Mets’ Mishaps

I’ll admit it. Back in the day, my favorite team was the New York Mets. Why? Though at the time I did not know much about their history, they were what I was exposed to. The Mets were broadcasted every week on WB11 and I, a baseball neophyte, needed some baseball to watch. And there it was, I watched the Mets. I began watching towards the end of the Bobby Valentine era. I remember Art Howe’s two years, Willie Randolph’s whole tenure, and a little of Jerry Manuel’s. I went to college and pretty much lost track of watching the Mets on television, but I keep tabs on all teams.

The Tony Bernazard incident, in which the Vice President of Player Development challenged a AA player to a fight, seems to be one of many things that went wrong in Omar Minaya’s tenure. Steve Phillips and Jim Duquette were both not great either, but Minaya seems to be perpetually rubbing salt into the bleeding wound of Mr. Met.

I was reading Truth & Rumors on fannation.com and saw an interesting comment.

Without the injuries (At one point they were missing not only Beltran, Delgado and Reyes but also Reyes and Beltrans back ups. Hard to win with your 3rd string CF and SS) they’d be contending. I’m not saying Omar is a racist but when he makes big mistakes it always involves a Latino getting an undeserved break or a non latino getting the shaft.Bernazard should have been fired some time ago.Castillo’s contract is ridiculous.Manny Mota getting a nice 2 year deal after getting busted for Steroids. He ended up being awful.Trading Bannister for Bergos who ended up stealing from the locker room, beating up his girlfriend and then running over 2 women in the Dominican. He’s in jail. The Ollie perez contract. They treated Church like dirt. They treated Randolph like dirt and fired him after a win and a 6 hour flight to California. Did I miss any?

This seems to sum up Omar Minaya. Oh, he forgot about the early fallout with Kris Benson, among other things.

The team has been rattled with injuries. I don’t believe I have ever seen a team like this before. Anyways, Minaya recently contended that the Mets will attempt to make a playoff run. Unfortunately, they didn’t make any significant deals before the trade deadline to bolster the team. Let’s look at  the team.

Players with Over 100 PA, Currently not on the DL

• David Wright – 3.2 WAR
• Luis Castillo – 1.3 WAR
• Daniel Murphy – (-.2 WAR)
• Alex Cora – .2 WAR
• Gary Sheffield – .8 WAR
• Fernando Tatis – .2 WAR
• Omir Santos – .8 WAR
• Angel Pagan – 1 WAR
• Brian Schneider – .4 WAR
• Jeremy Reed – (-.4 WAR)
• Jeff Francouer – (-.3 WAR)

WAR (Wins Above Replacement), measures how many wins a player contributes over a AAAA guy. Though a win doesn’t really mean a win in season wins, these are very low values. Overall, the whole team equates to 8.2 wins.

I could go into hitting, fielding and pitching as well, but I feel this is enough.

The Call For Robot Strike-Callers

Baseball is a particular sport which is attempting to blend the old tradition associated with the game and the new. The implementation of instant replay last season was met with some adversity, as it threatened the feel of the game. Many approved of instant replay, as it had the ability to reverse calls in baseball, something that had not been done before in the game.

QUESTEC, the strike calling system implemented in all ballparks, is used for statistical purposes and on MLB Gameday, but the men in blue still do the manual strike-calling in the games. There are blown calls in almost every game. In following the trend for searching for the truth, robot strike-callers might have to be implemented. Games are being altered by umpires, whether unintentionally or intentionally, and the outcomes are changing completely.

I was following today’s game, Brewers at Cubs on mlb.com Gameday. Bottom of the ninth, two outs bases loaded. Brewers’ reliever Mark DiFelice up against Cubs’ hitter Jake Fox. An interesting matchup here; Mark DiFelice is having a breakout season in relief, while Jake Fox appears to be one of the few guys hitting in the Cubs’ lineup as of late.

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2009_07_03_milmlb_chnmlb_1&mode=gameday

If you look at the final screen, it shows DiFelice walking Fox on nine pitches, forcing the go-ahead run. Every pitch DiFelice threw was a 80-82 mph cutter (Gameday says changeup, but DiFelice throws all cutters). Pitch #9, the decisive pitch was the dagger, ball four. Look at the picture. It clearly winds up in the strike zone, the high inside corner. I didn’t watch a video of the pitch yet, but it appears to be a blown call.

I’m sure Wrigley erupted into pure joy when Fox drew the walk, but the same cannot be said for Mark DiFelice and Jason Kendall. A robot strike-caller might have pushed the game into the 11th inning, with a entirely different outcome.