Self Destructing Applesauce
by Joe Budd on Jun 2, 2009 10:01 AM EDT
in Link Dump
58 comments
Not much commentary is necessary after last night. It was bad. But, the luxury of good pitching is that we have Santana to watch tonight.
Meet the Mets
More injury news, this time it's Gary Sheffield, who has knee pain. He will continue to play, however. Angel Pagan, however, is now on the DL.
Why do I feel like signing Ben Sheeets would be the second coming of Jeff D'Amico?
JJ Putz has got to start locating his fastball. Injuries could be causing the lack of velocity on his fastball.
Ted Berg, Met defender, comes to the rescue of much maligned David Wright.
As referenced by Sam, Matt Cerrone takes a look at potential starting pitchers who could join the Mets.
FanGraphs does an outstanding job of evaluating Carlos Beltran's defense so far in the new Citi Field.
I'm intrigued by this new short film, I'm Keith Hernandez, but haven't had a chance to watch it yet. Anyone seen it? Is it worth 20 minutes of my extremely valuable time? (Apparently it's NSFW)
Around the NL East
Florida and Philadelphia both won, with the Philly victory sending the Mets 1.5 games back in the division. Ryan Howard and Chase Utley went back to back. Howard was just named co-player of last week.
Jorge Julio made an appearance in last night's Marlins-Brewers game, and bit the Mets again, giving up the lead and the game to the Marlins.
Antonio Bastardo is facing Jake Peavy tonight. Bastardo may be trade bait for the Phillies to acquire Peavy. John Mayberry Jr. was sent down to triple-A to make room for Bastardo.
Peavy would be perfect for the Phillies. In other news, the sky is blue.
Rob Dibble uses "we" to describe the Nationals in his broadcasts, but, he is a rare dose of honesty in that booth.
What might have been.
Around MLB
Erik Bedard for Adam Jones hasn't worked out so well for the Mariners.
The promising start for the Royals has led to a tailspin.
Billy Buckner quieted the Dodger lineup for a 3-2 win.
The Yankees have been error free for 18 games. That's something.
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I'm Keith Hernandez
actually came out roughly three and half years ago. I saw it then and don’t remember being overly impressed. Personally, I don’t enjoy films/books/lectures that generalize the behavior of Men/Women/Races/Etcetera. However, the shirt the director sells on his website is the shit.
by Sokojoe on Jun 2, 2009 10:11 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
D Wright
Has allowed the corporate bloggers to get into his head. He is now so home run obsessed that he has forgotten about game situations and fundamental baseball.
The first step is to get bat on to ball.
by Outside Observer on Jun 2, 2009 10:19 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Source?
"He's definitely mixing it into his repertoire. That's French for 'repertoire' " - Keith Hernandez
by Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright on Jun 2, 2009 10:31 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
unfair
of course, because if his babip was at career norm he would be sitting something like .230/.330/.375. wait, I have to adjust for his flyball/homer peercentage being down, but part of that is probably citifield.
He is striking out a lot though, much higher than career average, no?
That doesn’t get to the corporate blogger homer obsessed part, but he certainly is striking out more. He looked particularly bad swinging out those Calero sliders out of the zone, but Kiki Ks a lot of guys.
by wobatus on Jun 2, 2009 10:42 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Of course he does
He has two Ks in his first name. Didn’t work so well for Koby though…
by deadspy3 on Jun 2, 2009 10:47 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
His K problems this year have been insane,
and those have been going on since game one. I don’t know if it’s mental, physical, technical or what, but it definitely ain’t been right.
"He's definitely mixing it into his repertoire. That's French for 'repertoire' " - Keith Hernandez
by Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright on Jun 2, 2009 10:49 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
.285/.392/.475
That would be his line if his babip was more in line with career norms, .355 (to make it work I made it .357), and his flyball to homer rate was more in line with his average, 14.7% (of course, that includes this year; last few years he was at 16%+).
So, suppose instead of his current line of 60/183 with 12 doubles, 3 triples and 3 homers, he was 52/183 with 10 doubles, 2 triples and 7 homers. That’s how i got to the .285/.392/.475. Just rough calcs.
Whatever, he is striking out a lot. Maybe he should have gone all Felix Millan style on Calero, choke up, cut the swing down to Santos-esque brevity. :)
by wobatus on Jun 2, 2009 11:17 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Overall stats vs trends
If you look at his season so far, my supposition doesn’t have enough merit to stand on its own. But thats the problem with trends. Its what I have noticed of Wright of late. I started to notice it in the last home stand.
DW seems to be pulling a lot. That was particularity noticeable in the last game. Its almost as if he sees the spin on the ball, decides to go for a very long languid swing and completely misses it. IMO the momentary pause is almost catastrophic in a swing.
Its almost as if he is not trying to make contact but hoping he will luck into the home-run ball. If you have the stats I would love to know many balls he is fouling off compared to previous seasons (especially straight foul backs). The greater number of foul balls suggest a minor problem of not centring the ball. Wright seems to be missing the ball altogether hence the greater number of strike-outs.
That why I suggested a mental problem rather than something mechanical. I think it became more apparent when he moved to number 3 (when Beltran started missing games). Almost when he was even more in the spotlight. It maybe nothing but its worth keeping an eye on when he next goes into bat. It could be a coincidence but his best performance came when the Mets weren’t expected to do well in the last road trip out west. It feeds into ‘Wright trying to hard to be a leader’ meme.
by Outside Observer on Jun 2, 2009 12:00 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
foul balls
not sure. But there was no way he could reach those calero sliders that ended up well off the plate. Now, what those sliders look like coming up to the plate, i have no idea. They certainly ended up far away to these eyes, and I didn’t check any source to see where they actually ended up, but no swing, languid or otherwise, can reach those without stepping across the plate i’d think.
Of course, Jeter wouldda seen they were balls or punched them to right with one hand for a ribbie. :)
I don’t know about his swing,but I do appreciate the fact you aren’t just going by the overall averages.
by wobatus on Jun 2, 2009 12:16 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
The pause before the swing
I wonder if there is a stat for pitches per bat?
I appreciate that there are balls that no one can get to. But Wright is missing on pitches middle of the plate!
Its worth looking at his swing in the next couple of series.
by Outside Observer on Jun 2, 2009 2:03 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
you wonder if there's a stat?
Have you really never seen anyone talk about pitches per plate appearance? Or am I misunderstanding something?
by anonymous on Jun 2, 2009 2:20 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Look at Dunn for eg.
He is a very patient hitter and takes a lot of pitches. Thats why Dunn has a lot of strike outs and walks.
But that doesn’t mean help to work out if the hitter is zoning on the pitch properly to assess if there is anything wrong with the swing.
I was trying to work out if Wright is essentially swinging too much because of trying to get his home runs up or if there is something wrong physically in recognising pitches or mechanical issues with the swing.
I just don’t think the lack of power is only down the Citi.
by Outside Observer on Jun 2, 2009 3:29 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Wright's swinging at less pitches this season
42% compared to 45.2% and 44.1% for his career. Although that’s kinda skewed because he swung 49.1% of the time his rookie season.
His contact % is what’s problematic – it’s 80.4% which is significantly lower than his career mark and any other individual season. I don’t have the knowledge to assess the mechanics of his swing, but something is amiss.
by James Kannengieser on Jun 2, 2009 3:38 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Is he missing or not swinging?
Also I know they exist but does anyone know where you can find zone charts for hitters? Like what their batting average is on pitches in certain parts of the zone?
by Gina on Jun 2, 2009 2:23 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
I wonder if this is accurate
If it is, this is awesome, but I don’t see any reference to pitch f/x or the like.
by Sokojoe on Jun 2, 2009 2:35 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Yeah
Don’t know the answer to it. It was the first thing that I found on a google search. It can’t be that great, because if you click on the hit chart, they still don’t have Citi Field in their list.
by Joe Budd on Jun 2, 2009 2:38 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Yeah, I noticed that
unfortunate, because besides Gameday’s premium pass thing, I haven’t found a reliable hot zone type thing.
by Sokojoe on Jun 2, 2009 4:18 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
As far as the slugging
And I think citifield has something to do with that. Some of the balls that would leave other parks as homers are turning into triples/doubles for him in citi, which lowers his slugging, and I could be wrong cause I’m not completely sure how it works, could be making his BABIP higher. I’ve always seen him as a line drive hitter who occasionally hit balls over the fence, so I’m not sure I would expect his hr/fb rate to return to his career norms, or to what it was last year from what I understand the construction of citifield affected the wind patterns above Shea and was causing more balls to leave the park.
by Gina on Jun 2, 2009 12:30 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Good point
I meant to have something about that in there.
by wobatus on Jun 2, 2009 1:04 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Yeah, I just reread this. Noooooooooooooooooooo
"I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf"
-Tug McGraw
by squid92 on Jun 3, 2009 9:03 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Sheets might not be a terrible gamble
with the right contract. I’d be willing to throw a short-term, incentive laden deal at him. He’s certainly got a better track record than D’Amico did.
"He's definitely mixing it into his repertoire. That's French for 'repertoire' " - Keith Hernandez
by Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright on Jun 2, 2009 10:32 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
ready?
Pre-season they said maybe August.
by wobatus on Jun 2, 2009 11:20 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Yeah that would be a thing to consider
but, if he was truly fit and ready by August, Sheets could turn out to be a nice little pick-up for the stretch run, particularly if he’s using it to audition for a big free agent deal in the off-season. There is certainly risk, but at the right price he would likely be an upgrade over at least two of our current starters.
"He's definitely mixing it into his repertoire. That's French for 'repertoire' " - Keith Hernandez
by Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright on Jun 2, 2009 11:25 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Doesn't it seem like
that everybody comes back from the longer term injuries quicker than expected. Brady’s doctor is marveling at his recovery time, Utley came back early, Wagner’s ahead of schedule, etc. I think I’ve seen it mentioned that the estimation of recovery time hasn’t caught up with the advances in medicine and rehab, especially when it comes to world class athletes.
by Mount17 on Jun 2, 2009 4:38 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
it's just the universe balancing out
for Moises Alou
by cjmulrain on Jun 2, 2009 5:40 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
yup
Sheets is good when healthy. In fact, if all the way back he’d be the number 2. Not sure if they meant August to start rehab assignment or August 1 ready to go. haven’t heard much about how his rehb is going.
by wobatus on Jun 2, 2009 11:41 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
i often forget how collectively stupid the ny press often sound
living in DC and not reading most MSM, i was shocked that berg even had to write a piece like that. wright is doing fine, there’s no need for armchair batting coach analysis. but then, you have to fill all those newspaper inches with something, so it might as well be inane bullshit that riles up the local populace.
All of the mets fans hope that we will not see the bad news mets ever again.
by kendynamo on Jun 2, 2009 12:48 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Meh
I probably didn’t have to, and I should probably listen to less talk-radio for the sake of my sanity.
Plus when you dare defend David Wright in a column on SNY’s website, you get angry emails about how you’re an apologist and you’re obviously just getting instructions from the Mets’ front office about what to write.
by TedBerg on Jun 2, 2009 1:02 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
HOW DARE YOU PROTECT TEH ANTI-JETER!!!1!
WIPLON STOOGE! YOU PORBABLY THINK OMAR IS A GOD AND KISS HIS FETE.
You mean e-mails like that?
"He's definitely mixing it into his repertoire. That's French for 'repertoire' " - Keith Hernandez
by Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright on Jun 2, 2009 1:30 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
More or less
The irony of judging someone’s entire body of work on a single article about small sample sizes is lost on them.
by TedBerg on Jun 2, 2009 2:07 PM EDT up reply actions 2 recs
One can only wonder
How hard is it to talk sense into Matt Cerrone?
Please tell me you only get a few of those retarded emails.
I will not allow the denigration of the life essence
by GenJackRipper on Jun 2, 2009 4:37 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
I've had the same revelation
while living in DC. I used to love WFAN in high school and college, but it’s just unbearable now. It’s constant panic mode and complaining. I’m also much happier watching the games now without the constant “analysis”.
by Joe Budd on Jun 2, 2009 1:04 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
yup
I too live in DC but Ive been at my parents house in NY for the past week and a half, and WFAN is unbearable.
by cjmulrain on Jun 2, 2009 1:32 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Is it dumber now than it used to be?
Or are we smarter?
I rarely listen to the FAN and do so in spurts to hear what the average FAN listener is saying. I figure that someone keen enough on the Mets to buy tickets at Citi Field prices would also probably listen to the FAN.
However, I hear rumblings that their ratings are down. It’s probably not true, as it would constitute good news and be a credit to the general public, when in reality there is almost no good news and the general public has no credit or credibility. Especially since I have a feeling that Fatcessa’s ratings are diving that I’m probably mostly engaging in wishful thinking.
I will not allow the denigration of the life essence
by GenJackRipper on Jun 2, 2009 4:41 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
I find that
I can no longer stand people on the FAN who I’ve listened to for years.
by Mount17 on Jun 2, 2009 4:40 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Even Steve Somers
is coming off as a dope. He hates Beltran and truly thinks he’s a soft player who “doesn’t do the little things”.
I wonder if the stalwarts feel the progressives on their necks and are overplaying the cliches out of defensiveness, or if they’ve always been this stupid.
I will not allow the denigration of the life essence
by GenJackRipper on Jun 2, 2009 4:44 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
And carlos beltran
of the metropolitans with the not sliding, and the softness…Jerome, from the Bronx.
I wonder if Doris is listening in heaven. Cough cough, Steve, ack, I think beltran, cough, cough, isn’t a team playah.
Oh, that’s mean. Sorry.
by wobatus on Jun 2, 2009 4:59 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
This is semi off-topic
But I was arguing with some people about Lebron going to NY on another board and one of my major points was that in Cleveland he’ll always be king. In NY the first time he makes even the slightest mistake the media will jump all over him. I think people really underrated how quickly NY media will turn on basically every athlete not named Derek Jeter.
by Gina on Jun 2, 2009 1:20 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
eh
if you win in NY, you’re treated like a king, if you lose, you’re not. The only exceptions are people who do stupid things after winning (Doc, Darryl, and Dykstra for example, also Plaxico Burress) and Eli Manning. But the rest of the ‘86 Mets are still revered, as are all the guys from the Giants first two Super Bowls, pretty much everyone who played in NYC during 1969, etc. I don’t think there’s a better city to win in or a worse one to lose in.
by cjmulrain on Jun 2, 2009 1:37 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Well that was my point
If he doesn’t turn them around/they don’t win a championship they’re going to turn on him pretty quickly, where as Cleveland is grateful just to not be irrelevant.
by Gina on Jun 2, 2009 2:23 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
well
If Lebron is really concerned about how people would react if he never wins, I don’t think I’d want him on my basketball team anyway
by cjmulrain on Jun 2, 2009 2:32 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Oh I just meant as a reason athletes wouldn't want to come to NY
They were basically acting like there was zero reason Lebron wouldn’t come to the knicks and that they would have to be at least in his top 5 of teams to go too. My point was there’s plenty of reasons athletes wouldn’t want to play in NY. I’m not even sure I would want to play in NY. If David Wright or Jose Reyes played in Atlanta or Miluwakee they’d probably be treated like demi-gods.
by Gina on Jun 2, 2009 5:47 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
I treat them like demi-gods...
"I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf"
-Tug McGraw
by squid92 on Jun 2, 2009 6:03 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Hernandez Heads For Third!!!
"I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf"
-Tug McGraw
by squid92 on Jun 2, 2009 12:39 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
stopped listening at 5-0
to eat dinner and watch Battlestar Galactica, so I just found out about this now at work.
this sucks!
by hotspur on Jun 2, 2009 1:10 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
I've heard nothing but good things about BG
Probably a summer Netflix show.
by James Kannengieser on Jun 2, 2009 2:26 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Definitely worth your time
Halfway through season 2.5 on Netflix and I’m hooked.
by Joe Budd on Jun 2, 2009 2:28 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
BSG ruled my life
from the time my friend first introduced me to the time i got finished with all the episodes i had missed (everything but the last 2 seasons).
i especially like how drunk sol tigh and bill adama get. man do those two luuuuuuv gettin sauced.
All of the mets fans hope that we will not see the bad news mets ever again.
by kendynamo on Jun 2, 2009 2:43 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
that's my plan
halfway through the pilot and it’s all good so far
Before I watched it, I told my friend it looked kinda like Deep Space 9 and he almost cried.
by hotspur on Jun 2, 2009 2:55 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
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