I also heard from people who said Beltran talked with management last week, while he was in town, and, though he never requested specific players be acquired, he said he feels the team’s players, be it guys on the team now or guys coming to the team, they all must be more serious in how they approach the game, as a team, paying more attention to what they eat, how they prepare and train and how and why they do what they do.

tRA for Hitters
I was thinking whether it would be possible to do tRA for hitters; i.e take the batted ball run values, multiply by the batted ball numbers like in tRA and then divide by Plate Appearances.
Is this possible?

More Francoeur yuck
" RealityChuck says:
November 14, 2009 at 12:56 pm

The hatred of Francour is purely emotional (ironic, since it comes from people who try to pretend they’re more rational that Mr. Spock in their analysis). It really bothers the sabrmetric crowd that someone can be a solid major leaguer despite the fact he doesn’t fit into their equations.

Francour is an emotional issue for them, since it means that their analysis methods are flawed. They are so emotionally invested in the numbers that any real-world example that contradicts their beliefs needs to be ostracized. In this, sabrmetricians are like any other religious cult. It isn’t possible for them to conceive that the numbers are wrong, so the problem has to be the player."
I know it's metsmerized, but god they're idiots.

Chip Hale is expected to be named the Mets’ new third base coach after the World Series. Hale, 44, spent the past three seasons in that role with the Diamondbacks after six years in that organization as a minor-league manager.

There’s little sense blocking Davis by signing a first baseman to a multi-year deal. I’m told the Mets likely will trade for a righty-hitting first baseman with a short-term commitment to pair with Daniel Murphy in 2010.

my hunch is the team will return rookie C Josh Thole to Triple-A next season… he looked good, and i believe they see him having the potential to be a Paul Lo Duca type, but he needs time in Triple-A where he can catch former major-league pitchers, who have more substantial repertoire than he received in Double-A

The 65-year-old Manuel is a vanishing breed among managers, a gambler who confounds the sabermetricians by tossing their stat binders aside and going with his gut a lot of the time. Dodgers’ manager Joe Torre likes to think of himself that way, too. (Remember how one of Torre’s parting salvos at the Yankees was to tell GM Brian Cashman to be careful his growing affinity for numbers didn’t leave him tone deaf to the "soul" of people in the game?)

" At age 24, Bernie Williams hit .268 with a .333 OBP, .400 SLG, 12 HR, 63 RBI, 53 BB and 106 Ks in 567 at bats.

Daniel Murphy this year at age 24 hit .266, .313 OBP, .427 SLG, 12HR, 63 RBI, 38 BB and 69 Ks in 566 at bats. "

Someone should call Fatso at WFAN and see what he has to say about this. He'll probably want to know if Murphy can play the guitar.

Devin says:
October 11, 2009 at 7:18 pmWhy is it a terrible way? For over 100 years baseball measured defense with errors and range, why the big change all of a sudden? I dont see any of these metrics being used in the other big three sports. I heard Bob Costas say that most of these new stats are the creation of agents who attempt to made medicore players shine in arbitration and what they have succeeded in doing is escalate salaries.

" Funny Nick Johnson story. At the 2001 playoffs, he asked a writer about the dogs on the field, and when he was told they were bomb-sniffing dogs, Johnson responded, "What are they looking for?"

• By the way, Johnson probably won't be making a return to New York. While the Mets will look at free agent first baseman, and Omar Minaya had Johnson with the Expos, the Mets are shying away from injury-prone players.