Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
It's the Boomer and Geo podcast from WFAN. Hi, Boomer and Geo coming to you live from the Built Ford Tough studio on the fan and CBS Sports Network Red Pocket Mobile fan line. Brought to you by your new ultimate cell carrier, Red Pocket Mobile. That's 888-808-1019 if you want to join the show. Jerry in for Boomer again today. Let's say the Mets get off to a not-so-great start.
I don't want to be totally negative and say a terrible start, but just a not-so-great start. Things aren't going well. Who do you think the fan base is going to blame the most? Let's say, I mean, it's tough. Because I'm not giving you the individual that is struggling. Maybe Juan Soto's not hitting well or something like that. But just say, we'll use the players as a whole.
We'll use Carlos Mendoza, we'll use David Stearns, and we'll use Steve Cohen. Does the fan base start flipping out on who?
Stearns won. Stearns won, you think? Stearns won. Yeah. Again, like you just said, it does depend on how and why they're struggling, but I think just an overall scope of things, if, per se, they are 10 and 20 in the first 30 games, and you've got The Orioles, 18-12, and Pete Alonzo's got seven home runs and 30 RBIs in the first month or whatever.
Chapter 2: Who will the Mets fans blame if the team struggles early?
I think David Stearns and Steve Cohen take the brunt of it. If they're just not playing well, I think it's probably Stearns. I think if pitching-wise, the guys who struggled last year continue to struggle in the early going, I think it's a Stearns thing. I think the Mendoza thing creeps up if you're hearing about issues in the locker room.
Okay. Yeah, that's very true. I do think you're right that it's Stearns, but I don't think Steve Cohen is that far behind. Oh, I don't either. Which I think is ridiculous. I really do believe that the Mets fans' ire towards Steve Cohen is so far off base. Yeah, I don't disagree with that. I mean, he is spending the money.
He cares just as much about the team, if not more, than the other projects that he's building. The whole stupid, oh, he only cares about the casino thing. I mean, he made a massive offer to Kyle Tucker, wanted to get him. Obviously, he was pissed off about the Edwin Diaz thing. He talked about that yesterday. Went in and front-loaded the Bo Bichette contract. All of these things.
That he is gone and done. And then we'll see what they end up doing with Peralta. That's a guy that they may actually sign during the season because he's not a Boris client. But, I mean, he's doing just... And he's also trusting his baseball guy. And he's trusting David Stearns.
The most negative thing I would say about Steve Kona, if I was a Met fan, would be just inconsistency. And I don't mean from him. I mean from the team. Four years ago, they have Buck Showalter. They won 100 games. They flounder in the postseason, which was a terrible ending to what was a really good season. And you just assume that.
And I don't know why you wouldn't think they would have been really good the next year, and they weren't. They come back. They struggle to start. They get hot. They go to the NLCS. There's so much excitement about the team. You felt like, all right, now here comes the postseason run.
They start well last year, and then again, the pitching was awful, and they dropped dead in the back part of the season. They missed the playoffs again. To me, you look at just what it's been. It's been inconsistent, and I don't know that it's his fault because he has put the resources into the team. They do have a ridiculous payroll. These aren't will pawn issues anymore. It's much different.
They just haven't been able to find any consistency on the field. But I agree with you. It's Stern's one, and Cohen is probably right up his butt in terms of what the fans think.
Yeah, which I think is wrong. And I also think that if the Mets get off to a bad start, or let's say they're under .500 around Memorial Day, something like that, that Carlos Mendoza will be fired, and this guy Kai Correa that they brought in is going to be the manager.
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Chapter 3: What historical context is provided about the Mets' past performances?
You like what you've got up the middle now. Wendlander is there and healthy. You like the pitching to a certain degree now, maybe more than you did last year going into the season. The optimist can say Devin Williams really corrected himself and righted the ship the second part of the season. He's ready to be a closer again. He was the best in the business for a little while in Milwaukee.
Those are the positives. The negatives, someone like myself, because I am not all optimistic on this team. The negative one can say the corners are a problem. Um, You know, are they going to score enough runs? Is the pitching going to be good enough? Are we going to be praying for pitchers to get to the sixth inning again? Is the bullpen any good?
Is Devin Williams the first half pitcher from last year? Or is he the second half pitcher? Like, to me, there's a lot of questions that need to be answered.
You know what's crazy to me is the Mets over-under number this year. Like, I... 91. I mean, it's 90 and a half. Okay. But, like, have they earned that type of respect by the books? I don't really understand why.
Well, right now, the Mets are 1, 2, 3, the fourth team favorite to win the World Series. Dodgers, Yankees, Mariners, Mets. Yeah, I mean, I don't...
I don't think that they should be getting that type of respect from the books right now.
I really don't. I mean, they're ahead of, not by much, but in terms of the books, they're ahead of the Phillies and a pretty good number ahead of the Braves in the National League. I mean, I know you don't agree with that. I don't. I think the Mets have to show me. And I hope I'm wrong. I am concerned about first base and third base just in terms of their run prevention.
I'm concerned about their pitching in terms of not being five-inning pitchers again. I mean, hell, last year when a guy would go six, it was like he threw a complete game. And I'm concerned about the bullpen. I have genuine concerns about this team. I don't know that I would pick them the fourth most favorite team to win the World Series.
You know what's nuts is like, I know the Mets had finally made some moves and there was definitely some juice in the offseason without a doubt. But still, it did feel for a lot of this offseason that the Mets and Yankees were having bad offseasons for most of the offseason.
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Chapter 4: What are Steve Cohen's thoughts on the Mets' championship drought?
And we're sitting here like, well, I don't know.
Well, I'm big on the Yankees this year. I think the Yankees are going to have a great season, and part of that is a healthy Garrett Cole. I don't want to say bad. Last year's season wasn't bad. They were a really good team last year. They just didn't win the division, and they wound up losing to the Blue Jays. The Blue Jays got Dylan Cease. They got one bat.
I don't look at the Blue Jays as a better team than the Yankees this year. I just don't. I think the fact that Cole is back, and they are back in – basically around the diamond. I think they're a good team.
Chapter 5: How does the Mets' management plan to address potential early season struggles?
Shortstop's an issue for sure, or at least it might be, I guess. But I think the Yankees are going to be really good. The problem is it's what we've talked about. Get us October. You've got to go through 162 games to get to where you think you deserve to be now, and you've got a whole season to get through, and I think that's where the lack of excitement comes from.
And the Met fan, I think the Met fan is just... Wait and see. Yeah, because they're tired of getting hit over the head with it. Now, the one good thing, and the one piece of credit I'll give the Met fan, Steve Cohen said yesterday there's been no decline in ticket sales.
Interesting.
So from ticket sales, he said he feels like there's a genuine excitement from the fan base. I'm with you. I don't feel it. But if ticket sales are strong, then they know better than anybody.
Yeah, I think that a lot of it has to do with the fact there's so many Mets fans that were pissed off about losing Pete Alonzo. That's why it feels like the Mets offseason was negative. I'm not one of those guys. But I feel like there's a lot of Mets fans that are like, why couldn't you keep Alonzo? Why couldn't you keep Alonzo? And it makes it feel like a negative offseason.
I'm like, I don't want to say, I mean, I'm more positive than negative about the offseason, but I'm not over the moon about it. I'm not either. But I'm certainly more positive than negative.
Yeah, I'm kind of down the middle. I don't think they did enough. I don't love what they did. I really don't. You don't like Bichette. You don't like Polanco. I don't like Polanco coming here to play first base when all I've heard of is run prevention. Yeah. So part of the reason they let Pete go, I really do think it's the 50 or more than anything, but you will hear, not a great first baseman.
Great. So let's replace him with a guy who doesn't play first base. It doesn't make sense if you're going to preach run prevention. Well, I think also the clubhouse thing that they don't want to say as much. And that is an inside thing that we're not privy to that. If that's the case, can't argue with it.
The Bichette thing, I did the warm-up show with Al the morning that Alonzo went to Baltimore, and I think it was that, whatever. And he's like, what do we do now? I said, go get Bo Bichette. And they wound up signing Bo Bichette later that day. So I thought that was a good move. My point is, don't tell me that you're going to now put him in a position that he's never played.
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Chapter 6: What are the implications of the Mets' roster changes for the upcoming season?
Now, I was bummed that Al didn't get to this on the warm-up because it was on his show sheet. We did the Aaron Judge thing, and it's probably my fault because I was probably running my gums too much.
So he had a note about a Yankee prospect pitcher who threw a live BP to Aaron Judge yesterday, and I was hoping that Al would bring that up because I wanted to see his attempt and stab at pronouncing this young man's name. So if he could... gracefully do that for us now.
You got it, CeeLo. Let's see. Carlos Lagrange.
That's what it looks like. Yeah, that's fair. It's not. It's Lagrange. Lagrange. Lagrange. So I went to just make sure we had that. I figured when he brought it up, he'd ask me how is it pronounced. I didn't know. So I went looking. Hey, it's Lagrange. Lagrange. So there you go. So he was throwing 102.6, struck out Judge, but then Judge did take him deep on a 99-mile-per-hour fastball.
I like that.
La Grande.
Yeah.
A name to remember.
Grande La Grande. What was the fastest pitch you ever saw? Probably mid-80s. Can you imagine what 103 looks like? No.
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