So this post presents an idea for an on-going feature during the 2012 season: The 2014 Mets’ power rankings, a list of the most important players to the 2014 Mets. Not that we’re giving up on 2012 already, but . . . well, you know. The Mets certainly appear to be rebuilding biding their time this season. So let’s concentrate on the future by keeping track of the present. Thus, the 2014 power rankings, a weekly or every-other-weekly feature where we track the rising and falling stock of the 2014 Mets in the 2012 season.

For a player to be eligible for the 2014 Mets power rankings, he must be:

• In the Mets’ organization
• Under team control through at least 2014
• . . . and that’s it

These rules mean that both major and minor league players are eligible for the rankings. For example: Ike Davis and Ruben Tejada are eligible, as are Jeurys Familia and Matt Harvey; David Wright is not eligible, as his contract expires after 2013.

Which actually brings up the next point: These rankings are the 2014 power rankings, and not the 2012 or 2013 power rankings, because 2014 is when the Mets should solely be a team of Sandy Alderson’s design. As of today, they have no players under contract for 2014, and the team’s only payroll commitments are $8.5 million dollars in buyouts for Johan Santana and Jason Bay. That makes 2014 the target date in which we’re interested. If a player is on the 2014 Mets, it’s because Alderson wants him there.

Now, I have an idea for how the preliminary rankings should look, but I’m going to throw the vote out to the crowd first. There’s a poll at the bottom of this post, with the names of the 28 players. I’ve put the names in alphabetical order in an attempt to avoid swaying anyone’s votes, then added my own comments about the players in an attempt to sway your votes. But let’s see what y’all think: Read through, or don’t read through, and then vote for the five players you think will the most important for the 2014 Mets at the bottom. And please remember that pitchers get hurt: (more…)

Today is January 17, a full month before the Mets’ pitchers and catchers are to report for Spring Training. It’s still far too early for a season preview, and too soon for a spring training preview – but is it too early for a pre preseason preview view? Probably. But the Mets’ 40-man roster looks set, and barring a trade and a few inevitable minor league signing, the Mets are ready to go for Spring Training. One can even see the beginnings of the Opening Day roster. Here is a very early look at the 2012 Mets: (more…)

So this post began life awhile ago — I wanted to evaluate Terry Collins’ first season as manager of the Mets in a more objective manner, and I decided I wanted to do so by comparing Collins with other managers of the Mets.

Anyway, fast forward to now, and I still can’t make much of a case either way about whether Terry Collins managed the Mets well or not. I don’t know enough about managers and what goes on behind the scenes. So that totally failed. But I did learn a whole bunch of things about the tendencies of all the Mets’ managers, so I’ll share those nuggets here. Who bunted a lot, who didn’t, who used pinch hitters, who didn’t, all those sorts of things — and we’ll check out where Terry Collins falls in each category. Here’s what I’ve learned about the Mets’ managers: (more…)

Some posts develop over days, starting with some clicks on Baseball-Reference and evolving into research projects and complex posts. Yesterday’s post was that type.

This post was the exact opposite. All emotion, no facts, published late at night and maybe poorly thought out. But it might be my favorite.

Originally Published December 5, 2011 (more…)

C.J. Wilson ended up signing for $77.5 million dollars and five years. Mark Buehrle signed for $58 million and four years. I have no idea which deal is going to look worse three years from now, but my guess is that neither team will be happy come 2015.

Originally Posted October 17, 2011 (more…)

Calling things the new Moneyball is the Moneyball of calling things Moneyball. But the Milwaukee Brewers fielding was the under-reported story of the year. Mets, please do this.

Originally published October 12, 2011 (more…)

I wrote this about a week after the 2011 season ended, and it ended up becoming the most read post on this site this year. Maybe I should venture into fiction?

In terms of predictions, I was right about Jose Reyes signing with the Marlins, I think I’ll be right about Chris Young re-signing, and then I’ll be wrong just about every other player the Mets sign this winter. I’m going to hold off on opening that fortune telling shop.

Originally Published October 5, 2011 (more…)

I didn’t want to title this post “The Duda Abides,” so I went with an obscure reference from “The Big Lebowski.” Too obscure, in retrospect. Just in case: “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)” is the title of the Kenny Rogers & the First Edition song that plays during the dream sequence in the film.

Originally Published August 22, 2011 (more…)

I believe David Foster Wallace’s theory about great sports — it’s buried somewhere in an essay about Michael Joyce, a tennis player, where Wallace writes that an intersection of play and competition is what makes a sport great. For a sport to be great, he writes, the rules of the game need to be somewhat arbitrary so that there’s something beautiful in the physics of the play, but there also needs to be a sense that two sides are trying to defeat each other.

The corollary to this theory of sports is that players who best embody the play/competition intersection are the most compelling players.

Originally Published June 8, 2011 (more…)

This post was written about Opening Day, when the Mets were beat up by John Buck and Josh Johnson in Florida. Beginnings and endings are natural places to look for meaning; this was an attempt at finding meaning the new Mets, with new manager, new general manager, and a new reliever. I think the same sentiment rings true.

Though in retrospect, the most memorable part of that Opening Day was the National Anthem, performed beautifully by Clarence Clemons on the saxophone. Clemons would pass away two months later.

Originally Posted April 2, 2011: (more…)