Frayed Knot

Not hitting Velasquez, as disappointing as that was, wasn't the worst part of the game. He looked really good. But he was also gone after the 6th and going hitless vs the Philly pen (1 walk), with no hits at all after the 5th inning, was truly soul crushing. 12 K's plus lots of pop/fly-outs = Not Good. And it's not like the hits were all that impressive either.

Anthony DiComo - mlb.com: Zack Wheeler will undergo a procedure to have a suture knot removed from his pitching arm. The Mets do not consider the operation serious, and said in a statement that they do not expect it to affect his rehab timeline. One suture knot from Wheeler's March 2015 Tommy John surgery never dissolved, necessitating the surgery under local anesthetic. The Mets expect the right-hander to begin throwing again within a few days of the operation. Sounds harmless enough, even if a bit odd. Mainly I just wanted an excuse to use the subject heading - and, by extension, a reason to attach the source song t-7cJZqvYCY

Already cold-ed out in Washington (was to have been a 4:00 start) but of course they're wimps there. Current Flushing forecast has the rain ending around first pitch time, then cold (38-40) and miserable and blustery after that.

Weather check: Rain/showers starting around 1 PM, high around 41 At first pitch time: 39 degrees, 55% showers, 19 mph wind Rain ending around 9 PM, wind picks up, temps dropping through 30s

Giants eventually won 3-2 in extras. Meanwhile in Colorado, 2 more HRs for Trevor Story. That's now 6 in his first 4 ML games (on pace for 243 - I think that would be a record).

I suppose the good news for the Cubs is that he didn't take Fowler to the DL with him. Meanwhile Schwarber, who was both big enough and good enough to get a scholarship offer to Ohio State as a linebacker, probably thought he chose the sport which would preserve his knees.

Finally someone focuses on what's truly important: listing the Top-100 prospects based on coolest names This is a list so cool that even former NYM draft pick Damien Magnifico doesn't even crack the top half!!

Cubs OF/DH/C Kyle Schwarber has been diagnosed with a torn ACL & LCL in his left knee and will miss the entire 2016 season. He crashed into CF Dexter Fowler while chasing a fly ball in a game on Thursday night in Arizona. Fowler was unhurt. The batter, Jean Segura, wound up with an inside the park HR. And just as an aside here, I'd prefer to see this thread used for news of other players' injuries. If one of our guys gets a boo-boo it's certainly big enough news to get discussed on its own rather than wind up being buried in an all-purpose thread.

Not exactly a vote of confidence, huh? I think Howard/Ruf will be pretty much a strict R/L platoon. Ruiz/Rupp might be something closer to an every other day switcheroo - the Phils' version of Billy Smith & Chico Resch. They got almost the same number of ABs last year and have swapped starts over the first four games so far this season.

d'Kong76 wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: The not-so-hot start of the year goes to San Diego who not only got swept at home by the Dodgers but failed to even score, losing 15-0, 3-0, and 7-0 Which is now being reported that it's record! Interweb Interplanetary wrote: On Wednesday, the Padres became the first team in baseball history to be shut out in three consecutive games to start a season. San Diego was swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers. So the Dodgers started the year with three straight shutouts, then in their 4th game (Thurs night) they coughed up 12 runs to the Giants. The Padres, who were the shutout victims to LAD in those three games, finally scored in their 4th game by putting up 13 this afternoon in Colorado. And they even won the game! You just can't predict baseball Suzyn!

Edgy MD wrote: Somebody fill cooby in on Brandon. He's either a potentially exciting, young prospect or a washed-up has-been who never even was depending on who in this forum you ask.

And there was much rejoicing!!

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Sterling in good form today. First "It's is HIGH, it is FAR, it's is... off the wall and uh, Castro is in a second. Uh, he's out" of the season! Did you hear Sterling's call when Castro hit an actual HR? -- Star-light, star-bright... Oh Starlin hit that with all his might Yanx shutout today on 3 hits by Jordan Zimmermannnn and a couple of Tiger relievers (including former MFY Justin Wilson) in Detroit's home opener.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I'm watching with the sound way down: Was that an infield fly rule double play??? Yup! I pulled that off intentionally once or twice during softball games where I'd "miss" the pop-up and fool one of the runners who didn't know the rule ... but I'm not sure I've ever seen that in a ML game.

Zvon wrote: metirish wrote: Phillies TV Crew aren't that bad all things considered.....old friend Tom McCarthy and Matt Stairs I believe I hat Stairs. Always enjoyed McCarthy even with all that Phillypoo on his nose. Stairs is a bit like Keith, not your classic smooth announcer type but very knowledgable on hitting and, IMO, a pretty good listen. Also he's originally from Nova Scotia (an oddity in itself) and lived in Maine during his off-seasons where he'd spend his winters coaching HS ice hockey.

Walker & Conforto have the majority of this team's RBIs so far this season.

Jim Henderson will all be there.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Thanks for the hot knowledge injection, FK. I do it all for the kids.

cooby wrote: Is this new guy named Stump? That's how you get back at childhood teasing for a funny name... Stumpf, not Stump ... not much of an improvement though.

Frayed Knot wrote: Y'know, not only do we have one measly infield single since Wright's 1st inning double, but after making Eickhoff throw like 50 pitches to get through the first two innings he's practically back to normal thanks to nothing but quick innings since. Plus they've been hitting deGrom harder than we're hitting them ... Just ignore that voice.

Y'know, not only do we have one measly infield single since Wright's 1st inning double, but after making Eickhoff throw like 50 pitches to get through the first two innings he's practically back to normal thanks to nothing but quick innings since. Plus they've been hitting deGrom harder than we're hitting them ... although now Duda shuts me up.

The Phils v.2016 are a team caught in transition. After holding out for years on moving their aging core, the transition finally started in 2015 but it was a late and incomplete job which left them with an odd mix of older holdovers and some athletic but mostly raw players up the middle. And with the booty from the few moves they did make last year (Papelbon & Hamels) not likely to pay off for a while yet, team brass was forced to fill in around the remaining core with a bunch of low level (like: Really low) trade and FA acquisitions over the winter just to get a quorum on warm bodies to fill all the spots on the field. It's like a team held together by that cheese-like substance (you know it's not actually cheese) that holds together what passes for the local delicacy there, until such time as the new braintrust can figure something else out. So far the results have been a three-game sweep at the hands of the equally rebuilding Reds. FRIDAY 4/8 - Home Opener - 1:10 Projected Weather at 1st pitch: 49 degrees / Mostly Cloudy / Windy Jacob deGrom vs Jerad Eickhoff (J-E-R-A-D … Really, that’s the spelling you’re going with?!?) Eickhoff is a 25 y/o RH who came form Texas in the Hamels trade last year and made his ML debut with 8 pretty good starts down the stretch for Philly in the 2nd half (3-3; 2.62 ERA; 1.04 WHiP) And 3 of those 8 starts came vs the Mets: he lost the first 2 but threw 7 innings of 4-hit shutout ball on Oct 1st (aka: garbage time). SATURDAY 4/9 - 7:10 Projected Weather: Maybe 40 at best with Wind plus 80% Rain Projections … And really, for scheduling a night game on a Saturday in the northeast in early April, the ‘pons deserve either a cancelation or a 3/4 empty stadium Bartolo Colon vs Vince Velaquez Velasquez is a 23 y/o RH who was a 2nd round pick out of HS by the Astros in 2010 then was shipped to Philly in exchange for reliever Ken Giles. He appeared in 19 games/7 starts w/Houston last season (1-1; 4.37; 1.28) SUNDAY 4/10 - 1:10 - aka: completion of the sweep day Projected Weather: Mid/Upper 40s and Sunny Matt Harvey vs Jeremy Hellickon Hellickson is a 5-year vet with Tampa & Arizona (ROY in AL 2011) acquired in a low-level deal over the winter. Pitched well on opening day vs Cincy but hasn’t really had a good season since 2012 Can't tell 'em without a scorecard ... C: Carlos Ruiz (320 PA; .211 / .290 / .285; 2 HR) “Chooch” is one of the holdovers; now 37 y/o, he played only about half the time last year and isn’t likely to see that jump up this season even though he trails only Fidel Castro in polls on ‘Veteran Leadership’ Cameron Rupp (299 PA; .233 / .301 / .374; 9 HR) will be playing the other half of the backstop time-share arrangement. 1B: Ryan Howard (503 PA; .229 / .277 / .443; 23 HRs 36 y/o this season with a mere $35 million to go [$25 plus a $10mil buyout to avoid next year’s $23] on that “What were they thinking?” contract they gave him in 2009 - AND THEN EXTENDED the very next year!! I mean, yeah they ran into shit luck with that achilles tendon injury on the last AB of the season a couple years back, but that’s what tends to happen to dudes in their 30s who also happen to be big enough to require their own license plate. And seeing as how he hit a stunning .130 last year vs LHP with 40 K’s in 100 ABs!!! I think a loud siren is going to go off in their dugout this season whenever a LHP even starts to stir in the bullpen. So his should pretty much be a strict platoon although, barring a baby deGrom arrival, there’ll be no LHPs for Darrin (buy a consonant!) Ruf (297 PA; .235 / .300 / .414; 12 HR) to start against. 2B: Cesar Hernandez (452 PA; .272 / .339 / .348; 1 HR) SS: Freddy Galvis (603 PA; .280 / .302 / .343; 7 HR) This set of bookend 26 y/o Venezuelan middle infielders both played their first full ML season in 2015 and did adequately enough, unless you happen to be a fan of power and stuff. 3B: Maikel Franco (335 PA; .280 / .343 / .497; 14 HR) Another player with a first-name spelling problem, this just turned 23 y/o with only 1/2 an ML season under his belt is already on the verge of stardom among 3B-men. And even if that’s premature he’s still easily the most dangerous bat in the current Phils lineup. Now while that infield may be halfway decent, I don’t know what to make of this outfield. It was thin enough to begin with but it's where they've also been hit with their first injuries as last year’s starting LF Cody Aschie is out on a short DL stint. Also out, and for at least half the season in his case, is the German-born Aaron Altherr who looked good in a short trial during the 2nd half of 2015. CF: Odubel Herrera (537 PA; .297/.344/.418; 8 HR) Just a year ago he was a 23 y/o ‘Rule 5’ pickup as a AA infielder whom the Phils immediately threw into the middle of their OF where he pretty much held his own on both sides of the ball. He’s also one of those guys who still manages to stroll around the batter’s box despite the speed-up rule so I wouldn’t mind if someone wound up plunking him. RF: Peter Bourjos (225 PA; .200 / .290 / .333; 4 HR) Putting a speed/glove guy in a corner spot is never a good idea, especially when he hits like a below-average CF who last played full-time five seasons ago. The former Angel/Cardinal can run but that’s about it and he doesn’t even seem to be all that fast anymore. Put another way, they somehow managed to downgrade the position from Jeff Francouer. LF: Cedric Hunter ( … ) I have to admit that I’ve never heard of a Cedric Hunter nor know what exactly you’d do if you had one (unless it’s to look for your misplaced Cedric) An example of one of their low-level FA signings from the winter, Hunter’s 10 year pro career has consisted of 4 ABs with the Padres back in 2011 and over 1,000 games in the minors. He did hit his first ML HR on Thursday And then there’s the bullpen which started off the season by giving up 5 in the 8th to lose Game 1 and then 2 in the 9th for a walk-off loss in Game 2. Manager Pete Mckinnon talks about "being in the audition stage" for roles right now which isn't surprising considering I’ve barely heard of half these guys and have little or no opinion on the few names I do sorta-kinda recognize so guessing at this point as to which is likely to be used in what role makes as much sense as trying to explain Donald Trump’s political philosophy. Dramatis Personae: Jeanmar Gomez, James Russell (L), Dalier Hinojosa, David Hernandez, Hector Neris, Daniel Stumpf (L), Brett Oberholtzer You’re going to have to take my word for it that I made none of those names up.

Freddy Galvis -- SS Cesar Hernandez -- 2B Odubel Herrera -- CF Ryan Howard -- 1B Andres Blanco -- 3B Cedric Hunter -- RF Cameron Rupp -- C Emmanuel Burris -- LF Jerad Eickhoff -- P Not sure why Maikel Franco isn't in - but also am not complaining about it. Burris makes his first start of the year as Bourjos sits.

That's long been one of my favorite MP routines. My freshman roomie had a record* with that skit on it and we damn near wore that sucker out. * yes kiddies, a comedy record album ... they used to be big, ask your parents

The top early statement series of this season goes to Pittsburgh and their three-game home sweep of the Cards; the Bucs sandwiched wins of 4-1 & 5-1 around a 6-5 11th inning walk-off. For a team that has been looking up at the Cards since forever ago and has got to be desperate to avoid a 4th straight finish in the precarious WC spot while also having to contend with the overwhelming betting favorite Cubs (hell, the already-anointed Cubs in some circles), that's a nice way to not fall into an early season funk. The not-so-hot start of the year goes to San Diego who not only got swept at home by the Dodgers but failed to even score, losing 15-0, 3-0, and 7-0