Edgy MD

His foot has apparently never felt so good. Just ask Yogi Lutz.

Thole as 12th best guy is pretty stunning.

Greg Harris! When we started this, we didn't even have 500 guys in the money. Now we're over 600.

Amazin' Avenue, yes, is a source of mine.

Eddie Collins stole bases. Terry Collins will steal bases. One thing sabermetrics is suggests for managers is letting players play their games and not overusing managerial tactics to the point where you're forcing players into a system that doesn't suit their games. In his prior places of employment, he was above average in stolen base attempts and (sorry to say) bunt attempts. His own testimony states that he'll run but he'll try to keep the running reponsible and high-percentage. That suggests that Bay should get his modest chances.

Our insanely popular series, which alphabetically looks into the future of Mets players, moves past the Manny A.'s and toward the left field warning track Pos: LF Born: 9/20/1978 in Trail, British Columbia, Canada (32 in 2011) Acquired: Signed as a free agent from the Red Sox, 12/29/2009. (four years, $66 million, and a $17M club option in 2014, with a a$3M buyout) 2010 Stats: GPAABRH2B3BHRRBISBCSBBSOBAOBPSLGOPSOPS+TBGDPHBPSHSFIBBBB-R WARFG WAR9540134848902066471004491.259.347.402.749105140750431.11.4 (Check out those McReynoldsian stolen base numbers.) Last Word: Last seen joking about the effects of his concussion, Bay is of course looking forward to a year of renewal and claims to be super-fully recovered. Bloggers are going back and forth on whether CitiField's dimensions are part of his issues (don't believe it). If you want more on where he's at, then listen to his chat with Kevin Burkhardt while draped in the creamy home whites, and try to avoid reading the comments below. What do you expect of Jason Bay in 2011?

Man... unblemished in 25 innings at St. Loo. Know your Mannys.

Pos: RHRP Born: 12/18/1985 in Caracas, Venezuela (25 in 2011) Acquired: Signed away from the Nats as a minor league free agent in 2007. Added this year to the 40-man roster as the Rule V Draft approached in order to protect him, even as they exposed (and subsquently lost) Elvin Ramirez. 2010 Stats: TmLgLevWLW-L%ERAGGSGFCGSHOSVIPHRERHRBBIBBSOHBPBKWPBFWHIPH/9HR/9BB/9SO/9SO/BBSt.LucieFLORA+31.7500.001801700925.2122004024201890.6234.20.01.48.46.00BinghamtonELAA31.7502.873401800847.0351715561572021820.8726.71.01.110.99.50BuffaloILAAA02.0006.004030006.08441213001271.66712.01.53.04.51.50Total****64.6002.1756038001778.25523196122844042980.8526.30.71.49.67.00 Last Word: Alvarez was likely added to the roster for future interests, rather than 2011, but he can't be discounted. If you like SO/BB ratios, his is gurrrrgeous. He's pitching this winter for Los Navegantes del Magallanes, and has a 2.95 ERA in 17 appearances (21.33 innings pitched). But like in AAA, he hasn't been able to maintain that strikeout/walk ratio. Baseball America, however, says he "could contribute" this year. What do you expect of Manny Alvarez in 2011?

That sounds right. I'm not so sure I'd expect him to go regress that much, though. ERAs are unwieldy things for relievers, but I don't expect a double of the homer rate, CitiField and all.

Pos: RHRP Born: 5/1/1981 in Colon, Panama (30 in 2011) Acquired: Claimed off waivers from the Atlanta Braves, 3/30/2010. 2010 Stats: TmLgWLW-L%ERAGGSGFCGSHOSVIPHRERHRBBIBBSOHBPBKWPBFERA+WHIPH/9HR/9BB/9SO/9SO/BBNYMNL32.6002.954101200139.23013134181420031571341.2106.80.94.19.52.33 Last Word: Almost nothing has been written about him this season, but he's likely to remain around, as he's the most experienced closer after Francisco Rodriguez. As it becomes more likely every day that Rodriguez returns to the team in 2011, his situation is still unsettled since he's returning to a team that withheld $3,000,000 in pay to him last season. (Can we add that to this seaosn's payroll? Please?) He's been listed on the roster for Los Bravos de Margarita in the Venezuelan Winter League, but it doesn't look like he's made any appearances. What do you expect of Manny Acosta in 2011?

This is what I've got so far. It's confirmed from a few different sources. Spanish broadcasters are relatively easy, because there's no record of any roles --- pre-game, post-game, etc. But how about Max Perez Jimenez returning to his chair after 17 years off? I'm working on three more tables: English Radio, English Televison, and English Cable Television.

It didn't get going for me until he reads the bedtime story.

A question about recording advancements. A guy goes from second to third on a teammate's out and it says FC / in the upper left quadrant. But a little bit of context is lost on the event. Is it possible to include the teammate's name in little type, as such? Maddox FC I'll get to work on a list of auxiliary broadcasters.

Kevin Burkhardt, but also the likes of Howard Cosell!

Love the Christmas makeover and search form. Question: ever consider including official sideline, pre-game, and post-game reporters in the DB?

As Dingle is about as far from Wales as any part of mainland Ireland (I guess they could have ended up in Donegal), I think there must've been a lot of gombeans involved.

Is there an airport in or near Dingle that can handle a trans-Atlantic commercial flight? I'm figuring that if they can't land in Dublin, they land in Shannor or somewheres in England. (I got waylaid to Heathrow on my first flight into Dublin.) And in two days, nobody can get a connecting flight? Contrived just a bit. Sounds like an Irish conspiracy to increase tourism among marriage-hungry Irish-American women.

Good catch. I was taught to not fill the diamond in if the run was unearned. Anybody else use that method?

Hubba Bubba!

Yeah, I don't like that either, and neither would bb-r or fangraphs' versions of win shares. What we can perhaps do is --- once we have win share data going back to 1962 --- switch to that.

As we all use different shorthand for scoring, I think it would be cool if this presentation deferred to Bill Shannon's standards.

I went to check on what Backman's S/BG in the 11th was. And just as I clicked I realized, duh, this is Backman. In a tie game in extra innings, of course he's going to come up there and try to bunt his way on. Single/Bunt Grounder.

Yeah, I guess improvements are going to come and I'm kinda scared to give feedback because the initiative is so cool and is something I'd love to do if I could make the world go away. But yeah, my feedback would be to break the box into four or nine quadrants ("nondrants"?) so you can use the diamond to track the progress around the bases gloriously. But I also get that this isn't necessarily generated from the sort of database that can give you all the data you need.

That sounds great. My strategy is to propose a paper that's so esoteric-sounding that they have to accept it. The last time I presented at a conference of this nature, I lectured on "Metacongnition of Range Factors Among Antidiluvian Met Secondbasemen and the Liiberation of Ahistorical Consciousness." Here's me holding the door for a few extra minutes so latecomers wouldn't be forced to catch up. I still have some of the handout packages if anybody is interested.

Call for Papers.