suck that much! ... so it turns out our best day in the last half-week was the one where we didn't even suit-up.

Grandy also has 59 NYM HRs in less than 2-1/2 seasons, plays everyday (not a small accomplishment on this squad), and was the top offensive player on the team in 2015 (acc to our end of season rankings) -- so it's not exactly like he's been getting one over on folks with nothing beyond a smile and batting eyelashes. That he's sucked all season so far in virtually every situation except for his 1st inning leadoff ABs has got to be more a fluke than a cause-and-effect character flaw so you'd have to figure there'd have to be some regression to the mean at some point. Overall his BA/OBA are down this year but not alarmingly so (closer to 2014 than '15) but his power is actually up a tick despite all his other problems. Ideally I'd prefer he NOT be a RF'er (but apparently Yoenis has RF-aphobia) and that they had a strong-ish RHB that they could sub in for him occasionally with the aim of slowly easing him out over the next year and a half, but we've got a long list of more pressing problems than that right now.

In some news about a not-so-well aged Cuban: the Red Sox have put OF Rusney Castillo on outright waivers. This actually doesn't mean much as they merely want to send him back to the minors (after 8 ML ABs since his June 1st promotion) and also remove him from the 40-man roster which is the part that requires him being routed through waivers. But as a player with less than 3 years of ML service time he does NOT have the option of becoming a FA if unclaimed and must instead accept the minor league assignment to keep his current contract intact. And quite a contract it is which is of course why no one is going to claim him, a $72.5 million deal signed in August of 2014 which runs through 2020 complete with signing bonuses, player opt-outs, and back-loaded pay. Since signing he's had approx 300 ABs each of ML & AAA time without distinguishing himself in either spot, and his 624 OPS in 200+ ABs at Pawtucket this year doesn't exactly scream 'take a chance on ME' even though he's still a few weeks short of turning 29. I wonder how good Yoenis thinks he was/is?

Ashie62 wrote: I was thinking a of Lagares Nimmo and Conforto troika of some sort. They're not going to shoe-horn the three of them into one slot.

An appropriate image on a day where much of the team deserves to get their heads chopped off.

Plawecki's certainly going down as soon as d'Arnaud is ready. Rivera has earned the backup role and, unfortunately, Plawecki is now 0-for-2 at grabbing the job that was there for the taking. I don't think Nimmo is coming up unless it's to play more or less full-time. It doesn't mean that once up he's up to stay, but it's essentially dependent on Conforto going down. I'd do it and I think Sandy et al are getting close. At worst he platoons with Lagares when he comes back or gets re-swapped with Conforto if he flops, but he can't flop any worse that Conforto is now. Walker to 3B with Dilson to 2B is possible down the road but not immediately. Besides the fact that Walker hasn't played there in a decade or so is that Flores would be the big loser in that swap and he's the one guy semi-hitting right now. EVERY fan on EVERY team bitches about their bullpen; the difference here is that ours has the best ERA in all of baseball. And while you might think it's easy to reach into a pile of unused relievers and grab two who are better than Henderson & Bastardo that's likely wishful thinking. Bastardo also has a two-year contract and I don't think they're bailing on that 1/3 of the way into year one. On the other hand it'll be trade time starting a few weeks from now.

Then there's the story of the lady who ordered the VCR tape (remember those kids?) of that movie for her and her grandson to watch but wound up with 'THE ARISTOC[u:2smt5pg0]R[/u:2smt5pg0]ATS' instead. [fimg=200:2smt5pg0]http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f26/SweetHenrietta/Blogger/The_Aristocrats_92250c.jpg[/fimg:2smt5pg0]

The only nice thing was the Padres taking two of three from the Nats out west whilst we wuz stinkin' up the joint back east here, although we did get passed by the Marlins in the process. Oh, and the Yanx lost to the Twins for what I think is the 3rd or 4th time this century - unless you include post-season in which case it's even less.

Yeah that's a good idea ... hit the guy with an .035 BA vs lefties when you desperately need an out and bring the big boys up instead. And Antonio, why not slow down your pace a bit .... although I'm not sure that's actually possible. oe: or you could balk in a run, whatever's easier.

Well since I said that about deGrom's pitch count he's gotten 5 outs on about 12 pitches, so he may actually last another inning or two. Besides, he's got the hardest hit ball of the game for this team today. Now his only problem is that 2-0 is an insurmountable lead for the offense these days.

Y'know what this team needs to do? ... hit more shitty pop-ups!

Frayed Knot wrote: On the other side it's deGrom's job to buck the trend of getting through the 1st inning unscathed but requiring 25-30 pitches to do so thereby putting the Met starter behind the eight-ball for the remainder of the game and necessitating a 3-4 inning bullpen outing. Nope! Nearing 70 with one out in the 4th. If he gets past 5 innings today it would be surprising. And I believe the Braves have more two out hits in this series than the Mets have hits, and we KNOW they have more RiSP hits than the Mets since the Mets have none.

1:10 PM Julio Teheran [2-7; 2.93; 0.99] vs Jacob deGrom [3-3; 2.82; 1.15] After two games with an offense totaling a whopping 3 runs on 13 hits -- most of them singles, none of them timely (0-for-15 w/RiSP) -- against the worst team in baseball whose starting pitchers entered the series with a combined career win total of zero, we actually have to face a real hurler today (even if his record doesn't currently reflect it) in order to complete the sweep. I think we can do it! On the other side it's deGrom's job to buck the trend of getting through the 1st inning unscathed but requiring 25-30 pitches to do so thereby putting the Met starter behind the eight-ball for the remainder of the game and necessitating a 3-4 inning bullpen outing.

Harper in the Post on the Cuban 3B Yunesky Gourriel I spoke to two scouts who saw him years ago, one in the World Baseball Classic, another in an amateur tournament, and both say he had high-level talent that should translate as a major leaguer, but both also said they would need to see him in workouts now to determine if his skills have faded, especially since they say age is always a question mark with Cuban players. “It’s more of an issue when a guy is listed at 32,” one scout said. “It’s not like someone who says he’s 22 and turns out to be 24 or 25. At 32 an extra year or two matters a lot more. You have to see if the athleticism is still there. “Even if he looks good in a workout, I wouldn’t give him more than two years. The cost would depend on how many clubs get involved, but based on what some of the other (Cuban defectors) have gotten, it figures to be $10-$11 million a year, depending on the length.” http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/ex-met-time-wright-club-sign-cuban-3b-gourriel-article-1.2679027

For the record, I had no problem with De Aza trying to steal, I just didn't agree with Harold's assessment that the Braves "were giving him the base" or that there was "no downside" to trying. We were finding downsides all night. As for Granderson, I'd like to say that I had zero confidence in him because of his negative BA with runners on base, but I assume that's a fluke that will turn around at some point. Problem is, it's not like there's anyone else on the team in whom I had any CAHNFIDENCE.

Centerfield wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: I can't believe I'm agreeing here, but Reynolds is dead right. De Aza should have run on pitch one. Take the base, take away the force. Except that, they WERE holding him on despite Harold's claim to the contrary so it's not like he could get a monster lead and why wouldn't they have thrown to 2nd? Did he think Loney was going to try and score on the play!?!?! They didn't move to cover the steal on his lone attempt. I have no idea why. With the Grandy shift you've already got a guy near 2nd, and there's no downside to at least trying to put De Aza out. And if Loney breaks for home then they get their second tag-out of the inning at the plate except that he'd be out by 35 feet instead of the 25 that Wilmer was out by.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: I can't believe I'm agreeing here, but Reynolds is dead right. De Aza should have run on pitch one. Take the base, take away the force. Except that, they WERE holding him on despite Harold's claim to the contrary so it's not like he could get a monster lead and why wouldn't they have thrown to 2nd? Did he think Loney was going to try and score on the play!?!?!

And Granderson continues his amazing streak of suck with runners on base. I'd call this the worst game of the season except that I think it's only in the bottom four for this week!!

A leadoff gift-error is followed by a double, a deep fly and a passed ball and yet we manage not to score. ... and now a HBP Yesterday it was three hits and a walk in the same inning w/no runs.