Baseball Prospectus compares two of the Mets offseason acquisitions to the players they replaced and finds that the Mets probrobly could have kept what they had and got similar production, for far less money.

2006 VORPPlayer         Age      PECOTA       Actual        SalaryDelgado        34        37.1         12.3        $13,500,000Mike Jacobs    25        24.6         17.6           $327,000

2006 VORPPlayer        Age     PECOTA      Actual        BS        SalaryWagner        34        17.3        12.4         4        $10,500,000Looper        31         5.0        11.4         1         $3,500,000

Personally, I think Delgado's value is more than just what he has provided so far in offense. He has had a huge effect on Carlos Beltran and that is something you can't really put a price tag on. That is a butterfly effect that improves the entire lineup. Delgado cannot be expected to continue slumping for long and his numbers here are skewed from the black hole he currently resides.

As for Looper, you cannot possibly go into this season with Looper as your closer. The team's psyche would simply be unable to take that. I have no problem with the Mets going with Wagner, even if he's only a slight improvement over Looper in actual numbers.

Baseball Prospectus highlights that Cliff Floyd's luck has seemed to start changing. As we all observed, early in the season Cliff was getting good swings and hitting the ball with authority but he couldnt seem to get anything to drop. An indication of things turning his way is his batting average for balls in play…

April        .197May          .270June         .286July         .357

Over the past 30 days, Floyd is batting .310, with a .420 OBA, and .595
slugging. He's averaged a home run every 14 at bats in that period.

Over the past 7 games, Cliff has hit .375, with a .483 OBA, and an
ungodly .833 slugging percentage. He has averaged a home run every 8 at
bats over the past 7 games.

Thats quite a nice rise for Cliff, lets hope Pedro keeps swatting him with that little plastic wiffle ball bat.

Single Season HR Record: 41 (1996) - Todd Hundley
Carlos Beltran's pace: 48
Carlos Delgado's pace: 42
David Wright's pace: 37

Single Season Runs Record: 123 (1999) - Edgardo Alfonzo
Jose Reyes' pace: 139
Carlos Beltran's pace: 128

Single Season RBI Record: 124 (1999) - Mike Piazza
David Wright's pace: 136
Carlos Beltran's pace: 132

Single Season SB Record: 66 (1999) - Roger Cedeno
Jose Reyes' pace: 72

Single Season OPS Record: 1.024 (2000) - Mike Piazza
Carlos Beltran: .994
David Wright: .961

Single Season SLG Record: .614 (2000) - Mike Piazza
Carlos Beltran: .606

Single Season Doubles Record: 44 (1996) - Bernard Gilkey
David Wright's pace: 40
Carlos Beltran's pace: 37

Single Season Triples Record: 21 (1996) - Lance Johnson
Jose Reyes' pace: 22

Single Season Win Loss Perecentage Record: .870 (1988) - David Cone
Tom Glavine: .846

Delgado has just three hits in his last 23 at-bats. Though he missed
three games in the middle of that stretch because of a sore rib cage,
he did not use that as an excuse for his slump.

“I'm a little too quick, in baseball terms,” he said. “I'm not waiting back.”

Delgado said the fact his batting average is so low at this point is a sign he hasn't been able to get comfortable in the box.

“In order to hit for average you have to be consistent, and I haven't been consistent,” he said.

Ken Rosenthal on Fox Sports reports that Jose Reyes is on pace to record a feat only 5 players in baseball history have been able to achieve. He would need to increase his home run production slightly, but he's right there…

Yes, its Sabermetrics day at the Foot. If VORP is the filet mignon of statistics, Win Shares is the pork. How many games has this guy contributed to winning for his team? I mean, what could be a more telling sign of value for a player than Win Shares? I present to you the current Win Share rankings by way of The Hardball Times…

1. Puljos            20
2. Beltran          18
3. Berkman       17
4. Abreu           16
4. Granderson   16
4. Wright           16
5. Mauer           15
…
6. Reyes            14

VORP.

Value over replacement player.

What the hell is he talking about???

VORP is the moneyball of statistics. Sabermatricians (you know, the folks running the Red Sox these days) swear by it. They claim it is the best way to judge the true value of a player to a team's success over an average major league player. If you're looking for a literal definition check here and here.

Why am I telling you this? Its leading up to how the Mets stack up in VORP….

Player                   VORP
1. Travis Hafner       45.5
2. Albert Pujlos        40.3
3. Vernon Wells       40.1
4. David Wright     39.7
5. Miguel Cabrera    38.3
6. Joe Mauer           38.2
7. Grady Sizemore   36.6
8. Carlos Beltran   33.8
9. Derek Jeter          33.6
…
15. Jose Reyes      31.9

The Mets opponents have the lowest batting average against them in the majors, a paultry .219

The Mets have the highest K's per 9 innings average in the majors, at 8.2

The Mets have the second lowest WHIP in the majors, 1.19 just behind Detroit with 1.10

The Mets have the second highest K's to Walks ratio in the majors, 2.43, just behind the Twins with 2.90

The Mets have the second lowest ERA in the majors, 3.12, a smidge behind Detroit with 3.13.

Mets Fan In Oklahoma put together a great article about the Mets early domination in Run Differential. For us non-geeks out there, this is Runs Scored minus Runs Allowed. The Mets lead the league in this important category. Check out Steve's article here.

By the way, if you're ever looking for the best pre-game weather forcast, Steve is your man in that department as well.

David Wright is 4th in the majors in Slugging %, RBIs, and Total Bases with .938, 12,  and 30 respectively.  He is 3rd in Hits and Batting Average, with 15 and .469. He is what we call, “en fuego”.

Carlos Beltran is 8-for-21 in with three homers and nine RBIs during the
Mets 6 game winning streak and Cliff Floyd has driven in a run in three straight games.

The Mets are 3rd in the majors in Batting Average and Slugging %, with .320 and .542

Pedro Martinez needs one more win to reach a milestone of 200.

The Mets have given up the fewest runs in the majors, just 27 in 8 games. They also have the lowest ERA in baseball, 2.84. They're tied for lowest WHIP in baseball with 1.06

Opponents have the lowest batting average in the league against the Mets, just .195

Dayn Perry of Fox Sports joins in on the fawning over the boy wonder in his article comparing him to the likes of Eddie Matthews, Alex Rodriguez and Albert Pujols…

Shea Stadium is a park that's thoroughly hostile toward right-handed
power hitters, but in spite of that environment Wright has thrived as a
major-league hitter. In the final half of 2004, Wright hit .293
AVG/.332 OBP/.525, and the next season — his first full one in the
majors — he put up a batting line of .306 AVG/.388 OBP/.523 SLG. That's
an OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging percentage — a good thumbnail
indicator of a player's offensive contributions) of .911 by a
22-year-old. Let's put that in historical context. Since 1900, here are
the top five all-time OPS's by third basemen younger than age 23:

Read the entire article here.

CNNSI.com ranks the Mets 1-2 combo of Pedro and Glavine as 5th best in baseball. Check out the entire list here.

Jeremy Heit of Mets Geek breaks down the Mets offense…

Read the entire article here.