The experiment of Dominic Smith in the outfield seems to be working.
But... the 2020 outfield projects to be quite full.
A returning Yoenis Cespedes and Brandon Nimmo... Michael Conforto... and 'sometimes' J.D. Davis or Jeff McNeil.
So...
The question is...
Should Dominic Smith become our full time left fielder?
13 comments:
Is going to be complicated because you can make a case for both J.D. Davis and Smith playing LF. I would do just that for the rest of the year and see which one fits best while trading the other.
McNeil has to play and 3B will be open for him next year. Too bad the Mets can't even give Cano away if someone wanted to just pay his contract.
But what if Cespedes insists that he want to play only LF once he comes back?. That would put both Smith and Davis on the bench.
Diaz is reminding me of Benitez or is it Familia?
Mack, do you think the Astros would trade Tucker straight up for Stroman?
Viper -
Yes, I believe they would.
Stroman can get a team to the World Series, win at least two games in that series, and still have another year to go.
They would do it in a heartbeat.
This Cano thing is going to be theatre of the absurd, mets style! Ok, we got fleeced, but to play him daily, we all know, will make it only far, far worse. Buy him out now. Take your lumps. More realistically, make him dh/pinch hitter, which might refresh him to perform like he did in spring training! He might be great at it! Please not a stubborn 750 frickin games at second, blocking superior talent from 3000 plate appearances. This problem, obvious as it is, is the mets #1 player issue that must be resolved at any cost! All else is moot, and that ain't mookie!
Reminds me of the reasoning behind playing Jason Bay.
Cano will be the starting second baseman into 2020. Hopefully he's not actually washed up and just having a bad year. unlikely, but otherwise they are screwed. If he's hitting 230 at the all star break next year theres just no way you can keep him starting. I know they wont do it, but at that point they need to put him on the bench and then eat the 60mm starting in 2021. Writing it out makes it even more absurd they thought acquiring him was not a giant mistake regardless of the rest of the trade.
OF(?) Seth Beer and three others for choker Zack Greinke? Couldn't we have gotten Beer and the two pitchers for Wheeler?
Smith should be at 1st base as Pete's backup
The stats on Marcus Stroman, he is decent this season for certain and I am glad that he is here as a NY Mets starter. But when you compare his season to season stats against any of the deGrom, Syndergaard, Wheeler starters you will see somewhat of a difference.
Sometimes I like to go into youtube and watch videos on Mets MiLB players so that I can get somewhat of an idea on how they play, since I don't stream their games.
Take for instance a player I find interesting right now, catcher Ali Sanchez. As of 2018 (and he may have been helped on this since then) Ali batted with his feet moving too much when the pitch is coming in. It's a little bit reminiscent of what a number of other DR batters have done once they get up in the bigs. They moon walk, the back foot is not set so that they cannot drive their batting mechanics from it. Their feet are going in opposite directions, they take that batter completely off the pitch.
By not getting dug in and set, they cannot maximize the power of their swing. Often they swing off balance and cannot normally reach pitches to hit on the outside corner.
All this with Ali Sanchez (and far too many others too I have noticed) should have been corrected by a batting coach somewhere along the way (Rookie A Ball) so that by now Ali could be optimal with his swing and batting approach.
What I might suggest if Ali has not made these corrections with his swing, is simply (when time allowing) watch some Gleyber Torres youtube batting videos and contrast that to Ali's own swing. The batting approach Gleyber uses is much cleaner and simple. Gleyber is able to accelerate his swing and optimize solid contact on the ball. He is set with his back foot almost as if it were literally screwed a foot down into the batters box.
I am a big fan of Ali Sanchez, and I want him up here just as soon as he is ready to be. I think Ali can be made optimal and have a huge MLB career with the Mets. That is why I wrote this.
The updated NY Mets Top Prospects listing is on their website. Everything looks good, they have pitchers, fielders, and catchers.
But the one thing that kind of/sort of concerns me is that there currently is not an outfielder who has a single really good season hitting homeruns.
This may need to be addressed later on at some point. Although the outfield here right now should be amply good, a team wants to have a few seasons from now covered as well. The Mets do have outfielders that are brand spanking new and with no MiLB experience. Maybe a couple of those can become good homerun hitters down the road.
On the Mets Official MLB Website; thank you Jack Crouse for writing favorably on NY Mets shortstop Amed Rosario. Amed is an extremely talented MLB shortstop and if you have followed this game for a longtime, you too would know exactly how most exceptionally gifted shortstops start out. Amed is no exception to this rule because he is still very young and always learning. Amed Rosario appears on the same exact path as many other truly great shortstops who have played MLB.
Selection and order in the use of a team's bullpen is so incredibly important. But a team has to get seven competent relievers first, three or four won't do because a team cannot always be using the same exact relievers night after night, and game after game.
Seven. It's a Bible number. Make it so.
After his last start as a Met (not very long ago) Walter Lockett caught my attention. He is not the prototypical current MLB starter who can throw 99 mph flames. What Walter Lockett appears to be is a starting pitcher with an assortment of pitches who also can hit his spots. The other pitcher I like to watch now down at AAA Syracuse is Harol Gonzalez. Lockett is 25 years old and Gonzalez 24.
Two other Mets minor league relievers I keep an eye on are Adonis Uceta currently down at AA Binghamton. He is 3-3/1.74 ERA/1.09 WHIP and Daniel Zamora who is still getting those strikeouts and has that masterful curve we all love to see.
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