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10/31/19

Tom Brennan - Mets 2020 Offense Could be Murderous



The Mets' offense could be murderous!

Some reports indicate that Cespedes' agent says the long-injured Yoenis Cespedes is in good shape and very much looking forward to playing in 2020.

Good news, if true, but why not - it will, after all, be his final contract year, so he would surely want to put his - ahem - best foot forward.

With him back and presumably a healthy Jed Lowrie showing up too, the Mets have 10 high potency offensive players, giving the Mets the potential makings of a pretty murderous line up:

1B - Pete Alonso

2B - Robbie Cano

SS - Amed Rosario

3B - Jeff McNeil

CF - Brandon Nimmo

RF - Michael Conforto

LF - Yoenis Cespedes

C - Wilson Ramos

Ut. - JD Davis

Ut. - Jed Lowrie

Round them out with a solid defensive outfielder whose bat is not inert, and a useful defensive IF guy like Luis Guillorme (or Joe Panik), and a new back up catcher who you would not blanch at if he had to step in for a stretch due to an injury to Ramos, and you have what I'd call:

A murderous offense.

Without Lowrie and Cespedes for all of 2019, and without Cano and Nimmo for significant chunks of 2019, they still scored 791 runs (4.9 runs per game).  Why not 850 runs from these guys in 2020?

Anthony Rendon, of course, would be a nice offensive add.  

But:

1) his arrival would require one or two of the above listed 10 to go elsewhere, and 

2) the real priority in 2020 is to make a pitching staff that could well lose Zack Wheeler even better than it was in 2019  (4.24 ERA) despite that loss.

I think an 850 run offense and a 3.75 ERA staff could win the Mets the Division.

So I would focus on keeping the top 10 offensive guys intact, unless someone knows that Yoenis and/or Jed will remain impaired....and getting a back up catcher upgrade and upgrading the pitching.

The starting rotation needs to be at least as good, Zack or no Zack, and...the pen HAS to get fortified.

That's how I see it.  How about youse?  Remember I am friends with Jack Bauer and what Jack did to the last guy who disagreed with me:




P.S.

Rumor has it that Gerritt Cole might want to go to a California team (read: Dodgers) this off-season.  

My suggestion to Cole? First, consider your commute to the California ballpark:




P.S.  

Hats off to the World Champ Nats, whom the Mets beat, stomped, and obliterated 12 of 19 times (would have been 14 of 19 had it not been for some Mets pen meltdowns).  The Astros?  They failed on re-entry.  

6 comments:

  1. Lineup is the best we've had since Beltran, Wright and Delgado were mashing and the same back in 99' and 00' with Piazza, Alfonso, Olerud and Ventura but mediocre pitching staff's killed us and we can't let that happen again.

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  2. Gary, the pitching HAS to be top notch in a division occupied by the World Champs, the Atlanta Upstarts, and Girardi's Squad. 2019's version won't be enough, pitchin-wise, I agree.

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  3. And Gary, those Mets clubs of the past were their best hitting teams ever, along with the mid-80's Mets. Nothing like good hitting.

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  4. I still find it VERRRRY strange that there still has not been any word about what Yo's injury actually is, much less how it happened.

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  5. Bill, now that free agent players are in play, teams will be making moves. They'll have to tell us how/if Yo is expected back healthy in 2020 soon, as that would be part of understanding their logic of who to get and who not to.

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