For the Mets to revisit the playoffs in 2016 it is a given that the starting pitching must do most of the heavy lifting. Also needed is an offense strong enough to make up for a possibly shaky defense. But even if the starters soar – and they certainly did not in week one – [...]
When baseball fans, especially those with decades of viewing experience, discuss players they often use a shorthand approach to describe players. They use comps which is short for comparables. The more experienced the player is the easier it is to find someone comparable but for the newbies, rookies, and those who haven’t even arrived in [...]
The 2016 baseball season will be upon us in less than a week. The New York Mets will be defending their hard earned 2015 National League crown in the hopes of returning to the World Series and this time winning it. Heady times indeed. The marathon has not started so let’s take a look at [...]
WAR, standing for Wins Above Replacement (player), is part of the alphabet soup of Sabermetric terms that Mets’ manager Terry Collins has no interest in. This is unfortunate since the stat has its value despite some nagging flaws. Its biggest shortcoming is that it depends on certain defensive stats to try and determine how much [...]
For those of us who believe that the efficient use of Sabermetrics can improve a team’s chance of winning the remarks by Mets’ manager Terry Collins last month were dismaying. In a USA Today article he said this: “I’m not sure how much an old-school guy can add to the game today. It’s become a [...]
It’s a given that if we are going to discuss baseball salaries that logic gets tossed out the window. You would be hard put to describe another industry where you labor for slave’s wages for anywhere from one to ten years and then, if you are good enough, start to make logarithmically higher sums. Your [...]
True story that goes back close to six decades. My fourth grade teacher, Mr. Ward, gave me the nickname “Ulcers” because even back then I tended to worry compulsively about what might go wrong. In other words your humble blogger was an adherent to Murphy’s Law long before the actual Daniel Murphy was even born. [...]
The Mets will play their 8,617th regular season National League game when they open the 2016 season in April. This old timer of a fan has seen the majority of those games on TV. While it has not always been the case that I have a favorite player or players each year there have always [...]
The 2015 Mets were a more potent offense against righty pitchers both before and after the big trade deadline deals. The additions made during this past offseason have not really addressed that issue. This table gives you career numbers for the 13 players who figure to be on the opening day roster. playerBA vs LHPOPS [...]
Ask a committed Mets fan what his fondest hopes are for his team in 2016 and he (or she) will likely say: all the starting pitchers stay healthy as do David Wright and Travis d’Arnaud. In addition to that they would want to see the team knock off the Nationals again for the National League [...]
"Luck is the residue of design." - Branch Rickey This is a very good time to be a fan of the New York Mets. After all the team won the National League championship and has just topped off the offseason with the signing of big thumper Yoenis Cespedes making them somewhat of a favorite to [...]
The offseason for the New York Mets was just puttering along until the blizzard hit – in more ways than one – this past weekend. For the most part the moves Sandy Alderson and his staff had made were defensible and reasonable despite their not being particularly exciting. The trade of Jon Niese for Neil [...]