Truth on sacrifice flies

"As an aside, sacrifice flies don't count as a turn at bat and therefore don't negatively affect a hitter's batting average, but they're almost always just regular fly outs with the singular and fortunate (from the batter's perspective) distinction that a runner happened to be on third base (or second!) at the time. Occasionally a [...]

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Manuel assigns blame

That's a huge percentage, because they sit in the middle of the order," Manuel said. "It puts pressure on the complementary pieces in the order. When you don't get that production there, and then the complementary pieces aren't living up to the expectations you have for them, it makes it tough. But you can get [...]

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Analyzing Mets lineup turnover

Ask any Mets fan to describe 2009 in one word and the answer is: injuries.  Ask the same fan to describe 2010 and you are likely to get a bunch of different answers.  But the lineup turnover has been just as dramatic this year as it was in the cursed 2009 season.  Here is the [...]

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Manuel on innings limit for Niese

We touch on that kind of stuff all the time, but we haven't really sat down and put anything in ink," Manuel said. "I think a lot depends on if we see a diminished product, if we see fatigue. Then I think we'll probably visit it with some sincerity. Jerry Manuel summing up his views [...]

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Inside the Mets' comeback win

The Mets figured to have a good chance to win Tuesday night against the Marlins because R.A. Dickey was on the mound. At Citi Field this year, Dickey entered the night with a 5-1 record and a 1.22 ERA. So, things looked bleak when Dickey allowed a 3-run homer to Gaby Sanchez in the seventh [...]

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Return of Reyes a 2010 Highlight

If you were to list the top 10 things that went right for the Mets this year, you would probably talk about R.A. Dickey, Jonathon Niese, Angel Pagan and Mike Pelfrey. After that you might have to think hard about what else to mention. But without a doubt one of the best things that has [...]

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Cutter helps Niese to nice rookie year

No matter how you look at things, the development of Jonathon Niese has been one of the top storylines for the Mets in 2010. But coming into this season mainstream scouting reports were behind the times on Niese. Baseball America had this report on his arsenal: Niese's signature pitch is a 12-to-6 curveball, though he [...]

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Bottom dwellers help sink Mets

After last night’s 7-2 win over the last-place Pirates, the Mets evened their record for the season at 61-61, the only .500 team in the majors. But should the Mets be .500 and how exactly did the club get to be in this position? If you look at just runs, the Mets should be slightly [...]

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Minaya, the Wilpons and Dave Cameron

FanGraphs Managing Editor Dave Cameron is one of the most influential online baseball writers around. Because of this he has had to take a fair amount of garbage over the years from people who comment on his stories. Some of the hostility is deserved; most of it is not. Highly visible people are subject to [...]

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