Author Archives: Ted Berg

Fair criticism

Posted on by
6

I read the Daily News every weekday. I have an iPhone, so I could probably rely entirely on electronic sources at this point, but buying the paper is part of my morning routine.

I have a pretty long train ride, so I usually finish just about the entire thing by the time I get to Grand Central, and the paper is, I think, one of the best ways to get firm handle on the city’s news and the way it is being covered.

But I’ve been a bit disturbed lately by the way the News has covered the Mets. Not just the bizarre Bill Madden incident from last week, either. This, too:

That subhead says: “Time running out for Jolly Ol’ St. Omar to deliver.”

The small black font under the photo says: “Nine days until Christmas and there’s still nothing under Mets’ tree thanks to Omar Minaya’s casual approach to free-agent season.”

Interesting. I had no idea Major League rosters needed to be set by Christmas. Is that a new rule?

There are a lot of fair criticisms of Omar Minaya. I perpetuate most of them in this space.

His inaction this offseason? Not one of them. Sure, it does appear the Mets misread the market a bit and thought there’d be more discounted players available, but would Brad Penny and/or Rich Harden really have made the difference to the Daily News? And other than those two, have there been any deals made that the Mets absolutely missed out on?

John Lackey at five years and $85 million or whatever it was? I’ll pass.

Roy Halladay was never even an option.

I’ve been urging Mets fans to be patient this offseason, but the more Mets fans I talk to, the more I realize it’s mostly not the fans that are impatient. I haven’t heard any Mets fan use the term “dithering.”

If we want to criticize Minaya, we should talk about how he gives too much money to replacement-level players and appears to actually think Bengie Molina is good. Those are fair criticisms.

But Minaya has not done any irreparable damage to the Mets yet this offseason, by action or inaction. Let’s wait until he does before we tee off on him.

Culture Jammin’: Avatar

Posted on by
11

I saw James Cameron on the street Monday night, outside of a bar on 51st St. in Manhattan.

I considered walking up to him and asking, excitedly, “Excuse me, are you the man responsible for Titanic?” and then, when he said yes, punching him in the face.

I realize that’s not a nice thing to do, plus James Cameron probably would spare absolutely no expense in suing my pants off, but on the other hand, Titanic sucked so hard. And I figure that’s a perfectly reasonable defense to present in court if I were to get sued for punching James Cameron.

“But your honor, did you even see Titanic? Why did Leo DiCaprio sink? Seriously. Dead people float!”

I opted not to do any bodily harm to James Cameron because, for one, it turns out he’s much bigger than me and, second, I remembered he also made the Terminator movies.

Also, I’m pretty psyched for Avatar.

I’m not certain Avatar will be good. In fact, if I had to bet, I’d guess it will suck. But because it’s the most expensive movie ever made, chances are it’s either going to be a towering epic or a complete catastrophe, and so, either way, it’s going to be awesome.

If you’re unfamiliar, the film opens Friday and is about a future in which humans are invading an alien planet to reap a mineral called — no joke — Unobtainium.

I assume there will be heavy-handed environmental allegory all over the place, which could be completely sickening or obvious but effective, depending on how much I like the movie.

Cameron himself has already produced some amazingly pretentious quotes about himself and his film, many of which are contained in this New York Times piece. Here’s my favorite:

My brother’s a Marine, and his friends are my friends, and this is how they think. Their idea is that the harder things get, the better it defines you. That’s something I understand. It’s why I make the kind of movies that I make. I’m not humping a 100-pound pack through 120-degree heat for 10 hours, but it’s the same kind of thing. I know I’m doing something other people can’t do.

You see, making a movie on a $250 million budget is the same kind of thing as BEING A MARINE.

With a master of simile like that at its helm, how can Avatar fail?

One particularly exciting thing about the movie is that it will feature an entirely new type of 3-D technology, which is described in the same Times article.

I’m on board with that. Say what you will about Cameron, the guy has always been dope at manipulating the best available cinematic technologies and creating new ones. Avatar stands to be a most awesome visual spectacle, regardless of whether it’s any good.

I’ll be seeing it in IMAX 3-D, because, as I’ve stated on numerous occasions, I like most things in ridiculous scale. Also because, as I’ve argued before, 3-D technology hasn’t really come very far since the old red-and-blue paper specs they used to hand out at 7-11 to promote sweeps week on FOX.

I think that’s crap, and so I’m hoping Cameron is the guy to usher in the next generation of making things in movies look like they’re flying off the screen at me. For that alone, I will be glad not to have punched him for Titanic.

Jorge Posada shouldn’t hold out for that extension

Posted on by
1

Steve Lombardi at WasWatching passes along Baseball America’s Top 10 prospects for the Yankees, and four of the top eight are catchers.

Maybe the Yankees really heavily scout catchers, or maybe that’s just a weird fluke. There’s only one other position player on the list.

Granted, the top guy is Jesus Montero, who, as Steve points out, likely will not end up behind the plate. But Montero absolutely torched Double-A pitching at 19 last year and will probably move quickly.

Behind Montero on the Yanks’ list of top catching prospects are Austin Romine, a 20-year-old who topped out at High A last year, Gary Sanchez, a 16-year-old who has yet to play professional ball, and J.R. Murphy, an 18-year-old who played Rookie Ball in 2009.

So it’s not like the catchers are exactly banging down the door, but damn. The Yankees are to catchers under 20 what the Mets are to catchers over 35.

As for the Mets’ list of top catching prospects, I suppose it looks like this:

1. Josh Thole
…….
2. Francisco Pena

Today in Hot Stove language

Posted on by
4

Omar Minaya “is thought to have signified a willingness” to offer five years to Jason Bay.

A deal between the Red Sox and Padres for Adrian Gonzalez “is not close, and might not happen at all.”

The Cardinals are negotiating with Matt Holliday, and “one Cardinals person expressed faith it could get done.”

But “a baseball source familiar with the negotiations” for Holliday said he and agent Scott Boras “are still looking for something that they’re not finding.”

Items of note

Posted on by
2

I keep forgetting that Jose Reyes will ever play again. Sweet.

Will Carroll at Baseball Prospects passes along a fascinating video.

I love this. I absolutely love this. The media creates a bugaboo: Tony Bernazard is the source of all the Mets’ problems. Then the media gets Tony Bernazard (rightfully) fired, the Mets don’t magically improve, and now the media wonders if the Mets would be better off if they still had Tony Bernazard.

Sam Page examines the metrics surrounding Jeff Francoeur’s defense. Sam’s a lot more optimistic than I am, but I think mostly the research speaks to how we don’t have anything like a perfect defensive metric yet.

Huddle up

Posted on by
3

Here’s a friendly reminder to come join me at the Blue and Orange Hot Stove Huddle tomorrow night at River on 43rd and 10th in Manhattan. More details of the event are here.

Numerous personalities from your favorite World Wide Web sites will be on hand to discuss the Mets and the MLB offseason.

I am told there will be a series of discussions moderated by Will Davidian of BlueAndOrange.net.

I’ll participate in the last of them, meaning I’ll have to either lay off the booze to save from embarrassing myself in a public forum, or realize that I’m going to embarrass myself regardless of whether I’ve been drinking and end up so tanked that I fight Joe Janish of MetsToday.com and get kicked out of the bar before I even have the opportunity to drool out nonsense about the Mets’ offseason strategy.

Which will happen? You can only find out if you go.

Helpful hint: It’ll probably be the former, but I can’t guarantee I won’t fight Joe Janish stone-cold sober.

NPB Tracker on Ryota Igarashi

Posted on by
3

Little-known fact: I once wrote an article about Japanese pitchers that was so loaded with falsehoods it inspired Japanese baseball expert Patrick Newman to start the excellent NPBTracker.com.

That, ironically, is probably my greatest contribution to the baseball blogosphere.

Anyway, with word surfacing that the Mets are about to sign Japanese reliever Ryota Igarashi, I turned to NPBTracker for info. Patrick posted a profile of Igarashi in May. He wrote:

Igarashi is known one of the hardest throwers in Japan, and jointly holds the record for fastest pitch* by a Japanese pitcher in an NPB game with a 158 kmph (98.75mph) fastball….

Although he doesn’t throw quite as hard as he used to, but still runs his heater into the upper 90’s, and augments it with a hard splitter that he throws at around 90mph. He’s also got a slider and a curve that he’ll mix in occasionally, but is primarily a fastball/splitter pitcher.

Igarashi’s weakness has been his control. Over the course of his career through 2008, he’s allowed 221 walks and thrown 42 wild pitches over 517.1 innings.

So it sounds a tiny bit like the Mets are signing the Japanese Fernando Rodney. Anyway, see for yourself:

Zduriencik rescues felled goat

Posted on by
Reply

Reading this article from Bill Baer on Baseball Daily Digest about how Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik turned the franchise around after a miserable 2008 season reminded me to remain hopeful about the future of the Mets.

Of course, Zduriencik and the Mariners haven’t won anything yet, but in a remarkably short time he’s made Seattle appear primed to become a regular contender, and restored a ton of fan confidence.

And the article reminded me of this, probably my favorite sports blog post of all time, from Tirico Suave: Using the Animal Kingdom To Demonstrate Bill Bavasi’s Tenure With The Mariners.

The video makes me laugh so hard every time I watch it (all due respect to the goat), for a variety of reasons, probably more for what actually happens than the metaphoric value assigned to it by the good folks at Tirico Suave. Anyway, it’s this:

What’re we learning here?

Posted on by
Reply

This was supposed to be baseball’s big bear market year, I thought. Right? Was I the only one hearing the the streets would be paved with cheap, talented free-agents, and All-Stars would be non-tendered by their folding teams, and anyone getting more than the Major League minimum for a small-market club would be trade fodder?

Doesn’t appear to be the case. The Brewers signed Randy Wolf to a three-year, $30 million contract. Multiple bad catchers have been signed for multiple years at multiple millions of dollars. The Cardinals have reportedly offered Matt Holliday an eight-year deal. The Rays have said they’re willing to “overextend” for just this year.

And, as Tim Dierkes points out, 39 players were non-tendered, as compared to 36 last season, and they formed a pretty typical non-tender class.

I don’t know the mechanics or the economics here, but I’m beginning to think maybe the financial situations of Major League clubs weren’t as doom and gloom as they were made out to be in September. It’s almost as if they’re still making money hand over fist.

Were there a few surprising non-tendered players? Sure. Were there a few trades obviously prompted by the arbitration system? Of course. But does it seem like there’s some huge economic disparity that’s going to choke the life out of the game anytime soon? I doubt it.

That gap exists, of course. I’m just not certain it’s growing wider. And of course, it doesn’t matter how much money you have if you don’t know the right way to spend it.

Fernando Rodney: Not even vaguely good

Posted on by
3

So Jorge Arangure’s Twitter, via Matt Cerrone, tells me that the Mets are interested in Fernando Rodney. And Cerrone says Rodney’s seeking a three-year, $30 million deal.

Remember yesterday when I said the Mets hadn’t actually screwed anything up yet and so we shouldn’t kill them just for their inaction? Yeah, if they’re actually interested in Fernando Rodney, and if they actually sign Fernando Rodney for any significant money, that’s screwing something up.

Fernando Rodney is eminently average. He throws very hard, which is nice, but he lacks control, and missed time in 2008 due to shoulder tendinitis, and is 32. He has a career 105 ERA+, just barely above league average, and a 1.424 WHIP, too high for a late-inning reliever.

Rodney is the prototypical example of a guy who will be overpaid because of the closer label. If you’ll recall, that’s precisely what I whined about the Mets doing all last offseason.

But I figured, with the way the J.J. Putz thing blew up in their faces, they learned from that mistake. And I hope they did.

If they go out and give a big contract to Fernando Rodney, who’s honestly probably not much better a bet than Bobby Parnell moving forward, it will show that they haven’t.