Actually there was a point I overlooked with Trout – he hit just .220 with his 40 game stint with the Angels in 2011 so it is possible there as no indication at that time that their top prospect was was going to handle major league pitching in any manner approaching the four seasons of tremendous minor league stats (did he play in Nevada?) So in the Angels’ defense, it might not had appeared vital to have him break training camp and head west with the team – though I do not know how he appeared during spring training.

It’s probably more Puljos’ lethargic performance early in the season – batting just .224 with 4 ribbys in those first 19 games alone – that was the cause of that miserable start more than the missing bat of Trout. The thought about Trout only comes through hindsight but does serve as a lesson for the future. If a kid seems ready – have him stay on the 25 man roster if the team feels it is headed somewhere.

LOL…..Step back from that ledge, John. Isn’t it common knowledge that ST stats don’t count?

http://www.newyorkmetsreport.com/

“The Mets also let Pedro Martinez march to his own tune with mixed results for several years. Is Pedro pitching today? What’s going on with Pedro? It was like that every spring.

The Mets did everything they could, including alienating a future Hall of Famer, Tom Glavine, to placate Martinez and his whims.”

Ummm…exactly how did the Mets alienate Tom Glavine???

another curious head scratcher….

a 31 year old? or a 32 Year old?

And delaying by a year what you pay in FA costs you after some other guy like Carl Crawford gets a stupid deal for stupid money and driving up the price you have to pay…

How much would Reyes have cost us if we had NOT had that extra year of control on him, Signed him before Crawford signed instead of waiting till Crawfrod got what he got and Reyes won a batting championship because he was ALREADY in his prime and could?

The only way to SAVE money in the MLB is to sign the contract BEFORE they have the chance to do More than they normally do and before someone else signs for stupid amounts for doing the same thing your guy just did.

The issue isn’t what you guys SAY is Hudgens approach it’s how you describe it (and maybe how HE describes it)
The words of the lesson should be clearer that the “YOUR PITCH” and “PATIENCE” are…

pretty much Hudgens approach in a nutshell.

It goes up every year based on Salaries and therefore Year 1 in 2013 is cheaper than a Year one in 2014…

SO whatever you thought you were saving on Year four was lost to paying more in years 1-3.

Better way to save money is to buy out the Arb Years entirely! And the YOUNGER you get a player going the less AGE and PRIME are factors….

He’s 24 by the time he is in that 4th year how old will he be? Do you want to give a long term FA contract to a guy who is in his late 20′s early 30′s?

Delaying the clock is fine if your still in the middle of rebuilding a team that won’t be finished for a few years….

But most people think Wheeler and d’Arnaud ARE the finishing touches with maybe one power hitter like Stanton left to get…..

If thats the case the money doesn’t make waiting worth it, lets FINISH the team this year let them work thier way through the MLB competition so they can hit the MLB production ground running in 2014 when this team is supposedly ready to start competing….

That few millions saved is not really worth it when you consider that all you did was increase the freight your paying in the first three years due to salary inflation of the rest of the league.

but yeah, if they were breaking camp with 1 gaping hole at C, and otherwise a serious PS contender, and had lots of money to burn, then I might take the risk.

as always, there is a general “rule of thumb” and case by case exceptions. And certainly for the mets, D’arno right now is not one of them!

by avoiding super 2 you are effectively replacing the most expensive (4th year) of arb with another pre-arb minimum (mlb) wage year. Someone on another site recently did a study, and for higher echelon players, that averaged out to about $12,000,000 a player. A serious amount of coin to a team.

and that includes guys that have arb + FA bought out early (like Neise). With only 3 arb years, the cost to lock them up is lower.

on a team with a moderate budget, that is like getting a “Free” FA along the lines of a Bourn for every D’arno/wheeler that doesn’t make it into the super 2 class.

The only way to ACTUALLY save money by delaying his start for a year is to not resign him when he becomes a free agent!
Cause then you never pay him that BIG buck contract at all….

But Arbitration numbers go up based on what everyone else at the position gets paid and even if you save a few mil by not having to go through ARB a year earlier you only wind up paying most of it the year he DOES hit Arb…

So your no really saving anything just delaying payments with interest added.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-3974752.html

But while Red Sox manager Terry Francona says James is an integral part of the Red Sox, you can’t always play strictly by the numbers. “This game’s played by people. And, you know, I mean, certainly knowing the numbers, and I care about ‘em, and it’s important. But people play the game, and I never try to lose sight of that,” Francona says.

“Of course in any given day any professional baseball player can defy all the numbers in his record,” Safer remarks.

“Yep,” Francona agrees. “And the only reason they’re ever gonna be any good is if they believe in that. I would never wanna say, ‘Hey, you’re 0-for-20 against this guy. You can’t play.’ We don’t share that with the players a lot. We want ‘em to feel indestructible.”

“He’s made some what sound like pretty dogmatic statements like, ‘There’s no such thing as a clutch hitter,’” Safer points out.

“I’ve heard him say that. But then I would want him to be introduced to David Ortiz…You get my point? We feel pretty good when David Ortiz is hittin’ in the clutch,” Francona says.

And this is the one from LaRussa:

http://www.baseballnation.com/2011/10/27/2519273/2011-world-series-tony-la-russa-offended-by-moneyball

“On-base percentage is one of the most dangerous concepts of the last seven, eight years,’’ he said, “because it forces some executives and coaches and players to think that it’s all about getting on base by drawing walks. And the fact is that the guys that have the best on-base percentage are really dangerous hitters whenever they get a pitch in the strike zone.

“So if the pitcher knows that and the catcher knows that, they work the edges, and pretty soon it’s 2-and-1, 2-and-1 rather than 0-and-1 all the time.

“You watch your productive hitters in the big leagues, and they get a chance to drive in a run, they look for the first good strike, and the better the pitching, especially this time of the year, you get that first strike, that may be the last one that you get to see. So you’d better be ready to swing early. It’s not sitting up there and taking strike one, strike two so that you can work the count.’’

Metro, also notice in that 60 minutes interview how analysis is credited of disproving the myth that Fenway park is favorable to right handed hitters?

“Example: Fenway Park and its infamous left field wall, the “Green Monster.” Fenway was legendary as a right-handed hitters’ park. But analysis showed it actually favored left-handed hitters, and the Sox line-up has been lefty-heavy ever since.”

As a kid in the sixties I knew that and so unless I was so ahead of the times in my perception of the game , I think those who played the game knew much better than what I had understood about the Green Monster. Yes, the wall produces more hits on balls that outfielders could run down under normal dimensions, however, that Green Monster also works against the right handed hitter as well.

- How many hits were lost because of the short distance? Left fielders do not play the normal depth because balls hit over their head are going to hit the wall anyway so they position themselves much further into the diamond and able to catch up with both Texas leaguers that would otherwise fall in or the sinking line drive that would otherwise fall in front of them. This robs more right handed hitters of hits than the Green Monster gives them if a pitcher happens to be on his game.

- How many home runs did the Green Monster stop from going over the fence like in other parks, with home runs then becoming singles if hit more like a line drive or a double if hit more off the wall? This, of course, was more prevalient with right handed hitters than those swinging lefty. How many Bucky Dent home runs are created as opposed to those that are taken away?

- By playing closer to the plate, how many runners on second have to be held at third because of the short distance the outfielder has to throw? How often did guys hold up going from first to third stay at second for the same reason? This is a disadvantage as far as producing runs hits to left by a right handed hitter, or actually anyone hitting to the left side.

- How often have we seen right handed batters screw up trying to take advantage of the wall?

- And, most important, how vast is the space in center and right field which creates more room to cover against left-handed hitters and thus more opportunities for balls to fall in?

That’s an example of why I profess that statistics often prove to the fan what the players already knew beforehand.