Mets

[rudel.dietrich]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Who came up with the Mets schedule??

The Mets, in the first six weeks, play the Barves for one series, and apart from that ... nobody from their division.

The Mets will play every single NL Central team, including the Cubs and Cards home and away, before they'll ever face any of the Philthies, Fish, or Gnats.

Despite all that, the Mets still play more games in September out of their division than inside it (13-12, but I'm mid-rant, so it counts!!).

I blame Rob Numbfred for this. Rob Numbfred is to blame for every evil in the world!!

They went away from the unbalanced schedule starting last season.
But doubled down on interleague play in that they play everyone from the other league instead of just one division.

I hated the unbalanced schedule. 76 games against teams in your own division got boring.
I am pretty neutral on interleague play. And I can understand baseball wanting to have every team play in every park at least once per season for the fans who want to see a team or a player.

But it did lead to some wacky scheduling like you alluded to.

[Westheim]

Can ESPN please be dissolved by executive order or something?

First they grab a Mets game in March, then they spend the entire game molesting players and managers by rabbling stupid questions at them while they're supposed to play a ******* ballgame!

I would be even angrier if the whole farce hadn't been lightened up by Pete remarking about some college player or other that "he's big enough to eat hay".

That's about it.

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Can ESPN please be dissolved by executive order or something?

First they grab a Mets game in March, then they spend the entire game molesting players and managers by rabbling stupid questions at them while they're supposed to play a ******* ballgame!

I would be even angrier if the whole farce hadn't been lightened up by Pete remarking about some college player or other that "he's big enough to eat hay".

That's about it.

It's the seventh inning and we're now supposed to fawn over the Stinkees GM's brat hitting a home run in college. How about NO? How about you eat my whole furry tush?

Worst baseball broadcast since Thom Brennaman's travel trips to the greatest gay cities in the world, and the awkward Nick Castellanos home run-interrupted apology and his defenestration mid-game.

Atrocious.

Crime against humanity.

(spits on the ground in disgust)

[Amazin69]

The Other Acuna optioned to Syracuse.

Kolton Ingram also optioned to Syracuse. Because duh.

Articles say that Nimmo will definitely be playing LF, to allow for Bader's defense in CF.
Which means Bader will play CF full-time. Enjoy that .690 OPS against righties, folks!

(He'll probably be hitting 5th, too.)

69-93.

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Amazin69

69-93.

You and your hopeless optimism!

[Amazin69]

No GKR today, but MLB will be airing the Asstro-Casst. No news on whether they will look at the Mets and collapse into uncontrollable giggling, but I wouldn't rule it out.

[Westheim]

SNY never does road games in spring, so I am not shocked. Also, Gary does hoops this month anyway at some sort of university tournament or other, something I know nothing about and am content with that way.

Funny how we've had Steve Gelbs for 11 years now, and I still think fondly about the Kevin Burkhardt era

Also, I'd rather watch a Russian language broadcast of a Mets game than one more ESPN travesty. I muted it after about six innings last night, because I couldn't take it anymore.

[Amazin69]

Well, as I wrote, this should be a team broadcast, not a network monstrosity. Wrong team, but still.

(Todd Kalas and Geoff Blum, apparently. Eh.

ETA: Isn't Blum best known for leading the White Sox sweep of Houston in the '05 series? That's like David Freese doing Ranger games!)

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Amazin69

Well, as I wrote, this should be a team broadcast, not a network monstrosity. Wrong team, but still.

(Todd Kalas and Geoff Blum, apparently. Eh.

ETA: Isn't Blum best known for leading the White Sox sweep of Houston in the '04 series? That's like David Freese doing Ranger games!)

No. Maybe 2005

[Amazin69]

Yeah, yeah, caught it, fixed it. (See above.)

In my "defense", '05 was a four game sweep, so I plead numerical dyslexia, or something.

[Westheim]

Also, 2004 were also some Sox. Claim colorblindness!

Unrelated, the Mets game is delayed for "weather". Fine, I'll play Critters.

[Amazin69]

Oooh, new Met Shintaro Fujinami is pitching for Baltimore in one of the clips the Asstros are playing during the delay. Scouting time!

(Okay, I grant you that as these are Asstros highlights, this is unlikely to be anything other than Fujinami building that 7.18 ERA. But even so.)

ETA: Bleh, cancelled. No Mets today. (Except Fujinami. Who walked two batters on eight pitches and was pulled.)

ETAA: Nats at Mets, tomorrow at 6ET, midnight CET. But that's only SNY, so I don't know if you can get it.

[Westheim]

I can get everything on MLB TV. But I'm not gonna watch a spring training game at midnight. Also, I'm getting a haircut on Friday morning, I need to be awake for that.

[Amazin69]

So I actually sat through 7+ innings of Manfred-ball Thursday night, just to hear Keith and Gelbs chat for a bit. It's not worth following (since it's not baseball), but it was nice to get little details about various players.

The crew said that Bader was definitely being platooned, even though he played the whole game against various righties. Okayyyy.

Ottavino made his spring debut. Gelbs told us that part of the problem last year was that he has a slow delivery to home plate and had been relying on holding runners close by throwing over, but they took that away last season, and so it was 22 SB, 1 CS against him. They said he's been working on speeding up his delivery and indeed, both baserunners he allowed were caught stealing. Albeit that the first was Carter Kieboom, whom Gelbs said the Gnats were pretty much done with (wasn't his brother Spencer [the catcher] supposed to be the real talent, anyhow?) as they want to play Brady Somebody, and Kieboom had the base stolen but slid off the bag going in head-first.

Joey Wendle also made his debut. He was subbing for McNeil (who is out with a hand thing) and Joey is still recovering from a shoulder thing, and so can't throw hard enough to play on the left side of the infield. Why Joey should make the team instead of NRI Jose Iglesias (who may end up going 0-for-the-season, but is still Jose Iglesias in the field) was not explained, but Joey has one HUGE advantage as far as Keith Hernandez is concerned…Joey is one of the few players who does not wear batting gloves, and you will recall that Keith hates them, as well. So that's one vote for Joey, I suppose.

And Shintaro Fujinami made HIS debut. Gelbs noted that he had the 9th-highest total of pitches over 100mph last season, and that most of that lovely 7.18 ERA came from his seven starts for Oakland, which would fluff up your ERA, no doubt. (His ERA as an Oriole was in the low 4.00s.) Fujinami zipped through his inning, only touching 100mph once. So perhaps he's been convinced that "close your eyes and throw REAL hard" isn't optimal pitching strategy, after all.

And so, as the Mets picked up the 3-1 win (Alvarez homer after Baty saw Kieboom was overshifted and bunted for a hit; Jose Iglesias came on for Wendle, hit a double despite wearing batting gloves, zoomed for 3B, was dead to rights but Kieboom dropped the throw, and came home on an out), Steve Gelbs painted a rosy picture for the season ahead.

It seemed to boil down to "hope everybody's excuses were legitimate and that everybody stays healthy and maybe we'll be okay."

67-95

(The stolen base % for all of MLB combined last season was 80%! FFS!)

[Amazin69]

Alex Ramirez (he of the scorching .627 OPS at Brooklyn last season) assigned to the Rumble Ponies.

Josh Walker and Grant Hartwig, who pitched fine in the 8th and 9th innings (respectively) on Thursday, sent to Syracuse. Of course, given the amount of churn in modern-day bullpens, they are almost certain to return. Unless they get run over by a Rumble Pony, or whatever.

[Amazin69]

Reed Garrett sent to Syracuse,

Joey Lucchesi also sent to Syracuse, allowing Westheim to dream that he never returns. (He's kidding himself, though. The way this rotation looks, they may be starting Frank Lucchesi by mid-season. And I'm pretty certain that Frank is, y'know, dead.)

Revised 40-man:

SP: Kodai Senga (if he's ready)
SP: Jose Quintana
SP: Adrien Houser
SP: Sean Manaea
SP: Luis Severe-No

SP (other): Jose Bútto, Tylor Megill, David Peterson (INJ)

CL: Edwin "I know it was YOU, Frankie!" Diaz
Set-up: Adam Ottavino, Back by Popular Demand!
RP: Brooks Raley, Scourge of the Homosexuals
RP: Drew Smith, the Legacy of Lucas Duda
RP: Creakin' Jake Diekman, one good year away from three more guaranteed

RP (others): Phil Bickford, Shintaro "7.18" Fujinami, Max Kranick (really?), 2022 All-Star Jorge Lopez, Yohan Ramirez, Sean Reid-Foley, Michael "Ka-Boom!" Tonkin

C: Alvarez
Incredibly Overpaid Reserve C: Narvaez

1B: Kingman
2B: Squirrel
SS: Francisco "30/30/34 million" Lindor
3B: Mauricio (INJ)
reserve 3B: Baty
reserve reserve 3B: Vientos

reserve DP guy: Zack Shortstop
no-batting-gloves stud: Wendle (.585 last year, though)

LF: Mr. Pointy
CF: Bader/Stewart platoon, ostensibly
RF: The Broken Corpse of Starling Marte (in theory)/Tyrone Taylor (in practice)

reserve OF: a random NRI (Ben Gamel?), I guess

still only a dream: J.D. Martinez
reserve J.D. dream: J.D. Davis
underrated: J.D. McDonaugh
never really my thing: J.D. Souther

68-94!

(I have to give some credit for shipping out Lucchesi, right?)

[Westheim]

Watching Rays-Twinkies today. Twinkies announcers wondering out loud why Amed Rosario (now a Ray) isn't in Cleveland anymore, given that he was set to be their long-term shortstop after coming over in the Lindor deal.

BECAUSE HE SUCKS!!

Yes, I am convinced they heard me yelling through six time zones.

You can say a lot of things about Lindor, but at least his head not casually bobbing into the picture at the bottom of the frame just after a grounder 15 feet to the left of the second base bag has rolled to the edge of the infield dirt.

[Amazin69]

Just to specify:

Ex-Met Rosario (7 seasons): Range Factor/9 innings of 3.55, compared to League Average 3.88

Frankie! (9 seasons): RF/9 of 3.86, compared to League Average 3.95

So, yeah. Lindor may not cover as much ground as Ozzie Smith…but Amed covers as much ground as Ozzy Osbourne. Yoicks.

[Amazin69]

JD Davis signs for 1 year, $2.5mn (pending physical) with…Oakland!

Yes, we are now less-desirable than the Pathetics. (Granted, I think it was only Nimmo trying bring Davis home, but still.)

At least we got Darin Ruf out of the deal. Thanks, Eppler!

2B fielding stats:

Squirrel McNeil (6 years): 3.96 RF/9, vs league average 4.19
Luis Guillorme, Atlanta Brave (VOMIT!!), same 6 years: 4.33 RF/9

[Amazin69]

JD Martinez is allegedly "excited" about the possibility of playing for the Mets

Jon Heyman (NY Post) says that Uncle Stevie has given the okay to spend what it takes to land J.D.

(No comment from Paul Heyman, who will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame at RassleMania.)

And yet…crickets. The only news is that Bútto has been sent down to Syracuse.

Which I guess qualifies as good news, as it means that it's more likely the team thinks that Senga will be ready for Opening Day.

(Even if it is amusing to ponder where Quintana would slot on the list of Mets Opening Day starters…below Big Pelph, but above Dillon Gee? And what of Fat Jack?)