1/4/15

The Morning Report – 1-4 – 2015 Goals



Happy New Year, everyone.

Many of the beat writer and bloggers are putting together articles on what the Mets need to do in 2015 to, at least, make it to the playoffs. It’s embarrassing, but that seems to be the extent of what our goals should be this year.

I think the Mets can get there, but it’s going to have to take some important changes within the makeup of this team and how they both operate and play the game.
Some thoughts and goals:

Win The Majority of Your Division Games

The lion share of games played come against teams in the NL East (Philadelphia, Atlanta, Washington, and Miami). You can’t even get to .500 unless you get the job done here.

Stop Being Embarrassed By Washington

You can’t lose almost every game you play to the team you’re trying to catch in your own division. At best, you have to walk away here with 50% of the games in your win column.

Play to Your Strength - Pitching  

Everybody in baseball know that the Mets are going to deliver quality starters from one to five… and frankly, the Mets shouldn’t rush to get rid of the next two starters that didn’t make the opening day rotation. Most of your games are going to won by quality starts, decent relief, and timely hitting. That’s the team you root for. My thoughts on the seven starters lead to the next area.

Have A Plan For When The Injuries Come

Let’s not be naive. There will be Mets injuries. And, there’s a good chance they will come from the same position they have in the past, starting pitching. That sixth and seventh starter (right now) on opening day project to be Rafael Montero and Dillon Gee and the team will still have to make room for Noah Syndergaard sometime later on this year. These are very positive problems and, with a little creativity, can produce a minimum of seven of your pitchers on your 25-man, all year.

Manage Matt Harvey Effectively

Harvey is a special guy. He’s capable of producing 15 wins even on a limited inning schedule. There’s been enough time and enough written about what he needs to do this year and it seems even he has bought into the plan that is better for his career. It doesn’t matter in 2015 if Harvey will stay a Met down the road. What matters first is he sets the table for the next four Mets starters. This rotation has the potential to never let their opponent come up for air, and this team will stall quickly without him at the helm of the ship.

Give David Wright Some Room To Bounce Back

David Wright is as special to this team in 2015 as Harvey is. He’s the Captain and the team just can’t get this job done without him being productive. Last year, he went 535-AB, .269/.320/.374/694, 8-HR, 63-RBI which was the lowest home run total in his major league career. Still, some people in baseball would kill for this stat line. I don’t think we will ever see again the 25+ home run/100+ RBI seasons he put together from 2005-2010, but he can do better than he did last season. He has to produce 15-HR/75-RBI, and probably with the new home field dimensions, could push that to 20 home runs. Start him off slowly in camp. Bury him deep inside the 2-7 slots in the lineup. You don’t have to keep this guy batting third out of some loyalty to him. He would be much more effective for the team in the 5 or 6 slot. But lastly, keep him healthy.

Build A Feared 2-7 Lineup 

Juan Lagares will probably hit first, followed by Daniel Murphy. Then, you have to bat, in whatever particular order you work out, Michael Cuddyer, Lucas Duda, David Wright, Curtis Granderson, and Travis d’Arnaud. Six of these guys have the potential to hit 20 home runs each. It’s not Murder’s Row, but opponent pitching is going to have to find a couple of these guys to pitch to and not try and work around. You will win more baseball games with six 20+ home run hitters.

Make The Bullpen Electric

Come up with some nasty name here. Let these guys pound their chest and put fear into their opponents before they even throw a single pitch. This kind of rotation talent, followed by this kind of relief velocity, will win you more games.

Get Out Of The Gate Early

The 2015 Mets just can’t afford to start this season off going in the wrong direction. The fans will turn on them, the beat press will rip Terry Collins apart, and, once again, the season could be over at the all-star break. This is going to take pinpoint direction by TC. Sure, you can lose two games in a row. Even three, but never, never, never four.

Win The Series

I’ve said this for years… you win every series, you win your league by 10+ games. A series win is your mentality in this game and a series tie (if you are playing four games) is a ‘push’ and is to be tolerated at best. You’re not going to win every series, but this always should be your goal.


We need Granderson, d’Arnaud, Flores, Cuddyer and Duda to have a great season 
(pick two) 

I’m not getting greedy here. If the pitching goes well, and Wright returns to form, I just need two more of these guys to turn out a 25-30 home run, 75-90 runs batted in season. The others can hit .230 if they’d like. Murphy is going to hit .280 and Lagares probably will match him. This will create runners on base for the 3-7 hitters to get these guys home. My starters will average under three runs per seven innings thrown and my pen will shut down the opponent 90% of the time. This, my friends, is a playoff team.

10 comments:

Ernest Dove said...

They can always bat Wilmer Flores 3rd
;)

Mets Dreams said...

Morning Mack:

Stop being embarrased by Washington is a challange. If you go position by position, it is difficult to find any Mets advantage. Maybe catcher, maybe offensively at 2B from Murphy but his defensive metrics make it a net loss. Even the pitching staffs do not match up well. Zimmerman vs Harvey, Strassburg vs Wheeler, Gonzalez vs DeGrom. I want to be optimistic but the reality is the Mets are not in the same league as the elite teams. The good news is Washington's window may be closing soon with free agency looming for many of their stars.

Tom Brennan said...

Very clear and solid, Mack.

Add 2...greater offensive production from the bench, and as a subset of that, do not limp thru 2015 with weak back up catcher offense.

I think adding Plawecki early would help that a lot. No more Omar Qs and (yes, Mack) Andrew Brown types to win in 2015.

Mack Ade said...

Thomas -

Actually, I forgot one myself...

"Have Fun"

Tom Brennan said...

Mack, that is also the formula for being a Macks Mets writer....have fun. We do here.

I'm just trying to win a wild card!

Zozo said...

Just saw the Orioles are interested in a left handed hitting outfielder and have been talking about eithier. How bout we offer a cheaper alternative and trade them Granderson? I think we can get better all around production from platooning MDD and Puello.
Grandy cost $10 mil less than Eithier, so that helps out a bit as well. Why not also give them Colon and pays his whole salary ($11mil), just so we can get rid of the other 2 wasted salaries from last years offseason.
The Coupons will save more money and we can open a spot faster for Conforto/Nimmo when they are ready.
Also don't forget to donate some $$$ to our Anti Wilpon Billboard at
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/893048378/freemetsfans-sell-the-team-billboard

Mack Ade said...

Zozo -

I'm not sure there is a market out there for Grandy

Reese Kaplan said...

I'm not so sure there was a market out there for him when the 2013 season ended but, like Chris Young, our illustrious GM was hellbent on getting his mediocre man.

I hope that the idiot with the lineup pencil heeds your advice and positions people in the order by what they do, not what they have done or what they are expected to do.

jshapps77 said...

First division, playoff-hopeful teams can't go into the season with a MDD/Puello corner OF spot. That's not even taking into account how bad our 5th OF will be at that point. Who knows if Grandy will be any good this year, but he's the guy. Secondly, we're really not in the position to be moving anybody with 20+ HR power unless it's bringing back the same...or a legit SS improvement. Finally, it will be good to have guys like Mayberry, MDD and Puello (hopefully) on the bench. Considering recent history, we'd be foolish to expect Lagares and Cuddyer to play more than 130 games each. I think one of the biggest improvements this team will have is a strong bench. Wasting ABs and Starts on below average talent really drags down the record over the long haul.

Zozo said...

If there is one for eithier there should be one for him, I would think? I didn't look it up but I think Grandy had better stats last year.
Jshapps
I would trade him and his 20 homers to whomever wants him. Our owners are frugal so we must think very frugaliciously? I don't know if that's a word, lol. I really believe we can get a better war with Puello and MDD combined over what Grandy will give us.