metsmarathon

the mets got soaked by the sponge

what's surprising is that the mets aren't striking out excessively much (21 SO / 114 PA) , which pretty much matches the season rate. the babip, however, is a paltry 0.227, lowest in teh league. colorado has a 0.228; the next worst babip is milwaukee's 0.263. that's some shit contact we're making.

and two lines above, he says there's no harm in trying [to void the contract], if i've got my reading comprehension glasses on. well, which is it? also, with that last line does he really mean to imply that the pursuit of the one should necessarily get in the way of the other? wouldn't jettisoning frankie go some distance towards teh latter aim? sure, they'd still have ollie on the books, and luis castillo to a lesser degree, but it's a help, no?

well, so far, takahashi has a very favorable FRANCO...

tak...

looks like the right call. close tho...

i worry they'll make a trade to bring in a 'closer' now

wow. a 'worst movies of all time discussion, and your top two candidates are godzilla and a.i.? that's just... wow. i call bullshit. here's how i think it went down: [jeff wakes up to the sound of a clock radio blaring, issuing forth ridiculous nonsense] jeff: [mumbling to himself] oh, that's some funny funny stuff... lyndsay lohan and mel gibson sharing a cell... could you imagine! [a threadbare pair of boxer shorts concealing his true feelings for brad benson, he rolls out of bed, inserting hairy feet into mismatched fuzzy slippers, and saunters lazily from the bedroom, down the hall to the bathroom. the clock radio remains undeterred in filling the still morning air with drivel.] [a half hour later, a showered jeff emerges, clad now with a long brown robe made of what was once considered soft terry cotton. he sits for breakfast, and fires us his laptop, intent on writing today's column, but is distracted by sudoku. easy sudoku. the radio still plays. hellooooooo turns to bro. the mailman making his rounds breaks jeff's concentration. he saunters to the front door, scarecely remembering to tie off the belt.] jeff: oh boy! netflix! what surprise does my queue hold today? [tearing open the little red envelope, he squeals in delight - godzilla! - his favorite!] jeff: that matthew broderick... such an underrated, underappreciated performance... wait... what's this? [beneath a stack of bills and assorted junk mail, a corner of red peaks out] jeff: i guess i did send back two movies last week! oh boy! [he opens the package] a.i.! the column can wait! [hours later, an empty tub of popcorn and a freshly dented sofa bear witness to the finale of the movie marathon, as jeff carefully inserts the dvd's into their respective sleeves and sets them aside for tomorrow's mail pickup. again, he ambles to his laptop. frustrated at the time, he begins to type... but can come up with nothing...] [jeff chats with a friend on aol instant messenger, and unsuccessfully defends his cinematic preferences. soon, mets extra can be heard from the bedroom, signaling the deadline drawing near.] [just before signing off, the unnamed friend riffs off one final jab at his columnist friend, "you know as much about movies as jerry manuel knows about bullpens"] jeff: that's it! thanks buddy! [jeff has that annoying habit where he says out loud whatever it is he's typing.] [before the fifteenth batter of the game is revealed, jeff has worked his two favorite movies into the column, stealing liberally from his buddy's critiques to try to make a larger point. something bad about the mets. luckily, all the loud voices on teh loud radio found just enough traction. instead of merely careening around in his head, the echoes of those screaming callers and blathering hosts worked through jeff's fingers and onto his screen. satisfied, jeff sent the draft off to his editors and turned his attention back to the radio. but not before firing up his netflix account.] jeff: batman and robin - such a good movie! can i get it on demand?

i don't really know enough about all teh candidates. but i don't want minaya, and i feel like ricco might not have the juice to force a wholesale change of teh way things run. i don't want billy beane because i'm tired of hearing people misunderstand what moneyball is all about, and conflating it with sabrmetrics in general, and viewing any failure of billy beane's team as a failure of any and all advanced statistical evaluative methods. i don't know enough about gillick, because i'm not really sure i know anything about any gms. nor do i know anything about prospective gms, and who all makes up the pool of candidates so i assume that the candidate i know nothing about is probably the best. i also feel the same way about managers, too.

you want an acronym? well, i do work for the army... Fan - Reliever ANnoyance Concerning (save) [crossout]Opportunities[/crossout] er... Outcomes

Ashie62 wrote: I guess 2010 would be the low point of Jason Bay's career if it weren't for the bajillion dollars he is being paid. because people who have a lot of money should just shut the fuck up, stop complaining about anything, and count their money. once you earn over $X, you forfeit any claim to the human condition. the dude ran face first into a fucking wall, and played for two more days with a fucking concussion. he'd had a shit year, but was still going out there giving effort, and sustained a serious injury. he didn't pull up shy of the wall, whip out his wallet, count his benjamins, and yell "i get paid whether i run after that ball or not!" but fuck'im. he's rich. if there's one thing we hate, its talented people with rare skill sets getting paid in a free market economy. so fuck jason bay. sorry about your brain, i suppose. good thing you're rich, or i might be tempted by empathy.

it may be as much as he can/should say, with criminal charges still pending. he can't really say "i'm sorry i beat the shit out of the guy, without provocation" and then plead not guilty, can he?

what sounds worse? third-degree assault, or misdemeanor assault? also, the mets would be foolish to have allowed the "father in law" to leave the premises in anything other than an ambulance. furthermore, the "father in law" would have been foolish to leave the premises in anything other than an ambulance if he intended to subsequently press charges. my cynical side wonders if there will be a civil suit... just the brink. krod falling apart =/= the team falling apart. dwright and jrey duking it out in the trainers room after a game would = the team falling apart. conversely, hblan taking a t-shirt cannon to oper's nether-regions would be the beginnings of a wonderful new era in team unity.

Edgy DC wrote: Sheesh, I'd go at least five games and force him to make an apology to his family, his teammates, the fans, the organization, the guys from the pipefitters union... and make him do it naked. Then I'd make Jerry do the same thing. you just want to see frankie and jerry naked.

to me, this story reeks of piling on and advantage taking. especially the tim smith writeup of it. "The alleged actions go beyond baseball. They defy human decency." are you fucking kidding me? he scuffled with, and punched once, a 53 year old man, his father in law. he didn't kick a child, or throw an old geezer down a flight of stairs. or grope some chick. seriously, where is tim smith when any other athlete who isn't a hothead playing for a team that seems in disarray with a whole mess of riled up disgruntled fans looking for blood - oh, and he's the fucking overpaid closer too, so nobody likes him anyway - gets into a fight, or a scuffle, with another man after an undisclosed argument, and we don't even know who actually started the fucking thing? where is tim smith whenever an athlete actually goes and hits a woman or child, or sexually assaults one, or, you know, goes for a nice drive while drunk? where is his scathing writeup then? hell. where was he when frankie got into a scuffle earlier this year with randy niemann. randy's actually older than frankie's father in law. didn't that defy human decency back then, or is this only worse cos the fans are more pissy? its also kindof funny to me that tim smith also appears to be the regular boxing writer. in boxing the two men are punching each other for no good reason, so that makes it far more civilized. but that detracts from my larger point. shame on frankie for getting his stupid ass into a fight, and for throwing and landing a punch against his father in law. poor show. was he pummeling his father in law? mercilessly beating him into a pulp? kicking and screaming and yelling racial epithets? did he pick up one of reyes' kids and swing him around like a weapon? if he was in a bar and got into an ill-advised fight with another patron who happened to be 53 years old, would he still be a sociopath, or would the presence of alcohol turn him into just a dumb jock? guffaw guffaw move on. i don't excuse it, and i sure as hell don't like it. but lets not make him out to be some sort of monster who is a blight on the face of humanity as a whole.

release ollie first, damnit! y'know, the more i think about it... and i hate to admit it... i like frenchy, and think the mets might make a mistake to get rid of him. i do find that there is some value to having a "chemistry guy" on the roster, and i think that frenchy is that guy. i think that he's overexposed as an every day player, but i like him as a bench guy. i'm not advocating resigning him to a long term contract, or even bringing him back for the same dollars, but i think he has value to the team, based primarily on the reaction in the dugout after his game winner against atlanta. is frenchy the preferred chemist over cora? well, ok. i guess frenchy could be more in the way of bringing up eligible young'uns than cora is, as we seem to have more outfield-eligible depth than infield eligible depth. but all else being equal, i'd rather hang onto him and dump cora instead of the other way around.

i need to get back on the schaeffer bandwagon. i generate two lists. well, actually four or five. one with just the schaeffer votes. one with the schaeffer votes before they are scaled to the 10-point max scale. one which rates all players, positively and negatively. and another two where i turn a key. a little skate key which has been gathering way too much dust lately. the results from the first three lists don't usually differ all that much, until you get to the very bottom of the list.

Ashie62 wrote: MFS62 wrote: Alex Cora. If you count guys on the DL, Sean Green. Later It is Cora. However, are we counting Mexican Leagues and Japan??? elmer dessens

ra dickey

feliciano, the pedro one.

baseballreference has mike marshall at a 0.3 WPA for 1974. he went 21-12 in save opps, with 9 holds. so, basically, with the game on the line and a small lead, he went 30-12, a horrible success rate if you relate it to relievers of today. sure, there were prolly a lot more 1-run save and hold opportunities than we see today, but still, that's not terribly good. also, given 75 inherited runners, he allowed 31 to score, a 41% IS rate. (league average in 74 was 37%; in 2010, league average is 32%)

June 5, 2000: Drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 20th round of the 2000 amateur draft. Player signed May 19, 2001. December 15, 2003: Drafted by the Baltimore Orioles from the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 2003 rule 5 draft. June 3, 2004: Selected off waivers by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays from the Baltimore Orioles. June 28, 2004: Purchased by the Kansas City Royals from the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. July 30, 2004: Traded by the Kansas City Royals to the New York Mets for Justin Huber. July 30, 2004: Traded by the New York Mets with Matt Peterson (minors) and Ty Wigginton to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Kris Benson and Jeff Keppinger. August 21, 2008: Traded by the Pittsburgh Pirates to the Toronto Blue Jays for a player to be named later. The Toronto Blue Jays sent Robinzon Diaz (August 25, 2008) to the Pittsburgh Pirates to complete the trade.

attgig wrote: if you want to do it all scientific like... http://www.baseballmusings.com/cgi-bin/LineupAnalysis.py?Player0=Reyes&OBA0=.338&Slug0=.422&Player1=Thole&OBA1=+0.349&Slug1=+0.408&Player2=Pagan&OBA2=.364&Slug2=.461&Player3=Wright&OBA3=.382&Slug3=.502&Player4=Bay&OBA4=.353&Slug4=.435&Player5=Davis&OBA5=+0.333&Slug5=+0.442&Player6=Beltran&OBA6=.353&Slug6=.453&Player7=Castillo&OBA7=.309&Slug7=.310&Player8=Pitcher&OBA8=+0.262&Slug8=+0.173&Model=0 I plugged in numbers of expected states through the rest of the season from fangraphs (zips) where avail. and plugged in santana's current numbers for pitcher. my big problem is that it assumes there to be no contribution from a player's baserunning ability. and there should be some. does it trump all else? prolly not. but it should be a factor.