Open Thread - Who impressed most so far in spring training?

Five games into the spring training schedule, the Mets have already had some great performances (think Carson Benge going 3-3 against the Cardinals) and some dreadful performances (13 walks in one game?).

None of these is quite ready for passing judgement yet, as baseball is a game that is best evaluated over large sample sets.  But it is fun to get the discussion going, as many are already projecting who will make the April roster.

Share your highs and lows in the comments.

Open Thread - Mets vs. Dodgers approach

The Los Angeles Dodgers have spent an obscene amount of money on players over the next decade.  We were all astounded when the news hit that Shohei Ohtani’s contract was for $700M over 10 years.  The average annual value of that contract is $70M, which is more than $26M above the previous high for MLB (Scherzer, Verlander).  

In the last few years, the Dodgers also committed $365M to Mookie Betts, $162M to Freddie Freeman, $60M to Chris Taylor, and more to others.  There is a lot of deferral money involved in Ohtani’s and Betts’ contracts so the impact on the competitive balance tax is not yet known.  However, even when spread out, the Dodgers will have very little to work with under the tax threshold for the next several years.

The Dodgers have pursued a strategy of loading the top end and weakening their ability to fill out the roster with quality “B” players.  The Mets have pursued a strategy of acquiring prospects and beefing up their player development capability while only intending to spend on key acquisitions to remain “competitive” while the build-out is executed.  

Today’s question to the readers: 

Who has the better approach?

Open Thread - Pitching in 2024

Much has been discussed about the Mets' demise in 2023, their sell-off, their rapid build-up of the farm system, and their need to address Pete Alonso's free agency after the 2024 season.  Little has been discussed about how to address the starting pitching gap in 2024.

Jose Quintana has proven to be an effective pitcher now that he has gotten some starts after his first half on the injured list.  Kodai Senga has gotten used to the different mound and ball in MLB and is showing his skill.  Those two seem to be keepers.  The others have not earned their keep.  SP3, SP4, and SP5 are all up for grabs in 2024 through promotion or free agency.  Knowing that Steve Cohen and Billy Eppler are wary of the risks in signing aged superstar pitchers to expensive contracts, what do you think they will do to fill the pitching staff next year?

Open Thread - Carlos Correa

Much has been said about the Mets' pending acquisition of star free agent Carlos Correa.  First he was lured to the San Francisco Giants for a 13 year, $350M contract.  Both teams had agreed in principle, but the Giants balked after reviewing the results of Correa's physical.  While they were mired in uncertainty, Steve Cohen swooped in and grabbed Correa with a 12 year, $315M offer that put the Mets roster over the top for the 2023 season.  But wait, the Mets did their own physical on Correa, and now they are worried.

This saga is not over yet.  The Mets have not walked away on the offer, but are in discussions with Correa and his agent Scott Boras on what to do with this contract.  Rumor has it that the concern has to do with an ankle injury, but details have been held tight within the inner circles of Correa's and Cohen's camps.  Speculation is that the Mets want to do this deal, but need to have certain assurances.

And that's where you the reader come in.  If you were Cohen/Eppler, what kind of concessions or assurances would you want to make the deal go through?  With Correa on the team, the Mets have an extremely strong lineup and deep roster that makes them the favorites in the NL East and maybe the entire NL.  Without him, the Braves and Phillies have some comparable strength in their teams. 

Would you restructure?  Would you walk away?  Would you buy an insurance policy?  Let's hear your comments.

Open Thread - Playoff Roster

The East race has finally been decided in the National league, and the Mets will play as a 4 seed against the 5th seed San Diego Padres to open their quest for a ring.  

This is the second of two “open threads” to consider the playoff roster – following the one last week when the bracket was mere speculation.

Who should be on the initial playoff roster for a three game wild card series at home?  You only need three starters, and although you can carry up to 13 pitchers, you probably don't need that many.  To make this a little easier, there are some players that 99% of us will agree upon, so let’s just consider the following guys as “in”:

Fielders: Nimmo, Marte, Lindor, Alonso, McNeil, Escobar, Canha, Guillorme.

Catchers: Nido, McCann

DH: Vogelbach

Pitchers: Scherzer, deGrom, Bassitt, Lugo, Ottavino, Diaz

In the 2022 MLB playoffs, teams must submit a 26-man roster prior to each series which must include no more than 13 pitchers.  The roster can be different for each series.

There are eleven position players listed above, leaving two slots to fill.  Candidates include:

Rostered: Darrin Ruf, Tyler Naquin, Terrance Gore, Mark Vientos, Brett Baty(IL) Dom Smith, Kahlil Lee, Michael Perez,

Others, like Francisco Alvarez, Nick Plummer, Travis Jankowski, and Daniel Palka were not on the 40-man roster or 60-day IL on August 31st and therefore could only be added through a special exception process.

There are six pitchers listed above, leaving seven slots to fill.  Candidates include:

Mychal Givens(IL), Trevor May, Drew Smith, Tylor Megill, David Petersen, Trevor Williams, Joely Rodriguez, Carlos Carrasco, Tijuan Walker, Stephen Nogosek, Yoan Lopez, Tommy Hunter(IL), Alex Claudio, Jose Butto, Bryce Montez de Oca(IL).

So weigh in now with your choices; who fills the playoff roster to give the Mets the best chance to win a three game series against San Diego?

Open Thread – Playoff Roster

The race is too tight to call, but the upcoming series with the Atlanta Braves will likely decide who wins the NL East.  Everyone is getting geared up for those big games, but must still focus on the task at hand, which is to beat lesser teams this week and the week following the Atlanta series.  So while the team preps for their games, let the readers prep for the post-season.  We will run two “open threads” – one today before the Braves series and one next week after the series.  It will be fun to see if the choices change based on what happens in Atlanta.

Who should be on the playoff roster?  There is no question about the starters and the first couple of reserves.  So let’s just consider the following guys as “in”:

Fielders: Nimmo, Marte, Lindor, Alonso, McNeil, Escobar, Canha, Guillorme.

Catchers: Nido, McCann

DH: Vogelbach

Pitchers: Scherzer, deGrom, Bassitt, Carrasco, Walker, Lugo, Ottavino, Diaz

In the 2022 MLB playoffs, teams must submit a 26-man roster prior to each series which must include 13 pitchers.  The roster can be different for each series.

There are eleven position players listed above, leaving two slots to fill.  Candidates include:

Rostered: Darrin Ruf, Tyler Naquin, Terrance Gore, Mark Vientos, Brett Baty(IL) Dom Smith, Kahlil Lee, Michael Perez,

Others, like Francisco Alvarez, Nick Plummer, Travis Jankowski, and Daniel Palka were not on the 40-man roster or 60-day IL on August 31st and therefore could only be added through a special exception process.

There are eight pitchers listed above, leaving five slots to fill.  Candidates include:

Mychal Givens(IL), Trevor May, Drew Smith, Tylor Megill, David Petersen, Trevor Williams, Joely Rodriguez, Stephen Nogosek, Yoan Lopez, Tommy Hunter(IL), Alex Claudio, Jose Butto, Bryce Montez de Oca(IL).

So weigh in now with your choices; who are your three position players and five pitchers to add?

Open thread - the 2022 All-star game

In a little more than 5 weeks, the MLB all-star game will be held in Los Angeles at Dodger Stadium.

The Mets have had many lean years in terms of all-star team representation, sending only one player 22 times in their 60-year history.  The most they have ever sent was in their 2006 season when six players wore the Mets uniform on the field (Beltran, Reyes, Wright, Martinez, Glavine, and LoDuca).

This year they have one of the best clubs in the NL, so lots of players should go, right?  Well, maybe not.  With this year’s “all-for-one” approach, many players contribute to the W’s every day, but there are few dominant players (like Pete) that stand out above their peers.  Both stud starting pitchers are out.  

McNeil and Canha are in the top 10 National Leaguers for batting average, but I don’t see a consensus of baseball fans nationwide to elect those two.  Nimmo joins McNeil and Canha in the top-20 in OBP.  Who else stands out?  Lindor with a .250 batting average?  Carrasco with his NL-leading 7 wins?

You tell us: cast your votes (opinions) in the comments – who makes the team from the NY Mets this year?

Open Thread - Reader Survey

 

Mack's Mets is extremely blessed to have great regular writers like Reese Kaplan, Tom Brennan, and Remember 1969, shared posts from Mike's Mets and Metstradamus, and very talented writers like David Rubin, Ray Savage, Paul Articulates, Jeremy Mand , Ernest Dove, and others.  

We also have been very fortunate to be able the share photos by Syracuse Photographer Herm Card and St. Lucie Photographer Ed Delany.  And of course, through it all, amazing Draft reports, predictions and prognostications from the man that started this site in 2005, Mack.

Over the past year or so we have tried to do some different things at Mack's Mets.  Some may have worked well.  Some maybe not so much.  

We added Minor League Stats and Winter Ball Stats, embedded the Minor and Major League Gameday feeds so you can get all of those in one place, different features to our "Sidebar" on the Web Page version like Mets Videos, a Mets Twitter feed, added links posts from SportSpyder, etc.

We may have more changes coming.  We may not.

I try to put things on here that I would want to see.  Stuff that you can't get anywhere else - at least without having to click in multiple places.  

Some have stated that there is sometimes too much stuff on the site, that they can't find the posts by the main writers easily.  We tried to change that by highlighting featured posts on the Website's sidebar.  

I am also toying with a new layout on our "Test" site.  It still needs some fine tuning but it works a lot better on cell phones and over 60% of our readers come from that device.  Please let us know what you think.

But before we do anything else, we would like to hear, what do you, the loyal Mack's Mets readers, want to see?

Do you want more changes or just leave well enough alone?

Please leave comments below.  I will try to run similar posts like this from time to time to get your feedback.