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 [...]
Back in October I referred to Jeremy Hefner as undervalued because most people looked at his traditional statistics (4-7, 5.09 ERA) and determined that he was not very good. But if you looked at other numbers, he displayed a bunch of promise. Those numbers were a 4.06 xFIP, a 1.3 fWAR and a .615 Quality [...]
Duffy Dyer was a true Met. He ably served as Jerry Grote’s back-up and caught many of the Mets greatest pitchers. He played for the team from 1969-1974. He appeared in 375 games and accrued 1167 Pas. He had one AB in the 1968 season but earned more playing time in 1969. He had one [...]
Now, this isn’t official. I’m not a member of the Met front office and I don’t have spy cameras in Terry Collins’ office (yet) but I think I can safely imagine the Met outfield for opening day without too much trouble. Let us see if you agree… Jordany Valdespin: Valdespin has made the squad. That [...]
What a novel concept it would be if the Mets actually went with their best options to win right away and bucked (no pun meant towards John Buck) the trend and tabbed uber-catching prospect Travis d’Arnaud as their opening day and full-time catcher. To coin a phrase made legendary by ex-Jets’ coach Herm Edwards: “Hello! [...]
When we projected Lucas Duda in the third week of February, mine was one of the bullish predictions, as I forecasted a .268/.348/.475 line for him. Duda then proceeded to start off Grapefruit League play 0-for-8 with six strikeouts, which earned him some time off and made me feel a bit queasy. However, the rest [...]
Thanks to a John Buck illness, Travis d’Arnaud is making the most of his opportunity to play behind the plate for the Mets in Spring Training. Despite his fine performance, d’Arnaud will probably still start the season in the minors, but his outstanding play got me thinking. Could last December’s trade for d’Arnaud with the [...]
It seems hardly a day goes by when we don’t hear about a player of at least moderate importance to his team sustaining an injury. Someone is forever being “shut down” for a few days or more. We hear about some muscle or other being tender, sore, tweaked or torqued. There are the intercostal strains [...]
Earlier today (March 20) on WFAN, Terry Collins was speaking with the media “Sports Pope” of New York, Mike Francesa and hinted that Jordany Valdespin is his leading candidate to be the team’s opening day lead-off hitter. This is what Collins said to Francesa: “Right now, the way Valdespin has been swinging the bat in [...]
Josh Satin didn’t get much of a chance this Spring and has already been sent down, which bums me out a little. So, I asked my friends in the blogosphere the following question: Assuming he's healthy, does Justin Turner deserve a spot on the Opening Day roster? These people all do great work and their [...]
1984 NESTLÉ RUSTY STAUB The early '80s were boomerang years for the Mets, as former players returned to the fold with notable regularity. Mike Jorgensen kicked off the trend when he suited up for the 1980 team, after having been traded away in 1972 (for Rusty Staub, but we'll get to that later). Dave Kingman [...]
As we all know, Spring Training statistics mean next to nothing. The hot young hitter finds all his power sapped when the wind shifts from left field to right. The normally rubber-armed hurler runs into a “dead arm” period. Some players simply don’t perform well in the Florida or Arizona sunshine, but thrive under October [...]