Let’s have a little fun and see if we can predict the opening day batting order for the Mets. The scheduled opener is in Washington on March 28. We’ll make a few assumptions, including that neither of injured infielders Todd Frazier and Jed Lowrie will be ready for opening day. The other assumption, which is [...]
New Mets closer Edwin Diaz is perhaps the most intriguing addition to the Mets for this season, and maybe in several years. Last year the Mets bullpen was near the bottom of MLB in performance, this year with Diaz and some other additions the relief corps could be among the best. Diaz is young, he [...]
Brodie Van Wagenen has only been on the job as the Mets GM for a few months, but the outline of the way he operates is taking shape. Let’s examine the approach the former player agent has pursued in running the Mets front office. 1. He tends to favor experience over youth in his roster-building. [...]
Mickey Callaway’s rookie managerial season skippering the Mets had some ups, and a lot of downs. He and the team had a sizzling start, then a dreadful June, before rallying to a respectable pace the latter part of the year. Perhaps the low point for Callaway was the infamous lineup mixup in Cincinnati that likely [...]
Now that David Wright has moved from the field to the front office, we can assemble an all-time team of players who played their entire MLB careers with the Mets. Each player must have played at least one game at the position to which he is assigned. 1B… Ed Kranepool was an easy choice here. [...]
Wilson Ramos was signed during the off-season, and, barring injury, he will be the Mets starting catcher in 2019. However, he turns 32 during the season, and he has had a few injuries, so the backup catcher should get plenty of chances to contribute. That backup will undoubtedly be Travis d’Arnaud, the injury beset backstop [...]
There was an interesting piece in the New York Post over the weekend concerning former Mets infielder Asdrubal Cabrera. Cabrera, an unsigned free agent as of this writing, expressed the lament that he would have loved to come back to the Mets but he realized that would not happen after the team signed Jed Lowrie. [...]
So far this offseason, rookie GM Brodie Van Wagenen has been wheeling and dealing players as much or more than any Mets GM ever. By signing Wilson Ramos and shipping out Kevin Plawecki, he’s remade the catching corps. He’s tinkered with the outfield, banishing Jay Bruce and acquiring Keon Broxton. The bullpen has been recast [...]
We’ve turned over to our 2019 calendar, and that means we are now in the 50th anniversary year of the remarkable, World Series winning 1969 Miracle Mets. This was a team that was little changed, with respect to personnel, from the ‘68 edition, a team which had finished in ninth place with a 73-89 record. [...]
The Mets have significantly upgraded their catching corps this offseason via the signing of Wilson Ramos. The backup catcher slot, however, is still up in the air. Conventional wisdom has been to either keep Travis d’Arnaud and trade Kevin Plawecki, or vice-versa. Yet another possibility is to keep both and occasionally deploy d’Arnaud in either [...]
Back in the last century the late comedian Rodney Dangerfield was known for his tag line “ I don't get no respect.” After the off-season that Mets infielder Jeff McNeil has endured, it would be no surprise if he felt the same way. McNeil, a rookie last year, was the Met second baseman for the [...]
The results are in from the Hall of Fame ballot of the Today’s Game Era committee, and once again Davey Johnson fell short of winning induction. Maybe the most surprising aspect of the vote was that Lou Piniella came within a whisker of induction as a manager, while Johnson was nowhere near the number of [...]