Centerfield

Mullins seems really streaky. His OPS by month: March/April: .927 May: .574 June: .500 July: .868 So he's either gonna rake or suck. Last year too: April/March: .701 May: .344!!! June: .849 July: .800 August: .641 September: .857 A few more notes. He has reverse splits in 2025, but for his career has traditional splits. .777 vs. RHP, .656 against LHP. Had a hamstring injury on May 30. So maybe some of his struggles arise from that. Probably not. Let's just hope he gets hot for 2 and a half months.

I don't know much about Mullins. Seems he's not very good.

Yeah. This.

Griffin Herring is a fun name too. It’s like the name Griffin Canning would put on his fake ID.

We used to have Juan Soto. Now we have two Sotos. [/dad joke]

Throws hard. Walks a ton of people. 3.98 ERA and WHIP of 1.294. This might the best we can hope from him. He had a WHIP of 1.566 in 2024.

I think this is right. But of the guys who are available, other than Suarez, which guys are better than what we have?

For the lineup, let's say we have five possible spots where we can upgrade: 1. Catcher. Not happening. No one is better. 2. Centerfield. Lots of guys better than Taylor. Are any better than McNeil/Nimmo/Taylor? Not for nothing, but Drew Gilbert has like a .900 OPS his last 30 days at Syracuse. Maybe he's finally healthy? 3. Second Base. Is anyone available that's better than Baty/McNeil? Baty is up to a .723 OPS overall. It's not great, but not terrible. He's been doing the every other month thing. Bad April, torrid May, ice cold June, hot July. 4. Third Base. There's Eugenio Suarez. Are we willing to give up a top prospect to get him? I guess this is where we can see the most improvement. Both Mauricio and Vientos are in the mid 600s OPS. 5. DH. Lots of options here, I guess. But we also have Winker and Marte coming back. How many of the options are better than them? And if we keep everyone, how do we figure out playing time?

I have a hard time believing David Stearns will give up Jett Williams for a relief pitcher. Even one as good as Clase. This trade deadline has me all sorts of confused. I think they'll upgrade the pen, but not with someone as good as Clase. I don't think they'll upgrade the rotation, unless they decide to add a back end starter and move Holmes to the bullpen. The lineup is even harder to figure out. Considering McNeil has been ok at CF, what options are there that are necessarily better than him out there?

Was hoping Jose Butto would be activated today. Bullpen is already stretched thin, and we have another 5 inning starter going tonight.

They've now overcome a 4 run lead twice. They finally had that game where the starter falters, they fall behind, then chip away and win it late. This thread is just under a month old. Since then: July 4 vs. NYY: Losing 5-4 in the 7th, McNeil hits a 2 run HR and the Mets come back to win. July 8 vs. Bal. Losing 6-2 in the 8th inning, Mets score 4 runs in the 8th on Lindor and Alonso HR. Win it in 10 July 12 vs. KCR. Losing 3-1 in the 8th inning, the Mets score 7 over the last two innings to win going away. July 21 vs. LAA. Fall behind 4-0 early, eventually win 7-5. Four times in two and a half weeks.

I'd be curious if the Mets were outbid, or if Robertson simply chose Philly.

But his ML BA/OBA, after pieces of four seasons and nearly 1,000 trips to the plate, is .223/.298 with only his power getting his OPS+ close to average (98). That kind of low-average/decent power numbers profiles more as a perpetual backup catcher (only without the good defense) and in this season even the power wasn't there (29 hits / 23 singles). Now the 2025 numbers are a small sample size which might have justified him being sent down but shouldn't be tagging him as a career second string label, especially for one still just 23 y/o. But what I am saying is that, at some point, he'll need to show he can improve or risk getting hung with a rep as a platoon C/DH vs LHPs or, even worse, as a AAAA player who'll bounce around looking for work in between getting released on a regular basis. So there's still time for him (especially seeing as how his FA year just moved one year further away) but there's also no time like the present for him to get going. Agree with everything you said. Just suggesting that if he could somehow duplicate his AAA average and OBP from this tiny stint at AAA, this would go a long way toward fighting that stigma you describe. In any case, I look forward to having Alvarez back. Even if he just duplicates his 2025 production so far, it will be an improvement over Torrens (.534 OPS over his last 28 days).

His BA is AAA is .268. Which I guess is not considered low anymore. I think some of that was during his rehab stint, but you’d take that. Plus his OBP is .366. Which is also fine. What struck me is all of the clips I saw of his AAA HRs is that they seem to be middle in. I’m skeptical he’ll see any of those pitches when he gets back to the bigs. Would be helpful to know what he did with sliders away during this last month.

Wow that’s cool! Didn’t realize Jett was that high. Too bad about Sproat. Maybe a strong second half gets him back on the radar.

The problem with doing this so late is that you have no idea if he's going to suck until after the deadline has passed.

I kinda thought he looked good.

The Mets have now overcome a 4 run lead.

Honestly, that seems like that should be impossible. And of course Alonso was the only one to get a hit with RISP today. It's simply incomprehensible how bad this team is playing.

Basically, everyone except Alonso.

Beyond the numbers with RISP, my original complaint in this thread is that this Mets team simply does not fight back after being behind. They’ve overcome a 3 run lead exactly once. That was against Miami in the second series of the year. Outside of that game, every other team that’s built a 3 run lead at any point in the game has gone on to win. Basically once behind, the Mets fold. So the idea that they might come back today after falling behind 5-0 is even more far fetched than it would be normally. In many cases, like today, not only do they not come back, they fall even further behind (outscored 3-1 after the 5 run outburst). There’s no such thing as a clutch hitter. But this team has failed to hit in the clutch. There’s probably no such thing as a “fight back” player. But this team has not fought back all year long. And it’s now half a season.

We’ve been noting the poor OPS with RISP for just over a month. And though we all thought it would even out toward their overall OPS it’s stayed terrible. So the question becomes at what point does this thing, which is usually randomness and bad luck, actually become a thing? I still think it will even out. But I’m getting sick of waiting.

The problem with this team is that they are just not clutch. It's baked into their DNA. Kidding. I have no idea what's in their DNA. But I mentioned something in the last IGT that got me thinking. For a team that's been very good, they don't really have any "signature" wins this season. No game really stands out as a great comeback victory. This site tracks come from behind victories. The Mets have 19, which ties them for 9th in MLB. The Dodgers are first with 29. The Cubs are tied for 5th with 21. https://champsorchumps.us/records/most-mlb-comeback-wins-in-2025 This site also tracks 9th inning comeback wins. The Dodgers have 2, the Cubs have 2. Philly has 3, and Atlanta has 2. The Mets have zero. Examining their 19 come from behind wins: 1. March 31 vs. Miami. 1-0 lead in the first inning. Mets tied it in the 3rd. Took the lead in the 5th 2. April 2 vs. Miami. Mets were down 4-1 to Miami. Tied it in the 8th inning. Won in 11. 3. April 5 vs. Blue Jays. Toronto up 2-0. Mets scored 2 in the 8th, 1 in the 9 inning to win. Lindor SF. 4. April 8 vs. Miami. Miami took a 2-0 lead in the first. Mets tied it in the 3rd, broke it open in the 5th. 5. April 18 vs. STL. STL was winning 3-2 in the 6 inning. Mets pulled ahead in the same inning. STL tied it in the 9th, Lindor walkoff. 6. April 23 vs. Phil. Tied 2-2 going into extras. In 10, the Phils scored the ghost runner. Mets scored 2 to win it in the 10th. 7. May 2 vs. STL. STL had leads of 1-0 and 3-2 in the first and third innings. Mets went ahead in the 5th and pulled away. 8. May 5 vs. ARI. Arizona leads 1-0 after 1. Mets take the lead in the 4th inning. Hold on to win. 9. May 12 vs. PIT. PIT leading 2-1 top 7. Mets scored two in the bottom of the 7th. 10. May 17 vs. NYY. Yankees had an early 1-0 lead after 3. Mets went ahead top 4. Yankees tied it in the 6th, the Mets got a SF in the top of the 9th to win it. 11. May 24 vs. LAD. Dodgers led 2-0 after 2. Mets took the lead in the 4th inning. 12. May 25 vs. LAD. LA lead 1-0 top 1. Mets scored two in the bottom of the first. 13. May 26 vs. CHW. Mets trailed 1-0 in the 8th inning. SF in the 8th and 9th won it for the Mets. 14. May 27 vs. CHW. CHW scored 2 in the first. Mets answered with 4 bottom 1. 15. May 31 vs. COL. COL scored 1 in the top of the first. Mets answered with 4 in the bottom half. 16. June 1 vs. COL. COL scored 1 in the 3rd. Mets scored 3 in the 4th. 17. June 6 vs. COL. Losing 1-0 in the 7th, the Mets scored 2 to take the lead in the 7th inning. COL tied it, Mets score two top 9 to win it. 18. June 10 vs WAS. Losing 4-2 in the 8th inning, Soto and Alonso drive in runs to tie it. McNeil doubles home the ghost runner in 10. 19. June 21 vs. PHI. Losing 3-1 in the 3rd, the Mets go back to back to back to take a 4-3 lead. Pull away. As you might expect, most of these are just early leads that are overcome in the course of a regular game. You don't really tend to think of overcoming an early 1-0 lead as a "comeback win". 3 of these wins are against Miami, 2 against the White Sox, and 3 against Colorado. So while it's good to win those games, there's a part of you that's annoyed you were losing in the first place. You figure a signature win is one where you're chasing a lead late, then come back to win. Like game 161 last year. Or Game 5 in Milwaukee. The Mets have 7 wins this year where they were chasing a lead in the 7th inning or later, and then came back to win. 1. April 2 vs. MIA (Down 4-1 in the 8th, score 3 to tie in the 8th, then win in 11th) 2. April 5 vs. TOR (Down 2-0 in the 8th, score 2 in the 8th to tie, win in the 9th) 3. April 23 vs. PHI (PHI scores the ghost runner in 10, Mets score 2 in the bottom of the 10th) 4. May 12 vs. PIT (PIT leads 2-1 in the 7th. Mets take the lead bottom 7) 5. May 26 vs. CHW (CHW winning 1-0 in the 8th, Mets hit a SF in the 8th and 9th to win it) 6. June 6 vs. COL (Col winning 1-0 in the 7th, Mets score 2 in the top of the 7th) 7. June 10 vs. WAS (WAS winning 4-2, Mets score 2 in the 8th to tie, then win in the 10th on the McNeil double) Of these wins, 5 are against ****** teams, so it's hard to think of those as "signature wins". Though the June 10 game against Washington was awesome. So that leaves us the April 5 Toronto game, which let's be honest. Most of us have forgotten about it. And the April 23 day game against Philadelphia. This was the Zach Wheeler start that capped off the sweep. So if I had to pick a "signature win" for the 2025 Mets, I guess it's that day game against Philadelphia. The Mets almost had a signature win in their Friday night, May 23 game against the Dodgers. This is the game where they scored 3 runs in the 9th off Tanner Scott. But they couldn't complete the job, so instead, this became a cock-punch loss. Speaking of cock-punch losses, I count a bunch. 1. April 25 vs. WAS. Leading 4-3, the Nationals score 2 in the ninth off Ryne Stanek to walk it off 2. April 27 vs. WAS. Mets blow a 7-1 lead. Nationals score 2 in the ninth off Ryne Stanek to walk it off 3. May 23 vs. LAD. The 13 inning debacle 4. June 3 vs. LAD. Muncy 9th inning HR, 10th inning Freeman fly ball to Nimmo 5. June 5 vs. LAD. The Conforto game. Mets give up 3 in the 8th. 6. June 13 vs. TAM. The 6 run inning for Blackburn/Kranick. Started the losing streak 7. June 17 vs. ATL. The Ozuna 3 run double off Reed. What does all this mean? Not much I guess. But for a team that has been good except for this recent stretch, it kinda sucks that they haven't given us that great moment. But has instead given us a bunch of cock punch losses.

Kinda wish we had done the 3 years, $90 Million. Or four years 120M.

It's strange that a day has passed and the "it didn't look good" status hasn't really been updated.