The Mets got an early Christmas present when Robinson Cano got busted for PEDs and was suspended for the season. The good news comes in multiple ways. The most obvious of these is that the club now has an extra $20.25 million at its disposal. Not that the bottom line was going to be an [...]
Sandy Alderson had a press conference on Monday. Nothing really unexpected or particularly noteworthy on the surface happened. But anytime Alderson speaks at length, there are always things that jump out. To me, the most interesting thing that he said was the following: “I don't think we're a player away. I think we need more [...]
One of the rule changes that we saw in 2020 was the introduction of the 3-batter minimum. Unlike other rule changes, this one was planned before the pandemic hit, meaning that we will see it again for sure in 2021. Jayson Stark of The Athletic had an article on this rule change and he quoted [...]
Welcome to the second installment of our baseball chat, again with Chris Flanders. Most of this took place before the news about Robinson Cano hit but know that both of us were not disappointed at all. Brian - Everyone was all excited about the dual Steve Cohen/Sandy Alderson press conference the other day and truthfully [...]
Use this thread to discuss any Mets-specific topic you wish.
Most fans are familiar with the concept – if not necessarily when or how to apply it – of a small sample size. A sample with fewer chances shouldn’t be taken as seriously as one with a much greater pool of outcomes. Tomas Nido put up a 150 wRC+ last year, which is essentially what [...]
There are a lot of contenders for “Best Surprise of 2020” for the Mets. There’re the offensive explosions by Michael Conforto and Dominic Smith, the overall exciting play of Andres Gimenez and the return to form by Edwin Diaz. But all of those seem to be vying for second place behind the unexpected performance of [...]
FanGraphs is running a poll, asking readers what they thought of the changes MLB made for the 2020 season. The first question is about the NL adopting the DH and asking if it should be that way going forward. My vote was for “no” and I was disappointed to find out that slightly over 75% [...]
Friday was an amazing day in Mets history, as Steve Cohen assumed ownership of the Mets and Sandy Alderson did his best Michael Corleone impression by cleaning house, announcing that Brodie Van Wagenen, his three top lieutenants and Omar Minaya would be leaving the organization. If there was the slightest bit of uncertainty, these moves [...]
We saw many MLB players react negatively when the Astros cheating scandal became public. But that’s nothing compared to how the players react when the owners collude to keep down salaries. It brings to mind Billy Martin’s great quote about Reggie Jackson and George Steinbrenner, where he said, “One’s a born liar and the other’s [...]
Charlie Morton is a free agent. On the list of things that don’t make sense baseball-wise in 2020, this has to rank up near the top. Sure, everyone was shocked when the Indians non-tendered Brad Hand. But Hand was a reliever. Morton is a good starting pitcher, one with a noted playoff performance history. Guys [...]
We like things that are easy. It’s why we add together OBP and SLG to get OPS, which we use as a shorthand for offensive production. In mathematical reality, you never add things with different denominators. But adding together OBP and SLG gets you very close to the “right” answer so we do it anyway. [...]