Why Mets Jazz
Nobody needs another daily Mets recap. Here's what this site is instead: one set a week on the money, the dugout and the roster.
Every jazz tune starts the same way. Somebody counts it off: one, two, one-two-three-four. Everybody comes in together, and then the band finds out what the song is going to be tonight.
This is the count-off.
What this is
Mets Jazz is a New York Mets site with one lane: the Mets, from the front office out.
The daily beat is already covered, and covered well. If you want every lineup, every injury update and every rumor as it drops, Locked On Mets and the beat writers have you. I’m not trying to beat them at that.
What I kept wanting, and couldn’t find, was somebody who’d slow down and explain the why. Why can a $30 million player cost the Mets as much as $63 million once the luxury tax kicks in? What does a lockout actually freeze? Why do some managers get a team to compete in September when there’s nothing left to play for?
That’s what I’ll write about. Two real posts a week in the offseason, quick takes when news breaks, and a Sunday email called The Sunday Set that wraps it all up. A podcast is coming this winter.
Who’s writing
I’m Phil. I’ve been a Mets fan since 2000, rooting from Virginia, which means following this team mostly through a screen. If you’re an out-of-market fan too, this site is for you. I also have a background in banking and risk management. That’s all you need to know about me. This site is about the Mets.
Why “Jazz”
Jazz is structure and freedom at the same time. You learn the changes cold, then you improvise over them. Rooting for the Mets takes that same mix of discipline and faith.
The set list
Everything here gets filed under one of these:
- The Front Office: payroll, contracts, the luxury tax, the CBA
- The Bandstand: the manager, coaches and culture
- Liner Notes: roster analysis and free-agent targets
- Standards: history, Queens, and being a fan from anywhere
- Solos: quick takes, like this one
- Blue Notes: the losses that hurt
- Changes: every roster move that matters
And one page that’ll be updated all winter: the Offseason Tracker.
Count it off. Let’s play.