We’ve reached the halfway point of the 2011 New York Metropolitans’ baseball season, chronologically, if not statistically. The Mets sent two players to the game, one of which will play – a commendable showing for a team which had been predicted to act as the spittoon of the NL East and began the year five [...]
“Walk right side? Safe. Walk left side? Safe. Walk down middle? Squish, like grape.” – Mr. Miyagi to Daniel-san in the original KARATE KID So they’ve hit a season’s high in terms of winning percentage, climbing the dizzying heights of three games over .500. So they’ve taken a second step on the way to what [...]
Last night (7/4) was one of those games that felt really bad, then suddenly euphoric. Not in the same sense that Sunday’s ambush of the TGMR (The Great Mariano Rivera) was, the 5-2 win over the Dodgers (I will refrain from any snarky nicknames referring to their bankruptcy filing: there but for the grace of [...]
The Mets received more bad news this week when it was revealed that Ike Davis will have to rest for at least an additional three weeks before any decision is made on his bothersome left ankle. The ankle is simply not getting any better. There is talk of Davis undergoing microfracture surgery, which would of [...]
“Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?" A four-run lead headed to the bottom of the eighth is supposed to be safe. To paraphrase Howie Rose, I was putting this one in the books before the eighth was over. But we know the narrative these past two weeks, don’t we? This bullpen stinks [...]
You know when Jason Bay returned from the DL and the Mets went on a six-game winning streak and plenty of praise (myself included) was heaped upon Bay for bringing back stability to the lineup? Bay would then fall into a deep slump. To offset Bay’s slump the Mets got terrific contributions from their burgeoning [...]
There seems to be this growing philosophy that if a player is the face of a franchise, he must stay with the team throughout. I will not argue this. You can look across town to see what it has done for the New York Yankees with Derek Jeter. I do believe in homegrown talent. The [...]
Ike Davis is off to a great start this year, with a .316/.407/.579 slash line. Over at ESPN, they use what the player has done so far and use that to project what the player would do for the entire season if he kept up his current pace. While it’s not serious analysis, it’s fun [...]
My first go round at Opening Day predictions at Mets360 did not go so well. So, I could go one of several ways: A. Try to make “easy” predictions to make me look good in hindsight. B. Make off the wall assertions and when one of them came true, trumpet the fact that I picked [...]
Yesterday my copy of the Maple Street Press Mets 2011 Annual arrived in the mail. Maple Street Press puts out a host of annuals and they get some of the top names in the blogosphere to contribute to their magazines. The Mets guide features articles by Ted Berg, Toby Hyde, Howard Megdal, Sam Page, Dan [...]
Fans tend to be either overly optimistic or pessimistic. That is why it is important to look at unbiased, systematic approaches to projections. One of the best sets available are the ZiPS projections from ESPN Insider and Baseball Think Factory Editor-in-Chief Dan Szymborski. Recently Szymborski, an Orioles fan, agreed to a Q&A about his projections [...]
I like Ike! You like Ike! Everyone likes Ike! The much ballyhooed Ike Davis finally got his call in late April of last year with the Mets and instantly became a fan favorite in Flushing. After a blistering Spring Training, and an awesome start in Buffalo to start the season (.364 AVG., two home runs [...]