2023 NY Mets thread

[sutomcat]

"J.D. Davis and Darin Ruf are both raking, posting a combined .928 OPS so far this year, with Ruf knocking in the only run in regulation on Wednesday. The end result of the trade with the Mets has been absolutely stunning, with New York essentially giving the Giants a starting third baseman and three prospects for free."

Naturally Ruf puts his Giants uniform back on and now he's 'raking'.

A couple of us on the board were furious at Eppler for making that remarkably bad trade. Immediately. No need to wait to see how it was going to turn out. With the DH adopted by the NL, Davis becomes a lot more valuable.

Speaking of bad trades, former first round draft choice Jarred Kelenic is finally playing up to his potential at the MLB level. He is hitting ..310 so far this season and already has 4 HRs.

Jarred Kelenic Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More | Baseball-Reference.com

Check out the latest Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More of Jarred Kelenic. Get info about his position, age, height, weight, draft status, bats, throws, school and more on Baseball-reference.com

www.baseball-reference.com

The Mets still have to pay Cano $20.5 million for this year. He is still screwing up the Mets salary cap and hurting the Mets even now. At least Eppler didn’t do that deal.

 

[SWC75]

A couple of us on the board were furious at Eppler for making that remarkably bad trade. Immediately. No need to wait to see how it was going to turn out. With the DH adopted by the NL, Davis becomes a lot more valuable.

Speaking of bad trades, former first round draft choice Jarred Kelenic is finally playing up to his potential at the MLB level. He is hitting ..310 so far this season and already has 4 HRs.

Jarred Kelenic Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More | Baseball-Reference.com

Check out the latest Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More of Jarred Kelenic. Get info about his position, age, height, weight, draft status, bats, throws, school and more on Baseball-reference.com

www.baseball-reference.com

The Mets still have to pay Cano $20.5 million for this year. He is still screwing up the Mets salary cap and hurting the Mets even now. At least Eppler didn’t do that deal.

 

[sutomcat]

Yes, Diaz has had one great year for the Mets. I remember it.

One good year. One bad year. One awful year. Another good year that was cut short by COVID (less than half a season. And another forgettable season this year where it is likely he will contribute nothing.

If he pitched like he did last year all the other seasons, this trade might have been a good one for the Mets. Too bad that did not happen.

Edwin Díaz Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More | Baseball-Reference.com

Check out the latest Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More of Edwin Díaz. Get info about his position, age, height, weight, draft status, bats, throws, school and more on Baseball-reference.com

www.baseball-reference.com

As Mets fans, we will all watch Kelenic’s career closely. He has struggled for a lot time. If he never emerges, the trade itself will be a good one. If one ignores the huge impact carrying Cano’s salary for all these years getting little or nothing in return has had on the franchise. I can’t ignore that. That trade never would have happened had the Mariners not wanted to dump the worst contract in MLB on someone else.

 

[SWC75]

Yes, Diaz has had one great year for the Mets. I remember it.

One good year. One bad year. One awful year. Another good year that was cut short by COVID (less than half a season. And another forgettable season this year where it is likely he will contribute nothing.

If he pitched like he did last year all the other seasons, this trade might have been a good one for the Mets. Too bad that did not happen.

Edwin Díaz Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More | Baseball-Reference.com

Check out the latest Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More of Edwin Díaz. Get info about his position, age, height, weight, draft status, bats, throws, school and more on Baseball-reference.com

www.baseball-reference.com

It still tops anything Seattle got out of that trade to date. Maybe things will turn around now.

 

[Orangezoo]

Lucchesi with maybe the best out of any Mets SP so far this year. Helps that SF can't hit lefties if their life depended on but his stuff has been really good tonight. Very pleasant surprise.

 

[sutomcat]

It still tops anything Seattle got out of that trade to date. Maybe things will turn around now.

Respectfully disagree. Seattle got out of the worst contract in MLB. Not having to pay $24 million for five years for a player near the end of his career is worth a lot.

Think of the good things the Mets could have used that money for had they not had to send it to Cano. Think of all the wins that were thrown away having to waste so much money for so long.

We could have had JT Realmuto. We could have had Liam Hendricks. We could have had Ottovino and LeMahieu. We could have had Ottovine and Robertson. And had those two first round draft choices as well.

Props to Jerry DiPino for fleecing the Mets in that one.

 

[sutomcat]

Looks like the analysts made a good call having Lucchesi pitch against the Giants. The numbers said they couldn’t hit lefties and the numbers didn’t lie last night. Alonso continues to have a monster year. McNeil and Nimmo continue to take. And Guillorme looks like his bat is waking up with some starts at 2B while Marte rests his sore neck.

We have Peterson, another lefty, going today. Let’s hope the lefty struggles for the Giants continue.
Joey was able to pitch 7 innings and Buck finished the game with Raley and Hunter, so I would think Smith, Ottovino and Robertson will be available today.

Buck is hoping Starling returns to the lineup Saturday.

John Curtiss was sent down to make room for Joey. Sounds like the plan is to leave Joey on the roster for next week, where he will be needed to make at least one more start. I believe the plan is to call Butto up next week to make another start.

After that, the Mets are hoping Verlander will finally join the rotation. In a perfect world, Carassco would as well but I don’t expect that is going to happen. So unless something else goes wrong, Butto or Lucchesi will be sent down after Verlander joins the rotation. Though they might keep that pitcher in staff as a long relief option.

So far, we have had a lot of good contributions from backup options. If/when Verlander makes a start, he will be the 9th starter so far for the Mets this season. That is amazing but maybe not shocking given how old the Mets starting pitchers are.

Lastly, the Mets announced they will be playing Mauricio at several positions in Syracuse effective immediately. He has been a shortstop exclusively to date. Gonna play him at 1B, 3B, 2B and in the outfield. I think his best path forward is probably in the OF. Hoping he is fast enough to play CF. If so, could see him play there and move Nimmo to LF when Ronny is ready. Looks like he has a great arm so if he can’t play CF, I think he might make an excellent RF.

Hope to see him playing the OF in Syracuse soon.

 

[SWC75]

Respectfully disagree. Seattle got out of the worst contract in MLB. Not having to pay $24 million for five years for a player near the end of his career is worth a lot.

Think of the good things the Mets could have used that money for had they not had to send it to Cano. Think of all the wins that were thrown away having to waste so much money for so long.

We could have had JT Realmuto. We could have had Liam Hendricks. We could have had Ottovino and LeMahieu. We could have had Ottovine and Robertson. And had those two first round draft choices as well.

Props to Jerry DiPino for fleecing the Mets in that one.

If it takes years for a deal to play out and you have to speculate on other deals they might have made to shift the balances, I think it's hard to be angry at the GM for making a deal. You have to evaluate it on the information he had at the time.

 

[SWC75]

Looks like the analysts made a good call having Lucchesi pitch against the Giants. The numbers said they couldn’t hit lefties and the numbers didn’t lie last night. Alonso continues to have a monster year. McNeil and Nimmo continue to take. And Guillorme looks like his bat is waking up with some starts at 2B while Marte rests his sore neck.

We have Peterson, another lefty, going today. Let’s hope the lefty struggles for the Giants continue.
Joey was able to pitch 7 innings and Buck finished the game with Raley and Hunter, so I would think Smith, Ottovino and Robertson will be available today.

Buck is hoping Starling returns to the lineup Saturday.

John Curtiss was sent down to make room for Joey. Sounds like the plan is to leave Joey on the roster for next week, where he will be needed to make at least one more start. I believe the plan is to call Butto up next week to make another start.

After that, the Mets are hoping Verlander will finally join the rotation. In a perfect world, Carassco would as well but I don’t expect that is going to happen. So unless something else goes wrong, Butto or Lucchesi will be sent down after Verlander joins the rotation. Though they might keep that pitcher in staff as a long relief option.

So far, we have had a lot of good contributions from backup options. If/when Verlander makes a start, he will be the 9th starter so far for the Mets this season. That is amazing but maybe not shocking given how old the Mets starting pitchers are.

Lastly, the Mets announced they will be playing Mauricio at several positions in Syracuse effective immediately. He has been a shortstop exclusively to date. Gonna play him at 1B, 3B, 2B and in the outfield. I think his best path forward is probably in the OF. Hoping he is fast enough to play CF. If so, could see him play there and move Nimmo to LF when Ronny is ready. Looks like he has a great arm so if he can’t play CF, I think he might make an excellent RF.

Hope to see him playing the OF in Syracuse soon.

Mauricio was at second last night, (my first visit to the ballpark this year). He made a nice play in the field but the team lost 0-5 as all those .300 hitters we've still got couldn't find the ball with their bats and 2 of our three hits came from the catcher, Perez, who's hitting .172 even with them. But it was a nice night to be at a ballpark, anyway.

 

[SWC75]

1986 Mets: 108-54 = .667

2023 Mets: 14-7 = .667 (even with all those pitchers unavailable and all those hot prospects not arriving or not hitting yet)

So that means...

 

[Orangezoo]

Peterson helping the Giants break out of their lefty slump today.

 

[sutomcat]

Peterson helping the Giants break out of their lefty slump today.

Yes, I think we can officially say David is in a tailspin. Missed most of the game babysitting my granddaughter. So far this year, it seems like his arm is good and his velocity is around his usual 94-95 mph.

The problem has been location. Too many walks. Too many hitters ahead in the count. Too many grooved fastballs down the middle to avoid walks.

Was it more of the same today?

The game tomorrow represents the difference between a good road trip and a great road trip. I hope they can find a way to win.

The good news is Peterson was able to get through 5 and Ucela got in three. Our best relievers should be well rested for the game tomorrow. And Baty had two hits. Maybe he is starting to figure things out now?

 

[Orangezoo]

Yes, I think we can officially say David is in a tailspin. Missed most of the game babysitting my granddaughter. So far this year, it seems like his arm is good and his velocity is around his usual 94-95 mph.

The problem has been location. Too many walks. Too many hitters ahead in the count. Too many grooved fastballs down the middle to avoid walks.

Was it more of the same today?

The game tomorrow represents the difference between a good road trip and a great road trip. I hope they can find a way to win.

The good news is Peterson was able to get through 5 and Ucela got in three. Our best relievers should be well rested for the game tomorrow. And Baty had two hits. Maybe he is starting to figure things out now?

Yeah location was again the issue. Baty definition getting more comfortable for sure.

 

[SWC75]

Can anybody here pitch?

This Week in Mets: How the Mets played their way to a winning road trip

Brandon Nimmo was as hot as the Mets have ever seen him: a .442/.489/.674/1.164 slash line on the road trip.

theathletic.com

 

[SWC75]

Pete is "evolving":

Has Mets’ Pete Alonso leveled up? ‘He is as locked in as it gets’

In 23 games, Pete Alonso has a .267/.347/.611 slash line with 10 home runs. That fast start appears tied to efforts to be more selective.

theathletic.com

 

[Orangezoo]

Great start to the home stand

 

[SWC75]

The top of the order has fallen to the production level of the bottom of the order.

 

[Orangezoo]

The top of the order has fallen to the production level of the bottom of the order.

Looked like a bottom 5 team out there tonight

 

[sutomcat]

Looked like a bottom 5 team out there tonight

The last few days have been ugly.

The Mets infield got through the first 21 games without an error. That is an MLB record.

But lately, the defense has been shoddy.

Lindor let a ball fall out of his glove like a rookie.

Guillorme is running away from grounder hit right at him.

Alonso has slowly been getting better on defense but he dropped a routine pop fly, then had the runner dead to rights trying to get to second and made an awful throw. Later in the game, he declined to reach out to get the ball on a somewhat bad pickoff attempt.

No one is hitting. Players are rarely working the count and making the pitcher work. Looks like a lot of players are pulling off the ball and barely hitting it.

Relievers are giving up insurance runs. Starters struggle to get to 5 innings.

Everyone seems to be a zombie. Is this still fallout from the long west coast road trip?

Scary to be going into the Braves series on a long losing streak with just about every starter struggling.

 

[MSOrange]

Jeff Passan has a love-hate relationship with Mets fans: 'They take every game like it's the end of the world.'

ESPN's Jeff Passan loves how passionate New York Mets fans are about every game on a 162-game schedule, but he also loathes them for it.

awfulannouncing.com

 

[SWC75]

Just your normal 9-8 win to break a 4 game losing streak.

Baty seems like he's going to be the first of the golden boy prospects to stick. Alvarez maybe. Vientos and Mauricio are still down on the farm. I'm hopefully they will all be with the big club and contributing before the season's over.

 

[MSOrange]

 

[SWC75]

 

[sutomcat]

That rainout was a good break for the Mets. The forecast indicates another rain out is likely tomorrow. This buys the Mets beleaguered staff a bit of time for the cavalry to arrive. Ottovino is out on paternity leave now too so the bullpen is short a key arm for a few days as well.

With the arrival of Scherzer and Verlander, it appears Peterson, who has really struggled this season, is a near lock to be sent to Syracuse for a while to get his act together.

New rotation:

Verlander, Scherzer, Senga, Megill and one of Butto or Lucchesi. Though there has been talk of possibly using a 6 man rotation for a while to give the old guys more time to recover between starts. Senga could use some extra time too as he is coming from Japan, where starting pitchers pitch once a week.

Vientos continues to hit like a madman in Syracuse. It would be great to have him take over as the DH but the Mets are sticking with Pham and Vogelbach for now.

Vogelbach is hitting okay (.271) and gets a lot of walks. Not much power so far but he at least is contributing some. Pham started out well but is really struggling. His average has fallen below .200 and he looks overmatched.

The problem is the Mets are only carrying 3 outfielders on the roster. 4 if you count Pham. Locastro is on the IL with back spasms. Pham is the only other guy on the roster who can play CF (Marte and Canha can in an emergency, maybe McNeil too).

If Nimmo gets hurt, which history tells us is likely, we need someone who can play CF when he is out. Pham is no great shakes at CF but he is decent out there defensively and in theory anyway, should be okay on offense too.

Bottom line, it is going to be hard to open a spot in the roster to get Vientos up. Biggest problem is the Mets are playing with an extra infielder now with Baty called up (Guillorme and Escobar). It will be hard to get rid of either of those guys.

I think it is going to take an injury to an infielder to get Vientos on the Mets. Or he is going to have to keep hitting above .350 eoth power and force their hand.

 

[SWC75]

That rainout was a good break for the Mets. The forecast indicates another rain out is likely tomorrow. This buys the Mets beleaguered staff a bit of time for the cavalry to arrive. Ottovino is out on paternity leave now too so the bullpen is short a key arm for a few days as well.

With the arrival of Scherzer and Verlander, it appears Peterson, who has really struggled this season, is a near lock to be sent to Syracuse for a while to get his act together.

New rotation:

Verlander, Scherzer, Senga, Megill and one of Butto or Lucchesi. Though there has been talk of possibly using a 6 man rotation for a while to give the old guys more time to recover between starts. Senga could use some extra time too as he is coming from Japan, where starting pitchers pitch once a week.

Vientos continues to hit like a madman in Syracuse. It would be great to have him take over as the DH but the Mets are sticking with Pham and Vogelbach for now.

Vogelbach is hitting okay (.271) and gets a lot of walks. Not much power so far but he at least is contributing some. Pham started out well but is really struggling. His average has fallen below .200 and he looks overmatched.

The problem is the Mets are only carrying 3 outfielders on the roster. 4 if you count Pham. Locastro is on the IL with back spasms. Pham is the only other guy on the roster who can play CF (Marte and Canha can in an emergency, maybe McNeil too).

If Nimmo gets hurt, which history tells us is likely, we need someone who can play CF when he is out. Pham is no great shakes at CF but he is decent out there defensively and in theory anyway, should be okay on offense too.

Bottom line, it is going to be hard to open a spot in the roster to get Vientos up. Biggest problem is the Mets are playing with an extra infielder now with Baty called up (Guillorme and Escobar). It will be hard to get rid of either of those guys.

I think it is going to take an injury to an infielder to get Vientos on the Mets. Or he is going to have to keep hitting above .350 eoth power and force their hand.

There was talk of Mauricio becoming a centerfielder because of his speed but per BaseballReference.com, he's never played the position. He's a switch hitter. Maybe he could DH with the right handed Vientos while he waits for a spot to open up. He's 22 and Vientos 23 so they may be ready for their major league careers to begin.

Ronny Mauricio Minor & Winter Leagues Statistics | Baseball-Reference.com

Mark Vientos Minor Leagues Statistics | Baseball-Reference.com

Mark Vientos Minor Leagues Statistics including batting, fielding, prospect rankings and more on Baseball-Reference.com

www.baseball-reference.com