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TABLE TALK: Can The Mets Compete In The NL East? · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

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Hey everybody, it's Jeff. We wanted to let you know we've recorded this
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podcast episode on Tuesday, February twenty seventh, twenty twenty four. By the
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time you hear this, some things may have changed here or there, but
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we hope you enjoy the show. Welcome to Table Talk here at the Philadelphia
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Sports Table podcast show, the longest running weekly Philly sports podcast show in the
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world. That's right over ten and a half years strong. We have got
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a great table talk, interview and discussion coming your way this week. We
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have got a great guest. We're gonna bring her on in just a bit,
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But baseball season's here if you haven't heard. If baseball season is here,
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the NL least is going to be extremely interesting. We're gonna be talking
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about one team in particular, as well as some other MLB talk as well
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during this particular episode of Table Talk. So let's sit back, let's get
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to our guest. She is fantastic, we've had her on before. Let's
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get right to it. It is great to have her back on the podcast
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to get into the New York Mets and also some other MLB talk coming to
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us from the Home Run Applesauce dot Com family in general, a pod of
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their own fantastic ladies over there doing some fantastic talking with regard to the baseball
1:32
world and specifically with regard to the New York Mets. We have Maggie Wigan.
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How you doing, Meggie his nice to be on here. Jeff,
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thank you. It's great to have you back. I love talking to you,
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honestly, because you are incredibly authentic in terms of your honesty when it
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comes to the New York Mets, when it comes to the NL East,
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just Major League Baseball in general. And to get us started off here,
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Maggie, I think we have to talk about one of the most important things
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that has come across ours, you know, our computers in general, and
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that is the new MLB uniforms that are getting a ton of attention. I
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guess there's not much really to talk about too too much in the world of
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baseball, asides from the new pants here. They're see through. They're not
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too comfy for the players. I mean, I mean there. I mean
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this should be a nice, little lighthearted topic. But I'll also say it
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is an indictment of MLB that this is what we're sitting here talking about it's
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incredible. It's incredible that this is one of those stories that completely I think
2:30
it's blown kind of like out of proportion, you know, it's such a
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mess. But like, so, of course I'll start with my conspiracy theory.
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Okay, So my conspiracy theory is that if you look at like the
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player comments and like the union agents, they all actually say that the bigger
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problem is the jerseys RULs. So my conspiracy theory is that the jerseys are
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so bad that they botched the pants in a way that is like probably legally
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unacceptable. I mean, FPC knocking on that door the second there's a rainstorm
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at City Field. So they intentionally watched the pants so bad that they can
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now go back and be like, look, we fixed the pants and not
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have to do anything about the atrocious jerseys. So that's that's my conspiracy.
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You get this wrong. How did they get this wrong? They had so
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much time. Part of what is impossible believe about this is like how did
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nobody put those on? How did no human being put those pants on their
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body in front of another person or a mirror say, oh my god,
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they're see through. Like that's not a little problem, that's not like a
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oh man, these seams really aren't lining up, or you know, this
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belt loop is backwards. This is like a not usable set of cloth unless
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they are going to go back and try to get the union to agree to
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rules about long which best of luck exactly. But yeah, so, I
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mean I think one way or another it is eventually going to get fixed because
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it is such a like oh oh say god, visible problem. It absolutely
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is. It amazes me. We've talked about on this podcast platform for a
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number of years with different storylines, Maggie, how these professional sports associations and
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leagues, how they let certain storylines just get away from them, and they
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seem at times with various storylines just incredibly incompetent. I mean, these are
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a billion, multi billion dollar companies that are a part of our fabric,
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not just here in America but across the world, part of the fabric of
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the world. Yes, we're talking about pants and potentially see through pants,
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guys wearing them. You know, it's last year we were talking about baseballs,
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we were and like, I mean, that's just it. Like it's
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not like they have this sho record of nailing the little things or for big
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thing like the literal ball used to play the sport, so I guess it
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shouldn't be that much of a surprise that they are also incapable of making pants.
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But what I also but what also just strikes me is like the more
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things change, the more they say the same, is that they're also doing
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that. Like, I mean, you have kids, and you know that
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thing, and they walk in and they've got chocolate all over their face and
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you're like, why are you stealing candy? And I say, no,
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I didn't, right, it's on your face. Yes, Like like here's
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a here's a picture of you with it on your face, right, and
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and so this is what And I'll be standing there like, no, we
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didn't change the baseballs, and then like a month later, it's like we
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changed them back, staying here like they're like, no, the pants have
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always been like this, Like you actually were seeing genitals last year. You
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just forgot about it, right, pay no attention to that that thing over
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in the corner saying that people do right, seeing someone play baseball and see
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through PAMs and forgetting about it. Gosh, the incompetence sometimes of these multi
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billion dollar companies never ceases. Do amazing. The assumption that we all as
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people must also be that incompted exactly and stupid. Yeah, yes, all
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right, well, Maggie, let's let's get into some MLB talk here,
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some NL East talk, specifically with regard to the New York Mets. And
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of course, as a Phillies fan, you know, I have been certainly
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following what various teams in the NL East have been doing during the course of
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the off season, and you know, looking at the Mets following some storylines
6:36
here, I think they're gonna have a better record this year than last year,
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and they certainly could compute I think for a wild card spot. And
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I say this, think of the Braves are probably gonna take the division,
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but who knows. And we'll get to that in a little bit here,
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But how would you grade the Mets off season as they're in spring training right
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now? And can you talk a little bit about that grade? I mean,
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so, I will also refer you to the most recent episode of Part
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of their Own where I did go on an extended screen about this. But
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my problem with the Mets off season is that they are laser focused on this
7:12
idea of having you know, a transition year and like clearing away all the
7:17
dead money, and I mean truly they are getting. They're clearing something like
7:21
two hundred million dollars in payroll this year and next year. And and like
7:27
I get that, and I get not necessarily going all in on, you
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know, a big name just to make the splash. I mean, obviously
7:34
Yamamoto is worth pursuing, but it's not even as though we are asking them
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or expecting them to go out and sign, you know, a superstar.
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It's more just like you need bodies on that field. And they went into
7:50
the they're going into the season initially with CODEI Senga as their number one starter.
7:55
And like, look, I love Senga. He I picked him as
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my dude last year. He exceeded my wildest expectations. So proud of Sanga,
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love him. But that is a huge burden to place on a sophomore
8:09
pitcher still making that transition from Japan. Ye and you know, and he
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was their guy and their only top level guy, and lo and behold,
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he has a shoulder injury and Lord only knows when we'll see him. And
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this team is still sitting there and saying like, well, we don't know
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that we need to get back into the market right now, you have no
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timeline for return, just to let folks know out there. And in the
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meantime, you know, we're a team that talks about depth and has been
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talking about like building depth for a couple of years now, they are still
8:39
running out the same completely unacceptable squad a number eight nine starters, and we
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inevitably are seeing them on opening Day every year now and I just want to
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like, when is this depth actually going to show up? And then also,
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like having a whole system full of eight and nine starters is not how
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you build a rotation together five bad starters to get one good one. And
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the Mets don't necessarily need like a rock star right now that they need somebody
9:13
who is gonna go in a major league pitcher to go in there and throw
9:18
some innings. And you know, because the other thing is there need to
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get gonna get at least three starters in the next offseason, right And you
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can't tell me that it's gonna be easier to find three really good starters next
9:33
year than one good one this year and two good ones next year. I
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mean, that's it feels so like this focus on next year seems like they're
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going to back themselves in a corner and you know, get a couple of
9:43
guys but still not have that full roster and say, oh, well,
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you know, we we got everyone we thought was good out of the markets,
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like, well you just sat out twenty twenty four. So, I
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mean, it just feels like, even if they are not going to compete
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this year, there are long term res reasons to go ahead and sign I
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mean, to be frank the reigning saw Young who is not going to get
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like megastar money but can absolutely help bridge a rotation that is in total shambles
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right now. So to me, I feel like that's just the one piece
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of it, the pitching, but it is very emblematic of the team's,
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you know, like incredibly rigorous commitment to not doing anything. So the grade
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would be I don't think you gave the grade digit. I don't know.
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I guess I would you give A Just like I was, I was leaning
10:35
C. I was leaning C because I feel like they they didn't take a
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step back the although that says more about last year than this year. I
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mean, I think that's you know, I think the thing is they didn't
10:50
take a step back because they were pretty far back, but there were just
10:56
a lot of opportunities. It would be greade they had thrown in a p
11:01
Alonso extension, I mean anything. It was. It was a very very
11:07
like mid to low level moves, kind of like the moms that are like,
11:13
oh that's a cute, smart move, but also just feeld a baseball
11:16
team, man, Yeah, find a picture. Like I said, I
11:18
do think they're gonna have a better record this year than last year, as
11:22
I mentioned, but it also seems like the organization and leadership is banking on
11:28
Lady Luck coming through for them in terms of needing to stay healthy. And
11:33
look, every team you know needs to stay healthy if they're going to compete
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to try to win their division. Every single MLB team needs to stay healthy
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too. You know, they need Starling Marte to have a really nice season.
11:46
Francisco Alvarez, they need him to take that next step and we're going
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to talk about him in a little bit as well. You know, Harrison
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Bader could bring some stuff to the team that they haven't necessarily seen in years
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I think as well in the outfield. So like a lot of things have
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to go the Mets way again, including health. If they're really going to
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have a successful season. So I'm wondering, Maggie, like, what's the
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one thing in your opinion that really does need to happen for this team to
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possibly get to the postseason potentially make that run or is it kind of just
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like, Okay, we don't think it's gonna happen this year. You talked
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about it being a trans quote transition year. I don't know, is there
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that one thing that's gonna need to happen for this team to really see success
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this year? Well, I mean, I don't want to repeat myself,
12:30
but I will say, like I think it's the pitching. Yeah, I
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mean I really think that that's and I think they have to really hit on
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a lot of different things pitching wise. One is that their bullpen just has
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to be better. And like, yes, having Edwin Diaz is almost definitely
12:46
better than having anyone other than Edwin Diaz. I don't want to undermine what
12:50
his return brings back to the team. But also, you know, last
12:54
year they also had David Robertson, who was much better for us than he
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was for the absolutely and like so it wasn't as though they had a gaping
13:03
hole at the top of the bullpen, but what they had was kind of
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the rest of it was just kind of a bunch of random dudes who weren't
13:11
very good, right, and now they have Edwin Diaz, which is great,
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and also a bunch of random dudes who aren't very good. Like that's
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I feel like you have the little up the little the upgrade of Robertson to
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Diaz, that's a big one, But then the rest of it, all
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of your other earnings, they're just a bunch of dudes. They're banking on
13:28
like they're banking on the rock. And not only you know, not only
13:33
do they need to get kode I Sanga back fast, but they also they
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don't have a ton of exciting pitching in the minors. But there are a
13:39
few guys who are almost ready. And one of those guys at least needs
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to be really good, yeah, and needs to like like adjust fast and
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you know, contribute right away. Like if if the team is going to
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be good, those are things that have to happen. And they're gonna have
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to have a good a good deadline too. They're gonna have to get off
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to a good start. That really justifies that I mentioned don't think they're going
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to go to the If you're wondering, I don't think, well, I
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mean we're gonna I'm gonna get to that in a little bit because of the
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mentality I think of not just the Mets fan base, but also the Phillies
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fan base. I'm gonna get to that in a little bit. Uh,
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Maggie. But I mentioned Francisco Alvarez earlier here, and you know, an
14:20
incredible, an incredible rookie season in twenty twenty three, and I'm wondering,
14:26
like, what does building what does building upon his success last year mean for
14:31
Alvarez and for the Mets in general, Like could he be that spark?
14:35
Could he be potentially that momentum that they're gonna need, whether it's right out
14:37
of the gate or in game situations that's really gonna help kind of bring the
14:43
team together a little bit. What are your thoughts? And Alvarez definitely has
14:48
the potential to be that kind of a player, and you see the incredible
14:52
power that he has, and you imagine, you know, between him and
14:56
Pete Alonzo, I mean, they could hit ninety home runs and you know,
15:01
really wouldn't be very surprising. And you know, I think the thing
15:03
that's wonderful about Albarez. And you know, in terms of again, I
15:07
don't want to have a laser focus on this year in counter to you know,
15:11
the team thinking more long term. But to me, Alvarez is the
15:15
perfect kind of player who strikes that balance, who is going to contribute in
15:18
the long term and has the potential to really contribute now. Because what's what
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has been great about him is that. And the surprise really was the catching.
15:28
We knew the power was there, it was obvious, but there was
15:31
always the question would he be able to adjust to the job of catching a
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major league rotation, And he did big time. And I'll tell you right
15:41
now a man who deserves a whole lot of credit for that is Max Scherzer,
15:45
who worked very closely with him when he first came up in terms of
15:50
things like game calling and you know, working with pictures, and he you
15:54
know, he is Alvarez is one of those kids who just is a sponge
15:58
and wants to learn everything. And so it was a perfect marriage with him
16:02
and maxters or together like, could not have asked for something better. And
16:04
so what's great about that is now he's playable almost no matter what right right.
16:11
I mean, because he's now a good catcher, which means that like
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the floor for his offense that the team can hold up is actually fairly low,
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which means that if he's getting off to a bad start, they can
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keep running him out there because he's contributing in a very you know, meaningful
16:30
significant way, and it's not like their alternatives would be that much better if
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he has a bad stretch, like he's still you know, he will keep
16:37
himself on the field and that's really special. And to have that cushion I
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think will be really great for him. And I also don't even necessarily know
16:48
that he's gonna end up needing the cushion, but I think it's a really
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it's a very enviable position for the team and for him entering the season knowing
16:57
that he has this incredible skill at catching that is, you know, going
17:03
to serve everybody well regardless of where the back goes. I really think he
17:07
could be a spark for this Mets team in the future. And again,
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folks, we're talking to Maggie Wig and follow her on Twitter, slash x
17:14
if you whatever you want to call it at Maggie one six y two.
17:17
She has a great grade follow and again home Run Applesauce dot Com a pot
17:21
of their own is part of that family of podcasts over there, great great
17:25
content that they are putting out consistently. And as we're moving along with our
17:30
conversation here, Maggie, I mentioned the Braves earlier, and in terms of
17:34
this NL East and what this race is going to look like here in twenty
17:37
twenty four, it seems that the Mets and the team that I love and
17:44
follow, the Philadelphia Phillies, may have it seems like they may have resigned
17:47
themselves to the Braves just kind of winning the division at this point, and
17:51
that maybe both teams again Mets and Phillies, they just need to get into
17:56
that wildcard spot to make a possible run. I mean, that's what it's
17:59
seems like. The mentality is perhaps coming from the front office. It's like,
18:03
Okay, let the Braves get in. We're just going to try to
18:06
We're just gonna try or let the Braves win the division. We're just gonna
18:07
try to get into this thing in the wildcard because once you're in, as
18:11
you know, anything can happen. I mean, God, we thought the
18:14
Phillies were gonna go to the World Series again last year and what a disaster
18:17
that ended up being in the NLCS. However, I do get the feeling
18:21
that the like from the Phillies since it was a quiet offseason for them more
18:25
so than usual, that we're getting that same sense that, you know what
18:30
it's gonna be the Braves to take in terms of the nl East. I
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don't know what are your thoughts about this, and do you think the Mets
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kind of have that same mentality if that is what's happening here. I mean,
18:38
I feel like I'm actually and many Mets fans are still a little bit
18:45
traumatized from going out there in twenty twenty two and winning one hundred two games
18:49
the most are franchised, or at least the second most the franchise has ever
18:52
won, and losing the division to the freaking Braves. Yeah. Yeah,
18:59
Like, ah, my god, was awful. That was that was the
19:03
worst. And they it was like, oh they had a second half collapse.
19:06
They didn't they played so well in the second half. It's just that
19:08
the Braves were ungobbly and there was nothing to be done, like they could
19:14
not lose a game. And you know, so this is so that happened.
19:18
And it's also building on you know, I grew up a Mets fan
19:22
in the nineteen nineties and there was no more brutal time because the Braves were
19:29
just this juggernaut. And I every time I feel like I watched a Braves
19:33
game with the Mets, it was heartbreaking. And you know, the Braves
19:37
in the postseason year after year after year. So that's that's my personal context
19:45
for feeling like the Braves are probably gonna do it again. And they I
19:48
mean, look, they are an incredible organization. I think they do things
19:55
very well. They have good players, they have good processes, and they
20:00
win a lot of games because they are a very good team. Like that's
20:03
the facts. Yeah, And well, I wouldn't say anybody has anything sewn
20:08
up. I mean, certainly the Mets went into last year looking very strong
20:14
and that went as it went. But you know, I mean, and
20:18
I don't think you need to resign to anything per se. But I don't
20:22
think anyone should be surprised if the Braves take the division again. Yeah.
20:26
I don't think so either. But it's it's weird that professional sports organizations would
20:33
have a mentality of Okay, let's just get to the playoffs. Let's just
20:34
get to the playoffs and we'll see what happens there. Then again, you
20:37
see what happened with the Phillies the past couple of years. You know what
20:41
I'll say, like with the playoffs too, you know, and I don't
20:44
buy into a lot of the like, you know, this person is a
20:48
is a postseason winner, this person can't pitch in the playoffs. I don't
20:53
really and like there's so many small samples involved. But I will say when
20:59
you listened to the Braves talk in the days and weeks leading up to the
21:04
series where they got eliminated, they sounded pretty relaxed about it. Yeah,
21:11
and I mean like just sort of I mean very like you know, yeah,
21:15
we got that, And I mean that's fine. You know, they
21:18
should they should have felt confident and relaxed. But I also just sort of
21:22
got the sense from them that they assumed from the beginning that this was all
21:26
theirs for the taking, and that it maybe wasn't as heavily emphasized for them.
21:33
What has to happen for that to actually deliver? Like the you know,
21:38
and you know that's to say that like it could have just been a
21:42
run of bad luck. Everybody has bad games. Sometimes they had a bunch
21:45
all at once, their giant babies. That makes things hard real, But
21:52
you know, it does occur to me that they seemed to have this very
21:57
self assured manner without necessarily like a hunger behind us. Yeah, that's a
22:04
really good way to describe it too, because I mean, and again over
22:07
the past couple of seasons in the in the postseason, Philly's just shoved it
22:11
right up their button and said, okay, here you go, as they
22:15
were hungry. Yes, absolutely think that's you know, I think there is
22:19
a value in this game too, something just on the edge of desperation.
22:23
Yeah, that's a great point. Yeah, where you're just ready to like
22:29
throw everything down and do whatever you have to do. Yeah. Absolutely,
22:33
all right. Well, to close us out here, Maggie, I know
22:36
it's a very general question for you, but you know, considering we were
22:40
talking about the most important storyline of Major League Baseball right now being see through
22:44
pants, to start off our discussion, what's the one big storyline of this
22:48
MLB twenty twenty four season that you're really looking forward to following, you know,
22:52
just throughout the course of the season. I mean, I really I
22:57
think if I had to pick one, I'm really looking forward to Pete Alonso
23:02
fulfilling the prediction of Steve Cohen few days ago saying that he expects Pete to
23:11
go out and have a huge season and cost him a bunch of money.
23:14
Yeah, all right, that's what I want to see happen. I wanna.
23:18
I want to be justified in, you know, tweeting at Steve Cohen
23:23
every couple of days with a new contract amount that's a little bit higher because
23:27
he's chasing down fifty five home runs or whatever. I want him. I
23:32
want Pete Alonzo to have a monster season and make a whole bunch of money.
23:37
All right, you heard it, folks. Maggie Wigan at Maggie one
23:40
six' two on Twitter, slash x and again home run Applesauce dot com.
23:45
That's where you can find a pod of their own. She is one
23:48
of three fantastic ladies over there doing that podcast and giving out some great,
23:53
great content, specifically with regard to the Mets. Maggie, it was great,
23:56
great talking to you. I love having you on the show. Come
24:00
back and join us down the road. Thank you so much. I'll be
24:03
back so very excited that baseball season is finally here, and I mean I
24:07
say that, I mean there's games being played as we know, Spring training
24:11
is here following various storylines. It was great talking about some of these storylines
24:15
with Maggie. However, you know we're going to continue talking about this Phillies
24:21
team, this NL East, and what's going to be happening in terms of
24:25
the direction of Major League Baseball this year. We saw some changes last year,
24:27
of course, pitch count, and it was an enjoyable twenty twenty three
24:33
season in terms of the pace of play when it came to baseball. Of
24:37
course, we're expecting that this year as well. But baseball seasons here,
24:41
folks, so very excited, and we're going to be following with the Phillies
24:45
and some other MLB teams are going to be doing here in twenty twenty four.
24:49
So that's going to do it for us. Make sure you are following
24:52
us on various social media sites. We are on threads at mister Jeff Warren.
24:56
You can follow the show at Philadelphia Sports Table, and if anything happens
25:00
to your podcast feed, you can always head on over to Philadelphia sports Table
25:03
dot com. We've got all of our shows over there, and uh yeah,
25:07
that's good to do it for us. Take care, we'll catch you
25:08
next time.