Early results from the new prospects, Mark Vientos’ 0-2 problem, Jeff McNeil heating up

If you’ve watched the Mets play since the end of the trade deadline, you’ve seen a club go from bad to worse. It wasn’t too difficult to predict, that an under-performing veteran club would see whatever little wind was in its sails disappear completely. Yet while it was predictable, that doesn’t make it any easier [...]

A normal loss, Jeff McNeil’s weak contact to the pull side, Max Scherzer’s HR problems

Last year the Mets were terrific in the regular season, winning 101 games, which was the second-most in franchise history. That still means they lost 61 times. Losing is part of the game. You can have games where you lose in a frustrating fashion. But shouldn’t that mean there are games where you just, you [...]

Kodai Senga’s brilliant pitching, the Galvis Line trio, Brandon Nimmo’s unusual surge

In his first start back from the All-Star break, Kodai Senga continued his strong pitching, as in a six-inning stint he fanned nine batters and allowed only one run. But that strong outing went for naught, as neither the bullpen nor the offense contributed very much in a 5-1 loss. Senga got a no-decision but [...]

Francisco Lindor’s Mets tenure, Justin Verlander’s last seven games, the HR battle between the club’s pitchers and hitters

It’s been a weird season for Francisco Lindor. It’s been well documented how he’s had more extra-base hits than singles virtually all year. And those lack of singles has been a main contributor to his poor AVG. But his AVG has taken a nice uptick in the past two games, as he’s banged out eight [...]

Kodai Senga’s growth, taming Kyle Schwarber, return from Eduardo Escobar deal

Prior to the start of the 2023 season, FanGraphs’ Depth Charts, which acts as a conglomeration of all of the projection systems posted at the site, had Kodai Senga with a forecast of 160 IP and a 3.60 ERA. As we close in on the mid-point of the season, Senga has 76.2 IP and a [...]

Relievers force Buck Showalter to push starters, days off for Alonso and Lindor, the incredible Max Scherzer

We all want to see starting pitchers for the Mets go deep into games. It’s my opinion that when you’re not a slave to pitch counts, that you can get more from starters. Friday night was a great illustration of this, as Buck Showalter let Justin Verlander, who was pitching well, go another inning. But [...]

Francisco Alvarez ROY candidate, Max Scherzer gets untracked, Brooks Raley and LHB

Francisco Alvarez continues to impress. Gary Cohen and Keith Hernandez are leading the hype train, saying something positive about his defense in nearly every game. Last night he made a truly terrific play, fielding a ball fired into the dirt by Justin Verlander and applying the tag on the runner trying to score from third. [...]

Brandon Nimmo heats up, the pitching staff’s gopher ball tendencies, free Ronny Mauricio

It was a hope coming into Spring Training that the starting pitching would be a strength and that the bullpen would be above average. Injuries to two starting pitchers and the closer dealt the pitching staff a blow right away. And while the overall record is great, the pitching hasn’t been all that. The staff [...]

Trouble in the middle innings, the stingy John Curtiss, Francisco Alvarez’ 2023 debut

Baseball-Reference has breakdowns for stats for individual innings, as well as innings 1-3, 4-6 and 7-9. In 2022, 34% of the runs all MLB pitchers gave up happened in innings 1-3, 35% came in the middle innings and 1% came in the final three frames. This makes sense, as you figure with teams frequently using [...]

The terrific bullpen start, Francisco Lindor’s defense, Gary Cohen’s Walter Cronkite moment

The first 10 days or so are the toughest ones of the season to write, at least for me. Everyone is picking the same stories to write about and it’s tough to come up with something unique in this time frame. And as of right now, there have been three games played. Three. It’s way [...]

The N&N boys catching duo, Tommy Hunter makes the club, Brett Baty and Mark Vientos don’t

The 2022 Mets had two offensive sinkholes in the lineup in catcher and designated hitter. They made an upgrade at the DH spot at the deadline and thanks to Daniel Vogelbach’s production, the Mets saw their final rank at the DH spot climb to 19th in MLB. That’s still not great but acceptable as one [...]

Syracuse coaches, opt outs and Spring Training stories

The Mets recently announced their 2023 minor league coaching staffs, as well as their player development and medical personnel for the upcoming season. The list of names includes many former MLB players, including the likes of J.P. Arencibia, Reid Brignac, Miguel Cairo and others. It caught me off guard that with the host of familiar [...]