SB Nation User Blog: future

Advice on procuring Mets Opening Day tickets?

future — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 19:58:44 -0000

I'm just trying to avoid a scam herA

All the prices are inflated, but that I understand. But what I don't understand is these insane service charges and it's hard to find someone you trust.

I am trying to avoid buying tickets on stubhub, but that is where I might have to turn to.

Any advice?

Vivid Tickets has very steep service fees, at least 50 dollars per ticket. Very steep. So I am holding off on them so far.

Amazin' Avenue Mailbag

future — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 21:39:24 -0000

Amazin' Avenue's cadre of writers will be taking your questions on the state of the Mets, baseball in general, popular culture and even some Mets lore of yore.

Please email amazinavenue@gmail.com with your questions: we'll try to answer as many as we can.

How about we make this a week thing. As many questions between now and next Friday at 5:00 pm. We'll try to answer as many as possible.

Sound good?

The Rule 5 Draft

future — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 17:39:33 -0000

Today is the Rule 5 draft. The Mets have selected two players.

The two players selected thus far are Darren O'Day, a reliever from the Angels, and Rocky Cherry, a reliever from the Orioles.

Both have solid minor league numbers though Cherry's major league numbers are awful. Both have solid splits against both sides of the plate, which is important because we need to avoid specialists in the bullpen.*

*Show can specialize in not getting batters out in blowout games*

Fernando Tatis Re-signed

future — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 04:14:13 -0000

Tatis has been re-signed.

Tatis signed a 1 year, 1.17 million dollar deal to play for the Mets in 2009.

How do you feel about the move? It seems like a good chunk of change from last year, but maybe Omar realized it's chump change for a team with our resources. I'm worried that Omar will be looking at Tatis to actually start instead of being a righty bat off the bench and spot-starter.

Maybe he'll even let Tatis start at third or gasp second, and see how well he can do as the consumate utility man.

Yay or Nay, fans?

The fatal flaws with Omar Minaya's team building philosophy Part 1: LF

future — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 04:14:34 -0000

Omar Minaya is one of the better General Manager's in baseball, but he ignored some key issues for team building.

Rule 1: Everything bad that can happen will happen: have a contingency plan.

Before this season began we had several positions where the odds of getting a full season's worth of production were negligible at best.

In Left Field, we had Moises Alou. Even before the season, I pegged him at 100 games tops. Of course it turns out that even 20 games was an over-estimate. The always fragile Alou made it into a whopping 15 games and headed to the plate 54 times. Even in my worst nightmare, I thought Alou would make it through more of the season than that, even when you threw in his hernia operation. (Really Moises? A Hernia? What were you doing picking up a couch this close to the season?)

Omar failed miserably to have anyone to back him up: before the season he procured the services of Angel Pagan. Pagan's performance wasn't bad before he hurt himself on a remarkable defensive play and was lost for the season. Pause for the irony in that situation.

Wait a few more seconds.

Alright, back to Pagan's performance. While Pagan didn't hit poorly, he fielded like...a man whose poor fielding would make his last name into an adjective for poor fielding. He almost put up a league average OPS, but his fielding was atrocious, and he only lasted 31 games.

Endy Chavez could never have been expected to put up any sort of offensive value in LF and he didn't disappoint, failing to put to up any sort of offensive value. His defense was stellar, but with Alou there was NO backup plan. When you sign a 41 year old to play the field for you, you have to have a league average player ready to plug in, or have more depth in the minors, or be ready to make a trade.

Or suck it up and sign Barry Bonds.

Omar did nothing of these things. While he ignored the glaring problem in LF, that wasn't alone the reason for his failure to get the Mets back to the playoffs.

He also ignored two other field positions: 2B and RF.

He ignored the brutal truth that El Duque would never pitch again for the Mets and had no contingency plan for our starter injuries: Claudio Vargas and Tony Armas, Jr were not the answers either.

The man does not believe in backup plans.Before the season, Ibanez might have been had for a reasonable price before he solidified himself as a Type A FA. Traded for Xavier Nady or even Eric Hinske or Ken Griffey Jr. But Omar refused to make any moves, even after Pagan got injured. In all, the Mets had 12 different players make an appearance in left field. TWELVE.

Next time: a look at 2B and RF.

Mets coaching staff almost finalized

future — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 20:15:55 -0000

Today the Mets announced Razor Shines would be replacing Luis Aguayo as third base coach and Randy Niemann would be replacing Guy Conti as bullpen coach.

They also announced HoJo, Warthen, and Sandy "I sleep with my eyes open" Alomar would also be back. Now the one position left to be filled on the roster is first base coach, unless Sandy will be out there.

Ken Oberkfell, loved by the stats-minded fans will be reassigned, most likely as the manager of the Buffalo AAA team.

Luis Aguayo is being reassigned as well, and hopefully this means he will be reassigned somewhere far far away from Endy Chavez.

With the loss of Conti, some surmise this is the end of the road for Pedro in a Mets uniform, but don't be surprised if he didn't re-sign with the Mets if offered a contract.

The question is whether he would get offered a contract by the Mets at all.

How the numbers back up the belief that the Mets bats really have been terrible in the clutch.

future — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 01:30:43 -0000

I know that many statheads here and on Metsgeek understand that clutch hitting is not a repeatable skill. But the Mets this season have really made me wonder if that was true, as they have repeatedly looked terrible this season with RISP and even more so with RISP and two outs.

Are the Mets chokers? Whose fault is it? HoJo's? No one's? Lady luck screwing us? I can't say for certain. But the difference between the Mets and the Phillies is baffling in these batting situations, and goes to show that if the Mets were even league average with RISP they would most likely have a lead over the Phillies of several games in the standings.

I'd like the split data for July if possible, I know b-r has the full season splits, but I would like to see the stats for July by itself, as it is considered the month that saved HoJo's job. Maybe it's just my impression from watching the games, or the affect studying for the CA Bar Exam had on me, but I felt that even though the Mets had an offensive explosion from Carlos Delgado and others, the team on a whole STILL hit very poorly with RISP and RISP with two outs. If anyone can get me that data, I would appreciate it greatly.

On to the meat of the statistical analysis.

These numbers were IMed to Jessica Bader a frequent contributor for the Mets on MVN, because I was looking at the Mets splits versus the Phillies splits for this season.

With RISP the Mets are hitting .253/.346/.379 for an OPS of .725. Our split OPS+, sOPS+ is 90. Well below average. 10% worse than the league average to be exact. When you have 5 above average bats in the lineup with Reyes, Beltran, Delgado, Wright, Tatis/Church, it’s baffling to be that bad.

In the 1284 PAs with RISP the Mets have 386 RBIs. In the 1132(152 less) PAs with RISP the Phillies have 358 RBIs.

With RISP the Phillies are hitting .270/.376/.462 for an OPS of .838. A sOPS+ of 119. Almost 20% higher than league average.

With 2 outs and a RISP, the Mets have a line of .230/.360/.356 for an OPS of .717. An sOPS+ of 97 which is close to the league average.

With 2 outs and a RISP, the Phillies have a line of .235/.370/.383 for an OPS of .753. An sOPS+ of 107. Again, above average by 7 percent.

But there are a few more pieces of evidence that we can look at, most notably BABIP.

With RISP, the Mets have a BABIP of .272. With RISP, the Phillies have a BABIP of .302.

With RISP, and 2 outs, the Mets have a BABIP of .256. With RISP, and two outs the Phillies have a BABIP of .280.

.300 is around the normal average for BABIP.

Based on sOPS+ the Phillies are OPSing almost THIRTY(29) percent higher with RISP.

Based on sOPS+ the Phillies are OPSing TEN percent higher with RISP, 2 outs.

Even though the Mets are getting on base overall 8 percent more often the Phillies are unsurprisingly slugging 33 points higher than the Mets in their bandbox.

While we’ve been unlucky in the high leverage situations according to the BABIP…the Phillies are OPSing thirty percent more than the Mets with RISP. That’s just flat out ####ing baffling. And that’s with the Phillies hitting under what would be expected with a BABIP with RISP and 2 outs.

Let me know what you guys think.

Joe Blanton traded to the Phillies

future — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 23:07:22 -0000

Report is that Joe Blanton has been traded by the As to the Phillies in exchange for three prospects, Cardenas, Outman and Spencer.

Surprising to see a move this soon, but Beane was flat out ready to rid of Blanton as quickly as possible.

I was hoping the Phillies would have had to part with Carrasco but doesn't seem like it.

Will keep you guys updated.

It's official, Cardenas Outman and Spencer for Blanton. Beerleaguers do not seem happy.

Register waived....in favor of keeping Stokes

future — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 03:38:23 -0000

Yes you read that right...what the hell?

Does that make any sense? Stokes has looked terrible all ST. Does someone have to tell Omar we don't need another Mota, it's not in the rulebook that requires us to have someone that sucks to the level of Stokes.

What do you guys think the purpose of making this move was considering Register is a Rule V pick and the odds of someone else being stupid enough to claim Stokes is slim to none.

Willie Randolph to the Yankees? A blessing in disguise?

future — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 22:44:26 -0000

With Torre finally having enough of the politics from the Tampa Group that controls the Yankees and signs guys like Carl Pavano...could the Yankees turn to Willie Randolph?

If so, wouldn't that be great for the Mets? We could get rid of Willie Randolph, let the Yankees deal with his ineptness with the bullpen AND possibly get something out of it from the Yankees. This is as win-win as it gets.

To be honest, if we got rid of Randolph we would have addition by subtraction! Maybe Omar held onto Willie gambling the Yankees would want his services.