Starting Lineups for both clubs today.
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Probable Starting Pitcher Matchups for the games in Flushing today & tomorrow in Philly.
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#LFGM!
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Notes:
-Today’s matinée will be on SNY as will tomorrow night’s game.
-The forecast for today’s game looks dandy. Click
HERE to stay updated & see the Hourly AccuWeather Reports for Cit Field for today’s game.
-The Mets enter today with a record of 19-21. After 40 games, we’ve reached the approximate quarter pole of the season. Traditionally people wait until this point to start to take statistics seriously for a given season, so feel free to read ‘em and weep. Check ‘em out
HERE.
-Click
HERE to see the list of Mets transactions thus far for May.
-Click
HERE to see the Mets' 26-man active roster.
-The Mets' 4-man bench for today's game will consist of
Nido (R), Bader (R), McNeil (L), & Stewart (L). 
2. Was very involved in hiring Eppler and still thinks he was the correct hire for that time period and what the Mets needed at that moment (my take - Eppler's strength is he's a good salesman and that was right before the spending spree of November/December 2021).
3. Was minimally involved in baseball operations in 2022 and not at all involved in 2023, but at some point he had differences of opinion with Eppler (and it wasn't bc Eppler fired his son).
4. Very big fan of Buck and even though he (Sandy) was removed from baseball opps in 2023 he implied that there were decisions forced on him and he didnt have the flexibility to make decisions he wanted to make.
5. Likes Stearns and thinks the reset year is a good thing for the organization. Spending the way they were in FA isn't sustainable. Stearns had been among those they pursued earlier and they had some involvement together before Sandy left officially in October. More important than the baseball thinks Stearns is empathetic and from the outside he appears to be building a positive culture. (reading between the lines, i expect this is where he thinks Eppler did a poor job).
I know most don't like Alderson, but he's always honest and like him or not he isn't stupid. 30-40 minutes of interesting behind the scenes details about what really happened the last few years (and prior).
Non-Mets related he also says the Giants are a big reason A's are being screwed over. When Sandy was there and Haas was the owner they gave Giants the rights to San Jose territory so they could build a new stadium there. They never built that stadium but never gave the rights back.
Sandy Alderson Talks Mets’ Tenure, Eppler, Phantom IL | Ep. 101 | The Show Podcast - ( New Window )
nothing all that notable re Cohen beyond what we already know, willing to spend whatever it takes, quick study, has learned a lot these first few years and thinks the organization is in good hands. Thinks baseball ops has more independence now with Stearns and that's a good thing.
Way back in February there was a thread about D. Stearns declaring that he "expected the Mets would compete for a play-off spot."
Many of us scratched our heads after hearing that and seeing the team they were trotting out for the season.
Harrison Bader, Adrian Houser, Joey Wendle, Brett Baty, Dave Stewart, Tyrone Taylor were all expected to play major roles...But, none have ever been above average at the major league level and in many cases, not even average.
In order to play .500 baseball, I thought the "core four" had to all have really good years...well, 41 games in, none are, and the highest OPS among these four is Nimmo at .760. Missing Alvarez has also hurt.
The biggest culprits thus far and guys they needed to lead the team statistically, have not been good...especially Lindor, Alonso, Quintana, and Diaz (to some degree).
I'm especially surprised at the pass Lindor seems to get on these threads.
Really, he's been awful, barely hitting .200, an OBP of .272 (that's not a miss print) and a .07 WAR. He's a very good fielding short stop, but he has never been as good a hitter as a Met as he was in Cleveland, where he hit 30 plus HR's three years times (once as a Met), had an OPS above .800 four times (once as a Met) and hit .300 twice.
I have always been a big Pete Alonso fan, but they Mets would be crazy to sign him to a multi-year contract for 200 million dollars...and I love Pete. He doesn't seem to have the confidence to be "the straw" and he looks like he needs a hug much of the time.
Not sure what the deal with Vientos is....there must be something about him we don't know or can't see. Guy hits a walk off and gets sent down two days later? Weird.
On the plus side, Marte has stayed healthy and Manea and Severino have been very good...and the only pitcher on the team with more than two wins is Reed Garrett (with five...at this rate he'll be the first 20 game winner for the Mets since R.A. Dickey) who is the MVP of this team thus far...
This season is all about next season...and Stearns evaluating what he's got at the major league level...
Juan Soto is the guy they should go after... a true superstar who can play in the bright lights and has a Bob Gibson attitude on the field (unlike our hug anyone in sight short stop).
There will be good moments, but so far it's very hard to watch.
But there will be "lots of good seats available" all summer as Bob Murphy used to say.
if they continue playing below their career norms for the next 6-8 weeks they will probably sell what they can.
if they collectively start hitting to their norms there's a good chance they get a WC.
wow im pretty surprised they pulled the plug this early but good for them.
it makes sense, wendle's defense hasnt been better than Baty's. there's a position flex issue on bench but i guess cross that bridge when they get to it?
Would love to know why he was signed so quickly to begin with.
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DFA’ed, as expected
Would love to know why he was signed so quickly to begin with.
Used to be a good defender, used to be a very good base runner, was considered a good clubhouse guy, and was very good at squaring balls up. Still is. right now he has the highest % of squared up contact on the team and the highest percentage of balls hit in play. every other swing he is putting a ball in play and every other ball in play he is squaring it up. i think he just got old and ran out of power.
the guys in the bottom left are zack short and a little above him brett baty.
It's important to square up the ball, but the most valuable swings occur when the ball is squared up and the swing is fast, thus defined as a blast. The league average for swings defined as blasts is .545 with a 1.116 Slug. Compare that to a .171 BA and .221 slug for non-blasts.
so net/net wendle was squaring balls up a ton but without enough swing speed to do damage.
his blast rate is the same baty's (6%), they just get there in different ways. baty swings fast (73 mph) but almost never squares the ball up, wendle squares it up all the time but swings slow (68 mph).
the mets top 3 blast rates are all around 21% (Stewart, Marte, Vientos, his obviously SSS).
Lindor, Alonso, Nimmo all around 13-17%.
mcneil and baty are the 2 concerning guys on this chart.
id think mcneil is emergency SS, and yeah i guess baty emergency 2b?
this is probably the move i would have made after vientos came up and hit the homer to avoid sending him down, but with baty struggling so much since then id have been tempted to let him find a groove in AAA.
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In comment 16514972 DanMetroMan said:
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DFA’ed, as expected
Would love to know why he was signed so quickly to begin with.
Used to be a good defender, used to be a very good base runner, was considered a good clubhouse guy, and was very good at squaring balls up. Still is. right now he has the highest % of squared up contact on the team and the highest percentage of balls hit in play. every other swing he is putting a ball in play and every other ball in play he is squaring it up. i think he just got old and ran out of power.
the guys in the bottom left are zack short and a little above him brett baty.
He was terrible all around last year. The year before he was terrible hitting and ok defensively. The profile is not one to rush to sign even at a cheap price when he's 34. They could have waited to sign a bunch of guys like this but glad they admitted the mistake and are moving off it quickly.
He was terrible all around last year. The year before he was terrible hitting and ok defensively. The profile is not one to rush to sign even at a cheap price when he's 34. They could have waited to sign a bunch of guys like this but glad they admitted the mistake and are moving off it quickly.
they paid him basically same thing guillorme was projected to get. at the time i didnt like adding him over guillorme and assumed it was more guillorme wanting out, but if he had somehow rolled the clock back he could have been a good add. over his career he was a better offensive player than guillorme - like ive said it appears he's still good at squaring balls up.
his power dropped off the planet though, his iso is .029. even last year it was .094. he's just cooked i guess.
btw the FA shortstops who got 2m or less last year were slim pickings:
paul dejong signed 11/21 so he was off market.
guillorme has already been moved out of ATL.
nick ahmed has been slightly better but also 34.
brandon crawford got 2m but has somehow been worse.
dan can attest if i were GM id have spent $5m and tried to get Kike to pick NY > LAD for an extra mil. not sure if it would have worked though, he's gotten 90 at bats there. the mets didnt have a good role to sell since they wanted to give one of Baty/Mauricio a real run at 3b.
Good effing riddance. Guy was a total waste of space and was literally losing us games.
His wRC+ is 95. 16th out of 25 qualified SS.
he is playing like an $8M player while getting paid $34M. I wonder if there is a worse value in the league right now. Probably.
Javy Baez wRC+ is 21, lol. Man the Mets make some really bad moves, trading for Baez was one, thankfully they did not compound it by re-signing him.
His wRC+ is 95. 16th out of 25 qualified SS.
he is playing like an $8M player while getting paid $34M. I wonder if there is a worse value in the league right now. Probably.
Javy Baez wRC+ is 21, lol. Man the Mets make some really bad moves, trading for Baez was one, thankfully they did not compound it by re-signing him.
lindor has already been worth 1 fwar in 40 games so his slow start is still a 4 win pace.
as of 2022 4 wins via FA would be valued at about $34m, he makes $31.9m. so even with the slow start more than 100 points below career average ops, there is surplus value (as there has been in each of his first 3 years as a met).
last year he was right at his career average and worth 5.6 wins, so if he hits to his career average the remaining 75% of the year his fwar will be around 5.2 this year. he was the 12th most valuable player in mlb last year.
he's literally beltran part 2 right down to not being appreciated until it becomes a 5-10 year quest to replace him. i guess we still havent found a 30/100 gold glove CF so 14 years and counting.
that's not projection or word salads it's facts. I am talking this year, right now.
if that's so irreplaceable then everything is irreplaceable.
His fWAR is carried by his defense. If he doesn't turn his season around he's a less extreme Rey Ordonez (not as good defensively and not as bad offensively).
I think there is some revisionist history by you on how Beltran was treated. Fans did get on him year 1, understandably, but not really much after that. Even with 2006 ending the way it did.
pete's prior agency had no experience with big deals. he was BY FAR their biggest client. i dont think they had done any big second contract, which was always troubling in the unknown. they were probably looking to get on the map with him, and clearly with him eventually moving to boras he too was looking to get himself on a map of some sort.
Pete's trade value has probably dropped a lot too.
I'd still try and trade him. Even now.
Alonso is a mediocre 1B.
that's not projection or word salads it's facts. I am talking this year, right now.
if that's so irreplaceable then everything is irreplaceable.
His fWAR is carried by his defense. If he doesn't turn his season around he's a less extreme Rey Ordonez (not as good defensively and not as bad offensively).
the season is just 25% over that's also a fact not a word salad or a projection. another fact - despite slump he's been second most valuable met behind nimmo so far.
here's a projection though - some of the guys ahead of him are playing above their norms and their histories tell us that probably won't continue. very few (if any) ahead of him are going to be below their norms like him and be on a 4 win pace.
as far as beltran here's a word salad of articles showing a less than glowing relationship with the fans/org even before the social media era:
2012 - St. Louis Cardinals’ Carlos Beltran tells Met fans: Time to get over 2006 and move on
https://www.nydailynews.com/2012/01/25/st-louis-cardinals-carlos-beltran-tells-met-fans-time-to-get-over-2006-and-move-on/
2014 - Mets Fans' Hatred of Carlos Beltran Has Never Been Justified
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2063163-mets-fans-hatred-of-carlos-beltran-has-never-been-justified
2015 - Why do Mets fans hate Carlos Beltran?
https://www.nj.com/mets/2015/09/why_do_mets_fans_hate_carlos_beltran.html
2017 - New York Mets 2006 Caught Looking: The Unfair Criticism of Carlos Beltran
https://elitesportsny.com/2017/10/19/11-year-grudge-looking-back-unfair-criticism-carlos-beltran/
2022 - The Complicated Legacy of Carlos Beltran
https://msabr.com/2022/03/26/the-complicated-legacy-of-carlos-beltran/
Beltran figured to have plenty of chances to redeem himself but it never quite materialized. The Mets had several consecutive patented September collapses, and as the Mets moved into Citi Field, Beltran’s body began to fail him. Gone were the days of a Gold Glove center fielder, as Beltran was forced to move to right field. He was a negative there too, but was still a very good hitter when on the field. From ages 34-39, he maintained a 126 OPS+. Beltran was not a well-liked Met, he was seen as “soft” and “disinterested”, and seemed to only wanted to do things his way. In Beltran’s seven years with the Mets, he accumulated roughly 30 bWAR, but he was brought in to be the hero and he seemed to fall just short of that. Many of his criticisms are largely unfair, he was productive everywhere he went, but there was always that something missing; delivering his team to a title. Well technically Carlos Beltran does have a ring.
Beltran put up 26 fwar as a met in 6.5 seasons
Lindor is at 16.9 and counting, so he will probably catch him in year 6 or 7
Beltran won a lot after the Mets in better organizations. Lindor won a lot before the Mets in a better organization.
the way to become a better organization that wins more is to get more players like lindor and beltran, not fewer. and yet just like beltran there are fans on these very threads who have used the word 'hate' re lindor. it's like the yankee fans who 'hate' cashman even though he's basically the most successful gm ever. delusional.
April and May games count. At the end of the season, like was the case a couple years ago, where the team misses out on the division by a game or two or even the playoffs overall - why couldn't that have been an April or May win?
"eh, he's just a slow starter" is not ok and a shitty two months doesn't get wiped out by finishing well for three+ months when the pressure is mostly off because the team sucked so bad in the beginning of the season (not saying that's the case yet, like it was last year).
He needs to be better.
April and May games count. At the end of the season, like was the case a couple years ago, where the team misses out on the division by a game or two or even the playoffs overall - why couldn't that have been an April or May win?
"eh, he's just a slow starter" is not ok and a shitty two months doesn't get wiped out by finishing well for three+ months when the pressure is mostly off because the team sucked so bad in the beginning of the season (not saying that's the case yet, like it was last year).
He needs to be better.
it has nothing to do with games being worth more or less at any time of year, over 162 games everyone is going to have a bad streak at some point. lindor plays every game at a premium position and plays very good defense so he is contributing more than most. soto is the best hitter in the sport, on a stacked team playing well, off a roaring start -- and in the 2 weeks of may so far his ops is 759.
history tells us lindor probably will play better the rest of the way but his "bad" is still 2nd best player on the team. the way to get better is more "bad" that's above replacement level like him and less actual bad like the players who are playing below replacement level. but if finding players like him or better were so simple there wouldnt be as many FA and top 50 prospect busts as there are.
there are fewer than a dozen players more productive than him in MLB since the time he came to the mets, as you'd imagine this is a list of guys that are tough to acquire:
he passed on more money from other teams and chose tampa for playing time.
the mets didnt have playing time to offer him.
The Mets are tied for 1st place in road wRC+ (116)
The Mets are 24th in home wRC+ (85)
But the Mets are 14th in home FIP, and an identical 14th in road FIP
So why exactly is it, that the Mets hitters have hit well on the road, terrible at home, and yet the pitchers (while better at home) do not have such a massive split?
Also worth nothing Pete Alonso has a 150 wRC+ at home, 77 on the road
The Mets are tied for 1st place in road wRC+ (116)
The Mets are 24th in home wRC+ (85)
But the Mets are 14th in home FIP, and an identical 14th in road FIP
So why exactly is it, that the Mets hitters have hit well on the road, terrible at home, and yet the pitchers (while better at home) do not have such a massive split?
Also worth nothing Pete Alonso has a 150 wRC+ at home, 77 on the road
probably mostly noise. the numbers get inflated by the outlier games so probably just means their 2 or 3 biggest blowout wins were road games and if we took those out, everything is probably close.
Lindor is not playing like the 12th best (or whatever number you claim) player in MLB during his Mets tenure.
He is playing the 14th ranked out of 25 SS's who have played enough games to qualify being ranked.
That's not good enough.
this is going in circles. I'm not interested in an inane discussion.
The Mets are tied for 1st place in road wRC+ (116)
The Mets are 24th in home wRC+ (85)
But the Mets are 14th in home FIP, and an identical 14th in road FIP
So why exactly is it, that the Mets hitters have hit well on the road, terrible at home, and yet the pitchers (while better at home) do not have such a massive split?
Also worth nothing Pete Alonso has a 150 wRC+ at home, 77 on the road
just looked it up, 4 games this year 8 runs or more, 3 were road games, 1 of them the 16 run game in atlanta. if we took out that 1 game, id guess the numbers look closer.
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luck explaining this one.
The Mets are tied for 1st place in road wRC+ (116)
The Mets are 24th in home wRC+ (85)
But the Mets are 14th in home FIP, and an identical 14th in road FIP
So why exactly is it, that the Mets hitters have hit well on the road, terrible at home, and yet the pitchers (while better at home) do not have such a massive split?
Also worth nothing Pete Alonso has a 150 wRC+ at home, 77 on the road
just looked it up, 4 games this year 8 runs or more, 3 were road games, 1 of them the 16 run game in atlanta. if we took out that 1 game, id guess the numbers look closer.
Brandon Nimmo 189 road wRC+
Brandon Nimmo 89 home wRC+
Jeff McNeil 143 road wRC+
Jeff McNeil 44 wRC+
Francisco Lindor 119 road wRC+
Francisco Lindor 70 home wRC+
Marte 114 road/85 home
The Mets BABIP at home is .244 (29th in the league), road it's 8th (.308)
Mets road ISO is 8th (.152)
Mets home ISO is 27th (.117)
If you want to be optimistic his second half numbers last season were nearly identical to his career marks.
career .298/.361/.438-.799, second half 2023 ..291/.337/.438-.775.Career 114 wRC+ .346 wOBA second half 115 wRC .336 wOBA
That was indeed the case... but then that ceased being the case around 2019. 2019-14th, 2020 3rd, 2021 16th, 2022 7th, last season back to bottom of the league (29th)
I'm going to put on my tin foil hat and suggest the new scoreboard has some impact here.
xbh's are pacing down even compared to last year.
@WillSammon
The Mets announced their flurry of moves:
José Buttó optioned to Triple-A Syracuse.
RHP Yohan Ramírez and INF Joey Wendle have been designated for assignment.
RHP Grant Hartwig, LHP Joey Lucchesi and Mark Vientos recalled from Triple-A Syracuse.
@WillSammon
The Mets announced their flurry of moves:
José Buttó optioned to Triple-A Syracuse.
RHP Yohan Ramírez and INF Joey Wendle have been designated for assignment.
RHP Grant Hartwig, LHP Joey Lucchesi and Mark Vientos recalled from Triple-A Syracuse.
I have a feeling Mets will be busy around the trade deadline. Might as well play the kids, see what they have.
i think they would trade anyone who can get them back a prospect/player they really like.
Reed Garrett being as good as he is and under cheap control could be the ultimate sell high for what would have seemed like a shockingly good return a few months ago.
@NYPost_Mets
Drew Smith felt a “pinch” in the back of his shoulder playing catch yesterday, according to Carlos Mendoza, so the Mets are playing it cautiously with him before he is potentially activated.
-Megill to start Sunday or Monday
Tim Healey
@timbhealey
Brooks Raley is shut down for two weeks and then the Mets will see what will happen, Carlos Mendoza said. No elbow surgery, at least for now.
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Confirms it’s a time share at 3B. I guess Baty is the emergency backup SS/2B?
id think mcneil is emergency SS, and yeah i guess baty emergency 2b?
Baty is the backup SS/2b per Mendoza
@TimBritton
Brett Baty is the backup 2B/SS by the way.
@NYPost_Mets
With the Mets lacking middle infield depth following Joey Wendle’s DFA Brett Baty will receive pregame work at second base and shortstop.
@NYPost_Mets
With the Mets lacking middle infield depth following Joey Wendle’s DFA Brett Baty will receive pregame work at second base and shortstop.
well, wendle's defense looked pretty crappy, so if we think about it like baty swapping for wendle, there is probably a lot less impact than the fear would be "not carrying a backup IF".
Wendle played a bad 3rd and a not much better 2b.
give mets a lot of credit here, they made a creative decision at the right time.
he got hits each of the next 2 games, so on May 5 his BA was .269 with a 714 ops.
he only has 1 hit and 0 walks in the 10 days since then, so everything cratered. but up until these 10 days the offense was playable and the defense quite good. DFA'ing Wendle is the right move.