PIITB by JD- Good to be back

  

 

      PIITB By JD- Good to be Back

            After doing some traveling this summer, I am back in the States ready to finish the season strong (unlike the Mets). For this week, I thought I would give my general thoughts on where the roster stands right now and some brief thoughts on David Stearns.

 

            The Mets are still a bad baseball team. No other way around it. Guys are underperforming and the holes that have been there all seasons are still here now. The bullpen ranks bottom 10 in baseball with a 4.57 era. As you all know, I have always been a big Drew Smith believer. Not so much so anymore. He has not shown me enough to warrant support. I’d be surprised if he was on the team next year and if he is, he will not be expected to fill a major role. 

 

Onto the rotation. As of Wednesday, Max Scherzer is out for the season with a triceps strain, so Mets seemingly dodged a bullet with that one. Justin Verlander is still good, but we all knew that. Let’s talk about the guys still here. Starting with the bad- Carlos Carrasco. 

Man, we all love Cookie. I can not say enough good things about the guy. BUT, he is not a major league caliber player and that is why the Mets made the decision to remove him from the rotation put him on waivers. Nobody claimed him as expected. I wish him all the best, but I would not be surprised to see a retirement announcement this offseason.

 

David Peterson, is as usual, a head scratcher. He keeps showing glimpses of the number 3-4 starter we saw in 2020 and then he takes a step back. Peterson came out and said after he was promoted again that he is going back to what he did in 2020 mechanically and repertoire-wise. What I want to know is, who told him to switch his mechanics and why was it not corrected before? The coaching on this team and in the organization is lacking and it is showing

 

Could Jose Butto be the 5,6,7 type starter next season? He has looked much better since his recent recall, and I am excited to see him finish down the stretch. 

 

Kodai Senga. Finally. I can’t say enough about this guy. He has been nothing short of fantastic this year. Putting up a 149 innings as of Wednesday for a guy coming from Japan where he only pitches ones a week is amazing. I was hoping to get 150 innings max out of him this year and he will exceed that figure in his next start. He is striking out 10.9/9 and has a 3.07 era! His FIP sits at 3.56 and has a 3.2fwar. Those are all top tier numbers. 

Going into the season I would have been thrilled with 150 innings and an era between 3.4-3.8. He has exceeded every expectation. He managed to drop his walk rate after a shaky start to the year in that regard. I fully expect Kodai Senga to be the Mets opening day starter in 2024 and will likely be the 1 or 2 next year. His contract was just 5/75 with an opt out after year 3. 15 million a year for an ace caliber player is something the Mets have to take advantage of. To more of Kodai Senga!

 

 

 

The offense:
The offense is an issue that I am not quite sure how to solve next year. I imagine there will be some regression to the mean for struggling players like Jeff Mcneil, but the Mets will need more than that to be a playoff team in 2024. I can’t put blame on Lindor, Pete, Nimmo, or Alvarez as they have all had very good seasons. Pete is doing his thing (PLEASE EXTEND PETE), Lindor is Lindor, and Nimmo has quietly found his power stroke setting a career high this year. 

Alvarez has had usual rookie problems but had the power to make up for it. His defense, baserunning, and power have been fun to watch. I would like to see improvement on his bat to ball skills. 3^rd percentile in xBA and sweet spot is not going to fly. More consistency out of him would be great. One thing he has going for him outside of the above is his walk rate is 49^th percentile. That is miles better than I excepted going into the year. This guy is the Mets franchise catcher, I know that much.

 

The rest of the kids:

For the first time we have seen Mauricio, Baty, Vientos, and Alvy all on the team at the same time. Even though Buck refuses to play them enough they are still fun to watch. Mauricio hit his first home run this week and hit it hard and far. 440 feet and 112 mph off the bat. I am very excited to see how he finishes the season. Vientos has looked much better since his most recent promotion and will have a spot on the bench next year. 

Baty is an issue. I by no means have given up on Baty yet. He is a talented player, but there is no denying he has been worse this time around than before his call up. 66 wrc+ is not going to cut it up here. I do think part of the issue is the Mets hitting coach, Jeremy Barnes. Baty has an issue with hitting the ball on the ground and it is clear Barnes has not done anything to address it. I hope we see Baty improve the last couple weeks, all the best to him.

 

 

Looking ahead:

As of Tuesday, David Stearns in the Mets POBO. Steve got his guy after 3 years. What Stearns has been able to do with a limited payroll in Milwaukee is impressive. He is very well regarded around baseball. I am not as high on him as most, however, ANYBODY would be better than Billy Eppler at this point. I am glad the Mets have another voice in the front office now. 

 

Here are some quick predictions for the staff as soon as the season ends:

Day 1: David Stearns is officially announced as POBO

Day 2: Buck resigns as manager and retires from baseball

Day 3: Stearns fires everybody not named Jeremy Hefner from the coaching staff. Jeremy Barnes will be the first to go

Day 4 and beyond: Extend Pete Alonso and go after Yamamoto

 

I will get more into the off-season plan as the season concludes, but it is good to be back writing about the Mets (even if they are not so fun to watch)!

 

As always leave your thoughts below!