Mets

[Westheim]

Eddie Escobar to the Angels for two high-minors pitchers that rank in both the Angels' and Mets' top 20 prospects and will surely make you wish for the return of Hansel Robles next year.

To sweeten the deal, Uncle Steve will pay Escobar's salary (less the minimum) for the rest of the year. Which also means Escobar will be on the market this fall, because where would the Angels find $9M to pick up his option?

Hah. Peasants! (waves off the yearning masses and has another baby seal dipped in champagne hors d'oeuvre)

[Amazin69]

So, as I've not been following the team (currently on an exciting 4-14 run to go with their previous 6-16 skein…it's as though Mickey Calloway never left!), I pulled up Escobar's stats and discovered he was hitting a miserable .695 OPS this season.

Which, honestly, isn't far off of where he was last season before rallying with that Player of the Month September to finish at .726. On a better team, they might wait for him to find his groove again.

Still, this opens up more PT for Brett Baty (.638 OPS) and Mark Vientos (.469, currently back at Syracuse). Plus, as Buck will no longer have to put Baty in the OF or have Esco DH, this takes the pressure off of Marte (.634) and Vogelfat (.698)

Meanwhile, Ronny Mauricio is hitting .877 at Syracuse. I'm guessing nobody told Eppler that by late June you can bring prospects up without burning a year of eligibility, huh?

Also in Syracuse are exciting prospects such as Vientos (crushing it with a 1.115 OPS) and…that's it. That's literally it. Mauricio and Vientos are the only position players at Syracuse under age 25. Way to develop the kids, Eppler!

(Okay, Khalil Lee is still semi-young, at 25. He's also hitting a whopping .622 for the S-Mets.)

[BBGiovanni]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Eddie Escobar to the Angels for two high-minors pitchers that rank in both the Angels' and Mets' top 20 prospects and will surely make you wish for the return of Hansel Robles next year.

To sweeten the deal, Uncle Steve will pay Escobar's salary (less the minimum) for the rest of the year. Which also means Escobar will be on the market this fall, because where would the Angels find $9M to pick up his option?

Hah. Peasants! (waves off the yearning masses and has another baby seal dipped in champagne hors d'oeuvre)

I wish this augured a fire sale, but (1) it doesn't and (2) kind of hard to fire sale people with $50M contracts and no-trade clauses.

This year's edition is now 9 games ahead of the Worst Team Money Can Buy on June 25, 1991 (off day on 6/24). The 62 Mets also had 50 losses on 25.6. So, thanks to the Mets' rich history this team isn't so bad really!

[Amazin69]

Well, if the Metsies continue their recent .222 form for the remaining 87 games, they would finish a resounding 53-109, which would fit right in with 1965 and such, but I think they'll eventually snap out of it.

(Probably.)

[Westheim]

What really baffled me was a stat table they showed yesterday, but I was too slow to screen-cap it: the Mets have a LOWER winning percentage when they score MORE runs. It was like .600 if they score 4+ runs, but just .540 when they score 6+ runs.

They make you lala in the head.

[Westheim]

This entire pitching staff needs drowning in a barrel..........

[BBGiovanni]

Well, it's nice to know we can still experience this kind of scempio even with Cohen spending $400M

[Westheim]

Walk
Single
Walk
Error + Run
Walk + Run
K
Plonk + Run
Plonk + Run
K
F8

I can't. There are no words.

There are no words.

[BBGiovanni]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Walk
Single
Walk
Error + Run
Walk + Run
K
Plonk + Run
Plonk + Run
K
F8

I can't. There are no words.

There are no words.

There are many, many words but the mods will ban us if we use them here

[Amazin69]

I feel the agony of GKR, despite not seeing the carnage. Psychic waves of desolation.

[zappa1]

How much longer does Showalter have?

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by zappa1

How much longer does Showalter have?

According to Uncle Steve, quite a bit longer.

[BBGiovanni]

Originally Posted by Westheim

According to Uncle Steve, quite a bit longer.

But from what I heard, not the big paychecks. He said he understands sunk costs, which again distinguishes him from every other cartel owner. Interesting to see who he can pawn off where, and I'd rather they get to that point than have the inevitable hot month leading to missing the playoffs by 1/2 game

[Amazin69]

So the New Yorkers beat the ex-New Yorkers, yet now even the fans are faceplanting on the field.

And J.D. Davis is doing well enough he's getting "what's wrong with these bozos?" questions.

(Davis thinks things are too chaotic, says firing Chili Davis derailed the 2021 squad. Darin Ruf-Bad-Dog not asked to comment.)

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Amazin69

So the New Yorkers beat the ex-New Yorkers, yet now even the fans are faceplanting on the field.

Keith says: "Fundies!"

[Déjà Bru]

This headline, and the ensuing column, made my mouth drop open:



No, more than consider it.

The Mets have to initiate the
conversation. They aren’t in a
position to wait for the phone
to ring.

General manager Billy Eppler
should take the opportunity now
to dial up some of his deal-mak-
ing brethren and find out what
the market would be for a
28-year-old slugger who on Sun-
day was named to his third All-
Star team and hit his 25th home
run, who is the only active player
other than Aaron Judge and Gian-
carlo Stanton to hit more than 50
home runs in a season, who is a
two-time Home Run Derby
champion, and who does not
have a lucrative, long-term con-
tract weighing him down.

Alonso has a $14.5 million
salary for this season and will
be a free agent after next sea-
son. Don’t you find it odd that
with owner Steve Cohen throw-
ing around megabucks at the
likes of Scherzer and Verlander
and last offseason signing Jeff
McNeil to a $50 million exten-
sion, there hasn’t been a peep
about a long-term deal for
Alonso?

Alonso is as close as the
Mets have to a captain. He’s
the face of the franchise in a
way the two Hall of Fame-
bound pitchers will never be.
Scherzer and Verlander are
hired guns. Alonso is a home-
grown Met who talks orange
and blue, sometimes profanely,
but the fans love him for being
who he is.

So why doesn’t he already
have a long-term contract?
Something doesn’t compute
there.

What would the Mets’ goals
be if they do sell off before the
deadline? With Cohen’s deep
pockets, it’s not to save money.
It would be to acquire
prospects, as they did last
month when they sent Eduardo
Escobar and $5 million to the
Angels for two young pitchers.

Paying down part of Esco-
bar’s salary allowed the Mets to
get better prospects in return.
But with Scherzer and Verlan-
der each making $43 million
per year this season and next
(Scherzer has a player option
for that much), it’s going to be
harder for the Mets to sweeten
the pot with just cash in a deal
for one of the hurlers.

So sweeten it with Pete.

Let’s say Eppler calls the As-
tros. The defending World Se-
ries champions paid Verlander
$25 million last season, but $43
million is too much for mere
mortal non-Cohen baseball bud-
gets. The Astros have suffered
multiple starting pitching in-
juries this season, putting a re-
peat in jeopardy.

Maybe they’d take back last
year’s AL Cy Young Award win-
ner for another run if the Mets
paid part of his salary. But what
kind of prospects would the
Mets get in return? Probably
not that great.

That’s where Alonso comes
in: The Mets send Alonso and
Verlander to Houston and take
back disappointing first base-
man Jose Abreu, who has strug-
gled in his first season in Hous-
ton after signing a three-year,
$58.5 million deal.

So the Mets are giving the As-
tros an ace pitcher and one of
the top home run hitters in
baseball and taking back what
has so far been a bad contract
to help even out the money.

In return, Eppler picks the
best of the best of the Houston
farm system and says, “I’ll take
that one and that one and . . . ”

It’s not entirely out of
bounds for the Mets, a team
that traded franchise superstar
Tom Seaver to the Reds in 1977
for four players.

This, of course, is just one
idea. Once the Mets let other
clubs know Alonso could be
had — could be attached to a
Verlander or Scherzer deal —
then the real negotiating can
begin.

You don’t know if you don’t
ask.

Cohen talked last week about
the need to improve the farm
system and said his wild spend-
ing is not “sustainable.” He also
lamented how long it takes to
develop prospects.

So if the Mets are going to
trade for the best prospects,
they’re going to have to make
their best offer. And that offer
has to include Pete Alonso.

Seriously? Did this man actually propose trading Alonso, "the face of the franchise," and Verlander for Abreu (.243/.292/.358) and unspecified prospects?

[Amazin69]

Sportswriters LIVE to float random idiotic ****. They make the political rumormongers look like amateurs.

The "best" part is where Moron (or whatever his name is) wants to model the trade on the SEAVER deal. Yeah, since that worked out so well. (No offense to Steve Henderson and Pat Zachry.)

The only positive note here is that this "idea" indicates that Goofball has located a really good bag of weed.

Either that, or he's an Asstros fan.

[Amazin69]

[Bloody glitchy keyboard. Delete, please.]

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

This headline, and the ensuing column, made my mouth drop open:

(hisses loudly and tries to scratch the muck raker's face off!)

[Westheim]

Games That Must Not Exist: every time Mad Max gives up a bomb, you have a shot.

Unless you want to fill all clinics with Mets fans suffering from alcohol poisoning...