Month: June 2016

Mets Drop Doubleheader; Wheels Are Falling Off

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Final Scores (For both pathetic games): Pirates 3, Mets 1

Yesterday, the Mets disproved the popular notion that doubleheaders are fun. They are in fact sad.

Game 1: It was literally the exact same story in both games. Steven Matz battled. In the first inning, he gave up a leadoff triple to Josh Harrison, and Harrison wound up scoring on an RBI single by David Freese. After giving up back to back singles to start the third inning, Matz got a strikeout, and then got Jung Ho Kang to hit into a double play. In the 5th inning, Josh Harrison hit a leadoff single and stole second base. Then Andrew McCutchen drove him in to make it 2-0. But Matz managed to wiggle out of that inning and limited the damage. He admitted he had nothing in this game, but he still went 5 innings and gave up only 2 runs while striking out 8.

Steven’s performance on the mound just didn’t matter. The Mets had no offense to speak of. Jon Niese shut them down over 7 scoreless innings. They loaded the bases with two out in the fourth inning and Michael Conforto struck out. He’s been awful lately. It’s bad. Steven Matz tripled with one out in the 5th inning, and the Mets couldn’t get him home. What a joke. Curtis Granderson hit a solo home run in the 8th inning. I’d like to celebrate it, but Grandy has been terrible. He’s batting .200. It’s a problem.

Game 2: Jacob deGrom experienced the exact same lack of support in game 2. He battled through 6 innings and gave up 3 runs with 9 strikeouts. He gave up a single to Jordy Mercer in the second inning and then a double to Sean Rodriguez. Cole Figueroa followed that with an RBI ground out. Chris Stewart then singled on an infield ground ball that was deflected by Asdrubal Cabrera. That run made it 2-0. The game felt over as soon as the Pirates took the lead. That’s just the way it is with the Mets offense lately. DeGrom gave up a fifth inning RBI double to John Jaso that made it 3-1. Jacob pitched fine. The Mets just can’t score. They had four damn hits. Kevin Plawecki hit an RBI single in the fifth inning. They had no other opportunities. Everyone is either injured or ice cold.

Déjà Vu Kinda: I cannot believe the 2016 Mets regular season is 2015 Déjà vu all over again. Well it’s kind of Déjà vu. It’s the same in the sense that we are decimated by injuries and the offense is historically incompetent. The difference is last year before the season, I said with confidence “umm hello, we need an impact bat. Why didn’t we get one?” I knew and most fans knew that without that bat we’d be screwed. And of course as soon as we landed one the season took off. This spring training, I said “umm hello, we can’t depend on David Wright and Travis d’Arnaud for anything at all. They are hurt every season. And we have no backup for Lucas Duda so he better not get hurt.” I think those things were fairly obvious before the season started. The problem is the impact bat solution was fairly straightforward and the solution for injury prone regulars is not straightforward at all. As much as depth is important, it’s challenging to build a team through external acquisitions where you carry extremely talented replacements for key regulars. The primary way to account for the injury prone regulars problem is by having a stacked farm system with a bunch of internal solutions. It’s a major luxury and not many teams have it.

We’ve Got Nothing: To further emphasize that point, all you need to do is look at the Cubs. Outfielder Jorge Soler just got hurt for them and they put him on the DL. So what are they going to do? They are dipping into their farm system and calling up Albert Almora another top 100 prospect who plays the outfield. When the Mets dip into their farm system their fingers wind up in an ice cold bowl of Soup. The point is, the only real way to prepare for injuries to regulars you depend on like Wright and d’Arnaud is by having big time minor league talent at Triple-A. The Mets unfortunately lack position players at Triple-A in areas of need. Dilson Herrera is a top second base prospect. The Mets can’t squeeze him in to help. Period. There’s no where to put him. Same goes with Brandon Nimmo. He’s crushing it right now in Vegas. He’s an outfielder. There’s no room at the inn folks. I guess we could bench Granderson considering he’s batting .200. But there’s no chance that happens. The season will be up in flames in late August before the Mets consider benching an outfielder that helped get them to the World Series and makes 15+ million dollars. The Mets may need to find a way to turn Brandon Nimmo or Dilson Herrera into players that fill positions of need. I don’t want to trade them and the front office probably won’t because they don’t live in Panic City like I do. But there’s no room for these guys right now, and we need help.

Let’s Put This To Bed: In April/May when the Mets had that stretch where they led the league in home runs, fans were panicking that the Mets were dependent on the home run. An equal number of fans were calling these fans out for being idiots, and they were regularly reminding everyone that home runs are the best method of scoring in baseball (like that takes a goddamn rocket scientist to figure out). Well now we can see what the Mets real problems are. The Mets offensive struggles are due to injury and the lack of any quality depth. They have nothing to do with a dependence on the home run. That being said, even when the Mets were hitting lots of home runs, they still ranked very low in overall runs scored. In conclusion, you can hit a lot of home runs as a team while simultaneously having a fundamentally flawed offense that lacks quality depth and the ability to consistently score runs. The Mets are living proof of that right now.

Shut Up About Conforto: Michael Conforto is in a slump, and this isn’t about him facing left-handed pitching. The guy is a young player, and he’s slumping. Period. He’ll turn it around. It may take him a while. He’s super young and growing pains were bound to happen. This is baseball.

My Thumb: Juan Lagares said it will probably be a couple more days before he tries to swing. He added that surgery is not a definite plan even after the season. At this point, I’m just going to add a daily reminder to all my posts that playing short handed is dumb.

Bastard: Antonio Bastardo surrendered a solo blast to Jordy Mercer in the bottom of the 6th inning of game 1 of the doubleheader. He now has a 4.13 ERA. I think we’re starting to see why the Pirates didn’t have a tribute video for his return to PNC Park. I think we’re starting to see why he was sitting on the free agent scrap heap late in the offseason. Meanwhile Tyler Clippard is dominating in Arizona. Ehh Eric Campbell, Ty Kelly, Antonio Bastardo. Juan Uribe, Kelly Johnson, Tyler Clippard. Tomato, Tomahto.

The Pitchers Are Better Again: When Matz hit that triple in game 1, I imagined Eric “Taxi Squad” Campbell watching it from his hotel room and realizing he should probably just stay there for game 2. Remember last season when our pitchers were objectively better hitters than our top backup position players for like two months? Well it’s happening again.

The Plan: What’s the plan? The plan is to batten down the hatches and wait out this offensive funk until fresh supplies arrive. Yoenis Cespedes, Michael Conforto, Asdrubal Cabrera, and hopefully Curtis Granderson won’t be in funks forever. We have a lot of injuries, but these veterans must perform. They will eventually. Until then, we watch these awful games and survive off of Spam and cans of beans (James Loney and Wilmer Flores). The ship will be righted. I think.

Today: Wow we really can’t beat the Pirates. They swept us last season, it feels like they are going to do the same thing in this series. It’s okay. Let’s take a deep breath. We still hold a wild card spot. We still get to play the NL Least all the time. We’ll just keep beating the bad NL East teams and hopefully at some point we can beat some other teams. Any team other than the Phillies, Marlins, and Braves will do. Noah Syndergaard faces top Pirates pitching prospect Jameson Taillon today. I picked up Taillon in fantasy for next week. I’m expecting the Mets to get shutout as are all residents of Panic City. Poor Thor. Can we get him a run or two?

Juan Lagares Tears His Completely Useless Opposable Thumb

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Well as we all expected, the MRI results are in and Juan Lagares has a torn ligament in his thumb. But don’t worry folks. The Mets doctors say he can play through it without a problem. Opposable thumbs. Who the hell needs them? They’re just the primary characteristic that differentiates primates from all other animals. No big deal for Juan. Now he has a torn ligament in his thumb to match the already partially torn UCL in his elbow. If anything, a torn thumb is a benefit. It’ll help distract him from all the pain when he makes throws from the outfield. This is my fault by the way. I wrote about how Juan Lagares has excelled in his role as a reserve platoon outfielder. I just started to talk about it with friends too. And just like that boom. He’s out forever.

Also, the Mets doctors said that Juan has torn a ligament in his thumb, will try to play through it, but may need surgery. It’s just our medical staff doing their classic meteorologist impression. They look at the MRI, squint and say “Ehh that’s looking like a partial injury with a 20% chance of surgery”. Do yourself a favor Juan and run away. Run away and get secret surgery like Carlos Beltran. And when you’re running, make sure you don’t dive and tear your other freaking thumb. On one of the few leaping catch attempts he’s made all season, he instantly tears his thumb. Unreal. No more diving for this team. Diving is banned. We suck on defense anyway. Just let everything drop.

So now the Mets will do their favorite thing. The Mets are going to rest Juan for 2-3 days and then see if he can play with the injury. That’s the plan. So we will play short-handed all week. Then Juan Lagares will pinch hit at the end of the week, check his swing, wince in pain, his thumb will fall off, and he’ll go on the DL anyway. Good thing we have Alejandro De Aza man. See this is why you need a roster with 25 major league caliber players. And if you’re the Mets, you need 40 major league caliber players because half of them are in body bags before the 4th of July.

Pray for Yoenis Cespedes. The body count is rising non-stop. Valar Morghulis.

Series Preview: Neil Walkyear Pittsburgh Homecoming

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The Jon Niese for Neil Walker trade was a good old fashioned need for need swap. More often than not, we see trades that involve prospects for a stud or salary dumps. This was a rare situation where the Mets wanted a new second baseman and the Pirates wanted a middle of the rotation starter. So far both players have performed as expected. Jon Niese hasn’t had his annual month long injury yet, but I’m sure it will come soon. Walker is a born and raised Pittsburgh guy, and I’m sure the Pirates will treat him right for this three game set despite failing to pay him the contract that he felt he deserved. I’m sure Neil Walkyear will continue to produce for the Mets this year, and then leave for a lucrative offer from one of the Mets rivals like Daniel Murphy did. He’ll get the last laugh when it comes to getting paid. That’s a lock. As far as Niese goes, the Pirates will probably reluctantly pick up the option on his contract because his performance is just good enough to warrant the salary.

The Pirates are sixth in the league in runs scored and fourth in OPS. The Pirates are 15th in the league in team ERA. Their bullpen has been particularly stanky coming in at 22nd in ERA. If the season ended today the Mets would face the Pirates in the NL Wild Card playoff game. The Mets lost all six games against the Pirates last season. Beating up on the three NL East bottom feeders is great, but it won’t be enough this season if the Nationals keep playing the way they are playing. The Mets really need to make a statement in this series and remind the Pirates who represented the NL in the World Series last year. Plus, the Pirates just lost 2 out of 3 to the awful Angels in Pittsburgh and before that they dropped 3 out of 4 to the Marlins in Miami. They are stumbling and now is as good a time as any for the Mets to pounce on them.

Pitching Matchups:

Game 1: Steven Matz vs. Jon Niese

Jon Niese appears to be having a classic Jon Niese season. He’s 5-2 with a 4.36 ERA and he’s surrendered 12 home runs. He had a strong May however going 2-2 with a 3.82 ERA. He fired 4 quality starts in his 5 outings. His only mediocre start was against the Cubs. His last time out against the Marlins he went 5 innings and gave up 2 runs. Notable Matchups: Curtis Granderson is 3 for 9 in the lefty vs. lefty matchup against Niese. Homeboy Neil Walker is 2 for 13.

Steven Matz is having one hell of a rookie season. In his last start against the White Sox he uncharacteristically lost his composure in the 6th inning and got yanked after giving up 3 runs in 5.2 innings. He’s never faced the Pirates. I’m looking forward to when Jon Niese falls apart in the middle innings and Matz does not. I’m sure it will sting a lot when Niese very publicly shows everyone that he is the poor man’s Matz.

Game 2: Jacob deGrom vs. Juan Nicasio

Juan Nicasio was a reliever on the Dodgers last season. He came over to the Pirates as a project for their pitching coach Ray Searage. So far Donald Trump would say it’s been a disaster. He’s 4-4 with a 4.75 ERA. In May he was 1-2 with a 6.75 ERA. Yuck. Hopefully the Mets crush him so he loses his spot in the rotation, and they call up prospect Tyler Glasnow who’s sitting on my fantasy team bench. That would kill two birds with one stone for me. Notable Matchups: Asdrubal Cabrera is 2 for 6 against Nicasio with a home run, James Loney is 2 for 11, Neil Walker is 3 for 10, and Rene Rivera is 2 for 4 with a home run.

Jacob deGrom is 3-1 with a 2.62 ERA in 2016. He’s just doing his silent ace thing. DeGrom dominates quietly like a damn ninja assassin. Last time out against the White Sox, he went 7 innings, gave up 5 hits, 1 run and struck out 10. He didn’t face the Pirates in 2015. Maybe that’s one of the reasons we lost every game against them last season.

Game 3: Noah Syndergaard vs. Francisco Liriano

Normally this would be a hot pitching matchup for the series finale, but Francisco Liriano has been struggling for the Pirates this year. After going 2-1 with a 3.86 ERA in April, he went 2-3 with a 5.34 ERA in May. Those May numbers are a little skewed by a horrendous start against the Cubs where he gave up 8 runs in 4.2 innings. Last time out though he got crushed by the Angels in Pittsburgh. He went 3.1 innings and gave up 10 hits and 7 runs. Most of the season however, he’s been rocked on the road (7.09 ERA) and stellar at home (3.14 ERA) so he’ll probably be tough in the finale. Last season he pitched 6 innings against the Mets in Pittsburgh and gave up a run while striking out 12. Notable Matchups: Asdrubal Cabrera is 12 for 24 lifetime against Liriano with a home run, Yoenis Cespedes is 1 for 15, and Curtis Granderson is 6 for 32 with a home run.

Thor faced the Pirates at PNC last year. He went 6 innings, gave up 4 runs (only 1 ER) and struck out 5. I expect the Lightning Lord to continue to wreak havoc on the Pirates as he’s done with every other team.

Things To Look For:

Korean Star: Jung Ho Kang is hitting .280 with 2 homers in his last 7 games. Remember when the Mets could have signed him for basically nothing a year and a half ago, but we passed and elected to use Ruben Tejada again? Well whatever it’s not like we need a versatile infielder.

Outfield Of Dreams: The Pirates outfield is so goddamn elite. Starlin Marte is hitting .326 with 5 dingers, Gregory Polanco is hitting .308 with 9 dingers, and Andrew McCutchen has 9 long balls. He’s only hitting .250, but he’s a perennial MVP candidate, and he’ll take off eventually. It’s always exciting when you get a chance to watch the best players the game has to offer and the Pirates outfield has three of them.

So Short We Forfeit: Juan Lagares‘ status is still up in the air. Asdrubal and Cespedes are a little banged up. The Mets roster is a damn injury train wreck. Honestly, this reminds me of Little League when a game was being played on a holiday weekend or something and a bunch of kids couldn’t make it. I feel like we are going to show up to PNC with six position players, and we are going to have to forfeit. Then we’ll just borrow three Pirates players and play an exhibition game. Then everyone will get ice cream after the game. Sounds fun!

I Hate His Damn Face: Francisco Cervelli was a nobody before 2013 and in 2014/2015 he morphed into one of the better catchers in the game. He’s a known cheat who served a 50 game suspension in 2013 for steroids. In all likelihood he “morphed” thanks to his involvement in the Biogenesis steroid scandal. I hate him, and I don’t like his face. He’s got that smug Yankee smile, and it makes me sick. He’s actually not really having a great season in 2016, but screw him anyway.

Jose Fernandez Strikes Out The World

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Final Score: Marlins 1, Mets 0

There’s not much to recap in this game. Jose Fernandez absolutely dismantled the Mets over 7 innings. He gave up 4 hits and struck out 14. The Mets really didn’t have a chance to do anything offensively in this game. Curtis Granderson hit a two out double in the first but Jose retired Neil Walker to end the inning. In the 7th inning, Michael Conforto and James Loney hit back to back two out singles. Fernandez struck out Wilmer Flores to end that threat. The bottom line is the Mets took 2 out of 3 in Miami, and that’s fantastic in my book. They also did to the Marlins what they failed to do against the Dodgers at home. They won the two games that didn’t involve untouchable aces. The Mets lost to Clayton Kershaw, and they lost to Jose Fernandez. So does every other team in the league. We must tip our cap and move on to the next series.

HarveyDay Back: Matt Harvey pitched great, didn’t get any run support, and got the L. That’s classic HarveyDay. He didn’t really have his strike out stuff working today as he only put away three Marlins. But he was almost as effective as Fernandez this afternoon. He went 7 innings, gave up 4 hits and gave up one run. He made a mistake in the fifth inning. He gave up a one out double to Derek Dietrich and then an RBI single to J.T. Realmuto. That was all it took for Fernandez to get the win.

Asdrubal’s Knee: In the 8th inning Ichiro Suzuki got picked off by Antonio Bastardo and he slid into Asdrubal Cabrera at second base. His head smashed into Cabrera’s knee. Cabrera hobbled off the field but stayed in the game. The Mets roster is littered with blue eyed corpses.

Lagares Dunzo: Juan Lagares is heading to New York to get an MRI on the thumb he injured during yesterday’s game. Might as well zip up that body bag and send him to the DL aka the morgue. Poor Juanny. I cursed him in my series preview by talking about how great of a season he’s been having in this reserve role.

D’Arnaud Stands Up: Rumor has it that Travis d’Arnaud finally stood up in Port St. Lucie and took a few baby steps without having his legs shatter beneath him. Mr. Glass is even going to DH in some Florida State League games. They say he’ll be back in three weeks. Yeah right.

Not Chapman: The Metssiah called this over a month ago, but the Nationals are supposedly eagerly awaiting a Yankees trade deadline sell off so they can trade for Aroldis Chapman. If that comes to fruition, it’s going to be absolutely terrible for the Mets. Hopefully Chapman does steroids or something and gets suspended so he can’t be traded.

Tomorrow: The Mets head to Pittsburgh now to face the Pirates and our old friend Jon Niese. This is a big road series against a top NL team. The Mets need to keep the road momentum going.

Mets Win But Dropping Like Flies

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Final Score: Mets 6, Marlins 4

What a big road series win for the New York Mets. After a dog crap homestand, this was exactly what the Mets needed to get back on track.

Sexy Could Have Been Hotter: This wasn’t the best start we’ve seen from Bartolo Colon in 2016. He went 5 innings, gave up 5 hits and 2 runs (1 ER). He surrendered a solo blast to Martin Prado in the first inning to make it 1-0 Marlins. In the second inning, Tolo gave up a single to Justin Boar, a double to J.T. Realmuto, and walked Miguel Rojas to load the bases. Then the pitcher Justin Nicolino hit a ball to Wilmer Flores at third base. He threw home, and Bour should have been out on the force. Plawecki kind of forgot what was going on, took his foot off home plate, and tried to tag the runner. It was called a missed catch error on Kevin Plawecki. That made it 2-0 Marlins. Plawecki is really struggling. He needs some seasoning big time.

Sub-Hero: James Loney and Wilmer Flores came through again in game 2 of this series. They each had three hits. In the fourth inning, Asdrubal Cabrera hit a leadoff single. Then with one out, Wilmer Flores singled to set up a first and third situation for James Loney. Loney singled to drive in Asdrubal and make it 2-1. In the 6th inning Neil Walker singled, Wilmer Flores singled, and then James Loney singled to load the bases. Michael Conforto then hit a sac fly to make it 2-2.

Robles Is El Stinko: In the 6th inning, Hansel Robles struck out the first two batters. Then he walked the next two batters and gave up an RBI double to Miguel Rojas. That made it 3-2 Marlins.

Sub-Hero continued: In the 8th inning, James Loney led off with a double and Michael Conforto singled to drive him in and make it 3-3. Then Kevin Plawecki struck out and Alejandro De Aza grounded out. The Marlins followed that with an intentional walk to Curtis Granderson and Matt Reynolds made them pay with a pinch hit single to make it 4-3. In the 9th inning, Neil Walker walked and Flores singled. With Walker and Flores at second and third with two outs, Kevin Plawecki walked. Alejandro De Aza then doubled in Walker and Flores to make it 6-3.

Dropping Like Flies Part 1: Yoenis Cespedes was scratched from the game with a sore hip. He says it’s fine, and he’s dealt with this before. Greeaaaat. Rub some tiger balm on that bad boy. Without him we are finished.

Dropping Like Flies Part 2: In the 6th inning, Juan Lagares made a run saving diving catch on an Ichiro pinch hit appearance. He hurt his thumb diving and later got pulled. No word yet on the severity of his injury.

Dropping Like Flies Part 3: Asdrubal Cabrera said his forearm tightened up during the game. He’s supposedly fine too. Jesus Christ. The injuries just won’t stop.

NL Least: The Nationals lost again to the Reds and dropped 2 out of 3. The Mets just took 2 out of 3 from Miami at home. NL Least baby!

Today: HarveyDay. I’m excited. Matt Harvey started to turn the ol’ season around last time out against the White Sox. Let’s hope his success continues today. As I said in the series preview, Jose Fernandez is dominating every team in the league right now on the mound. Good thing we already won the series!

Mets Backups Step Up In Win

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Final Score: Mets 6, Marlins 2

Backups Step Up: Well well well. Yesterday I wrote about how the Mets are only going to overcome their injury woes if the people they’ve penciled in as “depth” actually do their job. In particular I said a lot of this season is riding on whether Wilmer can step the hell up and return to form. Well last night against Tom Koehler, the subs showed up to play. Other than Asdrubal Cabrera who got the Mets scoring started in the 4th with a solo bomb, it was the Wilmer Flores, James Loney and Rene Rivera show. After the Cabrera bomb, Yoenis Cespedes singled and Neil Walker got hit on the foot by a pitch. The struggling Michael Conforto hit into a double play. With Cespedes on third and two outs, Wilmer Flores picked up a huge two out RBI single to right field. That gave the Mets a 2-0 lead. In the 7th, Wilmer Flores walked and James Loney crushed a two run bomb to make it 4-2. In the 9th, Wilmer Flores crushed a leadoff double and with one out, Rene Rivera cranked a two run insurance jack to make it 6-2. Those were all the runs the Mets needed. Wilmer went 2 for 3 with a walk and Loney was 2 for 4.

Like Loney, Like Murph: James Loney is a contact hitter who can take a walk. The Mets gave him number 28. Before Murphtober, that’s pretty much how we would have described Daniel Murphy. Here’s Murphy’s career batting line .294/.336/.435. Here’s Loney’s career batting line .285/.338/.411. Umm pretty pretty similar. Hell they even have a similar batting stance:


Maybe Kevin Long can sprinkle some of his leftover magic Murph home run dust on Loney. Whatever he’s done so far it worked for Loney last night.

Aces Gonna Ace: Noah Syndergaard is the ace of this staff, and he just did his thing last night. He went 7 innings, gave up 2 runs on 6 hits, and he struck out 9. He made a mistake pitch to Marcell Ozuna in the second and Ozuna hit a solo bomb. He also made an error in that inning when he covered first and dropped the throw allowing Adeiny Hechavarria to reach base safely. It didn’t matter because he struck out the next two guys. He also gave up a sac fly to Ozuna in the 6th. That tied the game 2-2. Ultimately he gave the Mets everything they needed last night.

Rene: As I said in the series preview, I think Rivera is going to draw way more starts that Plawecki now. These pitchers like throwing to him. Even Rivera couldn’t stop guys from stealing on Thor last night though. Ichiro stole second and third base and J.T. Realmuto stole a base.

Cespedes Reminder: Yoenis Cespedes was briefly struggling at the plate before this series. He went 2 for 4 last night. He was involved in all the action on offense. The Mets scored six runs and won. Obviously when Yo is hitting the entire lineup hits. It is known. He really loves hitting in Miami.

Miguan Lagarto: Michael Conforto is really struggling offensively at the moment. He’s going to fight through it. I’m sure the Juan Lagares end of Terry’s favorite platoon will draw more starts if Conforto’s struggles continue.

Reed Locked In: Addison Reed is like the best reliever in the league. I’m not even kidding. He’s got a 1.82 ERA. He’s averaging over 12 Ks per 9 innings. He’s been untouchable. I kind of don’t get it. He throws 93 MPH down the middle. I guess he locates his pitches and hides the ball well. I hope this turns out to be the Mets bullpen trade Sandy is remembered for and not a two month fluke.

Today: Bartolo Colon goes tonight. We face a lefty. We should probably start hitting lefties tonight. Also the Nats lost to the Reds yesterday. Baaahahaha.

Wright To DL Forever; Did The Blueprint Fail?

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David Wright Dunzo: David Wright is officially going on the disabled list today. The Mets say he’ll be out 6-8 weeks with this herniated disk in his neck, and then they’ll re-evaluate or whatever. I wrote about David earlier in the week. The Mets should have placed him on the DL a week ago. Playing shorthanded while waiting to see if David’s spine/neck feels better is an absurd strategy. In that prior post, I wrote about how sad the demise of David has been. It’s sad to watch a childhood sports hero of mine crumble. My question is how did we get here and what do we do next? Did the Mets preseason blueprint fail?

Preseason Depth Delusion: In my season preview, I talked about how the Mets finally had some depth to speak of on the major league roster. In the offseason the Mets added a new starter at second base and shortstop in Neil Walker and Asdrubal Cabrera. They also retained Yoenis Cespedes. By bolstering the starting corps, they simultaneously enhanced the bench by pushing Ruben Tejada, Wilmer Flores, Alejandro De Aza, and Juan Lagares to part time roles. Finally, we were taking the pressure off of young players like Lagares, Tejada, and Wilmer by taking them out of the starting lineup and giving them a chance to excel in a limited role. The Opening Day bench was supposed to consist of these known commodities. Yes that’s right I’m calling Lagares, Flores, and Tejada known commodities. We knew with absolute certainty that Ruben Tejada was a mediocre light-hitting backup middle infielder. Light hitting meaning .240 not .140 like most of the bums we’ve seen this year. Prior to this season, Wilmer Flores was approaching 1000 MLB plate appearances. In that time he showed the Mets that he had a competent bat with a little pop. He showed the Mets that he had a weak glove, but he was at least capable of standing and wearing that glove at second base, shortstop and third base. Juan Lagares showed the Mets he could play gold glove defense in the outfield and hit left handed pitching. Alejandro De Aza had a lengthy major league resume with success against right handed pitching and a decent glove at all three outfield positions. The Mets felt they had depth for the regular season. The only place where the Mets took a bit of a risk was at the catching position. Kevin Plawecki essentially failed in his 2015 catching audition. He failed to hit and the Mets really struggled during the stretch of the 2015 season when he filled in for Travis d’Arnaud. But the Mets took a chance on a young player that they have a lot of confidence in. They felt he would take a step forward and produce. Or at least they felt he would outperform the garbage alternatives that were available in the offseason.

Has The Blueprint Failed?: So far this season the blueprint has failed miserably. Alejandro De Aza has struggled mightily in his limited role. He’s batting .196. Wilmer Flores got injured and has failed to produce at all offensively. He’s hitting .167 with one dinger. His production has literally been non-existent. The Mets inexplicably dumped Ruben Tejada at the end of the spring in favor of unknowns and quadruple-A player options. Those unknowns like Eric Campbell and Ty Kelly have turned out to be significantly worse than Ruben which is saying a lot. Not only have the quadruple-A bums been miserable, but they’ve been getting a ton of ABs which has been the primary reason for our recent offensive struggles. Kevin Plawecki has taken a step backwards this season. He’s struggled to produce offensively and his receiving skills have been outshined by non-hitting veteran journeyman Rene Rivera. So yeah the Mets blueprint has failed so far.

Why No “Super Team”?: This recent stretch of horrendous offense has led me to question the Mets offseason approach. Specifically, I’ve found myself saying things like “I wish we had Daniel Murphy too” and “I wish we made a crazy high bid to get Ben Zobrist”. I’ve seen a lot of people say these exact things. Here’s the bottom line. A “super team” sounds amazing. Obviously we would all love to have Neil Walker, Asdrubal Cabrera, and Daniel Murphy on this team. But we were never going to be able to practically assemble that team especially with David Wright on the roster. Think about it for a second. Let’s say hypothetically that the Mets signed Daniel Murphy and Yoenis Cespedes on day one of the 2015 offseason. Do you think Ben Zobrist would have entertained signing with the Mets as a backup? Do you think the Mets would have traded for silver slugger second basemen Neil Walker and rendered the recently signed Murphy a backup? I’m not saying that we couldn’t use both those players today. Obviously without Wright, we have a place for Murphy at third base. But these established veteran players don’t sign contracts and cross their fingers that they will get a chance to play. They sign deals with teams that give them the most playing team. I love the idea of Neil Walker and Ben Zobrist on the same team. I love the thought of having Daniel Murphy right now. But that was a pipe dream and was never going to happen. And if we just signed Murphy and that was it, then we’d have Wilmer at second base and Murph at third and we’d be no better off.

The Real Problems: The real problem with our blueprint is two-fold. The first issue was that we never replaced Michael Cuddyer. With Lagares, De Aza, Plawecki, and Flores the Mets really had one spot open on the bench. They dumped Tejada and they needed to replace him with a real major league player with a resume. Instead they gave us garbage. They passed on Kelly Johnson, Juan Uribe, Steve Pearce, and many others. But the real problem is a dearth of upper level minor league position player talent. Let’s be real here. I wrote a couple days ago that the Cubs did it right. The Cubs had arguably the top position players in the league. And they bolstered that in the offseason by signing Jason Heyward, Ben Zobrist, and retaining Dexter Fowler. But wait a minute. That’s very similar to what the Mets did. The Mets added starting position players and bumped their young players to the bench. The difference is the Cubs have way more talented young players like Jorge Soler and Javier Baez to bump to the bench. The Mets didn’t have players of that caliber to demote to the bench. And the Mets clearly don’t have any position players other than Dilson Herrera at Triple-A ready to contribute. If they had players like that at AAA they would have been promoted already. So yeah the Mets deserve criticism for that. They’ve promoted a butt-load of talent over the past few seasons. So it makes some sense that the cupboard is empty. But the winning won’t be sustainable without an influx of upper level minor league talent. And that certainly won’t happen if we ship whatever we have left off to replace David Wright.

The Inevitable External Solution: As much as we can’t afford to ship off what’s left of our upper level minor league system, that’s looking more and more like a lock. I don’t think the Mets are realistically going to be able to get an impact bat. Every team will ask for Zack Wheeler in the “impact bat” conversation. Nobody is going to help the Mets unless we part with Zack, and we can’t afford to do that. In the same way that the Cubs have that position player depth, we have that in our pitching staff, and that pitching is the only chance we have to win it all. In all likelihood, we will do the same thing we did last year with Uribe or Johnson. We’ll get a veteran bench/starter swingman. We will finally fill that Michael Cuddyer bench vacancy that we should have filled in the spring.

The Real Test: The blueprint has failed so far, but it’s not a complete failure yet. Why? Because Wilmer Flores has had like 60 ABs. Alejandro De Aza has had like 50 ABs, and James Loney just got here. The real test of the blueprint will be in June and July. The Mets need to make a trade no matter what because of the major injuries to multiple starting players and the need to fill the Cuddy bench hole that I mentioned above.  They need to remove the quadruple-A players from the bench and replace them ASAP. But if Wilmer continues to fail as the replacement for Wright and Plawecki is a complete bust as a replacement for Travis d’Arnaud, then yes the Mets blueprint has been a total bust. The Mets will be able to find a way to add a veteran player for the bench. But it’s going to be very challenging adding a player that provides starting caliber production without surrendering Wheeler. Over the next few weeks, Wilmer Flores, Kevin Plawecki, and even James Loney can completely change the narrative. Let’s hope they are successful, because the acquisition of a bench veteran alone may not be enough to keep the Mets afloat until these injured players return. To stay afloat, they need the players they penciled in as “depth” in spring training to come through as originally expected. In the end, that may turn out to be just as much of a pipe dream as the “super team”.

Series Preview: NL Least Rumble In Miami

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The Mets went 14-15 in the month of May and the Marlins went 15-14. What does that mean? It means the NL Least is back. Frankly, it never left. East is the name and mediocrity is the game. The NL East rodeo of mediocrity also means that a rough series or stretch can flip flop the standing in a finger snap. So this road series is important. The Marlins are 6-4 in their last 10 games. Last weekend they lost 2 out of 3 in Atlanta, but this week they came home and took 3 out of 4 against the Pirates. In other words, the Marlins are somewhat hot and the Mets are not.  The Mets lost 4 out of 6 on the homestand. Everyone is hurt. But if the mafia has taught us anything, it’s that a good old fashioned trip to Miami can be a great way to unwind and escape the heat of the New York microscope.

Pitching Matchups:

Game 1: Noah Syndergaard vs. Tom Koehler

Tom Koehler hasn’t faced the Mets yet this year. He’s 3-5 with a 4.50 ERA. He gave up 8 runs in 2.1 innings against the Brewers on May 1st. That really inflated his ERA. He’s gone 5+ innings and surrendered 3 or fewer runs in all 5 starts since that outing. The Mets faced him 5 times in 2015. He tossed two quality starts in those games, and in the other three he got rocked and failed to make it to the fifth inning. Notable Matchups: Yoenis Cespedes is 3 for 8, Michael Conforto is 2 for 7, Wilmer Flores is 3 for 11, Curtis Granderson is 5 for 22, and Juan Lagares is 6 for 23.

There’s not much to preview when it comes to Noah Syndergaard. He’s pitching like a Cy Young candidate. In April he faced the Marlins at Citi Field. He went 7 innings, gave up 1 run, and struck out 12. He got a no decision in that game, and we ended up losing 2-1. It was one of the most demoralizing losses of the season, and that’s saying a lot considering how bad the two losses were against the White Sox this week. In that April game, the Mets couldn’t score with their “fully loaded” lineup. With the way our offense is sputtering, Thor will probably pitch nine scoreless innings and get the L. That is unless Thor decides to throw at people again and gets tossed from the game.

Game 2: Bartolo Colon vs. Justin Nicolino

Bartolo Colon has not faced Miami in 2016, but he faced them six times in 2015. He went 4-2 with a 2.49 ERA. I’m confident Big Sexy will fire a quality start. Justin Nicolino is a left hander who faced the Mets once in September of 2015. He went 6 innings, gave up 3 runs, and Yoenis Cespedes hit a home run off of him. He’s only made 3 starts on the season and he’s 2-0 with a 2.79 ERA. He replaced Jarred Cosart in the Marlins rotation. The Mets haven’t hit lefties all season and aren’t hitting any pitchers lately. So this could be trouble.

Game 3: Matt Harvey vs. Jose Fernandez

Jose Fernandez is 8-2 with a 2.53 ERA in the season. He’s been on the same level as Thor, Clayton Kershaw, and Jake Arrieta in 2016. In fact he matched Thor inning for inning in that April start I mentioned above. In his start on Tuesday he went 7 scoreless innings, gave up 3 hits and struck out 6 without a walk. Fernandez has won seven straight starts, and in his last five starts he is 5-0 with a 0.79 ERA. Matt Harvey finally had a breakout start against the White Sox on Memorial Day. He went 7 scoreless innings, gave up 2 hits, and struck out 6. I’d be confident in Harvey if he hadn’t struggled so much before his most recent start. That combined with the fact that Jose Fernandez has been unbeatable at home makes this a tough matchup.

Things To Look For:

Hot Marlins: Marcell Ozuna has been crushing it all season long. He’s hitting .328 with 10 home runs and 27 RBIs. Martin Prado is hitting .323 on the season. Christian Yelich is hitting .313 with 5 home runs on the season. J.T. Realmuto is hitting .299 on the season.

Giancarlo: Giancarlo Stanton will be back in the lineup this weekend. He missed 7 games recently due to injury. He’s hit 12 homers and 26 RBIs on the season, but he’s hitting .210. He’s struggling. He’s battled injuries which is pretty much par for the course. I’m sure he’ll be back to launching dingers against the Mets this weekend.

Grandy Yay: Curtis Granderson has been hitting lately. He’s hitting .286 in his last 7 games and making some good hard contact.

No Bark From Big Dogs: On the flip side, Michael Conforto is 1 for his last 15 and Yoenis Cespedes is 1 for his last 19. Half of our regulars are out with back problems, but it seems like Yo and Conforto have finally started to fizzle after carrying the team on their backs all season.

Rene Gonna Play: I wonder if Terry will start Rene Rivera twice in this series. Rivera has been nailing base stealers non-stop and calling great games lately. Rivera and Lagares are seemingly our only above average defenders.

David’s Gone: David Wright will officially go on the DL before this series. They said he’s out 4-6 weeks. Hopefully that’s not 4-6 weeks in “d’Arnaud years”. The team literally said “extended absence”. That actually means out forever. Matt Reynolds will take his place on the roster. I’m surprised they promoted Reynolds again because the Mets originally planned to promote relatively unknown minor league infielder Rick Canball. The Mets like his “exceptional contact rate” and “versatility”.

Excelled In His Role: In a post full of negativity, I’d like to take a moment and praise Juan Lagares. Juan has been exceptional so far this season hitting .280/.322/.415 in 88 PA. But this is a reminder. Don’t be fooled when they say things on TV like, “Juan Lagares is having a great season. It’s a shame that he needs to battle for playing time on this team. He’s wasting away on the bench.” Nope. That’s BS. He’s excelling this season because he’s on the bench. He’s finally in the right role. Good for him.

Pen Out Of Ink: Hansel Robles, Jeurys Familia, and the rest of the pen have struggled the last couple weeks after a burning hot start to the season. Let’s hope the Miami sun helps them regain some fire.

Bahamas: The papers ran a headline today talking about how Noah Syndergaard, Matt Harvey and a few other Mets took a day trip to the Bahamas before this series against the Marlins. The paper was trying to stir the pot once again asking what these guys were doing in the Bahamas and particularly what Thor was doing there the day before a start. Umm they’re probably swimming. Maybe drinking. Maybe they went to buy chachkies at the airport. Who the hell cares? I’m hoping they all went to recruit some famous Bahamian slugger. We need that most of all. We should be searching far and wide for a solution on offense.

The Mets Are Officially Painful To Watch

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Final Score (in 13 torturous innings): White Sox 2, Mets 1

The Quick and Dirty: Jacob deGrom pitched a brilliant ballgame. He went 7 innings, gave up 5 hits, 2 walks, 1 run, and struck out 10. Unfortunately, he surrendered a solo home run to Todd Frazier in the top of the 7th inning and with this anemic Mets offense that was a guaranteed death blow. Poor Jacob. The pen was stellar as well. Addison Reed, Jeurys Familia, Antonio Bastardo, Jim Henderson, and Hansel Robles combined to pitch 4.1 innings of scoreless ball. Last night’s loser Hansel Robles came in to pitch the 12th inning, retired Tyler Saladino, and then keeled over in pain. Apparently he twisted his ankle or some crap. He left the game and Logan Verrett came in. Verrett got out of the 12th, but in the 13th he surrendered a double to relief pitcher Matt Albers. Then he threw a wild pitch and let Albers get to third base. Jose Abreu then hit a sac fly and that gave the White Sox the second run they needed. Sox won 2-1.

So Embarrassing Part 1: I already typed it, but it’s worth re-typing. Logan Verrett surrendered a leadoff double to relief pitcher Matt Albers, Albers advanced on a wild pitch, and scored the winning run on a sac fly. Are you freaking kidding me? That might be the Metsiest thing the Mets have done all season. Total loser trash ending to a total loser trash baseball game.

So Embarrasing Part 2: Yoenis Cespedes didn’t start today’s game, so it’s not that surprising we couldn’t score at all. The Mets only run came on a second inning RBI single by Rene Rivera. The Mets offense collected 13 walks in this game. The Elias Sports Bureau said they became the second team since 1893 to draw 13+ walks and score 1 or fewer runs. The other was the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1953. Jesus H. Christ.

They hit into 5 double plays. Curtis Granderson walked in the first inning and Asdrubal Cabrera hit a single to get him to third base. They had runners on the corners with no outs and failed to execute thanks to a Michael Conforto strikeout and a Neil Walker double play. They squandered opportunities thanks to double plays in the fourth inning (Ty Kelly) and fifth inning (Grandy). Other than the 8th inning, the Mets really didn’t threaten the rest of the way. Grandy came up in the 11th with two men on and two outs, but flew out. Asdrubal led off the 12th with a walk and Conforto instantly hit into the fifth double play. It was a brutal day at the ballpark.

Playing Short: In the 8th inning with one out, James Loney singled and Juan Lagares walked. The Mets had a real chance to take the lead and hand the ball to Familia. But because they are playing short handed, the Mets couldn’t pinch hit Yoenis Cespedes for Ty Kelly. Wilmer Flores was the only infielder left on the bench, and I guess Terry was too worried to play without any infield option left. I would have been scared too quite frankly considering we can’t score for shit and everyone keeps getting injured. And what did Kelly do? Double play. He stinks too, but we already knew that when they called him up.

So Embarrassing Part 3: The White Sox came into Citi Field on goddamn crutches, bleeding out, struggling to breath, with their season spiraling out of control. After the Mets took game one of this series, the Sox had lost 7 in a row and 15 of 19. They leave Citi in an all out sprint ready to conquer the world. Looks like Robin Ventura gets to keep his job a little longer thanks to his old team.

Jesus Christ Conforto: Michael Conforto is funkalicious right now. Actually that sounds like a good thing. Let me clarify. He’s in a terrible funk. He went 0 for 6 with 4 Ks. He’s going to have to adjust because the league sure has. He will.

Fan Interference: In the 6th inning, James Loney hit a ball down the left field line and a fan interfered. Melky Cabrera would have caught it in foul territory and the umps agreed. People who interfere at baseball games should be taken to the dungeons at MLB headquarters and spend the rest of their days in solitude. For the record, the dungeons are right below the MLB replay review center.

The Answer was Three (Or One): So the answer to the question “How many injured starters does it take to turn the Mets offense back into the anemic 2015 version?” is three starters. The absence of Travis d’Arnaud, Lucas Duda, and David Wright has finally taken its toll and the Mets are back to being the worst offense on the planet. Also an alternative answer to the above question is one injured starter when that guy is Yoenis Cespedes. Without him the Mets have no chance.

What Do We Do?: Sooooo this was a brutal homestand. We lost 4 of 6. I mean it’s the same story over and over again. We have nobody to step up for these injured players. Kevin Plawecki and Rene Rivera can’t hit. Eric Campbell couldn’t hit. Ty Kelly can’t hit. Wilmer Flores can’t hit. And right now Cespedes and Conforto ain’t hitting either. I have no idea why the Mets didn’t do exactly what the Cubs did. The Cubs had arguably the leagues best starting position players last season. And they had some of the best backups as well. What did they do? They kept all those guys and signed Jason Heyward, Ben Zobrist, and re-signed Dexter Fowler. They’ve had major injuries, and they have the depth to make up for it. The Mets let Daniel Murphy walk, Kelly Johnson walk, Juan Uribe walk, and they dumped Ruben Tejada. The only reason they signed Alejandro De Aza was because they thought they weren’t signing Cespedes. We all thought Wilmer would at least hit off the bench. But he’s regressed into oblivion. What do we do? We wait for Sandy to make one, two, three moves and pray. This roster ain’t going to cut the mustard and Duda/Wright/d’Arnaud may never come back. Seriously. Lucas Duda is out for months. Terry said yesterday that d’Arnaud isn’t even close to a rehab assignment. And David Wright is the most dunzo of all these guys. Every time Terry talks about David it feels like he’s reading his eulogy. He’s got his lower lip trembling with sadness permeating in his voice. Just awful.

Tomorrow: Day off tomorrow to mourn after that horrible loss then off to Miami. I’m shocked that we only went 14-15 in May. June is looking like it’s going to be a lot worse. Goddamn Mets. Of course Matt Harvey and Jacob deGrom start to kick things into gear right as we finish making headstones for three of our starting position players.

Matz And Robles Meltdown

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Final Score: White Sox 6, Mets 4

Sac Flies and Neil Walkyear: The Mets scored early in this one. Yoenis Cespedes hit a sac fly in the first inning and Curtis Granderson hit a sac fly in the second inning. Neil Walker added a two run home run in the fourth inning to make it 4-0. Walkyear has been really solid all season, but he sure is coming alive lately. He’s smashing at a .391 clip over his last 7 games. Those four runs represented all the scoring for the Mets last night. The way Matz was pitching, it felt like it would be all the scoring the Mets needed.

Matz Cruising: Steven Matz was for the most part cruising during the first five innings of this game. In the second inning, Avisail Garcia reached on an error by new first baseman James Loney. What a way to start things off J-Lone. Matz followed that error by walking Tyler Saladino, but then he struck out Dioner Navarro to squash the situation. He gave up a single in the third inning and two singles in the fourth inning, but he got key outs when he needed them in those spots and escaped. His success lasted until the 6th inning.

Matz Meltdown: In the 6th inning, Matz lost his composure and reminded us that he’s a rookie. He may be a rookie of the year candidate, but there’s still room for maturation and growth. The inning started when Jose Abreu hit a hard ground ball to James Loney at first base that ate him up. It bounced off of him, rolled into foul territory, and Abreu reached. It was called a single, but it was a play you need to make. Matz clearly lost his focus, and he followed that play by serving up a cookie to Todd Frazier who put the ball in the seats to make it 4-2. Matz has been stellar all season, and everyone makes mistake pitches. But it was clear that the Loney misplay was in his head and led to a bad pitch choice to Frazier. Matz then surrendered a single to Melky Cabrera but got Avisail Garcia to hit into a double play. However with two outs he walked Tyler Saladino, and he just didn’t hold him on base. Saladino totally embarrassed Matz by stealing second base and third base. Dioner Navarro then singled to drive Saladino in and make it 4-3. Matz failed to focus on the base runner and the batter. That was the end of the day for Matz, but those three runs and particularly that final run proved to be crucial.

Error City: As I said, James Loney was charged with one error and made one misplay that was ultimately labeled a hit. Asdrubal Cabrera made a fielding error in the seventh inning. The only reason Asdrubal’s error didn’t bite the Mets in the ass was because Thor happened to pitch the seventh inning tonight. Noah Syndergaard is striking out the planet even when he’s throwing the equivalent of an in-game bullpen session. Clean it up on defense man. We all know defense is one of our big weaknesses. I’m just going to pretend it won’t be our downfall.

Robles Meltdown: Jim Henderson and Thor got the Mets through to the 8th inning with the 4-3 lead. Jeurys Familia was unavailable last night so the Mets brought Hansel Robles in for the 8th inning, and he crumbled. He walked the leadoff man like a damn fool. Then he struck out Avisail Garcia before surrendering a two run home run to Tyler Saladino. Yeesh. With two outs he walked pinch hitter Jimmy Rollins. That was all for Hansel. But Jerry Blevins came in and walked Adam Eaton, and Logan Verrett came in gave up a single to Brett Lawrie that scored Rollins. 6-4. That was all she wrote for the Mets. After a hot start, Hansel Robles has been terrible lately. The pen was another one of our preseason weaknesses. Well after a hot start with our team ERA near the top, we are tumbling big time. Once again, I’m just going to pretend it won’t be our downfall.

Hold Men On For Christ’s Sake: Tyler Saladino ran all over Matz in the 6th inning and then Rollins did the same to Blevins. I get that those two guys have speed. But Jesus Christ can we find a way to hold guys on base? I can’t believe we’re going to have to play Rene Rivera, a guy who bats .100, in order to ensure we stop the stolen bases.

Grandyman Can Again: Curtis is heating up. He went to 2 for 4. That was a positive in this poo poo loss.

Soup’s Gone: Speaking of positives, I wrote a post on Monday saying it was time for Soup to go. And boom. Just like that, Soup was dumped to make room for James Loney. Prayers answered.

Wright Should Be DL’d: We’ve been playing with 24 guys since last Friday because the Mets are still waiting to see if Wright can avoid a DL stint for his herniated neck disk. The playing short handed consistently thing is becoming a joke. I wrote about how David Wright should be DL’d yesterday.

Ketchup or Mustard: I was at the game yesterday, but apparently Keith ordered a hot dog with ketchup on it during the broadcast. This obviously sparked the always raging ketchup vs. mustard discussion. I’m a mustard on a hot dog guy. But I really couldn’t care less if you put ketchup on your dog. Why? Because I’m a condiments man first and foremost. I’ll dip things in salsa, mayo, mustard, ketchup, ranch, Russian dressing and whatever else you want to throw my way. Ketchup never wronged me. So I have no reason to get fired up on this debate. If you want to dip you hot dog directly in a bottle of blue cheese dressing, be my guest.

Today: The Mets need to win this game and salvage a .500 road trip. Losing 4 out of 6 at home would be embarrassing for a team that fancies itself a contender.