Wilson Ramos was likely the Mets’ third choice when it came to importing a starting catcher prior to the 2019 season. But he was still an improvement over what the Mets had the previous year behind the plate. There were concerns about his durability and his overall defensive play, even if he was expected to [...]
Last Thursday, right before the start of the NFL Draft, got a text from a college buddy saying, "There will be no MLB this year." Immediately went to MLB.com but didn't see any news of this, so asked my friend where he heard it. He replied that he just finished a Zoom call with some [...]
Everyone is entitled to their opinion but it doesn’t mean that all opinions are equal. If your opinion is that it was a joy to watch Juan Lagares play defense – that’s a perfectly valid opinion. But, if you go past that and say something like, Lagares was so good defensively in 2019 that it [...]
Recently there was some chatter about who the best Met defensive players have been. Marv Throneberry or Keith Hernandez – Bud Harrelson or Rey Ordonez, and so on. Anecdotally, there are a couple of Mets with tremendous defensive reputations, and Gold Gloves, but were they deserving, given what we have learned from advanced metrics? Let [...]
Everyone knows that the Mets have made some awful trades in their tenure. What’s surprising is that one that certainly should have been awful turned out slightly positive for them. In early November of 1972, the Mets sent Danny Frisella and Gary Gentry, two 26 year olds, to the Braves for Felix Millan and George [...]
Two of the most interesting things about Mets pitcher Steven Matz have (mostly) nothing to do with his numbers on the field. Like teammate Jacob deGrom, Matz consistently goes about his business in a professional manner that contrasts with the club chaos that often surrounds him. Perhaps more interesting, however, is that he isn't really [...]
With the 2020 season up in the air, any Mets who were entering their walk years, will be suddenly facing free agency. This includes Yoenis Cespedes, Wilson Ramos, and several pitchers, most notably, Marcus Stroman. After the Mets parted with two of their top pitching prospects – Anthony Kay and Simeon Woods Richardson – to [...]
Seth Lugo has pitched four seasons in the majors and lifetime he has 31 starts and 30 games finished, without a complete game to his credit. He was very effective as both a starter and reliever when he first came up in 2016 but the following season got off to a late start because of [...]
It was 50 years ago today that Tom Seaver had one of the greatest starts of his career. He pitched a complete game and gave up just two hits and one run. But what made this game special was that he struck out 19 batters, including the final 10 of the game. Sure, it was [...]
News broke yesterday about Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez retaining JPMorgan Chase to help raise money to purchase the Mets. My first exposure to this was a Facebook friend linking the MetsBlog story and stating that if this happened he would no longer be a fan. Now, it should be stated for the record that [...]
Steve Trachsel allowed 348 home runs in his 16-year career in Major League Baseball. But the one he allowed to Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals on September 8, 1998 cemented his spot as a footnote in baseball history. The right-hander served Big Mac an 88 MPH fastball and with a quick, short stroke [...]
For reasons lost to time, my favorite player as a kid was Duffy Dyer. My thoughts turned to Dyer again earlier this week when Jim posted his musical ode to Jerry Grote. My opinion has always been that Grote was overrated, and not just a little. You hear repeatedly that he was the second-best catcher [...]