Reyes 3B
Cabrera SS
Cespedes LF
Granderson CF
Walker 2B
Bruce RF
Duda 1B
d'Arnaud C
Syndergaard RHP
- Losing Kang is a massive blow to the Pirates
James Wagner & #10004; @ByJamesWagner
T.J. Rivera, Seth Lugo and Rene Rivera are back in Mets camp after being away with Team Puerto Rico. All the WBC Mets have now returned.
Duda is batting 7th? Phew
Any changes to his swing and that big loop he had last year?
His work defensively is another story...
It's a 1 catcher league, I think piecing together D'Arnaud with a currently injured Tom Murphy could be a really nice value play.
It's a 1 catcher league, I think piecing together D'Arnaud with a currently injured Tom Murphy could be a really nice value play.
Mine is Sunday. At C I still like Zunino as a post-hype sleeper
Really hope we can get that under control this year. It became a big problem last year.
d'Arnaud actually went undrafted and Zunino is available. Wondering if I should make a play for one of them. I feel like McCann is totally replaceable.. I'd rather have a guy with upside.
d'Arnaud actually went undrafted and Zunino is available. Wondering if I should make a play for one of them. I feel like McCann is totally replaceable.. I'd rather have a guy with upside.
It's always a roll of the dice with those later catchers. I'm in a 2 catcher league (I already have Gary Sanchez) but there is something nice about having 2 decent catchers. TDA certainly has upside (injuries obviously a major red flag). Zunino is just a personal "buy low" sleeper for me. His line drive, hard hit ball numbers were excellent. I think he still has Gattis-like upside.
Really hope we can get that under control this year. It became a big problem last year.
Honestly (and I could be dead wrong on this) but I think his "slower time to the plate" issue was way overblown last season. I'm sure that is part of it but I believe the bigger issue was paying attention to people on base and having a catcher that couldn't throw out runners well (when TdA was catching). Then it was made a big story and EVERYONE started running on him, which is only going to spike the numbers and story. Massively increase the steal attempts on ANY pitcher and the numbers likely spike.
If he can manage to keep attention to the runners, then things should improve.
Or, you know, just strike everyone out.
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I think I was the last team to take one and I wound up with McCann.. which I'm not really too thrilled with.
d'Arnaud actually went undrafted and Zunino is available. Wondering if I should make a play for one of them. I feel like McCann is totally replaceable.. I'd rather have a guy with upside.
It's always a roll of the dice with those later catchers. I'm in a 2 catcher league (I already have Gary Sanchez) but there is something nice about having 2 decent catchers. TDA certainly has upside (injuries obviously a major red flag). Zunino is just a personal "buy low" sleeper for me. His line drive, hard hit ball numbers were excellent. I think he still has Gattis-like upside.
My league is very power heavy.. so guys who can pop a lot of HR's have a ton of value and K's are only -0.5 so even if they're high-whiff guys, a-la Chris Davis, it doesn't really kill their value.
That's why Zunino is kind of intriguing. Even if he doesn't hit for high average.. if he winds up near the top of the catcher crop in HR's, he'd be worth owning.
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Especially Thor, getting better at holding runners on. That will mitigate a little bit of d'Arnaud's throwing issues. If we have a hard time holding runners again, players are going to run wild on us.
Really hope we can get that under control this year. It became a big problem last year.
Honestly (and I could be dead wrong on this) but I think his "slower time to the plate" issue was way overblown last season. I'm sure that is part of it but I believe the bigger issue was paying attention to people on base and having a catcher that couldn't throw out runners well (when TdA was catching). Then it was made a big story and EVERYONE started running on him, which is only going to spike the numbers and story. Massively increase the steal attempts on ANY pitcher and the numbers likely spike.
If he can manage to keep attention to the runners, then things should improve.
Or, you know, just strike everyone out.
Yeah, I 100% think it's correctable. I think it's more technique than delivery. Just hoping it's something they worked on ironing out so we can limit that shit from happening again this year.
It's also something that rarely improves, except incrementally over time at best.
Having said that, I'll take a healthy Thor with problems holding runners on over almost any pitcher in all of baseball.
That was more of a byproduct of baserunners stealing off of Thor left and right.
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was mostly Thor's personal catcher last year, and TDA only sparingly caught him, just my impression?
That was more of a byproduct of baserunners stealing off of Thor left and right.
we can all surmise that, but I was responding to Phi's comment about Thor and the SB's:
It's definitely a positive sign, but I think I mentioned the other day that it's more a product of him coming from the Reds than anything else.
Again, not trying to imply that stolen bases are mostly a catcher issue. But I do hope that TdA can improve on that. But if he can hit his stride offensively, I can live with the defense.
I really like TDA and hoping this is the year he stays healthy and produces but not counting on it. If he plays more then 80 games, I'll be thrilled!
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Travis d'Arnaud is actually 0-for-12 throwing out base stealers this spring. He got credit for his only caught stealing on a Matz pickoff.
They did not bring anybody in (even on a minor league deal). It's Rivera/Plawecki and then 27 year old minor leaguer Xorge Carrillo.
Throwing out runners might be the biggest waste of a stat in sports history.
Now compare that to pitch framing which directly impacts thousands of calls, ect. per year.
It's ridiculous.
Usually not good when you barely reach the mound when trying to throw a runner out. And your SS can't stop from laughing at your throw.
Then not even close on a pitch out...
TC reiterated #Mets feelings on dArnaud. As long as he contributes at the plate, theyre not going to sweat him behind it.
Collins on d'Arnaud, who is hitting .325 this spring: "If he's driving in a ton of runs, you will ignore what the throwing is like."
Rene Rivera was absolutely horrendous, cost Syndergaard strikes and raised his pitch count.
The one thing that continues to confuse me about anti-pitch framing Mets fans.
You saw a prime example of it the reverse effect in WC game
Terry says its speeding up the throw for Travis. Said throws have velocity but just too slow.
So psyched!
Yeah and he was considered to have one of the best arms in the business. Thor fucking sucks at holding runners on. Oh well.
But...TdA is just embarrassingly bad at throwing out runners. Every one of his throws were awful. It's funny that TC mentioned velocity because while watching the replays I thought the throws looked slow.
And Z, I don't disagree that catchers throwing out runners probably isn't a big impact. However, that is during a normal game. If every game was like a Thor/TdA game, the impact would be much much greater. Teams run at will on the both of them.
Fair enough. It's confusing to me why it's so hard for a career pitcher to hold runners on, but you'd know better than me.
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To say it has been worked on a ton all offseason would be an understatement. It's not easily fixed, nor quickly. And will never be "fixed", just make it less painful.
Fair enough. It's confusing to me why it's so hard for a career pitcher to hold runners on, but you'd know better than me.
Because Thor is really REALLY bad at it. As in, "one of the worst ever" bad. So even if it improves this year, he will likely be the worst in baseball at it. But again, it's literally his only fault. I'd still take him over virtually any pitcher in the game.
I'd love to see it improve, but the reality is it's been exposed even worse due to the coverage of it towards the end of the year. So even if it improves, it will be tested more often. I'd rather he focus on the other more important things rather than let it become a distractiion when he is pitching with runners on base.
But you are right, if it can't be helped then just focus on other stuff.