Pitching is what wins. And there's not much high-quality, proven MLB pitching on the market right now. Once the dust settles on the off-season and spring training begins, we'll get a much clearer picture of what contenders we can expect in 2024. The only known right now is that clubs are going to overpay for the pitching that's available.
If teams do indeed make it to October, the pitching staff shrinks considerably, and if you have Bruce Bochy calling the shots, you have a great chance of riding the 5-6 hot arms deep into the playoffs, but there's not many guys like that out there: Look how many years it took Dave Roberts to learn to let Urias finish the pennant and World Series instead of being the manager who sticks to the plan and gets the joy of making excuses for Kershaw and Jansen in the losers press conference.
And as much as you might have wanted Counsell, he's proven himself to be a regular season manager. He has not shown that he can adjust his strategy in the playoffs, especially with the bullpen, and this lack of thinking outside of the analytics box is a big reason the crew are 1-9 in their last 10 playoff games. I do think you're right about your rookie manager: I doubt he'll be confident enough to deviate from the line up card and the in-game change recommendations that the front office slides under his door 162 times next year. Maybe Stearns chose him because he'll fit so well under the bus at the end of the 2024 season.
I know you love Alonso, but the Mets have shown they can lose plenty of games with Alonso hitting 40 HRs and batting in 120 runs. Is that a reason to walk away from him? Well, I guess that depends on if your plan is to ink Soto long term, or if Cohen wants to show off his big fat wallet again and sign Ohtani and create an east coast Angels. The way 2024 stacks up, I think the Mets are in worse shape than the Brewers, but let's see what happens with Burnes and Williams.
