I had the pleasure last night to attend a presentation at Bloomberg headquarters  by Bloomberg Sports,  updating those of us in attendance, on the new features that have been added to their baseball analytical application and the unveiling of their Fantasy Football application. I came away quite impressed with both products.

Bloomberg Sports is really making a name for itself when it comes to statistical applications dealing with baseball and the football program, which is in pre-production, should be just as compelling to fantasy sports players, fans and media types alike.  

The first presentation of the evening was a detailed look at the analytical program that Bloomberg Sports has made available to all 30 MLB teams. Part of the presentation dealt with the batter/pitcher match up, where every pitch a pitcher has thrown to that batter is broken down to pitch type, pitch location, velocity, and the break of each pitch. There are pie charts that record what pitch type the pitcher has thrown in every conceivable count.   As an added bonus, you can click on each individual at bat in the batter/pitcher confrontation and see video of the at bat. The pitcher/batter used in last night’s demo was a Stephen Strasburg/Lastings Milledge matchup where ahead in the count to LMillz, Strasburg broke off a hellacious curve ball that Milledge’s initial reaction was the pitch was coming up and in or him and as he was bailing, the ball broke right over home plate for strike three. STUNNING!!!!!

For fans, Bloomberg uses the technology to help you win your fantasy league, in fact when you subscribe to the Bloomberg Sports application, you can sync your team into the app and have Bloomberg’s extensive stats and analysis show you the pluses and minuses of your team.

The Fantasy Football package will work the same but right now if you play Fantasy Football on NFL.com, the Bloomberg stat package will be included in the price of the game. If you wish to purchase the app separately (if you play on Yahoo or ESPN) it will cost you a very reasonable $7.95.

Both application are well worth it for fantasy players and non-fantasy players alike.

I agree here with Mathew Cerrone, Beltran needs to play but he needs to bat lower in the order and maybe move over to RF for now and let Angel Pagan play CF.

A fan is suing the Mets, MLB, Luis Castillo and just about anyone else he can fit on a legal brief for Castillo’s bat breaking and entering the stands and hitting this guy in the kisser. Who knew balsa wood could be so dangerous.  I bet this guy was either on his cell phone waving to a camera or just not paying attention. Sorry no litigation money for you!

Yesterday the Y-D Red Sox exploded for 11 runs in the bottom of the first inning against the Orleans Firebirds in the first game of the best of three East Semi-Finals on the way to an un Cape League 23-10 win. Red Sox first baseman Jordan Ribera who has a thick lower torso that generates a big power swing, homered twice in the bottom of the first and just missed a third home run in the eighth inning. I’m trying to finagle my way over to Orleans for game two tonight at 7PM

Freddy Skill Sets has turned into a real recluse without the unkempt look . Yesterday up at Storrs CT where he was announcing that UCONN will now be the home of Huskies basketball and football (which means for the first time since it’s inception I’ll watch SNY in the winter) and when reporters questions him about his floundering baseball team, Freddy turned into a real Mr. Cranky Pants.  He lets the world know that Omar is safe and that his son Jeffey is doing a great job running the organization. Something tells me Ol’ Freddy was of his medication yesterday.  But I have to thank him because now I can think about  that trip I’ve wanted to make to California to go from San Francisco to LA next summer since there won’t be any reason to go to Citi Field next year.

The Cape Cod League playoffs start today and I’ll be at Yarmouth-Dennis (Y-D) for their game against the Harwich Mariners.  It’s best to get down to the field early and plant your chair in a good spot as the game tonight could draw a good 3,000 to 5,000 fans.

If MLB doesn’t do something to straighten out their umpires one of them is going to get the living shit beat out of them by a player, coach, manager or a fan running on the field. No joke here, I’m fucking serious.

Since that time, little has changed.

The Mets have remained pretty strong at Citi Field, while cooling off just a bit there, going 11-7 since May 27th, to maintain one of MLB’s better home records at 30-16.

The road however, has continued to be unkind to the Mets, as evidenced by a disastrous west coast trip during which the Mets limped home with just a pair of wins in eleven games.

Since that earlier article, the Mets have improved — but only slightly — away from home, going 14-19, putting them at a still dismal 20-33 on the road, overall.

More importantly, the Mets now find themselves in third place in the National League East, looking up at Philadelphia (2½ games ahead of New York) and Atlanta, which now leads the Mets by 7½ games; and, even fourth-place Florida is breathing down the Mets’ necks, sitting just a half-game back.

While the Mets’ pitching has continued to be as consistent as their good play at home, their offense this month has been as promising as their ability to post road wins. Neither can be relied upon.

Even including a six-game homestand prior to the all-star break, the Mets have won just 4 of their past 17 games, scoring more than three runs just four times (three times not counting a bad call in San Francisco) while getting shut out five times over that stretch.

Most of that damage was out west, where if not for a missed call in the ninth inning of what should have been a Met loss to the Giants, the Mets would have won just a single game during their crucial eleven-game swing that saw the Mets score under three runs in seven games.

Not even the return of Carlos Beltran from the disabled list to start that trip nor Jose Reyes’ “re-return” to the top of the batting order could spark the Mets’ silent bats as they wasted several fine pitching performances. The Mets ended the trip without a run over the past 16 innings in Los Angeles, failing to score after the sixth inning in Saturday’s 3-2, 13-inning loss to the Dodgers before getting blanked 1-0 on Sunday.

It was such a poor road trip that it raises several legitimate questions:

At just a game over .500 (50-49), could the Mets, whose season was fairly solid before the all-star break, but which suddenly appears to be on the brink, be sellers instead of buyers this week, as the July 31st trading deadline fast approaches?

Could and should hitting coach Howard Johnson’s job be in jeopardy? At this point, the former Met slugger who had some nice moments as a player, did after all, hit only .249 over his career, and with the Mets in a deep and prolonged team-wide slump, Johnson has failed to get the Mets’ free-swinging and light-hitting offense to change its approach at the plate, as the strikeouts continue to mount at an alarming rate while being offset by far too few walks.

If the Mets don’t start winning soon, how much long might manager Jerry Manuel stay at the helm of his sinking ship? It’s difficult to blame a manger when players can’t hit. Or, is it? It took Alex Cora -– not Manuel -– to lay into the Mets after a loss in Arizona last week after Cora saw his teammates taking on Manuel’s easy-going persona, literally laughing off another loss as if the losing hasn’t been affecting the team much. Fiery managers win, and guys like Manuel win. So, there’s no right or wrong in terms of style, but it’s become clear that Manuel’s style with this Mets team, isn’t working right now.

If the season doesn’t turn around, will the Wilpons consider moving on from the Omar Minaya regime? After falling short in the 2006 NLCS when they should have probably won the World Series that year, the successive September collapses to blow the NL East each of the next two years, and the injury-plagued and poor season both on the field and from a public relations standpoint last year (right, Adam Rubin?), should Minaya be given yet another reprieve if the Mets aren’t at least playing meaningful games during the file week of the season, let alone if the Mets miss the playoffs for a fourth straight season? Minaya has made plenty of good moves, but he’s also left too many holes in the roster, and the underachieving results –- despite having one of the highest annual payrolls in MLB –- speak for themselves.

And, finally, although there have been several different pieces in the past few years placed around the core that has remained, are that core, along with the accompanying compliments simply a mentally fragile team? We’ve seen the Mets produce over the past five seasons when the pressure hasn’t been great. But, when the pressure’s been on, we’ve seen the Mets play tighter than a drum and thus become their own biggest obstacle to achieving success. Game 7 against St. Louis in the 2006 NLCS, and letting the Phillies catch them twice the next two Septembers. Folding like a house of cards instead of at least trying to fight through their myriad of injuries last year. And, now this year, playing well at the friendly confines of Citi Field, yet playing poorly on the road, to the tune of just two series wins (against two last-place American League teams) in 17 road series.

And, let’s throw in one more while we’re at it… how do the Mets’ medical and training staffs remain employed? With all of the misdiagnosing and mishandling of injuries last year, Beltran and Reyes, among others, again missed significant time this year, and now John Maine is out for the season. The only groups who are wrong more often while still keeping their jobs are weather people and at least this year, several MLB umpires.

After a horrid western trip, the Mets will be happy to get back home, but it won’t get a lot easier, as they’ll host the first-place Cardinals on Tuesday. After Arizona then visits Flushing, it’s back on the road to Atlanta and Philadelphia for a couple of three-game sets.

Unless the Mets can bring their Citi Field game to places like that, they’ll continue to travel on a literal road to nowhere and raise a lot of questions as to where others in the organization might be headed.

 

Join me tonight at 10PM ET for This Call To The Bullpen Radio Show on Blog Talk Radio. My guest is former Major Leaguer and current ESPN baseball analyst, Doug Glanville. Doug and I will be discussing his new book, THE GAME FROM WHERE I STAND: A Ballplayer’s Inside View (published by Henry Holt/Times Books) and we’ll also get Doug’ views and what’s happening today in MLB.

If you can’t join is live, you can listen to the podcast on the show page, or right here at Kranepool Society (scroll down to the lower left hand side bar) or download the show on iTunes.

Don’t forget to check out the THIS CALL TO THE BULLPEN shop for t-shirts, mugs bags and many other items.

Join me tonight at 10PM ET for This Call To The Bullpen Radio Show on Blog Talk Radio. My guest is former Major Leaguer and current ESPN baseball analyst, Doug Glanville. Doug and I will be discussing his new book, THE GAME FROM WHERE I STAND: A Ballplayer’s Inside View (published by Henry Holt/Times Books) and we’ll also get Doug’ views and what’s happening today in MLB.

If you can’t join is live, you can listen to the podcast on the show page, or right here at Kranepool Society (scroll down to the lower left hand side bar) or download the show on iTunes.

Don’t forget to check out the THIS CALL TO THE BULLPEN shop for t-shirts, mugs bags and many other items.

Howard Megdal has challenged Steve Phillips to a debate on  what makes a good General Manager but Phillips has declined the invitation to meet with Megdal and discuss baseball management issues in a public forum. Part of me understands why Phillips is dodging Megdal, it’s a no win situation for him. Philips is seriously lacking in the “skill sets” needed to take on a man of Howard Megdal’ stature. Howard is a straight shooter when it comes to his idea of running a baseball team whereas Phillips, as we have seen with his “I’d trade Stephen Strasburg for Roy Oswalt” declaration on the Pompous Ass radio show, isn’t capable of running a t-ball team and add in his skirt chasing behavior he is now radioactive when it comes to prospective employers  in MLB.

But on the other hand, Phillips would learn a thing or three from Megdal which would be helpful if he did want to get back into baseball.

For once in your life Steve Phillips MAN UP and take Howard Megdal’ challenge !!!!!!!!

RA Dickey pitches another great game for the Mets

- The Mets won 4-3 behind the strong pitching of RA Dickey, who gave up three runds in 6-plus innings.

- Dickey also had two hits on the day.

- Henry Blanco said after the game he had a herniated disc in his neck, which he received a shot for. That’s why the Mets called up Omar Santos.

- This is the Mets 20th home win, which is the most in the Majors.

- This is also their sixth straight win at Citi Field. The last time they lost a game at home, it was on May 21st against the Yankees.

- Ruben Tejada went 1-4 tonight with a third inning double and drove in the go-ahead run on a groundout in the sixth for his first MLB RBI.

- Jeff Francoeur has hit in eight straight games hitting .500 over that stretch with two doubles and four RBI.

- Jason Bay was 2-4 with an RBI. Dating back May 9th against San Francisco he is hitting .429 at home with five doubles, two homers and 10 RBI.

- Angel Pagan picked up an assist in the third inning for his team leading sixth.

- The last time an opponent hit a homer at Citi Field was May 12th when Roger Bernadina of the Nats hit two.

- The Mets will make a decision tomorrow on Jon Niese. They still home Oliver Perez will accept a demotion, but it doesn’t sound hopeful.

Where to begin with another losing road trip, tons of Mets road kill all around so lets hit it:

Johan Santana threw his heart and soul into yesterday’s game. It wasn’t pretty but like I’ve said before, sometime the game where your pitcher doesn’t have his best stuff and still finds a way to be effective is as impressive as a 3 hit shutout. But it seems all Santana’ starts end with a no-decision for him and a bullpen induced loss for the Mets.

After the game Jerry Manuel was asked about his bullpen and said it may be time to look for other options, well yeah Jerry since most of your relievers arms are ready to fall off and it’s only June. It’s not like we didn’t see this coming. Check out this graph by Justin Bopp of Beyond the Boxscore that shows the average number of relief appearances by all MLB teams. Of course the Mets lead all of baseball in use of relievers and one of Manuel’s big faults is he has absolutely no clue on how to run a bullpen.

Manuel threw a fit about keeping Jenry Mejia on the team saying he needed this kid’ electric arm in the pen. Fine, but Manuel has no idea how to use him. At first Mejia was to be the set up man for Frankie Rodriguez because Kelvin Escobar the guy with the sore arm that Omar Minaya signed over the winter for the job came up with a sore arm. Go figure?

But Manuel decided that the role of set up was too much for the 20 year old Mejia so when Pedro Feliciano screamed PICK ME! PICK ME! Manuel did but then felt Felicano was better served in a situational role. That led to Fernando Nieve getting the nod and he did well for a while until he was used everyday and his arm turned to overcooked linguine. Then Ryaota Igarashi took over the roll or did Igarashi come before Nieve I don’t know, I’m as confused as Jerry Manuel, but anyway, Igarashi was the set up guy until he pulled a hammy. Now all I’ve heard about Japanese baseball players is their dedication to conditioning but leave it to the Mets to find the one slacker in all of Japanese baseball but then again the Mets training staff could help itself by watching some tapes of Jack LaLane. Now the set up role has fallen on Old Uncle Elmer Dessens, the released, DFA, minor league contract, scrap heap pitcher from Mexico. Maybe Uncle Elmer can do the job with his combo special of fastball/slider and if he doesn’t, I’m sure Jerry Manuel can find another sacrificial arm to offer up.

I, like the majority of Mets fans wish the team would have left Jenry Mejia in the minors to work on his craft and blossom but if you’re going to keep him here why not let him be the set up man? His walk rate is high but he throws gas and gets tons of ground ball outs then add in the fact you’ve already screwed him over this season and ruined a year of his development, why not?  What could happen? Failure? Shit we’re used to that by now around here. Last night as Adrian Gonzalez’ Granny was sailing over the left field wall I had no emotion at all. This is what it’s come down to, the Mets lose on a walk off Grand Slam home run and my reaction is “Honey? Is dinner ready”?

I have a feeling that by this afternoon, Ollie Perez will accept an assignment to either Buffalo or St. Lonesome. The heat is on Scott Boras more than Ollie to make this move as Ollie isn’t smart enough to know what damage he is doing to his team and his reputation but Boras isn’t a dummy, he knows Perez needs to do this and with players coming out voicing their resentment to his selfishness and that guys at MLB Network speaking out in unison that Perez is a selfish prick, and the fact that the mere site of #46 in the bullpen will incite the crowd at $tit Field, it’s in everyone’s best interest, Perez, Boras, General Manager Jeffey Skill Sets, to bring this distraction to a close.    

Just like last year the Mets can’t make up their mind about putting a player on the DL. This time is Luis Castillo and his bad feet. We’ve been hearing for about two weeks that Castillo has foot problems and to the Gimps credit he has hung in there without much production but he’s a real (broken down) trooper but it seems like a trip to the DL is in his immediate future so who gets the call? It looked like Daniel Murphy but last night he was helped off the field in Buffalo with a knee injury after getting knocked over at 2^nd base, then there is scuttlebutt that Jesus is coming. Fleiciano that is but he’s not an infielder (could this be the end of GMJ? Please say it’s so GM Jeffey) so look for Ruben Tejada to get the recall notice and that’s fine with me but how about a really bold move and letting Reese Havens get a chance? How great would it be to have Ike Davis and Reese Havens, two former Brooklyn Cyclones make up half the infield?

By the way how much do you think the Mets fortunes would be different if David Eckstein played for the Mets?

What more can be said about what happened last night in Detroit? I’d have to think that Jim Joyce was of sound mind and knew he was in the middle of history here. It wasn’t even a difficult call, Jason Donald was so out that he couldn’t believe he was called safe. All the name calling of Joyce is all emotion and Joyce later admitted he blew the call and Armado Galarraga’s moment of fame but this is becoming a very serious issue for MLB. Last post season we saw umpires screw up badly and that has carried over to the 2010 regular season as well. Joe West and Mark Buehrle, Angel Hernandez the other night with no clue of what the strike zone was during the Rays-Blue Jays game. Bill Hohn tossing Roy Oswalt in the third inning of his start, it’s Umpires Gone Wild. Time for The Used Car Salesman to let Mike Port flex some muscle and start suspending these umpires and get some of the old goats an incentive package to retire and then stay true to the evaluation process and ban some of these incompetent ass’ from working in the post season.        

I have been so unbelievably busy between blogging here and doing my This Call To The Bullpen Radio Show and getting ready to cheer on the Boston Celtics to Banner 18 and doing my job that pays me in real money and benefits that I’ve been looking to hire an assistant to help me out with some of my daily tasks and after reading this story in today’s NY Post I’m hoping Ms. Debralee Lorenzana sends me her resume as I would really, REALLY love to hire her for the position any position, all positions, missionary position. If you want to be accepted for who you are Ms. Lorenzana, you’ve come to the right place, you will welcomed with open arms.