Well, look, we're getting bonus coverage here. I mentioned that Mets owner Steve Cohen was going to join us in the third period, but he is so anxious to make his broadcasting debut, he wouldn't want me to ask you to call. I won't ask you to call a batter.
Give it a shot, see what happens.
Well, let's see. Marcus Semien in the batter here. And the first pitch by Painter is taken low outside for ball one.
First of all, thanks for coming in and welcome.
Yeah, it's good to be here. Right? Different view up here.
It looks easy from up here. That's what the players always say.
Well, you make it easy, so.
Well, that's a whole different story. Thank you, though. 1-0 outside, ball two. But, if I could take a moment just on a personal level to thank you and Alex and your entire family for all that you've done for my family and me. You've been nothing but special since you got here and I'm forever grateful.
Thank you. Thank you, Howie. You know, our fans love you here and I want you to enjoy these last couple days because it means a lot to all of us.
Thank you. Marcus Semien just took a strike on the outside corner. It's two and one and I do want to talk about the ball club and your thoughts looking towards next year. The 2-1 on the way. Foul ball right off of the catcher, Realmuto. It's two and two. So, we all realize this season didn't go as hoped for, as anticipated, as was designed. And so, if you look back at the approach of last winter as you look towards this off-season, what did you as an organization learn from how this team was built for this year that you can put to good use preparing for next year as Semien takes low, three and two.
Yeah, I think and I've said this before, I think there was a lot of change and when there's a lot of change, it takes time for people to get used to the new surroundings. And so, new coaches, everyone getting to know each other and so, you know, I think going into '27, I feel pretty good about where we are. We're developing good young talent. We've got people who are now here who are more comfortable. And so, it's kind of a weird year where you go, 'God, '26 wasn't great, but I'm really looking forward to '27.'
What some of these young players have enabled the fans to do, to look ahead with some optimism as Semien flied out to center. Here's Brett Baty who swings and misses, and it's nothing and one. Now, you've mentioned that, you know, you are committed to David Stearns for next season. Do you anticipate that he might hire a general manager?
Well, you know, I'm talking to David and, you know, I would expect that he's going to look for additional help, and whether it's, you know, who knows in what capacity. We're talking now, but the goal would be to surround him with additional voices that can help us, you know, pick the players and give him additional input.
One and two to Brett Baty with two out, nobody on. Mets leading one to nothing here in the last of the second inning. I want to expand upon that a little bit as we get to the top of the third inning, if you could stay for that.
Yeah, you know, I don't have anything to do.
Well, I know, but I just happened to walk in by accident. So, I'll stick around for a little bit.
Baty just struck out to end the second, so a run on a hit at the end of two. It's the Mets one, the Phillies nothing on Odyssey Mets radio. They go to the third inning. The Mets on a Carson Bench homer have a one to nothing lead over the Phillies. J.T. Realmuto will lead off for Philadelphia against Mets right-hander Christian Scott. And we are happy to be joined in the booth by Mets owner Steve Cohen. And I wanted to build on something that you kind of hinted at about how you're going to look to prepare and analyze things for 2027 and beyond. Scott's first pitch to Realmuto, good breaking ball but just misses outside for ball one. Analytics is not a dirty word. There are a lot of people in baseball who either embrace them vigorously or eschew them altogether, but there obviously is a blend and there has to be. The 1-0 on the way, a breaking ball in for a called strike one and one. But Steve, where would you say you were at in terms of building an organization analytically as opposed to the way say scouts' eyes would call it organically? Was there too much emphasis building this team on analytics?
Well, I mean, I guess that's always the question. You know, the analytics approach versus, you know, sort of the old baseball, I see it with my eyes approach. And you know, frankly, I think we do both. I think it's, you know, I don't know what perceptions are, but we're definitely analytical, but we also, you know, care about baseball talent, baseball acumen, that type of stuff. But I do think that there's an opportunity here to supplement our front office with perhaps additional baseball talent evaluators, things like that. But I think culture matters, too. And what goes on in the locker room, what goes on amongst teammates and that type of stuff. And so I'm a culture guy. I care about culture. And so I think that whenever you evaluate a season that went like we had this year you're always trying to think about ways to improve it. And I've been very involved trying to think about, try to help David and the staff try to think about what we can do better, how we do it better. And we've implemented a lot of process improvements that I think will matter next year and in the off-season. And you know, listen, if we can bring in more support, additional voices into the front office that perhaps have baseball, you know, they played or understand how to evaluate talent, my belief is that that only helps things.
