Something struck me as odd earlier this spring as I watched SNY’s first broadcast of the season from Tradition Field. Our splendid announcers were interviewing Collin Cowgill and at one point I believe it was Ron Darling asked whether Collin was getting a lot of ribbing about something or other in his background (I think it was about an underperforming college team he was affiliated with – I can’t remember exactly). The thing I found [...]

We wont win this season. We wont compete this season. We wont be any good this season. Okay, now that that’s settled, lets go ‘Play Ball’ this season and see what happens. Opening Day is a little over one month away and when that first pitch is thrown, the Mets technically have just as good a chance as anyone to win. We Mets fans are an interesting bunch Always have been. In 1962 that other [...]

Sadly, Carlos Beltran’s Mets legacy will forever be defined by what he didn’t do: take the bat off his shoulder against Adam Wainwright during Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS. However, Beltran meant so much to the Mets organization over the past seven years for his work on and off the field. He was honored at MLB’s annual B.A.T. dinner as the recipient of the Bart Giamatti Award for outstanding community service. Beltran’s organization, the [...]

I’m sure regular readers here are familiar with the debate between XtreemIcon and me regarding the relevance of On-Base Percentage (OBP) and Slugging Percentage (SLG) compared to Runs Batted In (RBI) as it correlates to Runs Scored (RS). Now that the season is done I thought it was worth looking at the actual data to see what really correlates better to scoring runs: OBP, SLG, OPS(OBP+SLG) or RBI. 2011 (Click to enlarge) The above chart shows the average [...]

This contribution was borne out of several discussion this offseason in our MMO chat room in which many have heaped praise on Paul DePodesta and J.P. Ricciardi for their player evaluation skills and success in the draft, while knocking the Mets farm system and the player evaluation skills of Omar Minaya. I wanted to compare the three as fairly as I possibly could, and I thought the best way to do that would be to [...]

I was ready to accept the fact that Omar Minaya made a really horrible decision when he re-signed Oliver Perez last year to a 3-year deal worth $36 million.  I was a Perez fan back in the 2006 playoffs, especially when he did a commendable job starting Game 7 of the NLCS.  Of course, since then Ollie has battled injuries and inconsistency, mostly the latter.  And he was really pretty bad last season, ultimately finishing [...]

    This is it guys. The final report card. And today, we’re gonna grade the Coaching Staff and the Management. It’s been a fun ride; these past two weeks have been a blast. Thank you Met fans for believeing and hearing what we have to say. We truly appreciate it. Coaching Staff & Management(Willie Randolph, Omar Minaya, Howard Johnson, Rick Peterson, Rickey Henderson, Sandy Alomar Sr.,  various others) Ryan P. – This season was [...]