Category: General

Baseball Predictions Galore!

It seems like every baseball column that I’m reading today is filled with fearless prognostications. Personally, I think it’s silly so I’m not going to get into it. Predicting a team’s record after 162 game season?

You may say “Hey, you’ve linked to columns and videos with season predictions!”. Why? I’ve added a few links to prediction columns but I’ve been selective about it. I only link to my favorite columnists. I only add links to the writers that usually “get it right”.

I will say this: I’ll be moderately surprised if the Mets don’t win the East. The Phillies are pretty good, but not that good. Everyone else in the division looks like a sub-.500 team to me. It’s amazing how many people are picking the Braves to win the division or more this year!

Anyway, the reason for this post is that I found a good prediction column on Yahoo. It encompasses all of their baseball columnists at once. That’s the way to do it. Nice photo of Johan Santana in the column too.

Bill James Interview on 60 Minutes

Source: WikipediaThis Sunday night CBS’ 60 Minutes interviews Sabermetrics-man Bill James. This episode airs Sunday March 30th at 7:00pm. For those of you under 50 years old, 60 Minutes is a news magazine format program. You can read a preview of the interview here.

James currently works for the Red Sox front office. He says in this interview that if he could pick a dream team that his first pick would be David Wright.

Thanks to Spot Starters for the heads up on this one.

Countdown To The Final Roster

We’re nearing the deadline for the Mets to decide who will make the last few bubble spots on the team. It looks like Angel Pagan will be in the outfield and Brady Clark will be left off the major league roster.

Ben Shipgel of The New York Times gives his take on what the roster will look like. I think he’s pretty accurate. As I said in an earlier post, keeping Fernando Tatis really doesn’t make sense to me at all.  If Ramon Castro’s hamstring isn’t ready than Raul Casanova will get the backup catcher spot until Castro is ready.

I think Shipgel is right that Brady Clark won’t make the team either. Angel Pagan has just been too hot offensively to leave him off the roster.

Tomorrow’s game in Ft. Lauderdale may very well decide if Mike Pelfrey or Orlando Hernandez gets the fifth starter spot. It’s too bad that it has to come down to one game but neither pitcher has clearly established himself.

Ruben Gotay On Waivers

Ruben Gotay joins Steve Register on waivers. It’s hard to believe that the Mets like Fernando Tatis for a utility role over Gotay. He was clearly upset by the news as reported by MLB.com:

“I thought I did a good job last year,” Gotay told multiple news outlets, including the New York Post and Daily News, on Thursday morning. “I didn’t deserve this.”

I like Gotay and think he had good potential. Hopefully, he’ll get picked up and have a chance to make a contribution with another team. If not, maybe he’ll be back in the minors for the Mets.

Tatis’ career is very checkered. He didn’t play in the majors in 2004-2005, and 2007. This move really puzzles me. I hope Omar Minaya knows something that I don’t.

Young 100-Game Winning Pitchers

I’ll warn you up front that this isn’t a 100% Mets-related post. But Doc Gooden does figure prominently here so you’ll understand why I’m writing it.

This is a link to a really long blog post by Joe Posnanski of the Kansas City Star. The post reviews the 100 game winning pitchers by age 26. The prompt for the post is C.C. Sabathia winning his 100th game last season in which he turned 27.

Although it’s a long post, it’s a great read. It’s really eye opening how many innings that pitchers used to log.  They must have used tape to keep their arms attached to their shoulders. Some of these guys were throwing 300 inning seasons.

I noticed that The Hardball Times was linking to this blog today too. My buddy John emailed it to me this morning before THT got to it though. You can read  the blog post here.

Link: ESPN Top 50 Players Over Next Five Years

ESPN’s Rob Neyer put together a list of his top 50 players over the next five years. David Wright is at the top of the list. While that’s a nice compliment for David, I’m not sure that I agree with that. When Miguel Cabrera is motivated, he and Alex Rodriguez are the best hitters in baseball. I was also surprised to see Ryan Howard at #45 on the list. He has to be higher than that! Anway, take a look at the full list here.
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