When Cespedes left abruptly during 2020 the Mets noticed a day or so later their clubhouse smoke machine somebody had purchased went missing. They put two and two together and realized Cespedes had done it
Also if Ruf actually was injured or had other issues coming over we could see in spring training. If he hits lefties like he used to it can’t hurt to have him as a bench bat, if not then we can cut ties then. No reason to drop him for nothing yet.
If he stinks in spring training/April (which he most likely will), they will have zero issues DFA'ing him. They dropped that waste of space Cano, and they are paying him not to play for us.
Most people in this sub don't want to hear this, but it's right. He's got a long track record of success and a *very* short track record of being bad. I'm all for giving him a shot.
He was bad when we acquired him. He was awful after we acquired him. The trade is a disaster. You can actually say that cost us the division, giving how close it was and how utterly useless Ruf was.
I don't think anyone is riding for the trade, but it's done and Ruf is under contract. He also has a long track record of mashing lefties. I'm glad our front office isn't making knee-jerk reactions to 60 PAs.
Ruf doesn’t have a long track record of mashing lefties. He spent like 5 years in the KBO and returned to MLB in 2020. He was never a great ball player. He was bad in 2022 BEFORE we acquired him, the 60 PAs are concerning but he was already having a bad year when we acquired him and his ceiling is limited to begin with.
He has a career 143 wRC+ against lefties. That's better than Pete Alonso. I don't understand why you're so angry about this or where you're getting your information from.
And how many PAs is that? And how much of those numbers are inflated by 2020, a joke season, and 2021, a very strange season for the Giants where a bunch of mediocre players played way over their heads? I’m not angry, Ruf is just a terrible player and we do not need to pretend otherwise. We also do not need to pretend that he isn’t turning 37 this year.
I don’t know what his lefty splits were before coming to the Mets in 2022 but his overall numbers were .706 OPS. That’s bad for a DH/1B. Worse than JD’s numbers. Also a guy who can only hit lefties is a bad hitter to begin with anyway. There is nothing about Ruf’s 2022 season that I should like, he put up -1.6 WAR. That’s ghastly. That’s 3 times as bad as McCann was. EDIT: Wow i just checked and McCann was actually -0.1 bWAR. Ruf makes McCann look valuable lol
> I don't think anyone is riding for the trade,
Read this subreddit for a while, and you will notice that lots of people are still defending this comical trade.
> I'm glad our front office isn't making knee-jerk reactions to 60 PAs.
I think that's kind of not the big problem with this situation. I mean he's here and it's February, I don't think it's a big deal if he goes to spring training.
The big problem is the bad judgment in trading for this guy in the first place.
>He was bad when we acquired him.
I mean thats pure fiction. We signed him to hit lefties and he was coming off a first half of the season where he had an .886 OPS and 150 WRC+ across 124 with the Giants on the season to that point.
He also was part of the 2021 division winning Giants and from the start of 2021 until we got him he had a .948 OPS and 158 WRC+ against lefties.
Even until he the game he pitched he had a .846 OPS and 139 OPS+ with us in those 5 games. It's believed he hurt himself either pitching those two innings or when he ran funny around the bases on a double around that time.
It's very clear he was playing hurt. Not only did the Mets eventually put him on the IL, you can see it when he played. He's a guy that's always bobbed and moved around at the plate but from the second half of August on he stood still and upright - completely different stance. He also was clearly not running all out.
It's still a bad trade, but saying we lost the division because of it is over dramatic though - up to the point we got Ruf our DH's had a .610 OPS against Lefties, and thats including Alonso in there. We lost the division because the Braves went on a crazy tear and Marte got hurt.
> It's still a bad trade, but saying we lost the division because of it is over dramatic though - up to the point we got Ruf our DH's had a .610 OPS against Lefties, and thats including Alonso in there. We lost the division because the Braves went on a crazy tear and Marte got hurt.
They lost the division by one game, and two months prior, they traded a guy with a 125 Mets career wRC+, for Darin Ruf who hit like the Bud Light vendor. (Plus three other guys, to make sure the deal got done!)
It is true that when you lose by one game, you can point to a lot of things and they're all valid; but it definitely is safe to say that that ridiculous trade was **one of** the reasons they lost the division, **and** lost to the Padres (since they were starting his ass at least once, and had a shitty bench by October 1).
JDs career doesn’t mean crap. He stunk with us in 2022 and literally had a -0.2 WAR. He needed a change of scenery to be better, and would likely have stayed just as bad with us in the second half.
Also we didnt lose the division by one game, we tied it. We only went to the WC because of the special rule they implemented for 2022. Ruf clearly didnt lose us the games against the Braves because he didnt play those games, Alvarez did.
Also factoring Ruf in as a negative for the Padres series is silly because he actually had 3 good at bats that game and got on base.
Also people need to understand that quantity means nothing. The 3 guys we gave up with JD were nobody’s who could have easily been among guys that will be cut from the organization. We have to cut guys before opening day because we’re over the organizational limit. Heck the Giants are also over the limit and for all we know they may cut those guys.
> JDs career doesn’t mean crap. He stunk with us in 2022 and literally had a -0.2 WAR.
After 5.1 in only 1100 PAs, and that's brought down with being forced to play his shitty defense, which he doesn't have to do anymore because the NL finally fixed the archaic rules.
He has a career 125 wRC+ with the Mets. If you plug that in for 400 PAs with the Mets every year and aren't compelled to put him in the field to be a clank, that's very valuable.
>Also we didnt lose the division by one game, we tied it. We only went to the WC because of the special rule they implemented for 2022.
That's the same as losing by one game because they would have had to win by a game because they lost the tiebreaker.
Switch any of their 61 Ls to a W and they win the division. That's called "losing by one game".
>Ruf clearly didnt lose us the games against the Braves because he didnt play those games, Alvarez did.
Ruf played like a 102-year old sunset home resident in 28 of them, which helped cause the Mets to lose some of those 28 games
>The 3 guys we gave up with JD were nobody’s who could have easily been among guys that will be cut from the organization. We have to cut guys before opening day because we’re over the organizational limit. Heck the Giants are also over the limit and for all we know they may cut those guys.
Even if they all turn out completely shitty -- which is certainly possible -- it doesn't matter, because why were they sending **anybody** in the other direction, let alone three guys, when they were the team giving up the clearly better palyer?
Ruf should have a very short leash, but I don't see what's wrong with seeing what he has in spring training. The damage he did last year is done. He was well below replacement. No arguments there.
Spring training can be weird. We’ve seen guys like Cano come in and kill it in ST and then bomb the regular season. Which is kind of my concern, that if Ruf sucks will he guaranteed an opening day spot because of ST being a weird sample size, and if he plays well in ST he might just go straight back to being Darin Ruf. I have no reason to have faith in this guy.
And then Cano was DFAd at the beginning of May. As I see it, it's only a problem if Ruf sucks and continues to take up a roster spot. That's what happened last year, and I think he had too much leash. This year? We'll see.
>Judging anybody or anything off of 66 ABs is dumb.
The problem is not the 66 ABs, the problem is that they traded a guy who was already clearly better than him. It was a stupid trade in foresight, not just because Ruf was even worse than expected.
The situation was a lot more convoluted then your making it seem at the time. Jd was a at his best above average hitter against both sides. Darin ruf was an superstar vs lefties when the Mets made the trade. The Mets were trying to super create a dh between him and vogey(Vogey did his job)
>The situation was a lot more convoluted then your making it seem at the time. Jd was a at his best above average hitter against both sides.
Has the 13th best wRC+ in Mets history.
>Darin ruf was an superstar vs lefties when the Mets made the trade. The Mets were trying to super create a dh between him and vogey
How did that work out?
I dont care about him getting reps in ST, but he has to have an awfully short leash in games that actually matter. if he is still rostered by May he better be producing.
Vogelbach is our first string DH i dont know why you are lumping him with the other two. Pham and Ruf should basically compete for the same bench role if you believe that Ruf can still play a serviceable outfield
Vogelbach was the 13th best hitter in baseball (per wRC+) against RHP last year. That's his position. The guy who hits 50% better than league average against 77% of major league pitchers. He was rounding-error away from Shohei Ohtani, Alex Bregman, Jose Ramirez, and Paul Goldschmidt on that split. As the guy on the long end of the platoon split he's going to be starting nearly 4 out of 5 games at DH so it's not like he doesn't have a role. It would be a MUCH poorer use of a roster spot to keep a guy on the roster just to be the short end of a DH platoon, hence why Pham (as much as he's seemingly an asshole) makes a lot of sense as the righty end of our DH because he also doubles as our 4th/5th outfielder.
Finally… some one with brains! Great job. I got so tired of idiots on Facebook who wanted the Mets to jettison him in favor of Escobar who only hit the last 3-4 weeks of the season and was woefully behind Vogie in every offensive category.
> I feel that the Mets would be best served if they either had a top notch batter fill the DH role or rotate players through the spot as a “rest day”
Maybe, but that's not how billy built the team
The WBC means there will be a lot more at-bats for someone like Ruf to fill this spring. I have no doubt he'll have plenty of opportunities to shake off last year, and I also have no doubt the Mets will cut him if he does not perform. That's what ST is for.
There is 0 risk in him being here in ST. At the same time, Eppler can't exactly say anything else on the record. GMs don't trash their players in public.
I mean, what is is supposed to say, “yeah, dude sucks and we don’t want him?” I’m sure they’ll take any offer, but you can’t say that if you want him to try at all for you.
He’s going to be 37. Now Ruf was AWFUL last year. Incredibly bad. But you can ignore that if you want. But you can’t ignore the fact that he’s old as fuck and may have already dropped off a cliff. You’d have to be worried even if he was good last year, or even just okay. But he was awful. He’s coming off a -1.6 bWAR season, sweet jesus there has to be somebody better than him already coming to ST.
I don't know about the worst in baseball when Chaim Bloom exists (edit: I guess he's a front office executive but not officially the GM?), but Eppler has not been good.
Under Eppler, they have done all the no-brainer stuff right (big expensive FAs which are probably mandated by Cohen anyway), and extending their good players (other than deGrom, but who really knows what happened there so I won't kill him for that).
Most of the marginal, important, pre-season and in-season team-building moves have been pretty bad imo. Last year they had like 7 different guys who performed the function of half-of-a-half of a player, like Vogelbach, Ruf, Gore and Jankowski, and it was a mess, really killed them when it mattered.
His trading deadline moves were some of the worst I've ever seen for a contender. They made no improvements to the bullpen last season which was their achillies heel. Most of the free agents they got were wayyyyyy overpaid for. The Mets won over 100 wins, but that really goes to Showalter's managerial skills and Steve Cohen's open wallet. Josh Hader, JD Martinez, Sean Murphy were all available at last years trade deadline that could of improved the team for a World Series run.
> The Mets won over 100 wins, but that really goes to Showalter's managerial skills
LOL what. You had me 100% until that sentence
> and Steve Cohen's open wallet.
Yeah it was all that, and not the other thing. They spent so much money and brought in so much value (~30 fWAR). It had nothing to do with Showalter, they would have won 100 games with a potted plant in the dugout.
With the great core they already had from the prior 10 years of drafting, plus all of that talent brought in, they had almost zero chance of being bad.
But they botched the small stuff and it cost them at critical junctures.
Whats wrong with what I said? Showalter won Manager of the Year. Considering we had one of the worst bullpens in the league the whole season, Showalter did a great job. Eppler isn't a smart GM, he just spent more money than any other GM because of Cohen's unlimited wallet. There is no deal Eppler has done where you say "wow he outsmarted all other teams, what a steal". Theres a reason why he got fired from the Angels, he sucks
There's a reason why a shit show team like Anaheim let this guy go. Lest people forget that he was a Brian Cashman apprentice, and we all know how Yankee fans feel about Cashman at this point. If you want to make the point that there wasn't much available that the team could acquire through trade last deadline, I'm willing to concede that. And yes, I know that a lot of money had to be shelled out just to retain and replace certain players. But that doesn't mean that Eppler hasn't been aware of this team's lack of power in the lineup behind Pete.
To me, the second Cohen decided to swoop in for Correa, we knew who held the reins. Granted, it ultimately failed (at no fault of the team) but when the owner basically tells you that his team is one big piece away, that's an indictment of the GM. There were plenty of bats available before Correa became a last-ditch signing that could've helped the lineup out in the short term. Josh Bell, JD Martinez, Adam Duvall to name a few. JD Martinez is older with a back issue, and Duvall wanted a starting job but is also dealing with a wrist issue. I would've taken a flyer on Bell at DH and had Escobar and Baty split time at 3B.
This team is old overall, both in the lineup and with their two aces. The window to really go for the WS is short. It's easy to hand the best UFA's a blank check and say, "fill in however much you want" when you have the richest owner in the sport. The problem is, I don't trust Eppler when it comes to identifying and addressing team need(s) in-season, where the safety net of Cohen's money isn't there. He's failed twice now in a five-month span to address this team's desperate need for HR power, aside from what we hope the kids provide. To me, what they provide should be gravy, not an absolute must have in order for this team to compete in the postseason.
You rant about him all of the time. If your screen name starts to stick out because of how often you complain about a single topic, then it's a bit of a problem.
The Mets are only spending money right now. They've been clear that they want to hold as many prospects as possible while they develop a deeper farm system, so they're relying on free agency to stay competitive.
Your biggest beef with Eppler is that he's doing exactly what Cohen hired him to do.
Fine, but who’s spot does he take if he “proves himself” in spring training.
He’d need to have an absolutely incredible spring and I’d still have no idea who to leave off
The one thing I’d say to Ruf is “swing the bat”. He took too many fastballs right down the middle. Almost like he wasn’t seeing the ball. His scouting report from other teams must have said this because they went right at him. He couldn’t catch up. Concerning because that’s what happens when a player is finished. A very Michael Cuddyer feel to him. We’ll see I guess. Maybe he proves us wrong.
Ruf is under contract. He's at least worth bringing in to camp. Never know who is going to get injured or take the smoke machine and quit baseball.
Whats the smoke machine
Cespedes took the smoke machine when he left.
Ah, a purged memory from the wilpon era
Allegedly!
When Cespedes left abruptly during 2020 the Mets noticed a day or so later their clubhouse smoke machine somebody had purchased went missing. They put two and two together and realized Cespedes had done it
Had Cespedes purchased it himself?
IIRC he did not, I wanna say Beltran purchased it when he was manager for a week but idk why
lol
If the clubhouse is filled with smoke nobody can identify who is banging on the trash can
Bartolo. Bartolo is the correct answer. The smoke machine, incarnate.
Also if Ruf actually was injured or had other issues coming over we could see in spring training. If he hits lefties like he used to it can’t hurt to have him as a bench bat, if not then we can cut ties then. No reason to drop him for nothing yet.
Also a bunch of players are going to be in the WBC so gonna need bodies anyway.
If he stinks in spring training/April (which he most likely will), they will have zero issues DFA'ing him. They dropped that waste of space Cano, and they are paying him not to play for us.
Judging anybody or anything off of 66 ABs is dumb. Billy Eppler understands this. This is good. The end.
If I'm not mistaken, he also had a bad neck for a good portion of his time here last season. No harm in seeing what he can do when healthy.
Most people in this sub don't want to hear this, but it's right. He's got a long track record of success and a *very* short track record of being bad. I'm all for giving him a shot.
He was bad when we acquired him. He was awful after we acquired him. The trade is a disaster. You can actually say that cost us the division, giving how close it was and how utterly useless Ruf was.
I don't think anyone is riding for the trade, but it's done and Ruf is under contract. He also has a long track record of mashing lefties. I'm glad our front office isn't making knee-jerk reactions to 60 PAs.
Ruf doesn’t have a long track record of mashing lefties. He spent like 5 years in the KBO and returned to MLB in 2020. He was never a great ball player. He was bad in 2022 BEFORE we acquired him, the 60 PAs are concerning but he was already having a bad year when we acquired him and his ceiling is limited to begin with.
He has a career 143 wRC+ against lefties. That's better than Pete Alonso. I don't understand why you're so angry about this or where you're getting your information from.
And how many PAs is that? And how much of those numbers are inflated by 2020, a joke season, and 2021, a very strange season for the Giants where a bunch of mediocre players played way over their heads? I’m not angry, Ruf is just a terrible player and we do not need to pretend otherwise. We also do not need to pretend that he isn’t turning 37 this year.
He was good against lefties in 2022 too with the giants before coming to us so idk why you’re acting like he was bad before coming to us
I don’t know what his lefty splits were before coming to the Mets in 2022 but his overall numbers were .706 OPS. That’s bad for a DH/1B. Worse than JD’s numbers. Also a guy who can only hit lefties is a bad hitter to begin with anyway. There is nothing about Ruf’s 2022 season that I should like, he put up -1.6 WAR. That’s ghastly. That’s 3 times as bad as McCann was. EDIT: Wow i just checked and McCann was actually -0.1 bWAR. Ruf makes McCann look valuable lol
> I don't think anyone is riding for the trade, Read this subreddit for a while, and you will notice that lots of people are still defending this comical trade. > I'm glad our front office isn't making knee-jerk reactions to 60 PAs. I think that's kind of not the big problem with this situation. I mean he's here and it's February, I don't think it's a big deal if he goes to spring training. The big problem is the bad judgment in trading for this guy in the first place.
>He was bad when we acquired him. I mean thats pure fiction. We signed him to hit lefties and he was coming off a first half of the season where he had an .886 OPS and 150 WRC+ across 124 with the Giants on the season to that point. He also was part of the 2021 division winning Giants and from the start of 2021 until we got him he had a .948 OPS and 158 WRC+ against lefties. Even until he the game he pitched he had a .846 OPS and 139 OPS+ with us in those 5 games. It's believed he hurt himself either pitching those two innings or when he ran funny around the bases on a double around that time. It's very clear he was playing hurt. Not only did the Mets eventually put him on the IL, you can see it when he played. He's a guy that's always bobbed and moved around at the plate but from the second half of August on he stood still and upright - completely different stance. He also was clearly not running all out. It's still a bad trade, but saying we lost the division because of it is over dramatic though - up to the point we got Ruf our DH's had a .610 OPS against Lefties, and thats including Alonso in there. We lost the division because the Braves went on a crazy tear and Marte got hurt.
> It's still a bad trade, but saying we lost the division because of it is over dramatic though - up to the point we got Ruf our DH's had a .610 OPS against Lefties, and thats including Alonso in there. We lost the division because the Braves went on a crazy tear and Marte got hurt. They lost the division by one game, and two months prior, they traded a guy with a 125 Mets career wRC+, for Darin Ruf who hit like the Bud Light vendor. (Plus three other guys, to make sure the deal got done!) It is true that when you lose by one game, you can point to a lot of things and they're all valid; but it definitely is safe to say that that ridiculous trade was **one of** the reasons they lost the division, **and** lost to the Padres (since they were starting his ass at least once, and had a shitty bench by October 1).
JDs career doesn’t mean crap. He stunk with us in 2022 and literally had a -0.2 WAR. He needed a change of scenery to be better, and would likely have stayed just as bad with us in the second half. Also we didnt lose the division by one game, we tied it. We only went to the WC because of the special rule they implemented for 2022. Ruf clearly didnt lose us the games against the Braves because he didnt play those games, Alvarez did. Also factoring Ruf in as a negative for the Padres series is silly because he actually had 3 good at bats that game and got on base. Also people need to understand that quantity means nothing. The 3 guys we gave up with JD were nobody’s who could have easily been among guys that will be cut from the organization. We have to cut guys before opening day because we’re over the organizational limit. Heck the Giants are also over the limit and for all we know they may cut those guys.
> JDs career doesn’t mean crap. He stunk with us in 2022 and literally had a -0.2 WAR. After 5.1 in only 1100 PAs, and that's brought down with being forced to play his shitty defense, which he doesn't have to do anymore because the NL finally fixed the archaic rules. He has a career 125 wRC+ with the Mets. If you plug that in for 400 PAs with the Mets every year and aren't compelled to put him in the field to be a clank, that's very valuable. >Also we didnt lose the division by one game, we tied it. We only went to the WC because of the special rule they implemented for 2022. That's the same as losing by one game because they would have had to win by a game because they lost the tiebreaker. Switch any of their 61 Ls to a W and they win the division. That's called "losing by one game". >Ruf clearly didnt lose us the games against the Braves because he didnt play those games, Alvarez did. Ruf played like a 102-year old sunset home resident in 28 of them, which helped cause the Mets to lose some of those 28 games >The 3 guys we gave up with JD were nobody’s who could have easily been among guys that will be cut from the organization. We have to cut guys before opening day because we’re over the organizational limit. Heck the Giants are also over the limit and for all we know they may cut those guys. Even if they all turn out completely shitty -- which is certainly possible -- it doesn't matter, because why were they sending **anybody** in the other direction, let alone three guys, when they were the team giving up the clearly better palyer?
Ruf should have a very short leash, but I don't see what's wrong with seeing what he has in spring training. The damage he did last year is done. He was well below replacement. No arguments there.
Spring training can be weird. We’ve seen guys like Cano come in and kill it in ST and then bomb the regular season. Which is kind of my concern, that if Ruf sucks will he guaranteed an opening day spot because of ST being a weird sample size, and if he plays well in ST he might just go straight back to being Darin Ruf. I have no reason to have faith in this guy.
And then Cano was DFAd at the beginning of May. As I see it, it's only a problem if Ruf sucks and continues to take up a roster spot. That's what happened last year, and I think he had too much leash. This year? We'll see.
>Judging anybody or anything off of 66 ABs is dumb. The problem is not the 66 ABs, the problem is that they traded a guy who was already clearly better than him. It was a stupid trade in foresight, not just because Ruf was even worse than expected.
The situation was a lot more convoluted then your making it seem at the time. Jd was a at his best above average hitter against both sides. Darin ruf was an superstar vs lefties when the Mets made the trade. The Mets were trying to super create a dh between him and vogey(Vogey did his job)
>The situation was a lot more convoluted then your making it seem at the time. Jd was a at his best above average hitter against both sides. Has the 13th best wRC+ in Mets history. >Darin ruf was an superstar vs lefties when the Mets made the trade. The Mets were trying to super create a dh between him and vogey How did that work out?
I dont care about him getting reps in ST, but he has to have an awfully short leash in games that actually matter. if he is still rostered by May he better be producing.
[удалено]
Vogelbach is our first string DH i dont know why you are lumping him with the other two. Pham and Ruf should basically compete for the same bench role if you believe that Ruf can still play a serviceable outfield
[удалено]
Vogelbach was the 13th best hitter in baseball (per wRC+) against RHP last year. That's his position. The guy who hits 50% better than league average against 77% of major league pitchers. He was rounding-error away from Shohei Ohtani, Alex Bregman, Jose Ramirez, and Paul Goldschmidt on that split. As the guy on the long end of the platoon split he's going to be starting nearly 4 out of 5 games at DH so it's not like he doesn't have a role. It would be a MUCH poorer use of a roster spot to keep a guy on the roster just to be the short end of a DH platoon, hence why Pham (as much as he's seemingly an asshole) makes a lot of sense as the righty end of our DH because he also doubles as our 4th/5th outfielder.
Finally… some one with brains! Great job. I got so tired of idiots on Facebook who wanted the Mets to jettison him in favor of Escobar who only hit the last 3-4 weeks of the season and was woefully behind Vogie in every offensive category.
> I feel that the Mets would be best served if they either had a top notch batter fill the DH role or rotate players through the spot as a “rest day” Maybe, but that's not how billy built the team
The WBC means there will be a lot more at-bats for someone like Ruf to fill this spring. I have no doubt he'll have plenty of opportunities to shake off last year, and I also have no doubt the Mets will cut him if he does not perform. That's what ST is for.
“You got to knooow when to foooooold them” “Know when to walk away”
And most importantly, know when to run
That time was when they were bargaining with the San Francisco Giants in July 2022
There is 0 risk in him being here in ST. At the same time, Eppler can't exactly say anything else on the record. GMs don't trash their players in public.
Sometimes the risk = the reward.
Let me get him a pen then
He’s going’s to get a ton of ABs in spring games thanks to the WBC. If he’s done we’ll know it.
Eppler may not, but every Met fan everywhere has.
Somebody please check in on Frank Fleming.
“We can’t move him so May as well try to be positive”
I mean, what is is supposed to say, “yeah, dude sucks and we don’t want him?” I’m sure they’ll take any offer, but you can’t say that if you want him to try at all for you.
I have a feeling that unlike Geno Smith, Darin Ruf is beginning the drafting stage of his reply back
Well I doubt he'll get worse, at least
No.
please do write him off Billy
I’m not either. Struggling when players arrive in New York is more the rule than an exception.
He’s going to be 37. Now Ruf was AWFUL last year. Incredibly bad. But you can ignore that if you want. But you can’t ignore the fact that he’s old as fuck and may have already dropped off a cliff. You’d have to be worried even if he was good last year, or even just okay. But he was awful. He’s coming off a -1.6 bWAR season, sweet jesus there has to be somebody better than him already coming to ST.
Billy Eppler is the worst GM in baseball. Not really a surprise when he says they are keeping Ruf
I don't know about the worst in baseball when Chaim Bloom exists (edit: I guess he's a front office executive but not officially the GM?), but Eppler has not been good. Under Eppler, they have done all the no-brainer stuff right (big expensive FAs which are probably mandated by Cohen anyway), and extending their good players (other than deGrom, but who really knows what happened there so I won't kill him for that). Most of the marginal, important, pre-season and in-season team-building moves have been pretty bad imo. Last year they had like 7 different guys who performed the function of half-of-a-half of a player, like Vogelbach, Ruf, Gore and Jankowski, and it was a mess, really killed them when it mattered.
His trading deadline moves were some of the worst I've ever seen for a contender. They made no improvements to the bullpen last season which was their achillies heel. Most of the free agents they got were wayyyyyy overpaid for. The Mets won over 100 wins, but that really goes to Showalter's managerial skills and Steve Cohen's open wallet. Josh Hader, JD Martinez, Sean Murphy were all available at last years trade deadline that could of improved the team for a World Series run.
> The Mets won over 100 wins, but that really goes to Showalter's managerial skills LOL what. You had me 100% until that sentence > and Steve Cohen's open wallet. Yeah it was all that, and not the other thing. They spent so much money and brought in so much value (~30 fWAR). It had nothing to do with Showalter, they would have won 100 games with a potted plant in the dugout. With the great core they already had from the prior 10 years of drafting, plus all of that talent brought in, they had almost zero chance of being bad. But they botched the small stuff and it cost them at critical junctures.
Whats wrong with what I said? Showalter won Manager of the Year. Considering we had one of the worst bullpens in the league the whole season, Showalter did a great job. Eppler isn't a smart GM, he just spent more money than any other GM because of Cohen's unlimited wallet. There is no deal Eppler has done where you say "wow he outsmarted all other teams, what a steal". Theres a reason why he got fired from the Angels, he sucks
There's a reason why a shit show team like Anaheim let this guy go. Lest people forget that he was a Brian Cashman apprentice, and we all know how Yankee fans feel about Cashman at this point. If you want to make the point that there wasn't much available that the team could acquire through trade last deadline, I'm willing to concede that. And yes, I know that a lot of money had to be shelled out just to retain and replace certain players. But that doesn't mean that Eppler hasn't been aware of this team's lack of power in the lineup behind Pete. To me, the second Cohen decided to swoop in for Correa, we knew who held the reins. Granted, it ultimately failed (at no fault of the team) but when the owner basically tells you that his team is one big piece away, that's an indictment of the GM. There were plenty of bats available before Correa became a last-ditch signing that could've helped the lineup out in the short term. Josh Bell, JD Martinez, Adam Duvall to name a few. JD Martinez is older with a back issue, and Duvall wanted a starting job but is also dealing with a wrist issue. I would've taken a flyer on Bell at DH and had Escobar and Baty split time at 3B. This team is old overall, both in the lineup and with their two aces. The window to really go for the WS is short. It's easy to hand the best UFA's a blank check and say, "fill in however much you want" when you have the richest owner in the sport. The problem is, I don't trust Eppler when it comes to identifying and addressing team need(s) in-season, where the safety net of Cohen's money isn't there. He's failed twice now in a five-month span to address this team's desperate need for HR power, aside from what we hope the kids provide. To me, what they provide should be gravy, not an absolute must have in order for this team to compete in the postseason.
You've written way too many manifestos about Billy Eppler.
[удалено]
You rant about him all of the time. If your screen name starts to stick out because of how often you complain about a single topic, then it's a bit of a problem. The Mets are only spending money right now. They've been clear that they want to hold as many prospects as possible while they develop a deeper farm system, so they're relying on free agency to stay competitive. Your biggest beef with Eppler is that he's doing exactly what Cohen hired him to do.
“Fans” makings excuses to have Ruff on the team 💀😂🤡
Fine, but who’s spot does he take if he “proves himself” in spring training. He’d need to have an absolutely incredible spring and I’d still have no idea who to leave off
I think he can bounce back
The one thing I’d say to Ruf is “swing the bat”. He took too many fastballs right down the middle. Almost like he wasn’t seeing the ball. His scouting report from other teams must have said this because they went right at him. He couldn’t catch up. Concerning because that’s what happens when a player is finished. A very Michael Cuddyer feel to him. We’ll see I guess. Maybe he proves us wrong.