Frayed Knot

I sure many of you watching on TV saw that Tommy Lasorda has been in the stands for this series. And while it's good to see Tommy is still loyal to his Dodgers, one reporter made the mistake of asking him his opinion of Syndergaard's performance. Now maybe ol' Tommy is getting a bit senile as he seems unsure of the NYM pitcher's nickname, referring to him at one point as the 'King Man' rather than 'Thor', and also is so spitting mad that he's confused to the actual number of HRs hit, but it's clear that TL is still a passionate Dodger fan. [youtube:3h1qucg1]LIwrYH6Urbs[/youtube:3h1qucg1]

[fimg=250]http://underscoopfire.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/john-candy-spaceballs.jpg[/fimg] "They've gone to plaid" If y'all are looking for things to do with the 4 points you're Not going to give to Thor, keep Asdrubal's defense in mind. He turned in sparkler or two plus an assortment of tricky plays made to look easy.

Going up against a top pitching legend is going to be tough. But, who knows, Kershaw just may be good enough to handle it.

Looks like we won't have Jhoulys Chacin to kick around anymore. The Mets have thumped him twice already this year (8-2 and 8-0) but the Braves dealt him to Anaheim today for a minor league hurler. And the Braves won today!! Beat the Phils for their 2nd home win.

Just making a funny while feeding any possible stray paranoia.

d'Kong76 wrote: Everything will be fine. But are we still going to continue to sabotage all the features on BatMag's account?

Despite Zimmerman's 2 HRs yesterday, Dusty moves Murphy in back of Harper (dropping Zim to 5th) and Murph already has 2 RBIs on the night, including one following a Harper (non-intentional) walk. On the other hand he got himself caught between 1st & 2nd after his hit. IOW, a typical Muffy game. 2-1 Nats thru 6

quote="Gwreck" = 1. They don't have doctors in LA? -- Sure they do, but they all deal in botox and plastic surgery 2. What, we need him available to pinch-hit? -- we might. Hmmmm, Matz or Campbell? 3. If he's gotta see the doctor in NY, put him on the plane NOW -- Sounds like they made the decision to sit him on Saturday no matter how things feel. The Post is already quoting the team as saying he feels "100% better" today as opposed to on Tuesday. If nothing else this just fits into the season long plan of limiting his starts/innings.

Cabrera at SS is like a mental security blanket out there. Much less agita on sharply hit balls to that position or on grounders to either side of him. He ain't spectacular, but he's been a big plus so far and some of us may have to eat some of our pre-season gripes.

Gelbs via Twitter: Mets are skipping Matz's start on Saturday. Elbow soreness. No tests scheduled as of yet. Will see docs in NY when the team gets back. That's not good even if things are good.

Dang, we needed those runs.

Walker breaks his 0-fer-22 stretch (and knocks Maeda from the game) so maybe I'll go back to trying to claim him as a relative. My great-grandmother's name was Walker* and, as us WASPs tend to do, the name lived on in the family as a middle name for my grandfather, a cousin, and that cousin's young son. So even though Neil may not hit 9 HRs for the rest of the season following his 9 in April, I'm still going to claim a connection. * Ellen Walker. born 1879, London, England; died 1965 Walpole, Mass

Now THAT'S how you beat the shift!!

^ Does this mean you're predicting 3rd HR before the night is over? ^ ^

Butcher Boy THAT!!

Frayed Knot wrote: Shocking O-o-T-S news: Cubs (now 22-7) & ChiSox (23-12) both lose this afternoon. at Wrigley: Cubs 4 - SD 7 (4 runs in the 7th for Padres) at Texas: White Sox 5 - Rangers 6 (Mat Latos turning back into a pumpkin for Sox) It's just the 3rd time this season that the two have posted losses on the same day and the first since 4/17 Cubs lost a DH to the Spanish fathers today. For a while there it looked like they might not lose two more games all year.

Plunking Campbell & free-passing Rivera sounds like the start to a nice inning.

Harper gets a fine plus a one game suspension for his post-ejection antics from the other day. He is appealing (even if you're among those who don't think that he's very appealing).

Shocking O-o-T-S news: Cubs (now 22-7) & ChiSox (23-12) both lose this afternoon. at Wrigley: Cubs 4 - SD 7 (4 runs in the 7th for Padres) at Texas: White Sox 5 - Rangers 6 (Mat Latos turning back into a pumpkin for Sox) It's just the 3rd time this season that the two have posted losses on the same day and the first since 4/17

So part of the problem the Nats are having with Harper being walked so often -- the Cubs famously walked him 13 times in a 4 game series (some intentional, some only sort of intentional) plus plunked him once -- is that the guy hitting behind him, Ryan Zimmerman, went into last night's game tied with Bartolo in HRs. So Tuesday night Zimmerman hit two HRs including one after a Harper walk. But the Nats got a rare night of bad pitching and were behind by a run in the 9th. So with the tying run on base the Tigers (Francisco Rodriguez) walked potential winning run Harper to get to Zimmerman ... who cooperated by striking out. Even on his best game of the season he doesn't deter the strategy. Fun pitching matchup tonight: Scherzer & Jordan Zimmermann face each other and their old teams.

The signing of this Kente Maeda guy, the only right-hander we'll see in LA, definitely flew under the radar this past winter. The just-turned 28 y/o had some pretty good stats in 8 seasons as a Hiroshima Carp [97-67; 2.39; 1.05] including no ERA over 2.6 during his last 6 years there, but signed very club-friendly deal with LA for $25 mil spread out over 8 seasons. Not sure why his JPL track record didn't translate into more interest/competition/money in the U.S. Did he pre-decide to only talk to the Dodgers? In six first starts on this side of the Pacific he's given up 0, 0, 1, 0, 4, and 2 runs. 1.66 ERA, 35 K vs 10 BB; just 26 hits in 35 IP [0.95 WHiP] The only flaw seems to be that his pitch count can get a bit high which means he usually exits after 6 innings. Sounds like a bit of a nibbler. Oh good, another three-plus hour game!

With their season heading down the shitter: currently 13-19 with 2 wins in their last 10 - with the albatross of the Pujols contract around their neck: the 36 y/o is owed 165 million thru 2021 and is currently hitting .181. - with multiple injuries to their pitching staff: 2 starters likely for TJ surgery (Garrett Richards, Andrew Haney) plus 2 more on the shelf until at least June (Tyler Skaggs, CJ Wilson) and closer Huston Street currently out - and with what's being described as the worst farm system in the history of mankind (or something like that) tongues are wagging (although not from within the organization as far as we know) about whether the Angels should look into dealing off Mike Trout rather than waste his prime years waiting for the team to get good again. So naturally that speculation leads to the further speculation of: Well if he did go where might he land? Former GM Jim Duquette seems to be mlb.com's go-to guy for this sort of stuff lately and he includes the Mets as a possibility (along with the Cubs, BoSox, Rangers, Dodgers) in a piece he wrote this week, which is I suppose is better, longshot though it may be, to be included in this sort of thing rather than it is to be dismissed as not rich enough, willing enough, deep enough, interested enough, etc. In the piece he opines that any offer for Trout starts with Matz & Conforto, or, alternatively, Matz + Wheeler + the likes of Dom Smith & Amed Rosario Trout, 25 in August, is signed through 2020 at $16 mil (this year), then 20, then $34, $34, $34 His four full season in MLB have resulted in a ROY, two MVPs plus two 2nd place, and four silver sluggers Full article: http://m.mlb.com/news/article/177223904/which-5-teams-could-deal-for-mike-trout

I see that the Braves are 1 and 15 at home so far this year! they're something like 6th in Wins at Turner Field this season. a 3-way tie for 7th to be precise. In fact the only clubs who don't have as many or more wins this season at Turner than the Braves are: 1) the Marlins - they got swept by the Braves in a 3-game set 2) teams that haven't played there yet Other Braves oddities about their 7 wins so far this season: - 4 of them came consecutively so they have both a 9-game and an 8-game losing streak already this season, and are currently in the midst of on a 5-game winless stretch - 4 of those wins came against teams currently on top in their division: Mets, Cubs, BoSox, Dodgers.

It might be a while before this thread slips off the front page [youtube:17rldjr4]bX8-Ze-0GR4[/youtube:17rldjr4]

Chad Ochoseis wrote: 16) Who are the only three players to hit a homer as a Mets pitcher and give up a homer TO a Mets pitcher? Astacio, Sadecki, Hampton. One Rockie, one good hitter, one good hitter who was also a Rockie. Hampton never HR'd as a Met. In fact, looking it up, he never even had an extra base hit as a Met either. 20 for 73, all singles plus 5 walks. .274/.313/.274