2022 Set -- New York Mets

 Up next is yet another 101 win NL East team -- the New York Mets! Frontrunners the majority of the year, a cold spell down the final stretch cursed the Mets to tie for the division crown and play in the "wild card" round... resulting in a brutal bouncing at the hands of the Padres! Despite playoff disappointment, the Mets are great in Showdown form, especially with the 1-2 punch at the top of the rotation!

Will DeGrom's 2022 card outdo the classic Dwight Gooden from 1985??

Let's get to the 2022 squad!

Lineup: The Mets have a lot of nice, high on-base hitters that are going to be targeted in drafts! Similar to the original '00 set, this is a "ping" type lineup. Starling Marte leads off and again has the weird "speed B" with tons of steals, but that's reflected in his 1B+ range. For 320 pts, I like this guy a lot -- singles starting at 7 is a great luxury. Meanwhile, I'm less high on Nimmo, but with the rare OB 9 in this set, he's going to be highly coveted... especially for the same 320 pts. Francisco Lindor is one of the best SS in the set at 340 pts -- he's got some nice 18-20 HR pop, but the draw is his +5 defense. One of the very few OB 10 hitters in this set is Jeff McNeil, who's been underrated since I started making cards for sets in 2018, and he's a card that may be a first rounder in a 12 team draft, especially since he's a stud at a weak 2B position. Pete Alonso feels like a steal for 280 pts with an OB 8, 17-20 HR chart. Cheap HR pop at 1B is a nice luxury in this set. Mark Canha will be VERY popular with his OB 9, 250 pt card (WDR first rounder??). Vogelbach is probably the last draftable player, as Escobar is too expensive for the weak OB... although Nido may have some play as the classic punt catcher thanks to his +8 arm for only 60 pts.

Bench: Honestly, Guillorme is one of the more "exciting" cards from a team building perspective -- flexible elite defense, a high-ish On Base for this set, and plenty of singles. He's going to be someone's defensive sparkplug/8 hole hitter in a 12 team draft!

Rotation: The Mets truly had a fearsome five-some in 2022, starting with the best individual player in the NL, ace Jacob DeGrom. At 840 pts, he's ridiculous (and partially the product of small sample size, but if you combine his 2021 and 2022 seasons, the card remains unfathomably good. He's a Tier 0 with no doubles here. While he takes up nearly 17% of an entire 5000 pt budget, he may be an early draft pick for some gutsy, "stars and scrubs" manager. DeGrom is backed up by Tier 2 Max Scherzer -- the future Hall of Famer putting up a more easily budgeted 570 pt card, with the type of Control 4, on at 18 with no doubles card that friend of the blog Japes covets! After the dynamic duo, the Mets bring out a trio of solid Tier 3 starters, all with a different control! I like this variety and you know that I'm targeting Walker's standard Control 4, on at 17 card!  

Bullpen: The Mets bullpen is all about one particular star -- Edwin Diaz! The Mets $20 million man was lights out in 2022, putting up a Tier 1, no doubles closer card. Some managers may be afraid of the control 4, but with the cheap reliever prices of the '00 style, I think he's absolutely worth it. Drew Smith is another "bargain" arm that I expect to be snatched up sooner than you'd think, especially with HR on chart pitchers coming into style lately. The remaining Tier 3 pitchers are shoo-ins to be picked too, thanks to their lack of chart doubles.

So how much value is Cohen getting out of his Mets? Well in 2022, they came in at a respectable 6090 pts for 19 players!