Our Mets had hoped to convert the good 1962 performances of veteran outfielders Richie Ashburn and Frank Thomas into action on the trade market, yielding some worthy younger talent. But Ashburn retired, removing his value from the equation, and try as we might, we just couldn't come up with a fit between Thomas' talents and the needs of another team in the 1962-63 offseason. So our conclusion was to move Thomas from left field to first base for 1963, displacing the unsatisfactorily productive Marv Throneberry at first, and freeing up left field for newer blood. Perhaps not younger blood: The eve-of-Opening-Day opportunity to import Minnie Miñoso couldn't be passed up, as he just might have had something left in his remarkable tank. - hardballtimes.
Big Spenders:
What about the big spenders? The five biggest spenders included the Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, Dodgers, and Cubs. The Yankees spent an astounding $1.8M per win during the decade, but they also averaged the most wins with 97. Some will say this provides evidence that the Yankees--and other big market teams--simply buy wins and championships. However, only 17% of the variation in wins was explained by payroll during the decade. Moreover, while the Yankees occupied 6 of the top 10 spots in terms of cost per win they were the only team to earn a positive run differential. The Cubs, Mets, Mariners and Tigers all finished under .500 and missed the playoffs while those Yankee teams qualified for the playoffs 5 out of 6 years and won one World Series. Yes, the Yankees spend significantly more per win, but they spend more wisely than many other deep pocket teams. - beyondtheboxscore.
Lasorda on Scouts:
“Scouts don’t make a lot of money, and that’s why we have the [Professional Baseball Scouts Foundation]. There are a lot of them who don’t make much money, so if they get sick or lose their job, we take care of them. Dennis Gilbert came up with the idea of doing something so that we could protect scouts. If they lose their job, or if they’re sick, or if they run into a lot of bad bills and don’t have the money to take care of them… this was his idea. This is about our sixth year, and we have helped so many scouts, so many of them with issues about their health. It’s a great, great cause. We have a lot who attend our dinner and every penny goes to protecting scouts. What we do is important, because scouts are the backbone of baseball.” - BP
Lucas Duda:
If I was shocked at how tiny Tejada is, Duda had the opposite effect. An enormous human being who — due to cranial size — bears a passing resemblance to Peter-Boyle-as-Young-Frankenstein’s-Monster. The Duda projects as a severely destitute man’s Adam Dunn, in that he’s big, lefthanded, and can’t play defense. Baseball America did rank him ahead of Fernando Martinez this offseason, so maybe he can hit enough to stick somewhere, though the Mets appear to be set in left and at first. -
patrickfloodblog
Darrell Ceciliani:
OF, New York-Penn League, .351/.410/.531 in 303 PA - A fourth-round pick in the 2009 Draft out of a Junior College in Washington, Ceciliani rebounded from a poor year in his professional debut in the APPY to put up a very fine last year, especially for a center fielder. In addition to winning the batting title, Ceciliani had 33 XBH in 271 ABs, which broke down to 19 doubles, 12 triples and 2 homers. If he can stay in center field, Ceciliani has a chance. He has little power and not much arm, so he needs to stay in center in order to be a starter. He’s a long way from the majors but he has legitimate tools. We’ll find out how legitimate when he plays in full-season ball this year. - mets360
No comments:
Post a Comment