In 2011, the National Football League endured a 130-day lockout when the NFL Players Association and the league couldn’t agree to terms on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. Later that year, the National Basketball Association suffered from a 161-day lockout and was forced to shorten the 2011-2012 season to 66 games. When the National Hockey [...]
Right now we are in the middle of our projection series and my thoughts tend to focus on the categories that we forecast. Specifically, those thoughts center on the durability components of our predictions. For pitchers, that’s innings pitched and for position players those are plate appearances. Last year our official group projection was for [...]
Last week we looked at starting pitchers for the Mets over the past 10 years. What ended up being a surprise to very few people was how the team on average used 11 different pitchers to start a game in a given season over that time frame. Now let’s turn our attention to the outfield. [...]
There was a lot of talk in 2013, both in our articles and in the Game Chatters, about the relative strength and weaknesses of the Mets’ drafting in the recent past, specifically the results of the drafts by Omar Minaya and Sandy Alderson. It’s too soon to pass final judgment on Alderson’s drafts and some [...]
Last week I wrote about how the Mets should avoid going after injury-reclamation guys like they have previously chased during Sandy Alderson’s tenure. So of course the Josh Johnson bandwagon started up. Here’s how MetsBlog, reacting to a post on MLBTradeRumors, summed up the case for signing Johnson: ”In other words, he reads like the [...]
Perhaps the best thing that happened for the Mets in 2013 was the arrival of Juan Lagares. While it took an injury to Matt den Dekker, an unbelievably quick hook with Collin Cowgill and fall flat on their face efforts from Rick Ankiel, Kirk Nieuwenhuis and Jordany Valdespin – the Mets ultimately turned to Lagares [...]
Earlier, I read an article lamenting all of the injuries that befell the Toronto Blue Jays this season. It said: “Encarnacion and Cecil became the 21st and 22nd different victims of the ongoing Toronto Blue Jays pandemic this season.” That led me to wonder – What’s a “normal” number of injuries to hit a team [...]
With eight games remaining in the 2013 season, Wilmer Flores has 96 PA here in his MLB debut. His production has been nothing to write home about; however, the fact that he’s in the majors at such a young age is certainly enough for us to sit up and take notice. Let’s take a look [...]
There have been 16 hitters play for both Las Vegas and New York this season. Here are the stats for the group at both levels.
Earlier today, David Groveman wrote a piece on Dominic Smith and the typical progression of players through the minors. The purpose was to advise caution and not expect Smith to come up and be a contributor anytime soon. It’s always a good idea to advise caution with prospects. However, I believe that guys who make [...]
With Jonathon Niese going on the disabled list, the Mets’ decision on which pitcher to drop from the rotation was delayed. That’s good news for Jeremy Hefner and Shaun Marcum, the two leading candidates to be removed. Let’s take a minute to look at the pros and cons for Hefner remaining a starter, if and [...]
If you asked a random baseball fan from Atlanta or DC or Philadelphia what was wrong with the Mets, undoubtedly one of the first things they would bring up would be the awful bullpen. After watching the Braves’ telecasts of the just-concluded five-game series, I lost count of how many times their announcers talked about [...]