Centerfield

Will be crushing when they ultimately lose this game anyway.

Edgy MD wrote: Ronny Mauricio performed worse than expected/missed significant time also. For some of those, of course, it depends on who "we" are, but you're probably pretty close to the cross-section of expectations for most of those guys I think any team that makes it as far as the Mets did must've enjoyed some luck, but props to organization for the meaningful parts of it that weren't luck, and for believing in the process and not quitting on the team by the end of May. Props to the team for not quitting too. Yeah, forgot Mauricio. Goes into the "went wrong" category. To a lesser extent maybe you could include Gilbert/Williams. I had some hope they would contribute this year. Certainly some of these can be argued into one category or another. Starling Marte could be seen as a disappointment as he had 330 ABs and was far below career norms. But I think at his age, it's about what you could expect from him. Anyway, what I like about this list is that if you don't perform for Stearns, you're time is limited. And he'll give a shot to someone else and hope that they can do better.

I think so. Especially in terms of health. Off the top of my head. What went right vs. what went wrong. [MetsBlue]What Went Right[/MetsBlue] Guys Who Performed Better than Expectations Francisco Lindor Mark Vientos Jose Iglesias Luisangel Acuna Luis Torrens Sean Manaea Luis Severino David Peterson Jose Quintana Dedniel Nunez Jose Butto Reed Garrett Phil Maton [MetsOrange]What Went Wrong[/MetsOrange] Guys Who Performed Worse Than Expectations Pete Alonso Jeff McNeil Brandon Nimmo JD Martinez DJ Stewart Brett Baty Omar Narvaez Kodai Senga Adrian Houser Brooks Raley Adam Ottovino Jake Diekman Drew Smith Ryne Stanek Sean Reid Foley Huascar Brazoban Neutral Guys Who Were About What We Expected Francisco Alvarez Harrison Bader Starling Marte Tyrone Taylor Jesse Winker Edwin Diaz Paul Blackburn Tylor Megill Christian Scott Included in the "below expectations" category are guys who got hurt. If you look at it in terms of numbers, it doesn't seem like we got that lucky (13 guys who overperformed vs. 16 guys who underperformed). We have just as many guys who fell short of expectations as we did guys who exceeded them. I think where our luck came in is (a) nobody except Senga missed significant time, ( 4/5 of our starting rotation did better than expected, and (c) a lot of the lineup regulars who underwhelmed still put up decent numbers. In other words, even though they came in below career numbers, they didn't miss by a significant amount.

I think so. Especially in terms of health. Off the top of my head. What went right vs. what went wrong. [MetsBlue]What Went Right[/MetsBlue] Guys Who Performed Better than Expectations Francisco Lindor Mark Vientos Jose Iglesias Luisangel Acuna Luis Torrens Sean Manaea Luis Severino David Peterson Jose Quintana Dedniel Nunez Jose Butto Reed Garrett Phil Maton [MetsOrange]What Went Wrong[/MetsOrange] Guys Who Performed Worse Than Expectations Pete Alonso Jeff McNeil Brandon Nimmo JD Martinez DJ Stewart Brett Baty Omar Narvaez Kodai Senga Adrian Houser Brooks Raley Adam Ottovino Jake Diekman Drew Smith Ryne Stanek Sean Reid Foley Huascar Brazoban Neutral Guys Who Were About What We Expected Francisco Alvarez Harrison Bader Starling Marte Tyrone Taylor Jesse Winker Edwin Diaz Paul Blackburn Tylor Megill Christian Scott Included in the "below expectations" category are guys who got hurt. If you look at it in terms of numbers, it doesn't seem like we got that lucky. We have just as many guys who fell short of expectations as we did guys who exceeded them. I think where our luck came in is (a) nobody except Senga missed significant time, ( 4/5 of our starting rotation did better than expected, and © a lot of the lineup regulars who underwhelmed still put up decent numbers. In other words, even though they came in below career numbers, they didn't miss by a significant amount.

I have to wonder how Yankee fans are dealing with this. *World Series appearance. Down 3-0. Unlike past ones, they don't know when they'll be back *The Dodgers are better than them. They spend money. And for the first time ever, there's rumblings that the superstar will leave the Yankees and join the enemy. *The Mets are good too, and are an even bigger threat to steal Soto than the Dodgers.

Edgy MD wrote: The three-true-outcome scorpion is sure biting our prospects in the AFL, with all three putting up tiny batting averages attached to otherwise semi-respectable OPSes. Drew Gilbert (.188 / .278 / .500 // .778) Jacob Reimer (.158 / .448 / .316 // .764) Jett Williams (.206 / .357 /.353 //.710) The same sort of productivity that got Dave Kingman ridiculed a generation ago is the norm. It's actually, like, the super-norm, with player after player racing to out-Kingman Kingman. Updates. Drew Gilbert (.200 / .347 / .450 // .797) (3HR) Jett Williams (.217 / .345 / .391 // .736) (1HR) Can't find Jacob Reimer. Maybe he's not playing anymore?

As FK mentioned, the difference between 1st half/second half Gil is pretty stark. Second half Gil had a 4.20 ERA. 1.419 WHIP. 4 IP, 2 ER in his one post-season start against Cleveland.

https://x.com/TalkinYanks/status/1851079889903841734 Haha I used to think that Sterling was so eager to go into his signature calls that he saw what he wanted to see. Nowadays I think he can't see at all and is just guessing.

One of the key differences in the Yankees and Mets is that the Yanks bullpen has done a good job of not letting the Dodgers pull away late. The first few innings of each game kinda remind me of our series, except we'd have Phil Maton come in and give up 4. I think we caught them when Freeman wasn't healthy, and not the Yankees are getting the benefit of a hobbled Ohtani. Can you even imagine this team at full strength. Holy shit.

Why would you bunt there.

Walker Buehler vs. Clark Schmidt ESPN says Yankees 60.7% chance to win.

Let's hope he's healthy enough to finish the job. Then hurts his knee celebrating the WS title costing him all of next year. And the five years after.

I'm sure Yankee fans will be very understanding of Boone's decision to use Nestor. Hey. Sometimes moves don't work out. It happens.

Hey. Let's take an injured pitcher and throw him into the fire against the Dodgers in game 1. What could go wrong.

Wow.

$$$$$

I'd love to see Juan Soto have an awful series, with multiple errors, and have him booed off the field as the Yanks get swept.

BTW, I'm a little disappointed that FK and JCL don't have a brothers podcast like the Kelces. You could call it "Spring Forward".

Thank you guys! And especially the CPF hosted ones. I can't wait to listen to you then come back and make fun of your voices.

Ok. So I acknowledge that the Dark Horse criteria is subjective and something I completely made up, but on no planet is Mark Vientos anywhere close to a Dark Horse candidate. The whole idea of Dark Horse is that a player comes in out of nowhere and lights the world on fire. Mark Vientos isn't even close to that. He's a consensus top 10 Mets prospect (#8 before he lost his eligibility following the 2023 season), had a .919 OPS over 200 AAA games, including 49 HRs, and was slotted to be the starting DH before JD was signed. If anyone wrote him off after his first 250 ABs, that's on them. Not Vientos. He was on everyone's radar. And if he had torn his ACL a week before spring training, it would have been big news, and people would have been upset about it. Just like we were upset about Ronny Mauricio. Jose Iglesias? A career-ending injury before this year wouldn't even warrant a mention. That's why next year Baty, Mauricio, Sproat, Butto. None of these guys are Dark Horse candidates. And I think that's what makes it fun. You never know if you're gonna get a Dark Horse, and in all likelihood, you wouldn't have been able to guess the guy in a million years.

It occurs to me that I should have put an option for "None". I'll have to do that going forward. In most years, we don't have a Dark Horse Met.

Now that we have no Mets baseball, I'm looking for some podcasts for the offseason. What Mets podcasts should I be listening to? What are you guys listening to? I think some of you might even host a few. Non-Mets options are welcome too. Anything interesting.

Joel Sherman says that Pete turned down a 7 year, $158M extension from the Mets in 2023. If he had accepted that deal, deducting the $20,500,000 he made this year, it would leave 6 years, $138M ($23M/year). A 6 year deal would take Alonso into his year 35 season. Pete was allegedly looking for an 8-10 year deal, which I guess would now be a 7-9 year deal. Spotrac estimates his value at 6 years, $174 M ($29M/Year). I'm guessing this would be the upper limit of how high Stearns is willing to go, if it's even that high. I dunno. I don't feel great about this one. I think he's likely gone.

Edgy MD wrote: Those aren't https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.fcgi?id=buttojo01&year=Career&t=pthe splits I have. [th]Role[/th][th]W[/th][th]L[/th][th]W-L%[/th][th]ERA[/th][th]G[/th][th]GS[/th][th]GF[/th][th]SV[/th][th]IP[/th][th]H[/th][th]R[/th][th]ER[/th][th]HR[/th][th]BB[/th][th]SO[/th][th]HBP[/th][th]BK[/th][th]WP[/th][th]BF[/th][th]WHIP[/th][th]H/9[/th][th]HR/9[/th][th]BB/9[/th][th]SO9[/th][th]SO/W[/th]as Starter26.2503.7615150079.0613333842744013361.3046.90.94.88.41.76as Reliever61.8572.632505341.0221212321481111601.0494.80.74.610.52.29Total87.5333.375401553120.083454511631225124961.2166.20.84.79.21.94 But you're certainly right in that that isn't the profile of a failed starter, so much as a starter who hasn't caught on as yet. I withdraw the characterization. They could even return to trying to establish him in the rotation, but I'm almost certain that they won't. The splits I posted were for 2024 only. Maybe your's are career numbers? I'm not so convinced the Mets won't allow him to start. He was good out of the pen, but he doesn't recover fast, so his use is somewhat limited. Is there an opposite of a rubber arm guy? Also, starters are more valuable than relievers. Maybe in generations past Butto would now be pigeonholed as a reliever. I think this regime will explore how best to use him. Assuming we sign two starters to pair with Peterson and Senga, I fully expect Butto to be in the mix for 5th Starter, along with Megill and whatever reclamation projects we pick up.

I wouldn't label Butto as a failed starter in any world. 7 starts, 38 IP, 3.08 ERA, 1.132 WHIP. I'd say he did pretty well starting, but needs to show it's sustainable.