Author Archives: Matthew Lug

2021 Mets Debut Autographs

Posted by on 4 August 2021 Comments Off on 2021 Mets Debut Autographs

Playoffs or bust! Probably bust.

So, um, right. The Mets! After falling face-first into the All-Star break somehow still in first place in the NL East, the Mets were looking like their days atop the standings were near an end. Then Noah Syndergaard had a setback, Jacob deGrom and Francisco Lindor hit the IL, and the team lost games in the worst ways. All while remaining in first place. And they did it with the help of, let’s see… Billy McKinney, Jerad Eickhoff, Tylor Megill, Robert Stock, Jerad Eickhoff, Anthony Banda, Jerad Eickhoff… Pitchers were landing on the 60-day IL or getting claimed/traded faster than the Mets could re-sign Jerad Eickhoff. Because that’s what first-place teams do. Wha?

With the trade deadline fast approaching, help was sure to be on the way. New owner Steve Cohen gave the green light to push past the luxury tax threshold and the Mets had loads of holes to fill, including one shaped exactly like Kris Bryant. With the Cubs (and the notoriously cheap Ricketts family) in “Everything must go!” mode, the Mets got, um, Javier Báez. For 2020 1st round pick Pete Crow-Armstrong. But the Cubs also threw in 5th starter candidate (and soon-to-be Syracuse resident) Trevor Williams and enough cash to bring their salaries down to the league minimum. Woo.

On the pitching front, the Mets had a clear need for someone better than Rich Hill, acquired earlier that week. The big prize was José Berríos, but the Mets front office was not thrilled with the Twins’ asking price, reportedly something in the vicinity of Ronny Mauricio and Dominic Smith. Clearly, the Twins weren’t getting anything close to that, until the Blue Jays offered up Austin Martin, the star of 2021 Bowman, and former Mets prospect Simeon Woods Richardson. Whoops.

At least we could look forward to Jacob deGrom returning soon. Until the Mets announced, just after the trade deadline, that deGrom was being shut down for another two weeks and would be back in September. At the earliest. Carlos Carrasco made his first start for the Mets that night with the much anticipated/dreaded return of the black jerseys and Báez hit a home run in his first game with the Mets the next day, but it was taking all this team had left to pull off a few one-run victories between crushing defeats. Oof.

And yet, they still sat in first place at the start of August, though with the replenished Phillies and Braves on the hunt for a winning record. At least nothing else could go wrong…

Well, other than not signing their first round draft pick over nebulous health concerns. The Mets!

Kevin Pillar Francisco Lindor James McCann Trevor May
5 April 2021 5 April 2021 5 April 2021 5 April 2021
Aaron Loup Jonathan Villar Albert Almora Jr. Jacob Barnes
5 April 2021 5 April 2021 6 April 2021 7 April 2021
 
Joey Lucchesi Taijuan Walker Trevor Hildenberger Sean Reid-Foley
7 April 2021 8 April 2021 17 April 2021 22 April 2021
Stephen Tarpley Jose Peraza Patrick Mazeika* Jordan Yamamoto
24 April 2021 2 May 2021 5 May 2021 5 May 2021
 
Tommy Hunter Jake Hager* Johneshwy Fargas* Khalil Lee*
7 May 2021 15 May 2021 17 May 2021 17 May 2021
 
Cameron Maybin Brandon Drury Yennsy Diaz Billy McKinney
19 May 2021 21 May 2021 23 May 2021 27 May 2021
   
Mason Williams Travis Blankenhorn Jerad Eickhoff Tylor Megill*
31 May 2021 2 June 2021 21 June 2021 23 June 2021
Thomas Szapucki* Robert Stock Nick Tropeano Anthony Banda
30 June 2021 7 July 2021 9 July 2021 19 July 2021
 
Geoff Hartlieb Rich Hill Akeem Bostick* Carlos Carrasco
20 July 2021 25 July 2021 29 July 2021 30 July 2021
Javier Báez
31 July 2021

*MLB Debut

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2021 Mets Draft Class Autographs

Posted by on 3 August 2021 Comments Off on 2021 Mets Draft Class Autographs

Like the Mets, I’ve got nothing for the top of this

Full list of 2021 Mets draft picks

It feels strange having the draft pushed out to July, but MLB decided that the best way forward was to have it immediately be overshadowed by the All-Star event. Now slimmed down to 20 rounds, it was over before most people knew it was even happening. Nobody beats MLB when it comes to self-promotion…

For Mets fans, the big news was that Vanderbilt pitcher Kumar Rocker, one of the top names in the draft, fell to them at number 10. While it had been speculated just before the draft that this might happen, there seems to have been a misinformation campaign to float a higher asking price to the teams at the top to encourage them to pass on him, much like the Matt Allan situation in 2019. The Mets made the obvious choice and took Rocker with their first pick.

The implications of that pick were predictable – the Mets used their next few picks on players they could sign to underslot deals to save bonus pool money to use on Rocker. Among them are a few players who had previous Team USA or Perfect Game cards – Christian Scott, Mike Vasil, Keyshawn Askew, and Matt Rudick. All of the Mets’ subsequent 19 picks signed in short order, leaving only Rocker, who had a deal in place pending physical.

If you’ve followed the Mets for any length of time, that last bit just gave you chills. We all know how this one goes – all is well pending physical, then silence, then leaks about something having been found during medical review, then talks breaking down, deal unlikely. In the end, the Mets didn’t even make Rocker an offer, deciding that having the 11th pick in 2022 was worth more than having Rocker at any price.

So what about Rocker’s medicals scared the Mets off? From what has leaked, there were both elbow and shoulder issues, but it was more a long-term durability concern than an immediate problem? Rocker’s agent, Scott Boras (of course), claimed that independent medical review found nothing wrong. There’s not enough information out there to figure this one out, so we’ll just have to wait and see.

As for the bonus pool money the Mets freed up with the intention of signing Rocker, well, that was all for nothing. Without a backup plan stashed in the later rounds (like Cameron Planck in 2016), the Mets were left with nobody to spend the money on. They took lesser talent and saved a few bucks, stop me if you’ve heard this one before. The reasons change, but the Mets somehow keep finding themselves in the same situation. And if you’re sick of hearing that, you might want to skip over the trade deadline…

1 Kumar Rocker (DNS) 2 Calvin Ziegler 3 Dominic Hamel 4 JT Schwartz
5 Christian Scott 6 Carson Seymour 7 Kevin Kendall 8 Mike Vasil
9 Levi David 10 Keyshawn Askew 11 Rowdey Jordan 12 Jack-Thomas Wold
13 Matt Rudick 14 Nathan Lavender 15 Wyatt Young 16 Trey McLoughlin
17 Nick Zwack 18 Kolby Kubichek 19 Jake Osborn 20 Justin Guerrera

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2009 Mets Draft Class Autographs

Posted by on 21 September 2020 Comments Off on 2009 Mets Draft Class Autographs

Sometimes, it’s all about the picks you don’t make

Full list of 2009 Mets draft picks

Welcome to this edition of disappointing Mets draft classes. Looking back at Mets draft classes is typically a masochistic exercise, but 2009 could be the most painful since 1966. If it’s any consolation, at least this time you can’t fault the Mets for who they picked in the first round because they didn’t pick anyone. And, technically, the nobody they picked turned into Randal Grichuk, who still ended up being more valuable than the entire Mets draft but did not go on to become the best player in baseball. The distinction is largely academic though; the Angels had both this pick and the next, which they used to take Mike Trout.
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2020 Mets Debut Autographs

Posted by on 12 September 2020 Comments Off on 2020 Mets Debut Autographs

It’s getting late early

Three quarters of the way through the abbreviated season, the Mets’ pitching situation has gone about as well as you would expect. Injuries and ineffectiveness chipped away at the makeshift rotation, which saw Steven Matz and David Peterson demoted to the bullpen and Seth “Absoluetly Not a Starter” Lugo and Robert Gsellman promoted. Lugo quickly cemented his role as the #2 starter while Gsellman was just #2 until injuries took him down as well. As for Marcus Stroman, his return never materialized and he opted out for the season. Anyone with a pulse and a 40-man spot is getting a shot at the rotation now, including new arrival Ariel Jurado, with less than stellar results. At least Jacob deGrom started getting run support?

Despite everything that went wrong (by chance or design), the Mets still found themselves within reach of a playoff spot. 8 spots for 15 teams will do that… So it was anyone’s guess what they would do at the trade deadline. Buy for a big run? Sell and regroup for next year? Stand pat and let the chips fall where they may? They did none of these things and dealt prospect Kevin Smith (who would have his first Mets autographs released less than a month later) and three PTBNLs for reliever Miguel Castro, catcher Robinson Chirinos, and old friend Todd Frazier, aka literally the least you could do without doing nothing. Predictably, their record was 21-24 at the 3/4 mark, 2 games (and 3 teams) back in the playoff race. It’s not over, but they’re going to need to do something soon if they plan on playing past September, whatever that ends up looking like.

Andrés Giménez* Jake Marisnick Dellin Betances Eduardo Nunez
24 July 2020 24 July 2020 25 July 2020 25 July 2020
Hunter Strickland Rick Porcello Michael Wacha Chasen Shreve
25 July 2020 26 July 2020 27 July 2020 27 July 2020
David Peterson* Brian Dozier Ryan Cordell Franklyn Kilomé*
28 July 2020 30 July 2020 30 July 2020 1 August 2020
Jared Hughes Billy Hamilton Ali Sánchez* Ariel Jurado
3 August 2020 5 August 2020 10 August 2020 1 September 2020
Miguel Castro Robinson Chirinos Erasmo Ramirez Guillermo Heredia
2 September 2020 3 September 2020 7 September 2020 21 September 2020

*MLB Debut

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Product Spotlight: 1995 WPI Orientation

Posted by on 22 August 2020 Comments Off on Product Spotlight: 1995 WPI Orientation

Trading cards go to college

The summer of ’95 – Batman Forever dominated at the box office, Waterfalls was the song you just could not escape from, and baseball cards were at a now-unimaginable peak with six (six!) licensed manufacturers. Cards had grown up a lot since the junk wax boom that started in the ’80s. With cereal box printing technology long abandoned (since 1991, at least), new premium card formats were popping up everywhere. Full color, full gloss, foil stamping, holograms, die-cuts, and even refractors were all over the market. On top of that, trading cards had grown beyond just collecting and were moving into the realm of gaming. The hobby had matured.

As for me, I had limited time and limited funds. Like the previous summer, Scout activities ate up most of my free time. Only, instead of scrambling up mountains, I was scrambling to finish the requirements for Eagle. I still had time before I aged out, but I had a hard stop on August 18. I was heading off to college the next day. With that, my card collecting would be winding down, eventually coming to a halt with a few packs of UD3 in 1997. But little did I know that cards would be waiting for me at college orientation.

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2020 Mets Card Spr-ummer Preview

Posted by on 24 July 2020 1 comment

Baseball’s back, even though it probably shouldn’t be

So, um, right. Baseball! As a pandemic rages unchecked across the country and travel and gatherings of all kinds are frowned upon, MLB is back in action. Sure, there won’t be fans in the stands. And there may be complications along the way. But, in times like this, we need baseball to let us know that everything is fine and there’s nothing to worry about, even though it isn’t and there is. But, but, baseball!

What a wild ride it’s been through the first four months of the non-season. The growing animosity between owners and the MLBPA and the utter disdain for all things minor league were laid bare as negotiations to get the season started dragged on. In the end, nobody got anything they wanted, MLB declared that the season was happening under the rules agreed to in March, and a greater battle looms as the CBA is set to expire after next season. The fun never ends! Now on to the cards.
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