Edgy MD

Gary Cohen's not gonna keep reading at this pace.

Gay all the way!

Anybody want to talk about the game? Mets go up 1-0, and hopefully won't spend the rest of the game trying to make that run stand.

The Vegans beat the pants off of Reno today, 10-2. Wheeler started and did nicely, going 6 2/3 innings, giving up one run on five hits, walking one and striking out 8. It's practically May, babies.

Thing about Marlins games. In the first inning or two, you can spot a guy on TV. "Hey, look at that guy with the handlebar mustache. Hey look at that guy with the Yankee jersey. Hey, who's the skinny tracksuit kid?" But the crowd is so sparse, once you fixate on that guy, you spot him all night, from three or four different camera angles.

I think you should photoshop a 1965 parking lot and skyline beyond a 2007 stadium.

Ceetar wrote: Chances are a 'quality' reliever is going to get more innings pitching his specialized one inning than being held in reserve. I'm not sure what this means. But if it's something close to what I think it means, it sounds like a false choice. Rich Gossage pitched 99 innings in 1980. Bruce Sutter pitched 102 innings. Craig Kimbrel pitched 62 and Jim Johnson 68 in 2012. You don't want to fall into the backup catcher scenario where you're afraid to use you're 7th reliever because tomorrow might go extras. I'm not sure I or anyone has proposed any scenario that leads to a backup catcher pitching because I'm afraid to use a seventh reliever. That would be intensely stupid. Because then you have a 6-man pen and are overworking those guys. The scenario I propose allows for longer outings but fewer appearances by the typical reliever, which I think is, in many ways the real issue. Sure, it'd be nice to have a guy that's okay going 5 innings in a pinch, but if you're using him an inning at a time, or two here and there, chances are either his arm strength isn't there to be effective for long relief, or he's been working extra on the side to maintain arm strength and is probably pitching most of the games you use him in, tired. It's quite simple really. Very rarely would such a man get five innings. Twice a year, maybe, but his 3-4 inning appearances are important too. Maybe he gets one of those every 10-15 days. He gets 2-3 shorter appearances in between. And it saves higher-leverage specialists work. It's all part of bullpen management. But it was routinely done. These animals do exist. They come up from AAA as starters, capable of putting in a starter's workload but there isn't a slot for them. Many fine starting pitchers worked their way into the rotation having served their apprenticeship as the spot starter/mopup guy. It's got a proud history. I'm not sure what exactly you're contending.

Having starters pitch fewer innings, and having relievers pitch fewer innings, screws you at two ends, leaving a mushy middle where lesser pitchers get a disproportionate share of high-leverage innings compared to prior years, to say nothing of a less versatile roster.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Clemson Bulldogs? Yeah, I lost something in the translation there big time. Cats ain't dogs. #NCAAfail #itwouldmakeagoodmoviethough

After a relatively crappy debut in Rookie Ball last year, Day is 2-0 with Wisconsin of the Midwest League, but was lucky to walk away with the win in his last start and his sort of hanging his online head. Damien Magnifico� ?@D_Magno32 Some days you have it, other days you don't. Today was one of those days. #work Since when did everyone become an analyst and a critic? He's apparently used his signing bonus to trademark his name and paint his girlfriend orange.

There's little reason Jeurys can't be developed as a multiple-inning guy.

Newly signed D.J. Mitchell walks off with a win in his first start as a 51. You may remember DJ from such movies as: Spring Training with Seattle, ...The 2012 Yankees, and ...The Clemson [crossout]Bulldogs[/crossout]Tigers! As DJ's #9 in college might be taken to indicate, he was a position player and late arrival to the mound, and therefore might yet have some growth ahead of him. He's 25, slender and brings a hard slinker, and so might end up in the Mets pen before the year is out. Anyjay, the Aliens walked off with a 9-5 win, with most of the enemy damage done against Greg Peavey out of the pen. The Big Spenders attack was led by Andrew Brown, Wilmer Flores, and Zach Lutz, who all had two hits including a double. Brown also threw a dude out at the plate from right (the speedy leadoff guy Evan Frey), which may be more instructive to us this day-after-the-night-before.

And I thought that, by Hefner "going deep," we were referring to his batting acumen.

Ceetar wrote: Because most of the time you _don't_ use those guys. Why carry the 25th man that's only pitching in blowouts or if the game happens to go 15? If he's good enough to use regularly, you're going to find him innings to pitch regularly, and if he's just eating space to save waste innings.. Terry Leach appeared in 52 games in 1988. Darren Oliver in 45 games in 2006. Pat Mahomes appeared in 92 games between 1999 and 2000. These appearances covered a large amount of innings, which served the team. The were not "eating space to save waste innings" (not sure what that means but still), but rather held a little bit more in reserve than other pitchers to be used when a long outing or emergency start might crop up, sparing perhaps several pitchers who maybe are more effective but trained for shorter appearances, and are used with less reserve. There was a pretty demonstrable benefit.

Frayed Knot wrote: Edgy MD wrote: He doesn't have no arm, but experience tells me that Baxter at his best reaches about average with his arm. 'Average' is kind IMO, and when you put him in the subset of RFers it becomes well below that. As a RFer he'd make a good LFer Well, like I said, I'm talking about him at his best. My greater notion is that the real sin was not that they played less-than-flawless defense (my pissness about Cowgill aside), but that they didn't hit more. A team with a one-run lead should not be focused on protecting that lead with perfection, but on explanding on it with violent offensive mayhem. Even if you are perfect one night, protecting a one-run lead for six innings, taking the resources of the whole team to play a brand of clean, polished, old-fashioned baseball that was never the standard anywhere ever, they'll come out of it too emotionally and physically drained to offer a similar effort the next day. When every pitch has the outcome of the game on it for as much as ten innings at a time, who can grow and thrive in such a climate?

Vic Sage wrote: Yeah, i'm as guilty of the "oh woe is me, i'm a met fan" shtick, but i'm aware that it's shtick. I wouldn't switch places with a Cleveland Indians fan for all the combustible sludge in the Cuyahoga River. But what an offer!

He doesn't have no arm, but experience tells me that Baxter at his best reaches about average with his arm. Better than Duda, but I can't give it much more props than that. Not as good as Byrd, from what I've seen, but he may have fewer moving parts. I have no qualms with his glove.

Really. In many ways, it was braver than Collins. Will he ever feel truly welcome anymore at art openings, choir rehearsals, postmodern furniture stores?

I'll take that as a yes.

Yeah, Baxter can only be the best at what he is, and the throw it would have taken just isn't in his arsenal. The sad part is that it was a pretty impressive defensive game for the team. Even Duda was crackerjack. Even on a miscue, like when Turner threw to second on a bunt when neither Tejada nor Murphy were in position to take the force, Tejada kept his head and made the tag. I guess I also take issue with Juan F. Pierre running at will like he's Ron LeFlore or something.

I don't know. Objecting to folks who act like entitled children, ruin the ballpark experience, and bring disrepute by association upon us all is OK by me, compared to complaining about not winning enough. Nobody wins enough. (Well, maybe the Marlins. Actually, they win too much.)

Watched the game. Couldn't wind down afterwards. Clock hit 2:40 before I started winking out. Have been thus far useless to my organization since 9:00. That's reason enough to keep Cowgill out of center. That was the sort of depth perception misread off the bat that folks unfamiliar with centerfield make. If you think about it, the idea that a misread and twisted route doesn't count as an error in the outfield is silly. A ball has to go off or through an infielder for him to be credited with an error, but since an outfielder is further away with more ground to cover, the scale of "should have had it" should be significantly larger. So congratulations to Juan Lagares. I elevate thee.

Ambler is no longer a dude, but the voice of a movement. Is this going to be the "Matt Harvey Deserves His Own Thread" thread?

I'm getting a little hot.

Oops, yeah, I'm definitely behind the Gee move. Glurg.