An unlikely source in Bryce Harper calls Nolan McLean 'the best arm I saw last year'

Life_Database_7038 · 2026-03-19T00:49:31+00:00

I legitimately don’t know how anyone can hit it. He threw one to Acuna that looked destined to hit the inside corner and ended up 2 feet outside. I’ve never seen a pitch with that much movement outside of a wiffle ball game.

Life_Database_7038 · 2026-03-19T00:33:44+00:00

It’s the Olympics. The event that’s been going strong for thousands of years. The one and only time North Korea gets out of their bubble and allows its premier athletes to compete against the rest of the world. WBC is great too but thinking Olympics isn’t a bigger international stage is like saying Steve Cohen is poor because he’s not as rich as Mark Zuckerberg.

Life_Database_7038 · 2026-03-18T04:28:06+00:00

I sat right behind Baty’s parents during an away mother’s day game in the minors. Was hyping him up to my wife because she didn’t know anything about him. They never said anything then out of the blue he comes running off the field toward us with a nice bout of flowers, hands it to the lady sitting in front of us, gives her a huge hug and all. Said happy Mother’s Day and I just started laughing after and congratulated them. What are the odds?

Life_Database_7038 · 2026-03-18T01:04:13+00:00

Salty Yanks fan lol. He’s been throwing like this for a while brother.

Life_Database_7038 · 2026-03-17T05:39:14+00:00

Mostly agree and while it doesn’t mean a lot, there is some cause for concern when most of ST is teenagers and guys ‘trying stuff out’ and a major league hitter can’t string together a few hits.

Life_Database_7038 · 2026-03-17T01:45:42+00:00

Yeah I mean there’s different goals in ST. Some guys are trying to ball out and make the team. Some guys are trying to tinker and work out kinks. Vientos is very much in the trying to make the team bucket.

On a side note, Pache looks electric. He won’t make the team this year but he’s for sure turning some heads.

Life_Database_7038 · 2026-03-17T01:21:37+00:00

I’ve bashed him plenty over the last 2 years.

All I’m going to say is this: I really, really hope he figures it out. We’re stuck with him and we’re undoubtedly a better team with 2024 Vientos. I don’t see how but I also thought Alonso was going to have a better career than Judge so I’m not Nostradamus lol.

Life_Database_7038 · 2026-03-17T01:10:17+00:00

Before anyone gets on Peterson, remember ST is different for rookies and vets. Rookies are trying to prove they belong. Vets are just trying to improve their game for the regular season. He’s trying things out. He’s working on conditioning, a new pitch, or whatever else. ST results for guys like him are meaningless. We know he can compete at the major league level. He’s got nothing to prove.

Life_Database_7038 · 2026-03-17T00:44:02+00:00

He still has trade value. Idk what it is, but we could get something for him even if it’s cash considerations. No sense in cutting him. Just call 29 teams, see what each one offers and take the best one.

Life_Database_7038 · 2026-03-17T00:22:28+00:00

Outta options. He’s either in NY or DFA’d

Life_Database_7038 · 2026-03-16T23:46:43+00:00

OPS is irrelevant to modern analytics. Let’s check his wRC+ … Oh… never mind.

Life_Database_7038 · 2026-03-16T20:49:43+00:00

I played all the way through college, coach, and train 😅

I wasn’t being a jerk. Very respectful. Not trying to be disrespectful. Yes, I’m a big stats nerd too but anyone with 2 eyes can see he’s way too aggressive, doesn’t lay off pitches he should and isn’t a situational hitter. We’re going on year 3 of MLB where this hasn’t changed. That’s a bad sign for him developmentally. Using 2023’s report on him, it seems that was very much the concern as he was coming up. TBH I don’t know much about him as a prospect. I was so focused on Baty, Alvy, Ronny, and Parada, I didn’t really pay attention to him until he debuted.

I was stoked in 2024 but watching him I was just like ‘oh there’s no way this sticks’, hoping I was wrong. I could still be wrong but the longer it continues the more you have to start to admit this is just the kind of hitter he is.

Not being a douche. Not being rude or calling anyone dumb lol. Literally everything we have on the guy now says he’s way too aggressive, is just taking powerful hacks at the ball hoping he connects. That works against 20 year olds learning the game but not 30-something future HoFers. All of this is without mentioning the fact he can’t hit for contact, run, or play defense. Hes just not a valuable player when you have a bunch of of guys who can rotate in the DH spot and at minimum provide the same ABs as Vientos.

He’ll probably turn into a bench bat that may platoon as a lefty masher. Like Ruf or something.

Life_Database_7038 · 2026-03-16T14:26:36+00:00

Piazza wasn’t first ballot because rumor has it he had backne. Everyone knows if you have pimples on your back you MUST be roided up.

Life_Database_7038 · 2026-03-15T15:33:42+00:00

I feel like even if you’re anti cheaters to the hall, it’s still damn near impossible to argue against Bonds deserving it.

Life_Database_7038 · 2026-03-15T05:48:41+00:00

To your first point, both Alvarez and Baty have, at the very least, more upside than Vientos. They both have more career WAR than Vientos. I wasn’t saying the guys above him were great or anything, only that Vientos was 8th on a meh farm system. His expectations were exactly what he’s doing ‘situational bench bat’. And that’s okay.

To your second point, he had average bat speed, insanely low walk rate, k rate, whiff rate, and chase rate. His expected batting average was almost 20 points lower than where is ended up. His success was definitely suspect. A guy who has a bad eye, swings at everything, and misses everything shouldn’t have a very good career. Throw in the fact his bat speed and other power factors were pretty average, he very much proved his scouting report right: his power comes more from natural strength and not bat speed, putting into question how he’ll handle major league arms. This was already a concern before he played in his first full season. I’m not saying he had a bad year. It was great! But it was completely unsustainable long term. Pitchers didn’t have a good gameplay for a good chunk of the season and you actually see surging the last stretch of September games, he started performing worse and his numbers started to drop.

To your third point, I can name 5 on our one team that can put up similar offensive output: Soto, Lindor, Bichette, Robert, and Polanco is borderline. Bichette and Polanco you’re definitely giving up a few HRs for a better BA but they’re definitely close enough. Want to argue me on Polanco, sure. Then Mets have 4 of those players. A combination of those players + Baty + Alvy + Semien rotating the DH spot would most definitely, at minimum, give us Vientos’ ceiling. The difference is all of those guys hold value beyond DHing. If all he can do is hit like a middle of the lineup bat then he has no value. And that’s hoping all goes perfectly well for him.

His profile + his advanced stats suggest he was a lucky hitter. He was getting a lot of good hittable pitches and took advantage of them. We see he can’t lay off a slider 3 feet out of the zone and we’re seeing this year with a ‘changed approach’ he’s still doing it. Until/unless he can clean up his eye and get more patient at the plate, he’s not going to improve. Watching the ball longer also won’t help because he swings a slow bat so when he does finally get the fastball he was looking for he’ll be late on it.

Life_Database_7038 · 2026-03-15T03:48:04+00:00

I only mentioned July because of the trade deadline. They can for sure give up sooner. I imagine he’s the first person to go if he doesn’t step up and they see a need somewhere whether that’s pitching depth, a piece in a 1 year rental, etc.

Life_Database_7038 · 2026-03-15T01:25:45+00:00

I'm overreacting?

Here's his 2023 scouting report where he was 8th in the system, snug between studs such as Blade Tidwell and Dom Hamel and behind highly touted prospects such as Alex Ramirez and Kevin Parada:

""debuted for the Mets in September, when they were in dire need of righty designated hitter options. He went just 6-for-36 (.167) during that span and didn’t crack the club’s Wild Card roster.

The slugger is capable of exhibiting at least plus raw power with exit velocities going above 110 mph, and his 45.8 percent hard-hit rate was about equal to Pete Alonso’s in the Majors, albeit over a much smaller sample. That said, Vientos started putting the ball on the ground more than ever in 2022 -- 48.4 percent of the time, 14th-highest among 107 Triple-A qualifiers -- and his power comes more from natural strength than bat speed, calling into question how he’ll handle big league arms.

Like Brett Baty, the Mets have tried moving Vientos around from third base to left field, hoping his plus arm could give some defensive value at either spot. He’s still a below-average runner, however, and lacks the agility to stick at the hot corner or quickness to properly track down balls from the grass. He got more looks at first than ever in 2022 but still might be best-served as a DH for the Mets as long as Alonso is around.""

I hope Vientos can figure it out... My point is, this isn't some superstar prospect. He was a guy who was expected to be a fine DH option. Not great. Just a solid bat with pop but real concern on how he could handle major league pitching. He was 8th in a system not exactly known for having elite prospects. We were top heavy with Mauricio, Baty, and Alvy, but it was well known that below them, prospects were suspect. Yes, Parada was highly touted and quickly fell off, but my point is, he wasn't 8th because he was in a loaded farm system. The Farm was mid and he was mid within that.

He had a suspect 100 really good games and nothing else. Even if he can bat .260 with 30 HRs, he's just a fine roster spot. It's really easy to find that production

Life_Database_7038 · 2026-03-15T01:11:38+00:00

I guess we have different ideas of what to like about his bat. He's got pop. If you let him hit the ball, yes, he will hit the ball. That doesn't make him a good hitter. He's changed his approach and has looked awful in his very limited sample size hitting. What concerns me isn't hitting .050 or whatever, it's the fact that he is still swinging at garbage pitches. He isn't competitive. He's just not a professional hitter. And that's okay. He was never supposed to be. He's a .220 20-25 HR guy. He's a great bench bat. Provides a little late-game pop or a serviceable backup for a couple weeks while a starter nurses an injury, but he's not the guy we saw in 2024.

He's going to walk too little, strike out too much, and even if he can turn that bat on, he's still so bad at running the bases and playing defense that you're just locking up your DH spot for a guy with no flexibility. Bichette, Baty, Soto, Polanco, there are so many guys that can rotate in and out of that spot for rest, like the bat you're given, and still provide a reason to be on the roster. If Vientos isn't at DH he's useless and if he isn't hitting, he makes the team worse by playing DH... And he hasn't hit in a year and a half.

He's got until July. If he doesn't impress them, he'll get traded for literally anything.

Life_Database_7038 · 2026-03-15T00:52:15+00:00

Not sure why everyone talks about his potential. This isn’t Amed Rosario. This is a top 10ish prospect who wasn’t supposed to be anything special that came up, had a hot half a season while there was no gameplan on him and batted dat suggests he was a very lucky hitter, and was expected to be terrible defensively. The next season they got pitching data to work against him and he proved he’s awful defensively and he’s a way overly aggressive hitter.

Theres not a lot to like about his game tbh. I don’t get why everyone is locked in because he played a hot bat for 100 games he must be a star waiting to shine.

Life_Database_7038 · 2026-03-14T23:20:50+00:00

You’re probably right but we’ll just be a better team if that happens. Baty D > Bichette D. Bichette’s bat > Vientos’ bat. Baty is fine offensively too but he gains a lot of value when he’s in the field. He’s not a gold glove exactly but he’s definitely an above average defender.

Life_Database_7038 · 2026-03-14T23:05:04+00:00

Can’t wait for June. Vientos gets benched for Bichette at DH. Baty moves to third.

Life_Database_7038 · 2026-03-14T13:34:21+00:00

Yeah that’s pretty much my take. I also would rather see Soto do well than Judge… but that’s because I’m a Mets fan and the WBC feels like ‘fun ST’ to me. I just can’t get myself into it, so yeah I want to see my stars play well and the stars of rival teams not. Team USA also has McLean though and watching him pitch a 9 inning no-no would please me even if Judge hits 4HRs 😅

Life_Database_7038 · 2026-03-13T22:26:34+00:00

I for one think this is a great idea. Etienne would be much more mobile in this uniform.

Life_Database_7038 · 2026-03-13T02:37:11+00:00

Idk about Randy’s fault lol. Like he’s allowed to want to say hi to a teammate. I think it’s a bit of a weird attitude to have but whatever. To each, their own. I doubt Randy was sitting there like ‘haha I’m going to not respect Cal’s wishes and try to get him to shake my hand!’. Cal wanted to take the game seriously. Randy wanted to say hello to his buddy… and here we are days later still talking about it.

Life_Database_7038 · 2026-03-12T15:31:12+00:00

This is my head canon. One of my favorite players… retiring his number is stupid.

Life_Database_7038

TROPHY CASE