NL Fantasy says: “Jason Pridie got the start in CF with Angel Pagan hitting the DL.  I would expect Pridie to split time with Willie Harris while Pagan is out of action”

Dirty Mets says : “Jason Pridie who played center as a call up for DL’d Pagan, had a tough time.  It’s not like he had any errors tonight but had an adventure covering some ground on two rockets hit beyond his reach that would result in doubles.”

LoHud says ” Pridie, once a top prospect with the Twins, is more of a glove than a bat in center field. He starts tonight, and it will be interesting to see if he gets regular time there, or if Harris/Hairston share it as well. This isn’t a prospect situation anymore, in terms of Pridie. But maybe, a team with the defensive struggles of the Mets just wants a great glove out there right now.”

Pridie has been showing some power with the AAA  Bisons .

This is the best the Mets organization has to offer?

PawSox blog mention on Jason Pridie

Catchy phrase “Pridie and Prejudice“

What a difference a Bay makes. Sure, but what about the Murphy blunder

Of the 11 teams, 4 owners have at least two pitchers that are currently slated to close games. There is one team with no current closers, and the remaining 6 owners have one closer.

Some of top tier players: David Wright $39, Matt Holliday $39, Jimmy Rollins $32, Brandon Phillips $34, Shane Victorino $28, Adam LaRoche $33, Troy Tulowitzski $40, Hanley Ramirez $47, Jose Reyes $25, Cole Hammels $27, Roy Halladay $41, Tim Lincecum $44, Johan Santana $28

A good exercise would be to compare how some of these auction prices stacked up against those from the  2009 draft.

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Some Tape Measure Hits from around the web:

CBS Experts Auction Draft results

Top5 by Position Projections

Mets are fiddling with the Billy B Money Ball  approach to building a bullpen with phenom Mejia:

Beane’s “Moneyball” legacy will be remembered for his preference for high on base percentage hitters, among other specifics, but he also shed light on his idea of running a bullpen. If you have a good arm, you can close. Period. So you can chalk Street’s demotion up to another quick hook on the part of management.

• contains measures of both offensive and defensive value for non-pitchers
• is expressed in terms of wins
• uses a replacement-level baseline that is at some point below average
• measures value provided by a player as opposed to the true talent or ability of the player

DRB :

The batting component of WAR consists of park-adjusting wRAA(runs above average)

wOBA (weighted on-base average) : wOBA consists of using linear weights of each type of event where a batter reaches base successfully  relative to the total plate appearances.

Heat

By using linear weights to quantify offense and defense, it is possible to determine the value of a player above replacement level. WAR (Wins Above Replacement) is the statistic that represents this idea. It can be expressed in terms of wins and dollar value. There are 6 components of batter’s WAR.

The next component is Fielding runs. This is based on UZR (more info here) and is also expressed as a run value. A UZR of 5 means that player saved his team 5 runs above what the average player playing that position did. Remember, a run saved is as good as a run earned.

The 3^rd component is the Positional adjustment. It should be obvious that, in baseball, certain positions are easier to play than others. Great hitting SS are harder to find than great hitting 1B. So, we have to adjust for that.

The 4^th part of WAR is the Replacement runs component. What this is is the expected amount of production from a team full of Triple-A call-ups, the proverbial “AAAA player.” The number of runs a replacement level player should contribute is 20 over 600 Plate Appearances.  So, this means that players who exceed 600 PAs get credit for being on the field more, while those who don’t reach 600 PAs don’t earn the full 20 runs of replacement

Batting (wRAA) + Fielding (UZR) + Positional adjustment + Replacement value = RAR (Runs Above Replacement). In order to get this number into Wins, the math is simple; just divide by 10. So, if a player is worth 40 runs, they are worth 4 wins.

Dollars – The amount of money a player’s WAR would be worth that season on the open market based on league average. For example: Albert Pujols had a WAR of 8.4 in 2009, which was worth $38 Million based on the average cost of a win in 09 (4.52MM per win).

Vive War Hitters

offense + defense + position + replacement level

Vive War Pitchers

Rally War Database

WAR Q&A

Despite the injuries and all the failed expectations  coming out of Citi Field with the Mets, they are still just seven games under the .500 mark.  That’s quite a remarkable record considering they have been without Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran, and Carlos Delgado for a major portion of the season.

With the team in tact last year, they scored 84 more runs than they gave up. In 2009, they have scored 33 less runs (with 472) than they have given up (505). In comparing 2008 and 2009, they have gone from +84 to -33 in the runs scored/given up differential which is 117run difference.

Still, despite the drop off, Jerry Manuel and Omar have this team competitive. How is this possible?

They have almost no home run ability playing in Citi field where Sheffield leads team in Home runs with 10 Home runs, and are last in NL with 67.

Where is the Mets saving grace that has kept them in games despite the drop off in production?

They are 3rd in the NL in OBP with a .341 mark. They lead the national League in stolen bases, and are fourth in NL in total bases with 1443.

So despite the slugging outage this year with Mets, they are getting people on base and moving across the base paths with the small ball type of mentality.

These fill in players are doing quite the job. They certainly have not given up despite being overmatched with their bats against many of their opponents. Makes you think the Mets are bringing this mentality from the movie Animal House:

Bluto: Over? Did you say “over”? Nothing is over until we decide it is!  Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!
Otter: Germans?
Boon: Forget it, he’s rolling.
Bluto: And it ain’t over now. ‘Cause when the goin’ gets tough…  the tough get goin’! Who’s with me? Let’s go!

Another positive for the 2009 Mets is their defense that backs Johan Santana and company. The Defensive Efficiency Ratio (DER) measures the percentage of times balls in play are turned into outs by the team’s fielders, not including home runs. The Mets defense is 9th best in NL . with a .696 Also, the UZR (ultimate zone rating) measures the number of runs above or below average a fielder is in both range runs, outfield arm runs, double play runs and error runs combined. The Mets are 4th best in the NL with a 27.1

Besides Santana, their is no starting pitcher that has stood out in a positive way. The team is 10th in the National league in ERA that puts them in the bottom tier of the league with a .432 ERA.

All things considered, this is one of the more surprising seasons gone by with the Mets. With this downturn in production, you would think they were on pace to lose 100 games. The Mets were neither buyers or sellers at the deadline.

One thing is evident, this is an array of players who has not shown to give up despite all the injuries and players playing in roles they are not accustomed to.  This is what team work is all about. Today, when Parnell takes the mound as the starting pitcher, and Murphy gets his timely hits,  take a good luck. As, they are building something here known as team chemistry, and a little bit of luck.

“I cannot take credit for that,” Maddon said. “This is something we do back at the office, and we really crunch numbers and do so many things. Willy came out on top versus Greinke.”

Aybar went 4-4 with the game winning hit. Madddon was key in letting Aybar know the ball that went through his legs was simply bad break, and to forget about it.  And that he Did!

I guess the lack of a left handed bat it what sent DeRosa packing. The number of times Ramirez has gotten hurt over the past few years in reason enough to keep DeRosa around as the ball club was not helped in any way with the players the recieved from the Indians for DeRosa.

As a club, the Cardinals always bring in that solid veteran that helps them go over the top and win the division title. This deal giving up a former #1 pick Chris Perez out of the University of Miami who throws in the high 90s is a decent player the Tribe recieved. But in this case, Ryan Franklin is the defacto closer and with another hard thrower in Jason Motte, this was a deal the Cardinals could afford to make.

Mark DeRosa is signed only for the season. However, they have had the void at third base for much of the season, and this will certainly solidify their infield. DeRosa can fill in all across the field, and his 50 RBIs and 13 HRs will fill in nicely.

The Indians did pretty well as far as value, but not as fit. With Kerry Wood signed in the off season as the closer, Perez will have to wait his turn and that could be a while.  For now, he is just another arm for the bullpen. This signals that the Indians are throwing in the towl and building for 2010 and beyond.

The Pirates have properly allowed Andrew McCutchen the time to develop in the minors leagues, despite looking like he could contribute to the big league club the past two years in spring training.  With the emergence of Pirates OF Nyjer Morgan as an everyday player, it seems the Pirates were using the strategy of selling high on McLouth. Its not clear if the Pirates were actively shopping McLouth. It does seem like they jumped in on making a deal pretty early in this trade window over the next month or so.  I am not sure there was a better deal out there to make on McLouth.

Based on what we saw in the offseason with the Padres shopping of Jake Peavy for young talent, its not so easy to find a trading partner. Sure, the Braves had much greater talent in their organization to acquire, but they were holding onto those players. The players the Pirates recieved are decent prospects. In particular, Gorkys Hernandez has the potential of emerging into just as good of a player that Jordan Schafer will be.

The Pirates used a similar approach that Andrew Friedman has used in changing the face of the franchise of always acquiring pitching arms to throw into the mix. Charlie Morton has a small sample size at the major league level, but he is sure to get an opportunity to impress with the Pirates. Pitcher Jeff  Locke has drawn the praises of Baseball Prospectus and John Sickels in their writeups on him this off season.

All things considered, this is a trade you can’t really properly evaluate today. Two years from now, I think this is a win win deal for both organizations. Its clear to me with the acquisition of McLouth for the Braves, it signals the end of the Jeff Francoeur in a Brave uniform even sooner than once believed.  In the Pirates case, when your are building for 2011 and beyond, and you are offered several players that will help the franchise to better improve the overall talent, you make the deal.

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With the MLB draft  on Tuesday, I participted in the Mock draft at MVN Outsider and selected for The Tampa Bay Rays http://mvn.com/outsider/2009/06/mlb-outsider-mock-draft-tampa-bay-rays-select-andrew-oliver.html

I listened to Mike Silva’s podcast last night and he thinks Backman is the man for the job as his personality and moneyball approach would be a nice fit.

It seems Big Tony was overstepping his role as Omar’s right hand man. He was influential and divisive force in getting in the Wilpon’s ear to remove Randolph.

National League Most Valuable Player Vote Week #6

1. Lance Berkman – 277 points
2. Chase Utley – 196 points
3. Chipper Jones – 161 points

The player ranked first on a ballot is assigned 14 points, the player ranked second is assigned 9 points, and the player ranked third is assigned 8 points. Click to see the actual votes.

Berkman is just so locked in with a mind boggling 1.256 OPS that has put the Astros right in the thick of the NL Central race. Same for Ramirez 8 HR’s has 13 stolen bases as well as leading the Marlins (The Marlins?) to first place in the NL East. Joe Morgan is a lousy announcer but is a Hall of Fame player and if he says Chase Utley is the best 2nd baseman he has ever seen that is very high praise. Tough to leave Alber Puljos off this list and how about an honorable mention for Nate McLouth and Xavier Nady for making baseball worth watching in the Steel City once again” — Steve, Kranepool Society

National League Cy Young Vote Week #6

1. Brandon Webb – 90 points
2. Tim Lincecum – 49 points
3. Edinson Volquez – 40 points

The player ranked first on a ballot is assigned 5 points, the player ranked second is assigned 3 points, and the player ranked third is assigned 1 point. Click to see the actual votes.

“There is no way Webb doesn’t have a stranglehold on this award now: 8-0, 2.41 ERA. Wow! Edison Volquez: An obscenely low 1.06 ERA, Volquez has done a great job keeping the ball in the park, but needs to firm his command up. Aaron Cook :Any time a Rockies pitcher has a 2.26 ERA through eight starts, you’re recommended to sit up and take notice.
” — Evan , Fire Brand of American League

National League Rookie of the Year Vote Week #6

1. Geovany Soto – 116 points
2. Jair Jurrjens – 48 points
3. Kosuke Fukudome- 47 points

The player ranked first on a ballot is assigned 5 points, the player ranked second is assigned 3 points, and the player ranked third is assigned 1 point. Click to see the actual votes.

“Chicago Cubs’ catcher Geovanny Soto takes over the top spot with a 1.003 OPS. Teammate Kosuke Fukudome falls to second because Soto’s postion and SLG outpace Kosuke’s excellent .481 OBP. Reds’ 1B joey Votto noses out Braves’ SP Jair Jurjjens thanks to history-making 3HR/1Sb day. He is also drawing some walks which should serve to keep his OBP respectable. In a weaker field, Dodgers’ 3B Blake DeWitt would get more props with a slash stat line of 323/398/479 – after doing worse between Hi A & AA last season!” — Eric, Fake Teams

The following blogs contributed to the Blog Poll results:

Baseball Digest Daily
Baseball Happenings
Baseball Musings
Seth Speaks
Fire Brand of American League
Brock For Broglio
Brew Crew Ball
Beyond The Boxscore
Greener On Other Side
Fake Teams
RotoRob
Over the Monster
No Bias Baseball
Outs Per Swing
Bugs & Cranks
Talking Chop
Roto Junkie
Baseball Time In Arlington
CardinalsDiaspora
Statistically Speaking
Tiger Tales
Kranepool Society
Cubs F/X
Roto Advice
Chicago Cubs Online
Baseball Legends
Roto Professor

American League Most Valuable Player Vote Week #5

1. Manny Ramirez – 270 points
2. Casey Kotchman – 114 points
3. Josh Hamilton, Carlos Quentin (Tie) – 113 points

The player ranked first on a ballot is assigned 14 points, the player ranked second is assigned 9 points, and the player ranked third is assigned 8 points.

American League Cy Young Vote Week #5

1. Cliff Lee – 116 points
2. Zack Greinke – 40 points
3. Ervin Santana, Chien-Ming Wang (Tie) – 18 points

The player ranked first on a ballot is assigned 5 points, the player ranked second is assigned 3 points, and the player ranked third is assigned 1 point.

American League Rookie of the Year Vote Week #5

1. Jacoby Ellsbury – 83 points
2. Greg Smith – 58 points
3. Evan Longoria – 25 points

The player ranked first on a ballot is assigned 5 points, the player ranked second is assigned 3 points, and the player ranked third is assigned 1 point.

The following blogs contributed to the Blog Poll results::

• Baseball Happenings
• Baseball Musings
• Seth Speaks
• Fire Brand of American League
• Brock For Broglio
• Brew Crew Ball
• Beyond The Boxscore
• Greener On Other Side
• Fake Teams
• RotoRob
• No Bias Baseball
• Outs Per Swing
• Bugs & Cranks
• Talking Chop
• Roto Junkie
• Baseball Time In Arlington
• Statistically Speaking
• Tiger Tales
• Kranepool Society
• Cubs F/X
• Roto Advice
• Chicago Cubs Online
• Baseball Legends
• Roto Professor