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'62 Record Threatened?

Frayed Knot May 18 2013 07:29 AM

A little side-note to watch as the season progresses: through the (approximate) quarter pole of this season, both the Astros and the Marlins are barely keeping their heads above the 'magical' .250 winning pct mark. Both lost last night and clock in this morning at an identical 11-31 (.261) Last night Houston has a 4-1 lead in Pittsburgh, but 1 Pirate run in the 6th then 2 in the 8th means tied heading to 9 Top 9: Astros get a one-out base-runner ... except that he's promptly picked-off Bottom 8: Pirates load the bases with one out [single, GO, single, E-1]. Houston pitcher Edgar Gonzalez K's Neil Walker for the 2nd out then gets Russell Martin to pop to short RF and we're going to extra-innings ... except that the 2B & RF collide and the ball falls to the ground. Game over. THAT'S what happens to teams who threaten 120 loss seasons.

Edgy MD May 18 2013 07:56 AM Re: '62 Record Threatened?

I'm thinking that right about now, Houston may have the worst all-time record in American League history.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr May 18 2013 08:01 AM Re: '62 Record Threatened?

It's terrible to watch, yes... but, in all likelihood, it'll be one fruitful garden out of this shit, as per Rany Jayzerli. He was hired in December 2011, after Houston — a franchise that had never lost more than 97 games — had finished 56-106. Luhnow could have been forgiven for thinking the team had hit rock bottom. He could have been expected to obey the first rule of getting out of a hole: When you hit bottom, stop digging. Luhnow kept digging. Only this time, with purpose. Perhaps alone among all the teams on the above list, the Astros are there by design, and not the design of an owner simply looking to fill his coffers. The Astros were terrible in 2011 because of a decade of poor, shortsighted decisions. That they were even worse in 2012, and are on pace to be worse again in 2013, is not because they are still paying for their sins. It's because, the way baseball works under the current collective bargaining agreement, sometimes the fastest way for a bad team to get to the top is to take a shortcut through hell... To put it another way: There's not much of an incentive in the draft for a good team to be mediocre, or for a mediocre team to be bad. But there's a huge incentive for a bad team to be awful. The Astros had more than $11 million of cap money to play with, and only one other team had even $10 million.3 And while the slot values are so high at the very top of the draft in order to allow teams to sign the draft picks with the most leverage, there's no law that mandates they do so. So last June, with no clear standout player in the draft, the Astros cut a deal with Puerto Rican shortstop Carlos Correa, a top-five talent but not the consensus no. 1 player available, who signed for $4.8 million. Correa got a higher bonus than any team drafting out of the top three picks could afford — but the Astros saved $2.4 million relative to the slot value of that pick, money they used to sign two highly regarded players (Lance McCullers Jr. and Rio Ruiz) who slid in the draft because of their bonus demands. Correa, McCullers, and Ruiz all rank among the Astros' top 10 prospects. By tearing apart their roster last summer, the Astros guaranteed themselves the no. 1 pick again next month, and once again will have a significant spending advantage on every other team. Only this year, the advantage spreads to signing amateur talent on the international market as well. While there is no draft on foreign amateurs — yet — each team has a firm cap on how much money it can spend to sign kids from Latin America and other markets.4 Those caps are determined by "draft order" even though there is no draft. The upshot is that the Astros have $400,000 more to spend than the Chicago Cubs, who lost 101 games, and the gap only grows from there. At some point, the Astros will make a push to start winning games. But the longer they continue to suck, the longer they'll reap the advantages of draft resources that other teams don't have...

batmagadanleadoff May 18 2013 10:47 AM Re: '62 Record Threatened?

It's terrible to watch, yes... but, in all likelihood, it'll be one fruitful garden out of this shit, as per Rany Jayzerli. That's an excellent piece. I recommend reading it whole, not just the excerpt provided by LWFS. BTW, below the Astros piece, there's a link to a Jayzerli piece on RA Dickey, written, initially, just before the Blue Jays signed him, and then updated after the Mets/Jays trade. I missed that piece the first time around, but just now, posted it to the RA Deserves His Own Thread thread. viewtopic.php?f=1&t=18060&p=512953#p512953

Benjamin Grimm May 24 2013 10:11 AM Re: '62 Record Threatened?

Current projections: Marlins, .277 (45-117) Astros, .298 (48-114) The Mets (.386) and Cubs (.391) are the only other teams with a winning percentage under .400.

MFS62 May 26 2013 03:53 PM Re: '62 Record Threatened?

While we're looking at season records, what is the single Mets season record for lowest team batting average? They have to be close, or (shudder) lower. Later

RealityChuck May 27 2013 06:44 AM Re: '62 Record Threatened?

Probably .221 in 1965

Edgy MD May 27 2013 06:52 AM Re: '62 Record Threatened?

Bad, but probably not slated to take over the 1963 crown for "worst," as the spring months usually see some of the poorest hitting of the season. A lot can happen between now and then, as far as injuries or replacements. If Davis gets bumped, it'll likely be for someone likely to hit for a higher average and lower power. And then, maybe he won't get replaced at all. Whoever takes the bulk of the appearances in center the rest of the year, we have a lot of low-average candidates. Rk Year BA ? 1 1999 .279 2 2007 .275 T3 2009 .270 T3 1996 .270 5 1987 .268 6 1995 .267 7 2008 .266 T8 2011 .264 T8 2006 .264 T10 2000 .263 T10 1986 .263 12 1997 .262 13 1998 .259 14 2005 .258 T15 1985 .257 T15 1984 .257 T15 1980 .257 T18 2002 .256 T18 1990 .256 T18 1988 .256 T18 1975 .256 T22 1994 .250 T22 1979 .250 T24 2012 .249 T24 2010 .249 T24 2004 .249 T24 2001 .249 T24 1971 .249 T24 1970 .249 T30 1993 .248 T30 1981 .248 T32 2003 .247 T32 1982 .247 T34 1989 .246 T34 1976 .246 T34 1973 .246 T34 1964 .246 38 1978 .245 T39 1991 .244 T39 1977 .244 41 1969 .242 42 1983 .241 43 1962 .240 44 1966 .239 45 1967 .238 T46 1992 .235 T46 1974 .235 T48 2013 .228 T48 1968 .228 50 1972 .225 51 1965 .221 52 1963 .219

Benjamin Grimm May 31 2013 07:56 AM Re: '62 Record Threatened?

The Marlins have now lost nine games in a row, and their winning percentage has dropped to .241. They currently project to finish the season with a record of 39 and 123. The last time I checked in, the Mets had the third worst record in baseball, slightly behind the Cubs and ahead of only the Marlins and Astros. The current five-game winning streak has changed that. They're now at .431, and better than the Marlins, Astros (.315), Brewers (.365), Cubs (.423), Dodgers (.423), Mariners (.426), Blue Jays (.426), and tied with the Royals. The Mets weren't supposed to be better than the Dodgers and Blue Jays, were they?

John Cougar Lunchbucket May 31 2013 08:10 AM Re: '62 Record Threatened?

Not 4 nothing but we've struggled to put away the Marlins this year. I do believe we're one of the few squads to lose a series to them.

Edgy MD May 31 2013 08:49 AM Re: '62 Record Threatened?

Yeah, avoiding a letdown is important. But passing five teams and catching a sixth, including three National League squads now in the rearview, is good stuff.

Ceetar May 31 2013 10:49 AM Re: '62 Record Threatened?

Edgy MD wrote: Yeah, avoiding a letdown is important. But passing five teams and catching a sixth, including three National League squads now in the rearview, is good stuff. avoid the letdown and it's not unreasonable that they could be in second, or sniffing it, but this time next week.

Frayed Knot Jun 02 2013 06:06 AM Re: '62 Record Threatened?

Meanwhile, on the flip side of the ledger, we've got the St Looie Cardinals threatening the other NYM record. Well not a record really but no NL team (although several AL squads) since the '86 Mets has gone through a season winning 2/3 of their games. The Cards, currently at 37-18 after pounding the Giants 8-0 & 7-1 in a Double-Header yesterday*, are a game ahead of that pace and heading for a season-ending record of 109-53 * First Cain (7 runs allowed in 6 innings) then Baumgarner (5 R/6 IP) took the beatings - which begs the question: Which was least expected; that the Cards, minus Pujols plus various pitching injuries, would be this good, or that SF starting pitching, particularly in that ballpark, would be sitting just 7 spots from the bottom among all ML teams? In Game #1 against Cain, the Cards only out-hit the Gaints ten-to-seven and had zero HRs (8 singles + 2 doubles) but nine of those ten hits came during an eleven batter span resulting in a 7-Run 3rd inning. That parade of hits was interrupted only by a Matt Holliday K and a Sac Bunt by pitcher Shelby Miller who wound up making two of the three outs in the inning. StL batters went 1-2-3 in every other inning except for the 8th when a Walk-Double-SacFly sequence gave them a tack-on run. Another way to look at it is they had 11 base-runners for the entire game and scored 8 of them. 2B - 1B - Bunt - 1B - 1B - K - 1B - 1B - 2B - 1B - 1B - K In Game 2 they again hit no HRs but again got a lopsided win despite out-hitting SF just 9-to-8. This time they bunched all their hits into three innings while the Giants were doing the old one hit per frame thing. That's like the kind of Voodoo shit the MFYs used to seemingly pull off all the time.

Frayed Knot Jun 30 2013 06:30 PM Re: '62 Record Threatened?

Well, at the (more or less) halfway mark, it looks like the '62 Mets record is safe. The two teams we were watching are both still in last place but safely enough above the .250 pace they'd need to match the modern ineptness record. The Astros sit at 30-52 and the Marlins at 29-51 or both at about a .362 win pct and a 59 win pace. So unless one of these squads is prepared to throw in something like a 10-70 second half, they won't even come close. What it might be time to start is a Pittsburgh Pirate watch. They just won via walk-off fashion in the 14th putting their record at an ML Best 51-30 in the quest to at least finish above .500 for the first time in more than two decades and, at best, hold on to their division lead and their 100+ win pace. As we all know, they looked like they were going to bust through at various points over the last couple of seasons as well before falling apart late. Last year they were 45-36 at this point before hitting a high of 16 games over on July 28th (58-42). Then an 11-17 August and a 7-21 September killed it for them. oe: btw, one cool thing about the Pirates run here (nine straight) is that it's being partially fueled by 3B Pedro Alvarez and recent call-up (RHP) Gerrit Cole - guys who were originally drafted by, but chose not to sign with, the Red Sox (Alvarez) and the Yanx (Cole)