Mainstream media and bloggers react to A-Rod

Smart, rational reactions:
Rob Neyer - My favorite
Tom Tango - 2nd favorite
Beyond the Boxscore
Mets Police
Shysterball
Boogiedown Baseball
Mets Tailgate - Genius
Mike's Mets
Phil Allard - Great job Phil pointing out what a piece of trash this Selena Roberts is. First Duke lax, now this.
FanGraphs
Anthony Rieber

Poor reactions:
Jay Mariotti - What a shock...
Joel Sherman
Jerry Brewer
Ken Davidoff
Bill Madden
Jayson Stark - Stark's outrageous headline: "A-Rod has destroyed game's history"
Ted Keith
Bill Madden - Again! And even sillier the 2nd time around.
Wallace Matthews - If you look up the definition of 'moron' in the dictionary...

I'll add more as I come across them. Noticing a trend here? It's pretty much just the traditional mainstream media sportswriters who are outraged over this. The progressive, rational bloggers/analysts have it right. Not that this is anything out of the norm when it comes to baseball analysis.

Links: Ollie's ice cream, Lederer vs. Heyman, 2008 Mets WAR, and HBO

Some links to peruse while wondering if you too could put up 50 points vs. the Knicks:

1) David Lennon at Newsday relays to us the real reason Oliver Perez re-signed with the Mets:

"Another three years means seeing Oliver Perez munch on his favorite frozen snack -- Nutty Buddies, King Cones, whatever you call them -- during his postgame interviews. That was perhaps the biggest indication that there was no way Perez was signing with the Yankees, not as long as Joe Girardi keeps a padlock on the ice cream freezer."

He can buy the Nutty Buddie company for $36 million.

2) Rich Lederer at Baseball Analysts offers up a conspiracy theory about Jon Heyman's connection to superagent Scott Boras. Lederer thinks Boras feeds Heyman information about his clients in return for manipulation of the free agent market. I have to say, the evidence Lederer presents is compelling. I'd like to think even Heyman wouldn't be that big of a tool though.

3) I "post-dicted" the 2008 Mets W-L record at Amazin' Avenue, using the WAR ("wins above replacement") spreadsheet from Beyond the Boxscore. Read the post for more details, but WAR says the Mets were an 87 win team in 2008. In reality, they won 89. Pretty close right? WAR is not 100% infallible, but I think it's the best all-encompassing stat we have easy access to.

4) David at NY Sports Dog was invited to an early screening of a new HBO comedy with a baseball connection called "Eastbound & Down." It's produced by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay's production company and stars the hilarious Danny McBride, from "Pineapple Express" and "Tropic Thunder", so it's definitely worth a look. HBO has been surpassed by FX and AMC in producing original programming recently, so I hope for the channel's sake that this show is a hit.

Ken Davidoff's Hall of Fame Ballot - Brilliant!

Newsday's Ken Davidoff is one of my favorite baseball writers because his work incorporates advanced baseball statistics in such a way that the casual fan can understand and appreciate them. In this manner, he is similar to Joe Posnanski. He keeps an open mind about new ways to evaluate players, unlike the stubborn and close-minded Jon Heyman and Bill Conlin. Davidoff posted his 2009 Hall of Fame ballot and I could not be happier with it. It's nearly identical to mine. He's voting for:

- Bert Blyleven
- Rickey Henderson
- Tim Raines
- Alan Trammell

I'd add Mark McGwire but will not shed a tear if McGwire never makes the HOF. Davidoff's ballot is noteworthy because in past years he voted for Jack Morris and Jim Rice. He correctly removed them this year because in the last 12 months Davidoff gained an understanding of higher-level stats like OPS+ and ERA+. Basically, he took the time to learn about and embrace these better stats rather than stubbornly sticking with RBI, batting average, W-L records and unproveable assertions about players being "most feared" or "most dominant". Bravo Ken Davidoff - the world of baseball journalism needs more writers like yourself.

Minor griping - NL Cy Young Award

Times are slow in Mets universe, but I can never pass up a chance to gripe at the BBWAA (the group of writers that votes on postseason awards) for their poor award voting. Yesterday, they rightfully voted Tim Lincecum the NL Cy Young winner. My ridiculously minor and borderline pointless complaint is with who came in 2nd and 3rd in the voting. Take a look at the stats of the following two mystery players:

X: 226.2 IP, 3.30 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, 2.82 K/BB, 0.52 HR/9, 139 ERA+
Y: 234.1 IP, 2.53 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, 3.27 K/BB, 0.88 HR/9, 166 ERA+

Somehow, player X finished 2nd and player Y finished 3rd. If you haven't guessed by now, player X is Brandon Webb and player Y is our own Johan Santana. I tried not to cherrypick my stats too much here, but these are some of the major stats I look at when evaluating pitchers. The only difference between these two was their meaningless W-L records: Webb went 22-7 while Santana went 16-7. It's nice to see some progress here, evidenced by Lincecum taking down the award. However, these voters really have to stop being blinded by W-L record. It's pitiful.

The two NY writers who voted were David Lennon of Newsday and Adam Rubin of the Daily News. Lennon's decent ballot went:

1. Santana
2. Lincecum
3. Brad Lidge

Rubin's questionable ballot omitted Santana completely:

1. Lincecum
2. Webb(!!!!!!!!)
3. Lidge

Seriously Adam, your Daily News page says you're a graduate of the Wharton School of Business at UPenn, and you really think Brandon Webb and Brad Lidge were more deserving of the Cy Young Award than Johan Santana, the guy who led the league in IP and ERA? Really?! Hopefully you're not voting again anytime in the near future.

Thursday, September 25 Game Thoughts: Mets 7 - Cubs 6

Carlos Bel-TRAN! (as ESPN's own Jon Miller might say) What better way to rebound from the worst loss of the season by winning the next night in the bottom of the 9th, in just about the most inspiring way possible. You can't make this stuff up. Great job Met fans, about 20,000 of whom stayed vocal at Shea despite hard rain and Ricardo Rincon. Maybe Jim Baumbach at Newsday can rescind this insulting column, where he called out Met fans for booing this season. Here are your less enraged game thoughts:

- Ryan Church must have read my post last night suggesting he be benched. How else to explain his 3-3, 1 BB, 2 RBI breakout night. His bob and weave with Cubs catcher Koy Hill to score the tying run in the 8th joins Johan Santana's broken bat single on Tuesday as the most bizarre but awesome plays of the season. Also, major credit to Fernando Martinez and Robinson Cancel, who made this win possible with 2 out hits.

- Where do I begin with my criticism of Daniel Murphy's disastrous AB in the 9th? Here we go:
a) Bunting is stupid in most situations. Why give up outs unless it's a pitcher batting?
b) This is the same Daniel Murphy who hit a triple last night, and is .325/.408/.496 on the season right? And you want him to attempt to give himself up to move a runner over?
c) Guess how many sacrifice bunts Murphy has successfully executed this season, between the minors and majors. I'll give you a hint, it's less than the number of Mets World Series titles (2), and more than Giuseppe Franco's financial interest in Procede (0). Yes, Murph has ONE sac bunt this year. And he goes up there to bunt in a stressful situation, against a guy throwing 95 mph in the pouring rain. Mindblowing. Luckily, Bel-TRAN redeemed him.
d) Murphy was born 1 day after I was, which has nothing to do with his bunting skill. It's just weird that a guy who's basically the same age as me is playing such a big role in this pennant race.

- My brother came up with a solid New York Post headline, had the Mets lost: "Cubs Scrubs Put on a Clinic". I would've gone with "Feel the Hoff-Power". Micah Hoffpauir had the greatest night of his life, going 5-5 with 2 HR, a 2B and 5 RBI. And he's supposedly fighting for a playoff roster spot. The Mets would gladly borrow him if the Cubs don't need him.

- I really hope the Cubs don't rest Alfonso Soriano, Derek Lee, Geovany Soto and Aramis Ramirez this weekend vs. the Brew Crew. Lou Piniella: please give Carlos Marmol, pretty boy Jeff Samardzija and Kerry Wood plenty of much needed tuneup work this weekend.

- I admit, I turned the game off to watch the premiere of "The Office" following Hoffpauir's 3-run homer. However, I was following the game on ESPN Gamecast simultaneously. The Office did not disappoint, nor did the Mets.

- Boy does Keith Hernandez want the Mets to beat the Phillies for the division. It's his favorite discussion topic. Also, could you imagine Keith as a manager? Every AB would feature a hit and run, and every 3-0 count he'd have his batter swinging away.

Unfortunately Ryan "Lloyd" Braun (to credit an anonymous commenter) put a slight damper on the night's festivities, hitting a walkoff grand slam against the punchless Pirates. The Mets are 1 game back of the Phillies, and are tied with the Brewers in the Wild Card. I'm slightly nervous, given Mike Pelfrey's struggles this year vs. the Marlins (4 G, 19.1 IP, 7.91(!) ERA, 1.81 WHIP).

The Phils likely face John Lannan, Odalis Perez and Shairon Martis this weekend. The Brewers face a formidable trio of Ryan Dempster, Ted Lilly and Jason Marquis. The cardiac arrest Mets will be up against Chris Volstad, Ricky Nolasco, and Scott Olsen, who would love nothing more than to embarrass the Mets on the last weekend of the season for the 2nd year in a row.