Frayed Knot

- I understand the tendency to believe it's the beginning of the end anytime Wright doesn't come through, but we're jumping the gun (or off a cliff) a bit prematurely on this. Do remember his six week run at the end of last year, small sample size or not. He'll likely be around less often but let's not base too much off missing pitches from a closer blowing 98 out there. - Too many weak grounders, but I suppose that's what Volquez does. He's not consistent enough to be real good but he is tough to 'square up'. - When your first pinch-running option is Eric Campbell it doesn't say much for team speed. I don't want a whole bench of type of slap-hitting scooters like the Royals seem to have a half-dozen of ... but one might be nice. - Leadoff walk to Lorenzo Cain = not good (even though he's not quite as hack-tactic as the rest of that crew)

My two reactions from looking at this list were: 1) Who da fuck is Raisel Iglesias and what it he doing starting on Opening Day? Turns out that Raisel (Rye-Sell) is a Cuban defector who the Reds signed in 2014 and then promoted to Cincy in April of '15 after just 6 minor league starts. In all he pitched in 18 ML games (16 starts) in 2015 and I apparently missed each and every one of them (none vs NYM) cuz I gots zero memory of even this guy's name. But I suppose with the Reds having divested themselves of the likes of Leake, Volquez, and Cueto over the last year-plus and Homer Bailey still not recovered from TJ surgery, I'm not even sure who else was in the running. 2) What's with Miami starting Wei-Yin Chen over Jose Fernandez? Yeah he's their big FA import this year ('big FA' being a relative term in south Florida) but it's not like they lacked for another option. Most likely it's that, because they're starting at home, they figured the finagle things by getting the automatic attendance boost (again: relative term) for OD and then get it again when their ace/drawing card goes in Game 2

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I’m not sure I had ever heard of the British actor Tom Hardy prior to maybe the beginning of this year. Since then I’m not sure I’ve seen a movie that hasn’t had him somewhere in the flick: LOCKE, REVENANT, MAD MAX, THE DROP, and probably a bunch of others I don't know about because he’s often unrecognizable from role to role. And now my latest journey into Hardy-land counts twice as he stars as both Reggie Kray and Ronnie Kray in LEGEND, the story of British identical twin thugs who ruled the London underworld during the 1960s. [fimg=250:22plm1xj]http://www.assignmentx.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/LEGEND-movie-poster2.jpg[/fimg:22plm1xj] Told from the point of view of Frances, the girlfriend/wife/ex of Reggie, the more mentally balanced (a relative term) of the two, the story brings together gangsters, sadistic violence, Scotland Yard, corrupt cops, and slimy MPs of that era reminiscent of 2008’s THE BANK JOB. And a bit GOODFELLAS-like in that, while the gangster life seems good when everything’s going well, it's always going to get out of hand somehow and then the bill comes due eventually. One problem is that I needed to go to the subtitles feature just to get through the thick East London accents and Cockney slang.

[fimg=300:1lf8e170]https://www.movieposter.com/posters/archive/main/23/MPW-11674[/fimg:1lf8e170]

Mets have scored an actual run (via an error of course because this is the 'No RBIs from Hits' Spring Tour) and lead 1-0 thru 1-1/2

Considering the whole purpose of this silly little exercise, using those flicks would be more confusing than informative.

I want [u:1lqscfv4]Titles[/u:1lqscfv4] not stupid sub-titles.

Edgy MD wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: I found a surprising dearth of good movies with 'Two' in the title. [fimg=100]http://static.rogerebert.com/uploads/movie/movie_poster/the-two-jakes-1990/large_yIVkNzi08VNs8aFd5uxGHDI29Fg.jpg[/fimg] I rejected this choice on account of my prejudice against sequels that had no reason to be made.

That 'Grease' poster was the first one I thought of, both because it was the first time I remember seeing that kind of 'mix-up' and because the faces and credits look like they're synched up so perfectly that I was sure it had to be a screw-up. Plus it's such an obvious publicity shot you figure it would have occurred to someone to have the actors switch places, but maybe Travolta's contract called for him to only be shot from his left side or that he insisted on getting his way because he was prettier than her.

Edgy MD wrote: Man, that looks like it could be a film I turn off really early. And I did. Well maybe not really early but once Act 1 was done with -- where the cute but unemployed girl on the rebound uses the interwebs to find a hook-up for the night and then gets trapped in his place by a massive snowstorm that they both didn't know was coming or even that it had happened until after the inevitable morning-after spat -- so was I. I think they patch it up in the end and go on to live happily ever after, or at least as long as whatever qualifies as 'ever after' in the Manhattan singles scene today, but I wasn't around for that part. I found a surprising dearth of good movies with 'Two' in the title.

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Based on recent ST results, they'll go 0-162 ... and miss the playoffs.

Everything seems now to be complete with the Yax finally confirming Tanaka [u:wib7rgjo]SUNDAY[/u:wib7rgjo] 1:00 — Cards; Adam Wainwright @ Pirates; Nelson Liriano 4:00 — Blue Jays; Marcus Stroman @ Rays; Chris Archer 8:30 — Mets; Matt Harvey @ Royals; Edinson Volquez [u:wib7rgjo]MONDAY[/u:wib7rgjo] 1:00 — Astros; Dallas Keuchel — @ Yanx; Masahiro Tanaka 2:00 — Giants; Madison Bumgarner @ Brewers; Wily Peralta 3:00 — Twins; Ervin Santana @ Orioles; Chris Tillman 4:00 — Mariners; Felix Hernandez @ Rangers; Cole Hamels 4:00 — Red Sox; David Price @ Indians; Corey Kluber 4:00 — Phillies; Jeremy Hellickson @ Reds; Raisel Iglesias 4:00 — Nationals; Max Scherzer @ Braves; Julio Teheran 7:00 — Dodgers; Clayton Kershaw @ Padres; Tyson Ross 9:40 — Rockies; De La Rosa @ DBacks; Zack Greinke 10:00 — Cubs; Jake Arrieta @ Angels; Garrett Richards 10:00 — White Sox; Chris Sale @ A’s; Sonny Gray [u:wib7rgjo]TUESDAY[/u:wib7rgjo] 7:00 — Tigers; Justin Verlander @ Marlins; Wei-Yin Chen

[fimg=270:1q2hmlti]https://www.movieposter.com/posters/archive/main/75/MPW-37799[/fimg:1q2hmlti]

Name the first Met of 2016 to: 1. Reach base safely Duda 2. Get a hit Walker 3. Draw a walk Duda 4. Hit a double Walker 5. Hit a triple Granderson 6. Hit a home run dArnaud 7. Steal second base -- No one all year ... but since I have to pick someone ... Granderson 8. Reach by error Cespedes 9. Hit a grounds-rule double Flores 10. Score a run Wright 11. Drive in a run d'Arnaud 12. Get hit by a pitch Walker 13. Drive in more than one run in a single plate appearance Cespedes 14. Hit into a double play Wright 15. Get caught stealing OR picked off base -- Murphy ... Sorry, habit. How 'bout De Aza 16. Strike out as a batter Granderson 17. Bunt for a base hit Duda 18. Get tagged out at home Conforto 19. Pinch hit De Aza 20. Be pinch-hit for Harvey 21. Commit an error Walker 22. Play a batted ball by an opponent in fair territory Walker 23. Be called on to relieve Reed 24. Strike out 6 or more batters in the same game Syndergaard 25. Hit an opposing batter with a pitch Matz 26. Blow a save opportunity Reed 27. Get credited with a hold Robles 28. Strike out the side deGrom 29. Get a save Familia 30. Pitcher to get a base hit deGrom Bonus tiebreaker: Name the date when Terry Collins gets ejected for the first time, closest to actual date wins -- August 3rd

Citing a "lack of cooperation" from the wife/alleged victim, prosecutors in Maui have dropped the criminal charges against Jose Reyes. Now MLB is free to rule having put off a decision until the legal process played itself out. With Yanx reliever Chapman getting 30 games for an incident which didn't result in charges, you'd have to figure that 30 would be the starting point in this case. On the other hand one could argue that at least there was no gunfire involved in this one.

Stop being a dope. Nimmo is a just-turned 23 y/o prospect who, while being 2.5 years younger than his peers while in AA and nearly 5 years younger on average to his AAA teammates, was putting up 360+ OBAs in 2015 No one is promised a super-star from each draft choice -- even from 1st round picks -- nor has it been written yet that his chances at a big league career are over. deGrom's age 22 season consisted of his first six starts in pro baseball, all at Kingsport in the Appalachian Rookie League, which was followed by him going on to miss the next 1+ years with elbow surgery. Daniel Murphy at that same age was in A-ball, as was Granderson while Harvey was putting up a 4.50 ERA in AA Stop thinking everyone not on the Harper/Trout timeline is some kind of miserable failure.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Character race a la sausages/presidents between innings but with cars (yellow taxi, cop car, firetruck) Ugh!

Another bad outing from Familia: 5 runs (3 earned) on 2 hits & 2 BBs and 2 errors (including one of his own) in just 2/3 IP Only Robles comes out with any glory.

And now it's 7-0 thru 6 courtesy of three Nats HRs all with men on Mets = 5 singles and a double

So all the clever folks at FOX figure that making this a 5:15 PDT start time instead of 4:00 is going to entice a whole lot more west coast dudes to plop themselves in front of a TV set, on a Saturday afternoon in June no less, for an out of town baseball game from back east. Yeah sure, whatever.

Two IPs for Harvey - which included a single-walk-HR combo (Ryan Zimmerman) in the 1st Syndergaard now on the mound. 3-0 in the 3rd

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Just really giving the full season schedule a thorough look now ... 13 Saturday home games this season: 11 night games* (including the very first week on 4/9) plus two 4 PM games The 1 o'clock Saturday start time is officially dead, even on potentially cold weather days (early April, late September). At least there's not the indignity, such as has happened in some years, of an off day on Memorial Day and/or Labor Day. Both Memorial Day & July 4 (Mondays each) are home games and day games. Labor Day Monday also a day game but in Cincy. * including (at least according to the sked I'm seeing) an 8:15 start time vs Atlanta on June 18 Whatsupwitzat?