Frayed Knot

Gwreck wrote: At least the Giants are continuing to help. 6-2 San Francisco in the third; they just knocked Gio Gonzalez out of the game after giving Scherzer an early exit last night. The Nats have a 'Fortune 500' pitching staff: they cost a fortune and they're about to drop to .500

The difference here is that they're making contact while we're striking out 2 or 3 times per/inning.

One of these days Keith is going to actually listen to Gary before speaking. The number of times he says the exact thing that Gary just said seconds earlier is amazing.

Pitcher's spot will come up in the order this inning.

And we're headed for the 12th.

Joe Blanton was part of the famed 'Moneybag' draft. (22nd pick overall) Hasn't exactly been what Beane & Co. hoped, but 2015 is his 11th year in the majors.

I hope this Mr. Hughes isn't wearing Dillon's shoes.

When HRs reign on Morton, they pour. and ya gotta be old to get that reference

I'm thinking there were more than a few HS girls who are kicking themselves now for ignoring "that nerdy creep" back in sophomore year.

We're suddenly back to making very mediocre pitchers look very good. I count two hard-hit balls so far: Cespedes's single and Uribe's line-out. Other than that it's a bunch of K's plus the occasional weak grounder. Meanwhile, our pitchers have picked up a nasty habit of serving up 1st inning HRs.

[fimg=500:dbah2hrv]http://cdn.barstoolsports.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Screen-Shot-2015-05-12-at-9.22.18-AM.png?b175c1[/fimg:dbah2hrv] 10th grade

... that the Beatles played a show at Shea

Well then here's some advice for Clip-Art if he wants to go more than one inning: Don't walk the leadoff hitter ... especially when it's a .218 hitter who has been released twice in the last three weeks. Such actions have a tendency to lead towards high-stress 20-pitch innings. I mean the K of McCutcheon was nice and all but better yet not to put yourself into having to walk that tightrope and I think it's possible that Terry might have been more apt to go a 2nd frame w/Clippard had he spun a 1-2-3 12-pitch inning instead. Plus maybe the pace at which he works made Terry think he had already thrown two innings. As for Familia, he was PH'd for in a perfectly logical move with 2 outs and the winning run on base - so unless you're going to double-switch for him in advance ...

Disappointing night. Can't get one-runned by the likes of JA Happ Lagares not running immediately on Grandy's double may not have made a difference as he's probably not sent with no outs there, but it's still a minor brain fart. Cespedes has three hits including the only run we had in regulation but also had his worst ABs when the game was on the line, both early (2nd & 3rd none out) and then again late (K + not running). Not good nights for either Cuddyer & Uribe. Really hope we have a Duda sighting ma�ana.

This certainly isn't the pitching match-up where we'd thought we'd see a 1-1 score after regulation. Harvey-Cole maybe, deGrom-Liriano maybe, but not Happ/Colon.

If the Yanx want some extra pitching maybe they could pick up Joba Chamberlain who was just dropped by the Blue Jays. They had picked him up three weeks ago after the Tigers dropped him but he never pitched for them on the big league club.

I think the first question, assuming Matz returns at some point, is how much time Colon gets [u:255hqi75]in September[/u:255hqi75]. They're probably talking about going back to a six-man staff if/when Matz makes it back, but if the race comes down to an every game matters situation exactly how often to you want to put off deGrom / Harvey / Syndergaard / Matz / Niese starts in favor of Bartolo getting his turn?

The guy who's not having a particularly good year is 1B Pedro Alvarez. The NYC native and former #2 overall draft pick (2008) was moved to 1st base from 3rd because of his bad fielding, but already has 16 Errors this season which is an absurd amount for a 1st baseman in 2/3 season. Also his twin 30+ HR seasons (2012-13) have shrunk to 18 last year and 17 this. Combine that with low OBAs, a bad glove, and [u:3qhd4j2o]ONE[/u:3qhd4j2o] HR vs LHP and the Pirates are starting to platoon him, even going out and getting the well-traveled Michael Morse recently with that in mind.

d'Kong76 wrote: I'm comin' to play, be very afraid! McCutcheon is once again a legit MVP candidate even after his start this year which saw him hit just .194/.302/.333 in April But he's hit about .325 since then so, even with that start, he's now up to the superstar 300/400/500 level for the entire year -- .299/.395/.520 to be specific

Last time we saw these guys they were sweeping our butts out of their place in mid-May. At the time they were still stumbling (18-22) but used that series as their launching pad and have gone 48-24 since. At the moment, they and the Cubs look to be fighting it out to see who hosts the other in the WC game where the winner would in turn play StL. Seems odd to play an entire season to determine who�s the best team in the Central and then decide it all again via 4-6 more games - but that�s the nature of the playoff system in the WC era. Anyway, the good news is that the three pitchers we faced during that May sweep (Cole, Burnett, Liriano) won�t be toeing the slab this weekend. Cole & Liriano just pitched and Burnett is DL�d (although vows to be back before this season/his career ends). Instead we will see the exceeding average (if that) trio of: JA Happ (the LHP formerly of the Phillies, Astros, Jays & Mariners) on Friday. He�ll be making just his 2nd start for Pitt, will face Colon Charlie Morton [7-4, 4.48] on Saturday 7:10 vs Niese (LHP) Jeff Locke [6-7, 4.43] Sunday at 1:10 vs Harvey Also not appearing in your picture this weekend: 3B Josh Harrison - trade deadline pickup Aramis Ramirez was brought in the replace the injured �Jay-Hay� SS Jordy Mercer - the very hot Korean import Jung Ho Kang moves over from 3B. Reportedly he�s not the greatest SS in the world, but if you hit .379/.443/.621 like he did in July you get cut a whole lotta slack

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Jays have 12 games left with the MFYs. Gotta think this influences Cashman to get some actual starting pitchers. Still waiting for this! MFYs at Jays this weekend, this could be really freaking great. The Yanx "added" a pitcher when they brought up their best pitching prospect Luis Severino who's done reasonably well in 2 starts so far and will pitch in Sunday's game. They also just promoted 1B/OF? Greg Bird who hit the ball hard a few times while going 0-5 in his debut during their Thursday win vs Cleveland. For the first time in many years the Yanx stood pat at the deadline claiming that they didn't want to deal away any of their 'prize' prospects which included Severino, Bird, also immense (6' 7" - 275) OF prospect Aaron Judge and a couple lower level guys as well. Certainly could be a sound strategy if/when these guys are ready to contribute, but one of the problems is going to be the reaction of Yanqui fans who aren't merely hoping that a new "core four" will come up all at the same time and be All-Stars for the next 15 seasons but are expecting it to occur, as if the only obstacle to securing the next Jeter/Pettitte/Rivera/Posada was merely the front office making the decision to go out and sign them.

Ceetar wrote: That's a 7.5 game swing in the standings over the last 17 games. That sounds familiar.

Syndergaard - 2.2 Lagares - 1.0 Conforto - 1.3 Murphy - 0.8 Granderson - 1.3 Johnson - 1.8 Uribe - 0.6 Cespedes - 1.0

Centerfield wrote: 2-1 giants. Bottom 4. Nats (Yunel Escobar) HR'd on the first pitch of the game, but that's their only run and they've had just one hit since heading into the 5th. This game (Strasburg vs Vogelsong) would be a tough game for them to lose and 4.5 games behind sounds a whole lot worse than 3.5, so this one is a biggie (as they all will be from this point forward).

Fla State League 2015 Best Hitting Prospect - Michael Conforto Best Reliever - Akeel Morris Best Defensive 1st Baseman - Dom Smith Best Defensive SS - Amed Rosario Best Managerial Prospect - Luis Rojas ... or at least so says Baseball America