Frayed Knot

Super delegates might be a good idea right about now because, as far as I can tell, that's how you win even while being consistently out-scored, right Hillary? Anyway, the west coast portion of our May slog needs victories in these final two games in Denver in order to come home with a winning record (currently 4-5). But it's not going to get any easier after that. There's a decent possibility that the upcoming 13-game stretch (10 at home) that will take us to June 1st will involve another meeting with Mr. Kershaw, plus one with Chris Sale [8-0, 1.67], plus maybe two each against Strasburg & Scherzer. And it's not like these recent outings against the likes of Drew Pomeranz, Jon Gray, or Colin Rea (combined 3 runs on 9 hits over 20 innings vs that trio) are doing a lot to build confidence for those other guys.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Just because no one realized runners were getting away with popping off the bag doesn't mean that they shouldn't be overturned. They should. They're out. stay on the bag. Damn right! It's fine with me if umps thumb someone out for coming off the base. I just don't want a 3-1/2 minute break each time while the CSI: MLB squad micro-examines the evidence as to whether he actually came off for a split-sec and was the stray lace from the fielder's glove touching the runner's sleeve at the exact moment he momentarily lost contact with the pillow. Otherwise, if righting every possible wrong is the ultimate goal here, then let's go to the headphones for every play at which point we can meet here each night at 3 AM to discuss how the 5th inning is going. And time of game is not the only reason that system would suck.

Ashie62 wrote: Hurt every year. I am aware of his history. "4 years 800 plus ab ats total." -- Actually it's over 1,000 with the minor league ABs thrown in and it's two seasons plus pieces of two others (wasn't brought up until Aug 2013). You're entitled to your own opinions in these discussions but not to your own facts. "Philly and Toronto may have sold high." -- Ignoring the fact that there's a team trading FOR him each time that another deals him away. Or do those decisions not count? d'Arnaud was the player Sandy was after, Syndergaard was an add-on. "Frayed, you can have him. I am not interestd." -- But you know that Plawecki is the real deal?

1) he's 27, not 28 2) Injury "Prone" means someone not only has had a lot of injuries but that it's in some way an indication that he's also more likely than most to be injured again in the future. But even if the first part of that statement is true it doesn't prove that the second is also. 3) Including a guy in a deal for a CY winner is not the same as "giving up on him"

Matt Bush was the San Diego area native who was the #1 overall draft pick of the Padres [u:2vs29fdl]in 2004[/u:2vs29fdl], but since then has been part of the trivia question about former 1/1 picks who failed to reach the major leagues [steve Chilcott, Brien Taylor, plus some recent picks still learning their craft] Bush's career got off on the wrong foot almost immediately when he was suspended by his club for a fight during his first training camp and then failed to rise above A-ball after that (a .219 BA will do that to you) even after trying a switch from SS to pitching in 2007. Dropped by the Pads, he was out of the game in 2008-09 before latching on as a pitcher with the Rays org in 2010, briefly reaching AA in 2011. But that stint was derailed by alcohol addiction and a 3rd DUI arrest, a hit-and-run which almost resulted in a fatality, which got him 3-year prison term. Out of the game from 2012-15, he latched on with the Rangers this spring and has been pitching as a reliever in AA Frisco (Tx) Today the 30 y/o Bush he was called up by the Rangers for their game at home vs Toronto.

Matt Bush was the San Diego area native who was the #1 overall draft pick of the Padres [u:1qhacmlg]in 2004[/u:1qhacmlg], but thereafter was part of the trivia question about former 1/1 picks who never failed to reach the major leagues [steve Chilcott, Brien Taylor, plus some recent picks still learning their craft] Bush's career got off on the wrong foot almost immediately when he was suspended by his club for a fight during his first training camp and then failed to rise above A-ball after that (a .219 BA will do that to you) even after trying a switch from SS to pitching in 2007. Dropped by the Pads, he was out of the game in 2008-09 before latching on as a pitcher with the Rays org in 2010, briefly reaching AA in 2011. But that stint was derailed when a 3rd DUI arrest, a hit-and-run which almost resulted in a fatality, got him 3-year prison term. Out of the game from 2012-15, he latched on with the Rangers this spring and has been pitching as a reliever in AA Frisco (Tx) Today the 30 y/o Bush he was called up by the Rangers for their game at home vs Toronto.

...

Zvon wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: Today the hitting just plain suxx, but the season-long .200 BA w/RiSP is catching up to us. TC has to switch gears and stop calling this a HR or die kinda team. What you call it is irrelevant.

Today the hitting just plain suxx, but the season-long .200 BA w/RiSP is catching up to us.

Zvon wrote: We're gonna need some DudaBoMbS! Or, y'know, maybe a hit.

Nationals just won - as did the Phils earlier.

This game could get out of hand in a hurry.

Do the colors work again? Why, yes, yes they do!

And speaking of Reyes - MLB has banned him through May 31st. It's a two-month suspension but much of that is essentially "time served" (dating back to mid-Feb) so it amounts to him missing the first 51 Rockies games.

Hard to compare the two of course since Story's story is so brief at this point, but Trout, who plays every day and has had two (of four) 150+ K seasons (158 + 186), still manages to be a .300+ lifetime hitter despite the Ks. Story, a .266 hitter to date, which is right where his career minor league BA was, with more than half his ML hits going for XBs, smells like much more of a feast-or-famine guy whose K-rate, if sustained, would take him to near [u:2mpo81mj]250[/u:2mpo81mj] for a full season. That 9 of his 11 HRs have come in Denver (4), Arizona (4) & Cincy (1) can't help but add to that perception (also 1 each in Pitt & SF).

But the problem becomes that once you buy into the notion that "getting it right" is paramount over all other concerns, then there's no delay too long, no margin of error too slim, and no call so minor not to take the process to its furthest limits. [cross-posted w/DD]

Edgy MD wrote: I just can't stand the fact that the team gets to do their own video review before calling for a video review. Screw that. If you believe the call was wrong, say so on the field. Which would also serve to cut down (if not totally eliminate) the challenges that are overturned (or not) following 2 minutes (or 5) of intense examination over whether the runner's spikes came off the base by 1/8 of an inch during his pop-up slide - something that NO ONE envisioned as a problem that needed to be corrected by replay.

Good stuff LS. I strongly suspect that Trevor Story is going to be closer to a flash in pan than the next Tulowitski. Not that I have nay particular inside info to back that claim - other than his planet-leading 50 Ks in just 139 ABs. Probably also has something to do with never hearing of the guy before he suddenly went deep 6 times in his first 19 ML ABs - although he was a former 1st round pick (45th overall) five years ago and made a brief appearance on some of the prospect lists soon after that but hadn't wowed anyone recently until his Reyes-induced call-up. Speaking of Reyes, hard to see him playing with them again. Tyler Chatwood in either the guy in daddy's investment firm or he's the one who hit the winning shot in 'HOOSIERS' There's absolutely no explanation for Mark Reynolds -- a .232 lifetime hitter who never once has hit above .260 and three times topped 200 Ks -- to be hitting .337, not even Coors Field explains that. And to do so with just 2 HRs defies logic. I conflate Jon Gray with (Oakland pitcher) Sonny Gray for the obvious reason that they're both right-handed. This guy is the one who was the 3rd overall pick out of U-Oklahoma three years back. How's that for a good-news/bad-news situation for a young pitcher? You're going 3rd overall kid with a huge bonus ... but you're going to Denver!

So has anyone checked out where the good delis in the new neighborhood are? Dry cleaners? Coffee shops?

DATES OF SERIESSWORN ENEMYVOLUNTEER EXPERT5/13-15@COLLefty Specialist5/17-19WASG-Fafif5/20-22MILTransMonk5/23-25@WASG-Fafif5/27-29LAD5/30-6/1CWSSeawolf6/3-6/5@MIAEdgy6/6-6/8@PITChad Ochoseis6/9-6/12@MILTransMonk6/14-6/16PITChad Ochoseis6/17-6/19ATL6/21-6/22KCRLeiterWagnerFasterStrongr6/23-6/26@ATL6/27-6/29@WAS6/30-7/3CHCFrayed Knot7/4-7/6MIAEdgy7/7-7/10WAS7/15-7/17@PHI7/18-7/20@CHCFrayed Knot7/22-7/24@MIAEdgy7/25-7/27STLLunchbucket7/28-7/31COLLefty Specialist8/1-8/2NYYFMan8/3-8/4@NYYFman8/5-8/7@DETMets Guy in Michigan8/9-8/11ARIGwreck8/12-8/14SDPSeawolf8/15-8/17@ARIGwreck8/18-8/20@SFGLeiterWagnerFasterStrongr8/23-8/25@STLLunchbucket8/26-8/28PHI8/29-9/1MIAEdgy9/2-9/4WAS9/5-9/7@CINThe Old Mole9/9-9/11@ATL9/12-9/14@WAS9/16-9/18MINTransMonk9/19-9/21ATL9/22-9/25PHI9/26-9/28@MIAEdgy9/30-10/2@PHI

The goal for the night has changed: Don't get no-hit.

This got buried in Wednesday night’s IGT but really should have had its own space Side note: ** YOU DON’T NEED SPECIAL PERMISSION TO START A NEW THREAD FOLKS. ** Anyway, it was a link to a Jayson Stark article where he looks at “Fixing” replay now that it’s in its third season. Most of his info seems to come via Braves exec John Schuerholz, the original chairman of the replay committee, and he seems naturally protective of it even while claiming to be open to suggestions for improvement. High-lights: - Replay reviews are up 35% this season. The ‘Utley Rule’ additions for this year are thought to be responsible for some of that although it seems to me that managers also feel more secure in challenging the miniscule call early in the game and/or at other non-crucial situations while still being able to talk their way into a review later on even if their challenge quota has supposedly already been burned. - The average replay is 1:55 but it’s also gone UP every year despite the predictions from within that times would drop as the sport became accustomed to the system. Did the guys who thought that entirely miss the last three decades of the NFL? - The average “decision time” for managers is 36 seconds, so that needs to be tacked onto that 1:55 ‘headphone’ time. What he doesn’t mention when saying that it's only 2-1/2 minutes is that there are often several times per game that managers eat up time in 36 second chunks when deciding NOT to challenge various calls. - Supposedly the umps in the studio DO begin reviewing potential replays even before they’re called to by the field umps; other execs, however, claim that this is not the case. - Umps supposedly like the system while claiming they'd ultimately rather be right than quick.

Lefty Specialist wrote: ... I can't see any other reason why he's still around. Because he gets on base at a reasonable rate, can play several positions, and is generally what 25th players on rosters look like. Not that it means we should be wedded to him for any reason, only that whoever his replacement winds up being is unlikely to be much of an improvement.

Last post-10:00 start until August (Yay!) and even then only two left for the rest of the season (plus a couple of 9:40s in Arizona).

The Campbell replacement we may want to look at is Ty Kelly. Currently hitting .418/.505/.532 in Vegas (yeah, I know it's Vegas - but .418/.505/.532!!), the soon to be 28 y/o switch-hitter (meaning that he's soon to be 28, he already switch-hits) plays multiple IF & OF positions and is the kind of low-ceiling semi-vet that you don't mind as the 25th man sitting on the bench waiting for his chance, as opposed to one of the younger dudes who ought to be playing every day. The team has all but officially said that they're going with an extra pitcher for the Colorado series. That Campbell is the man down is likely,. That he's automatically the guy to be called back up might not be. Probably my worst post of last season was one where Campbell was briefly hitting well while Muffy was not (April) when I questioned if the right guy was sitting. The ratio of XBHs since that post is like 758 to 6 in Murph's favor.