In some vocal circles of Mets fans, Carlos Beltran is loathed as a selfish player. The hate even inspired the semi-popular but ironic hashtag #BlameBeltran. In his six-and-a-half seasons with the Mets, Beltran selfishly hit .280/.369/.500 with a 129 OPS+. He also slugged 149 rally-killing home runs, selfishly drove in 559 runs, stole 100 selfish [...]
Robinson Cano: The reality is, Cano will be 31 and may not stick at second for the remainder of his career. The reality ALSO is that he’ll cost a lot of money and the Mets seem to have the position reasonably covered with Daniel Murphy, Wilmer Flores, Wilfredo Tovar, Danny Muno, Phillip Evans and Gavin [...]
Going back to the minutia of the 2012 season for a look at changes on various major offensive All Time Met records list. First, the biggest one that happened in 2012 was David Wright’s ascension as the Met All Time Hit King. Wright surpassed Ed Kranepool’s previous record of 1,418 and is currently sitting at [...]
Looking at the players the Mets have, and the projection systems used to evaluate the team, has been interesting. Dan Szymborski’s projection system, ZiPS, has projected a meager 68-94 record for the 2013 Mets. However, other, more optimistic, projections systems, such as Nate Silver’s PECOTA, have projected the Mets to finish 80-82. It’s important to [...]
Earlier this week, Mets owner Fred Wilpon referred to David Wright as "our Jeter." Some may be taken aback by that statement, but it make sense when considering what each player has brought to their respective franchises. Both are the "faces" of their franchise, have spent their entire careers with their team (and will probably [...]
Next up in our projection series is a look at catchers. The Mets figure to open the year with John Buck as their starting catcher but few, if any, believe he’ll be the everyday catcher by September. While every projection is based in part by how much playing time you believe the individual will amass, [...]
Aimless in the Outfield: The Mets are going into Spring Training with a number of relative question marks in the outfield. No… there will be no Michael Bourn nor will there be Jason Borrne or Ozzy Osbourne but there will be plenty of speculation, misdirection and if we’re lucky… Duda might bite the head off [...]
This is the second in a series of evaluations comparing the 1986 World Series Champions with the projected 2013 team. The first article dealt with the offensive contributions of the 1986 Mets starting eight position players. This article deals with the offensive contributions of the bench (or platoon players). In order to keep this from [...]
After last year’s debacle, there’s a lot of concern about the 2013 bullpen. It seem like the Mets have signed 20 relievers with an NRI, hoping to get lucky with one or two of them. Since relievers are so volatile from year to year, this approach has at least as much chance of success as [...]
While examining the non-roster invites on the Mets’ official website you may notice there are quite a number of players who have a legitimate shot at making the club out of spring training. Veteran arms such as Scott Atchison and Aaron Laffey have MLB experience and could help in the team’s bullpen. Despite missing two [...]
Next up in our projections series is Johan Santana. It was a roller coaster ride in 2012 for Santana with some stunning highs and painful lows. Now further removed from the last surgery, can Santana stay healthy and give the club 30 starts this year? And if he is healthy, will he finish the year [...]
It was revealed this week that incumbent Mets’ closer Frank Francisco has elbow inflammation and his availability for Opening Day is in doubt. Apparently, Francisco was not able to rehab properly after he had surgery this offseason to remove bone spurs in his elbow because of personal issues. “So, here we go again!”-says every Mets’ [...]