SaberMets.com: Miscellaneous Archives

Miscellaneous | Main

October 07, 2004

Free IPODs

If anyone is interested in helping me get a free iPOD, please drop me a line. If you sign up at FreeIPODs.com and complete an offer, I will send you a free copy of Baseball Prospectus 2001 ($21.95 at Amazon).

Eric | 04:56 PM EST | TrackBack: 16

May 05, 2004

Talent vs Hustle

Jim Caple of ESPN's Page 2 has an article up today about players who hustle vs. players who are talented. We can all agree that given two players of equal talent, the player who hustles is the more desirable of the two. The problem arises when you have to choose one over the other.

While I think hustle is great, it is in no way a replacement for actual talent. ESPN.com readers apparently think otherwise, at least according to polls:

ESPN.com has polled readers a couple times with a certain line of questioning. In one of these polls, we asked readers to pick the worst offense a baseball player could commit, and more respondents (21 percent) said not hustling was worse than betting on baseball (19.5 percent). In another poll, we asked what the worst offense in all sports was, and more readers (18 percent) said not hustling was worse than taking steroids (14.9 percent).

Pretty astounding, really.

Eric | 05:21 PM EST | Comments: 2 | TrackBack: 1

March 11, 2004

Fantasy Draft

For those of you who signed up for the Yahoo! Fantasy Baseball league, I am going to set the auto-draft to take place next Wednesday, 3/17, at 6pm EST. If you are going to edit your pre-draft player rankings, please do so before then.

Yahoo! has default player rankings, but you can override them by clicking on "My Team" and then "Edit Pre-Draft Player Rankings".

If you haven't already signed up, there are a few spots left so check out this entry from last week for instructions on how to sign up. Bloggers and non-bloggers are welcome to play.

Eric | 05:41 PM EST | TrackBack: 1

February 29, 2004

Hey Mr. Fantasy

For those of you who are interested, I have started a Yahoo! Fantasy Baseball league. There are a total of 20 slots, so sign up soon. I am going to set the autodraft for the middle of March, so get your player rankings set up as soon as you can.

League ID#: 166976
Password: abcd1234

Please only sign up if you intend to play the whole season.

Eric | 05:29 PM EST | Comments: 6 | TrackBack: 0

February 17, 2004

Quote-A-Thon

Jon Heyman of Newsday on the position controversy between A-Rod and Derek Jeter and his take on sabermetricians:

"The arrangement is fine for now. Rodriguez will be better at third base, and Jeter is better at shortstop than range-crazed stat guys think."

Yankees GM Brian Cashman's absurd explanation as to why Jeter, despite ranking among the worst shortstops in the game, will continue to play the position in lieu of Rodriguez:

"You go with the man who brought you to the dance, and you stick with him. Derek Jeter continues to get us to the dance. You don't mess with success."

Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, on who the Yankees might pluck from the Cardinals' roster to fill their hole at second-base:

"But, on the other side of the coin is a fellow who, after just one pro season, hit .306 with three homers in that same 2001 camp. He not only made it to April, he got even better. His name: Albert Pujols.

So far, the Yankees haven't tried to acquire him. But they do need a second baseman and Pujols appeared there briefly in the 2001 All-Star Game."

And last but not least, Al Leiter gets in on the act, defending the Mets direction and the abuse they have taken over not signing A-Rod:

"First of all, the Mets are definitely on the right track, going for younger, more athletic players. But whatever our failure was not to sign him -- and we've been reminded of that over and over again -- at least before he was buried away down in Texas. Now he's just a few miles away across the river in the Bronx, and we get to hear about his exploits all the time.

I don't think salt in the wound describes it enough. It's more like rubbing salt, and then pouring hydrogen peroxide and rubbing alcohol and rust in there at the same time."

Zing. Burn.

Eric | 11:08 AM EST | TrackBack: 1

December 24, 2003

Give Me A Break

Writing five blogs a week is hard work. Well, not necessarily hard, but definitely tiring. That said, SaberMets is going to take a short holiday break, but will be back on Monday with fresh blogs. I'm going to try to get to some of your blog requests, too. So, if you have a topic you would like to see analyzed and/or written about on SaberMets, shoot me an e-mail.

Happy holidays everyone!

Eric | 10:19 AM EST | TrackBack: 0

November 24, 2003

The Pedro Salsa Heatwave is Here!

I'm not sure how long it's been around, but I just found out about a great new way to spice up your dominican dishes at home. It's Pedro Martinez' Southwest Corn & Bean Salsa. No joke. This is the most exciting thing since Kimo Bean introduced the now-defunct Benny Bean coffee, a partnership forged with former Met Benny Agbayani. Little did I know that PLB Sports offers a myriad of athlete-related food stuffs.

Todd Helton's Homerun Peanut Butter and Jelly

These are just a few of the many products available. Proceeds benefit a charity of choice for each athlete.

* * * * * * * * * *

Bob Hohler of the Boston Globe wrote an excellent article today about statistics and their use in baseball analysis, specifically as it pertains to the Red Sox organizational philosophies and what traits they are looking for in their new field manager.

The manager of the future -- maybe even the next manager on Yawkey Way -- may be expected to know all that about Martinez and more. Much more. About Martinez and every other player in the game.

In an era when computers have replaced people across the professional spectrum -- from typesetters to switchboard operators to assembly-line workers -- advanced technology is changing the way baseball is managed and played at a pace that makes Martinez's signature heater look like a lollipop pitch. And field tacticians who fail to embrace the movement may risk joining Grady Little among the ranks of the unemployed.

Eric | 03:35 PM EST | TrackBack: 1

October 23, 2003

Clutch Hitting, Etc.

Rob Neyer has written another great article about clutch hitting or, rather, the misconception that "great clutch hitters" actually exist outside the realm of "great hitters". That is to say, hitters who are otherwise not much with the stick who magically become rakers when batting in "clutch situations" (deemed by the Elias Sports Bureau to be any at-bat after the sixth inning with your team trailing by no-more-than three runs), aka LIPS (Late Inning Pressure Situations).

I won't attempt to reiterate what Rob has already said better than I could hope to, so I'll just let you read his articles. Needless to say, if you've watched any of the World Series thus far, you've undoubtedly heard the likes of Tim McCarver and Joe Morgan (aka Tweedledee and Tweedledum) ramble on about how such-and such is a great clutch hitter, and how whats-his-name really steps it up in October. It's hogwash, the whole lot.

Much the same way I went to sleep after the Yankees tied game 7 of the ALCS, I got my nap on after the top-o-the-ninth last night when U³ blew a two-run-lead on a pinch-hit triple by major-league-retread Ruben Sierra (whom Jon Miller has taken to calling ru-BEN, placing the emphasis on the BEN instead of the RU). I resigned myself to another Yankee world series victory, acknowledging that these are games that the Yanks always win. Much to my surprise, I awoke Christmas morning to find that the mighty fish (or as old-man-Gammons calls them the Phish, aka the yerk-toting frisbee-chucking cheeba-monkeys) had pulled it out. A-Gonz The Younger's turn as Aaron Boone's national league human-out-maker counterpart came to a (temporary) halt when he launched that liner over the short wall in left-field. It reminded me a lot of Mr. McGwire's #62 in '98, just clearing the fence at Busch Stadium. Regardless, Jeff Weaver is once again the loneliest Who in Whoville, assuredly banished to Joe Torre's doghouse.

I'm beginning to think this blogging would go a lot faster if I didn't have a link on every third word. Nevertheless, I think Game 5 is a pretty big one for Florida. Aside from facing the prospects of having to win Games 6 and 7 at Yankee Stadium, they would have to put up a decent effort against Andy Pettitte, which has been easier said than done this postseason. I think they can definitely get to David Wells, and a Josh Beckett/Mike Mussina Game 7 will be a crapshoot regardless. Bottom line: I think the Marlins have a pretty decent shot at not becoming Victim #27. By decent, I think probably 3:1 or 4:1.

Either way, I'm just hoping for a great three games (and by "great three games" I mean "Marlins in 7").

Eric | 05:34 PM EST | TrackBack: 0

September 29, 2003

SaberMets

Hey everyone. I know there are a number of great Mets Blogs out there [theoutsideworld], [metsramblings], [theeddiekranepoolsociety], but I figured I would open one up, more to vent/spew than anything else. Feel free to drop me a line [sendmemail] if you want to talk Mets, or anything else baseball-related.

I will try to post here as frequently as possible, and will include and comment on rumored Mets transactions during the offseason.

Eric | 04:18 PM EST | TrackBack: 9