Carlos Carrasco is expected to make his regular season debut by the second week of May, Mets manager Luis Rojas told reporters (including Deesha Thosar of the New York Daily News) this afternoon. The righty completed a four-inning simulated game today, per the skipper.
Acquired from the Indians in the Francisco Lindor offseason blockbuster, Carrasco was delayed by elbow discomfort early in Spring Training and then suffered a right hamstring tear during his rehab. That setback has thus far kept Carrasco from debuting for his new team, but it seems he’s only a couple weeks away from doing so. The 34-year-old was very effective last year for Cleveland, tossing 68 innings of 2.91 ERA ball with a strong 29.3% strikeout rate and a passable 9.6% walk rate.
Mets starters have more than held their own in Carrasco’s absence. New York entered play today ranked fifth with a 2.61 rotation ERA, while the group’s 2.90 SIERA is best in the league. Jacob deGrom has been incredible as usual, while Marcus Stroman, David Peterson and Joey Lucchesi all have solid peripherals (and in Stroman’s case, a stellar ERA). Taijuan Walker has struggled with his control but has so far done well keeping runs off the board.
Of course, Carrasco isn’t the only key starter working his way back from injury. Noah Syndergaard continues to rehab from March 2020 Tommy John surgery. He hit a milestone in that process, with Rojas telling reporters the hard-throwing righty pitched an inning in a scrimmage today (via Tim Healey of Newsday). The 28-year-old is hoping to return to game action by the end of June.
The news was not so positive for reliever Dellin Betances. The right-hander has been out since April 8 with a right shoulder impingement, and he apparently wasn’t in line to return anytime soon. The Mets transferred Betances to the 60-day injured list this afternoon (per Anthony DiComo of MLB.com). That frees up a 40-man roster spot but rules Betances out until at least the second week of June. It continues a nightmarish couple of seasons for the 33-year-old, who has managed just 12.2 disappointing innings since signing with the Mets over the 2019-20 offseason.
Mets will be picking up two top of the rotation guys by second week of June!
Won’t be of any help if they can’t score enough runs
Hey Syndergaard is a good hitter LOL
He can’t be any worse than Conforto
McNeil has been far worse. Swinging at balls, going for homeruns each plate appearance. He has abandoned what made him good..
Yea, but their likely looking forward to their bats. J/K, but it’s unreal how bad the Mets offense has been, but I’m confident it’ll pick up.
*they’re
You had it right the first time my man
i thought the same but it is there twice @jearbear_
Orig
Yea, but their likely looking forward to their bats.
Corrected
Yea, but THEY’RE likely looking forward to their bats.
Next in the MLBTR Official Grammar forum: Who vs Whom
Tell me about it. I think they did something to NYC’s water. I’d start worrying if it’s this way by the last week of May. Getting Carrasco and Thor back is huge boon for the club.
I am not sure if Boras and the lack of extension talks got into his head, but Michael Conforto thru the first 16 games And first 62 plate appearances has left 34 guys on base. If he could have moved at least half of them up if not driven them in, the Mets would be in better shape than they are now. Very slow start. Have Jacob give him some hitting lessons in the cage! He’s hitting .545.
Probably more like by the all star break. They said towards end of June for Noah, which means they’ll tack on a few more weeks.
Yes, they will be.
Won’t be surprised to see Alderson flip one of their pitchers + for some offensive help.
They really shouldn’t need offense help, guys are just slumping right now… I still think the defense and bullpen could doom this team
An overworked Betances is probably the Yankees revenge for the Mets overworking Pedro Feliciano a decade ago, where he didn’t pitch at all during his 2-year contract for the Yankees. I know this is before some millennial fans’ time, but Feliciano pitched in 86-92 games each year for the Mets from 2008-2010 when they should have been looking more at the algorithms coming out and resting him more.
Nice narrative but, no, good middle relievers routinely pitched 100+ innings during those times. Betances tearing his Achilles really set him back after already a lot time off.
What is scary about Betances is the sudden and precipitous drop in his speed.-
I think Cashman even had made public comments hinting to having signed ‘damaged goods’ of sorts.
Who would he blame for signing damaged goods other than himself? It’s not like he traded for him and can accuse the Mets of hiding an injury.. They should have had their doctors look at him.
Girardi rode Betances in New York for everything that arm had and then some.
Reminds me of Scott Proctor. I felt for that poor guy, Joe Torre threw him out there damn near every game and rode him like a stubborn mule to the point where im sure his arm gave out. He gets traded to the dodgers in 07 away from Torre and very next year Torre is managing the dodgers.
Lmao at Flyby using the phrase “stubborn mule”. Idk why that made me laugh so much!
probably because you dont here it very much … but there are words whenever i hear them (like duty) it makes me snicker. ahhh the inner child sneak outs.
He never pitched 100 innings. His workload was heavy the first 2 years (14,15) because he was lights out good. He only became a reliever in 13 and had pitched the exact same innings the previous year after topping 120+ IP’s a few times already as a starter in the minors. He always had high K and BB rates which most likely led to high pitch counts.
Point is his workload was heavy those first 2 seasons but were not significantly more than what he had been doing for several seasons before that. Workload also decreased 3 seasons after to a more “normal” level when he also pitched well before the shoulder became a problem. Also worth noting that his pitch selection those first 2 seasons was almost exclusively 50/50 curve balls and 95-98 mph FB’s.
You can say “ride” “overworked” or “abused” but there is no consistent baseline data that gives any of those derogatory terms any real meaning.
@studwinfield
Are you comparing 120 IP as a starter vs 100 IP as a reliever?
Thats like comparing Highway miles vs City miles on your car. Yes they went the same distance but the amount of wear and tear are very different especially because you dont count all the warming up and sitting down and warming up and sitting back down. This is why you see non- closing relievers with high appearances have many injury riddles seasons within a few years of those 80 and 90+ appearances a season for a few seasons.
A closer and setup guy are very distinctive roles but you can have these high leverage guys warm up sometimes 2 or 3 times a game and never used then next day do the same thing. You have 3 recent examples in just the last couple of posts in Feliciano, Proctor Betances as your baselines across about what 2 decades of play. I know there are more as just off the top of my head i can think of Darren O Day is another.
Love you car driving analogy. Very good choice!
@flyby, I understand there’s a difference. My point is, based on workload, even his heavy usage in ’14 and ’15 wasn’t out of nowhere compared to his recent AAA workloads prior. We don’t have AAA pitch counts but his h/9 and bb/9 were substantially higher than those first 2 dominant seasons. I am assuming that his pitch counts per 9 was substantially higher in AAA. And again, he never pitched 100 in relief. In fact he pitches 90 in ’13 in 44 appearances (0nly 6 AAA starts). So the workload in ’14 was something he was built up to the previous year.
@studwinfield
I rounded up number in a general discussion but since you want specific which btw he only pitched 90 innings once since he became a reliever and that was in 2014 his highest workload season when he first made the majors for a full season and nearly doubled his appearances.
2012 01 relief appearances to
2013 38 relief appearances to
2014 70 relief appearances
roughly 50% increase of appearance is pretty tough … oh wait you like innings pitched
2013 49 relief innings to
2014 90 relief innings
again roughly 50% increase of hard innings is pretty tough.
Yes you want to include starting pitching but with starting pitching you are on a schedule and if you warmup you are going to pitch … will you give credit for the appearance he warmed up but didnt get into the game to get credit for the game? He has to put in the warm up work (sometimes multiple times) yet sits back down because the team gets out of the game.
2013 38 relief appearances 6 starting
2014 70 appearances 0 starting
not a 50% increase (44->70) but a huge increase in workload and again not including all the times he got up and warmed and got ready to go in making possibly 80-90 appearances as he was a high leverage pitcher in 14 and with 90+ games not appeared by game count 10% of those to warm up and not used as an official appearance is not farfetched.
If you ask for effort and workload would a pitcher prefer to work multiple innings on regular schedule (starter) vs one all out inning randomly (reliever) im sure most would rather do starter.
I like my car analogies so think of it as a car sales shop. Starter would be the during the week sales that might have a couple people come in at random times but pretty much a slower more manageable day but puts in a more paced hours. Relievers are like the salespeople that only work the weekends that have to be 100% the whole time they out there for every hour.
The Betances contract wasn’t bad for last year, it was a reasonable gamble. The player option for this year without any 2020 vesting requirements is what made it bad.
I get that Carrasco has some injury history, but how was it that he just so happened to get tossed into that Lindor trade? Could Cleveland not pry away 2 so-so major league players and a couple decent prospects for a guy as talented as Lindor? It feels like Carrasco was just gifted away. It’s not like he’s some scrub. The dude is a legit #2 starter (probably the ace on a few pitching staffs) when healthy. Seems questionable on the part of the Cleveland FO…but what do I know?
It was probably a combination of health and money. Cleveland was obviously slashing as much payroll as possible but that deal was signed before Carrasco got sick. Even at the bargain price it’s a risk that he doesn’t hold up through the contract and they weren’t willing to take the risk.
I don’t think one year of Lindor is as appealing as everyone thinks. It boiled down to the Mets not wanting to include prospects for one year of a player. Packaging Carrasco have the Mets a bit of insurance had Lindor not wanted to sign an extension.
Cleveland needed to get rid of both players and the Mets offered the best return. I’m not sure what Carrasco is worth in a trade on his own.
It’s a combination of payroll reduction and distancing themselves from players who are frequently on the IL. They were the first to realize it was all downhill from here for Kluber, and they dealt Clevinger just before he needed TJ surgery. I don’t think they missed the mark by including Carrasco in the deal. They have an uncanny knowledge of their players, so anything you get out of Carrasco is a bonus.
Went back and looked at the draft history; Syndergaard was the compensation pick for the Jays not signing Paxton, who himself was compensation for losing AJ Burnett. Man, I miss those days when you could get that kind of compensation for a mundane free agent, or a guy like Aaron Sanchez for letting Marco Scutaro walk (same draft).
Mike hampton mets got david wright.mark texaria for mike trout
Still such a bummer. Mike Trout should have been a Yankee. We would have heard his praises every single day, and the Bible would have been rewritten with an extra book called the Book of Trout.
You mean yankee fans would actually acknowledge how good he is?
Only if he plays in New York. Otherwise, might as well be the moon
Don’t know if any of you guys are watching the Dodgers and Padres game but the home plate ump just made the worst call ever.
Just asking what fans think. How good of a shot do people the degrom has of making the hall of fame?
He has been phenomenal the last four years, but it probably will take a few more strong years to put him over the top.
Of course, if he keeps putting up a 1245 ERA+, much less time than that.
I agree i think if he keeps up even his 2018 and 2019 performance for this year and next year he should get in.
If Degrom had even a semblance of run support i think he would have had or be very close to 100 games won. I mean how do you have an era under 2.00 for 32 games and only have 10 wins. Even this year an era under 0.50 and the only games he has won he had to score runs himself and pitch pretty much the entire game. 6 innings in a double header 7 inning game and a complete game last time.
I don’t think it’s just run support……
What you’re noting is why I feel the Mets are so overrated. They don’t play good D, they don’t run the bases well, they simply don’t know how to win – and their overpublicized bullpens have also been overrated for years. From what I’ve read the scouts know it.
There is no reason in the world that deGrom’s W-L record should be as weak as it has been for 5 years now. It’s an indictment of the position players, the bullpen, and an organization that has no clue about training and holding players to play winning baseball. MLB is not fantasy league where you throw your stats out each game.
I agree with you to a point. The talent is there i think its more the staff than the talent / players. How many former mets have gone elsewhere and done miles better pretty much as soon as they leave. Justin Turner, Daniel Murphy, Travis D’arnauld, Steven Matz, Juan Lagares. Wilson Ramos etc etc etc. The last few is small sample size so its hard to point to that but they have improved significantly.
How many have come to the Mets and fallen off a cliff. Diaz (although he started showing promise last year), Betances, Wilson Ramos, Familia on his return, Cano (i know age and other factos but still had the bad in Seattle), Lindor so far (again i realize small sample size).
So i am not sure what is going on behind the scenes but there definitely needs to be something done from that end.
There is definitely something wrong in the coaching philosophy for the Mets.
Too often players go down hill, crash and burn, only to be rebuilt elsewhere. Case in point: Matz. He’s now 4-0 with a tiny era.
D’arnaud. Horrible failure with the Mets with all the ‘talent is there’. Goes to the Braves and excels.
Familia crashes with the Mets, goes to the A’s and has success. Comes back and fails. Robles – same story, minus the coming back.
Gsellman and Lugo both falling far away. Syndergaard is half the pitcher he used to be even when healthy.
Diaz comes in a fails miserably his first season.
…if you ask me, and I don’t expect anyone to, it’s way too much binder analytics coaching and not enough APPLIED PHYSICAL coaching from experienced coaches who know how to FIX mechanical flaws.
Coaching staff is and has failed this team.
You could put together an all star team of ex mets. Agree 100 percent the coaching staff is the issue. Degrom give you an almost guaranteed win if you score a few runs and its wasted.
Hey, you forgot Brodie’s favorite: Jed Lowrie !!!! 10m per year for 8 total plate appearances. Hopefully the Mets never waste that kind of money again.
Their hitting was fine in the shortened season last year but their bullpen failed and the starters ( Wacha, Porcello) didnt give them quality starts. This year, good starts but lack of hitting. With more good starters hopefully coming back. Each year things are different for each team. Sometimes there is magic and everything goes right. It isn’t over yet there are well over 140 games to play. Look back to the Nationals World Series year, and how they started. IT IS A LONG SEASON.
He’ll be a lock after his wins his 3rd CY this year.
Oh, another prediction, eh? Well, at least this one actually has a pretty good chance, unlike your call that the Mets are about to be 8-3. And that gem about the Mets above the Dodgers in power rankings was just adorable! =))
Poor deGrom. If deGrom were a regular on MLBTR, he would know how @MetsFan22 may have given his career the kiss of death with this latest prediction.
@SalaryCapMyth
Don’t forget MetsFan22’s part of the gem you mention that also included the Mets winning 95 to 103 games this year…while playing in the NL East. So far, they are 8-8 while beating teams for 7 of those wins while Ron Kulpa gave the Mets that other win.. Let’s see how this turns out.
Well they went 7-4…. how far off I was….
You really saying my prediction of 95 wins to 103 is wrong because they have played 16 games??? Lol.
It’s way too early to tell how this season will turn out, but with every loss the Mets get, it’s going to make it harder to get your prediction with the NL East being how it is. And here’s some notes.
1) Correction: Mets started 6-4. Ron Kulpa was 1-0 providing the Mets that extra win.
2) I think it’s safe to say that the Mets did not look so good against the Marlins. Haven’t looked good against the Marlins since the latter part of last season. Marlins have exposed the Mets a lot.
3) It’s funny how you just are too blind to see how hard it will be for any of the NL East teams to reach 95 wins. Heck, from what these teams look like at the moment, 90 wins is going to be tough to get to. It may be division or bust for the entire division because, with 76 divisional games per team, and it looks like it’ll be hard for any team to dominate the other 4, it’s going to lower win totals of the NL East teams.
Good luck with your predictions. Like I said, it’s going to be fun.
Thanks for giving him the curse, metsfan22. Poor deGrom.
He said he wants to pitch into his 40s, and if he does that nutty workout plan that Tom Brady does, then why not?
Egon, There’s a reason almost zero pitchers pitch into their 40s anymore. And it’s not lack of desire.
Your arm gives out. I know he came up a bit older, but I would be surprised if his arm lasted till 40, unless he has a massive pitching game plan adjustment
Let in mind one thing going for deGrom is that he doesn’t have all those years of innings on his arm prior to being drafted. Remember, he was primarily a shortstop in college. Add to that he already has had TJS and throws effortlessly. He has bagged his curve ball, so that’s even less torque on his arm.
His pitch counts are only as high as they are because he is striking everyone out. Look, when he “loses” his fastball and is only throwing 95, he will have more balls in play and shorter innings, ala Greg Maddux. He might even get better because he is always learning.
If you go by war, he’s still only 2/3 to the “average HOF”, which is 60 WAR. Koufax, who I mention below, will be the best comp for Degrom to use, and Sandy had “only” 48 WAR. So 60 is not a requirement. But vast majority eclipse that
Really, I don’t think he deserves to get in based on 4 or 5 years. Even as excellent as they have been. Koufax still pitched 12 years. But he plays in New York and dominated in New York, so he’ll get a lot of borderline votes other guys would have to wait years to earn.
Unless he pitches until he’s 38, which would put him 12/13 years in the league, I think Degrom should be in the hall of very good with a fun peak, but too short a career to be a HOF. But I think he’s voted in. So goes the hall of fame
Koufax got in based on a 5 year stretch of sheer dominance. DeGrom has a clear shot a doing just that. Beyond that who cares how long a career is?
@Lee Mazzilli for HOF
While I understand that the Mets broadcast team has been trying their best to push this narrative as part of their latest Mets Hyperbole, I actually think he has a realistic shot with a few more years of success so he can have the longevity of success numbers comparable to other HOF pitchers. Then, afterward, if he can age with minimal damage at the end of his career until age 40 and hit or approach at least one longevity milestone, like Strikeouts (which is realistic), then I say he would be a lock.
On a selfish side for him, if the Mets continue to be an erratic mess this year and next, if I were him, I’d ask for a trade to a team that can consistently compete for a championship in the following years. Being consistently in some postseason series and maybe pitching in another World Series could help his election to where it would override his late entry into the league (at age 26).
Just my thoughts from a more traditional type of thinker stating what would work for voters that think like me.
Don’t worry. Ik you’ll be mad but the next few years that’s exactly what the Mets will be doing. Competing for a championship.
Make sure the other teams get that memo.
As a fellow Met fan I hate to be a party pooper, but don’t you foresee some big issues coming in the near future? They’ll have to replace at least 2 of Conforto, Stro, and Thor but they’ll be at about 200 million payroll to start the off season. Just retaining one of those three put them at the threshold before they make any other improvements. Payroll is too high, as they are not clear front runners on paper and now will have very little flexibility moving forward. This team is in danger of being not as good next year (losing key players, not enough budget to keep up let alone improve. Anyway, that’s my worry.
Cosmo2
Assuming they stay the same or potentially to 215 or 220 for cap they could keep those 3. this years arbitration was around 47m with conforto and syndegard and i dont see anyone that make that will make significantly higher than this year. If anything i think about 5 mil would be shaved off not included cuts. Even with Cano back in the fold they should be at 165ish mil leaving about 60 mil. to play with depending on the tax cap.
Thor i dont think comes back as strong this year ( i am hoping i am wrong on this but first year back is usually a miss ). So even a QO would get him accepted but you might be able to get him for a bit less on a 1 yr prove it deal and put in the contract no QO. Perhaps take the leap of faith and give a couple years for a little less aav This leaves you with 40 – 45ish mil
Conforto i think will be the tough one and probably hardest to replace with really nothing in the pipeline and him probably being the best non-ss position player. for next year FAs assuming he gets back to norms. On top of that he is under 30 and Boras as his agent whom likes to wait. If Boras plays the wait game maybe go after someone else like a Marte or Soler or Blackmon. Otherwise its probably going to eat up a good portion of remaining money but if they stretch it out maybe go for 25 mil a year.
Stroman may end up having to take a bit of a discount a lot of older vets that are top tier pitchers out there (Verlander Scherzer Kershaw Grienke plus potential opt outs), but if stroman keeps up doing well this year will got one of the lengthier contracts. Would he take 20 a year aav for say 5 yrs?
Everything would have to fall in the mets favor and i dont see it happening especially with conforto as i think he going to want big dollars.
Why would he ask for a trade?
Hes got an out after next year if he wants
You spill a lot of words on the Mets and deGrom for not have a basic understanding of the situation
First off let me tell you, the Mets are playing a very risky game here of playing not one or two but three players out of position apparently because of their offensive contributions. However, when those so called bats are producing the way they are one can only see how the wheels all fall off. They need to wise up and trade Brandon Nimmo, JD Davis and Dominic Smith. They need to do this. I don’t know what they were thinking. There is an old adage in baseball that says if you play above average in 2 of the three aspects of the game (pitching, hitting and fielding) you would be an above average successful team. Thus, case in point, when the bats don’t come through and these players getting exposed in the field, it makes for a very ugly situation. By the way, have you seen how multiple former Mets are playing? You have Steven Matz who is 4-0, Chris Flexin who is 2-1 with a 2.74 ERA. You have another forgotten piece in Samuel Haggerty who had a remarkable game tonight for the Mariners and has more HRs than Lindor. I guess why am I bringing this up ? Well because there still appears to be a fundamental issue with player development. Serious problems for the NY Metropolitans. Can they potentially salvage this mediocre (thus far) season? Time will only tell…..
Dom is only out of position because Alonso can only play one position. Dom i believe is the better first baseman than Alonso, but if you want both those bats in the lineup Dom has a little better athleticism and “can” play left. Not saying he is a gold glover or even average left fielder, but this is what you are dealing with from two of your better bats.
I would probably trade alonso before smith as i think you would get more value as i think he has one more year arbitration over dom. I also think dom is the better hitter but with him having to concentrate on fielding more than batting has effected his bat slightly where if he just played his natural position he would have less worries.
Dom has looked more than capable in left field this year. I will ponder this though: It looks like he’s struggling with his sleep apnea coming out of Colorado. I know what that looks like because I suffer from it as well. He’s listless, looks groggy and slow in the batters box.
Davis looked great at 3b in spring training, but has developed the ‘yips’ with his throws. He’s got a great arm but appears to be thinking too much prior to letting it go.
Lindor is just getting beat up an away and not really hitting anything hard.
Conforto wasn’t barreling anything up until Friday. Same with McNeil, who hasn’t hit since the end of last year – including ST.
This team needs to start attacking the pitches in the their hit zones. They have yet to put 6 good team at bats together in succession. They need to start averaging 6 runs per game if they want to go on a winning streak because the strike zone has sucked from an umpire’s perspective.
This is very interesting because I actually said that to myself during one of the games a few days ago. He had very groggy looking eyes. Also very good points on your other observations. Hopefully they wake up soon.
I would be fine with that. But I don’t think they would do it.
I gotta laugh at it when folks don’t recognize how valuable Nimmo is. They’re not trading him and they shouldn’t. You don’t improve a team by trading away its best players based on some outdated, misguided idea of what’s valuable. What they need is to obtain a true CFr and move Nimmo to left.
It’s people who care about optics and what the reporters, columnists, and sports talk hosts say, not anyone serious who understands how baseball is played.
I’m sorry, but it’s people that actually played that can give some feedback onto what are the flaws in Nimmo. The guy is a poor fielder, a bad base runner (despite having decent speed), and other than his streakiness of hot runs, he is a mediocre hitter. His only success is when he doesn’t swing the bat. Everything else, for the long body of his career has shown to be mediocre.
As for “outdated stats”, I laugh at those of you that preach stats expertise, but then bash batting average and praise OBP to call a guy with low batting average and high OBP a good hitter. It shows that you clearly don’t know what the definition of a ‘good HITTER’ is and it shows that you don’t know what batting average measures or you just don’t understand the concept of hitting to comprehend the value of batting average. Yes, the guys that pretend statistical expertise on here laughably do not understand what batting average measures. FYI: Batting Average measures how much success a hitter has when he SWINGS THE BAT. If you think that the ability to have success when you swing the bat is outdated, then you clearly don’t know how to play this game and very likely never did or were the last hitter on your rec league team and are just speaking from childhood trauma from that experience. Every level of play, offensive players work on their swing to keep it consistent when successful or improve it when not successful. From t-ball all the way through MLB, players do this. They measure that progress through batting average because that tells you how good or bad you are doing when you swing.
And sorry, but I’ve never seen a player with a .300 batting average that sucked the year they did it. But I have seen many players with a .250 batting average that have sucked the year they did it.
sucked is an opinion but I have seen a MARLIN player with a 300 batting average that sucked. You remember a guy named Luis Castillo. He was a slap stick hitter that atleast as a met (dont remember if did it as a marlin) was a notorious 1st pitch swinger. Nimmo got the same 1st base result as Castillo (a 300 hitter) but he makes the pitcher work for it especially this season when pitch counts will be HEAVILY monitored for all pitchers. .
Marlins: We’ve mostly all played baseball. I know I have. Your argument falls flat. Every modern stat we have says Nimmo is excellent, but you know better than the experts (and the pure numbers) because you’ve “played baseball”. Ridiculous.
dont forget @cosmo2
MarlinsFanBase has all fingers and toes filled with world series rings and is so good they just put em in the hall of fame. Didnt even need to get on the ballot Probably even scored 4 touchdowns in one game on top of all those world series wins. 🙂
Samuel has it right (above). There is something sadly lacking in this organization. The Mets routinely do not run the bases well, don’t catch the ball very well, and don’t hit when the chips are down. Managers can make a difference (see Gil Hodges), but they rarely hire great managers.
This year’s team might win 85 games tops. Braves and even the Marlins are fundamentally better. Smith should have been traded when his stats were inflated… I like JD better in LF than at 3B. Lindor? Uh oh. Is this guy gonna hit at all? And I’m tired of Gary Cohen talking non-stop about JdG…
It has nothing to do with the manager, it very little at least. In the Alderson era the Mets have put an emphasis on OBP and power over speed and defense. In my opinion is gotten overboard to where, yes, it seems every hitter is a poor runner and sub par fielder but that’s not anything but who they are, where there talents lie.
The analytics aspect of the game is frustrating. Those of us who grew up actually watching baseball usually see all we need to know with our eyes. But then someone points out some obscure statistic and that’s supposed to be gospel. It is not gospel. It is cold and unspecific.
Statistics have intrinsic biases and flaws also. Nothing is better than watching the game, seeing a player do his thing game to game, and look for trends. I can see players getting hot and going into a funk, usually long before it is evident. I’m concerned about McNeil and Smith, neither hitting the ball hard. Conforto worrisome too, but he always goes through long droughts… something that will ultimately hurt his career. Managers can make the difference. In two years, neither JDDavis nor Dom Smith will be a Met.
Statistics have biases and flaws, so to speak. But they are still WAY more accurate than the eye test. You’re ability to “see players getting hot before it happens” is a delusion, whatever anecdotal “evidence” you may think you have.