Mets pitchers and catchers report to Port St. Lucie in 23 days. Here’s a selection of recent quotes, notes, and blurbs from around the Mets blogosphere.
Playoffs or Bust
The New York Mets will make the playoffs. Queue up the celebratory Bartolo Colon GIFs! Actually call this more of a “somebody has to do it” type of situation since the National League appears fairly wide open beyond the top 2-3 favorites. Last season the Mets won 79 games — (easy math) two away from .500. The Pirates and Giants won the two Wild Card spots at 88 wins.
In 2015 the Mets get back Matt Harvey to team with Rookie of the Year Jacob deGrom in the rotation. Add “professional hitter” Michael Cuddyer to the lineup and the Mets aren’t exactly the train wreck people on social media love to make easy laughs about. Atlanta and Philadelphia are in the midst of tearing down their rosters, giving New York a little hope in the division. For whatever its worth, the Mets were two games better than the Marlins in 2014, another team that should also vie for a place in the Wild Card play-in game. – The Big Lead
National Deficit
The Mets went 4-15 against the Nationals last season and 75-68 against everyone else. Was it dumb luck? Or was it a legitimate matchup problem that the Mets are going to need to iron out before they face the Nats on Opening Day?
General manager Sandy Alderson seemed to hint at the latter theory when addressing the situation last September, noting that the Nationals “have a quality player at virtually every position,” with an “excellent rotation” and a “great bullpen.” Now the Nats possess Scherzer as well, dampening any advantage that the Mets might have had with pitching matchups. Harvey, Wheeler and deGrom may be a standout top three, but so is Scherzer, Jordan Zimmermann and Stephen Strasburg.
Because baseball is baseball, the Mets will probably do better than 4-15 against the Nationals this year. But most pundits expect Washington to blowtorch the rest of the National League East, and for good reason. Consider the numbers behind the Mets’ struggles against the Nats:
• David Wright has struck out in 30 percent of his plate appearances against Strasburg and Zimmermann. That’s 63 percent higher than his career whiff rate.
• Last season, Lucas Duda hit zero of his career-high 30 homers against Washington. He holds a career .250 on-base percentage at Nationals Park.
• Over the past three seasons, four of Bobby Parnell‘s 10 blown saves have come against the Nationals. (That’s 40 percent of his blown saves in 11 percent of his total games.)
• Over the past three seasons, the Mets are a combined 15-41 (.268) against Washington.
If we know anything about baseball, it’s that past performance cannot reliably predict future success. But if the Mets want to make the playoffs for the first time in nine years, they’ll need to figure out some way to win in Washington. – Anthony DiComo, Mets.com
Bring In The Lefty
Veteran lefty reliever Dana Eveland reportedly has signed with the Boston Red Sox, leaving the competition for a second left-hander to complement Josh Edgin in the Mets bullpen relatively thin.
The competitors for that role should include Rule 5 pick Sean Gilmartin, re-signed Scott Rice, plus farmhands Darin Gorski, Dario Alvarez and Jack Leathersich. Alternatively, Sandy Alderson has indicated the Mets may just go with six righties plus Edgin in the bullpen.
In the latter scenario, Edgin would be in line for extreme usage. And that doesn’t bode well for his health, given that predecessors in that rolePedro Feliciano, Tim Byrdak and Rice all required shoulder surgery after being heavily used because of a lack of a capable complement.
Of course, the Mets conceivably could acquire a left-handed reliever in a deal involving Dillon Gee, who figures to be traded this month. – Adam Rubin, ESPN
