Ceetar

I can enjoy the conspiracy theories as much as anyone when it gives me a reason to berate my opponent. The Dodgers accused the Marlins of stealing signs, even suggesting they've got a camera in that Home Run Thingie. [crossout:37dji46c]They're also 14-5 at home and 2-10 on the road.[/crossout:37dji46c] (what he said) Gary Cohen, when mentioning the story, hinted that the Rockies might do something in the christmas tree forest out in CF. So let's see if the Marlins look like a different team shall we? (I think they'll destroy 'em honestly)

TransMonk wrote: WAR leader...just sayin'. not even true on baseball reference anymore. Lagares and Niese.

Gwreck wrote: First, the map was about more than the Mets and Yankees. Second, time and proximity is always going to be a part of any data collection. Nobody asks (or expects to receive accurate answers) otherwise. The answer you get is for NOW. Mets blogs are generally accepted to be much better and more prolific. Irrelevant --- You don't have to like the data presented but it doesn't make it inaccurate. The Mets are not popular. I have no problem understanding that. Your point about "it all comes down to winning" is the right pone. The Mets would do well to worry less about who is a true fan and more (much, much more) about winning. No, it's precisely about the Mets and Yankese (as are the open letters). In a one-team town you don't have this problem, because the sample of "Facebook users who like baseball teams" are unlikely to have a significant percentage of other teams therefore represent a higher percentage, even though the 80% in the Denver area probably represents less fans than a 15% in a North Jersey county. I'm not saying the data is inaccurate so much as meaningless. You can't draw any inferences from it, but it's certainly easy to use it to support a pre-conceived notion. I mention the blogs because one of the main reasons to like the Mets facebook page would be to follow the team. But with quality other sources, Mets fans might not be as likely to bother. Luckily the overlap between people working on open letters and people working on making a winning team is roughly 0. If anything, winning will make this sorta stuff go away, because the marketing dept will have to try less hard to get fans to sign up, and if the Mets had made the playoffs last year you'd have roughly 3 million people signing up to win the tickets and properly treating the letter like the marketing gimmick it is.

Edgy MD wrote: Point taken. In my mind, Chris Young went down in game one, not game two. was probably more jarring because i was there. But he did run real hard after a foul ball.

That would be former Twin (and Pirate) Justin Morneau manning first base, who's having somewhat of a resurgence in the thin Denver air. .343/.367/.618 .985 OPS with 6 HR He's signed through next season with an option year after that.

Edgy MD wrote: First time out there for the defensively-enhanced Young-Laggy-Grandy outfield alignment that Alderson envisioned in the offseason. Just in time for a trip to the biggest outfield in the big leagues, too. well, technically they did get a half inning on April second.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: So Eric Young is the first outfielder to sit out a dance now that the four-man rotation is in effect. We'll see if it's actually "in effect" or that was just bluster.

metsmarathon wrote: i'm a true new jerseyan and am therefore ineligible to sign the letter. many New Jerseyians are truer New Yorkers than many New Yorkers.

How about Jose Fernandez' fake out? http://deadspin.com/jose-fernandezs-fake-out-play-was-ballsy-and-awesome-1569883550

Edgy MD wrote: The funny thing is that the starting pitching has been consistently on, but nobody generally dominating, leaving Eric Young leading the team in WAR? Wutzdat? That is extremely small sample defensive metrics. And I saw someone postulate that he's probably getting credit in that measurement for outfielders dropping pop-ups and the large among of reaching on error he's done. but by Fangraphs WAR he's not ahead of Wheeler, or Niese, or Lagares, or Murphy, or Recker. He has a lower OPS than Tejada.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Oh yes. Can't ever get too excited but take this start, along with the consensus arriving this spring that the organization's talent was now near the top of the list instead of near the bottom, and start of all the clubs in the minors, and it's all very positive. Really the only big meaningful surprise IMO has been Niese whom I thought was hurt or hurting. he's technically a zombie a this point but if it helps keep his arm attached..

Gwreck wrote: Ceetar wrote: In the sense that it's their own click-bait in response to that click-bait? yes. I think you are not accurately using the term "click-bait." It was a New York Times story and map. That's not "click-bait." It's an interesting story with actual data to support it. no it wasn't. it was click bait. The New York Times is not above that. it was 'actual data' only in the the sense that it involved numbers. It was about as factual as asking tailgaters at MetLife stadium what their favorite sport is and then claiming baseball is dying. (And yes, I'm aware plenty of places basically do that too) It's Facebook likes grouped by arbitrary boundaries. It's not a secret that the Yankees have been better in the Facebook era. You don't need to break it out by zipcode. The Yankees have 7.46 million likes. The Mets have 911,895 likes. It's not particularly meaningful data. This is not a sample of X New Yorkers and studying who likes who. This is a sample of X people who are engaged with their team, and clearly Yankees fans are more engaged. But this isn't measuring '% of fans' or anything like that. Other reason for this include people liking both teams because A. They're really Mets fans first but prefer to root for good teams, B. Keeping tabs on the 'little brother', C. Red Sox fans in the area liking the Yankees for things like ticket giveaways (they do play the Sox 9 times at home..) Mets blogs are generally accepted to be much better and more prolific. Maybe Mets fans don't feel the need to like the Mets on Facebook. Nothing the Mets do, PR wise, is going to be 'a hit', but they've gotten everyone talking about them, and beyond criticism about how it was done, there isn't really anything embarrassing about it. Oh no, they want you to give them your email to enter a contest? big whoop, that's PR 101. No one's walking away from the team because they wrote a silly email. But some fans will engage. some will be curious about the letter and it's presentation, and it certainly seems like the media is going to cover it. This was really a no-lose situation for the team. I'd be surprised if anyone's opinion of the team really changed. This email didn't put anyone that previously didn't think the Mets were poorly run over the edge, and everyone else is just chirping 'business as usual'. Really, it boils down to one thing. winning. The Yankees have done it, and the Mets have not. Therefore perception reflects that. Give the Mets a playoff berth and a competitive winning team next year and the Yankees missing the playoffs again and this will change so fast you'll have tens of thousands of Mets fans at Citi Field saying things like "Jose Reyes? Did he play for the Mets?"

Zvon wrote: d'Kong76 wrote: Don't they have some young internet/social media guy now that's running some of this stuff? If he is, uh .. this episode has kinda backfired. An email response to all the backfire would be LOADS of fun!!! I feel for that guy. That's a tuff gig these days. Almost a no-win situation. It would have had to be perfect to cover all current Mets fans. Can anyone here come up with what would have been the perfect message? The 'perfect' message, and really the only message, is "It's September 17th and we've just clinched the NL East."

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: So are we calling this series a sweep? No, too wet for that. it's whatever the analogous phrase is for what you do with a mop.

How can they laugh when they're on their knees in front of Derek?

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: I'm betting that [crossout]a lot[/crossout] all of this is a (over) reaction to that Facebook stuff. Fixed. In the sense that it's their own click-bait in response to that click-bait? yes.

A Boy Named Seo wrote: PPD and rescheduled for June 2, sez my internet phone. WEDNESDAY NIGHT IS NOW ALL YOURS! A WORLD OF POSSIBILITIES!! beer. lots and lots of beer.

Edgy MD wrote: Mets marketers apparently are alarmed. So I did my job and called up a Mets marketer and spoke at length with him. Wait, I didn't do that at all. Instead, I published this screed which looks twice as amateurish as any Mets marketing campaign. It's not a screed, it's a cover letter.

A Boy Named Seo wrote: I love that he had a checkbook. If it wasn't for my rent, I would've written my last check in, like, 2k4. Wonder if he bought that shitty watch with a starter check from his new account? I imagine being on the move away from home so much (and unmarried with a wife to do that stuff) necessitates carrying around some of that stuff. Thought I can't remember the last time I wrote a check for a non-gift type thing besides the um, scary 5 figure one I brought to the house closing.

Like it or hate it or whatever, it's going to get talked about. Attention and interest in the Mets is good. It's also probably an attempt to ramp up Subway Series talk (less than two weeks) and is a play off Granderson's comments. I like that, It paints Granderson, who is hopefully hitting better by then, as a Met rather than some sort of awkward reunion thing. He'll probably get booed worse than Cano, although it'll be hard to tell because there will actually be fans in attendance. And the attendance is a thing. Both teams have struggled with it since the series became a mid-week thing. So increased attention on the Subway Series is valuable.

They send out emails all the time. They're just mixing it up a bit. That's fine.

are they even gonna play this one?

Edgy MD wrote: I'd like to know how much to credit Recker (or any catcher on any day, for that matter) should get, but batters seemed so genuinely surprised all afternoon by the pitches he was throwing. Even with men on base they seemed confused and crossed up. well, 6-0 with Recker this season right? Very small sample. It's interesting at least. I dunno. Seemed like d'Arnaud arrived just as Wheeler took a step forward last season, but this year they've admittedly struggled some together, at least communication wise, and he did well in his (1?) Recker start.

Missed him. (aren't half of them young hipsters now though?) Been quite some turnover over the last couple of years and it's hard to keep up. I usually follow them all and unfollow at least half of them a month later.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: I'm paying the price for my patience with Grandyman. What a complete rate-killer that guy's been. I'm lacking in power but my main problem has been my pitchers are either sucking or broken. got like 6 pitchers on the DL.