As we had in the Breakfast Links, Mets
Daddy pointed out how: “Over the last two years, Wheeler has averaged 30
starts and 188.2 innings…” That is a lot
of innings the Mets will need to replace next year.
I would like to point out another thing the Mets will miss: Zack’s
ability to hold runners on.
Last year the Mets led the majors in stolen bases allowed
with 139. The team with the next
most? The Los Angeles Angels with…99! That’s right the Mets were 40% higher than
then next worse team! The league average
was 76 so the Mets were almost double the league average.
Then I went and looked at who the
bases were stolen against. Noah
Sydergaard – 42; Jacob
deGrom – 24; Jason
Vargas – 9; Steven Matz
– 9; Marcus
Stroman – 3…Zack
Wheeler – 6!
So Zack gave the Mets innings and
runners did not run wild on him.
As much as people get on the Mets
catchers, I think those stats show that the pitcher is a big part of the
equation. Otherwise, teams would have
stolen evenly against all the Mets starters.
Hopefully Carlos Beltran will work with the pitchers on this skill in Spring Training next year.
About Centerfield -
In 2019, based on DRS, the Mets had the third worst fielding
Center Field in the majors, with a -14 DRS.
Only the Rockies with -27 and the Tigers -18 had worse.
Reese
had a great rundown of Center Field options the other day. Starling Marte or Harrison Bader might be had
in a trade. Kevin Pillar might be a good
free agent option.
I’d like to put another name in the ring, Houston
Astros Myles Straw.
While J.D. Davis
was leading the Pacific Coast league in hitting in 2018, Myles Straw led the
league in steals.
Between AA and AAA, Myles stole 70 bases in 2018 and would
provide a base stealing threat the MLB Mets sorely lack.
Last year for the Astros, he was a utility player playing
both the infield and the outfield. (When
I suggested Myles Straw to Mack he said “Not another utility player!”) However, I am suggesting playing him every day.
I’m thinking, given the chance to play like another Houston
import, J.D. Davis, he could be the kind of player that helps you win.
Can he play Center Field?
Do you remember
this catch he made against Tim Tebow in Spring training last year? I think the answer is yes.
So what would the Mets need to do to get him?
Unfortunately, according to MLB.com,
Houston is looking for catchers, starting pitching and relief pitching,
just like a certain team that plays in Flushing. It could be tough to find a match. Do we want to give Houston three more
prospects like we did for J.D. Davis? At
some point you need to keep your minor league players.
Either way, I think the Mets should make the call. If they can, work something out with Houston. He could be the CF solution and
running threat the Mets need.
10 comments:
I like small ball. Chicks dig the long ball as Tom Glavine once said. My bet is Pillar. No resources to sacrifice to land him.
Straw is a useful player - even to Houston. We'd have to overpay. High speed, good on base, very low power. Not a starter in my books. An excellent 4th or 5th OF.
Zack could hold 'em, all right. Now he can spend 'em. 44 career wins in 126 starts and he gets a Brink truck - some guys are just lucky.
I love small ball too. It was amazing to see it in action last year in Brooklyn.
Agree with you Reese, Pillar makes the most sense. We will see what happens this winter.
Tom - we also may have a Straw in house in Sam Haggerty. The difference with Straw is that he has played more in CF.
John, Haggerty and Straw differ in that Straw makes better contact - less Ks - we'll see if Sammy H can overcome that flaw and keep climbing.
Good point Tom. It may make sense to have Sam play everyday in Syracuse next year to work on that.
All for Myles Straw and I think Houston needs a first baseman. So an even swap of Dom Smith for Straw should be fair enough of a deal.
John, I remember Eric Campbell - raked in AAA, low Ks. In the majors, Ks up a lot, average down a lot. Sam really has to rev up.
He had a great May in AA, and a great August mini-stretch in AAA. Now he has to show he can do that more often.
One slight plus for him - he seems to hit better as a righty than a lefty, and right now, they need more righty than lefty bat in OF - although with Steve Cohen, the use of borderline utility guys may diminish.
Simply, Sam needs to make more contact.
Things here I never understand.
The NY Mets and NY Knicks have one thing definitely in common now, and that is they have some very good young talent now that has shown some playing brilliance and a talent ability to be an outstanding core for years to come, if handled right.
Yes, that is good.
But where the Mets differ is that their younger kid player core is already professional enough to be considered competitive. Whereas the Knicks' kid potential core of players are simply not to that level yet, but hopefully could be soon once they learn to play NBA basketball at as a unit and not just an ESPN highlight reel of pretty three point outside shots and alley-oops.
The Mets have built something here in 2019, that might arguably be considered this franchise's best young core ever. Seriously. Ever. McNeil, Alonso, Davis, Smith, Conforto, and Nimmo. However though, no new pitchers beyond Syndergaard and maybe Diaz, if he becomes what we all know he soon could and most likely will.
Gone are all of the Mets players from the MLB promise land. Players like Frasier, J. Bruce and his superb workout regiment (cough), C. Granderson, and other players my brain refuses to remember perhaps here like Carlos Gomez, for instance. In other words, guys that came here to add just so much and maybe some gate attraction allure, that mostly failed after a passing of time. Be careful maybe be good advice with 30+ players being brought in here. The steroid era is mostly over now.
So what is the best course of action to take now to strengthen this Mets young core even more.
The Mets beat writers are mostly saying that this 2020 NY Mets team is a "win now" one. But they always have really because it is New York. The real trick is to make every season a "win now" one, leading into the next. It should always be this way. But I find this repetitious caption of "win now" a bit useless because it suggests that an MLB franchise cannot possibly win a World Series with an outstanding young core in-place and at the helm. I disagree.
This franchise needs to rethink its approach more. It has Cano, Ramos, and deGrom as its veteran leadership and a young core (in my own opinion) that other MLB teams would probably die for. So I say simply this, add to that young core and maybe you will have here more than just a really strong younger core...A dynasty.
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