Me? I shop at Whole Foods every week or so.
Great organic food, I really like the blueberry scones, and their apple pie?
It is killer.
They've been rebuilding a closer-by, old Pathmark shopping center for a year now, which will give me a much closer Whole Foods. Yay.
I will shop there a lot when it finally opens.
(When I see how long that shopping center is taking to reconstruct (and how about the 25 year, 12 mile expansion road project known as Route 347 in Suffolk County), I do wonder how many centuries it will take to rebuild Gaza and Ukraine.)
But this is a baseball story, Tom, so stay laser-focused; get to the point.
At Whole Foods, they have to time their produce, dairy, meat, and fish shipments, because if everything’s ripening all on the same day, you will have lot of unsold rotting greens and fruit and burger meat and flounder in about a week. Not good for profits.
David Stearns, the lead buyer at Whole Fields in Flushing, approaches the Mets’ farm system like a grocer dealing with perishable commodities.
How so?
I look at Jonah Tong being slow-walked, and my conclusion is that he is being held in the fridge to slow the ripening process for optimal timing to arrive on the Queens super store shelves.
McLean? Sproat? Ditto.
Battering Benge, who through his first 23 AA games compiled a Ted Williams-like .371/.472/.652 slash line, which screams AAA IS MY HOME, is being slow-walked, so he can hit the product shelves in Queens sometime in 2026.
Morabito? Cold AA start this season on the frozen tundra of early season Binghamton, but scalding for the last 2 months, when not hurt?
Not ready for AAA shelves yet, per grocer Stearns. Puzzler.
Other grocers might strongly disagree, but he is THE grocer in Queens.
Ditto on Jett, who has rocked a consistent .400+ OBP in AA since the frost melted. The grocer is keeping the product in fridges to slow the maturation process to coincide with when others (e.g., Jeff McNeil) are leaving.
Some prospects are held back to keep their stats nice and plump so they look yummy to other teams’ grocers for late July barter deals, too.
You’d be Dohm to think otherwise.
The Mets love their prospects - but can also treat them like cabbage and bananas. It is all a matter of timing.
Sometimes, too, I am sure that there are some prospects (e.g., Clifford and Parada) who may need to be surrounded by superior produce - err, I mean prospects - in order for them to ignite, thrive, accelerate. One for all, and all for one.
It is tough being a grocer. Just ask David. Just don’t squeeze the turnips.
P.S.
So what produce did David trade away? Best way perhaps is to see how the traded guys rank in their new organizations’ top 30 prospects.
Jesus Baez - # 6
Blade Tidwell - #12
Drew Gilbert - #13
Nate Dohm - # 15
W. Aracena - # 22
Tony Nunez - # 24
Chandler Marsh - not in top 30; high octane Raimon Gomez fascinating, but outside his new team’s top 30 too, as is Salty Elissalt.
Butto seems like another Grant Hartwig type, so likely not much of a loss.
Stearns the grocer? He did good, whether the (until Saturday) offensively struggling Mets make the post-season or not.
He kept all the real farm goodies.
On another note:
I wonder if Stearns could’ve reacquired Seattle’s # 30, Rhylan Thomas?
The low K outfielder was 1-8 and a walk in a very brief 2025 Seattle MLB debut, but is .309/.358/.406 with 18 steals for AAA Tacoma. His AAA #s to me feel like the second coming of Jake Mangum, who would have been a great replacement for Tapioca Taylor if the Rays did not need Jake themselves.
Jake was also low-ranked, but this year, is hitting .281 in 256 at bats in his MLB rookie season. Am I surprised? No. I know good Mangum fruit when I see it.
ANOTHER GREAT NIGHT FOR PETE, BUT A BAD NIGHT FOR METS
Lost 7-5. Pete did great. Winning is better than losing.
ST LUCIE FLAT-OUT CRUSHING IT? YES, SIR.
Suddenly, through Sunday, the usually docile St Lucie Mets franchise had a 12 game stretch in which they scored NINETY EIGHT RUNS, slightly more than 8 runs per game. WOW!
For the season, 541 runs in 101 games.
What, exactly, is in the Florida water? Gatorade?
Add in a league best 3.56 ERA, and is it surprising they are 60-41?
GUZMAN!
My guy, 6’4” 215 OF Randy Guzman, through Saturday was up 39 times post-promotion from FCL to Lucie, with 7 extra base hits and 10 RBIs in his first 9 games. 12 for 36, 3 walks, too. And…
JUST FOUR STRIKEOUTS??
A Randy Radar Red Alert has been issued.
And Yohairo Cuevas, a lefty hitting OF just promoted to Brooklyn? He had an impressive .440 OBP, with 50 walks in 63 games for Lucie. Not much pop, though.
Is he any good? We will see. Yohairo apparently means Man Of Peace.
BEFORE YOU CRITICIZE THE SOTO DEAL…
Mets home attendance is up 11,000 per game over last year.
If you keep up that level, for the entire year, his salary begins to look…cheap.
21 comments:
When your team plays consistent shit ball, you write a good portion of your post about where you shop.
The Mets show in Half Foods
Doing a DEEP DIVE on Guzman on Sunday
Steve's not gonna like my Observations on Wednesday morning
How did the Mets hit, besides Pete? Again, not well.
The too good to be true early season pitching has devolved. And David calls up Hamel, with his brutal AAA stats, rather than tong or Sproat or McLean or Ross. There is genius in there somewhere. If you find it, let me know.
Hamel is now a reliever
And his reliever stats are pretty good
I have been calling for this for two seasons
Welcome.
And remember.
If you pitch four scoreless innings in one outing, you can pack your duffel bag
Hamel starter ERA 4.76. Reliever 4.70. Ehh.
Let’s hope he emulates Mike Vasil, who found AAA in 2023-24 much harder than the big leagues in 2025..
Like I said
Hamel's relief stats are as shitty as his starter stats
(wise ass...)
Despite using some players that are absolutely performing horribly since the all-star break (NIMMO, Stanek, Montas, Senga), the Mets are in a good position to make a run. I agree that they need a six man rotation, but the problem is they only have one inning relievers now, so that can’t work. Right now, thw weakest link is Senga because he has been getting bombed and doesn’t last long; at least Montas gives you innings. But, due to Senga’s history, we overlook it.
I don’t know if Stearns wants the fruit to ripen or he is simply afraid to taste it. McLean has given up some long ball in July. Sprout has only lately been a stud after he abandoned the coaching changes they were trying to install. I’ve said it for a year and a half: the coaching at Syracuse seems to be a problem, especially for pitchers.
Make Mets Watchable Again
Hi, Gus.
I agree on coaches. Look no further than Mike Vasil, who stunk in AAA and has been amazing with the White Sox. What is that?
Bring up Tong, McLean, and Sproat, and move Montas, Senga, and Manaea to the pen. Crazy? Well, they are 17-26 despite a seven game win streak. Something is seriously amiss in Metsville.
Nimmo’s 24 Ks in 16 post-All Star games? What is up with that?
Looks like he is swinging for the fences again. To me he needs to get on base, take a walk if the pitches are not strikes, and score in front of the 2-5 hitters. Yeah, old school lead-off hitter.
Nimmo can do what you suggest, and on occasion look for pitches to go deep. His BB/K ratio is much worse than the first few full seasons of his career.
Ernest, they weren’t that watchable when they were winning in April, May, and June. Now, all the more unwatchable. They should have put Vientos in for Baty for defensive purposes. Baty plans and promises to lock down his defense by 2028.
Is Sterns thinking were in the playoffs for sure and drawing BIG crowds so I can slowdown the promotion process but of course why when were looking at the shit show at Shiti sorry Citi field? Also could our $750 million dollar man show up? He's becoming the solo HR king and far from the beast he was with RISP across town. He of course tore it up as a Yankee but now just crossing over to Queens and he needs a adjustment period?
Gary, Stearns must go with his best…or else.
Fence dimensions? Down a run, one on, two outs in 10th, Torrens flies out to the wall down the right field line.
FENCES, if 5-7 feet shorter, THAT, David and Steve, would have been a game winning, delirious walk-off HR.
But the fences, RIGHT WHERE THEY ARE, are fine. Perfect. Put that L in the books.
Great breakdown Tom! Hearing a lot of good things about Randy Guzman, can't wait to see how he progresses through the minors.
Thanks,Mike.
Elian Peña on 5 times today. CALL HIM UP!
I'd be surprised if they made the playoffs.
Tired of seeing Soto run at half speed.
Still unwatchable after tonight's last five innings without a hit. ugh!
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