Looking objectively at Jacob deGrom, Francisco Lindor, Robert Gsellman, Sean Reid-Foley and others

Jacob deGrom has left early in both of his last two starts, leading the armchair doctors to speculate that it’s all because of the effort/velocity which he throws his pitches. Never mind that deGrom himself has said that swinging the bat is what has caused him the most trouble. Never mind that that neither one [...]

Dominic Smith stays in the lineup and the XBH start appearing

In his last three games, Dominic Smith is 4-9 with a double and two homers. It seems like every time that Smith or Pete Alonso or Francisco Lindor strings together a handful of games with good results that we’re expecting them to put up a month-long stretch like this and it just hasn’t happened yet. [...]

Marcus Stroman’s terrific season versus his ERA estimators

In revamping their pitching staff this past offseason, the first thing the Mets did was to extend the Qualifying Offer to Marcus Stroman. Now, MLB deadline dates made that a necessity. Still, the Mets willingly paid the freight for a pitcher who sat out the year before. And it ended up being the highest AAV [...]

Jonathan Villar and the seduction of a two-week hot streak

Coming into this year, Jonathan Villar had a lifetime OPS+ of 95 in 3,209 lifetime PA in the majors. That’s a little misleading, as he struggled in his first two half seasons in the majors and was terrible last year. From 2015-2019, he had a 101 OPS+ in 2,472 PA. After yesterday’s homer and HBP, [...]