1.
First of all, kudos to Pete Alonso. You lead the LEAGUE in hitting balls out
of the field and you win it in my book. I do want to stop and remind us all
about the questions we had regarding four players… Jeff
McNeil, J.D. Davis, Dominic Smith, and Pete. None came to the parent
club with honors. Jeff didn’t have a position, Davis was basically unheard of, Dom
was a big question mark in the outfield and Pete’s defense on first was a huge
red flag. I wasn’t even excited when the Mets drafted him and I followed him in
college. Big bat. A glove with a lot of holes. Feet like ducks. Well, all of us,
and me particularly were wrong and we now have four viable players for years to
come.
2.
Let’s go back to Dom for a paragraph. Alonso was drafted in the 2nd round of the 2016 season. Smith
was drafted three years earlier in the 1st round. First base
was Smith’s to lose and he did, farting out, hitting .198 for the Mets in 2017,
and .224 the following year. Alonso pole vaulted him during this time and the
rest is history. Since then, he has been converted to a viable utility player,
moving to the outfield, yet still being available to flash his Gold Glove like
first base mitt once in a while. He truly has become a 26-man asset, which
leads me to the next question…
3. All four of
these guys (Alonso, Smith, McNeil, Davis) have now proven they deserve a stool in the Mets locker room. But I ask… can we afford to carry 4 basically utility
players? Three now play outfield, so does Nimmo and Conforto, and we are now admitting
we are looking for a defensive center fielder. Plus Yo. The Mets doesn’t work
people. If we bring in someone in the Jackie Bradley Jr.
mode, who do we deal off?
4.
Let’s get back to the infield. Our
well dressed GM said to the gaggle on the first day of the GM meetings that he
has no idea what the time table is on Jed Lowrie’s return.
He also hinted that he had no idea what is wrong with him. This is after paying
him 8.5 million clams last season, all for nothing. Now, he’s paying him $11mil
more and the General Manager doesn’t have a status report on him. A suggestion…
hop in your car, add the address of Lowrie’s home in your Waze app on
your phone, and go camp out on his door step until he rises from the ashes
(opens the front door) and ‘reports in’. Past that, especially if everything
remains a mystery going into the second year of his contract, cut fish now, pay
him in full (you were going to have to pay him anyway), and get us an
additional 40-man spot.
5.
And lastly… we have a new DAILY
feature on Mack’s Mets. ‘John From Albany’ is posting up a 6 AM post every
morning listing links to all the Mets stories, blog posts, and other Mets
stuff. All you have to do when you wake up is pour yourself a cup of coffee,
click on Mack’s Mets, and the entire Mets world is there for your reading. Reminds
me of the old Adam Rubin daily piece that many of you read every day. Please
read it and leave your comments.
(but, what do I know…)
8 comments:
Where would the Mets have been without All Star Jeff McNeil, Pete the Pounder, J Double D, and Smitty from California? About at 60 wins that's where.
Jed Lowrie expects ongoing disabilities until he fully heals in March 2021. He is planning on being in the 2020 Wheelchair Olympics. He first injured himself lifting up his massive paycheck. He'd be getting better and then lift the next one...and the next one. Painful.
He and Yo can get adjacent beds in rehab.
I hear the rehab facility has horses
om
I forgot to put in the reliever Wilson here.
None of these were stone lock MLB.com Top 50 prospects
We had a great year improving our team and need to stop getting lost behind the Cano and Diaz trade.
Mack, I think Cano, even though a year older, and especially Edwin Diaz will have strong bounce back years.
The narrative on Pete was all bat and no defense, as you stated Mack. I think Pete deserves the credit here due to his insane work ethic and a desire to be a "good" defender. I only see him getting better as a defender, which is excellent news for the future.
Of the four you mentioned, IF I had to dump one for an above average CF'er, it would be Dominic Smith (but I would rather keep him). OR, maybe just buy out Yoenis and move on?
I think BVW knows exactly what's up with Lowrie, but chooses to keep things quiet in the media (lessons learned as an agent). I am hopeful that Jed can contribute in 2020 as depth across the infield (3B, SS, 2B), but I hope McNeil is the starter at 3B.
When we look back Brodie had an AWFUL winter with only JDD proving not to be a bust and everyone is giving him a pass which I don't really get. In typical Met fashion we hired a pitching coach to manage and a player agent to GM but he and his new FO has a year under their belts and nothing short of making the Playoffs will do so show us what your worth BVW and PLEASE don't screw this up.
And we put a 1st Basemen in left field, a right fielder in center, a second baseman in left field, a 3rd baseman also in left field and ain a 35 year old with leg problems $24 million to play up the middle defense.
Then this winter, the guy that won a championship stressing fundamentals and defense, we fire him because he's not "our guy". Silly Fonzie. He should have been repped by CAA.
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