Early leaders:
AVG – .429 – Francisco Alvarez
OBP – .467 – Alvarez
SLG – .786 – Alvarez
ERA – 0.00 – Sean Manaea
IP — 6 – Manaea
Ks – 8 – Manaea
And just so we don’t forget
Versus RHP — .143/.143/.143, 7 PA, 4 Ks – Harrison Bader
And the only time he got on base was via an infield single.
Starling Marte (Sample Size 4 games):
AVG – .357
OBP – .438
SLG – .643
Hey why the venom for Bader? Did he not give you an autograph? You remind me that fella on wfan
Because it was a terrible waste of money. If you wanted someone to play CF and be a platoon player, you could have found someone at 1/5 the cost and spent the money elsewhere, better.
All a bit overstated… 1/5 the money? Not really. Maybe a run-of-the-mill, generic, disposable platoon CF, but not a defensively elite one. Thats relevant because that is the reason Bader was brought in – to provide the level of defense that can support, or even compensate for a “mediocre” (read: subpar) rotation. which leads to the real point: this is a less-than-mediocre, team. So even if they did save another $8 million to spend elsewhere, it won’t be enough to matter. The entertainment value this year comes in seeing how the young players develop, and guessing which, if any of these cheap lottery(scratchoffs, not lotto) players actually does well enough to bring back some kind of return at the trade deadline.
This is assuming Bader is an elite defender. And he was back in 2018-19. But while he’s still above-average, he’s no longer elite.
Player A: 622 innings, 12.0 UZR/150
Player B: 752.1 innings, 8.5 UZR/150
Player A signed for $1.7 million
To be fair, Player A played all 3 OF positions, while Bader was exclusively in CF. So, flip their defensive numbers, giving Bader the edge. That’s still someone in the ballpark for less than 1/5 the cost.
Stearns signed Teheran . With Senga, Peterson and Megill injured their starting pitcher depth is thin. I would have liked it if they would have promoted Butto or Lucchesi instead. It was too soon to promote Scott, Vasil and Hamel. I realize why Stearns did it but it wasn’t necessary.
Lucchesi’s first game in Syracuse was very good too but the move still makes sense given the timing.
Teheran is simply another case of trying to catch very old lightening in a new bottle. Can’t wait to see Quintana and Severino the second time around. Butto and Lucchesi will get there shots with something like 15 games in 14 days coming up. After we signed Boras client Martinez, why didn’t we make a short term offer for Montgomery? I’d have signed him 2/$50 if we could have and if we our adds for the 2025 season are strong, we could have extended him.
I hate that Bader is basically an easy out regardless of how he fields. Scary that good hands Wendle makes the error instead of the play. Kudos to Alvarez and Marte who answered the bell. Lindor and Nimmo are 2 for 36 with 3 walks. Oh and McNeil is 1 for 12. I weigh more than McNeil’s OPS.
Only 4 games in – panic is not in my vocabulary. Anxiety on the other hand……..
Montgomery would have been a waste of a lot of money because they’re not going to win anything meaningful with or without him. The taxes mean he would cost them more than $50 million per year. There’s just no point to wasting that kind of money. Signing him for two years would also eliminate any possibility of keeping payroll below the draft/pool penalty threshold in 2025. Stearns has said over and over again that the real goal is sustainable competitiveness. You can’t sustain a winner if you’re trying to draft and sign international players with one hand tied behind your back.
Great point. Forgot about the luxury tax.
What was a waste of money was paying $23.5 million plus incentives for Bader and Severino.
Steve Cohen was on CNBC talking about the Mets and his Hedge Fund. He was selling his hedge fund talking about recognizing undervalued companies that are reconfiguring through AI.
He didn’t really sell on the Mets, even though he spoke longer about them, saying how he has always allowed his baseball guys to make the decisions. He didn’t say a single word that I was surprised to hear including, “early”, four game losing streaks can happen at any time”, and of course “we believe”.
Will there be a Game Chat for the afternoon game?
Yes, there will be one chatter for both games, that should publish around noon. First game is set for 12:10 start.
You might remember Joander Suarez, who starts tomorrow’s opening game for the Mets AA team in Binghamton. Signed as an international player for a mere $10,000, he might be a very good starter soon for our Mets! His fastball sits at around 93, with a couple of miles more at tops, but with movement. And he has a good curveball and changeup. He is 24.
Suarez ended the season at AA by starting three games. The results: 18 IP, 3 H, 19 K, 4 BB, and 0 ER.
I was surprised and pleased to hear earlier that Suarez was getting the Opening Day start for BNG. My opinion was that in the offseason that Suarez and Tyler Stuart were being underrated by the prospect folks, while Christian Scott was being overrated.
Suarez missed time with TJ surgery and was awful in the first half of last year. But in his last 14 starts he had the following line:
69.2 IP, 2.33 ERA, .477 OPS against, 2 HR, 90 Ks, 18 BB
For a comparison, here’s Christian Scott in his close to the year:
71 IP, 2.28 ERA, .543 OPS against, 5 HR, 89 Ks, 11 BB
Scott gets on top 100 lists for all of MLB while Suarez can’t even get on a Mets top 10
Good points, Brian! Scott is a good one, but Suarez is being overlooked by too many.
On opening day yesterday, Suarez’s line was 5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K.
Here’s my “worthwhile” comment for anything goes Wed
I feel unique among participants here in that I follow precisely one major – or minor – sport, namely baseball. I would like to know if I am truly unique in this sense
Even so, I don’t follow BB nearly as closely as in the past, say around 2007/8. Hence, I feel neither as knowledgeable or relevant as anyone here
The fact is that I’ll often go a week or more between visits to this excellent blog. But having the opportunity to read here is quite a delight compared to just about anywhere else, and I thank everyone here for their excellent contributions.
Nonetheless, I apologize for contributing practically nothing beyond… nothing. However, I have been giving thought to some relevant and possibly interesting posts that could appear in the near future
Sincerely
Rick