Frayed Knot

Gwreck wrote: Out of town scoreboard: Diamondbacks have dropped 4 on the Dodgers in the first inning And now four more in the second. Whoops, I meant six ... and still batting. Deadline pickup and former Brave Alex Wood taking the lumps (and not lasting the 2nd).

Doesn't hurt in the RBI department for Cespedes that Granderson has been on base 19 times in the last 8 games (including tonight)

This just isn't explainable much less believable.

Edgy MD wrote: Great job, Clippard. You made your daddy proud. Thanks for Tyler Clippard, jerks. Geez. You wonder what it was about his 5.8 hits/9 w/Oakland this season and his sub-3.00 ERA those fans found so annoying. OK, he walked too many (4.9/9) but still ... I suspect part of the problem is that Oakland lost so many close games early in the season that one could convince themselves that every run allowed, especially late, was a HUGE run that decided a game and therefore was unforgivable.

We gotta quit hitting it to Simmons. Can't we just roll one to Dan Uggla instead every once in a while? (oh wait, we can't ... he was too busy making the last out in the Nats game tonight).

Wild pitches and balks. This is like our first-half offense going tonight.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Braves announcers said there was some controversy in New York when the Mets gave number 32 to Steven Matz. It was apparently too much pressure to put on a left-handed Jewish pitcher. I have no memory of that. And I knew Matz was left-handed, but I didn't know he was Jewish. Aren't all NYers Jewish?

Nats lose ... Thaaaaaaaa Nats lose!!

Jays jumped all over Severino for 5 in the 1st inning. But then Toronto pulled Price after 5 with a 9-2, which then quickly turned into a 9-5 lead courtesy of LaTroy Hawkins. Nearly 3 hours in and they're only to the top of the 7th there. oe: but Russell Martin's 2nd HR of the day makes it 11-5 and hopefully puts an idea of a comeback to bed

Edgy MD wrote: I saw a Teixeira shirt in the crowd (or "crowd") on TV last night. I had completely forgotten that he was a Brave. I had to check baseball-reference. So, who's on first? A-Rod or Bird? Bird. He's been doing a decent job so far and, besides, I think the team took away ARod's glove and hid it. oe: ARod has played 6 games in the field this season, starting just 3 (2 at 3B, 1 at 1B) for a total of 27-1/3 innings. 2 assists, 1 error

sharpie wrote: Mets-Toronto would pit the biggest city in the US vs. the biggest city in Canada. And in one city people can take the A train while in the other they take the train, ay.

Teixeira joins Nathan Eovaldi in the Yanx missing the rest of the season category. That means full time work for recent call-up Greg Bird. Their other recent call-up Luis Severino faces David Price tonight in the first of four games vs Blue Jays. Other race games this weekend: Astros @ Angels; Dodgers @ Arizona; Cubs @ Phils x2; Pirates host Brewers, Rangers host Oakland The AL WC race is a train wreck so I don't even want to try and figure that one out.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Muffy hasn't had a hit since coming back I don't think. Maybe he shouldn't be 3rd in the order. Oh for his last 14 He'll always go outside the strike zone as we all know, but he's being doing more of it lately particularly on inside stuff that he can't possibly keep fair even when he does catch up to it.

Even the guys who were once good (Swisher & Bourn) or were briefly good (Simmons) aren't very good right now. And even Markakis, whose average or OBP are still decent, has gone from 15 HRs/yr to just 2 this season. Part of that is probably missing Camden but part might just be landing on the wrong side of 30.

Markakis, RF Castro, 2B Freeman, 1B Garcia, 3B Swisher, LF Simmons, SS Bethancourt, C Bourn, CF Wisler, P Changes from last night: - Regular 2B Jace Peterson sits because he's obviously fraidy-scared of LHPs. Daniel Castro is a 22 y/o rookie out of Mexico w/43 ML ABs to date. - Adonis Garcia PH'd last night after most of us were no longer paying close attention. He's a 30 y/o Cuban who was signed by the Yanx 3 years ago then released this April before ever reaching the bigs. The Braves picked up off the scrap heap then called him up in mid-season. Looks to have decent power but there are home-bound fat people you read about every once in a while who walk more than he does. - Bethancourt in for Piersynzky. Supposedly better defensively but they've been disappointed with him all around this year.

Nope. Looks like Cosart, the return of Jose Fernandez (who the Nats should see twice in the next week) and then Brad Hand on Sunday (vs Gonzalez, Roark, and the once good but no longer, Max Scherzer) So no Koehler which means at least there will be no give-away games.

Colon - 4.5 Alvarez - 0.4 Reed - 0.2 Plawecki - 2.0 Uribe - 2.0 Flores - 0.3 Johnson - 0.4 Granderson - 0.2

Aiming for a 9:30 start time

Also getting the day off today (assuming that everyone doesn't) Familia, Clippard, and also Robles who is back home for family reasons.

Markakis, RF -- OK we know who he is Olivera, 3B -- Cuban born player that got a big bonus from the Dodgers but who got shipped to the Braves in a July 31st trade. Dodgers [u:3ngakl0d]paid the entire $30 million bonus[/u:3ngakl0d] despite him never playing a game for them. He may or may not be 30 y/o Freeman, 1B -- we know who he is Pierzynski, C -- has been getting the majority of the plate time despite being signed as a stop-gap Swisher, LF -- recently [crossout:3ngakl0d]dumped on[/crossout:3ngakl0d] traded to Atlanta, has two more years on his contract after this one Peterson, 2B -- their everyday guy now Simmons, SS -- yeah, we know him too Bourn, CF -- second tour w/Atlanta. Remember when the Wilpons were cheap-ass bastards for not signing him to a FA deal AND giving up the Conforto draft pick? Miller, P -- usually pitches well, never wins. Last won shortly after Jerry Blevins last won.

Not quite as starter-depleted as some of the rumors made it seem like Terry might do. Basically Wright sits, d'Arnaud sits, and Muffy sits. And it might rain anyway, or at least be delayed.

This talk of favorites reminds me that Bucket and I were talking a couple weeks ago about this current Yanx team and wondering if there are ANY players on the current team that the fans like. McCann? -- Eh. He was getting trashed a year ago although probably less so now that he's having a better year. But I've noticed that YLDBs tend to not like low-BA guys despite high walk & power ability. Plus he's fat & bald & aging & shaky defensively and is signed through 2019 Teixeira? -- Again a better season takes some of the heat off. But this guy was public enemy #1 last year and is a bit of a cranky a-hole. But at least he's old & expensive. Drew? -- Need we even discuss him? He sucked last year for them, so this year he was re-signed so as to re-suck. Gregorious -- Is likely slowly becoming popular after a very rough start both offensively & defensively. Headley? -- I suspect they barely care enough about him to form an opinion one way or the other. Ellsbury? -- Too injured, not good enough to justify the contract, and will forever have the smell of Boston on him. Beltran? -- I doubt he's hated by many, but they're getting him in his dotage baseball-wise. And do I even need to bring up the DH? Sabathia?, Pineda?, Eovaldi?: Fat, old, injured, pine-tar, erratic (and now also injured). Maybe Tanaka has some good will but I suspect they're on tippy-toes with him, not dis-liking him but also afraid to fall in love for fear of getting burned. So that leaves, who exactly, Gardner & Bettances (although, really, how much can you love a set-up man?) because they're home-grown and don't suck, and now probably this new kid Bird although he wasn't even up yet when we had this conversation and he's blocked by Teixeira at the only position he can play until Trump is running for his second term (or for his life depending on how things go). And now this all comes amid last night's attendance reportedly being the lowest ever in YSIII history and the lowest home game since like 2004 -- and this is during a September pennant race!! Not that 30K as your lowest (reported even if not actual) attendance is bad but it's certainly not what they're used to or budgeted for.

When your team is in the midst of a race it's easy to lose sight of what else is going on in the rest of the league (the 1986 ALCS was great but few in NYC-area know that). But there is some fun stuff going on elsewhere. NL Central: Cards still have MLB's best record but they just lost 2 of 3 to the Cubs and they are less secure on their perch than we are in ours. They've got a 4.5 game lead on the Pirates and 7.5 on the Cubs. Of the two losers in that race still have the WC to fall back on but the new rules make that poor substitute for winning the division. Cards have one series left with each team. Pitt & Cubs have two against each other. NL West: Dodgers have just about sewn up (8.5 game lead) due as much to the Giants falling apart (7-14) as it is to their own hot streak (13-3) 4 head-to-head remain in SF but not until the penultimate series of the year AL East: Jays (26-9 since Aug 1) with a 1.5 game lead heading into a 4-game series in da Bronx with three more next week in Toron'o The loser here still has a leg up on the 1st WC slot but not a guaranteed one so if this turns into a rout (especially for you know who) the rout-ee risks an early vacation. AL Central: Boooooorrrrrrring. Royals with the best record in the AL (by 4 games) and an 11 game lead over 2nd place Minnesota (yes, Minnesota). And how about those last place Tigers? AL West: Maybe the most fun race anywhere as it's coming down to a Texas shoot-out (just what Bud Selig wanted when he strong-armed the Astros to the AL) The ready before anyone expected Astros have a 2-game lead on the Rangers who might be even a bigger surprise given all their early season injuries. Also the Angels are hanging around the fringes - 5.5 behind Houston, 3.5 in back of Texas And Houston has 13 of their next 16 games against those 2 teams starting in Anaheim tomorrow

[u:38q8r0iw]Mini KTE[/u:38q8r0iw] Q: Who's on Atlanta right now? A: I have no idea That's all.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: d'Arnaud is a friggin star. Look at his numbers! From earlier in the thread: d'Arnaud HRs this year projected to 500 ABs = 31.4