Tom Brennan - Many Sunday Tidbits of the Tasty METS Kind

TOM’S MANY TASTY TIDBITS  

YEAH, THE METS LOST ANOTHER, 2-1.  

Three hits. Sheer garbage. Dreck.

More wasted pitching. So… What else can we talk about? Read on…

RICHARD NEER FACEBOOK POST RINGS TRUE RE: METS PRESSURE

I saw Richard Neer post the following on Facebook, and it is very spot on. Which is why I have made the suggestion in recent weeks more than once that that Mets move the team to another, lower pressure, city.

Of course they won’t move the team because of the mega project that Steve Cohen has going on in the area, for which HE needs the team right where it is now located, but when we wonder why the Mets always seem to fall short, I (and Billy Joel) think the main reason is simply one thing: 

PRESSURE!

NEER: “(Brandon Nimmo) … said that a conversation with Alonso convinced him that the Mets were planning to blow things apart in the off season, which influenced him to waive his no trade clause. He said he could detect no undue tension in the clubhouse last year. He observed that playing in Texas showed him how NY is a unique place to play. He was immune to it, being the only organization he grew up with.”

“The atmosphere is much lighter elsewhere, which contributes to some veteran players failing in the big city.”

My take? 

If “some veteran players fail in the big city”, then those failures clearly mean more losses and fewer wins. 

And fewer wins means repeatedly missing playoffs.

MY ANSWER?  I DUNNO - MOVE THE TEAM?

DRAFT BETTER? TRADE BETTER?  ALL OF THE ABOVE? 

And, of course, when many veteran players succumb to the pressure Nimmo refers to, especially when they first join the team, why would you trade away players like Nimmo and Alonso that are immune to the pressure?  

A very serious question to ponder, and one which, given the many trades and signings that David Stearns made this past off-season, he seems to have given insufficient consideration to. To the team’s detriment, so far, at least.

HAIL TO THE KING!

“The King?”

My nickname for Carlos Cortes, when he was in the Mets organization, was King Carlos. So I looked at a box score on Saturday morning, and I noticed that King Carlos (now with the Athletics) had just gone oh for four. 

After that oh-fer, he was hitting .356! 

Heck, the great Juan Soto was hitting just .282.

And in his entire major league career right now, in nearly 200 official at bats, the King is hitting .331/.369/.558!

All hail to the King! (No Mets “pressure” playing for the Athletics, I guess).

Without Carlos, tailgating Mets fans hold No Kings rallies. The King has left the building.

BTW, ex-Met Jarred Kelenic is hitting .278 for CWS. Only 18 ABs, it’s true, but no pressure. Even Pete Alonso was up to 8 HRs, 22 RBIs on Friday.

SPEEDY SAM ROBERTSON:

If the 17th round (2025) IF/OF, Sam Robertson, was involved in politics, he’d definitely be running. He steals with aplomb, and steals more than most politicians do, and it’s all LEGAL.  You see, he swipes bags, 

lots of them, and it’s legal because the bags he swipes are bases. 

So far this year, .250 with a .384 OBP with 16 steals in 27 contests.

And 25 steals in 180 plate appearances.

No power displayed at all, to date, by the 6’1”, 180 Robertson. 

Very little in his year in college, too.

Walks a lot. I don’t know very much about him. But he can swipe bags.

His longer term challenge to pursue his major league dream will be to get his average up and add power. 

Jeff McNeil did it. Why not Sam?

AN OVERRATED PROSPECT PITCHER?

Joel Diaz is # 38 in Prospect 1500’s Mets prospect list. Not extremely highly ranked, but 38 means a lot of guys are ranked below you.

But so far, for Brooklyn this year, he is 0-5, 9.13 ERA in 24 innings, with a 2.15 WHIP. 

That ain’t Top Anything. Bottom 38, maybe.

IF YOU ARE A METS FAN IN NEW YORK … OUCH! 

Saw this Joel Sherman headline:

Yankees look like the best team in the majors — and they haven’t even hit their ceiling

“The Yankees have a fine argument as the best team in the majors — and they are inching ever closer to being whole.”

What? You’re telling me that the Mets aren’t the best team in the majors? 

I guess so!  But I don’t understand how… 

After all, the Mets are so very darn good! LOL

A Mets Prospect With a 0.00 ERA?

I am sure everyone has heard of RHP Jun-Seok Shim. No? 

Anyway…

His ERA in the lower minors in 2026 is 0.00. With a 1.50 WHIP. In 2 IP.

Which is impressive, relatively speaking, as (by comparison) the first two (unnamed) pitchers for the FCL Mets in their Friday blow out 15-4 loss left that game with ERAs exceeding 30.00. An ERA of 0.00 is much better, right? 

Anyway, how did the Mets end up with Mr. Shim? 

Well, he pitched 13 1/3 innings for the Marlins rookie ball team last year, and in that short stint, he allowed 19 runs on 9 hits, and an amazing 23 walks and 8 hit batsmen.  Pretty wild, huh? 

Strike-throwing Bryce Montes de Oca felt better after seeing that.

I guess the Marlins had seen enough. They let Mr. Shim walk.

But 2026 is a new year for Mr. Shim. Last year is ancient history.

My advice?  Throw strikes, strikes, strikes.  And prosper. 

PEELING PAINT:

Here's a fond memory for you: remember Shea Stadium in the early days, with paint peeling very badly off of the seats? If you went to the game wearing short pants, you had to be careful.  

Ahh, the good old days. With upper deck seats being $1.50, you could put up with chipping and peeling paint, back in the days before plastic covered seats came into vogue. If I was a smarter kid, I would've brought sandpaper with me to games.

Boy, I miss those orange, blue and green seats. And I think field level seats were yellow.  Didn’t get down there to box level all that much.

THE NEXT RON HUNT?

Daiverson Gutierrez, catching for Brooklyn, has been a piñata for pitchers in his career. Through Wednesday, he had 842 pro plate appearances and been plunked an amazing 41 times. Hey, it helps the on base %, right?

He was hitting .165 this season, but had a much higher .304 OBP. 

How?  Plunks and walks.

By comparison, in the majors, Brett Baty is approaching 1,150 PAs and been hit by pitch just 7 times. Gutierrez gets nailed 8 times as often as Baty. Is it any surprise that Baty’s career OBP is a mere .293? 

Start sticking your tush out, Brett. Lean that padded elbow in.

Ex-Met Brandon Nimmo has been up 4 times as much as Baty, but has been hit 13 times as much. 

Nimmo and ex-Met Mark Canha get what Brett seemingly does not - long after the HBP bruise heals, that HBP vitally boosts your career OBP - and compensation value.

I don’t care who your guy is…

MY GUY IS…

Randy Guzman, who else?  The proof in the pudding for him will be as he gets to the higher minors, can he succeed against superior pitching, but his combined stats this year and last, through Thursday?

352 ABs, 27 doubles, 3 triples, 17 HRs, 78 RBIs, 51 walks/HBPs, and .290/.375/.525. Pretty sensational, if you ask me.  Let’s see if he can keep it up.

The Mets have him listed as their number 24 prospect. 

On his prospect page, it says that Guzman “ran a 108.5 MPH 90th percentile exit velocity at single A last year, better than Konnor Griffin‘s 107.7 in the same league.” 

Hey, I claimed him first. 

You go find your own guy. 

He’s “My Guy.”

LIFE IS FULL OF INTERESTING TIDBITS LIKE THIS ONE

Mack passed along to me this interesting info about Herb Washington.

“The A's released Herb Washington, the only designated runner in MLB history. 

“He was a world class sprinter who appeared in 105 games as a pinch runner in 1974-75. He stole 31 bases and scored 33 runs. He never had a plate appearance.”

“After his release, he owned 29 McDonald's restaurants, which at the time, made him the African-American franchisee running the most McDonald's outlets in the U.S.” “Washington then went on to become a director of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.”

Federal Reserve Bank Director? 
I never would’ve guessed that one. Very impressive of the now-74 y/o.
Love it! And I’ll take a stolen base with my fries, thank you very much.
I worked at Wetson’s as a teenager. 
They were the “Mets” of burgers and fries.
The Yankees? McDonalds, all the way.