philliesphhan wrote:

RichmondPhilsFan wrote:The following guys on their current active roster are free agents or have club options:

Drew Storen
Ian Desmond
Jordan Zimmermann
Matt Thornton
Casey Janssen
Denard Span
Doug Fister
Dan Uggla

Talk about a make or break offseason for Mike Rizzo. Replace two starters, most of the bullpen, and your starting SS/CF. And probably do it with mostly in-house options, because you have $85M committed to seven players and it's going to get worse in 2017, when Harper becomes arb-eligible.

Looks like Storen has one more arb. Strasburg is also a free agent after next season, so it will be interesting to see if they decide to trade him.

The Mets now have their biggest divisional lead since September 2007.

Phred wrote:Closers tend to suck for some reason when you take them out of the closer role.

Phred wrote:Storen was money this year until they got Pap. The Nats fans calling for Storen's head have their ire misplaced. Closers tend to suck for some reason when you take them out of the closer role.

ek wrote:God I wish I could taunt FP Santangelo

Machado admired his go-ahead, seventh-inning home run off of Max Scherzer, and Papelbon took notice. When Papelbon came on in the ninth in a (rare for him) non-save situation, he came in high and tight on Machado. After a strike, he came up and in again.

Papelbon was ejected, and I’m not sure what he and Matt Williams were arguing—it was about as intentional as a HBP gets. After the game, Papelbon didn’t quite admit intent, but gave an oddly epistemological explanation.

“They just said they deemed it intentional,” Papelbon said. “They didn’t give me any reason. I don’t know if they have to give me a reason or not. But perception is reality. If Manny thinks I hit him, then that’s what he thinks. I’m not going to sit here and go back and forth whether I did or whether I didn’t, cause it doesn’t matter. If he thinks I did, that’s what he thinks.”

Machado didn’t mince words. “That’s coward stuff,” he said.

The series finale is this afternoon, and neither of these teams have much to play for (the Nats are six back in the loss column with 11 games left), so any leftover grudges will have to be resolved today. Bryce Harper figures someone on his side will be paying for Papelbon’s sins.

“I mean, Manny freaking hit a homer and walked it off, and somebody drilled him,” Harper said. “It’s pretty tired. It’s one of those situations where it happens. I don’t know. I’ll probably get drilled tomorrow. We’ll see what happens.”