Following are some best and worst cases scenarios for the 2017 Mets, position by position, with a little humor thrown in.
1b Best case: Lucas Duda and Wilmer Flores provide a formidable platoon in the middle of the batting order.
Worst case: Back woes send Duda to the DL, and the front office searches for James Loney‘s telephone number.
2b Best case: Neil Walker has an injury free season and the switch-hitter improves his production against right-handers.
Worst case: Walker joins Duda in the back and spine ward of the hospital.
SS Best case: Asdrubal Cabrera has a repeat of his 2016 season.
Worst case: Chase Utley of the Dodgers tries breaking up a double play with his signature airborne slide, sending Cabrera to the DL.
3b Best case: David Wright recovers enough from his various health woes to provide respectable production in the field and at bat.
Worst case: Wright recovers enough from his various health woes to play some, but not play well.
RF Best case: After a sizzling spring training Michael Conforto settles in and plays like he did the first two months of 2016.
Worst case: Jay Bruce plays the position, and he performs like he did the last two months of 2016.
CF Best case: A Curtis Granderson/Juan Lagares platoon does the job, and does it well.
Worst case: Runners start scoring from second base on medium deep fly ball outs to Granderson.
LF Best case: A monster year for Yoenis Cespedes, topped off by the MVP award and a ring.
Worst case: Cespedes quits baseball to become a golf pro.
SP Best case: No lengthy DL stays for the rotation, and Noah Syndergaard‘s ramped up off-season workout regimen does lead to increased fast ball velocity and a few tape measure home runs from him as well.
Worst case: Starters drop like flies, including Noah Syndergaard, whose increased velocity leads to an overworked elbow.
RP Best case: Jeurys Familia receives a reasonable suspension, works his way into form and is stronger than usual at the end of the season due to the extra rest.
Worst case: Familia gets a longer suspension, is rusty when he finally returns and never hits peak performance.
C Best case: Travis d’Arnaud‘s spectacular Grapefruit League play continues during the regular season as he contends for the triple crown.
Worst case: A series of on-field injuries means d’Arnaud spends more time at the Hospital for Special Surgery than on the field.
Admittedly a few of the scenarios are far fetched, but anything realistically close to the best case scenarios would likely mean a pennant, while a record based on the worst case scenarios would mean a losing season.
“he contends for the triple crown”
I needed a laugh…
I know its only the Grapefruit League but he is batting .345 with a SLG over .600
“I know its only the Grapefruit League”
http://www.espn.com/mlb/history/triplecrown
This will tell you all you need to know.
Didn’t Bruce have a good very end of the season?
I’m not sure about the very end Mike, but in his time with the Mets in the last 2 months of the 2016 season his slash line was .219/.294/.391
He had an .846 OPS in September, with the bulk of the damage done the last week.
I think an ineffective Matt Harvey is a bad scenario.
Montero w/ 4 walks today.
He keeps reaffirming my old assessment:
It’s like he’s afraid to throw the ball over the plate — for good reason.
I find him fascinating.
Dave Stewart got his ass kicked until he was 30—and he finally started to work on the Splitter, a Pitch Sandy Kolufax taught him in 1982… almost 4 years before Stewart finally started to use it.
RA Dickey, Dave Strewart, Mike Scott…Jake Arietta… these are guys who made substantial changes to their approach and repertoire.
Montero keeps showing up with the same stuff…and the same outcome. Cutting him loose might be the best way to convince him to begin to find a way to get MLB hitters out.
Outliers, cherry picked across four decades. One learned a knuckleball, one threw a spitball.
I think the ceiling is not nearly that high. He might take aim at a Manny Acosta type career.
But, sure, anything’s possible.
I suppose.
Oh…I’m certainly not predicting greatness, but I can easily predict failure based him doing the same things again and again.
Those 4 pitchers are easy examples…almost every player who is not a born as a physically overwhelming superstar needs to adapt and compensate to compete. Lebron doesn’t need to compensate—everyone else in the NBA does….as an example
Fun read. Thanks, John. Cespedes does have an MVP look about him, doesn’t he? Hard to believe this franchise has never had one.
Matt,
Hes got the tools to be the first Met MVP, and if he can keep up the plate discipline he is showing this spring he’s got a chance