Frayed Knot

Yeah, those footsteps Michael Conforto is hearing just may be from some Wyoming-made cowboy boots. Now at .330/.405/.530 for the season, which means that since my May 23rd post he's had 23 hits in his last 61 [u:15eqoi2w]PAs[/u:15eqoi2w] (not ABs, but PAs) including 4 HRs and 11 XBHs in those 23 hits. And, yeah it's Vegas, but 38% of his hits on the season (25 of 66) are for XBs Compare all that to Conforto being [u:15eqoi2w]4 for 36[/u:15eqoi2w] in June and [u:15eqoi2w]18 for 119[/u:15eqoi2w] since the end of April. Gary brought up the idea of farming out Conforto the other day (not specifically mentioning Nimmo but just in general). Keith brushed it aside but at the same time didn't rule it out completely and added that he didn't think such a move would be a soul-destroying maneuver from which a player never recovers. And sooner or later something's got to change somewhere, so when you figure in same position, LH batter, ... If nothing else, the season for Nimmo thus far continues his pattern of taking some time to adjust to a new level but then adjusting to it quite nicely. After almost double the number of PAs at Vegas 2016 compared to the partial season there after his 2015 promotion, his current 935 OPS is a sizable jump over last year's 810

Ashie62 wrote: Ike Davis is now an MFY. First Teixeira got hurt - and then got hurt again - and was hitting .180 anyway. Greg Bird was supposed to be his replacement but got hurt before the season ever started and will miss the year. Last week, right after we grabbed Loney, they Yanx signed Chris Parmalee in keeping with their recent trend of collecting failed former 1st round picks [Ackley, Hicks, Parmalee] and hoping to strike lightning with at least one of them (not so far) but 8 ABs (and 2 HRs) into his Yanqui career Parmalee went down. So it was really only a matter of time before they got around to Ike. If he fails to work out stay by your phones ... you could be next.

Zvon wrote: We all get one really embarrassing game a month. They've had 3 or 4 this week.

That this game is still slightly/possibly winnable is stunning. I just hope they don't go and do something stupid like loading the bases with no outs or something because then we'll have no chance at scoring.

1st inning: bases-loaded/one out -- K, FO 7th inning: 1st & 3rd/no outs -- GO/E3, GO, FO Not only don't they get hits w/RiSP but they can't even make their outs in an order that would get runs in. The remainder of the innings they just dispensed with the annoying baserunner part of the game, opting instead to suck 1-2-3.

And they're on their way to fucking up YET ANOTHER two-on/no-out situation.

Putting aside all the other embarrassments for a moment: if Plawecki can't throw any better than what he's shown then he can't be a major league catcher, and if he can't hit any better than he's shown then he can't play anywhere else either.

d'Kong76 wrote: GRANDERSON RF REYNOLDS SS CESPEDES CF JOHNSON 2B LONEY 1B FLORES 3B DE AZA LF PLAWECKI C MATZ P Not exactly how we drew it up pre-season, eh?

Trying to re-start the winning streak cuz a 3-1 series win would feel a whole lot better than a 2-2 split. And while we can write off yesterday's loss to being forced into a sixth starter, we still got a whopping 7 hits off of the league's statistical worst pitcher (and one of its worst hitters) who wound up knocking in almost as many runs as he allowed. Matz faces off against Zach Davies, a 23 y/o RH with 16 ML starts under his belt which, considering he's listed at 6'0"/[u:2sw7ouir]155[/u:2sw7ouir], that's about all that's under his belt. It's not often that I see pro athletes my height that I out-weigh by 20 pounds unless they're distance runners or cyclists. Davies, a former 26th round draft pick (2011) by Baltimore, is 4-3; 4.29; 1.24 in 10 starts this season [7-5, 4.07 in 16 starts overall]. He made his ML debut last September following a deadline deal with the O's - which was pretty quick advancement through the minors for such a late round pick out of HS so maybe this skinny, baby-faced kid's got something going for him, at least once he gets beyond the ID checkpoints and the 'You Must Be This Tall To Enter' signs posted outside each stadium's clubhouse.

MFS62 wrote: The first 10 picks all were college kids. I don't know if that is significant or not. But its interesting. It might not be a total coincidence. With the first few picks you go for whoever you think is best (at least you should) and, given Sandy's willingness to draft HS kids up top in recent years, it appears like they just happened to like the remaining college guys better when the wheel stopped on them this year. But then you get into budget ceilings. There's an overall cap for the cumulative picks in the first 10 rounds (there's a formula to determine the exact dollar figure for each team depending on where they pick within a round) and college picks can often be had for less money than HS simply because the non-elite college players simply have less leverage. So if there is a HS kid you like beyond the first few rounds you might wait until the 11th or beyond where the cap doesn't apply so that if you do have to go over budget to talk him out of taking a scholarship then you can do so without having to reduce someone else's bonus. And indeed HS kids were picked in rounds 11, 13 & 14 and in some picks beyond that. Maybe that was because of strategy or maybe not.

Well, we WERE in a position to come back in the 8th or 9th.

Granderson now with 19 RBIs on the season, and he's driven in himself for 12 of those ribbies. That's what an absurd .138 BA w/runners on and an even more stunning .086 BA w/RiSP will do. On the flip side, he's now scored 29 runs this year meaning that he's only been driven in by someone else just 17 times. Even for a leadoff batter whose .315 OBA has put him on base only 82 times, that's still absurdly low. Not scoring following today's leadoff triple is just one example of how ridiculous this is.

d'Kong76 wrote: Peralta has like the worst ERA of starting pitchers ... And one of the worst batting averages.

A leadoff triple AND a favorable replay review AND a walk ... and yet they seemingly invent new ways not to score. That's now 3 for 19 w/a total of 2 RBI in ABs with two or more runners on base in this series.

A quick synopsis on the recent hitting incompetency Over the last two games the Mets have had 22 at bats with 2 or more runners on base: 2 became Sac Bunts (both successful!!) and 2 were intentional walks, so we're really down to 18 here. Of those 18: - 4 resulted in Ks - 5 infield pop-ups! - 2 fly outs, neither of which scored a run (too shallow or with two outs) - 3 ground-outs (no runs) - 3 singles, but only two of which left the infield and only one which resulted in runs - and finally last night's line-out/fire-drill which somehow resulted in a run and only one out So BA-wise they were 3/18 (.167) and only 4 times out of those 18 did they get the ball out of the infield. Just 2 at-bats resulted in RBI(s): Plawecki's rather weak seeing-eye single (2 RBI) Thursday night, last night's FC/line-out that was first dropped and then misplayed (1 run).

ROUND 7: Austin McGeorge (can we call him Bundy?); RHP Cal St Long Beach; 6' 2"/210; DOB: 11/27/94 ROUND 8: Placido Torres; LHP Tusculum College (*???); 5' 11"/170; 5/17/93 (already 23 y/o) ROUND 9: Colin Holderman; RHP; Heartland CC**; 6' 6"/220; 10/8/95 ROUND 10: Gene Cone (wonder if he'll get invited to Bar Mitzvahs like that other Cone/Cohen?); OF Univ South Carolina-Columbia***; L/L; 6' 0"/170; 9/21/94 * Tusculum is in Decatur, Georgia ** Heartland Comm Coll in Bloomington, Illinois, not Bloomington, Indiana or else Dave Stoller would have biked to it *** Put him on the Low-A Fireflies and he'll already know the stadium

J.F. with a rare (lately anyway) no-muss, no-fuss save.

Edgy MD wrote: Also notable is that, once the play was made at second, the force is lifted off of Flores, but he took off anyshmutz. What the hell? And if Gennett had managed to tag Flores before he got out of arm's reach it may have been quick enough to negate the run.

And we STILL don't have a run-scoring hit - despite 15 baserunners !!

This may be the worst-played baseball game in the history of mankind.

Damn, more RiSP w/no outs ... WE'RE DOOMED!!!!

And now the Brewer runner has a finger(s) malfunction.

Lefty Specialist wrote: They just don't want to win this game. What, just because they've had 12 baserunners and only one run ... and that one run had to knock itself in!!

Big Jim Slade!!

And to think, the Brewers have scored two runners [u:1rgrm9ta]from 2nd base[/u:1rgrm9ta] over the last two nights (one later reversed) [u:1rgrm9ta]on infield singles[/u:1rgrm9ta] and yet we can't score them from 2nd on outfield hits.