213 Miles From Shea

The Mets look to bounce back from last night’s loss as they take on the Marlins for game three of the four game series. Yesterday the Marlins took an early 1-0 lead and the Mets weren’t able to muster a run until the ninth inning when Pete Alonso hit the Mets first homer of the season. A 2-1 loss is definitely frustrating. The Mets starting pitching behind David Peterson and relief pitching led by two scoreless innings from Tommy Hunter kept the Mets in the game the whole night.

Now the Mets will pivot as they look to guarantee at least a series split with the Marlins with a win tonight. This was originally supposed to be Justin Verlander day, but with Verlander landing on the IL at the start of the season the Mets turn to Tylor Megill.

In 15 games and 47 1/3 innings last season, Tylor Megill had a 5.13 ERA, 3.77 FIP, 1.246 WHIP and a 76 ERA+. When I think about last season, I remember Megill more as the 3.77 FIP pitcher, rather than the 5.13 ERA. Megill barely saw the Marlins last season, only catching them in relief in September where he pitched a scoreless inning where he walked two batters and struck out two. The Marlins have the following numbers against him:

• Jean Segura 1-5
• Jacob Stallings 1-3
• Jazz Chisholm Jr. 2-3
• Bryan De La Cruz 0-2, K
• Avisaíl García 0-2
• Jon Berti 0-1

The Mets bats will look to get back on the right track tonight against Edward Cabrera. Cabrera is coming off of a successful second season in the majors where he made 14 starts and pitched 71 2/3 innings with a 3.01 ERA, 4.59 FIP, 1.074 WHIP and a 135 ERA+. He made one start against the Mets last season where he allowed three runs from five hits and two walks while striking out four. That start was the first of four starts in a row where he allowed 11 runs over 19 2/3 innings, raising his season ERA from 2.39 to 3.15. Which Edward Cabrera will the Mets see tonight? The Mets have the following career numbers against him:

• Pete Alonso 3-8, 3 HR
• Francisco Lindor 1-6, BB, K
• Jeff McNeil 1-7, 2B
• Brandon Nimmo 3-5, 2 BB, K
• Mark Canha 1-2
• Eduardo Escobar 0-2
• Tomás Nido 1-2, 2B, K
• Daniel Vogelbach 0-2, K
• Omar Narváez 0-1, K

Three Things To Watch For:

1. A thorn in the Mets side: Garrett Cooper has four hits in eight trips to the plate this year against the Mets including a triple and a homer. He’s also made several terrific plays at first base. The Mets need to figure out how to keep Cooper off the base paths for the rest of the weekend.
2. Stealing Second: In the first two games of the season Starling Marte has stolen second base twice and has been caught stealing second once. He’s the only Met this year to steal a base. Marte’s career high in stolen bases is 47 which he has done twice. Last season he he stole only 18 bags. He can’t keep this pace up the whole season but right now it feels like he’s going to get close, if not pass, that career mark.
3. Happy Sidd Finch Day! The Mets and Sports Illustrated collaborated on one of the best April Fools stories in history in 1985. “The Curious Case of Sidd Finch” introduced the world to a fictious, barefoot starting pitching who threw some serious heat at 168 mph. How many times is this mentioned in the broadcast today?

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets and Marlins play game two of a four game set tonight as the Mets look to build momentum off of yesterday’s Opening Day win. The bullpen was the big question going into yesterday’s game. To paraphrase the Mets radio booth, the Mets got used to playing eight inning games last year since Edwin Díaz was so lights out in the ninth. Drew Smith, Brooks Raley, and David Robertson tossed a combined three innings allowing only one hit and nothing else while striking out six batters. Let’s keep all of that going tonight!

David Peterson earned José Quintana’s spot while he recovers on the injured list. Last season Peterson made 19 starts and pitched in 28 games, tossing 105 2/3 innings with a 3.83 ERA, 3.64 FIP, 1.334 WHIP and a 101 ERA+. This includes four games and three starts against the Marlins where he pitched 18 innings allowing five runs (2.50 ERA) from 16 hits while striking out 23 batters. Peterson is also coming off of a great spring training where he allowed no runs from one hit and eight walks over 12 innings while striking out 13 batters. The Marlins have the following career numbers against him:

• Jon Berti 2-12, 2B, 4 K
• Jean Segura 4-9, 2B, HR, 2 BB, 2 K
• Garrett Cooper 2-7, HR, 2 K
• Bryan De La Cruz 0-7, BB, 4 K
• Nick Fortes 1-5, K
• Jazz Chisholm Jr. 0-1, BB
• Jorge Soler 1-3, K
• Jacob Stallings 1-2, BB, K
• Avisaíl García 0-2, 2 K

The Mets bats will get their first look at Jesús Luzardo tonight. Luzardo made 18 starts and pitched 100 1/3 innings for the Marlins last season with a 3.32 ERA, 3.12 FIP, 1.037 WHIP and a 123 ERA+. It was by far the best season for Luzardo who has a career 4.59 ERA. He faced the Mets twice last season and allowed seven runs from 10 hits and five walks over 9 1/3 innings while striking out nine batters. The Mets have the following career numbers against him:

• Pete Alonso 2-11, HR, 5 K
• Eduardo Escobar 2-9, HR, BB
• Francisco Lindor 2-8, 2 K
• Jeff McNeil 4-8, K
• Mark Canha 0-5, 2 K
• Brandon Nimmo 2-5, 2B, HR, BB
• Tomás Nido 1-3, BB, K
• Starling Marte 0-3, K

Three Things To Watch For:

1. Power? The Mets hit 171 homers in 2022 which was six behind the league average. The Braves led the league with 243 and the Phillies had 205. The Mets didn’t need any homers to beat to beat the Marlins yesterday. With the injury concerns mounting for the Mets pitching staff, it would be nice for the Mets bats to give their starters and bullpen some additional breathing room. Hitting homers would be the quickest way to do it!
2. Crowd Size: Last season Miami had an average paid attendance of 11,203 per game. This put them in 29^th, behind Tampa Bay (13,927) and ahead of Oakland (9,973). We also know that players feed off of the energy in the crowd. Max Scherzer talked about how difficult it was pitching in the back fields during spring training without a crowd. During the World Baseball Classic we saw what loanDepot Park could look like with a full crowd. The games were fun! Imagine if the Marlins could replicate a little bit of that environment in their home ballpark all the time. Anyway, the Mets generally draw a crowd in Miami and it is a Friday night, so tonight should be one of the better attended games. One thing I’m curious about this season is if people in the Miami area will go see visiting World Baseball Classic stars, like Francisco Lindor, when they come to town.
3. Third time through the order woes. Opponents last year hit .238/.333/.378 against Peterson the first time through the order. Second time through .206/.304/.319. Third time through? .310/.375/.483. David Peterson’s success this year is going to depend on his ability to get hitters out the third time they face off in the game.

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets begin their highly anticipated 2023 campaign this afternoon as they take on the Marlins in Miami. Fresh off a 101-win season, the Mets are hungry to take the division and make a deep run in October. After a wild off-season, the Mets have had a tough spring, losing Edwin Díaz and José Quintana to injuries. This is Opening Day though. Today is the day optimism and wild dreaming about all of the opportunities the Mets have this season.

Max Scherzer will kick off the season for the Mets. He made 23 starts in his first season with the Mets tossing 145 1/3 innings with a 2.29 ERA, 2.62 FIP, 0.908 WHIP and a 169 ERA+. Incredibly, Scherzer never faced the Marlins last season however there are many Marlins who have faced Scherzer over his career:

• Jean Segura 13-36, HR, BB, 8 K
• Garrett Cooper 2-18, 2B, 2 BB, 5 K
• Avisaíl García 4-13, 3B, 2 HR, 3 K
• Jon Berti 3-9, BB, 3 K
• Joey Wendle 3-9, 3 K
• Jazz Chisholm Jr. 1-3, 3B, K
• Jorge Soler 0-3, 2K

The Mets bats will get a tall order on their first day of the season – the 2022 National League Cy Young Award winner, Sandy Alcántara. Last season he made 32 starts and tossed a league leading 228 2/3 innings including a league leading six complete games. Over that stretch he had a 2.28 ERA, 2.99 FIP, 0.980 WHIP and a 178 ERA+. He faced the Mets four times last year and the Mets were able to get to him a bit more than other teams. He allowed 11 runs, 10 earned (3.33 ERA) over 27 innings from 26 hits and five walks while striking out 21. The Mets have the following career numbers against Sandy:

• Pete Alonso 5-30, 3 2B, HR, BB, 8 K
• Jeff McNeil 9-31, 2B, HR, 3 BB, 3 K
• Brandon Nimmo 4-29, 2 2B, 3 BB, 6 K
• Francisco Lindor 7-23, 2 2B, HR, 3 BB, 3 K
• Eduardo Escobar 2-18, K
• Luis Guillorme 5-15, 5 K
• Starling Marte 4-13, 2 3B, HR, 3 K
• Mark Canha 3-8, 2B, HR, BB< K
• Daniel Vogelbach 4-9, 3 2B, HR, BB, K
• Omar Narváez 1-5, K

Three Things To Watch For

1. Mets on Opening Day: The Mets are a statistical anomaly for Opening Day. The Mets are 40-21 on Opening Day, by far the best in the league and it’s made even better considering the first eight seasons the Mets lost on Opening Day. Facing Sandy Alcántara today is going to put that record in jeopardy and give the Mets probably their toughest challenge since the years when they had to face Max Scherzer on the first day of the season.
2. A Game of Batting Champs: Today’s game will feature the National League batting champion, Jeff McNeil, against the American League batting champion, Luis Arraez. Arraez was traded to the Marlins in the off-season for a package built around Pablo López. Even crazier, if Justin Verlander got the start today we would have last years Cy Young Award winners in the same game as both batting champions. Anyway, I don’t know if both leagues batting champions have ever faced off to start a season before. It is definitely unusual.
3. Late Inning Bullpen Watch: How do the Mets respond to not having Edwin Díaz to close out games? Is it going to be David Robertson? Adam Ottavino? Both depending on the situation? It is very difficult to replace the best closer in the game but both Robertson and Ottavino had excellent seasons in 2022. Ottavino weas in the 99^th percentile for average exit velocity, 97^th for hard hit percentage and 89^th for strikeout percentage. David Robertson was in the 97^th percentile for expected batting average, 90^th for strikeout percentage and 99^th for fastball spin. Unlike Díaz who was top in every category, both Robertson and Ottavino have some holes. Players are more likely to hit Robertson hard. They both struggle to get players to chase their pitches. The late inning scenario is something the Mets will be watching all season.

Let’s Go Mets!

We finally made it! The last day of Spring Training!

The Mets and Marlins play each other in a late afternoon spring game before taking a few days off and starting the season against each other in Miami. If you include today’s game, the Mets and Marlins play each other eight times in their next eleven games. The two teams are going to get very familiar with each other over the next couple of weeks.

Big news broke during the Mets game last night that Brett Baty and Mark Vientos would be starting the season in the minors. That means the Mets are rolling with Eduardo Escobar as their starting third basemen at least in the short term for the 2023 Mets. What Billy Eppler wouldn’t commit to yet is if Darin Ruf has made the major league roster. It feels like Ruf made the roster if both Baty and Vientos are starting in the minors. That being said, the Mets still have a few days to make decisions before the games start for real on Thursday.

Three Things To Watch For:

1. See You Again Soon! Justin Verlander makes his final start of spring training today and is scheduled to face the Marlins next Saturday for the third game of the season. I am curious if he hides anything from the Marlins, works on specific pitches only, or splits his time between this game and a minor league game or a bullpen session. Unless it looks like he’s really going full steam today, I’m not going to read too much into his performance
2. Normal Lineup? The Mets have Darin Ruf in the game today as the DH, which is where he would be on days the Mets face off against a lefty starting pitcher. Besides that this lineup looks like the lineup the Mets will roll with at the start of the season. The only question marks in are Ruf and Escobar. According to Showalter, despite Ruf’s poor spring training performance, he’s been destroying baseballs in the backfields. Escobar has been cold this spring, but was one of the best hitters on the team the last month or so of the regular season.
3. Final Bullpen Spots Up For Grabs: Before the start of this game the Mets optioned Jeff Brigham to Syracuse and reassigned T.J. McFarland and Jimmy Yacabonis to minor league camp. This leaves Curtiss, Nogosek, Hernández and Santana battling for the last three spots.

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets were firing on all cylinders yesterday. Today they look to keep that going and bring that momentum in the regular season which is less than a week away!

Max Scherzer tossed 100 pitches yesterday, allowing two runs from four hits and striking out 11 batters, including striking out the side to end his outing. The bullpen behind him (Santana, Muckenhirn, McLoughlin) all tossed scoreless outings allowing only two hits while striking out three batters.

The bats also came out with Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso each collecting two hits and racking up a combined five RBIs. Omar Narváez also joined in the fun collecting two hits and hitting his first homer of the spring. The Mets bats and arms will take on the Cardinals tonight and hopefully will keep the good times flowing:

Three Things To Watch For:

1. Rotation Battle: It looks like one of David Peterson or Tylor Megill will be the second starter on the team, breaking up Scherzer and Verlander and making sure that Verlander starts the home opener. Today will be the second turn in the rotation where both pitchers are expected to make an extended appearance. Last time Peterson entered the game with eight scoreless innings in spring while Megill had one earned run in basically the same stretch. Peterson turned in an additional four scoreless innings while Megill struggled a bit, allowing six runs, only three earned, over 2 2/3 innings. We will see this roster battle live, today!
2. Finding Nimmo: Nimmo returns to the lineup today after a scary injury. Only a few days after Edwin Díaz went down, Nimmo slid into second awkwardly. He was down for about a minute or two and concerns were that he had a similar injury. He was diagnosed with low grade sprains in his knee and ankle and was considered week to week putting Opening Day in doubt. A couple of days ago he played in a minor league game and hit a triple. Today we’ll get the sense if he’s good to go, or not, for Opening Day.
3. Opening Day Lineup? Tonight’s lineup is incredibly close to the Opening Day lineup. We finally see the return of Jeff McNeil, playing in his first spring training game since the World Baseball Classic. There are two reasons why this may not actually be the Opening Day lineup. Most likely Omar Narváez will be the Opening Day catcher, he did catch Scherzer yesterday. Nido, however, is having an amazing spring training. Then there’s Brett Baty. Does he still have time to win the job from Eduardo Escobar? Can Escobar show tonight that he should start the season at third?

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets only have three spring training games left in the schedule and today they make the cross-state to take on the Rays at Tropicana Field. The west coast of Florida is still dealing with devastating impacts from Hurricane Ian. The damage from the storm has prevented the Rays from using their normal spring training home, Charlotte Sports Park. So the Rays have pivoted to hosting their spring training games in their home ballpark, Tropicana Field.

The most notable news for the Mets happened in the back fields yesterday. Jeff McNeil bounced around to multiple games, getting nine at bats. To put that in perspective, he had 13 at bats during the World Baseball Classic. Brandon Nimmo got five at bats and hit a triple. The Mets tied in the actual spring training game 2-2. Will the Mets actually get a decision today?

Three Things To Watch For:

1. How Deep Does Scherzer Go? Scherzer makes his final start today as he prepares for Opening Day. His last time up in the rotation he pitched seven scoreless innings, bringing his official spring total to 11 2/3 allowing one earned run while striking out 14 batters.
2. I Don’t Know is on third: Who’s the Mets third basemen in a few days? The Mets are quickly coming to the end of Spring Training and Baty has done everything to show that he should be starting at third when the camp is over. Eduardo Escobar hasn’t had the greatest results at the plate so far this spring and he gets the start today. In eight games and 25 PA’s he is hitting .136/.240/.182.
3. Please Heat Up: Tommy Pham has had ample opportunities this spring to show the Mets what he’s got. With camp winding down he has hit .154/.267/.179 over 15 games and 45 PA’s. In total he has six hits this spring. Four of those six hits happened in back to back to back to back games from March 5th to March 12th. Since then he has only two hits and is 0-6 over the last two calendar days.

Let’s Go Mets!

In one week the Mets will make the long journey from St. Lucie all the way down to Miami to open up the regular season. Only one more week! We will now see pitchers make their final spring starts. Some will be in the few remaining spring training games, others will do bullpen sessions, some will start in minor league games.

Yesterday Senga made his third start of the season, allowing two runs from two hits and three walks over four innings while striking out three. It was also the second straight start for him that we barely saw the ghost fork at all, but he got more work on his other pitches. Tommy Hunter had the surprise pitching performance, adding two more scoreless innings bringing his spring total to eight. He is not on the roster yet and needs to be on the roster by Saturday to prevent him from opting out. For what it’s worth, the Mets still haven’t moved Edwin Díaz to the 60-day IL yet, which would open up a spot on the roster.

Anyway we still have a game today! Today is one of those rare days that the Mets will not play the Marlins, Astros, Nationals or Cardinals as they make the trip to see the Braves.

Three Things To Watch For:

1. Prospect Time: The Mets welcome Mike Vasil to the mound today, making his first spring training start. Vasil was drafted by the Mets in the 8th round back in 2021 and made some noise last year in the minors. For the St. Lucie Mets he posted a 2.19 ERA over eight starts and 37 innings. He was then bumped up to Brooklyn where he struggled a bit with a 5.13 ERA over 33 1/3 innings. He had hitters fooled in St. Lucie with a 18.0 K/9 which dipped down to a still very respectable 9.5 K/9 in Brooklyn. The Mets then sent him to the Arizona Fall League where he pitched 15 1/3 innings with a 2.93 ERA and 10.6 K/9. He’s tall (6’5″) with a mid-90’s fastball. We are excited to see what he does this season and today against a formidable Braves lineup.
2. Return of Pete: Alonso returns the lineup today after being away from the team for the last couple of weeks with team USA in the WBC. Before Alonso left for the tournament he was hitting .286/.423/.714 over eight games and 26 plate appearances. He collected six hits and three of them were homers. The WBC wasn’t kind to Pete though as he had only two hits in 14 trips over five games and had to battle quite a bit for playing time. We are sure that he is hungry for playing time right now as he takes one of top prospects in the Braves system this afternoon.
3. Catching up with the catchers: The inevitable happened right before yesterday’s game – Francisco Álvarez was sent to minor league camp. This was expected, especially when the Mets signed Omar Narváez in the off-season. Tomás Nido has been quietly having a tremendous spring and looks to carry the Mets until Álvarez is ready later this season. Nido has played in 12 games this spring with 35 plate appearances hitting .382/.400/.706 with three homers. Nido gets the start today and we expect to see a lot of Nido and Narváez over the last few spring games.

Let’s Go Mets!

For the first time since March 15th the Mets will have a weekday spring training game during the traditional early afternoon time. It’s also the first time in a while that the Mets feel whole again. The Mets sent a large contingent of players to probably the most exciting World Baseball Classic tournament ever for the better part of this month. With the tournament’s tremendous conclusion last night there’s only one thing to focus on now – Opening Day.

The Mets also got some promising news on the day off yesterday. Brandon Nimmo tried out his ankle and knee in various exercises and officials are encouraged by what they saw. He is still considered week to week. The positive news was welcomed after what the Mets endured last week.

Three Things To Watch For:

1. From the Stands to the Mound: Kodai Senga was in the crowd during Japan’s walk-off win against Mexico earlier this week and returns to the mound for the Mets today! In two starts so far he has pitched five innings allowing two runs from four hits including a homer while walking two and striking out seven. Most likely he will have one more tune up start after this to get ready for the regular season.
2. Francisco Lindor: Lindor was on fire in the World Baseball Classic with a .450 batting average and a .500 on base percentage. Lindor was also having a tremendous spring before the classic, going 7-18 at the plate with two homers. He picked up right where he left on Monday, his first game back in the Mets lineup going 1-3. The Mets have a superstar at shortstop and the league better watch out if he brings this level of play into regular season games next week.
3. Stealing Bases: Starling Marte got the start yesterday and stole his second base of spring. Last season he stole 18 and was caught nine times. Between the bases being larger and the pitch clock, we wonder how many additional bases he’ll steal this upcoming season. In addition to stolen bases, Marte is having a tremendous spring hitting .353/.368/.588 over 19 plate appearances.

Let’s Go Mets!

Yesterday’s spring training game featured David Peterson and Tylor Megill trying out, in the same game, to be the Mets fifth starter. Going into the game both Peterson and Megill had been dominant this spring. Peterson allowed no runs over eight innings. Megill allowed one run in just about the same amount of time. Peterson dominated in the game, allowing one hit and no run, despite walking four batters over four innings. Megill struggled, allowing six runs, three earned, from six hits and five walks. Peterson probably has the upper hand right now, but there is still at least one more turn through the rotation before a decision needs to be made.

Today the Mets will pivot from looking at the battle for fifth starting position to players just getting their work in. Justin Verlander makes a start today and the Mets are welcoming back their players from team Puerto Rico and Venezuela from the World Baseball Classic.

Three Things To Watch For:

1. Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better: We expect Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer to have a friendly rivalry throughout the season. Max Scherzer over the weekend casually tossed a seven inning outing allowing four hits and no runs. What will Verlander do today? So far in spring he has allowed two runs from six hits over 11 1/3 innings while striking out an absurd 16 batters.
2. Welcome Back! The Mets welcome back a lot of familiar faces today. Francisco Lindor was on fire during the WBC, collecting 9 hits in 20 AB’s, hitting .450/.500/.550. Eduardo Escobar went 1-10, but his one hit was a homer. Omar Narváez didn’t get too much playing time, going 1-4 over two games. We expect all three to start seeing a significant ramp up in playing time.
3. Tommy’s Turn In Center: We’ve been expecting Tommy Pham to get a turn to play in center since Nimmo’s injury and today’s the day! Pham has played in 13 games this spring with 39 plate appearances and is hitting .152/.282/.182. Baseball Reference uses an opponent quality stat, quantifying the level of play Pham is hitting against based on that pitcher’s previous season. Pham’s opponents are at a 7.3, which is some where between a double and triple A. That being said, we’ll be focusing more on his time in the field. Last season he had -6 outs above average, his second straight year with that mark. He has only recorded a positive outs above average back in 2017.

Let’s Go Mets!

Yesterday’s win felt almost like a regular season game. Max Scherzer faced off against the ace of the Astros, Framber Valdez. Scherzer went seven innings allowing four hits and no runs (surprisingly deep into the game at this point in spring). Valdez went 4 2/3 allowing only one run (quasi-deep into the game at this point in spring). Drew Smith got a hold striking out the side. Tommy Hunter continued his amazing spring getting the save after striking out two and allowing a hit in the ninth inning. Just a great day all around for the Mets.

Today’s game against the Cardinals is an important one for the Mets major position battle – the 5th starter. Both David Peterson and Tylor Megill are scheduled to pitch today! Further Mark Canha is getting the start in center as the Mets look at their short term options for Brandon Nimmo.

Three Things To Watch For:

1. David Peterson: Peterson pitches in his fourth spring training game this afternoon looking to build on his spectacular start earlier in the week. So far this spring he has allowed no runs and no hits while walking four batters and striking out nine batters over eight innings. With Lucchesi getting optioned to the Mets minor league camp a couple of days ago, Peterson has a better chance of making the Mets roster now either in the rotation or in the bullpen.
2. Tylor Megill: Megill, similar to Peterson, has done everything in camp to show he can be the Mets fifth starter. He has pitched 8 1/3 innings over three games allowing one run from six hits and three walks while striking out six batters. We are looking for Megill having another solid outing this afternoon and to make the choice of who should start difficult for Buck Showalter.
3. Put me in coach. I can play center field: Last week Mark Canha was getting reps at first place as a possible depth option off the Mets bench. Now he’s getting a turn in center as the Mets explore their options if Nimmo has to miss an extended period of time. Canha played 11 games in center last year including seven starts (71 1/3 innings) with a perfect fielder rating. In 2021 he played 187 2/3 innings in center with the same rating.

Let’s Go Mets!