Frayed Knot

Series of interest for the weekend: Braves @ Brewers Cards @ Phils Jays @ Yanx Nats @ Marlins Rays @ Orioles I include that last one because it's possible -- not like.y, but possible -- for the AL East to send four teams to the playoffs. Baltimore is currently last in the East at 6 games under .500 and the Jays 1.5 G ahead of them. But the 3rd WC right now (tie between MIN & TEX) sits at 2 games under so almost no one has been eliminated. Essentially 12 teams are fighting for six spots and there's 8.5 games between slots 3 and 12.

My guess is probably yes. Those who question it are going to cite the career totals, or lack thereof. His 272 starts barely ekes him into the top 450* and he only recently notched his 100th win [105 - 73]. The model to link him to is the short-but-great-prime of Koufax: just 12 and 13 (so far) seasons (not all those years were full or close to it) and both had the most dominant primes of their era. But even Sandy has deGrom beat by 125 games, some 700 innings and 60 wins all despite exiting the game at age 30. There are parallels but JdG wasn't Koufax so he's going to have to settle for Sandy lite. Not everyone will think that's good enough. He's currently in the midst of his worst statistical season of his career even if it is still a pretty good year, but he's certainly unlikely to get better going forward. There's one more year on his contract plus a mutual option for '28. He'll turn 39 & 40 y/o in mid-season of those years. Two good ones would go a ways towards removing doubt and even two decent ones will help a lot as well. It's possible he could pitch past 2028 (we re-built him stronger, faster, and paid him a lot more than $6 million $$) but you can't count on it. * Currently tied in 449th place with Steve Barber, a guy who was featured prominently in BALL FOUR as the pitcher taking up a spot on the roster due to his big salary (like $75,000) despite never being able to get out of the trainer's room and onto the field.

There are also rules in sports leagues as to how much debt an owner can take on. So at some point a theoretical numbskull of an owner wouldn't be able to borrow here to pay there, or owe X million $$ a decade from now without a certain portion of that invested/set aside to cover it, etc.

JdG notched his 2,000th strikeout Thursday night vs the Nationals. It was his 272nd game and 1,661st inning pitched in MLB. Only Randy Johnson (262 games pitched) and Chris Sale (1,626 innings) reached the 2K mark faster.

Cincy CF Dane Myers dropped the 27th out of the game (hit him right in the glove) allowing two runs to score and the Cardinals to take a 6 - 5 lead. But it didn't end there. StL sent on to score four more times to run up a 10 - 5 lead in a game which should have been over. But wait, it gets better. The Reds counter with four runs in the bottom of the 9th ... but then Matt McLain lines out with the bases loaded to end the game: 10 - 9 StL That one's gonna leave a mark. Cincy was already 6.5 games out of the 3rd WC spot (SDP at the moment) so need every W they can get.

Yeah, that seems a matter of when, not if. He's also got his paws in a ton of other sports properties: LA Sparks (WNBA), women's pro soccer and hockey leagues, various motor sports, minority shares in the LA Kings hockey and in the arena where the Lakers/Kings play, Ligue 1 team Strasbourg, and, why not?, a pro Squash league.

The Ohtani deal is the Bobby Bonilla deal writ large. As GWreck points out, it's not like the Dodgers are paying Shohei his $2 mil/yr and plan to figure out the rest later. They're investing some version of what they would pay him under a normal contract and will pay his post-career money off of that. The Wilpons did the same with Bonilla, which would have been a good deal for them -- put a small amount aside in the 20-aughts and pay him off the compound interest from that in the coming decades when what seemed like big numbers in the GWB era would later look puny by comparison -- had they not been investing with a crook whose stated growth via interest rates they were seeing on paper were as real as Sidd Finch's fastball.

What this has cost Walter so far is his stake in the Lakers. Purchased just 14 months ago from the children of Jerry Buss, he reached an agreement to sell it just last week (at a profit btw). Speculation is that he wanted to get more liquid with the idea that he'd need to be so in order to fight whatever legal battles are coming up. The sale and the speed at which it happened caught many off guard as transactions like these rarely stay quiet as they're happening but this one pretty much did until suddenly it was a fact. There's been nothing to suggest thus far that he'd do the same with the Dodgers. But it may come to a point where he has to designate a point person to run the team (a la Steinbrenner years ago) while whatever needs to get settled gets settled.

ChiSox are 7th in MLB in scoring (RS/G) though tops in the AL (trailing WAS, CHC, PIT, LAD, MIL, and COL) and 3rd overall in HRs. Are right in the middle of the pack in giving up runs (just behind the Mets).. They're coming off losing two of three to the Cubs (both losses by walk-off) before getting shutout today (and no-hit thru six) in an afternoon makeup game vs the Braves. Looks like we'll see Sean Burke [RH; 3.15 ERA; 1.11 WHIP] on Friday night (7:40 EDT for whoever asked earlier), ex-Mariner Luis Castillo [RH; 4.99; 1.37 combined SEA/CHW] on Saturday (7:10), and ... somebody on Sunday (2:10). Bryan Hudson (opener) then Erick Fedde followed Castillo in the rotation last time but they don't seem like a strict rotation kind of club. A couple of familiar names out of the pen: Sean Newcomb (a one-time starter for the Braves), hard-throwing Jordan Hicks (a brief sensation for StL) and his walktastic ways (4.9 BB/9 career, 5.9 this season), and Erick Fedde who came up w/the Nats and pitched there 2017 - 2022 before tours of Korea, CHW, StL ATL, MIL, and now back to the Sox. ex-NYM factor: Luisangel Acuna [.237/.269/.269 in 199 PA] and one-time 1st round draft pick and (via War Melville HS and U of Conn) Anthony Kay. Now 31 y/o, he sports a [4.01 ERA / 1.34 WHIP in his first year in the States following two seasons in Japan. And their entire offensive lineup, with the exception of their DH pair [Andrew Benintendi (L) and Randal Grichuk (R)] are under 30.

Ambler knew who the better Bobby Jones was just from a spring training outing. He was wrong, of course, but he always was a bit of a 'not always right but never in doubt' kind of guy.

Machado wasn't a hustler when he was young(er). This isn't an age thing with him.

Yeah, but it's also barely two weeks worth of suck.

And I assume the even if the new CBA imposes restrictions on the length of deals (doubtful, but it is one thing being proposed) that deals like these (and Soto's) would be grandfathered in and remain unaffected by any new rules.

And see my comments about Torrens running faster to 1st than Machado despite being both a slower runner to begin with and being temporarily crippled.

And right on cue: in the booth discussion earlier about today being Ron's 66th birthday, Ron pretty much said that he usually opts to not work on his b-day because he doesn't like the attention it brings.

I was thinking of these two during this series, but rather than pollute the IGT with my thoughts I'll break it off. Bogaerts, for the nine-plus seasons he was in Boston, had an OPS/OPS+ of 814/117. This is now his (not quite complete) fourth season with SD where he's regressed to an overall 718/100 pace. The bigger issue, besides that downward trend, is that he turns 34 on October 1st AND is signed to a big bucks contract through 2033 meaning he'll be turning 41 y/o just as the deal is due to end. Machado, already 34 y/o (in July, so three months older than Bogaerts) hasn't had the fall-off that Bogaerts has showed, at least not until this season where he's in the midst of his first sub-100 OPS+ season [718/98]. Now maybe we can write off this season as a small sample size/one-off, but he also has a deal thru 2033 when he'll turn 41 at the AS break. Having either of those contracts on the books seems reckless. Having two running simultaneously is practically malpractice. Be interesting to see how this all plays out.

Dueling no-hitters!! Although at least the Padres have had baserunners.

A crippled Torrens (foul ball off his knee two pitches earlier) hits a softie to SS and runs down the line faster than Machado.

Me either. Ron has a definite loner vibe to him. Not like totally anti-social but more comfortable off by himself unless you're in his inner circle.

Pitches through two innings: King = 20; Stock = 48

That was a hard-working top of the 1st for Stock (near 30 pitches) especially considering that the only contact was a 45 foot dribbler.

It would shock me if he's not done for the year -- Me

Sure. In fact one schmoe just did!

OF assists R us

0h-fer-11 w/RiSP, 9 LOB