smg58

Frayed Knot wrote: There's never a good Dueteronomy joke around when you need one. I tried longer than was probably healthy to come up with a pun on Deuteronomy or Leviticus, but came up empty.

Stuart went 7 in his second AA start, allowing two runs. He did give up a homer, is second in as many AA starts after giving up three in fourteen starts in high-A. So he's still has to make some adjustments, but he gets through innings quickly and has the look of somebody who'll go deep into games.

Well since I just adopted him for my ottoneu team, I guess I will adopt him here as well.

I don't think I've ever seen a trailer that made a movie look less watchable.

Frayed Knot wrote: =smg58 post_id=132251 time=1689862761 user_id=62] The Cardinals also gave the DFA to Genesis Cabrera. So youre telling me that StL gave Genesis the exodus?

A very minor thing, but the Rays designated Yonny Chirinos for assignment. It's basically his first year back from TJS, and the Rays had used him 15 times despite keeping him on the roster the whole season, so his erratic form was predictable. But he could be an above-average fifth starter next year for a song. The Cardinals also gave the DFA to Genesis Cabrera. He's a lefty with upside, and our bullpen currently doesn't even have upside going for them. Neither might amount to anything, but they are no-risk pickups that could be useful parts of next year's team.

Frayed Knot wrote: Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: ... but in the end my main takeaway was that Alonso sucks, sac fly and all. First Sac Fly of the season, btw, for Pete, a fact which seems almost fictional, but there you go. He had nine last year. He has the highest fly ball rate of his career, too.

I thought McNeil was playing hurt two years ago, and I think he's playing hurt now. He's getting nothing on his swings, and I can't help thinking that something connected to his swing is bothering him. Given the similarity in the stats, I think whatever the problem was two years ago is what it is now. Personally I think a month off would do him some good, and bring up Mauricio in the meantime. But whatever the issue is, the Mets have worked under the assumption that it would go away on its own and it hasn't.

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: If I'm honest Zimmo was the better All-Star choice You're honest.

Cohen will never underspend, but he still has to spend well AND surround himself with the right people.

I was hoping for a Teufel-may-care attitude.

I'd be willing to offer Flexen a team option for next year at something like $4M or a half million buyout, so that he accepts the demotion and maybe we can get the 2022 Flexen back before this season is out. Worst case scenario, we're out a little bit more money. Otherwise, I can see the point of spending money instead of a prospect (even a borderline one) to get a reliever who'll still be under team control next year, but I'm not sure Gott is worth the trouble. That being said, I wish their was some way to pair Gott with Tim Teufel.

Cohen has said that he won't shake up the front office or the coaching staff before the season ends, and for now I'm taking him on his word. As far as the players, I think anybody not under contract for next season (Canha, Pham, Carrasco, Vogelbach) is gone unless things turn around very quickly. I'm not sure the extent to which Cohen would trust Eppler with moving players under more long-term control.

Scherzer might be able to convince a GM to give him half his current salary over two years were he to opt out. So I'd assume it won't happen. But if the Mets eat half his salary and a team gets a starter with a track record under control for another year (perhaps with a guarantee on Scherzer's part in that regard), the Mets could get a valuable prospect, plus $20M to spend on somebody else in the offseason. I wouldn't be against that.

Escobar kind of fit into the Todd Frazier/Jeff Bruce mold of power hitters whose power never showed up here. His home/road splits suggest Citi Field wasn't the problem, but he wasn't the hitter the Mets thought they were getting. I was hoping for AAA pitchers who might be able to help out this year, but Escobar is at best the short side of a platoon in his walk year. They got the 19th and 20th prospects in the Angels' system, which basically means you might get a useful reliever out of it eventually.

I don't know if it's hopeless -- much like St. Louis, there is too much talent to say it can't happen (although the Cardinals do have the benefit of a much weaker division). And we're a month away from needing to make a call on that. Having said that, you could still make a strong case that moving guys like Canha, Escobar, or Vogelbach would do nothing to hurt our chances this year while giving us a longer look at our younger players. Pham is a different story: perhaps you sell high while you can, but I think you would have to be willing to sacrifice the present to move him and I'm not there yet. Marte has two more years, along with the catch-22 that if he's playing well enough that another team would take the contract on, we probably don't want to part with him.

I think we were lulled into a false sense of security by Eppler and Showalter because, for all their flaws, they were improvements over their predecessors.

I don't think you panic about the offense. You have a number of guys with a BABIP that's way below what they normally do, and that's a good bet to change favorably. At worst, it's the small problem. On the other hand... our pitching staff has given up more home runs than any other staff in the NL. And we play our home games at Citi Field, so it is even worse than the base numbers make it look. And we are paying over $100M to two starters and a closer who have combined for 1.3 WAR in basically half a season. So what can you do? Tough question. Our expensive players aren't going anywhere, and it would be loony to part with high-end young talent right now. If you can get pitching for Narvaez you do it, not because I dislike him but because there's no point in paying him that much to be the backup catcher. But that won't be enough to turn the season around. The way pitchers are handled right now, you need depth more than anything, so going with four AAA relievers in the back of the pen and cycling them out every week to bring in four more AAA relievers is a recipe for disaster. If a real major-league reliever can be had on the cheap, and that's been true the last two deadlines and the last two Januaries, you get him. As for starters, you have to count on Scherzer and Verlander to perform, because their salaries leave you no other choice. Senga is good enough. I'm sill hopeful that Quintana can be solid the second half and next year. But Carrasco is done, and Megill and Peterson are not the valuable stopgaps we thought they were last season. I do think you look for guys who are pitching well in AAA who don't have a path to the majors on their current team. They don't have to be elite prospects, just guys who can get the call and not kill you. And then you open the bottomless wallet and get Shohei. But you need to clean house upstairs and in the dugout. Showalter has done nothing impressive, and his handling of young players has been baffling. The Mets gave Jeremy Hefner a contract extension immediately after the 2021 season, before they had even hired a GM to make personnel decisions. And this was after he let DeGrom see how hard he could throw before his arm gave out, evidently expecting a different result than his arm giving out. Has he not been handed enough Hall of Fame-caliber talent to get a fair judgment of his abilities? Eppler showed more confidence in his AAA back of the pen than in Francisco Alvarez. And he never even tried to bring back Marcus Stroman, who currently leads the NL in ERA. Are these the guys you want fixing the problem?

I would take that in a heartbeat. Except for the part about the Jets never winning.

Frayed Knot wrote: I'm having trouble keeping track of these guys much less remembering any specific things about them. And that was by design, despite a $350M payroll.

Welcome abordick Rudick!

One thing that's giving me some optimism is that much of the lineup has a batting average on balls in play that is unsustainably low: Alonso .199 Lindor .238 Alvarez .239 McNeil .292 (he's at .327 for his career) Pham .275 Escobar .260 Canha .275 Baty .284 Vogelbach .278 Other than Nimmo (.357) and Marte (.311, but he's shown zero power to this point), the Mets are underachieving fairly severely in this regard. That has to get better, right?

Their numbers are close enough that I'd go with the catcher.

Murphy, partly for sentiment but the Mets could also use a bit more from the left side of the plate.

If the demand for catching is that high right now, we should seriously consider moving Narvaez for pitching help sooner rather than later.