Good morning.
David –
Photo by Mack Ade |
It really made me sad to wake up on October 6th to
find out that the Captain had more back surgery.
I’ve had that back surgery so I know what he’s trying to
accomplish. Mine was determined to be successful, but I didn’t hop the 7 train
after that and run out to the hot corner to take ground balls.
I guess David can do as many surgeries as he wants… his
insurance policy covers them one hundred per cent. Still, I can’t help but
think his delayed retirement settlement is costing this team serious money that
could be used to pay for a replacement at… oh… let’s see…THIRD BASE!
I understand he has no desire to manage, but loves being a
Met. This has bench coach all over it for me.
Come on David. Get er’ done.
Field of Schemes
It’s easy to forget what a phenomenon Chamberlain was when he came up to
the Yankees midway through the 2007 season. A first-round pick and a big, burly
fireballer, he debuted with 16 scoreless innings and finished the year with an
absurd 0.38 ERA and a 5.67 K/BB ratio. That’s what made it all the more
shocking when he completely fell apart in the eighth inning against Cleveland.
Moneyball –
The AMC television channel had ‘Moneyball’ on October 4th
and I totally enjoyed watching one of baseball’s greatest movies again.
As we all know as Mets fans, Sandy and Company come out of
this true story and the concept of ‘getting on base trumps defense’, or OBP (on
base percentage) was the concept used by Billy Bean,
the Red Sox brain trust under Bill James, and so on and so on.
So how did this work for Alderson, Bean, and James?
Well, it did get Boston a World Championship a couple of
seasons after this one portrayed in this movie for Oakland, but Sandy and Billy
are still chasing the dream.
And what about building the 2018 team around our highest OBP
leaders?
Here they are –
1. OF Michael
Conforto .384
2. OF Brandon Nimmo .379
3. C Kevin Plawecki .364
4. OF Yoenes Cespedes .352
5. IF Astrubel Cabrera .351
6. IF Jose Reyes .315
7. IF Wilmer Flores .307
(look familiar?)
And what about first base you ask… don’t ask (Smith: .262)
Baseball Power surge -
To be sure, the league-wide impact of tweaking the ball’s
aerodynamics is small. According to Lindbergh and Lichtman, who note that their
experiments are not definitive, the seam height and circumference changes only
appeared in 2016, well after the midyear adjustment in 2015 that kicked off the
home run surge (that part of the increase is likely attributable to increases
in the balls’ bounciness). It’s likely that many factors are contributing to
the ongoing spike in home run rates, including hitters adjusting their
approaches and favorable weather conditions, but we now have a compelling
explanation for the bulk of the spike.
3 comments:
Compare David's stats the last 3 years. Compare to Kris Bryant's. Consider Wright will be 35. Consider David's severe health challenges. Only a wide-eyed optimist can expect any sort of valuable comeback.
Saw this in a Mets website article: Wright's latest surgery, a laminotomy, came less than a month after he underwent an operation on his right shoulder, and 16 months after he had surgery to repair a herniated disk in his neck.
Does Wright lead the majors in laminotomies?
Perhaps David Wright will take note of Prince Fielder officially leaving baseball. An insurance settlement was reached and now the Rangers are free to move forward with building a team without squandering a spot.
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