The most misleading pitching statistic is a pitcher's record.  Often times, pitchers will be saddled for losses when they pitched well enough to deserve a win.  The opposite is also true, where a pitcher can give up 5 runs in 5 innings and still get a win. 

A good example for this season is Johan Santana.  If you looked solely at his record, which is 7-7, you would say that he's had a down year.  And by the standards he's held up to, especially in NY, that is true.  But dig deeper into his numbers. 

His ERA is 2.96, which puts him 5th in the NL, and his 121.2 innings pitched puts him 3rd in the NL.  In reviewing his seven losses, the following has occurred:

Three of his losses have come when he's allowed one earned run (Atlanta, San Diego and Seattle), although he did give up a granny to a pitcher in the Seattle loss, but all those runs were unearned.   His last 3 no decisions, he has pitched 21 innings and gave up a combined 3 runs.  Not 3 runs per start, 3 runs total.  No doubt in each of those 3 starts, he deserved a W, and it's not his fault that the offensive offense put together by the "genius" Omar Minaya hasn't done squat for him.  In five of his past six starts, the Mets have scored two runs or less.  It's nearly impossible for a pitcher to pick up wins when your offense belongs in the minors.

Now, to take the opposite, let's look at Steve Trachsel from 2006.  His record in 2006 was 15-8.  Just looking at that record alone, it's a solid year.  We Mets fans who followed the run to the NLCS in 2006 know better.  His ERA that year...4.97.  Yes, an ERA of nearly 5 runs.  Now, is that a good year, or a byproduct of getting a lot of love from the first eight hitters of the lineup everytime he took to the hill?   His strikeout to walk ratio was nearly 1 to 1 (79 K's with 78 BBs) and 185 hits over 164.2 innings.  Digging deeper into Trachsel's numbers shows you that the record hardly shows what type of year he had.  And the Mets properly awarded him with nothing once the 2006 season concluded. 

The point is that records cannot be the sole gauge of how a pitcher is performing in a season, and the wins and losses are typically the first thing that is mentioned by broadcasters or the anchors on Baseball Tonight or whatever baseball show you may be watching. 

I'm a die hard Mets fan, and for myself and all my fellow Mets fans, to say we are disappointed is an understatement.  It's beyond disappointment.  It's anger.  It's frustration.  With a $140 million payroll comes $140 million expectations and reality is far from the expectations.  Willie Randolph is on the hot seat, as he should be.  This team is underachieving, and fails to have any kind of fire when they'r e out there, this according to David Wright.  We've heard Billy Wagner pop off to the media wondering why he's being talked to when he didn't play.  Willie stirring up a controversy with his comments regarding how he's portrayed on SNY, which is owned by the Mets. 

I want to say on record that Willie should be fired.  From June 1st of last season on, the Mets are a below .500 team.  They had a historic collapse blowing a 7 game lead with 17 games to go, and while he claims they've gotten over it, results seem to prove otherwise. 

This Mets mess is far from the manager's fault.  It's not like the GM, Omar Minaya has done WIllie any favors in giving him the parts he needs to be successful.  Too many of Minaya's trades not only haven't worked out, but have been downright disastrous.  Let's take a look at some of the deals that Omar Minaya has made since taking over the reigns as GM. 

1.  Trading Brian Bannister to Kansas City for Ambiorix Burgos.  In 2007, Bannister went 12-9 with a 3.87 ERA in 27 starts.  This year, he has slipped to a 4-6 record with an ERA of 4.94 in 10 starts.  Burgos in that same time frame hasn't thrown a pitch in 2008, and he was 0-1 with a 3.42 ERA in 17 appearances.  I'd rather have Bannister in the five spot than the enigma that is Mike Pelfrey right now. 

2.  After the 2006 season, Minaya sent Royce Ring and Heath Bell to San Diego for Ben Johnson and Jon Adkins.  Ring is now in Atlanta and hasn't been effective for the Braves in 2008 with an ERA of 6.43.  His only year in San Diego, he went 0-1 in with a 3.60 ERA in 15 appearances.  Heath Bell has become the Joba Chamberlin of the Padres.  In 2007, Bell went 6-4 with 2 saves and an ERA of 2.02 ERA in 81 appearances.  He allowed only 60 hits in 93 2/3 innings in 2007, truly an amazing figure.  His ERA in 2008 skyrocketed to a still miniscule 2.77 ERA in 23 appearances in 2008.  Now, let's take a look at the parts the Mets got back in that deal.  Ben Johnson hit a whopping .185 in 27 at bats for the Mets in 2007, and has not been in a game this year.  He never made the roster out of spring training in 2008.  Jon Adkins is now in the Cincinnati Reds organization.  With the mess the Mets bullpen is right now, Bell would be a welcome sight in that Mets bullpen. 

3.  Also after the 2006 season, the Mets sent Matt Lindstrom and Henry Owens to Florida for Jason Vargas and Adam Bostick.  Lindstrom in 2007 had a solid season with a 3-4 record with an ERA of 3.09 in 71 apperances.  He has also been solid in 2008 with an 0-1 record with an ERA of 3.18 in 20 appearances.  Owens has been injured for much of his tenure with the Marlins.  Jason Vargas (not to be confused with Claudio Vargas who is keeping Pedro Martinez's spot in the rotation warm until Pedro returns) is currently on the DL and appeared in all of two games for the Mets in 2007 with an ERA of 12.19.  Bostick is currently in the rotation of the Mets AAA affiliate in New Orleans. 

Minaya has made some good deals, maybe the best of the bunch being acquiring John Maine and Jorge Julio for Kris Benson (Julio turned into Orlando Hernandez in a separate deal with Arizona).  Also, trading for Ryan Church and Brian Schneider for Lastings Milledge has paid dividends this year as Church has been the most consistent performer in the Mets lineup this year, and Schneider is very solid behind the plate, and has been a surprise swinging the stick.  I do think the Santana trade is a good one.  Santana may not be as dominant as we Met fans would like, but he hasn't been horrible either.

I also look at the farm system the Mets have, and a move the Mets just made tells you all you need to know.  The Mets put Moises Alou on the DL, and logic dictates calling up an outfielder, but the Mets think so poorly of their outfield at AAA right now, they brought Raul Casanova back from New Orleans.  Casanova is a CATCHER.  The Mets now have 3 catchers on the roster.  Baseball America's top 100 prospects list released at the start of the season has one prospect on that list, Fernando Martinez (#20).  Their minor league affiliates aren't exactly lighting it up.  Here are the records of the Mets minor league affiliates so far this season...

New Orleans (AAA) 21-25

Binghamton (AA) 22-23

St. Lucie (High A) 9-38

Savannah (A) 19-28

The bottom line is that this organization has a lot of issues, and it's more than just Willie.  If Minaya isn't on the hot seat, he should be. 

Also, according to the radio broadcast of the Mets, Minaya is in Denver and will address the media sometime during the game. 

Wednesday was national letter of intent day.  College kids all over the country faxing their letters of intent while college football goobers such as myself are excited.  I'm a Colorado fan, and I'm excited about what coach Hawk did with this class, with the big prize being Darrell Scott, one of the top running backs in the country, as well as some stud linebackers.

So, who is #1?  Various recruiting services ranked the top 25 class, and they were pretty much all over the map.  For example, Colorado was rated #16 by rivals.com and not rated in the top 25 in scout.com.    Here's what I did.  I took the top 25 classes from rivals.com, scout.com, espn.com and cstv.com and then assigned point values from 1 to 25 with the 1 team getting 25 points and the number 2 team getting 24 points and so on.  Based on this, here's a consenus top 25 (first place votes in parenthesis)

1. Alabama (3)
2. Notre Dame
3. Miami (1)
4. Georgia
5. Florida
6. Ohio State
7. USC
8. Oklahoma
9. Clemson
10. Florida State
11. LSU
12. Michigan
13. Texas
14. UCLA
15. Virginia Tech
16. Texas A&M
17. Illinois
18. Arizona State
19. Auburn
20. Minnesota
21. Washington
22. Colorado
23. Pitt
24. Arkansas
25. Nebraska & Oregon

The others receiving votes in order are NC State, Boston College, South Carolina, Oklahoma State, Ole Miss & Missouri. 

These of course will be changing once Terelle Pryor makes a decision on where to go to school.  I give him a lot of credit for not making a decision on the national signing day.  If he doesn't know, there's no reason to sign the paper right now.   It worked out fine for Noel Devine, and had a great freshman season at West Virginia.  Good luck Terelle in your decision. 

So, props to the tide led by that "no good" Nick Saban (as referred by Jim Mandich on a radio show last year).  If these hold true, the ACC & SEC will sure have some tough teams, with each conference landing 3 schools in the top 10. 

Can't wait for spring ball...now GO BUFFS!

As college football fans, now that the bowl season is over, we as fans turn to recruiting.  Do we get that coveted player that our team desperately needs?  How strong is our class?  Top 20?  Top 10?  And how do we rate these?  Simple...we check out sites such as rivals.com. 

How accurate are their player assessments?  I say this among the news that Xavier Lee, a five star QB, who we all would agree was a bust, made the foolish decision to go pro.  After starting all of six games, and relief in a handful of others, he went 155 for 402 for 2,323 yards, 15 TDs and 11 INTs.  On rivals.com, he was rated #10 overall and the second QB, behind Rhett Bomar.  Out of that top 10, here's how they fared...

1.  Adrian Peterson RB Oklahoma...stud RB without question and offensive rookie of the year this past season for Minnesota.  They didn't miss there.

2.  Ted Ginn, Jr.  Ohio State...electrifying playmaker, great college WR, but drafted far too high by the Dolphins.

3.  Early Doucet WR LSU...led LSU with 57 receptions for 525 yds and 4 TDs, including a TD catch in the BCS title game.

4.  Rhett Bomar QB - Oklahoma.  Poor decision got him a one way ticket to Sam Houston State. 

5.  Keith Rivers LB USC 73 tackles no sacks in his senior season, a drop in production from 2006.

6.  Willie Williams LB Miami-Plenty of legal troubles, ended up at Louisville where he was kicked off the team for possession of marijuana.

7.  Brandon Miller DE Georgia Started 7 of the 11 games he appeared in.

8.  Derrick Harvey DE Florida 18.5 sacks and 76 tackles in his college career.  Declared for the NFL draft.

9.  Jeff Schweiger Jr. DE USC transferred after 2006 season

10.  Xavier Lee QB Florida State.  Enough said, and beaten out by Drew Weatherford, #88 on Rivals list.

Even in the top 10, you see some big time home runs, and big time busts...it's not an exact science.  There are plenty of great players who may not be a five star recruit, so if your school isn't in the top 10 (and I'm a Colorado fan, and they won't be), don't think your team is bad off.  What this does do is give fans like us an idea of what kind of talent our team is bringing in. 

One more thing, to Xavier Lee...transfer instead of going pro...you're simply a Maurice Clarett without the rap sheet.

It's been reported that nearly 25 Florida State Seminoles will be suspended for the bowl game and the first 3 games of the following season.  President T.K. Wetherell blamed lack of oversight by atheltic department officials, a rogue tutor, and lack of attention to detail by a faculty member. 

I wonder if Bobby Bowden, who is the face of FSU athletics, would have survived if his name wasn't a legend at that university.  How do you not know, as head of the football program, that approximately two dozen of his players were cheating?  If there is lack of athletic department oversight, is it simply due to the former AD?  Utlimately, coach Bowden is responsible.  Had this happened at any other university, would the football coach survive? 

Somehow, I doubt it.