April 1, 2021
This is meant to be a follow up to my previous two posts projecting hitters and pitchers for the 2021 season.
Well here it is April fool’s day and we are on the cusp
of the long-awaited baseball season. As
a Mets fan, it’s uncommon to have such a giddy feeling. We may have the best offensive lineup in our
60 years of existence. Our starting
pitching looks strong especially with Carrasco and Syndergaard scheduled to
return by June 1st.
However, I am less than enthusiastic about the caliber of
our eight relievers. Given the fragility
of the starting five or six and following a short season, I expect that most of
our starters do not routinely make it into the seventh inning. That means our relievers will need to eat
around 500 or more innings this year.
Obviously, the main man is Edwin Diaz. I’m not terribly concerned about his outing
against the Marlins on Sunday. Clearly,
Diaz can and will be dominant most of the time.
I’m not convinced that we will be getting the 2018 version. I think there will be too many times when he
implodes over the course of the season.
Trevor May as the first free-agent signing under the new
regime brings with him high expectations.
He’s a power arm that will strike out a bunch but will give up runs at
the most inappropriate time. Until Lugo
returns we can only hope that May can adequately fill the role as primary
setup.
Aaron Loop starts of the year as the only lefty in the
pen. The expectation is that he can
neutralize the Harpers and Freemans in the NL East. He appears to be a solid option to fulfill
that role.
Jeurys Familia has been around for a long time and is
probably the guy Mets fans love to hate.
The reality is that he has terrific stuff that he sometimes has trouble harnessing. He will walk too many but will find a way to
get out of trouble. I’m glad he’s on my
team. Reminds me a bit of Doug Sisk who
had a tendency of walking the park only to induce a DP grounder to get out of
the inning.
Miguel Castro is another power arm with lots of
potential. I don’t have lot of high
expectations for Castro but he could prove me wrong.
Jacob Barnes could turn out to be the sleeper. The early results in spring training are
encouraging. Hopefully, he continues his
newly found success into the regular season.
Dellin Bettances has suddenly morphed from a power arm to
relying on guile. I’d be surprised if he
is still on the team once the trio of pitchers on the DL return.
Robert Gsellman is truly the 13th man on the
staff. He should be the first to go when
Lug0 returns. I’m surprised he made the
cut.
As you can see I am not optimistic that our current
roster of 8 relievers will get us to the 93 wins I projected. On the other hand I think nearly every team
faces the same dilemma of not having enough adequate relief pitching. The old mantra of “let’s get into the second
line of pitching” will continue to hold.
Ray
5 comments:
Ray, I largely agree with your pen assessment. I am optimistic, though.
I will not sleep properly until Lugo returs at full strength.
Reports is he still hasn't resumed throwing... not a good sign.
When Thor and Carasso return at least one or two current starters will move to the pen. That should work in our favor.
Need to improve on my spelling. It's Carrasco.
Ray you are absolutely right
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