Frayed Knot

Leaving aside the value of closers for a second, my main concern is one of producing a list through a particular method and sticking with that list even if it produced some illogical answers simply on the basis of, 'well, that's how things turned out'. The idea here is to produce a list where the order can be explained so even if no one else agrees with it, it should at least make sense to you. For example: * Blending pitchers & hitters is the toughest part of this project, but does Maine - who had an All-star half season anyway - really deserve to be behind Delgado? * How do Endy's fewer ABs, lower OBA & lesser power land him 2 slots above Castillo and 6 above Gotay? * Mota & Schoeneweis ahead of Smith?? In approx 1/3 more IPs they both gave up more than 2x as many runs

Zvon wrote: How do older non active players get to move up this list? Un-retire and play again!! Think about it; a retired player has already been judged to be below the also-retired guys ahead of him on the list so it's not like that's going to change short of us reviewing and changing past scores. So all he can do is hold his place or drop as he gets passed by active and future players. If you want to argue specifically about Trachsel you can fish up the lists where he played and make a case why he shouldn't as high as he was. The 2003 list would be a good one to start since that's where he racked up much of his ponts. More discussion of this topic took place HERE if you want read a similar exchange between myself and 'Slugger' which has a few more details on the same subject. Funny how it's usually Trachsel that stirs folks into action. On the other hand if it makes you feel any better, he'll certainly drop at least 3 spots this winter as Wright, Reyes and Beltran pass him by -- which reminds me that we'll soon need icons for both Reyes & Beltran and I believe you're the guy in charge of those.

GFaFiF: This way it's presented without prejudice or agenda. Yeah but is it accurate? Do you really want to make the case for Easley being more important to this season than Wagner; or Chavez more than Heilman; or Newhan more than, well ... anyone?

And then the pitchers: Maine - All-Star caliber first half, then a sinking ship for 2 months which was righted at the tail end with a gem which almost saved the season Perez - When he wasn't melting down on the mound in a sea of walks and HBPs he was leading the team in ERA and tied for lead in wins. Hernandez - Was the best starter on the staff ... when he was available Wagner - A near perfect 1st half (1.64 ERA, 0.92 WhiP) turned shakey later on (3.90, 1.40) Glavine - His best run came down the home stretch ... until it fell 3 games short Heilman - Very odd year in that his outings seemed to be either perfect ... or perfectly horrible. Gave up just 22 hits and 25 BBs/HBPs - and 36 of them scored!! Feliciano - Probably the most consistant reliever all year - but a ton of walks Sosa - Started out great in the rotation ... then lost his job ... then found himself in the bullpen Martinez - Pitched well in his return, but still just 5 starts and 28 IP Smith - First 17+ IP were scoreless, then allowed 17 ER over the next 27 Pelfrey - Too many walks kept him from putting together more than a good inning or two in a row. Schoeneweis - Strong finish can't erase a horrid 1st half Mota - Too many HRs ruins what is often great stuff Burgos - Showed glimpses of promise Sele - Not only didn't pitch very well but also virtually no important innings Lawrence, Vargas, Humber, Collazo, Williams, Park, Muniz, Adkins & Urdaneta ain't making the cut. Which leads us to the combined list: 30 - Wright 29 - Beltran 28 - Reyes 27 - Maine 26 - Perez 25 - Delgado 24 - Hernandez 23 - Wagner 22 - Glavine 21 - Alou 20 - Heilman 19 - LoDuca 18 - Feliciano 17 - Green 16 - Castillo 15 - Milledge 14 - Sosa 13 - Easley 12 - Castro 11 - Gotay 10 - Martinez 9 - Smith 8 - Anderson 7 - Pelfrey 6 - Chavez 5 - Gomez 4 - Schoeneweis 3 - Mota 2 - Velentin 1 - Burgos On the outside looking in: Adkins, Alomar, Ambres, Collazo, Conine, DiFelice, Franco, A. Hernandez, Humber, Johnson, Lawrence, Newhan, Sele, Urnadeta, Vargas, Williams So go ahead, show me where I'm nuts.

I like to start these by sorting out the position players from the pitchers and then combine them later. First the hitters: Wright - Led team in virtually every offensive category and was miles ahead in both OBA & Runs Created. He's the top position player this year and it's not even close. Beltran - Fast start but then a slow stretch lingered well into mid-year before a good finish. Still, the final numbers added up to a pretty good year even if they pale against the near-MVP 2006 Reyes - Great start, horrid finish. Ran well, power plummeted. Delgado - Disappointing year even if still occasionally dangerous Alou - Was great while he was available but all that missed time puts him behind the full-timers LoDuca - Bad offensive year. Only brownie points for being the catcher gets him this high. Green - Not nearly enough power from a corner OF position, but was somewhat reliable and finished strong. Castillo - May not be a keeper, but hit & played 2nd well enough after the trade deadline to earn first place amongst the irregulars Milledge - Was a shame that he wasn't available when the rest of the OF was dropping like flies or we may have actually seen him on the field for an uninterrupted stretch. Easley - Nice versatility and some monster moments Castro - Awesome slugging but injuries blew maybe his best chance at semi-regular work Gotay - Nice fill-in, and maybe more than that in the future. Anderson - His ridiculous RBI/Hit ratio puts him much higher than just 69 ABs would usually merit Chavez - Nice to have around when he was around, but reduced offense compared to '06 reminds us why he has been a 4th outfielder at best Gomez - The fans who fell in love with his speed and were ready to say he'd bypassed Milledge seemed to miss some anemic slugging and lack of walks. Valentin - Been gone so long you almost forgot he was here didn't you? Newhan/Franco - Newhan wins this battle on account of 3 XBHs to 1 DiFelice, Conine, Ledee, Johnson, Ambres, Alomar, & Hernandez all have no shot at making the final cut

Well I'm ready to start taking a crack at this. For those of you newbies or part-timers who aren't familiar, the CPF Annual Ranking Project is like a season-long version of our daily Player of the Game awards ... only different. Rather than awarding a score to each player, you're creating an ordinal list of the best 30 players this season (from among the 49 that appeared) from biggest to smallest contributions. And rather than just submitting a vote and counting them up we tend to hash over them a while arguing specific points about who should be ranked above who and other such stuff. How you arrive at your answer is strictly up to you although you should be prepared to explain and/or defend your choices or even change them if persuaded enough by those questioning your logic, your knowledge of baseball, or the size of your brain. There's no specific time limit here as we usually let this go on as long as there's still enough discussion to keep it going. Eventually we arrive at some sort of consensus and put that "into the books" as our official 2007 ranking. Said ranking will be combined with the ones we did for the previous 45 seasons which creates the overall player list of best ever Mets which is where those names connected to your posting levels come from. You can participate by submitting your own list in full, or just sit on the sidelines and argue specific points such as why you believe that player 'A' deserves to be higher or lower than 'B' and the rest of the crew must be drunk for not seeing it that way, etc. You also are, of course, free to just ignore the whole fucking thing altogether ... although doing that precludes you from ever complaining that your designated whipping boy du-season is ranked too high when you're suddenly saddled with having his name next to your posts for a week or so. Here's the roster we need to deal with: The 25 position players who got into at least one game this year (in order of ABs) Reyes - Wright - Beltran - Delgado - Green LoDuca - Alou - Castillo - Easley - Gotay Milledge - Valentin - Chavez - Castro - Gomez Newhan - Anderson - Franco - Conine - DiFelice Ledee - Johnson - Alomar - Ambres - Hernandez And the 24 pitchers who appeared for the blue & orange in 2007 (in order of IPs) Glavine - Maine - Perez - Hernandez - Sosa Heilman - Pelfrey - Wagner - Feliciano - Schoeneweis Mota - Sele - Smith - Lawrence - Martinez Burgos - Vargas - Humber - Collazo - Williams Park - Muniz - Adkins - Urdaneta

The only Bond I ever read was 'Goldfinger' after picking up a used paperback version in some Jr High era book fair for about a quarter long after I had already seen the movie. I enjoyed it at the time, then picked it up again a few years later and found it incredibly stupid. My memory is that the movie pretty much followed the book, at least as much as those things can. Supposedly that whole series got its biggest boost when Pres Kennedy copped to being a big fan.

I read the original Bourne book about a million years ago. That kind of reading usually isn't up my alley but a couple of his were worthwhile. Liked the original OK, but I'm almost allergic to sequels so haven't gotten around to any of the others. My favorite comment about this new one was where someone said; 'they don't exactly wear you out with dialogue.'

S-o-t-D was good enough to give this one a viewing.

I had a hunch in advance that this movie was going to suck.

Never saw it.

The original AFI Top-100 list was from around '98 or so. I don't think they re-do it every year but have updated it once or twice since and this one looks like their most recent one from just this year.

Around 75 to 80. I guess I watch movies just right.

Robin Williams is good in movies where the direction reins him in somewhat and doesn't let the movie become an RW stand-up routine with some loose plot fabricated around it. Judging just by the ads for this flick this doesn't seem like one of those times.

Iubitul wrote: Am I the only one who remembers that we were in the beginning of an ice age 30 years ago? There was a "Scientists Warn' story on that in Newsweek some time in the '70s. Gore at least got some good news this week ... his kid proved that, despite being a gas-saving hybrid, a Prius can still go 100 MPH.

Yancy Street Gang wrote: I'm surprised to learn that he got as small as 3.75 inches. So were Joe's lady friends. Surprised, AND disappointed.

What happened to GI Joe was that the anti-war crowd got after him (or, more accurately, his makers) forcing them to turn him from a soldier into an "action figure". So gone were the more blatant instruments of war accesories to be replaced by; Joe as Scuba Diver; Joe on Safari; Joe the big game hunter (PETA wasn't well organized yet), etc. I don't remember (I never had any) if the changing roles specifically coincided with the shrunken figure.

Edgy DC wrote: How did springer draw Spidey? MJ? Left-handed.

Not movie-related specifically, but a couple observations by an ex-Spidey artist (and longtime Met fan).

That may have been a typo, or maybe as a nod to his somewhat contrived nickname of 'Stevie Wonder'. There are a few nicknames, titles, and inside jokes that are in there intentionally, but, in this case, it should probably be just Steve.

btw, if - during your trip through the ranks - any of y'all come across mistakes or omissions of any kind: mis-spellings, deceased players not acknowledged, incorrect positions or years, etc., take a second to point them out so things can be corrected in future updates. At this point I think we've got most of them ... but it's a big list and there are a number of changes every year.

From what I've seen of both his SNL & movie career (admittedly not a lot) he always strikes me as a talented guy who spends much of his time in search of better material.

Well Green was ranked lower than LoDuca because we (whoever chose to participate) ranked him that way. The final results showed Green to be the 21st best Met in 2006 while LoDuca was 6th best and their relative playing time was certainly a big factor in determining that. So, IOW, no. Green doesn't get his final score further altered based on his shorter NYM season because the score he received already reflects it. * and I just became Ed Lynch

Link to CPF Ranking Project in [u:fm7e4qp8]Numeric[/u:fm7e4qp8] order: http://www.kcmets.com/CPFRankingProj/numrank07.pdf Link to CPF Ranking Project in [u:fm7e4qp8]Alphabetic[/u:fm7e4qp8] order: http://www.kcmets.com/CPFRankingProj/alpharank07.pdf (both lists now updated to include results of 2007 season)

An update is in the works