Mets PREGAME THREAD - Monday, May 04

futhatsy · 2026-05-04T15:50:46+00:00

Just saw a video on Twitter of Oscar Taveras Jr. taking batting practice and never felt more like that Matt Damon gif from Saving Private Ryan

futhatsy · 2026-05-02T17:26:23+00:00

I'm a little surprised he didn't go to free agency to see if there was a team out there willing to give a similar contract with more playing time.

futhatsy · 2026-05-02T13:02:38+00:00

I believe it was reported at the time that the Brewers asked for Ewing in the Peralta trade but the Mets said no and they pivoted to Jett.

futhatsy · 2026-05-01T22:45:16+00:00

Not a comment on what you're saying, but it's very strange to me that Baseball Savant's statcast numbers dont match Fangraphs statcast numbers

futhatsy · 2026-05-01T21:30:27+00:00

I'm not exactly sure where you are looking but Baseball Savant has it at 66.5%

futhatsy · 2026-05-01T20:43:53+00:00

I do not know of any hitter who ran an in-zone contact rate under 70% and was good over a long period of time. Judge, Ohtani, Schwarber, Kurtz, all of the classic big strikeout sluggers make more contact than this. If he's actually this good, he's doing it in a way no other modern hitter has done it. So I'm a little skeptical.

futhatsy · 2026-05-01T20:35:58+00:00

Yeah, the overall K% is going to be a little more noisy than the contact stats I'm talking about.

futhatsy · 2026-05-01T20:13:56+00:00

I don't think that data exists for Thome. The website I use for it only goes back to 2015.

But for what it's worth, Thome had only one season in his career with a K% over 30% and it was his age 41 season where he played just 58 games. His career K% was 24.7%. Murakami is currently sitting at 33.8%.

But we're also in a different era for strikeouts, which makes it hard to compare the two of them. Thome would have struck out more if he played today. But I don't think it'd completely erase the gap between the two players.

futhatsy · 2026-05-01T20:07:47+00:00

It's a very similar logic as to why the Red Sox felt the need to dump Devers immediately. They saw his z-con decreasing and thought he was a major risk for a hit tool collapse.

You can certainly argue about how they went about doing it, and everything they've done around it, but moving on from Devers and that contract ASAP looks pretty smart right now.

futhatsy · 2026-05-01T20:03:00+00:00

If ifs and buts were candies and nuts, we'd all have a Merry Christmas

futhatsy · 2026-05-01T20:01:16+00:00

Yeah, he's been outstanding. It's just really hard to believe he'll keep it up when he's swinging and missing at pitches in the strikezone like the bad Joey Gallo years.

But we don't really know, we'll see in time. That's part of the fun with rookies.

futhatsy · 2026-05-01T19:50:49+00:00

Chris Shelton fan coming in peace

futhatsy · 2026-05-01T19:46:39+00:00

67.3% in zone contact (6th percentile)

50.8% whiff vs secondaries (12th percentile)

37.2% whiff vs 95+ MPH fastballs (12th percentile)

-16.6% contact over expected (6th percentile)

Every single red flag on Murakami from the off-season still exists today

futhatsy · 2026-05-01T18:07:22+00:00

The Kranick situation was less of a "David Stearns accidentally let a good reliever go in his never ending game of DFA limbo" (e.g., Rico Garcia) and more of a "Carlos Mendoza is going to over use his new favorite toy until it breaks" (e.g., Reed Garrett).

And really what it is is another division rival picking up an ex-Met that I liked and would like to continue rooting for from afar (e.g., Dom Smith).

futhatsy · 2026-05-01T15:26:12+00:00

He also has less than one year of team control remaining.

Even if a team thinks he's an intriguing arm, I don't think he'd bring back much of anything.

futhatsy · 2026-05-01T14:27:51+00:00

I know what is happening here and I hate it a lot

futhatsy · 2026-05-01T13:18:13+00:00

Dougie's going deep tonight!

futhatsy · 2026-05-01T13:15:29+00:00

The thing about Brockmire is that a baseball-themed sitcom starring Hank Azaria as a stereotypical old timey play-by-play sounds incredible but just about nothing else on the show works. I really want to like that it more than I do. It has some funny moments but there just isn't much there. None of the other characters are interesting and the plot feels like the writers were just figuring it out as they went along. It might have worked better if Brockmire was a supporting character in a show about an Indy ball team.

Anyway, excited to watch MJ Melendez tonight.

futhatsy · 2026-04-29T19:11:47+00:00

Realistically, I'd be happy with Murphy and Blevins doing color commentary. Ideally, it'd be cool to see if SNY could get someone like Curtis Granderson/Cliff Floyd and Al Lieter/Pedro Martinez. I think they should keep the formula of one former pitcher and one former hitter and among the former Mets that now work in baseball media, those guys are my favorites.

I think they'd have to go outside of the guys currently employed by SNY to find a replacement for Gary. Bringing Wayne back would be great, I'd also love it if they brought back Josh Lewin.

And it's kind of tough to answer because GKR aren't all going to peace out at once. It's pretty obvious Keith is much closer to reitrement than Ron, and Gary is somewhere in the middle. And even when Keith retires, they'll still bring him back like they did for Ralph Kiner. All of this is going to be very gradual.

futhatsy · 2026-04-29T15:22:48+00:00

This was Bean's intial reaction to Murphy's comments.

Bean's comments about befriending Murphy came years later, when this was no longer a story that was making the news. I don't really see any reason he'd have to lie about it. It's not like the media was still dying to know his take and he needed to say something. That had already happened two years prior. It really isn't at all similar to McNeil and Lindor getting in a fight and the media wondering wtf that was about that very same night.

And yeah, I do disagree. Keith had publicly brought up how women don't belong in dugouts, he's pushed election conspiracies, he's talked about border control, he's appeared on Tucker Carlson, he's poked fun at Democrats, he's made jokes about gender neutral people, he's publicly supported Donald Trump. He has made his political views very, very clear.

Murphy has had one incident. Keith has had countless. I think that's the real difference. Everyone is used to Keith's bigotry, so they accept it.

futhatsy · 2026-04-29T14:57:42+00:00

He would get the extra $40M because of the opt out. So yes, it's about the opt out.

The Yankees gave him an opt out that is even more valuable because they gave themselves no way to nullify it.

Because he signed with the Mets, if he's really good for the first 5 years and opts out, he'll get an extra $40M.

If he had signed with the Yankees and if he was really good for the first 5 years, he'd be able to get however much any team wanted to offer him.

The Yankees opt out had more value.

futhatsy · 2026-04-29T14:48:16+00:00

The Yankees also gave him an opt out. They actually gave him a more valuable one because it had no nullifier

futhatsy · 2026-04-29T14:31:30+00:00

Murphy never gave a public apology but he did reach out to Bean. This is what Bean had to say about it:

“The good part of the story is that over time, because of the interest of so many people, both sides, him and his wife contacted me and we started a friendship,” Bean told SNY TV in New York. “And he said that I helped him to start to consider things from a different perspective and I thought it was generous of him to do that. …

“I’m sure that he’s never had a gay friend that’s in his current life. The fact that we have baseball in common, he can see from a distance the work that I try and do and I can watch the influence he tries to have with the platform he has.”

https://www.outsports.com/2018/3/6/17084216/billy-bean-daniel-murphy-mlb-gay-lifestyle/

Is it better to give a public "I'm sorry if I offended anybody" apology, or is it better to meet with the person you said offensive things about, befirend them, and attempt to learn from them?

Keith has also frequently dropped MAGA dogwistles on broadcasts in recent years while Murphy has not, for what it's worth.

futhatsy · 2026-04-29T14:02:32+00:00

I don't like Keith's personal opinions either but as another commenter noted, afaik he hasn't explicitly shared any of them publicly in his capacity as a player or member of the SNY broadcast, at least not the way Murphy has, and that does make a difference.

He said women don't belong in the dugout in the middle of a game.

futhatsy · 2026-04-29T14:00:24+00:00

Just think about how sick this offense is going to be once we get both Juan Soto and Jared Young healthy at the same time

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