Edgy MD

It's hard to argue who goes out when three fifths of the rotation is failing. Three and half, to be more fair. But yeah, McHugh is there to take somebody's job.

His team needed a pinch-hitter though. If he's going to plead to the trainer for a pass, that's going to undermine the rest of the team, no? Terry could have had the foresight to offer him a pass up front on his on his own terms, for his own inscrutable reasons, I'll concede. Send up Baxter or some righthander, but it might have been too obvious. Maybe it's sort of like the Mongkut in Anna and the King. The king wants to spare the life of the rebellious concubine, but once Anna lobbies him to do just that, he has to kill the girl instead, to demonstrate that rule is his and his alone, and he isn't weak enough to be influenced by womanly appeals. Yeah, I'm going with that. Gary's position was that Valdespin's celebration was as much (or more of) an insult to his Metly teammates than to the Pirates. You'd conclude from that position that his teammates supported Terry sending him out to get his rawhide medicine.

Let's clear this up. Surely somebody here can give Lagares a ride home.

I wouldn't even call it a side effect, but an effect. Another effect (symptom) is disorientation.

Here we go.. GREG PRON! He's a Darryllian 6'6" and 195 (which was about where Straw was when he came up. Greg put up a nice show in Kingsport in 2011 as a rookie (.318 / .389 /.493 // .882) with seven homers and 34 RBI in only 58 games. He followed that up with an utterly punchless 2012 for Savannah. Repeating Savannah this year, he's bit the big one so far. Get Jim Frey down there to tutor Greg while he's still available to us. He bats righthanded, but maybe that's what he's doing wrong!\. Somebody adopt this guy while there's still time!

I don't think that's a model scouts go for as much any more. More copact body/swing (like Wright) is a more valued model these days. Too much strike zone, too many moving parts, too much mechanically to maintain, they would say. On the other hand, Wright strikes out pretty much as often as Darryl ever did, so... I'm trying, just for gigglies, to think what the Mets got in terms of tall and lithe that they can try and pour all their developmental alchemy into. Cory Vaughn is a few inches shorter, a few pounds bulkier. I think Brandon Nimmo is our main hope here.

I would say the solid blue tops and side piping do more than their share of detracting. And, of course, the business side of Cangelosi includes the much derided underscore/swoosh.

I wonder who has the better success rate --- batters converting to pitchers or pitchers converting to batters. Going on a black/white binary basis --- did he succeed (become a big league starter) or not --- I wouldn't know which side to bet on. Going on a net-success basis, I think it would have have to be pitchers converting to hitters, just because Babe Ruth would swing the data on all on his own.

Right clavicle? That's too close to the Johan zone for my comfort. I'll not sleep well tonight.

Oh, I noticed that. I feel like I was close on this. Then life happened.

Good update. Congratulations to current leader Ashie62.

names that come to mind (some played more than others): Sure, but the key is that, in the midst of an offensive drought, he suddenly becomes an everyday player. In midsummer 2001, he was playing a different position every day, but he was playing, because we were getting fallback years from virtually everybody in the lineup. He got a lot of PT in 2003 also, but that was more about injuries --- and eventually unloading other veterans --- than ineptitude. I was trying to distinguish utility guys who fell into an everyday role from utility guys full-stop.

Bryce Harper runs like a maniac into the Dodger stadium wall. Comes away bleeding and disoriented. Nats sit him --- attributing his absence to nausea --- but all involved insist he's got no concussion. Expected to sit today also.

Rod's a good precedent --- a utiltiy player overused by a team that isn't hitting enough --- except he differs from those guys in that what he brought to the table 1. He was fresh and nu himself, not an established vet. 2. Rather than having the moral veteranny skills of heart, and grit, and knowshowtoplaythegame, and knowswhat'sexpectedofhim, and leadership, but lacking the youthful athletic skils, he was the exact opposite. He was a great athlete utterly lacking in refinement in his baseball skills. He may have been white, but he was definitely more Valdespin than Turner. And even if he failed, it was a credit to Stengel that he tried to make a big league ballplayer out of him, against the wishes of his GM.

Interestingly, six months later, the Mets traded a top draft choice of their own --- 1983's #4 overall Eddie Williams --- for Bruce Berenyi, and nary a peep of protest was sounded if I remember right. Jay Tibbs wnet in that deal too. Not everything Cashen touched turned to gold back then. Sure felt that way for a bit, though.

Lucie had a one-hitter today courtesy of Matt Bowmand T.J. Chism. Bowman went seven, allowing one hit and one walk while striking out nine. Chism finished up with two perfect innings, striking out three more. Batting third for the Lucies and collecting two hits was shortstop Bandon Hicks. Don't know if it's a rehab assignment or he actually landed down there.

Oh yeah, load up.

Terry's got the George Bamberger thing happening. I think he cares more than we can see. And he's barely. Got. A lid. On himself. It should be a ticket promotion. Get out to the park! You'd hate to not be there the night Terry exploded!

I had even heard of Fernandez and understood him to be the next Valenzuela in the Dodger talent pike. If we had the level of publicity now of minor league prospects, and the implied promise that they represented to fans, I imagine that Dodger faithful would have been infuriated by dealing him for two useful if relatively commonplace veterans. Could it nonetheless happen in latter days? I know a team who twice in recent years dealt a top prospect/top draft choice before the bloom was off of them. Name Kazmir and Milledge. Really interesting is that Sid went 6-5/2.45 for Tidewater in 1984 and got called up and went 6-6/3.50 with the Mets. You'd figure that he'd established that he belongs, but they farmed him out to start 1985, so apparently they had concerns too. Fun fact: Fernandez's first manager for the Pioneer League Lethbridge Dodgers was Gary LaRocque, who would eventually follow Sid over to the Mets system and climb as high as director of amateur scouting under Steve Phillips. His manager his second year at Vero Beach and the following year at San Antonio? Terry Collins.

Turning Bailor and his all-around intangible baseballiness playthegamerightiness, along with usefulmiddlereliveriness of Carlos Diaz into Sid Fernandez had to be one of the more underappreciated pieces of alchemy in Frank Cashen history.

Alternative title: "White Guy, White Flag."

Redbird announcers telling a story of a young Keith Hernandez pinch hitting and when Schoendeist wanted to send him back out for defense in the top of the next inning, found Hernandez in the shower. He chased Hernandez out of the shower and sent him out there untowelled to play first, shampoo still in his hair. A teammate-skills faux pas of Jordanian proportions.

Zvon wrote: This game is already a joke, huh? No, but few things gut my gourd like players advancing to uncovered bases, and now we see it twice in two games. I sometimes put myself to sleep imagining rotations and who is covering where and who is backing up. With nine defenders, there's usually enough players to cover four bases, and certainly enough to cover the lead one.

Can we come up with infield rotations where bases are generally covered, more or less?

Zvon wrote: That interview with Red was great. He's still sharp as a tack. I'm getting the Cardinal feed. Who was interviewed? Schoendeist? Garrett? Richie Cunningham?