The Savannah Sand Gnats trio of Kevin Plawecki, Jayce Boyd, and Brandon Nimmo has been on the lips of Mets prospect watchers all season long and with good reason. These players are absolutely mashing right now, but analyses of their performances are generally accompanied by certain caveats. The primary caveat with Plawecki and Boyd is [...]
Though nobody in the Mets front office wanted to say it directly, the fans and the media were well aware of what 2013 was for the Mets: a continuation of the "rebuilding" process. There were great building blocks in place in Matt Harvey, Jonathon Niese, Josh Edgin, Bobby Parnell, Ike Davis, Ruben Tejada, and David [...]
The shortage of highly-touted position prospects in the Mets farm system is no secret. It's a system built on pitching, of course, with the high-upside position prospects still grinding away at the lower levels. Some of these lower level position prospects are starting to distinguish themselves in a big way, though. In Savannah the trio [...]
The headline sounds like a broken record to Mets fans, and may be a bit kind. The small sample size rule is in play of course, since the season is less than a month old, but so far in 2013 the Mets bullpen has not been very good. The bullpen has a record of 2-2 [...]
If there's one thing sports fans/writers/analysts/general observers like to do, it's to compare supremely talented up-and-comers to prior greats, labeling them "the next [so and so]." It happens in every sport. Kobe Bryant was the next Michael Jordan, until Lebron James was the next Jordan. For the Mets, the latest iteration of this trend involves [...]
Just as their parent team did in Flushing, the Mets four full-season minor league affiliates got their seasons under way last week and are off to solid starts. With the start of minor league ball, prospects continue to plug away at refining their skills with the hope that a long and fruitful major league career [...]
Week four of Bullpen Watch is our final edition, as Spring Training is over and the bullpen appears to be solidified. Last week's predicted bullpen consisted of the following pitchers: 1. Bobby Parnell 2. Josh Edgin 3. Brandon Lyon 4. LaTroy Hawkins 5. Scott Atchison 6. Pedro Feliciano 7. Greg Burke It was an interesting [...]
Week three of Bullpen Watch has arrived, and the situation is only a bit clearer than it was last week. In fact, Mets manager Terry Collins has stated that nothing is settled yet. To restate the obvious, sample sizes are small and Spring Training statistics are generally not thought to be worth much. The lack [...]
Last week we started looking at how the Mets bullpen was shaping up for 2013. The sample size was small, of course, and Spring Training statistics are generally not thought to be worth much when deciding which players should make the team. The lack of certainty seemed to mean that Spring stats might take a [...]
Beyond the uncertainty in the outfield this spring, the Mets next biggest question mark is clearly the construction of the bullpen. Though the starting pitching figures to be a strength (even if Johan Santana doesn't start the season on time), it doesn't mean much if the bullpen can't effectively close out games. In case you [...]
As of today, Mets ace Johan Santana has yet to throw an in-game pitch this spring. His first game was pushed back to mid-March, which the Mets attributed to "lack of arm strength." As Mets fans know, a Santana setback is definitely not something that should be taken lightly. Santana was placed on the disabled [...]
Three of the things that are quite obvious about the 2013 version of the New York Mets are that the outfield situation is not ideal (to put it nicely), they lack a true leadoff hitter, and they lack speed. As an extension of their lack of speed, they lack a real base-stealing threat. The Mets [...]