metsmarathon

i'm not a fan of this trade. its not that i don't like jeff francoeur - i mean, i'm never gonna spell that correctly with any consistency whatsoever, but that's really besides the point - and if we had traded lastings milledge for jeff francoeur straight up, i'd be pretty ok with that trade. its just that i liked churchie, and felt like he didnt get enough of a chance to show how good of a player he really was, be it because of a pesky concussion or two, or a pesky relationship with a manager. i liked his defense - he had good range and a good arm, and can play centerfield in a pinch. can francoeur? jeff has power (which the team needs but shouldn't imo be the most important quality we look for in any player) and a big arm (which is important in this field), but i liked church's skill set just fine. i suppose i may come to like it, and it gives us a few things to track, but i don't like it right now, and would rather we had traded something like a pedro feliciano for him instead, tho that likely would not have gotten the deal done. on a scale of 1-5, i'm no higher than a 2.

that's gonna look great in little marathon's nursery...

Murphy 2.9 Wright 2.1 Parnell 1.6 Reed 1.5 Rodriguez 1.1 Feliciano 0.8

only some? i don't feel like looking up hard data to refute my feelings, but it sure feels like every met pitcher is doing worse with warthen...

="Edgy DC"]="metsmarathon"]ahead of only such luminaries as cristian guzman, jack wilson, troy tulowitski, and elvis andrus. Wison and Guzman have been at the top of their field in the relatively recent past. It's probably a tight field. actually... um... i need to relook that. i should've noticed something wrong when i first looked, but the zone ratings are all above 1. in fact, jeter is rated a 6. which means he should be fielding 600% of the balls hit to shortstop. and i don't think he is. i don't know what espn is showing, to be honest with you. so instead i looked at the hardball times. they also have jeter as the 5th best shortstop in terms of revised zone rating. ]RZR (or ZR) Revised Zone Rating is the proportion of balls hit into a fielder's zone that he successfully converted into an out. Zone Rating was invented by John Dewan when he was CEO of Stats Inc. John is now the owner of Baseball Info Solutions, where he has revised the original Zone Rating calculation so that it now lists balls handled out of the zone (OOZ) separately (and doesn't include them in the ZR calculation) and doesn't give players extra credit for double plays (Stats had already made that change). We believe both changes improve Zone Ratings substantially. To get a full picture of a player's range, you should evaluate both his Revised Zone Rating and his plays made out of zone (OOZ) his RZR is at 0.833. the leader board looks like this: ryan theriot0.856jack wilson0.855jj hardy0.839elvis andrus0.837derek jeter0.833 alex cora has a 0.765 ZR, which , among qualified players, would put him 4th from the bottom, ahead of jason bartlett (0.764), cristian guzman (0.754) and yuniesky betancourt (0.720!) derek jeter fielded 13 balls out of his zone. i'm not sure how best to look at this stat relative to others, but its the lowest number of balls out of zone among his qualifying peers. also, if i were to look at ball fielded out of zone (OOZ) versus balls in zone (BIZ), he's looking at the lowest rate of OOZ/BIZ among qualified players, with 8%. best among the group is jason bartlett's 27% (is he positioned really wierdly? does he have range only to his left, or only to his right? that's just wierd to me that he's got a terrible RZR and a great OOZ, and not too many errors either!) average is about 14%. alex cora comes in at 6 balls OOZ, among 81 BIZ, for 7%. worse again than derek jeter.

="smg58":1ubjl249]Cora's range might be slightly south of average at short, but that's still comfortably better than Jeter. [/quote:1ubjl249] it pains me to type the next sentence... derek jeter has played the best defensive shortstop in the AL this year. ow. ow. oh god it hurts... oh god.... he's got the 5th best zone rating in the majors (best in the AL) and the second best F% in the majors and the AL, among qualified shortstops. cora, were he to amass sufficient playing time to qualify, would have the 5th lowest ZR in the majors, ahead of only such luminaries as cristian guzman, jack wilson, troy tulowitski, and elvis andrus. Edgy DC Jul 07 2009 09:42 AM Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Jul 07 2009 10:01 AM ="smg58":7zx11cdp]Speaking of Castillo: his walks are negated by his complete lack of power, his range (while improved from last year) is still below average, and the drop tops Glavine's last start on the unforgivability scale.[/quote:7zx11cdp] It does? I guess I'd like to see that scale. Edgy DC Jul 07 2009 09:45 AM ="metsmarathon":2owzbzz6]ahead of only such luminaries as cristian guzman, jack wilson, troy tulowitski, and elvis andrus.[/quote:2owzbzz6] Wison and Guzman have been at the top of their field in the relatively recent past. It's probably a tight field. TransMonk Jul 07 2009 09:46 AM Agreed. Castillo's drop, however boneheaded, was during as meaningless a regular season game as there is. Glavine tanked it with the season on the line. metsmarathon Jul 07 2009 11:40 AM ="Edgy DC"]="metsmarathon"]ahead of only such luminaries as cristian guzman, jack wilson, troy tulowitski, and elvis andrus. Wison and Guzman have been at the top of their field in the relatively recent past. It's probably a tight field. actually... um... i need to relook that. i should've noticed something wrong when i first looked, but the zone ratings are all above 1. in fact, jeter is rated a 6. which means he should be fielding 600% of the balls hit to shortstop. and i don't think he is. i don't know what espn is showing, to be honest with you. so instead i looked at the hardball times. they also have jeter as the 5th best shortstop in terms of revised zone rating. ]RZR (or ZR) Revised Zone Rating is the proportion of balls hit into a fielder's zone that he successfully converted into an out. Zone Rating was invented by John Dewan when he was CEO of Stats Inc. John is now the owner of Baseball Info Solutions, where he has revised the original Zone Rating calculation so that it now lists balls handled out of the zone (OOZ) separately (and doesn't include them in the ZR calculation) and doesn't give players extra credit for double plays (Stats had already made that change). We believe both changes improve Zone Ratings substantially. To get a full picture of a player's range, you should evaluate both his Revised Zone Rating and his plays made out of zone (OOZ) his RZR is at 0.833. the leader board looks like this: ryan theriot0.856jack wilson0.855jj hardy0.839elvis andrus0.837derek jeter0.833 alex cora has a 0.765 ZR, which , among qualified players, would put him 4th from the bottom, ahead of jason bartlett (0.764), cristian guzman (0.754) and yuniesky betancourt (0.720!) derek jeter fielded 13 balls out of his zone. i'm not sure how best to look at this stat relative to others, but its the lowest number of balls out of zone among his qualifying peers. also, if i were to look at ball fielded out of zone (OOZ) versus balls in zone (BIZ), he's looking at the lowest rate of OOZ/BIZ among qualified players, with 8%. best among the group is jason bartlett's 27% (is he positioned really wierdly? does he have range only to his left, or only to his right? that's just wierd to me that he's got a terrible RZR and a great OOZ, and not too many errors either!) average is about 14%. alex cora comes in at 6 balls OOZ, among 81 BIZ, for 7%. worse again than derek jeter. Vic Sage Jul 07 2009 11:44 AM Re: Halfway Grades & Comments Edited 3 time(s), most recently on Jul 07 2009 03:46 PM Beltran [A/inc]: having a great year till hurt. Santana [A-]: cooled off in June after amazing April-May, but still best we have, and one of the best there is. Deserves better. Wright [A-] His HR production is down (and, therefore, RBI), but everything else is fine. F.Rodriguez [A-]: Absolutely dominating, till last few weeks Delgado [b+/inc]: up and down, but productive overall until injury; he could be done. Sheffield [b+]: Production from unlikely source is great surprise Feliciano [b+]: Does the job L.Hernandez [b ]: Better than i thought he'd be Nieve [b-]: Came storming out of gate, but has come back to earth. Castillo [b-]: decent OB%, but no more SBs or defensive range, and never had any power. Stokes [b-]: usually effective, in low-leverage innings S.Green [b-]: terrible stretch, but effective ever since Parnell [b-]: great early, crashed lately, perhaps due to overuse. J.Reed [C+]: doing ok job in his limited role Church [C+]: injury, plus initial lack of production; swinging well now. Pelfrey [C+]: consistently inconsistent Pagan [C/inc]: shows flashes, then hits the DL. like always. J.Reyes [C/inc]: Wasn't doing much before injury. Who knows when he is returning? Maine [C/inc]: Inconsistent till hurt; who knows if he's coming back? Santos [C]: good start fooled people into thinking he can hit. He can't. Schneider [C]: we already knew Brian couldn't hit. Cora [C]: utility player of some neglible value Evans [C/inc]: showing flashes Murphy [C-]: showing none of the qualities as a hitter we saw last year. Flash in the pan. Plus his defensive lapses in LF were startling. He seems much more adept at 1b, though. Putz [D/inc]: pitched hurt, then DL. Tatis [D]: more evidence for not re-signing old guys off of career years F. Martinez [D] - short sample, but i've seen enough for now. Redding [F]: Tell me again why we signed this guy? O.Perez [F]: So bad, he got demoted. It helped Trachsel, but will it help Ollie? ------------------ J. Manuel [C-]: He's a head scratcher Minaya [D]: He sucks BHMC Frayed Knot Jul 07 2009 11:51 AM Offense at mid-season: [u:apb0gvq7]Players ranked by PAs[/u:apb0gvq7] Wright - Beltran - Castillo - Murphy - Church Sheffield - Cora - Tatis - Reyes - Santos Delgado - FMartinez - Schneider - Reed - Castro Cora & Santos being 7th & 10th while Reyes & Delgado are 9th & 11th says a lot. Castillo only 1 PA behind Beltran. [u:apb0gvq7]By Runs Created (Source Baseball-Ref)[/u:apb0gvq7]: Wright - Beltran - Sheffield - Castillo - Church Murphy - Reyes - Cora - Delgado - Santos Tatis - Castro - Schneider - Pagan - Reed This one is obviously largely dependent on playing time as well as production. [u:apb0gvq7]Runs Created per Game[/u:apb0gvq7]: Beltran - Delgado - Wright - Sheffiled - Pagan Reyes - Evans - Church - Cora - Castillo Schneider - Castro - Santos - Murphy - Tatis Takes the rate at which a player is producing the building blocks for runs into account. Nice showing by Pagan although that's a small sample he's working with (51 PAs) Gwreck Jul 07 2009 11:54 AM Where does Reed rank in runs created per game? Below Tatis? I've felt he deserves more PT than he gets (if only that he's the best defensive outfielder on the team right now) but I don't think we've seen enough to know if he can actually hit. Frayed Knot Jul 07 2009 11:58 AM Yeah, right below Tatis. I only went with the top 15 in each case figuring that you're just scraping the bottom of the barrel beyond that and dealing with increasingly smaller sample sizes. It's also just hair-splitting at that point anyway, 3.5/gm for Tatis vs 3.4 for Reed. Ashie62 Jul 07 2009 01:15 PM ="Edgy DC":339u3ni9]I ask this every year. Are these guys being rated on different scales or against a universal mean?[/quote:339u3ni9] Good question..I graded players against what my expectations were and are for each..Obviously Wright is better than Santos although they are graded alike As for Cora..he was brought in to be a backup. He has largely played everyday, played through pain, provided some offense and to me shown maturity and leadership on the field. Thats an A- bar to me given his season start role. metirish Jul 07 2009 01:21 PM I dunno what Cora has done to get acclaim for being a leader , it's like if it gets repeated enough then it must be true. I blame Keith . Benjamin Grimm Jul 07 2009 01:24 PM Unless we're in the clubhouse, we don't know who's a leader and who isn't, and we have to take the word of those who do go into the clubhouse. (For the most part. Sometimes, as with Keith Hernandez, you can see that leadership on the field.) And speaking of Keith, I think he has the track record to know who's a leader and who isn't. I trust his judgment in this area. Nymr83 Jul 07 2009 01:32 PM ]also, m.e.t.b.o.t. is unable to operate t-shirt cannons, and is fairly certain that any attempt to do so would end up in a rapid ascent to the farthest reaches of the promenade level and a unique souvenir for an unsuspecting fan. pray that SJR doesnt catch you. MFS62 Jul 15 2009 06:09 PM ="Edgy DC":1vabyzts]I ask this every year. Are these guys being rated on different scales or against a universal mean?[/quote:1vabyzts] My rating scale is based on how the player performed against the expectations I had for that player coming into this season. I also rated based on how well they performed while they played. I didn't hold injuries against them because, well, shit happens. A = far exceeded my expectaions B = exceeded expectations C = met expectations D = did not meet expectations F = did not meet expectations by a wide margin. INC = not enough to judge Santos A Schneider D Murphy D Delgado B Tatis D Castillo B Cora B (maybe even an A) J.Reyes D Wright D Sheffield B Evans INC Beltran C Church C F. Martinez INC J.Reed C Santana B Pelfrey C Maine C O.Perez F (only because I didn't expand my rating scale any lower) L. Hernandez C Nieve A Putz D Stokes C S.Green B Feliciano B F.Rodriguez B Redding D J. Manuel C Minaya D Citifield INC - haven't been there yet. Later

Hernandez 2.1 Fmartinez 1.6 Sheffield 1.5 Castillo 1.3 Green 1.1 Cora 0.6

Sheffield 3.7 Church 2.3 Dessens 1.5 Tatis 1.0 Murphy 0.9 Schneider 0.6

Stokes 1.7 Dessens 1.1 Misch 0.9 Cora 0.1

Sheffield 2.6 Tatis 0.2

Santana 4.2 Rodriguez 2.1 Evans 1.5 Feliciano 1.0 Tatis 0.7 Castillo 0.5

is there a write-in option?

Nieve 3.7 Church 1.8 Evans 1.7 Wright 1.5 Tatis 0.7 Stokes 0.6

Hernandez 5.7 Dessens 2.4 Castillo 0.7 Reed 0.5 Wright 0.2

Castillo 2.8 Santos 1.6 Stokes 1.5 Murphy 1.5 Rodriguez 1.5 Cora 1.1

How many distinct scores have there been? 196 What is the most common score, and how many times has it occurred? 4-3, 257 times Other than tie games, what is the closest score that has not yet been the final score of a Mets game? (30 total runs or fewer. We know that no game has ever ended with a score of 106-105, for example.) 11-10 Of the final scores that have not yet happened, which score has the fewest combined runs? 20 What score was the most lopsided in Mets history? (largest difference between the winning team's runs and the losing team's runs) 19 What's the most lopsided shutout? 14-0 What's the most lopsided score that has occurred more than once? (It's happened three times.) 17-2

um, i vote we never ever refer to a rubber game as a condom game ever ever again.

Hernandez 4.6 Cora 1.8 Castillo 1.5 Beltran 1.2 Murphy 0.6 Green 0.3

Sheffield 3.0 Murphy 1.8 Cora 1.6 Parnell 1.5 Church 1.2 Stokes 0.9

Green 2.6 Wright 1.9 Pelfrey 1.8 Fmartinez 1.3 Schneider 1.3 Cora 1.1

SteveJRogers wrote: metsmarathon wrote: i just saw iron man over the weekend. i think all of my problems with the movie are related to technical / technological issues that are mostly related to my experience as a weapons engineer. i think the biggest thing is how he was able to fly from malibu to afghanistan and back on presumably one tank of gas. that's pretty fucking impressive. i'll gloss over the bulletproofiness of his suit, which is too thin to protect against a direct hit, but should suffice for glancing blows against smaller cal weapons. but really, what self-respecting terrorist organization doesn't own a single RPG, against which iron man should have no defense whatsoever? that shit'll pop a hole through his shell like a hot skewer through butter! also, all that ordnance bouncing around in that cave, and no stray bullets make it to his very exposed eye sockets? ok, sure. whatever. somebody already mentioned why a weapons manufacturer would be selling clearly marked weapons to terrorists, but my question is, how stupid does a weapons manufacturer have to be to DIRECTLY sell illegal arms to terrorists? i mean, damn, at least prop up a clandestine arms dealer! and finally, stark's gotta do a little better job developing insensitive munitions. i mean, a little blast from a flame thrower glances on the outer casing of a missile and it goes friggin' high order, taking with it an entire stockpile of ammo? c'mon! he's gotta do better than that... but on the whole, i rather liked it. definitely one of the better superhero movies i've seen, by a whole lot. of course, i stopped my dvd before the end of the credits, and its already on its way back to netflix. what'd i miss? We are going into believability in a world where a guy has the attributes of a Spider? Granted Spidey isn't going to be any where near the Marvel Studio productions, sadly actually, but still, I'm not sure if getting carried away in "Oh this is complete bull shit" is the right way to go when talking about comic book films! gamma rays interacting with spiders who cause genetic mutations in humans, i can go along with. a guy fabricating a suit of armor, made out of scraps of metal salvaged from the casings of missiles (or just ordinary steel), which is impervious to 0.50 cal bullets and also sheilds his eyes from said bullets despite the friggin eye holes... well... i can't go that far. his later suit, i'll go along with. not this. terrorists without RPGs. i can't go along with this. its like a bond villain without a lasar beam! and large military missiles emblazoned with the manufacturer's mark while sold on the black market (or even while sold to the us military), that i can't go along with. the movie should keep me suspending my disbelief. when the first scene of the movie has me saying "oh, come on!" they're only going to take me so far.

Takahashi 1.8 Sheffield 1.1 Valdez 0.5 Castillo 0.2

Nieve 2.8 Santos 2.3 Tatis 1.8 Sheffield 1.7 Fmartinez 0.7 Rodriguez 0.7

Church 2.9 Beltran 2.2 Wright 1.7 Sheffield 1.6 Feliciano 0.9 Cora 0.7