This Week in Mets Quotes: Pete says NYC has been special to him, Lindor wants 30-30

Your 2023 New York Mets: Put good vibes out to the world.

“Do I want [a 30-30 season]? Yes, I want it. “It would be cool. It would be special. So put good vibes out to the world for me. Please.” -Francisco Lindor [MLB]

Lindor is the first Mets position player to put up three consecutive seasons of 4+ fWAR in 14 years [2006-2009: Carlos Beltran, David Wright, and Jose Reyes].

“I take a lot of pride in being there every single day and being there with my teammates, posting up with every one of them. It’s my goal to be able to be available every single day.” -Francisco Lindor [MLB]

Personality wise, I want Pete to be a Met for life; baseball-wise going to be so interesting to see what contract a will be 30-year-old, old-player skill, ~3.5 WAR, 40+ HR, first baseman gets.

“Pete is everything a team could want, and especially a New York team, because he’s embraced playing here and that means on the field and in the clubhouse, checking all the boxes. You know what’s meaningful to any manager anywhere? Being able to write a star’s name into the lineup just about every single day.” -Buck Showalter [MLB]

“It’s kind of wild to think about. Honestly, it’s kind of just happened so far. It seems like just yesterday I was in my rookie season. This is my fifth year. I mean, time flies. It means a lot. This place has been extremely special to me. New York has treated me so incredibly well. … It’s been really awesome so far, and it’s a blessing for sure.” -Pete Alonso [MLB]

One role Buck doesn’t want to get a look at is Baty against LHP on teams with playoff hopes.

“We have options. It depends on what everybody wants to look at between now and the end of the year. … It’s important to look at guys in different roles, too — whether it’s a Butto as a reliever, or Lucchesi or something. I’m not sure exactly what will end up happening, but there’s a lot of talk about it.” -Buck Showalter [MLB]

Not the first time Pete has described hitting as ‘an art form’ but first I’ve seen him refer to driving in runs as also an art form.

“I don’t know. I like driving in runs. I feel like that’s an art form. You can be taught it, but it takes a lot of discipline.” -Pete Alonso [MLB]

As someone who’s been putting together dumb quote posts for over a decade; I really noticed this year that Lindor consistently has quotes about his teammates more than any Mets players past or present.

“It is not easy to be that consistent and to make it look as easy as [Alonso’s] making it. I mean, you’ve still got a month left, and he’s got 40 with [100], on a team that the numbers offensively are not what they were last year.” -Francisco Lindor [MLB]

The Baby Mets batting in order in the lineup was cool.

“That’s probably the first thing I noticed. It was cool how we were just all back-to-back-to-back.” -Brett Baty [MLB]

Seriously, the Baby Mets becoming in aggregate average major league players at their position would be a huge boon win-wise as well as just being a fun team to root for.

“It’s incredible that we’re all in the lineup together. It makes me feel like whenever we’re all in the lineup, there’s something we can do. There’s something each and every one of them are going to do, because I have that confidence in them that they can go out there and produce.” -Francisco Alvarez [MLB]

“It’s awesome to see. We’ve played together for about four years now. We all understand each other’s games, and we feed off each other, too. We get a lot of confidence from each other, and that’s pretty cool.” -Brett Baty [MLB]

“It’s exciting to be here with Mark, with Baty, with Alvarez, because we grew up together pretty much in the system. That’s the goal for all of us is to be a part of this core. That’s the main mission that we have is to be here in a sustainable way.” -Ronny Mauricio [MLB]

Congrats to Ronny on his first big league hit.

“I said, ‘Wow, is this a dream or is this real life? Once it set in, it just kind of validated all that hard work that we all put in to try to get here to this point.” -Ronny Mauricio [MLB]

Still so weird to type, let’s here about the Baby Mets from grizzly, veteran Brandon Nimmo.

“It’s amazing. They bring a lot of energy. They bring a lot of grit. They’re trying to make a statement, and that’s huge. Especially in September, I think it brings a lot of energy to the rest of us. We’re eager to play with them and see what we’re capable of.” -Brandon Nimmo [MLB]

With two years left on his contract, one more good season from Marte would also be a boon to a quick turnaround.

“No matter what happens, you obviously want to avoid surgery. You want to continue to strengthen everything that you need to strengthen. If they feel like surgery is the course to go, that will happen. But the main objective is to go out there comfortable, pain-free and be able to produce for this team.” -Starling Marte [MLB]

50 strikes to 31 balls is an interesting way to ‘attack’ hitters.

“[Butto] was good. I was looking at the balls-to-strikes, that’s about the only thing you could say negative about it. He stayed in attack mode. We were real proud of him.” -Buck Showalter [MLB]

“The key was attacking the hitters, staying ahead always. That [made] good results today.” -Jose Butto [MLB]

I hope this is true but really can’t see it.

“[Carrosaco’s] going to pitch again next year for somebody. We’ll see if it’s for us or not.” -Buck Showalter [MLB]

Mike Vasil continues to put in the work.

“You’re looking at yourself and you’re seeing the rotation and you’re like, ‘Well, there’s the big league rotation, and then after that, it’s us. So it becomes a lot more real for you. But at the same time, you’ve got to be present and enjoy the process and the ride and just the everyday grind.” -Mike Vasil [MLB]

/Putting together a conspiracy board a la Charlie in It’s Always Sunny/

David Stearns says that his first Mets game ended with a Dave Magadan walk-off home run and that he remembers that he was happy the Mets won but was sad that the game of over...Dave Magadan has only hit two walk off homeruns during his career at Shea Stadium...one on 6/2/89 against the Pirates and another on 5/9/92 against the Dodgers...giving that David Stearns was born in 1985 that means that, even though his family loved NL NYC baseball and lived in Manhattan, his parents didn’t take their, admittingly young son, to a Mets game during the 1986 World Series run, the 92 win follow up season, nor 100 win 1988 season that ended in the NLCS...so they either took him to his first game when he was 4 and he somehow vivdly remembers his mixed-feelings of the Magadan WO-HR or inexpliably, for a huge Mets fan, hedidnt go his firt game until he was 7 years old...conect the dots, this doesnt aDd up mAN...whats he hiDiNG.

“The height of Stearns’ Mets fandom included the successful years featuring Mike Piazza in the late 1990s, but he experienced the drudgery as well. He liked obscure shortstop Kevin Elster and later developed a strong appreciation for shortstop Rey Ordóñez. At the first game Stearns ever attended at Shea Stadium, Dave Magadan hit a walk-off home run, which gave Stearns mixed feelings because although he was happy, he didn’t want the baseball to end. “ -Will Sammon [The Athletic]

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