Francisco Lindor had the pre-practice gaggle on Thursday morning.
He was asked what his goals were this season.
He answered:
"I want to win. Nobody was expecting the Diamondbscks, but I'm sure they were. Not too many people were expecting the Rangers either, but I'm sure they were. It's what you believe in and what you think you can do."
I like this. Like David Wright was in his day, Lindor is the face of this team and, if I was in charge, I would have this rah-rah king in front of the reporters every day.
MLB Pipeline wrote about one player from every team trying to make the opening day roster. They picked RHP Christian Scott as their Mets choice, saying his excellent mix of a 93-97 fastball and solid slider and change, coupled with his excellent control could translate quickly.
Agree?
Japanese natives Shintaro Fujinami and Kodai Senga caught up regarding old times while hitting the mounds right as soon as practice started. Lots of translators in camp but none were needed here.
Cage work included DJ Stewart, Brandon Nimmo, and a beefed up Brett Baty. Not sure, but this might be the first sighting of Baty. If so, you would have thought he would have been here a month ago what with the sense of urgency in his game results this season.
FanGraphs came out with their latest top 100 prospects.
Four Mets made the list, but no one named Acuña or Clifford could be found.
The four ranked were:
#52. OF Drew Gilbert
#54. IF Jett Williams
#96. IF Jeremy Rodriguez
#98. SP Christian Scott
The mounds really got busy around 11am with the addition of Michael Tonkin, Sean Reid-Foley, Christian Scott, and the question mark of the pen, Drew Smith. WILD CARD in my opinion here is Tonkin.
Lastly, Edwin Diaz made a strong case for his claim that he is "100%".
He pitched live batting practice for the first time and it was described as a "soft session".
His soft fastball was in the MID 90S.
Soft session
Mid 90s
I'm done here.
Highest payroll (Cohen rule),75 win season and so little competition that most of us can name 23,24 of the players on the 26 man roster! Things don’t look too good.
ReplyDeleteYou may be right but very few thought that the team that played in last year's WS would ever meet there.
DeleteDifference was they had a legitimate superstar OF who joined the team and was a game changer
DeleteOne could say that baty failed to be our Carroll
Alvarez would need to take a giant leap
But this team doesn’t have a super star in my opinion
Lindor to me has always been a side kick and Alonzo is home run slugger but never been someone you pitch around
So a team of just allstars (no superstars) need more of them Collectively in my opinion
Eddie
Lindor a sidekick?
DeleteWow
Koos, I think if they avoid key early injuries, they will do a lot better. Defense is less obvious than gaudy offensive numbers, but the team’s defense is much improved and will win games. And…Sir Edwin is back and firing.
ReplyDeleteJust need to score one more run... preventing runs can get you here
DeleteMack, I do like to hear Baty is beefed up. Hopefully, he worked dozens of hours oh his D and closing that up-and-in batting zone hole Paul mentioned yesterday and is ready for war.
ReplyDeleteTime to embrace the battle.
Lindor…my early acquisition concerns about him are gone. Glad much that he is our guy here.
Fangraphs is very analytics-driven and had to be concerned about Clifford’s strikeout rate in Brooklyn and Acuna hitting like Ruben Tejada after his trade to the Mets.
Baty was quite busy yesterday
DeleteHit throw. Run. Field
Still thought he should have been in town a month earlier
Hard to believe Fangraphs has Jett and Gilbert in the low 50s, especially Jett.
ReplyDeleteThey tend to be conservative
DeletePower it’s the 2020s power is valued. Very little power on the farm.
ReplyDeleteLove the Mack spring training recap. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHey Jett is 5 foot 6 isn’t a power hitter and will probably play 2B. He’s only had a handful of ABs in double A.
ReplyDelete