A Saturday morning quick quiz question for you, and afterwards, allow me to speculate:
Which team has 5 guys with 35 or more plate appearances with on base percentages above .400, and a 6th player checking in with an OBP of .395?
Why, the Mets of course.
Guillorme (.500) (pause and admire), Conforto (.443 - wow), Smith .(.419), Cano (.413), Nummo (.411) and Davis (.395).
Incredible, huh? Notice that the 5 guys above .400 are not averaging out to .401, but more like .430. Awesome.
Once Pete and Jeff fully awaken, this team should be crushing it with their offense. Add in a portion of Buffalo, and assume at some point Rosario walks again, and this line up could be a killer.
Next topic?
LEAGUE'S MVP?
Yoenis Cespedes - by bowing out after his sputtering .161 comeback, he made way for much increased playing time for the man who could actually be 2020's NL MVP:
DOMINIC SMITH.
In just 78 at bats, he is hitting .333/.419/.744.
The .744 figure is the major league's best, ahead of the next guy by 28 points.
The .333 average is 5th best in the majors.
His 24 RBIs are just 6 behind the major league co-leaders in RBIs, who have 30, but in 51 or more at bats more than Smith has had.
I know we have a first baseman who hit 53 HRs last year, but it is not a stretch to speculate whether slick-fielding Dom Smith is currently MLB's best first baseman.
I am so glad there is DH right now. Looking at the Mets' line up, EVERY SINGLE METS FAN should hope the NL keeps the DH. Because this team has never been better suited for one.
Anyway, it's early - but if fans can start speculating after 2 or 3 starts as to whether Jake will win his 3rd straight Cy Young award, then let me be perhaps the first to speculate about whether:
DOM SMITH CAN BECOME THE FIRST METS PLAYER EVER TO WIN AN MVP.
Part of winning an MVP is likeability and fan awareness. Dom's got both now.
I say "why not?"
DOM SMITH FOR MVP
7 comments:
Dom is also now a poster child for the unity movement which isn't going to hurt his chances at all.
Absolutely - but in this day and age, you have to be a hitting machine. And he sure looks like a legit MVP caliber hitter as each day goes by.
At the start of the season, as I wrote back then, I saw him as paralleling Adrian Gonzalez's career, with this age that Dom is at being Adrian's breakout season. I am on the verge of feeling like I need to consider correcting myself. Dom may be better than AG. And AG was pretty darned excellent.
Can anyone here give me the formula for being "qualified" for stats like BA, OBP and SLG?
Specifically, when might we be able to see Cano and Smith among the leaders?
Its been such a pleasure to see his growth. TBH I thought he was toast after his terrible season in the rarified air in Vegas a few years ago. I'm so glad to be wrong. He was such a pleasure last year and his walk off on the last day made me giddy for this year. The Mets have some really great young hitters that are so fun to watch. Too bad they traded away so many other great pitchers and what may be an elite CF. Kay / Dunn / Peterson / DeGrom would make for a solid rotation to build on and having Kelenic not botching all the plays in CF that Nimmo does we
I can only imagine how good the Mets can hit if McNeil and Alonso play like they did last year.
Bill, I think (I could be wrong) that it is 3.1 ABs per games played by a team. Dom is real close to qualifying. Cano is not.
Dallas, what I like about Smith is that after making the huge mistake of arriving obese for his Mets 2017 debut, he worked strenuously to fix it. I also read that he had gone on a CPAP for sleeping and it made a night and day difference for him. No reason that he cannot excel, as long as he doesn't lose focus.
"Knock, knock, knocking on Heaven's door."
To me, this really is not a bad 2020 NYM team here at all. If they had gotten a few "good breaks" (like with Noah, Stroman, and Bettances) this whole blogsite would be singing nothing but praises.
But they didn't get those breaks. And we have this.
It is sometimes just the contingency depth plan itself that doesn't come through. Things always happen inter-season. But even this 2020 plan, was not really a bad one if you think about it some. It just hasn't worked out yet and that's all. There isn't enough game time to allow struggling pitchers and players to get into their own performance grooves. There just isn't. 2020 is a very short season.
As far as GM Brodie is concerned, I was fine with him until recently when he did what almost every single NYM GM has done in the past, trade a good young player (in this case LSP Kevin Smith) for some older veteran limited assurances that in the end do not matter a chicken spit in difference. Every single season, this is the NYM approach.
To me, a lefty kid starter like Kevin Smith is invaluable to his franchise's future. He was close to the very top of the next starter wave. Other teams obviously saw this. You simply cannot afford to trade your team's best young up and coming starters or players every season, then expect that it won't be felt later on.
Scout wisely. Develop your young. Keep the best. Fill any remaining holes with the best trades or free agents that a team possibly can.
Why is this so hard people?
"Knock, knock, knocking on Heaven's door."
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