JSngry

When I was saying a while back about the Rangers don't even make the playoffs this year, I firmly had the Astros in mind as West Division winners, and probably Twins as 2nd WC. Then when Twins faded, I still saw Astros as div. winners. Rangers cut 'em off at the knees with the four game sweep, but damn if they didn't have regenrative limbs, go figure that! Yeah, dangerous team as currently constructed, and barring injury (and with a few roster tweaks offseason) one that should be around for a good while. In both cases (Astros & Royals), enjoy the "home grown" aspect of it while you can. Economics and unforeseen necessities can happen, players either leave or get traded or get hurt and never rebound all the way back and you gotta go outside to the neighbors' for some help while waiting for prospects to hopefully fully develop...it's a glorious thing to have when you have it, for sure. Nothing like it.

One more thing...a whole 162 game season of Royals/Astros baseball would be fun to watch just for the post-game musings of Ned Yost and A.J. Hinch. Talk about talking about the game being almost as interesting as watching it!

The flipside of that is that if your manager has a tendency to handle his closer reactively rather than proactively, then perhaps it's time to find a different manager. However... If your closer's m.o. is the strikeout, then no don't worry about baserunners. If your closer's m.o. in any way involves allowing contact (as opposed to occasional contact being an unfortunate inevitability), even soft contact, then, yes, be conscious of how the table is set when you bring him in. Because, you know, once motion, shit can happen. Not really watching the Mets except for the post-season, Familia's m.o. seemed to me to be getting outs through strikeouts and soft contact in about equal measure. He didn't seem to be one of these guys where if you even touch the ball it's a miracle. So, yes, manage the context, maximize opportunity for successful outcomes, don't just put him out there in the middle of a bunch of shit and tell him, ok, bye, go be a hero now. I mean, yeah, you can do that, and when it works, sure Hero, but...really? There are less comic-book ways to go about it! This is why you see managers using relievers for one batter. It seems hyper-micro-managerial sometimes, but if you can get the best matchup on a pitcher by pitcher basis until you get to a better spot to use you closer, then you do so. In some situations, a 4 or 5 (or even 6) out save is an easier proposition than is a 3 out save. It all depends on the set-up. I take it that the Mets did not really have to tools to go at it like that, but based on what happened to the baseball after it left Famila's hand (as opposed to what the box scores says happened), I think they're fine at closer, just fine. They just need better situational relievers and less flukey defense. Who doesn't? And having said that, yes, Collins got his team to the WS, and lord knows he's been a great guy on some not so great teams for many years, and it was really nice to see him here. It was joyful to see his glow after the NLCS, I LOL-ed in happiness to see that, I really did. Terry Collins is ok by me. I wish he would have made some different decisions about his closer, so we could have - maybe - seen him a few games more. Either way, though, mull it over in the off-season, let Familia know that all is well, and keep being Terry Collins...and maybe ask for a bigger uniform next year, see if you can't get that Stengal '63 thing rockin' to full effect, you're almost there!

Ok, this is hot stove type stuff, probably need to get that thread going again soon, but until then... The only way that not starting Familia in the 9th in either Game 4 or game 5 makes sense is if you didn't like the matchups. But that's not what we heard, we heard two different explanations of why we'd wait until Reason X to bring him in, and they were reasons that had nothing to do with matchups, one was some kind of well, we don't want to use him unless there's trouble in place (huh?), the other a purely emotional decision. If you bring the guy in at all, it's because you have confidence in him to get the job done, and if you have that level of confidence in him, why don't you send him out there with a clean slate? I just don't get it. And I really hope that nobody in the Mets org is taking that three blown saves crap to heart and projecting it onto Familia, becuse that's bullshit. The first one, yes, that was blown. The second, really, sure he threw the pitches that resulted in the save being blown, but that one's really, almost completely, on Collins bringing him in too late and Murphy not being a more adept defender, not once but twice. Yes, the single by Perez, but again - did that AB even need to have happened? And finally, the third - again, not brought into a good table-setting, the ball never leaves the infield, the defense does not make an optimal play (and nobody's really asking if Wright was the guy to make that play, or if it would have been better to have it fielded by a more stationary Flores who might have had a split second longer to look back Hosmer at third, I mean, you can't really find fault there, but again, it goes to timing AFTER that ball is put into play, something completely beyond Familia's control), how is that on Familia, who then comes out the next inning, and continues to pitch impeccable closer ball, and this time with a clean slate. Same results, different setting. If Familia had come in for the 9th and blown it, then sure, Mets fans could scream their bloody murder. But they would not have logic on their side, I don't think. Of course, no guarantees, never any guarantees, but play the odds, and save the emotion for Valentines Day, ya' know? Fullest credit to Royals for focusing on opportunities and realizing them with what has to be some kind of historical precision, especially in these last two games,but...of all the Mets who gave them those opportunities and/or gave them up, Familia is not at the top of the list, and except for Game 1. should arguably not even be on the list at all. Believe me, I've seen what happens to a gifted young closer when he "fails" in improbable circumstances, takes a lot of heat, and then loses his confidence and then the organization starts tinkering with him, and then his mind starts wobbling and then his body follows suit...it's a sad thing to watch, and even sadder when there's no return to form and the ties are unceremoniously cut. Let's everybody hope that Jeurys Familia has both a stronger resiliency instrument and a stronger support system within both his organization and his fanbase than did Neftali Feliz.

Little Esther Aunt Esther Ann Etters

And congrats to Series MVP Salvador Perez. He was a kick to watch, as catchers usually are, but I remember a few years ago when the Rangers were still really good and the Royals were just beginning to get good, we had a Sunday afternoon game and Elvis, scored the game-winning run on some kind of crazy-ass baserunning that culminated with him just barely avoiding Perez's all-in epic attempt at a combination lunge/sweep tag. Perez missed the tag, but the way he popped up and held the ball high with pride that soon turned to snarling disbelief and then to a steely determined walk off the field, at first I laughed at the guy, you know, went all Nelson on him, but after a few replays, I was like, DAMN, this cat's a monster, don't poke the tiger! Ever since, whenever I hear the name, it's always in conjunction with being a team leader, a great clubhouse guy, a masterful handler of pitchers, just an all-round HOSS, as well as being Heir-Apparent to Adrian Beltre for being The Toughest Guy In Baseball. Hell, the throne is big enough for two, they can share it!

What is it that Familia couldn't get done? He got all 6 of the batters he faced, kept the ball in the infield against every batter he faced (except the two he struck out!). If Duda makes a good throw to the plate, Hosmer is likely out, game over. High-Drama DP to end the game, UH-oh, It Ain't Over Yet!!!!!! Unless Familia's job is to play Mound Jesus and simply render hitter's bats into limpfish breadsticks, he did his job, and he did it exceptionally well. Again, blame the defense, again, credit the Royals focus (they call it aggression, but it's more than that, it's "in the zone" focus), and again, find the managerial logic in the decision-making process that says that the guy who is not the preferred choice to not bring in to get three outs at the top of the inning with a two run lead suddenly becomes the ideal choice to bring in to get three outs in the same inning, only, here ya' go, start your inning with one runner in, and one runner on, and oh yeah, still nobody out. You get the best results out of your players when you put your players in the best position for them to succeed, not when you bring them in with a sense of urgency to cover your own fuckups, Collins logic these last two games has been like the boss who comes to you at 3 PM Friday and says I need 1000 pages by EOD today, and you ask him why didn't he come to you earlier, and he says, well, I didn't want to overuse you, and, you know, this other guy REALLY wanted the job, so I let him have it. But, you, you're our guy, so, go get 'em! And you know what you want to say to THAT boss, right? And then your computer freezes, you don't have time to proof it, your printer jams, but by god, you get him his 1000 pages by 5 PM, and then everybody's all like, wow, we expected better than THIS... Now see, Bartolo Colon understands how it works, he says, oh, you want me to pitch my game? Well, sure, no problem, just let me get rid of all this clutter behind me that y'all left, especially that last guy that you put there on purpose, what am I, your freaking MAID? No, these guys gotta go, THEN Bartolo will pitch. I think we have a new baseball equation - it's still hard to beat great pitching, but bad manager decisioning + imprecise defense equals things out about as well as it can be done!

DUDE!!!

Why does Terry Collins hate Jeurys Familia?

If Murphy doesn't make the error, and if Murphy is either positioned and inch or two further over and/or is even one step faster, there's no discussion about whether or not Familia did his job, right? The only reason the discussion can be had is because of what happened with Perez' at bat, on which, no, he did not do his job (and even at that, nobody other than Bartolo Colon DID do their job against Perez last night). I think it's fair to ask, instead or or on top of did Familia do his job, whether or not the job he was given to do is one he should have even been doing. Clippard definitely did not do his, even without the positioning/range consideration, Murphy definitely did not do his, so Familia's job then becomes to get outs that should already have been gotten. As far as "jobs" go, that's Mike Rowe territory! The guy faces 4 batters and on three of those four gets grounders, none of which is cleanly hit out of the infield. Short of striking everybody out, what better of a job would you want from him? I'd think you'd want a better entry situation, better defense, a little better luck, and one different pitch to Perez. Only one of those is anything that Familia has any control over. When something happens behind a pitcher like happened behind Familia, of course it affects him, or more accurately, affects the physics of the game - he's having to get extra outs. For every time that happens, you're talking less about "man against man" and more about "man against nature". Man agains man is a helluva lot simpler than man against nature. Familia came into the game with two outs already having been given away by the walks, and then two more by less than ideal defense. He was asked to get two outs and his team gave away four! I think for his own peace of mind, he should have a manager that strategizes better than that, and a defense behind him that lets him pitch his game, as is. Otherwise, he's gonna get the feeling that he has to strike everybody out all the time, then he starts trying too hard, and then he's rurnt.

Ok guys, now we're commenting on comments about comments, not baseball. A friendly suggestion that we keep it more or less on topic, at least in public. ok?

Ah yes, I see what you mean...looks like the function is not yet linked to all forums. Jim (the REAL Jim, the guy who owns all this ) will no doubt get to that. In the meantime, the home page still shows which forum have had had unviewed activity, and within that, which threads have unread posts. And you can still mark forums, or the entire board, as read. So, it's not like it's impossible to navigate, it's just not working like it used to, or like it hopefully should and will.

Yeah, there's been some turnover in the DSO as well, some of it just in the last year, and not without gossip that van Zweden was behind it, that he's really making a move to get his kind of players in there (and the corollary that he is looking to get rid of players who don't/won't/can't do it his way). Of course, this upsets players and other people who like things one way, but I tell you, going to the DSO is starting to turn into the potential for an adventure, and in years past, I stayed away because it was anything but. You can still get that if you want it, there's plenty of suburban orchestras happy to take up the slack (and some of the players), and I'm aware that there's a fine line between vision and simple ego-tripping. In the end, I think it's the results that will define the nature of the actions. This is where "justification" comes into play for me, do your choices justify their presence in the space around them (which of course, includes the audience), and hearing van Zwedin's Mahlers, Beethovens, and the one Bruckner, I have to say that for me, yes, justified in what has been done, and justified in waiting to see what will be done. OTOH, what do I really know about any of this? But if the real goal of any music is to continue to speak truth rather than spew dogma, I think you gotta be open to going with some different flows as they come along and present themselves with justified outcomes.

Once you're in the Activity Tab, you have these further options: All Activity My Activity Streams Unread Content Content I Started Search The My Activity Streams has a sub-menu with a buttload full of customizable filters, including a "make your own" kind of thing. I don't use any of these myself, I just go to the home page and take it from there. But for those who want a different, customizable approach, it sure LOOKS like it's here.

Familia pretty much did his job, I thought, two soft-ish grounders, one misplayed by Murphy, the other one of those "baseball is a game of inches" things that just happened. Neither were fails on his part, I thought. But then, Perez...but "then, Perez" was a recurring theme last night, wasn't it...it was only the One Man Physics Of Bartolo Colon that was able to do his job against Perez last night! After that, though, he got anther soft grounder, and Murphy turned an ungainly but effective two. So other than Perez, Familia threw well, quite apart form what happened once the results were in play. I just don't get why you bring that guy in on top of somebody else's mess instead of letting his start clean. Because other than Perez, nobody was really hitting him, and he did not seem to be having control issues. No guaranteeing that a clean entry for him results in a clean inning, obviously, but...the odds that he faces Perez with runners on is significantly reduced, I should think.

Wow, he found the tempos too slow! Maybe Thursday was too slow for Tortelier and he's still looking for the right tempo...if that happened, he got it too fast for my taste last night, unless he was going for the comedic. Maybe I should try to sneak in for the matinee today and see what he comes up with! I love how classical folks talk about "ear-splitting intensity" when it comes to volume. Give me a break! This was interesting, though: This was doubly a problem in tunes already flirting at the edge of vulgarity. "Vulgarity" is not at all a term I'd use, but "light" certainty is. What i said earlier about there maybe not being enough "meat" in the music...I don't think it benefits from as "germanic" interpretation as it got. This is also revealing: But for an orchestra accustomed to music director Jaap van Zweden's micromanagement... Ok, this is where I really don't know where/what I might be stepping into, but I very much enjoy van Zweden's "micromanagement" and could have used it on the Franck. van Zweden does indeed break a piece down to its details and the reassembles it with those details noted and performed with an ear towards micro detail to serve a macro end. Unless it's a piece or a part of a piece that really, explicitly needs it, you're not going to get too much foot-patting 4/4 or easy swaying 3/4 out of van Zwedin's conducting, but you are going to get some powerful pulses, and some really nifty transitional sections. Maybe not all players like having to work that hard, and/or maybe not all of them feel comfortable with that aesthetic in general, I could see that being an issue for a certain type of player. Speaking for myself, a listener who was never really attracted to that older aesthetic, I am coming to really like this guy's concept.I have heard that a few of the more veteran orchestra members do not, and you know, sometimes musicians and critics will get in with each other and share agendas...and honestly, I don't know that a regular DSO patron is going to be able to tell the difference too much between one of van Zwedin's taffy pulls or something like Tortelier's metronmic read-through (a bit oversimplied, that, but part of the issue I had with it was that there were obvious transition section that were just plowed through with no consideration of meaning or direction or eventual destination...I'm tempted to think that rehearsal time was limited and that there was no interest on anybody's part to spend a lot of paid time on getting into things that would complicate the performance,,,just read that sucker down, note this here and that there, but otherwise, make it "sound good" for the people and we all get paid, right? Whatever it was, it was still entertaining to experience, although not in the same way that van Zweden's reading might have been.

Andres Serrano Jason Poblano Madame Jeanette

Also, if I'm a Met looking for an actual reason to keep on hoping - Royals are starting to strike out more - 4x in game 1, 3 in G2, 7 in G3, and 9 tonight. If you can keep striking them out AND keep the inappropriate BB down AND not fuck up the defense (although, in fairness, alex rios, was it as bad in real time as it was on the post-game show? Really?), then your chances of beating these Royals (any team, really, but especially these Royals of especially right now) in three of the next three games go up by some crazy mathnumber. Kinda think that was the game plan to begin with, though, but some game plans take longer to gel than others.you know, as long as you're not eliminated, you're still potentially winning it all. Good luck!

Not sure if that is a new feature with today's update or not, but if it works, go for it. And thanks for pointing that out, Dave! We were out this evening, so I didn't get to the game - on ESPN radio - until the top of the 8th and Clippert was walking his second batter. Did not get home to the TV until the bottom of the 9th due to stopping at Arby's for some poppers. Not sure if the radio made it more intense than it really was, but it sure didn't hurt any! Everybody's talking tonight about why did Familia not start the 8th, and Terry Collins' logic of, well, we weren't going to bring him in unless the tying run was on falls flat with me (i.e. - why are you going to bring the guy in anywhere in that inning with a crisis already underway? Let him have it be all his, good or bad.), but when the change was made, the first thing I thought about was Harold Reynolds last night (on TV) not really digging having Famila pitching in a 9-3 game, because, you know, baseball is a game of memory, why you gonna show your weapon any more than required? and although that's not how it played out in terms of specifics...yeah, why was he in there for a 9-3 game last night? To "build confidence" or some emo crap like that? What, "World Series" some kinda Post-Shea Spanish for "spring training"? The possibility of this thing going seven still exists - Mets passionrally tomorrow, Cueto gives his inevitable-in-coming Bad Home Start in Game 6, bingo, there you go. And if I'm a Met, I'm playing to make all of that happen, because until it actually doesn't happen, it still possibly can. And this IS baseball, the game that seems to have "hey, weird shit IS gonna happen" - in those exact words and in every language, known and unknown, human and otherwise, used in all universes discovered, forgotten and/or not yet either found or imagined - written (in invisible ink, of course) deep in some deep sub-section of its contract-of-creation with god. But if i was a betting man, that's not gonna a bet I'm making.

The Ravel was neat, wasn't sure about it until the final movement, and then it all came together. The Rodrigo...no doubt a cliche by now, but with good reason, what a marvelous work! The two outer movements are relatively unfamiliar to me, so I really enjoyed hearing them. But that Adagio...hearing it in this form, and then comparing it to what Gil did with it...in both cases, genius, I think, Rodrigo of composing, Gil of re-orchestrating and re-composing. More cliches...anyway, Romero was almost consistently brilliant, with a few overt flubs along the way, oh well, shit happens, nobody bats 1.000. Marvelous material exquisitely performed. Then the intermission, and then the Franck, and I don't know what the hell that was all about...I stifled my laughter, but...I get that it's some German/French fusion to begin with, but the rigidity and seemingly upper end selections of Tortelier's tempos left no room to contemplate any ambiguity or find any moments for reflections, it was almost like a metronome was conducting, and just a tad too fast at that. The third movement, hell, it almost sounded like Scott Joplin, and I was like, how is this happening? I'll willingly concede that maybe I just don't have the frame of reference for this interpretation, or, for that matter, the familiarity with the basic work to know but that maybe this was not a great interpretation of it. All I know is that it sounded funny, not in the odd or off way, it sounded comical to me, and I do not think that was the intent. van Zweden's time, as I'm coming to be familiar with it, is all about letting an idea reveal itself though contour, and his conducting is very much in line with that. Watching him for time is not something you're going to do unless you're already inside the music, and then, you're not looking at him for meter, you're looking at him for shape and direction. Watching Tortelier did not present that challenge! This more...literal concept of time worked well in the first half, perhaps because the music was probably(?) better served by that approach. I kept trying to decide whether Franck's piece was much ado about nothing, too much of not enough, or just what the hell WAS it, anyway, and finally decided that it could have been more than the conducting let it be, but also that no matter who conducted it how, there was gonna be just so much to get out of it. his is one of those pieces I'm just going to let pass, unless somebody can make a convincing case that God Lives Here, and then provides the record to prove it. OTOH, the DSO played exquisitely tonight, wonderful dynamics, no moments of imprecision, even momentarily, of either pitch or intonation. and their ensemble sound shifted appropriately form piece to piece, delightfully transparent for the Ravel, a little heavier (even with a smaller orchestra!) yet balanced with the soloist on the Rodrigo, and full on heavy for the Germanic (I guess that's what I'd call it) concept/implications/whatever of the Franck. so kudos to Tortelier on that count, and really guest conductor, not sure what rehearsal time was, so maybe the tempo thing was a matter of necessity. It "sounded good", and, really, I was not at all irked, just...quizzically amused, and highly entertained by what sure seemed to have been an entertainment-oriented program and presentation anyway. And Pepe Romero, quite the audience friendly performer! Can't say this enough - I really wish I had started doing this decades ago, just going out to hear classical music locally. Watching people play is about the most interesting thing I know, except for being the one doing the playing, and even then, that's not always fun. This almost always is. And oh yeah, different conductors of the same band, what a trip!

Tonight at DSO: Yan Pascal Tortelier conducts Pepe Romero, guitar RAVEL Rapsodie espagnole RODRIGO Concierto de Aranjuez - Intermission FRANCK Symphony in D minor

All that is being asked of either team is to play no more than seven games and finish not worse than one game over .500 after they have.

Barbarella Barbara Ann Hanna-Barbara

None I can think of, and that's maybe the point? How many Tommy Dorsey bands were there, I mean jeez, all things for all people all done like they should be done, I mean, that's the ideal corporate thing, right?No matter what your want, we got it, and at the quality you have a right to epect. It's freaky, really, that any one organization could do so many things so well, think about how organized that whole thing glad to have been at EVERY level! But that didn't happen accidentally, and me, there's a, for lack of a better term, intuition gap for me with that band. Not a complaint, mind you, just a subjective objective sensation. Maybe corporate is the wrong term..."department store", perhaps, only Dorsey was, like, Nieman-Marcus, nothing not perfectly created and then equally perfectly presented.