Cutnpaste: - Eric Niesen, J.P., Capuano, HoJo, and Paul Lo Duca

Eric Niesen:

Eric Niesen was drafted by the Mets in the third round of the 2007 draft, and has since been working his way up through their minor league system. After spending most of his first season with the Brooklyn Cyclones, he has pitched his last two seasons for the Binghamton Mets, the team's AA affiliate. However, in this offseason, his name has been mentioned as an early, internal candidate to fill the void of left handed relief in the Major League team's bullpen. In advance of his appearance in Spring Training, Eric was nice enough to take the time to answer a few questions for us regarding his upcoming attempt to make the big club.  - metsfever.  



J.P. Ricciardi:

He had played two years in the Mets' low minor leagues in the early 1980s and worked as an instructor and coach in the Oakland Athletics organization before A's GM Billy Beane, his friend and former teammate, elevated him to the A's vice president of player personnel. From those experiences, Mr. Ricciardi appreciates the value of statistical analysis but isn't quite as committed to its revelatory powers as Mr. Alderson and Mr. DePodesta, his Harvard-educated colleagues, are. - WSJ  



Chris Capuano:
Chris Capuano, the Mets’ new left-handed pitcher, has a strange platoon split. Against right-handed batters he gets grounders like Jered Weaver (37%), but against left-handed batters he gets them like Felix Hernandez (54%). The average pitcher has a fairly large difference in strikeout and walk rates by batter-handedness (Capuano’s strikeout and walk splits are standard for a lefty), but a small difference in ground-ball rate. Dave Cameron found that left-handed pitchers get only marginally more grounders against left-handed batters (46%) than against right-handed batters (44%). Capuano’s ground-ball split is out of the ordinary. -
fangraphs.  



Howard Johnson:

Was better in odd years than even years. Was a 30/30 man in 1987 when everyone was worried how the team would survive after Ray Knight signed with Baltimore. Achieved the feat in ’89 and ’91. The organization has struggled at third base throughout its history, but HoJo was the gold standard at the position before David Wright came along. His career totals of 192 homers, 629 RBI, 202 stolen bases, and .801 OPS aren’t that far off from Wright’s. The difference was Johnson was a late bloomer, and lacked the consistency of D-Wright. - nybaseballdigest.  



Paul Lo Duca:

After spending forever and a day in the minor leagues, Lo Duca finally made it to the show in 2001. He responded by blasting a ridiculous 25 homers from the catching spot, something rarely seen in the modern day MLB. Despite his initial success, Lo Duca's next highest home run total in a single season was just 13, and only reached the double-digit HR plateau three times in his short career - bleacherreport.