3 UP

1. Jacob dayGrom

If you thought Jacob deGrom was great, you should see him in the daytime. After just making the Padres look foolish at the plate for seven scoreless innings yesterday, he’s now 24-11 with a 1.86 ERA in day games.

One other note on deGrom here is with the seven shutout innings, his season ERA is now 2.86. He’s top five in FIP, K/9, fWAR, and strikeouts. With him getting stronger as the season progresses, don’t sleep on his Cy Young chances.

2. Lugoat

You cannot pitch better than how Seth Lugo has pitched during July. As noted by MMO‘s Mathew Brownstein, Lugo has pitched 9.2 innings in July allowing no runs on three hits while walking one and striking out 13.

As noted by MLB.com‘s David Adler, Lugo’s vaunted curve had a spin rate of 3,397 rpm. That partially explains his dominance.

It should come as no surprise that with Lugo pitching like Lugo the bullpen has been pitching much better over the past month.

3. Scooting Along

In the series against the Padres, Michael Conforto was 4-for-12 with a double and two RBI. Since the All Star Break, he’s hitting .306/.346/.449. This makes him one of the Mets best hitters since the break which should come as no surprise as that’s exactly what he is.

3 DOWN

1. Smith’s Left Field Struggles

It would appear Dominic Smith‘s misplay in San Francisco was not an isolated incident. In Wednesday’s game against he Padres, he made two errors in the outfield. His first on a Hunter Renfroe single allowed a run to score, and his second allowed runners to advance a base. This led to an unearned run in what was a three run inning which proved to be the difference in the game.

With Smith’s recent play in the outfield, he has gone from a 1 DRS to a -2 DRS. This speaks to both how poorly he has played of late and just how little experience he has out there. Between his Major League and minor league experience, he has played fewer than a full season’s worth of games in left.

Infamously, the Mets outrighted refused to have him work in the outfield during Spring Training and many other times early in the year. Smith has never had an offseason or Spring Training to work on his outfield defense.

Maybe he’s an outfielder and maybe he’s not. What we do know is he’s the team’s third best hitter this year, and he’s overcome much in his career. With zero viable options this year, the Mets need to let him try to prove himself again.

2. Home Run Derby Curse

While largely disproven, many people believe in the existence of some form of a Home Run Derby curse. So far in the second half, Pete Alonso seems to be suffering from that curse hitting just .125/.333/.350 in the second half.

There are some positive signs like him actually hitting the call harder and his walk rate improving significantly. Conversely, he’s been pulling the ball at a much higher clip than he had in the first half indicating he’s much easier to shift against. His strikeout rate is also skyrocketing.

On the one hand, Alonso similarly slumped in May and had a huge June. On the other, there’s more of a book on him, and he’s really struggled. It’s now incumbent upon him to adjust like he did previously. Having see him already do it give us legitimate optimism.

3. Syndergaard Rumors

Recent reports have the Mets actively trying to trade Noah Syndergaard. This is the same Syndergaard who is top 20 in the majors in FIP. That means even in a down year he’s still a top level pitcher. Everyone in baseball knows this, and that’s why the smartest teams in baseball are lining up to rescue Syndergaard from this organization.

Trading him makes ZERO sense from the Mets perspective. There’s no minor leaguers ready to step him and take his place. The Mets will already need to replace 2/5 of their rotation, and we’re already hearing the Mets are near the upper limit of their 2020 budget. If you trade Syndergaard, you now need to get three starters.

On top of this, biggest profile trade Brodie Van Wagenen has made to this point has been a disaster. Seeing how that went down, you really have to question why the Mets would let him trade a player of Syndergaard’s magnitude.