As the Mets begin their 2023 season there have been a few developments both positive and negative that caught folks by surprise. Everyone knows that the team is not going to win every game just as they know they won't lose night after night either. It is just great to have the season begin again and to see the Mets with more wins than losses is obviously a great way to kick off 2023.
Starting Pitching
While the Justin Verlander injury was not expected, the substitute pitchers in David Peterson for Jose Quintana and Tylor Megill for Verlander are not exactly chopped liver and folks are willing to agree that allowing a pitcher sufficient time to recover makes a lot of sense. The early showing by Max Scherzer and by Kodai Senga were more good than bad. The only starting pitching shortcoming has been Carlos Carrasco who got nailed by Milwaukee for a loss, giving up 5 earned runs in 4 innings. It's a single game and no one should be pushing any kind of panic button.
Bullpen
Well, for the most part it's been outstanding. To date David Robertson, Adam Ottavino, Drew Smith, Dennis Santana, Brooks Raley, Stephen Nogosek and even Luis Guillorme have been pitching to perfect 0.00 ERAs. Veterans Tommy Hunter and John Curtiss have not been quite as fortunate with their early appearances but the pen has been pretty solid in the early going.
Hitting
While it's too soon to draw solid trends, the fact is that the hitting is not yet something to brag about. Omar Narvaez, Starling Marte and (surprisingly) Tommy Pham have posted positive stats with their bats, but the rest of the lineup has been pretty unspectacular. The fact is that you can't win every game with pitching alone, so the rest of the lineup needs to work itself into an offensive threat. No one is truly worried about Pete Alonso, Jeff McNeil, Francisco Lindor nor Brandon Nimmo.
However, the worrywarts among us are watching Eduardo Escobar, Mark Canha, Daniel Vogelbach and others ready to break into prescription level antacids (or exceeding quantities of adult beverages) when they go 0-4 in a game.
It's been less than a week for everyone and too soon to draw definitive conclusions about anyone nor anything. It was great seeing Senga manhandle batters. It was terrific seeing Peterson and Megill pitching effectively. It was nice to see that awesome game start by Pham just as it was nice to see multiple relief pitchers show why they earn their paychecks.
One or two good innings or at-bats is not a trend and not reason to hoist statues nor build gallows for anyone. Relax, enjoy the game and hope the injured get healthy, the solid players perform as expected and the less well known or borderline players either establish themselves given opportunities to perform or get out of the way later in the year when others are knocking at the door for their chance to shine in the spotlight.
8 comments:
A good start???
This is what happens when you live in a time zone that is a different day (do they really play it on a different day?)
Real good start until they landed in Brew Town.
Let’s hope 2023 doesn’t morph into 1993.
I'm not pushing the panic button yet, but the offense is, right now, a disaster. We only really have two guys with any pop in their bats, Pete and Francisco, and they're not hitting right now. There's no one to give Pete protection. I want to see the kids come up and get their shot. Hopefully Baty's thumb will be ok, so I want him up and playing 3rd. I want Mauricio up to play second and move McNeil to left and have Canha rotate thru the 3 outfield positions to gives guys some rest. I want Vientos up as the righty DH and to spell Pete at first occasionally, and Pete can DH on those days. The roster is just too old in my opinion
There are a lot of people out there that agree with you.
In my opinion, Mets brass were doing phenomenally well all offseason with moves and signings, and then heading into late ST. The Kodai Senga move to me, looks like the big winner one. However, the demotions that included the three very good younger MiLB players (Baty, Vientos, and Mauricio) were not at all wise moves to make, and everyone here I think saw this right away.
These three younger players all had very impressive ST's. All three brought hustle and energy to an older Mets ballclub that needed that. The older players here now getting injured are the immediate issue right now, and it remains to be seen how Mets brass will address and adjust to it.
It's early, but sometimes beginnings to new seasons really do set the tone for the entire season to come.
Maybe this:
1b Alonso 2b Mauricio Ss Lindor 3B Baty (once healed) LF McNeil CF Nimmo RF Marte C Narvaez
Bench: Pham, Guillorme, Vogelbach, Canha
SP: Scherzer/Verlander (with Drew Smith now in his place)/Senga/Carrasco/Peterson. Then once Verlander gets back whole, and if Drew Smith is starting as well as I think he will be, the rotation goes out to "six-starters" to keep the older starters here healthier come playoff time. Just common sense really, because there was a noticeable "fade" with them in 2022.
RP: SOS! HELP! Send sandbags!
Megill, Nogosek, Curtiss, Robertson, Ottavino, Orze, J. Walker or Raley until T. Hunter gets back whole.
I am not at all sure when MLB trading can begin. But when it does, I might be inclined to look for one more later-inning reliever who is a dominant left-handed one. This will give the pen the balance that it needs. There are extra veteran OF's here now that could be traded to make such a deal.
Second Half Hopes:
Maybe Jose Butto, Josh Walker, and Jimmy Yacabonis (The Three J's) making it up. Batting and fielding should be all set without moves being made by the team.
Don't give up hope Mets fans! Because 2023 will be a Mets season to remember and put in the books.
Another thing that concerns me re: hitting. Why do the Mets continually make soft tossing left handers look like Cy Young candidates? This is a problem that goes back quite awhile. Can anyone in AAA hit a "junk" pitcher? it gets frustrating.
Ask Luis Guillorme our stud new reliever.
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