Author: Derek Reifer

Luck and the 2021 New York Mets

The New York Mets are in 1st place in the NL East. As of July 16, they have a three-game lead on the second-place Braves and a nearly 80% chance at the postseason per FanGraphs. Could it be possible they’ve actually been unlucky? Of course, there’s been borderline unbelievable injury luck. Remember this lineup? (The Mets won that game 1-0.) Many words have already been written about...

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Polar Bear Plate Discipline: Is Pete Alonso Waking Up?

Bears are famous for hibernation. Maybe that’s what happened in 2020 for Pete Alonso. The affably-known “Polar Bear” had about as red-hot an MLB debut as physically possible, when he set the all-time record for home runs in a rookie season with 53 in 2019. Last season, though, was clearly a down year. Pete saw declines vs. his rookie year in just about everything: batting...

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Deep Dive: Look At What Mets Are Getting in Francisco Lindor

How we feeling, Mets fans? It’s true – Francisco Lindor, Mr. Smile, is officially headed to Queens. Just as the Dodgers did last offseason, and in shockingly similar fashion, the Mets have acquired a career-prime, marketable superstar to underscore new owner Steve Cohen’s stamp on the team (if that wasn’t strong enough already). Before we dig into the new King of New York...

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Edwin Diaz Looking More Like Old Self

  Quick! Without cheating – how many home runs has Edwin Díaz given up this season? Man, it feels like a million. There was of course that one against Marcell Ozuna to blow the game against the Braves. And oh, who could forget the demoralizing two-run shot by Aaron Hicks when he blew the game against the hated Yankees.  And yeah, then there was… Actually, that was it. Two home runs...

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Modeling the Mets’ Attendance

  Even before the pandemic, baseball attendance was declining. According to Ronald Blum of Boston.com, attendance was down in 2019 for the fourth straight season, the longest such streak in league history. Why? Perhaps young people are losing interest in the game. Perhaps the increasing polarization of team records, with multiple squads winning (and losing) over 100 games regularly, is...

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