No stat is perfect and catcher’s ERA (cERA) has more than its share of faults. But it’s not totally useless. And with a pitching staff lacking a dominant hurler or two, cERA is probably more useful for the 2024 Mets than a lot of other teams out there. And the results are impossible to ignore. [...]
The Mets have made 10 pitching changes the past two days, leaving the bullpen in a bit of a tough spot for Tuesday’s game. But the good news is if the Mets can navigate the games Tuesday and Wednesday, they’ll play just two games in the following five days. Along with the expected return of [...]
Lately, a lot has been made about how many close games the Mets are playing. As if that’s a bad thing. After yesterday’s 8-7 win over the Nationals, the Mets have played 21 one-run games and 13 decided by two runs. Since they’ve played 60 games overall, that’s 57% that are decided by fewer than [...]
Right now, everyone is fretting about Edwin Diaz because he’s been, well, terrible. And a whole lot of people are coming up with reasons for why he’s been this bad. Yet no one is going for the low-hanging fruit that relievers tend to bunch their bad games together. Every season, the overwhelming number of relievers [...]
From the comfort of my office chair, here are the moves I’d like to see the Mets make today: 1. Send down Brett Baty, DFA Joey Wendle and call up Jose Iglesias and Mark Vientos to the majors. It’s far from certain to me that either Iglesias or Vientos are roster-worthy. But it’s pretty clear [...]
The Mets have had some surprising moments during this 2024 season and the biggest surprise is probably Reed Garrett. The team's bullpen has been one of their biggest strengths to begin this year. Sure, the return of closer Edwin Diaz has a big part in it. But Garrett is also having a big say in [...]
In yesterday’s Game Chatter we talked some about the relative merits of DJ Stewart and Tyrone Taylor. Clearly, Taylor is the better defensive player. But the question is if Stewart’s big advantage on offense makes up for his deficit in defense. If this was a Presidential debate, people would accuse me of being a flip-flopper [...]
The Mets’ bullpen has been a very pleasant surprise so far here in 2024, with several members displaying excellent numbers. Because good results abound, it’s somewhat easy for an individual player to get lost. And in the Mets’ case that certainly applies to Adam Ottavino. There’s no immediate story for Ottavino like there is for [...]
At the risk of killing the good vibes around the Mets’ ongoing offensive explosion, let’s take a moment to look back at last year’s deadline deals, where Max Scherzer was traded for Luisangel Acuna and Justin Verlander was dealt for Ryan Clifford and Drew Gilbert. Let’s break it down by what the players did in [...]
While looking for something else, stumbled across an article from last year entitled, “A look at the Mets’ starting pitching at the one-third part of the season.” And while Footballhead might appreciate that the article quoted Talking Heads, what stood out to me the most was this: Incredibly, a Mets starting pitcher has completed at [...]
There are a lot of things which the David Stearns-Carlos Mendoza regime has bungled so far in their brief tenure in Queens. Signing Harrison Bader with the thought of making him a full-time player is the first thing that jumps to mind, although there are others. The handling of Jose Butto, the construction of a [...]
Entering Spring Training, the door was wide open for Mark Vientos to be in the Mets' starting lineup long term, particularly at Designated Hitter. The Mets were willing to try some of their young prospects, to be a fixture in the lineup for the 2024 season, and Vientos was one of their hopefuls. However, he [...]