OT:LET'S GO METS
- Thread starter RCTrooper
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I keep Niese and try and make him a Ramiro Mendoza long man. He saved the Yanks' bacon for years in that role.
Wheeler is currently ahead of schedule (which can alway change of course) and is slated for June as of now.
Wheeler is currently ahead of schedule (which can alway change of course) and is slated for June as of now.
I think you keep Colon due to his clubhouse influence and ability to work with the other pitchers. He's not going to be expensive at his age, and doesn't need to be out there regularly.
They don't re-sign him. He's going to want 6 years and will get at least 5, and the Mets won't commit that kind of money.
I'm okay with them not re-signing him. He had a really hot streak when he came over from the Tigers, but to believe he's going to duplicate that next year (let alone over a 5- or 6-year span) requires a certain amount of magical thinking. An outfield of Granderson, Conforto and Lagares works for me, particularly because it's stronger defensively with Lagares out there.
You need someone until Wheeler gets back, and that's probably Niese or Colon. Personally, I think Colon would be more fun, but either would work.
I'm pretty sure Clippard is gone. He's a free agent, and his body of work ought to get him a pretty decent contract.
In my opinion the answer should be no. I find him to be an average outfielder and a streaky hitter. Finally his baseball IQ is questionable. We could do better.
He's already saying that he wants his next contract to be his last, which means way too many years and too much money to take on. You would rather pay the pitchers with that money.
I don't know if better is necessarily the word I would use. Maybe different. But I don't think we'll do better than 30 plus home runs and over 100 driven in. Just have to go with a different type of offense and hope to have the type of lineups that can string hits together while also bringing extra base power to the gaps.
Punting on Cespedes scares me as a Mets fan. While I understand the reasoning behind it (too many years, too much money, questionable long-term ability) who are you going to replace him with, and how will that translate to wins? The man was absolutely electric and carried this team over the Nationals and into the playoffs. And Murphy? That will never happen again, so who replaces his mythical production?
You replace Cespedes with Conforto playing full time (nothing in his minor league stats shows a difficulty hitting lefties, not to mention that Duffy homer) and a (hopefully) healthy Lagares likely platooning with a cheap FA option ( looking at the possibilities Rasmus is probably the guy that makes the most sense).
There is very little enticing on the free agent list as respects non-pitchers. Epstein is a smart dude. Heyward and Cespedes will get mega money. From somebody else.
You extend a qualifying offer to Murphy, he rejects it, you take your first round pick thank you very much and hope Dilson/Flores at second and Tejada/Ceccini/Rosario at short hit enough. It will certainly be a better pair defensively (assuming Ceccini cleans up some of those errors).
As said previously the Mets will have the best rotatiom in baseball. That's a hell of a starting point.
Truth be told, the best place to spend money would be on the bullpen. That's the most bang for the buck, and the most obvious weakness in the World Series.
Think Cards after Pujols. That was supposed to be a death blow but they put together a different type of team and just kept on rolling.
I don't find Cespedes to be an "okay" outfielder. I just think he half asses a handful of times per week. Physically, there is nothing the guy can't do on a baseball diamond. He is Bo Jackson redux--and I said that 8 weeks ago before Harold Reynolds said it on the broadcast. lol.
But you can't sign him if you're the Mets. You just can't.
Early chatter is the Wilpons are willing to take the payroll up to $115-120MM as a starting point by the spring. You can't spend $20MM of that on Cespedes and another $10MM on Murphy. You need to start making early advances on resigning the pitchers and avoiding arbitration with them.
You build your offense around Grandy, Conforto, d'Arnoud and Duda. You take each season as it comes and plug in rentals as the season unfolds. Just like this season. This starting pitching will have you in the conversation every season for the next 5 years at least.
But you can't sign him if you're the Mets. You just can't.
Early chatter is the Wilpons are willing to take the payroll up to $115-120MM as a starting point by the spring. You can't spend $20MM of that on Cespedes and another $10MM on Murphy. You need to start making early advances on resigning the pitchers and avoiding arbitration with them.
You build your offense around Grandy, Conforto, d'Arnoud and Duda. You take each season as it comes and plug in rentals as the season unfolds. Just like this season. This starting pitching will have you in the conversation every season for the next 5 years at least.
They need to decide which positions can be upgraded. If no cespedes and no of upgrades then you need to look at the inf. if you sign cespedes then you need to trade lagares and play him in cf. I don't like him in center. An of of conforto lagares and grandy maybe enough but that is putting a lot of pressure on conforto to put up solid numbers. Same with Herrera for Murphy.
Agreed. But as I posted upthread, if Grandy and Conforto can combine for 45-50 homers (I posted 50 above, which is the high side of realistic expectations) you're okay.
Cespedes has never sniffed 30 homers before this season. Perhaps he needed us as much as we needed him, as it propelled his last 1/3 of a season. Or maybe he is a 30 home run hitter. But his body of work doesn't guarantee 30 homers.
Conforto hit 6(?) in 50 games? and he started the season in high A ball. I'm comfortable thinking he'll hit 20-22 in a 155-158 games.
+1
You can't blow your money and anything but the starting rotation and plugging holes in the bullpen. Even Murphy would be a waste of money. He had his career highlight moment, but it's over.
I think we need better table setters in order for the hungry guys to eat. If the Mets are going to try to keep Wright in the number 2 hole he can't strike out like a free swinging power hitter. Grandy had a pretty good OBP. Draws a lot of walks. You have to be able to take advantage of the hole that creates on the right side and set up 1st and 3rd situations. And by hungry guys I mean the players that are supposed to bring runs in. But at the same time those hungry guys have to eat what's on the plate instead of always reaching for what's not on the menu at the moment. By that I mean guys willing to take what the defense is giving them. It's ridiculous to be striking out so often rather than making adjustments when the defense is giving you one side of the field by playing in an overshift. You can't always swing for the fences. Especially when you have two strikes. Didn't the Royals just show that?
If I'm going to ask the Wilpons to pony up money for an elite CF Cespedes is not the guy. I much rather have a CF player who hits 30 HR - 60 singles - 25 doubles - 2 triples and 95 RBI's. In my opinion that's a clutch hitter, Cespedes is sometimes a liability in the outfield, his hitting is streaky and his baseball IQ is suspect.
Wilma is a good defensive SS but as a hitter he choked badly in the post season. I wonder if we could make a play for SF Giants SS Crawford. If Murphy has the arm strength he should move from 2B to 3B and Wright should retire. This will free up salary space. I like to go on record and say that David Wright is a class act and will always be synonymous with the New York Mets but at this point in time he is clearly playing in pain. So, in order to avoid serious Irreversible injury both he and the organization should come to an amicable exit decision.
Finally, the catchers position must be upgraded. This kid doesn't have the arm strength or accuracy to throw out Terry Colins (sp). His hitting is also mediocre.
Wilma is a good defensive SS but as a hitter he choked badly in the post season. I wonder if we could make a play for SF Giants SS Crawford. If Murphy has the arm strength he should move from 2B to 3B and Wright should retire. This will free up salary space. I like to go on record and say that David Wright is a class act and will always be synonymous with the New York Mets but at this point in time he is clearly playing in pain. So, in order to avoid serious Irreversible injury both he and the organization should come to an amicable exit decision.
Finally, the catchers position must be upgraded. This kid doesn't have the arm strength or accuracy to throw out Terry Colins (sp). His hitting is also mediocre.
Mike Trout is busy...
We'd all love a centerfielder who would be among the 3 best in baseball.
Your hard-on for d'Arnoud is wildly misplaced.
He is a .300 hitting catcher with + power who calls a great game. He frames pitches well. He has a below average arm. There are 1-2 5 tool catchers in all of baseball. Who are you getting that is better?
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My biggest concern is Wright and I think his productivity starts to decline precipitously due to the back unfortunately. With this lineup, we need to protect that power with another power bat in CF, SS or second. That is critical in my mind. I have no clue where that comes from but if he declines, and it's going to happen soon, we have a big mess. We need power pieces around him.
Red Sox need pitching, we need hitting. I'd put a package together (hopefully not Harvey, but we may not have a choice) to get Bogaerts from them.
I'd resign Uribe, Johnson, Colon get a decent outfielder (Rasmus) and spend $15 million on the bullpen.
I'd resign Uribe, Johnson, Colon get a decent outfielder (Rasmus) and spend $15 million on the bullpen.
Managerial makeover in the NL East. Mattingly to Florida, Dusty Baker to Nats. BTW I also don't have a problem with d'Arnaud. Not too many catchers can give you 15-20 home run production.
Plus he's hit .300 at every level. Even if he settles in at .285-.290 with 20 homers and 80 RBIs a year. He does that for 10-12 years and he's Jorge Posada. I'll take it.
darnaud is like concern #121 on the list. Catcher with Plawecki and him making barely 7 figures combined might be the best bang for your buck position in all of baseball.
The only way you get a CF with those type of stats is trading for Mookie Betts. It'll take Harvey and Matz.
After watching the World Series, I would like it if the Mets let Cespedes and Daniel Murphy walk. Then, make a play for Alex Gordon and Zobrist. I am sure Alex Gordon would be a better center fielder than Cespedes. You can also platoon Lagares for defensive purposes with Conforto until Conforto is ready to be an everyday player.
The salary is the other issue. d'Arnoud makes about $600k next year. Of the 6 guys in this year's all star game:
Buster Posery--$10.5MM
Yadier Molina--$15MM
Yasmani Grandal-$654k
Russell Martin-$8.5MM
Stephen Vogt--$505k
Salvadore Perez--$1MM
d'Arnoud is a steal.
Bingo. Be happy about what the team has at catcher (and, honestly, the arm doesn't matter that much against most teams these days, as steals aren't valued very highly), and spend money on real holes in the roster.
Not that I'm a proponent of trading one of the Fab Five starters, but If I even discussed that with another team it would have to bring back a young multi-tool CF like a A.J. Pollock, Mookie Betts or Adam Eaton as the centerpiece of a multi-player deal.
To be honest, Palwecki is a great trade piece. You can't let him rot on the bench. Recker is a fine backup.
This is a great illustration of my point and also how shred the damn Royals are. Take a look at that Perez contract. At 25 coming off a WS MVP he is locked up for 4 years at 16mm total, not per year. TOTAL. And if he ends up falling apart the last three years of the deal are all club options. Seriously.
Sandy needs to save money to lock up these kids. The pitchers, darnaud, Conforto. Do it right and the Mets will be competitive for 5-10 years. That's why I wouldn't be all that upset about Ces going.
That CF you describe isn't available and other than Trout doesn't really exist.
Wright will decide when he's ready to retire and the Mets can't force him to.
d'Arnaud threw out about 1/3 of baserunners this season. He's fine there.
Agree with you about Cespedes but since when is d'Arnaud's .820 OPS mediocre?? And he's still improving! He frames pitches well, though I do concede his arm is subpar (but how many teams steal bases often?)
Agree, I would trade Harvey for Betts / George Springer / Pollock if possible. I assume Carlos Correa is untouchable.
Mets have scheduled a presser for tomorrow to announce Collins' contract extension. Two more years.