Wednesday Applesauce

by Eric Simon on Aug 13, 2008 10:00 AM EDT in Applesauce

Jerry Manuel is still considering using one of his starters -- likely John Maine, Oliver Perez or Mike Pelfrey -- as a reliever if his bullpen continues to shoot blanks. Seems a lot like robbing Tango to pay Cash, unless he really thinks Brian Stokes can be a rotation stalwart.

The Associated Press (courtesy of ESPN.com) lays out the gory details of ticket pricing at Citi Field and Yankee Stadium III.

Mets win, Phillies lose, Mets just a game out.

Val Pascucci pitched two-thirds of an inning of mop-up relief for Triple-A New Orleans yesterday. Could he be the answer to the Mets' impotent bench AND their bullpen woes? Hrmmmmm.

Last week when Adam Dunn was traded to the Diamondbacks it was reportedly for minor league pitcher Dallas Buck and two PTBNLs. Apparently, one of those PTBNLs might be Micah Owings.

At MetsGeek, Pat Andriola thinks the Mets should lean more heavily on Eddie Kunz.

Daily Onion: Woot! Soundgarden reunion!

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wow

If Micah Owings is in that deal, that really changes things.

We've got ourselves a ball club, the Mets of New York town!

by kingcritical on Aug 13, 2008 10:03 AM EDT reply actions

Yeah

That would be an interesting pick-up for the Reds and make this deal make a whole lot more sense on their end.

'Catsmeat!' he cried. 'I see it all. It was that chump, Catsmeat.'

by Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright on Aug 13, 2008 10:12 AM EDT up reply actions

not a bad addition to a young rotation, if so

plus by getting rid of Dunn and (previously) Griffey, they can play Dusty’s preferred style of bunting, runner-advancing, productive-out-making, not-many-run-scoring baseball

by JoshNY on Aug 13, 2008 12:17 PM EDT up reply actions

Also

They can continue to play Dusty’s preferred style of wearing-out-young-pitchers-by-having-them-throw-waaaaay-too-many-pitches

'Catsmeat!' he cried. 'I see it all. It was that chump, Catsmeat.'

by Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright on Aug 13, 2008 1:23 PM EDT up reply actions

good point

acquiring Owings makes sense for them, then, because if you’re going to play that style then it’s important to have a LOT of young pitchers.

you know, we hear a lot of interviews with old school pitchers (Seaver, say) who like to say “in my day, pitchers were tough and went 8 or 9 innings every time and our arms were fine.” maybe the reason everyone’s arms were fine is because they only interview the guys who were awesome pitchers with freak-of-nature arms. I’ve never heard an interview with a guy who was a really hot prospect and blew his arm out from throwing too many pitches and could never pitch again, or a guy who could throw six really good innings but never got a shot because the mentality in that era was that you had to be able to go eight or nine. why don’t they interview those guys?

sorry. end rant.

by JoshNY on Aug 13, 2008 1:56 PM EDT up reply actions

rant seconded

The reason the most successful pitchers of older generations went longer is simply that they are a biased sample. It’s exactly the same problem as the hackneyed textbook example from statistics 101 (you put the extra armor where there are no bullet holes on the planes that returned, since that’s where the planes that didn’t make it back got shot). Shame that so few sports “journalists” have taken that class.

by anonymous on Aug 13, 2008 3:00 PM EDT up reply actions

Spot on

Just a great point there, Josh. Survivorship bias is a huge problem in legitimate research, let alone this sort of unofficial anecdotal study.

by Eric Simon on Aug 13, 2008 3:50 PM EDT up reply actions

Ticket Pricing

You know, I’m willing to accept the reality that a new stadium means more expensive tickets. What actually offends me is calling the upper deck the “Promenade” as if that makes it fancy-schmancy. You don’t magically make the seats closer by not calling them the “upper deck” so how about we just call a spade a fucking spade.

by JoshNY on Aug 13, 2008 12:23 PM EDT reply actions