Spring Training 2024 ends tomorrow, as the New York Mets face off against the New York Yankees at 1 pm, the Mets lineup seems to have sorted itself out. But not without some last-minute help. Batting order, at least any sensible batting order, does not have significant effects on a team’s ability to score runs [...]
The Mets offense has a very good core, with top players at multiple positions. Filling a few holes with good hitters (and fielders) meant the Mets would still be in contention for an 85-88 win season with the expected pitching staff. Then last week Kodai Senga came up with a shoulder capsule injury that is [...]
One of the items flying under the radar last week was the Arbitration Deadline, on Thursday January 11. The New York Mets had a half dozen players with the right service times – players between three and six years, plus Super Twos. Going to arbitration is almost universally a bad play for teams because they [...]
After three years of Steve Cohen owning the Mets and splashing money around once free agency opened up, the Mets so far this offseason did not make the headlines for free agent signings they had in the previous years. In the offseason following the 2021 campaign, the Mets made big moves, signing Max Scherzer, to [...]
One baseball player trait fans admire is “played their whole career with the same team”. It is standard trivia to know Brooks Robinson and Carl Yastrzemski both spent their entire 23-year careers with the same team – that’s the record. There are 11 players, all in the Hall of Fame, that played in 20 or [...]
Dan Szymborski self-describes as “Senior Writer for FanGraphs, ESPN contributor, data provider for teams/agents, ZiPSetician, gamer, exasperating, possibly the worst. BBWAA, Digital Dandy.” Dan and I have been friends for about 27 years, discussing and arguing baseball on USENET discussion boards. He developed ZiPS, the premier projection system for 20+ years, and I developed RED, [...]
The Mets 2023 season has just a handful of games remaining. Mostly it was a dark season but ending in the general area of .500 is a mere disappointment, rather than a slide into an abyss. The biggest reasons to just exhale, and prep for 2024 is the brightness of the team – the good [...]
The Mets have managed to sink to the bottom of the National League East. There are still positive aspects to the season and certainly skills to build on for 2024. While the hitting is always under the microscope, having a defender give away runs in the field definitely has to be prevented. It is a [...]
The Mets have made it to the 99-game mark. Sitting at 46-53, what can the Mets expect to achieve the rest of the season? The first information to review is what the prognosticators assessed the Mets true talent level before the season. Most already included Edwin Diaz’ injury, so that issue was included in the [...]
Readers of these pages may remember the warning from last year’s May 30th piece , warning about the Mets’ June Swoon. A look at the last five years revealed the Mets performed poorly in June. On average 100 points worse than their season otherwise. Last year the Mets posted a 13-12, a .520 clip which [...]
The New York Mets have spent lots of money in the recent past. Steven Cohen is a new kind of owner. He understands flags fly forever, and he’s a fan. He also knows any title will result in immediate increased team valuation. These are important considerations when assessing next steps for a team with a [...]
After a month of baseball, many aspects of the games are taking shape. There have been lots of rule changes the last couple of years many fans like and many fans dislike. How these rule changes affect the Mets also varies. As Steven Shrager wrote last week, the Mets DH is a work in progress. [...]