batmagadanleadoff

I hope that all the Mets are joking with the reporters as I type this post.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: It's safe again for the other Mets to joke around in the locker room. What I remember mostly about Alex Cora is how much he sucked. And if he's supposed to be such a great manager, how come no one ever asked him to manage a team? Oh. And good riddance. Don't forget to take your vest on the way out.

It's safe again for the other Mets to joke around in the locker room. What I remember mostly about Alex Cora is how much he sucked. And if he's supposed to be such a great manager, how come no one ever asked him to manage a team?

2010 NL Pitcher WAR leaders, to date, (BR). R.A. Dickey is 6th in IP/WAR and is on pace to knock Johan/2009 off of the Mets top #50 (see post above) Johan/2010 might also knock Johan/2009 off of the top 50. But first, some blank lines. WAR RankPitcher/TeamWARIP/WAR 1Josh Johnson/FLA5.725.792Roy Halladay/PHI5.631.793Adam Wainwright/STL4.833.404Tim Hudson/ATL4.632.324Ubaldo Jimenez/COL4.632.256Brett Myers/HOU3.641.946Livan Hernandez/WAS3.640.098Chris Carpenter/STL3.546.869Johan Santana/NYM3.346.8710Tim Lincecum/SF3.247.4011Matt Cain/SF3.247.1912Yovani Gallardo/MIL3.140.7513Clayton Kershaw/LA3.045.8914Mat Latos/SD2.942.64 15Roy Oswalt/HOU-PHI2.850.4816Barry Zito/SF2.753.21 17R.A. Dickey/NYM2.638.08 18Jaime Garcia/STL2.646.5419Cole Hamels/PHI2.555.6020Ted Lilly/CHIC-LAD2.451.67

Best Mets Pitching WAR seasons #26-50: (But first ... lotsa blank lines that appear before my chart for reasons that I don't know why) RankPitcher/TeamWARYEAR26Jerry Koosman5.1197427Al Leiter4.7200028Bob Ojeda4.7198629Mike Hampton4.6200030Ron Darling4.6198631Craig Swan4.6197932Jerry Koosman4.6197633Jon Matlack4.6197334Dwight Gooden4.4198635Ron Darling4.4198536Al Leiter4.2200437David Cone4.2199138Rick Reed4.1199839Rick Reed4.1199740Jon Matlack4.1197641Tug McGraw4.0197142Carl Willey4.0196343Tug McGraw3.9197244Dwight Gooden3.8198745Jim McAndrew3.8197246Steve Trachsel3.7200347Dwight Gooden3.7199348David Cone3.7199049Sid Fernandez3.7198550Johan Santana3.62009

The seven Mets pitchers are Seaver, Gooden, Matlack, Koosman, Leiter, Santana and Viola. David Cone, whose best Met WAR season, ranked 16th all-time, was the pitcher that threw everyone off. Grimm, and then LWFS, came the closest, guessing 6 out of 7, but incorrectly guessing Cone instead of Leiter. Below is a chart of the top 25 Mets WAR pitcher seasons. Seaver's first 10 seasons(1967-1976) are all on the list. The fabulous and tragic Carlton Willey, who pitched four complete game shutouts for Casey's '63 squad is the extra credit answer. Why is there so much space between this paragraph and the chart that follows? RankPitcherWARYEAR 1Dwight Gooden11.719852Tom Seaver9.519733Tom Seaver9.219714Jon Matlack8.619745Tom Seaver7.719756Tom Seaver7.619697Tom Seaver7.519688Jerry Koosman6.819689Jon Matlack6.7197210Jerry Koosman6.7196911Al Leiter6.5199812Johan Santana6.4200813Tom Seaver6.4196714Frank Viola6.3199015Tom Seaver6.0197016David Cone5.8198817Tom Seaver5.8197218Craig Swan5.7197819Tom Seaver5.7197620Tom Seaver5.7197421Jerry Koosman5.7197322Pedro Martinez5.5200523Sid Fernandez5.5199224Dwight Gooden5.4198425Bret Saberhagen5.21994

It'd be nice to have the option of dumping K-Rod for free after this season, or re-signing him to a new contract, but the Mets (and the A's) wouldn't have gotten him in the first place for two seasons only.

How do you verify that the poster is the player that he says he is?

Last call. I said I'd post the answers at the start of tonight's game but something suddenly came up and so I'll post 'em in 5 minutes. Thanks for playing.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Seaver, Gooden, Koosman, Matlack, Cone, Viola,[crossout]Fernandez[/crossout] Santana This list can't be right because it's the same seven pitchers that Grimm guessed.

Still no winners. Hint: Only one poster got six out of seven correct pitchers.

In other words, which Casey Stengel managed Met had the highest pitcher WAR season? (Pitcher and year, please)

Still no winners. For extra credit, only one Casey Stengel managed pitcher/season cracked the Mets top 50 for WAR. Name the pitcher and year.

OK. Here's a hint that I promised I wouldn't give. One poster almost got it right. His one mistake was picking a Met whose best WAR season was the team's 16th all-time best.

Still no winners.

No winners yet. Doc hasn't been paying attention to some stuff.

Some more WAR mongering: Trivia: Seven pitchers account for the Mets all time top 15 WAR for pitcher seasons. Name them. Rules: You must name all seven pitchers in one post. I will post the list of top Mets pitcher WAR seasons as soon as someone correctly posts all seven pitchers or at the beginning of tonight's game -- whichever comes first. I'm not going to give hints or point out which portion of someone's guess is wrong and which portion is right. Ready? Set? Go.

The top 25 WAR seasons for NL pitchers over the last 50 years. Matlack's '74 (ranked 23rd) doesn't get bumped off. This means that a season as good as Matlack's comes along less than once every two years. According to WAR, anyways. Three seasons from 1969 make the list: but not The Franchise's '69. RankPitcher/TeamWARYEARCy Young Award Winner/WAR Rank 1Steve Carlton/PHI12.21972 2Bob Gibson/STL11.91968 3Dwight Gooden/NYM11.71985 4Bob Gibson/STL11.01969 Tom Seaver/NYM/7.6/6th 5Sandy Koufax/LA10.81966 6Sandy Koufax/LA10.81963 7Dick Ellsworth/CHI10.31963 8Tom Seaver/NYM9.51973 9Steve Carlton/PHI9.41980 10Fergie Jenkins/CHI9.21971 11Tom Seaver/NYM9.21971 12Juan Marichal/SF9.21965 Sandy Koufax/LA/8.2/3rd 13Phil Niekro/ATL9.11978 Gaylord Perry/SD/4.7/11th 14Larry Dierker/HOU9.01969 15Juan Marichal/SF9.01966 16Randy Johnson/ARI8.82002 17Greg Maddux/ATL8.81995 18Bill Hands/CHI8.81969 19Rick Reuschel/CHI8.71977 Steve Carlton/PHI/5.8/6th 20Bob Gibson/STL8.71970 21Jim Bunning/PHI8.71966 22Jose Rijo/CIN8.61993 Greg Maddux/ATL/6.2/2nd 23Jon Matlack/NYM8.61974 Mike Marshall/LA/3.1/19th 24Phil Niekro/ATL8.51977 25Dave Roberts/SD8.51971

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: I'm surprised nobody's brought up Piazza-to-first in all this. It seems to me archetypal (if not original) among these sorts of situations (by which I mean star-moving-to-unfamiliar-position-for-good-of-team) with the modern-day Mets. Most everyone in the manager's (or GM's) chair during the last decade or so has seemed unable to have that conversation effectively or at all until the media gets in front of the issue. The one guy who seemed closest to being able to have that conversation comfortably with players was Randolph, no? Howe basically smiled like an idiot when faced with the Piazza bid'ness, and Manuel is either pitching chuckling idiocy or playing the A-Hole-Standing-on-Principle card, calling guys out for sitting out with injuries. I'm not sure that I understand your post. I'm confused because Piazza played 1B under Howe in 2004, and went back to catching exclusively in 2005, when Randolph took over. What am I missing?

But like others have already noted, Stengel was also a very powerful guy. At least until the day that his services were no longer required. Today's players are considerably cloutier. We sort of discussed this in the thread on relief pitcher usage when we considered whether today's "closer" role is as much a function of the influence players and their agents have, or whether management is mostly responsible...... Those were Casey's quotes, I believe. OE I'm not happy that Francoueur gets as much PT as he does. But I don't know who to blame. This might be on Jerry, but it could plausibly be Omar or even the owners.

Edgy DC wrote: I guess I have become O'Conner, because I think 3,000 is going to be a going to be a junior high semi-formal compared to the media orgy when he makes a run at 4256. And I do think he'll make a run, and I do think he and the Yankees are already thinking about it. And, apparently, the Yankees give some fat bonuses for that sort of thing. Jeter's next hit (#2873) will tie him with Babe Ruth for 39th place, all-time.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Edgy DC wrote: Niekro has be one of the most screwed pithers in terms of Cy Young support. For sure. His peak years were the mid-70's, when the Braves sucked and 80% of the typical voter's effort consisted of looking at a pitcher's W-L record. He was quite the dominant pitcher for a while. Niekro also led the NL in ERA in '67, but didn't get a single vote in the CY voting.

Edgy DC wrote: Niekro has be one of the most screwed pithers in terms of Cy Young support. For sure. His peak years were the mid-70's, when the Braves sucked and 80% of the typical voter's effort consisted of looking at a pitcher's W-L record. He was quite the dominant pitcher for a while.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Here are the 1974 NL pitching leaders for WPA. If Mike Marshall comes in with the same situation, he stays in for the duration of the inning with the same events transipiring. He has yielded 100% of his runners to score while the 2010 pair of guys have yeilded only 50%, because one of the guys got out of there without coughing up a run. Right? How does WPA account for inherited runners? If Marshall enters with an inherited runner on second base and two outs, and then immediately gives up a run scoring double, is Marshall debited with the entire run scoring event ... or is the prior reliever also charged with a portion of the run scoring event? Whatever it is, I'm guessing that the disparity between Marshall's 0.3 and the leaders' scores is too large to rack it up to unfairness. I haven't bothered to look to see how BR calculates WPA, and how the formula accounts for inherited runners. But I'm wondering if defending Marshall's WPA on the supposed unfairness of a reliever entering mid-inning to strand some other pitcher's runners is much ado about nothing. Even if the WPA penalizes a reliever who allows inherited runners to score, this should be offset by the higher score a reliever will earn when he does strand inherited runners.

Here are the 1974 NL pitching leaders for WPA. If Mike Marshall comes in with the same situation, he stays in for the duration of the inning with the same events transipiring. He has yielded 100% of his runners to score while the 2010 pair of guys have yeilded only 50%, because one of the guys got out of there without coughing up a run. Right? How does WPA account for inherited runners? If Marshall enters with an inherited runner on second base and two outs, and then immediately gives up a run scoring double, is Marshall debited with the entire run scoring event ... or is the prior reliever also charged with a portion of the run scoring event? Whatever it is, I'm guessing that the disparity between Marshall's 0.3 and the leaders' scores is too large to rack it up to unfairness.