There’s been a lot of debate over MLB’s new Collective Bargaining Agreement involving whether or not it is more beneficial to small markets or bigger markets. One of the focal points of this debate has centered on the amateur draft and the fact that set limits have been imposed on organizations who were willing to go “over slot” and pay above what a particular draft slot’s inherent value might be, but the changes to the [...]

“Valdespin knew that was coming. I don’t think it’s fair to say that since we didn’t hit one of the Pittsburgh hitters that he doesn’t have a friend. The notion that he was hung out to dry I think is a mistake. I’m not telling you he’s the most popular guy in the clubhouse, but I don’t think he was hung out to dry.” * * * * * * * * * * * There is a problem with the current Mets. [...]

Jordany Valdespin has his flaws and it has nothing to do with his race. He could be Caucasian, African American, Pacific Islander, doesn’t matter … he’s had trouble with insubordination in virtually every stop on his way to the majors. He picked a fight with Ike Davis and Justin Turner for a prank they had absolutely nothing to do with, he took a silly picture wearing a Marlins cap and put it up on twitter, [...]

Susan Slusser of the SF Gate reported this morning on a botched call that resulted in Bob Melvin of the Oakland A’s being tossed kicking and screaming from a game against Cleveland last night for arguing after a home run review didn’t go his way. With two outs in the ninth, Adam Rosales hit a drive to left field that seemed to clearly hit a railing above the edge of the wall tying the game, [...]

Beginning In 1985, as owner of the Milwaukee Brewers, Bud Selig and numerous other owners colluded to undermine free agency by agreeing not to sign other teams’ free agents. The owners were taken to court and eventually ended up paying 280 million in damages to the players. It was with this failed attempt at collusion that the seeds of the 1994 work stoppage were sewn. In 1992, Fay Vincent, then Commissioner of Baseball, openly criticized [...]

It had been a sweltering hot summer in NY, so hot that my dad and I had taken to sitting out in the backyard to listen to the games.  It was July 13, 1977, and the Mets were playing the Cubs. They were losing 2-1 in the bottom of the sixth in spite of  an 11-strikeout effort by Jerry Koosman. We were eating watermelon and cheese. I remember spitting watermelon seeds out towards the tomato plants occasionally bouncing a [...]

John Charles Bradbury, an Economics Professor at Kennesaw State University, did a fascinating study a few years back on whether changing managers really has an effect on turning a team around. What he found was that ultimately managers had little to no effect on performance output given the same personnel. In a nutshell, good players make good managers. The only real difference was one of perception, from about 2000 on, there was a slight increase [...]

You know I bet you could build a supercomputer that would be able to manage the NY Mets. Maybe something like the robot from Lost in Space. A robot would probably have put in Juan Lagares instead of Collin Cowgill in the late innings last night … That’s because robots are nothing if not logical. Robots don’t go on intuition or hunches, they don’t make bullpen decisions based on their gut … Their guts are wires and blinking lights [...]

Baseball is a game of adjustments. The Mets under Dave Hudgens’ tutelage have adopted a doctrine of selectivity that emphasizes seeing lots of pitches, running up pitch-counts, zoning in on your pitch, and ultimately getting on base one way or another. There has been a lot of discussion on MMO about whether this approach is effective. The consensus, bolstered by a pile of data, seems to be that it is. Teams that take lots of [...]