Month: August 2016

DeGrom Beats Tanaka And His Frayed UCL

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Final Score: Mets 7, Yankees 1

We did it! We finally hit with runners in scoring position, and we did it late in the game! 4 for 10 with runners in scoring position last night. Unbelievable. I couldn’t believe it when it was happening. I was straight up dumbfounded. Was it the Bruce Effect? Probably not since he was the only starter without a hit. I’m fairly certain it was the deGrom Effect considering he had two hits while simultaneously pitching a gem.

DeGrominant: Jacob deGrom hurled 7 innings scoreless inning, gave up 4 hits, and struck out 8. He put some guys on base in the first and second innings, but I wouldn’t say he struggled. The guy has been stellar all season. Jacob deGrom is one of the major reasons we need to stay in this race and find a way into the playoffs. He’s having one of the most dominant years of his career. We saw what happened with Matt Harvey. Every season is a different adventure, and when you are getting this kind of starting pitching you can’t squander it.

No UCL: Can somebody please tell me how Masahiro Tanaka has been so dominant all season with a partially torn UCL? How does this man pitch with an injury that everyone else requires surgery to fix? It’s the Yankee voodoo magic BS. Anyway, the Mets were able to hand Tanaka his worst performance of the season. He gave up homers in the third and fifth innings, and then everything fell apart for him in the 7th inning. He was super pissed at himself when Girardi yanked him.

The Long Ball Was Back For A Night: In the third inning, Jacob deGrom singled and Alejandro De Aza hit a two-run homer to make it 2-0 Mets. De Aza went from the most obvious “Sell” rating in the Mets portfolio to a “Hold”. And at this point I can honestly say he’s a “Buy”. He’s going to see a lot of time in center field if he keeps hitting. I said earlier this season that we would never see “The De Aza Game”. However, I’m starting to think it’s possible. In the fifth inning, Travis d’Arnaud hit a solo shot off of a hanging Tanaka slider to make it 3-0 Mets. Remember when d’Arnaud was healthy last season and showed power all the time? He really needs to find a way to strengthen his damn muscles and bones. Eastern medicine? Secret Eastern European surgery? Drink more milk? I don’t know what he should do, but he needs to get himself right because dangerous d’Arnaud is great.

The Big Inning: The 7th was the inning where the Mets broke the game open. A late rally? Yes! Wilmer Flores  singled and Michael Conforto hit an RBI double to a confused Brett Gardner. He wasn’t looking to crisp out there in left field when he played the ball off the wall. Then with one out, Matt Reynolds hit an RBI single to score Conforto and make it 5-0 Mets. Then deGrom singled for the second time and Tanaka’s day was done. Things really unravelled quickly for him. Rough day for a great pitcher.

Pinch Hitting Yo?: Once the Yankees went to the pen, Terry pinch hit with Yoenis Cespedes with runners on first and third. Honestly, I don’t understand the move. He’s injured. He’s supposed to be getting the day off, and we are up 5-0. He ended up getting an infield single to second base and legging out the hit. I’m sure that did wonders for his quad injury. In fact, after the game he said it bothered him when running and felt better when he returned to the dugout. I’m worried about Yo. Very worried. Anyway, Yo’s hit made it 6-0 and then Neil Walker hit an RBI double that scored deGrom to make it 7-0.

Conforto Is Back: Michael Conforto had two doubles. He went to the opposite field. The truth is the Mets have had one really good month this season and that was April. Conforto only had one really good month and that was April. If Conforto hits for the final two months the Mets offense will be drastically improved.

Defense Lover: Jon Niese made his return to the Mets when he came in to pitch the 8th and 9th inning. He gave up a solo homer which was the only run of the game, but other than that he worked through two innings. I’ll be happy if Niese gobbles up some innings out of the pen. I’ll be content if he makes some bleh starts down the stretch to keep our other arms fresh. He’ll be useful. More useful than Bastardo ever was.

Is The Booth Compromised?: Gary Cohen spent an awful lot of time talking about non-tendering Lucas Duda and the danger of long-term deals for guys over 30 (ummm like Cespedes). It sounded an awful lot like some Wilpon propaganda script that was handed to the booth. Non-tender Duda? What is Gary talking about? He didn’t directly say let Cespedes walk, but if he’s saying the Mets should stay away from long-term deals like the ones the Yankees gave out then he’s implying we should let Cespedes walk. That’s not Gary. The booth is forced to read ads sometimes, and sometimes they are forced to read the script from the higher-ups. Also speaking of giving out long term contracts, remember when the Yankees did that and then won the 2009 World Series? Yeah I think long-term deals can work out sometimes.

DL Records: Yesterday the Dodgers put newly acquired Rich Hill on the DL. The Dodgers announced he was the 23rd Dodger player on DL this year which apparently is an NL record. Imagine if the Mets placed all their injured players on the DL? We obviously hold the NL record for players that should have been placed on the DL but remain on the active roster.

No Savior: Collins says he told Jay Bruce before the game that he doesn’t have to be the savior. He also accidentally called him Jesus Bruce multiple times during the press conference.

Asdrubal Injury Ain’t That Bad: Apparently, the Mets doctors say that Cabrera’s latest knee injury is almost identical to the one he had in Spring Training. It seemed much worse when he fell to the ground and was carried off the field. But they only expect him to miss a few weeks. I’m sure Asdrubal Cabrera will get a cortisone shot in the knee just like he did in the spring and be back in a few weeks. Give him the shot doc.

Today: Steven Matz vs. Chad Green. Let’s try to win two in a row. It’s called consecutive wins. I’m pretty sure we haven’t done it in a month.

The Dirty Little Neil Walker Secret

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As much as the Mets would like the fans to believe yesterday’s Jay Bruce trade was solely about bolstering the inept offense, it also said a lot about the Mets future plans. It undoubtedly exposed the Mets dirty little secret. The first thing it showed was fairly obvious. Jay Bruce is “insurance” for when Yoenis Cespedes opts-out of his contract. But insurance isn’t really a fair term to use because it implies that Bruce is protection against something unexpected happening. The “unexpected” thing to protect against would be Yoenis Cespedes taking big money to go elsewhere at the end of the season. I would argue that’s not unexpected. It’s seemingly an absolute lock. The Mets made it clear last offseason they had no intention of paying Cespedes the money he has earned and giving him the long term deal he deserves. They lucked out because the free agent market was skeptical of Yo repeating his career best 2015 season. As a result, he was willing to spurn the Nationals and accept the Mets ridiculous one year opt-out deal.

But the other thing the Bruce deal officially confirmed is we are about to experience Daniel Murphy 2.0 with Neil Walker in free agency. The Mets supposedly let Daniel Murphy go because they felt his defense was too much of a liability, but they also sold everyone on the notion that Dilson Herrera was the unquestioned second baseman of the future for the organization. Yet yesterday they put him into the Bruce deal in place of Brandon Nimmo like it was nothing and shipped him off to the Reds. When he was asked about second base beyond this season, Sandy Alderson mentioned Jose Reyes and Triple-A shortstop Gavin Cecchini . He made no mention of Neil Walker in the pool of candidates. Why? Because there’s no chance the Mets retain him. He’s Neil Walkyear. He was brought in to ultimately walk away and make room for Herrera. That was his destiny. But now Herrera is gone, and I feel like everyone has just accepted the notion that Walker will be gone soon too. Nobody is asking why.

Why wouldn’t the Mets consider retaining Walker? After a scorching hot April where he hit 9 home runs and posted a .962 OPS, he cooled a lot between May and July. His .565 June OPS was exceptionally bad. But he still posted a respectable .754 OPS in May and a .753 OPS in July. He still ranks 6th in the NL in OPS among qualifying second baseman. He still ranks second among NL second baseman with 17 home runs behind you know who. If he finishes strong in August and September, he’ll rank among the top second baseman in the NL in plenty of offensive categories. That’s the exact player we were told we were getting when we traded for him. He also has an UZR (Ultimate Zone Rating) of 8.2 according to FanGraphs which is tops among MLB second baseman. So one of the advanced metrics says he’s been a strong defender in 2016. Based on all that, why wouldn’t we consider signing him to the reasonable 3 or 4 year deal that he’s likely to command as a free agent? I’ll tell you why. It’s the same reason we didn’t even entertain signing Murph. The Mets have no interest in signing players to long-term deals, especially if they can fill the need for free (see Jose Reyes). And I’m not saying Neil Walker is the unequivocal choice for second base or a long term deal either. I’m not solely making an impassioned plea for Neil Walker. If the Mets want to consider other infielders like Martin Prado, Justin Turner, or someone else in the offseason that’s fine by me. But you know they won’t do that. They will all command multi-year contracts. The Mets haven’t said a word about that because it’s not in the cards.

Can you believe Sandy cited Jose Reyes as the second baseman of the future? The same Jose Reyes that was the subject of deplorable off-field actions and the same Reyes that currently sits on the DL (where he spends most of his time). Well now we know the dirty little secret. We know that the Herrera second baseman of the future story was just a line we were fed to make it easier to stomach the front office’s decision to pass on signing Murph to a reasonable 3-year deal. I’m sure they’ll come up with an even better spin as we get closer to the offseason to rationalize not even pursuing Walker at all in free agency. Sure he’s a former Silver Slugger winner and has a chance to lead all NL second baseman in home runs this season, but who cares? We have Jose! At least until he strains his hammy in Spring Training.

Trade Deadline Is Over; Back To The Losing

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Final Score (in 10 innings): Yankees 6, Mets 5

It was reported yesterday that Terry Collins was seen cursing in the Mets clubhouse around 4:30 and storming in and out of the Mets training room. A lot of people wondered if there was a new injury or something like that. Nope. I know what happened. Terry got the call from Sandy. Alderson said, “Hey Terry. We traded for Jay Bruce. Don’t blow this. If things don’t work out this season you’re fired.” Then he hung up.

Well Terry did not disappoint last night. He completely blew it. This Subway Series opener had all the elements of a classic Mets vs. Yankees matchup. It had the Mets coming through with a big hit to tease us, the Mets manager making horrendous decisions, game changing bloop BS hits for the Yankees, and the Mets ultimately beating themselves. Classic!

It even had all of our favorite things about the 2016 season. The Mets left men on base and failed in big spots with runners in scoring position, Terry mismanaged the bullpen, and the Mets failed to comeback late in the game despite having opportunities. We’re the best! The Wild Card Mets and the rebuilding Yankees basically have the same record. But don’t worry we’re still Kings of The City! I think? Nah not really.

Inside The Park Nope: The game started with Brett Gardner crushing a ball to center field over the head of brand new scrap heap center fielder Justin Ruggiano. Gardy decided to go for the inside the park home run, and the Mets successfully executed the relay throw to home and nailed him at the plate. I saw a lot of people complaining about the Yankees sending Gardner. Umm first of all Gardy is playing like a guy who just watched his front office waive the white flag on the season and doesn’t give a damn about send or hold signals. Second of all, when has it ever been a bad idea to force the Mets to make a play? I can’t believe the Mets executed. 9 times out of 10 we throw that ball to the backstop or way off line. Good send in my mind.

Wilmer The King In July: In the second inning, Wilmer Flores hit a solo blast against CC Sabathia. Wilmer was the King In July with his .290 average and 7 homers. Hopefully it’s carrying over into August now.

METS Disease: In the third inning, Justin Ruggiano grounded into a double play and instantly strained his hamstring. He’s going on the DL. The Mets signed him off the scrap heap this weekend, and he instantly contracted METS disease. All he had to do was sign the contract. Very dangerous stuff. Best to stay away from the Mets. I can’t wait to see Jay Bruce step to the plate for the first time tonight and foul the first pitch off of his foot. Shatter every single bone. Yo won’t be starting tomorrow because he’s still hurt. But Terry said he can pinch hit. So maybe Bruce will come up late in the game and foul a ball off of Yoenis Cespedes in the on-deck circle. It’s a disease folks. Pray for them all.

Terry’s Choice: Logan Verrett pitched 5 innings and gave up 3 runs on 4 hits. He isn’t very good. In the top of the fourth inning, Jacoby Ellsbury doubled and then Verrett walked Mark Teixeira who hasn’t done a damn thing all season. Then Ellsbury advanced on a fly out, and Verrett threw a wild pitch to let him score. The Yanks tied the game at 1 thanks to Verrett’s wild hospitality. In the 5th inning, Verrett walked Rob Refsnyder with one out. Smart. Then CC bunted him over and Gardner drove him in with a double to make it 2-1. Ellsbury followed that with an RBI single to make it 3-1.

Verrett stinks. Yesterday the Mets re-acquired Jon Niese. He stinks too. I can’t wait for Terry’s choice. Every Verrett start the rest of the way we’re going to hear “start Niese instead” and then when Niese starts we’ll hear “start Verrett”. These two guys are worse than Matt Harvey pitching with thoracic outlet syndrome.

Rally and Reynolds: In the fifth inning, the Mets teased us and actually showed some life. Brandon Nimmo ripped a one out single and with two outs Michael Conforto crushed a double that scored Nimmo from first. That made it 3-2 Yanks. Then in the 6th inning Wilmer Flores singled, Travis d’Arnaud singled, and with one out Matt Reynolds hit a three-run homer to make it 5-3 Mets. An unlikely Subway Series hero? That’s what it felt like. Until he wasn’t.

They’re All Dead: CC was pulled in the 6th inning after he walked pinch hitter Steven Matz. Let me repeat that. The Mets are pinch hitting Steven Matz in the Subway Series during a pennant race because they are still electing to play short-handed rather than actually placing guys on the DL. Anyway Matz walked, Curtis Granderson singled, Michael Conforto walked, and Neil Walker left them loaded. That’s one of our 2016 signature moves.

Terry’s Blunders 1.0: Honestly, I felt confident with the score 5-3 in the 7th inning. Hansel Robles made quick work of the Yanks in the 7th, and Addison Reed/Jeurys Familia have been lights out all season. Instead of just going to Reed in the 8th, Terry decided to screw around with matchups because he’s a moron. Jerry Blevins walked leadoff man Brett Gardner. He retired Ellsbury, but then Reed came in with a man on and the Yanks beat him. They beat our light out setup man because of course they did. He struck out Tex to make it two outs and man on first. But then Brian McCann singled and Didi Gregorius hit a soft little BS Yankee single to left that scored Gardner, and that tied the game at 5. Walking the leadoff man killed us again. Shocker.

Grandy Temporarily Saves The Day: Curtis Granderson made a fantastic catch in the 9th to help prevent Familia from blowing the game thus ensuring we’d lose in extras.

Terry’s Blunders 2.0: Because of Terry’s horrendous bullpen management and playing short, all we had left in the pen for extras was Seth Lugo. He instantly gave up a run in the 10th. I’m happy it was quick. It helped ease the pain.

Terry’s Blunders 3.0: In the bottom of the 10th, James Loney hit a leadoff double. Terry had Matt Reynolds bunt and sacrifice Loney to third base because he’s a fool. Let’s just give up outs with Alejandro De Aza and Rene Rivera on deck. I get that Betances is incredible and you want to set up the sac fly and you don’t expect to get hits off of him blah blah. It’s dumb to give up outs. Period. Anyway, De Aza was hit by a pitch but Rene hit one right back to Dellin Betances for the second out and Grandy struck out. Game Over.

Why Are The Gods So Cruel: Under normal circumstances, I would say that my behavior this season is the definition of insanity. I’ve been watching the Mets over and over and expecting different results. Yankees fans will quickly learn by watching four games against this Mets team that we are mediocre and one of the most overrated .500 teams in the game. I think mediocre is starting to be a generous way of describing our play. Yet I keep expecting things to turn around. Why? Because last year the baseball gods proved that it’s possible.

In 2015 the Mets were somewhere between terrible and mediocre for April, May, June, and July and then they because exceptional. Now I’m not saying one season should be arbitrarily compared to the next, or that it’s reasonable to expect that to happen this season. The set of circumstances in 2015 were different. But it still happened. Why? Why are the gods so cruel that they would show us something like that is possible? Is it because I switched jobs in the middle of the 2015 season? I don’t know if I can just switch jobs again to bring back the magic. Is it because of “That’s baseball Suzyn” or whatever expression that Yankee mook says? I don’t know. But it’s not fair.

Today: Jacob deGrom vs. Masahiro Tanaka, and it’s Jay Bruce debut night. That’s nice. Things will be different tonight. You’ll see! (Cut to me gently rocking back and forth in a rocking chair with a straight jacket on at an insane asylum. Fade to black).

Mets Bring Back Niese For Bastardo; Uribe Next?

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The staff of writers that MLB hired to write the Mets 2016 season script are absolutely hilarious. First the Jay Bruce deal nearly falls apart due to medical issues which was obviously the writers way of paying homage to the failed 2015 Carlos Gomez deal. Then the Indians announce that they’ve designated Juan Uribe for assignment, and Sandy indicates the Mets could have interest in bringing him back. And finally for the last laugh, the Mets announce right at the trade deadline that they have re-acquired crybaby former Met Jon Niese for mop-up man Antonio Bastardo.

Honestly, I couldn’t care less about the Niese deal. Jon Niese is supposed to be a competent back-end starter, and Bastardo is supposed to be a competent situational lefty out of the pen. They’ve both been horrendous this season. It’s just two teams swapping garbage. Maybe Jon Niese takes the fifth spot in the Mets rotation and finishes the season strong. Maybe he comes out of the pen and puts up decent numbers. It certainly wouldn’t take much to outperform Antonio Bastardo. As far as Uribe goes, with the Asdrubal Cabrera injury I absolutely think the Mets should bring him back despite the fact that he’s having an awful season (.206/.259/.332). Why? Because he’s Juan Uribe dammit, and he was part of the 2015 World Series crew. That’s why. We broke up the band. We never should have broken up the band.

And that brings me to the only real point of this post. If the Mets bring back Kelly Johnson, Jon Niese, and Juan Uribe during a 2016 season where Daniel Murphy is on pace to win the NL MVP, then Sandy and the front office owe the fans a public apology. I don’t care that we essentially stole Neil Walker for Niese. Bringing back a bunch of players six months after you let them go means you exercised poor judgment in the offseason. Whatever. Let’s see what happens.

All I know is Jon Niese better get Edible Arrangements for all the defensively challenged Mets infielders he insulted on his way out the door. The best part is Niese missed the stretch of the season where we had improved defense up the middle. Niese joins the team a couple days after Cabrera strains his patella tendon. Now he’ll be looking at old Wilmer Flores at short all over again. Plus Jay Bruce is joining our stable of poor defensive outfielders. Niese is going to be rolling his eyes non-stop as we boot balls all over the field. Welcome back crybaby Niese!

Mets Acquire Duda’s Neanderthal Brother Jay Bruce

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I’ve always wanted the Mets to acquire Jay Bruce. Not just because of his prolific power. I’ve always wanted him because Bruce and Lucas Duda are both left-handed hitting National League Neanderthal sluggers. #LucasSmash and #BruceBash. Now we finally get to see the power duo join forces. And by that I mean we hope to see them join forces when Lucas Duda’s cracked back heals. But the Mets officially acquired Bruce for Dilson Herrera and minor league pitcher Max Wotell. The original deal was for Brandon Nimmo and two minor leaguers. But of course that deal was scrapped because one of the low level minor leaguers coming from the Mets had medical issues. Is there a single healthy player in the Mets organization that can play or be traded? Every major leaguer goes on the DL and now the minor leaguers all have medical issues? It’s insanity.

I’m a little surprised the Mets dealt Herrera. They must have soured on him as the heir apparent at second base. That being said, it’s not like second base is a big problem considering we have Jose Reyes, Wilmer Flores , and Neil Walker (who we can easily re-sign). Bruce leads the NL in RBIs. He’s hitting .265/.316/.559 with 25 homers and 80 RBIs. This is a great pickup. I don’t care that we have a bunch of corner outfielders. I’m pretty sure we can find a place for him in our lineup. That place will obviously be 4th in the order. I really hope this doesn’t mean that Yoenis Cespedes will be placed on the DL because of his balky quad. We shall see.

The Good News: The addition of Bruce is obviously great for the 2016 Mets. He will certainly help boost the offense. I realize he’s a terrible defender, but the quality of our defense doesn’t really matter if we can’t score a single run. Judging by all the acquisitions we’ve made this season, Jay Bruce will be on the first rickshaw out of Cincinnati and will join the Mets in roughly two weeks. 

Going forward this gives the Mets Jay Bruce, Lucas Duda, Curtis Granderson, Asdrubal Cabrera, and Jose Reyes all under contract for one more season. If the Mets like that crop of players for 2017 then that’s fine. If they want to shake things up, they have lots of attractive trade chips to potentially flip for other major league players that fill different needs.

The Bad News: The bad news is this reinforces what I’ve been saying for months. The Mets now have their “contingency plan” when Yoenis Cespedes opts-out of his contract. As soon as he opts out the Mets are going to say, “Well we have three corner outfielders (Bruce, Michael Conforto, and Grandy) and only two corners. Gotta let him walk. What else can we do?” They are going to say Yo refused to play center field. They are going to say he’s injury prone (instead of acknowledging he’s a damn iron man warrior). Whatever. I’ll worry about that when the time comes, but the Mets must keep Yo.

Another Boost On Offense: Jay Bruce is a nice addition, but I’m hoping the Mets have re-acquired Neil Walker’s bat for the rest of the season. He’s been hot lately. That would be a huge boost to this offense.

Instagram: Curtis Granderson is going to have to update his WeFollowLucasDuda Instagram account to include Jay Bruce now that the two giant lefty cavemen sluggers will share a locker room. Also, Grandy is going to have to find someone else to run the account when the Mets trade him in the offseason to solve our new outfield “logjam”. For the record other teams call this logjam depth.

Long Story Short: I’m happy. Adding a new talented player makes me happy. The trade deadline makes me happy. One day I’d like to be the guy that works for an MLB team and leaks everything to the media. The Julian Assange of Major League Baseball. I’ll be the best damn leak in the business.