“You see him on the other side like, ‘Wow, those are great numbers, that’s Pete Alonso,’” Lindor said after Monday’s 2-1 loss. “But at the same time, you look in our clubhouse, and you say the guys that we have are capable of helping us win ballgames. It’s just, we haven’t stayed healthy, and we haven’t put the season together.”

Stearns, to his credit, has acknowledged the construction flaws in the 2026 roster. But it’s still alarming that Cohen and Stearns never fully valued what a player like Alonso brought: everyday, high-level productivity.

Sometimes you don’t need to get cute or creative. You just need to pay your best players what they’re worth.

- Nimmo has played 132 games in the OF, has 8 games at DH.

- dWAR: Benge: -0.2 | Ewing: 1.2 | Semien: 0.2 | Nimmo: -1.0

- Obviously Robert Jr.'s injuries (and Semien getting hurt) contributed to a spot for Ewing too, but still.

- Nimmo is under contract through the end of 2030. Semien through the end of 2028 (oof).

At the Mets game this sandwich was 18.- and the beer I had with it, was another $17.- just unreal…

Seeing this guy happy means something to me man. This bullpen is a complete skeleton crew. The mets waved the white flag on the season. And they were like great pressures off let’s play baseball.

9 of 12.

They need to figure out a manager who can take the pressure off these guys becuase every season they play so fucking tight and bury themselves early and it’s really fucking annoying

Idk what the answer is but we all know what good team baseball looks like and this stretch is the first time we’ve had it all year.

Maybe that’s just water finding its level and everyone loves eachother when they’re hitting but there’s a cohesion to baseball that’s been missing from this team for almost a year and a half.

Look at the crowds this weekend. Mets fans don’t need World Series hype to show up. They need a team who gives a shit and plays for eachother. This is shaping up to be a very 2019 second half and that’s all anyone could ask for.

Finishing the season strong. Baty believers rise up.

Bobby Ojeda joining the action.

I always found it odd that people want to trade a young, controllable catcher who has a pretty solid bat and then I saw this post that there are only 10 catchers with a higher WAR than him and none of them are realistically available for trade. So for anyone who wants Alvy traded who are you replacing him with?

Big jump. I hope if Voit, Tong, and Santucci have great second halves, we get close to top 10. All 3 of those guys could be big pieces next year

OK, so the Kid is putting up numbers at a 5.1 war pace. Typically, you pay between 8-12 M USD per WAR. Let's go 10 M per WAR since that's right in the middle.

IE Juan Soto is a 5-7 WAR player and thus gets paid around 60 M per year. So the math checks out.

This means that if AJ Ewing plays at this pace over a 162 game season he'd be generating around 51 M USD of value.

Obviously, it's early. But the kid seems special. No need to get too excited yet, but the combination of him and Benge

Speaking of Benge. It's likely that having another rookie, who he's close with has played a huge role in his turnaround. In fact, Carson Benge is currently at 1.5 war for the season but 1.2 of that WAR has been generated since Ewing joined the team! Another way to look at this, is that since Ewing joined the team, Benge has been playing like a 3.7 WAR player, instead of the 1.5 war rate he was playing at before Ewing came up.

It's hard times but real fans always look for silver linings based on facts.

I find myself wrestling with whether we should want him back on the team next season (assuming there is a season) and I did a deep dive.

When Bichette and Soto each got a hit in the same game the team was 28-21 (92 wins over a 162 game season). When Bichette and Lindor each got hits the team was 27-20 (93 wins). All 3 of them? 11-6 which is a small sample size that shrunk to 9-6 after Mendoza was canned. But that would be in the 104 win range (or 97 under Andy Green).

Additional context, the team was 14-9 when Lindor and Soto got hits last year which is the same pace. Last season the team went 44-26 which was a 101 win pace.

With Pete in 2025 the scenarios were 47-29 with Soto (88 wins), 53-26 with Lindor (109 wins) and 36-19 for all 3 (106 wins).

Run production was largely the same across all scenarios with 5.5 per game on average.

The numbers point out the obvious, your stars need to produce at the same time to make this a playoff team. Basically, you need about 115-120 games where 2 stars get a hit in order to make the playoffs. The 2025 combo got you 115 where they just missed the playoffs, 2026 yielded 85.

To me there's a ton of risk with banking on Bo bouncing back, Lindor being healthy, and Soto being healthy enough to hit the 115-120 mark. But...he is probably the best shot available of doing that. I don't see another "star" on the market who can make that number work. I was initially reluctant because I think he just had one really good month, one good month and the rest was trash but...sign me up for more Bo.

Thoughts?

I figured I'd look into the connections between my two favorite things, the Mets and punk rock. The team was initially embraced by the counterculture in the 1960's and I think they have always been embraced by people who are into music. At punk/hardcore shows, I am always seeing other people with Mets hats on. Anyway, here's what I found:

1. Gary Cohen is always referencing punk rock on broadcasts. He has mentioned seeing the Ramones in concert (probably when he looked like this: https://imgur.com/on7JOUj ). Examples:

https://www.reddit.com/r/NewYorkMets/comments/4pqgw9/is_gary_cohen_a_closet_punk_rocker_always/

https://www.reddit.com/r/NewYorkMets/comments/11h17vt/gary_the_punk_rocker/

https://www.amazinavenue.com/2016/5/11/11653716/new-york-mets-sny-2016-this-week-recap-gary-cohen-keith-hernandez-ron-darling

2. Brian Baker, the guitarist of Minor Threat, Bad Religion, Dag Nasty, Samhain, and the Meatmen is a huge Mets fan. Here's an Amazin' Avenue podcast with him: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/brian-baker/id466679255?i=1000520626144

He even has a GKR tattoo: https://www.instagram.com/p/Ch51wlZjGHG/?hl=en

3. Adrock of the Beastie Boys, who started out a punk/hardcore band, is a Mets fan and threw out the first pitch at a game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVA3D8o9wkc

Adrock with Darren from the Seven Line: https://www.instagram.com/p/Db-0Fl9x8-F/

The Mets also had a game where they honored MCA after his passing.

4. The Clash played Shea Stadium in Oct. 13, 1982, as opening act for the Who. Their set is available as a live album.

5. Ken Griffey Baseball (the SNES game) - all of the NY Mets players are NY punk musicians due to licensing issues:

https://old.reddit.com/r/punk/comments/11b0fcp/in_ken_griffey_jr_baseball_for_the_snes_1994_he/

6. John Nolan of Taking Back Sunday is a big Mets fan and threw out a first pitch: https://www.instagram.com/p/CxT_f29tclf/

7. Shea Stadium was the name of a venue in Brooklyn that used to put on a lot of punk/indie rock shows in the 2010's. It was run by a member of the So So Glos;

8. "The New York Mets as Punk Rock” was the name of a talk at a Hofstra University academic conference about the Mets for their 50th Anniversary: https://www.newyorker.com/sports/sporting-scene/the-mets-go-to-school

9. Songs written by punk bands about/that reference the Mets:

a. The Isotopes - Ballad of Rey Ordonez;

b. The Strokes - Ode to the Mets (written by Casablancas after the 2015 WS loss)(not really a punk band, but close);

c. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - All Things Considered (“He says but he regrets / The stadium was Shea / The team the New York Mets");

d. Beastie Boys - Sounds of Science (“Shea Stadium the radium, E.M.D. squared / Kicked out of the Palladium, d’you think that I care?”);

e. Beastie Boys - 3 the Hard Way (“I said oops, gotcha, clutch like Piazza / Sneak between the sheets so hide the matzoh”);

f. The So So Glos - Last Weekend (“We grown up 86’d and ended up like this”);

g. Black 47 - Those Saints (“When a man from the Mets says, 'Are yous available? / Come out and play for us in Shea Stadium'”);

h. 45 Adapters - Let's Go Mets;

i. Gone from Better - Let's Go Mets: https://open.spotify.com/track/3XAnLrjiSQ5VHWdHvyj8vx?si=0e20fb67bf2447df; and

j. Caught in a Trap - Easy Come Easy Go (about the 2006 team).

10. Walk-Out Songs:

a. Daniel Murphy came out to “I’m Shipping Up to Boston” by the Dropkick Murphy's;

b. David Wright came out to "Sabotage" and "Brass Monkey" by the Beastie Boys;

c. If I remember correctly, I believe Mike Piazza came to some Clash songs (along with his usual GnR, VanHalen, etc.); and

h. Pete Alonso came up to Turnstile this year (who are from Baltimore).

Other:

-There's also a lot of indie rock connections to the Mets, but that would have made this post much longer (see Yo La Tengo, Piazza New York Catcher by Belle and Sebastian, Bells and Whistles by Bright Eyes, Doc Gooden by the Mountain Goats, Mets by Petite League, and members of Geese being big fans of the Mets).

-Johnny Ramone was from Queens, but was a diehard Yankees fan.

-Geddy Lee of Rush auctioned off a baseball signed by all four Beatles after their Shea Stadium concert.

-FYI: I cribbed a lot of the songs in no. 9 from https://www.amazinavenue.com/2016/5/2/11541410/list-mets-references-music-rap-songs

-Edit: reworked post to fix formatting issues.

The Mets defense has been incredible in the second half, say what you want about him but seems like Stearns actually had a good vision but all the injuries prevented the season from getting off the ground.

Obvious caveats apply here, because this assumes that a lot of the team's best performances would be sustainable across a full 162. The post-trade deadline team was also probably not good enough to make a deep run even it this was the squad for the whole year.

But it does it does indicate that the Mets are starting from a strong baseline in the offseason. The main priorities are going to be the left side of the infield and frontline pitching, but a lot about the team is likely going to be retained in 2027.

I'm not exaggerating either, they're the only team in MLB with 3 OFs that have 3 or more WAR

8th in ERA

9th in WHIP

6th in Strikeouts

6th in Innings Pitched

7th in Games Started

4th in Quality Starts

3rd in Batting Average Against

4th in Hits Allowed

5th in Home Runs Allowed

1.00 ERA in his last 3 starts.

1.97 ERA in his last 10 starts.

2 runs or fewer in 13 of his last 15 starts.

On pace for 180+ innings and 200+ strikeouts.

Interesting name at #5 😉 (I still think they should sign an actually solid RH bat but more and more I'm becoming comfortable with Young at 1B next year)

I am measuring my words here, because I do see a lot of the fanbase talking past each other on here today. But had I attended last night's game I would have given Pete a standing O too. Heck, the Mets did a video tribute to him the other night because they understand that you have to recognize a franchise icon when he comes back. 

Does it sting to get booed in your home stadium, or hear the fans cheer for the opposition? I am certain it does. But sometimes that is nonetheless the just and reasonable reaction for a season that has gone way off course. 

Beyond which, the only salve for frustration is success. If the team was WINNING then the fans would not be frustrated by a too-clever-by-half move that has backfired spectacularly. If the team was winning the players would not feel that cheers for a departed icon stung this much, like they did when I was in the house to cheer for Piazza in 2006. But the team is emphatically not winning. It has been a disastrous, pathetic, atrocious, (insert adjective here) season. 

At the end of the day, embarrassing the front office is the only option the fanbase has to register its frustration. This is not little league. I congratulate my kids and their friends for giving a good effort even when they fall flat on their faces because they are in first grade. The Mets are professionals,  though, and one of the most popular players in recent memory came home this week wearing a jersey he should never have had on. Of COURSE a lot of the fans had something to say to that. 

The idea that cheering a departed legend for performing well against you in his return is somehow unprecedented or beyond the pale, particularly when it comes in the context of a lost season where his replacements have (frankly) sucked, is not worthy of New York.

I dunno man. He looks bad. He looked bad before he got hurt. He looks worse now. Lots of blue on the baseball savant page.

I tried to stay positive, but we’re into July and it’s really starting to feel like last year was a mirage.

He’s unplayable at 3B, he’s slow, and he’s an automatic out right now. He also hasn’t taken a walk since he’s come back from injury...

As self-proclaimed Chairman of the Board for the Swaggy V Truthers I present:

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/mark-vientos-668901?stats=statcast-r-hitting-mlb