I stopped at the C- Brett Baty — Are you rating them strictly on their own ceilings or as nameless commodities?
Pete Alonso is not an A+ commodity wise — unless you have compared him to a historical Pete Alonso.
WAR ratings, how are they computed? Why is his relatively low vs Olson etc.?
If you are looking at Pete as a commodity then he is as good of a clutch hitter in baseball, high leverage against top pitching? That to overwhelm his less than stellar defense?
This was in the part that you allegedly read: "This is a subjective process, which will factor in not only performance but also how the individual is doing compared to expectations."
This is a difficult column to write and people will be quick to disagree. And that's ok, so long as the complainer recognizes that his opinion isn't worth any more than the opinion of the guy who wrote the piece.
Good work! I agree with your assessments across the board. I might quibble with a grade here or there (I’d knock Alonso down a bit, bump McNeil up, etc.) but I disagree with the D+ for Torrens. His bat has been sub-par, no doubt, but his defense has been exceptional. Given that he was expected to be a back-up, his presence on the diamond as a starter has been solid.
Nice job Brian and agree with nearly all your choices, even the grade for Alonso, who carried this team through the beginning part of the season. I'd have given Torrens a C since he has done a great job defensively which is what you want from a strong backup. The problem with backups starting in the lineup on a regular basis is that you learn quickly why they are generally slated to be backups. I would give Stearns a B+ only because if we had not been going down the pitcher reclamation route perhaps they would still be in first place by a nice margin. I'd give the Mets 360 group a grade of A++ because we are worth it.
That was a duh. You write so many of the articles that I forgot to look who the author was. I have the same comments, but I guess they need to go to John
Thanks for doing this, John. I know how hard this piece is to do and then after you spend all of the time on it, everyone nitpicks the grades.
So, here are my nitpicks...
Alonso was an A+ thru the first 36 games and 160 PA of the season. Since then, he has a .772 OPS in 263 PA. That's not as good as Nimmo's year-long production and you gave him a B-. My opinion is that Alonso should get a B+
Mauricio started off 0-8 but since then has a .784 OPS - or more productive than Alonso. And his fielding is better than you describe. Given that very few expected him to be in the majors at this point - remember he was supposed to get 250 PA in the minors after missing all of last year - I feel like this is possible "A" territory, more likely a B+
I stopped at the C- Brett Baty — Are you rating them strictly on their own ceilings or as nameless commodities?
Pete Alonso is not an A+ commodity wise — unless you have compared him to a historical Pete Alonso.
WAR ratings, how are they computed? Why is his relatively low vs Olson etc.?
If you are looking at Pete as a commodity then he is as good of a clutch hitter in baseball, high leverage against top pitching? That to overwhelm his less than stellar defense?
This was in the part that you allegedly read: "This is a subjective process, which will factor in not only performance but also how the individual is doing compared to expectations."
This is a difficult column to write and people will be quick to disagree. And that's ok, so long as the complainer recognizes that his opinion isn't worth any more than the opinion of the guy who wrote the piece.
Good work! I agree with your assessments across the board. I might quibble with a grade here or there (I’d knock Alonso down a bit, bump McNeil up, etc.) but I disagree with the D+ for Torrens. His bat has been sub-par, no doubt, but his defense has been exceptional. Given that he was expected to be a back-up, his presence on the diamond as a starter has been solid.
Nice job Brian and agree with nearly all your choices, even the grade for Alonso, who carried this team through the beginning part of the season. I'd have given Torrens a C since he has done a great job defensively which is what you want from a strong backup. The problem with backups starting in the lineup on a regular basis is that you learn quickly why they are generally slated to be backups. I would give Stearns a B+ only because if we had not been going down the pitcher reclamation route perhaps they would still be in first place by a nice margin. I'd give the Mets 360 group a grade of A++ because we are worth it.
This was written by John Fox, who has done the midseason grades column for several years now.
That was a duh. You write so many of the articles that I forgot to look who the author was. I have the same comments, but I guess they need to go to John
Thanks for doing this, John. I know how hard this piece is to do and then after you spend all of the time on it, everyone nitpicks the grades.
So, here are my nitpicks...
Alonso was an A+ thru the first 36 games and 160 PA of the season. Since then, he has a .772 OPS in 263 PA. That's not as good as Nimmo's year-long production and you gave him a B-. My opinion is that Alonso should get a B+
Mauricio started off 0-8 but since then has a .784 OPS - or more productive than Alonso. And his fielding is better than you describe. Given that very few expected him to be in the majors at this point - remember he was supposed to get 250 PA in the minors after missing all of last year - I feel like this is possible "A" territory, more likely a B+
Mauricio has been great at 3b defensively. Baty has been shockingly good at 2b. But these are just quibbles really. Nice job on this piece!