Could John Lannan be this year’s Darren Oliver?

When the Mets signed John Lannan to a minor-league deal, it was likely to bring him in to compete for the fifth starter role in spring training. The signing is exciting because it represents something more than just another option for fifth starter: It represents the move forward for the organization. In the first three [...]

John Sickels releases his Top 20 list for the Mets farm

John Sickels of Minor League Ball released yesterday his Top 20 Mets Prospects list, found here.  There are few surprises up top, though he seems to be more bullish on Brandon Nimmo and Gavin Cecchini than some. Perhaps the most controversial ranking on the list is Steven Matz at number 14, who Sickels ranks as [...]

Hall of Fame: Maddux, Glavine, Thomas in; Piazza, Biggio out.

The Baseball Hall of Fame voting was revealed at 2 p.m. today, and Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and Frank Thomas all earned the requisite 75% of votes to be enshrined.  All three were in their first year on the ballot.  Maddux earned 97.2% of votes, Glavine 91.9% and Thomas 83.7%. Glavine will go into the [...]

Will Curtis Granderson’s and Chris Young’s strikeouts matter?

Chris Young and Curtis Granderson strike out a lot. Some worry about the number of strikeouts that they bring to the lineup. This worry is natural – for years strikeouts have been had the reputation of being the worst way to make an out. Bill James observed some time ago that the currency of the [...]

On PEDs, the Hall of Fame, and Murray Chass

Murray Chass may have retired from the New York Times in 2008, but that hasn’t stopped him from sharing his baseball opinions with people through his blog. In a post on Thursday, he implored Baseball Hall of Fame voters to not reward managers of players who used performance enhancing drugs like Joe Torre and Tony [...]

The ballad of Lucas Duda

Usually I wait a while before I do this, but, what the heck: Player A career: .249/.340/.446, .197 ISO, 12.1 BB%, 18.4 K%, .344 wOBA, 117 wRC+ Player B career: .246/.342/.424, .178 ISO, 11.3 BB%, 23.5 K%, .336 wOBA, 115 wRC+ Player A is ex-Met Howard Johnson, Player B, as the title of this article [...]

Sabermetrics: Past, Present & Future

One early spring night in 1976, Bill James, a night security guard at the Stokley-Van Camp pork and beans cannery in Lawrence, Kan., sat reading the copy of Street and Smith’s Baseball Yearbook.  Beside him sat several other preseason baseball publications which he had bought – called annuals. “Reading through them I realized, ‘These are [...]