Gary Apple (on a busman's holiday down in Florida) tells us that Maton was the only acquisition the Cardinals have made all off-season. I'm going to take that as less of a "ah-ha! Now that we have Maton, we're all set to go! Look out, Dodgers!" declaration and more of a "well…maybe next year?" statement, with apologies to Cardinals fans.

********************

Keith said Dedniel Nuñez had suffered a setback, but he was incorrect. That's the good news.

The bad new is that it is actually José Buttó who has some sort of strain. Just what we don't need.

************************
Kodai Senga pitched the first 4 innings, but Gary says he's on a "slow progress" and won't be ready for Opening Day, either. No talk of his going to the Impaired List, but if you can't specify when he'll be ready…

And thus, the Opening Day assignment goes to Clay Holmes, making his 5th career start and 1st since 2018.

Anthony Di Como says not to worry, last season one Opening Day starter was making his Major League debut! And look how well that worked out for Garret Crochet and the White Sox…oh, wait.

Rotation!

1. Clay Holmes, working on 7 years' rest
2. David Peterson, still…David Peterson
3. Tylor Megill, better here than Syr (acuse)
4. Paul Blackburn (yoicks)
5. Griffin Canning, a perfect Angel. (Not a compliment.)

OUT

Manaea, SP
Mount-ass, SP
Alvarez, C
McNeil, 2B
Mauricio, IF

Nuñez, RP

Hoping to heal

Senga, SP
Minter, RP
Butto, RP

Trying to play himself into shape

Nimmo, LF

See you next year!

D. Smith RP
Scott, SP
Madrigal, UT

Sigh.

Crochet's numbers were pretty great (if you ignore him pitching like 4 1/2 innings a go). If the Sox had had five of him, they might have tickled .500.

Wait, Dr. Smith is out for the year? :ohmy::ohmy:

Quoting Di Como in the story linked on page 148:

I suppose "most or all" theoretically allows for a late-season return, but I'm betting more on "all" than "most", I admit. Just because.

Here's the Bullpen, AFAICT:

SEVEN YEARS of this crap: Edlose Diaz
Set-Up: Ryne Stanek
Lefty: AJ Minter (inj)

Others: Reed Garrett, Dedniel Nuñez (inj), Jose Butto (inj)
Other Lefty: Danny Young

Top contenders for the injured spots are Max Kranick, Anthony Gose (NRI) and Your Guess Here (Kevin Herget? Tyler Zuber?)

Get excited!!!

You guys missed the milestone of 3,000 posts in this thread.

We're holding off the celebrations until we've cried us to more posts in this thread than the Mets have wins. Including playoffs that tally is currently at 4,875.

Oh look, somebody pried Cracking Bones Marte off the stretcher!

Other observations from today's rather listless loss to the 'stros:

- Mets can't hit
- In fact the hardest hit a Met took was Tyler Zuber getting one-bounced into his tush by Yainer Diaz
- Of course he was then also removed for injury concerns
- TyLORE looks like a splendid mid-rotation piece on a last place team
- The "Sugar" discussion is pointless. Everybody knows that Diaz' real nickname is "Boom-Boom"!
- I can watch the Mets five times in their last eight days in Florida :)
- Gary Cohen comes back on the weekend
- Art Shamsky appears just as sound at 83 as I do at 38

I meant the last one as a compliment. No need to get Art checked out.

Fine, I retract the last one. Art Shamsky is *fine*.

Also, Jerry Blevins clearly has a man-crush on Adam Ottavino, since he can't stop name-dropping him.

Far be it from me to interfere with man's lust for his fellow man, Jer…but sometimes you just gotta say Ottavi-NO.

Also, if Zack Shortstop could have hit for the Mets like he did with that bomb off of Grant Hartwig, he might still be a Met. (Of course, that would require other teams to employ Grant Hartwig, so I see the flaw there…)

Austin Warren pitched quite well in 6 games for the Mets last season? Wow, when? Total blank. I guess he's up there with Kranick and Gose in the "pick me, Skip!" sweepstakes, then.

I didn't realize that Jose "name a crappy CF" Siri had been so hopeless with the bat last year. I'm not quite ready to ask TB for the Make-a-Wish kid (Eric Orze) back, but I'm surprised that nobody has used the spring to give Baty or Luisangel or somebody a few games in CF. I'd like to think there's a better solution that Taylor available, but Siri sure don't look like it.

Appreciate the update on Ronny Mauricio. I'm just surprised that the graphic didn't read "You're kidding, right?"

(Sigh.)

Speaking of no-longer-Mets, I forgot to mention that I also wished Luis Guillorme was still on the orange-and-blue.

Nothing to do with a man crush for me. I'm not into mid-30s with graying full beards :p But Guillorme knows how to work with clubs and balls. :woohoo:

Uhm...

Choice of Floridians today!

Half the Mets welcome (some of) the Rays to Port St. Lucie (on SNY) and the other Mets go to Jupiter to battle the Fish (on FanDuel Florida [or whatever it's called now] and MLBN). Both games at 1 PM EDT, god knows when in Europe. (I'm still waiting for the Brits to switch to "Summer Time" and I have no idea when that's on the menu in Germany.)

On SNY, Canning gives up a solo homer.

On FDFL, Blackburn gives up a two-run shot.

Competition! (Actually, Canning is pitching relatively well.)

Nimmo is playing the outfield, Nuñez is scheduled to pitch, and Manaea is throwing, somewhere (I wasn't watching the TV), so those are good omens.

Of course, Jesse Winker strained his calf and had to leave the game, but you can make your own jokes for that one.

I like how you posted twice in the spirit of a Split Squad game! :)

Summer time is harmonized across Europe and starts on the last Sunday in March. It ends on the last Sunday in October, so our summer time is about 3-4 weeks shorter overall. For EU countries, summer time is mandatory and starts and ends at 01:00 UTC (so actual local time varies, but in general is in the dead of night).

It's however great for me, because when the US is on summer time but Europe goes nah, then everything I'm watching is on an hour earlier. This is especially great during the World Series, most or all of which usually falls into that fall sweet spot.

In Germany, today's game is on at 6pm. During the regular season, 1pm ET games are on at 7pm German time.

The EU bobbleheads actually once resolved to stop switching to summer time and back twice a year, but then could not agree on whether to remain on winter time or summer time and nothing happened for the last five years in that regard. :laugh:

Regardless, I'll watch the Rays game, because that's the Mets broadcast.

Yeah, the server got silly, but it's not as if I didn't have anything else to post, so I just edited.

Thanks for the Summer Time update. Periodically somebody here claims we need to outlaw Daylight Savings, but that raises the question of which we would prefer: permanent Standard Time, and the sun rising at 4.00 AM in. June, or permanent Daylight, and the sun not showing until 9.00 AM come December? As nobody has answered that as yet, we stay as we are.

I was happy to see Nimmo, but I squealed when I saw Dedniel Nunez. Best name on the staff, no matter what middle names Nimmo throws into the hat. :p

That's even more pronounced in Europe btw. I live in Bavaria (although the folks here sometimes pretend that Bavaria doesn't govern them, and Bavaria pretends that we don't exist), which is hardly in the north of Germany, which is hardly in the north of Europe. I'm just north of 50°N, somewhere between Winnipeg and Regina in North American terms. Even *with* summer time the sun is rising at 4:30 in the morning in June.

Yeah, I pretty much moved in a straight line east from Los Angeles; still around 34° N.

That means I miss Europe entirely, as the line goes through Fez and Rabat and just north of Beirut. So I definitely remember it being more severe back in NY (on line with Madrid) and I can imagine how it is beyond that. (College trip to Europe back when and it's still light at 10.30 PM in Denmark…wild.)

The lights never went on for the Mets' batters against TB, but we did have a late rally to top the Fish in Jupiter. Alexander Canario showed Jose Siri (and his 4 whiffs) what a 3-True-Outcomes player is supposed to do…3 BB and then a 2-run shot for the insurance runs.

And Our Acuña reached base 3 times (2 hits, walk)…but was then wiped out by 2 pickoffs and a GiDP. So turning those hits into runs was still a work in progress.

Happy belated equinox! :p

Lights still dim for the Mets here. Meanwhile, Starling Marte moves around just *fine* for a 47-year-old man.

And 5.1 (scoreless, to be fair) innings from your Opening Day starter is now considered a great success.

Between the Metsies and the Raccoons, April could be rough.

Jakson Reetz has been sent down to Syracuse, which means that Hayden Senger is in fact The Catcher [Near] the Rye.

(Rye, NY, I mean. I was a big Playland fan as a youth.)
Attachment 1054473

He hit a dinger to celebrate, which was needed after the Mets bullpen collapsed.

The Nats had Amed Rosario as the DH, because…. (just setting it up for you, lol)

I saw that, chuckled, sighed, and facepawed, in no particular order.

He probably is more valuable on D like that. ;)

Who Am I if the Mets Are Good?
 

I figured you guys would appreciate this guest essay. The title alone should draw you in but if not, I provide the first two paragraphs below.

Who Am I if the Mets Are Good?

But . . .

I fundamentally disagree that the Mets had anything like a perfect season. They lost the NLCS to the Fudgers after all.

And 2025 will be worse!

Nice to hear Murph again, though. I will remember him stealing his way from first to third on a walk drawn by Lucas Duda, because rookie Corey Seager bluntly fell asleep, leading to a crucial tying run in the deciding Game 5 against those same Fudgers, forever. Same as Pete's come-from-behind homer in Milwaukee last October.