Edgy MD

With Bruce out of the lineup tonight, Terry shifts Neil Walker, over Conforto, to the third slot in the batting order. It seems clear that, after last season, Terry fears that moving his big hitter in the lineup to the place where big hitters hit would only rock the boat of the young slugger's psyche. The problem is that, in fearing to move him even for one night, Terry psychologically reinforces the idea that his productivity is rooted to his batting order position. It's about mindset. How about batting Conforto third once this week, twice the next week, etc.? Let him slowly get used to the oxygen level in the three hole.

Bruce to the bench still doesn't get Conforto in the three-hole.

That staff got all kefuffuled from a bunch of rainouts. Humphreys was dazzling in Game One, though. Seven-inning complete game shutout, giving up four hits and a walk, striking out 10. He's 7-1!

That booger isn't going to pick itself, kid. (Also, what maniac designed that number font?)

seawolf17 wrote: Edgy MD wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: And Ronnie is a little bit right about the Hawaiian alphabet. Their language was strictly oral until the mostly New England missionaries came visiting and decided that the natives would be better off having their lives run for them. Then, encouraged to develop a written language, native speakers were supervised into creating one from scratch and in doing so decided that 16 letters were all they needed to cover all the sounds in their speech. Oh, yeah, I agree. It was his turning it into a punchline (that fell flat) that was goofy. I thought he was on a roll. Come on, their making fun of X ("It's xylophone. It's always xylophone, unless it's x-ray, but that's kind of not a word.") was awesome. Yeah, I know, but he really baited-and-switched me. He was making this really good point about cultural imperialism, and they he lands with a fake complaint of "And then they stole 14 letters from us." It was a deft fakeout, but I was getting excited listening to him talk some powerful social theory shit to me. I was finally getting the full-on Yalie treatment IN MY FACE from Ronnie. He was touching on post-colonial theory, ideological imperialism, de-linguicization ... and then he turns it all into a Harvard Lampoon punchline. We get satire everywhere. Wouldn't it be great to get a controversy-courtin' social theory treatise from Ron every now and then? Why should Keith be the only high-risk broadcaster in the booth?

Charlie Rubin, currently working on a film adaptation of Veeck — As in Wreck.

RA and Tim are accomplished big-league starting pitchers. Only one problem—they can't get any respect! You see, these two lovable slackers didn't make their names in the big leagues with blazing speed or a devastating breaking pitch. They made it with the knuckleball—a gimmick pitch. Will they be able to convince the world that their pitch, their accomplishments, and their big league legacies are as viable as anybody's? [fimg=475:1niz8al0]http://www.impawards.com/2012/posters/knuckleball_xlg.jpg[/fimg:1niz8al0]

Ceetar wrote: Good day to play José Reyes in center. TJ Third, Flores short? I guess. Or TJ at short. Or Reynolds at short. Ceetar wrote: I hate that the Mets punt defense this aggressively. Agreed, but Reynolds at short wouldn't be punting, and given a little time, Reyes would probably give you at least as much in center as Granderson. Ceetar wrote: Though you have to do Lagares in Center and Reyes in right... Unless you do Reyes in center and Bruce Magoose in right. Ceetar wrote: I'd just play Granderson, 0/17 is extremely small sample. I don't know. Maybe, but I'm holding it side-by-side with his 24-for-145 this season.

Good day to play José Reyes in center.

I'm not sure when, but yeah, that Nimmo window is closin'.

Not for nothing, but maybe, as folks are advocating for Harvey to go down and work his act out against AAA competition, that's pretty much what he got last night against the Padres. And speaking of playing against AAA in the majors. I want to see Nimmo getting Granderson's playing time yesterday. He may only just be pulling out of a tailspin (and went 0-4 last night), but that's more than Grandy is doing, and the outfield is going to get real crowded again if and when Céspedes comes back.

Assuming that Freeman will sadly soon be failing to qualify, Michael Conforto suddenly finds himself just .002 off of the league's OPS lead. 1) Freeman (ATL): 1.209 2) Harper (WSH): 1.140 3) Zimmerman (WSH): 1.139 4) Conforto (NYM): 1.138 5) Thames (MIL): 1.099 6) Goldschmidt (ARI): 1.028 7) Votto (CIN): 1.022 8) Posey (SF): 1.008 9) Kemp (ATL): .992 10) Cozart (CIN): .992

One day at a time, man. My goal for Conforto is that he wakes up without a hairline fracture where that ball hit him.

Well, Harvey may not be impressively back in form, but it'd be nice if Salas is.

Congratulations to the Padres for grabbing a crappy starter off waivers in Brad Hand and turning him into a good reliever. Man, the Mets used to beat him around in Miami.

Frayed Knot wrote: Yes on Tyler / Kirby And Ronnie is a little bit right about the Hawaiian alphabet. Their language was strictly oral until the mostly New England missionaries came visiting and decided that the natives would be better off having their lives run for them. Then, encouraged to develop a written language, native speakers were supervised into creating one from scratch and in doing so decided that 16 letters were all they needed to cover all the sounds in their speech. Oh, yeah, I agree. It was his turning it into a punchline (that fell flat) that was goofy. I thought he was on a roll.

I thought Ron was talking some serious social theory and he was making a weak-o joke. Is Kirby Yates Tyler Yates' brother or something? Is that why they're talking Hawai'i?

Nice to see some tack-on. I was afraid this flooded basement performance of Harvey's was ruining all their mo.

Well, that was about as ugly as a shutout inning can be.

If anything, the ump and Padre hitters are helping him.

Man, he's still not finishing. He's aiming his pitches.

And he walks him. Best Matthew Broderick baseball connection: He received batting instruction from Charlie Lau in Max Dugan Returns.

Looks like the ump gave Matt a strike on Ball Four again.

And Harvey comes out and walks a .160 hitter on four pitches.

I think we have another blown call at first. Shoulda challenged. I suspect Terry is just being gracious.