Francisco Alvarez and the dreaded sophomore slump

As the Mets circle the drain at the wire to end yet another season, the drafts of various postmortems are inevitably being written as you read these very postmortem-like words. One of the topics will concern the Mets’ offense, which as of this writing remains in the top ten in baseball with a wRC+ of [...]

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Gut Reaction: Brewers 8, Mets 4 (9/27/24)

*** Warning – loser’s lament to follow *** It’s tough to blame the umps when you give up eight runs. But it felt like the umps had it in for the Mets in this game, an 8-4 loss to the Brewers. Milwaukee is now 10-1 against the Mets since the start of 2023. The Brewers [...]

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Scheming ways for the Mets to make the playoffs without having to play Monday

In recent years, no one has owned the Mets quite like the Brewers. Just since the start of 2023, Milwaukee holds a 9-1 edge in the head-to-head matchups between the two clubs. The idea that the Mets could sweep a road series against the Brewers is preposterous. Now, some will say that with the Brewers [...]

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Luisangel Acuna and Jose Iglesias are going full Hechavarria

For years, I’ve been complaining about how lucky the Braves are, how they get great performances from players who have no business delivering them. There are many examples throughout the years but the one that stands out is Adeiny Hechavarria. In a nine-year career in the majors, Hechavarria had 3,288 PA and a 76 OPS+. [...]

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Wednesday catch-all thread (9/25/24)

Since returning from the IL, Starling Marte has posted a .235/.308/.296 line in 92 PA. And that's with a .322 BABIP. He's walking a decent amount but he's producing like a Triple-A backup catcher. And he has 23 strikeouts in this span, a 25% K-rate. The Mets are finally playing Tyrone Taylor over Harrison Bader. [...]

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Gut Reaction: Braves 5, Mets 1 (9/24/24)

Mark Vientos can hold his head high. The rest of the team needs to do some soul searching. It was a disappointing night for the Mets, as they didn’t hit or field particularly well and lost to the Braves, 5-1, Tuesday night in Atlanta. Some poor defense did in Luis Severino early. And the Braves [...]

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Mets Minors: What to make of Luisangel Acuna’s hot start plus end of season grades

The Mets are in the midst of an amazing late season run towards the playoffs and have exceeded my pre-season expectations at the major league level. Part of what makes it so amazing is that the team has been without their MVP, Francisco Lindor for an extended time.  Coming up from AAA to cover that [...]

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How Carlos Mendoza managed and his plan to win the game Sunday night

When it comes to pitching, one thing that’s not often discussed is – How are you going to try to win the game? Sunday’s tilt with the Phillies shows the different ways that managers can approach this issue. With the game tied, 1-1, Carlos Mendoza yanked Tylor Megill after four innings, saying he was going [...]

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Gut Reaction: Mets 2, Phillies 1 (9/22/24)

Brandon Nimmo gave the Mets the lead with a solo homer and Edwin Diaz came on for a six-out save, lifting the Mets to a 2-1 win over the Phillies Sunday night at Citi Field. The victory gave the Mets the series win and upped their record against the Phillies to 6-7, while cutting Philadelphia’s [...]

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Mets fans view Sunday as that’s my not-so-fun day

The Mets have been a different team since June, having gone 62-36 since 6/1. Yet, somehow, they play worse on Sundays than they did the first two months of the year. Here's the breakdown: 6/2 - Loss, 5-4 6/9 - Win, 6-5 6/16 - Win, 11-6 6/23 - Win, 5-2 6/30 - Loss, 10-5 7/7 [...]

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Pitching and hitting contributing to Mets’ recent slate of blowout wins

Conventional wisdom used to be that the good teams knew how to win the close ones. And while it's true that generally good teams have good records in one-run games, where they really shine is in blowouts, games decided by five or more runs. A team can "luck" its way to one-run wins. It's a [...]

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Gut Reaction: Mets 10, Phillies 6 (9/19/24)

For the third straight game, the Mets put up 10 runs, the first time in franchise history that feat has been accomplished. And that was enough to down the Phillies, 10-6, Thursday night at Citi Field. The Mets are now 14-4 in the month of September. Six of the Mets' 11 hits went for extra-bases, [...]

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