The readership of this site seems to skew toward a younger demographic. Every now and then, a history lesson is in order. Now is one of those times. There was a time when highly-touted rookies could make a team right out of Spring Training. Heck, there were a couple of notable players from the 1960s [...]
If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a thousand times – Spring Training stats are meaningless. There are several different reasons why this is true, none more so important than the fact that 50 PA or 10 IP is not enough to trump multiple seasons worth of results. Anyone who doubts that needs to [...]
The team does not have an elite (or even a good) base stealer (David Wright? Maybe…) without him. Jordany Valdespin is a threat to swipe a bag and actually seems to have improved his instincts a little so he’s not 100% ability when running. Fielding is a thing you might want. Let us pretend that [...]
With Kirk Nieuwenhuis’ knee injury and his overall ineffectiveness during the second half of 2012, the Mets should look to other options to fill out a center field platoon with Collin Cowgill. The best and perhaps only other candidate the team has is Matt Den Dekker. After being selected in the fifth round of the [...]
Last year the Mets had a nice big celebration for the 50th anniversary of the franchise. This included not one, but two All-Time Team “lists” being generated. The first being the 50 Greatest Mets in Team History, and the second was an All-Time Team, selected from various candidates by a panel of Met experts (writers, [...]
This past week, Mike Trout’s agent, Craig Landis, struck controversy when he stated that his client, an L.A. Angels outfielder, deserved a significant raise. Landis essentially suggested that the current major league free agency system, in which a player has to wait six years to obtain true market value, is unfair considering that younger players [...]
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 [...]
Our final player to project is Mike Baxter. The local boy who made good, Baxter earned a permanent spot in Mets lore last year by running into a fence full speed to protect Johan Santana’s no-hitter. But the reality is that before he got injured, Baxter was having a terrific season. He had done such [...]
The Mets 2013 projected outfield is an admitted team weakness. They’ve got options but no stars. They’ve all got a weakness. Lucas Duda can hit for power but can’t field; Matt den Dekker can field but can’t hit. You can go through the list and find some concern about them all. Do any teams have [...]
Spring training is still relatively young and there are plenty of games to play and prospects to scout (while we casually watch pseudo-Olympic baseball) but a few members of the Met team have stood out to me as deserving a role come April. Collin Cowgill – Cowgill hit the ground running and is probably the [...]
Next up in our projection series is Zack Wheeler. One of the top pitching prospects in the game, everyone expects Wheeler to make his major league debut sometime in the 2013 season. A minor Spring Training injury probably eliminated any slight chance Wheeler had of being on the Opening Day roster. Yet it would be [...]
The World Baseball Classic (WBC) is underway, with first round action completed in Fukuoka, Japan and Taichung, Taiwan. Cuba, Japan, Chinese Taipei and the Netherlands have advanced into the next round and there is much more excitement to come. Faces familiar to MLB fans such as Chien-Ming Wang, Andrelton Simmons, Roger Bernadina and Kazuo Matsui [...]