Bewerbungen » ssion numbers this season, fourteen of them have seen a slide

NEW YORK -- Ruben Tejada and the New York Mets have avoided arbitration by agreeing to a $1.1 million, one-year contract. Tejada lost his job as the teams starting shortstop last year, when he was demoted to the minors for months during an injury-plagued season. He missed time with a strained right quadriceps and broke his right leg on Sept. 18, eight days after he was recalled from Triple-A Las Vegas. Tejada batted .202 with no homers, 10 RBIs and a dreadful .519 OPS in 57 games. But assuming hes healthy by the start of the season, hes in line to start at shortstop again because the Mets have been unable to find a suitable upgrade this winter. The deal Wednesday night leaves New York with six players in arbitration: first basemen Ike Davis and Lucas Duda, pitcher Dillon Gee, second baseman Daniel Murphy, reliever Bobby Parnell and outfielder Eric Young Jr. Amani Bledsoe Jersey . -- Washington Capitals forward Brooks Laich is expected to miss the rest of the regular season after having an operation on a groin muscle. Ben Jones Jersey . Vettel only needs to finish fifth or better Sunday to wrap up the championship with three races remaining, and bettered his own lap record to claim his third straight pole at Buddh International Circuit. http://www.cheaptitansjerseyselite.com/?...h-parker-jersey. -- After a year spent travelling the world, Brooks Koepka suddenly is in a position to play a lot more golf at home. Darius Jennings Jersey . -- Michigan coach John Beilein is willing to give Nik Stauskas a little leeway when it comes to shot selection. MyCole Pruitt Jersey .6 seconds left to give the Toronto Raptors a 92-89 victory over the Boston Celtics in an exhibition game Wednesday night.In the months and days leading up to the NHLs trade deadline, we routinely see teams shuffle older defencemen out to playoff contenders, usually for some sort of future asset. I always find these trades fascinating, because generally speaking, it seems that the player is rarely acquired because hes an effective blueliner. Theres always talk about the laundry list of intangibles the veteran defender will bring to the table come playoff time; far less talk about how the player, more often than not, struggles to get the job done. I think why these trades continue to occur is tied up into the front office and coaching staffs relative lack of trust in younger players to log bigger minutes when the games get meaningful. Sometimes, that lack of trust is warranted. But, ironically, to fix this issue, a team usually targets a defenceman who is years beyond his prime – alternatively, another defenceman who cannot get the job done. Only in this case, an asset – or multiple assets – will be required in order to acquire such a player. I dont think the veteran defenceman acquisition is one that is going to die out in 2014-2015. There are a ton of 34+ age defencemen logging regular minutes this season; a good portion of these players are on short-term deals due to their age, and a good portion of these players currently play on teams who could be eyeballing a prospect or future draft-picks in lieu of a bid at a playoff berth. Theres also the chance that a savvy playoff-bound hockey team will identify said veteran defenceman as a problem, and ship him off to create additional minutes and opportunity for a more competent player internally – the name Eric Brewer, recently traded to Anaheim for a third-round pick, certainly comes to mind here. Make no mistake, most of these older defenders are a drag on their teams performance. Setting up some quick parameters (age 34+; at least 15-games played) can illustrate this. Below, Ive charted the 22-regular veteran defenders by their per-60 scoring rate at 5-on-5, and their RelativeCorsi% -- or, the difference in a teams Corsi% with the player on the ice versus with the player off of the ice. Defencemen, 34+ PLAYER TEAM 2014-15 PTS/60 2014-15 Relative Corsi% Brian Campbell Florida 0.15 +5.17% John-Michael Liles Carolina 0.71 +4.81% Jan Hejda Colorado 0.40 +3.51% Mark Streit Philadelphia 1.04 +2.99% Andrei Markov Montreal 0.96 +2.88% Jordan Leopold Columbus 0.56 -0.37% Marek Zidlicky New Jersey 0.69 -0.38% Francois Beauchemin Anaheim 0.58 -0.55% Willie Mitchell Florida 0.29 -1.62% Lubomir Visnovsky N.Y. Islanders 1.11 -1.62% Michal Rozsival Chicago 0.59 -1.65% Rob Scuderi Pittsburgh 0.37 -2.46% Andrew Ference Edmonton 0.31 -2.53% Stephane Robidas Toronto 0.54 -2.76% Brooks Orpik Washington 0.56 -3.70% Scott Hannan San Jose 0.00 -4.20% Mike Weavver Montreal 0.dddddddddddd87 -4.28% Niklas Kronwall Detroit 0.74 -5.20% Chris Phillips Ottawa 0.18 -5.97% Eric Brewer Anaheim 0.61 -6.96% Bryce Salvador New Jersey 0.57 -7.73% Robyn Regehr Los Angeles 0.35 -8.04% Average 0.55 -1.85% You should immediately notice that 17 of the 22 players are in the red – their team controlling play more favorably with them off of the ice. Usage and deployment varies on an individual basis, but the mere fact that only five players have been able to do better than break-even by RelativeCorsi% is a major red flag. The point-scoring is troublesome, too. The group averages about 0.55 points per 60 minutes at even-strength, which is well under the league average (0.71 points per 60 minutes) for regular defencemen. The few names who populate the top of the list by RelativeCorsi% – specifically Brian Campbell, Mark Streit, and Andrei Markov – seem to make intuitive sense. Like most veteran defenders on this list, they have lost a step or two in the skating department. Unlike most of the same veteran defenders on this list, they are still excellent passers. This pays dividends in every area of the ice, and likely is driving their continued success despite a relative lack of mobility. Lets further investigate the other 17 – the guys whose teams play better with them off of the ice than on the ice. We can compare this years performance to the past few years (well use 2011-2014), mostly to see whether this is the norm over a larger sample, or if their play has further deteriorated. First, well look at even-strength points/60. This is far from encouraging. Of the 17 defenders with negative possession numbers this season, fourteen of them have seen a slide in point-scoring this year from the past three seasons. Lets look at RelativeCorsi% next, again charting the differential from 2011-2014 to 2014-2015. Are we seeing stable negative performance, or is their slide growing increasingly negative? This looks eerily similar to the last graph. 12 of the 17 negative-possession defenders have seen a drop in performance from years past. Its important to remember here that all seventeen are still negative possession players – so, even the few players who have posted slight improvements from years past are still getting caved in territorially. In the next couple of months, I think youll see a good number of these defenders be made available by their teams, whether its to upgrade in the short-term internally, or whether its to upgrade in the long-term by dangling the mysticism of player intangibles in front of other general managers for future picks and/or prospects. If Im looking to upgrade at the deadline and can only choose from this list, Brian Campbells certainly a name that interests me. Taking a flyer on Marek Zidlickys expiring deal is intriguing, too. Andrei Markov looks like he still can play, but I doubt Montr