Vic Sage

Assuming Matsui doesn't get traded, and assuming we get a catcher* (Molina or Hernandez) and a closer* (Wagner/Ryan), then: Reyes Beltran Wright Floyd Cameron Molina*/Castro Jacobs/Diaz Matsui/Woodward Bench = M. Anderson (LHed 2b/Lf) Woodward (RHed IF/OF) Castro ©, V.Diaz (RHed LF/RF/1b) + 25th man Pitchers Pedro Glavine Benson Seo Trachsel/Zambrano bullpen Ryan (closer)* Heilman R.Hernandez Padilla Zambrano Bell + 1 LHP

cincinnati scored the most runs, but was 10/16 in SB. Colorado was 5th in RS, but only 14/16 in SBs. Houston had a ton of SBs, but was 11/16 in Runs Scored. Mets creamed the league in SBs, but was 7/16 in RS The Nats managed to be a .500 team while dead last in SBs and SB%. St.Louis was the best team in the NL, but was 7/16 in SB (10/16 in SB%) I don't know. It looks like a pretty random correlation to me.

[u:e14b5e7ba3]Team SB CS SB% W-L (League rank in Runs Scored)[/u:e14b5e7ba3] Philadephia 116 27 81.1% 88-74 (2/16) New York 153 40 79.3% 83-79 (7/16) Cincinnati 72 23 75.8% 73-89 (1/16) Atlanta 92 32 74.2% 90-72* (4/16) Houston 115 44 72.3% 89-73* (11/16) Arizona 67 26 72.0% 77-85 (10/16) Florida 96 38 71.6% 83-79 (8/16) Pittsburgh 73 30 70.9% 67-95 (14/16) Milwaukee 79 34 69.9% 81-81 (6/16) St. Louis 83 36 69.7% 100-62 (3/16) San Diego 99 44 69.2% 82-80* (13/16) Colorado 65 32 67.0% 67-95 (5/16) San Francisco 71 35 67.0% 75-87 (15/16) Chcago 65 39 62.5% 79-83 (9/16) Los Angeles 58 35 62.4% 71-91 (12/16) Washington 45 45 50.0% 81-81 (16/16)

i only root for 2 teams... the Mets, and whoever is playing the Yanks.

thanks for another piece of evidence about the irrelevance of base stealing to (1) run scoring, and/or (2) winning.

my time is so short these days, i just figured i would cut to the chase and say something obnoxious right away, without all the preliminary groundwork that i'd normally try to establish. besides, while i happen to think that WWSB is 1 step up from complete boob, and i'd agree that one of the symptoms of his boobery is his general mishandling of the bullpen, i do think you've grossly overstated the impact a few innings of Takatsu and Graves have had on the Mets season. you can't use your 2 or 3 best relievers in every situation. Thats why there are 6-7 guys out there. so, if takatsu can't pitch in losing games, then he can't ever be used, and we're playing shorthanded. Your gripe is with Minaya.

but ... but ... but... LF! Don't you realize that Rottweiler has already proven his preconceived notions with cherrypicked stats? why would you challenge that?

]maybe after this situation where Pedro is shutting himself down, maybe its time to nudge Pedro's signing into the "quasi-bust" category or at least "Well we knew the crap that we were getting" We figured going in that year 3 and year 4 were the question marks, could year 2 be a question mark now? Great with Beltran AND Pedro now looking like busts, that makes last offseason look even worse! Pedro is a "quasi-bust"? As statements about the Mets go, this one would have to be a helluva more thoughtful to even achieve the level of "utterly moronic".

oh, sure Soupy... like you wouldn't like to see that too.

FIVE THINGS I'D LIKE TO SEE IN MY BOXSCORE: 1) a Kandinsky; 2) Tomorrow's winning LOTTO number; 3) a joke by Lewis Black; 4) lyrics to John Lennon's next song; and 5) Naked pictures of Ann Coulter getting corn-holed by Alec Baldwin.

Part of why the 86 mets were the 86 mets is because Davey Johnson had the balls to push guys as far on the defensive spectrum as he could get away with, in order to get bats in the lineup. Any manager who would play Hojo and Kevin Mitchell at SS, and play Backman as often as possible, and could then produce a season like 86 clearly understands the relative values of fielding and offense. If Jacobs can hit .280 with 20hrs, he'd be a mediocre 1bman but an all-star catcher. So, i'm all over the "play jacobs behind the plate" movement. If he can (as Edgy put it so well) keep the ball from hitting the umpire... hell, i'd start him next year, with castro as HIS backup, and go about finding a 1bman who can truly mash. If he really sucks behind the plate, then he can still be a backup at 2 positions, with his bat. I'd still want to see if we could get a masher at 1b, and i don't trust him to be that guy.

]Well (1) is speculative, sure, but not entirely so, as we all saw him pretty badly concussed, albeit 2/3 into the season, for what that's worth. he played better AFTER the concussion, i think, so i don't know that it would explain anything. As for the "NY thing"... yeah, i never bought into that either. i was just throwing chum in the water.

I think he is (3) because he is (4). I don't think (2) is valid, since he'd already made that transition (and made it quite well) last season. (1) might be true, but is entirely speculative. I like the (3)-(4) combo explanation. And maybe an off-season to relax can allow him to come back a little less tense.Or maybe he's one of those "can't play in NY" guys who will never learn to relax while playing here? Ed Whitson, come on down!

a question about "Park Factor"... wouldn't it make more sense to base it on offense created by VISITING TEAMS in that park, rather than including the offense created by the home team, with the same offense over 81 games? I mean, doesn't that skew "park factor" so that it more likely measures the home team's offensive production, rather than the park's influence? i'm not arguing... i'm just asking.

[sniff]

Damn the torpedoes, FULL SPEED AHEAD! Welcome to the annual meeting of the Never Anticipate Defeat Society... go NADS! go NADS! go.... oh.... um... nevermind. lets go mets. rah.

Rotty, i'm as stat-oriented as anybody here and i actually do appreciate the fact that LUCK plays a large role in outcomes. And i'm not one whining about how "un-clutch" we are, as i think its a matter of sample size. BUT, one has to have one's had entirely up one's sphincter, or just be watching an entirely different baseball team, or relying to much on stats that could easily be interpreted differently, to think that this team's hitting un-sucks. when your 1b and 2b production is the worst in the league, and only your 3b production is significantly above average, one has to look at the aggregate stats and figure out why they DON'T paint an accurate picture of this team's hitting, instead of interpreting them in the most favorable light that contradicts what your eyes can plainly see. i think Widey's point, about a disproportionate number of offensive explosions skewing the RS numbers, may be one reasonable explanation.

reported on "Rotoworld"... ]Looper has blown six saves, more than all but three other closers, and left-handed batters are hitting .327 against him with six home runs. His ratio of ground balls to fly balls has dropped this season, with ground balls usually an indication of his success, and he's striking out fewer batters over nine innings this season (4.18) than last season (6.48). One possible reason for his struggles is that according to a team insider, Looper has been pitching with an injury behind his right shoulder that likely would've prompted surgery had it been detected before the season, which may explain the fluctuation in velocity on his fastball during the year. The Mets hold a $5 million option, with a $250K buyout, on him for 2006, which hasn't been exercised yet, and the team may pursue Billy Wagner, who is a free agent, in the offseason.

analysis of 2005? the pitching was good and the hitting sucked. plan for 2006? get better hitters. thank you for your time..

So far he's had 1 good year out of 3 for the Mets. He missed 1/3 of each of his prior 2 seasons to injuries, as is his nature. In fact, in discussing Floyd's "legacy", you undoubtedly have to talk about what he COULD have been had he not lost so much playing time to his various ailments over the years. Bernard Gilkey had, arguably, the best season by any Mets LFer ever. Even if Floyd maintains his current hitting pace this year, he will not surpass Gilkey's 96 season. So, unless Floyd has another good year here next season, i'd still put Gilkey's 96 ahead of Floyd's Mets career to date.

3 out of 15, and counting.

]Hi, Norrin. Fuck you. See? I don't let that bother ME. ]I tried saying things about baseball IN THIS THREAD ... lets see. Here is a list of your posts in this thread about Bobby V and WWSB: Sunday 9/4 1) 10:07am - a baseball-related post (and a good one!) 2) 11:44am - you attack the tone of Edgy's schoolmarmish post to DocTee ... not the "content", but the TONE of a post that was not addressed to you at all. 3) 2:45pm - you continue to attack Edgy. Edgy remains, as usual, unresponsive to your baiting. Monday 9/5 4) 5:26pm - non-baseball related posts continue, this time expanding your target from Edgy to include KC too 5) 7:17pm - and it continues.. 6) 9:33pm -- finally, another BB related post! (that's 2 out of 6, so far) Tuesday 9/6 7) 5:36am - you wake up extra early to make another BB-related post 8) 11:55am - but then you digress... 9) 2:03pm - and yet again ... (in this, your 6th non-BB related post out of 9 so far, you state without irony that "all i ever wanted to do around here was talk baseball") 10) 2:15pm - and again... 11) 2:16pm - and again... 12) 2:25pm - and again... 13) 2:29pm - and again... 14) 6:50pm - So, after 13 posts with only 3 related to baseball and the other 10 either attacking or defending against your "tormentors", after i suggest you try sticking to baseball and stop whining, you then turn to me. So, thats 3 baseball posts out of 14 so far in this thread. Yes, i could gloss over your "woe is me"s but then i'd be ignoring you so much, i'd be dealing with you as Edgy does... pretending you don't even exist. I'm not Edgy. And i'm not KC, who appears to be barely able to tolerate your continued existance on the planet. I actually LIKE you. So i suggested you stop reacting to every perceived or even ACTUAL slight, and stick to baseball, and ultimately all this ad hominem stuff would fade away. your response? ] And if I wasn't clear enough before, go fuck yourself. And have a nice day I do intend to have a nice day. And the same good wishes unto you, my belicose brother.

maybe not a FIEND, but a solid career .350 OB%, with an incredible SB%. He's been pressing in the RBI slot this year (maybe its NYC, maybe its the contract, maybe its random chance, maybe its all these or other factors), so there can be no harm in putting him in a "put your bat on the ball and run" slot, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, give Wright more ABs.

]... A shift to the three hole would give Wright more plate appearances and allow him to hit after two players extremely adept at moving into scoring position. In addition, Wright's .401 SOB would be a boon for Cliff Floyd, who sports a healthy .506 SLG and team-leading 29 home runs. correct. and we've been saying this since June.]Randolph is opposed to this change, as evidenced by the following excerpt from an August 25 article in The New York Times: "...Randolph will not consider moving Beltran, an on-base fiend who has not had much success driving in runs, to second in the order from third and then bumping David Wright to third because that would leave no one to bat fifth and protect the cleanup hitter, Cliff Floyd. Piazza's presence would at least afford Randolph that option." Just another reason why WWSB is an i-d-i-o-t]The theory of lineup protection has been debated and dismissed by the sabermetric community, in all but its weak form (affecting walks/intentional walks). Wright has had hardly any "protection" all year, moving from the seventh to sixth to fifth spot, and during his tear in late August--he posted an 1103 OPS for the month--Wright had a motley cast backing him up, mostly Victor Diaz, Mike Jacobs, Marlon Anderson and Chris Woodward. Even if protection were a factor, the Mets should rightly be using Floyd to protect their top hitter, rather than vice versa. why don't we get more guys like this at the CPF? We used to.]With both Cameron and Mike Piazza likely done, it appears the Mets will battle through September with their current sub-optimal setup. Lineup construction isn't worth all that much, but in this year's enthralling pennant race, every last run that's wrung from a batting order could mean the difference. which is the stick i've been using to beat WWSB with since day 1. Here is the lineup order that should be used until further notice (based on current roster):Reyes BeltranWrightFloydDiazMinkyCastroMatsui

Trachsel 2 Wright 1 Reyes 1 Matsui 1 Beltran 1 Mientkiewicz 1 Diaz 0.75 Hernandez 0.75 Anderson 0.75 Castro 0.75