OT: Mets 2026 Season Thread

yesrutgers01

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Nov 9, 2008
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Stearns has created such a mess for this team. Sorry - but so far- there is zero argument that he has improved the organization with unlimited funds. Now- we just want to jump on the Ewing and Benge from his minor league system. Let me ask- are they going to be better than Strawberry/Gooden or Wright/Reyes or even Alonso/Rosario/McNeil groupings of minor league talent?
 

Knight Shift

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May 19, 2011
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Stearns has created such a mess for this team. Sorry - but so far- there is zero argument that he has improved the organization with unlimited funds. Now- we just want to jump on the Ewing and Benge from his minor league system. Let me ask- are they going to be better than Strawberry/Gooden or Wright/Reyes or even Alonso/Rosario/McNeil groupings of minor league talent?
C'mon man, the Mets just took a series from the formidable Braves! They were worn out from scoring all those runs the past 3 games!!!

I don't pay close enough attention, but assuming Senga comes back to old form, what is the starting rotation? And hope we never see Myers ever again.
 

Doctor Worm

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Feb 7, 2002
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C'mon man, the Mets just took a series from the formidable Braves! They were worn out from scoring all those runs the past 3 games!!!

I don't pay close enough attention, but assuming Senga comes back to old form, what is the starting rotation? And hope we never see Myers ever again.
Peralta
McLean
Senga
Manaea
Peterson

Hate to disappoint you, but we will most definitely see Myers again. Also probably not in a high leverage situation anytime soon, unless there are no other options.
 
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Doctor Worm

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Sounds crazy in a 9-0 game, but the Mets have had every opportunity to get back into it. In three innings out of seven (at this writing) they have left the bases loaded. 12 LOB in 7 innings.
 

MadRU

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Jul 26, 2001
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LeapinLou

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Jul 24, 2001
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Just nice to see McClean pitch like this. Bichette 15 for 30 over the last 7 games. Bullpen is rested for the series with the Phillies. Let's see if they can get 2 of 3.
 
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Doctor Worm

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Question for @Zak57 -- With the exception of the guys who are already here, are there any Met prospects who have overperformed expectations? Seems like most, if not all, have plateaued or regressed.
 

Zak57

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Question for @Zak57 -- With the exception of the guys who are already here, are there any Met prospects who have overperformed expectations? Seems like most, if not all, have plateaued or regressed.
Not many but I'd say Pena for sure considering he jumped over the FCL and is more than holding his own in St Lucie at 18. 2 young pitchers in the lower minors Nicolas Carreno and Jose Chirinos are performing well and turning heads. Randy Guzman is performing pretty well and probably due for a promotion soon. Yovanny Rodriguez having a good stateside debut. Keep an eye on Emilio Obispo.

Santucci and Wenninger are working on things but coming along nicely. There's some others doing fine but yeah overall you would have liked to see more. Most disappointed in Mitch Voit right now but he might be turning the corner a little.
 

Doctor Worm

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Not many but I'd say Pena for sure considering he jumped over the FCL and is more than holding his own in St Lucie at 18. 2 young pitchers in the lower minors Nicolas Carreno and Jose Chirinos are performing well and turning heads. Randy Guzman is performing pretty well and probably due for a promotion soon. Yovanny Rodriguez having a good stateside debut. Keep an eye on Emilio Obispo.

Santucci and Wenninger are working on things but coming along nicely. There's some others doing fine but yeah overall you would have liked to see more. Most disappointed in Mitch Voit right now but he might be turning the corner a little.
Thanks - well done! What about Kevin Parada? He is raking in AAA, albeit in a small sample. Everyone had written him off -- is there hope for him? He's pretty bad defensively though.
 
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Zak57

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Thanks - well done! What about Kevin Parada? He is raking in AAA, albeit in a small sample. Everyone had written him off -- is there hope for him? He's pretty bad defensively though.
He is but personally I can't take him seriously after being so bad for so long. I'm just chalking it up to a small sample size at this point. If he keeps it up for the rest of the year then he would be back on the radar for 2027. The Mets signed Torrens to that extension and obviously have Alvarez also but would be nice to get another C ready for a call up. Defensively I think he's considered about average right now.
 

Toddwills00

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Nov 14, 2013
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How much longer does the Mets roll with Vientos/Baty, I know they were never high end prospects but for the most part they have been inconsistent/disappointing during their careers . How much longer do we give both opportunities? And Alvarez is quickly entering this conversation as well.
 
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willisneverrana43

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How much longer does the Mets roll with Vientos/Baty, I know they were never high end prospects but for the most part they have been inconsistent/disappointing during their careers . How much longer do we give both opportunities? And Alvarez is quickly entering this conversation as well.
In the least, they should be a strict right/lefty platoon.
 

Doctor Worm

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How much longer does the Mets roll with Vientos/Baty, I know they were never high end prospects but for the most part they have been inconsistent/disappointing during their careers . How much longer do we give both opportunities? And Alvarez is quickly entering this conversation as well.
Baty absolutely was a high end prospect. He was #27 in the 2022 MLB Pipeline Top 100, and #21 in 2023.

I don't think Vientos was ever Top 100, but he was in the Mets Top 4 one year.
 
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Apr 8, 2002
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Fewest amount of Mets fans in Philly in a long long time

must have all gone to the Knicks parade today
The parade was sick. That is a big factor.

Btw, I thought analytics was the way for Stearns? How do you explain the lack of range by Semien on the ground ball that could have been a double-play? :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO:
 

RutgersNJ

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Jan 29, 2013
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Been retired since age 60 and to keep busy I'm a school crossing guard 2 schools at age 71. Talk all kinds of sports with parents and a Freehold Twp coach everyday. Today is the last day and yesterday we were all talking that'll be 80 days before we meet again. Where will the Mets be in 80 days? It's such a LONG season, who knows, only 5 games back. Season passes to Avon and listening to day games between dips in the ocean! Have a great, safe summer everyone!
 
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Doctor Worm

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Here is my next installment of Mets Through the Years. As we suffer through these Semiquincentennial Mets, here’s a look at the Bicentennial Mets of 1976, 50 years ago.

From a socio-political perspective, 1976 was not a happy time. We had just seen a president resign and had lost a war. Both were unthinkable. Our economy was trapped in stagflation, which the economists at the time considered impossible. Yet in New York there was optimism because of the visit of the Bicentennial Tall Ships. (Look it up.)

For Mets fans, there was optimism because of this guy.



But he was not my favorite player on that team. That would be this guy.


More on both of these guys later.

In 1976, the Miracle Mets of 69 was a distant memory, and the Ya Gotta Believe Mets of 73 was becoming so. The 76 Mets were an aging team in need of a rebuild which would painfully begin the following year. But they were trying to run it back one last time. And they were pretty successful, by today’s standards. Managed by Joe Frazier (not Smokin’ Joe), their 86-76 record would probably get them a wild card today. Back then, all it got you was 15 games out.

Six Mets on the 1969 team were still around in 1976. Four were position players - Jerry Grote, Bud Harrelson, Ed Kranepool, and Wayne Garrett. Then there were the two who mattered most, Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman. They were now veterans in their prime. 1976 was Koosman’s year, as he went 21-10 and finished second in Cy Young voting. Along with young stud Jon Matlack, they formed a Big 3 which was the best in baseball at the time. The fourth starter was Mickey Lolich, who had been acquired for Rusty Staub in a trade of chubby stars who had seen better days. The fifth starter was a rookie named Craig Swan who would become their ace in the barren days to come. Along with the bullpen, they led all of MLB in ERA!

Speaking of the bullpen, that brings us to my favorite player on the team. He was a journeyman named Skip Lockwood who had a career year. (I think I liked him because I had oversized glasses like his.) As the Mets closer, he had 106 strikeouts in 92 innings, over 10 per 9 innings! Back then, that was absolutely insane for anybody not named Nolan Ryan.

The other key reliever was Bob Apodaca, who went on to become a Met pitching coach in the 1990’s. The other relievers were pretty much no names: Ken Sanders, Nino Espinosa, Bob Myrick, Rick Baldwin, Hank Webb, and Tom Hall. 13 pitchers. THIRTEEN. That’s all they used for the whole season. Last year the Mets used 46. The game has changed a little bit, wouldn’t you say?

Which brings us to the position players. We’ve already mentioned the holdovers from 1969. They had some other veterans whose best years were behind them: Felix Millan, Del Unser, and future manager Joe Torre. A solid hitter in John “the Hammer” Milner. A couple of promising rookies in John Stearns and Lee Mazzilli. And some forgettable youngsters like Bruce Boisclair, Roy Staiger, and Mike Vail.

And oh yeah, THAT guy. His name is Dave Kingman. He was a big name Giants prospect, but they tired of him and sold him to the Mets. Just sold him, for money. Back then teams did that. Kingman could hit the ball REALLY far, on those rare occasions that he hit it.

To put it in perspective. In the Mets inaugural year of 1962, Frank Thomas (a different one, not the testosterone guy) hit 34 homers, which was a big deal at the time. That Met record stood until 1975, when Kingman hit 36. Then in 1976, he had 32 - BY MID-JULY! Might he break Maris’ record? Probably not, but he seemed like a good bet to hit 50, which at the time only nine players had ever done before. (Two of the nine were former Met Willie Mays, and former Met announcer Ralph Kiner.) Shea was abuzz. This was a big f-n’ deal.

Then Kingman got hurt, missed seven weeks, and was not the same afterwards. He finished the season with 37, which broke his own Met record, but left fans wondering what might have been. He was gone the following year, as part of the 1977 Seaver purge. In hindsight, it was the start of a necessary rebuild. But at the time, we were really pissed off. And remained pissed until about 1984, when a new hope emerged, named Dwight Gooden.

So that was the Bicentennial year of 1976, 50 years ago. I’ll wrap this up with a 60 year lookback at the very forgettable 1966 team.

Thanks for reading!
 
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