Frayed Knot

2011 Rankings results There are now 617 ranked players going from, as has been the case since we started, Tom Seaver to Gus Bell From the 2011 roster: Debuts -- Ryota Igarashi at #605 Miguel Batista - #590 Chris Young - #572 Jason Pridie - #549 Ronnie Paulino - #519 Scott Hairston - #498 ... and just barely onto the status level list, so that if we ever actually do get any new members they will be rewarded with the posting level of ‘Scott Hairston’ just three spots after being ‘Jim, the Monsterously Huge Bat Boy’ Nick Evans - #473... he had played prior to this year but earned his first rankings points this season Willie Harris - #455 Pedro Beato - #438 Tim Byrdak - #404 Justin Turner - #287 Chris Capuano - #201 - highest “rookie” Returnees: - Manny Acosta - Up 103 spots from 393rd place to 290th - Bobby Parnell - Up 65 spots from 316 to 251 - Ruben Tejada - Up 186 spots from 430 to 244 - Dillon Gee - Up 230 spots from 446 to 216 - Josh Thole - Up 68 spots from 275 to 207 - Jason Isringhausen - Up 44 spots from 240 to 196 - Lucas Duda - Up 322 spots from 509 to 187 (and from off our parade of names to on) - Ike Davis - Up 21 spots from 177 to 156 - Jason Bay - Up 102 spots from 237 to 135 - Jonathon Niese - Up 80 spots from 214 to 134 - Francisco Rodriguez - Up 19 spots from 139 to 120 - R. A. Dickey - Up 78 spots from 168 to 90 - Daniel Murphy - Up 49 spots from 130 to 81 - Angel Pagan - Up 24 spots from 98 to 74 - Mike Pelfrey - Up 11 spots from 78 to 67 - Carlos Beltran - Up 6 spots from 20 to 14 - Passing Darling, Grote, McGraw, Mookie, Leiter, and (just barely*) Keith - Jose Reyes - Up 5 spots from 17 to 12 - Passing McGraw, Mookie, Leiter, Keith, and Kranepool ... and no one else ever!! - David Wright - Up 2 spots from 7th to 5th - Passing Franco & Piazza Johan Santana obviously received no points for this year but was also un-passed and so remains at slot #50 * and we mean ‘just barely’. The final score (assuming Carlos nver plays here again) was 43,278 to 42,276. So not only would one better/worse placement in any vote in any year have switched the two but even one fewer or more team WIN in the right place would have done the same. New to the Top 100: Dickey & Murphy Out of the Top 100: Doug Flynn & Ken Boswell Izzy’s journey -- Special note needs to be made about Izzy who, after earning points in 1995 & 1996, sat out for 14 years (shirley a record in CPF Rankings history) before logging back in this season. Of course there were no actual CPF rankings during Izzy’s first stint as a Met seeing as how we didn’t concoct this thing until ten years ago when we ranked the ‘01 season and then retroactively did the same for all previous ones. But we can judge via points awarded through his rookie campaign in ‘95, that he would have sat in 167th place at that point and then move up to 161st with his abbreviated season in ‘96. His wandering years in between saw him fall to 240th as the list expanded and he was passed by nearly 100 players. So now, even with his 44 slot jump this season, he’d still have to hang around another few years to back to his high point of 16 years ago, but he’s also ahead of more players as well. End of ‘95 -- 167th place 96 -- 161st 10 -- 240th 11 -- 196th Dropped from the Top-500 Dwight Bernard Phil Linz Allen Watson Wilson Delgado Andy Tomberlin Roy Lee Jackson Jeff Duncan Greg Harris #100 - Bob Apodaca #200 - Ellis Valentine #250 - (midpoint of our Top 500) Dale Murray #300 - Dick Schofield #309 - (midpoint of all players) - Marlon Anderson #400 - Mike Bruhert #500 (first player to greet newbies following their JtMHBB status) - Jamie Cerda

Final Results RANKPLAYER30J. REYES29R.A. DICKEY28C. BELTRAN27D. MURPHY26D. WRIGHT25L. DUDA24C. CAPUANO23J. BAY22D. GEE21J. NIESE20A. PAGAN19R. TEJADA18J. TURNER17F. RODRIGUEZ16M. PELFREY15J. THOLE14M. ACOSTA13B. PARNELL12J. ISRINGHAUSEN11T. BYRDAK10I. DAVIS9P. BEATO8W. HARRIS7N. EVANS6S. HAIRSTON5R. PAULINO4J. PRIDIE3C. YOUNG2M. BATISTA1R. IGARASHI

Schwinden also threw all of 21 innings; Thayer 10, and Herrera 8 Speculating that those extremely small samples would translate to better than what Gee actually did if only someone had been wise enough to give them 30 starts and 160+ IPs over most of a full season is a bit of a stretch, no? And not only over Gee & Izzy but you also shut out Beato from your list entirely as well as Acosta who went the final three months of the season with a 2.00 ERA over nearly 40 innings. On the hitting side, Baxter and his 34 ABs begs a similar question.

I'd like to wrap this up in the next week or so, so if anyone either wants to get in that hasn't already or wants to update an existing list do so soon. At the moment we can't accept LWFS's list as a legit vote on account of having Angel Pagan listed twice. The same list also has some 'splainin to do with the contention Dale Thayer somehow contributed more to the 2011 season than did Izzy, or likewise with Schwinden over Gee

"[it's] like a cold sore I can't stop flicking with my tongue" -- Vic Sage, Crane Pool Press I can't imagine why the marketing department for this movie didn't use that quote in their newspaper ads.

metsmarathon wrote: 2011's best met will be 77 points higher than the 2nd best met, who will be 77 points higher than the 3rd best met, etc etc, until you get to the lowest ranked met, who will be have netted 77 points. therefore, the best met will be 30 times better than the 30th met, and will be 30/29 times better than the 2nd best met. the best met in a 77 win year will be worth 77*30=2130. this makes him slightly more better than the 21-point met on a 106 win team; 106*20=2120. Umm, not quite. The rank each player gets is first squared and then multiplied by that season's wins to get his point total The idea being that the difference between the 1st & 10th best player should be treated as much more meaningful than the gap between the 10th & 20th, or between Mr. 20th & Mr. 30th. And if you're wondering who came up with such a dopey suggestion ... go look in the mirror.

Didn't think much of the catching corps, huh?

So while we continue to search for the drunk who submitted a list under LWFS's name, anyone else who wants in here should do so in the near future lest this thing fall off the radar. In the meantime I'm going to tweak mine just a bit, upping Duda a couple of spots ahead of both Turner & Frankie Rod, and also giving away Carrasco's final spot to Igarashi who was at least occasionally useful. 30 - Reyes 29 - Dickey 28 - Beltran 27 - Murphy 26 - Wright 25 - Capuano 24 - Gee 23 - Niese 22 - Pagan 21 - Bay 20 - Duda 19 - Rodriguez 18 - Turner 17 - Acosta 16 - Beato 15 - Tejada 14 - Pelfrey 13 - Thole 12 - Isringhausen 11 - Harris 10 - Parnell 9 - Paulino 8 - Byrdak 7 - Davis 6 - Young 5 - Evans 4 - Hairston 3 - Pridie 2 - Batista 1 - Igarashi

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: 30 - Reyes 29 - Beltran 28 - Murphy 27 - Dickey 26 - Niese 25 - Wright 24 - Tejada 23 - Capuano 22 - Davis 21 - Thole 20 - Duda 19 - Pagan 18 - Rodriguez 17 - Pelfrey 16 - Pagan 15 - Parnell 14 - Turner 13 - Bay 12 - Evans 11 - Pridie 10 - Schwinden 9 - Paulino 8 - Byrdak 7 - Baxter 6 - Hairston 5 - Young 4 - Gee 3 - Batista 2 - Thayer 1 - Isringhausen So LWFS - Did you find the drunk guy who broke into your handle and concocted this list yet?

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Frayed Knot wrote: Yeah, I don't get Izzy sitting down there well behind the likes of Baxter and his .235 BA over less than 3 dozen ABs, or Schwinden and his near 5.00 ERA from a grand total of 24 garbage time IPs. And Gee as the 27th best Met behind those same two and loads of others?!?!?! You also, btw, have Pagan up there twice.

Yeah, I don't get Izzy sitting down there well behind the likes of Baxter and his .235 over less than 3 dozen ABs, or Schwinden and his near 5.00 ERA over a grand total of 24 garbage time IPs. And Gee as the 27th best Met behind those same two and loads of others?!?!?!

Vic, you do realize that you're arguing with a souped-up toaster, right?

Pitchers: * Dickey - A slow start but clearly the best pitcher on the team thereafter. An ERA better by 1.2-1.5 runs over the rest of the starters while also leading in IPs & WHiP ***** The 2-3-4 starters had very similar ERAs (0.15 range) & WHiPs (.062) - I sorted them this way: * Capuano - A hairsplitting choice due to 3 & 6 more starts and around 30 more IP compared to the remaining starters * Gee - With near identical rates to Niese I’m going to reward Dillon for his superior W/L record. But, jeez, stop hitting so many batters will ya!! * Niese - Fewer walks but more hits allowed than Gee * Rodriguez - Not a good year for relievers, but Frankie’s half season and 3.16 ERA shined above the rest * Acosta - Didn’t show up until June, then went from ‘Why is he on this team?’ to the nominal closer as the summer wore on. ERA fell from near 10.00 on July 1st to its finish at 3.45 * Beato - Didn’t give up his first ER until late May and logged more innings than any other reliever. Wore down towards the end. * Pelfrey - 2nd most innings pitched but a lousy overall year. Too many base runners, too many runs, works too damn slow. * Isringhausen - Good first half as a setup man and for a brief time as closer before falling apart probably due to overwork. * Parnell - Sort of the anti-Acosta, his sub-3.00 ERA in early July rose steadily just as the team started to rely on him more following the KRod trade. * Byrdak - Another guy who was a tale of two halves. His near .300 BAA for Apr-Jun suddenly plummeted to under .200 from July on. Heavily relied upon as the only LH-reliever much of the year, but still just a specialist and also just 37 IPs * Young - The Ike Davis of the pitching staff. One great month and then sayonara * Batista - Just 9 games and 4 starts, most were pretty good but it was garbage time by then. * Carrasco - Mop-up man, and not a very good one at that. Buchholz - Another guy who started out OK then disappeared. Schwinden -- Stinson -- Thayer -- Misch -- O’Connor -- Boyer -- Herrera -- Not enough innings And the composite: 30 - Reyes 29 - Dickey 28 - Beltran 27 - Murphy 26 - Wright 25 - Capuano 24 - Gee 23 - Niese 22 - Pagan 21 - Bay 20 - Rodriguez 19 - Turner 18 - Duda 17 - Acosta 16 - Beato 15 - Tejada 14 - Pelfrey 13 - Thole 12 - Isringhausen 11 - Harris 10 - Parnell 9 - Paulino 8 - Byrdak 7 - Davis 6 - Young 5 - Evans 4 - Hairston 3 - Pridie 2 - Batista 1 - Carrasco

Starting off with the hitters: * Reyes - Clear #1 hitter for this year. League MVP candidate until the injuries hit, still led the team in PA, AB, BA, Runs, Hits, 2Bs, 3Bs, Steals. ***** * Beltran - Topped team in HRs, RBIs, Walks, OBA, SLG despite being traded barely half-way through the season. * Murphy - .320/.362/.448 over 400+ PAs while playing three positions (even if none of them within spitting distance of GG level) * Wright - 5th in ABs despite the long absence says a lot about the competition; his steady if unspectacular production ranks him above the remaining ‘full-timers’ * Pagan - Reduced production and defense. Stays ahead of Bay due to SBs and position * Bay - Virtually identical stats to Pagan but at a corner spot * Turner - Nice surprise; streaky hitter who made the most of his hits [.350/.480/.500 w/RiSP vs .206/.270/.286 w/bases empty]. Not great range at 2B, but tough as shit on the DP * Duda - ~.310/.390/.520 hitter after July 1st. Decent at 1B even while very scary in the OF * Tejada - Much improved offense [.284/.360/.335] although still little power and surprisingly erratic defense at times * Thole - Took a step backwards both offensively and defensively * Harris - Typical bench player, gets points for versatility * Paulino - eh * Davis - A great six weeks, then missed five months with a stubbed toe (or something like that) * Evans - Picked it up nicely at the end * Hairston - 16 of his 31 hits went for extra bases * Pridie - Seemed to only hit when he started but wasn’t really good enough to start Baxter - Local boy gets some ABs in September Nickeas - Can catch, can’t hit Pascucci - The man, the myth, the legend Emaus - He was worth a look but then made us all look away. Martinez - Maybe one of these days Satin & Hu - Yeah ... no.

OK you’ve judged the rest now come rank the best. We've done the top rookie thing, sorted the best starters and relievers, and voted our choice for top IFs and OFs. Now it’s time to put it all together. Most if not all of youse know the procedure by this point. Tell us (if you choose to participate) who the best 30 Mets were for 2011 either by submitting your own list or by commenting, analyzing, suggesting changes in, or just plain ridiculing the lists of others (that last part is particularly fun). As per the usual reminder, how you construct your list is up to you but the results should be something you’re willing to defend if you think you’re right or alter if convinced otherwise. Also remember that the idea is to judge the players strictly on the basis of their contributions to the 2011 season and not grade “on a curve” by including factors such as their relative salaries, preseason expectations, or anticipated future value. The final list will be a conglomerate of all the opinions submitted and will be merged into the rankings we have for the previous 49 seasons to form the CPF All-Time NYM Rankings - 50th year edition. There were 46 wearers of the uniform this year, listed below by frequency of appearance. Position players (23) by ABs Reyes -- Pagan -- Bay -- Turner -- Wright Murphy -- Beltran -- Thole -- Tejada -- Duda Harris -- Paulino -- Pridie -- Evans -- Davis Hairston -- Nickeas -- Emaus -- Baxter -- Satin Hu -- Martinez -- Pascucci Pitchers (23) by IP Dickey -- Pelfrey -- Capuano -- Gee - Niese Beato -- Parnell -- Carrasco -- Acosta -- Isringhausen Rodriguez -- Igarashi -- Byrdak -- Batista -- Buchholz Young -- Schwinden -- Stinson -- Thayer -- Misch O’Connor -- Boyer -- Herrera

Mel Brooks' 'History of the World - Part 1' OK, I'm actually kidding on that one, although I remember when it first came out somebody saying to me, 'I can't believe that this movie isn't even out yet and they're already planning for the sequel' All I could do was shake my head.

It was the best altered reality movie I saw this year. Translated, that means it was better than 'Source Code' which I found only OK, and 'Inception' which I bailed on part-way through.

The might not have said Jeremy Brown in the movie, but they did say 'our 250 lb catcher who no one else wanted' (or words to that effect) and the story about the unseen HR was Brown. And, yeah, they definitely over-did the size thing for dramatic effect. He was big, but he wasn't that big.

I read a story about the Justice actor being a star in HS who went on to play some minor league ball* - although I don't find any record of it in BB-Ref, at least not under his acting name of Steven Bishop. Funny also how much different he looked than he did while singing at the frat party in 'Animal House'. The story of the blimpy catcher who didn't realize he hit the HR was from the book and it's the somewhat famous case of Jeremy Brown, the 2001 draft pick none of the scouts wanted -- 'he wears a big pair of underwear' -- but Beane made the 35th overall pick and thus the symbol of the 'Moneyball Draft'. He's listed in BB-Ref at 5' 10" - 226 (I think the movie bumped that up to 250) and was in Visalia for most of that season. He wound up getting 3 ABs in the majors before retiring at the end of the 2007 year. That was one of those points in the flick where I was wondering if the scene was shot of the movie or was actual baseball footage because I was watching that saying; 'I didn't think Jeremy Brown was THAT big'. * oe: now that I think about it, it may have been college ball and not pro ball that he played. It would also explain the absence in BB-Ref

Both former Met Howe & current one DePodesta less than pleased with how they're portrayed. Howe (to InsideBayArea.com): �I�m very disappointed, very disappointed, ... I look at it as character assassination. It wasn�t even close to my personality,� ... �They just went out of their way to degrade me.� �I spent my whole career trying to build a good reputation and I think I did that but this movie certainly doesn�t help it," the mild-mannered Howe said on Sirius/XM Radio. "And it is definitely unfair and untrue. If you ask any player that ever played for me they would say that they never saw this side of me, ever.� DePodesta: "I can't take it seriously and I certainly can't take it personally. We'll see when I actually see it, but I'm determined not to take it too seriously." DePodesta had asked the producers not to use his name in the picture -- "I was asked and saw some different iterations of the script, and I realized the character that was in there wasn't even me. At that point I had to remind myself, 'It's a movie. It's fiction.' " However, a Los Angeles columnist who covered DePodesta as Dodgers GM says actor Jonah Hill "nails DePodesta ... his shy mannerisms, his uncomfortable silences, his awkwardness in sharing his newfangled theories with old men spitting tobacco into cups, his fear in dealing with players."

Your details are a bit off but, yes, that moment is built into the movie although not as the big payoff/climax as would be the case in a typical sports flick.

Vic Sage wrote: A quiet, contemplative, deliberately paced movie with much to say, that avoids most (if not all) sports movie cliches. I liked it alot. And Pitt's perf as aging jock seemed pitch-perfect, working well off of goofball gone straight Jonah Hill. Just enough baseball to keep it a baseball movie and not a business movie. and it makes a folk hero out of Scott Hatteberg. Yeah, pretty much this. It's not the book, which is OK because I didn't go in expecting it to be. Beane's relationship with his daughter, barely mentioned in the book, is played up as a sizable part of the story to bring the human element into things. Other parts from the book are left out (the amateur draft portion) and naturally timelines are skewed, simplified, or condensed from actual happenings. And what that all means is that those who misinterpreted what 'Moneyball' means because they misread or never read the thing it in the first place (Joe Morgan, Mike Francesa) are going to have a whole new set of reasons misunderstand it. Particularly well done are the virtually seem-less transitions back and forth between actual footage of 2002 baseball scenes and shot footage, sometimes to the point where it's tough to tell which is which. Met connections/sightings: Beane of course. Not just as A's GM but also in flashback scenes to his signing and his NYM career (wearing #35 with shots of Straw in the background) Art Howe. Played by Philip Hoffman as much more grouchy than the sunny if bland Art we all knew and ... tolerated. Chad Bradford. One of the few players with significant speaking parts. Paper NYM David Justice. A prominent player/actor in the flick. Izzy. Often mentioned but never shown.

Haven't seen it in like a million years but my memory is one of 'Serpico' where the lines separating the good guys from the bad are not nearly as distinct.

The recent call-up gets a write-up from John Sickels: -- Mets prospect Chris Schwinden was unheralded pre-season, but finds himself starting games down the stretch for New York and will have a chance to contribute in 2012. Schwinden was drafted out of Fresno Pacific University in 2008, as a 22nd round choice, essentially a roster-filler pick for the minor leagues. He performed very well in the New York-Penn League that summer, posting a 2.01 ERA with a 70/12 K/BB in 63 innings, demonstrating sharp control. Command remained his key attribute in 2009 as well: he went 10-6, 3.34 in 127 innings between Low-A Savannah and Double-A St. Lucie, with a sharp 92/18 K/BB, although he gave up 138 hits. He returned to St. Lucie for 2010 and was great, with a 1.83 ERA and a 23/5 K/BB in 34 innings. Promoted to Double-A, he ran into a wall at Binghamton, posting a 5.56 ERA and giving up an unsightly 100 hits in 79 innings. He kept his K/BB ratio solid at 69/19, but going into 2011 he looked like a guy whose stuff was short of major league quality. Schwinden was undeterred however, and ended up having a fine season this year for Triple-A Buffalo, with a 3.95 ERA and a 134/48 K/BB in 146 innings, allowing 138 hits. He was promoted to the majors for this month and gave up eight hits and five runs in five innings in his first start, though he walked just one and fanned four. There is nothing special about his velocity, his fastball is just in the 86-90 range. He mixes in a cutter, curveball, and changeup, relying on sharp command of his secondary pitches to succeed. He has little margin for error and needs a strong defense behind him, but there are pitchers with worse stuff who have made careers for themselves due to superior command, and he's shown the ability to make adjustments to higher level competition. Schwinden really snuck up on us this year, but I don't see him as a total fluke. I think he projects as a fifth starter or long relief type as long as his command remains strong.