Edgy MD

Plenty of teams remain in playoff contention without a top-tier closer. Plenty of teams persist as contenders after appointing a new closer in the final two months. Happens every day and in every corner of the baseball world.

Reserve infielder with the fattest legs is always a good bet. That would be Turner.

Ceetar wrote: Edgy DC wrote: I'm not advocating for it, but I wouldn't be shocked if talk of Harvey debuting as a reliever (and potential closer) starts surfacing as well. I've heard it, not in serious 'do this' comments but in the sense of it being an option. Innings limits/big league exposure/etc. whether or not the Mets are 'in it'. Grab some junk innings, probably not as a closer unless they're hopelessly out of it and next year's closer isn't on the team. If his personal progression is that he's likely ticketed to at least compete for a rotation spot next year, they may want to 'break him in' this year. What if he's up, grabbing some junk innings, and doing very well, and the Mets are hopelessly in it, the rotation is stable, but they don't have an effective finisher? It's a ways off, but sometimes these things happen that way, and it's not so bad if they do.

A lot of good things happened yesterday. The win wasn't one of them, sadly, and the team finds themselves behind the eight ball in game two for the first time this year. But I think they're learning a lot about what they can do. The problem is you have to learn faster than your health can hold out. Francisco is going to be a goofmonster all year, and I wouldn't be surprised to hear whispers of how not being in a save situation affects his effectiveness. I'm not advocating for it, but I wouldn't be shocked if talk of Harvey debuting as a reliever (and potential closer) starts surfacing as well.

It seems that it's always the White Sox breaking new ground.

Welp, we're 7-6. Need to find some confidence in the middle of our offense.

That does seem to hurt a guy.

Wow, Ike up in the buntiest of situations must be murder on managers.

Gloop.

Howie sounds thrilled.

We'd do well to measure the decades more evenly: 1962-1971 1972-1981 1982-1991 1992-2001 2002-2011

Fire away. Serimously. I have a wedding to get to tonight, but I may bring a laptop just 'cuz.

Crap. What sucks for him is that happens while he's not on the roster, denying him a chance to earn a big league salary for the next year while he's on the DL.

SB Nation wrote: The Yankees and Red Sox are playing at Fenway today, just as they did on this day 100 years ago. In honor of this anniversary, we present first names of some of the players on those 1912 Boston and New York teams: Tris, Duffy, Olaf, Pinch, Smoky, Hick, Heinie, Hack, Birdie, Dutch, Gabby, Ezra, Cozy, Klondike, Homer, Hippo, Iron, Red.

Doug Flynn better start showing some power or people are going to start blaming all the dog porno he's doing.

Good work here, cats.

Johnny LeMaster! And is that Duane Kuiper over at second? No but it can seem that way. Man, has any good team been so divided between the wonderful players that carry them (Posey, their starting pitchers) and the poor players who merely fill roles? That's the makeup of this team, which doesn't mean you can underestimate them. The pitchers have the shit to keep them close against anybody, and if you keep a team close long enough, eventually one of those .196 hitters is going to catch up with you. This particular .196 hitter is Brandon Crawford. He's OPS-ing at .599 and that's a step up from the .584 he rolled out in 66 games last year. He hasn't hit in the minors since High-A, so this might be what he is. But he's got a game-winning homer already this year, so what I said about them staying close counts. He actually hit a grand salami in his first big league game, so he knows how to do the drama. He sports a frat-boy beard and he's old enough to party. His defense has been described as "silky." Batting coach Bam-Bam Muelens meanwhile has been working to get him to shorten his "ridiculously long stride." Betcha if we pitch him away, we can get him reaching at the slider. That's not just some groupie on his back up there, but rather Mrs. Crawford, previously known as UCLA gymnast Jalynne Dantzscher, the kind of woman who make a gullible young man do some stupid stupid shit. Ahoy there, Brandon! Who do you spy to yer starboard at third. ARrrr!

Sounds like a cabinet secretary to me.

Yup. I'll start. Brian Wilson went in yesterday for Tomasino Juan surgery. New closer is Santiago Casilla, the Andres Torres of relievers in that he kinda stunk until he hit 30.

The St. Lucie Mets, who started out on a blistering 17-2 pace last year, are 10-2 so far in 2012. The personnel pulling off this trick: Starting Pitchers 45 Yohan Almonte 18 Angel Cuan 35 Gonzalez Germen 32 Chase Huchingson 39 Cory Mazzoni Relief Pitchers 12 Hamilton Bennett 29 John Church (Edgy Adoptee) 43 Ryan Fraser 47 Jeffrey Kaplan 20 Adam Kolarek 40 Adrian Rosario 44 Taylor Whitenton Catchers 11 Blake Forsythe 17 Francisco Pena Infielders 4 Wilmer Flores 10 Richard Lucas 16 Daniel Muno 5 Robbie Shields 2 Wilfredo Tovar Outfielders 28 Joe Bonfe 13 Rafael Fernandez 1 Alonzo Harris 21 Cesar Puello 48 Sean Ratliff Disabled List 22 Jim Fuller (p) 34 Erik Goeddel (p) 3 Darrell Ceciliani (of) Restricted List Dock Doyle © Flores is playing exclusively at third base this year. Cory Vaughn is the offensive leader, whopping at a mighty .333 / .450 / .545 // .995. Francisco Pe�a has also found his extra-base stick so far, and is slugging .571. Chase Hutchingson (who?) has thrown shutout ball in both his starts, posting a zero ERA after 12.67 innings, striking out 10 and walking three, but the ERAs have been great for all the starters: Hutch: 0.00 ERA in 12.67 innings. Mazzoni: 1.13 ERA in 16.00 innings. Germaen: 1.65 ERA in 16.33 innings. Cuan: 2.92 ERA in 12.33 innings. Almonte: 3.60 ERA in 10.00 innings. St. Lucie: it's Quality Start Heaven.

That's wrong. His two earliest short-season years cherry picked out of 380 games. And he was indeed good in those years, just not yet great. Generally speaking, he was awesome coming up.

Piazza was certainly good coming up.

Yeah, I objected to it at the time, and I don't return to it now to indict Piazza, only to dispute that notion that nothing has been mentioned anywhere.

I think many teams have done something like that. They just don't acknowledge it as such, and treat it as a weakness that they don't have a more set lineup. Even as it's working, the manager will be feeling pressure to commit to an explicit group.

Day1BLFCFRF1DavisBayTorresDuda2DudaBayTorresNieuwenhuis3DavisNieuwenhuisTorresDuda4DavisBayNieuwenhuisDuda5DavisBayTorresNieuwenhuisDay1BLFCFRF6DavisBayTorresDuda7DudaBayTorresNieuwenhuis8DavisNieuwenhuisTorresDuda9DavisBayNieuwenhuisDuda10DavisBayTorresNieuwenhuis Play four days in five. Throw some occasional time to Hairston if you're feeling creaky. Everybody is rested through the year. Win a championship. Fend off adoring women.