213 Miles From Shea

The Mets head back on the road this afternoon as they take on the Marlins for the first time this Spring.

Yesterday the Cardinals handed the Mets the first loss of the Spring. The Cardinals got off to a strong start, tagging David Peterson for 3 runs in the top of the first (in an inning that felt like a microcosm of Peterson’s entire 2021 season). After Peterson, Tylor Megill turned in an impressive performance scattering three walks and two hits over 3.0 scoreless innings. Miguel Castro also had a clean spring debut, striking out one batter in one inning of work.

But all of that was yesterday – today is a big day for the Mets as Max Scherzer makes his Mets debut!

Mets Lineup:

1. Luis Guillorme SS
2. J.D. Davis 3B
3. Dominic Smith 1B
4. Daniel Palka LF
5. Mark Vientos DH
6. Nick Plummer RF
7. Tomas Nido C
8. Khalil Lee CF
9. Mark Reynolds 2B

Starting Pitcher: Max Scherzer

What We’re Watching For:

Max Scherzer! The Mets came out swinging in free agency when they locked Scherzer into the rotation. Last year he posted a 2.46 ERA, 2.97 FIP, 0.864 WHIP (league leading), 6.0 K/9 (league leading) and a 1.8 BB/9 (league leading). Max is a big reason why there’s so much excitement around the team this year, and we’re just excited to see him in the orange and blue.

Colin Holderman and Eric Orze are also scheduled to pitch after Max. Both pitchers are non-roster invitees to Mets camp this year. Orze is the last player from the 2020 Mets draft still with the organization (four players have been traded, one player was released). Trevor Williams is also scheduled to start. He was acquired as part of the Javy Baez trade last year and rounds out the Mets starting pitching depth in Syracuse this season.

The Mets starting lineup today features all of the power from the first game of Spring. On Saturday the Mets hit three homers in the first inning (Guillorme, Smith and Plummer). Luis Guillorme ended the day with three hits and Dominic Smith ended the day with two hits. The Mets will also get a longer look at a few prospects today: Palka, Vientos and Lee. Palka was a source of offense yesterday, Vientos is a long time prospect in Mets system and Khalil Lee was acquired as part of a three way trade last year.

Let’s Go Mets!

In 2020 the Mets drafted Pete Crow-Armstrong, J.T. Ginn, Isaiah Greene, Anthony Walters, Matthew Dyer and Eric Orze. Pete was traded for Javier Baez, J.T. was traded for Chris Bassitt, Isaiah Greene was traded Francisco Lindor, Anthony Walters was released and Matthew Dyer was traded for Rich Hill. That means the only player still left from the 2020 draft is Eric Orze.

Did you think of that Will Smith gif of him looking around the empty living room? Us too.

Due to the pandemic, last year was the first year that Orze saw professional baseball action and he split his time evenly-ish between Brooklyn, Binghamton and Syracuse. First in Brooklyn he posted a 4.05 ERA over 13 games and 20.0 innings. Then in Binghamton he posted a 2.60 ERA over 11 games and 17.1 innings. He posted his best ERA, 2.19, in Syracuse over 10 games and 12.1 innings. In Brooklyn he was basically the average age in the league, in Binghamton he was 1.7 years younger than the average player. In Syracuse he was 4.0 years younger than the average player. As he faced older and better players, he got better!

Orze is also a double cancer survivor, beating cancer twice while he was in college. I’m hoping that we hear more of his personal story throughout spring training this year, especially if he sees work during SNY broadcasts.

Eric Orze has gotten better at each level of the Mets organization last year. The 24-year old falls into the prospect category for NRI’s. If he picks up this season where he left off in Syracuse, he’ll force the issue to see some time on the mound in Queens this year.

The Mets host the Cardinals for their first home spring training game of the year and for us in the Tri-State area, it is also the first televised Mets game of the year! Rejoice!

Yesterday the Mets kicked off spring training with a bang, hitting three homers in the very first inning against the Nationals. Luis Guillorme led off the game with a homer and ended the game with a total of three hits. Dominic Smith had two hits, including a homer. Before the game, Smith revealed that he was dealing with a major injury most of last season and that he feels great – the results last night agree with him. Nick Plummer, who is on the active roster for outfield depth, also added in a homer of his own.

The pitching yesterday for the Mets was great. Josh Walker started the game pitching 3.0 scoreless innings, allowing a hit and two walks while striking out two. Walker is a non-roster invitee in camp this year fighting for his spot ont he Mets depth chart. Claudio, Holderman, Zastryzny, Orze and Nogosek all followed Walker and none of them allowed any earned runs. All of those pitchers listed are also non-roster invitees to major league camp.

We weren’t expecting to see too many regulars play yesterday – the first spring training game of the year, a road spring training game, and a night start – so we should see more familiar faces to make their spring 2022 debuts.

Mets Lineup:

1. Brandon Nimmo CF
2. Francisco Lindor SS
3. Jeff McNeil 2B
4. Pete Alonso 1B
5. Robinson Cano DH
6. Eduardo Escobar 3B
7. Mark Canha LF
8. Brian McCann C
9. Travis Jankowski RF

Starting Pitcher: David Peterson

What We Are Looking For:

The Mets the last two seasons would not have functioned without David Peterson in the rotation. The Mets last year would have fallen apart without Tylor Megill starting games. As of right now, both players are slated to start the year in Syracuse because the Mets heavily upgraded the rotation in the off-season. Both are slated to make their spring debuts tonight. Peterson is looking to have a bounce back year after his strong showing his rookie year where he posted a 3.44 ERA over 10 games and 49.2 innings. Megill had a solid rookie year with a 4.52 ERA over 89.2 innings. Homeruns were an issue for him – he gave up 19 leading to a 1.9 HR/9 rate.

The Mets starting lineup is very close to the lineup that we could see in the regular season, minus Jankowski in right field (No Marte today). This will be the first time we get a look at two off-season signings: Escobar and Canha. Escobar hit .253/.314/.472 last year with a 103 DRC+. Canha had a .231/.358/.387 line with a 114 DRC+. As a comparison – Brandon Nimmo had a 110 DRC+ last season and has a career 103 DRC+.

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets play baseball today! We just won’t be able to see it!

The Mets head to the Nationals camp to play a rare night, Spring Training game. While you won’t be able to see it, you’ll be able to hear it on WCBS 880 AM.

The Mets have had an awesome off-season on both sides of a difficult work stoppage in baseball. The Mets will be showing off a much different lineup this year, but many of those players aren’t making the trip tonight. As you would expect early in spring, tonight’s starting lineup features multiple players who are in keep on Non-Roster Invitations (Palka, Reynolds, Mangum and Walker).

Mets Lineup:

1. Luis Guillorme SS
2. J.D. Davis 3B
3. Dominic Smith 1B
4. Daniel Palka DH
5. Tomas Nido C
6. Nick Plummer LF
7. Matt Reynolds 2B
8. Khalil Lee RF
9. Jake Mangum

Starting Pitcher: Josh Walker

What To Watch For:

Josh Walker was drafted by the Mets in the 37th round in 2017 – now he kicks off the Mets Spring Training schedule. The lefty is one of a few left-handed pitchers trying to break their way onto a Mets roster that is just missing left-handed pitching. Walker pitched a three different levels last year for the Mets (like fellow Non-Roster Invitee Eric Orze). Walker posted a 2.57 ERA over 21.0 innings in Brooklyn, 3.45 ERA over 44.1 innings in Binghamton and a 5.54 ERA over 50.1 innings in Syracuse. He was one year younger than the average player in AAA ball when he pitched in Syracuse last year. The Mets AAA rotation is stacked now thanks to moves at the major league level. This is step one this year to see where Walker ends up.

The Mets roster was a mess most of last year – which meant we got an extended look at Khalil Lee in the outfield. The incredibly athletic outfielder struggled at the plate, reaching base once over 18 plate appearances. It was a different story in the minor leagues though. Over 388 PA and 102 games he hit .274/.451/.500. That .951 OPS is fairly intriguing and way above his career minor league mark of .806.

Baseball! It’s back! Let’s Go Mets!

Today’s Non-Roster Invitee player should be familiar as Nogosek saw a cup of coffee with the Mets in 2019 and in 2021! Between those two years the right handed pitcher totaled 9.1 innings over 8 games, allowing 10 runs from 15 hits and 2 walks while striking out 11 batters.

Nogosek was originally drafted by the Red Sox in 2016 and he was acquired during the Mets partial tear down during the 2017 trade deadline. He was sent over to the Mets with Gerson Bautista and Jamie Callahan for Addison Reed. The flame thrower Bautista debuted with the Mets in 2018 and was part of the Robinson Cano/Edwin Diaz trade that sent him to the Mariners. He is currently a free agent. Jamie Callahan, who debuted with the Mets in 2017 was most recently in the Giants farm system and hasn’t pitched since 2019.

So the last man standing from the trade is Nogosek! Nogosek had a terrific 2019 campaign. He pitched in 11 games, 19.0 innings in Binghamton posting a 0.95 ERA. Then he went to Syracuse and posted a 1.15 ERA over 24 games and 31.1 innings. Then the pandemic happened. Last year he posted a 5.14 ERA and a 1.457 WHIP over 27 games and 35.0 innings.

He heads into Spring Training this year not on the 40 man roster and as a righty. Both things working against him seeing time this year. But he has gone to the majors twice already in his career and he’s already 27. If the Mets are in an injury crush and don’t want to rush someone up (or disrupt one of their starters lengthening out their arm in AAA) he is a candidate for a short call-up.

The total amount of prospects the Mets received in the 2017 and 2018 sell-off’s are starting to dwindle. We are hoping that Nogosek shows his 2019 self this spring and starts to make some noise in the Mets system.

Non-Roster Invitees essentially come from three categories:

1. Prospects not on the 40-man yet
2. Veterans trying to make it with a new club
3. Players in the organization for a while, and it’s time for them to take the next step

Today’s NRI comes from that last group. Colin Holderman was drafted by the Mets in the 9th round during the 2016 MLB draft. The right handed pitcher from Southern Illinois made his professional debut that same year in Kingsport, where he was about a year younger than the average player (20-years old vs the average age of 20.9 years). He posted a 3.86 ERA over 13 games and 18.2 innings.

Holderman, at least statistically, took a step forward last season, posting a 3.38 ERA and 1.000 WHIP between 24.0 innings in Binghamton and St. Lucie. For comparison, his career marks are a 3.95 ERA and 1.253 WHIP. The Mets then sent him to the Arizona Fall League where he did not have the best time, allowing 10 runs from 10 hits in 10.1 innings of work. That being said, take a look at this tweet:

In 8 Statcast-tracked Arizona Fall League games, #Mets RHP Colin Holderman induced swings on 21 offspeed pitches and got whiffs on 17.

81 percent!

Holderman also averaged 97 mph with his fastball and touched 99. Eligible to be taken in the Rule 5 Draft after going unprotected. pic.twitter.com/D2eEA3YW8x

— Jacob Resnick (@Jacob_Resnick) November 20, 2021

Ultimately, the Mets learned a lesson last year about pitching and health. At times last year the Mets needed to go deep in their depth chart. With the way the roster is constructed right now, especially with how heavy the bullpen is with righty pitchers, If Holderman sees substantial time in the majors this year, one of two things happened. Holderman had a fantastic spring/time in the minors and really took a step forward (remember last year he posted a WHIP 0.253 points below his career numbers) or something went terribly wrong with the Mets.

This doesn’t fit anywhere else but I also wanted to mention that Colin Holderman is a huge fan of Coach Beard from Ted Lasso, at least from what I can tell scanning his Twitter. Obviously, Holderman has extremely good taste in television and that should boost him up the Mets depth chart alone.

The Mets last year had to dip into their depth to an extreme level – meaning we saw more than a handful non-roster invitees in Queens. Now that’s not a good thing, as it meant something went terribly wrong (and we don’t need to dive any deeper into that). Let’s go meet our non-roster invitees!

First up in this series is Alex Claudio. The 30-year old lefty pitcher has been in the major leagues since the year 2014. He was originally drafted in the 27th round by the Rangers back in 2010 and stayed in their organization until after the 2018 season when was traded to the Brewers for a competitive balance pick. He stayed with the Brewers for two seasons and then signed a deal with the Angels. The Angels released him at the trade deadline last year and he was picked up two weeks later by the Red Sox but never saw any time at the major league level with Boston.

Being released, picked up by another team midseason and then not making that team’s big league roster is a definite sign of a down year:

2019: 62.0 IP, 83 G (League Leading), 4.06 ERA, 4.92 FIP, 1.306 WHIP
2020: 19.0 IP, 20 G, 4.26 ERA, 4.09 FIP, 1.263 WHIP
2021: 32.2 IP, 41 G, 5.51 ERA, 5.10 FIP, 1.592 WHIP

It’s also no secret that the Mets need a lefty in the bullpen, badly. Lefties hit Claudio .275/.333/.532 which is not that much better than righties (.281/.370/.453). However, a couple of seasons ago when he led the league in games, he was much better against lefties. Lefties hit .219/.302/.378 while righties hit .274/.357/.469.

The Mets are hoping Claudio can find his former stuff. And the Mets are desperate for lefties. Given the amount of time Claudio has seen in the majors, I expect we’ll see him on the Mets 40-man and active roster at some point this season (if he sticks with the Mets).

The Mets look to win their last game of the season today and take the series from the Braves. It has been a year of ups and downs for the Mets, who led the division for over 100 days, who have clinched a losing record. The Mets battled against injuries all season long and created an interesting mix of positive memories (bench mob!) and some infamous memories.

There’s the possibility for a lot of roster changes this off-season. But for today, we get to the see this group of Mets again for one last time.

Noah Syndergaard surprised us all with an opener in the second game of a doubleheader. He will be the opener again today as he continues to show the world his stuff after so long away from the game. He only threw fastballs and changeups. He struck out the first two batters he faced and got the third batter to ground out. The Braves have the following numbers against Syndergaard:

• Jorge Soler 3-4, 2B, 2 BB
• Freddie Freeman 10-22, 3 2B, 3B, HR, BB, 5 K
• Dansby Swanson 8-18, 2B, 4 K
• Ozzie Albies 2-12, HR, 2 K
• Orlando Arcia 1-5, K
• Joc Pederson 1-12, BB, 5 K
• Adam Duvall 0-9, 6 K
• Austin Riley 0-4, 3 K
• Eddie Rosario 0-3, K

The Mets bats draw Charlie Morton for the finale. In 32 starts and 183.0 innings of work, Morton has a 3.39 ERA, 3.20 FIP, 1.055 WHIP and a 130 ERA+. Morton has already faced the Mets four times this season, totaling 24.0 innings against the Mets. He’s done well, holding the Mets to seven runs on 13 hits (2.63 ERA) while striking out 31 batters. The Mets have the following career numbers against him:

• Michael Conforto 3-8, 2B, HR, K
• Jeff McNeil 2-7, HR, 3 K
• Dominic Smith 3-11, HR, 4 K
• Pete Alonso 2-6, 2B
• Jonathan Villar 3-13, HR, 7 K
• James McCann 1-8, HR, 5 K
• Kevin Pillar 2-13, BB, 7 K
• Francisco Lindor 2-23, 2 2B, 8 K
• Brandon Nimmo 0-5, BB, 2 K

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets continue their final series of the season tonight against the Braves. The Mets are coming off of a win as the Braves threw together a bullpen game last night designed with heavy bullpen usage and it looks like that’s the game plan for the Braves again tonight as they continue to set their team up for the first round of the playoffs.

We are looking tonight for the same thing we were last night – strong endings to the season for Mets players. Megill had a solid one-hit, 5.0 inning out last night to end his 2021 season. Edwin Diaz picked up a save in a clean inning of work. Nimmo hit two homers on the night and the team had 11 hits overall (including three from Pete Alonso).

Tonight Carlos Carrasco will make his last start of the season. In 11 starts and 48.2 innings this year, Carlos has a 5.73 ERA, 4.97 FIP, 1.397 WHIP and a 70 ERA+. He’s coming off of a rough start against the Brewers where he allowed five runs over 4.0 innings from seven hits and four walks. This will be his first start against the Braves this year and the Braves have the following numbers against him:

• Eddie Rosario 10-31, 2 2B, 2 HR, 5 BB, 9 K
• Adam Duvall 1-5, 2B, K
• Guillermo Heredia 1-5
• Travis d’Arnaud 1-5, 2 K
• Ehire Adrianza 2-10, 4 K
• Orlando Arcia 0-5, BB, 2 K
• Jorge Soler 0-5, BB, 3 K

Jess Chavez will make the start tonight in what will probably be a bullpen game for the Braves. Chavez, who has been pitching in the majors since 2004, has pitched in 29 games and made three starts this season logging 31.2 innings posting a 2.27 ERA, 2.06 FIP, 1.042 WHIP and a 196 ERA+. He has started the game each of his last two times on the mound pitching a total of 2.2 innings, allowing one hit, two walks and nothing else. In three games and 4.0 innings against the Mets this year he has allowed no hits while striking out 6 batters. The Mets have the following numbers against him:

• Javier Báez 2-2, HR
• Jose Peraza 2-3
• Francisco Lindor 2-7, 2B, HR, 2 K
• Kevin Pillar 3-8, BB, K
• Michael Conforto 1-4, 2B, 2 K
• Jonathan Villar 1-6, 2B, 4 K
• James McCann 2-9, 3 K
• Pete Alonso 0-1, K

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets start their last series of the season tonight as they head down to Atlanta. This last weekend should be pretty quiet for both teams. The Mets will be working players out for the last time this year. The Braves just clinched the division last night and will be looking to rest up.

There are some personal stat goals that are still on the table for Mets players going into this last series. Pete Alonso hit two homers last night, which put him at 37 on the year. While hitting three more in the next three games seems unlikely, it is not impossible. We could also be seeing Michael Conforto’s last few days as a Met.

Tylor Megill will make the last start of his rookie season tonight. Over 17 games and 84.2 innings, he has a 4.78 ERA, 4.87 FIP, 1.335 WHIP and a 84 ERA+. September for Megill has been rough. Over four starts and 20.0 innings he has allowed 16 runs from 25 hits and 8 walks. It would be great if he could end the season on a high note. He’s done well against the Braves this year, allowing only 6 runs over 14.2 innings. The Braves have the following numbers against Megill:

• Freddie Freeman 4-8, 3 K
• Austin Riley 2-8, HR, 2 K
• Ozzie Albies 2-8, HR, 2 K
• Guillermo Heredia 1-3, BB
• Ehire Adrianza 0-1, BB
• Joc Pederson 0-2, BB
• Dansby Swanson 1-6, 4 K
• William Contreras 0-4, K

The Mets bats draw Huascar Ynoa. Over 17 games and 86.0 innings this year, Ynoa has a 3.98 ERA, 3.88 FIP, 1.081 WHIP and a 111 ERA+. He’s coming off of his worst start of the year where he allowed seven runs from seven hits in 4.2 innings against the Padres. This will be Ynoa’s first start this season against the Mets and the only Met who has seen him in a game is Javier Báez who is 1-2, with a homer against him.

Let’s Go Mets!