Centerfield

OPS last 30 days. Juan Soto .681 Francisco Lindor .654 Brandon Nimmo .671 Pete Alonso .636 Jeff McNeil .682 Brett Baty .718 Ronny Mauricio .723 Mark Vientos .742 Tyrone Taylor .400 The one exception is the guy that got sent down. Francisco Alvarez .919

Yup. The mascot will be a giant potato named "Spud".

Some real buzz that this guy might be the real deal.

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.