Mets Bats Are Finally Hot

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Final Score: Mets 12, Phillies 1

The Mets offense is finally white hot. They absolutely demolished the Phillies last night. 12 runs, 13 hits, and 4 home runs. The Cardinals blew a lead against the horrible A’s and the Marlins lost. The Mets are now 2.5 games behind the Cards for the second Wild Card spot. I just hope the Mets can maintain this surge all of next month. Otherwise it’ll be too little, too late.

The Last Remnant: Noah Syndergaard and Bartolo Colon are the lone survivors from our once stud filled starting rotation. Thor did his thing in this game shutting down the stinky Phils over 7 innings with 7 Ks. His fastball and slider were working. He gave up 2 hits, one of which was a solo homer. That was it. Jim Henderson and Josh Smoker pitched two scoreless innings of relief.

Flaming Bats: Asdrubal Cabrera remained on fire in this game. He had 3 hits including a two-run homer in the third inning. Yoenis Cespedes launched a three-run moon shot bomb just on the fair side of the left field foul pole. In the 7th inning, Alejandro De Aza hit a two-run double off of Michael Mariot (heir to some Marriott hotel knockoff company?) and then Kelly Johnson hit a pinch hit grand slam. Neil Walker added an 8th inning solo blast. Jose Reyes had 3 hits again.

Duh: Jose, Asdrubal, Yo, and Neil are scorching hot and the team is surging. There’s a shocker. Remember when we had either one hot hitter or zero for most of the season? That sucked. I’d point out that Philly is a bad team, but the Mets haven’t scored like this against any team since basically May. So it’s an impressive feat no matter who they are playing.

The Big Test: The big test for this club is going to be winning games without the notable young aces. Robert Gsellman goes today, the ghost of Rafael Montero is being called up from Double-A to pitch Monday (against Jose Fernandez), and then Seth Lugo is pitching Tuesday. The Mets apparently have their fingers crossed for Steven Matz to pitch after the three new young dudes. The offense may be smoking hot, but they still need these young guys to fire quality starts if they want to stay in this race.

Today: Today Robert Gsellman pitches (aka the young guy wearing the Jacob deGrom wig). The Mets just announced the lineups and apparently both Yoenis Cespedes (quad) and Neil Walker (back) are sitting with injury flare-ups. So much for the heart of the order.

Big Sexy And Asdrubal Crush Phils

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Final Score: Mets 9, Phillies 4

Don’t look now but the Mets are starting to play consistent baseball. Well actually they were playing consistent baseball before too. For months they consistently had strong pitching and couldn’t buy a hit with runners in scoring position. Now the Mets consistent brand of baseball looks like this: 1) Score a bunch of runs 2) Give up a bunch of runs over the course of the game but hold on for the win 3) Lose a bunch of guys to injury every night. Really the only difference is we score now and the pitching is worse. The injuries have been a constant. Either way, last night was awesome. The Mets scored nine runs on Yo t-shirt night, Big Sexy looked great, and we survived two more injuries. The Mets have won 5 of 6. Keep streaking please.

Back To Back Blondes: Jose Reyes and Asdrubal Cabrera led off the game with back to back home runs from the right side of the plate. The lefty starter Adam Morgan never stood a chance. Our new Team Platoon crushes lefties now. And the platinum blonde look is really doing wonders for Asdrubal and Jose. Can you imagine if Bartolo Colon came out for his next start rocking blonde hair? The internet would explode. Team blonde is very tempting though. I’m willing to cling to any magic good luck charm at this point.



The Best Platoon Of All Time: In the bottom of the fifth inning, Bartolo Colon ripped a double to left center field for his first hit of the game and then Jose Reyes doubled. And on the Reyes double Colon only advanced to third. Colon is really the most entertaining man in baseball. Everything he does is magnificent. Anyway, with two outs the Phils walked Neil Walker to load the bases and Wilmer Flores hit a grand slam to make it 6-1 Mets. He’s batting almost .350 against lefties, and he has 10 bombs against them. During the game I was imagining a modern day platoon of Wilmer Flores and Babe Ruth. Can you imagine The Great Bambino being lifted against a situational lefty in favor of old Wilmer?

Home Plate Double Up: In the 6th inning, Alejandro De Aza walked and Travis d’Arnaud doubled him home to make it 7-1. Bartolo Colon followed that with a single which allowed Travis to advance to third. Then Jose Reyes hit a routine fly out to left center and Travis d’Arnaud was doubled up trying to tag up and score. Also of note on the play was the collision of d’Arnaud and Cameron Rupp at home. Remember when MLB said that blocking the plate and home plate collisions were abolished? Whoops!

The Other Side: Anyway Asdrubal Cabrera followed that double play with a two-run homer to make it 9-1 Mets. It was his second homer of the night and this one came from the left side of the plate. Asdrubal also made two fantastic plays in the field in the fourth inning and the eighth inning. I hate that all the defensive metrics say he has no range. He may lack range but the guy makes every routine play and many spectacular plays as well.

Big Sexy Night: Bartolo Colon pitched 7 strong innings. He had a no-hitter going through 4 and only gave up one run through 7. Unfortunately he fell apart in the 8th inning and gave up 3 more runs. But his 7 inning 4 run line was enough for the win.

The Death Toll: Justin Ruggiano departed the game with shoulder discomfort and Sean Gilmartin had a bloody finger nail or something. There’s not much else to say. I’m sure they’ll be fine. Or maybe they won’t. I don’t know.

Today: Noah Syndergaard on the mound tonight. The Mets must keep streaking. Take this game tonight. Surge! Surge! Surge!

The De Aza Game 

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Final Score: Mets 10, Cardinals 6

Well it only took the entire month of August, but the Mets finally won a big series against a playoff contender. My mind is blown. My socks have been knocked off. And how did it happen? 34th-round pick Seth Lugo gave the Mets a clutch start, and Alejandro De Aza (starting for the injured Jay Bruce) drove in 5 runs against Adam Wainwright including a three-run homer. Unbelievable. The Mets are 3.5 games back in the Wild Card race. Now we start a homestand against the Phillies and Marlins. I feel rejuvenated. Honestly, by the end of the fifth inning my 2016 season optimism meter was skyrocketing. The opto-meter needle was at it’s highest level since May. And then Seth Lugo was METS-bitten and came out of the game in the 6th inning with another calf cramp injury. It was a feel good game. Then I went to the bathroom, and by the time I came back Lugo was gone and the good feelings started to evaporate. After Lugo was yanked the bullpen gave up 6 runs, but luckily the Mets held on for the win.

De Aza Catch: From the start De Aza was shining. The first ball of the game was rocked by Matt Carpenter and De Aza made a leaping catch at the wall. He took away a double. My main man Alejandro.

Wilmer Sac Fly: In the second inning, James Loney singled (one of 3 hits in the game) and Curtis Granderson doubled. Then Wilmer Flores managed to hit a sac fly off of Adam Wainwright to give the Mets a 1-0 lead.

The De Aza Game?: In the fourth inning, Curtis Granderson reached on a fielding error and Wilmer Flores hit a double. With two runners in scoring position and nobody out Alejandro De Aza hit a clutch single to center field to drive in 2 runs and make it 3-0 Mets. A clutch hit with runners in scoring position? Alejandro De Aza did something? Hell yes!

The Challenge: In the fifth inning Yoenis Cespedes walked. Then James Loney hit a bloop single to left field, and Yo hustled to take third base. The play at third was challenged because the tag by Wainwright seemed on point. But upon replay review it was clear that Wainwright’s glove came off when Yo simultaneously stepped on the bag and Waino’s glove. The glove came clean off of his hand and the tag was ruled invalid. It was an absurd play. With first and third and one out Grandy struck out in pathetic fashion. Then Wilmer Flores hit one up the middle and the shortstop booted the ball. Yo scored on a gift error. The baseball gods finally gave the Mets a break.

The De Aza Game: Right after the run scoring error, Alejandro De Aza came up and launched a three-run homer to make it 7-0 Mets. His 5th RBI of the game. A month ago I said we’d never see the day when De Aza was a hero. Well this was his day.

Lugo Dunzo: Seth Lugo pitched 5 scoreless innings and gave up 2 hits. Then he came out of the game as he fell victim to the great calf epidemic of 2016. Jim Henderson came in and promptly gave up a two-run homer to Brandon Moss to make it 7-2.

Decapitated: In the 7th inning Jerry Blevins was almost killed by a comebacker hit by Matt Carpenter. It just missed hitting Blevins’ face/pitching hand. That’s just noteworthy because of our injury epidemic, and also because Blevins missed all of last season due to a comebacker off of his pitching arm. The guy is a baseball magnet. But Jerry retired the side in the 7th.

We Barely Finished: In the 8th inning the Mets loaded the bases with one out but only managed to add one more run. Asdrubal Cabrera hit an RBI single to make it 8-2 but Yo hit into a double play with the bases loaded to end the inning. In the 8th inning Brandon Moss hit another solo homer and then the Cards scored another run off of Josh Smoker after an error and a bunch of soft cheap hits. But the Mets escaped the inning with the score 8-4. Then in the 9th inning Loney and Flores singled, and Rene Rivera put the final dagger in the Cards heart with a single of his own. He drove in 2 more runs to make it 10-4. Jedd Gyorko and Stephen Piscotty added solo homers off of Sean Gilmartin in the 9th, but Sean managed to close it out. 10-6 was the final score.

Classic Mets: I must say that the Mets offense has started to mash again at literally the exact same moment that every single pitcher in the organization has burnt out. No lead was safe tonight with this pitching staff. The timing of the offense/pitching Freaky Friday flip-flop is completely ridiculous. Classic Mets.

Met Killers: Yadier Molina added another hit against the Mets tonight before he was pulled from the game once the Mets established a 7 run lead. The Cardinals tweeted that he’s hitting .579 against the Mets this season. What a goddamn Met killer. Speaking of Met killers, Carlos Ruiz was traded by Philly to the Dodgers. At least we won’t have to face him this weekend!

Speaking of .500: Speaking of dudes batting .500, Michael Conforto is literally hitting over .500 in Vegas. Grandy hasn’t done anything to deserve playing time right now. Conforto should be up here and playing the outfield ASAP.

Seriously: I was reminded today that Kyle Hendricks on the Cubs leads the NL in ERA. First Jake Arrieta emerges as a star and now Kyle Hendricks? Now the Cubs have the elite young pitching and hitting? What the hell do the Mets have? And why can’t we have some guy magically emerge as a stud? I want one of those out of nowhere success stories for the Mets.

Tomorrow: It’s really simple people. If we want to win the Wild Card then we need to make up ground. Sweep the Phillies at home. It’s time to streak.

DeGrom Had Nothing; Pray For Fluke Win Tonight

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Final Score: Cardinals 8, Mets 1
Jacob deGrom and the Mets were destroyed last night. The Cardinals should have won last night’s game 15-1. They had 19 hits. They crushed deGrom to the tune of 5 runs on 12 hits over 4.2 innings. Jacob was unable to locate, gave up 3 long balls, and has struggled now for two straight starts. Commissioner Erik Goeddel was tattooed and so was dead arm Hansel Robles. Goeddel was demoted after the game. The Mets hardly threatened offensively with only 4 hits and 1 run. Carlos Martinez pitched a brilliant and efficient ballgame going 8 innings on 97 pitches. The Mets certainly never had a chance to score enough runs to make up for the poor performance by their pitching staff.

Pretender Reminder: Last night’s game was just the 2016 Mets friendly pretender reminder that I mentioned a couple of days ago. They show a little life, and then they fall flat on their face. Classic!

deAd Arm or deStroyed Arm?: Jacob deGrom’s outing was concerning I guess. The NY Post said the young Mets pitchers need to learn to locate consistently. Ummmm deGrom has a 2.71 career ERA and 2.96 on the season. The guy won three playoff games last season. He may have failed to locate last night, but I’m pretty sure he’s had some success locating his pitches in the past. So what’s the real issue? Is he hitting a wall right now? A little case of dead arm? Hopefully his arm isn’t deStroyed like every other young Mets starter. The Mets are doing Matt Harvey bobblehead this weekend. They might as well hand out a commemorative poster showing our 5 young aces with three of them X’d out.

Bruce METS Disease Update: Jay Bruce hit a double in the second inning last night and promptly was pulled from the game with an injury. The Mets said he was removed for precautionary reasons with calf cramps. Six hours later his calf muscle was probably melting off the bone like a slow cooked pork shoulder.

Noodle Arm Grandy: Curtis Granderson made a nice throw to nail a runner at the plate to end the second inning. It was nice to see old noodle arm make a big play. It obviously came long before the game completely fell apart. But still nice.

Niese And The Deliberate Dump: Speaking of every single starting pitcher on the team getting injured at the same time, Jon Niese is getting season ending knee surgery on a torn meniscus. Conspiracy theory alert: I’m pretty sure Niese’s trade deadline physical showed that he had a hole in his damn knee when we traded Antonio Bastardo for him. That was a pure salary dump. The Mets didn’t want to pay Bastardo next season. He had been terrible so I’m not saying it was a bad move. Just that it was a calculated move.

Yo Propaganda: I wrote about the Yoenis Cespedes BS news from yesterday. The media pretended that he promised not to opt-out of his contract but it wasn’t true. The real Yo news from last night was 1) He explained that he was limping two days ago because of an existing heel injury that he’s battled for years. What?!? 2) He rolled his ankle during the game and seemed even more injured last night. Poor Yo. METS disease really attacks everyone. Just pay Yo and then watch as he goes on workmen’s compensation forever.

Loney Veto Time: James Loney went 0 for 4 last night. He’s mediocre in the field and at the plate. I’m ready to move on. Definitely stop hitting him towards the top of the order. 8th is the only acceptable place in the lineup. Or maybe just start Kelly Johnson.

The Catcher Plan: Travis d’Arnaud went 0 for 3. He been bad this year as well. My takeaway with d’Arnaud this season is we need a starting catcher in the offseason. The Mets should sign the best available catcher and make d’Arnaud the backup. It’s not just about his poor 2016 season. We already know Travis is Mr. Glass. His best hope to play in MLB is as a backup catcher.

Murph MVP Run: Daniel Murphy hit a grand slam last night. He’s still on pace for 30+ dingers and 120+ RBIs. Sandy Alderson blew it not keeping Murph, and I blew it not picking him in my fantasy league. Honestly he used to be a mediocre infielder with no power, horrendous glove, and no speed so it wouldn’t surprise me if he went undrafted. Not anymore! We should probably let d’Arnaud go to any other team so he can magically stay healthy and become elite for long stretches. I think it’s the only way.

4th Outfielder Offseason Question: Remember in the offseason when teams all wondered whether they should sign Alejandro De Aza, Will Venable, or Gerardo Parra as a fourth outfielder? Well the answer was none of the above because they all stink this season.

Today: The Mets fell to 4.5 games back in the Wild Card race. Pray for a fluke win for Seth Lugo against Adam Wainwright tonight.

Cespedes Says Right Thing; Promptly Called Liar

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Today Yoenis Cespedes was asked point blank by a Mets beat writer if he intended to “honor” all three years of his Mets contract. Yo responded by saying “Yes”. First of all, I believe the exact wording of the question was “Yoenis, do you plan to opt-out of the option to opt-out of your current Mets contract thereby opting-out of the opportunity to opt-into free agency, keeping in mind that any choice to opt-into the option to opt-out essentially is a choice to opt-into your right to exercise free will as a human being?” Then the reporter wrote “opt-in” and “opt-out” on two separate pieces of paper, put his hands behind his back, and asked Yo to opt-out of the opt-out by picking the correct piece of paper behind his back all while saying “Opt-in, opt-out, opt-in, opt-out” over and over again.

In all seriousness, I know they are required to by league rules, but I still can’t believe the players consistently speak to these reporters who are just trying to trap them on a regular basis. Yoenis Cespedes is a goddamn saint for listening to this crap. Yo had two choices today. He was directly asked if he planned to stay for his three year deal and not opt-out.  He could have said “Yes” or anything but yes which equals “No”. If he chooses anything but yes the media says he’s creating an in-season contract controversy during a pennant race and adds that he’s a golfing, smoking, lazy distraction.

Instead he says the right thing which is “yes”. And now the backlash for that response has already started. Already I’m seeing beat writers and articles saying if he opts-out he’s a liar and he’s not a man of his word and blah blah blah. Are you kidding me? First of all it isn’t a lie to say the right thing to a room of reporters trying to make you look as bad as possible. Second of all these reporters have some nerve making the decision to opt-out of a sports contract a question of “honor”. “Oooh if Yo decides to make the most money possible he’s not honoring his word! That’s so dishonest!!” Give me a damn break.

Finally I’ll say this for the millionth time. Yo is an MVP candidate in his prime. He’s the best player this franchise has had since Carlos Beltran. He has already expressed many times on record how much he loves being a Met, and he took a below market value deal to stay here. He deserves a mega payday. If he decides to stay and play out this incredibly lucrative 3-year deal then he’s a saint, and we should re-name the left field seats “Yo’s Corner” or some crap like that. If Yo decides that he wants a longer term deal and opts-out then the Mets should pay him what he deserves and name the left field seats “Yo’s Corner”.

Yo’s “decision” should have no bearing on the Mets decision. There is no decision for the Mets. Yo is an MVP candidate and the best player on the team. He must be signed. I don’t care that he’s battled injuries all season. I don’t care that long term deals are risky. He’s a 30 year old prolific slugging outfielder. The last two seasons he’s been a top 10 offensive player in the game. Pay this man and stop with the BS media smear campaigns and loaded freaking questions.

Team Platoon Triumphs

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Final Score: Mets 7, Cardinals 4

With injuries piling up yet again, this time to the rotation, the Mets were able to come through with a big win against the Wild Card leading St. Louis Cardinals. I’ve said many times that Terry and Sandy deserve some blame for many of the problems this team has had in 2016. But the players deserve the blame and credit most of all. And that’s why the Mets players deserve credit for an impressive win last night. It’s one game. They’re 3.5 games back of the Cards now in the Wild Card race. They need to keep winning and make a real statement.

Wounded Soldier: The Mets continue to generate evidence showing they are the most incompetent organization in baseball. Jon Niese stinks. Jon Niese had a knee injury that was known by the organization and the fans prior to last night’s game. The Mets could have easily put him on the DL or skipped his start. Instead they had him pitch, and of course in the first inning Niese had to leave the game with the aforementioned knee injury. He was placed on the DL after the game.

Private Gsellman: The Mets had previously promoted Triple-A starter Robert Gsellman to pitch out of the bullpen which was something he hadn’t done in years. Gsellman was forced to come in and pitch in long relief for Niese. Terry also left Niese in the game long enough to walk the one and three hitters and give up an RBI single to Brandon Moss. Then Gsellman came in and gave up an RBI double to Yadier Molina and an RBI ground out to Jhonny Peralta. Those runs tied the game at 3. Other than letting the Niese inherited runners score, Gsellman went 3.2 scoreless innings, and he was credited with the win.

Platoon Bombers: Before Niese fell apart, Wilmer Flores hit a three-run shot in the first inning. Justin Ruggiano also hit a solo shot in the fourth inning. Both homers came off of Cards lefty starter Jaime Garcia. The Mets lefty mashing platoon squad of Flores/Ruggiano is pretty impressive. As long as Terry makes the right matchup decisions, I’m totally fine with Team Platoon.

Seasoned Veterans: Jose Reyes and Asdrubal Cabrera each had 3 hits, and they both had RBI hits in the second inning. It’s nice to have two seasoned vets at the top of the order. All of a sudden with Reyes setting the table for Yoenis Cespedes, it feels like this team can actually score with runners in scoring position. The Mets were 5 for 10 in those spots last night. The Cardinals on the other hand seemingly left men on base every single inning.

The Reserves: Josh Smoker gave up a solo dinger to Randal Grichuk, but other than that the Mets relief corps was stellar. 6 relievers combined to pitch 8.2 innings and give up 1 run.

Field General: In addition to his two hits, Yoenis Cespedes made stellar defensive plays including a home run robbery. He also ran hard and seemingly was limping around again. Terry denied this after the game, but I don’t believe him. Yo is banged up. He’s been banged up all season. The notion that Yo doesn’t play hard or that he selectively hustles is one of the most appalling and fabricated false narratives in professional sports.

Captain Blunder: Speaking of Terry making the right platoon decisions, in the 7th inning with runners on first and third and one out Terry pinch hit for Wilmer Flores. He chose to have James Loney face a lefty specialist instead of having Wilmer face the righty who was already in the game. It was the wrong call because Loney doesn’t hit lefties at all, and also he’s been terrible lately. He promptly hit into a double play. He did add an insurance RBI single in the 9th inning to make it 7-4 Mets, so I suppose he redeemed himself.

Man Down: Yesterday Steven Matz was placed on the DL with shoulder discomfort. Supposedly there’s no structural damage, and he’ll only miss one start. Remember when we were supposed to have 5 young aces? Well we’re down to 2.

Today: I don’t want to say tonight’s game is a must win. But with Jacob deGrom on the mound and Seth Lugo on Thursday, it’s a must win. Carlos Martinez is great too, but the Mets have to find a way to win this game.

Thor And Yo Are The Heroes

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Final Score: Mets 2, Giants 0

Noah Syndergaard was untouchable, and Yoenis Cespedes hit a two-run homer off of Jeff Samardzija who nearly matched Thor’s level of dominance. Jeurys Familia pitched the final inning for the save. The Mets three All-Star studs shined and helped the team earn a split in San Francisco.

That Was Nice: It was nice to see Syndergaard dominate with his crazy old bone spurs. The Mets needed a dominant pitching performance, and Thor stepped the hell up. And thanks to Thor’s nasty performance we didn’t have to rely on our overworked bullpen. It was also nice to see Curtis Granderson break up Jeff Samardzija’s no hit bit with a leadoff double in the seventh inning. He set the table for Yo and the Mets need Grandy to do that the rest of the way to stay alive in this damn race.

Meet Me In St. Louis: The Mets need to come through this week against the Cardinals. It’s not even about the number of games they’re behind the Cardinals in the Wild Card standings (4.5). They need to show that they’re capable of having a big series. The Mets have consistently reminded everyone that they’re pretenders. Every time they shown signs of life, they promptly fall flat on their faces. Well if they’re going to change the course of the season and at least play “meaningful games in September,” then they need to win this series. Period.

Pray Pray Pray: Steven Matz is flying back to New York to have his shoulder examined. I have a bad feeling about this. Pray. Pray as hard as you can.

Today: Today is an off day for the Mets. Neil Walker is leaving the team to be with his wife when she gives birth. Hopefully the baby is a healthy good luck charm, and Kelly Johnson launches some homers in Neil’s place.

Go Yo Go

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Final Score: Mets 9, Giants 5

Yoenis Cespedes won the Mets a baseball game yesterday. Shock of the century. I hope Yo hits 15 homers between now and the end of the year and gets paid the millions of dollars he deserves. The media couldn’t help but continue to stir the fabricated GolfGate storyline yesterday. Cespedes with his “defiant answer to golf game queries.” Ummm Yo literally said, “I just want to make it really clear that I don’t believe golf affected me, and it’s just not that I believe that: The doctor actually said golf did not affect me.”

So he just wanted to reiterate that everything the media printed was a complete lie smear campaign. Thanks for speaking up again Yo. Don’t let these bums say whatever the hell they want and get away with it. Now go to the driving range and smoke your cigarettes and do YOU.

Yo Recap: Cespedes hit a first inning double that scored Jose Reyes, and he hit solo homers in the third and the seventh inning. Alejandro De Aza hit a sixth inning three-run blast. The Italian stallion Justin Ruggiano had two hits and an RBI. Asdrubal Cabrera had two hits and an RBI. The Mets smacked around Matt Moore and Jake Peavy for 8 runs total. Wilmer Flores added a 9th inning RBI single. I can’t believe our offense is finally showing signs of life and our rotation and pen are now struggling.

Team Sexy: Bartolo Colon did hit robotic pitch machine routine. He gave up 9 hits over 6.1 innings but only 2 runs. He won his 11th game. We need to re-sign him.

Poor Robles: Hansel Robles came in and walked people. Addison Reed gave up a double and the Robles inherited runners scored. Hansel’s arm seems dead. Speaking of dead arms Jim Henderson is back on the roster. Remember when Terry blew his arm out in April?

Today: It would be really nice if Noah Syndergaard dominated on Sunday Night Baseball and the Mets split in San Fran. Also let me preface this by saying Neil Walker should undoubtedly be with his wife and baby girl when she is born this week. But he’s supposedly going to miss the entire series against the Cardinals. I do think it’s classic Mets luck that Neila Walkyear is arriving during what amounts to the most important series of the regular season. Also Neil should name her Danielle Murphy Walker and then watch #MetsTwitter break.

It’s Time To Add Terry To The Hall Of Managerial Faces

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terry hall of faces

Final Score: Giants 8, Mets 1

Here is the bottom line. The Mets players deserve blame for this train wreck of a season. Sandy Alderson deserves blame for this train wreck of a season. Terry Collins is a crappy in-game manager and deserves blame for this train wreck of a season. When your team enters a season surrounded by high expectations and the squad underachieves all year, the manager gets the blame first. That’s all there is to it. It’s simple. This team hasn’t shown any signs of life in months, and Terry should be canned. It’s time. Everyone keeps saying he’ll make it to the end of the season. Why? Why should he? Are we giving him an extra month because he went to the World Series last year? Are we worried he’ll sue the Wilpons over some ageism lawsuit? I honestly don’t get it. Dump this guy and let’s move on. The Mets are 5.5 out in the Wild Card standing. They are 2 games under .500. The season has long been over, and quite frankly it’s embarrassing that Terry and his staff are still here.

Lugo Proved Me Wrong: I was obviously pessimistic about the Mets chances before the game with Seth Lugo facing Johnny Cueto. But Seth proved me wrong. He went 6.2 innings and gave up 3 runs on 7 hits. He was extremely efficient. Definitely a bright spot in another horrendous game. Terry yanked him in the 7th with two outs after an Eduardo Nunez double and a Joe Panik intentional walk. Jerry Blevins promptly gave up back to back RBI singles to make it 3-1 Giants and the game was over.

Blunder: Seth Lugo and Jose Reyes were on first and second in the fifth inning with two outs. Kelly Johnson came up and hit a single directly at the right fielder. For some reason, Seth Lugo strolled right through Tim Teufel’s stop sign and headed home. This led to an embarrassing run down, and he was eventually tagged out at home. At the time the game was tied at 1. So this blunder definitely eliminated a big opportunity for the Mets with Jay Bruce coming up. Oh well.

How Many Hits?: The Mets had their lineup essentially back at full strength (minus Neil Walker) with the return of Yoenis Cespedes. But it seems people conveniently forgot all those months where we had Yo in the lineup and this team still underachieved. It’s nice to have him back, but it won’t matter. 11 hits last night and one run to show for it. Nothing but a Curtis Granderson solo shot on the Mets scoreboard. Plenty of opportunities.

Blunder 2.0: In the 8th inning the Giants piled runs on thanks to a bunch of hits off of Josh Smoker, Jeurys Familia and a big homer off of Erik Goeddel. Asdrubal Cabrera also made a horrendous throwing error. It went from 3-1 to 8-1 in a finger snap.

Let’s Talk About Bruce: The real reason the Mets didn’t score last night is because Jay Bruce and Yo basically didn’t do anything. They combined to go 1 for 8. I’m sure that will change in the coming weeks, and all of a sudden nobody else will hit. But regarding Bruce, I’m actually kind of embarrassed as a fan. I realize he’s undoubtedly going to catch METS disease and become terrible, and we’re all feeling pessimistic etc. But I’m already seeing fans and beat writers comparing him to Jason Bay. Are you kidding me? The guy came here 3 weeks ago. It’s almost disrespectful to Jason Bay to compare Bruce’s brief Mets career to Bay’s Mets career. Jason Bay is basically the number one example of a METS disease victim that we have on record. He epitomizes everything that METS disease is. He inexplicably lost all of his skills at 30 years old the second he put on a Mets uniform, and then went on to have three awful seasons. He just became worse and worse. And fans have the balls to already compare Jay Bruce to Bay after three weeks? Bruce has to earn his METS disease crown. This could just be a rough stretch. How dare y’all compare him to a METS disease legend. Let’s give him at least another month before we start crowning him.

Today: The Mets aren’t in the Wild Card race anymore. 5.5 games isn’t actually close. The Giants are burying us, and then St. Louis will finish us. Bartolo Colon pitches today. I wonder if he’ll be here next season. He’s the only arm in our rotation that I trust to give us 200 innings.

Manfred Wants To Change Baseball For The Children

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It appears King Manfred has decided that baseball is too boring to be played the way it’s been played for over a century. He issued a royal decree for all the land to hear. He addressed all the lords of the league aka the owners about potential changes to the game for consideration in the offseason. Apparently Commissioner Manfred feels the quality of play is down in 2016, and he wants to make changes to attract a younger generation of viewers. In other words Rob is begging us to think of the children. Won’t somebody please think of the children!

Here’s what clown Manfred wants to do:

Limit Pitching Changes: Apparently Manfred is tired of waiting for managers to make all their situational pitching changes. So he wants to limit the number of permissible pitching substitutions. I’m sure the player’s union will love the idea of the owners eliminating available MLB pitching jobs. I’m sure the agents and all the executives that handle these arms with the utmost care will love the idea that managers might feel compelled to leave pitchers in a game longer because they aren’t allowed to freely substitute someone else into the contest. This idea is terrible and won’t happen. Flush it down the toilet. Next.

Stop Shifting: Let me get this straight. Team executives used advanced analytics and spray charts to identify where players typically hit balls and made an effort to position their fielders in ways that minimize balls put in play. As a result we’ve supposedly seen batting averages drop. In most sports when a team utilizes a strategy to take advantage of something, other teams are expected to modify their play to adjust to the strategy. In baseball, the teams and players are so dead set on keeping things the way they’ve always been that they are considering banning the strategy rather than adapting to it. You know what will stop shifting? Hit the ball the other way! Bunt when the team abandons half the field. And don’t give me the “That’s easier said than done” BS. The old time baseball morons are just pissed that all the front office nerds are exploiting something in the game, and they don’t want to tell their top hitters to bunt because they’re too damn proud to make the adjustment. Just do it and force the opposition to abandon the shift.

20 Second Pitch Clock: All the other sports are about time and clocks. But not baseball. That’s what makes baseball unique. I totally agree that hitters spend too much time screwing around in the batter’s box, and pitchers spend too much time walking around the mound. But we need a freaking clock to stop that culture? Get out of my face with that crap. I thought baseball loved unwritten rules and mandates? If we want to stop the dillydallying, then tell the umpires to throw people out of the game if they take too long. Tell the umps to do their job and keep the games moving. Manfred even said, “And, quite frankly, the data shows that people don’t violate the 20-seconds. With or without a clock. It’s a reminder that moves things along.” So he’s admitting the clock does nothing and players just need an occasional reminder to keep playing.

Here are some of my thoughts:

Before Manfred starts making all these moronic “outside the box” changes that he probably got from some baseball consulting firm, why don’t we make a few obvious changes that will improve the game and their precious pace of play.

Fix Replay: Umm the replay review process is pretty pathetic. 90% of the time I watch the replay on my couch, make the correct call, and then I wait 5 minutes for the umpire to make the correct call. How can it possibly take so long for a central team in New York to relay the correct calls to the umpiring crew in each game? It’s absurd. If you want to implement a 20 second pitch clock, how about you implement a clock for these freaking umpires. Get the damn calls right and get them right immediately! It takes 10 seconds.

7-Day DL: The Mets literally spend half of their season playing shorthanded and debating whether players should be placed on the 15-Day DL. Now the Mets are an incompetent organization. There’s no denying that. But the truth is a minimum 15-Day DL rule is absurd. The minor leagues have a 7-Day DL. MLB needs that same rule. The Mets would still find a way to mishandle injuries with a 7-Day DL but at least the rest of the league would benefit.

Keep Juicing The Balls Up: Manfred says baseball is slow and boring, but home runs are way up in 2016. In July, the league was on pace to hit the most home runs since 2000. Home run totals rivaling the steroid era? What’s happening? Well it’s simple. They juiced the balls. They won’t admit it, but that’s what they did. And you know what? That’s genius. Fans love dingers. Kids love dingers. I would much rather MLB publicly announce they are juicing the balls to increase home run totals. That makes the game more fun and then the players aren’t sticking needles in their asses to entertain the fans.

Expand The Rosters Damnit: Don’t limit reliever substitutions. Expand the rosters. Let teams carry 30-35 guys. 162 games is an insane number. If they aren’t going to shorten the season then the teams need more troops to make it to the finish line. Sure this probably waters down the quality of the average roster. But who cares? The stars will get the rest they need and more players get the opportunity to play on the big stage.

Give Us The DH: I’ve written about this before. I love watching Noah Syndergaard and Bartolo Colon crush bombs, but it makes no sense for the AL and NL to have different rules. If the Mets had the DH, Yoenis Cespedes would have been able to rest his quad injury and contribute with his bat. If the Mets had the DH then the Jay Bruce/Cespedes/Curtis Granderson/Michael Conforto “logjam” would be resolved in two seconds. Juan Lagares would be able to play center field and bat 9th. I realize this opinion is unpopular among NL fans, but I’m ready to adopt the DH. The Mets are built on pitching, and I wan’t to protect the arms. And honestly the Mets would probably wind up DH-ing their pitcher half the time anyway.

Decide On The Damn Rules: The league spent half the season inconsistently enforcing the takeout slide rules at second base. Thor was instantly tossed for throwing a retaliation pitch at Utley earlier this year, and then at other times teams were simply warned for the exact same behavior. Maybe Rob Manfred should work on consistently enforcing the existing damn rules before implementing new ones.

All-Star Game: Get rid of the World Series home field advantage thing in the All-Star Game. It’s completely ridiculous. The team with the best regular season record should receive home field in the Fall Classic. Period.

Cut Spring Training: Spring Training is way too long. Cut it in half.

T-Shirt Cannon With Money: Many teams shoot T-shirts out of a cannon during games. Well how about they stuff money in one of the T-shirts during a few games a year? I’m talking big money. 10 grand. Something insane. You want to draw more people to the ballpark? Then randomly launch cash prizes into the stands. And also hire extra security so fans don’t attack each other for the prizes. Actually a cash T-shirt battle royale in the stands sounds a little dangerous. Maybe they should just award the cash randomly based on your seat number? All I know is I want the Mets to pay me 10 grand to come watch their games. Make the check out to The Metssiah.

Loosen Up On Content Sharing You Jerks: If MLB wants to attract a younger audience they should probably stop protecting their precious content so much. If you share a freaking video or a home run clip without the expressed written consent of the stupid league they have MLB secret agents busting down your door. I’ve been an MLB.TV subscriber for like 10 years. This season my account was accessed on two devices at the same time in different states. As a result of that they temporarily shut down my account, accused me of password sharing, and threatened to ban me from using the service. Do you realize how insane that is? I’m scared to even share this story on the internet. I’m worried Manfred and his goons are going to break my knee caps as I leave my house to go to work one day. Let people share content and share MLB.TV passwords. You want more people to watch right? Then don’t threaten people for sharing a video of a home run.

That’s All I’ve Got: I like baseball. I don’t want to change it. And quite frankly they don’t have to make any changes to reclaim market share. Baseball is going to win the war of attrition against football. It won’t be long before the NFL is shutdown by the courts because of all the concussion and health related litigation. Once that happens, the children will come crawling back to boring old baseball.