What the 2020 Mets would look like with 2019-level luck of the Braves and Nats

If you want to make the playoffs out of the NL East, you better have two things – talent and luck. This was true in 2019 and it will be the same in 2020, too. Last year’s two playoff teams from the East featured a 97-win team and the eventual World Series champions. Obviously, those [...]

Out of Position: From Keith Miller to Dominic Smith

The off season is chugging along at a pace. Here we are post-Holidays, still the first week of January, spring training a little more than a month away already. Heck, the Nationals’ victory champagne is barely dried on the carpet. The Mets, as we know, have made a few moves, mainly revamping their beleaguered bullpen. [...]

The exhaustion of being in perpetual ‘rebuilding for it’ mode

A number of seasons back, in the heyday of the Alderson regime, I coined a phrase, “rebuilding for it,” which expressed concern of what the tepid Mets ownership and front office moves were in terms of building a perpetual winner. The idea of this mashing of thoughts stemmed from the annual off-season big words of [...]

Tracking Mets players to lose their rookie status for the past decade

Last season the Mets used 53 different players and the year before that the number was 56. You can’t use that many players without adding new blood on a consistent basis. Some of these players come from outside of the organization, whether through trades or free agent signings or waiver pickups. And some make their [...]

Edwin Diaz and Bold Predictions

Here’s a bold prediction. Edwin Diaz will be better next year. The peripheral stats support that. An expectation that he won’t be better is just pessimistic. He was literally the worst closer in baseball last year. He could just be average and that would be significantly better. You know what, that’s not bold enough. Since [...]

The root of Wilson Ramos’ struggles and how to plan for 2020

I always liked Wilson Ramos. When rookies hit the ground running, I’m happy for them and Ramos did just that. He was called up when Joe Mauer got hurt and Ramos was impressive. A young catcher that could hit the ball a mile and had a strong arm makes for a great resume starter. Ramos [...]

Minor league park factors for Mets affiliates in 2019

Often times we talk about either hitter-friendly parks or pitcher-friendly ones. It’s an easy concept for major league teams, which we get to see on a regular basis and can confirm the results with our own eyes. The concept is easy with minor league teams, too, but there it requires a little more faith for [...]

Jacob deGrom’s place among the best pitchers of the 21st Century

Jacob deGrom has back-to-back Cy Young Awards and his 2017 wasn’t too shabby, either. But where does his three-year span stack up against other top hurlers of recent vintage? Let’s look at all of the pitchers of the 21st Century and see what the best consecutive three-year peak was for them. And a pitcher will [...]