The Subway Series: Scouting the 2015 New York Yankees

By Steven Inman

The Mets can further cement their case as kings of New York this weekend

The Mets, possibly playing their best ball in nearly a decade, head to Yankee Stadium to face their crosstown rivals, the Yankees for a three game set in the Bronx. The Yankees have been playing well as their offense has really kicked it into gear. The Yankees have won six of their last seven games and have averaged over 5.7 runs per game in that span.

Alex Rodriguez and former Met Chris Young have been the two best hitters for the bombers despite the Yanks not expecting either one to play every day when the season started a few weeks ago.

A win Friday would give the Mets their longest winning streak ever with 12 in a row.

Probable Starters 

Jacob deGrom (2-1, 0.93) vs, Michael Pineda (2-0, 5.00)

Matt Harvey (3-0, 3,50) vs. C.C. Sabathia (0-3, 4.35)

Jon Niese (2-0, 1.50) vs. Nathan Eovaldi (1-0, 3.12)

The middle of the Yankee order has not helped out much in the early season as former all-star hitters like Brian McCann and Mark Teixeira look like shells of their former selves. Both McCann (.294 OBP) and Teixeira (.204 BA) have been plagued by teams shifting on them.

The Yankee starting staff has also been pretty mediocre led by C.C. Sabathia who has gotten roughed up in two of his three starts this season.

The Mets should capitalize on a Yankee team that really hasn’t found its identity yet which was supposed to be their starting pitching. The Mets have taken their last four games at Yankee Stadium which includes a pair of 2 game sweeps in 2013 and 2014.

How do you think the Mets will fare in the Bronx this weekend?

BrokeMets Podcast 9: The Winning Streak

By Steven Inman

Rob DeLucia of WSJU Radio joins me for another addition of the BrokeMets podcast. In the show we discuss the Mets injury woes, the Mets best start ever, how great Bartolo has been, the Mets franchise four, and so much more. We also delve into is beloved captain David Wright overrated? One of us thinks so. Check it out!

 

Remember if you have a question you want answered during the next show leave it below in the comment section and we’ll discuss it on the podcast next week. Lets go Mets!

If Mets want magical start to continue, unproven players need to step up

By Steven Inman

April 19th was a very bad day for the New York Mets (Photo by NY Post)

Before the season we talked about how Travis d’Arnaud needed a hot start more than any other Met and he has done just that. The 26-year old d’Arnaud is hitting .317 with 2 homers and a team leading 10 RBIs. The catcher also started 11 of the Mets 13 games so far.

Perhaps just as importantly, d’Arnaud’s defense has improved as well. In the Marlins series he threw out Dee Gordon twice. Teams would try to run consistently in 2014 when Travis was behind the plate. The catcher has also done a nice job of pitch framing as well.

With all the talk in spring of how great top prospect Kevin Plawecki looks, it was easy to connect the dots. If Travis didn’t play well than they had a suitable replacement for the backstop. Plawecki had a 5 RBI game for the 51’s in Triple-A on Saturday but for the most part has gotten off to a slow start. Plawecki was hitting just .216 in 37 at-bats in Vegas.

Travis d’Arnaud is a big reason why the Mets are in first place two weeks into the year but now because one reliever couldn’t find the strike zone, he is gone indefinitely.

The David Wright injury was a huge blow but this one is far worse as d’Arnaud although still early, was having a breakout year and will be out at least a few months. Kevin Plawecki, who was not playing well in Triple-A will come up and get the first crack at being the Mets #1 catcher while d’Arnaud is down.

Plawecki will be the second player drafted by Sandy Alderson to make his debut with the Mets. The first was Danny Muno last week.

Although the Mets are on an eight game winning streak and seemingly buried the Miami Marlins in the process it was a very somber mood around the clubhouse following the win. While the team has played well on their way to tying a franchise record best 10-3 start, the injuries have piled up and it may be too much to overcome at this point.

After already losing Zack Wheeler and Josh Edgin for the season the team then lost David Wright for at least three weeks and now a catcher who could have made his first all-star game this year.

The Mets a half inning earlier also lost key reliever Jerry Blevins to a fractured forearm after he was struck in his pitching arm by a comebacker. Blevins didn’t think it was a big deal before he got the diagnosis as he wanted to stay in the game. Blevins had not allowed a baserunner from the 15 batters he faced in 2015. He was the Mets best reliever through the club’s first 13 games but now they will have to hope Alex Torres can throw enough strikes to get lefties out.

Now it is next man up and if this magical start is to continue than it is going to have to be thanks to unknown players like Kevin Plawecki. The Mets had a similar situation in 2006 when key pitchers like Orlando Hernandez and Pedro Martinez went down and young guys like John Maine stepped up big and helped will the Mets to the best record in the National League and their last playoff berth. Maybe a similar story will ensue but we will now know how much depth the Mets truly have.

Can the Mets hold on and continue to play well?

The Mets need to end the WIlmer Flores “experiment” now

By Steven Inman

Matt Reynolds had an impressive Spring Training with the Mets

After an impressive spring training, Matt Reynolds established himself as a prospect to watch this season. He raked in the upper minors in 2014 and has very little still to prove down there. That being said the Mets continue to let the Wilmer Flores experiment play out.

Flores hasn’t established a reason for the Mets to continue letting him play everyday.

He hasn’t hit at all, he hasn’t shown he can hit for power even in the minor leagues, nor has he shown a great ability to get on base. His baserunning hasn’t been good and that is before we even get to his defense which has been horrendous through the first couple series. Flores has looked shaky in every game after Opening Day.

Maybe he can be a right-handed bat off the bench but he hasn’t shown he can be an everyday shortstop. In a season the Mets hope to be a playoff team, they cannot afford to experiment here. If the team insists on finding out if Flores can play short they should have put him there in the minor leagues over the past few years. Flores is out of options so they cannot send him down without the risk of losing him now.

Matt Reynolds has played well in Triple-A and has shown to be at least adequate at both second base and shortstop. He may not have a ton of power but he should be able to hit for a high average and most importantly he can play the position he is asked to play. When the Mets do eventually call up Reynolds he will be the first Sandy Alderson draft pick as Mets GM to make it to New York.

If the Mets want to contend this season they must plug up as many weaknesses as they can. Games in April count just as much as they do in September.

Do you agree that the Mets have been too patient with Flores at shortstop?

Mejia out 80 games after testing positive for banned substance

By Steven Inman

Jenrry Mejia may have thrown his last pitch as a Met
Photo by NY Post

Injured Mets closer Jenrry Mejia has been suspended by MLB for 80 games. He tested positive for taking the banned substance stanzolol and will also be ineligible to pitch in the 2015 postseason should the Mets be fortunate enough to get there.

Obviously the Mets were very upset to hear about the loss of the reliever. “We were disappointed when informed of Jenrry’s suspension for violating Major League Baseball’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program.  We fully support MLB’s policy toward eliminating performance enhancing substances from the sport.  As per the Joint Drug Program, we will have no further comment on this suspension.” the Mets said in a statement.

Sandy Alderson went as far as saying he wouldn’t guarantee Mejia would even pitch for the Mets ever again. “That definitely is a consideration,” Alderson said in an article by CBS Sports. “It will be factored in when he comes back. I hope our bullpen is pitching so well there is not a spot for him. I hope he is not a factor.”

Mejia will begin serving his suspension immediately despite being on the DL. Hopefully he can get right and help the club out in the second half. The Mets also save over $1.1 million on the suspension. Jeurys Familia will be the Mets interim closer but the club is hoping he takes the job and runs with it.

Ideally they get Vic Black back at some point in the near future so he can help Carlos Torres bridge the gap to Familia should Vic be able to throw enough strikes. Black is currently on a rehab assignment in Port St. Lucie so he should be back this month.

The Mets should have enough depth in this pen where this news won’t significantly hurt them.

The Mets 2015 Opening Day Roster

By Steven Inman

The 2015 season is finally here. Barring some sort of bizarre injury, here is your 2015 Mets Opening Day roster.

Starting pitchers: 

Matt Harvey will start Game 3 on the road as well as the Mets second Citi Field Game next week

1. Bartolo Colon

 2. Jacob deGrom

 3. Matt Harvey

 4. Jonathon Niese 

5. Dillon Gee

This is the order the Mets will go the first couple times through the rotation. The team will start arguably their worst starter on Opening Day in Colon. There are probably many reasons for this but the most public one at the moment is that way Harvey doesn’t start the home opener and will start the second Citi Field game which the Mets believe will maximize ticket sales. This is a clueless, idiotic way to run a franchise IF true, but hey its Opening Day so we won’t harp on the negatives today.

Relievers: 

Jenrry Mejia had a rough spring but will it carry over into the season?

6. Jenrry Mejia

7. Jeurys Familia 

8. Carlos Torres

9. Jerry Blevins

10. Alex Torres

11. Rafael Montero

12. Sean Gilmartin

13. Buddy Carlyle

Sean Gilmartin pitched well as Spring Training came to a close and will not be offered back to the Twins just yet, If he can make it all season on the Mets roster or DL he will become Mets property. The Mets didn’t want to lose Buddy Carlyle either who had an opt-out date coming up so the club elected to keep him and go with 8 relievers, Bobby Parnell and Vic Black will start the year on the DL but both should be ready to contribute at some point in the first half with Black likely ready soon. 

Starting Position Players: 

One thing to watch early on is if the Daniel Murphy-Wilmer Flores combo are able to sucessfully turn double plays

14. Travis d’Arnaud

15. Lucas Duda

16. Daniel Murphy

17.  David Wright

18.  Wilmer Flores

19.  Michael Cuddyer

20.  Juan Lagares 

21. Curtis Granderson

After much debate Daniel Murphy will in fact be ready for Opening Day and will meet his teammates in Washington for Monday’s opener. Terry Collins is planning on moving Murphy down in the order to get him more RBI opportunities but he is probably better off in his usual #2 spot in my opinion. 

Bench: 

22. Anthony Recker

23.  Ruben Tejada

24.  John Mayberry Jr. 

25. Kirk Nieuwenhuis

With the Mets carrying 8 relievers, they will go with a 4-man bench to start the season. Eric Campbell would have been the 5th man on the bench but was optioned to Vegas instead. Campbell even worked on catching this spring to make himself even more versatile. A four man bench isn’t the Mets brightest idea but it likely won’t stay like this for more than a few weeks. Collins would use Jacob deGrom as a pinch hitter should he use the rest of his bench first. 

 

Should be a fun season and Lets Go Mets!

BrokeMets Podcast 8: NL East Preview

By Steven Inman

With Opening Day just a day away, join Rob DeLucia of WSJU Radio and myself as we dissect the over/unders for the entire National League East. Feel free to let us know what we got wrong in the comment section below. Also if you want your question answered on the next BrokeMets podcast in a few days leave it in the comment section below or send us a tweet @brokemets.

We hope everyone has a happy Easter.

2015 BrokeMets MLB National League Preview

By Steven Inman

Stephen Strasburg enters 2015 as the Nationals third starter in a reloaded Washington rotation

With baseball thankfully just a few short days away let’s take a look at the entire National League with the official 2015 BrokeMets National League predictions. Last year my predictions on division winners were perfect but my award races were way way off… You can check last year’s post out here.

Let’s start with the N.L. East

1. Washington Nationals    (97-65)
2. New York Mets             (84- 78)
3. Miami Marlins               (80-82)
4. Atlanta Braves              (74-88)
5. Philadelphia Phillies      (69- 93)

The Nationals enter 2015 as the heavy favorite in the N.L. East. Their offseason signing of Max Scherzer, while seemingly unnecessary, makes them even more difficult to compete with this season. While they lost Adam LaRoche, expect a bounceback season out of Ryan Zimmerman now playing first base every day. The other Zimmermann, Jordan, should be in for a monster year before leaving Washington next winter as a big ticket free agent. He could be in for over $150 million with another strong year. Regardless, the Nats will likely win this division by more than ten games yet again.

The New York Mets are certainly improved but I think they fall just short of the postseason because of a questionable defense and what should be a very streaky offense. Matt Harvey’s innings limit and Zack Wheeler’s Tommy John surgery don’t help matters.

While the Marlins made some nice moves this winter they still have plenty of holes and haven’t showed a willingness to spend significant dollars to fill a key hole during previous trade deadlines. If Jose Fernandez was back in April that could change things but he won’t be. The Marlin bullpen would also scare me especially after the loss of set up man Aaron Crow to TJ surgery last week.

The Braves and Phillies continue to rebuild and won’t be in the race most likely. The Braves offense has been completely gutted but they lack the depth in their starting rotation to compete regardless. It is currently unknown what GM Ruben Amaro Jr.’s plan in Philly currently is so expect them to stay near the bottom of this division for the foreseeable future.

The N.L. Central

The Pirates need Gerrit Cole to be the ace of the Pittsburgh staff if the club wants to get back to the playoffs for the third straight year

1. St. Louis Cardinals  (93-69)
2. Pittsburgh Pirates   (87-75) – Wild Card
3. Chicago Cubs         (82-80)
4. Milwaukee Brewers  (77-85)
5. Cincinnati Reds       (74-88)

This was definitely the toughest division to gauge as teams like Cincinnati and Pittsburgh could seemingly go either way based off of key players health. The Reds need bounce back years from Joey Votto, Brandon Phillips and Jay Bruce just to have a punchers chance in this tough division. If they don’t then Johnny Cueto will likely be the crown jewel available at this year’s trade deadline. Cueto is looking for a monster contract as he is set to become a free agent after the season.

The Cubs look much improved after the the acquisitions of Jon Lester and Dexter Fowler. They should have Kris Bryant in the middle of their lineup within a month but there isn’t enough pitching here to win a loaded N.L. Central. The bullpen is going to cost the Cubbies a lot of games in 2015 but stock is definitely up on the North Side.

The Cardinals are one of if not the best team in the National League. They have what every contender wants, a great rotation, a battle tested lineup and a young bullpen filled with power arms. They have the talent to go on another deep playoff run.

The N.L. West

If the Padres can get all their new pieces to fit together, like Matt Kemp (pictured), then they should be a playoff team in 2015

1. Los Angeles Dodgers (94-68)
2. San Diego Padres  (87-75) – Wild Card
3. San Francisco Giants (83-79)
4. Colorado Rockies (75-87)
5. Arizona Diamondbacks (71-91)

The Dodgers remain the class of the division but won’t have the Giants on their heels all year long this time in my opinion. The loss of Pablo Sandoval and Mike Morse along with the inconsistencies of the members of the rotation not named Madison Bumgarner will cost this team a playoff spot. The Giants didn’t really address their offense much aside from trading for Casey McGehee. Matt Cain will be the key to the Giants season. If he can get back to his ace form than the Giants will be contenders if not, then they are the 83 win team that I listed above.

The Padres should be much improved after new GM A.J. Preller overhauled the entire offense. He also brought in James Shields and all those moves should be enough to make the Friars a playoff team. That being said they still have a big hole and that is their defense. Every position player is either below average defensively or seemingly in the wrong position. It should be very interesting to see how much defense plays into their season.

Last year I was when off on all my award predictions so I can’t do much worse this year.

The D-Backs have made a lot of questioinable decisions recently, such as their attempt to put Cuban import Yamany Tomas at third base

NL CY Young: Clayton Kershaw

NL Rookie of The Year: Jorge Soler

NL MVP: Giancarlo Stanton

NL Manager of the Year: Bud Black

After picking Jose Fernandez to win the NL CY Young last season I learned my lesson and won’t pick away from Kershaw for the indefinite future.

Soler and future teammate Kris Bryant may steal NL ROY votes from each other but I went with Soler over Bryant because the outfielder is going to start the year in the big leagues. He has looked terrific both offensively and defensively this spring.

Stanton would have won MVP last season if it wasn’t for a freak HBP to the face in early September. I expect the Marlins to be in the race like all year so Stanton is my MVP and the rejuvenated Padres have a great manager in Bud Black and he will be rewarded with the NL Manager of the Year.

What do you think of the BrokeMets 2015 predictions?

Juan Lagares extension is a steal if he can improve his offense

By Steven Inman

According to various media reports the Mets have agreed to a four-year contract extension with CF Juan Lagares that also has a club option for the centerfielder’s first free agent year. The deal is pending a physical. The contract is expected to be worth around $23 million and is expected to start during the 2016 season.

Lagares would have been a Super Two player this upcoming winter which meant he would have filed for arbitration four times instead of three before becoming a free agent.

Lagares, 26, slashed .281/.324/.382 in 452 plate appearances in 2014 but its his glove that made him one of the Mets better players. Lagares became the third Met outfielder behind Tommy Agee and Carlos Beltran to win a Gold Glove.

On the surface this looks like a questionable decison for the Mets as Lagares’ speciality, which is his defense, doesn’t pay much in arbitration. Lagares has walked just 20 times in each of his two big league seasons. He doesn’t hit many homers or steal many bases so he wasn’t likely to get more than the $20-25 million in arbitration should his offense stay at its current level.

The Mets don’t believe it will. The front office has been very impressed with the work Lagares has done in camp with new hitting coach Kevin Long and believe he will hit better this upcoming year.

The Brewers gave a simialr contract to former Met Carlos Gomez a few years ago before his breakout season. That deal looks like one of the best decisions Brewers GM Doug Melvin has ever made.

Lagares just turned 26 a few weeks ago so there is still time in his bat for improvements. The deal only gives the Mets the possibility of one more year of control over their gold glover with the club option for 2020 worth $9.5 million.

Do you like this aggressive move by the New York Mets?