Cutnpaste: - BABIP, Tom Gorzelanny, Sporting News Covers, Ike Davis, and Bobby Shantz

BABIP:

Batting Average on Balls In Play (BABIP). BABIP, as we all know, is one of the more important sabermetrics statistics. It's a deceptively simple statistic - hits divided by total balls in play, excluding homeruns - but explaining its implications gets difficult. To understand BABIP, you need to also understand sabermetrics concepts like DIPS theory and statistic concepts like random variation, and our understanding of BABIP is changing all the time. It's a nuanced statistic, and those nuances get glossed over or missed in many analyses and descriptions. - beyondtheboxscore  



Tom Gorzelanny:

Though free-agent righty Chris Young remains squarely on general manager Sandy Alderson’s radar, team sources say it is more likely the Mets will go the trade route than gamble on a reclamation project. Alderson is believed to have inquired about the Cubs’ Tom Gorzelanny, who made $800,000 last season and wouldn’t break the Mets’ shoestring budget even if he were to double that number in arbitration. According to reports, the Cubs have been aggressively shopping the lefty, who went 7-9 with a 4.09 ERA last season. The Mets like the fact Gorzelanny would bring strikeout potential to a rotation — which includes Mike Pelfrey, R.A. Dickey and Jon Niese — that largely relies on opponents putting the ball in play. - benmaller.  



Sporting News Covers:

The Sporting New is now selling covers from the history of the newspaper. You can see the baseball covers here: http://sportingnews.printstown.com/ProdCode.aspx?prodcode=11  



Ike Davis:

Ike Davis likes to tell anyone within earshot that he doesn't care about statistics, doesn't pay attention to statistics, doesn't know his own statistics. Then he'll turn around and rattle off his batting average and home run totals with alarming accuracy. Seems Davis also knows how to lie with statistics. But if there is one type of statistic foreign to Davis, it is the set of advanced defensive metrics increasing steadily in popularity throughout the game of baseball. Davis, even if he doesn't know or care, is a darling of such metrics -- one of the game's top overall defensive first baseman. - mLB  



Bobby Shantz:

Shantz was 36, yet still pitching entirely well in a reliever-and-occasional-starter role. A year earlier, the American League’s expansion Washington Senators had drafted Shantz for the express purpose of dangling him as trade bait for a contender. That had made sense then, and it made sense now. Our Mets will beat the Colt .45s to it this time. - HBT