Q and A - Silver Linings?

Mack asks –

With all the gloom and doom going on in Queens this month, do you see any silver lining for this team in the future?

Tom says –

            Not for 2018 - too many torpedo shells have impacted this team.

However, there is always a silver lining to be found, despite the dark clouds that are the Wilpons.  Pitching has had its bumps this year, but who wouldn't want deGrom, Thor, Matz, Wheeler, Lugo, and Gsellman?  Hopefully Vargas stays solid after his atrocious start to 2018.

If Familia's shoulder calms down, who wouldn't want him?

Drew Smith is looking more and more like a legit pen arm.  Maybe one of the other acquires will, too, although had we absorbed some of the 2017 traded guys' salary, we'd have better guys to call up.

At long last, Justin Dunn is rocking, and David Peterson has been terrific - one can make the case that both could be ready to make a major league impact by this time next season.  Is that fast for Peterson?  Yes - but he walks few, has a fine WHIP, a solid K rate, and seems mature, so why not?

Maybe Nabil Crismatt becomes a decent 5th starter soon - or a pen arm.

Hitting-wise, less optimism in the Brennan camp, but still some:

McNeil and Alonso will have to prove their major league hitting chops, but I would be very surprised if we don't see both this year.  Both may be revelations when they get here

Conforto should come around (please, don't be the next Ike Davis).  Maybe Kaczmarski becomes a good 5th outfielder.  Nimmo, meanwhile, has been a true surprise.

Also by this time next year, we may just see Andres Gimenez - 500 more plate appearances, and another year of maturity, and he could be a help to Mets in late 2019.

Their pitching could be enough to attract a big bat like Machado.  I still think moving the center field fence in to 400 feet from 408 would make it reasonably attractive to a slugger, making it perhaps a slightly BETTER than average field to hit in.

Maybe Cespedes learns his legs are fragile and he cannot be reckless and steal bases.  Maybe Bruce starts to hit like Bruce again.  Maybe Mesoraco gets ome of his 2014 magic back for the rest of 2018.

The biggest silver lining would be if the Wilpons would sell this team for a king's ransom and leave the job of owning a major league, big market team to someone competent enough to get it right.  But I believe there is no silver lining to that dark cloud.

Reese says –

The success of Seth Lugo and Robert Gsellman make me more confident in the Mets parting ways with one of Jacob deGrom or Noah Syndergaard to replenish a barren farm system.   It would take at minimum 3 of a team's top 10 prospects to even take the call. 

I saw in Sunday night's game some intelligence from Todd Frazier when he stole a base on the first pitch off Luis Severino and Gary Sanchez.  Maybe that level of preparation will rub off on some of the other players. 

Through the darkness of the various batting slumps I see the slightest glimmer of hope that opportunities could open up for guys like Peter Alonso or Jeff McNeill since there is no point in playing people who are not getting it done.  (Then again that's been true for the last 7 years, too, so I don't know why I should expect that to change now)

Michael Maar  says –

            The silver lining for me is that the starting rotation still looks like it can be among the best in baseball once Thor is back.  I'd define that rotation as deGrom, Thor, Matz, Wheeler & Lugo.  There are still 3 good young building-block position players in Conforto/Nimmo/Rosario that with a little maturity & improvement form a decent base to build around.  So while things look pretty bleak at the moment, I'm currently in the camp of resisting a full rebuild (i.e. not trading deGrom/Thor).  That's not to say I wouldn't entertain selling pieces like Familia at the deadline.

Things don't look promising in terms of coming together in 2018 but if 2+ more young players emerge to help generate some more consistent offense, I think there's still a path for the Mets to build a contender with the core they have.

Mike Friere says –

            It is really tough to see anything positive with regards to the Mets' roster if you focus on the short term.  An unbelievable, almost Hollywood like confluence of events has conspired to destroy the 2018 season and it seems like there is no end in sight.  However, if you look past the negative issues, there are a few positives to include our pitching staff rounding into form.

Quietly, Matz and Wheeler have rebounded of late, along with the regular dominance of DeGrom and Syndergaard (when healthy).  If you add in Lugo's gem last night, you have the makings of a pretty good rotation moving forward which SHOULD free up the front office to address the dreadful lack of offense that has plagued the team to date.

Mack says –

            There are always silver linings… the question is whether there is enough to get yourself out of the abyss.

            Fangraphs, one of the more respected baseball websites, just posted there new Top 131 prospects in the game. There were three Mets on the list, one of which has never played an inning for them yet (Kelenic).

            131 prospects. 3 Mets.

            Fangraphs aren’t Mets fans or Mets haters, They’re objective baseball people who’s only job is to do these kinds of analytical posts. They aren’t influenced by their fandom. They are like Joe Friday on Dragnet. ‘Just the facts, ma’am’.

            They listed Peter Alonso (#73), Jarred Kelenic (#96), and Andres Gimenez (103).

            Are there more?

            Well, I love David Peterson, Drew Smith, Jeff McNeil, Justin Dunn, Nabil Crismatt, Tyler Bashlor, Ryder Ryan, Jordan Humpreys, Thomas Szapucki, Wagner Lagrange, and Anthony Kay but, the more I think about it, they are probably right. There are a lot of Mets prospects that I like but they probably don’t belong on any Top 131 list… yet.

            There’s even a longer list that, like Luis Guillorme and McNeil, have showed the signs of breaking out of the pack and become a red star prospect… Corey Oswalt, Gerson Bautista, Joseph Zanghi, Joshua Torres, David Thompson, Kevin Kaczmarski, Patrick Mazeika, Adonis Uceta, Matt Blackham, Dave Roseboom, Harol Gonzalez, Matt Pobereyko, Thomas McIiraith, Adam Atkins, Anthony Dimino, Desmond Lindsay, Quinn Brody, Rigoberto Terrazas, Mark Vientos,Walter Rasquin, Blake Tiberi, Jeremy Vasquez, Aaron Ford, Carlos Hernandez, and Trey Cobb… but, as John Sickles, of Minor League Baseball fame, said in his sub-headline in the last Top 20 Mets prospect list he put out… “if you love C+ prospects, you will love the Mets’.