In 2012, Matt Harvey came up and announced his presence with authority. Last year Zack Wheeler came up, dominated the Braves and by the end of the year had established himself as ready for prime time. These two may have created some unrealistic expectations for future rookies that the Mets promote. Right now we are eagerly, and likely unrealistically, awaiting the major league debuts of Rafael Montero and Noah Syndergaard. For years, my go-to example…
They don’t call it a New York minute for nothing. We’re all impatient and we want to get things done so we can move on to the next thing we’ve got to do. So, while Sandy Alderson takes his time and acts like the adult in the room, here’s my armchair GM and the 25-man roster to take north on Opening Day. C – Travis d’Arnaud 1B – Lucas Duda 2B – Daniel Murphy 3B…
In 2011, Jose Reyes led the league in batting for the Mets and was with another team the next year. In 2012, R.A. Dickey led the league in strikeouts and the next year he was on another team. In 2013, Eric Young Jr. led the league in stolen bases. While he will likely open the year with the Mets, it’s anyone’s guess what his role will be on the club. Following the 2013 season, the…
Vic Black throws gas. In his major league debut last season, Black averaged 95.5 mph with his fastball. It couldn’t really be any other way though, could it? A guy with that name couldn’t be a soft-tossing lefty. No, that gig is reserved for someone like Jamie Moyer, not someone whose name is packed with Cs, a V and a K. Black is part of a bullpen that should feature serious heat. Gone are the…
The good news is that Jeurys Familia has not pitched in the first three exhibition games of the year and is therefore not among the nine pitchers in camp with an ERA of 9.00 or above. The bad news is, well, just about everything else. Familia has gone from hot-shot pitching prospect to potential future closer to staring at another season in the minors and being bypassed by others on the team’s depth chart. While…
Yesterday we unveiled our new header image, which included a border collage of some non-Mets things that I enjoy. The images are small, as to not detract too much from the focus of the site. A couple of people commented on the images and loyal reader Metsense suggested that we have a contest. There are 32 images on the border collage. If by 11:59 p.m. Monday night, we get 10 entries that get at least…
Today at Mets360 we unveiled our new banner image, which once again was designed by Dave Stark. While Dave did the overwhelming majority of the work involved, I do want to recognize two other individuals who contributed to the piece. Dan Kolton did the Photoshop work on the Bartolo Colon and Curtis Granderson cards that are featured so prominently. And my son Trent contributed some ideas to the final layout of the piece. Those who…
David Wright is the winner of MLB Network & MLB.com’s “Face of MLB” contest. Here is the bracket and how Wright advanced to the winner’s circle: Wright beat Eric Sogard in the finals. If Sogard seems like an odd choice, there’s a reason behind it. Turns out that a lot of people thought the contest was, well, pointless. So they rallied behind Sogard as a type of protest vote. On the opposite end of the…
Ike Davis has become the most polarizing player on the Mets. Oh, sure, some people get worked up about Juan Lagares and Eric Young Jr. but those two simply don’t bring the … baggage that Davis carries with him. Davis seemed destined to be a fan favorite. A first-round draft pick who advanced quickly through the system, Davis had a strong rookie season at the plate and he excelled in the field. It looked like…
At the end of the Omar Minaya tenure, it seemed the team bent over backwards to minimize any injury. Seemingly every injury followed the same path. It would go from “it’s minor,” to “day-to-day,” to “15-day DL,” to “indefinitely out,” to “done for the year.” The running joke was that if the team announced a player had a blister, it was only a matter of time until he needed rotator cuff surgery. While the problem…
Last year Mets catchers put up a combined .654 OPS, 33 points below the average mark for National League backstops. Of the four catchers to see action for the club last year, Travis d’Arnaud had the lowest OPS with a .542 mark in 111 PA. Yet because of his minor league pedigree, many fans expect d’Arnaud to have a big year at the plate. Some even point to the rookie as one of the keys…
Three times in his career John Lannan has made 30 or more starts and notched an ERA under 4.00 – stamping himself with #3 SP upside. Daisuke Matsuzaka has three seasons where he posted a fWAR of 2.5 or higher, including one year when he went 18-3. But every Mets fan out there wants Jenrry Mejia to win the fifth starter’s job. Part of that is because he’s a young, homegrown guy. And part of…
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