John From Albany – Mets Breakfast Links 1/2/2020

The NY Daily New says that Defense is still a glaring weakness as Mets flip the calendar to 2020.  “For the third straight year, the Mets finished bottom five in the league in Defensive Runs Saved (-93; 29th) and bottom 10 in Ultimate Zone Rating (-12.8; 24th) in 2019, per Fangraphs. The Amazin’s -93 DRS were second only to the Orioles’ -105. The Dodgers topped all of MLB with 136 DRS last season, an overwhelming turnaround from the 47 DRS they posted in 2018.”

Joel Sherman of the NY Post discussed the injury plagued Mets and Yankees that can make a difference next year.  For the Mets, Joel discusses Dellin Betances, Jed Lowrie, and Yoenis Cespedes.

The NY Post relived the most unforgettable baseball moments of the decade.  This includes “3. Dodger Stadium, Oct. 15, 2015.” The Mets Game 5 win over the Dodgers to head to the NLCS. 

The NY Post also said Why NY Sports could rise again in the 2020s.  “Will the Mets ever get it together — either now or in a few years, when we expect that even the ball boys will be signing multiyear millionaire deals in the new greed-is-good era of Gordon Gekk — er, Steve Cohen?”

Mets 360 looked at Jacob deGrom’s place among the best pitchers of the 21^st Century.  They have him at #10 on the list. 

Metsmerized looked at the Mets First Round Draft picks of the 2010’s.

Metsmerized looked at Free Agent Left Handed Pitcher, Francisco Liriano.   

Faith and Fear in Flushing reminisces about the 70’s.

Amazing Avenue started their list of Top Mets Prospects for 2020: 25-24. # 25 - Alexander Ramirez and #24 – Jake Mangum. 

Reflections on Baseball had the Mets 2020 New Year’s Resolutions.  Some really good ones “The Mets provide adequate run support for Jacob deGrom; Find a way to get Dominic Smith 400 at-bats; Fix Edwin Diaz” to name a few.

The Sports Daily also had Mets New Year’s resolutions.

Sixman rotation.com had a projection system for minor league pitchers.  Using a statistical model, they track the top 52 pitchers in the minors.  No Mets minor league pitchers made the list but ex-Met Simeon Woods-Richardson was #5 on the list.

MLB Trade Rumors had the all decade lineup.

NBC sports finished the top Baseball stories of the decade.  Here are the top three:

#3: Baseball Teams become Cash Cows.

#2: Analytics go mainstream.

#1. Cubs win it all.

The Marlins are reportedly interested in Korean Outfielder Kim Jae-Hwan.  “The Marlins are the first reported MLB team to be eyeing the 31-year-old Kim, who debuted in the KBO in 2008 and was a force from 2016-18. During that three-year, 1,806-plate appearance span, Kim amassed 116 home runs with an OPS upward of 1.000, even winning league MVP honors in the last of those seasons. Kim’s numbers took a turn for the worse in 2019, though, as he batted .283/.362/.434 with 15 homers across 574 trips to the plate.”

MLB Trade Rumors also took stock of the Center Field market.

Don Larsen passed away.

No games last night in the Puerto Rican Winter League or the Dominican League the last two days. 

The other day I linked to the top Mack’s Mets posts of 2019, today here are links to some of the five most read posts over the past decade:

#5: From September 27, 2010: Mack – The Disappearing Mets Blog. Perhaps one day this post will be in the Smithsonian or some other prestigious museum.  Mack discusses the changing Blog world.  At one time you could link your blog together with all similar themed blogs.  When you went to one site, you would see the latest posts on the side from all the other blogs on the other sites.  No More.   

#4: From October 34, 2010, Mack – Prospect Profile Matt Harvey.

#3: From December 18, 2010: Mack – My Last Fernando Martinez Post. It shows that with prospects – you never know. 

#2: From July 23, 2010: Mark - Cutnpaste: - HGH, Fernando Nieve, Mike Hessman, Mark Cohoon... and Jerry Manuel.

#1: From January 16, 2014: Mack’s Morning Report – 1-15 – 2001 Draft, 2014 Draft, Sickles on Mets, Baseball Games, A-Rod.

UltimateMets has the date in Mets History for January 1^st and today, January 2^nd:

January 1

Born on this date:

• Fernando Tatis (1975)

Died on this date:

• Danny Frisella (1977)

January 2

Born on this date:

• Red Kress (1907)
• David Cone (1963)
• Gulf Coast Mets Shortstop, William Lugo (2002)

Died on this date:

• Jerry Buchek (2019)

Transactions:

New York Mets signed free agent Mike Birkbeck on January 2, 1992.

Boston Red Sox signed Frank Viola of the New York Mets as a free agent on January 2, 1992.

Chicago White Sox signed Barry Jones of the New York Mets as a free agent on January 2, 1993.

Want more?  Check out https://sportspyder.com/mlb/new-york-mets/news. 

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