The Mets need starting pitching. Once upon a time, this was a franchise known for starting pitching beginning with the Franchise himself: Tom Seaver. In the recent and more relevant past, there was a dream of five aces, a 2015 World Series run, and a 2016 Wild Card appearance. Even when the Mets fell off [...]
Since his call up in the 2017 season, Jeff McNeil has quickly made his mark on the New York Mets. Even as he has garnered headlinesnfor his strong hitting, knobless bat and defensive adventures around the diamond, it almost feels like he still is one of the more underrated players in the game. In only [...]
There's a whole generation of fans who never experienced the late, great "2 Guys Talking Mets Baseball." For those who missed out, it was two pals - Michael Geus and Jimmy Preller - who had a blog with daily articles where they would have a conversation about the Mets. It was like a podcast except [...]
If the 2020 version of the New York Mets taught us anything, it is that you simply can’t overstate the importance of quality starting pitching. Starters for the Mets last season compiled an ERA of 6.07. This is not the standard that we are used to seeing from the Mets rotation, as for the past [...]
For coaches and managers, sometimes it’s hard to separate their results from what they did to achieve those results. Take Art Howe for instance. In 2001 and 2002, Howe’s teams won 102 and 103 games, respectively. The next year he managed the Mets and that 2003 Mets squad won just 66 games. It doesn’t seem [...]
Don’t get me wrong. I like Steven Matz. He’s easy to root for as a Long Island kid pitching for his hometown team. Overall, however, his 2020 season didn’t build on his 2018 and 2019 performances. In his sixth season with the team, the 29-year-old southpaw went 0-5 in six game starts (plus three relief [...]
Back in 1970, the Mets were the darlings of New York and the sports world. They had just come off the miracle championship season. I was 13 and my father took me to see them play at Shea Stadium. Jerry Koosman was the starter. I had gotten a Polaroid camera for Christmas that year and [...]
Some teams can afford the luxury of two superior players who play the same position. The last-place Mets are not one of those teams, they have a few too many needs that could be filled by dealing either Pete Alonso or Dominic Smith, both first basemen. For this article we will focus on the benefits [...]
Over the next two months we’ll be looking at Case Studies of players who spent time in the Mets Minor League System. For October, we’ll be focused on pitchers and then next month we'll look at some hitters. The purpose of these studies is to delve into the differences between pitching in each level of [...]
It’s 2020. We are well into the playoffs of the abbreviated season, or, as I like to call it “the year that never was.” The League Championship Series are about to start as we speak with the embattled – some would say reviled -- Houston Astros taking on the perennially surprising Tampa Bay Rays in [...]
If you've been reading this blog for awhile, you know my feelings about Dusty Baker as a manager. Here's a snippet from 2019: IN PRAISE OF AN EX MANAGER – Dusty Baker is rarely thought of as one of the best managers in recent history but you’ll forgive me if that’s where he rates in [...]
The Qualifying Offer this year will be $18.9 million and the Mets will have to decide whether or not to extend that to Marcus Stroman. In a normal year, this would probably be an easy decision. This year, maybe not so much. And on top of that, one has to decide if there's any lingering [...]