Mets Update

Some people wanted the Mets to re-sign Michael Conforto, at least for the "qualifying offer" year. He turned down the nice QO, hoping to make the bucks in free agency. He chose unwisely:

The surgery closes the book on what ended up being an underwhelming 2021-22 free agency period for Conforto. He entered the offseason ranked as the No. 19 free agent in MLB.com’s free agent rankings and declined the Mets' $18.4 million qualifying offer in November, setting up what he hoped would be a big payday. That didn’t end up being the case, however, as Conforto’s name was notably absent from both the pre- and post-lockout free-agent spending frenzy.

The problem seems to be an injury he received while training in the offseason. Maybe, he didn't get those offers because it wasn't that secret that something was off. But, if he took that money, he would have kept it, even if the same injury happens.  And, it was already a risk on his part, since his 2021 season wasn't great.

I figured he would get a nice contract some place and that it was not worth it for the Mets to match that.  He gave them a good run and it was time to move on.  As to the QO, well thanks, since they have a pretty good outfield now with Marte, Canha, Nimmo, and company (a speedy Thor looking guy and the not bad not quite outfielders Smith/Squirrel).  

The Mets as a whole are starting well with five straight series with not really a bad loss among them.  Oh, the bullpen faulted a bit and a spot starter who was underused did badly yesterday, but even that one was followed up with a good bullpen effort.  The result are each series were won even with two fill-in starters and maybe this time it will stick.

Oh well. Maybe, it will in the May-July period with a career manager in place.  The one person from last year's crew that stuck around, previous struggling starter for the Mets (Jeremy Hefner), is the pitching coach. He always looks so serious next to Buck.  And, well the pitching is looking pretty good so far.  

We might know how deGrom is after some more tests though we got some bullshit about his last season.  Megill is doing great filling in. Cano, who I still rather not there, started well, but is not doing as good now.  Well, they have him on the books until 2023.  

As to the rule changes, we already had a stupid 10 inning deal, and the Mets won it.  No one seems to like that rule except the players who voted to support it.  I still don't like the DH though I guess it helps the starting pitching.  Not really sure how it helped the offense.  But, I stick to my argument that as whole no DH helps the game to be more interesting. 

So, good start for the Mets, rougher start for their NL East competition, and the Nationals remain pretty bad.  To be cont.

ETA: So many series that I don't watch, including those on cable stations I actually have access to these days.  I saw the first episode of the new show Gaslit (Julia Roberts and Sean Penn -- under a lot of make-up -- play the Mitchells) that provide us a look at Nixon's White House.  First episode was decent enough though the "all these people are unpleasant and/or morons" factor was a tad too high. Will check out Episode 2.  

There is also a new cable series about first ladies and I checked that out.  The bad reviews seem on the money on first viewing.  The idea is that the top talent involved are lost among bad make-up or more importantly dubious writing.  We basically get some snapshots, balancing around so we do not really get into any one story, of various first ladies.  Nah on this one.