By the end of last season, I was pretty excited about Ike Davis. He got off to a horrible start in 2012, but seemed to finish strong with 32 dingers. His average still sucked, but it seemed like things were finally starting to click for him. Now it’s a month into the season and he can’t get above the Mendoza line. Over in left field, Lucas Duda is getting on base and hitting with some [...]

The street I live on is a fairly quiet residential one lane road. Three miles to the south it meanders up into the foothills that look down on the valley. It gives way to an expansive residence, the proverbial mansion on the hill. At night, the home is illuminated in a sea of blackness. There’s nothing close by and the property seems big enough to warrant its own zip code. On many Saturday nights, I [...]

Conor Glassey of Baseball America did a very interesting Q&A session with Mets Scouting Director Tommy Tanous. Tanous had some cool insights into the world of scouting, touching on how technology, statistics, amateur showcases, and more have changed the world of scouting. Here is just a little bit of what he said: Scouting is based on opinions, and it’s always said that you can’t properly evaluate the success of a draft until about five years down [...]

There has long been a debate over the value of On-Base Percentage in baseball. The traditionalists say that On-Base Percentage has its place, but is not one of the main statistics front offices should be using when evaluating players. The fans that embrace advanced stats, however, argue that it is a very effective way of determining how well an offense performs. The popularity of the statistic among fans soared after Bill James and numerous others [...]

Welcome to the first installment of a yet to be determined number of installments Satish and I will be putting together on fantasy rankings for the upcoming season. This piece, about the top ten third basemen, will be followed by Satish’s rankings of outfielders and starting pitching, while I will subsequently add relief pitchers, as well. Since most fantasy leagues use the standard fantasy categories of runs scored, home runs, RBI, stolen bases and batting [...]

Opportunity could be knocking for Matt den Dekker if Kirk Nieuwenhuis’ knee injury turns out to be more serious than just a bruise. We’ll know more on that later today. The Mets will consider all their options if Nieuwenhuis were to miss any significant time, but one could make a strong argument that den Dekker could have a leg up on his competition because of his stellar defense which can impact a game as much as a [...]

In 2003, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, a book written by Michael Lewis, sparked the interest of not only baseball fans, but also management and statistical scholars across the country. [1] Recently in 2011, this book was introduced as a sports drama movie starring Brad Pitt. Basically the storyline of the book encompasses how the main character Billy Beane, General Manager of the Oakland Athletics, implemented a measurement and feedback system based [...]

I think it is time to talk about what Moneyball ACTUALLY means and to show some of those who claim to have read the book what the book is all about. Apparently, reading doesn’t always lead to UNDERSTANDING. I have read the book, it was interesting to learn about the little known “behind the scenes” process of team building and how a front office operates. It is for THAT reason the book sold so well not because [...]

Moneyball tells the fascinating tale of Billy Beane’s ingenious use of statistical analysis in order to assemble a winning ballclub without the luxury of a large payroll. Through statistics such as OBP, SLG, and a slew of other stats, Beane was able to snatch ballplayers with “hidden virtues” up for a song, creating a team on a $35 million budget just as successful, if not better than the richest teams in the game. Beane’s A’s had become the very [...]

As we approach the 2011 season, it seems as though several teams in the NL East have significantly improved this offseason. The Phillies brought back Cliff Lee to set up one of the best pitching staffs, at least on paper, in recent history. The Braves added Dan Uggla to solidify the middle of their order. The Nationals signed Jayson Werth, Adam LaRoche and Rick Ankiel in an attempt to improve their offense. Even the Marlins [...]