Centerfield

It will be interesting to see what type of market develops for Pete. Jon Heyman (Scott Boras) recently opined that the top landing spots for Alonso could include the Mets, Yankees, Red Sox, Mariners, Astros and Rangers. His list did not include the Padres, a team that I figured might be in the mix. My thoughts on them: 1. Yankees. I think nothing would make Boras happier than starting another Yankees/Mets bidding war. But it's tough to see the Yankees being heavily in the mix. Bellinger is a free agent, and they'll be motivated to bring him back. Stanton is clogging up DH. And they have Ben Rice who played 50 games or so at 1B. And put up nice numbers. It's hard to see them committing big money and big years to a 1B/DH. 2. Red Sox. Tristan Casas will be back at some point in 2026. There were rumblings that the front office wasn't ready to ink him in as the first baseman in 2026, but that appears to be injury related. The kid is very promising, and has a career OPS of .800 over his first 900 PAs. I think it would be foolish to block him with a long term deal for Alonso. Plus, their priority is re-signing Bregman. 3. Mariners. Maybe. But it's been surmised that the Mariners wouldn't spend to bring back Josh Naylor. If they're not able to afford Naylor, how would they afford Alonso? Naylor is a few years younger, a better defender, but lacks the power of Alonso. 4. Rangers. Texas is kind of a wild card. There is a definite opening at 1B. Texas needs offense badly, and they have some money to spend. They may be a team to watch. 5. Astros. I don't see how this one makes any sense. Houston has Christian Walker signed for two more years, at $20M per year. One team not included in Heyman's list is the Padres. Luis Arraez played 1B for them this year, and he's a free agent. It's unclear how much they will spend now that Peter Seidler has died, but I guess that's a team to watch. Outside of these 6 teams, I don't really see another landing spot. Half the teams in MLB don't spend enough to realistically compete for Alonso. Of the top spenders, the Dodgers, Phillies, Toronto, Atlanta, Cubs all have incumbents. The Giants just called up Bryce Eldridge, their big 1B prospect. Maybe Arizona or the Angels surprise everyone? I dunno. Hopefully this thing doesn't drag until February.

I'm not sure I quite understand what's going on. Anyway. Back to Alonso. Alonso is entering his age 31 season. A dangerous time for aging sluggers. Can we summarize what history has shown us? The Early guys. *Chris Davis. Decline started age 31. Fell off a cliff at 32. *Ryan Howard. Fell off a cliff at age 32. I think there was an Achilles injury *Justin Upton. Fell off a cliff after age 30. The Late Guys *David Ortiz. MVP Numbers at age 40. *Jim Thome. 34 HR at age 36 *Adrian Beltre. Productive through age 37. *Nelson Cruz. Prime lasted to age 40. *Joey Votto. Productive through age 37 Everyone Else *Albert Pujols. Stopped being dominant at age 32, but was productive through age 36 *Paul Goldshmidt. Dominant through age 34. Productive at 35. Bad after. *Nolan Arenado. Dropped off sharply after age 32. *Miguel Cabrera. Fell off a cliff after age 33. *Jose Bautista. Good through age 35 *JD Martinez. Good through age 35. Bad after. *Giancarlo Stanton. Crushed with injuries, but is still mashing at age 35 when healthy *Carlos Santana. Fell off sharply after age 33. So in other words, Alonso could be shot already. Or he could have 2-4 years left in his prime (this is probably what we're looking at). Or he has a decade of mashing left in his career. So if I were David Stearns, I'd see what the market is. If it's a 6-7 year deal, you can't bring him back. Especially with several long term contracts already on the books. If it's a 3 year deal, I think you make that move. 4-5 year deal, seems risky too. But then again, you only have a short window left for this core of players.

I’ll tell you. I don’t fully understand what makes a good manager. But there must be something to it. Guys like Bochy. Terry Francona. Dusty Baker. These guys find ways to get their team to win. Never really thought the Mets needed one of these guys. But maybe there is something to it.

I think my denial period was pretty significant. For a long, long time I kept thinking they would find it. I'm squarely in anger right now. I think I'll live here for a few days.

I’m guessing they’ll fire coaches. But honestly how can they not. The offense, while featuring some good individual seasons, underperformed collectively. The pitching was a question mark coming in. But how they performed was so much worse than anyone could imagine. If you can’t fire these coaches you can’t fire anyone. But beyond that, this team played such bad baseball you almost have to fire the manager. Bringing him back is a tacit acceptance of the terrible play. Baty getting picked off twice. Mullins not running. The errors. The inability to work with Pete on his throwing. The team playing tight. All the intangibles were a mess. And then. The decisions themselves. How many games that were punted by Mendoza. For most of the freefall, he managed like he’d be able to turn things around tomorrow. And changed nothing even as he ran out of tomorrows.

Mendy coming back suggests to me a complete lack of accountability. The same attitude that allowed this mess to fester for four months.

I don’t know about you but I feel like today would be a great day for the Reds starter to give up 6 and get knocked out in the first.

I never want to see Carlos Mendoza put in some ******** reliever in a winnable game, then watch him struggle, then run him out there for a second inning effectively punting the game. The Zach Pop Phenomenon. There are lots of games you can look back on this year. But one that may be forgotten is the July 18 game against the Reds. The first one out of the break. Manaea goes 4 IP, 1 run. Mets leading 2-1. With a completely rested pen, Mendoza goes to Alex Carillo. Who immediately gives up the lead. HBP. HR. Trailing 3-2, Mendoza then gives him a second inning effectively punting. Where he proceeds to give up another HR. Then a walk. Then a wild pitch. Then yet another HR. Finally pulling him when it’s 6-2. An inning and a third. Three HR. 5 runs. Then he goes to Brandon Waddell, who gives up another 2 runs. Again, this is the first game out of the break with a completely rested pen. The Mets closed to 8-4. But it was too little too late. I get that it’s on the players. And it definitely is. But it’s also hard to overcome a manager that is effectively saying “eh, we’ll get ‘em tomorrow” in a one run game in the 6th. In this case, they didn’t get ‘em tomorrow. They lost to the Reds the next day too. And now the Reds are tied with us in game 162 with the tiebreaker. For too long the players played, and Mendoza managed, like the post season was a given. And now we’re paying the price.

Strained oblique is several weeks minimum. Rest up Brett. He’s arrived.

I’m trying not to buy into the theory that the other playoff teams want the Mets out. But 0-7 by the Cubs and Brewers would be something.

If the Reds close it out today, they will have won 9 of their final 11 games. Their pitching has been great. In none of these games have they allowed more than 4 runs.

Brewers are starting someone named Robert Gasser. One appearance this year. 6.00 ERA. They’re mailing it in.

So here’s the big question for David Stearns. What do you do about the starting rotation that was ranked 18th in ERA and 26th in WHIP? The staff that collapsed in the second half. You run it back of course! I don’t know. Probably not. But most of these guys are signed for next year. Holmes, Peterson, Senga and Manaea are all back. Maybe you trade one? They’re not high on Senga. But he’s also a guy that can pitch like a #2 when right. And his salary is only $13M. Holmes could always be moved to the pen, but he’s been the best of the bunch. Then you have the young guys. McLean has done enough to start the year in the bigs. I think Sproat too. Tong should go to Syracuse until his secondaries are refined. And who knows what we’ll get from Christian Scott. Montas is a sunk cost. Good riddance. And Megill is out until 2027. I think you need an anchor. Whether that’s Sandy Alcantara, or Dylan Cease, I don’t know. But I feel like you need some dependability in this staff. I was ready to go all in for Michael King, but he has an issue with a thoracic nerve. Super risky. One thing we absolutely cannot do is commit multiple years to some hack like Frankie Montas and hope that our ******** pitching lab can fix him. I hope that idea has been put to bed. I’m sure there will be a low risk flyer too. The 2026 Griffin Canning.

But mainly I never want to see Carlos Mendoza again. ****** uninspired baseball for 4 months. They somehow played tight and sloppy. Bad in game decisions. Never ever give me another post game interview about how they’re too talented and have to grind it out.

I never want to hear about the ******** pitching lab again. Wow was that a ****ing fraud. ERA 18th in baseball. 24th in the second half. We knew the pitching was a question mark coming in. It ended up being so much worse than we could have imagined. How can you have that many guys perform below expectations. The entire protected rotation. Manaea. Peterson. Senga. Montas. Montas came in with low expectations and managed to somehow do even worse. How do you end up with your top 3 being unpitchable by September. Holmes is the only one that was ok. And even he has a 4+ ERA in the second half. All of the deadline relievers pitched worse here than they did for their old teams. Absolute ****ing disaster.

Diaz is 31. While the back of that contract may not look great, you figure he has 2-3 years left of his prime. Between Diaz, Raley, and Minter, you have the building blocks for a decent pen. Brazoban (didn’t realize he wasn’t a FA) and Smith are ok low leverage guys. But they’ll need to do a lot better. Maybe the kid Ross can be something. Though I hear he’s wild. I get that good relievers are hard to find but for now I’d be happy with different faces.

If that’s the effort the Brewers are giving this weekend then it’s over.

I never want to see Cedric Mullins again.

Brewers 3 hits. Mailing it in.

In fact this whole bullpen besides Raley and Diaz can go. No more Stanek. Or Brazoban. Reed Garrett is getting TJ surgery so he’s gone anyway. Helsley. I’m glad you figured it out. Too bad you sucked when we actually needed you to be good. Rogers I guess was ok. But he coughed up a few games early when we could have stopped this bleeding. Plus he’s goofy as **** and throws weird. Get him outta here too.

If there’s a silver lining to this **** season ending Sunday, I’m glad I’ll never have to see Mendoza pull a starter early and put in Soto to let all the runners score and light the game on fire. And then watch him do it again ma few days later. Wishful thinking is that Mendoza will be gone. But just not seeing Soto anymore will be something.

Mathematicians! With the DBacks losing our odds must be better now, yes?

The Reds' starting pitching is the real deal. Even beyond Hunter Greene, they get a well pitched game seemingly every night.

A sweep was going to be a tall order. Mets are just going to have to win themselves.

Reds and Pirates underway. 0-0 in the 2nd inning. If you had told me before the series that the Pirates would take 2 of 3 I would have been thrilled. But dammit that's thinking small! Go Bucs!!!