Author: metbaseball

NCAA Div. 1’s Top Hitter Falls to 31st Round

Posted on by metbaseball

On June 17, the Brooklyn Cyclone’s 2011 season begins and, since Monday, the Mets have been drafting players, many of whom could be playing for the Cyclones.

Though there’s no way to no for sure which of the draftees will ever wear a Mets uniform — and most won’t — a few have caught my interest. One is the Mets first draft choice, Brandon Nimmo, an outfielder who never played high school baseball. If he’s signed, I’m really curious how he’ll do against minor league pitching. Another draftee is Chad Zurcher, a shortstop whom the Mets drafted with their first pick today, the draft’s final day. This season in NCAA Division I baseball, Zurcher had the highest average, .443. His OBP was #1 at .547. He was one of the toughest to strike out in Div. I baseball, ranking 39th, and he made the was named to the 2011 Louisville Slugger/Collegiate Baseball All-America team, so why wasn’t he drafted until the 31st round?

Overgeneralization in Writing

Posted on by metbaseball

Writing is about more than slapping words onto a page or screen. It’s about creating logically connected content that’s not victimized by logic errors.

One logic error that can befall text is overgeneralization, the expansion of too few instances to many in a manner difficult to justify. For example: If, after eating a Red Delicious apple for the first time, someone said, “All apples are red,” he would be making an overgeneralization. The statement was made based on insufficient evidence to support it. In contrast, if a high school baseball player who hit below .200 for three straight years says that “I’m not a very good hitter,” he is not making an overgeneralization. He’s reached a conclusion based on sufficient, factual evidence. He’s made a generalization.

Here’s another example of an overgeneralization. This season, the Mets have won only four of their first eleven games. If, based on that, someone states that in 2011 the Mets will lose more games than they’ll win, he’s making an generalization. The evidence is insufficient to support that claim.

A key factor in determining whether a statement is a generalization or an overgeneralization is the validity and sufficiency of the supporting evidence.

Why is Jose Reyes batting lead-off?

Posted on by metbaseball

In yesterday’s Sun-Ledger, Conor Orr quotes the Mets Jose Reyes as saying that “I don’t go to home plate looking for a walk, I go there looking to swing the bat.” Given that Reyes is batting lead-off for the Mets, he should be going to the plate to get on base. The fact that he’s not doing that explains why his on-base percentage (OBP) last season was only .321. That stat placed him in a three-way tie for the 110th spot in the MLB OBP rankings. Even Carlos Pena, who hit only .196, had a higher OBP than Reyes.

Coherence: Synonyms and Pronouns

Posted on by metbaseball

In addition to using a repeating word to effect sentence coherence, a writer can also use synonyms, pronouns, and repeating ideas.

Example:

The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, which connects Brooklyn and Staten Island, was once the world’s longest suspension bridge. Its main span is 4,260 feet long. Verrazano-Narrows lost that title in 1981 to England’s Humber Bridge: Humber’s main span is 4,626 feet long. Since 1981, four other arches have been built that are even longer than Humber’s. Two of them are in China, but the longest one is in Japan. It’s the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge, which is about 1,300 feet longer than the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.

In the above paragraph, sentences are connected by

  • repeating “bridge”
  • using synonyms for bridge (span, arch)
  • using the names of bridges (Verrazano-NarrowsHumber, Akashi Kaikyo)
  • using a year (1981)
  • using pronouns (them, one, it)
  • revealing a bridge’s length (4,260′, 4,626′, and 1,300′ longer)

In addition, notice how the sample paragraph begins and ends with the same noun phrase (the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge). That’s a means of increasing a paragraph’s internal coherence.

Question: How else are the example’s sentences “coherently connected”?