Mets baseball is back tonight! For the first time in a few years the Mets had an exciting All-Star break. On Monday night Pete Alonso brought home the Home Run Derby championship (also securing 80% off tickets for Mets fans) and the three Mets in the All-Star game represented the team well on Tuesday night. Then the trade rumors started to swirl. We already knew that teams would be in on Zack Wheeler as a rental, but Noah Syndergaard is also drawing interest. It could be a wild ride for the rest of the month. Or we could trade away prospects for relievers ourselves and then play .500 ball for the rest of the summer.
Anyway, Jason Vargas takes the mound tonight and he could also be looked at by other teams as a trade target (although his threatening to fight a reporter did not help his value at all). Vargas is 3-4 over 15 games and 14 starts with 71.2 innings of work posting a 3.77 ERA, 4.37 FIP, 1.312 WHIP and 108 ERA+. After his complete game shutout in June he has tossed 26.1 innings over 5 games with a 4.10 ERA with opponents getting on base at a .295 clip. He hasn’t faced the Marlins since his first start of the season where he allowed 2 runs off 8 hits and a walk in 5.0 innings. The Marlins have the following stats against him:
- Curtis Granderson 8-17, 3 2B, BB
- Starlin Castro 5-13, 3 2B, 2 BB, K
- Brian Anderson 1-8, 2B, 4 K
- Miguel Rojas 2-8, HR, 2 K
- Lewis Brinson 3-6, 2B, BB, K
- Martin Prado 3-4, 2B, BB
- Cesar Puello 0-3
- JT Riddle 0-3
The Mets bats will start the second half against Caleb Smith who is 4-4 over 13 games and 72.0 innings with a 3.50 ERA, 4.38 FIP, 1.041 WHIP and 117 ERA+. After missing a month of baseball, he returned last week and allowed 4 runs, 3 earned over 6.0 innings. He hasn’t faced the Mets since his first start of the season where he allowed 2 runs over 5.0 innings from 4 hits and a walk. The Mets have the following numbers against him:
- Michael Conforto 3-8, 4 K
- Amed Rosario 1-7, 2B, 3 K
- Robinson Cano 1-4, K
- Juan Lagares 0-4, 2 K
- Pete Alonso 0-3
- J.D. Davis 1-2, 2B
- Todd Frazier 0-1, BB
- Jeff McNeil 1-1, 2B, BB
Let’s Go Mets! Also, earlier this week we took a look at the Mets 2019 Non-Roster Invites to Spring Training that made it to Queens this year. It’s a surprising long list.
