Just took a glance at the newly updated PECOTA team standings for the NL East at Baseball Prospectus.  NL East W L RS RA AVG OBP SLG New York Mets 92 70 824 722 0.266 0.341 0.421 Philadelphia Phillies 87 75 828 770 0.265 0.339 0.436 Atlanta Braves 86 76 798 743 0.272 0.342 0.42 Washington Nationals 77 85 780 820 0.259 0.34 0.416 Florida Marlins 71 91 731 825 0.256 0.326 0.417 They also [...]

Mikey J, one of our esteemed bloggers who penned an excelent letter to MLB yesterday, emailed me a link to a NESN article that takes a shot at the recent Sports Illustrated issue which predicts that the Mets will win the World Series in 2009. They begin by suggesting that maybe the prediction was just another April Fools gag a la Sidd Finch. A suggestion that has been echoed by Boomer and Carton this morning [...]

Yesterday, the Texas Rangers released outfielder/firstbaseman Frank Catalanotto. Catalanotto who is 34, was having a fine spring and was batting .317 with nine runs scored in 40 at-bats. He also played for Team Italy during the World Baseball Classic. A native New Yorker who hails from Long Island, the “Little Cat”, as he is often called, is a gritty ballplayer with a solid reputation as a clubhouse leader. As a hitter, he batted .274 last [...]

David Wright ranks high on the list of top run creators for the 2009 season in Bill James’ latest update to his handbook. Twice a year we project the upcoming season for the most important hitters and pitchers. First, we run the earliest projections in The Bill James Handbook. Then we run them again around this time of year, updating them for the latest transactions and playing time estimates. We do it because it’s fun [...]

Jonathon Niese pitched a beauty tonight for Buffalo according to the teams site. The Buffalo Bisons, Triple-A affiliate of the New York Mets, defeated the Memphis Redbirds (Cardinals), 6-0, on Wednesday afternoon from Jupiter, FL. The Bisons will conclude their spring exhibition schedule on Tuesday against Memphis at Port St. Lucie, FL. LHP Jonathon Niese combined with three relievers on the shutout. Niese worked the first six innings while RHP Kyle Snyder, RHP Eddie Kunz [...]

Dear Bud Selig, Jimmy Lee Solomon, and all other MLB Suits:   Modern technology has come a long way in recent years, and with it cable television offers us better entertainment options such as On Demand and premium sports packages.  Your MLB package is one such premium option.  I grew up on Long Island a diehard Mets fan, and still am a diehard Mets fan.  But I went through a few years of limited access [...]

By now you’ve all heard about the release of prominent players like Gary Sheffield of the Tigers and Geoff Jenkins of the Phillies. I find it amazing that even in the current economic climate, the Phillies had no problem with eating the remaining $8 million dollars of Jenkins’ contract, and even more surprising that the Tigers ate $14 million dollars of Sheffield’s deal. During the off season, the Mets had hoped to unload both Luis Castillo [...]

It’s been almost a quarter century since Sports Illustrated pulled off one of the ultimate pranks and ran a featured story on the Mets latest pitching phenom, Sidd Finch. Finch wasn’t just an ordinary phenom, far from it… More like other worldly… I mean what else do you call a kid who can blaze a 150 mph fastball by your head? As Sports Illustrated wrote in it’s sub-heading:  “He’s a pitcher, part yogi and part [...]