Early Observations On Rotation, Verlander, Pete, Omar, Brigham
I have been lucky to see most of the spring training games this season and I’m starting to worry about the durability of the projected rotation.
First, two bad outings by Quintana and Carrasco, and then the Quintana stress fracture that could set him back until June, could be early signs that the Mets may need much more this season than the seven starters they currently project as the go-to guys.
My guess right now is David Peterson immediately moves into the rotation, but I could be proven wrong after Spring Training ends. I expect to see more of Megill, Hernandez, Lucchesi, and Butto going forward.
Mets’ Justin Verlander pleased with ‘pretty cool’ spring training debut -
“It felt great to be out there,” Verlander said. “The pitch clock was something I wanted to get used to. There might be a couple of little adjustments I have to make there. I really just wanted to go out there and feel like I can just do things very normally and see if there’s anything that needed to be adjusted. Just one or two things, nothing major, so that’s good.”
Verlander’s fastball topped out at 96 mph while throwing 35 pitches. He also threw all four of his pitches, including a changeup that he is attempting to reintroduce to his arsenal in 2023 after moving away from it in recent years.
Mack - I’m happy if he’s happy.
Mets slugger Pete Alonso dissected the numbers to find a new area of improvement -
For batters, 2-0 and 3-1 counts swing the advantage in their favor more than 3-2 situations. But the way Alonso sees it, all three counts present the same battle. Among qualified batters, only the Tigers’ Javier Báez saw a higher percentage of pitches out of the zone in 2022 than Alonso.
Pitchers tossed so much junk Báez’s way because they figured he would swing. Pitchers tossed so much junk Alonso’s way because they figured he wouldn’t swing. They didn’t want Alonso to hurt them.
So, consider Alonso’s situation: He rarely gets a pitch to hit, finds himself in a favorable count like 2-0, wants to do damage, figures he may finally get a pitch to do damage on, but instead sees a pitch on the edge or completely out of the zone.
The challenge forces Alonso to stay disciplined.
Mack - Are we driving in long lines to the park, paying those parking fees, then the ticket prices, and lastly the $456 hot dogs so we can watch Pete walk?
No, we are doing all this to watch the Mets win and if him trotting to first replaces wildly striking out, I’ll take it.
5 Mets players who need to bounce back in 2023 MLB season -
3. Omar Narvaez – C
The Mets signed Narvaez to platoon with Tomas Nido at catcher this season, or at least until top prospect Francisco Alvarez is ready to play every day in the majors. They did so despite Narvaez slashing a woeful .206/.292/.305 with a .597 OPS last season with the Milwaukee Brewers.
Though the Mets value defense first at this position, they do need some offensive punch to keep the spot from being a black hole in the lineup. Nido’s track record as a hitter is not pretty but Narvaez could be a good candidate to bounce back in 2023.
Despite his struggles last season and hitting .176 with two home runs in 126 plate appearances in 2020, Narvaez has shown the ability to hit and hit with power in the bigs. He was an All-Star in 2021, when he had 11 home runs and 49 RBI to go with a .266/.342/.402 slash line. And in 2019 with the Seattle Mariners, Narvaez slugged 22 home runs, drove in 55 runs and had an .813 OPS.
The Mets need Narvaez to rebound in 2023 and there’s a good chance he will.
Mack - I wasn't sold on this move early, but the lack of hitting production so far this spring from Francisco Alvarez makes me think he does need some more time in Syracuse after all.
https://theathletic.com/4245052/2023/02/24/mets-bullpen-candidates/?source=user-shared-article -
Jeff Brigham (31)
Acquired: Trade with Miami, November 2022
Status: On the 40-man roster with options
Repertoire: Fastball, slider
2022: 3.38 ERA with 28 strikeouts in 24 major-league innings
Brigham’s locker is next to Adam Ottavino’s in Port St. Lucie, and the former Marlin is amped about that.
“He’s my favorite reliever to watch,” Brigham said, noting the similarities between his slider and Ottavino’s. “Sitting next to him, watching how he works, talking about his mentality facing hitters and what he has success with, I’ve learned a ton so far.”
Unlike Ottavino, Brigham works his sweeping slider off a four-seam fastball more than a two-seam, aiming to spot the fastball up and in to righties and tunnel the slider off of that. He can manipulate that breaking ball to be loopier early in the count and sharper late.
“He plays on the extremes of the movement profile,” Hefner said. “This guy has two really close-to-elite major-league pitches.”
Mack - Brigham was originally drafted in the 4th round of the 2014 draft by the Dodgers, out of the University of Washington,
2022 MLB stats - 0.4-WAR, 0-1, 3.38
11 comments:
I'm not at all concerned with things like "bad outings by Quintana and Carrasco", though of course Q's injury is worrisome.
As I've said before, I divide ST players into 3 groups:
1) The veterans who essentially are guaranteed roster spot.
2) The "auditioners" who are unoroven but have chances to win roster spots.
3) The "cannon fodder" who have no chance to win spots this year and are only here to spread out the workloads in the early weeks before reporting to their minor league teams.
I want groups 2 & 3 to hustle, work hard, and even take reasonable risks, to impress the decision-makers.
But I want the Group 1 players to stay safe above all, to get into shape, work on new approaches/pitches, and emphasize the "T" in "ST". I don't want them to risk injury (I shuddered when I saw Escobar 's head-first slide into home plate in an early game) in meaningless games.
Until the final week-to-10 days, I don't care about the stats of Group 1.
I am very happy we have Verlander and not Jake.
Pete? The more his team hits, the more he will get pitched to. I really hope, for that reason, that Alavarez appears early, as if I am the opposition, I have ZERO fear of Narvaez and Nido.
Brigham looks young. Kidding aside, hope he can help us.
Well, you should.care about Quintana Bill.
He coild.be lost until June
I think Brigham falls into Bill's category 3
But….how many LH hitters kept trying to hit it over the shift try to go the other way?
The team's history with pitching injuries always causes us to be concerned whenever someone has the slightest ache. Quintana has more than an ache, so we are rightfully worried that our #4 needs to be replaced before the season begins. Our pitching depth that made us happy is now depth minus one. That's still OK, but geez we still have 162 games to go.
Read the last line of my first paragraph.
I put him in Group 2, but near the bottom.
Is our "history" of pitching injuries worse than most teams'? Or just more noticeable to us?
I still feel that the Mets will go 7 deep by the all-star break
Wish I knew
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