After a miserable 2019 season, Edwin Diaz didn’t get off to a great start in 2020. But after a shaky first few outings, Diaz ended up posting great numbers, even if none of the fanbase had much faith when he entered the game. His strikeout numbers last year were ridiculous. If you didn’t watch him [...]
Michael Conforto had a fantastic year in 2020. If he kept that pace up over a 162-game season, he would have posted a 5.4 fWAR. My sincere hope is that everyone who is reading this knows that Conforto’s tremendous year was the result of an unsustainable BABIP. If instead of a .412 BABIP, he had [...]
The season starts in seven days and there are still at least three projections that should be done. So, let’s go ahead and look at Brandon Nimmo. The Spring Training marvel and the on-base machine still has his detractors, although at least no one dismisses him as a fourth outfielder anymore. Well, that’s not 100% [...]
Dominic Smith is a first baseman who’s athletic enough to fake it in left field. That’s a good thing because the Mets have a 1B who hit 53 HR and while he’s not as good defensively as Smith, he’s not going to sit for him, either. Last year, the planets aligned for Smith to get [...]
At the conclusion of the 2020 season, it seemed like a pretty safe bet that David Peterson would be in the Mets’ rotation in 2021. After all, it looked like the Mets were going to need to sign three starters and how likely was it that they were going to get three or four guys [...]
The Mets don’t seem to believe in J.D. Davis as a starting third baseman and after his performance in September of 2020, it’s not too difficult to understand why. After looking good initially upon his return to 3B, he got progressively worse defensively. And in his last 28 games, Davis put up a .202/.336/.330 line [...]
After truncated seasons in 2018 and 2019, Taijuan Walker pitched a full year in 2020. Of course, 2020 itself was a shortened campaign. So, with three years where he combined for just 67.1 IP, how will the computer models forecast him for 2021? Will any of them project him to surpass 150 IP, which is [...]
There are many reasons for optimism as the Mets get Spring Training underway here in 2021, perhaps none more so than new shortstop Francisco Lindor. He comes to the Mets in the prime of his career, with a million-dollar smile, a reputation as a two-way star and a 7.7 fWAR season under his belt. Expectations [...]
From 2015-2018, Carlos Carrasco amassed the seventh-most fWAR among MLB pitchers, one spot ahead of Gerrit Cole and one behind Justin Verlander. Then came his battle with leukemia in 2019. A medication regimen allowed Carrasco to return to the mound late in the 2019 season and by the end of 2020, he seemed to be [...]
What a difference a year makes. This time in 2020, Mets fans thought the world revolved around Pete Alonso. Now there’s a portion of the fan base – 10%? 15%? 20%? – who advocate trading Alonso to play Dominic Smith at first base. Before we discuss that craziness, let’s see what the computer models are [...]
If you just look at Marcus Stroman’s Baseball-Reference page quickly, you’ll see that his last line has 11 games and 59.2 IP, which sounds about right for our Covid-shortened 2020. Alas, that was Stroman’s line after he was traded to the Mets in 2019. Stroman began 2020 on the injured list and accrued enough service [...]
The most interesting players are the ones where avid followers can disagree without taking obscure or purely theoretical positions. In recent years, Mets fans here have had these discussions with Wilmer Flores, Juan Lagares, Zack Wheeler and others. If the computer models are any indication, we’ll soon have another player to add to the list [...]