Mets News – They’re Turning it Around

The Mets have turned it around – at least from the bottom of the NL to the top of their division is pretty nice. Losing the occasional game but giving Mets fans a thrill when they win because Mets fans are the Bills fans of baseball (we’re crazy when our teams even get a broken-bat-opposite-field-bloop single, we cheer like it’s a walk-off homer in the World Series). And, I would like to give a shoutout to our announcers, Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling. These guys are entertaining Mets fans for three hours and constantly talking and engaging the fans with the wildest conversations. I tuned into a Reds game the other day, and the announcers talked every 30 seconds to announce the hitter’s name, the count (only if it’s a ball or a strike) and announce a hit in the blandest way possible. Example: “Here comes Joey Votto. Ball, strike, ball, here’s a hit to right field, single.” Just really makes you want to stay with the game, doesn’t it?

The Hitters:

After my last blog, there was only one bright spot on the whole Mets team: Brandon Nimmo.

While Nimmo is our best player by far, more bright spots are starting to emerge. Pete Alonso is still a stud, but even though signs are leaning towards him being somewhat of a flash in the pan. He has five homers, which is two and a half times more than the guy behind him, JD Davis.

In the comment sections of Mets fan pages that I follow, calls for JD Davis being thrown out of Citi Field for high crimes and misfielding are growing. JD Davis is a mediocre offensive player in a 162 game season but so far, even after missing 10 games, he has two homers already. Also, his defense does not help out his 162 game value.

Another nice player that the Mets have is Dominic Smith but he has a tremendous downside. He swings and misses a lot. A somewhat chubbier Joey Gallo because Gallo and Smith both take grown man hacks, both strike out a lot, don’t really understand what a “single” is and both have a low average. But have tremendous value and Smith is one of the best 375+ ft hitters in baseball.

Michael Conforto and Francisco Lindor, when, in a normal season, would be our two best pure hitters, are two of our worst hitters now. Both are keeping their heads barely above .200 and they have a combined seven RBIs. Luis Rojas should 100% (who is also getting negative comments thrown at him by Mets fans but, being in prestigious NY means you’re the hardest players to please in baseball) keep them in the top of the lineup.

Someone who’s in a slump but you can’t call it a slump is Jeff McNeil. You can’t call it a slump because Jeff McNeil will connect with a ball 4 feet above the zone and muscle it for a single. Luis Guillorme is the next man up in almost any spot on the field, whether we move Jeff McNeil to third and Guillorme to second (which doesn’t sound that bad…) or trade for a third baseman and include Guillorme in it or whatever happens, Guillorme is the next man up when someone gets injured. James McCann hasn’t been amazing but he’s been OK, he’s a very well-rounded catcher but he hasn’t shown it so far but I believe.

The Starters:

The start for the starters collectively is amazing! Jacob DeGrom and Marcus Stroman are carrying the load and David Peterson and Joey Lucchesi are weighing us down but still, we’ve been really good. Now, think about this – once Noah Syndergaard comes back and Carlos Carrasco comes back, we’ll have a rotation looking like Jacob DeG-O-A-T, Noah Syndergaard, Marcus Stroman, Carlos Carrasco, and Taijuan Walker. Two things about this: hopefully this will help Stroman to stay in New York because he’s a free agent after this year. And, Taijuan Walker is a number 1 or number 2 starter on pretty much any team, but he’s potentially the fifth starter on this one.

The Bullpen:

After trashing the bullpen of the Mets in my last blog, I see that maybe was uncalled for. Trevor May and Aaron Loup definitely stepped it up over the past two weeks, especially Loup. Loup can shut down lefties and be well above average against righties. Trevor May will allow a few hits and raise your blood pressure well above what the doctor thinks is the max but will blow a 96 MPH fastball right by on the next pitch. Jacob Barnes is still our worst bullpen arm but with how Sean Reid-Foley played (9 up, 9 down for him), you could limit Barnes’ innings and increase Reid-Foley’s and we’re all pleased. Also, Trevor Hildenberger is a nice arm out of the bullpen, although he’s a little volatile, I think he could tame himself. Finally, the bright(ish) spot of our bullpen, after all this time. Edwin Diaz has finally made himself into an above-average closer, definitely not what he was in Seattle, but solid. I hope he can keep it up (and be even better) so our bullpen would be better and less volatile.

Although, after all of this praise out of me, just watch him blow a three-run lead next game. I will literally cry Niagara Falls. 

The Amazins are off to a very inauspicious start – Every single Met

To paraphrase the kid pleading in “Eight Men Out”: Say it ain’t so, Steve!

To start off, one of the greatest Mets struggles in my lifetime is getting a hitter to score. The biggest struggles are, specifically, knocking in someone with runners in scoring positions and hitting home runs. The Mets have three home runs this season, one from Dominic Smith, one from Pete Alonso and the last from Jeff McNeil. Mister $341 million has a ripe .176 average with one batter driven in. Keep in mind, I’m not trying to throw a monkey wrench into the machine (if you can call it a machine with this start) that the Mets are, I’m just saying what I think.

A question that I had right when Steve Cohen brought in Francisco Lindor was “Who is the new Mr. Smile?” As you know, Brandon Nimmo loves to smile and so does Lindor. With Lindor’s horrible start to the year, I’ll grace Nimmo with the title. No question, Lindor is the better player, but Nimmo is batting .412 from the bottom of the order. Usually being demoted from the top of the order to the bottom will plummet your morale, but as Nimmo took a ball, that I thought was ball 2, on the inside half for strike three, I told my dad, “This guy’ll take a ball four feet outside, the ump will call it a strike, and Brandon will turn around and walk right back to the dugout, he’s just so happy.”

A player that is also slumming to start the year is Michael Conforto batting a riper .143 and that is the baseball-bat-to-the-knee for Mets fans, I’ll explain why. Conforto has been amazing since 2015, in seasons that he’s played more than 100 games, he’s hit on average 25 homers and 71 RBIs, and, since 2019, and he’s obviously gotten better so, with inflation for the sake of argument, that’s 30 homers and 90 RBIs. In 5 games, he hasn’t even knocked in a runner or scored himself. A player that has been making the most of his opportunities is Luis Guillorme, a soft-handed infielder and who isn’t known for offense. Guillorme has three hits and a .500 average and earned the starting role (because JD Davis got beaned with a pitch a few games earlier) before the umps called the game due to rain on Saturday. What’s just sad is that Jacob DeGrom has a .600 average, and that’s leading the team for players with 5 or more at-bats.

The starters have been weirdly good this year, well, Jacob DeGrom is Jacob DeGrom, what can I say, the only run given up was a home run to Jazz Chisholm Jr. and that was 100% a fluke. He has a 0.64 ERA with 21 punchouts, yes, 21 but the catch is he doesn’t have a win, BUT, does have a loss. Starter no. 2 has also been impeccable, Marcus Stroman has a 1.42 ERA with only 3 strikeouts BUT HE GETS A WIN. Taijuan Walker, who had the biggest difference between ceiling and floor for the pitchers coming into this year in my opinion, knocked the Marlins dead in his first start. He tallied only four strikeouts but only four hits given up. Then, a potentially really good Mets pitching prospect, David Peterson went out on the mound and was really bad. In four innings of work, he allowed six runs, 7 hits and he walked two batters. Atrocious.

Now, this is the part of the blog that I wanted to avoid, because it’s the part about the bullpen, great going, boys! Trevor May and Aaron Loup are two amazing pickups for the Mets, Steve Cohen really hit the ball on the nose for these pickups. Before I sound off on the worse end (which really means the whole Mets bullpen minus one guy), I’ll talk about the only half-decent pitcher in the pen, Miguel Castro. Castro has an ERA of 3.00, he allowed only one run, 4 hits, and no walks in 3 games/innings of work. Somehow, Edwin Diaz got the win yesterday, and he got it by some force created by the baseball gods. He gave up 2 earned runs, 3 hits, and two walks. When he was called in from the bullpen, I knew this was going to happen, it’s a coin flip for Diaz on whether he has a good outing or not. Now, I can’t decide whether to be more scared of Trevor May, Edwin Diaz, Dellin Betances, Jacob Barnes, Jeurys Familia or Aaron Loup. I’ll go with Trevor May, because his first two games have been comically bad. Familia has always been “eh” because he was one of the most dominant closers in baseball for a period and then he just fell off, but, hey, we’ve seen that story at least one more time, right? He’s also on the Mets. He has a weird windup to deliver the pitch. I clown him at every chance I get on this blog. Yes! You guessed it, Edwin “Hellen Keller could pitch better than me” Diaz. I wanted Dellin Betances to get the set-up man role on the Mets like he did on the Yankees, but, last year was inauspicious and this year had a few bumps for him. Jacob Barnes never had a great career anywhere and I guess we brought him in for 5/6^th inning man but he never brought anything to the table. And when I’m building a team I want every player to produce something, no hole-fillers on a squad.

Now, here are my playoff prediction and award race winners (yes, I reserve the privilege of revising this forecast):

Wild Card:

AL: White Sox vs. Red Sox: Red Sox

NL: Mets vs. Padres: Mets

ALDS:

Yankees vs. Red Sox: Yankees

Astros vs. Twins: Astros

NLDS:

Dodgers vs. Mets: Dodgers

Reds vs. Braves: Braves

ALCS:

Yankees vs. Astros: Yankees

NLCS: Dodgers vs. Braves: Dodgers

World Series:

Yankees vs. Dodgers: Dodgers

MVP

NL: Ronald Acuna Jr.

AL: Mike Trout

Cy Young:

NL: Jacob DeGrom

AL: Shane Bieber

ROY:

NL: Ke’Bryan Hayes

AL: Wander Franco

Manager of the Year:

NL: David Bell

AL: Tony La Russa

COVID19 Throws MLB a Curve

Wow, after my little NBA addiction stint, I was so excited to go back to baseball, write my blog about it, and do something fresh for you guys. Well, I’m still going to do that, but later. The Mets, my favorite team, were supposed to play against the team I hate the most, the Nationals. Now, you may think that I hate the Yankees, but I respect them as a team, as a team, because when their fans feel the slightest bit insecure in anything, they either console themselves with saying, “We have 27 rings, ok, ok, 27 rings, remember that.” The Yankees team, on the other hand, is a dynasty, and I respect a dynasty, something like what Sam Presti created in Oklahoma City, they have 35 draft picks over the next 7 years, and with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (a young, top 20 NBA player already) and Lu Dort (a top 10 perimeter defender in the league) already on the team. Well, back on topic, the Mets-Nationals weekend series was canceled. That’s really good stuff, Nats, are you guys really that scared of the Mets, well, I guess so, Francisco Lindor has been instilling fear into his opponents as fast as phones can install an app. By the way, thank you, Francisco, for signing a contract that King Midas would blush at, you will devour our salary cap for 11 years but I am VERY excited for you to belt 30 homers, get 100 RBIs, 20+ SBs, a .300+ average, and fielding that’s Gold Glove worthy because that’s why we signed you, so you’re good with that, right? I’m just kidding, though; I know Lindor will try his best in all the years of his contract, he’s just that kind of guy. But, because the Nats are so scared of us, they decided to go clubbing in the nation’s capital, but not only did they go clubbing, they asked everyone if they had COVID and they bear-hugged those who did. For this, the Mets should get three wins to start off the series and they should get fined, but, Rob Manfred, the MLB’s genius commissioner doesn’t like fining anyone because this is a Kindergarten league, right? Well, this weekend is my fantasy baseball league roster overview, another check-in in fantasy basketball and baseball news.