Comparing Eric Young and Juan Lagares with Inside Edge data

Evaluating defense has always been imperfect. Primitive statistics, such as number of errors or fielding percentage, were very flawed. Newer statistics -- such as UZR and DRS -- are better, but still are flawed. It takes three years for UZR data to become a reliable sample, and three years is a good amount of time [...]

Will Cory Mazzoni be an internal solution for the Mets’ bullpen?

Sandy Alderson did a decent job this offseason making upgrades that will hopefully make the Mets more competitive, if not this year then next year. Alderson addressed the outfield situation with the signings of Chris Young and Curtis Granderson. Alderson added an arm in Bartolo Colon to hold down a spot in the rotation until [...]

Outfield conversations: Eric Young Jr. or Juan Lagares?

The Mets are making strides towards opening day. Spring Training has begun, and players are down in Port Saint Lucie working out. In less than a week, Spring Training games begin. With the start of Spring Training comes conjecture. The media follow everyone on the team, asking questions in hopes of creating interesting stories. A [...]

Comparing the current state of the Mets and Yankees

Since Derek Jeter has announced that he will retire at the end of the 2014 season, there have been conversations comparing the Yankees great shortstop to Mets’ third-baseman David Wright. Comparing one of the best shortstops of all-time who has his whole career behind him to a great third baseman who still has 10 years [...]

Sandy Alderson passes on Fernando Rodney to sign Kyle Farnsworth

Rumors floated around the past couple of weeks that the Mets were going to try to sign reliever Fernando Rodney. For some, this was disheartening because Rodney was going to be expensive considering his record. Rodney did sign a contract, but not with the Mets, and he was expensive -- a two-year, $14 million deal [...]

The Duda-Davis dilemma is still prevalent

One could argue that Sandy Alderson’s offseason moves have all been admirable. Certainly the signings of Chris Young, Curtis Granderson, and Bartolo Colon all improve the team. All those moves were necessary, as Alderson needed to find a way to replace the value of Matt Harvey and Marlon Byrd. Whether or not he replaced their [...]

Coming to grips with Ruben Tejada as the starting shortstop

Sandy Alderson has been cryptic this offseason in regard to what he is going to do about the shortstop position. On the one hand, he hinted at signing Stephen Drew when he stated that he would be open to signing any free-agent on the market. However, he also said he believed that Ruben Tejada could [...]

The underrated Jonathon Niese

Last week, Dave Cameron of FanGraphs set out to find potential comparisons for Japanese pitcher Masahiro Tanaka. The profile for Tanaka is pretty interesting. The scouting reports are that he throws strikes, gets ground balls, and has a good fastball-splitter combo that gets some strikeouts. When Cameron ran his list to find guys who fit [...]