Back in 2004, the New York Mets hired their first full-time statistical analyst after the release of the New York Times bestselling book, Moneyball. The Mets were looking to invest in someone who could break down the numbers, analyze data for potential free agent signings and trades and offer evaluations on minor league players. What the club received from Dr. Ben Baumer was even more than they...
Good morning Mets fans! It should come as no surprise to know that the Mets want to upgrade their catcher’s position this offseason. What may come as a surprise however, is the idea that free agent Martin Maldonado may already be the frontrunner to fill the position according to Mike Puma of the New York Post. Latest Mets News Brodie Van Wagenen continues to put just about every...
Pythagorean Win Percentage is an interesting formula. It’s transparent and supremely logical as metrics go. A close cousin to the Pythagorean Theorem, it is essentially a means to predict how many wins a team should accumulate by calculating runs scored squared over runs scored squared plus runs allowed squared. In 2014 the Mets’ Pythagorean Win% was .5088. When multiplied by 162 you get...
An MMO Fan Shot by Josh Eichenbaum The New York Mets enter this year’s All-Star Break with a 45-50 record, which, at first glance is not terribly impressive. A deeper look, however, reveals a Mets team that has suffered a good deal of bad luck and may be primed for a post-break run. Pythagorean Record A team’s Pythagorean Record is often more indicative of a team’s performance than its actual...
Our age is retrospective. It builds the sepulchres of the fathers. It writes biographies, histories, and criticism. The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe? Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the...
The Mets posted a short video of Eric Young, Jr today who said that his favorite position to play is leadoff. While not exactly a position, his point was that he’ll play wherever the Mets ask him to as long as it’s everyday and he’s batting first in the batting order. Terry Collins said Monday that if Young shows in camp that he get on base more frequently, the team will have...
Baseball has always been pioneered by forward-thinkers. These visionary minds have paired their knowledge of the game with foresight to developed ways of staying one step ahead of their competition. However, now with every aspect of the game dissected by experts, media and fans it has become harder to be original. In 1919 Branch Rickey took the reins in St. Louis and began transforming the...
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...
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...
Somewhere along the line baseball became more than just a game. Once upon a time, baseball was a simple game. The goal is to score more runs than your opponent. Each team is given 27 outs to score as many runs as they can. In order to score runs, a team’s players have to get on base. Once a player gets on base it was the other players’ jobs to drive them home to score runs. On the other...
I picked this up on ESPN New York this morning. By one measure, baseball statistician Bill James has determined the Mets had the worst middle-infield combination in baseball last season, at least when Jose Reyes was paired with Justin Turner. Here’s what James and colleagues wrote … In The Bill James Handbook 2012, Bill James and Baseball Info Solutions track Defensive Runs Saved to...
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...
