Tom Brennan - Mets Salvage Seattle Finale; and Minor League Round Up

The Happy Recap!  Hoo, Hoo, Hoo!

Mets win 7-1.  

“The Mets win. The Mets win the d..n thing!”  Thanks, Bob Murphy.

Bo Bichette took my strong criticism yesterday to heart, perhaps, to go 4 for 4, surging to a still hurting .226.  He added 3 RBIs. 

Cleon Jones for the Mets in the Year of the Pitcher in 1968 struggled like Bo has, hitting just .225 through June 2, and then surged to .300 on the last day of the season before slipping back to a fine .297. 

Bo, we need a Cleon repeat.

AJ Ewing? He went a much needed 3 for 5. Nice going, AJ..

The anemic Baty and Semien meanwhile went 0 for 10 as a non-producing part of a robust 14 hit attack. The anemic duo combined are hitting an anemic .226, a # with which the anemic-until-today Bichette can identify.

Houston used to be called the Colt 45s. 

Maybe the Mets can call themselves the New York 226’s.

Freddy Peralta (4-4) went a strong 6 innings of one run ball for the win. 

Joey Gerber tidily closed the game out 1-2-3 in the 9th. 

I’ve loved Gerber since I was a wee baby. Keep rolling, Joey.

Here is my minor league game update: 

Jonah Tong was sent down to AAA, reportedly to work on his command. 

He put on his sunglasses and said, I’ll be BACK!

Syracuse?

Senga lost on Wednesday, allowing 10 runners in 5 AAA innings. Oh, boy.

“Ryan Whifford” got up 3 times in game one, and did what? Go ahead, guess…fanned 3 times. Up to 83 Ks in 57 games (1.46 per game) after game one. 

By comparison, in Lucas Duda’s call up year late in 2010, he fanned 84 times in 115 minor league games (0.73 per game). 

Same # of Ks but twice as many games.

Yes, indeed, Clifford is fanning at 2X the rate that fellow slugger Duda did. 

My psychiatrist asked me, “tell me, how does that make you feel?” 

My reply was not pretty, but I will keep it private. Furniture was smashed.

Then, Syracuse destroyed 13-2 SWB in the 2nd seven inning game.

Clifford (.227) redeemed himself in game 2 as he had 2-3 and a walk. 

Kevin “I Love A” Parada had a hit and walk and 3 RBIs.  

KP has 9 RBIs, and a .355 average, in 9 AAA games.

Cristian Arroyo (.305) was 2-3 and a walk and 4 rib eyes. Arroyo, 30, has 917 career MLB ABs, with a .252 average. Last MLB game in 2023.

In the 2nd seven inning game, each team used 5 pitchers. Imagine if it went 9 innings.

Matt Rudick went up 87 AAA points yesterday, to .207. He was 3 for 25 in Syracuse, but went 3-4 and a walk yesterday in the DH. Overall, Matt is still at just .147 in 95 ABs this season, multi-level, but like a certain Binghamton guy, below, Matt may have just awakened.

Binghamton? They scored 16 runs! They needed them all, winning 16-11.

News flash! 

JT Schwartz had 3 hits, including a HR, and SEVEN RBIs! 

Remarkable!

He was completely dead in the water, hitting .158 as of May 24, but has jumped 50 points since, and blasted 6 HRs in his last 12 games. 

Unreal. From horrid to torrid. Stay torrid. 

Tell JT…we need a competent first baseman in Queens.

Six other unnamed Bingo hitters added 2 hits apiece. 

Brooklyn lost 5-4, and fanned 15 times. Making it 571 times in 52 games.

Afterwards, Tom Jones sang, “It’s Not Unusual, to Fan More Than Anyone.”

St Lucie, in the 7 inning, first of two game opener? Elian Peña went hitless. 

So did everyone else, as the Lucites got no hit, 2-0. 12 SL Mets fanned. 

Trey Snyder went 0-3 in his first post-rehab game. 

Cam Tilly nicely tossed 5 shutout innings for the Lucites. 

St Lucie was also hitless in the first 2 innings of the nightcap. 

Ended up losing 5-3 in the nightcap, surrendering 4 late inning unearned runs. 

St Lucie fanned 25 times in 14 innings. 

Call them “Ain’t Lucie.” As in, ain’t making contact.

The FCL Mets (10-10) rallied for 2 runs in extras, in the bottom of the 8th, for a 7-6 win. 

Both of those late runs came, unusually, on sacrifice flies!

Consider yourselves “happily recapped”.

Tom Brennan - Psychos Are Not Cyborgs

THE METS HAVE PSYCHO CYBORGS IN THE OUTFIELD

Do any of you remember a psycho defender of Mets years gone by named Juan Lagares?

Gold Glover, eye-popping plays…and plenty of lengthy fielding-related injuries. 

Plenty of IL time, too.

The funny thing is, during the several long periods of time when he was on the IL, his and my WAR accumulation was IDENTICAL.  

ZERO.

Anthony DiComo recently wrote an article about the two sensational rookie Mets psychos in the outfield: 

Carson Benge and AJ Ewing. 

In it he noted the following, which I excerpted:

The Mets’ psychopathic brotherhood officially formed last Saturday at Citi Field, when Carson Benge robbed Marlins outfielder Kyle Stowers of an extra-base hit, ran into the right-center-field fence, and splayed out on the warning track. 

…Ewing turned to Juan Soto and said, “Yo, that was psycho.”

…Soto (noted) that Ewing and Benge “call each other ‘psychopath’” for their defensive exploits. “Yeah, you are,’” Soto quipped.

In the eyes of both rookies, it’s the most flattering of epithets. A psychopathic outfielder is one who plays with a sort of controlled recklessness, sprinting, diving and, yes, crashing into fences from time to time.

“I feel like it’s just trying to make every play, whether that be running through a wall or standing easily,” Benge said. “Either way, I just want to make every play and not really care too much what happens to my body.” 

“I take a lot of pride in being able to play that way, just because I know there’s value in everything you do on the baseball field,” Ewing said. “Whether that’s in the box, on defense, running the bases, you’ve got to bring it all 100% of the time.”

So who’s more psycho? 

“Depends on the day,” Benge said.

In baseball scenarios, both players agreed, Ewing may be the crazier one due to his propensity for running into fences … not just during games, but before them, too. Prior to Monday’s series opener in Seattle, Ewing was shagging flies in the outfield when Bo Bichette hit one deep over his head. 

Rather than let the meaningless ball go, as most players would, Ewing sprinted backward, caught it and crashed into the fence. His cap and sunglasses went flying. “Bo hit the ball, I was like, ‘I need this one,’” Ewing said. “I don’t know why.”

Maybe it is just me.  “Psycho” makes me nervous.

I was around when Mike Baxter ended his career, essentially, crashing into the outfield wall to save Johan Santana’s successful no-hit bid.

I was around when Jason Bay got a few fence-crashing concussions that permanently and negatively altered his career.

I was around to see Juan Lagares hurt himself trying to make a reckless play in a lopsided game and miss months, more than a few times.

Mike Trout has had his share of injuries attacking walls.

Bo Jackson was other-worldly, until his hip bone died from brutal contact.

Brandon Nimmo crashing into a wall that caused a bulging disc and extended months of IL time.

I’m sure you readers can think of your own examples.

That being said:

Man, I love the enthusiasm of Benge and Ewing. Who wouldn’t?

But I want to see them be long-term great. 3,000 hits apiece, and Ewing being the next HOF Pete Rose, who wasn’t extremely grass I’ve, but not psycho, and Carson Benge becoming the next HOF Carlos Beltran, who wasn’t an outfield psycho.

, just a repeat Gold Glover.

So, I would recommend: 

Guys, maybe you don’t don’t be kamikaze psychopath outfielders. 

Be real aggressive, for sure, but psychopathic actions in the outfield over time can damage the bodies that brung ya here. And damage your careers long-term.

It would be your loss…and ours.

Alex Rubinson - The Mets Need to Fully Unleash Jonah Tong

Let’s go back to the 2018 postseason. The most iconic moment during that October was a young Milwaukee Brewers hurler in Brandon Woodruff shocking the world by hitting a bomb off of Clayton Kershaw, the future slam dunk Hall of Famer. It was even more impressive that it was lefty versus lefty. 

The Brewers would lose that series, but they did take game one with Woodruff being the hero on the mound and at the plate. What most people forget about that contest is that Milwaukee’s starter that day was not Woodruff but Gio Gonzalez. Woodruff was the second pitcher to enter the game in what was a bullpen game for the Brewers. 

So what does this 2018 moment have to do with the 2026 New York Mets? Back when he was running the show in Milwaukee, David Stearns often got his top pitching prospects acclimated to the big leagues by throwing them into reliever roles, like what we saw with Woodruff. 

It’s hard to argue against the philosophy given Milwaukee's history of developing pitchers. With that being said, that idea should not be universal in how every pitcher is treated, which brings us to the present day Mets. 

Yesterday, New York optioned prized prospect Jonah Tong down to AAA after his third appearance of the season. Although we expected Tong to get most of the work on Tuesday night, it was still a mystery as to how Stearns and Carlos Mendoza would deploy the righty. As I outlined above, using young future starting pitchers in the bullpen can be a successful way to get them comfortable pitching at the big league level. 

It also needs to be determined on a case-by-case basis with a heavy influence being on the state of the team. The Brewers embraced pitching chaos and had a history of being able to execute it effectively. The Mets have had more success as of late, but with the starting rotation struggling, it made very little sense to use Tong out of the bullpen. 

After Clay Holmes suffered a fractured fibula that will hold him out for the foreseeable future, the Mets didn’t have an immediate replacement. This went along with David Peterson’s struggles in the starting five along with Sean Manaea being relegated to the bullpen before a promising bulk outing on Monday. All of this is to say that Tong should be a staple of the Mets rotation going forward. 

Tong’s outings won’t always be pretty (3.1 innings and four earned runs in his last appearance out of the bullpen illustrated that). He’s still young and will undergo a lot of growing pains. Maybe I am naive in thinking the Mets season is still far from over. Although it hurts to be in the National League compared to the American League, teams have comeback from greater deficits. 

With that being said, this is still a team that is well under .500. As Carson Benge and A.J. Ewing injected some life into the lineup, the youth movement should not stop there but instead extend to the rotation. 

Although the sample size is incredibly small, some of the numbers coming into Tong’s bulk outing on Tuesday were intriguing. Even with his clunker on Tuesday against the Seattle Mariners, Tong had induced plenty of weak contact. He has a minuscule barrel rate of just six percent with a 30% hard hit rate. 

Opponents are unable to square up any of Tong’s pitches. Prior to his last appearance, the young right-hander had an incredible 55% ground ball rate. Some of these values are in large part due to Tong barley pitching in 2026, but even if there is some regression to the mean built in, this might be the type of pitcher Tong blossoms into. 

The weak contact had helped Tong pitch to a .168 opponent batting average in his first couple of bullpen outings. When comparing his first two appearances this year to a season ago, he had cut his barrel rate by two-thirds and increased his ground ball rate by nearly 15 percentage points. 

Although it got roughed up on Tuesday, Tong had a fastball run value of two coming into that day. Last year, in limited playing time, it was at negative four. A plus-six jump is monumental. 

Tong isn’t throwing any harder than he did a year ago. Instead, he is actually throwing fewer four-seam fastballs. Maybe this changes as he works deeper into ballgames, but cutting back on the pitch has made it more lethal. 

His four-seamer is still his primary pitch, but instead of going to it 57% of the time in 2025, that is now down to 45% this season. The pitch that has potentially taken his repertoire up a notch? That would be a cutter. Tong did not have a cutter in his back pocket a season ago, but he has gone to that pitch over 20% of the time (including a hefty number against Seattle). The cutter has made up for fewer four-seam fastballs, while also cutting his curveball usage in half. 

Tong was one of the hottest pitching prospects in all of baseball before making his debut towards the end of last season. No one should have any takeaways based on the minimal sample he has showed the baseball world. What has not been fair to him in his short 2026 stint is the lack of clarity with how he is being used. 

It’s quite possible these decisions are being more thoroughly discussed behind closed doors, but even hours before first pitch Monday night in Seattle, Mendoza laid out a possibility that Tong could be the guy out of the bullpen following Austin Warren as the opener. There should be enhanced clarity and consistency with how Tong will be utilized. 

The San Francisco Giants have faced a lot of much-deserved scrutiny for not playing star prospect Bryce Eldridge everyday, but the same could be said for not having Tong be a fixture in the five-man rotation. The Mets don’t have the luxury the Brewers had almost a decade ago. They are not the same team. They are not the same organization. 

With Holmes out and others not living up to the Mets hopes and dreams, Tong deserves every opportunity to start every fifth day. There will be bumps along the way, but Jonah Tong is ready to be thrusted into action from the very first inning. Right now, it’s just a matter of the Mets fully letting him go.

Paul Articulates - There is a bright side

I have been very pessimistic about the 2026 New York Mets for a variety of reasons that have been highlighted in recent posts.  I think that this year's "experiment" with a roster redesign was a dreadful failure.

But no one wants to read bad news all the time, and I certainly can see both sides of the coin, so let me talk about some of the positives I have seen that the Mets can build on for their future.

The failures of some of the Mets personnel (both in their play and in their health) have forced the Mets to bring up some of their young prospects before they otherwise would have.  Some of them have shown that they were up to the task, and there is great hope about what they can do in their future.  Here are a few that have really made an impact:

1) Carson Benge.  The front office held out until the absolute last minute this spring before finally deciding to send Benge north with the MLB team.  I'm not sure what they were pondering, but it turned out to be a great idea to choose him on the active roster.  Benge had a slow start to his season, which worried some that his confidence would be diminished.  Instead, Benge proved that he had enough confidence and enough self-awareness to make the necessary adjustments and since then he has been a very strong contributor every game.

2) AJ Ewing.  Ewing started the season in AA, so there was no one that expected him to be wearing a NYM uniform before September if at all in 2026.  But Ewing, who I believe will make his mark as an intense competitor in the category of former Mets like Lenny Dykstra, quickly moved through AAA and into New York.  His offense is still catching up a bit, but his defensive and base-running tenacity have already impacted this team.  In the last two series, Ewing has made catches in center field that may not have been made by anyone else on the roster.  The funny thing about that is how with Luis Robert and Tyrone Taylor on the IL, Ewing has displayed what "run prevention" really looks like despite not being part of the original Stearns design.

3) Christian Scott.  We all knew that Scott had talent, based on his debut in 2024.  But coming off surgery, no one really knew if we would see that version of him again.  He has come back even stronger.  On a pitching staff where there have been very few things the team can count on, Scott has become a top 3 in the rotation and has shown the ability to go deep into ballgames.  That not only makes him better, but it makes the bullpen better because they get an extra inning or two of rest when Scott pitches.

4) Austin Warren.  If you said "Austin Who?" you would not be alone.  Warren was not one of the annointed prospects moving up through the Mets' system.  He was a 2018 draft choice by the Angels that was injured, had Tommy John surgery, ended up in San Francisco, and was picked up by the Mets from the waiver wire in January this year, and made his way onto the active roster in the end of April when the Mets were playing musical chairs in the bullpen.  Since then, Warren has quietly gained the confidence of Carlos Mendoza and has seen his time increase in higher leverage situations. Currently, Warren has a 1.33 ERA in 15 games with the club.  No one is saying "Austin Who?" anymore.

If you are looking for something positive to get you through these tough stretches, just think about what these four players can do for the Mets for a long time.  Warren is 30, Scott 26, Benge 23, and Ewing 21 years old.  All are currently under team control.  Hopefully there will be even more to write about soon.

RVH - Rethinking the Mets, Part 3: The Yankees Didn't Eliminate Pressure. They Learned How to Carry It

 In Part 1 of this series, we argued that the Mets do not have an ambition problem. They have an execution problem.

In Part 2, we examined how slow starts create a pressure-amplification cycle that makes every season feel harder than it needs to be.

That naturally raises the next question:

How do successful organizations avoid allowing pressure to consume them?

No franchise provides a better case study than the Yankees.

Because while the Yankees have won 27 World Series championships, they have also spent the last sixteen-plus years failing to win one.

And yet they remain one of the most stable organizations in professional sports.

That isn't an accident.

It's an advantage.

The Yankees' Greatest Advantage Isn't Their Payroll

When people talk about the Yankees, they usually start with money.

That's understandable.

The Yankees have spent aggressively for decades.

But money alone doesn't explain what separates them from most organizations.

The Mets spend aggressively.

The Phillies spend aggressively.

The Padres spend aggressively.

Several organizations now operate with payrolls that rival the Yankees.

Yet none possess what may be the Yankees' most valuable asset: Trust.

Not fan trust.

Organizational trust.

The belief that even when things go wrong, the organization knows where it's going.

That belief has been built over generations.

And it changes everything.

The Yankees Haven't Won Nearly As Much As People Think

This may sound strange to Mets fans, but the modern Yankees are not a dynasty.

They haven't won a World Series since 2009.

Since then, they've experienced:

• painful playoff losses

• disappointing seasons

• failed free-agent signings

• aging roster cycles

• prospect misses

• managerial controversies

• front-office criticism

Yet through all of it, one thing has remained remarkably constant:

Nobody seriously questions whether the Yankees are a legitimate baseball organization.

Nobody questions whether ownership is committed.

Nobody questions whether they expect to contend.

Nobody questions whether elite players want to play there.

The pressure is real.

The doubt is limited.

That's an important distinction.

Stability Is The Real Advantage

The Yankees have spent the last quarter-century building something every organization wants and very few achieve:

Stability.

Since the late 1990s, the Yankees have remained remarkably consistent in who they are.

Different players.

Different managers.

Different executives.

Different competitive cycles.

The organization itself remains recognizable.

The standards remain recognizable.

The expectations remain recognizable.

The identity remains recognizable.

That consistency creates confidence.

Confidence creates trust.

Trust creates stability.

And stability helps organizations survive difficult periods without losing their direction.

Compare That To The Mets

One of the defining characteristics of the Mets over the last forty years has been: Change.

Different ownership groups.

Different front offices.

Different baseball philosophies.

Different rebuilding plans.

Different timelines.

Different promises.

Different visions.

When disappointment arrives, the organization often responds with another reset.

The Yankees typically respond with adjustments.

That distinction matters.

One approach reinforces stability.

The other reinforces uncertainty.

The Yankees And Mets Don't Experience The Same New York

This is perhaps the most misunderstood dynamic in baseball.

The Yankees and Mets share a city.

They do not share the same environment.

When the Yankees struggle, the conversation usually becomes:

"How do they fix this?"

When the Mets struggle, the conversation often becomes:

"Are we doing this again?"

One assumes competence.

The other questions it.

That's what decades of accumulated trust buy you.

The Yankees begin every season with the benefit of the doubt.

The Mets are still trying to earn it.

The Cohen Era Changed The Landscape

When Steve Cohen purchased the Mets, many people assumed New York baseball would fundamentally change.

For the first time, the Mets had an owner capable of matching or exceeding the Yankees financially.

Many expected the Yankees' advantage to erode.

Instead, something interesting happened.

The Yankees largely remained the Yankees.

They continued competing.

They continued reaching the postseason.

They reached the World Series in 2024.

They continued operating with the same confidence and stability that had defined them for decades.

Why?

Because their advantage was never just money.

Money was only one layer.

Underneath sat trust.

Continuity.

Identity.

Expectations.

Organizational confidence.

Those advantages cannot be purchased.

They must be earned.

What The Mets Should Learn

The lesson here is not that the Mets should try to become the Yankees.

They can't.

No organization can replicate a century of history.

But they can learn from what the Yankees built.

The Yankees did not eliminate pressure.

Pressure is permanent in New York.

Pressure is permanent when expectations are high.

Pressure is permanent when championships are the goal.

What the Yankees learned was how to carry it.

How to absorb criticism without abandoning the plan.

How to endure disappointment without questioning their identity.

How to remain stable when the environment becomes unstable.

That's the real advantage.

And it may be one of the most important gaps the Mets still need to close.

Because before an organization can become a consistent winner, it must first become consistently itself.

---

Part 3 Thesis

The Yankees did not eliminate pressure.

They learned how to carry it.

Decades of trust, stability, and organizational consistency allow them to absorb adversity without questioning who they are every time something goes wrong.

---

What We've Learned So Far

Part 1: The Mets do not have an ambition problem. They have an execution problem.

Part 2: The Mets' slow-start problem is not a standings problem. It is a pressure-amplification problem.

Part 3: The Yankees did not eliminate pressure. They learned how to carry it.

---

Next: Part 4 – The Braves Built a Baseball Machine

If the Yankees show how organizations survive pressure, the Braves show how organizations survive something equally dangerous: randomness. Injuries, free agency, prospect failures, and roster turnover are unavoidable. The Braves keep winning because they've built a system capable of replacing what they lose faster than most organizations can.

Tom Brennan - Mets Minor Guys Who Fan Too Much; Holmes Return Strategy; Alvarez & Bo

“WOW! THERE IS SUCH A SWISHY BREEZE DOWN HERE!”

 

One clear and present danger to minor league hitters is striking out too much.

I used the example the other day of former Mets minor leaguer Luke Ritter, who a few years back in AAA hit 29 homers and drove in 93 runs in 134 games, which was a “WOW”, and would really project out to big #s if projected over 162 AAA games. 

He, however, played exactly 0 (zero) games in the major leagues. Why? 

He struck out way too much. 174 times in 134 games that season.

I can name MANY K KINGS who never, or barely, made it. 

K’S KILL KAREERS!

Former Mets prospect 3B Aderlin Rodriguez never made the major leagues 

In his case, however, he put up good minor league power and hitting stats, and didn’t strike out too much. He just never quite made it. 

What A Rod did make, though, was the Asian pro leagues, where he extended his pro career. Did that happen because he did not strike out too much, making him attractive to Asian leagues? Yes, I’d speculate.

His total career, in the minors and foreign ball, totals 344 HRs and 1,250 RBIs. In that respect, he’s done very well for himself. 

However, if his strikeouts were 30% to 50% higher, he would most likely not have gotten that (presumably reasonably lucrative) foreign opportunity.

Circling back to Mets minor leaguers, which guys this year are falling into what I consider the danger zone, which I arbitrarily set at 1.25 strikeouts per game or higher?  (Based On Stats Thru Sunday) 

I want to name each of them, not because I want to vilify them, but because I want them to succeed. 

After all, AJ Ewing fanned 20 times in 132 PAs in AAA this year, but 24 times so far in 74 PAs (thru Sunday) with the Mets - twice the rate. That MLB pitching is SO MUCH TOUGHER.

How will the fanning prospects below succeed? Only ONE way:

Cut the Ks down, by a whole lot, by any means possible. 

Or become the next non-MLB Luke Ritter, if they even get that far.

Below, I count 8 whiffers extraordinaire + two top 30 prospect near misses:

AAA

Ryan Clifford: 78 Ks in 55 games.

Cristian Pache: 67 Ks in 51 games. (Former major leaguers).

The duo added FIVE MORE K’S on Tuesday.

AA

Chris Suero: 57 Ks in 41 games.

(Two top 30 dudes, Serrano and Reimer, are both under 1.25 Ks per game, but have combined for 101 Ks in 86 games, so they are uncomfortably close (1.18) to that 1.25.  Frankly, too close).

HIGH A

Colin Houck: 75 Ks in 43 games (red alert).

(In 2015, Jeff McNeil in High A, by comparison, fanned 59 times in 119 games.)

Corey Collins: 49 Ks in 36 games.

Yonaton Henriquez: 43 Ks in 25 games (red alert). 

Yohairo Cuevas: 48 Ks in 36 games.

FULL A

Simon Juan: 53 Ks in 36 games.

That is 571 Ks in 409 combined games for the 10 players above.

And 470 Ks in 323 combined games for the eight of the 10 above dudes in the “1.25+ Club”. That’s an average of 1.46 Ks for these eight gents. Over 162 games, that would work out to 237 Ks per 9.

FCL

NO ONE striking out at high rates! Whoo Hoo! 

There are a boatload of other Mets minors guys who are fanning less than 1.25 times per game, but fan more than once per game, which is still a prospect’s real danger zone.

In some cases, they just don’t have that “it” to be a major league talent.

Sometimes, tho’, hitters may be too selective, trying too hard for walks.

Maybe they’d rather choke than choke up on two strikes.

Not most of the hitters in Syracuse. 

They are swingers who are dead last in walks, with over 10% fewer than the second lowest team. But they are 13th out of 20 in runs.

Binghamton? It is second highest in walks in its league, but dead last in hitting by a country mile at .201. Hit a lot more, walk a lot less, I suggest.

Brooklyn? Basket case. 

Last by a wide margin in both walks and batting average (.188). (But the average, it should be noted, is inching up). And the Cyclones are leading the league in hitter Ks. MAKE…CONTACT.

St Lucie?  

Almost last in walks, but 5th out of 10 teams in scoring, Ks, and homers. Smart guys down there, those hitters.

FCL Mets? 

Good, too. Bottom half in Ks and walks, 6.4 runs per game through 18 games.

If you are going to fan a lot, perhaps you should find another line of work.

It won’t get you to the majors. Trust me.

Syracuse, Binghamton, and Brooklyn combined for 12 hits.

Looking ahead…what’s the plan, Monsieur?

“I SAY, HOLMES…”

This is Clay Holmes’ MLB injury update:

Injury: Fractured right fibula
IL date: May 16 (60-day IL)
Expected return: August
Status: Fractured his leg on a comebacker May 15. 

Will need 6-8 weeks to heal.

Will need another six or so weeks for a Spring Training-style build-up.

That should take him well past the All-Star break in a best-case scenario.

MY QUESTION REGARDING MY “CLAY HOMIE”?

Should the Mets, who are paying Holmes $13 million this year, cut the length that rehab time by a month (returning roughly in mid-July instead of mid-August), by having him return not as a fully stretched out starter, but instead as a reliever of fine pedigree? 

Fewer innings to get back to the Mets, gradually stretching out after he returns to the Mets. 

Staying committed to him starting next year, of course.

- Makes great sense to me. His early return would be quite a “relief”.

ALVAREZ OUT OF REPAIR SHOP:

Alvarez shocking baseball again tonight by healing from his meniscus injury at super human speeds and catching the game in AAA tonight. Doubled TWICE! 

The rest of Syracuse, Binghamton, and Brooklyn hitters totaled 10 hits. 

Ten.  Just ten. The Suckitude (my word) is astonishing.

 I LOVE THE DSL METS BLUE  -  THEY HIT LIKE TYSON:

Trailing 9-0 early in their second season game today, the DSL Blue Bombers of the Mets  rallied a mighty long way to win 15-14. 

They also scored 7 runs in the last 2 innings of their first game, making it 22 runs scored in their last 11 innings. Love that offense! 

Demote Bo to the DSL, bring up a real DSL bat to replace him. Why Bo?

Because…

BO BLOWS:

How frankly can the $42 mil per year Baffling Bo be hitting .219, with a sickly .271 OBP, through June 2? 

Even Vientos (.219), Semien (.225), and Baty (.233) are not as bad.

It is called Suckitude. 

Suck on THAT.