Do We Cautiously Buy Into The Mets

Zach & Zack fill in for Levack & Goz to discuss the Mets turnaround, and do we buy in?

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
It's Lovak and Guzz on the Voiceof the Capitol Regions Sports Fan Fox Sports
ninety five nine and nine eighty.Yeah, this is the Lavack and Guys

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Show on Fox Sports nine eighty ninetyfive point nine FM. If you're just
tuning in, no, this isnot Lavack and Guys. Do not change
the dial. They will be back. But when you're a big time like
Lavak and Guys, you tend toget some time off. And we're okay
with that because you got planned Bhere in Baby Levak, Baby Guys also
known as Zach with an H,Zach with a K, and we're just

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here having some fun. The combinationof Baby Levac Baby Guys with us being
planned B just seems to be alittle bit contradictory by I mean, get
it, look at it. MaybeI should have hawked to uspit that thing
right on out. Bye, ohman, So picking your brain because I

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love having you on talking baseball.Love whether we're doing it on air or
just in general. I love talkingbaseball with you and we share something common.
We're both Mets fans. Big Seriesagainst the Yankees. I know it
was only two games, but thefact that they were able to put up

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those offensive outputs against the Yankees afterhaving such a putrid start. That's got
to make you feel something inside.Oh yeah, it does for me.
This is always every year, thisis kind of my highlight of the year.
I either try and go to theSubway Series. I always watch it.
Everything like that, we're gonna tryand get to the later one that's
gonna be going on. But Iwas so fired up for this series,

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especially with all the hype that's beenbuilding around the Mets, the fact that
they had actually gained some offensive traction. The pitching's been a struggle all year
round, so we didn't really knowhow that was gonna go. First game,
of course, you were starting outwith what was a Garrett Cole was
gonna be on the mound. Ilove that they got the Garrett Cole early
and often. I know he's dealingcoming back from an injury, but still

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I just love to see it becauseyou're talking about a cy young caliber player
that you got onto quickly. Idon't care that he's coming back from injury.
It was just a confidence building exactly. And that was the big part
is the Mets. Again, youweren't You hadn't seen a lot of production.
You didn't know what you were gonnaget. David Peterson was pitching it,
which is kind of the end ofthe rotation. You weren't sure I

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was gonna go only gives up oneearned run. Garrett Cole, on the
other hand, got absolutely shelled,giving up six runs, zero strikeout,
seven hits, and the Mets justteed off. And I know you saw
at least some of the home runsthat were getting hit. I absolutely did,
so I was able to watch thisscheme. And I don't get to

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watch very many games, especially regional. Being Mets fan, I have YouTube
TV. I cut the cord.Now, I'm one of those guys that
aren't gonna cry when it's on AmazonPrime or Apple TV because I'm a subscriber.
So I like when it's on thoseapps because I actually get to enjoy

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the game. And the other dayit was on Amazon Prime, so I
did watch that one. Fair.Yeah, I get SNY so I get
to watch the Mets broadcasted ones.But I'm gonna salute you right now,
all right, that's fair. Look, I just don't get to see all
of the other ones because I don'thave any of the other subscription services.
But as long as the Mets boothis broadcasting, we're we're in business.

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But who I wanted to actually callout and say I was so impressed with
during the Subway series, Mark Viento'sshowing that he has some power. Hit
two home runs in the first Upwayseries game. It made some solid contact
the next day as well. Vientosis a guy he had two RBIs in
game two as well. He's aguy where Brett Batty was always seen as

(04:12):
the guy who's gonna be the thirdbasement for the mess absolutely, and that
was always the plan going through,it seemed. And then all of a
sudden, he looked terrible. Hewas batting one eighty, his defensive play
looked poor. And we had thisguy, Mark Fientos, who was banned
like four hundred and the miners,who every time he was in the majors,
he was hitting a home run andhe showed that, and he showed

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it so strongly and made it knownthat he didn't care about the crowds,
he didn't care about the pressure.He was up there doing his thing,
his stride, his stance, hismethod, and it pays off. And
for a guy of his frame tohave as much power as he does.
Wildly impressive. You know, Igotta call Brett out. Your last name

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literally has the word bat in it. Where is the damn bat Well?
That's the thing. Have you seenthe memes popping up online? No,
I'm not as young as you.Keep up that, that's fair. The
Brett Bady meme trends that are onthe internet are my man is a triple
A god. He is a triplecrown winning Barry Bonds of Triple A where

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he is just you because we seeit all the time. Mets love posting
the minor league players on social media, which I'm always about. I'm always
about giving the younger guys who don'tget the same kind of spotlight that little
bit. But they're always posting aboutthe guys, and I swear I see
Brett Baty homering like every other day. But the minute he comes up to
the majors, I don't know ifit's nerves, I don't know if it's

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the setting, I don't know ifit's the stadiums. Yep, something comes
on to him where he just can'tperform at his same level, and that's
something he really needs to work out. If he can if he really wants
to try and say that he isgoing to be that key player at third,
but right now Viantos has given hima run for his money. I
know you're gonna hate that I'm aboutto say this, but this is a

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non bias take. Not everybody canplay in New York. And I know
this isn't the Yankees, which thelights are brighter, Let's be honest,
or a baby brother. Sorry hateto admit it, but we are.
But there's still that effect that someplayers cannot perform in New York. Whether

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it's in the Bronx or it's inthe Queens, doesn't matter. There is
that effect that you can't play inNew York. Maybe that's what he's got.
It may be the case of theYips, may be a case of
the New York's. Now. Onething that I wanted to get into is
May twenty two. In thirty three, now we are sitting hovering over under

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at five hundred baseball. We arein a wildcar race. Who do you
attribute it to? More remis forour young talented catcher and Francisco alphaes.
Oh don't do this to me.As as a Mets fan, I do

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want to clasp my hands together andraise my hands in solid arity with the
Great Purple God that has bestowed usglory uh and grimace. And to be
honest with you, it's a combinationof the two. I can obviously say.
If I want to say more importance, I think it's Alvarez. Uh.
You know. He he's had sucha command over veteran pictures and getting

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them to perform above their average andtheir standards, and I think that's a
huge thing. You know, what'sfunny, Sorry to cut off, but
what's funny is we had this conversationprobably about a year ago that there was
so many questions about his defensive liabilities. In the fact that you just said
that statement, uh huh makes melove this kid even more. It's my

(08:05):
favorite thing about him. I youknow, I was always a big on
his bat. I was big onhis power. You know. Buck show
Walter last year said, well,he was trying to put the pitch com
on his wrist, but he couldn'tfit it because the forum was too big,
so he had to put it onhis knee. I was like,
oh my god, Yeah, he'suh. He's been hitting about four hundred
home runs, four hundred foot homersevery time he's hitting them, so it's

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something but he uh, whatever works, I guess. But he behind the
plate, he has been such astud at telling older veteran players like,
hey, I'm calling this here fora reason, like follow my lead on
this that you know, he's agreat clubhouse guy. He's such a young,
energetic player. I don't know ifyou had heard this, but he
learned English at the start of theyear, like getting into the season because

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he wanted to be able to communicatewith fans and communicate who he was.
And I was like, that's awesome. And the leadership that that shows from
a young talent is I can't lovethis kid anymore. You can't. You
don't even need to say anymore elseI'm obsessed. One thing that I will
say is when he is in thelineup. Now, I know Grimace gets
all the headlines, but when Alvarezis in the lineup, they're winning eighty

(09:16):
five percent of their game. Ithink something was like seventeen and two or
seventeen and three, since he hadreturned and since he was playing almost daily
at that point. Yeah, roughlyeighty eighty five percent of the games that
they're winning with him in the lineup, and I know everybody wants to talk
about Grimace, big giant purple thingin London, like, yeah, that's
great, but this is also somethingthat's going And then you talked about the

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feel that they get the Mets vibe. Yes, now I have to ask
you a question, and I willonly play it for a brief second.
Do you liken this Grimace Alvarez tothe old Gnats if you remember this.

(10:05):
I remember the Gnats were struggling.In particular, one guy was struggling out
the plate and decided to change hiswalk up song for his kids to Baby
Shark. What did they do?They end up going on to win the
World Series. Now, I'm notsaying the Mets are gonna win the World

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Series, but do you think thatthis Grimace slash Alvarez slash I Glacias singing
Oh my God is going to beour version of Baby Shark? I think
it is, and I think thatit'll go down in history as that.
And I think part of the reasonis mainly because of what this team dealt

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with at the start of the season, with how down in the dumps everyone
was. You had relief pictures likea what was it a Hore Lopez who
was saying, like, I'm onthe worst bleeping team in the MLB,
and I'm the worst bleeping player onthat team. And you're still not quite
sure what he said. Yeah,and it's it's it's just bad. And
that was the vibes of New York. Everyone was just down in the dumps.

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We're the worst team. It sucks. This is where we're at.
Grimace was such a good distraction andit just allowed guys to rally around good
play and good baseball and let themjust go forth with that. And I
think that's the big difference. Youknow, or Hey, Jose Glacier is
coming out and doing the you know, oh my god, Like it was

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just this impromptu thing because he hadit for his birthday and so then after
the last game they had, hejust went out and did it. It's
a vibe, and these guys arethey're happy, they're smiling, they're having
fun, they're playing good baseball.Francisco Lindor looks like a different player.
You know, he's happy, he'shitting well, he's at the top of
the lineup, batting like three hundredhidden twenty plus home runs. So what

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you're saying, is that Grimace wecan put at the top of the pyramid
rat or raccoon we put at thebottom of the pyramid. Yes, those
of you that don't know what I'mtalking about, is there was that whole
fight between Jeff and Francisco Lindor wherethey're talking about did I see a rat
or a raccoon? It was awhole thing about the argument that happened in

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the So this was again, yeah, this was something for them to kind
of brush off all the mud andgunk of the season that had been and
kind of step into this is whatour season can be. And even the
other day when they had the rainout happening, do you know what happened
during the rain delay? What happenedGrimace was up on a on a booth

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in City Field Stadium just slamming beerswith thousands of people around cheering and growing
for him, Mets and Yankee fans. Why because New York and especially the
Mets are just in such a viberight now, such a Highers State Building
was purple during the game for Grimace. I'm really surprised you're not wearing a

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Grimmace shirt right now. Look,we're waiting for it. They just added
a grimace giveaway to the Mets lineupthis year. So I'm gonna ask you
this question. Me being a Metsfan a little longer than you because I'm
older, fair, I'm used tothe Mets starting out hot dying at the
end. This year, they startedzero to three year, oh four,

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whatever the heck it was. Theystarted really rough obviously, twenty two and
thirty three at one point eleven gamesunder five hundred? Do I buy in?
Do I dip a toe in?Am I diving in? I would
say yes, I mean we weare again. We're facing the Astros.

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Uh, we're up on them rightnow. And it's that's again setting the
tone of where we're at. Thefact that you just finished with the Yankees
and now you're beating up on Houstonshows that you are not only competitive with
one solid American League team, butmultiple And the fact that this is coming
off of your struggles that you hadagainst like the Nats and the Cubs at

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the start of the year, andthis allows you to really come out and
shine against teams that people have beenlike, oh, well, these teams
look so good, and you know, these guys are always looking good,
yep, and you can knock themdown to pay and go No, the
Mets are over five hundred, andthe Mets are over five hundred now for
the first time, and that's therallying of Francisco Alvarez and Grimaz. I

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think this All Star break may becoming at a bad time for the Mets
because I don't want to I don'twant this good vibe end. True.
I do not want this good vibeto end. And that's something that you
know. All starts can be areset for some teams, or they could
just come at a bad time forteams like the Mets. Speaking of vibes,

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Mets vibing in the right direction.The Yankees their vibe. We got
to get a feel for it andwe'll get it to it next