Nick

Realistically the goal for me is for the team to hang around .500 as Bello and Whitlock returns. Anything Paxton can give us above and beyond Pivetta would be a plus. Kluber pitched better today. We need a big year from Sale. Stay healthy and give us chance to win more games than not.

Bello and Whitlock......it's a start.

Good read today on Winckowski. He is growing on me.

Great post Moon. I enjoyed watching the game today. Houck I thought looked good for most part. Unfortunate that he gave up two homers in the fifth inning. Schreiber looks to be last year's version. This team will score runs at home. Last year? We lost first 5 series vs AL East, going 5-11. Duvall and Turner will light up at home. Yoshida will figure it out.

I do think 2023 will be better than 2022. I've already spoken about our pen being much improved and should generate 6-8 more wins. I'm just not as negative as many are here. Who knows what will become of Casas? Do you? I think he'll be good for us but all we can do is wait. That's the state of our organization.

I wonder how many Sox fans we've lost having already jumped off the Green Monster the last few days? Some poster here made a good point about our 'core' group not having been finalized and THAT may take couple of more years. I can wait. Two pitchers in that group, Whitlock and Bello are almost ready to return. Tanner is slated for the pen I believe. 1B, 3B and LF are set. 3B is the leader. We can be patient at 1B because the production was so inept last year. We have to wait for LF only because of 5 years and $90M. 2B is covered for 5 more years but it starts in 2024 due to injury. Meanwhile we hope that the stop gap singings of Duvall's and Turner's will keep us near the playoff chase. I'm not concerned about the outings of Kluber and Sale. Hell, I'm just glad they didn't get hurt. That's where we are right now. I'm waiting for Whitlock, Bello and maybe Paxton's return to get a clearer picture of this team. Lastly, does Bloom understand that many of us are thinking that expecting a different result from the same guy is very flawed when it comes to Brasier? I can only shake my head on that one.

Common sense overcomes analytics at times. (there's my wussy cover at the end).

There are several players that I will enjoy watching. Brasier is not one of those. Enough

If you can't get excited about Devers, Casas, Yoshida, Turner, Whitlock, Bello, then why are you here? Talk about a downer. Point #1 says pretty much everything....we lock up Devers for 11 years and you think his mitivation might be gone? Sox can't win with you.

But but but Ort has good stuff. How long will Cora defend this guy? Does he have pictures on the management?

When someone here gets hurt we usually hear it from the Yankee fan. He should worry about his staff.

I thought the bullpen was our biggest need? We did something about it. Shouldn't we improve at minimum, five games? That takes us up to 83-79. Tampa Bay got the last wild card spot with 86 games. Biggest improvement may come in the way of not having to play as many AL games. We seem to do better outside of our own division, historically. Wacha was pretty much unkown last year. He started 23 games and pitched 127 innings. I would think Chris Sale can match those numbers. Yeah he's injury prone but how long can his bad luck continue? Eovaldi started 20 games and pitched 109 innings. I would think Kluber can easily match those numbers. Rich Hill started 26 games and pitched 124 innings. Is it too much to ask Whitlock to do the same? I see Bello starting 20+ games this year. Again, I just don't see that as a gigantic ask. Let's wait and see about our offense. Circle me as an optimist.

Geez, quit throwing facts in my face.

His value comes into play during playoffs. Mets are going for it.

Good catch......apparently I should be working for KPMG.

1st inning 26 pitches (Duvall got a late break on a ball that dropped, windy and sunny?) 2nd inning 10 pitches 3rd inning 16 pitches I thought he looked good. Not really worry about the outcome. He looked healthy.

Went back and watched the replay. He threw 52 pitches to 14 batters in 3 innings. 25 would not make any sense.

Let me say it another way (and obviously I could be way off with numbers). In order for the Mets to break even on cash basis, regardless of gross revenue, player payroll for 40 man roster MUST be $200M or less, than the loss would be $150M if the payroll is $350M, which I think the owner can afford.

Net Worth Summary The majority of Cohen's fortune is derived from his holdings in hedge funds operated by Point72 Asset Management. The firm had $27.2 billion in assets under management in January 2023, according to the firm's website, of which about $9.5 billion belongs to Cohen. Suppose Mets' revenue can only support payroll of $200M. At $346M opening day payroll, He'd eat about $150M. I think he can afford it.

50 Pitches, 3 innings for Whitlock. I love watching him pitch. He's another guy I'd pay to watch pitch.

Looks like the starting lineup with exception of Yoshida and Verdugo. And Whitlock is starting.

Whitlock's contract 23: $1.00M Pre-Arb 24: $3.25M Arb 1 25: $5.25M Arb 2 26: $7.25M Arb 3 27: $8.25M FA 1 (club option) 28: $10.5M FA 2 (club option) Could be a steal if he establishes himself in the starting rotation.

This year's payroll would have been under the tax limit with Mookie's $29M, less Duvall's $7M and Verdugo's $6.3M. Next year's raise for Devers could be covered by letting go of two free agents, Kike and Paxton. I think I read Bloom state that Betts would not have players surrounding him for the team to succeed. I think he was not patient enough. Or maybe it was John Henry.

I will refrain from making any negative comments about Brasier this year. He had replaced Barnes for me in my dog house.