metirish

Those yellow things are lemons Cooby...

She certainly liked her food, washed down with a Heineken of course,she'll be missed in the wife's section.

The Mets are set to meet Jojima on Friday. http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/mets/ny-spmets1116,0,2887202.story?coll=ny-sports-headlines

Congrats to Pujols, maybe if the Cubs didn't fall apart Lee might have got it, but they finished 21 games behind St.Louis.

]Stupid article. Nobody is saying that the MVP is, or should be, primarily about defense.Yet commentator after commentator are saying that they would give their vote to Rodriguez because he plays the field and played great defence...M&MD claim it's hte reason he won...I agree that some of the analogy's in the column were silly but he was making a good point, defence only mattered this year it seems.

He makes a great point about defence, of course Hernandez wasn't a Met in 79.

How could you win the MVP with only 76RBI?]On November 15, 1988, Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Kirk Gibson wins the National League�s MVP Award, despite finishing the season with only 76 RBIs. Gibson beats out New York Mets outfielders Darryl Strawberry and Kevin McReynolds... Strawberry had 39 hr and 101 rbi,McReynolds had 27 and 99

It's laughable to project a career, although I don't think Mr Sickles takes himself too seriously.

That's the thing Elster, it's not just fans that call him "the cooler" but wasn't that term coined by a former Rangers teammate?

Not surprising that Rodriguez is getting pretty much hammered in the papers today, his conference call with reporters yesterday and his bit on M&MD was pure bullshit, IMO he came accross as if he were being persecuted just for being A-Rod......

I hope this doesn't happen, I have always found Sutton hard on the ears..

No need for Bobby to come back, he signed a 4 year $16 million contract with Chiba, he has never been as popular, and he was smart enough to see that a dream job like the Dodgers was a no go with the mess they are with the McCourts..

]Based on this, Omar might want to think twice before throwing $40 mil over 4 years at our friend Mr. Wagner... No matter how this projects for Burnett I'd still rather Omar give Wagner the $40 million than give it Burnett,I'd rather have Wagner saving 40+ games for the Mets than Burnett winning 12 to 14 for that money..we have guys for that..

Anyway back to the numbers game..and who the hell is Nate Silver?]Predicting Futures in Baseball, and the Downside of Damon E-Mail ThisPrinter-Friendly Reprints Save Article By ALAN SCHWARZPublished: November 13, 2005INDIAN WELLS, Calif., Nov. 11 - Thad Levine was distracted. As Levine, the assistant general manager of the Texas Rangers, conversed one evening at last week's Major League Baseball general managers meetings, his eyes kept wandering to an enticing packet of paper sitting on a nearby coffee table: the 2006 Pecota Projections.Discuss the Postseason For the growing number of baseball executives bent toward statistical analysis, a certain anticipation builds every off-season for the release of what is known simply as Pecota, Baseball Prospectus's �berforecast of every player's performance the next season. Most front offices have an employee who consults it - particularly during the free-agent season. "Signing someone to a three- or four-year deal is a risk-management business decision," Levine said, leafing through the pages. "This tool does a fantastic job of managing expectations for what the player will do for you."What separates Pecota from the gaggle of projection systems that outsiders have developed over many decades is how it recognizes, even flaunts, the uncertainty of predicting a player's skills. Rather than generate one line of expected statistics, Pecota presents seven - some optimistic, some pessimistic - each with its own confidence level. The system greatly resembles the forecasting of hurricane paths: players can go in many directions, so preparing for just one is foolish.Take Johnny Damon, the Red Sox center fielder considered one of this off-season's most attractive free agents. Pecota examines many factors beyond his raw statistical record - the effect of playing in hitter-friendly Fenway Park, Damon's age (32), power and speed, even his height and weight - and compares him with every major leaguer since 1949, identifying the trajectories others have taken and assessing the probability Damon will follow them.The system forecasts Damon to have about a 25 percent chance of posting an on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS) of .829 next season, but also a 40 percent chance of declining to .761. This is because players like Damon have maintained their performance only for about one year before beginning a consistent, decided decline. In other words, buyer beware.Pecota is less pessimistic toward shortstop Rafael Furcal, who at 28 has a better chance of maintaining his performance level. (Though the system suggests that middle infielders age more quickly than classic sluggers.) A relative sleeper could be found in outfielder Brian Giles, who despite being 35 has the kind of skills - excellent power, speed and a fine batting eye - that tend to age relatively slowly.Pecota was developed four summers ago by Nate Silver, a 24-year-old Chicago financial consultant. "In some ways it was boredom," Silver said. "If I had a spreadsheet on my computer, it looked like I was busy." (Its official name, Player Empirical Comparison and Optimization Test Algorithm, joyfully boils down to the last name of Bill Pecota, a former major league utilityman.) The projections are anticipated enough among some executives that Silver has received e-mail messages saying, "Hey, are the Pecotas done yet?"Though the system naturally cannot predict all player fluctuations, it succeeds more than most. Last winter, it identified Jonny Gomes, a relatively unknown Tampa Bay Devil Rays outfielder, as having an excellent chance at significant improvement. Gomes hit .282 with 21 home runs in just 101 games. It also foresaw even greater production from established players like Andruw Jones, Derrek Lee and Dontrelle Willis.Pecota helps quantify the danger of long-term pitching investments, and points out which types of arms tend to project best. The strongest indicators of future performance are rates of strikeouts, walks and home runs, but also ground ball-to-fly ball ratio and even body type.As for this year's free-agent pitching market, Silver sees a fine future for A. J. Burnett, an enigmatic 28-year-old right-hander. Burnett projects to have a 3.65 earned run average next season, but also has a 15 percent chance of blossoming into a Cy Young award candidate for several seasons. Of the two most intriguing relievers available, the veteran Billy Wagner and the less-known B. J. Ryan, Pecota chooses Ryan as the better long-term investment thanks to his age next season (30 to Wagner's 34) and several other peripheral factors.Pecota's focus on looking several years ahead is what catches executives' eyes most at this time of year - and helps temper what is often unfounded optimism about players' chances of improving."Sometimes you have a guy with a track record, a guy in his early 30's, and when he declines we act like we're shocked," Levine said. "And we don't want to look at a 26-year-old who does X and think that in two years he's going to do two-times X. This helps us stay grounded."No organization uses Pecota in a vacuum, instead incorporating it with other projection techniques like traditional scouting reports. But a decade after Bill Pecota retired, his name is growing more prominent each winter."Everyone in baseball is in the guessing business," the Mariners executive Dan Evans said. "This makes it a little bit less of a guess."E-mail: keepingscore@nytimes.com

Mole, Thorne was canned I believe because the Mets didn't like him being critical of the team IIRC..plus Gary is one of those that works numerous sports,although I have no idea what he is at now that he's not doing ESPN and FOX hockey games, and he won't be the NBC voice of hockey either. Thorne is a great hockey p b p guy...

It would be fun to see Manny pissing all over the tomato plants in the bullpen...Manny being Manny..

Delgado also has a clause in his contract that if traded to NY his salary would increase by $1 Million to cover taxes....

yes 82, so what type of payment are they?

So are they pension checks,Backman's looks like it's from 92, but he was still a player then...

here they are... ] Player Year Todd Hollandsworth 1996 Hideo Nomo 1995 Raul Mondesi 1994 Mike Piazza 1993 Eric Karros 1992 Steve Sax 1982 Fernando Valenzuela 1981 Steve Howe 1980 Rick Sutcliffe 1979 Ted Sizemore 1969 Jim Lefebvre 1965 Frank Howard 1960 Jim Gilliam 1953 Joe Black 1952 Don Newcombe 1949 Jackie Robinson 1947 http://losangeles.dodgers.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/la/history/awards.jsp

yup,the Dodgers had 16.

I stick, I want nothing to do with Thome.The Phillies will find it ahrd to trade him of course, probably needs to prove that he's healthy first... Rookie trivia... Which team has had the most Rookie of the Year Award winners?

Here are today's Met rumors...Burrnett, Delgado ,Manny anf others are all in the mix.. http://www.prosportsdaily.com/mlb/mets/

Konerko gets an offer... http://www.dailysouthtown.com/southtown/dssports/pro/101sd1.htm

Breaking Bobby V news... ]Valentine close to re-signing in Japan BY JON HEYMAN STAFF WRITER November 10, 2005, 8:58 AM EST A multiyear agreement to keep Bobby Valentine with the Chiba Lotte Marines is imminent, Newsday has learned. Valentine, pursued to manage the Dodgers and Devil Rays after leading Chiba Lotte to a sweep in the Nippon Series, will sign an extension with the Marines for at least three years and about $4 million per year. Valentine, who led the Mets to the Subway Series in 2000, had been considering the jobs in Tampa Bay and Los Angeles. It is believed the Devil Rays made an offer that would have paid him about half what he'll make in Japan. Valentine was also a top target of the Dodgers, where he would have joined his mentor Tommy Lasorda, who has regained power in that organization. With Valentine out of the mix, the Devil Rays are expected to hire Joe Maddon or John McLaren for their managing job. The Dodgers are busy considering candidates for their general manager job before they hire a manager to replace Jim Tracy. Valentine made $3 million this year when his team pulled off a major upset to win the title, beating the Hanshin Tigers in four straight games. Valentine is widely celebrated throughout Japan after winning the most lopsided Nippon Series. He became the first foreigner honored with the Shoriki Award, given annually to a person who makes an outstanding contribution in Japanese baseball.