*METS Playoffs '15* - WORLD SERIES v. K.C.

[BleedOrangeBlue]

It is amazing.. never thought I would see the day that Mets make it to the world series again. Last time I was only 3, which was too young for me to remember. Let's hope this means a good season for another orange and blue team!

[HarthorneWingo]

Who says New York can't rebuild? These guys just did it.

Not really. A mid-season trade put you here. Before that trade the thought was you need to trade an arm for some bats.

The question remains, will you pay these guys you traded for? Murphy is a FA too I believe...

That to me is not rebuilding. It's renting.

You left out the 7 years before that.

[Im Coming Home]

So which of the 2 teams matches up better for us?

I'm not too much into baseball in terms of analytics so, who would we rather play?

[Greenie]

Who says New York can't rebuild? These guys just did it.

Not really. A mid-season trade put you here. Before that trade the thought was you need to trade an arm for some bats.

The question remains, will you pay these guys you traded for? Murphy is a FA too I believe...

That to me is not rebuilding. It's renting.

You left out the 7 years before that.

You were .500 mid season. You had no offense. Don't play new.

[mpharris36]

So which of the 2 teams matches up better for us?

I'm not too much into baseball in terms of analytics so, who would we rather play?

honestly either, if the mets continue to pitch like they have they will beat either because they are a more complete team than both the Royals and Jays.

Royals strengths - great defensive team, scrappy, small ball, contact hitters, great bullpen, team speed.
Royals weaknesses - no front of the rotation starters, limited power, really no left handed pitchers (which is a mets weakness if we have one)

Blue Jays strengths - potent lineup, ton of power, pretty good starting rotation (price, stroman, estrada), huge home field advantage.
Blue Jays weakness - Lot of high strikeout guys, weak bullpen, built for there home ballpark and struggle on the road.

The Mets pitchers are swing and miss pitchers so facing the Blue Jays might be easier for them. But I think our lineup should be able to hit the royals starters. Volquez, Ventura, and Cueto do not scare me one bit, we can eliminate there end of the bullpen if we get out early on them.

[ZKnicks]

It's been a long and painful few years as a Mets fan...
Couldn't be more excited than I am now!

I was only 8, but remember the 86 WS like it was yesterday. Half of the 86 Mets lived in the town I grew up in, I used to see Sid Fernandez everywhere around town, Strawberry, Doc, Darling etc...
Craziest story is that I was playing basketball with my friends across the street from Bobby Ojeda's house when he cut the tip of his finger off. Was there when the ambulance came and was in the background of the TV news report when it happened.

I was lucky enough to go to the 2000 WS at Shea.

Now I get to watch the 2015 WS with my 3 and 5 year old boys.

Doesn't get much better than this!

[Stannis]

Who would be your 1, 2, and 3 pitchers?

AL gets home field, correct? DeGrom has been pitching well away all post season, so I would have him for Game 1.

[Im Coming Home]

So which of the 2 teams matches up better for us?

I'm not too much into baseball in terms of analytics so, who would we rather play?

honestly either, if the mets continue to pitch like they have they will beat either because they are a more complete team than both the Royals and Jays.

Royals strengths - great defensive team, scrappy, small ball, contact hitters, great bullpen, team speed.
Royals weaknesses - no front of the rotation starters, limited power, really no left handed pitchers (which is a mets weakness if we have one)

Blue Jays strengths - potent lineup, ton of power, pretty good starting rotation (price, stroman, estrada), huge home field advantage.
Blue Jays weakness - Lot of high strikeout guys, weak bullpen, built for there home ballpark and struggle on the road.

The Mets pitchers are swing and miss pitchers so facing the Blue Jays might be easier for them. But I think our lineup should be able to hit the royals starters. Volquez, Ventura, and Cueto do not scare me one bit, we can eliminate there end of the bullpen if we get out early on them.

Interesting. From your description I think I'd rather play the Royals simply because they have hardly any pitching at all, and no real lefties.

Anything that helps our hitters is what we need, our pitches can pitch against anyone.

[Im Coming Home]

Who would be your 1, 2, and 3 pitchers?

AL gets home field, correct? DeGrom has been pitching well away all post season, so I would have him for Game 1.

Tough call I think we need Harvey for Game 3. Thor has been good but I feel more solid with Harvey getting the first start at Home.

Maybe Degrom -> Thor -> Harvey -> Matz

[mpharris36]

Who would be your 1, 2, and 3 pitchers?

AL gets home field, correct? DeGrom has been pitching well away all post season, so I would have him for Game 1.

Tough call I think we need Harvey for Game 3. Thor has been good but I feel more solid with Harvey getting the first start at Home.

Maybe Degrom -> Thor -> Harvey -> Matz

Yeah I think you go DeGrom and Noah on the road and Harvey for game 3 at home. The game at home is going to be crazy important. Assuming we can split in KC/Tor. Harvey is someone that has already pitched twice at home this post season and is comfortable there and can keep his emotions in check. You would also have Harvey for game 7 if needed.

DeGrom has to be the #1 guy just because if we need him on short rest at all in the series he could do that as well. Noah in game 2 seems to work as well as he has been pitcher better on the road recently.

[mpharris36]

So which of the 2 teams matches up better for us?

I'm not too much into baseball in terms of analytics so, who would we rather play?

honestly either, if the mets continue to pitch like they have they will beat either because they are a more complete team than both the Royals and Jays.

Royals strengths - great defensive team, scrappy, small ball, contact hitters, great bullpen, team speed.
Royals weaknesses - no front of the rotation starters, limited power, really no left handed pitchers (which is a mets weakness if we have one)

Blue Jays strengths - potent lineup, ton of power, pretty good starting rotation (price, stroman, estrada), huge home field advantage.
Blue Jays weakness - Lot of high strikeout guys, weak bullpen, built for there home ballpark and struggle on the road.

The Mets pitchers are swing and miss pitchers so facing the Blue Jays might be easier for them. But I think our lineup should be able to hit the royals starters. Volquez, Ventura, and Cueto do not scare me one bit, we can eliminate there end of the bullpen if we get out early on them.

Interesting. From your description I think I'd rather play the Royals simply because they have hardly any pitching at all, and no real lefties.

Anything that helps our hitters is what we need, our pitches can pitch against anyone.

The royals have been there last year (world series) so that gives them an advantage. But most of our big hitters (granderson, murphy, duda, conforto, and even though cespedes is a righty he hits righties better. Only David Wright in our lineup significantly hits lefties better. KC's 4 starters are righties and there 4 best relief pitchers are righties.

The fact that they are contact hitters concerns me because we do well against swing and miss type hitters and teams that shorten up can maybe bother us. But like you said our pitching should be fine. Anything to help the offense we should be happy about.

[HarthorneWingo]

Not really. A mid-season trade put you here. Before that trade the thought was you need to trade an arm for some bats.

The question remains, will you pay these guys you traded for? Murphy is a FA too I believe...

That to me is not rebuilding. It's renting.

You left out the 7 years before that.

You were .500 mid season. You had no offense. Don't play new.

Yeah, this year. But we've been rebuilding for the last 7 years to get to this point and even then we need KJ, Uribe, Clippard and Cespedes to get us over the hump.

Let me spell it out for you. This is what a rebuild looks like.

http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/nym/history/year_by_year_results.jsp



2014 New York Mets 79 83 .488 17.0
2013 New York Mets 74 88 .457 22.0
2012 New York Mets 74 88 .457 24.0
2011 New York Mets 77 85 .475 25.0
2010 New York Mets 79 83 .488 18.0
2009 New York Mets 70 92 .432 23.0

[Stannis]

Not really. A mid-season trade put you here. Before that trade the thought was you need to trade an arm for some bats.

The question remains, will you pay these guys you traded for? Murphy is a FA too I believe...

That to me is not rebuilding. It's renting.

You left out the 7 years before that.

You were .500 mid season. You had no offense. Don't play new.

We were a .500 team. But that's also because of injuries.

We were a hot team when healthy at the beginning of the season.

Then, for a good two months we had Wright, Travis D out. Duda, Murphy, and Laragas all with nagging injuries. There would be days where we would have 4 guys around or below .200 in the order with little to no power.

Then you add Conforto from AA.

Then trade some of your pitching prospects for batting depth (Johnson and Uribe) and the monster Cespedes to take you to the next level.

It was a long rebuild, imo. Years and Years of stacking pitching prospects to finally be able to trade a top one for Cespedes to make the team contenders.

[HarthorneWingo]

You left out the 7 years before that.

You were .500 mid season. You had no offense. Don't play new.

We were a .500 team. But that's also because of injuries.

We were a hot team when healthy at the beginning of the season.

Then, for a good two months we had Wright, Travis D out. Duda, Murphy, and Laragas all with nagging injuries. There would be days where we would have 4 guys around or below .200 in the order with little to no power.

So let me ask you, how would you characterize the years 2009-2014? Rebuild or no?

[Greenie]

You left out the 7 years before that.

You were .500 mid season. You had no offense. Don't play new.

Yeah, this year. But we've been rebuilding for the last 7 years to get to this point and even then we need KJ, Uribe, Clippard and Cespedes to get us over the hump.

Let me spell it out for you. This is what a rebuild looks like.

http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/nym/history/year_by_year_results.jsp



2014 New York Mets 79 83 .488 17.0
2013 New York Mets 74 88 .457 22.0
2012 New York Mets 74 88 .457 24.0
2011 New York Mets 77 85 .475 25.0
2010 New York Mets 79 83 .488 18.0
2009 New York Mets 70 92 .432 23.0

Bye Wingo. I gotta go to the bank.

[Stannis]

You were .500 mid season. You had no offense. Don't play new.

We were a .500 team. But that's also because of injuries.

We were a hot team when healthy at the beginning of the season.

Then, for a good two months we had Wright, Travis D out. Duda, Murphy, and Laragas all with nagging injuries. There would be days where we would have 4 guys around or below .200 in the order with little to no power.

So let me ask you, how would you characterize the years 2009-2014? Rebuild or no?

I edited my previous l post.

I say it's definitely a rebuild. How can you not say it's a rebuild?

It took a few years to have that starting rotation. DeGrom, Harvey, Thor, Matz, and even Wheeler are all still on rookie contracts. And that's what they built their team around. You traded a top pitching prospect for Cespedes, but that's just what you do when you are stacked with starting pitchers.

Murphy, Duda, Laragas are still on their cheap arbitration deals, right?

Conforto, Flores, Tejada, Travis D all on their cheap rookie or arbitration deals.

You should always mix in some veterans with your guys. That's just the right thing to do and one of the main reasons I think they swept the Cubs. So sticking with Wright, keeping Murphy, and signing Granderson were wise choices.

But, w/e, anybody can classify as they like. In the end, it was built nicely and correctly and most importantly with patience.

[islanders11040]

Who would be your 1, 2, and 3 pitchers?

AL gets home field, correct? DeGrom has been pitching well away all post season, so I would have him for Game 1.

Tough call I think we need Harvey for Game 3. Thor has been good but I feel more solid with Harvey getting the first start at Home.

Maybe Degrom -> Thor -> Harvey -> Matz

Yeah I think you go DeGrom and Noah on the road and Harvey for game 3 at home. The game at home is going to be crazy important. Assuming we can split in KC/Tor. Harvey is someone that has already pitched twice at home this post season and is comfortable there and can keep his emotions in check. You would also have Harvey for game 7 if needed.

DeGrom has to be the #1 guy just because if we need him on short rest at all in the series he could do that as well. Noah in game 2 seems to work as well as he has been pitcher better on the road recently.

I have it Harvey>Degrom>Syndergaard>Matz

This way we get Harvey to set the tone. Degrom play a pivotal game 2 in case we are down 0-1. Syndergaard pitch game 3 at home. I like Degrom and Syndergaard playing important game 6 and 7's if they happen. Degrom a must win game 6 if we are down 3-2. Degrom game 2 and 6 on road where he has been a warrior and I love Thor in a win it all game 7.

[mpharris36]

Degrom is the ace of the staff, as much as I love Harvey. Degrom go's game 1. He deserves it. He is 3-0 in the postseason and he has proven he is our best pitcher going right now.

Harvey should be used for game 3 at home.

[Jose7]

Harvey goes game 1. You can't have him sit out that long without a start.

DeGrom has earned the start opening day again but for this situation, Harvey needs to go game 1, DeGrom game 2

[islanders11040]

Degrom is the ace of the staff, as much as I love Harvey. Degrom go's game 1. He deserves it. He is 3-0 in the postseason and he has proven he is our best pitcher going right now.

Harvey should be used for game 3 at home.

Degrom going 1st and Harvey going 3rd means that Degrom pitches game 5 and Harvey game 7. You want that? I want Degrom pitching game 6 or 7. Degrom finishing after game 5 is too early. Degrom not pitching game 1 has nothing to do with his Ace status.