Mets Lineup
Nimmo CF
Lindor SS
McNeil 2B
Alonso 1B
Pham DH
Marte RF
Baty 3B
Canha LF
Alvarez C
-
Verlander P
Rays Lineup
Ramirez 1B
Franco SS
B. Lowe 2B
Arozarena LF
Paredes 3B
J. Lowe DH
Margot RF
Bethancourt C
Siri CF
Beeks SP
We are facing another lefty. Yuck. David Peterson down. Josh Walker up (added to 40). Verlander's home debut. LGM!
-Quintana could ramp up big time if his CT scan goes well Friday
-Narvaez expected to start rehab assignment at some point next week
@FinkelsteinRyan
Just wrote a deep dive on Mark Vientos for @JustBB_Media that will go up tomorrow, but here is the biggest thing I found.
Last year, Vientos struggled against breaking balls, leading to a high K rate and his bad splits against right-handed pitching.
That is no longer an issue🧵
Reply to @FinkelsteinRyan @JustBB_Media
FinkelsteinRyan's avatar
Ryan Finkelstein @FinkelsteinRyan
Against breaking balls in 2022 Vientos hit .150/.209/.242 with a 37.2% strikeout rate.
This year, he's hitting .265/.357/.471 with a 21.4% K rate against breaking balls. Walk rate against breaking balls has gone from 6.2% up to 14.3%.
FinkelsteinRyan's avatar
Ryan Finkelstein @FinkelsteinRyan
By identifying and laying off breaking balls, Vientos isn't getting himself out and is forcing pitchers to attack him with fastballs more. This has led to the video game numbers he is posting in Triple-A.
Last year, Vientos saw fastballs 40% of the time and now it is up to 48%.
FinkelsteinRyan's avatar
Ryan Finkelstein @FinkelsteinRyan
7m
What is he doing with those fastballs?
2022: .302/.408/.562, 11 HR in 201 PA
2023: .377/.462/.844 10 HR in 91 PA
Vientos is on pace for 45 home runs if he got 600 plate appearances this year.
I believe he is the best home run hitter on the 40-man roster not named Pete Alonso.
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Ryan Finkelstein @FinkelsteinRyan
The Mets cannot justify rostering and giving at-bats to the likes of Tommy Pham and Eduardo Escobar over Vientos at this point.
While the fit is clunky, Vientos needs to be seeing time and should honestly be the everyday DH.
If that even means trading Vogelbach so be it.
i dont know why they'd need to trade vogelbach just limit him to 1-2 starts per week until he starts showing more power. he will probably get PH work late game almost every game against righty relievers.
vientos - 1/3 with 1 rbie, 1 110.7 mph single, 109mph lineout
4/9 of the mets starting lineup hasn't hit a ball 110.7 all year.
vientos - 1/3 with 1 rbie, 1 110.7 mph single, 109mph lineout
4/9 of the mets starting lineup hasn't hit a ball 110.7 all year.
Eppler and Buck are so damned stubborn man. I guess they figure that if they move Vientos up it's just another sign that they're bailing on the season and admitting the off-season was a failure. How else can we explain this?
Quote:
mauricio - 2/3 with 3 rbis, a 110 mph single
vientos - 1/3 with 1 rbie, 1 110.7 mph single, 109mph lineout
4/9 of the mets starting lineup hasn't hit a ball 110.7 all year.
Eppler and Buck are so damned stubborn man. I guess they figure that if they move Vientos up it's just another sign that they're bailing on the season and admitting the off-season was a failure. How else can we explain this?
i think they honestly arent ready to give up on pham, mehscobar, and vogelbach.
vogelbach is limited but realistically not a DFA candidate. he can be a contributor and would actually be a decent weapon off the bench vs righty relievers.
mehscobar is their main insurance at 3b, position versatile, and "good in the clubhouse".
pham has hit the ball hard, has good underlying #'s, and is OF depth where they are thin.
individually each is a justifiable keep but there's an easy way to get creative here. which is to just drop down 1 pitcher. do they need 4 of brigham, hunter, leone, nogosek, and walker all active each game? let a couple of them ride the merry go round once carrasco returns.
if they have to dump one of the vets pham is the easiest to cut bait with. i suspect that's why they've given him 7 starts so far this month. he is riding an 0-18 in his last 5 of them. i know he has hit the ball hard but at some point i think we need to just cut bait. the guy replacing him can also hit the ball hard and go 0-18.
Just ugly and they look like they don't really care, going through the motions.
So 5 under after the sweep by the Rays, with the 78 million dollar pay-roll.
Unwatchable....
They need to shake up roster a bit and retool the entire bench if they have to as it’s only punching ticket they have this early.
The locker room seems too comfortable too. Losing? Oh well.
Quote:
In comment 16117943 Eric on Li said:
Quote:
mauricio - 2/3 with 3 rbis, a 110 mph single
vientos - 1/3 with 1 rbie, 1 110.7 mph single, 109mph lineout
4/9 of the mets starting lineup hasn't hit a ball 110.7 all year.
Eppler and Buck are so damned stubborn man. I guess they figure that if they move Vientos up it's just another sign that they're bailing on the season and admitting the off-season was a failure. How else can we explain this?
i think they honestly arent ready to give up on pham, mehscobar, and vogelbach.
vogelbach is limited but realistically not a DFA candidate. he can be a contributor and would actually be a decent weapon off the bench vs righty relievers.
mehscobar is their main insurance at 3b, position versatile, and "good in the clubhouse".
pham has hit the ball hard, has good underlying #'s, and is OF depth where they are thin.
individually each is a justifiable keep but there's an easy way to get creative here. which is to just drop down 1 pitcher. do they need 4 of brigham, hunter, leone, nogosek, and walker all active each game? let a couple of them ride the merry go round once carrasco returns.
if they have to dump one of the vets pham is the easiest to cut bait with. i suspect that's why they've given him 7 starts so far this month. he is riding an 0-18 in his last 5 of them. i know he has hit the ball hard but at some point i think we need to just cut bait. the guy replacing him can also hit the ball
hard and go 0-18.
Pham at least can play outfield. Vogelbach has zero value on a competitive major league roster.
Eppler is just not cut out for his job.
12m
Mark Vientos hit his 13th home run of the season tonight
107.2 MPH off the bat and 411 feet. He is hitting .336 with a 1.111 OPS
I simply can’t give you a good reason why he’s not in Queens right now
if he's not in the lineup tomorrow in NY it's shameful. no other word for it. no reason for it except stubbornness. either throw 1 of the AAAA relievers arms off tonight and then clear the spot or dfa pham. he got a fair shot over 80 plate appearances. he didnt produce enough and at 35 he's not a good enough player to carry waiting for him to get over .200.
https://twitter.com/PSLToFlushing/status/1658631246488936449 - ( New Window )
-Quintana could ramp up big time if his CT scan goes well Friday
-Narvaez expected to start rehab assignment at some point next week
ZGiants. No pitching. I told you weeks ago. Team in big trouble
Fire Eppler. Buck. Bring up Mauricio and Vientos
Quote:
Joe DeMayo @PSLToFlushing
12m
Mark Vientos hit his 13th home run of the season tonight
107.2 MPH off the bat and 411 feet. He is hitting .336 with a 1.111 OPS
I simply can’t give you a good reason why he’s not in Queens right now
if he's not in the lineup tomorrow in NY it's shameful. no other word for it. no reason for it except stubbornness. either throw 1 of the AAAA relievers arms off tonight and then clear the spot or dfa pham. he got a fair shot over 80 plate appearances. he didnt produce enough and at 35 he's not a good enough player to carry waiting for him to get over .200. https://twitter.com/PSLToFlushing/status/1658631246488936449 - ( New Window )
His markers haven't been hit yet. Needs 40 HRs.
Not going to win a thing with pitching like that.
Biggest problem in my mind is the team looks dead. Lifeless, no emotion. Going through the motions of a game.
at this point i think im way more off the rails than that. im checking if his hits are coming off breaking balls or fastballs for gods sake.
Does this team have it in the to go the distance. Will be interesting to see what they do at the deadline could see them getting a Vet SP.
lol
Seems like they're rushing the kid.
Quote:
Promoted
Seems like they're rushing the kid.
LOL
Awesome news! Get him up while he's hot and see if it continues.
Any word on any corresponding move?
Quote:
Promoted
Awesome news! Get him up while he's hot and see if it continues.
Any word on any corresponding move?
haven't seen one but they've been playing pham a lot,
he is 0- for a week+,
escobar homered last night as a righty PH'er,
locastro is playing again in AAA,
and they signed a veteran righty power bat in AAA a week ago.
so add all that up and i think they have prepared themselves for a pham departure.
Vientos (AAA) numbers: 101 games, 24 HR, 72 RBI, .877 OPS
Alonso (A+,AA) numbers: 93 games, 18 HR, 63 RBI, .883 OPS
age 23 season:
Vientos (AAA): 38 games, 13 HR, 37 RBI, 1.104 OPS
Alonso (AA/AAA): 132 games, 36 HR, 119 RBI, .975 OPS
Vientos in 132 games this season is on pace for 45 HR and 128 RBI
Vientos has arguably been the better minor league player. While Alonso was in college, Vientos was learning on the job in the minors, so I don't count the prior seasons for as much. (We saw the same early struggles with Nimmo for example)
Not saying Vientos will be an Alonso like hitter in the majors, but if he can come even close, it's exciting stuff.
He's redundant as a RH DH to Vientos. Vogey still has value as a LH PH. His OBP ability has value as well.
Only issue is OF depth, though with Marte, Nimmo, Canha, and McNeil.
For the life of me, I will not understand why Mauricio isn't getting playing time in the OF. Obviously, if there is an OF injury, you move McNeil to the OF and bring up Mauricio, but would be nice to have the added versatility. If one of the 4 guys above is injured, who is your 4th OF? That instance may prevent them from bringing up a Mauricio and going with a Cedrola or Locastro
last year in sporadic playing time and 24 BBE his exit velocity was 2 mph harder (93.2mph) than the 2nd place guy on the mets, which happened to be baty (30 events, 91.1 mph). the rest of their contact quality was similar across the board, though baty hit better and k'd less. a year later and playing more baty has adjusted well and is making even better contact. he is up to 92.2mph and his hard hit % is up by 50% compared to last year. walk rate also double.
vientos probably wont hit for the average baty as quickly as he has but i think he will eventually get above .250 because he has been above .280 his whole upper minors career. he is the best home run hitter the mets have had in the minor leaguers including Alonso. he hits homers a lot of different ways, and a lot of them are big boy home runs to center and the opposite way. he's had seasons mashing lefties (2022) and righties (2021, 2023). he had one of the highest exit velocities in spring training against and the mets deployed him against tougher comp, 2 of his homers this month were against MLB pitchers on rehab assignments, and i think he probably has more contact over 100 mph than any player in MLB this year. it shouldnt take him very long to be 3rd on the team in homers behind alonso/lindor the question will be how well he can control his k/walk/contact rates. he did pretty well in his brief call up last year with a 12% walk rate and a 29% k-rate, so if that's the floor and the improvements he's shown this year are sticky there may not be a very long adjustment period. alonso hit .260 his last season in the minors at vegas and hit exactly .260 the next year in mlb as a rookie with a 10% walk rate and 26.4% k-rate.
a 700-800 ops is the reasonable guess, if you want an unreasonable one they are promoting a player a full year younger than alonso but also twice as accomplished in the upper minors with better production across the board and similar crazy exit velocities. alonso ops'd 941 as a rookie, his only big league year with a 900+ ops. jeff mcneil got called up in july of 2018 hitting .368 in vegas and he hit .329 the rest of the way for the mets finishing 6th in ROY voting (850 ops). vientos is the most productive met prospect called up since mcneil/alonso. so the upside is as high as a dh call up can get.
Would love for them to dump Pham though.
Perhaps he has a mysterious injury and goes to IL, but Pham is not going to Syracuse.
Not sure of the utility of making Eppler the fall guy in May, but some of his moves have been expensive and bad...not a good combination.
Uncle Stevie cannot be happy seeing a Tampa team with a 78 million (or whatever it is exactly) pay roll beat up on your 340 million dollar toy.
Let’s hope they do the right thing and don’t platoon these guys.
Vientos (AAA) numbers: 101 games, 24 HR, 72 RBI, .877 OPS
Alonso (A+,AA) numbers: 93 games, 18 HR, 63 RBI, .883 OPS
age 23 season:
Vientos (AAA): 38 games, 13 HR, 37 RBI, 1.104 OPS
Alonso (AA/AAA): 132 games, 36 HR, 119 RBI, .975 OPS
Vientos in 132 games this season is on pace for 45 HR and 128 RBI
Vientos has arguably been the better minor league player. While Alonso was in college, Vientos was learning on the job in the minors, so I don't count the prior seasons for as much. (We saw the same early struggles with Nimmo for example)
Not saying Vientos will be an Alonso like hitter in the majors, but if he can come even close, it's exciting stuff.
this has been my point for 2+ years. if you look at the BA, walk rates, k-rates it's even more compelling. pete was .260 in vegas with an 11% walk rate and 26% k-rate (if you remember back to 2018 the reason he supposedly didnt get called up was because he was expanding his strike zone too much). he ended up k'ing slightly more than that in the big leagues and still won roy.
vientos was 29% k-rate last year and this year it's 20%. last year he walked 10%, this year he's 11%. this year he's hitting .333 last year he hit .280.
betting on a ROY/50 home run type season is beyond a long shot but for 99% of call ups it's not even a remote possibility. for vientos it is.
Let’s hope they do the right thing and don’t platoon these guys.
all catchers platoon to some degree so with alvarez im not as concerned. narvaez should get the short end to start but if he hits better closer to 50-50 is fine. remember alvarez is probably going to exceed any amount of playing time he's ever played before this year. last year he had the ankle issue late in the year after catching 700 innings which was almost double his previous high.
this year he's at 220 innings at the 25% mark so he's pacing to exceed that by almost 200 innings.
Alonso's rookie season he had 53 HRs. Vientos is up at a younger age, but was on a higher HR pace than Alonso at their age 23 season. I certainly don't expect him to hit at that pace, but as was posted (I believe by Eric) the other day, Vientos has been doing much better with the breaking stuff and laying off it. If he plays in 81 games (half a season), I don't think .250 and 12-15 HR is unrealistic
Mark Vientos with the Syracuse Mets:
40 HR
113 RBI
.294 BA
.942 OPS
150 games
if his game translates he is exactly the kind of masher this lineup needs.
Quote:
Syracuse Mets @SyracuseMets
Mark Vientos with the Syracuse Mets:
40 HR
113 RBI
.294 BA
.942 OPS
150 games
if his game translates he is exactly the kind of masher this lineup needs.
I have tempered expectations this year, but very excited as to what next year will bring for him. Look at Alonso's rookie season. Not crazy to think he could approach that, with a bit less power. Don't expect 53 HRs from anyone, even players who have done it before. But not crazy to think he goes for 30-35 HR next year, with the possibility for more.
AAA
Mendick 2-4, SB (.713 OPS on the season)
Mauricio 2-5, 2 k's
Vientos 2-5, HR, K
Butto 5 innings 5 hits 3 er 2 walks 3 k's
Lavender 1 inning 1 hit 1 run 1 walk 1 k
Hartwig 2 innings 2 hits 1 run 0 walks 4 k's
Curtis .1 innings 3 hits 3 er 0 walks 1 k
AA
Rudick 3-5, 2 2B K (OPS up to .972), now leads all qualified Mets minor leaguers in wRC+ and wOBA
Peroza 0-3, 2 bb, 2 k
Young 0-3, BB, K
Hamel 5 innings 7 hits 4 er 0 walks 5 k's (May era 7.04 despite... 1 walk allowed over 15.2 innings. Righties hitting .313 against him, seemingly needs another weapon but the walks are obviously trending the right way)
Hall 1 perfect 1 k (15 scoreless to open 2023)
A+
Parada 2-5, HR (0-1 throwing)
Consuegra 2-4, 2b
Ramirez 1-3, HR, BB, 2 k's
A
Lara 1-4,BB, HR, K
Jett 1-4, BB, K
Reimer 1-5, 2 k's
@JonHeyman
·
11m
Interesting agent switch: Francisco Alvarez goes from Scott Boras to Bad Bunny (Rimas, William Arroyo)