Last month there was an interesting story on MLB.com about the Mets' hitting philosophy and the new internal hitting metric called Bases Per Out (BPO) that it spawned. There's nothing particularly enlightening about the hitting philosophy. Essentially, it's a system of selective aggressiveness in which the hitter swings at good strikes and lays off of [...]
Here we go again. Starting pitcher Jenrry Mejia was absolutely lit up in Colorado last night in the Mets' 11-10 loss to the Rockies. All of the damage against Mejia occurred in a horrid fifth inning in which he gave up eight runs, capped by a grand slam by Nolan Arenado. It was a rough [...]
The 2014 Mets sit at 13-11; a welcome surprise to start a season that's probably more important than anyone associated with the team is willing to admit. Still, the driving factor behind the team's early success has been solid pitching. The hitting, on the other hand, has left much to be desired. The Mets' offense [...]
Mets' fill-in closer Jose Valverde has been awful over his last three appearances. During that span of just three innings, he's given up 8 runs (5 earned) on six hits. Four of those hits were home runs. It's almost like he's no longer a viable, high-leverage closer. Who would've thought it? Except for the Tigers, [...]
The Mets' 2014 season is a mere 11 games deep, and the team sits at five wins to their six losses. That's hardly enough time to gauge where the team will end up at the end of the season, though topping out at 73 or 74 wins at their current pace is certainly within the [...]
According to ESPN, the 2014 Mets have struck out 53 times over their first five games of the season. That's a new team record, shattering the previous record of 44 strikeouts over their first five games in 1968. The high strikeout totals shouldn't be a surprise to Mets fans. They were tied with the Braves [...]
With opening day mere hours away, the Mets finally named their fifth starting pitcher yesterday. The competition for the fifth spot in the rotation started out wide open, even including top prospects Noah Syndergaard and Raphael Montero. Realistically, though, the true competition came down to top prospect Jenrry Mejia and recently re-signed Daisuke Matsuzaka. Most [...]
The 2013 Mets, for all of their shortcomings, did one thing better than all other teams in baseball: running the bases. For a team without much speed, that's pretty impressive. Though that ultimate outcome may be a bit of a surprise, Terry Collins has been pretty vocal in his desire to instill aggressiveness on the [...]
Yesterday morning my colleague Spencer Manners introduced a new fielding data set, Inside Edge Fielding, that was unveiled this week at FanGraphs. This new data breaks down each play a player has the opportunity to make into six categories based on the difficulty of successfully making the play. The category titles are pretty self-explanatory. For [...]
The Mets' minor league system has seen a tremendous upswing in quality during the years Sandy Alderson and his front office have been in charge. It's been a remarkable turn, really. ESPN's Keith Law, a prospect pundit some Mets fans believe is generally negative toward all things Mets, recently rated the team's system as sixth [...]
Mets pitchers and catchers reported to Port St. Lucie yesterday, officially kicking off a new season of major league baseball. The Mets, like most teams, have several issues heading into Spring Training. One of those many issues is the team's noted lack of an effective leadoff hitter. Terry Collins, as he's apt to do, has [...]
Note: This is the final entry in a short series comparing (at a high level) where the Mets roster stood last year at this time and where it stands heading into Spring Training 2014. We're quickly approaching the reporting date for pitchers and catchers and the start of baseball for 2014. The off-season may not [...]