He Has Risen
Morning Dose: Monday, April 6
☀️ Good Morning:
This weekend was about being wrong.
No, not for the Mets or their manager, quite the opposite.
It was about the fans being wrong.
That’s right. All of us are guilty in different ways. It’s part of the experience of following your favorite baseball team.
You curse them. You tell everyone why you know so-and-so isn’t a major-league player, or shouldn’t be in the lineup on Day X, or batting in Spot Y, or pinch-hitting for Player Z.
We knew the Mets were cooked this weekend after they looked putrid all week and fell on bad injury luck when things were starting to look better.
The great thing about baseball is no matter how much we think we know, we really know nothing. Or better said: whatever you think you know, wait a minute, and it might change.
That’s how it must feel for Carlos Mendoza. For the start of the season, it seemed like he couldn’t do anything right. This weekend, every button he pressed turned into a green light. Whether he was forced into it by Brett Baty getting scratched before first pitch (inserting Jared Young), or strategic about it by pinch-hitting for the three-hit Young with Luis Torrens.
After a dreadful week, the Mets are back on track.
The projection systems see the Amazins as a ~90 win team. That’s the 50th percentile outcome. We know there are permutations that put them at 97 wins, as they are on pace for now, and scenarios where they only win 80. We’ve seen both versions on the field over the first two weeks. It’s why sample size does in fact matter. The ups and downs will come. The way we were feeling on Friday might not always match the way we feel the following Monday.
🗓️ UP NEXT: A day off before the Diamondbacks come to town.
📲 METS FIX SITE: Everyday, the site gets better. Make sure you have it bookmarked. You can now keep track of how the Mets are faring under the new Automated Balls & Strikes (ABS) system.
Some other notable updates: In the spirt of the Bullpen chart, I added a Hot/Cold chart that shows which players have produced the most (and least) over the previous 10 games. I also added a “Luck Meter.” I will give a preview of both in making some points below.
❶ Mark Vientos has risen.
❷ Next man up.
❸ Offense and defense from the supporting cast.
And stay for the final outs for some interesting notes.
📰 ABOVE THE FOLD
❶ HE HAS RISEN
Mark Vientos is back?
Which one?
That’s the key question. The good one!
⇢ Carrying the offense: For all the fireworks this weekend, and there were plenty, it’s Vientos who has really carried the offense over the past five games, in particular. Since we are 10 games into the season, the Hot/Cold chart is simply the season chart, but you can get a preview of what it looks like below, and notice the name at the top.
