Lefty Specialist

Halfway there, Dodgers.

I want the Dodgers to beat the Yankees in 5 games or less, just so I can say to my Yankee friends, "At least we took them to 6".

This is a lot more fun than that other election.

Yeah, I'd stick with Butto. i like his arm. He has potential to be that bridge to the closer they need.

Raisin bread croutons! Jose Quintana, free agent. Gone Pete Alonso, free agent. Only if you can sign him for 5 years or less. He's not going to age well Sean Manaea, likely will exercise player option and be a free agent. Yes, but 3 years max. Luis Severino, free agent. No. Injury prone and we've seen the best. Even then he was declining by the end of the year. J.D. Martinez, free agent. No Harrison Bader, free agent. No, but I wouldn't be surprised if they signed him to a 1-year deal. Phil Maton, free agent. Eh, maybe Adam Ottavino, free agent. No Ryne Stanek, free agent. Yes Drew Smith, free agent. No. I'm done with him. Jesse Winker, free agent Yes, but I think he'll sign elsewhere. I also think McNeil needs to go- Mauricio and Acuna are knocking on the door. I would think Iglesias would want a full time job as well, which he wouldn't get here.

Yeah, I'm fine with it. I wanted to sleep on it. In the moment, you're pissed at all the bad pitching and guys left on base and woulda, coulda, shoulda. But I think I'll look back on this as one of the best seasons to be a Met fan, at least for the last 100 games into the postseason. It's kind of a mirror image of the 1999 season, just sneaking in and then making some noise. They had some amazing moments there, too, had an epic game we still talk about to fight off elimination, but the Braves were just too strong and they didn't quite make it. But I know I was buzzed about the year when it ended. That's how I feel this season, 25 years later. There'll be a lot of new SNY Classic games from 2024. I never high-fived the missus so much as I did this year. And there were two moments where I literally jumped up and spilled my Cracker Jack going 'Holy shit! Holy shit!' (You know what they are). But there were lots of other fun things as well. The nonsensical power of Grimace. The post-game impromptu concert. The Pumpkin that Slayed the Phillies. Scaring the shit out of the Braves a day after the season should have ended. 6 innings of 5 or more runs in a month. The Camp Day Thursday afternoon in July when they shut out the Nats while a friend and I watched and we both said, "hey maybe, just maybe'. There'll be changes: a bunch of people will be traded or not re-signed. But that's for another thread. Right now I'm just going to bask in the afterglow and raise a beer to the 2024 Mets. OMG indeed.

Yes, the bullpen and the starting pitching was exposed, as was the lack of hitting with runners on. These were all things we kind of knew, yet they went 7-6 against the top 3 teams in the league in the postseason. They needed a Tommy Edman, someone who played way over his head, and they didn't have one in this series. I'm sure David Stearns is hard at work in Steve Cohen's dormant volcano lair as we speak, planning things for next season. If we can see the flaws, he certainly can.

Thinking about it on the morning after, it was a great season. I won't quibble about the end. Yeah, sure, if a couple of breaks went a different way, they might be playing tonight. Or if the breaks went the other way, Francisco Lindor's grand slam could have been a long fly ball to the warning track. That's baseball, Suzyn. I predicted at the start of the year this team would lose 92 games. I was unimpressed with the starters especially after Senga went down. I saw the bullpen as a dumpster fire. The hitting wasn't so great. And for the first 59 games, they were proving me right at 24-35. I was resigned to another empty summer of meaningless games. But they caught fire; whether it was Grimace, OMG, throwing a glove into the stands, a team meeting, bringing up Vientos, Manaea changing his pitching style, Peterson getting healthy, finding the right spot on the couch, whatever, it worked. Sure surprised the shit out of me. AND IT WAS FUN! They won 101 games in 2022 and it wasn't nearly as much fun. Buck Showalter kind of outlawed fun, I think. Most seasons we look back in anger at all the games they could have won but didn't because of a bad bullpen or a stupid baserunning play or a costly error. We don't have to do that this year!!!! They wound up exactly where they needed to be! They beat the Brewers, They beat the goddamn Phillies, and they gave the Dodgers a run for their money in the NL-friggin-CS. There isn't a person on this board that wouldn't have signed up for that in late March. And the best part? Now Kamala can win.

Season fading away before our eyes.

Vientos doing HIS job, at least.

How much you want to bet Edman goes 0-20 against the Yankees.

All the bullpen guys coming back next year, step forward. Not so fast, Maton.

Make that a 5-run lead.

Time to hide behind the chainsaws again.

Fucking Edman.

Manaea has nothing.

These LOB-sters are going to bite them in the ass.

This umpire has a pronounced high-strike zone.

Manaea is 3 innings at most tonight. Is this a Megill (or Senga) spot?

Nimmo leaves the table uncleaned.

I'd like another 5-run second inning please. For the Mets, that is.

This could get ugly right here.

Nimmo was slow after that ball.

Okay, made him throw 25 pitches.

Goofy runs count, too.