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It's the amazing Rico Brogna podcast with your host, Evan Roberts. Rico Brogna! We have completed the first... series of the season that feels weird that feels very weird to say a series is completed especially when the series ends on a saturday it just doesn't it doesn't feel right and what also doesn't feel right is watching the Met bats, bats that we were very excited about, bats I'm still excited about, go as limp dick as we saw over this entire series.
including the finale of this series against the Astros on Saturday night. I want you to think about this for a second. The Mets lose a game two to one to the Astros. They get one hit, one base hit the entire game. which is unique in its own right. How many times have you sat down over the years and watched the Mets literally get one hit in a game? It's happened more than we want to admit, but it's not a common thing. It's a rarity.
And think about the one hit. If you want to remember Saturday night's game, the finale of this series against the Astros, and you want to think in your brain, hey, what was that first hit? Well, it was early in the game. It was in the very first inning. when Juan Soto hit just a fly ball to left field. That's all it was. You know, people go nuts about home runs at Yankee Stadium, ones that wouldn't be home runs in any other ballpark. Juan Soto's fly ball to left field.
that turned out to be the one base hit of this game, and maybe I'm exaggerating, but I'm probably not, is a fly out in every ballpark except for Houston. And I guess Fenway Park, right? The green monster. It'll bounce off of the wall in the green monster. But that was a Crawford box special. That was a fly ball to left field. At Citi Field, it doesn't even get to the warning track.
And that's the one hit. That's how close the Mets came to Spencer Arrighetti, Brian King, Brian Abreu, and of course, Josh Hader. No hitting the Mets on a Saturday night. And they may as well have been no-hit. They get one hit on Saturday and losing 2-1. They get five hits on Friday in a game they did win, luckily because the pitching was so good. And obviously, you go back to opening day where they only score one run and six hits.
The obvious, and we'll get it out of the way early, is that the offense no-showed the first three games of this series. And that sucks. And a little bit later on on the Rico, we are going to go through all the over-exaggerating emails. Because you know they're there. And you know you're out there. That this offense sucks. Francisco Lindor is abysmal. Brett Beatty needs to go to AAA. Pete Alonzo can't handle a big spot.
And by the way, all of those things, all of those frustrations that one may have after the opening series of the year, some of those things may turn out to be true. Brett Beatty has established nothing. So the idea that we may be sitting here in the middle of May talking about Brett Beatty being a failure and Brett Beatty not being able to take advantage of his big spring training, that's probably likelier than not. But before we continue.
We all need to take a deep breath. We all need to not over-exaggerate eight at-bats or six at-bats or 10 at-bats. We are three games into a baseball season. The Mets pitched incredibly well in this series, which we will get to. They just didn't hit. And to believe that this is the Mets and to believe that this is the offense.
is absolute lunacy. As you can see or hear, I'm in a much better mental place than I was after opening day. On opening day, when we did the Rico five minutes after the game was over, I was obviously very frustrated. First game of the year. Soto was brilliant until that final at bat. I was stunned that he swung at that slider from Josh Hader. And the Mets lost a frustrating game. And I admitted it on the last Rico that.
I think what really got to me more than just losing was the fact that Yankee fans were rubbing salt in the wounds. Well, I think I've matured in 48 hours because... I'm still getting Yankee fans rubbing salt in the wounds, you know, saying, Hey, look how many home runs we hit with our totally legal bats. But the reality is I don't care about that.
I don't care about the Yankees. I don't care about how three games makes us feel. We got to be real about what should happen over the next few months of the season. what's a real concern, and what's a fake concern. So let's go through this, and obviously we'll break down both games. We will announce our very first Rico star of the series, which does come in a losing effort as they lose two out of three.
And we'll get you set for the Miami series. So this is going to be a long Rico Bronia. Get comfortable. All right, let's start with the bats. Other than Juan Soto. Other than Juan Soto, who's had his moments, he's had his negative moments, but it's a reminder that you can't come through every single time up. Outside of Soto, nobody's hitting. Nobody's hitting.
So we'll start with Francisco Lindor. Lindor showed humor after the game on Saturday night because he was asked about the fact that, you know, your wife is about to give birth. Is that a factor here? Is that distracting? And Lindor, in another example of how much he gets it, said, I'm not going to blame my unborn child. I'm not going to blame my wife. I didn't have that excuse last year.
Remember last year, and I sort of forgot, and I guess I give Fox some credit because as much as I miss Gary, Keith, and Ron, I guess you do learn some things in the broadcast. I forgot that Lindor's start last year was as bad as it was in terms of one for 31. Like, we all know that Lindor got off to a bad start. He ended up hitting 197.
in March and April with a 639 OPS. So obviously he got off to a bad start, but he was one for 31 to start the year. And he begins this series 0 for 11 with three strikeouts. He did have that sacrifice fly back on opening day. But he's basically not gotten on base. Now, where's my level of concern with Francisco Lindor? My level of concern is not that Lindor sucks.
Not that Lindor can't handle New York. Those are the old arguments that maybe we had a couple of years ago. It's more, is he really doing this again? It's more, are we really going to sit here? for the first three weeks of the season, dare I say more, because it was more last year, six weeks of the season, and have to deal with Francisco Lindor on the interstate. That's my concern. And by the way, that's a fair concern.
I think that's a legitimate concern. Francisco Lindor has put together two consecutive years in which his Aprils and Marches, in this case March 2, have been abysmal. And you want to go back to 2021, he was abysmal there too. So he's basically outside of the 2022 season. He's gotten off to bad starts every year he's been here. So it is certainly fair.
as he put up an 0 for 4 and came up in a very big spot in the 8th inning with a chance to kind of eliminate these early struggles, yeah, there's a chance we're looking at the same thing. And spring training didn't really help. Because for the second straight year, Lindor did nothing in spring training. Last year, when he had his bad start in March and April, he put together a 145-433 OPS spring training.
Not that we care about those numbers, but we're looking for reasons. We're trying to find kind of hints that Lindor is not going to get off to another bad start. And this year was kind of the same thing. Didn't hit a spring training home run, hit a buck 70 out of four 62 OPS.
You go back to this game. He came up in multiple big spots late in which one swing could have really changed this game three of the Houston series. He comes up in the sixth inning. We call it the Jose Siri inning because that was... I mean, it's really the Jose Siri game because essentially he supplied the only offense the Mets saw when he drew a walk, which was impressive. He's not exactly a high on-base guy. Steals second base, goes to third on a Lindor sack.
and then scores on that Juan Soto comebacker. But in that inning, after Siri steals second base, here's Lindor up with a chance to drive him in, and he fails. He comes up in the eighth inning. after Luis Terrens drew a walk and then got pinch ran for Luis Angel Acuna. Same thing after the back of back strikeouts to Beatty and Siri, and he swings at the first pitch and grounds out. I'm not mad.
at the swinging at the first pitch. I know Hoff and I went at it on opening day about this. Look, sometimes being aggressive is smart. And the reality is we don't like it. when it doesn't work so in the case of Lindor swinging at the first pitch with a runner in scoring position in the eighth inning yeah we don't like it because he swung at the first pitch and grounded out we didn't like Pete Alonzo swinging at the first pitch in the ninth inning because he swung at the first pitch and popped up
But Lindor right now puts together an 0-4 in game three. He puts together an 0-3 in game two. The only time he got on base is when he got hit by a pitch. So number one in terms of the struggles. We have Francisco Lindor. Concern meter. The concern meter is just, is he doing it again? Are we watching the same crop we've watched the last two years where he's going to get off to a bad start? Now, the beautiful thing about three games into a season is that if he goes.
four for four in Miami in game one of the Marlins series all of a sudden he's four for 15 and those numbers aren't that bad so you can change everything real quick let's get the guy number two I mean, this is going to take a while for going through everybody that's struggling, but why not? Let's get to Pete Alonzo. So the positive that Pete supplied on opening day.
was he had great at bats he drew two walks he had a base hit in the sixth inning even on the uh out that he made early in the game in the third inning it was another one of those really long at bats and pete was taking close pitches It was real good quality at-bats. We talked about that on the last Rico, that while he didn't have a three-run home run, Alonzo was giving you quality at-bats. He sort of did the same thing in game two of this series.
Remember the first thing he hit the ball to dead center field. It's a home run in a lot of ballparks. And Jake Myers made that great leaping catch. So the trend kind of continued. He did strike out in this game, but he had another walk. He had another long at bat. Quality at-bats from Pete, but still no results. In the finale of this series, it kind of sucked. Like, there's no positive to really find. He did hit one pretty deep to right field in the first inning.
A deep fly ball to right that, yeah, it's a home run at Yankee Stadium, but then he grounded out in the fourth, another long at-bat. Struck out in the sixth in a spot with guys on base, your first opportunity to say, hey, Pete Alonzo, go do something. Actually, at that point, the run scored, so there was nobody on base. I take that back. That was another two-out, nobody-on spot for Pete.
The real big spot was the ninth inning, obviously. Because in the ninth inning, when Josh Hader issues that walk to Juan Soto, here comes Pete Alonzo. Go be a hero. Here comes Pete Alonzo, the situation he should have had on opening day, and he swings at the first pitch and pops it up. So where am I with Pete Alonzo on the concern meter? Look, hey, Pete, I love you. I'm glad you're back.
You got to F and produce. That's my concern. Like, am I afraid he can't handle the big spot? I'm not doing those stupid arguments from last year. It's pointless. We're not going to break down his contract like last year. That's pointless too. He basically signed a one-year deal. He's got to produce. And so far, we can sit here and give him credit for good at-bats, and he's had good at-bats, but at some point, you need to barrel up.
get some freaking hits, drive some runs in, and make a difference. Because Juan Soto is getting on base constantly. Constantly. Every game that he's played, it's only been three games, he got on base twice in the finale of this series. He got on base twice in game two of this series. He got on base three times in the opener of this series.
So Juan Soto is getting on base, and that puts the onus on Pete Alonzo to come through with some extra base hits. So far, that hasn't happened. My concern level, three games into the season, it's basically just whatever. Yeah, here's the thing that I've noticed about Pete Alonzo. I think there's an improvement with his eye as far as balls that are outside. Again, like we said on the opening day, Thursday.
He didn't force and didn't go and chase that ball outside, which he would have normally done on the 3-2 pitch, which drew the walk, which he would have done 100 times last year. And he would have struck out every single time because he just couldn't reach it. The biggest problem I see, and he just does, not figured it out.
I'm saying barreling up the ball that high and tight inside fastball. He just cannot get around on. That is a problem. Three games into the season. No, but it was last year too. I got it. It was last year. I got you. I got you. So your concern level for Pete is what, a 7 out of 10? If the pitching staff realizes you go high and tight on Pete Alonzo, it's 10 out of 10. That's a concern.
Mark Vientos had a ripped RBI double, one of the few extra base hits the Mets had in this series in game two. And then when he came up in the ninth inning of the finale of this series, he hit the hardest ball of the game. Problem was, it was a line driver out of Jeremy Pena. Mark Vientos hasn't done very much. Brett Beatty. I know that the fangs are out for Brett Beatty. The knives are out for Brett Beatty because nobody thinks he's any good.
Lo and behold, as much as I want him to have this opportunity and believe this is the last chance to figure it out, it's not as if I think he's the next coming away box. It's more he should play. And I'm still there with Brett Beatty. I'm not jumping off the ship after two games, even though striking out in the fifth and then striking out in the eighth inning with a runner on second and nobody out didn't exactly do him any favors.
That's for damn sure. He did make very good contact in his first at bat. But again, the Mets, even though their offense has been limp, they have had some bad luck when it comes to hard contact. And that certainly happened with Brett Beatty early. we're talking about five at bats with Brett Beatty. So my concern level, I'm not sure he's any good. Just like none of us are sure if he's any good, but he should still play. Now what's happening.
is that Luis Angel Lacuna, to his credit, is showing you a value that if Beatty doesn't hit, he's going to be the odd man out. because Luis Angel Acuna has played wonderful defense outside of the error. We'll kill him for the error we did after opening day, but he's played some very good defense. as we saw in game two of this series with a diving play after he came in late. And he can steal a base. We saw that as a weapon in game three of this series when he pinch ran for Luis Terrence.
So if this is like an extended battle for a roster spot, because Jeff McNeil may be on his way back, there's certainly a positive update about him, which we'll get to later. If this is an extended battle on who's going to be on this roster. Look, baby bet a freaking hit or else he's useless because Acuna is better defensively, can steal it. He's just more of a weapon. That's the reality.
So I'm not giving up on the Brett Beatty experiment because it's five at-bats. Let's keep that in mind. We have a graphic if you're consuming the Rico Bronia on YouTube. A lot of people do it via the podcast. So I'm going to read the graphic if you're not watching on YouTube. It says Brett Beatty is 0 for 5 with 3 strikeouts. Now that sucks. One of the outs was that... ripped line drive right at the first baseman another one of the outs was a weak pop up the third base but it's five at bats so
He's got to keep playing. They're going to play three games against the Marlins. There are righties on the mound every day. Beatty's going to play. Is Acuna a great weapon off the bench? Absolutely. In fact, I'll give you a first guess. And this is one of those first guesses that Mendy followed.
You may not believe me because I'm sitting there watching this game and I'm not doing a live Rico. I'm just watching the game. My wife's passed out. My oldest son is watching YouTube. My youngest son has passed out and I got my scorebook. Mendy correctly, clearly correctly, pinch ran for Terrens with Luis Angel Acuna. And Beatty struck out, and then series struck out, and Lindor grounded out. Mets are down 2-1 going to the bottom of the eighth inning.
I am saying in my head, not out loud, keep Acuna in the game, improve the defense, and move the catcher spot one slot away from potentially getting an at-bat. And I was, I don't know why, but during the commercial break, I was getting annoyed as if Mendy wasn't going to do it as if somehow this was going to be one of those first guesses that I come on the Rico, I bitch about, but it turns out to be irrelevant.
Mendy did it. So me and Mendy are thinking along the same lines because Acuna is better defensively. So you upgrade yourself defensively and you also move the catcher spot back a little bit. Who else do you want to rip offensively? I mean, Jose Siri went 0-2 with two strikeouts, but he did draw a walk and create a run for himself. Oh, yeah, Brandon Nimmo, Hoff's boy. Nimmo did have a base hit.
In the second inning of game two of this series. And then tried to steal a base. Actually led to a Met run because of Houston miscues. But Brandon Nimmo hasn't done much. Oh, for his last six after that base hit. The reality is nobody's hit.
Now, is it tipping your hat to good pitching? They have faced some good pitching. Frambois Valdez is excellent. Hunter Brown was one of the better pitchers in the American League in the second half of last year. I can't say this about Spencer Arrighetti unless you just think he's put it all together in his second year.
We know how tough the bullpen is. Josh Hader's legitimately good. Brian Abreu's legitimately good. I don't know about Brian King. I mean, do we need to see Brian King come into a game, strike out Brandon Nemo? strikeout, stalling Marte on a fastball right down the middle. I don't know how much of this is good pitching or how much of it is, hey, they're a funk to start the season, but they haven't hit.
Is my confidence shaken that the strength of the team is going to be the offense? No. I mean, we cannot get wacky about this. We can't get wacky. I don't even think I was that wacky two days ago. I was annoyed. I was frustrated. I'm annoyed and frustrated right now. It's okay to be frustrated when your team loses. But do me this one favor, because I am better than this from two days ago. Hoff is not.
and there are a lot of Mets fans who are not, do not let the Yankees hitting 150 home runs bother you because it really is irrelevant. Don't let Yankee fans sing, hey Juan Soto, do you miss us? Don't let it bother you. It's irrelevant. So that did bother me on opening day. It does not bother me now. Now, let me get to the rest of this game.
We'll go. We'll break down game three. We'll break down game two. We do have to pick a star of the series, which I'm very excited to do. It's the inaugural Rico star of the series, and I've been thinking about it. I've been thinking about which way I want to go on the inaugural Rico star of the series. But as far as game three is concerned, Griffin Canning was really fascinating. He was fascinating.
Overall, I thought he pitched really well. The final line was solid, five and two-thirds innings, only gave up the two runs, struck out four, 87 pitches. I was okay. with Mendy pushing him the way he did because he gives up the base hit to Altuve with one out in the sixth inning. At this point, the Mets are tied 1-1. And I thought about, all right, you're looking at third time around the batting order.
These are guys that have seen Canning before. You've got Paredes. You've got Alvarez coming up. I was afraid of going to the lefties. I was thinking about Danny Young. I knew he wasn't going to go to A.J. Minter. He wasn't going to pitch him again.
So realistically, the lefty I was thinking about was Danny Young. But I got afraid of that, thinking, really, you're going to bring Danny Young in to face Jordan Alvarez. The rest of the lineup is right-handed. That's not going to help you. So I did think about Jose Budo, who he eventually went to.
And I did at least ponder after the Altuve hit, getting Canning out right then and there. And almost saying, you know what, Griffin? You've already done more than I expected. I'm not going to push you further than this. Mendy did, and I had a terrible feeling when Jordan Alvarez was up. First of all, Jordan had not had a base hit yet this season. He was due to get something big before this series was done, and he pounds that double.
And Jose Siri, who's tough to kill because he's the only guy who was responsible for a run in this game. But the bobbling center by Siri, I thought really cost him an opportunity to throw out Isaac Paradis. I mispronounce his name every time I say it. He's been in the league for a while now. I apologize. Isak Paredes. Bang. But Jose Siris Baba really cost him.
I'm not mad at Mendy for keeping Canning in too much. I think this is a good challenge for a start of the year as a Met, but I was at least pondering it as he gave up the base hit to Altuve. But where Griffin Canning really showed stones, I thought was the first inning. If you go back to the bottom of the first inning, he gives up a base hit to Jose Altuve. He's lucky it was only a single.
because it was a rip down the left field line that Vientos made a headlong dive on and held Altuve to just an infield hit. He then falls behind Isak Paredes, 3-1. I am in my brain thinking, this is going to be ugly. This is going to be a real ugly situation. And I thought he struck out Altuve in that at-bat before he got a base hit. He threw a 1-2 slider in the dirt.
that Altuve tried to check his swing on, and the first base umpire, Moore, said he had held up. I wasn't sure he did, but whatever. But I thought that that little moment was going to be a big moment because it turns into a base hit to Altuve. Canning falls behind Isak 3-1. And then he showed Stones. He really did. He's behind them 3-1. He keeps battling and battling and then finally throws him a sinker on three and two to strike him out. Now, throughout this game, I was really diving in.
to the pitch selection of Griffin Canning because we don't know Griffin Canning. We've watched him in spring training a little bit, but spring training is just so different than the real stuff. So I'm looking at this sinker he threw and I'm like, what's happening? a pitch he threw last year and the answer is no he only threw 34 sinkers last year which made up 1.2 percent of his repertoire and as i dove in deeper you saw the difference
on what the Mets are trying to get out of Griffin Canning, who then put together a really solid performance. After he gets the strikeout of ESAC, obviously it turns into a... Strike him out, throw him out, double play. Terrence makes the perfect throw to second. He gets Jordan Alvarez out. He pitches a 1-2-3 second inning. He works around a two-out walk in the third inning.
works around the leadoff walk in the fourth inning by striking out Jordan Alvarez and getting Christian Walker to ground into a double play. And after he gets really unlucky on the Siri home run, Siri home run, the Pena home run. He gets through the fifth inning 1-2-3.
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in terms of how Griffin Canning attacked it. So last year, 37% of the pitches he threw was his four-seam fastball. 26% was his changeup. 24% was his slider. And then 10%, he threw a curveball. A curveball, by the way, we did not see in this game. I don't think we saw it once. In this game against the Astros, his first game as a New York Met, he ended up throwing.
54% of his pitches being a slider. So it went from averaging out about 24% last year and being his third most popular pitch to being far and away. The dominant pitch he threw. 54% of the time he threw sliders, and most of them were good. Unfortunately, the two big hits he gave up, the double to Jordan Alvarez, his final pitch he threw, the home run to Jeremy Pena.
We're all hanging sliders. But you see already what the Mets are trying to do with Griffin Canning, which is changing his pitch selection, changing his repertoire, if you will. And that slider was really effective. He threw the sinker. twice in this game, including the sinker that struck out Isak Paredes in the first inning, which I thought was his most important outs because he walks him.
first and second, nobody out to start the game. Here comes Jordan Alvarez. I think this is going to be ugly. So I thought that sequence early was very good. And I thought that was very encouraging. The Mets starting pitching in this series was not atrocious. In fact... I know, Clay Holmes, we gave a C- to. You gave him a D+. We'll get to Tyler McGill in a little bit. Griffin Canning was a B+, A-. It was really, really good. And it's good enough to win.
Now, the reason we started the podcast with the offense is because that's why they lost. It's not the hanging slider to Jeremy Pena. It's not the bobble by Jose Syrian center on the Jordan Alvarez double. It's because their offense did dick. But Griffin Canning was outstanding, and so was Jose Budo. Well, I have a mental block, and maybe it's because we are recording the Rico Bronia on a Saturday night after the match wrapped up this series.
The lead announcer on Fox, who also does football and is obviously the guy I was annoyed at during the World Series last year. I think it's because I don't like him. I am mental blocking his name. And that's weird because. I've listened to this gentleman call so many games and I've talked about him a lot. And yet I'm telling you off and you could tell me his name or I could just call him good looking Fox guy. Like it doesn't really matter to me.
I literally have a mental block against this man's name, and that mental block has been going on for three and a half hours. Well, he has a very plain name, which is why. Joe Johnson? Close. Mike Williams. No, no. You got the Joe part right. Joe Davis. Joe Davis. Joe Davis. There you go. Isn't that weird? Like. I've talked about this guy a lot, and I've gone three hours forgetting his name. Just remember this. Going forward, your old partner was Joe B. This guy is Joe D. Stop.
Yeah, I'm not going to use that because I have no interest in remembering his name. And I'm not even about to knock him, by the way. I'm about to make fun of him, but it's more lighthearted. He kept calling Jose Budo, Jose... And I know I'm a guy that mispronounces names. I just talked about Isak Paredes. So I'm not making fun of him. It's more, it was weird. Jose Bouto.
I don't know why every time he said it, I wasn't even mad. I was just more like Butoh. But Butoh, if you want to call him that, was outstanding. mostly when he struck out Christian Walker. Because at that point, it's 2-1. And you want to keep the game close. And Budo does a great job. He strikes out Walker. Pitches a one, two, three, seventh inning. Gets in a major trouble in the eighth inning. And then Carlos Mendoza said, you know what? Screw it. And I like this.
Because after Budo walks Paredes, he's got to take him out clearly. Bases loaded. There's one out. And this is after Budo got a huge out of Altuve because he walks Dubon. Gives up a base hit to Chase McCormick. Astros at first and third, nobody out, two to one. And with the way the offense was going, obviously, you can't give up any more. Budo gets Altuve to ground out to Vientos. Gets him at the plate. Fantastic.
Very solid day defensively for Mark Vientos. I want to point that out. And after Bouteau walks Isak, again, Fox isn't showing us the Met bullpen. So I'm pondering, where's he going here? Bases loaded one out. Does he go to Danny young? The problem with going to Danny young to get your down out is great. He gets your down out. Now there are righties coming up. So do you really want to do that? A two to one game. So I'm going through my.
bullpen because the beauty of the Bob Carpenter scorebook is you get to write down the bullpens. So it's not just by memory. All right. It's not going to be Danny Young. It's not going to be A.J. Minter. I just assumed they weren't going to use him on a back-to-back. They're not going to use Edwin Diaz in that spot. Do they go back to Stanek? Do they go back to Reed Garrett? And is Brazabon available?
After the last two days, I'm like, is he going to go to Kranich? Because that's it. I love Max Kranich. I'm so glad he made the team. He deserved to make the team. But you're really going to put this guy in a spot with the bases loaded, one out. and you're Dan Alvarez up in a two-to-one game, and he hasn't pitched in the major leagues in three years, you can look at this two ways. You can say Carlos Mendoza was being irresponsible.
Or you could say Carlos Mendoza on March 29th told Max Kranick, let me see your stones. You want to be a major leaguer? Okay. Go prove it. Now, I lean towards what Mendy did because it is March 29th. As much as one may get annoyed about a loss or pissed about the offense, it's early. And we need to find out about a lot of guys on this team. I said that about Brett Beatty. Let's say it about Max Kranich. And how about what Max Kranich did? It isn't going to get enough credit. It deserves credit.
In fact, Max Craddock coming into a bases loaded one-out jam and getting Jordan Alvarez, the great Jordan Alvarez, to pop up in foul territory, another stellar play by Mark Vientos, and getting Christian Walker to ground out has made him a prime candidate. to be the Rico star of the series. Because it's not Max Kranich's fault that no one in this offense, with the heart of the order coming up, could do anything against Josh Hader. Because if they do, and the Mets come back and win...
then we are talking more about Max Kranich. But what a great performance by Kranich. And I don't know about you, Hoff. You know, we always talk about the circle of trust. And early in a season, it's tough to figure out the circle of trust. The only thing we know for sure is Edwin Diaz is the closer and AJ Minter, Ryan Stanek. I guess for now, they're in the circle of trust. I thought that was so ballsy and so good.
I'm putting them right into the circle of trust. Yeah, I'll go with you on that because my heart was pumping on that. I'm like, oh, my God. Like you said, you're setting this guy up for failure. You know, it's a bad spot. And Max Kranich is someone who, yes, in spring training, like we've said.
Your performances are way different. This is Houston Astros. This is Jordana Alvarez. This is a serious situation. And not for nothing, I do want to give one other person a little bit of credit too for that inning to get to escape the way they did because Krennic did great. But also Mark Vientos had a hell of a play at third base to get the ball and throw out the runner at going home, which helped prevent the run and then made a decent catch over at the third base side to get to it.
Mark Vientos played really good defense in this series. And I don't think that should be forgotten because he's trying to grow as a baseball player. He's trying to grow. And this was an off season that was weird because. I'm sure there was a lot of it, which he really expected mentally to be a first baseman and move back over to first. But he clearly has worked his ass off, honing his craft as a defensive third baseman. It was a big play. I didn't think off the bat that that ball was staying.
on the field to play. And Vientos did a great job leaning over and making that play. And I'm going through my scorecard. Let me see what else he had. The double play on Christian Walker to end the fourth inning was a very good play. And I mentioned, even in the first inning with Altuve.
That's a very underrated play because he doesn't actually get him out, but he saves it from being a double. And runner on second, nobody out with Isak Paredes up. It's amazing how many times I have just had to say his name. We're talking about the Astros, and for whatever reason, it always comes back to me having to say Esau's name. Thank God he isn't a man, because I'd have a mental block against saying it correctly.
But yes, Vientos' defense was fantastic. It's a frustrating loss. You want to win the rubber game, you want to win a series, and you want to see the bats show up. As far as game two of this series is concerned, let's give that a few minutes. We got to see Juan Soto park one. That was a beautiful thing. Seeing Juan Soto just absolutely destroy a baseball. You know what made me think when Soto hit that home run in the third inning of game two of this series?
I started to think about where that would land at Citi Field. And that would be on the Pepsi Coca-Cola porch. And I started envisioning how that would feel, even though I've seen Soto hit the ball to that spot a million times at Citi Field. He just did it as a Washington National many, many times. But... It was good to see the offense, at least early, because that was the only time we saw the offense. Like, the offense did nothing in this series. The sack fly by Lindor in game one.
The Jose Siri created run in game three. So those are their two runs. The real offense was in the second and third inning of game two of this series. The Brandon Nimmo base hit. He gets very lucky, but he tries to make a play with his legs by stealing second, and then luckily, Brendan Rodgers just drops the throw. Otherwise, it's an easy out, and Nimmo's gone, and Hoff would find another new reason.
to rip brandon nimmo but look sometimes aggressiveness leads to that you force the other team to make a play they didn't make a play but vientos rips an rbi double jesse winker two pitches later rips a base it up the middle you started to feel like, all right, this is the Met team we're expecting. This is the juggernaut offense we're expecting. And after Juan Soto's home run that gave them a 3-0 lead...
It was just, it was nothing. They did nothing offensively. The only base hit they had after the Juan Soto double, Juan Soto home run, was a Luis Terenz leadoff double in the eighth inning. And that was probably the worst situation because at that point, it's three to one. The Astros got to run back against Tyler McGill in the fourth inning on a sack fly. So it's a close game. And you've got two on and nobody out.
With Soto, Alonzo, and Nimmo coming up. And Soto flies out to right. Pete grounds out. And Brandon flies out. So the bats from the third inning on. did nothing. The good news was Tyler McGill was fantastic. I think Tyler McGill for him and for him to prove himself to me, to you, to everybody listening.
He just has to do it consistently. We've seen Tyler McGill have really good starts. This wasn't his first. We saw him last year have a couple of seven scoreless inning starts. With McGill, it's about, can you do it over and over again? I give him a lot of credit because he starts off the game brilliantly, had a little bit of luck. There were a few line drives that hit right at guys, but he retires the first nine. He gets into a huge jam in the fourth inning.
Gets Jordan Alvarez to fly out, even though it's a sacrifice fly. And then he strikes out Christian Walker, strikes out Yiner Diaz, gets a huge double play against Brendan Rodgers in the fifth inning. And then unfortunately, what really... kind of did in McGill going even deeper than the five and a third innings he did was the unfortunateness. Unfortunateness? Yeah. Things were unfortunate when he struck out Jake Myers.
And it got past Terrence. Not Terrence's fault. It was just a wild pitch. And it was bad luck. And so when you strike a guy out to lead off an inning, and it turns into a runner on first, nobody out with Jose Altuve coming up. It just, it sucked. So I thought that that unfortunate situation really did him in. But Mendy got it right. Because unlike Griffin Canning, who you're challenging and you're trying to learn.
You know, Tyler McGill's been around and you kind of know the deal with him. So once he gives up the strikeout wild pitch and he gives up a base hit to Altuve ahead of the count, pitch count be damned. Get his ass out of the game. and mendy did the right thing going to reed garrett and credit to reed garrett and credit to the med bullpen because as a whole
Wins and losses. The Met bullpen did a fantastic job. You go back to the first game of this series with Waskar Brazabon pitching two and a thirds. Danny Young giving you a scoreless inning. So let's all do the math together. They got three and a third scoreless on opening day in a loss. They got four innings scoreless in the Friday night victory. So what are we up to? Seven and a third innings? And then they got...
two and two-thirds inning scoreless in the loss on Saturday. So what does that end up to, Pete? Did you do the math? Because I stopped doing it. The thirds confused me. If it's seven and a third plus two and two-thirds, I think that's a... That's a 10. That's 10 and a third. How about that? No, 7 and a third plus 2 and two-thirds. Oh, okay, so it's just 10. It's just a hard 10. Either way, the Met bullpen has been brilliant.
From Max Kranick in the finale of this series, getting out of a bases-loaded one-out jam against Jordan Alvarez, Jose Budo. cleaning up the Griffin canning inning to Garrett Minter Stanek and Edwin closing out the Astros and holding on to a little tiny three to one lead to Brazaban and Danny Young, keeping it close unsung heroes.
The Met bullpen, outstanding job. And the starting pitching was fine. Clay Holmes wasn't great in the opener. We went through it on the opening day, Rico. You can go back and listen if you want to hear us analyze that again. But Tyler McGill. Five plus innings, one run. And now Griffin canning five and two thirds innings, two runs. Those starts are good enough. Quite frankly, you get starts like that. That should be good enough. The other thing from game two of this series.
Do we like the player interviews? I'm very mixed about it because Lindor is obviously getting interviewed. For those that saw it, it was on Apple TV+. So I know there were many who just didn't have it or couldn't find it or don't have Apple TV+. They interviewed Francisco Lindor in the second inning, and he had two plays in the inning. There was a smoked ground ball he made a good play on, and then I think there was a line drive right at him. I'm mixed about it because...
Hoff, I don't think you ever get anything interesting. I don't think I learned anything from Francisco Lindor, but I guess the good part is, or the fascinating part is, you get to see a player make plays in the middle of an inning. I don't know. I'm very mixed about it. Do you like it? I didn't mind it. It was weird because typically I don't think they do shortstops like that. Maybe they do. I usually remember like they've done one door.
They've done Lindor in the past? Yeah, okay. I mean, I remember more like the outfielders and stuff like that, but usually I feel like they don't get the ball hit to them as frequently as Lindor did. I mean, they were in mid-conversation. The good thing is, I mean, he just feels so natural.
He's so graceful. It didn't bother him at all. Did I get anything out of the interview? The only thing I got was he's badass. Like, that's what I got. But we always knew that. Like, he is who he is. He's a great player, good leader. And I mean, nothing changed. Oh, for everyone out there who thinks I just want to kiss Pete Alonzo's ass. Can I rip him for something? Is that all right? Can we do a little ripping of Pete Alonzo? Sure. Besides what we've already done, which is that he hasn't hit.
besides the obvious so in game two of this series and it was a wonderful victory they won three to one mcgill was great i'll get to diaz in a minute they get those runs early like we talked about then the bats went the bats went silent They had a few scoring opportunities. I want to go back to the sixth inning of this game. They are still facing Hunter Brown at that point. At that point in the game, it is three to one. So it's the eventual final score. Soto walks.
Alonzo walks, right? So they're set up beautifully. Back-to-back walks by Juan Soto and Pete Alonzo. They got 2-1 and nobody out for Brandon Nemo. And Nemo, it's a ground ball to second base. Pete, what are we doing running right into the out? What Alonzo needs to do, and the ball is right in front of him, so he should know it, is you stop. Now, you could still have it turn into a double play, but you're forcing Brendan Rodgers to have to make a decision.
Does he run you down because you just stopped, which probably allows Brandon Nimmo to beat it out? So now it's first and third one out. That's a victory. Or... Does he immediately throw to first base, get the force out, and then get you in a rundown? Now, he could do that. But that also can create potentially Soto scoring or potentially the Astros having a miscue like we saw earlier in the game on the Brandon Nimmo caught stealing because it does go down as a caught stealing, by the way, E4.
So Pete, Pete screwed that one up. I'm sorry. That's on Pete Alonzo. The ball is right in front of you. Stop. Force the Astros to make a play. And again, there's a chance the Astros make the play and it's a double play no matter what. But instead, he runs right into it. And now there's a runner on third two outs. You hope for a big hit from Vientos. They didn't get it. And obviously, big hits were the problem. In the three games of this series, they were 0 for 8.
With runners in scoring position on opening day. Two for seven with runners in scoring position on Friday night. And those two hits came immediately. So they were two for two. And then over their last five.
And then 0 for 8 in the finale of this series. So let's do some quick math. That would get you to 2 for 21 with runners in scoring position. They didn't get a lot of hits in this series. So they didn't... exactly have as many opportunities as they should have but even in the opportunities they had two for 21 you get a handful of hits just like a few more you win this series dare i say you sweep the series
If you think about it, think about how they lost three to one, two to one, and they win three to one. Now, one last thing on Saturday's game. Actually, a couple of things. On Friday's game, not Saturday's game. I get confused. I'm going to refer to it as Game 1, Game 2, and Game 3. Game 2, obviously, the win. In Game 2 of this series,
Following the brilliance of Tyler McGill, we mentioned Reed Garrett came in. Very tough spot. Two on nobody out with Isak Paredes, Alvarez, Walker, and Diaz. He gets through it. A.J. Minter. with a nice inning in his Met debut. Not a terribly difficult spot. Mendy chose the seventh, and he chose the bottom of the order. He gave Ryan Stanek the tougher battle by going top of the order with Altuve.
Paredes, Alvarez, and Walker. But Static did a good job. Great defensive play by Luis Angel Acuna, who came in late with a runner on first and one out, made a nice diving play. So Acuna's defense has been stellar. since the miscue on the error that handed the Astros an extra run so the lights are bright for Acuna apparently maybe he turned the lights on and said all right I'll come up big but Edwin Diaz was utterly brilliant
And I mentioned this on Evan and Tiki. I don't know if I mentioned this here on the Rico, but I'll say it now. When you talk about not the stars, because you expect the stars to be the stars, but you look at everybody else. who has questions surrounding them, who may be the most important New York Met? Edwin Diaz is towards the top of the list and for me is at the top of the list because the dynamic of this bullpen completely changes if we don't have dominant Edwin Diaz.
The New York Mets need Edwin Diaz to be Edwin Diaz. His velocity was a tick down in spring training. He had been shaky at times in spring training. He comes into a two-run game. It's the bottom half of the order, but you're still facing some solid hitters like Yiner Diaz and Jeremy Pena. And who knows about Cam Smith, but he's a huge prospect. And Edwin Diaz did something.
that we so rarely see, but I appreciate it when it happens. A closer leaving no doubt. A closer coming in and just saying, you know what? I'm going to make this easy. I'm not going to make you sweat. He strikes out Yiner Diaz. The first pitch he threw was 98 miles per hour, and he got ahead of him immediately. He got Pena to pop up, and he got Cam Smith to pop up, and he did it very quickly. So...
Give Edwin Diaz a ton of love. I'm giving it to him right now. That is healthy. That's what we need. It's good for our brains over the course of a long season, and it will do this bullpen as a whole a lot of good. to have zero questions in the ninth inning. So the biggest positive really out of this series was the pitching. It's crazy. It's upside down world. Bullpen, maybe not that big of a surprise, but certainly with Griffin Canning and Tyler McGill.
giving them very solid starts to this season. Now I'm going to get to some over-exaggerating emails, some news and notes as well here on the Rico Bronia, but I do want to remind you, we are days away from going to Citi Field. days away from the Mets being at home. And you may be asking me, what am I going to do when I walk into Citi Field? Besides, say hi to security guards. Besides, give high fives.
Well, I'm going to celebrate with a Mio sparkling sake. A true crowd pleaser, whether it's the first game of the season or the 15th game of the season. Light, bubbly, easy to enjoy. Whether you're at Citi Field next weekend or just your favorite spot, ask for Mio, sparkling sake by name. It's a new tradition. Serve chilled. imported from japan the official sake of rico bronya enjoy responsibly i got a bottle right here my mio all right off we got work to do for the very first time ever
We have decided to take a feature in my scorebook as I hold it up again for the YouTube audience. I have a little box. That little box is empty. I put a star of the game after every game. So for the first game of this series, Frambois Valdez was the star of the game. For the second game of this series, I decided to make Tyler McGill the star of the game.
And for the third game of this series, I haven't decided. I guess it'll be Jeremy Pena. Or maybe Jordan Alvarez. I don't know. I haven't done that yet. I mean, personally speaking, I'm going to say Pena because, I mean, he broke up the scoreless tie there. Alvarez had some other big moments and he didn't come through. So that's why I would lean Pena. Plus he's also on my fantasy team.
Ah, here you go. Well, we've decided to take the star of the game from my scorebook and bring it to the Rico Bronia after every series, because we always do series recaps on the Rico. We will have a Rico star of the series, and that... We'll always be a Met. We're not going to sit here honoring Astros or honoring Nationals or honoring Braves because who gives a rat's ass? We are picking our star of this series. Granted, it's a series that the Mets lost twice in.
So there are a few options. Let's go through them and I'll tell you who I want to pick. And I went through this also like Pete has a vote, but it doesn't count. And that's not me being a jerk. That's just my scorebook is the Evan star of the series. So I am the decider, but I do care what you think. So I appreciate the way it's going to work here is we're going to go through different names and you're going to pick your star of the series and your opinion may change my opinion.
Or it may not. And I will be honest about such things. Okay? Is that fair, Pete? I think that's very fair. Juan Soto is clearly a candidate. I know he struck out in the end of game one, but he was on base twice in each game. I mean, that's pretty good considering the Mets didn't exactly get on base a lot. They didn't get a lot of hits in this series, and he had a home run, and he had a double.
And he had the one hit in game three of this series. And he also had a hit in game one. So Juan Soto is literally the only offensive candidate you can come up with. I think it's a stretch to include anybody else, even Mark Bientos, who played great defense and had the RBI double in game two. So I think Soto's the only offensive candidate to think about. I think pitching-wise, Tyler McGill is certainly a great candidate. He gave you five-plus.
Only allowed one run. Got the win. And then I think bullpen-wise, there's a lot of great options. Max Kranick, even though it comes at a loss, gets thrown into a bases-loaded one-out jam against some really good hitters. could certainly bring that one up any of the guys that came out of the bullpen in game two of this series i think we're all great candidates so i think those are the guys uh that you could consider i do have somebody that i have already decided on
I'm going to write that name down. Okay. So it's here. And now Pete can tell us who his Rico star of the series is, and maybe it'll change my view, but I have the name written down. So I will tell you if it's changed my view or not. The floor is yours, Pete.
So I don't know if I'm like, I could do this. I know they've done it before in like the, you know, Monday night football or Sunday night football where they're like, we're going to make it the whole offensive line. I want to make it the bullpen. I really truly do. Because I think like you've said.
You can't just pick one player because they all were excellent. You're talking about Max Krennic again, like you said, going into a situation, bases loaded, gets out of it. Edwin Diaz was the best version of himself since 2020. I mean, he was, my doubt, phenomenal. Reed Garrett was thrown into a crazy situation in the sixth inning after, or was it the sixth or whatever it was with, was it McGill?
put a bunch of runners on him. Tyler McGill, you know, puts him in a spot and Reed Garrett comes in and just totally impresses me. And I'm like, this game's about to get blown out. And he goes and did the unthinkable and get, get up. Get out of that inning, which I just think if you look at every single relief pitcher, they all had a brief moment. If it was.
One person in particular, I'd have to go Edwin Diaz because I think that was impressive. That saved the game. That's something that we need a W. He got it for us. But overall, I feel like the bullpen as a whole, just, I mean, 10 innings, one earned run, I'll take that every series. Well, I think that we always have to pick a person.
Okay. It is too easy to say it's the bullpen. It's the road. It is a person. And it was tough. I went back and forth on a lot of people, but the more I thought about it, the more there was only one answer. And that answer was Jesus. Hold on a second. That answer was Edward. I'm trying to play the bobblehead. Hold on a second.
Hold on. Come on. Is it loud enough? I hear it. There it is. It's very faint. Yeah, it is. It's my Edwin Diaz. Press a button and it plays his theme song bobblehead that I'm holding up. That's Edwin Diaz. uh they only won one game and i shudder to think What we would be feeling and what we would be saying if Edwin Diaz decided to pick his first appearance of 2025 to be a dud. And it would be damaging for a few reasons. A.
It could have led to this team being swept. But also, Diaz didn't have an encouraging spring training. And I guess that's a reminder that you got to take spring training and throw it out the window. Good and bad, right? Brett Beatty, hello, how are you? Five at-bats in. So I think for him to come out and not just save a victory and get the Mets at the time to one and one and get him at least a victory in Houston, but to do it in the dominating way he did, I thought was incredibly important.
And so, for the very first time, we present to you Edwin Diaz as the Rico star of the series. Let's get to some of your emails. I want to start with a guy who was mad at me. He was very upset with the Rico Bronia after opening day. And then we'll read some over-exaggerating emails to the fact that the Mets are one and two. This comes from a fellow named Noah. Noah writes, Hello, Rico.
As a longtime listener, I'm here to give you feedback. This is just one man's opinion, so take it for what it's worth. For the first time ever, I had to turn off the podcast and not return to it. There was just way too much overreaction to a single game. And I'm not talking about extrapolating from the events of the games to the rest of the season. You're very good about not doing that. I'm talking about the emotion. There was too much outrage.
Too much disgust. It's just not healthy to get that upset about a single game, especially when the Mets started 0-5 last year and went on to have a magical season. Have we learned nothing? I really think this attitude is bad for our mental health. I know it's bad for mine. You don't, you may think you don't have a choice. You may think it's your job to live and die with the Mets.
Maybe so, at least on the radio where strong reactions are necessary. But on the podcast, you have the ability to be a little bit more judicious and measured in your approach. I think it would set a great example for the rest of us if you would do that. There's no reason we have to be walking around angry and unhappy after a single loss, even on opening day. I can't help but think, and you alluded to this in your opening, that your anger was exacerbated.
by your Yankee fan friends who rubbed your nose in it after the game. It actually felt like you were angry at them, not the Mets, because you know that Juan Soto striking out against Josh Hader on opening day to end the game doesn't actually mean anything.
but your Yankee fan friend succeeded in making it feel otherwise, and that sucks. Not all Yankee fans are a-holes. I have friends who support the Yankees and don't rub my nose in it when the Mets lose. In fact, some of them even root for the Mets as their second team. Is this infuriating in a different way? Yes, but it's far better than the outright hostility your friends seem to be inflicting on you. Well, no, I do appreciate the feedback.
I actually would tell you, and maybe I should go back and listen to the Rico after opening day. I honestly don't think I was that negative. I really don't. I expressed my disappointment about the result. I expressed yes. absolutely that Yankee fans had gotten to me at that moment. And I think I've shown you on this edition, they're not going to do that to me anymore, at least here on the Rico. But I think everything else we talked about on that initial.
opening day rico bronia was very measured it was being honest it was giving honest reactions to a game and the tricky thing about baseball is that there are so many games and we do so many ricos that Never should one game be an over-exaggeration, but you start to see trends as the season goes on. So eventually you start to formulate kind of stronger opinions based on not five at-bats, but a month.
or two months, but every game is its own game. Every game shouldn't cause overreactions. So I think what we do here, maybe not successfully, but I'm certainly, I try and I'm honest about it is.
We will give you emotion. We will give you our reactions without it defining what the season's going to be. So in our conversation today, in talking about a win on Friday and a loss on Saturday, I think it's the same thing. But I do appreciate... your email now i've got to go to my phone because over the course of the last few hours there has been angry angry people should i go to negative dan first now i'm not going to do that
I'll go to Matt. Matt writes, how's it hanging, fellas? You think Brett Beatty is looking good? Lindor got to be sickening everyone. Why? Why can't this guy get a hit or two early in games? Why, why, why? You think it was smart to have Jose Butto come out for a third inning this early? Does that make any sense at all? Just a lackluster performance over the weekend. Is it a big deal? No, not really. Just a tough Astros team.
You will most likely get fat and nice when you stuff your faces against the Marlins, a nice little gift from the scheduling gods. All right, so there's a very mix of emotions here from that. Let me start with the, is it a big deal? The Astros are really good. It's two out of three. Two out of three sucks no matter when it happens. It feels like it sucks more at the beginning of the season because you got to stare at one and two, but I would agree with that last part.
It's a lackluster performance. I wouldn't read that much into it. You think Brett Beatty is looking good. We have to, I know that for a guy like Matt, for a lot of people out there. They don't think Brett Beatty is any good. That is fine to think that. Can we give the guy more than five at-bats before we're sending him back down to AAA? I have been as pro Beatty should play as anybody.
And earlier in the Rico, I was even saying, hey, look, this is a big moment for him. He's going to get a couple of weeks here, but if he doesn't hit, he's going to end up in the minors because he doesn't bring the same value to a roster that Acuna does. So I agree that it's go time for Brett Beatty. I'm not burying him after two starts. I mean, come on now. We really doing that? Two starts? Five at-bats? Connor writes, Brett Beatty.
The kid just doesn't have it. We talk about Acuna having a good two weeks, and Beatty hasn't had two good days in his career. He's got to go. It's pathetic. Beatty has had a couple of good days. Remember two years ago, Brett Beatty actually got off to a really good start. So he has had a couple of good days, but he needs a couple of more. Otherwise. Even I will say, all right, just start playing Luis Angelicuna. That could happen.
Listen, I'm going to defend Beatty, too, because it was more than a couple days. Even last year, he had a moment where he tried not to do too much and just make contact with the ball. And he was going opposite field. And I'm like, oh, maybe the guy actually does have something. with the bat and then he just lost it his confidence is not really i i loved seeing him hype the team up on thursday getting excited for like you know lacuna's 12th pitch at bat that was great that was that was great but
You need to see something actually out of Beatty. I don't know if it's a confidence issue, if it's a mental issue right now, but he needs to figure it out because you're right. There's not gonna be many more opportunities after this. Now I still want to play him every day. And I think what we're seeing is that. Acuna is still going to get into mostly every game. If there is a lefty in the bullpen.
which most teams have. The Astros obviously have three lefties in their bullpen. Acuna is certainly a weapon to come off the bench. He's going to come off the bench for defense, and he's going to come off the bench to give you speed. So luckily, you can start Brett Beatty every day against the...
these righties and still find opportunities for Luis Angelicuna. Scott writes, Hoffman will no doubt agree. That's his subject line. So I thought he was going to bury Brandon M.O. He kind of does. Not really. first let me say i think this team is an 88 to 90 win team i am not a negative dan but in what world is a team with pete alonso a 230 power hitter who should be hitting fifth or sixth batting third
and Brandon Nimmo batting cleanup considered a powerhouse offense. And I swear, I thought this last month, last week, and I'll think it no matter how hot they get in the coming weeks. Why do you guys think otherwise? Well, I think the mistake you're making is that look around baseball. Andres Jimenez is batting cleanup in Toronto. The cleanup spot is no longer the cleanup spot. We almost need a new name for it.
It's not the cleanup spot. It's just a spot. Like, team's best hitters are hitting one and two. Now, your knock on Pete Alonzo. let's see what kind of average hitter he is. I don't care what his average is. So to even cite it is irrelevant to me. Yes, he's got to hit 40 home runs. Yes, he's got to drive in a ton of runs, and he should get those opportunities because Soto gets on base twice a game, and eventually Francisco Lindor will wake from his early season slumber, and he'll get on base too.
But I don't think that using those two spots in the order, specifically the four spot, is necessarily the way to define that this is going to be an overrated offense. Like, look around baseball. Look who the cleanup hitters are. We just have to remember that. And I'm telling you, we need a new term for the fourth spot in the batting order because cleanup was a term from a million years ago. It's not the same. It's not the way teams drop lineups anymore.
Yeah, I don't disagree with your philosophy. But the thing is, I do think Pete Alonso... Can be the fourth hitter, whatever. It doesn't make a difference. Third, fourth hitter. That's his home. Three, four, five hitter. He's fine there. I just think that Jesse Winker.
gives you better at-bats at the moment than some other players. I think that Sterling Marte gives you better at-bats right now than some other players. And in those situations, if Soto's going to get on base and Pete Alonso's not going to drive him in. or Nimmo's not driving him in, Mark Vientos is not driving him in, then I want to see a guy like Winker or Marte get an opportunity because I actually trust their professional at-bats more than the other names.
A couple of things as we head to the Miami series. The Mets do have an off day on a Sunday. It's very strange. They're not the only ones. The Dodger-Tigers series, similar situation. in that they are National League versus American League, three-game series. They're not playing four games, so they're taking the off day on a Sunday. It's odd. I don't hate it, actually. I'm kind of glad that they played Friday and Saturday. I'd rather that.
then have the off day after the first game, kind of like the Yankees did, and then play Saturday, Sunday. So I prefer it this way. Spend some time with your family, I guess. But they do play the Marlins, and the Marlins roster is unrecognizable. And as early as it is in this season, and as much as we say and caution, be calm, don't get nuts, if the Mets don't win that series against the Marlins, there will be frustration.
There will be, I don't want to say panic, but there'll be anger. Now, that anger doesn't mean we think the team sucks or we're worried. But again, it's being a fan. You're facing a minor league team. except when Sandy Alcantara starts, which will be game two of this series. And you look at that roster and the Mets should succeed. And if they do and they win all three and we're heading to city field four and two, everybody's in a good mood.
I want to be realistic before this series starts. Just win two out of three. Like, it is baseball. And yes, the Marlins are the team in the National League East they're going to have to beat up on. And I will certainly look at those 13 games and say, hey, go win nine or 10 of them. But again, if you're going to win nine or 10 of them, that means there are three or four games you're going to lose.
I think if you're going to lose one, it may come early, especially Sandy Alcantara starting the second game of this series. So I'm good with two out of three. I just want to make that very, very clear. As far as the pitching matchups are concerned, here's what we got.
David Peterson will be on the mound on Monday night against Cal Quantrill. It's all right-handers. In fact, the Marlins only have one lefty on their roster out of the bullpen. So we talked about how we've seen the platoons and pinch hitting.
It'll be a little easier to manage that late in games with a team that only has one left at the end of the bullpen, unlike the Astros, who had three, including one from their closer in Josh Hader. So it's going to be David Peterson against Cal Quantrill on Monday night. Tuesday is going to be great. It's Kodai Senga making his season debut against Sandy Alcantara, who pitched interesting in opening day. I watched a little bit of that game.
He was brilliant. I think he had a no-hitter into two outs in the fifth inning, and then he just crumbled. Just absolutely lost it. Pitch count got high, eventually came out of the game. So his final line wasn't amazing, but he did pitch pretty well. over the first five innings. So it'll be Sandy Alcantara and Kodai Senga in game two of this series. And then Clay Holmes will start the late afternoon game on Wednesday. It's a 440 first pitch. Clay Holmes against a guy named Connor Gillespie.
Now I'm reading the way that name is spelled and I'm like, is it Connor Gillespie? Can I just, I'm going to put the letters out off. Help me out here. G I L L I S P I E. That is Gillespie, right? Gillespie. That's Gillespie. I think so. Okay. The reason I find that weird, Connor Gillespie, not him. spelled completely differently. The Connor is different. Connor, this Connor, Marlon Connor has two ends.
And the Gillespie is spelled differently. But the other Connor Gillespie is the son of a bitch that hit a runoff Jairus Familia in the 2016 wildcard game. So what kind of practical joke is this? Who's coming off the bench? A right-handed bat named Jeff Supan? I'm doing the reverse roles thing because Gillespie was a position player and now it's a pitcher. So now Jeff Supan is going to become...
The only other name I can get out of this is maybe it's Connor Gillies Pie. That's the only thing I can come up with. Gillies Pie. And by the way, this Marlin team, I just got to go through their names and raise your hand. If you have heard of them, some of them I've heard of, but mildly like. The name's familiar. I don't remember much about them. The outfielders on their roster, Griffin Conine, that's Jeff's son, Derek Hill, Dane Myers, and Kyle Stowers.
Their infielders are Jonah Bride, Xavier Edwards, we do remember. He's a pain in the ass. Otto Lopez, Matt Mervis, he was with the Cubs, Graham Pauly, Javier Sonoha, and Eric Wagaman. Who the hell are these guys? Those are the Marlin bats. And then their catchers are Nick Fortas, who had a game-winning home run against Edwin Diaz years ago, I think, and Liam Hicks.
So maybe I should take back the two out of three and say they better sweep these losers. I mean, they have three guys that you have to worry about. Otto Lopez. Xavier Edwards. And who was the outfielder? Was there an outfielder that was scary? It's really two guys. Forget it. Just those two. Otto Lopez actually is talented. That's the one thing I would say. So he can, he can, if you have.
a really off day offensively, which the Mets have proven in the first days they can have it. Otto Lopez can have a game winning home run and. they lose 1-0. Score runs. That's the bottom line. Breakout, score runs, score so many runs. that people accuse you of cheating because of your bat measurements or your bat sizes. Like that's what you need to do. Hit enough where people think you're cheating. Blade Tidwell.
made his first start at AAA Syracuse and was great. Remember, Tidwell got the AAA last year and really struggled, and they're going to need him to be pretty successful. Well, Blade Tidwell's debut Friday night for Syracuse was great. Max Scherzer left his Toronto start with a lat strain the only reason I'm bringing that up is because Scherzer was in line to pitch the home opener against the Mets it was going to be Scherzer against McGill
I would find that to be doubtful with Scherzer dealing with that lat issue. And it looks like Sean Minaya and Jeff McNeil are trending in the right direction, according to Carlos Mendoza. McNeil's already starting to do some baseball activities. He's swinging a bat. Mania is working his way back slowly, still thinking the end of April for Shaw Mania. So there you go. Mets lose two out of three, not the end of the world. If you want to interact with us, you can email us to ricob at gmail.com.
thericobi at gmail.com. Remember, Rico Bronias, after every series is over, and we will throw in some instant reactions throughout as well. So coming up with this Miami series, Monday night, Tuesday night, Wednesday afternoon, we can guarantee you a Rico Bronia after the game Wednesday at some point, probably later at night.
Maybe we mix in a Rico Monday or Tuesday. We shall see. Always subscribe so that you know. Subscribe to the WFN fan page. Same thing if you want to consume it live on YouTube. Thank you very much for listening. downloading and subscribing to Rico Bronya. We hope you enjoyed this episode of the Rico Bronya podcast. It's amazing, isn't it? Make sure you download it now to keep it on you at all times.