Sticking to the Story

What he said, pretty much.

Byrdak is the Word

I advocated the return of Tim Byrdak on a one-year deal a couple of weeks ago, and yesterday the Mets re-signed him for 2012. One-year deal, as it seems.

I assume Manny Acosta, Bobby Parnell and Danny Herrera, all under team control, will be returning as well. So with Byrdak, that’s four vaguely usable relievers right there. A team probably needs eight, nine, ten usable relievers, considering injuries and ineffectiveness, so the Mets still have a way to go rebuilding their pen. But this blog here endorses the return of Byrdak as one step in that plan.

Hard-hitting Journalism from the WSJ

I’m a little surprised no one has bothered to count the number of times Mike Pelfrey licks his hand in a game before this. But I recommend using your reading abilities for this article, provided you’re not disgusted by grown men discussing saliva. 

P.S. — The above link might be paywalled, so if you run into it, (shh!) I believe you can circumvent the WSJ paywall by searching for the article, titled “Six Innings and 89 Hand Licks Later,” in Google News.

Someone Else to Buy Extremely Expensive Seats

Oh well. I guess someone else will get to buy really expensive seats to Mets games.

Jim Thome, Ruins and Cleveland

Awesome, awesome post by Pete Beatty about Jim Thome and Cleveland over at Pitchers and Poets. A longer piece, but worth the time. If you have a few minutes, check it out.

Martinez Has Another Option?

Well that’s news to me. Most players get three option years, seasons in which they can be sent freely between the majors and minors. I was under the impression that Fernando Martinez had used all three (2009, 2010 and this season), and would need to be exposed to waivers if the Mets sent him to the minors next season. For example, Nick Evans has used all of his option years, and the Mets have exposed him to waivers every time they’ve sent him down this season. I thought that would be the case with Martinez next season, but I guess not. There are some hazy rules about fourth option years, and perhaps that’s what is going on here, but this was a surprise to me when I read it this morning.

Adam Rubin’s whole chat with DePodesta about the Mets farm is worth reading, by the way. But that was the part that made me say “huzzah?”

World’s Only Speedball Pitcher Revealed

So that solves that. By the way, if I had a time machine — and I don’t, but if I did — the first thing I would do is go back and force Bruce Springsteen to rerecord the Born in the USA album sans synthesizers and Phil Collins drums. Great songs, but it’s his only album with the E Street Band that sounds dated.

Jason Bay’s Defense in Left

I was looking at Jason Bay’s Baseball-Reference page the other day and thinking that he really isn’t as bad defensively as advertised. I was also thinking about writing about it today, but Mark Simon beat me to it, so just go read his.

It’s worth pointing out that Bay spent more of his career in PNC Park and then Fenway, two of the weirder left fields in baseball. PNC Park has an enormous left field, while Fenway has the monster. It wouldn’t surprise me if the defensive metrics had trouble figuring out Bay’s fielding in those two parks and he wasn’t nearly as bad as the numbers say. He certainly hasn’t looked — or rated — that bad with the Mets.

Josh Hamilton’s Eyes

Interesting post about Josh Hamilton, who the Mets will see this weekend, and his struggles during days games. His splits look legit: For his career, Hamilton has a .976 OPS during night games against .728 during the day, though the sample of night games is much larger. The above post quotes an ophthalmologist who suggests that this may be a real phenomenon for the light eyed, as blue and green eyes have more glare. Or something. But I guess this is good news for the Mets, who play day games against Texas on Saturday and Sunday.

If you were wondering, as a group, MLB hitters have slightly better numbers during day games this season, .716 OPS during the day to .705 at night, but slightly better numbers during night games each of the last six season.

Passan: Jose Bautista

Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan — who is always excellent — has a profile of Jose Bautista, covering Bautista’s early struggles and the adjustments he’s made since. Interesting stuff about the game’s best player.

Also of note from the piece: Bautista is a fan of Malcolm Gladwell. I wonder how he feels about Grantland.

Via Hardball Talk