Month: July 2016

I’m All In On The Mejia Conspiracy

On By themetssiah2 Comments

Well well well, the Jenrry Mejia situation has finally come to a head. On Monday, Jenrry Mejia’s lawyer Vincent White announced he was suing Major League Baseball for what he called the “corrupt, mob-like activity” that surrounded the Mejia steroid controversy. MLB thought they could just silence Jenrry with a lifetime banishment. They thought they could just make his lawyer go away with the old “frivolous baseless allegations” line. No way in hell. The Mejia Conspiracy runs too goddamn deep to just go away. Now we’re hearing about years of corruption in the MLB offices in addition to the obvious “witch hunt” that was launched by MLB to bring Jenrry down. Well I for one am all in on the Mejia conspiracy. If you pay attention to all the details of the case, the cover up is all too obvious. You really think he just tested positive three times by accident? No way. This wasn’t just about three “positive tests” that happened over the span of 12 months. This was a long calculated takedown of one of the games most obscure injury-plagued middle relief talents. And it started years ago.

At a minimum, I think it’s clear the final straw was the foot stomp. The Mejia Foot Stomp was Jennry’s signature move. It was the bat flip of the pitcher’s mound. Obviously Goose Gossage and the MLB higher-ups would have none of it. The message came down from the top in 2014 and the Mets put a stop to it. And of course they did. Sandy is just an MLB stooge. He worked in the MLB offices for God’s sake. He’s on the freaking payroll. So Jenrry toned it done, but Goose and company knew that would never be enough. They had to be rid of the stomp forever. So they tricked him into juicing. The Mets training staff must have given him steroid laced “protein” shakes and weekly “health injections”.

But the league knew when he returned in July of 2015 that he would bring the foot stomp back with him. They had to take quick and decisive action. So they contaminated his tests. They just mixed up some of the old sample with the new one and got the positive result they needed. That’s why he kept testing positive for the same steroid. You think he’d be dumb enough to just keep doing steroids and do the same one over and over? That’s insane. The league had to be rid of his headline dominating on mound late-inning relief antics.

We need to find out who exactly was involved in this conspiracy and how high up and far back this thing goes.

  • Did Tony Bernazard rip his shirt off in the Double-A Binghamton clubhouse in 2009 and flip out on the players because Mejia’s AA teammates all knew the Mets were setting up Mejia even back then and were threatening to reveal the truth?
  • Did Omar Minaya start orchestrating Mejia’s takedown right around the time he fired Bernazard and falsely accused Adam Rubin of wanting a front office job? Was the Rubin front office rumor true, and if so did Mejia know about it?
  • Did the Mets bullpen coach Ricky Bones know about the conspiracy as far back as 2014? How did Bones know? Who the hell is Ricky Bones?
  • Is Wally Backman still allowed to manage at Triple-A and destroy all the young arms in our organization because he knows the truth, and the permanent managing gig is the only way he’ll stay quiet?
  • Did the lab technician that mishandled (i.e. mailed it 12 hours “late”) the steroid filled Ryan Braun urine sample also handle Mejia’s? If so will Ryan Braun insist on ruining the technician’s life again?
  • Did Bartolo Colon tell Mejia how to get the super secret stem cell injections in his arm before or after the second positive test? Is it possible that the stem cells were donated by Bud Selig, and he had to cover it up to protect his own wrinkly skin?
  • Did Bud Selig personally create the contaminated third sample or did he order Rob Manfred to do it? Is Joe Torre involved? If so does Torre’s involvement mean the Yankees should be stripped of all their championships between 1996-2009?
  • Did Chase Utley injure Ruben Tejada in the 2015 NLDS because Ruben knew the truth about the Mejia Conspiracy and was threatening to go public and had to be silenced? Is that why the Mets released Ruben in Spring Training? Was Noah Syndergaard tossed when he threw at Utley because he knew something?
  • Did the Mets approach Jeurys Familia about becoming the new closer before the Mejia suspension? Did they blackmail Familia to keep him quiet? Were his inexplicable blown saves in the World Series part of the agreement?
  • What about this. Mejia made his debut in 2010. Then all of a sudden after the 2011 season the Mets traded Angel Pagan away for two mediocre players (Andres Torres and Ramon Ramirez). Mejia took over as closer in 2014, but right after the 2013 season the Mets just let Justin Turner go. Why? Why did we get rid of all these good players? Was it to keep them quiet? Did we get rid of Daniel Murphy because of something he knew? Why did they all become better players once they left? Did Mejia and all of his steroid filled protein smoothies have something to do with it?
  • Tell me this. What did the Wilpons know? Is it a coincidence that Mejia was rushed to make his MLB debut in 2010 which was the same year that the Wilpons were named in the Bernie Madoff lawsuit? Were the Wilpons allowed to keep the team because of the Mejia Conspiracy? If so will that change now because of the lawsuit? Please?

All I know is we can’t just let this one go. We can’t just let Jenrry Mejia remain an insignificant piece of MLB history and steroid lore. We need to know the truth. Or we can just accept that Jenrry Mejia is a moron who didn’t know how to follow his trainer’s instructions regarding how to beat a steroid test. I suppose that’s a remote possibility.

The 2016 Mets First Half Salty Awards (The Salties)

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Before we get into the Salties, I want to make two points. The first point is the Mets hold a Wild Card spot and Noah Syndergaard said we are a second half team. Soooo there’s still hope that the Mets make a run. The Nationals aren’t that good. They may wind up winning the NL East and Daniel Murphy may win the MVP, but they still don’t impress me. My second comment is if you’ve never seen Joe Pesci give his 1991 Best Supporting Actor acceptance speech at the Academy Awards, just check out the video. The speech isn’t salty at all. In fact it’s short and sweet. Joe Pesci saying nothing but thank you and leaving the stage is still my favorite award show power move of all time. Anyway, here we go:

Best Pitcher With Bone Spurs: Noah Syndergaard has been the best pitcher on the Mets staff. I wish the playoffs had started in May. If they had, Thor would have been handed the ball in the Wild Card Game, and he also would have received some Cy Young votes. Instead we’re going to have to handle him with kid gloves, and take him for weekly MRIs the rest of the way. In April, Thor and Michael Conforto were two of the best young players in baseball and roommates who watched Game of Thrones together. Now Thor lives alone, uses Michael Conforto’s bed for his dirty laundry, and watches HBO Go by himself. And when I say “by himself” I mean with 10 hot models. But when Conforto was there they probably had 20 models so it’s a bit of a downgrade.

Best Supporting Pitcher With Bone Spurs: Steven Matz has been a Rookie of the Year candidate. He wanted to get surgery on his elbow bone spur. The Mets convinced him to put it off. I’m guessing he’ll wind up doing it before Labor Day. If the season goes south, he’d be better off at his parent’s place on Long Island hanging with Grandpa Matz than in the Mets dugout.

Father Of The Year: Bartolo Colon is the most durable pitcher in the rotation at 43 years old, and he made the goddamn All-Star Team. He even brought his legitimate children to the All-Star Game. That was really nice of him. His other kids were forced to listen to Joe Buck on Fox, and didn’t even get to see him pitch in the game. Sucks for them.

Bastard of The Year: Speaking of bastards, Antonio Bastardo has been among the worst relievers in the league. He’s definitely the worst reliever on the team. I’m sure the Wilpons will use his signing as evidence to never pay anyone again.

Best Reliever Killed By Terry: Jim Henderson was a feel good story out of Spring Training. He was coming back from reconstructive shoulder surgery. He not only made the team, but he started the year strong. Then Terry overused him and killed him. He’s still at Double-A trying to regain feeling in his shoulder after being put through the wringer by Terry for two months.

The Jerry Manuel Managing Excellence Award: From removing starters too early, to overusing his pen, to giving Alejandro De Aza additional at-bats to try and “get him going”, Terry Collins has really had a mediocre first half. I suppose he’s kept morale up despite all the injuries and kept the team in the race. I’ll give him some credit for that. I really couldn’t care less about the All-Star Game because it’s a complete joke, but the fact that he didn’t get any Mets in the game is absurd. They must be secretly hurt. Jeurys Familia and Addison Reed are probably holding hands and praying together in the Citi Field bullpen right now. Terry buried Jim Henderson, and now he’s undoubtedly coming for Familia and Reed who have been first half studs.

The Most Likely To Be Crucified By The Media Award: Matt Harvey. The answer is still Matt Harvey. The guy had a legit urinary tract health issue in Spring Training and main stream newspapers were making the most ridiculous headlines mocking his illness. Now he’s out for the year getting surgery on his shoulder to address his thoracic outlet syndrome, and I’ve still heard people giving him a hard time. They question his decision to pitch last year. The guy risks his career and leads the team to the World Series, and he still doesn’t get a break from the media. Meanwhile they give a horrendous person like Jose Reyes a free pass. They basically disregarded Bartolo’s off field family court issues after he smashed that home run in San Diego. They even gave up the fight against Thor when he lied to reporters about his elbow woes. I’m pretty sure if Reyes, Bartolo, and Thor stole a car and crashed it into MLB Headquarters on the same day that Harvey ducked out of a postgame press conference, the media would still give Harvey the negative headline.

The Most Likely To Be Mike Trout For Halloween Rather Than In Real Life Award: Michael Conforto went from “the next Mike Trout” to a cheap knockoff Mike Trout performing in Vegas. He’s killing it there right now though so hopefully we see him soon. It was a rough first half for the 2015 phenom.

Most Likely To Succeed (Outside The Organization Next Year): Yoenis Cespedes is the Mets MVP. He’s in the conversation for NL MVP. He’s the only consistent player in the lineup and other than our four starting pitchers and Jeurys Familia, he’s the main reason to buy a ticket. Judging by the performance of Daniel Murphy in Washington and the fact that the Nationals wanted Yo during the 2015 offseason, I’m guessing Cespedes will opt-out, go there next year and hit 70 home runs.

The Terminator 2 Survivor Award: If you’re all wondering why Eric Campbell is still on the 40 man roster, I’m pretty sure Sandy Alderson is wondering the same thing at this point. Eric Campbell is like that brown mole that used to be on Carlos Beltran’s face. It probably should have been removed years ago, but it’s not really hurting anyone. But every time we have to see it we are disgusted by it.

The Most Likely To Miss The Entire Second Half Award: Travis d’Arnaud missed most of the first half with an aggravated shoulder or some BS. He’s back now and he’s been more effective in the batters box because he changed his batting stance back to whatever it was last season. I still can’t tell you why he changed his stance to begin with. What I can tell you is he’s by far the most likely player to get hurt on any given day. Matt Harvey is getting a rib removed as part of his shoulder operation. He should probably just give it to d’Arnaud so he has an extra one lying around.

The Most Underrated Player With A Cracked Back: With Mets fans, there’s always a lot of talk about whether or not Lucas Duda is “good”. Some fans hate his streakiness. Some fans say he’s overrated. In 2016 the only thing “good” about Lucas Duda is that Instagram account run by Curtis Granderson where they post pictures of him standing around looking like a giant moron. Now that he cracked his back and has missed most of the season, I think he’s more likely to get paid for sponsored content on Instagram than he is to get paid by an MLB club on a long-term deal.

The Definitely Not The 6th Starter Award: If you’re looking for Rafael Montero on the major league roster, you won’t see him. Did you check the Triple-A Vegas roster? Nope he’s not there either. He just got demoted to Double-A Binghamton. If you’re looking for Rafael Montero’s talent it disappeared somewhere back in 2014. The 6th starter could be Logan Verrett, Zack Wheeler, Seth Lugo, Robert Gsellman, or even Gabriel Ynoa. But it sure as hell isn’t Rafael Montero.

The McCormick® Needs More Seasoning (And Possibly Just Stinks) Award: When Mr. Glass Travis d’Arnaud went down for the second year in a row, Kevin Plawecki had another opportunity to breakout as the everyday catcher. Instead he re-established that he can’t hit major league pitching yet and also kind of failed as a signal caller. The Mets ultimately went with Rene Rivera as the backup because Kevin was so horrendous. He’s now in Vegas getting more seasoning/reps. He’s young, but he’s certainly been moved from “top prospect” to “bust watch”.

The Congratulations For Not Breaking Your Arm Three Times in 18 months Award: Jerry Blevins broke his arm twice last season in the same spot and missed the entire season. This year he’s been fantastic as a situational lefty out of the bullpen. Congratulations Jerry!

Most Likely To Walk At The End of The Season: Neil Walker. The Mets basically acquired him so they could let him walk at the end of the season. When they traded for him, it seemed like they’d extend him a qualifying offer and get a draft pick as compensation when he departs. But he’s struggled the last couple of months, so I’m not sure that’s a guarantee anymore. No matter what happens, the Mets just plan to hand the job to Dilson Herrera in 2017. If you don’t know Dilson Herrera, he’s a top prospect who is crushing it in Vegas right now. He’s also the leading frontrunner for the 2017 McCormick® Needs More Seasoning Award.

The Most Likely To Cry Award: Wilmer Flores. Duh.

The Most Likely To Be Loved By The Fan Base Despite Only Providing Replacement Level Production Award: Wilmer Flores.

The Most Likely To Be Crowned David Wright’s “Backup” in 2017 Award: Wilmer Flores.

In Memoriam: David Wright. RIP big man.

The Mets Are Not Beating The Nationals And That’s Bad

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Final Score: Nationals 3, Mets 2

The Mets got Murph’d and No-Yo’d again. They dropped 3 out of 4 at home against the Nationals. Absolutely pathetic. They need Yoenis Cespedes in the middle of the lineup. When your offense is dependent on one guy, it’s undoubtedly a weakness. But it’s the reality for the New York Mets. It is what it is. The Mets need Yo. Period. Steven Matz had a strong start to close out the pre-All Star break schedule. He went 7 innings and gave up 3 runs on 6 hits. He only struck out 5 and walked 4 which wasn’t ideal. But he was throwing his slider. He’s pitching through the elbow bone chips, and he’s found a way to remain effective.

Walk Werth and Screw Murph: Matz made a mistake in this game. He walked Jayson Werth and gave up a two run shot to Daniel Murphy. Murph made it 2-0. The Mets walked Jayson Werth twice in this game. We love walking Werth. We should probably stop doing that. It makes no sense. Werth isn’t that good and Murph is a force in the Nationals lineup. Let’s stop giving Murph opportunities to burn us. And as far as Murph goes I ranted about it yesterday. He’s public enemy number one. He’s our arch enemy now. His 21 RBIs against the Mets are the most in a single season since Ryan Howard. It’s a joke at this point. He’s destroying us. Go to hell Murph.

Jose Did Stuff: Jose Reyes hit two solo homers batting right-handed. Amazing. He’s seemingly the only hitter who decided to show up. Good for him. Obviously two runs wasn’t enough.

Gio Doesn’t Stink: Gio Gonzalez has had a bad season. But he dominates at Citi Field in his career. So he shut down everyone other than Reyes over 5.2 innings. Duh.

Our Boy: Alejandro De Aza made the final out of the game. He went 0 for 3 and he’s awful. He cracked a foul ball earlier in the game off his knee/inner thigh. I thought for sure he had shattered the bone and would leave the game. But of course he was completely fine because he’s not an important player and the baseball gods decided to spare him. The baseball gods are just watching us suffer and twisting the knife. At least Michael Conforto is killing it in Vegas right now. I’m guessing he’ll be back in the MLB lineup very soon.

To Hell With Fantasy: Wilson Ramos hit an RBI single in this game to make it 3-1 Nationals and starter Tanner Roark came in to pitch 2.1 innings of scoreless relief. I have them on my fantasy team. I hate them.

The Needs: The Mets could really use another bat, a starting pitcher, and a setup man. That’s an offseason wish list not a trading deadline agenda. But Sandy is going to have to figure out how to patch this lineup up. We are 47-41 and tied with the Marlins for the last Wild Card spot. If we aren’t going to compete for the damn division, we still need reinforcements to stay in this Wild Card race.

This Week: The All-Star Break is here. The Mets need a breather. Cespedes reminded everyone after the game that there’s a “lot of baseball left”. Thanks for putting it all in perspective Yo. It’s a long season. Let’s take a break this week, nurse our wounds, and come out of the gate strong.

Murph Joins The Men Of Mount MetKillmore

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murph rushmore

As we head into the All-Star Break, the Mets have dropped 2 out of the first 3 games at Citi Field to the Nationals. Now we look to Steven Matz to help us salvage a split of this home series. The Mets dropped last night’s game 6-1. They couldn’t muster any offense against Mad Eye Max Scherzer. They managed 4 hits total against the Nats and a sac fly. Yoenis Cespedes wasn’t in the lineup therefore we didn’t score. That’s the least surprising thing of all time. The Yo-less lineup aka the No-Yo Remnant isn’t really equipped to do a whole lot. Logan Verrett gave up 5 runs over 6.2 innings. That’s bad. Antonio Bastardo gave up a 2 run homer to Daniel Murphy. That’s worse.

This game was totally the Daniel Murphy show. Every single game against the Nats this year has been the Daniel Murphy show. He had an RBI single in the third inning, an RBI double in the fifth inning, and a two run homer in the seventh inning. The Mets planted a destructive seed within their own division by letting Murph go to Washington. Well the plant has grown, and it is royally screwing us. Murph the Met slayer is now an official face on Mount MetKillmore.

Daniel Murphy joins Chipper Jones, Chase Utley, and Pat Burrell as the most hated Mets killers from my lifetime. I’ll never forget feeling like we could compete with the Braves in the late 90s and early 2000s. Sometimes the Mets would tease me and make me think we actually had a chance to beat the Braves. And then Chipper Jones would launch one of his many homers at Shea Stadium and destroy my false hope. Pat Burrell put up 42 of his 292 career home runs against the Mets. It certainly felt like all of his career homers came against us. Chase Utley murdered the Mets for over a decade with Philly. He killed Ruben Tejada last year. He has truly cemented his face on Mount MetKillmore.

You might be wondering where Jimmy Rollins is on the mountain. Well Murph replaced him temporarily (Murph has a large amount of slaying to do to stay on the mountain forever). But Rollins doesn’t need to be on Mount MetKillmore. He’s already one of the top all time Met killers and the face of the Jimmy Rollins Met Killer Memorial Site.

rollins memorial

The re-occurring Murph embarrassment is not something I was prepared for in 2016. I have to be honest. I expected him to perform at a high level once he signed with Washington. I knew he would have a big season and have some big moments against us. But then I decided to lie to myself. I focused on the Murph ball. I imagined him booting grounders against us or making horrendous throws from second base and costing the Nationals games. I refused to start preemptively hating Murph for no reason. Well in 2016 he’s given us a reason to hate him. We haven’t seen Murph ball in the field against the Mets. And his .438/.462/.875 batting line with 6 home runs and 19 RBIs is a pretty solid reason to despise him.

So in my mind he’s now our top nemesis. I’ve heard people say they are excited to see him excelling and blah blah blah. No way. You certainly can be mad at the Wilpons and Sandy for letting him go if you want. But you can’t enjoy Murph crushing the Mets while simultaneously rooting for the Mets. That’s impossible. So let the hate boil. As the Evil Emperor in Star Wars once said, “Let the hate flow through you.” It’s time for us to embrace Murph as public enemy number one.

God Hates The Mets

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“Kill the Mets. I hate them.” -God

Final Score: Nationals 3, Mets 1

On the same day that Matt Harvey announced he will get season ending surgery to address his thoracic outlet syndrome, Noah Syndergaard and Yoenis Cespedes left the game due to injuries. God hates us. The Lord hath smited the Mets yet again. At least the Wilpons won’t have to pay for Thor’s and Yo’s airfare to the All-Star Game.

Thor Got Burnt: In the second inning, Clint Robinson hit a two run homer that made it 2-0 Nats. In the top of the third inning, Ben Revere led off by hitting a ball between Yoenis Cespedes and Asdrubal Cabrera. Yo made a sliding catch and nearly took out Asdrubal who was standing in his way. Then with one man on and one out, Daniel Murphy crushed an opposite field RBI double making it 3-0 Nats. On the play, Yoenis Cespedes ran a little awkwardly while pursuing the ball in the outfield.

Cespedes Dead Quad: In the top of the fourth inning, Cespedes was removed from the game with a strained quad. Murph killed him. Murph and God. Every time he steps to the plate against the Mets, Murph is slicing us open and watching us bleed out on the field. And now, his magic hits are injuring our stars. After the game, Cespedes said he dealt with a similar injury last year with Detroit. He said he missed 4-5 days, and then he was back. Then he said something like I hope I can avoid the 15-Day DL “God willing”. I wouldn’t look to the man upstairs for help Yo. He doesn’t like us very much.

Syndergaard Dead Arm: In the top of the 5th inning, Thor’s velocity all of a sudden dropped down to 91. Terry didn’t like what he was seeing and he pulled him from the game. He told Terry after the game he just lost it. He said his arm went dead. Harvey’s arm went dead. Thor’s arm went dead. That’s two thus far Shooter. Unbelievable. He says he’s fine. Hopefully it’s just temporary dead arm. But forget about the All-Star Game. We have no shot this season without him. He’s got Ridged Ruffle bone chips in his elbow. His arm is inexplicably shutting down like an old Super Nintendo with a shoddy motherboard. Please give him this week off to reset.

Uno Dinger: Asdrubal Cabrera hit a solo homer in the bottom of the fifth inning. At least he’s showing power lately.

Pen Pickup: The pen really picked up Noah. Seth Lugo, Jerry Blevins, and Erik Goeddel combined to toss 4.1 scoreless innings of relief.

Strasburgo: Stephen Strasburg is so good. He’s healthy, and he knows how to pitch now. That’s a dangerous combination. He went 7 innings, gave up 2 hits, 1 run and struck out 9. The Mets never had a shot against him.

The Only Chance: In the 8th inning against Shawn Kelley, Wilmer Flores hit a ground rule double and Jose Reyes singled. Then Oliver Perez came in and got Curtis Granderson to line out softly to the shortstop and Juan Lagares to hit into a double play. Juan was hitting in Cespedes’ spot in the lineup. So yeah Ollie danced on Yo’s grave. He rubbed salt in our wounds for sure. Choke artist Jonathan Papelbon closed the game out at 3-1.

Bartolo The Human Twinkie: Bartolo Colon was named to the All-Star Game. He’s such an enormous 43 year old dynamo. He could survive a Nuclear Holocaust. He’ll be heading to Petco Park where he cranked that dinger earlier this season. By the time this weekend is over he may be the only one representing the Mets. Pray for Familia.

Today: Logan Verrett vs. Max Scherzer. The odds are against us. And we already know God ain’t on our side. Please stop killing all of our players big man.

Harvey’s Season Is Over

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“Is that my starter in there?” (Me outside the Harvey operating room)

Today Matt Harvey officially joined David Wright on the list of 2016 players to succumb to METS disease. When your star pitcher comes to you and says, “Hey skip I can’t feel my arm anymore. It’s numb,” you know it’s METS disease. He got the TJ surgery. He came back and led the Mets to the 2015 World Series. He blasted through his innings limits and gave the team everything he had. Unfortunately I thought he figuratively gave the Mets everything he had. It turns out he actually went all in physically. As a fan, I will never forget the sacrifice Matty made for this team.

In truth, I don’t know how connected his 2015 innings total is to the thoracic outlet syndrome that is ending his season. I’m sure there’s a genetic component. Obviously it’s also related to the Mets drinking water in the clubhouse. There are many factors in play here. Regardless of what caused it, the syndrome ends Matt’s season. Now he needs to get a surgery that for many pitchers has helped prolong their career (Chris Young, Jaime Garcia) and for others has signaled the end of their career (Chris Carpenter, Josh Beckett). The surgery could involve getting a rib removed. No this isn’t your classic cosmetic/pleasure motivated Marilyn Manson rib removal surgery. They remove the rib because it has been displaced and is affecting blood flow. It’s a serious career threatening procedure. Figures. I hope he comes back healthy and strong, but I’m not getting my hopes up. Much like David Wright and his spinal stenosis, this goes beyond baseball. These guys need to get healthy and worry about the stupid game later.

And so we play on in 2016 without Matt who never really pitched anywhere near his capabilities at any point this season. Can you imagine if he had? We’ll just have to make a run without him. I’m sure we’ll use the internal options at our disposal initially. Seth Lugo, Robert Gsellman, Gabriel Ynoa, Sean Gilmartin, Logan Verrett are all here and ready to contribute. Hopefully Zack Wheeler will be here soon, although yesterday Sandy made it seem like a 2016 return for Zack is no longer a certainty. Greeaaaat.

I don’t know if this means we’ll try and trade for a pitcher. The Pirates are shopping Jon Niese already which is one of the most hilarious things I’ve heard this season. I’d take him back for a sack of potatoes and nothing more. This whole thing really sucks. This is the reason why building your team around young pitching is smart but also risky. You really need a ton of arms to make it work. The only way you survive is with unlimited depth. Pray for Matt. Pray for all the other arms on our team. We need every arm that we have left.

Wilmer Is The King In July!

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A man can only admit when he was wrong and ask for forgiveness.

Final Score: Mets 9, Nationals 7

Before this game, Terry didn’t include Wilmer Flores in the lineup. The general consensus among Mets fans was that this was a classic case of Terry being a moron. Wilmer had 4 home runs this week. He’s scorching hot. Everyone was furious about the decision. I must say, I was not angry. I was completely fine with sitting Wilmer. It’s not that I don’t like Wilmer. I just figured he’d play at least two games this weekend, and I didn’t feel like getting worked up about the benching. I’m excited about our new stable of viable infielders, and I got caught up in the depth celebration.

Well a man can only admit when he was wrong and ask for forgiveness. Wilmer has a .309 career batting clip in July. His next highest monthly batting average is .267 in August. His home run last night has started to help us avenge the June sweep by the Nationals in Washington. Wilmer is now Summer Flo. He is…The King in July! The King in July!

Murph Out The Gate: In the first inning, Bartolo Colon gave up a leadoff triple and of course Daniel Murphy drove in the run to make it 1-0. Murph’s public shaming of the Mets organization continued right away last night.

Clutch Single: In the first inning, James Loney struck out with two outs and runners on second and third base. But in the third inning with Yoenis Cespedes on second and Neil Walker on first, Loney came through with an RBI single to tie the game 1-1.

Love Getting Burned By The Big Dogs: In the fourth inning after retiring Murph, Bartolo Colon gave up a solo bomb to Bryce Harper. My first thought was that we really love getting burned by the best player on the team huh? Giancarlo Stanton had a field day and now Bryce. That was before I knew there was no stopping the ball from flying out of the park last night. Plus it’s not like we are going to issue first inning free passes to Harper with the bases empty.

Ball Was Flying: Still in the fourth inning, Clint Robinson and Anthony Rendon hit back to back homers with two outs. They made it 4-1 Nats.

Ball Was Officially Flying: After the Nationals fourth inning home run barrage, I was shook. But it wasn’t until the Mets homers in the bottom of the fourth that I realized we were playing this game with diminished gravity levels or something. The home runs did not stop. Travis d’Arnaud hit a solo shot. Jose Reyes launched an upper decker home run to right. Then Curtis Granderson doubled and Yoenis Cespedes doubled to make it 4-4. The Mets came back to tie the game instantly. They chased Lucas Giolito in the fourth inning. Hell, Neil Walker and Yo executed a double steal!

The First Botched Takeout Slide Call: In the fifth inning, Bartolo gave up a single to Oliver Perez and Ben Revere. Jayson Werth then grounded into a force at second. That set up first and third with one out for Murph. Murph hit a double play ball up the middle. The Mets turned the double play and the outs were called on the field. Unfortunately Murph was safe by a mile at first. The Nationals won the challenge, and Oliver Perez scored to make it 5-4 Nationals. My beef on the play was that Jayson Werth’s slide at second was a violation of the takeout slide rule. It was an obvious violation in April of 2016. At the start of the season they were making the call on the field every time. Since then they’ve stopped calling it because MLB listens to fan outcry and seemingly is run by a bunch of pathetic cowards who can’t implement a rule change to save their lives. Well on this particular play the umpires felt the slide was legal and the run scored.

Who Can Leave Their Starter In The Longest: Lucas Giolito should have come out after the Grandy double in the fourth inning. He couldn’t get ahead in the count at all last night. Frankly all the pitchers struggled to execute. But I felt Dusty left him in too long. Well in the fifth inning, Terry tried to steal the crown from Dusty. After the run scored on the challenged double play, Jerry Blevins should have been coming in to face Bryce Harper. Instead Terry left Tolo in. He gave up a single to Bryce and an RBI single to Wilson Ramos that made it 6-4 Nationals. When Terry finally did bring in the pen, Jerry Blevins walked his batter but Hansel Robles was able to get out of the inning.

The King In July: The most important part of Terry’s call to the bullpen in the fifth inning was that he double switched Wilmer Flores into the game. In the bottom of the fifth, Asdrubal Cabrera and Brandon Nimmo hit back to back singles off of Oliver Perez. Then with one out, Wilmer Flores hit the game altering 3-run shot that made it 7-6. TC said after the game it reminded him of Wilmer’s enormous home run last season against Washington. It was remarkable. He has 5 home runs this week alone. He has to be NL player of the week. Also in the fifth, Curtis Granderson doubled with two outs and the Nats intentionally walked Yoenis Cespedes. The Mets should probably take note and stop getting burned by the elite player on every team we face.

Ollie: In the 6th inning, Oliver Perez doubled for his second hit of the game. That was only notable because it was additional evidence that this particular game was completely insane.

More Bombs: Asdrubal Cabrera launched a solo shot in the bottom of the 6th that turned out to be the game winner. It made the game 8-6. As much as Wilmer had the big hit, every single Mets infielder contributed with the stick last night. Reyes, Walker, Loney, Cabrera, and Wilmer all had RBIs.

What Do We Do?: In the 7th inning, Antonio Bastardo reminded us all yet again that he sucks. He gave up a leadoff solo shot to Mets killer Daniel Murphy making it 8-7 Mets. Then he retired Bryce Harper and Wilson Ramos. He then induced a comebacker off the bat of Clint Robinson and he made arguably the worst throwing error of the season. He just threw it away right past Wilmer at first. Terry was forced to go to Addison Reed who was just stellar in relief. He retired the side. I really don’t know what to do with Bastardo. We paid him. We need to see if he turns his season around. It’s a really crummy spot to be in.

Bonehead Pickoff: In the 7th inning with one out Jose Reyes walked. I knew as soon as he got on base he was going to try and steal, but I was completely against it. The ball was flying out of the park. I wanted to give Grandy and Yo a chance to put one in the seats. Unfortunately, Jose got picked off like an idiot. In the end we still got the insurance run because Grandy singled, the Nats walked Yo (Duh), and then Neil Walker hit an RBI single to make it 9-7.

The Second Takeout Slide Call: Addison Reed slammed the door in the 7th and retired the Nats in the 8th. He’s been absolutely stellar. Jeurys Familia came on in the 9th and walked the leadoff man like a fool. But then in true Curb Your Enthusiasm fashion, the entire game came full circle. With Jayson Werth on first, Murph hit a ball that nearly got past a diving Cabrera at short. But Cabby made a fantastic stop and started to turn the double play. The Mets got the out at second and made an unsuccessful throw to first. But Werth rocked Neil Walker on a takeout slide, and this time the umps called the Utley rule. They called the double play. The Werth slide wasn’t all that different from the play in the fifth inning. The bottom line is Werth purposely took out Walker and came off the bag. It’s a rule violation. Then Familia struck out Harper to end the game.

Nats Cry Like Babies: The Nats GM Mike Rizzo tried to fight umpire Jim Joyce after the game. I get their frustration. I share it. It’s appalling that the umps can’t make consistent calls in the same season, same month, same week, or the same freaking game. It’s a complete joke. But they got the call right. The Nats can’t complain about that. I’m done listening to complaints about the slide rule. The rule has been changed. Stay on the bag and slide directly at the bag. Period.

Also Harvey Is Out Forever: On the day of arguably the biggest win of the regular season, the Mets basically announced Matt Harvey is deciding between getting surgery for thoracic-outlet syndrome and missing the rest of the season or getting some interim thing done that will ultimately delay the inevitable surgery until after the season. He’s dunzo. I’ll have more on this once Harvey decides. Until then there’s really nothing new to report. Well other than what Sandy snuck in at the end of the Harvey press conference. Apparently Zack Wheeler is behind in his rehab from TJ and may not be back this season. Sandy snuck that gem into the conference at the last second. Jesus Christ we can’t have nice things at all.

Today: Umm Noah Syndergaard vs. Stephen Strasburg tonight? Yeah this should be a good one.

Grab Your Rosary Beads; Harvey To DL With Barking Shoulder

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The Mets officially placed Matt Harvey on the 15-Day DL. This isn’t surprising at all considering he’s been inexplicably struggling all season. Despite his insistence that his underwhelming performance this year was stemming from mechanical flaws, I think most of us had a gut feeling it was due to some physical issue. The early reports are concerning to say the least. He’s going to see the doctor in St. Louis that performed that shoulder blood cot surgery on Dillon Gee. The guy is a vascular surgeon specializing in thoracic outlet syndrome and other blood-flow ailments. I’m no scientist, but I’m pretty sure shoulders need blood. And more blood clots? First the pee clots and now in the shoulder. Sweet Jesus this man can’t catch a break in 2016.

Grab your rosary beads. Light your prayer candles. We’ve survived without Harvey performing on the mound this season. But this goes beyond the team and our 2016 performance. Shoulder problems are bad. They are career derailing bad. Chris Young battled shoulder issues forever. Johan Santana never came back after his shoulder gave out. Let’s hope it’s minor. Right now the Mets say it’s precautionary. Let’s hope the doctor’s visit shows that his blood flow is fine. But if he needs some kind of shoulder surgery…Sheeeeeiiit. That would be terrible.

In the interim the Mets will call up Seth Lugo to take Harvey’s roster spot. If he winds up being out for a long stint, I have to believe there’s a chance we’ll see Robert Gsellman or maybe Gabriel Ynoa. But they might just stick with Sean Gilmartin or Logan Verrett too. Hopefully Zack Wheeler comes back soon. For now, forget about the contingency plan and let’s focus on prayers for the Dark Knight.

Wilmer Loves Losing His Job

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Look how happy Wilmer is to lose his job to Reyes!

Final Score: Mets 4, Marlins 2

The power of Wilmer Flores, the spark of Jose Reyes, and the grit of Jacob deGrom on the mound helped the Mets take today’s rubber game from the Miami Marlins. It’s really hilarious how Wilmer consistently raises his performance level when he thinks he’s going to lose his job. He caught one whiff of Reyes, and all of a sudden he’s going home run for home run with Giancarlo Stanton. Two multi-home run games in one week for our boy Wilmer? That’s insane.

Happy To Get Canned: Wilmer launched a solo home run in the second inning to give the Mets a 1-0 lead, and he added another solo shot in the fourth inning to make the lead 4-1. Both shots came off Marlins lefty starter Justin Nicolino. Wilmer did hit into a double play with the bases loaded in the fifth inning. Ultimately the wasted opportunity didn’t cost the Mets the game. I suppose Wilmer The Great can’t do everything. Flores said postgame that he’s happy Jose Reyes is here because it makes the team better. And I totally believe he’s being honest. How could he not be excited to have a stable of viable starting infielders? It’s amazing. Right after the game Terry is wondering aloud how in the world he’s going to find playing time for Wilmer and Jose. Ummm Terry I think we’ll figure it out. Is he serious? It’s called a rotation. It’s called depth. You give old man Neil Walker and bum knee Asdrubal Cabrera a day off. They are dying. Michael Cuddyer disintegrated after one half of baseball last season because he was played into the ground. This suddenly deep crop of infielders makes me smile even more than Wilmer when he finds out he’s been demoted.

The Playing Time Usurper: Jose Reyes got the start at shortstop today because Asdrubal Cabrera was up all night dealing with some family matter. Hopefully nothing serious. Anyway he had two doubles. In the third inning, Rene Rivera walked and Jacob deGrom failed to bunt him over. But Reyes doubled and set up second and third for Curtis Granderson who singled in two runs. That made it 3-0 Mets.

My Man: Jacob deGrom is my man. With David Wright seemingly gone forever, deGrom really is my favorite player on the team hands down. He didn’t have his best stuff, and he had to battle today. He got through jams in the first and fifth inning. But he always seems to find his way through 6 or 7 innings and limits any damage. He went 7 innings, gave up 6 hits, 2 runs, walked 2, and struck out 7. Noah Syndergaard is heading to the All-Star Game, Steven Matz is a Rookie of the Year candidate, and Bartolo Colon has been sexier than ever. But my confidence is at its highest when deGrom has the ball.

We Did It Again: Jacob deGrom’s only mistakes were surrendering two solo blasts to Giancarlo Stanton. Remember him? He hit two home runs yesterday. We obviously didn’t learn our lesson about being careful with Stanton. I don’t care that deGrom is an ace. I don’t care that Stanton came up without men on base or that the Mets had a lead. He’s a one man wrecking crew. He scored all the damn runs for the Marlins. Joe Maddon had the right idea earlier this year when he put Bryce Harper on base every time up. Just walk the guy. Pitch around him. Challenging him and consistently getting burned is the definition of insanity. We have an actual choice. Make the right one next time please.

Tomorrow: The Mets start a four game home set against the Nationals tomorrow. Big Sexy is on the mound. I’ll be at the game. We have some nice momentum. Let’s take it to the top team in the NL East. Let’s head into the break scorching.

Mets Let Giancarlo Beat Them For Some Reason

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Final Score: Marlins 5, Mets 2

The Mets let Giancarlo Stanton beat them twice last night for some reason. That’s the story of the game. We let one of the best power hitters on the planet burn us twice. I don’t care that he’s had a bad season. I don’t care that he’s been a non-factor lately. You simply cannot let Stanton launch two dingers against you. And these were bombs with men on base no less. Unacceptable.

Matz and His Mistake: Steven Matz was lights out last night. I said this for Noah Syndergaard on Sunday, but I hope this means the cortisone is working. Whether it’s working or not Terry Collins didn’t give a crap. He saw Matz had good stuff and let him throw a 100 pitches. TC don’t give a damn about dem bone chips. Matz went 7 innings, gave up 6 hits, 2 runs, and struck out 6. The frustrating part was he got lit up by Stanton in the 7th inning. He was so close to the damn finish line. He gave up a leadoff single to Marcell Ozuna and then Stanton took him deep to make it 2-1. He had already given up a damn single to him earlier in the game. I know you don’t want to put the lead run on base, but Chris Johnson stinks. Challenging Stanton more often than not equals home run.

Yo Bomb: Yoenis Cespedes hit a solo home run in the fourth inning. He was the only guy who could hit Wei-Yin Chen. Chen straight up outdueled Matz. He went 7 innings, gave up 3 hits, 1 run and struck out 5. I suppose Chen let Cespedes beat him. But that dinger was in the fourth inning. Remember the bottom of the 7th inning? He walked Yo to leadoff the inning. It wasn’t intentional, but he sure as hell didn’t fall behind and then foolishly challenge him. I wouldn’t want to get rocked by Yo again either. Then he easily retired the next two guys. But the Marlins did luck out because James Loney singled, and Juan Lagares hit a sinking liner to Stanton in right field that he snagged for the third out. On a different day that falls in for a hit and ties the score. It wasn’t the Mets night.

Letting Giancarlo Beat You: The Matz home run to Stanton was less appalling than the bomb surrendered by Erik Goeddel. With two freaking outs, Goeddel hit Christian Yelich with a pitch and gave up a single to Marcell Ozuna. I’m not sure why with two outs the Mets are letting Commissioner Goeddel blow a one run game, but they sure did. Goeddel got behind Stanton and gave up a three run home run on a 3-1 pitch. That made it 5-1. I don’t care what the score is. If you have an open base and the option to walk Stanton and get a fresh count against Chris Johnson, you take it. Call me crazy. Call me stupid. Call me whatever the hell you want. Goeddel getting burned was an absolute lock. I was washing dishes during the at-bat with my iPad set up playing the game next to the sink. Before he even threw the pitch I was already shaking my head. It was so obvious. I can’t believe we gave into the script.

Will The Guys We Paid Perform?: I’ve complained about the performance of Antonio Bastardo and Alejandro De Aza more than a few times this season. They both got into the action last night. Bastardo pitched a scoreless inning and De Aza hit an 8th inning pinch hit solo dinger. De Aza managed to survive yesterday despite the vast majority of people calling for his head when Reyes was promoted. I was not calling for his head. You know what I’d like? How about these two jerks have a big second half? We paid these two guys. They have major league track records. They have historically not sucked. Maybe it’s time they stop sucking. I’m going to hope for that. I’ll never trust them in a big spot because I’ve already seen the ugly stretch. I’ve seen them at their worst. But turn it around. We kind of need them to work out. They were part of Sandy’s plan.

All-Stars: The All Star rosters were officially announced last night. Yoenis Cespedes will start in the outfield and Noah Syndergaard/Jeurys Familia will be on the pitching staff. They are the obvious Mets All Stars. They are the best players on the team. I hope Terry pitches the other NL arms into the ground for a change.

Reyes Return: Jose Reyes returned last night and went 0 for 4 at the plate. He didn’t get a single opportunity at third base. I really only have two points on Reyes. I’m kind of surprised we brought him back so quickly. I figured we’d give him some time to actually learn his new position and get his bat up to speed. Nope. Looks like he’s just going to do that here right when the offense finally got a little momentum. Oh well. I guess ticket sales trumped commen sense. The second point is I’m really surprised people make signs and give him a heroes welcome. It’s one thing to reluctantly accept something you have no control over. It’s another thing to essentially celebrate the return of Reyes like some sort of victory for the team and some sort of personal victory. I understand the nostalgia. I understand people getting excited because they used to root for him. But I’ve actually seen and heard people celebrating the return of Reyes like they won something. As if his return proves some point they personally were trying to make. I’m not sure what that point is and frankly I don’t want to know.

Today: It’s nice to have Jacob deGrom on the mound in a rubber game against a division foe at home. Let’s win today at 1:10.