Meet the Mets (For Mets Fans Only!)
bub said:
Gary C. touched upon this but the essential mediocrity of the Met is reflected in their run differential. Not only is it negative, and leaps and bounds below the best teams, but it is actually worse than Miami and Atlanta. How Atlanta has a losing record despite a healthy plus 54 run differential is astonishing.
I'd have to look it up but I think Atlanta has 2 or 3 games they won by nearly 20 runs.
One against the Mets. I follow run differential. The Mets had slowly built up to about +20 before that game. All downhill since.
DanDietrich said:
I was asking why the Mets hadn't signed Hamels, and today he signs with the Dodgers for a pro rated one million. Essentially nothing.
he'd only be injury insurance for the Mets. Do we think he'll be better than Hill, Carrasco or Megill?
Maybe. But he hasn't pitched all year so who knows.
BTW, anyone notice Matt Harvey is 3-1 with a 3.25 ERA in his last 7 games? I wonder if he's starting to figure out how to pitch without a high 90s fastball.
So trade Lindor and sign Baez long term? I wonder what their plan will be if the DH is made permanent in the NL. It was nice to see Conforto hit the ball to the opposite field for a single. I wish he stuck with that approach.
Maybe I'm overthinking this. Conforto is hitting. 200. Why would you put a guy that can't lay off balls hitting right in front of him? If I were a pitcher I would pitch around Baez to get to Conforto. I know they say Baez is able to hit the balls out of the strike zone, but some of the pitches haven't even been close to the strike zone.
He shouldn't have been in there today. He is getting used way too much. Not scoring with the bases loaded, no outs and the heart of the order coming up is the bigger problem to me. They can't expect the bullpen to never give up runs.
On the plus side I have never seen a platinum sombrero before. Baez is having a memorable week.
It's been on the hitters all season, but three runs in one inning is still a bit much for a relief pitcher.
jfinnegan said:
On the plus side I have never seen a platinum sombrero before. Baez is having a memorable week.
Keith, after Javy's 5th strikeout: "You wouldn't wish that on your worst enemy." I'm pretty sure the Marlins wished it on Baez just fine.
DanDietrich said:
It's been on the hitters all season, but three runs in one inning is still a bit much for a relief pitcher.
it is. But the game should have been 6-1 or 7-1 when Familia came in, given how many men LOB there were.
https://www.mlb.com/news/why-mets-offense-is-slumping
I think he has to dig a bit deeper. Last I saw McCann was hitting .118 with RISP and 2 outs. I can't imagine that was in the projections.
jfinnegan said:
https://www.mlb.com/news/why-mets-offense-is-slumping
I think he has to dig a bit deeper. Last I saw McCann was hitting .118 with RISP and 2 outs. I can't imagine that was in the projections.
probably not, but that's going to be a fairly small sample size. How many PAs is that?
Let's hope playing in the CBP bandbox wakes up the hitters this weekend. Otherwise we're likely looking at 2nd place on Monday.
I looked it up, and it's 37 ABs for McCann with 2 outs and RISP. And his OPS with guys on base and with RISP are higher than when there's no one on base. As fans the outs a guys make with 2 outs and RISP stick with us, and we remember those 37 ABs. But the overall numbers don't show that McCann is the Mets main culprit in the poor run scoring.
I probably notice more with McCann, because I have him on my fantasy baseball team. It also drives me crazy when guys lead off an inning and get ahead 2-0 or 3-0 and swing. I don't know if not having Chili around has had an effect on Conforto and Smith. I would think Conforto is the guy that gets benched when Lindor comes back unless he starts hitting soon.
jfinnegan said:
I probably notice more with McCann, because I have him on my fantasy baseball team. It also drives me crazy when guys lead off an inning and get ahead 2-0 or 3-0 and swing. I don't know if not having Chili around has had an effect on Conforto and Smith. I would think Conforto is the guy that gets benched when Lindor comes back unless he starts hitting soon.
he's also grounded into 10 DPs in 91 games. That's a killer too. But I'm sure it was figured into his projections because he's always been a DP machine.
jfinnegan said:
I probably notice more with McCann, because I have him on my fantasy baseball team. It also drives me crazy when guys lead off an inning and get ahead 2-0 or 3-0 and swing. I don't know if not having Chili around has had an effect on Conforto and Smith. I would think Conforto is the guy that gets benched when Lindor comes back unless he starts hitting soon.
I don't do fantasy baseball, but when I played fantasy football, I tried to avoid putting Giants on my roster. As a fan I just couldn't deal with the double aggravation of guys on my IRL team failing while at the same time they were failing on my fantasy team. ;-)
I have done much better the last few years when I have had no Mets on my team. There weren't many good catchers in the NL so I took a chance on McCann. One more week and I can grab d'Arnaud when he comes off the IL. I do wonder why some of these guys are mediocre for the Mets and end up becoming All Stars shortly after they leave. In my fantasy league you get a negative point for every K and DP. Realmuto is more than twice as good as McCann. IRL I would say he's about 1.5x better.
Must be a big enough sample size for the Mets to pinch hit Drury for him last night in the 9th with 2 outs and RISP. I know Drury's hit a few PH homers, but if memory serves they didn't need a HR. I think it speaks more to McCann.
I didn't mind that, but that only would have worked if Drury had a bases clearing hit. I would prefer my chances with McCann and Drury versus Drury and Almora. Almora did get his average over .100 yesterday.
So overall we knew Cohen had an organization to rebuild. We know he said his window was 5 years. So failing this year shouldn't surprise us as long as the system for future success is being installed in the minors and the office. And I'm glad they didn't trade the future for today's hit player. But looking ahead, how do you fix the ML roster. So many of these guys who have failed look great on paper, or did well before. I'm a big fan of McNeil and Smith, but I wish that they would play to their strengths. Line drives and gap hits, no uppercut swings. I'm not sure I'd even offer Conforto a contract right now, but who is out there to play right who isn't being forced out of position? Smith has genuinely surprised me with his relative success in left, but I'm not sure if I would put McNeil in right, and they are going to try to sign Baez, so what happens? How do we make next year better?
DanDietrich said:
So overall we knew Cohen had an organization to rebuild. We know he said his window was 5 years. So failing this year shouldn't surprise us as long as the system for future success is being installed in the minors and the office. And I'm glad they didn't trade the future for today's hit player. But looking ahead, how do you fix the ML roster. So many of these guys who have failed look great on paper, or did well before. I'm a big fan of McNeil and Smith, but I wish that they would play to their strengths. Line drives and gap hits, no uppercut swings. I'm not sure I'd even offer Conforto a contract right now, but who is out there to play right who isn't being forced out of position? Smith has genuinely surprised me with his relative success in left, but I'm not sure if I would put McNeil in right, and they are going to try to sign Baez, so what happens? How do we make next year better?
there are a couple of things about the new regime that I'm hopeful about. First and foremost is an emphasis on fielding and positioning we've not seen in decades on this team. McCann has been an endless frustration for us at bat, but he's been a huge upgrade behind the plate. When Lindor comes back, we'll have two of the best middle infielders in the league on the field at the same time. The analytics team appears to have used better positioning info and turned Dom and Nimmo into at least average at their positions. The baserunning fundamentals are also much better than in past years.
The injuries have been frustrating, but the team went out before the season and acquired a boatload of starting pitchers with MLB experience (unlike the Wilpons who left the team so thin there that the only options for fill-in were AAA guys). But thinking back to the spring, there were eight guys expected to contribute as starters this season -- deGrom, Stroman, Walker, Carrasco, Peterson, Yamamoto, Lucchesi, and Syndergaard. It's not possible to sign any more than that, because what guy with MLB aspirations wants to sign on as insurance for the insurance?
They also differed from the Wilpons in bringing in backups with MLB experience -- Pillar, Villar, Peraza, Almora, etc. No more Eric Campbells as the primary utility players (no offense to Soup, he seemed like a guy who played hard, but he was really a AAA guy). At one point this season they had to go to a fifth CF because of injuries. That's not really something a team can plan for.
So all that is to say that I like the new ownership's priorities in putting together a roster, and over the long term I think it points more toward success than the Wilpons' tendency to cheap out on depth and keep their fingers crossed that no one gets injured.
I would figure with a lot of pitchers getting injured this year either hitting or running the bases that the DH will be back. I don't think they'll sign Baez, but my first shot at an opening day lineup would be:
Nimmo- CF
McNeil - 3B
Lindor - SS
Alonso - 1B
Baez - 2B
Dom - RF
Davis - LF
Cano - DH
McCann - C
Ideally they buyout Cano and find a good free agent 3B or CF.
jfinnegan said:
I would figure with a lot of pitchers getting injured this year either hitting or running the bases that the DH will be back. I don't think they'll sign Baez, but my first shot at an opening day lineup would be:
Nimmo- CF
McNeil - 3B
Lindor - SS
Alonso - 1B
Baez - 2B
Dom - RF
Davis - LF
Cano - DH
McCann - C
Ideally they buyout Cano and find a good free agent 3B or CF.
OMG. I hate that lineup 
Below average fielding all over the field. If that's the opening day lineup I'm going to want to shoot myself in the face.
here's my crack at what I think could be opening day next season (assuming the new CBA doesn't change FA drastically).
My thoughts on a couple of currently signed guys -- I think Cano has played his last game for the Mets. An outright release or perhaps a buyout seems to me WAY more likely than him going to training camp with team. The next one is conditional -- if Conforto has a hot last six weeks of the season, I think he's gone. Another team will give him the deal he wants and the Mets won't match it. OTOH, if Conforto continues to flail for the rest of the season, it might change everyone's thinking. If QOs are still part of free agency in the new CBA, I'd say the Mets offer him one even if he has a terrible full season. I don't think they'd let him walk with no compensation, and I don't think they'd consider a one-year deal at market value too onerous, and maybe he comes back next year and has a good season. And IF the Mets give the QO, it wouldn't surprise me a bit if Conforto took a bet on himself to come back and have a great year and go for the big contract as he enters his age 30 season in 2023. A QO isn't that much of a gamble because a guy with Conforto's career numbers will get a pretty decent one-year deal.
So -- assuming that Cano is not with the team next year and Conforto is, I'm hoping a Mets lineup with a DH will look like this:
Nimmo -- CF
Lindor -- SS
Alonso -- DH
Smith -- 1B
McNeil -- 2B
Conforto -- RF
McCann -- C
Davis -- 3B
LF -- TBD
I don't see the Mets paying Baez $250MM or more to be their second baseman. But if they do, that moves McNeil to 3rd and Davis to LF (God help us)
Ok, I prefer your lineup. I just don't see Cano walking away. It also seems that Lindor hates having McNeil at 2B so they're probably going to try to figure out another position for him. Personally I would prefer them not sign Baez. I have always hated his approach at the plate. I used to love seeing him come up to bat when deGrom was pitching. There are a few guys out there they can go for. Bryant would be my top choice, but I think San Fran is going to sign him. Castellanos or Starling Marte would be nice as well. They're also going to have to spend a lot of money on Stroman, possibly Syndergaard or some other pitcher out there. There aren't many options at starting pitcher.
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I was asking why the Mets hadn't signed Hamels, and today he signs with the Dodgers for a pro rated one million. Essentially nothing.