Frayed Knot

Nah, even a perfect throw doesn't get him there.

The biggest questions surrounding him remain as to whether he is also a joker or a midnight toker.

In which case it's: 'See ya in '17'

So you gotta figure that there's been some injury involved and/or major mechanical retinkering given the lack of IPs since the beginning of '15

... the Mets pushed their chips in on one Lucas Duda by virtue of trading away Ike Davis to Pittsburgh in exchange for minor league pitchers Zack Thornton and Blake Taylor. Somehow it seems longer than just two years ago. Since the deal: - Ike = 666 PAs; .232/.329/.368 with 14 HRs - Duda = 1,191; .247/.347/.474 with 57 HRs In February Ike signed a FA deal with the stRangers -- what would be his third org since leaving the Mets -- but no stats show up for him yet in either minor or major league ball in 2016 Zack Thornton is toiling away, not too successfully, in AAA Las Vegas. The soon to be 28 y/o pitched to a 3.94 ERA / 1.35 WHiP over 63 appearances with LV in 2015 (not so bad for Vegas actually) and has given up 4 runs in 4 appearances so far this season. His biggest problem is that he walks too many. And I can find no info as to the current whereabouts/status of Blake Taylor. 2013's 2nd round draft pick (51st overall) by the Pirates out of a California HS, Taylor was still just 18 y/o with only 21 innings of professional pitching under his belt at the time of the trade. The bigger concern is that he's pitched only 52 innings since: 41 in 2014 spread among several Rookie League stations, and then just 12 more in 2015 in the Gulf Coast Lg and in Brooklyn.

Somehow it's already 6-0 Mets . 2nd inning. I'll have to go read up on the play by play. No, you need to SEE the 2nd inning plays. Reading just won't do that half-inning justice. Mets essentially scored 3 runs in the 1st and were gifted 3 more in the 2nd. Another quirky stat from this (Sunday's) game: Blevins striking out two straight hitters on just six pitches to start the 9th inning, and then Reed coming in to K the next two on a total of 7 (1 foul ball thrown in).

KTE Update for series Apr 18-20 Phils: 6-7 record (4-6 in non-NYM games) so far in 2016 while being both out-scored 33-52 and DFL in the NL in runs scored at 2.61/G (Mets = 2nd worst but at 3.36) After leaving CitiField the Phils went home for their opening week and took 3 out of 4 low-scoring games from SD They then got blown-out twice by the Nats before a 2-run/10th inning comeback vs ex-closer Papelbon to win on Sunday afternoon. But they have pitched surprisingly well (5th best at 4.17 RA/G) and we’ll face the same starting trio we saw in week one: Monday, 7:05. Syndergaard vs Jerad Eickhoff Eickhoff allowed 3 run (2 ER) on 5 hits over 5 innings in the game vs us - the game where we smacked around their pen and won 7-2. Since then he shut-out the Padres on 4 hits over 7 innings. Tuesday, 7:05. Verrett vs Vince Velasquez Shut us out over 6 innings on 3 hits and 9 Ks in what became a 1-0 NYM loss. He followed that up had what is probably the best game in MLB this year by tossing a CG 3-hit/16 K shut-out vs the Padres. So not only has he not lost yet but he hasn’t given up a run yet. Wednesday, 7:05. Colon vs Jeremy Hellickson This will be Hellickson’s 4th start of the year. Since his OK start vs us (2 runs/5.1) he got thumped for 5 runs in the 1st inning by the Nats (6 ER / 3 IP) in what went on to be a 9-1 loss. It’s still early to draw conclusions, but what the hell: 1st base: Ryan Howard has started 11 of their 13 games at 1st despite hitting under .200 (w/4 HRs) Daren Ruf has started only twice at 1st (both vs LHP which they won’t see here). Plus they crossed their fingers and tried him once so far out in LF on account of their de facto corner OFs (Bourjos & Hunter) hitting so poorly. Catcher: Cameron Rupp (7 starts) & Carlos Ruiz (6) are splitting the catching duties although not quite on a strict alternating basis. Corner OF: Codie Aschie still on DL LF Cedric Hunter is hitting a whopping .091/.143/.182. and RF Peter Bourjos had two hits on Sunday to rocket his BA to .189 Bullpen: LHR Daniel Stumpf, seen briefly in the earlier series, has since been hit with an 80 game PED suspension. As a result, 6’ 7”/275 lb Venezuelan Elvis Araujo has been called up. He pitched in 80 games last year including 6 vs the Mets although I somehow have no memory of a dude that size. He now combines with James Russell (who we saw twice last week) and Brett Oberholtzer (who we didn’t see at all) to give the Phils 3 LHRs out in the pen

Somehow it's already 6-0 Mets . 2nd inning. I'll have to go read up on the play by play. No, you need to SEE the 2nd inning plays. Reading just won't do that half-inning justice. Mets essentially scored 3 runs in the 1st and were gifted 3 more in the 2nd.

Not after that game I won't

That also explains why deGrom remained in Florida for his throwing trial after the team had previously announced he was to re-join the team in Cleveland and do the bullpen session there.

Damn, they've erased the Harvey deficit, now they just have to make up the Montero gap.

38 pitches to get the first 12 outs, then 48 more to get the next 5 -- and those pitches came with 6 hits (2 XB), 3 walks, 2 SBs, 1 WP, and 5 runs mixed in. Meanwhile, NYM bats are sticking to their 1 hit/inning quota (best to avoid those hits w/RiSP that way) and have the requisite runner thrown out on the base paths already.

Not just perfect thru 4 for Harvey, but on only 38 pitches. That's like 2-1/2 innings worth of normal work. Mucho efficientio!!

Chad Ochoseis wrote: - I had no argument with Teufel sending either runner; I thought it took very strong throws to catch them. Based on the big screen, multiangle replays, Walker was out at the plate. My biggest problem in each case was that there were no outs at the time. With one out I'd probably send Walker and with two I'd have sent both. But, even with our pop-gun offense of late, the odds of getting a runner in from 3rd w/0 outs is in the 85-90% range and neither send had anywhere near that degree of success in my view. I'd have labeled Walker maybe 50/50 at best (and thought it the wrong call even while he was temporarily safe); De Aza's odds I placed at considerably lower than that. Plus, as each play was developing, the little man in my head said to hold them. Not that the little guy's always right but, when virtually any play involving runner is underway, I almost always try to calculate what they should or shouldn't try and in both cases last night I was holding them at 3rd all along.

The post where I said that Verrett would make the earliest impact from that NYM draft class must have been cut off in the archiving process ... but I remember making it!!!!

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: There should probably be a limit to the number of Codys one baseball team can carry. That can't be healthy for them. On the plus side, they're both pitchers AND "Cody A"s, so there's a possibility they've got some messed up clubhouse nicknames, no? Maybe they should trade for Cody Aschie

And now, as if on cue, the story seems to change Puma, NY Post: All indications point to [deGrom] receiving a stint on the disabled list, although he may throw again Sunday in Port St. Lucie before a final determination is reached. On Friday, he threw an abbreviated 25-pitch side session, with a club source indicating his lat was still an issue. DeGrom, according to manager Terry Collins, has undergone an MRI exam — the results of which the team never made public. But the fact deGrom was allowed to throw Friday indicates he is not dealing with a tear in the muscle.

Keep in mind that that news is in no way official yet.

Mets Guy in Michigan wrote: I'm headed to Cleveland in the morning! Kick Teufel for me, will ya?

'twould very much suck to lose a game with 14 hits and half of them for XB

The only Ramon Martinez I remember is Pedro's big brother.

Again with no one out!!! So what is the record for runners thrown out on the base paths in a season? We must be up to 7 or 8 already!!

Seems like an unnecessary change (Robles for Bastardo) w/2 outs an done on and Bastrardo going well.

Speaking of infielders, Ed Charles gets some prominent face time in the new Ken Burns docu on Jackie Robinson. Ed was a teen in the Daytona Beach FLA area the year of JR's first ST w/the Dodgers in that town and has talked, both here and in the past, about seeing him then and about the effect it had on himself specifically and the black folks in town in general. He's not identified in his appearances by anything other than his name and I assume there have to be a decent amount of viewers who don't recognize the name and figure that he's just some random black citizen with a tenuous Jackie-connection who made the cut simply on account of being still alive and someone the filmmakers were able to locate. Maybe later on he gets ID'd as a then-future/now-former ML'er (I've seen the first half of the four-hour piece).

Currently looking like a big N-O to the D-L for D-grom - according to Rubin ...Jacob deGrom is on track to return to the rotation on Tuesday in Philadelphia after missing his last turn. DeGrom threw on flat ground Thursday and had a bullpen session on Friday in Florida. He is due to throw off flat ground again on Saturday, then throw another bullpen session on Sunday. Provided everything goes OK, deGrom can slot back into the rotation his next turn.