One Man's Opinion, Minors, Notes from Around the League

Opinion:

I know that this practice has become ubiquitous across baseball, but Wilson Betemit's Griffey-esque bat flip and subsequent strut/watching of his home run on Wednesday night was ridiculous to me. Those were the first runs in TWENTY-FOUR innings for his team against the Mets and he made it look like it was a walk-off home run to ensure a series sweep. I had an issue when the Rockies young players did it early in the year and we certainly have some cockiness on this Mets team as well (well, it's really only Valdespin) but someone should remind Betemit that his team got swept and was anemic, offensively, the entire series. Oh he also made a pretty costly error in that same game. I understand how common this is but I still do not like it. Especially in our own house when we have crushed the opposition the entire way to that point.

Some notes from the minors:

** 2B Wilmer Flores and SS Wilfredo Tovar got promotions to AA. Flores' season has been nice so far--he is hitting homers and not striking out much while his average has been a bit below or a bit above .300 all year. Tovar (pictured, right) intrigues me. He only hit .284 in St. Lucie but walked a ton which contributed to a very respectable .377 OBP. Not much power there, but he is a very strong defender at short and is starting to enter "prospect" status in my book.

** RHP Zach Wheeler and Wilmer Flores are both members of the MLB 2012 Futures Team.

** Steve Matz pitched his first official professional ball game. He went 3.1 innings allowing 5 runs (2 earned) while walking 4 and striking out 2 but he is healthy and pitching and that is awesome for both him and this organization.


At the major league level:

For a brief time, R.A. Dickey was baseball's pitching triple crown leader (image, right). I could not imagine it happening to a better guy and I could not be happier for R.A. His is a journey often only imagined by L.A. screenwriters and even then it would be considered "too feel good". I hope the high continues for R.A.

That being said, fans need to realize that Dickey is not going to throw complete game shutouts all year. His advanced metrics suggest he should be something around a 3.00 ERA pitcher. That is outstanding. It's not what he is doing right now, but do not forget how rare a 3.00 ERA is in this league nor the quality of innings he has given the Mets over his past 80 starts.

If any Mets fans who booed Jason Bay when he got hurt are reading this, please never do something like that again. We are all frustrated that he was not the player he was in Boston but he keeps getting hurt because he plays the game hard, gives 100% every time, and plays baseball the right way. I was severely disappointed in Mets fans when Jason was being helped off the field. Boo the players who don't try hard. Not the ones who get hurt giving it their all to make a key play.

This is a statistic that blows my mind: Fangraphs compiles information from each pitch a pitcher throws and the said result from each pitch and assigns a "value" to that pitch. For example, Justin Verlander's fastball is one of the most (if not the most) "valuable" pitches in all of baseball because of how effective it is.

LHP Jon Niese's cutter is ranked 8th in all of baseball for cutter effectiveness (or value). His curve is 23rd in the entire game.

What does that mean? Of all of the pitchers in baseball who throw a curve, Niese's curve has been among the 25 best. His cutter has been 8th. In the entire game. Even with these impressive rankings, Niese has the worst WAR of the Mets four starting pitchers who qualify for the ERA lead (Santana, Dickey, Gee, Niese). Part of this is due to the effectiveness of the other three pitchers and part of it is luck. His fastball has been an above average offering but he has gotten hit a bit when he uses his change. Niese has gotten killed by an abnormally high HR/FB rate which, when adjusted for by the metric xFIP, lowers his ERA nearly half a run to 3.42. His walks are up and his BABIP is normal but I think Niese is due for a statistical correction for the positive if he continues to use his cutter and curve as effectively as he has.

Is anyone else annoyed by Valdespin's "eye rub" after he does something good? The idea, apparently, suggests "Did you just see that? Can you believe that?" This cartoonish gesture from such a young and inexperienced player is not something I personally like seeing. The only time I couldn't believe my eyes was when he booted a routine ground ball that would have gotten the team a much-needed win.

Around the league:

- Lucas Duda is still the worst defensive player in the NL.

- With only 219 at bats, Mike Trout is already the 5th most valuable player in baseball, according to Fangraphs.

- Adam Dunn has struck out in 36.6% (!!!) of his plate appearances this year. I do not see many scenarios in which he does not set the single-season strikeout record.

- If you haven't heard of Reds prospect Billy Hamilton (pictured, right), now would be the time to remember the name. The fastest man associated with baseball has 80 steals in the minors so far this year. EIGHTY. In a twist of (thankfully "no-one-was-harmed" variety) irony, after all of his stealing on the diamond, Hamilton himself was robbed leaving his league's all star game. But back to the 80 steals. The major league leader, Tony Campana, has 24.

- Cliff Lee still does not have a win.

- Colby Lewis of the Rangers has given up more homers than he has issued walks. He has walked only 12 batters in 96 innings but allowed 15 home runs along the way.

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LGM