Tom Brennan - Things That Irk the Brennans

THINGS THAT IRK THE BRENNANS MAKE US UNHAPPY

Many things irk me. What can I tell you? I’m 70 and grumpy.

My younger brother Steve is more irked than I am, as a general rule of thumb.

So, a few irks we wish to share: 

The common rule of thumb is to not trade your prospects. My brother Steve is irked by this.  Last winter, as everyone had been kvelling over Alex Ramirez, Steve bellowed, we need more pen arms. “Trade him!”

After Ramirez’s value-deflating weak 2023, Stevie had a point there.

He says it irks him that we want to keep prospects, and would gladly trade some for Juan Soto, assuming that pre-trade conversations with his agent would secure a 10 year extension with Soto, even if the sky is the limit on Soto’s salary. The reasoning being that Soto, in Steve’s mind, is nearly as good as Ken Griffey Junior was. 

It irks both of us, of course, that Juan Soto may choose to play with the Yankees simply to take advantage of their inviting right field porch, rather than hit warning track fly balls in Citifield, much as he was doing this year in his home park in San Diego.

Moving on, Steve would not have a problem with trading any, or even all, of our prospects to get huge stars; doing so, the Mets would greatly increase their chances of winning championships. Simplistic, perhaps, but the alternative hasn’t worked very well; it only irks me when the Mets acquire aging guys for too many years and too much money, so just avoid that, and everything else is fair game.  No sacred prospect cows.

We’ve not seen a World Series winning Mets team around here in 37 years. That frankly irks me.  And 37 years from now, I’ll be 107 and won’t much care.

Heck, it irks me that the Mets almost never even make the playoffs. You, too?

It irks me that the Mets only have four players in MLB‘s top 100 and just one of those is in the top 50, while Baltimore, which just won 100 games with an injection of extremely talented youth, still has six players in the top 50. 

And, of course, the Mets top prospect is only rated number 38 which is a mighty mighty long way from having a top 10 prospect, which I’m pretty sure we will realize in the next few years, as other teams have superstars emerging, while we merely have decent-to-good players emerging. Consider me irked.

It irks me that we as an organization draft so poorly. The best draft picks from 2014 through 2022 were Michael Conforto, and Pete Alonso. Picked just a few selections past Mike and Pete were Trea Turner and Bo Bichette, both of whom, based on WAR, are better players than the two best ones we picked over that nearly decade long period.  

The Mets let Trea Turner go to Washington, and then compounded it and further irked us with letting Daniel Murphy sign with Washington, basically taking what looks like it could’ve been a Mets mini dynasty, starting in 2015, and simply truncated it.

It irked both Steve and myself that the Mets let Zack Wheeler go to Philadelphia another in-division, arch rival, where he has helped Philadelphia be a better team than the Mets, much in the same manner as Trea Turner, and Daniel Murphy brought about the same result for the Washington Nationals.

It irks both of us that Division arch rival Atlanta somehow seems to operate in a fault-free modality, while the Mets surely make their share of gaffes, both big and bigger. It is actually a bummer that Atlanta was shrewd enough to trade for Aaron Bummer, who looks like a very solid, hard, throwing, left-handed reliever. Only making them better, while the Mets desperately need to rebuild their own sorry, annually irksome bullpen.

One thing on a different subject that irks me is looking at baseball’s top 10 prospects by position. There are 10 first baseman, 10 second baseman, 10 third baseman, 10 shortstops, 10 catchers, and 10 outfielders. This is in spite of the fact that outfielders take up three of the eight (37.5%) field positions on each team; therefore, the list should have the top 30 (not just 10) prospect outfielders. Do that, MLB, and it’ll be one less thing that irks me. 

Fence depth will always irk the Brennans, until the fences are moved in to hitter-neutral dimensions. Pete would no longer irked about it, either.

It irks me that Vientos struggled all year, wondering how to get things right, likely fearful of failure, when the Mets should just tell him that if he fans 415 times in 2 years and hit .207 like Kyle Schwarber did in 2022 and 2023, that is OK if you also hit 93 HRs and walked 212 times like Schwarber did.

Pitchers who allow their fellow Mets hitters to be the most plunked ever over a 3 year stretch with minimal retaliation?  Irked. Especially since Marte’s September 2022 plunking cost them the Division, and Alonso’s June 2023 plunking cost them the Wild Card.

Most irksome of all, dear readers, is when I write with unbridled brilliance and humility and you fail to comment.

What irks you (besides me and Steve)?

SEE YA…

“The inflexible but intriguing bat of Daniel Vogelbach and the flexible but light-hitting Luis Guillorme were not tendered contracts at Friday’s deadline.”