Good morning.
With the exception of Noah Syndergaard and Jacob deGrom, Mets
starters may be shielded from facing lineups more than twice in a game,
mirroring an industry-wide trend, according to a source. The adjustment comes
after a season in which team officials watched many of the Mets’ starters fade
badly as they pitched deeper into games.
Fewer innings on a nightly basis from the starters means a
greater emphasis on the bullpen, and sources said the Mets will look to establish
a norm of carrying eight relief pitchers, one more than the standard seven.
I don’t normally include the NYC rag stories in
my Apple’s posts because I figure most of you have read them in addition to
reading the blog. That being said, this one is important.
The Mets posted a 5.01 ERA last season and the
worse part of that was the pen and the third time a starter went around the
opponent’s lineup. Limiting the Mets starters to facing 18 batters will create
less wear and tear on their arms over a season and set up a scenario for
improved results… but… only if the Mets can build a better and more successful
bullpen to begin entering the game after the above scenario.
Right now, the Mets do not have enough in this
area.
A.J. Ramos, Jerry Blevens, and Jeurys Familia are a good start here, but not the final
solution. Many have written that the Mets need ‘one addition’ to the 2018 pen.
I disagree. I can’t keep writing about how we are wishing and hoping that the
current members of the pen, and the ‘prospects’ in AAA and AA will step up and
become the next coming of John Franco. I want answers and I want them now!
Matt Ehalf, of Northjersey.com, said that free agent Bryan Shaw would be a good
addition. I agree. He’s been very successful (2017: 79-G, 3.52) and has pitched
under our new manager for the past five years.
But he’s not enough.
Look, I appreciate all the posts and comments
about how this team needs more power bats in order to make it to The World Series.
Really? The Mets was tied for 7th in the league for the most home
runs this past season. What did that get us?
All of you know that I have always been a ‘pitching
first’ kind of guy. I’ve written ad nauseam about what my predictions would be
for a starting rotation that gave up two or less runs in the first six innings.
You back this up with three strong relievers pitching in the 7th, 8th,
and 9th inning and you add 10 wins a season to this team.
Find another ++ starter to join Noah Syndergaard and Jacob
deGrom and you add even more.
I expect resistance from this post, but folks,
I’m not wrong here.
If the projected opening day 2017 rotation
would have been both healthy and successful all season, we would have been a
playoff team last season. Maybe even more.
And we didn’t need any more home runs to get
there.
Joel Sherman
on a possible Mets trade that could go down this week –
Mets
send Robert Gsellman and Luis Guillorme to the Indians for Jason
Kipnis.
I also wondered about
Gsellman, Guillorme and Dom Smith for the White
Sox’s Jose Abreu, but it is hard to find folks
in the industry who are big boosters of Smith.
This could only be reality if Cleveland wanted
to dump salary first. 2B Kipness is the real deal coming off a hamstring injury
that nagged him all of 2017. He has,if the Mets picked up his option, three
years left on his contract at $44.5mil. He turns 31 in April.
But… this is only a pipe dream trade by
Sherman, not something that anyone is actually working on.
If
the Mets look to tread water in 2018 and rely on injured players to come back
and have career years, which is a definite possibility, they can load up to be
a part of the Manny Machado sweepstakes in the
2018 offseason.
Manny Machado
- The future of the New York Mets
I know it seems comical to think the Mets will dole out a
contract north of $300 million and possibly nearing $400 million, and it is in
fact laughable. This regime is shy to hand out a $100 million contract, so to
triple that on one player seems impossible. Yes it sounds crazy, but who knows
maybe the Wilpons win Powerball.
Speaking of pipe dreams…
23 comments:
Mack can you elaborate further on your sources claim that Alderson is trying to persuade ownership to keep payroll at - or slightly above last seasons ?
Pen needs vast improvement from 2018 or it will be 2017 again.
We did trade away tons of power - Bruce, Duda, Walker, Grandy - hopefully, we'll get some back - but the offensive players' key to success is always net runs - how many will the offense produce? How many will their defense prevent?
Whatever gets us there, fine. But that 5.01 ERA needs to get back into the 3's, or we are all whistling past the graveyard.
Kipnis, though, would help.
We can start a Machado Piggybank Fund - I'll throw in a quarter. Mack agrees to match my quarter. The rest is up to our readers - and Fred.
I just don’t get the frugalness of ownership .. I mean they are supposed to have the Madoff mess behind then no ?
How frugal is $150 mil? How much do we "need" a HR hitter when we're missing a high-OBP leadoff hitter? Who is going to turn the DP with Rosario? The answer to all of the above is Dee Gordon, who is young and under contract for 3 more years at around $13 mil per.
Did anyone notice how much more fun it was to watch this team after the HR hitters were dealt and fundamental small ball was played?
I did.
If we can get a truly healthy Cespedes in 2018, it will solve a multitude of ills.
The teams in the bottom half of the majors in homers mostly did poorly (Red Sox excluded, and they hit 168, which isn't low). There is a pretty strong correlation most times between wins and homers.
5 of the top 20 (25%) scoring teams hit less than 200 homers; 8 of the lowest 10 (80%) scoring teams hit less than 200 homers.
And even without Yo and 4to for significant periods, the Mets were top tier in HRs.
What did that achieve?
Ed
You know I can not.
I agree Mack........the offense isn’t horrible, the pitching is (was) last year. Run suppression should be the primary goal in the offseason. That includes pitching better and fielding better, which goes largely unnoticed.
Mike
I think 8 years 225 mm is about what Manny is going to get, there will probably be an out after 4 years. At least thats what id do if i was his agent. The mets will spend more than 28.5 million on 3rd base this year. wright+cabrera. I see no reason, given what i expect will be david wrights final year that the year after this the mets with him no long on the books wouldnt be capable of spending the same 25+ mm per year.
I agree about homeruns.
I would not mind the mets giving shaw a 3/21 and reed a 4/32 contracts so 15mm more
Bill, the top 3 reasons the Mets lost so much were pitching, pitching, and pitching.
We need a sub-4.00 ERA in 2018 after last year's 5.01 in order to excel.
The bottom 10 teams in ERA averaged a 71-91 record.
A 3.99 ERA would have had us 9th.
The top 10 teams in ERA averaged 92-70.
one thing about the mets and Madoff. As of this week the Madoff claw back begins distributions to those who were effected. I dont know where the Wilpons netted out, but the uncertainty of lawsuits and what they owe should be concluded. Amazingly its reported that 75% of what was principally invested with Madoff and lost will be recovered. Though no profits.
Effectively this closes that chapter.
I know .. just need something to look forward too lol
Robb, hopefully the Wilpons make out well with the Madoff wrap up, and realize they can and should in fact become consistently aggressive spenders.
I'm in the rare position of agreeing with my friend Metsiac, though I would throw in the name Eduardo Nunez as a cheaper option than Dee Gordon who would only cost money, allowing you to preserve your limited chips for trades to fill other positions of need.
Tom---I completely agree with you (and, oddly enough, Sandy) that pitching and defense are keys. So why all the talk about HRs and the "need for a big bat"?
I agree with the Wilmer backers that he is capable of solid HR #s, but he does not have a position where he'd be a plus, and he doesn't reach base enough, nor does he run well.
I hope there are AL GMs who believe enough in his bat as much as his backers here, and they will give us value to get him as their DH.
If our SPs are healthy, the talent is there to carry us. But as of now, the health is an unknown. This is why I think Dickey has valuable, to give us insurance and innings, as well as to mentor Jannis.
Hey, Bill, they just need to replace the offense lost with the 4 guys they dumped last year. I was shocked looking at the chart as to how the lower homer teams lost more as a rule - the rest of their offense in almost all cases did not make it up.
If they can get real value from an AL team for Wilmer, he probably would star over there as a most-of-the-time DH and part time position player. I'll bet .280/30/100 if he played 150 plus.
If Dickey wants to give the Mets a whirl for under $5 million, maybe they ought to consider him.
Robb....per the most recent settlement renegotiation from 2016.....the enough has been recovered where Sterling Equities now only needs to pay back between $12-14M on January 1st of 2018, 2019, and 2020....and then its all over
Of course, I can foresee Alderson giving up Flores for a hard throwing middle reliever with a 5.00 ERA who walks as many as he strikes out. After all, for more proven players he got not much better.
2018 The Mets start the new trend in baseball.
Trade Syndergaard, deGrom, Matz and every other starter for the best relievers possible.
Mets start the year with 13 relievers and pitch them 1 inning each on a rotation. Who needs starters Sandy said. 5 hours games make more money because fans drink more 12.00 beers.
I miss old baseball when starters used to typically go 9 innings. This new trend is boring and too analytical for me.
Viper, excluding the starts by aging Seaver when he returned at age 38, young Tom Seaver as a Met completed 166 of 361 Mets starts (46%). These days, guys can't complete 4.6% of their starts.
Zach Wheeler has 1 in 66 starts. Seaver at age 38 completed 5 of 34.
Thomas,
I miss those Juan Marichal vs Sandy Koufax. The Bob Gibsons.
Post a Comment