Edgy MD

Go find the last nine-inning Mets game in which they made 14 outfield putouts. (Who am I kidding? Greg already knows.)

They've had a lot of (mostly) bad luck with first-timers — Mickey Callaway, Luis Rojas, Carlos Mendoza — in three of their last four hires, so I'm guessing experience. Catchers who had long careers despite never being much of a hitter always make for safe selections, so ... Experienced Manager + Long-Term/Weak-Hitting Catcher = Brad Ausmus Math.

I dunno if Wilson is a load or a toad or a loaded toady, but he's back out there.

Three Mets pitchers today: Thornton exits the game with a 1.93 ERA. Weaver exits the game with a 1.98 ERA. Raley exits the game with a 1.96 ERA. They'll probably got to Williams in the ninth, though, and his ERA is about those three added up.

Just as I'm thinking "This Bryse Wilson character is now in his third inning of just grooving it in there, and they're gonna tag him sooner or later," ... they totally tagged him.

Missed in that weird rundown is that that the pitch should have been a called strike three.

The odd strikeout works, though.

One problem with Thornton giving up so many balls in the air is that, now that the Brews suddenly have two on, the double-play isn't as likely.

That's reaching back for a reference. Brewers being outhustled by the Mets coming and going is a nice change of pace.

Even when Bichette hits, it feels like his head is in his butt. Not on that play, though.

Gil Hodges needs to walk out to second and have a talk with Turang.

It seems like Lindor is (a) depressed, and (b) selling out for power at the plate, but it's nice to see his hustle is still there.

Also, when Ewing spits on garbage and works a walk, I get a flashback to the younger, better version of Nimmo. The illusion isn't as effective, though, because Ewing is three inches shorter.

If center doesn't work out, this Ewing-in-Left situation may be a thing.

Torrens' beard is getting thick enough that when he see him coming up, I think that Luis Guillorme is back. And then he comes up and bats righthanded, and I'm briefly confused.

Look at these guys, getting value out of Gary Freakin' Sanchez. Zach Thornton is, of course, coming off of pitching the game of his life against Boston — a game which the Mets conspired to lose anyhow. METS Starting Pitcher Zac Thornton LHP 0-1, 2.60 ERA, 15 SO Lineup A.J. Ewing (L) LF Juan Soto (L) DH Bo Bichette (R) 3B Francisco Lindor (S) SS Carson Benge (L) RF Luis Robert Jr. (R) CF Jared Young (L) 1B Marcus Semien (R) 2B Luis Torrens (R) C MILWAUKEE Starting Pitcher Brandon Sproat RHP 3-4, 5.16 ERA, 87 SO Lineup Jackson Chourio (R) LF Brice Turang (L) 2B William Contreras (R) DH Andrew Vaughn (R) 1B Garrett Mitchell (L) CF Gary Sánchez (R) C Luis Lara (S) RF Cooper Union Pratt (R) SS Joey Ortiz (R) 3B

Danny Graves, Vietnamese-born Met.

I didn't think there were any Mets born in Alaska. Graeme Lloyd is from Australia, where ballplayers get names like "Graeme."

You get to tag players when you publish an article, and the available tags include all players who have appeared in articles on any of the Grand Central Mets family of sites. I, it turns out, am the first guy to have tagged Zach Crotchfelt, and I feel like I should win something.

Draft Special! Running a baseball team is not for the faint of heart, and as the Mets best-laid plans for 2026 blow up in their faces on a regular basis, and undeterred leadership team has executed a pretty unconventional, and seemingly high-risk draft strategy. Transactions, 7/11/2026 COMING Drafted as First-Round Selection (27th Overall) out of Arkansas Drafted as Third-Round Selection (92nd Overall) out of Texas Drafted as Fourth-Round Selection (120th Overall) out of Texas A&M Relief Pitchers Outfielders Starting Pitchers Carson Wiggins Aiden Robbins Shane Sdao R/R DoB: 2005-06-01 High Level: Division I+ (2026) R/R DoB: 2005-01-14 High Level: Division I+ (2026) L/L DoB: 2003-09-29 High Level: Division I+ (2026) The first thing you'll notice about the Mets 2026 amateur draft selections is that they went all in on pitchers. In this day of massive pitcher attrition and increasingly shorter starter workloads, the old saw of "you can never have enough pitching" is truer than ever, but ... well, somebody has to play the field. With fully 15 of their 19 draft picks, they went for hurlers. They probably intend to offset their appetite for arms by recruiting position players through the foreign amateur markets, or acquiring them through wheeling and dealing along the way. A second thing you'll notice also starts off with #1 pick Carson Wiggins, and that's not just that the Mets have gone for pitching, but overwhelmingly relief pitching. Historically, drafted players drafted players are at or near the top of their amateur team's starting rotations, and pro teams draft them with the hope that they can be that for them as well, and if that doesn't work, relief work is a workable fallback outcome. Certainly, young Mr. Wiggins is not the first guy drafted in the first round as a reliever, and while converting a pitcher from relief to starting does happen (as in the case of Clay Holmes), it is still damned rare. But the Mets looked past the bullpen assignment and the scant record (14 college innings), and instead saw the 102-mph fastball and pulled the trigger. Given a chance to bet on records and established outcomes to date, the Mets instead bet on their scouting and development people and trust them to produce a weapon here. Time will tell. Cynics like my friend duan have suggested that there is no such thing as a relief prospect, and considering he made that remark after the Mets selected Eddie Kunz at the back end of Round One in 2007, he has a point. Transactions, 7/12/2026 COMING Drafted as Fifth-Round Selection (152d Overall) out of Florida Drafted as Sixth-Round Selection (181st Overall) out of Auburn Drafted as Seventh-Round Selection (210th Overall) out of Stanford Drafted as Eighth-Round Selection (240th Overall) out of Mississippi Relief Pitchers Starting Pitchers Relief Pitchers Luke McNeillie Alex Petrovic Aidan Keenan Landon Koenig L/R DoB: 2005-03-17 High Level: Division I+ (2026) R/R DoB: 2004-05-27 High Level: Division I+ (2026) R/R DoB: 2005-03-07 High Level: Division I+ (2026) R/R DoB: 2004-11-23 High Level: Division I+ (2026) COMING Drafted as Ninth-Round Selection (270th Overall) out of Cal Poly Drafted as 10th-Round Selection (300th Overall) out of Dartmouth Drafted as 11th-Round Selection (330th Overall) out of Arkansas Drafted as 12th-Round Selection (360th Overall) out of UC Santa Barbara Catchers Starting Pitchers Outfielders Relief Pitchers Ryan Tayman Nate Isler Kuhio Aloy AJ Krodel R/R DoB: 2005-08-26 High Level: Division I+ (2025) R/R DoB: 2004-10-25 High Level: Division I (2026) R/R DoB: 2005-07-13 High Level: Division I+ (2026) R/R DoB: 2005-05-11 High Level: Division I (2026) COMING Drafted as 13th-Round Selection (370th Overall) out of Notre Dame HS (CA) Drafted as 14th-Round Selection (420th Overall) out of Troy Drafted as 15th-Round Selection (450th Overall) out of Missouri-St. Louis Drafted as 16th-Round Selection (480th Overall) out of LSU Catchers Relief Pitchers Jacob Madrid Zach Crotchfelt Dustin Hagens, Jr. Gavin Guidry R/R DoB: 2007-11-02 High Level: HS (2026) L/L DoB: 2003-10-03 High Level: Division I+ (2024) R/R DoB: 2005-01-05 High Level: Division II (2026) R/R DoB: 2003-07-14 High Level: Division I+ (2026) COMING Drafted as 17th-Round Selection (510th Overall) out of Arkansas Drafted as 18th-Round Selection (540th Overall) out of Kings Ridge Christian HS (GA) Drafted as 19th-Round Selection (570th Overall) out of Central Florida Drafted as 20th-Round Selection (600th Overall) out of Iowa Relief Pitchers Outfielders Infielders Cooper Dossett Marcus Ward John Smith III Kooper Schulte R/R DoB: 2004-04-10 High Level: Division I+ (2026) L/L DoB: 2007-11-14 High Level: HS (2026) R/R DoB: 2003-11-19 High Level: Division I (2026) R/R DoB: 2003-12-08 High Level: Division I+ (2026) A third thing you might notice about the Mets draft strategy is that they overwhelmingly (17 of 19 selections) went for college players. College players have less leverage at the negotiating table, and are obviously on a faster track (or at least have access to a faster track) to the big leagues, but one may conclude it shows less faith in the organization's development team. Or maybe a management team in charge of a team playing some terrible ball wants help as soon as they can get it. They not only went for college players, but college players overwhelmingly from the top conferences (labeled Division I+) on the transaction tables. Teams from the ACC, the SEC, The Big 10, and the Pac 12 don't always win the NCAA championship, but the week-by-week standard of play is markedly better than in the other 26 conferences in Division I. The worst teams in these conferences are generally as good as or better than the top teams in the other conferences — and certainly deeper. Back when the draft had 30, 40, or 50 rounds, virtually every eligible player — backup catchers and mop-up relievers included — had a good chance of hearing their name called by a big-league team before graduation. The difference between these four conferences and the rest of Division I is probably bigger than the gap between Division I and Division II. Fourteen of their 17 collegiate picks came out of these conferences. Lastly, it's notable how many of these players are not here because of eye-popping stats. Round Player Numbers 1 Carson Wiggins 3.21 ERA in only 14 innings 4 Shane Sdao 7.03 ERA in 71 innings 7 Aidan Keenan 5.82 ERA in 21 2/3 innings 8 Landon Koenig 6.35 ERA in 22 2/3 innings 10 Nate Isler 4.98 ERA in 65 innings 11 Kuhio Aloy A respectable .838 OPS, but zero games in the field, with only five games in the field in his collegiate career, and a body type that says he is likely to be sticking at DH 12 AJ Krodel 5.66 ERA in 35 innings 16 Gavin Guidry 6.39 ERA in 43 2/3 innings 17 Cooper Dossett 6.88 ERA in 17 innings Now, all of that comes with caveats: We've selected only the most incriminating cases, though there certainly seem to be a lot. These guys, as noted, have come out of the highest levels of NCAA competition. The NCAA, with the aluminum bat thing happening, plays toward the hitters and away from the pitchers. Amateur fielders behind you have a way of inflating ERAs. There is no shame in trusting what your scouts say over what the numbers say. The Mets too Bobby Parnell in the ninth round with a 9-ish ERA (if memory serves) out of a relatively obscure Charleston Southern program and made a triple-digit-throwing MLB closer out of him, so it's a defensible strategy — even one we might choose to defend if the Mets weren't currently eating up all of our good will on a nightly basis, but it is sure a strategy the went for seemingly round after round after round. Much is to be revealed. Marcus Ward, for instance, has been labeled as a pitcher in Mets reports, but pre-draft scouting reports have him as an outfield prospect, and only a few indifferently allude to his side hustle as a pitcher. The Mets have added an Aiden and an Aidan, a Cooper and a Kooper. It's hard to say the future is looking bright in an organization cruising toward last place with a massive payroll and no manager, but they have paused briefly in mid-summer and selected a man named Zach Crotchfelt. Moments like that just makes the sun shine a little brighter.

Running a baseball team is not for the faint of heart, and as the Mets best-laid plans for 2026 blow up in their faces on a regular basis, and undeterred leadership team has executed a pretty unconventional, and seemingly high-risk draft strategy. Transactions, 7/11/2026 COMING Drafted as First-Round Selection (27th Overall) out of Arkansas Drafted as Third-Round Selection (92nd Overall) out of Texas Drafted as Fourth-Round Selection (120th Overall) out of Texas A&M Relief Pitchers Outfielders Starting Pitchers Carson Wiggins Aiden Robbins Shane Sdao R/R DoB: 2005-06-01 High Level: Division I+ (2026) R/R DoB: 2005-01-14 High Level: Division I+ (2026) L/L DoB: 2003-09-29 High Level: Division I+ (2026) The first thing you'll notice about the Mets 2026 amateur draft selections is that they went all in on pitchers. In this day of massive pitcher attrition and increasingly shorter starter workloads, the old saw of "you can never have enough pitching" is truer than ever, but ... well, somebody has to play the field. With fully 15 of their 19 draft picks, they went for hurlers. They probably intend to offset their appetite for arms by recruiting position players through the foreign amateur markets, or acquiring them through wheeling and dealing along the way. A second thing you'll notice also starts off with #1 pick Carson Wiggins, and that's not just that the Mets have gone for pitching, but overwhelmingly relief pitching. Historically, drafted players drafted players are at or near the top of their amateur team's starting rotations, and pro teams draft them with the hope that they can be that for them as well, and if that doesn't work, relief work is a workable fallback outcome. Certainly, young Mr. Wiggins is not the first guy drafted in the first round as a reliever, and while converting a pitcher from relief to starting does happen (as in the case of Clay Holmes), it is still damned rare. But the Mets looked past the bullpen assignment and the scant record (14 college innings), and instead saw the 102-mph fastball and pulled the trigger. Given a chance to bet on records and established outcomes to date, the Mets instead bet on their scouting and development people and trust them to produce a weapon here. Time will tell. Cynics like my friend duan have suggested that there is no such thing as a relief prospect, and considering he made that remark after the Mets selected Eddie Kunz at the back end of Round One in 2007, he has a point. Transactions, 7/12/2026 COMING Drafted as Fifth-Round Selection (152d Overall) out of Florida Drafted as Sixth-Round Selection (181st Overall) out of Auburn Drafted as Seventh-Round Selection (210th Overall) out of Stanford Drafted as Eighth-Round Selection (240th Overall) out of Mississippi Relief Pitchers Starting Pitchers Relief Pitchers Luke McNeillie Alex Petrovic Aidan Keenan Landon Koenig L/R DoB: 2005-03-17 High Level: Division I+ (2026) R/R DoB: 2004-05-27 High Level: Division I+ (2026) R/R DoB: 2005-03-07 High Level: Division I+ (2026) R/R DoB: 2004-11-23 High Level: Division I+ (2026) COMING Drafted as Ninth-Round Selection (270th Overall) out of Cal Poly Drafted as 10th-Round Selection (300th Overall) out of Dartmouth Drafted as 11th-Round Selection (330th Overall) out of Arkansas Drafted as 12th-Round Selection (360th Overall) out of UC Santa Barbara Catchers Starting Pitchers Outfielders Relief Pitchers Ryan Tayman Nate Isler Kuhio Aloy AJ Krodel R/R DoB: 2005-08-26 High Level: Division I+ (2025) R/R DoB: 2004-10-25 High Level: Division I (2026) R/R DoB: 2005-07-13 High Level: Division I+ (2026) R/R DoB: 2005-05-11 High Level: Division I (2026) COMING Drafted as 13th-Round Selection (370th Overall) out of Notre Dame HS (CA) Drafted as 14th-Round Selection (420th Overall) out of Troy Drafted as 15th-Round Selection (450th Overall) out of Missouri-St. Louis Drafted as 16th-Round Selection (480th Overall) out of LSU Catchers Relief Pitchers Jacob Madrid Zach Crotchfelt Dustin Hagens, Jr. Gavin Guidry R/R DoB: 2007-11-02 High Level: HS (2026) L/L DoB: 2003-10-03 High Level: Division I+ (2024) R/R DoB: 2005-01-05 High Level: Division II (2026) R/R DoB: 2003-07-14 High Level: Division I+ (2026) COMING Drafted as 17th-Round Selection (510th Overall) out of Arkansas Drafted as 18th-Round Selection (540th Overall) out of Kings Ridge Christian HS (GA) Drafted as 19th-Round Selection (570th Overall) out of Central Florida Drafted as 20th-Round Selection (600th Overall) out of Iowa Relief Pitchers Outfielders Infielders Cooper Dossett Marcus Ward John Smith III Kooper Schulte R/R DoB: 2004-04-10 High Level: Division I+ (2026) L/L DoB: 2007-11-14 High Level: HS (2026) R/R DoB: 2003-11-19 High Level: Division I (2026) R/R DoB: 2003-12-08 High Level: Division I+ (2026) A third thing you might notice about the Mets draft strategy is that they overwhelmingly (17 of 19 selections) went for college players. College players have less leverage at the negotiating table, and are obviously on a faster track (or at least have access to a faster track) to the big leagues, but one may conclude it shows less faith in the organization's development team. Or maybe a management team in charge of a team playing some terrible ball wants help as soon as they can get it. They not only went for college players, but college players overwhelmingly from the top conferences (labeled Division I+) on the transaction tables. Teams from the ACC, the SEC, The Big 10, and the Pac 12 don't always win the NCAA championship, but the week-by-week standard of play is markedly better than in the other 26 conferences in Division I. The worst teams in these conferences are generally as good as or better than the top teams in the other conferences — and certainly deeper. Back when the draft had 30, 40, or 50 rounds, virtually every eligible player — backup catchers and mop-up relievers included — had a good chance of hearing their name called by a big-league team before graduation. The difference between these four conferences and the rest of Division I is probably bigger than the gap between Division I and Division II. Fourteen of their 17 collegiate picks came out of these conferences. Lastly, it's notable how many of these players are not here because of eye-popping stats. Round Player Numbers 1 Carson Wiggins 3.21 ERA in only 14 innings 4 Shane Sdao 7.03 ERA in 71 innings 7 Aidan Keenan 5.82 ERA in 21 2/3 innings 8 Landon Koenig 6.35 ERA in 22 2/3 innings 10 Nate Isler 4.98 ERA in 65 innings 11 Kuhio Aloy A respectable .838 OPS, but zero games in the field, with only five games in the field in his collegiate career, and a body type that says he is likely to be sticking at DH 12 AJ Krodel 5.66 ERA in 35 innings 16 Gavin Guidry 6.39 ERA in 43 2/3 innings 17 Cooper Dossett 6.88 ERA in 17 innings Now, all of that comes with caveats: We've selected only the most incriminating cases, though there certainly seem to be a lot. These guys, as noted, have come out of the highest levels of NCAA competition. The NCAA, with the aluminum bat thing happening, plays toward the hitters and away from the pitchers. Amateur fielders behind you have a way of inflating ERAs. There is no shame in trusting what your scouts say over what the numbers say. The Mets too Bobby Parnell in the ninth round with a 9-ish ERA (if memory serves) out of a relatively obscure Charleston Southern program and made a triple-digit-throwing MLB closer out of him, so it's a defensible strategy — even one we might choose to defend if the Mets weren't currently eating up all of our good will on a nightly basis, but it is sure a strategy the went for seemingly round after round after round. Much is to be revealed. Marcus Ward, for instance, has been labeled as a pitcher in Mets reports, but pre-draft scouting reports have him as an outfield prospect, and only a few indifferently allude to his side hustle as a pitcher. The Mets have added an Aiden and an Aidan, a Cooper and a Kooper, a Wiggins and a Hagens. It's hard to say the future is looking bright in an organization cruising toward last place with a massive payroll and no manager, but they have paused briefly in mid-summer and selected a man named Zach Crotchfelt. Moments like that just makes the sun shine a little brighter. View full article

I thought of sticking with the game, but watched ?uestlove interview Barry Manilow on YouTube instead.

Bichette doubled into the right field corner, but Soto running and there was no way he was coming hard around third.

I've only seen McCullers top 90 once, and he's getting it done.