The Mets’ Brett Baty conundrum

Starling Marte, Jeff McNeil and Daniel Vogelbach are disappointing everyone with their lack of power. Francisco Lindor is hitting for power but is leaving everyone wondering where the singles are. The struggles of those four players have kept the attention away from Brett Baty, which is something for which the rookie should be grateful. Baty [...]

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The problem with the Mets’ usage of Brooks Raley

Once upon a time, the Mets had a reliever named Alex Torres. He was by no means a great pitcher and if anyone remembers him today, it’s because he wore “The Great Gazoo” hat with the extra padding in it. Torres was a lefty reliever with reverse platoon splits. His Mets career happened during the [...]

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Gut Reaction: Mets 4, Yankees 3 (10 INN) 6/14/23

The vast majority of LHP have great success versus LHB. But this game had two such instances where managers went for the platoon advantage and it didn’t work out in either case. Brandon Nimmo atoned for an earlier baserunning gaffe by ripping a double off a lefty to bring home the winning run in the [...]

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Discussing Ronny Mauricio, Tyler Stuart, Jose Peroza and other minor leaguers

With the major league club floundering, what better time to have a discussion on the Mets’ minor league system?  Here’s an email back-and-forth between me and our guy on the minors, David Groveman. Brian:  Ronny Mauricio hits 26 HR in AA at age 21, follows that up as the MVP of the Dominican Winter League, [...]

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Gut Reaction: Pirates 2, Mets 1 (6/11/23)

After five days of good offense, the hitters took the day off Sunday and the result was a 2-1 loss to the Pirates in the rubber game of the series in Pittsburgh. Carlos Carrasco got the start and while he wasn’t exceptionally sharp, he was getting the job done. In the fifth inning Buck Showalter [...]

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Diving into splits for MLB & the Mets based on innings received from starting pitchers

Saturday was a good day for starting pitchers in MLB. Yesterday, 14 different starters pitched at least six innings, including Kodai Senga. For a comparison, only four pitchers did it on Friday, two on both Wednesday and Thursday, and three on both Monday and Tuesday. And the previous Saturday, only one pitcher in MLB went [...]

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Gut Reaction: Mets 5, Pirates 1 (6/10/23)

Kodai Senga gave the Mets seven strong innings and Mark Canha drove in three runs to lead the Mets to a 5-1 win over the Pirates Saturday afternoon in Pittsburgh. The win snapped a 7-game losing streak for the Mets and raised their record to 31-34. It looked like a bad matchup on paper for [...]

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Drew Smith shows how relievers bunch outings where they give up runs

Drew Smith has allowed runs in six of his last nine outings and has an 8.64 ERA in this span. It’s been tough to stomach, especially as the team’s grand plan was to have five reliever locks and three guys to cycle thru in the back end with the ability to move them up and [...]

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Gut Reaction: Braves 13, Mets 10 (10 INN) 6/8/23

If Hollywood came up with this storyline in a Kevin Costner movie, baseball fans would have rolled their eyes. But it happened – it really did. The Mets had leads of 6-3, 9-5 and 10-7 and couldn’t hold them. They had the bases loaded and one out in the ninth inning and couldn’t push home [...]

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