Occasionally, the events of world can line up in such a way where it just seems that it smiles down upon you. For Bartolo Colon, that was this past week. He was and continues to be baseball’s most beloved persona. It was probably Marc Carig of Newsday who put it best with his lede after […]
Author: Mike Vorkunov
Settling the Unsettled at Shortstop and in the Bullpen
Here is a statistic for your consideration: In 2015, Mets shortstops posted the 10th-highest fWAR in baseball. They were, on the whole, more productive than all but nine other teams at that position. Now, consider the qualitative counterpoint: At any point in 2015, did it seem like the Mets were set at shortstop? That the […]
The Mets and Nationals Are Building A Real Rivalry
Monday afternoon, Sandy Alderson stood in the clubhouse tunnel at Citi Field and recited with some detail the adventures of the Nationals’ long-winded 16-inning victory the night before. The joke, the general manager delivered, was that, no, the Mets weren’t paying much attention to their foils in the National League East. Humorous asides aside, it’s […]
Springtime in Panic City
There is nothing more mind-numbing in baseball than hand-wringing about statistics in early April. Or mid-April. Or late-April. It’s all mostly hogwash. The Mets, more than most teams, are burdened by such reality. Maybe it’s the fan base that can occasionally skew towards Chicken Little hot takes or the immense media glob that covers them […]
Walker, righty struggler
On June 1, 2010, Neil Walker hit his first major league home run. He clubbed an 0-1 pitch from Ted Lilly over the left-center field wall for a two-run shot at PNC Park. Sixteen days later, he hit his second home run, this one off Mark Buehrle. The next month, he hit his fourth, off […]
Noah Syndergaard and the Audacity of Velocity
The last decade of baseball has been marked by an inescapable arms race: The need to find pitchers that throw hard, harder and even harder, still. The signs are evident everywhere, both anecdotal and empirical. Staffs are stocked with pitchers who can turn hitters into cannon fodder. The average fastball velocity has risen–almost linearly–from 90.1 […]
Believe It Or Not, The Mets Are Contenders Now
Consider this for a moment: The Mets are contenders. They are viable, certifiable World Series contenders. This seems odd for so many reasons. It is a burden the organization has not held in a while. Self-loathing from the fanbase (“LOLMets” anyone?) and stumbling and bumbling from the parts of the team that actually decided the results had […]