For a content repository that is so overprotective of its material, MLB.tv’s announcement that it’ll allow recaps and highlights to be available on YouTube shows signs that MLB’s new media goons are starting to warm up to social media.

Except, of course, for those of us within the continental U.S. The new YouTube / MLB partnership has spawned a Japanese site (mlb.jp) and MLB’s Global portal on YouTube (not available in the U.S.).

From GigaOm’s NewTeeVee.com:

In addition to all full-length games from 2009 and the current season, the MLB.JP channel will feature condensed games, game replays, and FastCast, a quick recap of every game played on a given day. It will also have historic game footage and player highlight reels from Japanese MLB players.

Japanese baseball fans won’t be the only ones with access to MLB games for free; as part of the deal, YouTube will also make game clips and highlights available to fans in Australia, Brazil, New Zealand and Russia.

I’m not sure why MLB.tv wouldn’t also distribute some of those highlight clips and condensed games via YouTube here in the U.S. They could splash ads on videos that would get reposted on blogs and sites everywhere (MLB.com’s video players don’t allow sharing).

Other content creators (or right-holders) do so in order to promote viewership of the material. Think of the way Hulu hosts some clips on YouTube but then reminds viewers they can get full shows on the Hulu.com site. But in general, this move is pretty harmless and somewhat positive.

Nyjer Morgan’s been suspended for throwing a ball into the bleachers at Citizen’s Bank Park. Why’d he do it? The guy Morgan hit in the head says some fans were heckling Morgan:

“Mostly they seemed to be heckling him about the way he wore his uniform. He was the only player on the field who was wearing his [uniform] old-style with the full stockings.  They were screaming at him about looking like a jockey. . . . Stuff like that.  There were some inferences that suggested his pose was a little less than masculine.”

Look, Philly fans. It’s your right — nay, your duty — to heckle the other team’s players. When it comes to Morgan, you’ve got lots of ammunition. Like how his gentleman’s name is Tony Plush. And his DJ name is DJ Nij-Nnn-Nnn-Nnn-Nice. And his car’s name is Charlene. What kind of name is that for a car?!

But let’s not heap scorn where scorn is not due. Morgan wears his uniform the way it’s meant to be worn. He doesn’t look like a jockey. He looks like a ballplayer.

But I want to swing the bat NOW!!!

One point upon which stat geeks and grit-o-philes can agree is that swinging at balls outside the strike zone is a bad idea. I mean, sure, guys like Yogi Berra and Vlad Guerrero became superstars despite their penchant for being less selective than Mark Grace in a slump. But unless you’re a freak, plate discipline is incredibly important if you want to generate offense. Whether you’re trying to draw a walk or trotting around the bases after crushing a curveball waist-high and over the plate, laying off pitches outside the zone helps accomplish those goals.

Which is why I find the batting approach of the Mets this year so troubling. The entire team has seemingly decided, “screw it, let’s just put whatever we can into play and see what happens,” which is a terrible idea.

Fangraphs provides a statistic called O-Swing %, which in their own words is the “percentage of pitches a batter swings at outside the strike zone.” The Mets collectively had an O-Swing % of 24.2% in 2009, which was slightly better than the MLB average of 25.1%.  However, in 2010, the team has so far swung at 31.4% of pitches thrown for balls, which is the 4th worst in baseball. What more, there doesn’t seem to be one player on the roster who has been immune to this hack-happy tendency.

Unsurprisingly, the two biggest offenders are Rod Barajas and Jeff Francoeur, who have proven time and again to be less patient than a 15 year-old lad with a nudie magazine.  Barajas, who was recently sent to the Dodgers, has an O-Swing % of 45, which trails only the aforementioned Guerrero. And not far behind him is Frenchy at 43.3%, fifth highest in baseball.  But like I said, these are hardly surprises as they are consistently among the league leaders in this category.

What is more surprising, is that every single Mets player who has compiled at least 200 plate appearances in 2010 has a markedly worse O-Swing % than their career numbers. It must be pointed out that the MLB average on the whole is roughly 4 points higher this year than last.  But even putting that into consideration, pretty much the entire team has devolved.

This chart doesn’t include first baseman Ike Davis since as a rookie, he has no comparable data.  But take a look for yourself. David Wright went from 21.6% to 31.2%. Even Luis Castillo, who has led the league in this category from 2007-2009, sees an uptick that’s larger than the average increase. In fact, Castillo and Jason Bay are the only players who have demonstrated better than average numbers.

Due in large part to this  failure, the Mets are currently on pace to score fewer runs than they did in 2009 – a year in which they became the 2nd team since 1996 to fall short of 100 HRs.

So now I’m left to consider the potential causes of this malady.

1. This is merely a coincidence, and we Mets fans need to go to our respective places of worship – whether synagogue, mosque, church, third bathroom stall in your local Denny’s, wherever – and beg for forgiveness because the unlikely continues to befall the franchise
2. These players were told to “be aggressive” by Manager Jerry Manuel and his staff.  If this is the case, then it’s pitchfork time. Like the vast majority of the baseball world, the Mets batters are most effective when they are being selective. If the coaching staff doesn’t know this one simple fact, then my gast is simply flabbered.
3. Jeff Francoeur is a clubhouse virus who infects everyone who comes in contact with him with a neurological disorder that makes them unable to discern balls and strikes. I mean, Rod Barajas is gone and the team is still not better. So I have no choice but to blame the walk-less wonder.

I really don’t know what the cause is because every single one of these options seems unlikely. But it has to be something, right? Or is this one of these statistical anomalies that we see every now and then?

Because if so, I need to head to a Denny’s.

From ESPN.com’s recap of last night’s Phillies-Astros game:

Jayson Werth hit a solo shot for Philadelphia, which has scored two runs or less in six of the last seven games.

From ESPN.com’s June 28 Blue Jays-Indians recap:

The win was Cleveland’s first of the season in 21 games when scoring two runs or less. The Indians’ last win when scoring two runs or less was last Aug. 6, against Minnesota, a stretch of 38 games.

From a July 24 post on ESPN.com’s Chicago White Sox Blog:

30: Number of defeats for the White Sox this season when scoring three runs or less.

There are countless other examples. And other publications make this mistake all the time, too.

It’s fewer, not less.

Fewer is used with countable nouns: people, animals, chairs, shoes. Less is used for uncountable, usually abstract nouns: money, snow, idealism. And with adverbs and adjectives: less happy, less slowly.

Let’s get it right, people.

Yesterday, Buster Olney gave his take on the AL Cy Young race:

An interesting aspect of Cliff Lee — and part of the reason the Indians didn’t invest in a huge contract for him — is that when he misses his spots, he tends to get lit up. That’s exactly what happened on Saturday against the Orioles. I had Lee over Felix Hernandez for the AL Cy Young with six weeks go; as of Sunday, I’d put King Felix in the lead again.

I wonder if other Cy Young voters feel the way Olney does? It would be fairly unprecedented for a pitcher with a losing record to win a Cy Young Award, and King Felix’s record is 9-10.

Of course, wins are a terrible way to judge pitcher performance. But for years, Cy Young voters have made wins and losses a major factor in their voting, and it’d be surprising if they stopped now. The only pitchers to win a Cy Young with a .500 record or worse were Bruce Sutter and Eric Gagne, both relievers.

Ironically, while Olney should be applauded for ignoring Hernandez’s poor record, he should probably still vote for Lee, who has been worth 5.9 wins over replacement this season, compared to Hernandez’s 5.1 WAR. Also, Lee’s K/BB ratio (13.73) is stop-you-in-your-tracks fantastic. The next best ratio is Jered Weaver (4.02). Yikes.

UPDATE: ESPN.com’s Stats & Info blog today also has a story about how Felix Hernandez’s won-loss record shouldn’t matter, but then forgets to include Cliff Lee in a rundown of the AL Cy Young candidates. D’oh!

Dear ESPN copy editors, Monday was at least the second time you’ve run a “Cain Is Able” headline on the front page. You’ve run variations on this headline in the past. Other sites have used the headline, too. Here’s an info box where you used “Cain Is Able” as the header:

It’s time to think of a new headline to describe Cain’s better outings. Maybe “Cain Reigns” or “Cain Brings the Pain” or “(Insert team name) gets beat with a Cain”. I don’t care. Just think of something new. Anything. Please.