Frayed Knot

Verrett - 3.2 Robles - 0.6 Reed - 0.6 Familia - 0.6 d'Arnaud - 2.0 Cespedes - 1.5 Wrignt - 1.5

Isn't it good that we missed Jose Fernandez in this series (not to mention the whole year)? Otherwise we might have been shut out or something.

Does Dee Gordon ever hit a ball AT anyone? I mean it's bad enough that he's smacked us around all year, but even when he hits little pieces o' shit they dribble into a hole somewhere.

Gotta go for the brass ring while it's there. I understand that there's a difference in attitude between a year where you thought you they could win it all along and winning in a year where much less was expected going in (or even in late July). But I also remember too many Met fans after the 2006 loss saying some version of; 'Ahh, it's OK, because the future is all blue skies and clear roads from here'. Yeah, how'd that work out? Or ask Nats fans how their feeling of; 'Well it was fun just to be here' sounds now that the window on that particular core group of players looks to be closing [Desmond - Gone!, Zimmermann - Gone!; Span - Gone!, etc.]. One earlier than expected division run for an up and coming team (sound familiar? - wasn't it 2016 that was to be "our year") followed by three seasons of being a prohibitive favorite led to two first-round exits and two years of missing the playoffs altogether.

Syndergaard - 4.1 Familia - 0.6 Murphy - 1.5 d'Arnaud - 1.5 Cespedes - 1.5 Wright - 0.8

Matz - 3.0 Goeddel - 0.5 Reed - 0.5 Clippard - 0.4 Familia - 0.4 Cespedes - 2.3 Granderson - 1.5 Murphy - 0.7 Conforto - 0.7

And yet more first-pitch swinging by d'Arnaud with bad results.

At first they were mostly seeing eye hits. But the last inning or two the Marlins having really been smacking the ball around, and when you consider that 3 of the 15 outs deGrom has gotten tonight have been not his doing but have been outs on the base paths (2 CS plus Bour thrown out just now trying to advance) in some ways this night is even worse than it looks.

I was thinking recently how this season most closely resembles 1969 in that the team that was on top much of the year faded in the end to the point where there was little drama by the final games. The '69 Cubs were a better team than this year's Nats and meaning the Mets had more ground to make up and so by Game 144 (where we are now) had taken over 1st place only days earlier and were just 2.5 ahead. 19692015Record after 144 games87 - 5783 - 61Games Ahead+ 2.5+ 9.5Streak as of gm 1449 Straight Wins en route to 108 Straight and counting---Season finished w/2 vs CHISeason ends w/3 vs WASFinal Margin+8 Games??? In fact Games 143 & 144 that year were the two famous 1-0 victories in a DH vs Pittsburgh where the pitcher drove in the run in each. In the first, Koosman's 1-out single drove in Bobby Pfeil in the 4th as Kooz went on to hurl a 3-hit CG Game two saw Don Cardwell single in Harrelson in the 2nd. He threw 8 innings of 4 hit ball w/help from McGraw in the 9th

Elster88 wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: Priorities for the remainder of the regular season (in order of importance, not time) 1) Clinch Division 2) Put a major hurting on the Yanx this weekend - hopefully to the point where it kills the division for them and puts the WC in jeopardy 3) Finish ahead of Dodgers 4) Try and catch the NL Central Winner The Yankee hatred is strong with this one. I have the Yankee-hurtin as a distant fourth on the priority chart. Yankee hatred is in my blood. That sweeping them would help us accomplish all the other goals on that list is a nice side effect.

Priorities for the remainder of the regular season (in order of importance, not time) 1) Clinch Division 2) Put a major hurting on the Yanx this weekend - hopefully to the point where it kills the division for them and puts the WC in jeopardy 3) Finish ahead of Dodgers 4) Try and catch the NL Central Winner

This just in: Cespedes has been named NL Player of the Week for next week. lololollol Stole that one from old Ch 11 sportscaster Jerry Girard who used the line with Wayne Gretzsky a whole buncha years ago. Michael Fulmer is a promising pitcher -- as any 1S round pick should be (44th overall in 2011 out of HS in Oklahoma) who got off to good enough years in '11-'13 to land him on the back of BA's top-100 by 2013 (98th to be precise). But then he stumbled badly in 2014 and injuries limited to 20 starts and also a 5.31 ERA mostly at high-A PSL. 2015 was a significant bounce-back year for him as he went 10-3, 2.24 over 22 starts in AA with all his numbers going in the right direction. I expect he'll be on the prospect lists next year, probably even top-50, which is a nice place to be for a guy who won't turn 23 until next spring, but of course it's also that bounce-back which made him good enough bait to land Cespedes without touching anyone from the big club. But he's still just a prospect and hardly a guaranteed stud (and remember the saying about pitching prospects - TINSTAAPP) at a position where we're strongest - so I make this move ten times out of ten even without the guarantee of Cespedes beyond the rest-e-dis year. And if Fulmer beats the odds and becomes an ace in the next couple of years, well then we're just going to have to live with it.

Brief NYM David Aardsma writes about his most recent experience in baseball limbo.

This just in: Cespedes has been named NL Player of the Week for next week.

If nothing else, 9.5 with 18 remaining is a better cushion than 7 with 17 -- as is not having any potential crushing head-to-head sweeps until it's almost certainly going to be too late to matter. In 2007 that 7/17 lead following a Wednesday game against the Braves was, by Sunday afternoon, down to a much more precarious 3.5/14 after an off-day where the Phils won then the three game sweep by the Phils.

Somehow I get the feeling that Jeff's "Go for it" in this case won't become the stuff of legend in the same way that Doubleday's supposed pep talk (do we actually know what was said and to whom?) to go out and get Piazza has to some fans.

Prince Fielder's 2R HR in the 8th beats the Astros and brings the Rangers to within 1/2 game in the AL West and allows them to keep pace with the Yanx for the #1 WC spot (-3.0) Meanwhile the Angels were getting thumped by the Mariners just one day after their 9th inning meltdown in Houston. All of which drops them to 4.5 back, behind two teams, and having to face King Felix tonight in Seattle. In addition to the continuation of the Texas shoot-out, the big game(s) today is a Pitt-v-Cubs Day/Night DH Am definitely pulling for Pitt since they're closer to the Cards (-2.5) and I'd love to see them Birds knocked off their perch. Chicago wins are essentially StL wins at this point.

Lefty Specialist wrote: Of course, if they lose tonight, won't it jump forward by a rather depressing 8 1/2 years? Sure, but we're facing Tom Koehler tonight for Pete's sake.

Fister amazingly hasn't even been in a game since Sept 1st. Talk about a guy who fell out of favor with that team. I think it's safe to say that the Nats aren't going to be anxious to re-sign him this winter. And the Nats win it ... so we'll sleep on number 10 this evening.

[fimg=350:3qckp057]http://www.smh.com.au/ffxImage/urlpicture_id_1019020676887_2002/04/18/19entderek.jpg[/fimg:3qckp057]

Jayson Werth's 2nd HR of the day in top 9 puts the Nats ahead 7-6 Then Papelbon protected the lead for exactly zero batters as a leadoff HR by Freddie Friction' Galvis in the bottom half ties it up again. There aren't that many people in [insert bank name here] stadium tonight, but the ones that are there are providing a fair share of 'You Suck Papelbon' chants.

Benitez's records are more impressive though considering that he never saved any games after mid-August ... or so I've heard.

Ellsbury is the correct answer. Yaqui fans (and probably mgmt) are starting to grumble more than a little bit as he's like 2 for his last 50 and has yet to have an extra-base in September. And even his downward trend has a downward trend to it [1st half 2015 OPS = 775; 2nd half = 575] But, no big deal, there's only $110 million or so left on his deal [5 x $21.14 + $5 mil buyout or a 6th year] and it's not like base-stealing/ball-hawking CFs are susceptible to losing those skills with age or anything. Oh wait!

I'm happy to give credit to Alderson for doing a great job since then, but I stand by my position that the front office deserved criticism. Maybe he had set up all the pieces and was just waiting for the right moment to pounce. That may actually not be too far off. Not the part about having all the pieces lined up (after all, we know the situation was certainly fluid right up until the deadline itself - ask Wilmer about it, he'll tell you) but that at a time when many were screaming at him to do some deal he had the patience to wait for the right deal and knew that what road he took would depend on various factors including what I assume would have been a very different course had the Nationals caught fire in May and ran away with the division as was widely predicted. Bottom Line: What this season shows is that rooting for roof collapses because you think it'll shake things up on the mgmt and/or ownership level (like they don't know the situation as well as we do) is rarely a good idea because as much as we like to think we know what's going to happen, we don't. I remember NY Giants fans from a bunch of years ago rooting for late season losses because, at best, making the playoffs would result in a one and out situation plus it would improve their draft position for a team that so obviously had the wrong quarterback and the wrong coach to ever win. That was the season of the first of Manning & Coughlin's Super Bowl wins.

Can you name the player based on the following stats? YEARAGEGAMESOPSSB2008241457295020092515377070201026184857201127158928392012287468214201329134781522014301497473920153193+66618 As you can see, said player has missed significant chunks of three seasons now over the most recent six. But he will also be dining out off of the one terrific year he did have (#2 in MVP race) to the tune of over $20 mil per year through the 2020 season despite showing no signs of repeating it any time soon and actually looks to be very much trending the other way. The odd part is that he didn't get the big deal until two full years after his one big season. He turned 32 y/o this past weekend. No real point here except perhaps as a cautionary tale of paying players off a good season and expecting it to be repeated throughout his 30s (OK so maybe there's a small point even if the one doesn't necessarily parallel the other).