Scouts, analysts, and fans are pretty much unanimous that Mets prospect Amed Rosario is a star in waiting at shortstop. But what about his teammate, first baseman Dominic Smith?
Smith continues to hit well for his age in Triple-A, but the Mets, a team expected to contend this year and next year, no longer have the luxury of time to wait and see how Smith will develop. Do the Mets re-sign Duda, or hand first base to Smith in 2018? Smith has been promoted like a top prospect, but is he?
* * *
If you have been following the Mets Hot Stove news, you know that the team has been linked to Chicago White Sox shortstop Alexei Ramirez in trade rumors. Alexei Ramirez is a fine player, but […]
A couple facts about Yoenis Cespedes. He is 31 years, 58 days old as of this writing; he just signed a guaranteed four year contract with the New York Mets worth $110 million dollars; and, most importantly, he is a bona-fide star. Cespedes is 15th in MLB in WAR over the last two years despite being asked to play out of position and battling through some injuries.
In light of the big commitment, one of the most important questions around the Mets now becomes, “how will Cespedes perform over the next four years?” With the Mets appearing unlikely to make a big splash again this offseason, the team will be counting on Cespedes to carry the load this year, and perhaps, beyond. Will Cespedes remain a cornerstone slugger or will aging get the best of him sooner than later?
There are two primary ways in which people make educated guesses about players: through the use of computer projections (like ZiPS or Steamer, both of which are great) or by putting together a cohort of comparable players and checking how they aged. We’ll do both.
Contrary to the narrative, for the second straight offseason, the Mets offered Cespedes the most lucrative free agent deal.
Although it would also be nice to think that Cespedes loves the Mets and came back on a hometown discount, the truth of the matter is equally encouraging: in both 2015 and 2016 the Mets offered Cespedes the most-generous deal. That’s a good thing too, and credit where credit is due to the Mets front office.
Tensions have been high since Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in the Presidential Election in November. People are coping in a number of ways. Denial, anger, bargaining have all been present in the public discourse.
But it is time to move forward. The Trump Administration is preparing for the transfer of power and, just as importantly, narratives are being set that will carry us forward to the mid-term elections and to our collision with Trump in 2020. In the meantime, tens of thousands of local and state elections will take place throughout the country each year.
Charting a course forward necessarily involves a post-mortem on the campaign of the Democratic nominee and the choices of the Democratic elite and the Democratic National Committee. It’s not “sour grapes,” or “crying over spilled milk,” as I’ve heard from both Clinton and Trump supporters. It’s not about Bernie Sanders or any other individual in the political establishment. It is about how we learn and move forward together as a party.
Mets fans. We can not rest until the Mets resign superstar slugger Yoenis Cespedes.
The window of contention is now, the Mets should have room for Cespedes as a big-market team with a mid-market payroll, and there is no other viable way of improving this team right now. Cespedes is the answer.
A. Cespedes is a star and was the best player on the Mets last year.
Cespedes put up 3.2 WAR(fangraphs) and 2.9 WAR(baseball-reference) last year, placing either 1st or 2nd on the Mets in that metric despite playing only 132 games, and many of them while injured or being asked to play out of position.
I can’t believe it’s come to this, but here we are. Late September and we are gearing up for the first of three Presidential Debates between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Undoubtedly, the results of these debates are going to become topics of vigorous debate on Facebook, around the water cooler, and when you visit your family and talk to that one Uncle of yours.
This is no laughing matter. As things stand today, this race is far too close.
