metsmarathon

the bigger mistake was in not asking his father in law to hit like buster douglas.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: You're proposing that they shoulda asked Francouer to hit like Castillo? frenchy had a 0.245 eqAVG, per baseball prospectus, to castillo's 0.241 he had a 0.287 wOBA compared to 0.285 if frenchy had hit exactly like castillo, there'd have been not too much dropoff, really. if he had the same or even similar approach, with his increased power capability, his production should've exceeded it nicely.

well, the phillies were the best team in the nl, and ryan howard hit the most homers and drove in the most runs on the phillies, therefore he was surely their best (position) player, and the best (position) player on the best team should be the mvp. right? halladay's actually an enlightened choice in a way. i mean, i'd be curious to see the rationale from the specific voter, but he did have the 2nd highest WAR total in the league, tied with ubaldo jiminez at 6.5, per bbref, behind pujols' 7.2.

i just wish we woulda got ourselves a manager who's already won a world series. cos we all know that once you win one world series, you keep winning them wherever you manage. right? right?

twice tightly terry

i love the notion that the yankees somehow owe jeter for all that he's done for the team, as if averaging $19M for the prior ten years wasn't due compensation.

so, felix hernandez faced 1001 batters last year. in those 1000 plate appearances, his opponents had a 0.273 OBA. and they also had a 0.312 SLG in 914 plate appearances. his OPSallowed was 0.585. and remember, his opposition had a 0.728 OPS. broken into its components, 0.329 OBA and 0.399 SLG, with a 0.259 AVG. so. lets get into some mental gymnastics. lets say he faced 100 different batters, and faced each one 10 times. he surely faced more than 100 batters, but i'm looking for easy math and can't find the true data without paying for it. work with me here. again. 100 batters, each faced 10 times. lets say, for the sake of argument, that these batters averaged 500 plate appearances, with 47.23 walks, 117.27 hits, and 180.65 total bases. against felix, they averaged 0.70 walks, 1.94 hits, and 2.85 total bases. subtracting, we get an opposition that, in 490 plate appearances, had 46.53 walks, 115.33 hits, and 177.8 total bases. that's a 0.330 OBA, a 0.260 AVG, and a 0.401 SLG, with an OPS of 0.731 taking his opposition's performance against him out of the equation, in my simplified way, his opposition has a 0.003 increase in their OPS. cc's opposition would probably see an increase in their OPS of 0.002, maybe 0.001. it's very little and isn't terribly likely to change the macro-view of the rankings all that much, especially when you're looking at the better pitchers. it could turn a 0.016 gap into an 0.018 gap, maybe.

but when he's not facing you, mr. feliciano, he's even better. i see the argument. it sure complicates things, but it has some limited merit. i mean, how much of a change would it impart to a pitcher with 200+ IP?

probably not.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: I'll spot the pitching-meaningful-games crowd an opportunity to prove their "argument" if they'll allow my "Sabathia/Price/Buchholz pitches in an easier league that doesn't include the MFYs/Rays/Sawx as an opponent" statistics into evidence. using baseballprospectus, i looked at all those pitchers who tossed 170 innings or more. there were 81 such pitchers in the majors last year. they have a stat on there called Opponent's Quality, OPS -- the aggregate OPS of all batters faced by a pitcher, or OPP_QUAL_OPS. brian matusz of the orioles faced the toughest opposition, with an OPP_QUAL_OPS of 0.744. in third place is clay buchholz at 0.741. david price 6th at 0.739. felix hernandez 28th, 0.728. johan santana 39th 0.720, cc sabathia 40th 0.719. halladay 58th 0.711.

well, i dunno. is roy really talking about how the award should be awarded, or more about, historically, how the award has been awarded? if i'm asked who do i think is going to win the MVP, i'll probably have a different answer than to the question of who do i think should win the MVP.

so, i was going to type up a tirade against the concept of "most valuable player" in that al cy young discussion. then i had an idea for a way to determine the MVP that attempts to distill what the voters mean when they say that "most valuable" nonsense, where "most valuable" does not mean "best" "gee, i'd give it to him if the award were for the best player, but we're looking for the most valuable guy here." and since it all comes down value = making the playoffs, i figured we need to look at what players most helped their teams make the playoffs. like, take player X off the team Y and they lose the division by N games. so here's what we do. we look a the teams that made the playoffs, and how much they made the playoffs by. if they made the playoffs by twenty games, then i can take any player off that team and replace him with a "replacement player" and they still make the playoffs (so long as nobody reincarnates old hoss radbourn, he of the 19.8 WAR in 1884). if a team makes the playoffs by 10 games, then i can remove anyone with a WAR 9 and under and they still make the playoffs by a game. if i take a 10 WAR player off the team, they end up in a tie. if a team fails to make the playoffs, then, really, none of the players on that team were valuable enough, and need to try harder next time. so with that as my framework, lets give this a try in the al: the rays made the playoffs by 8 games over the red sox. i can take any <7 WAR player off that team, and they still make the playoffs. the yankees made the playoffs by 7 games. i can take any <6 WAR player off that team and they still make the playoffs. the twins made hte playoffs by 6 games, and the rangers made the playoffs by 9 games. since no other team made the playoffs, and especially since there were no close races, i've got some easy thresholds here. per bbref, evan longoria was a 7.7 WAR player. i'll call him 0.7 WAP, or wins above playoffs. robbie cano was a 6.1 WAR player, or 0.1 WAP. josh hamilton was a 6.0 WAR player, but since the rangers won by 9, he's actaully a -2.0 WAP guy. joe mauer comes in at 5.6 WAR, or 0.6 WAP, and is followed by justin morneau with his 0.4 WAP. no pitchers come in at positive WAP, with liriano and pavano sharing the lead at -0.4, followed by cc's -0.6. price's -1.7 is terrible, and cj wilson's -3.4 is just shameful. cliff lee? well, jeez, all that time on the mariners. sorry guy. so i've identified my MVP. evan longoria, by a smidge over joe mauer. damnit. the wrong method yeilded the right result. what are the odds? i'll hafta try again in the NL. the phillies made the playoffs by 7 games (6 ahead of the braves, and 1 more ahead of the just-missed-the-wild-card padres). so any player <6 WAR can readily be replaced. the braves made the playoffs by 1 game. the loss of any player with a positive WAR will cost them the playoffs. er, cast them into a tie. which is bad. the reds also made the playoffs by 1 game. the giants made the playoffs by 2 games, so they can only afford to lose players <1 WAR. joey votto has a 6.2 WAR, and also a 6.2 WAP. aubrey huff comes in at 5.9 WAR, but only 4.9 WAP. jayson werth is a 5.2 WAR player, but, sadly, has a -0.8 WAP. atlanta's brian mccann is a 4.9 WAR player, and also 4.9 WAP. looking at the pitchers, roy halladay's 6.9 WAR is good for a mere 0.9 WAP. tim hudson's 5.4 WAR nets him second place in the mvp standings with a matching 5.4 WAP. matt cain's 3.9 WAR is good for 2.9 WAP. and bronson arroyo leads the red charge with 2.3 WAR and WAP alike. so joey votto, with the 5th highest WAR in the league (pujols 7.2, jiminez 7.1, halladay 6.9, gonzalez 6.3)is your "rightful" mvp. discuss.

what burns my toast is all the bullshit that "the award is for the best pitcher not the most valuable pitcher, so i gave it to hernandez and nor price or cc." how, again, is being the best not being the most valuable? i'm getting ahead of myself for when i bitch about the upcoming mvp award, but really, would they just cut the bullshit and start calling that thing "the award for the best player who is surrounded by other good players, but not too many great players," or the afbpwisbogpbntmgp for short.

minimm and i share a first name. subsequently, i can never tell which of us is which. i'm all like, "ok, i'm walking again. is that a big deal for me, or is it him?"

21% i am awesome!

have i mentioned that i lived in parsippany for a few years, from about '02 till '06 i think.

there's nothing wrong with new jersey. well, nothing that venturing away from the turnpick and kicking out the quidos and corrupt politicians won't fix.

shame on anyone who gets benoit wrong! shame on me for not saying that any players who sign before the voting closes don't count.

SteveJRogers wrote: Edgy DC wrote: The only feel I got from San Diego's Gaslamp district was a Disney one. Oh, speaking of which, Disney Land is pretty much down the street from Angels Stadium in Anaheim. having run (circuitously) from one to the other and (less circuitously) back again, it's really not all that much of a great walk. two miles. the mile closer to disneyland has you walking past hotels and retail complexes, but not really walking through them. the mile closer to the stadium is really just a giant industrial complex, that, i guess, is starting to get more hotels and shit in there. in between is a giant overpass for I-5. new york and san francisco are also pretty much down the street from one another. that's not a great walk either.

same deal as always. i give you 30 or so free agents going into next year, and you tell me where they end up. in the past i've screwed this up with unnecesary overcomplications. but this year, just give me a team. we'll close the polls in, say, two weeks? 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damon[/td:23iy10pj][td:23iy10pj]of[/td:23iy10pj][td:23iy10pj]det[/td:23iy10pj][td:23iy10pj][/td:23iy10pj][/tr:23iy10pj][tr:23iy10pj][td:23iy10pj]28[/td:23iy10pj][td:23iy10pj]vladimir guerrero[/td:23iy10pj][td:23iy10pj]dh[/td:23iy10pj][td:23iy10pj]tex[/td:23iy10pj][td:23iy10pj][/td:23iy10pj][/tr:23iy10pj][tr:23iy10pj][td:23iy10pj]33[/td:23iy10pj][td:23iy10pj]kerry wood[/td:23iy10pj][td:23iy10pj]rrp[/td:23iy10pj][td:23iy10pj]mfy[/td:23iy10pj][td:23iy10pj][/td:23iy10pj][/tr:23iy10pj][tr:23iy10pj][td:23iy10pj]34[/td:23iy10pj][td:23iy10pj]hisanori takahashi[/td:23iy10pj][td:23iy10pj]lsp[/td:23iy10pj][td:23iy10pj]nym[/td:23iy10pj][td:23iy10pj][/td:23iy10pj][/tr:23iy10pj][tr:23iy10pj][td:23iy10pj]42[/td:23iy10pj][td:23iy10pj]brian fuentes[/td:23iy10pj][td:23iy10pj]lrp[/td:23iy10pj][td:23iy10pj]laa[/td:23iy10pj][td:23iy10pj][/td:23iy10pj][/tr:23iy10pj][tr:23iy10pj][td:23iy10pj]50[/td:23iy10pj][td:23iy10pj]javier vazquez[/td:23iy10pj][td:23iy10pj]rsp[/td:23iy10pj][td:23iy10pj]mfy[/td:23iy10pj][td:23iy10pj][/td:23iy10pj][/tr:23iy10pj][tr:23iy10pj][td:23iy10pj][/td:23iy10pj][td:23iy10pj]pedro feliciano[/td:23iy10pj][td:23iy10pj]lrp[/td:23iy10pj][td:23iy10pj]nym[/td:23iy10pj][td:23iy10pj][/td:23iy10pj][/tr:23iy10pj][/table:23iy10pj]

Willets Point wrote: This Willets Point is against the use of eminent domain for commercial purposes. If someone wants to develop that area -- and I'm sure it is a good idea on paper to do so -- then buy the property fair & square. By the way, those drawings make the future of Flushing look awfully Caucasian. there's hot chicks with running strollers and cute little babies. bring on the future! bring! it! on! also the little boy walking with his parents in that same frame appears to have a hispanic father. though maybe he's just got a good tan. and the picture above it has a young black teenager with a white shirt and stylishly askew cap looking across the street towards young plaid-shirted opie. i think they're friends.

cakewrecks is the best, isn't it?

this would, of course, get in the way of my attempts at ranking the 2010 mets...

i like that, and saw it earlier, but i feel like the groupings and positions don't really make all that much sense, nor is there much synergy with the real ptoe. the nobles are in the right place, but shouldn't the really volatile guys be over by the alkali group? and the short timers should all be in the bottom row, possibly preceded by the relievers. there's a gap in the wrong place. the ptoe doesn't fill from right to left, but from left to right. leaving the blanks where rutherfordium and dubnium belong in the transition metals, and americium, curium, and berkelium in the actinides runs counter to the source material. jeez, there's no radium either? but at least ununoctium is represented in fine form by tom seaver. i also don't know why you'd go through the trouble of the exercise and not put al kaline in the alkaline earth metals, and cal ripken right there at good ol' atomic number 26. presuming, of course, that you leave gehrig over in the noble gases. great. now i'm all tempted to reconfigure this thing and do it right. thanks. thanks a lot.

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