Can The Mets Please Sign Another Cuban?

On By themetssiah1 Comment

So it’s official, the next potential Cuban stud Yulieski Gourriel has been declared a free agent by Major League Baseball and is now free to sign with any team. The guy is 32 and he’s touted as arguably the top dog in the international market. Not just the top talent in Cuba but in the world. Also for the record, I checked with MLB and the Mets do qualify as “any team” so they technically are eligible to sign him despite never getting involved in the market for Cuban players or for international talents in general. I’m not talking about the international market for amateur players. The Mets do a ton of scouting and signing of amateur international players that are subject to the international bonus pool restrictions and signing process. I’m talking about international talents that are over 23 and are exempt from the definition of an amateur player. Typically to be exempt from amateur status you need to be 23+ and you need to have played in a league recognized by MLB as a pro league for a prescribed period of time. Because of his age and experience in the Cuban pro league, Gourriel is not subject to international spending limitations. The Mets can just sign him on the open market like any old free agent. And they should sign him.

The guy hits right handed and has played 15 seasons between Cuba and Japan. He has a career hitting line of .335/.417/.580 with 250 home runs in 5491 plate appearances. He’s supposedly a plus defender at his natural position of third base. Do the Mets need a third basemen? Can somebody help me with this one? Last I heard David Wright has been frozen in carbonite to help him maintain his posture and Wilmer Flores is booting grounders at third base left and right.

Signing international guys is never cheap. The Dodgers signed Hector Olivera to a 6 year 62.5m deal at 30 years old. Yasmany Tomas signed a 6 year deal with Arizona worth 68.5m at 24 years old.  Rusney Castillo signed a 7 year 72.5m deal with the Red Sox at 27 years old. Alex Guerrero signed a 4 year 28m deal with the Dodgers at 26 years old. Yes I realize it’s a risky move. Guerrero just got released by the Dodgers and was a total bust (although they never really gave him a chance to play full time). Rusney Castillo is in the Red Sox minor league system and has struggled at the ML level. That being said, he has so many talented players in front of him in the Sox organization, that it’s hard to call him a bust until he gets a real opportunity to play regularly. Tomas has been decent for the D-backs with a .270/.309/.411 line so far at the ML level. Olivera got arrested for a domestic violence incident after being traded to the Braves. So it’s fair to say he’s been a disaster.

But how can we ignore the success of Yoenis Cespedes, Aroldis Chapman, Jose Abreu and even Yasiel Puig in the majors. They have essentially been winning lottery tickets for their respective teams. Puig’s production has declined since his breakout 2013/14 seasons and Chapman has turned out to be a jerk off the field but their talent is undeniable.

My point in all this is the Mets should have the resources to take a risk on a promising Cuban player that fills a position of need. Sure he may need some seasoning at Triple-A. Maybe he won’t even have a big impact in 2016. But we need a replacement for Wright in the long term. And do we really expect Wright to just retire at the end of the season? It’s more likely that he lingers and tries to play another season or even beyond that. What proven major league free agent third basemen is going to join the Mets to be Wright’s understudy? Do we really want to give up a bunch of prospects for some stopgap solution like Danny Valencia or Aaron Hill? Do we want to give up Zack Wheeler for Jonathan Lucroy or overpay for someone having a career year like  Yangervis Solarte? Listen, we may need to do one of those things anyway to compete this season, but there’s nothing prohibiting the Mets from signing a Cuban talent and pursuing trade opportunities for short term solutions in the infield. Plus who better to help Gourriel get acquainted to life in the majors than Yoenis Cespedes, someone who’s made the adjustment from Cuban ball/life to the MLB.

I’m sick of watching other teams sign these Cuban studs. If the Mets don’t sign him, he’s just going to wind up on the Dodgers, Yankees, or some other team that isn’t afraid to open the wallet and take a risk. If the Wilpons have actually loosened the purse strings, then let’s see it. Sign another Cuban please.

Mets Crumbling; Darker Forces At Work

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Final Score: Brewers 5, Mets 3

Quick Recap: I don’t even have the energy to dissect this .500 road trip the Mets just finished. They just split a series in Milwaukee in truly embarrassing fashion. You want a recap of this game? The Mets committed 3 documented errors and an additional mistake that should have been an error. In the first inning with 2 outs, Ryan Braun hit a ball to Wilmer Flores that he deflected into the outfield. Alejandro De Aza then misfired to second base and Braun advanced to third on his error. The Brewers didn’t end up scoring that inning, but Flores should have been given an error on the play too. The Brewers scored three runs in the second inning. Keon Broxton hit an RBI single to make it 1-0. Then with runners on second and third, pitcher Zach Davies hit a sac bunt and Matz threw it away. Two more runs scored to make it 3-0. In the fifth inning, pitcher Zach Davies singled and then Jonathan Villar bunted to third. Wilmer Flores fielded the bunt, threw the ball away, and Davies advanced to third due to the error. That error set up a sac fly by Braun and an RBI double by Jonathan Lucroy to make it 5-0.

As far as the Mets offense goes, there was none other than Curtis Granderson and Yoenis Cespedes adding some meaningless RBI hits in the 8th inning. The Mets left the world on base per usual. Cespedes went 2 for 4. He’s our only real threat right now.

Darker Forces At Work: The Mets injury plague has jumped to frightening levels. Before the game, Terry Collins went to the hospital for tests. Pray for Terry. Now we have Travis d’Arnaud out, Lucas Duda/David Wright out for basically the season, Neil Walker battling back issues, Michael Conforto battling a wrist injury, and Cespedes sore in every part of his body. Essentially, the entire starting lineup is injured.

These 2016 injury woes go way beyond the standard Ray Ramirez inept training staff issues that we’ve all come to expect. We went to the World Series last year, and everyone is now disintegrating before our eyes. My running theory is this:

In mid-July of 2015, the Wilpons, the Ricketts Family that owns the Cubs, the Madoff trustee Irving Picard, and Lucifer himself all met with Bernie Madoff at his current prison facility in North Carolina.

The Deal:

  • The Wilpons got Yoenis Cespedes and a promise from Satan that he would help them make tons of money from future ticket sales so they could keep their fortune and pay back the money they owe for Madoff.
  • The Cubs got Satan to lift their curse and a promise of a World Series championship in 2016.
  • The Madoff trustee was promised he would get enough money from the Wilpons to pay back all the Madoff victims.
  • Bernie Madoff got his soul freed from Satan’s grasp, and a promise that he’d spend his afterlife in a nice mildly entertaining section of purgatory.
  • Satan got the souls of Daniel Murphy and Michael Fulmer, and in return the two athletes would go on to be the best hitter and pitcher in Major League Baseball for years to come.

Now in true Bedazzled fashion, there’s always some cruel spin on these deals with the devil. So here’s what we’ve seen happen since the deal went down. In August and September, Satan possessed Yoenis Cespedes who single-handedly sparked the Mets offense and led them to the playoffs. Satan simultaneously cursed Matt Williams and the Nationals. In the playoffs, in a cruel twist Satan transferred his influence from Cespedes to Daniel Murphy and used him to put a dagger through the Chicago Cubs heart thus keeping their curse in place in 2015. In the World Series, Satan temporarily left Murph and consequently he returned to being a defensive bum thus costing the Mets the championship. The Mets losing the World Series did not matter however because the playoff run combined with the continued presence of Cespedes has given the Wilpons all they needed to generate ticket sales to pay back the Madoff trustee.

Now in 2016, we have seen the second half of the deal. Daniel Murphy is the best hitter in baseball and carrying the Nationals who Satan wronged in 2015. Michael Fulmer is emerging as an absolute rookie of the year pitching stud for the Tigers. The Cubs so far are the best team to ever step foot on a baseball field, and seemingly nothing can stop them from ending their championship drought. And of course, the Wilpons were never actually promised a championship or any extended run of success as part of the evil negotiations. But they continue to sell tickets despite their entire team crumbling due to injury.

So that’s my running theory. I think the Wilpons made a deal with the devil, and now everything is falling apart because those mooks couldn’t negotiate a good business deal to save their lives. It’s June, the Mets are 34-28, and still technically hold an NL Wildcard spot despite their recent struggles. The season is so long and things can absolutely turn around in the summer for the Mets like they did last year. But yeah if you couldn’t tell from my tone above, I’m feeling kind of pessimistic about the direction our season is going.

NL Toilet Bowl Rages On

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Final Score: Brewers 7, Mets 4

Well the NL Toilet Bowl matchup between the Mets and Brewers raged on today. This time the pathetic Mets got shellacked by the actively tanking Brew Crew. Here’s a quick summary: The Mets offense continued to be absolutely pathetic and Logan Verrett and Antonio Bastardo got rocked. Half the bullpen was unavailable today because the Mets took 11 innings last night to win that torturous marathon of a ballgame. The Mets are 28th in runs scored this season. They are right ahead of the Phillies and Braves. We’ll be last in runs scored soon enough. But right now we are the king of the toilet teams.

Let’s start with the offense. Also keep in mind the Mets scored 3 runs in this game off of starter Wily Peralta. His ERA on the season is over 6.

Asdrubal Is Going To Disintegrate: Asdrubal Cabrera hit a two run shot in the second inning to give the Mets an early 2-0 lead. Cabrera has appeared in all 61 games for the Mets this year. He’s only played more than 146 games in a single season once in his career. We are going to kill him just like Michael Cuddyer. He’ll be a pile of bones by the end of the season. We should really put Wilmer Flores at shortstop for some games and Kelly Johnson at 3B. That combo in the field will make for some horrendous defensive blunders. But we can’t play Cabrera into the ground. He’s been one of the only guys on this team that can actually hit.

Grandy Is Back (I Think): Curtis Granderson hit a solo blast in the fifth inning to give the Mets their third run and make it 5-3 Brewers. He went 3 for 4 and was a double away from the cycle.

Why Bother Trying: In the first inning, Curtis Granderson led off with a single, stole second, and the Mets couldn’t get a hit to drive him in. In the third inning, Grandy tripled to lead off the inning. Michael Conforto proceeded to line a ball right at the third basemen who was playing on the line, and he nearly doubled up Curtis who was slightly off the bag. The play was challenged, reviewed, and Curtis was ruled safe. Conforto is an ice cold bad luck magnet right now. Then Yoenis Cespedes was unintentionally intentionally walked (duh why face him?) and Neil Walker hit into a double play. The Mets cannot buy a clutch hit. They strand everyone. The offense is worse than last year. That’s not just my gut feeling. Before today’s game, the Mets had scored 222 runs through 60 games. In 2015 through 60 games they had scored 224. There’s just no words left to describe this joke of an offense.

Logan Has No Powers: When I think of Logan Verrett, I think of Logan/Wolverine from X-Men. The Mets have the Dark Knight, Thor, and Captain America. It would be awesome if Logan Verrett was resilient, constantly fighting his way out of trouble, and his powers mirrored the regeneration mutant powers of Wolverine. Unfortunately, our Logan sucks. His powers include walking people, giving up home runs and really just sucking. He went 4 innings, gave up 5 runs, 3 home runs, and he walked 4. The Mets walked 7 overall in this game. Verrett’s ERA is up over 4 officially. Maybe we should take a look at Sean Gilmartin.

Chrissy Longballs: Chris Carter crushed a solo dinger off of Verrett in the second inning to make it 2-1 Mets. It was his 17th of the season. He’s such a homer or strikeout classic slugger. He’s just an Adam Dunn and Dave Kingman type. Incredible. I’m not sure if Sandy and the Mets regret letting Daniel Murphy go (they probably should). But I have to believe the Astros regret non-tendering Chris Carter.

Cheater Braun: Ryan Braun slugged a solo homer in the third inning to make it 3-2 Brewers. Screw you Braun you cheating bastard.

Pitcher Dinger LOL: Verrett gave up a two run bomb to pitcher Wily Peralta in the fourth inning. The Mets should consider demoting him for that gaffe alone.

Bastardo Sucks: In the 7th inning, Antonio Bastardo gave up solo bombs to Scooter Gennett and Ryan Braun (his second of the game) to make it 7-3. Soooo Bastardo sucks. I mean he sucks so far this season. That’s for sure. Look at this:

I hope he turns it around, but boy is it looking like we need another dependable reliever.

Another Back Plague Victim: Neil Walker left the game today. No it wasn’t because of his smashed heart from a couple days ago. He has….yup you guessed it, back soreness. The back soreness plague rages on. Terry said he’s very concerned, and Neil won’t play on Sunday. Pray for Neil. The injury hits just keep on coming for us. I want to laugh, but it’s not funny at all. The injuries are completely screwing us as they always do every season.

We’re Cursed: People say the Mets aren’t the most injured team in baseball history. I respectfully disagree and refuse to accept any facts to the contrary.

Suck It Up Conforto: Michael Conforto is really struggling. If we weren’t so short handed, I’m sure the Mets would consider playing him less often or even demoting him. But everyone’s dead and buried so he needs to play every day. Brandon Nimmo is raking in Vegas. I suppose that’s an option.

Don’t Trade Wheeler: Every fan that tries to come up with a hypothetical trade to save our offense says “okay so Wheeler and (prospect) for…(offensive savior)”. Umm I’m not buying that idea. I thought the plan was 5 aces? I like that plan.

Tomorrow: The Mets better win 3 out of 4 in this damn series. Steven Matz has to win tomorrow. The Brewers stink, and if we are going to keep pace with the other NL contenders we need to beat these teams. Period.

Mets Take Wild Gift Wrapped Victory

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Final Score (in 11 innings): Mets 2, Brewers 1

This game was an absolute slopfest. Sweet Jesus Christ. The Mets left the world on base, and ultimately won in the 11th inning because the Brewers misplayed what should have been an inning ending double play.

Dark Knight: Matt Harvey is really back. He’s put together a few great starts, and now he’s consistently showing the velocity and command we’ve grown accustomed to seeing over the years. Harvey ran out of gas late. He pitched 6 innings, gave up 2 hits, 1 run, and struck out 8. His only slip up came in the fifth when he gave up a triple to Kirk Nieuwenhuis, a walk to Aaron Hill, and a sac fly to Ramon Flores to make it 1-0. Also the Mets gave him no run support and he didn’t get a W. Duh.

Double Challenge?: In the third inning, Aaron Hill walked, the pitcher Junior Guerra sacrificed him over to second base. Then with two outs Jonathan Villar singled and Guerra initially scored on a close play at home. The Mets challenged the call arguing the tag was applied before Hill’s foot touched home plate. The Mets won the challenge, and the call was reversed. Then the Brewers challenged that Kevin Plawecki blocked home plate illegally. That challenge was overruled. It was a stupid challenge by the Brewers as Plawecki clearly gave the runner the path to score. I’m not sure I can remember ever seeing the double challenge. I’m in favor of replay challenge and getting the calls right. But even I can agree with Keith that the double challenge is an insane time waster. I can’t believe they don’t just take one long look at the play and assess everything. It’s completely ridiculous.

Return Of Kelly: Kelly Johnson returned to the Mets and went 2 for 4. Captain Kirk also robbed him of either a home run or double off the top of the center field wall in the 7th inning. He doubled to leadoff the third inning and with one out, Matt Harvey hit a ball right up the middle. For some reason Kelly was basically frozen a few steps off the bag and at the last minute decided to retreat to second base. Unfortunately, Jonathan Villar was basically standing in his way to easily make the tag and then make the throw to first to complete the double play. Also when he stepped into the bag, Johnson’s leg bent and he fell over. I thought he blew out his knee. He did not. That’s just how I think as a Mets fan.

Yo Duh: In the 6th inning, Yoenis Cespedes crushed a solo blast to make it 1-1 thus ensuring these two teams would be tied forever and play for hours. He went 2 for 5. Thanks for being our only elite hitter Yo.

The Pen and Finger Problems: After Harvey came out, Hansel Robles, Antonio Bastardo, Jim Henderson, Jerry Blevins, and Jeurys Familia combined for 5 scoreless innings of relief. The only downside was Henderson kind of struggled in the 9th inning issuing a couple of walks. But he got out of it. Then he came out for the 10th, issued a walk and was pulled from the game because his finger nail ripped off. Yikes.

The Blown Chances: In the fifth inning, Wilmer Flores hit a leadoff single. Kevin Plawecki hit a single with one out to put runners on first and second for Harvey. Matt sacrificed the runners over to second and third. The Brewers intentional walked Curtis Granderson to load the bases for Alejandro De Aza. De Aza promptly grounded out to second base in pathetic fashion. In his gift start, De Aza went 0 for 5. So much for more playing time. In the 9th inning, Asdrubal Cabrera led off with a walk, Wilmer Flores singled, and then Kelly Johnson singled to load the bases. The pathetic Mets offense couldn’t get a sac fly. Kevin Plawecki popped out, Neil Walker struck out, and Curtis Granderson grounded out. We didn’t deserve to win this game. We had 10 hits. Not scoring with the bases loaded and nobody out is inexcusable.

The Gift Wrapping: In the 11th, we nearly did the same thing as the 9th inning. Asdrubal singled, Wilmer doubled, and Kelly Johnson was intentionally walked to load the bases. Plawecki fouled out in pathetic fashion. Then Matt Reynolds hit a liner to the shortstop Villar who dropped the liner and threw the ball to second base to make the force out there. The runner scored from third. The runner that was on second base went to third without a play. Reynolds was easily safe at first base. As Terry said after the game, “You just take the win and go get ready for tomorrow. You don’t try to analyze that one.” Amen to that. But FYI the analysis is it was a gift wrapped run and should have been an inning ending double play. Thanks Milwaukee.

Today: Logan Verrett gets the spot start today thanks to this week’s doubleheader throwing off the rotation. We should win again. The Brewers are pathetic.

Playing Milwaukee Is The Best

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Final Score: Mets 5, Brewers 2

Can we modify the rest of our regular season schedule and just play the Brewers the rest of the way? Maybe we can petition the league to realign the divisions. The Mets can be the powerhouse in the newly constructed NL Toilet Division. We want Atlanta, Philly, Milwaukee, and San Diego. I’d ask for the crummy Rockies, but they already beat our asses. So maybe they belong in the next tier of teams. Against the Brewers, the Mets can make errors and get away with them. In Milwaukee, Bartolo Colon can give up 8 hits and only wind up surrendering 1 run over 7 innings. Against the Brew Crew, the Mets can leave men on base like they always do, and it won’t matter because we’ll still score enough runs to win. In Milwaukee, Wilmer Flores goes 3 for 4 and Kevin Plawecki can get singles that drive in two whole runs. Even Matt Reynolds can get an RBI single in Milwaukee to give the Mets a late insurance run. Yes, I only want to play the Brewers the rest of the way because I want to feel this way after every game.

Grandyman and Co: Curtis Granderson led the game off with a solo bomb. He loves hitting leadoff homers. God I hope this means he’s starting to come around. He also hit an opposite field double in the third inning of this game to go 2 for 4. With two outs and Grandy on second base, Yoenis Cespedes drove him in with a single to make it 2-0. Cespedes went 2 for 5. He’s our team engine.

Big Sexy: As I said above, Tolo gave up many hits. He got an inning ending double play in the first inning. In the second inning Chris Carter doubled with one out and Hernan Perez singled with two outs. But Tolo got out of the inning unscathed. In the third, Scooter Gennett singled with two outs and Bartolo picked him off. Whoops! In the fourth Ryan Braun reached on a bad throwing error by James Loney. Loney’s throw beat Tolo to the bag. But who cares because Tolo got a double play off the bat of Jonathan Lucroy and struck out Chris Carter. No problem there. In the fifth inning stanky Kirk Nieuwenhuis led off with a single and Hernan Perez promptly hit into a double play. Every single mini-rally for the Brew Crew got squashed by a double play or something. They’re just like the Mets. Their only run off of Tolo came in the 7th when Kirk hit a two out double and Hernan Perez crushed an RBI grounder right at Neil Walker to make it 2-1. The ball came up and rocked Neil Walker in the heart, and it bounced far away from him. It was called a hit. Neil’s alive so that’s really all that matters. But boy has his glove been crummy lately. He’s Murphin it up big time.

RBIs For All: In the 8th inning, the Brewers brought in Corey Knebel who was awful. James Loney led off with a single, he walked Asdrubal Cabrera, and Wilmer singled to load the bases. Kevin Plawecki then hit a single between third and short that scored two runs and made it 4-1. It was a clutch hit. I hope this means Plawecki will start to show something. Travis d’Arnaud will be back soon, and that probably means Vegas for Plawecki. The final Mets run came in the 9th inning. Juan Lagares aka Juanny one thumb hit a leadoff double. I guess he’s okay. And with one out Matt Reynolds (who came in for the injured Neil Walker) hit an RBI single. Almost every Met joined the party last night except Michael Conforto. Conforto went 0 for 4 and came up in the fourth inning with bases loaded and two outs and popped out to short. He threw his bat in disgust. He’s really struggling.

Reed Ain’t Perfect: Addison Reed gave up an RBI double to Scooter Gennett in the 8th inning. He’s been untouchable all season. Terry pitched him two innings on Wednesday and brought him back out on Thursday. Why? I guess Terry wants to kill him? Insanity.

Smashed Heart: Pray for Walker. He got hit in the heart/chest by that hard hit liner in the 7th inning. Supposedly he’s fine other than the fact that he’s developing a bad case of the Murphs in the field. I wish his bat would develop Murphy syndrome and he’d hit .400.

Trade Chip: Outfield prospect Brandon Nimmo is hitting .325 in Vegas. After his early season foot injury he’s really taking off in the minors. In last night’s Vegas game he went 3 for 5 with two home runs. Honestly, I think he’s going to be the trade chip the Mets push on teams if they look to make a big time upgrade to replace David Wright. Juan Lagares is signed through 2020 and Conforto is under team control through 2021. I’m not even going to entertain the notion that the Mets won’t give Yoenis Cespedes the 6-7 year contract he deserves when he opts out at the end of the season. If the Mets let Yo walk obviously we all need to riot. But assuming the Mets have those three outfielders signed long term, there’s really no room for Nimmo at the ML level. So it would make sense that Nimmo would be the guy they shop. We shall see. I’m not saying we should trade him. I’m just saying it could make sense for the right return.

Local Guys: Speaking of young studs, the Mets drafted Justin Dunn from Boston College with the 19th pick in the Amateur draft yesterday and then with the 31st pick (the Murph compensation pick) the Mets grabbed lefty Anthony Kay from UConn. And both of these guys are from Long Island. In fact Kay went to the same high school as Steven Matz. I love the move to replenish the farm with arms after we dealt so many at last year’s deadline. And I love that we snagged a couple of local dudes. Plus college arms tend to be more advanced. Hopefully they are on a slightly accelerated ML track.

Today: The Mets have Matt Harvey on the mound today against the stinko Brew Crew. Supposedly Kelly Johnson will finally be here, and I’m guessing he draws a start right away. What the hell is with all these incredibly slow post trade arrival times? James Loney seemingly came to the Mets by horse drawn carriage. And now Kelly Johnson takes two days? I feel like he’s being escorted to Milwaukee in a Presidential motorcade going 5 MPH and waving at everyone he passes. Let’s roll on the Brewers.

Mets Somehow Win Game In Pittsburgh

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

The Mets needed this win in a big way. Sure they could have easily lost this game a bunch of different times. Sure it was helpful that Mark Melancon was unavailable after pitching both games of the doubleheader. Sure they failed to capitalize on a number of run scoring opportunities. But they scored just enough to get the W. Noah Syndergaard pitched just gritty enough to keep them in the game. Jim Henderson and Jeurys Familia sucked a lot last night. But they didn’t suck enough to fully blow the game.

Gritty Thor: Noah Syndergaard pitched 6 innings, gave up 7 hits, gave up 3 runs (2 ER) and only struck out 5. He did not have his best stuff. In the first inning, Neil Walker made an error that let John Jaso reach base. Thor then walked Andrew McCutchen. Gregory Polanco promptly made the Mets pay with an RBI double. Jung Ho Kang followed that with an RBI single to make it 2-0. But Thor retired the next three batters and got out of a sticky situation. He got out of a jam in the third inning. He got in trouble in the fourth inning and surrendered an RBI double to John Jaso to make it 3-2. But he limited the damage yet again. He gave a gritty performance on a night where he was getting hit more often than we’re used to.

Just Take The Base: The Pirates stole on Thor once in the first inning, twice in the third inning. I think they had four stolen bases. He really doesn’t hold people on base. Have we given up on fixing that problem? Maybe we’re so focused on our offensive woes that we don’t have time to fix the other cracks in our team infrastructure.

Old Kelly: Yesterday the Mets traded for Kelly Johnson. But last night it was old Ty Kelly who came through with a huge two run blast in the fourth inning to tie the game at 2-2. I complain an awful lot about the Quadruple-A mooks that make up this roster, but look at that picture up top. It was Kelly’s first career home run. Good for him. I feel like the Mets are going to keep him on this roster somehow. I can feel it in my plums.

Conforto Stirs: Michael Conforto hit a game tying sac fly in the fifth inning to make it 3-3, and he added an enormous game tying two run blast in the 8th inning to make it 5-5. He said he felt like he had better ABs last night. Keep it up man. We need his bat back in a bad way.

Somebody Please Hit: I’m so happy the Mets won this game, but it was tough to watch. They left a bunch of men on base and hit into a number of double plays as usual. Brutal. They left Cespedes on base in the first inning. With two men on base and one out in the second inning, Rene Rivera hit into a double play. They left a man on in the third inning. Conforto was only able to get a sac fly in the fifth inning because Thor led off with a double and was sacrificed over to third. In the 10th inning, Yoenis Cespedes led off with a single and Neil Walker followed that with a single. James Loney sacrificed them both over and then Asdrubal Cabrera was walked intentionally to load the bases. Wilmer Flores came through with a pinch hit bloop RBI single up the middle to make it 6-5. But then with the bases loaded and one out, Matt Reynolds and Kevin Plawecki were retired to strand everyone. Familia almost blew the game in the 10th inning, but luckily the squandered opportunities didn’t matter in the end.

Familia Tightrope: Jeurys Familia walked the first two batters in the 10th inning. Then he got a double play. With two outs, he proceeded to walk the next batter. He ended up striking out David Freese with first and third and two outs to end the game. Familia has not been lights out this season. He’s walking the damn tightrope every single outing. I hope he hits his stride in the summer. Otherwise we’re screwed eventually.

Guerrero No Deal: The Dodgers released Cuban 3B/OF Alex Guerrero. He’s been pretty bad in his first two years in the states. He did hit 11 bombs last year, and he bats righty. I’d bring him in if I ran the Mets, but I’m pretty sure they already said they have no interest. Ty Kelly it is!

Draft Day: Today is MLB draft day. The Mets have the 19th, 31st, and 64th overall picks. The 31st pick was compensation for Daniel Murphy signing with the Nats. I bet they’d trade that pick to get Murph back right now huh? Well it’s fine. Honestly we need to replenish the farm system. We’ll need more picks to send the Braves when we reacquire Kelly Johnson in 2017, 2018, and 2019.

Mini-Series Preview: No off day today?!? I’ll have to keep my Milwaukee Brewers series preview brief. The Brewers are 6-4 in their last 10, but ultimately they stink. Ryan Braun and Jonathan Lucroy are both studs. There’s a preview, that’s a preview. We need to come up big in this four game series and get our season back on track.

Game 1: Bartolo Colon vs. Jimmy Nelson

Game 2: Matt Harvey vs. Junior Guerra

Game 3: Logan Verrett vs. Wily Peralta

Game 4: Steven Matz vs. Zach Davies

Mets Bring Back Kelly Johnson; Reassembling The Band

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The Mets bringing back Kelly Johnson in a trade with the Braves is laugh out loud hilarious. In fact, I’m laughing at how ridiculous it is right now. Just sitting in my chair laughing it up. We give up minor league pitching assets to the same team in our division for the same mediocre bench player two years in a row?!? That’s so very Mets of us. The Mets do deserve some praise for realizing that their ship has been sinking as the Nationals steamliner forges full speed ahead. Sandy was as frustrated with that horrendous doubleheader as the fans were and addressed our non-existent roster depth the next day. Okay I have offered the appropriate amount of praise. Now let’s continue to criticize. The Mets and particularly Sandy deserve real criticism for being so shortsighted that they didn’t sign Kelly Johnson when they had the chance this spring. We had the need on our roster in February. And clearly if we are bringing him back now, we had the financial flexibility to take on his miniscule salary. The Mets passed on Johnson in favor of Eric Campbell. Ridiculous. Now for the second year in a row we give up a pitching prospect (this time Akeel Morris) to patch up our bench problems. Good thing pitching grows on trees in our organization.

Obviously cranky rant aside, the return of Kelly Johnson is big news. He’s a tremendous upgrade over what we currently have on the roster. He’s been god awful so far this season at the dish (.215/.273/.562) and he’s not really a good fielder at all, but he’s definitely better than Ty Kelly. He’s a net positive. He’s certainly not the straw that stirred the drink last year. But I fully expect the fan base to put that level of pressure on him as soon as he arrives. We are officially bringing the band back together. Now all we need is Daniel Murphy, Tyler Clippard and Juan Uribe and we should be all set. Oh wait what? They are major contributors on all their respective teams this year? Whoops!

 

Mets Drop Doubleheader; Wheels Are Falling Off

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Juan Lagares Tears His Completely Useless Opposable Thumb

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

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

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

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

Series Preview: Neil Walkyear Pittsburgh Homecoming

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

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

Pitching Matchups:

Game 1: Steven Matz vs. Jon Niese

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

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

Game 2: Jacob deGrom vs. Juan Nicasio

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

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

Game 3: Noah Syndergaard vs. Francisco Liriano

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

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

Things To Look For:

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

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

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

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