2/1/10

Jack Zdurienclk, Baseball Interllect, Jane Jarvis, Pedro Update... and Bloomberg Sports

Jack Zdurienclk:

Zduriencik, who aside from a three-year detour, worked for the Mets from 1982-98, was a draft magician after becoming the Brewers' scouting director from 1999-2006 (think Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun). The Mets under LaRocque did not find much talent.

Had he been named the Mets' amateur scouting director, Zduriencik might have found that talent and might have been on the GM trajectory. Instead, bypassed for the role, he left for the Dodgers in 1998. Today Phillips lives in disgrace, Duquette does radio and Minaya is barely holding on as GM after overseeing another discouraging Mets offseason.

Zduriencik? In his first year as Mariners GM, he unearthed gems such as Franklin Gutierrez (by far the best player in a 12-player, three-team trade involving the Mets), David Aardsma and Russell Branyan. That transformed Seattle from 101 losses to 85 wins. Now the Mariners are generally perceived as the big winners of this offseason. -   link

Baseball Intellect:

1. Jenrry Mejia RHP Age – 20 Grade – B+

2. Fernando Martinez OF Age – 21 Grade – B+

3. Wilmer Flores SS Age – 18 Grade – B

4. Ike Davis 1b Age – 23 Grade – B

5. Jon Niese LHP Age – 23 Grade – B/B-

6. Reese Havens SS/2b Age – 23 Grade – B-

7. Brad Holt RHP Age – 23 Grade – B-

8. Ruben Tejada SS Age – 20 Grade – B-

9. Jefry Marte 3b Age – 18 Grade – C+/B-

10. Josh Thole C Age – 23 Grade – C+/B-

11. Kirk Nieuwenhuis OF Age – 22 Grade – C+/B-

12. Juan Urbina LHP Age – 16 Grade – C+

13. Kyle Allen RHP Age – 20 Grade – C+

14. Jeurys Familia RHP Age – 20 Grade – C+

15. Steve Matz LHP Age – 18 Grade – C+ link

Jane Jarvis:

Jane Jarvis brought a happy and uplifting attitude to Shea through her music during many years of bad baseball and sparse crowds. I'll never forget feeling so bad when the Mets announced they were going to canned music and Jane would no longer be playing the organ live there. A piece of Mets history was gone in an instant replaced with "progress".
Thank you Jane for the joy you brought me and many, many Mets fans throughout the years. You played for the Mets for 15 years and made Shea better because of it. Rest in peace, Jane. - link

Pedro Update:

Pedro Martinez, RHP, free agent - A few baseball people are linking Martinez with Texas, though there’s no evidence of such a marriage yet. Martinez could be a nice piece to round out a young rotation. Last year, Rangers president Nolan Ryan challenged Kevin Millwood not only to step up his own game but to act as a leader for the staff. He did, but he’s now with the Orioles. Ryan has always respected Martinez, though at this stage Martinez is probably better-suited to stay in the NL. — Boston Globe - link

Bloomberg Sports:

Bloomberg Sports unveiled its two new products to the media on Sunday afternoon, and I was one of those fortunate enough to be in attendance. Thoughts: The fantasy product, to be released this month on a trial basis, contains a draft kit and in-season tools. Player news, stats, and data visualizations are all available with at most three clicks of the mouse. Bloomberg Sports is not providing any new data sources to the consumer, but in partnerships with MLB and Rotowire, BBGSports aggregates relevant player statistics and news, laying the data out in a friendly and efficient interface. Pretty much all of the offensive and pitching stats/splits available on Baseball Reference and FanGraphs are available in Bloomberg’s product. Even better, those stats that aren’t included can be written into the system. You can create new stats and the product is adaptable to the most obscure fantasy league settings. All of these stats can be easily ranked and charted. The best visualization I saw was their “spider” chart, which is similar to Justin Bopp’s DiamondView and Kevin Dame's 5 Tool Analyzer. - link

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