Frayed Knot

That's a lot of baserunners allowed by old friend Carlos T. (21 hits + 12 walks in 21 innings ... now 21-1/3)

If Cespedes isn't going to slide then don't run him!!

Man, I didn't think he got that one. Strength + Wind = Good

Met bats hit the ball a lot harder in the 1st inning than they did in the 2nd - but at least they got one back.

That Strasberg signed long-term with the Nats when he did was, for a variety of reasons, surprising to most within baseball. That same scenario posed a year ago at this time would have been utterly shocking.

- Cubs @ Giants is the big O-o-T series of this weekend. The Giants are on an 8-game win streak which broke up the mediocre log-jam which had existed in the west for most of the season, while the Cubs have lost 5 of 8 -- hardly a big slump but crushing to those who were going nuts with predictions of a 120+ win season off their hot start. Arrieta vs Peavy starts it off. - Time to root for the Braves as they visit Philly - and the Nats spend the weekend in Miami

And then there’s this ———GSERAIPWHiPXBHMATT HARVEY95.7748.11.6620STEVEN STRASBURG96.5044.11.6919 Those are Harvey's 9 starts from this year as compared to Strasberg's first 9 starts in 2015. The bad news in that contrast is that Strasburg did require a trip to the DL a short time later -- two actually, I forget the official reason(s) -- as he started only 3 games between the end of May and early August. The good news is that Strasburg has essentially been the best pitcher in baseball (non-Kershaw division) since returning. In 19 starts covering the final 10 of last season plus his first 9 this year, he's racked up: 2.33 ERA; 0.91 WHiP; 167 K/24 BB; and the Nats are 17-2 in those games

d'Kong76 wrote: John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Meantime get Wright a first baseman's glove I've been chewing on that notion for a couple of weeks... One only hopes that the David to 1B story -- even on an occasional or experimental basis -- doesn't involve quite as much drama as the whole Piazza saga did.

He's gone from a career of 7 H/9 to over 12 this season; from 0.6 HRs/9 to 0.9; a 4.78 K/BB ratio to 2.87; and a 2.53 ERA to 5.77 Small sample size or not (and it's a quarter season now so we can debate how small is really small) he ain't even close to sorta OK

If Cabrera & Conforto make their plays last night would only have been a smaller disaster. Yeah their errors and/or non-plays (along with Wright making two questionable throws) contributed but let's not wallpaper over the line-drives being hit all over the field last night, even some of the outs were hard. I'm clueless as to what's wrong. There were brief references in the papers as to 'arm slot' issues but, even if so, those didn't just start yesterday and aren't going to make the entire problem go away by tomorrow. Banishment to the bullpen for one go-around might be interesting if only in that it would let him 'air it out' for one trip through the lineup without the fear of getting mugged the 2nd time through which has been his undoing. A day off next Thursday (and the one after that) would allow more like a start and a half gap before he'd need to go again so maybe he'd get a couple of times relieving.

OK, here's one you don't hear everyday: Atlanta SS Erick Aybar was in the original starting lineup Thursday night but was scratched prior to the start of the game when he needed to go to the hospital to have a chicken bone removed from his throat.

I decided to get a jump on middle age and started having back problems at age 14. Not a common malady for guys weighing about 110 pounds but whatyagonnado? But, aside from the occasional times (once or twice every couple of years) when they totally knock me off my feet for a few days at a time, I don't require any particular maintenance or precautions.

Lost in the midst of the obvious bigger story of Harvey getting worse instead of better: a whopping 6 hits today, all of them singles.

As I pointed out the in a similar discussion a few days ago (about Wright in general but not specifically about retirement) this "reduced capacity" of which we speak is, counting the approx half-season worth of ABs amassed during the tail-end of last year plus the beginning of this one, a slash-line of .260/.372/.419 (OPS+ of 119) with about 18 HRs & 30 doubles over a 500 AB span. Reduced as compared to younger David Wright? - Sure Indicative of someone ready to be put out to pasture? - Not yet anyway

bmfc1 wrote: Relax: Colon and Harvey pitch Monday and Tuesday at WSH. I can only imagine what Carpenter & Santangelo sound like in the middle of this one.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: What a shameful performance What, other than the one error, the other play not made, Wright throwing to the wrong base, and the eighteen line drives, it wasn't so bad.

Well the rest of my night just became free, any suggestions?

We gotta stop walking Werth. There are only three guys in that lineup who are hitting right now and we keep walking the .220 guy batting in front of them!

batmagadanleadoff wrote: But when the Mets suddenly transformed themselves in mid-season, their initial plans for Harvey went out the window. They no longer followed "that plan". Depending on whether you buy that the 180 inning "plan" (to pull one number that was mentioned) was a cast-in-stone number, as agent Boras claimed, or more just a general target, as Alderson did. And, yes, they went over it due to the post-season; whether that was a good decision or a bad one is debatable. But the part I'm not buying is the one where said decision could only have been made in light of the team having no reason to care about his long-term health based on already pre-deciding not to re-sign him when his FA eligibility comes up three-plus seasons down the road. As if we, or anyone else for that matter, know in advance what kind of a pitcher Harvey's going to be, what his state of mind will be, or what the financial state of the team and the market will be when that time rolls around. If you recall, numerous folks, including some around here, KNEW that there was no chance of resigning Cespedes because the payroll ceiling would not and could not be increased - and that story was peddled right up until about 20 minutes before it actually happened. But yet now we know what is or isn't going to happen in the winter of '18-'19 and that decisions made in September of '15 were made based on those "facts".

Centerfield wrote: Still, for me, there's nothing more disheartening than to see someone get on base (which is rare these days) and see Eric Campbell stroll to the plate. I'm done with this assclown. Let's got get Rivera. Well either way we would have had the 25th man pressed into service against the likes of Kershaw, Scherzer Gonzalez, etc. which is a disheartening thing no matter who's in that slot. Now you've obviously decided that there are better 25th men available but, for whatever reason, it doesn't look as if Sandy et al have reached that same conclusion yet otherwise someone else likely would have be the 25th man all along.

Sounds like extra rest on one end is "a line of thinking" while on the other it becomes "distorting nit-picky minutiae"

batmagadanleadoff wrote: It's very commendable that the Mets monitored Harvey's workload for much of last season, but there's a line of thinking out there that if you extend a pitcher situated as Harvey was for an extra month or so of pitching, you might be undermining or nullifying all of the earlier coddling. Although the Mets also had Harvey wait for a longer period before returning to pitching post-surgery than the Nats did with Strasburg. Strasburg had his surgery earlier in the year than Harvey but also was allowed to return in September for 5 starts whereas it was the following April until MH threw a pitch in anger that counted. Add up the post-TJ innings and SS threw 24 + 159 after approx 12 months off in an Sept thru August span while MH tossed 189 + 26 (32 more) during an April thru Oct time-span after sitting nearly 20 months

Centerfield wrote: Ok. So if the off-season strategy was to create a deeper bench so that we don't give away significant at-bats to the likes of Eric Campbell, why has he started 7 of the last 10 games? What are Four LH starters in a ten-day period coupled with near simultaneous injuries to Flores, Wright, and Duda, Alex?

When I got home from work I checked the game log. Terry had Bastardo pitch to Werth while the game was still close? Hasn't he ever noticed how Werth f****ng kills the Mets, especially lefty pitching? The only good thing was that it stayed in the ballpark - it was only a double. Was there any discussion of this in either the tv or radio booth? Basing moves on the notion that 'Player X kills Team Y' is a losing strategy. Werth, who turns 37 tomorrow, has been a .221 hitter since the start of the 2015 season, something that's a big enough sample size to figure that, whatever he was, he isn't that same guy anymore. And even if his vs-NYM stats are super-great [which they aren't: career marks are somewhat higher vs Mets in BA & OBA though lower than normal in power] what does this have to do with a guy who's never pitched to him as a New York Met? If the hitter has specific numbers against a particular pitcher that's one thing (and Bastardo's never really been a left-on-left specialist anyway) but let's not start believing in magic powers that somehow are going to cause Werth to suddenly be more likely to succeed against a pitcher based on him changing the color of his game-day pajamas. It was the top of the 7th, Robles had already been spent and Werth was just the second batter he was facing with their best two hitters, both lefties, following afterward. I don't see taking him out there as an option even on the table. on edit: Werth had been 1-for-2 + a Sac Fly vs Bastardo before last night (one PA in 2011, one in 2012, one more in 2014). I don't base anything on a sample that small. And now he's 2-for-3

Mets Willets Point wrote: Har-vey's Bet-ter! No-ot Curr-ent-ly (OK, so the scansion needs a bit of work)