Metly SABR Morning, next Saturday (1/28) ...

[Guest Kong76]

... and more!

http://nyc.sabr.org
http://nyc.sabr.org/nycsabrpromo.pdf

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

see ya there

[Ceetar]

anything good happening?

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

People who love baseball talking about baseball all day long. It would be great to see more people there.

[Guest Kong76]

A cranepool showing would be nice! We can do lunch.
I haven't made a meeting in awhile, looking forward to this one.

[Ceetar]

not a member, maybe I should join. hmm..

[Guest Kong76]

You don't need to be a member to attend.

A link: http://nyc.sabr.org/sabrsite.htm

[Ceetar]

Kong76 wrote: You don't need to be a member to attend. A link: http://nyc.sabr.org/sabrsite.htm

yea, I saw. But If it's something I'm interested in going to, something I'd be interested to join right?

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

SABR is sort of what you make of it.

If nothing else you get a few good magazines for your bathroom reading each year. But the opportunity is there to do much more whether its writing/researching/theorizing/talking about baseball, amid people who are as crazy about it as you are. That's the thing with me.

I set a personal goal of writing a few player biographies this year for the Bio Project.

The NYC group as I've said before here is kind of old-schoolish, lots of guys whose frame of reference was Mickey, Willie and the Duke. It would be great to see more younger people there.

[Ceetar]

leaning towards going. Not that I'm decisive or waiting until the last moment or anything.

[Guest Kong76]

Hope you can make it. Like I said up top, the CPFr's can do
a burger or a burrito for lunch break.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

If Ceetar comes, lunchbeer is on me!

[Ceetar]

the alternative is sleeping in and taking my car to get serviced, which just developing a disturbing sound when I break.

Can I even 'pay at the door' without prereg'ing or anything?

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Yes, but try to be prompt as Met stuff is first up.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

No dice here, unfortunately.

[Ceetar]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Yes, but try to be prompt as Met stuff is first up.

Well surely I'm not gonna be late! (pending NJT). Looks like 9:33, so I have 27 minutes to mosey on over.

[Ceetar]

Ran into a Braves fan waiting for the train headed to the event. Bad sign? Heh

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

No 7 train as per usual this weekend. En route the long way

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

So I'm back. Met Ceetar and KC there.

Parts of the meeting dragged on too long but overall pretty successful. The morning Met panel featured memories from Billy Altman, whose writing was a highlight of the Village Voice sports pages back in the day; then a presentation from a Mets memorabilia collector; then Bud Harrelson; then a few minutes with Mets stat guy Ben Baumer and Mets video guy TJ Something; then George Vescey and his memories of Casey.

Bud was kind of funny in a self-depeciating way. He began by (correctly) recognizing he had some sabermetric value that went largely unrewarded in his career (he was punished for a low BA more than rewarded for his OBP) and had some good moments talking about how he defended different players, fought with Rose, and worked in concert with Seaver. But he rambled on way too long and for a while I got vibes that he was in some kind of private torment. At one point he forgot what he was trying to say and confessed that his mother suffered dementia. He's around 68 years old. It was kind of weird. Really the first 3 guys all went on too long leaving too little time for Q&A afterward.

Baumer spoke too little in my opinion. He said he was hired in 2004 specifically as a result of the Mets having read Moneyball. He apparently is a contestant in a MLB-TV trivia show now. Smart guy, he could go all the way. I was one of the only ones to get a Q in during Q&A: I asked how if at all it was any different working for Omar vs. Sandy and he gave a thoughtful response, saying Omar was just as interested as Sandy in quantitative analysis, it's just that his background was different and that overall, the similarities between working under both bosses would surprise you.

I caught up with him in the hallway afterward and said he was in on the discussions to move in the fences. "The idea originally was to build a pitcher's park like Shea was but they were too successful." Agreed with Sandy's notion that dimensions "got in player's heads." Mets rely on the same source stuff as anyone (retrosheet, baseball reference, stats inc, mlb fx etc) but use metrics he developed. He said his D ratings are similar to UZR. He said Torres is a good fielder, not convinced of bat and is a "bridge" to Niuwenhuis or den Dekker. Sort of resigned to surrendering D with Wright, Duda (whom he thinks can improve), Murph.

Vescey later spoke about his new Stan Musial book. He really worked it, and I bought a copy.

A panel with area scouts for the MFYs and Cubs was OK. The Cubs guy signed Dunston and Jamie Moyer. The MFY guy discussed Soriano, Manny Ramirez, Betances, etc

[batmagadanleadoff]

So tell us about the memorabilia collector. What's his name and what'd he show?

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Harvey Poris? He was a bigwig with the MTA and Met fan from way back. He was a good speaker who obviously knew his Mets: He spoke mainly of yearbooks and scorecards (I believe he said he had all but one scorecard) but it was clear we were only scratching the surface of his stuff. His talk was cut short because the intros went on too long and the overhead projector malfunctioned.

[Guest Kong76]

I was disappointed with the memorabilia guy. A '62 yearbook
and scorecard aren't exactly so uncommon to a room of baseball
people. Batmags, if you would like to give a presentation one year
of some of your more unusual items that would be great.

I really enjoyed Vescey, although it was so warm I felt like closing
my eyes and just listening.

Nice to see ya Lunchgrabber, and to meet you Ceetar. Forgot to
ask what Ceetar meant haha.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

This Bud's for you:

[Edgy MD]

Sounds like a great meeting, outside of glimpsing a great Met's private torment. Yikes.

[Ceetar]

I was disappointed with the memorabilia guy. A '62 yearbook and scorecard aren't exactly so uncommon to a room of baseball people. Batmags, if you would like to give a presentation one year of some of your more unusual items that would be great. I really enjoyed Vescey, although it was so warm I felt like closing my eyes and just listening. Nice to see ya Lunchgrabber, and to meet you Ceetar. Forgot to ask what Ceetar meant haha.

Actually answered that in response to a Mostly Mets Podcast inquiry to the same question: http://www.ceetar.com/optimisticmetsfan/2011/12/19/ceetars-origins-mostly-mets-podcast-and-the-mazzillis/

So here it is: I was looking to name a character in an online MUD, which is basically a text-based pre-World of Warcraft style game played over telnet. (This was like 1997) I came up with Ceetar. My character ultimately became a demon-worshipping evil priest type character wielding dark magic and a spear to kill monsters and good guys. It became my online identity and as I began signing up for accounts and emails and websites, I started using it as my user name. So that�s the pretty nerdy origins of the name.

Baumer spoke too little in my opinion too. It almost felt like he was expecting a more intricate question and answer period and not speaking as long. Which also would've been nice. The other guy didn't even provide much more than "Yeah, I sorta work with Baumer here". This was probably just ignorance on my part, but I pictured him as an older guy more like DePodesta. Instead he's my age and basically got the job with the Mets at the same time I had just graduated from college and was looking for jobs. I'd like to hear more from him. The thought that 'stats' in 2003 was basically huge binders full of printouts is certainly a scary one.

Buddy did sorta ramble on at time, but in a good way. Maybe it's just that I tolerate ramblings from baseball players a little more than scouts talking about how they interacted with other scouts and cross-checkers while guessing about teenagers. There were definitely moments where he seemed to stray a bit. He's getting older I guess. He joked about Little League dinner appearances, and I do remember he was a guest at one I was at back around 1990 or so.

I really enjoyed Vescey, although it was so warm I felt like closing my eyes and just listening.

ditto. I haven't read much, if anything, by him but his part was pretty good (and hey, Ernie Accorsi apparently is willing to show up to hear him speak) and I'm tempted to check out that Mets book of his.

Wasn't a bad first exposure to SABR all in all.

[Edgy MD]

Harrelson, a popular Mets player, recalls the highlights of his long career. He�s refreshingly humble, so he has nothing negative to say about anybody and very little to say about himself. He spends much of the book recounting the improbable 1969 World Series victory; the 1973 near-championship, when he was an undersized, overachieving infielder; and the unforgettable 1986 World Series victory, when he was the third-base coach waving home the game six winning run. This feel-good, underdog story features detailed, pitch-by-pitch game descriptions that dramatically depict pivotal matchups. Nostalgic Mets fans will enjoy this, but general baseball fans looking for real insight into the team�s most successful seasons are likely to be disappointed by Harrelson�s light touch. - DK

[metirish]

Ben Baumer on MLB Network right now in the semi finals of Baseball IQ

[metirish]

and the Mets represented by Baumer are in the final, will play the winner of the Angels and D-Backs.....which is coming on now.....good show, anyone watching it?

http://mlb.mlb.com/network/promotions/BBIQ.jsp

the final is on at 10

hey, it's baseball

[HahnSolo]

I have been watching with little Solo. I DVRd a bunch and we've been plowing through. Some of the questions are quite challenging, and what makes it more challenging is that every "inning" has one question with multiple answers. So a question might be, "Name every player to have a 40 HR season in the 1980s"...it might be easy to get a couple, but to get all of them, with only five seconds to think on each? That's tough.

[Edgy MD]

I came up with Fielder, Schmidt, Murphy, McGwire, Canseco, Evans, Jackson, Rice, Oglivie.

Rice and Fielder were wrong, so that gave me a weak-o six correct --- for a decade I know better than any and one lacking in power outbursts. Missing Kevin Mitchell? What a dope I am.

I tried to summon Barfield and Bell but couldn't for some reason. Sometimes the 1980s Brewers and Blue Jays merge in mind, for some reason.