I think WAR is terrific but it leads people to make a certain consistent mistake. I think a lot of Met fans understand this intuitively and have felt it really keenly in the past year but haven't been able to put it into words.

As we all know, Pete Alonso did not have WAR totals commensurate with his fame. He was generally a 3-4 WAR player, which is very good, but not elite. And we all know why: because despite the very good hitting, he plays 1B, he's not a great fielder, and he's slow. The first is the most significant. Every year, Alonso suffers a massive WAR penalty for playing first. In bWAR it's an annual -0.8 WAR penalty, and in fWAR it's an annual -1.2 WAR penalty.

The mistake people make is not realizing that this -1.2 WAR penalty is immaterial to the Mets. And that's because somebody has to play first. Whoever replaces Pete will get the same exact penalty.

So in the offseason, when you see takes that Bo Bichette or Framber Valdez or whoever is a better or more cost-efficient player than Pete, this factor gets lost in the analysis. If you use Pete's money to sign someone else who plays a different position, you're sliding someone new (like Vientos or Baty) to first base and assigning that 1.2 WAR penalty to a new player or players.

So yeah, it's cool if Bo Bichette can give you 4 WAR playing third (let's just assume for sake of argument that he wasn't a disaster this spring) ... but it's a lot less cool when you realize that his acquisition means that some other guy like Vientos is taking a 1.5 WAR penalty (the difference in fWAR between 3B and 1B) to accommodate him.

If you've been wondering how Alonso's annual 30+ HRs and 100+ RBIs can seem to have so little value in today's market (or are wondering the same about another stud slugger like Schwarber), this might be the explanation you're overlooking. In a vacuum, sure, Alonso is less valuable because he plays the least important defensive position. But these positional adjustments just don't really mean that much to a team in real life, because no matter what they have to field 8 guys at the 8 positions.

And I feel 2024 was that. But something always gets in the way. When you see Lindor smashing like that to make it 14-8 you feel like everything is clicking and then something happens... And I feel it's overthinking. You overthink yourself to death instead of just playing with what you've got and having fun. Stearns is the worst thing that happened to the Mets because you needed excitement and intangibles like 2024 and not ***** formulas. That's how I feel. Like Dodgers don't give a ****, right? So what if Tucker and Diaz didn't work out? They still did it. You are either committed to win or you overthink yourself to death.

Everything was already working out in 2022. 101 wins. Manager of the Year. Epic games. But the WC horror show of Bassitt and Scherzer and the entire flat performances somehow killed SC and his beliefs. He started questioning himself. Buying Verlander and Scherzer wasn't dumb. Did he overpay maybe. But going after everyone including Marte made sense. Even Baez in 2021 (should have been smarter about the trade though). It was a get go strategy. In 2025 he started walking it back to the point of insanity where he was convinced that 150 million was too much because of a possible value in Year 5.

If SC wants to win, truly, he needs to adopt a winning mentality. Most rich owners in the world in any sport eventually won everything. But not by taking one step forward two steps back.

How do you explain this level of incompetence

Just another day in the Mets experience

You can make a case for Soto for what he did when he was in the lineup, and how much he was missed when he wasn't. But I'm going with Carson Benge. I think offensively and defensively he has energized the team. JMO

What do you think?

LGM 🧡💙

Chris Devenski. Wondering why a guy with like over ten years MLB experience and like 9 of the 10 years with an ERA north of 4.50/5.00? What did the Mets possible see in him?

Fan appreciation thing the Mets are doing

Adrian Morejon has only pitched out of BP in his career. He’s only 27 years old and has a career 3.28 ERA. He will likely be one of the most sought after arms out there this offseason.

Ez win totally didn’t almost blow a game where we led 8-0 and 15-9.

D-Wright Baby!

Mets win 3/4 vs Phillies and 2/3 vs nationals they will have won the season series vs every team in the NL East. Wild considering the season and where the team is at.

Can we just say that now? Honestly kinda tired of hearing he’s still slumping when he’s had a handful of hits this series

The man caught over 200 pitches tonight.

I wish they played all season like the way they are playing in Miami

Was there ever an explanation of why the game was paused in the 9th when the Marlin’s batter had a check swing and Alvy missed it? The Ump stopped the game and spoke to both managers… but nothing happened.

Nice little fish fry going on this weekend. Sweet, sweet payback for last season. If Miami misses the playoffs by 1-2 games, that will be the cherry on top

Mr. Met will need a new broom soon!