Hello League! We’re Back!

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Final Score: Mets 5, Nationals 1

The Mets have won 11 of 15. Clearly the team’s play has been trending upward for a couple of weeks now. But this was the series that sold me on our Wild Card chances. We finally beat Washington, and we did it without our elite well-known starting pitchers. Instead we beat Washington with new young arms and some old bats we’ve been waiting to hear from again.

Grandy Is Back: In the first inning Jose Reyes walked and Asdrubal Cabrera singled. Then with Yoenis Cespedes up the runners advanced on a wild pitch. Yo ended up striking out but Curtis Granderson came through with a sac fly to make it 1-0. In the third inning, Cespedes hit a bloop single to right field with two outs and Grandy followed that by launching a two-run homer to make it 3-1 Mets. Grandy having a big time September could be the lift this team has needed on offense.

Teuf Is Back: In the second inning Jay Bruce singled. With two outs Seth Lugo singled and Jay Bruce was thrown out trying to advance to third base. It seemed like Tim Teufel was the one who told Bruce to try and take third base. If so it confirms what we already know about Teuf. He’s had a rough season as third base coach. If Bruce made the call it was a bad decision. I have no clue what happened because ESPN didn’t talk about it, and they also didn’t show a decent replay. He kind of seemed safe on the play. But ESPN was too busy talking about other unimportant BS to focus on a key play in the game.

Bruce Is Back: Jay Bruce made up for his base running blunder in the 6th inning when he launched an opposite field two-run home run to make it 5-1 Mets. He had two hits in the game and is 8 for his last 19. He has completely started to take off since his rough start as a Met.

The Dumbass Media Is Back: Also the media is really so goddamn calculated. Today a story dropped that Bruce asked the Reds to trade him to any team other than a New York team. The Mets have the first feel good weekend in a long time and the media doesn’t even want to let them have the moment. It’s also absurd that they feel the need to push the negative stories. Have they paid attention to the Mets news cycle at all this season? Don’t they realize something terrible will happen this week that will eliminate the good vibes anyway?

Young Pitching Is Back: Seth Lugo was fantastic last night. He pitched 7 innings and gave up 1 run on 6 hits. He made one mistake to Danny Espinosa when he served up a solo homer in the second inning. Lugo’s curveball is incredible to watch. Mike Petriello from MLB.com talks about how Lugo’s curve spin rate is one of the highest recorded since they started using the Statcast system to document spin rate a year ago. So yeah it’s nasty.

It’s really exciting to see these young guys step up, and I hope it continues. Obviously Robert Gsellman, Seth Lugo, and Rafael Montero have only made a few starts and their performance could take a downward spiral at any moment. But the cushy soft schedule presents a great opportunity for all these young arms to succeed. It’s interesting that this new wave of young arms tends to pitch to contact while relying less on strikeouts yet they still have hard fastballs and sharp secondary stuff. I like a little variety.

Reed/Familia Never Left: Addison Reed and Jeurys Familia shut the Nationals down in the 8th and 9th as we’ve come to expect. They sealed the 5-1 win and the series win.

Soup Is Back: The Mets announced their next wave of 40 man roster call-ups. Matt Reynolds, Gavin Cecchini, Brandon Nimmo, T.J. Rivera, Eric Campbell, Josh Edgin and Erik Goeddel will all join the team. As long as Soup is just here to warm the bench it’s fine by me. I’m sure Terry will start using some horrific James Loney/Soup platoon at first base.

Today: The Mets open a series against the Reds in Cincinnati. Screw the scheduling people for giving the Mets the 8pm Sunday game of the week and then a 1pm Labor Day Game in Cincy. I guess I’ll give them a pass since the September schedule is actually really easy overall.

Please God Let Us Win This Series 

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Final Score: Mets 3, Nationals 1

According to all the Weather Channel fanatics a storm’s a -comin’. Some Hurricane/Tropical Storm is ripping down the east coast per all my second hand news sources. If that’s the case then maybe tonight’s game will be a washout. Or even worse, maybe it’ll be one of those ESPN televised games in the rain where the Mets make a million sloppy rain induced errors and guys slip and we embarrass ourselves on national television.

But if the storm veers off course and this game is playable, I really hope we win. Please God let us win! We need to beat the Nationals. A home series win against the Nationals won’t do a damn thing to impact the NL East race. The Nats locked that up long ago. A loss tonight won’t kill us in the Wild Card race. All the Wild Card contenders stink. We’ll still be in the playoff race no matter what happens. But I’ll feel great about our chances if we beat the Nats tonight on the big national stage. At least it would represent a little bit of vengeance after Daniel Murphy and Co. have embarrassed us so much in 2016.

Long Hair Equals Success: Robert Gsellman outdueled Tanner Roark. Gsellman pitched 6 innings and gave up 1 run on 6 hits. He struggled in the first inning after giving up back to back singles to Jayson Werth and Daniel Murphy and then walked Bryce Harper to load the bases. But he limited the damage to an Anthony Rendon sac fly to make it 1-0 Nats. He wiggled out of a jam in the fourth inning and the sixth inning. He also held runners on base unlike Noah Syndergaard last night. He picked off Bryce Harper in the fifth inning. The long haired fill-in dude stepped up. I like what I’m seeing from him. Seemingly for the Mets, long hair has a Samson like effect. Long hair equals success.

Grandy and RISP: In the third inning with two outs Jose Reyes walked, Asdrubal Cabrera doubled, and Yoenis Cespedes was intentionally walked to load the bases. And of all people Curtis Granderson singled to drive in two runs. The guy has failed all season with runners in scoring position, but he came through last night to make it 2-1 Mets.

Stinko Loney: In the sixth inning with two outs, Travis d’Arnaud singled and then James Loney ripped a double down the right field line to score Travis from first base and make it 3-1 Mets. The Loney saga in 2016 has been an amazing storyline to follow on MetsTwitter and in my opinion really sums up why we struggle to compromise on important issues as a society. Here’s what happened in reality. The Mets took a flier on Loney on like June 1st. It was a no brainer move considering they were playing him over Eric Campbell. Anyway he’s essentially played everyday since. For about a month and a half he hit .285 and played dependable defense. And since early August he’s been a terrible hitter and has showed his flaws in the field as well. It’s become very obvious why he was in the Padres minor league system, and Terry probably should have benched him long ago.

The reason I say it’s been an interesting storyline on MetsTwitter is because initially some fans overreacted to Loney’s performance and said things like “he’s better than Duda” which is objectively wrong. Because of that reaction half the prominent writers were against Loney from day 1 and made it their business to point out how crappy he is and basically have rooted against him for months. And now that he’s playing poorly, we still have the same fans saying he’s better than Duda and the same beat writers rooting against him and hoping he gets released. Seemingly nobody can agree on all the objective facts I pointed out up front and would prefer to continue to argue about the same stupid issues. Ridiculous.

Big Smoke: In the 7th inning Jim Henderson retired a batter but then gave up a single to Jayson Werth. Terry brought in Josh Smoker to face Daniel Murphy and Bryce Harper. Murph lined a ball to center field and Michael Conforto made a diving catch. If the ball went past him it would have been a disaster. But Mikey made the big play. Then Smoker struck out Harper on a nasty 1-2 breaking ball to end the inning.

Big Pen Doggz: Addison Reed and Jeurys Familia shut down the Nats in the 8th and 9th inning. 2016 has been a tough season, but the reliable back end of the pen has been an incredible luxury. The Mets basically have 7 inning games when they have a lead. I hope that magically continues next year. If Reed matches his 2016 numbers next year he’ll go somewhere else and close for big money. So we better enjoy him now.

Duda Comeback: The Mets said Duda is swinging a bat and may be back before the end of the season. Yeah right. The next time Duda’s ready to suit up it’ll be as Santa Claus for the annual Christmas party.

Not What MLB Had In Mind: This Wild Card race can’t be what MLB had in mind. The Pirates, Marlins, Cardinals and Mets are just constantly losing and showing new weaknesses. It’s a race to be the last mediocre team standing.

Today: Seth Lugo goes tonight in the big night game on ESPN. Please God let us win this series.

Still Can’t Beat The Nats

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Final Score: Nationals 4, Mets 1

We always knew it would come down to beating Washington. If we wanted to take the NL East we needed to beat the Nationals. 2016 wasn’t going to be like 2015 where they handed us the NL East. We were going to have to take it. Well that ship sailed shortly after the All-Star Break when we decided to play like crap for 3 months. But even if the Mets want to keep pace in the Wild Card race (still 2 games out), they are going to need to show some life in this series and the one in Washington starting on September 12th. In last night’s loss Thor was great and the Mets offense did absolutely nothing. We ain’t off to a good start.

The Last Hope: Noah Syndergaard is literally the last young ace standing. He pitched great. He went 7 innings and gave up 2 runs on 3 hits. He only struck out 4 because he’s clearly revamped his first half blow em’ away style. Now with these elbow spurs he’s clearly being a bit more conservative in the velocity department. Anyway we wasted Thor’s fantastic start. Flushed it down the old toilet.

He’s So Hot And…He’s Dead: Remember when Neil Walker was the hottest hitter on the team and launching home runs and then he said his back was sore and 12 hours later he was out for the season? Well bum knee Asdrubal Cabrera is the hottest hitter on the planet. He hit his 19th homer in this game giving the Mets their only run. Pray for Cabby. We can’t afford to lose him.

Some Chances: Curtis Granderson came up with two men on and one out in the 4th inning and popped out to the third baseman. In the 7th inning Jose Reyes came up with two men on and two outs and struck out. Other than that A.J. Cole and the Nationals pen shut the Mets down.

Silly Terry: Terry used Fernando Salas (which autocorrects on my phone to Fernando Salad) in the 8th inning which worked out great. He pitched a scoreless inning. But for some reason in a 2-1 ballgame Terry didn’t go to Addison Reed or Jeurys Familia in the 9th. He’s overused both of them all season, but last night’s game didn’t feel like the right spot to him? Well in the 9th inning Jerry Blevins and Hansel Robles combined to give up 2 more insurance runs which made the game 4-1 and put it out of reach.

Forget About Playoffs: Jacob deGrom apparently went for a precautionary MRI and the results showed no structural damage but inflammation in his pitching elbow. He’s supposedly missing his next start. But in reality Jacob and Steven Matz are completely out. This idea that we are trying to win a World Series and accomplish what we failed to do last year is out the window. I still can’t believe we had a run of solid health last August/September. I wonder if that will ever happen again.

Young Guns Season 2: It’s all up to the young arms. Robert Gsellman, Seth Lugo, Rafael Montero and Gabriel Ynoa are going to get the chance to audition for next year’s team. Also as a side note I realized R.A. Dickey is a free agent at the end of the season. Imagine we go from the dream of 5 young aces to a rotation headlined by Bartolo Colon and Dickey in 2017.

Today: Robert Gsellman vs. Tanner Roark tonight. I have Roark in fantasy. I hope we score 50 runs off of him. But a complete game shutout seems more likely.

DeGrom’s Not Right

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Final Score: Marlins 6, Mets 4

For the third straight outing Jacob deGrom didn’t have his best stuff or his command. The Mets also rested Yoenis Cespedes and Asdrubal Cabrera in this series finale. So they essentially conceded the game. The Mets may have won 3 out of 4 against the Marlins, but as I said yesterday another poor deGrom start is cause for concern.

DeGrumpy: Jacob struggled to get through 5 innings. He gave up 3 runs on 6 hits and 4 walks. That ain’t the Jake we all know and love. He waved for the trainer when he departed the game. Obviously the fans freaked out but he said after the game he was healthy. He said his problems were mechanical. That’s what Matt Harvey said for months.

The Bruce Is Loose?: With the Marlins up 3-0 in the 6th inning, Jay Bruce smashed a solo homer. Bruce is slowly starting to come out of his funk. He’s really exactly like Lucas Duda. He gets pull happy and looks lost at the plate for long stretches. Then he gets a couple of opposite field knocks. Before long he’s mashing dingers again.

Smoker For Two?: So Terry brought in Josh Smoker in the 6th inning and he pitched a 1-2-3 inning with 2 Ks. But then he brought him out for the 7th inning, and he was crushed. He gave up a single to Ichiro Suzuki, a walk to Martin Prado, and a three-run shot to Christian Yelich to make it 6-1 Marlins. Terry saw that Smoker throws 95+, and he’s overusing him like crazy. Back to back to back days and multi-inning appearances. The guy is a regular one inning type of late inning reliever Terry. Don’t kill him/put him in a position to fail.

Filling Stanton’s Shoes: Speaking of Christian Yelich, he really played the role of Giancarlo Stanton Metkiller in this series. And we were more than willing to let him beat us. At least all his hits and homers only equated to one Marlins win.

The Lost Inning: In the 8th inning, Curtis Granderson doubled, Kelly Johnson singled, and then Jay Bruce hit an opposite field single to score Grandy and make it 6-2. The Mets had a rally cooking. Then the Marlins made a pitching change and brought in Kyle Barraclough. He promptly walked Wilmer Flores to load the bases with nobody out. Michael Conforto came up and hit a ball right in front of home plate. The catcher stepped on home for one out and then threw Conforto out at first for the double play. It was the worst thing he could have done. Then the Mets pinch hit Cespedes with runners on second and third and he struck out. I suppose the Mets could have brought Yo in to pinch hit for Conforto with the bases loaded. But they both blew it. Whatever.

Out Of Position: Right after Yo pinch hit for James Loney, Terry brought in Rene Rivera to play first base. So we expand the rosters and now we have guys playing out of position? Right. Makes sense. Great roster management Terry.

Cabby So Hot Right Now: Asdrubal Cabrera pinch hit in the 9th inning and launched a two run homer to make it 6-4 Marlins. The Mets couldn’t spark a rally after that homer though, and they lost. Cabrera needs that knee to magically heal ASAP. He’s so hot he could hit a homer in his sleep right now.

Video Tribute: If the Mets fire Ray Ramirez at the end of the season I hope they give him a video tribute with all his best injury moments set to the song “O Fortuna”.

Stinko d’Arnaud: Has anyone figured out why Travis d’Arnaud stinks this year? Is he just hiding an injury? Is there a running theory?

Today: Well in the end it still comes down to beating the Nationals. Noah Syndergaard pitches tonight. The Mets must stay in the WC race and win 2 of 3. Let’s go Mets.

2017 Mets: The “Walk Year” Season

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Neil Walker’s 2016 season perfectly highlights the potential risks/rewards associated with contract years for players. In his 2016 “walk year”, Neil Walker was posting the best numbers of his professional career. His .282/.347/.476 slash line represents his highest ever. His 23 long balls tied a career high. Neil was stepping up his performance when it mattered most. But the news that he will have season-ending back surgery to fix a herniated disk is a reminder of how quickly the potential financial rewards for on-field performance can evaporate once injury red flags are thrown into the mix.

The walk year talk is especially relevant for the Mets when you consider their prospective roster for the 2017 season. If the Mets pick up all contract options and tender deals to their arbitration eligible players for 2017, as currently constructed, the Mets will have Jay Bruce, Asdrubal Cabrera, Lucas Duda, Curtis Granderson, Addison Reed, and Jose Reyes playing for a contract. Duda and Reed are playing for their first big payday. Reed has a chance to score a 3-4 year deal as a closer if he has a big 2017. Duda will need to return to his slugging form to show the masses that his back woes are a temporary ailment. Bruce will be a free agent for the first time.

After his poor 2016, Grandy’s 2017 play may be the difference between him scoring one more lucrative 2 or 3 year deal or him fighting to get one year contracts each season until he retires. Cabrera is a veteran in a similar spot as Grandy. The Mets have a 2018 option on Cabrera, but if he struggles they’ll just buy it out. For Jose Reyes, the truth is his off the field actions almost got him blacklisted from the sport. But if his current 2016 performance carries over into 2017 and he has a big year, he’ll probably receive another big payday from some club (not likely to be the Mets but who knows).

Despite his injury, it’s hard to ignore the uptick in Neil Walkyear’s 2016 performance. There’s no doubt that the Mets will be hoping for similar increases in production in 2017 from all the aforementioned players. The contract year phenomenon is consistently discussed and debated in the context of free agency in sports. There’s been plenty of studies conducted regarding the contract year phenomenon that indicate the impact on player performance is somewhere between overhyped to non-existent. Some research shows that the overall impact to batting stats in the contract year are negligible while the year after the contract is signed batting stats historically diminish.

There’s also plenty of examples of players raising their game with a payday on the horizon. Nelson Cruz did that in 2014 when he signed a one year 8 million dollar deal with the Orioles after his steroid suspension. He went on to hit 40 homers, drive in 108 RBIs and slash .271/.333/.525. Then he scored a 4 year 57m dollar deal with Seattle. In 2011 Matt Kemp, in the final year of a 2 year deal, went on to finish second in the MVP voting. He hit 39 home runs, drove in 126 RBIs and stole 40 bases. He slashed .324/.399/.586. He posted career highs across the board. Then he scored a 8 year 160 million dollar extension.

There have also been plenty of Mets with walk year success. In 2009 and 2010 Carlos Beltran played 81 and 64 games respectively. He was plagued by injuries. Then in 2011 before he hit free agency he played 142 games and slashed .300/.385/.525. He hit 22 homers, drove in 84 runs and was traded by the Mets at the deadline for Zack Wheeler. Then he scored a 2 year 26 million dollar deal with the Cardinals. Beltran is no stranger to the walk year explosion (see 2004: 38 homers, 104 RBIs, Mr. October run and resulting 7 year 119m dollar contract). Hell Beltran is having an incredible walk year right now at 39 years old.

Jose Reyes, Daniel Murphy, and Yoenis Cespedes are some other examples. Jose won the batting title in 2011 right before he signed his mega-deal (6 years 106m) with the Marlins. We all know Daniel Murphy is having an MVP season right now, but last season was his walk year with the Mets. And until this season, his 2015 regular season combined with his postseason home run barrage represented the best stretch of baseball in his career. Yoenis Cespedes for two years in a row now has put up big time walk year numbers (assuming he opts-out of his 3 year deal at the end of the season). In his last 162 games he’s hit 46 home runs, driven in 115 RBIs and slashed .293/.354/.592.

Sure for every walk year success story there’s probably a corresponding bust (see Denard Span 2015 injury-fest, Ian Desmond 2015 performance drop-off, and Carlos Gomez 2016 poor season). But I’ll take the extra player motivation any day of the week. The contract year certainly doesn’t guarantee anything, but as Sparky Anderson once said “Just give me 25 guys on the last year of their contracts; I’ll win a pennant every year.” Based on the current roster construction it would appear that Sandy Alderson feels the same way.

Are You Not Entertained?

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Final Score: Mets 5, Marlins 2

Here’s where I’m at right now. The Mets have played entertaining baseball over the last 10 games or so. The team is now 1.5 games behind the Cardinals for a playoff spot and “in the race”. Sure the death toll rises every single game. We lost Neil Walker last night for the rest of the season. But all that said we are fun to watch right now, and that’s what I wanted all season. My desire for the Mets to be a part of baseball’s elite class of teams like the Cubs went out the window in like June. Once Matt Harvey and Lucas Duda went down it was clear that this season was not going to be some easy coast to the finish line situation. But in May, June, July and early August I begged to be entertained. The Mets tortured us during those months. Unwatchable. And now they are fun again. If the Mets plan to be fun from today until the last game of the regular season then I’m all in.

Error City: This game started with sloppy error filled Mets baseball. In the first inning Jose Reyes let a ball go right through his legs at third base and straight into left field. Bartolo Colon was able to get out of the inning unscathed. However in the second inning, Ichiro Suzuki hit a leadoff single and advanced to second base on a pickoff throwing error by Bartolo. Then J.T. Realmuto hit a soft grounder to Reyes at third base, and he made a wild throw to first base. Ichiro scored and Realmuto ended up at second base. Those errors gave the Marlins a 1-0 lead.

Again With The Fight: The Mets immediately fought back and Wilmer Flores hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the second inning to make it 2-1 Mets.

Take The Good Sex With The Bad: Bartolo Colon pitched 7 innings and gave up 2 runs on 7 hits. Another great game from Mr. Rubber Arm. Unfortunately for the Mets, he came up to hit in two really big spots and ultimately destroyed scoring opportunities. In the second inning after the Flores dinger, Jay Bruce and Travis d’Arnaud hit singles. Colon came up with runners on first and second with one out. Terry should have had him bunting. I know he’s not a great bunter but you have him bunt. You can’t allow him to hit into a double play which is exactly what he did. Then in the fourth inning Bruce, d’Arnaud, and Kelly Johnson hit back to back to back singles to load the bases. Terry should have told Bartolo to take every single pitch. After hitting into a double play last time up you can’t let him do it again. But Terry let him swing and Tolo hit into a double play. Dumb call. Killed the rally. Tolo also let up a game typing solo shot to Christian Yelich in the 6th inning to make it 2-2.

The Big Shot: In the 8th inning, Yoenis Cespedes singled off of A.J. Ramos and then Ramos walked Curtis Granderson. Ramos proceeded to retire Flores on a fly out that advanced Yo to third base, and he also retired Jay Bruce who failed to lift a sac fly to the outfield. Ramos then walked d’Arnaud, and Kelly Johnson came up in a potentially game changing spot with two outs and bases loaded. Johnson laced a double down the right field line and the right fielder bobbled the ball along the wall. Everyone scored and it was 5-2 Mets. Jeurys Familia slammed the door with that lead and that was that.

New Arm: Last night the Mets traded Brooklyn Cyclones pitcher Erik Manoah to the Angels for reliever Fernando Salas. Salas is a veteran middle reliever. He’s pitched well in the second half this season. It’ll be nice to have an extra arm in the pen. Hopefully he magically becomes a stud like Addison Reed did. I trust Sandy and his waiver wire expertise.

Just Pray: As I said above, let’s not dwell on the negative. Forget the injuries. Forget about Neil Walker being put in a body bag. Forget about Asdrubal Cabrera and his bum knee. Don’t worry about Steven Matz and his elbow/shoulder woes. Are they all going to wind up on the DL and out forever? Probably. But this is just one of those seasons where nothing goes our way. Let’s just watch whoever is left and see where we are at the very end. In all likelihood the season will come down to the final game, and it will be devastating like in 2007.

Let’s Be Clear: I’ve already seen some crazy talk about Jay Bruce because he’s had a poor showing in 100 ABs or whatever. Let’s be clear. The Mets shouldn’t buy out Jay Bruce’s contract under any circumstances. They must pick up his 2017 option. Keeping Yoenis Cespedes and Jay Bruce is the only acceptable course of action. You don’t let a 30 home run hitter who you just gave up a big prospect for leave because he had a rough month and a half. You keep Bruce. If you want to trade him before the 2017 season or during the season then fine. But you keep him.

Last Minor Note on Neil: I didn’t want to talk about this yet, but I’ll throw it out there. I think before this injury news there was almost a 0% chance that Neil Walker would accept a qualifying offer. Now there’s a chance. There is a chance that teams will be scared off by the fact that Neil had back surgery, and he may want to have another crack at a walk year. We may see Neil Walkyear again.

The Wave: Noah Syndergaard tweeted something negative about doing the wave at baseball games so I figured I’d give my thoughts. My beef with the wave is twofold. 1) As a lazy man I prefer sitting to standing 2) I don’t like when people block my view for no reason. So I’m against the wave. That being said, if kids like the wave and disinterested game attendees like to periodically grunt and swing their arms like a bunch of idiots, who am I to stop them? Swing away you fools.

Today: Jacob deGrom pitches today. If deGrom looks healthy and rested during today’s start the positivity meter is going to explode. If he takes another dump on the field, we may not be in great shape after all.

Walker Done; Mets 2016 Injury Excuse Officially Valid

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“I never should have let the Wilpons sign me up for that Strongman Competition.” -Neil Walkyear

I pushed back on the 2016 injury excuse all season. With every new Mets injury I’ve said that the club still has enough talent to win, and I’ve continuously pointed out that the squad has underachieved for long stretches. SNY cites the injury woes every single game and even then I’ve said that they’re just feeding us the Wilpon organizational excuses. Well I’m done fighting it. Neil Walker is out for the season. He’s getting surgery to repair the herniated disk in his back. Yeah that’s right. Another season ending back injury for the Metsies. With David Wright, Lucas Duda, Matt Harvey, Juan Lagares, Zack Wheeler and now Neil Walker out for the season, I think we can officially say that the 2016 injury curse is ridiculous even by Mets standards. The lineup, the rotation, and the bench have all been ravaged by injuries.

Hell the Mets just put Justin Ruggiano on the 60-Day DL. The guy arrived a month ago and now he’s out for good. I don’t even know what happened to him. Apparently he got here and injured his shoulder on some play in the outfield. Then he went on the DL with a hamstring injury that happened when he was running out a grounder. And then out of nowhere the shoulder is what ultimately did him in for the rest of the season. Old Dr. Death Ray Ramirez has really outdone himself in 2016.

Whatever. The team is playing solid ball right now and Wilmer Flores/Kelly Johnson are stepping up. I’d like to complain about Dilson Herrera not being here, but honestly I doubt he’d get the shot to take the job right now anyway. Terry refuses to play Michael Conforto in the outfield, and he’s had some major league success. I can’t imagine him throwing Herrera out there during this Wild Card race even if he was still in the organization.

I’m not going to start speculating regarding how this will impact Neil’s free agency or the qualifying offer or his tenure with the Mets. I’m just focusing on the rest of the season and this playoff race. Pray for Neil Walkyear. Even when the Mets bring a guy in and he posts career high numbers across the board, it still ends with a horrible crippling injury. C’est la vie for Mets fans.

Josedrubal Granderpinch Wins It For Mets

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Final Score: Mets 7, Marlins 4

The streak is on baby. The Mets are 8-4 since the start of that San Francisco series. The Mets have officially leapfrogged the Marlins in the standings and are tied with the Pirates. Jose Reyes and Asdrubal Cabrera are smoking hot and combined for 6 hits to fuel last night’s win. Curtis Granderson hit two home runs in a game he didn’t even start. Wilmer Flores  has contributed regularly as Mr. Fill-In. And Seth Lugo more than did his job as he represented team young arms. Keep it up.

Mistake Out The Gate: Seth Lugo gave up a double to Martin Prado in the first inning. Then he made a pitch on the outer half of the plate to Christian Yelich that was crushed for an opposite field two-run shot.

March Right Back: Unlike the May, June, July, and most of August Mets, the new Mets came back right away. Jose Reyes hit a leadoff single and then bum knee Asdrubal Cabrera launched a two-run blast. He immediately tied the game at 2. Then with two outs and Jay Bruce on third, Wilmer Flores hit an RBI single to give the Mets a 3-2 lead. I can’t believe the team scores now. I can’t believe they hit with men in scoring position. They have fight. It’s really nice. Hot bats will do that for a team.

Lugo Pulled, Grandy Pulls: Other than his first inning mistake, Lugo pitched a nice game. He went 6 innings and gave up those 2 runs on 5 hits. Terry yanked him with under a 100 pitches because he’s still being stretched out as a starter. Then in the bottom of the 6th inning, Grandy pinch hit for Lugo and hit a solo homer to make it 4-2 Mets.

Wake Up Teufel: After Grandy’s dinger, the Blonde Bros aka the Blonde Bombers both reached base. Reyes doubled and Cabrera walked. After Yoenis Cespedes grounded out the Marlins intentionally walked Jay Bruce to load the bases for Alejandro De Aza. De Aza smacked an RBI single to right field, and Tim Teufel for some reason was waving home bum knee Cabrera. First of all Cabrera probably would have been gunned down at the plate. But he didn’t even try because his knee is shot. Unfortunately Bruce saw the signal and ran to third and Cabrera was tagged out at third for the second out. The De Aza RBI made it 5-2 Mets, but the blown send call squandered a chance for more runs. What is Tim Teufel doing? How does he forget Cabrera’s knee situation? I mean Jesus Christ it’s all I’m thinking about when he’s up at bat or on the bases. Even Keith Hernandez in the booth can’t stop talking about it. The coaching staff is forgetful? Jesus. What a joke.

Another Blast: In the 7th inning Grandy added a two-run shot. His second homer in a game he didn’t even start. Also all the postgame talk was about how Grandy is on pace to post the lowest RBI total for a guy with 25+ homers of all time. I talked about that weeks ago, but it’s finally gone mainstream. But forget these negative records. What if Grandy wakes up in September? What if he gets hot? Please let him take off.

Robles?: Hansel Robles pitched two scoreless innings. I must say, I thought it was a bad idea to bring him into a close game because he’s been so bad lately. But the Marlins bats are so cold, and he came through with two nice innings.

Henderson Can’t Finish: Jim Henderson couldn’t pitch a scoreless 9th inning. He gave up 2 runs before being yanked for Jeurys Familia with two outs. Familia ended the game on 3 pitches.

The Death Count News: Obviously only death can pay for the Mets newfound life. So before the game they announced Neil Walker has a mystery back condition. Then they all refused to talk about the problem until today. So yeah it sounds really bad. They said he may play the rest of the season or he may not. What? Steven Matz is also being scratched from his start this week. Shoulder impingement or something. We should probably shut him down. They’ll kill him before they shut him down. Also Asdrubal Cabrera’s knee is still really bad. He just said that he’s going to play and suck it up. Give him the shot doc. Numb that knee and let’s go.

Coreless: One final note. I certainly don’t feel bad about it because it’s helping the Mets in a big way. That being said, the Marlins offense without Giancarlo Stanton is just a Yo-less Mets lineup. It has recognizable faces in it and many of the bats have real credentials. But without Stanton none of that matters. He’s the heart. He’s the core. He’s the big threat that brings it all together. Now let’s win the series. It would be embarrassing to split against a Stanton-less Marlins team.

Today: Bartolo Colon pitches tonight. Let’s win as many games as we can while we have Yoenis Cespedes and a hot Josedrubal Granderpinch. Also pray for Neil’s back. We’ll never pay him now that the Wilpons have this back excuse. Goddamn.

Walk-Off Yo Bomb

On By themetssiah1 Comment


Final Score: Mets 2, Marlins 1

To be honest, I needed this win. Monday sucked at work. Then I came home, and my upstairs neighbor apparently spilled a bunch of water all over his bedroom floor. That water then proceeded to leak all over my bedroom ceiling. So if Jose Fernandez shutout the Mets I was ready to start punting couch cushions while screaming “Serenity now!” But Yo saved my day. The Fernandez shutout became unlikely because 1) he wasn’t at his sharpest and 2) the umpire had a horrendous strike zone. Jose’s pitch count was too high and the Mets got to the Marlins pen. And then Yoenis Cespedes did what he does. He saved the day with a 10th inning, 2 out, walk-off solo homerun.

Organizational Incompetence: Before we get into this game, it’s important to highlight how the incompetent Mets organization set the team up to fail. Their poor decision making really almost ruined the team’s chances at a victory last night. On Sunday, Robert Gsellman started and pitched 6 innings. He now serves absolutely no purpose on the roster for at least 5 days. The obvious demotion to make room for last night’s starter Rafael Montero was Robert Gsellman. Gsellman would have to do his league mandated 10 day minor league stint because of the demotion, but it doesn’t matter with rosters expanding on September 1st, and also with the healthy return of Steven Matz and Jacob deGrom.

Instead of that decision, the Mets demoted infielder T.J. Rivera while Neil Walker and Asdrubal Cabrera are supposedly unavailable with injuries. They left the team with a two man bench. Why? Terry said before the game it was because of a miscommunication. He literally said that he thought Asdrubal or Neil would be available and didn’t know they were going to sit until after the roster decision was made. Baffling incompetence by Terry, Sandy and all of these mooks. Unreal.

Kidcaster: Also on a lighter note, early in the game SNY did their annual Kidcaster thing where they let some 8 year old son of a rich network executive do the play by play. The kid last night was great. I can’t imagine being composed while sitting in the booth with Gary, Keith, and Ron now let alone at 8. Anyway, the Kidcaster reminded me of something. Remember when the Mets refused to meet Bobby Ojeda’s SNY contract demands and replaced him with Kidcaster Nelson Figueroa? They replaced their postgame bulldog with puppy dog Nelson Figueroa over dollars and cents. Ridiculous. Nelson is fine, but I’m team Bobby for life.

Umpire Sucked: Anyway, this game was a pitcher’s duel with a bunch of walks. The walks all stemmed from the fact that the home plate umpire sucked. One of the worst balls and strikes umps of the 2016 season. Jose Fernandez had 4 walks and Rafael Montero had 6. With all those base runners I never thought in a million years Montero would make it through the second inning let alone pitch 5 scoreless innings. But he did. He got through 5 innings without surrendering a run. I thought Montero was going to blow the game in the 5th with two men on and one out, but he induced a double play. Once Montero tossed 5 scoreless and Fernandez was pulled with over 100 pitches through 6 scoreless the game became a must win for the Mets. Good teams take advantage of opportunities to win a close game against another team’s ace.

Are You Kidding Me?: In the bottom of the 5th inning with one out, Terry Collins pinch hit Jacob deGrom against Jose Fernandez because of our short bench, and also because he’s a moron. I get that deGrom can hit. But there is almost no situation where it’s appropriate to bat our franchise starting pitcher against a guy who throws 97 MPH. You’re telling me the possibility that deGrom pokes a single into the outfield and gets a one out base runners makes it worth the risk of Fernandez losing a pitch up and in and breaking deGrom’s goddamn hand?!? The only time I’m okay with deGrom pinch hitting is a do or die one game playoff with no position players left on the bench. And you know what? DeGrom is starting a game like that and unavailable to pinch hit in that spot anyway so it’s a moot point. Montero should have pinch hit for himself and struck out on 3 pitches and then come out of the game. In the end nothing happened. Thank God.

Umpire Sucked 2.0: Wilmer Flores had a chance for a big hit with two men on and one out in the 6th but he flew out. Jerry Blevins pitched a scoreless 7th. It should have been a 1-2-3 inning but the ump squeezed him on a 2 strike pitch to Martin Prado.

The Cespedes Route: In the 8th inning, Addison Reed coughed up the first run of the game. Old man Ichiro Suzuki sliced a double to center field. He’s so damn good. Legend. Then Xavier Scruggs hit a frozen rope double to Yo in left field. It was a double off the bat and it made it 1-0 Marlins. Yo took a strange route to the ball but had no chance to catch it regardless. That didn’t stop mooks on Twitter from questioning his skills and decision making. I guess you can’t stop the haters no matter what you do. But the fact that Yo has Mets fan haters blows my mind.

The Home Plate Collision: In the bottom of the 8th, our second best remaining hitter Jose Reyes hit a leadoff double to right field. He then advanced to third on a Alejandro De Aza fly out. It’s funny but before this inning I was thinking of making some joke in this post about how the Mets broke their consecutive games with an injury scare streak. Unfortunately that joke was flushed down the toilet when Reyes scored on a wild pitch and pitcher A.J. Ramos dove into his back at home plate. Ramos had no play, but he managed to tackle Jose as he slid into home.

I thought Jose was dead. I thought we’d be tossing him into a shallow DL grave right next to his blonde friend Asdrubal Cabrera. Goodbye Blonde Brothers aka Blonde Bombers aka Bleach Boys aka Team Lannister. But luckily Jose shook off the collision and stayed in the game. His speed created a run, and it tied the game at 1. Also for the record, if he had to come out of the game the Mets had no infielders left on the bench and probably would have put Rene Rivera in the infield or something. The unfathomable roster management blunders need to be highlighted as much as possible.

Burn The Damn Bench?: Speaking of roster management blunders, in the 9th inning Terry pitched Jeurys Familia and then with two outs in the bottom of the 9th he pinch hit Rene Rivera for him with two outs. Then Mattingly went to the righty reliever and Terry burned the backup catcher and brought in ice cold Jay Bruce. Terry was crossing his fingers that the pulseless Jay Bruce would hit a walk-off shot. Instead he lined out to first and left the Mets with no bench players for extra innings. I bet if the Kidcaster was still in the booth he would have called Terry a dumb stupid doo-doo head.

The Goddamn Walk-Off: Josh Smoker pitched a clutch 1-2-3 top of the 10th inning  and then with two outs Yo saved the day with his walk-off blast. Pay Yo. Do I need to say anything more? If you want to know how I feel about Yo read every one of my posts. Pay Yo.

Grandy Was Involved: Curtis Granderson reached based 3 times last night with a hit and two walks. I’m sure Terry will finally start benching him in favor of Jay Bruce now.

Sorry I Killed Robles: Before the game Steve Gelbs asked Terry “Why is Hansel Robles struggling?” Terry basically responded: “His arm is tired” aka “I killed him.”

Loser: Daniel Murphy no longer leads the NL in batting average?!? Wow what a pathetic loser. I knew he’d be a bust.

Today: Seth Lugo pitches tonight. Hopefully Neil Walker and Asdrubal Cabrera are back in the lineup. Win! Win! Win!

Heart Of The Mets Order Ripped Out

On By themetssiahLeave a comment



Final Score: Phillies 5, Mets 1

I swear to God I’ve been trying so hard not to blame the Mets injuries this season for all the team’s problems. I’m really trying. I’ve written countless times about how this team has had healthy stretches where the roster just underachieved. I’ve blamed Terry Collins for bad managerial choices, and I’ve blamed Sandy for his roster construction. But the bottom line is we’ve seen what this lineup can do with a hot Yoenis Cespedes, Neil Walker and Asdrubal Cabrera. We saw it in April and some of May when this team was launching home runs and winning baseball games. And we saw it yesterday when Yo, Neil and Cabrera were the heart of the order for a 12 run outburst.

I went to sleep looking forward to another slugfest on Sunday. When I woke up Yo was scratched with his lingering quad injury and Neil was scratched with his lingering back injury. Then in the second inning Asdrubal Cabrera hurt his hand/arm on a collision with the first baseman. He stayed in the game and promptly re-aggravated his knee injury running to second base. He was pulled out immediately and just like that the heart of the Mets order was dunzo. And that was it. Once Cabrera was out of the game the Mets never had a real chance to score. And of course they didn’t. Those are the three best hitters in the lineup. Jose Reyes is the only one left, and he’s a lock to aggravate some injury before the season is done.

I realize the Mets aren’t the only team with injury problems. The Dodgers are setting DL records, the Marlins lost Giancarlo Stanton, and the Cardinals have a full DL. But the Mets have it the worst. I don’t care what anyone else says. They had three guys starting today from the 2016 Opening Day lineup. Three!!!! I realize the Mets won the series, and I realize all the other Wild Card teams lost today. But this was a winnable game that the Mets would have won if their best players suited up. And that seemingly may never happen for more than a couple games in a row this year.

Caveman and Zombie Robles: Geico Gaveman Robert Gsellman pitched a nice ballgame. He went 6 innings and gave up 4 runs on 7 hits. That may not be a quality start by definition, but if these young guys keep the team in the game we need to find a chance to capitalize and win. Period. And the numbers are deceiving. He gave up a run in the fourth inning, but other than that he was solid until he ran out of gas in the seventh inning. He gave up 3 straight singles in the 7th to load the bases, and Terry yanked him and brought in Hansel Robles. And dead arm zombie Hansel Robles did exactly what you’d expect at this point in the season. He gave up a two run double. Then he intentionally walked Freddy Galvis to set up the force play with the bases loaded only to follow that by hitting the pinch hitter Peter Bourjos with a pitch. That forced in a run to make it 4-1. Then Jerry Blevins came in and gave up a sac fly to make it 5-1. Robles has absolutely nothing left in the tank.

Stinky Hair deGrom: After studying the hair of Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, and Robert Gsellman I’ve come to the following conclusions. Jacob deGrom has the best groomed hair. Clearly he lives in a nice house with a wife who buys awesome hair products and shows him exactly how to clean and maintain the long locks. Thor has naturally gorgeous hair, but it looks like a cheap wig because he clearly doesn’t brush it often. It constantly looks tangled and a little greasy. I doubt he has any conditioner in the bachelor pad that he once shared with Michael Conforto before he was banished to Vegas forever. Robert Gsellman on the other hand is such a 23 year old. His hair is the most disgusting and greasy of the whole lot. I’m pretty sure that dude hasn’t washed his hair in 2 years. It probably smells horrendous. In terms of cleanliness, Gsellman is the Pig-Pen to deGrom’s Charlie Brown.

Terry’s Biggest Sin: Curtis Granderson went hitless again in this game. He’s been awful. He doesn’t deserve to play anymore. Bring Michael Conforto up and stop this madness. Arguably Terry’s greatest sin this season has been giving Grandy 162 games of rope because of his 2015 performance. He doesn’t deserve to play right now, and he’s hurting the club every single game.

Every Team Lost Because They All Suck: The Mets remain 2.5 games behind the Cardinals in the Wild Card because all these teams are injured, flawed, or both. The Cubs will trounce all of them come playoff time.

Tomorrow: Rafael Montero starts against Jose Fernandez tomorrow. Cross your fingers and hope that our three best players Yo, Neil, and Cabrera all magically heal overnight and all the other players somehow avoid postgame injuries.