Aside from last night’s two home run evenings by Jeff Francouer and Rod Barajas, Mike Pelfrey’s performance was the best news. Lets go inside his numbers.

1. 94 pitches in 6 innings, with 57 strikes. That’s around 61%. Considered another way, 6 or every 10 pitches were strikes. Pretty good.

2. 16 of 26 first pitch strikes. That’s about 62%. Or again 6 out of every ten. So more simply said, 16 out of 26 Nats saw a strike first pitch. I’d like 70% or higher, but I’ll take it as Pelfrey will get ground balls.

3. ESPN provides an interesting stat on strikes: Called strikes-Swinging strikes-Foul balls-In Play strikes. Pelfrey was 21-5-14-17. To be candid, I’m not sure what to do with this stat except to say that it’s indicative of the Nats’ scouting report. They wanted to make Pelfrey throw strikes. They only took 5 called strikes in 6 innings.

4. But 6 innings is an inning too short. For the Mets to be successful, they will need Pelfrey to be more of an innings eater. If they have a six run lead, he needs able to keep the bullpen in their jackets by being more economical with his pitches. If he shows NL advance scouts that he continues to throw a significant number of first pitch strikes, it can get Pelfrey much more consistently into the 7th and 8th innings.

5. The 4 Walks: He’s been pretty good over the past two seasons in that he’s averaging about 3 per nine innings. But as he’s been giving up a hit per inning or work, it will be indicative of a pitcher who will not be able to get more innings of work. This is the downside to the previously mentioned upside.

6. Outlook: Pelfrey’s starting to compare favoribly with former Mets Ron Darling and Walt Terrell, although he’s been giving up more hits than did either of the two. If Pelfrey shows that he will be around the strike zone more consistently early in the count, he’ll get more contact earlier. This will get his pitch counts and base hits numbers down.

On another note, another very good job by the Mets bullpen (Takahashi, Nieve and Mejia). All the outs over three innings of work were ground balls outs or strike outs. No hits either. But lets not wear them out like we did last year. We need Pelfrey and Jon Niese to consistently get further into to the games we’re winning.

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Former ESPN statisician David Pinto has running his numbers to perdict potential outcomes this season. Last night he posted Mets minor league signee, R. A. Dickey.

He probably has a split contract and will begin the season in Buffalo. The Mets likely see him as a staff saver, an emergency innings eater that can start or relieve. The tendency is to scoff at signings like these, but everyone needs pitchers like Dickey. He’ll pitch pitch for both New York and Buffalo this year.

UPDATE: Here’s Pinto’s take on Elmer Dessens.

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Mike Leach and his attorney are doubling down. And the attorney, Ted Liggett is talking to everybody and saying just about everything.

According to the James’ family, here are the details of the actions that the medical team took:

The following is an account of how Adam James was injured and diagnosed by Tech’s medical staff, according to Rebecca Shaw, a spokeswoman for James and his family:

Phy’s diagnosis was communicated to head trainer Steve Pincock, who relayed the information to Mike Leach.

This was proper and typical. What’s not known are what the Tech protocols are regarding concussions. Many teams require injured players to be at practice, but coaches get themselves into trouble if they attempt zero tolerance on this policy. For example, if a player had the flu, you certainly wouldn’t want them around other players at practice. A player who presented symptoms as did James would have been best served by being excused from practice.

Where Tech appears to have gone wrong is that it should have been the medical staff’s call – and not Leach’s – of the way an injured player is managed.

An ESPN report this morning quoted an assistant coach as saying the younger James had become a discipline problem and practiced with a lack of effort. The coach indicated he was disciplined after practice and James was openly disrespctful of the staff.

I believe this report to be true and it does not reflect well on both James and his father.

But it is no excuse for the manner that James injury was managed, especially so if he was mistreated or treated differently than already established protocols dictated.

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Mike Leach was suspended by his school yesterday fo his alledged mistreatment of ESPN analyst’s Craig James’s son Adam.

Adam Leach presented to athletic trainers on December 17 the with symptoms consistent with a concussion. Mike Leach apparently chose not to give his player the benefit of the doubt and singled him out in a manner clearly intended to humiliate him.

Or so reports say.

But the reports do not tell the whole story.

I will limit my speculation to this. On the afternoon James arrived with his symptoms he was likley to have been seen by an athletic trainer. He might have even seen a physician within the first day. It’s also likely that all parties concerned – Leach, the elder James and the university officials investigating the incident – all spoke with the training staff. The public knows nothing of these communications, but we probably will now that Leach refused to write an apology. Whatever recommendations the training staff made, Leach sould have followed.

The influnece that a man of his father’s stature cannot be discounted from the equation and the report indicates Leach felt that the former NFL player was a nusance. The report also says that Leach referred to his son as a slacker.

A coach has to be above this, but in this instance Leach was not.

Maybe there’s some truth to Leach’s take on the James’, but it is here where Leach’s arrogance and unprofessionalism began. To be blunt Leach cannot be a loose cannon when it comes to injuries, let alone one’s as mysterious as concussions. Football coaches cannot treat their players like Tom Berenger’s Bear Bryant did in The Junction Boys.

Thank goodness we no longer keep water from kids like with once did. I still believe it was devine intevention that we didn’t lose more kids than we did back in the day. We’ve come along way from “the sun got to him” to now knowing athletes perform better when they are hydrated.

The only thing that I will speculate on is that James was likley to have been seen by an athletic trainer on the day he arrived with his concussion symptoms. He might have even seen a physician within the first day. It’s also likely that all parties concerned – Leach, the elder James and the university officials investigating the incident – all spoke with the training staff. The public knows nothing of these communications, but we probably will now that Leach refused to write an apology.

The abrupt change we’ve made about concussions is much similar to how we changed hydration philosophies in the 70′s. The NFL is leading the way, but knowledge has not yet filtered it’s way down to many high school coaches and neanderthals like Mike Leach.

The coaching profession may be getting a teachable moment.

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If Tim Dierkes’ post is accurate, the answer is yes.

H/T to Jerry Crasnick of ESPN. Darned pay sites.

Minaya obviously felt that Molina best fit the Mets’ needs at catcher and maybe Molina’s agent is realizing the market for catchers is two years. If Molina becomes a Met, Minaya will be shown that he’s been right in being patient.

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ESPN aired another part of their interview with discredited academic advisor Barbara Monk. Today’s angle focused on the assertion that some athletes had a lower IQ than 60.

Astonishing, yes. However, it’s not the whole story. Neither Monk nor ESPN will tell that.

Monk will need to explain how she got the results. Did she administer an IQ test herself? If so, she knows that an IQ test is not administered without other assessment tests that are universally found to be more valuable and reliable than a simple IQ.

The IQ serves as a universal buzz word that people see in its extremes. Monk and ESPN are playing on this.

The student-athletes in question probably never had an IQ test adminsitered while in high school as public schools do not rely on them for any population of special needs students. Thus these students total transcripts arrived with their grades and standardized test scores. If they were special needs students, the accomodations also came documented.

So Monk’s use of the IQ test as a point of contention is misleading at best as the public are not aware of assessment testing techniques. It’s presence tells only a very small part of any student. Five year olds have heard of IQ tests. Apparently so has Outside the Lines producers.

They are grossly selective in the advancement of this story.

Barbara Monk knows all of this, too.

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Marty Smith of ESPN talks the NASCAR talk with a southern accent.

Maybe it’s just me, but I often find a link between regional dialects and certain sports. Canadian and hockey. Blue collar northeast with boxing. Southern accents in college football (Its an SEC thing) and NASCAR.

So when Smith wished aloud today (I heard Smith’s drawl) that if there were more NASCAR tag behind the scenes in the garage, it might be better for the sport. Let’s face it folks, it’s hard to contemplate the NHL with fisticuffs.

Smith is onto something as many of NASCAR’s best images involve a couple of guys going nose-to-nose or throwing haymakers.

None of this bothers a guy like me who grew up with who understands that pitching inside, getting hit and occassionally emptying the bench is part of the game. Yes, there is unwritten etiquette like hockey fights.

I hope political correctness won’t prevail, but I’m doubtful that anyone will be trading punches with Danica Patrick next year.

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Full disclosure. I’m an FSU graduate. But the Tallahassee Democrat has a story this morning that calls into question ESPN’s reporting. It doesn’t help ESPN’s credibility that the lead reporter in the story is a University of Florida grad whom attempted to get FSU to do something they could not legally do.

The reporter for this investigation is listed as Tom Farrey who, according to his bio on the ESPN Web site, is a 1986 graduate of the University of Florida.
Murphy wrote Doria and said that FSU administrators helped Farrey “as much as we could with his story without violating federal laws protecting students’ privacy rights.”
“We reminded Mr. Farrey of those constraints and how they strictly prohibit us from releasing information about students in such small groups that the identity of the individual student would be obvious,” Murphy added. “He asked us to do that and apparently would not accept that answer and tried to get numerous other administrators, who also had expertise in student admissions, to give him this information. They could not and did not do so.”

I saw the end of the piece on Outside the Lines. It focused on two former FSU football players, Fred Rouse and Paul Griffin. There appeared to be an attempt by ESPN to highlight learning disabilities in relation to the two players. Federal mandates require documentation of IEP’s (Independent Education Plans) and accomodations for students with disabilities. If documented, they can be taken along with them to college.

I have no knowledge of how these are implemented in college although we strictly adhere to them in public schools. A former academic advisor, Brenda Monk, was fired for admitting to typing papers for at least one student-athlete. Monk was portrayed sympathetically when the interview took them to her burned down home.

As a graduate of FSU, I have been concerened about the scandal that involved 61 student-athletes. But this Outside the Lines report demonstrates clear bias on ESPN’s part by not accuartely reporting on the reasons why university officials could not cooperate in the manner they requested.

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Indian’s owner Paul Dolan was frank in his comments to ESPN:

Due largely to the team’s troubled finances, Dolan said the recent trades of Cy Young winner Cliff Lee and All-Star catcher Victor Martinez were necessary long-term moves

The Texas Rangers are currently receiving monetary assistance from Major League Baseball. If Dolan’s numbers are the norm, its easy to put the recent unprecedented firesale by the Pittsburg Pirates into perspective.

The Mets attendance numbers are not what they hoped for this year in the new ballpark. The Wilpons lost money in the Madoff scandal. Some reports are indicating their primary partner Saul Katz also lost money. Still, the SNY network appears to be a profitable deal. Along with the WFAN contract, its what hopefully seperates the Mets from clubs like Cleveland.

The direction the club takes running up to spring training next year will serve as evidence of just what kind of fininacial position ownership is in.

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4:25: Jason Stark said Halladay was not dealt. Neither was Heath Bell.
The Mets did nothing. Some of the teams the Mets will compete against improved at the deadline like the Rockies, Giants, Braves and Marlins. If the Mets do not improve in the standings over the next week to 10 days I’d expect them to start moving veterans through the waiver wire like Livan Hernandez, Jeremy Reed, Brian Schneider, Oliver Perez, and Fernando Tatis. Maybe you could include in that list Carlos Delgado and Brian Stokes. Maybe not Delgado as he could be a Type B free agent and the Mets could get a much needed extra pick in June.

4:04: Jayson Stark says that Halladay may be going to the Angels in a package that includes Joe Saunders.

4:00 Fox Sports reports the Marlins acquired Nick Johnson from the Nats.

3:56: LaRoche went for Casey Kotchman. Why Boston wants Kotchman is beyond me. I can see the Braves wanting LaRoche’s power over Kotchman.

3:41: MLBTV reports that Scott Rolen has been traded to the Reds. Their commentators are somewhat puzzled as well. They think its because Walt Jockety knows him well from his days with the Cardinals.

3:32: Victor Martinez is now with the Boston Red Sox. Jon Heyman confimrs on MLBTV. Buchholz and Bard are not in the deal

3:30: Rockies get Joe Beimel from Nats H/T MLBTradeRumors

3:27: Yankees get 3B Jerry Hairston from Reds….so the Reds are trying to move players. According to ESPN

3:24: LaRoche to Braves. H/T Metsblog

319: Marlins end attempts to acquire Nick Johnson and Heath Bell.

310: Tim Kirkjian says he’s somewhat surprised that the Yankees haven’t been active and they both say that its surprising that someone just didn’t go get Roy Halladay. For some clubs it would make the World Series a sure thing.

305: Why haven’t we heard anything about the Reds in awhile? They talked about getting Scott Rolen, but that never made any sense. I thought they’d be sellers….Bronson Arroyo for instance.

304: Maybe its LaRoche to the Braves instead.

3oo: One hour to go. Im watching MLB TV and they report that Ken Rosenthal says that the Padres and Dodgers are talking about Adrian Gonzalez and Heath Bell going to the Dodgers in a package including James Loney.

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