Mitchell’s Musings
IF AT THIRD….
games. He returns hot hitting the cover off the ball. Then at Wrigley field he melted down two nights in a row. Night one; Double clutching and throwing late twice leading to runs. Night two; botching a near sure double play ball that sparked a hellish inning. Look, as stated, I am a J.D. fan. I really think that he can be a decent third baseman. Keyword: DECENT.
It’s not a stretch to realize that in a full season, playing everyday, Davis could be a 30, 100 .280 guy easy! But not with the defense he’s showing off in early 2021.
hyped the Mets this spring and they might have had something to do with the the frothing fans for sure. Met fans hate playing second fiddle to the greatest baseball franchise of all time. Perhaps that’s why they have a short fuse and ultra high expectations. Look, calling for trades and firings after a handful of games just isn’t reasonable. Give it at least 35 games. Then unleash the hounds!
Toby Harrah stopped more balls at 3rd base as a Yankee and that’s saying something! Jonathon Villar and Luis Guillorme are viable options at third. Both are solid to outstanding defensively to boot. But Davis is the sexy option. As long as he continues to rake the Mets will keep him at third. As goes his bat, so goes Davis. Unless, his defense doesn’t improve or horrors, gets worse.
With the Met offense sputtering his
glove is under the microscope and the pressure is on. Hopefully, this will turn out to be an early season misstep. Unless….That double clutch stutter step is a Steve Sax, Mackey Sasser, Chuck Knoblauch issue…..Oh Boy, I don’t want to think about it.
fresh Hell? Last year he got absolutely hammered (and not in a good way) in the shortened season. 14 homers in 30 innings and an era just barely south of 10. We sent him packing to Toronto. Good riddance right? Wrong? So far Matz is lights out north of the border with a 1.47 era. How? What? Why? When? Did I say how? Let’s move to Detroit. The Mets also cut bait with Wilson Ramos.
The Buffalo had a solid 2019 batting .288 with 73 RBI. He was clutch and had a .768 OPS. In 2020, not so good .239 and an OPS 100 points lower. The Mets only signed him to a 2 year deal so they figured they had gotten the last bit of juice from that grape right? Um...So far in Detroit 6 dingers in his first 14 games. True, he’s falling off a bit…but there’s something about leaving Flushing that’s good for the soul for some of these guys. I mean this is a tiny sample. But it seems to work out that way very often.
GEOGRAPHICAL CURES….
Why does it piss me off so much when I see former Mets doing well. Steve Matz. I mean, what the
Hell, even Chris Flexen, just back from Japan, has made a splash as a starter in
Seattle! Why? The bright lights of NYC or at least Queens are overwhelming or intimidating? Maybe. Matz was a Long Islander and probably felt a lot of pressure to perform for his home team. I don’t know. Hell, I went to school with Frank Viola. He was a HUGE Met fan and when he came here he won 20 games. Yeah, yeah, he was a vet by then, but still. It just pisses me off. I like Steven Matz. I don’t want him to implode……..or do I?
Met fans. They are a wonderful, passionate and deeply invested bunch. But they also are borderline psychotic. The swings I see in emotion over the course of a week, over the course of a single game is amazing! The posts I see from Met fans span the gamut! During the off season the posts are so romantic on social media about the coming season. They miss baseball! The long winter days are boring! There’s nothing on TV!
Seattle! Why? The bright lights of NYC or at least Queens are overwhelming or intimidating? Maybe. Matz was a Long Islander and probably felt a lot of pressure to perform for his home team. I don’t know. Hell, I went to school with Frank Viola. He was a HUGE Met fan and when he came here he won 20 games. Yeah, yeah, he was a vet by then, but still. It just pisses me off. I like Steven Matz. I don’t want him to implode……..or do I?
PAGING DR. FREUD….
I miss my Mets! Why can’t baseball be year round? – Jump to three games into the season and the media is flooded with: The Mets Suck! Why am I watching? I’m turning off this mess! This
game is so boring! Fire him, Fire them! Trade that bum!
I guess it could be argued that any fan base would react the same. Fact is, I don’t see it. I’m a transplanted Long Islander who lives in LA and I never see that kind of dichotomy among Dodger fans. Clayton Kershaw can get blasted in a game seven and there are no calls for his head or for him to be DFA’d. But a Met fan. Watch out. Over the winter there was a thread of “Trade Alonso” treading all through Met fan accounts on Twitter. He’s a bum. He has an iron glove at first! Dom Smith is our guy. What? Trade a 26 year old who has 69 homers in 200 games? The first Met to hit 50 homers? Polar Pete? Man...talk about short memory.
Look, I get it. The fans are hungry for a winner. But hey, we went to the World Series a scant six years ago. Imagine if the Mariners played in NY? Or the Padres? Or the Pirates, A’s or Angels? The carnage would be brutal! You know who I blame...The Yankees. No matter who the Mets sign or field, fans, especially Met fans, feel like New York’s ugly stepchildren. I will say with a new owner and the signings and pick-ups this off season, things looked encouraging.
The media really
Craig has come up with a great new column that we hope to see often on the site.
ReplyDeleteNice article, Craig.
ReplyDeleteEx-Met Phillip Evans also has hit well (4HR, .274).
This "ex-Mets do better" is really a thing.
I think JDD will be fine with the bat and OK defensively - much warmer weather games start today. Weird stuff happens when you play games in a refrigerator.
I am good with riding out a combo of Davis and Guillorme for a while. Assuming the wheels don't fall off.
ReplyDeleteCould be that in July the Mets take on salary by trading big for a pending free agent (say, Story, for example, and shifting him to 3B) to finally "solve" the problem for 2021.
I'm not advocating that exact move. Just saying that's the kind of possibility available.
I think Davis is a great hitter and a much-needed RH bat. The hope is that the defense won't be too terrible. He clearly can't consistently have bad games on the field.
In the same game as the horrendous hurried drop (Wednesday), the proceeding play was a line drive to LF that froze Dom Smith. A good LF moves in and catches that ball. Not an error, and barely raised a comment, but that play was rough, too. The Mets defense has got some weak spots and while a week can roll by without an issue, some games we are going to see those cracks.
I would be happy, too, to see Guillorme get a consistent opportunity to prove his value. Love the glove and the quality ABs. I think there's a sense that if he was too exposed, the offense would fade. Shrug, I don't know. It might be that his high-quality defense is better suited for this particular team at this time. I like Luis and JD, honestly.
It is a shame that Villar's defense is also terrible. He doesn't really provide anything that Davis doesn't already do better.
I do agree with Tom's overall take that circumstances have been less than ideal. Not over-reacting on 4/23, but certainly bears watching.
Jimmy
Great Job Craig...
ReplyDeleteGreat point Jimmy
ReplyDeleteso with the talk about signing Conforto but maybe the idea should be sign a guy like Story and let Conforto go?
we would add the Right handed bat to balance the team and we could move Nimmo to Right field?
any thoughts
3B is in play this season.
ReplyDelete2022... Ronny Maurcio arrives.
2023... Both Mark Vientos and Brett Baty arrive.
You don't need to go all in on Story here.
Just platoon for 2021.
Nice article Craig and welcome board. I hope its just Lindor adjusting to a new league and the ice cold temps because he does look awful at the plate kinda like Beltrans first year.
ReplyDeletegreat point Mack
ReplyDeleteI am usually thinking the pipeline but your so right
though I would think Baty and Vientos would be before Maurcio since they are older...
Mauricio is probably playing AA next month.
DeleteVientos. A+
Baty A
Mauricio is more advanced that Baty or Vientos.
ReplyDeleteYes he is.
DeleteMack, Vientos and Mauricio hit pretty similarly at Columbia in 2019, and in a VERY small snippet in spring training, Vientos hit very well. He ought to be at AA too, IMO.
ReplyDeleteCould be.
DeleteEqual power to Baty.
Much better glove, feer, and arm.
I would get Story and not keep Conforto if it was just one of the two, in a heartbeat.
ReplyDeleteYou have to someday invest in the outfield.
DeleteWhoops, sorry, there's a misunderstanding here.
ReplyDeleteIn my imaginary "get Story" idea, I wasn't suggesting that we sign him for 2022 and beyond.
I'm talking about a rental. Filling a hole for the rest of the season.
(And again, don't fixate on Story, specifically.)
Come July, teams will often trade pending free agents for 1) immediate salary relief; and 2) whatever they can get for a rental.
Any guy we pick up in that scenario would not affect the pipeline of Mauricio, Baty, Vientos, etc.
The nature of that deal depends on the team's sense of "going for it" or not. With Cohen, we know he'd be willing to take on salary. That's huge.
(I think 2022 is wishful thinking for Mauricio, personally, but we'll see.)
Jimmy