How anyone could be confident in the starting rotation even with Manaea and Montas surprises me to no end. Add in the unknown shoulder issues with Senga, arm exhaustion from Holmes and a rag bag of 5th+ starters and it sizing up to be tough stretch. Belief in a lab to somehow make gold from lead is an equal mix of hope and alchemy. Sorry folks, Im not buying the gaslighting for one second.
I think you're overstating it. You're right that a lot of people have bought into the idea of this pitching lab as some gurus who can do no wrong. But we also cannot discount that it did have success last year. Non-believers will say not a big enough sample size and the Mets got lucky last year. The believers will say Stearns' Brewers teams did this with pitching as well.
In all likelihood, there will be a mix of success and failures. The hope is that 1) The successes will outnumber the flops, and 2) there are enough pitcher-projects in the pipeline to come in and replace the failures, be they under-the-radar quad-A depth pieces already in-house, prospects, or someone claimed on waivers as the year goes on.
The roster depth is being tested. Nimmo has a sore knee and is only DH until it heals. Not to worry because Winkler and Marte could move the DH platoon to LF. Later in the game, Taylor could move from CF to LF and insert Siri as a defensive replacement in CF.
Roster depth is key to all teams and Stearns has assembled a nice group and still allowed room for the kids to rise up from the minors and join in at some point. It is easy to argue that there are a number of capable players to weather the injuries that afflict all teams. I see the Mets starting Baty over Acuna based on his bat, if in fact he can turn meaningless spring training hitting into doing it at the MLB level, once the bell rings. Waiting in the wings is Mauricio who could really make an impact on this lineup, that is if he can stay healthy, something he has shown he cannot. However, Stearns has left this team with a starting staff of rebuilding pitchers, wannabes and hopefuls instead of matching the work he did on the offense side of the coin. They were never going to sign a Snell but passing on Flaherty and Buehler, two battle tested pitchers who have already overcome injuries, versus picking up Mantas and Canning, was a huge mistake. Just look at the Dodgers rotation, even without Ohtani ready to go, and each starter looks to be easily a 6-7 inning pitcher to go along with a strong offense. Still optimistic that they will snag a title this year, but it will depend on Senga and Holmes being strong from the start. Let the games begin already!
The depth seems to be holding to this point but one more injury puts it into the red, IMHO. They’ve got spare tires on both the starting rotation and in the lineup. If this group can hold down the fort for a month, then it will all work out, but I don’t think they can sustain another setback. All that aside, I am concerned with the hitting. I realize that it’s only spring training, but the bats are not there. I was curious, so I looked it up. Amongst all teams, the Mets are dead last in OBP (.303), SLG (.344), and of course, OPS (.647.) And the gap between the 29th team is rather significant. Also second to last in runs and HRs. Their BABIP is low (.263), but through 22 games, the hitting is not giving much confidence. On the flip side, the pitching has been great. ERA (3.33) is tops in MLB, almost half a run better than #2 (Braves at 3.82.). WHIP and avg are second in MLB.
The bats need to wake up. There’s a strong possibility of three automatic outs at the bottom of the lineup most days (Torrens, Baty/Walton, Siri) so the other six need to be raking come opening day. I’d hate to see an April when the pitching is solid but we lose a bunch of games 3-2, and 2-0.
How anyone could be confident in the starting rotation even with Manaea and Montas surprises me to no end. Add in the unknown shoulder issues with Senga, arm exhaustion from Holmes and a rag bag of 5th+ starters and it sizing up to be tough stretch. Belief in a lab to somehow make gold from lead is an equal mix of hope and alchemy. Sorry folks, Im not buying the gaslighting for one second.
I think you're overstating it. You're right that a lot of people have bought into the idea of this pitching lab as some gurus who can do no wrong. But we also cannot discount that it did have success last year. Non-believers will say not a big enough sample size and the Mets got lucky last year. The believers will say Stearns' Brewers teams did this with pitching as well.
In all likelihood, there will be a mix of success and failures. The hope is that 1) The successes will outnumber the flops, and 2) there are enough pitcher-projects in the pipeline to come in and replace the failures, be they under-the-radar quad-A depth pieces already in-house, prospects, or someone claimed on waivers as the year goes on.
The roster depth is being tested. Nimmo has a sore knee and is only DH until it heals. Not to worry because Winkler and Marte could move the DH platoon to LF. Later in the game, Taylor could move from CF to LF and insert Siri as a defensive replacement in CF.
Roster depth is key to all teams and Stearns has assembled a nice group and still allowed room for the kids to rise up from the minors and join in at some point. It is easy to argue that there are a number of capable players to weather the injuries that afflict all teams. I see the Mets starting Baty over Acuna based on his bat, if in fact he can turn meaningless spring training hitting into doing it at the MLB level, once the bell rings. Waiting in the wings is Mauricio who could really make an impact on this lineup, that is if he can stay healthy, something he has shown he cannot. However, Stearns has left this team with a starting staff of rebuilding pitchers, wannabes and hopefuls instead of matching the work he did on the offense side of the coin. They were never going to sign a Snell but passing on Flaherty and Buehler, two battle tested pitchers who have already overcome injuries, versus picking up Mantas and Canning, was a huge mistake. Just look at the Dodgers rotation, even without Ohtani ready to go, and each starter looks to be easily a 6-7 inning pitcher to go along with a strong offense. Still optimistic that they will snag a title this year, but it will depend on Senga and Holmes being strong from the start. Let the games begin already!
The depth seems to be holding to this point but one more injury puts it into the red, IMHO. They’ve got spare tires on both the starting rotation and in the lineup. If this group can hold down the fort for a month, then it will all work out, but I don’t think they can sustain another setback. All that aside, I am concerned with the hitting. I realize that it’s only spring training, but the bats are not there. I was curious, so I looked it up. Amongst all teams, the Mets are dead last in OBP (.303), SLG (.344), and of course, OPS (.647.) And the gap between the 29th team is rather significant. Also second to last in runs and HRs. Their BABIP is low (.263), but through 22 games, the hitting is not giving much confidence. On the flip side, the pitching has been great. ERA (3.33) is tops in MLB, almost half a run better than #2 (Braves at 3.82.). WHIP and avg are second in MLB.
The bats need to wake up. There’s a strong possibility of three automatic outs at the bottom of the lineup most days (Torrens, Baty/Walton, Siri) so the other six need to be raking come opening day. I’d hate to see an April when the pitching is solid but we lose a bunch of games 3-2, and 2-0.