Running Baseball Thread, Part the XII

Reyes was expected to be the guy going into the season, and solidified the thought in everyone's mind with a great start. Since then, he has had a disappointing season. Look at those numbers & tell me where you see an MVP.

 

I guess you have to have a deeper understanding of the game to be able to grasp what sort of havoc he wreaks on the way pitchers go at batters when he is on base.

 

Right now Reyes is still the Mets' MVP. Wright could change that with a good September, but it should not be forgotten that Reyes was the only spark of life on a team that pretty much slept-walked from April through July. Reyes hasn't had a month where he was invisible, as Wright did in April. The stuff about Reyes' effect on a game and his ability to set things up for his teammates isn't overblown. Wright and Beltran have had subpar years for the most part, but their averages with Reyes on base are far, far above their numbers when he's not. Wright is an underrated base-stealer, but there's no way he affects a game with his speed the way Reyes does. I've seen Reyes rattle pitchers into balks, I've seen him go from second to third on groundballs to the left side, I've seen him score from first on a single, I've seen him create runs and scoring opportunities in ways that hardly anyone else in the game can. Anyone who's watched the Mets closely since April would say that Reyes has been the one indispensible Met. One bad series in Philly doesn't change that.

 

Even though you don't deserve to be in the Pro Football HOF, that post needs bronzing.

 

He got out of it all right, though.

 

I've never seen it. I've seen you make ridiculous argument after ridiculous argument trying to support a weak point, but that's it.

And I have backed you when I thought you were right. I was the one arguing right with you about ERA being the most telling statistic for pitchers.

The Mets have been "dying" for five games. They were in great shape until the current losing streak, but that's a pretty damn small sample size to base an MVP argument on. Comparing that to April is unfair because there were other factors involved in the Mets' strong start.

Billy Wagner was dominating early on. He has been terrible of late. John Maine was pitching like a Cy Young Award candidate in April. He's no better than decent now. Joe Smith was pitching extremely well out of the bullpen in April. He has since faded and been sent to the minors, a big deal for a team that is having huge bullpen problems. Shawn Green hit the ball extremely well the first month of the season, but he has been terrible since.

The difference between the Mets now and in April is a lot more than which of their MVP candidates is producing.

 

Yeah...because you actually found somebody to agree with you. That is a rare find.

 

You have an irritating habit of assuming that anyone who disagrees with you doesn't understand what you're saying. How many MVPs did Vince Coleman win? How many would you have given him?

Reyes, by month:

G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG OPS
April 24 104 26 37 9 5 2 18 16 11 17 3 .356 .442 .596 1.038
May 27 112 16 30 5 2 0 7 14 19 12 3 .268 .349 .348 .697
June 27 106 13 35 2 1 2 9 14 14 10 5 .330 .405 .425 .829
July 27 117 21 31 9 2 3 7 9 9 11 3 .265 .317 .453 .770
August 27 120 24 32 3 1 2 7 13 10 22 3 .267 .338 .358 .697

I would expect him to be an MVP one day, he has that kind of talent, but he wasn't this year. Rickey HEnderson wasn't a consistent MVP candidate because of the intangibles of being a pest on the bases, it was because he was so good at so many things in addition to stealing bases. Other than walking more & more SBs (which are both important), he will have been better last year, and in balance his season this year will fall short of last year's barring a big finish. The fact that you see Castillo hit singles in the hole vacated by the 2B covering doesn't make Reyes the MVP and doesn't make your analysis sophisticated.

 

Fuck this fucking dog-ass team.

 

Guy,

Clearly you don't get it. He STEALS BASES! He's DISRUPTIVE! He plays in NEW YORK! He's FAST! And LITTLE! And there's nothing voters love more than giving awards to little fellas.

If, and that's unbelievably becoming a big if, New York wins the East, then he's a very good candidate for NL MVP. One of two on that team.

And in NO WAY the unquestioned MVP of the league. Frankly, I don't understand why it's even a discussion.

Oh, wait, actually I do. It's called FLAMEWAR!!!!!!eleven!!!!!!!11!!!!!!

 

Cubs turning Wandy Rodriguez into Sandy Koufax again.

 

Pretty much...though I like to think of it is beating Simon over the head with his own delusions.