Forgot to ask – how come regarding the take on the trade those eight MLB executives and scouts that were listed above did not refer to statistics, except to voice an opinion of potential figures Meyers could put up since “Stats are an absolute must for teams to make player evaluations. No team makes player evaluations without checking the players stats.” If those were absolute musts, why no reference to them both in the past and with future projections?

Lone Ranger rides again.

You are absolutely correct – NO STATS were used to select Nimmo, Fuller or anyone else. It was indeed as you put 100 percent correctly put it that: “All 3 of those picks were based on old school scouting”.

So why is it that you always credit Sandy Alderson – who admitted he came in cold with no professinal knowledge of the game – for making the evaluations that led to first draft pick selections in Oakland, i.e. McGwire (1984), Weiss (1985) along with players like Steinbach (1983) and amateur free agents like Polonia, etc.?

And as far as on-base percentage, the importance of getting on base besides the base hit was understood since the modern era began. I will not post again the annual hitting stats since 1901 but will again point out that the range between batting averages and on-base percentages has been relatively consistent since the new strike zone and lower mound came into effect back in 1969. It rose significantly only during the steroid era. And, in fact, it was much higher in the late forties and early fifites.

And again, many batters are pitched around intentionally when there is an open base to set up the double play, etc. A lot of those walks are due to situational circumstances. Also, keep in mind, for example, that Lee Mazilli was moved to the leadoff spot purposly because he was always pitched around due to having no protection behind him.

There are not many left in the Sandy Alderson Fan Club. Certainly, those in the clubhouse aren’t carrying their membership cards with them. Neither are the majority of fans happy with the moves he made over the past two years and many who believe in him do say they feel there is still just not enough time to judge him – though they admit to having their doubts are now saying they will give him only one more year before they too join the bandwagon

Of all the other points and accusations you’ve again made, you are still the Lone Ranger.

Byrdack gets injured and Hairston’s 20 HR’s made absolutely no difference this year.

I also find it funny how you reference Andrew Friedman a baseball outsider who is one of the biggest sabemetric advocates in baseball. Friedman’s backround was in the investment banking industry, he met oe of the owners of the Rays through a friend. 3 years later he was the GM. The only baseball backround he had was playing college ball just like what’s his name? Oh yeah Sandy Alderson. 2nd baseman in college.

Stats are an absolute must for teams to make player evaluations. No team makes player evaluations without checking the players stats. Ryan Thompson had a great mechanical swing. Guess what? He sucked. Indians Scouts said Jeff Kent will never be anything special with his swing mechanics, guess what? They traded him and he’s a borderline hall of famer. Just because you don’t understand what the stats mean and can’t decipher them doesn’t mean they’re useless.

And you must’ve missed when Leiter was talking about Myers HR’s, slug% and strikeout rate. They were also talking about Shields and Davis. Ralph Kiner talks about stats all the time. he mentions the importance of OB% just about every telecast he does. HR% and slug %, so does David Cone, Eric Byrnes and quite a few other ex players that are in the broadcast booth.

the bullpen + sporatic SP

what did the mets do to address those weaknesses?

trade beltran for wheeler…and k-rod for nothing…

You referring to me, Just, Joe D. or all the others that have been making up the same stories -that are boring the crap out of you?

The Lone Ranger rides again.

If Texas, Washington and LA had our personnel they wouldn’t have been dumb enough to think they were in a playoff hunt with that team. Well maybe Ned Colletti would, he’s one of the worst GM’s in the sport but most smart baseball people can recognize the good from the bad and the good from the mediocre. No other team ever had to worry about an option like that for a closer because it was the highest option ever for a closer. And the dumbest.

K-Rod wanted to renegotiate a new deal instead of that option. The Mets wanted no part of him. Neither did any other team since he wound up settling for arbitration to be a setup man. Boy you sure do love mediocrity.

You really need new material to post about. between thousands of repetitive posts and made up stories you continue to bore the crap out of everybody.

In recent years one still has not heard discussions with Ralph Kiner, Tom Seaver, Ron Darling, Al Leiter, Mitch Williams, Larry Bowa and other professionals who played the game speak in terms of stats. Instead, we have those like Sandy Alderson thinking they know the game as well as anybody due to their ability to analyze advanced statistical graphs and charts. What has this created? A Met team that is floundering. An organization that follows a hitting approach based on PPPA which not only is messing up Met hitters like Ike Davis by not concentrating on the individual mechanics of each player – but also telegraphs a message to opposing pitchers that in May Bobby Ojeda warned was going to catch up on us.

Brian Kenny’s analysis sounds fine until he begins discussing it with those who played the game. Either they bring out the amateur understanding of the game he has or show that what Kenny professes was understood a long time before people had personal computes.

And thanks so much Maniac, for coming to my aid – I do very much appreciate it. However, I don’t think Extreme did anything to help sell his position or his posture. Certainly, what he said was more a reflection of himself than me.

We now know of two teams which dealt highly regarded prospects due to their strengths – the pitching rich Giants with Wheeler and the hitting rich Royals with Meyers. The Royals, like the Mets, are a below .500 and counting on a youth movement.. Meyers is ranked number 28 by baseball America and Wheeler not behind at 35. With that in mind

1) If Meyers was not an untouchable with KC, why is Wheeler one with New York?

2) With Sandy already aware of the minor league talent the Mets had – and keeping in mind his intention was to trade both Beltran and Pagan – when shopping around Beltran shouldn’t his focus been more on the outfield problems one could see happening down the road? With young pitching talent like Niese and Pelfrey (who was coming off a good 2010) along with prospects like Gee, Harvey, Familia, Mejia, Fulmer and Mazzoni, why decide on Wheeler and not concentrate on hitting instead? While Duda might have been one component we were counting on, there were doubts about Kirk, Baxter, Puello and others.

With the strengths and weaknesses of our minor league system at the time and Sandy determined not retain the stars that we had, would we not have been better off trying to obtain a Meyer-type rather than a Wheeler-type? Or rather than making headlines by obtaining one of the country’s top ranked minor league pitchers, how about two less highly ranked but still highly regarded ones instead?

Considering our situation as it was understood then and is still perceived now, was Zack Wheeler, though perhaps the best talented of the lot, really the best offer to take? Unlike Hairston, we knew Sandy had the upper hand in this one.

Any thoughts?

So take your high horse off your soapbox, get off of him and stop acting like your smarter and better than everyone who doesn’t think like you do. And definitely don’t bother responding to this. I said what I had to. You’re reply is of no consequence.