Jose Fernandez Strikes Out The World

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Final Score: Marlins 1, Mets 0

There’s not much to recap in this game. Jose Fernandez absolutely dismantled the Mets over 7 innings. He gave up 4 hits and struck out 14. The Mets really didn’t have a chance to do anything offensively in this game. Curtis Granderson hit a two out double in the first but Jose retired Neil Walker to end the inning. In the 7th inning, Michael Conforto and James Loney hit back to back two out singles. Fernandez struck out Wilmer Flores to end that threat. The bottom line is the Mets took 2 out of 3 in Miami, and that’s fantastic in my book. They also did to the Marlins what they failed to do against the Dodgers at home. They won the two games that didn’t involve untouchable aces. The Mets lost to Clayton Kershaw, and they lost to Jose Fernandez. So does every other team in the league. We must tip our cap and move on to the next series.

HarveyDay Back: Matt Harvey pitched great, didn’t get any run support, and got the L. That’s classic HarveyDay. He didn’t really have his strike out stuff working today as he only put away three Marlins. But he was almost as effective as Fernandez this afternoon. He went 7 innings, gave up 4 hits and gave up one run. He made a mistake in the fifth inning. He gave up a one out double to Derek Dietrich and then an RBI single to J.T. Realmuto. That was all it took for Fernandez to get the win.

Asdrubal’s Knee: In the 8th inning Ichiro Suzuki got picked off by Antonio Bastardo and he slid into Asdrubal Cabrera at second base. His head smashed into Cabrera’s knee. Cabrera hobbled off the field but stayed in the game. The Mets roster is littered with blue eyed corpses.

Lagares Dunzo: Juan Lagares is heading to New York to get an MRI on the thumb he injured during yesterday’s game. Might as well zip up that body bag and send him to the DL aka the morgue. Poor Juanny. I cursed him in my series preview by talking about how great of a season he’s been having in this reserve role.

D’Arnaud Stands Up: Rumor has it that Travis d’Arnaud finally stood up in Port St. Lucie and took a few baby steps without having his legs shatter beneath him. Mr. Glass is even going to DH in some Florida State League games. They say he’ll be back in three weeks. Yeah right.

Not Chapman: The Metssiah called this over a month ago, but the Nationals are supposedly eagerly awaiting a Yankees trade deadline sell off so they can trade for Aroldis Chapman. If that comes to fruition, it’s going to be absolutely terrible for the Mets. Hopefully Chapman does steroids or something and gets suspended so he can’t be traded.

Tomorrow: The Mets head to Pittsburgh now to face the Pirates and our old friend Jon Niese. This is a big road series against a top NL team. The Mets need to keep the road momentum going.

Mets Win But Dropping Like Flies

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Final Score: Mets 6, Marlins 4

What a big road series win for the New York Mets. After a dog crap homestand, this was exactly what the Mets needed to get back on track.

Sexy Could Have Been Hotter: This wasn’t the best start we’ve seen from Bartolo Colon in 2016. He went 5 innings, gave up 5 hits and 2 runs (1 ER). He surrendered a solo blast to Martin Prado in the first inning to make it 1-0 Marlins. In the second inning, Tolo gave up a single to Justin Boar, a double to J.T. Realmuto, and walked Miguel Rojas to load the bases. Then the pitcher Justin Nicolino hit a ball to Wilmer Flores at third base. He threw home, and Bour should have been out on the force. Plawecki kind of forgot what was going on, took his foot off home plate, and tried to tag the runner. It was called a missed catch error on Kevin Plawecki. That made it 2-0 Marlins. Plawecki is really struggling. He needs some seasoning big time.

Sub-Hero: James Loney and Wilmer Flores came through again in game 2 of this series. They each had three hits. In the fourth inning, Asdrubal Cabrera hit a leadoff single. Then with one out, Wilmer Flores singled to set up a first and third situation for James Loney. Loney singled to drive in Asdrubal and make it 2-1. In the 6th inning Neil Walker singled, Wilmer Flores singled, and then James Loney singled to load the bases. Michael Conforto then hit a sac fly to make it 2-2.

Robles Is El Stinko: In the 6th inning, Hansel Robles struck out the first two batters. Then he walked the next two batters and gave up an RBI double to Miguel Rojas. That made it 3-2 Marlins.

Sub-Hero continued: In the 8th inning, James Loney led off with a double and Michael Conforto singled to drive him in and make it 3-3. Then Kevin Plawecki struck out and Alejandro De Aza grounded out. The Marlins followed that with an intentional walk to Curtis Granderson and Matt Reynolds made them pay with a pinch hit single to make it 4-3. In the 9th inning, Neil Walker walked and Flores singled. With Walker and Flores at second and third with two outs, Kevin Plawecki walked. Alejandro De Aza then doubled in Walker and Flores to make it 6-3.

Dropping Like Flies Part 1: Yoenis Cespedes was scratched from the game with a sore hip. He says it’s fine, and he’s dealt with this before. Greeaaaat. Rub some tiger balm on that bad boy. Without him we are finished.

Dropping Like Flies Part 2: In the 6th inning, Juan Lagares made a run saving diving catch on an Ichiro pinch hit appearance. He hurt his thumb diving and later got pulled. No word yet on the severity of his injury.

Dropping Like Flies Part 3: Asdrubal Cabrera said his forearm tightened up during the game. He’s supposedly fine too. Jesus Christ. The injuries just won’t stop.

NL Least: The Nationals lost again to the Reds and dropped 2 out of 3. The Mets just took 2 out of 3 from Miami at home. NL Least baby!

Today: HarveyDay. I’m excited. Matt Harvey started to turn the ol’ season around last time out against the White Sox. Let’s hope his success continues today. As I said in the series preview, Jose Fernandez is dominating every team in the league right now on the mound. Good thing we already won the series!

Mets Backups Step Up In Win

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Final Score: Mets 6, Marlins 2

Backups Step Up: Well well well. Yesterday I wrote about how the Mets are only going to overcome their injury woes if the people they’ve penciled in as “depth” actually do their job. In particular I said a lot of this season is riding on whether Wilmer can step the hell up and return to form. Well last night against Tom Koehler, the subs showed up to play. Other than Asdrubal Cabrera who got the Mets scoring started in the 4th with a solo bomb, it was the Wilmer Flores, James Loney and Rene Rivera show. After the Cabrera bomb, Yoenis Cespedes singled and Neil Walker got hit on the foot by a pitch. The struggling Michael Conforto hit into a double play. With Cespedes on third and two outs, Wilmer Flores picked up a huge two out RBI single to right field. That gave the Mets a 2-0 lead. In the 7th, Wilmer Flores walked and James Loney crushed a two run bomb to make it 4-2. In the 9th, Wilmer Flores crushed a leadoff double and with one out, Rene Rivera cranked a two run insurance jack to make it 6-2. Those were all the runs the Mets needed. Wilmer went 2 for 3 with a walk and Loney was 2 for 4.

Like Loney, Like Murph: James Loney is a contact hitter who can take a walk. The Mets gave him number 28. Before Murphtober, that’s pretty much how we would have described Daniel Murphy. Here’s Murphy’s career batting line .294/.336/.435. Here’s Loney’s career batting line .285/.338/.411. Umm pretty pretty similar. Hell they even have a similar batting stance:


Maybe Kevin Long can sprinkle some of his leftover magic Murph home run dust on Loney. Whatever he’s done so far it worked for Loney last night.

Aces Gonna Ace: Noah Syndergaard is the ace of this staff, and he just did his thing last night. He went 7 innings, gave up 2 runs on 6 hits, and he struck out 9. He made a mistake pitch to Marcell Ozuna in the second and Ozuna hit a solo bomb. He also made an error in that inning when he covered first and dropped the throw allowing Adeiny Hechavarria to reach base safely. It didn’t matter because he struck out the next two guys. He also gave up a sac fly to Ozuna in the 6th. That tied the game 2-2. Ultimately he gave the Mets everything they needed last night.

Rene: As I said in the series preview, I think Rivera is going to draw way more starts that Plawecki now. These pitchers like throwing to him. Even Rivera couldn’t stop guys from stealing on Thor last night though. Ichiro stole second and third base and J.T. Realmuto stole a base.

Cespedes Reminder: Yoenis Cespedes was briefly struggling at the plate before this series. He went 2 for 4 last night. He was involved in all the action on offense. The Mets scored six runs and won. Obviously when Yo is hitting the entire lineup hits. It is known. He really loves hitting in Miami.

Miguan Lagarto: Michael Conforto is really struggling offensively at the moment. He’s going to fight through it. I’m sure the Juan Lagares end of Terry’s favorite platoon will draw more starts if Conforto’s struggles continue.

Reed Locked In: Addison Reed is like the best reliever in the league. I’m not even kidding. He’s got a 1.82 ERA. He’s averaging over 12 Ks per 9 innings. He’s been untouchable. I kind of don’t get it. He throws 93 MPH down the middle. I guess he locates his pitches and hides the ball well. I hope this turns out to be the Mets bullpen trade Sandy is remembered for and not a two month fluke.

Today: Bartolo Colon goes tonight. We face a lefty. We should probably start hitting lefties tonight. Also the Nats lost to the Reds yesterday. Baaahahaha.

Wright To DL Forever; Did The Blueprint Fail?

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David Wright Dunzo: David Wright is officially going on the disabled list today. The Mets say he’ll be out 6-8 weeks with this herniated disk in his neck, and then they’ll re-evaluate or whatever. I wrote about David earlier in the week. The Mets should have placed him on the DL a week ago. Playing shorthanded while waiting to see if David’s spine/neck feels better is an absurd strategy. In that prior post, I wrote about how sad the demise of David has been. It’s sad to watch a childhood sports hero of mine crumble. My question is how did we get here and what do we do next? Did the Mets preseason blueprint fail?

Preseason Depth Delusion: In my season preview, I talked about how the Mets finally had some depth to speak of on the major league roster. In the offseason the Mets added a new starter at second base and shortstop in Neil Walker and Asdrubal Cabrera. They also retained Yoenis Cespedes. By bolstering the starting corps, they simultaneously enhanced the bench by pushing Ruben Tejada, Wilmer Flores, Alejandro De Aza, and Juan Lagares to part time roles. Finally, we were taking the pressure off of young players like Lagares, Tejada, and Wilmer by taking them out of the starting lineup and giving them a chance to excel in a limited role. The Opening Day bench was supposed to consist of these known commodities. Yes that’s right I’m calling Lagares, Flores, and Tejada known commodities. We knew with absolute certainty that Ruben Tejada was a mediocre light-hitting backup middle infielder. Light hitting meaning .240 not .140 like most of the bums we’ve seen this year. Prior to this season, Wilmer Flores was approaching 1000 MLB plate appearances. In that time he showed the Mets that he had a competent bat with a little pop. He showed the Mets that he had a weak glove, but he was at least capable of standing and wearing that glove at second base, shortstop and third base. Juan Lagares showed the Mets he could play gold glove defense in the outfield and hit left handed pitching. Alejandro De Aza had a lengthy major league resume with success against right handed pitching and a decent glove at all three outfield positions. The Mets felt they had depth for the regular season. The only place where the Mets took a bit of a risk was at the catching position. Kevin Plawecki essentially failed in his 2015 catching audition. He failed to hit and the Mets really struggled during the stretch of the 2015 season when he filled in for Travis d’Arnaud. But the Mets took a chance on a young player that they have a lot of confidence in. They felt he would take a step forward and produce. Or at least they felt he would outperform the garbage alternatives that were available in the offseason.

Has The Blueprint Failed?: So far this season the blueprint has failed miserably. Alejandro De Aza has struggled mightily in his limited role. He’s batting .196. Wilmer Flores got injured and has failed to produce at all offensively. He’s hitting .167 with one dinger. His production has literally been non-existent. The Mets inexplicably dumped Ruben Tejada at the end of the spring in favor of unknowns and quadruple-A player options. Those unknowns like Eric Campbell and Ty Kelly have turned out to be significantly worse than Ruben which is saying a lot. Not only have the quadruple-A bums been miserable, but they’ve been getting a ton of ABs which has been the primary reason for our recent offensive struggles. Kevin Plawecki has taken a step backwards this season. He’s struggled to produce offensively and his receiving skills have been outshined by non-hitting veteran journeyman Rene Rivera. So yeah the Mets blueprint has failed so far.

Why No “Super Team”?: This recent stretch of horrendous offense has led me to question the Mets offseason approach. Specifically, I’ve found myself saying things like “I wish we had Daniel Murphy too” and “I wish we made a crazy high bid to get Ben Zobrist”. I’ve seen a lot of people say these exact things. Here’s the bottom line. A “super team” sounds amazing. Obviously we would all love to have Neil Walker, Asdrubal Cabrera, and Daniel Murphy on this team. But we were never going to be able to practically assemble that team especially with David Wright on the roster. Think about it for a second. Let’s say hypothetically that the Mets signed Daniel Murphy and Yoenis Cespedes on day one of the 2015 offseason. Do you think Ben Zobrist would have entertained signing with the Mets as a backup? Do you think the Mets would have traded for silver slugger second basemen Neil Walker and rendered the recently signed Murphy a backup? I’m not saying that we couldn’t use both those players today. Obviously without Wright, we have a place for Murphy at third base. But these established veteran players don’t sign contracts and cross their fingers that they will get a chance to play. They sign deals with teams that give them the most playing team. I love the idea of Neil Walker and Ben Zobrist on the same team. I love the thought of having Daniel Murphy right now. But that was a pipe dream and was never going to happen. And if we just signed Murphy and that was it, then we’d have Wilmer at second base and Murph at third and we’d be no better off.

The Real Problems: The real problem with our blueprint is two-fold. The first issue was that we never replaced Michael Cuddyer. With Lagares, De Aza, Plawecki, and Flores the Mets really had one spot open on the bench. They dumped Tejada and they needed to replace him with a real major league player with a resume. Instead they gave us garbage. They passed on Kelly Johnson, Juan Uribe, Steve Pearce, and many others. But the real problem is a dearth of upper level minor league position player talent. Let’s be real here. I wrote a couple days ago that the Cubs did it right. The Cubs had arguably the top position players in the league. And they bolstered that in the offseason by signing Jason Heyward, Ben Zobrist, and retaining Dexter Fowler. But wait a minute. That’s very similar to what the Mets did. The Mets added starting position players and bumped their young players to the bench. The difference is the Cubs have way more talented young players like Jorge Soler and Javier Baez to bump to the bench. The Mets didn’t have players of that caliber to demote to the bench. And the Mets clearly don’t have any position players other than Dilson Herrera at Triple-A ready to contribute. If they had players like that at AAA they would have been promoted already. So yeah the Mets deserve criticism for that. They’ve promoted a butt-load of talent over the past few seasons. So it makes some sense that the cupboard is empty. But the winning won’t be sustainable without an influx of upper level minor league talent. And that certainly won’t happen if we ship whatever we have left off to replace David Wright.

The Inevitable External Solution: As much as we can’t afford to ship off what’s left of our upper level minor league system, that’s looking more and more like a lock. I don’t think the Mets are realistically going to be able to get an impact bat. Every team will ask for Zack Wheeler in the “impact bat” conversation. Nobody is going to help the Mets unless we part with Zack, and we can’t afford to do that. In the same way that the Cubs have that position player depth, we have that in our pitching staff, and that pitching is the only chance we have to win it all. In all likelihood, we will do the same thing we did last year with Uribe or Johnson. We’ll get a veteran bench/starter swingman. We will finally fill that Michael Cuddyer bench vacancy that we should have filled in the spring.

The Real Test: The blueprint has failed so far, but it’s not a complete failure yet. Why? Because Wilmer Flores has had like 60 ABs. Alejandro De Aza has had like 50 ABs, and James Loney just got here. The real test of the blueprint will be in June and July. The Mets need to make a trade no matter what because of the major injuries to multiple starting players and the need to fill the Cuddy bench hole that I mentioned above.  They need to remove the quadruple-A players from the bench and replace them ASAP. But if Wilmer continues to fail as the replacement for Wright and Plawecki is a complete bust as a replacement for Travis d’Arnaud, then yes the Mets blueprint has been a total bust. The Mets will be able to find a way to add a veteran player for the bench. But it’s going to be very challenging adding a player that provides starting caliber production without surrendering Wheeler. Over the next few weeks, Wilmer Flores, Kevin Plawecki, and even James Loney can completely change the narrative. Let’s hope they are successful, because the acquisition of a bench veteran alone may not be enough to keep the Mets afloat until these injured players return. To stay afloat, they need the players they penciled in as “depth” in spring training to come through as originally expected. In the end, that may turn out to be just as much of a pipe dream as the “super team”.

Series Preview: NL Least Rumble In Miami

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The Mets went 14-15 in the month of May and the Marlins went 15-14. What does that mean? It means the NL Least is back. Frankly, it never left. East is the name and mediocrity is the game. The NL East rodeo of mediocrity also means that a rough series or stretch can flip flop the standing in a finger snap. So this road series is important. The Marlins are 6-4 in their last 10 games. Last weekend they lost 2 out of 3 in Atlanta, but this week they came home and took 3 out of 4 against the Pirates. In other words, the Marlins are somewhat hot and the Mets are not.  The Mets lost 4 out of 6 on the homestand. Everyone is hurt. But if the mafia has taught us anything, it’s that a good old fashioned trip to Miami can be a great way to unwind and escape the heat of the New York microscope.

Pitching Matchups:

Game 1: Noah Syndergaard vs. Tom Koehler

Tom Koehler hasn’t faced the Mets yet this year. He’s 3-5 with a 4.50 ERA. He gave up 8 runs in 2.1 innings against the Brewers on May 1st. That really inflated his ERA. He’s gone 5+ innings and surrendered 3 or fewer runs in all 5 starts since that outing. The Mets faced him 5 times in 2015. He tossed two quality starts in those games, and in the other three he got rocked and failed to make it to the fifth inning. Notable Matchups: Yoenis Cespedes is 3 for 8, Michael Conforto is 2 for 7, Wilmer Flores is 3 for 11, Curtis Granderson is 5 for 22, and Juan Lagares is 6 for 23.

There’s not much to preview when it comes to Noah Syndergaard. He’s pitching like a Cy Young candidate. In April he faced the Marlins at Citi Field. He went 7 innings, gave up 1 run, and struck out 12. He got a no decision in that game, and we ended up losing 2-1. It was one of the most demoralizing losses of the season, and that’s saying a lot considering how bad the two losses were against the White Sox this week. In that April game, the Mets couldn’t score with their “fully loaded” lineup. With the way our offense is sputtering, Thor will probably pitch nine scoreless innings and get the L. That is unless Thor decides to throw at people again and gets tossed from the game.

Game 2: Bartolo Colon vs. Justin Nicolino

Bartolo Colon has not faced Miami in 2016, but he faced them six times in 2015. He went 4-2 with a 2.49 ERA. I’m confident Big Sexy will fire a quality start. Justin Nicolino is a left hander who faced the Mets once in September of 2015. He went 6 innings, gave up 3 runs, and Yoenis Cespedes hit a home run off of him. He’s only made 3 starts on the season and he’s 2-0 with a 2.79 ERA. He replaced Jarred Cosart in the Marlins rotation. The Mets haven’t hit lefties all season and aren’t hitting any pitchers lately. So this could be trouble.

Game 3: Matt Harvey vs. Jose Fernandez

Jose Fernandez is 8-2 with a 2.53 ERA in the season. He’s been on the same level as Thor, Clayton Kershaw, and Jake Arrieta in 2016. In fact he matched Thor inning for inning in that April start I mentioned above. In his start on Tuesday he went 7 scoreless innings, gave up 3 hits and struck out 6 without a walk. Fernandez has won seven straight starts, and in his last five starts he is 5-0 with a 0.79 ERA. Matt Harvey finally had a breakout start against the White Sox on Memorial Day. He went 7 scoreless innings, gave up 2 hits, and struck out 6. I’d be confident in Harvey if he hadn’t struggled so much before his most recent start. That combined with the fact that Jose Fernandez has been unbeatable at home makes this a tough matchup.

Things To Look For:

Hot Marlins: Marcell Ozuna has been crushing it all season long. He’s hitting .328 with 10 home runs and 27 RBIs. Martin Prado is hitting .323 on the season. Christian Yelich is hitting .313 with 5 home runs on the season. J.T. Realmuto is hitting .299 on the season.

Giancarlo: Giancarlo Stanton will be back in the lineup this weekend. He missed 7 games recently due to injury. He’s hit 12 homers and 26 RBIs on the season, but he’s hitting .210. He’s struggling. He’s battled injuries which is pretty much par for the course. I’m sure he’ll be back to launching dingers against the Mets this weekend.

Grandy Yay: Curtis Granderson has been hitting lately. He’s hitting .286 in his last 7 games and making some good hard contact.

No Bark From Big Dogs: On the flip side, Michael Conforto is 1 for his last 15 and Yoenis Cespedes is 1 for his last 19. Half of our regulars are out with back problems, but it seems like Yo and Conforto have finally started to fizzle after carrying the team on their backs all season.

Rene Gonna Play: I wonder if Terry will start Rene Rivera twice in this series. Rivera has been nailing base stealers non-stop and calling great games lately. Rivera and Lagares are seemingly our only above average defenders.

David’s Gone: David Wright will officially go on the DL before this series. They said he’s out 4-6 weeks. Hopefully that’s not 4-6 weeks in “d’Arnaud years”. The team literally said “extended absence”. That actually means out forever. Matt Reynolds will take his place on the roster. I’m surprised they promoted Reynolds again because the Mets originally planned to promote relatively unknown minor league infielder Rick Canball. The Mets like his “exceptional contact rate” and “versatility”.

Excelled In His Role: In a post full of negativity, I’d like to take a moment and praise Juan Lagares. Juan has been exceptional so far this season hitting .280/.322/.415 in 88 PA. But this is a reminder. Don’t be fooled when they say things on TV like, “Juan Lagares is having a great season. It’s a shame that he needs to battle for playing time on this team. He’s wasting away on the bench.” Nope. That’s BS. He’s excelling this season because he’s on the bench. He’s finally in the right role. Good for him.

Pen Out Of Ink: Hansel Robles, Jeurys Familia, and the rest of the pen have struggled the last couple weeks after a burning hot start to the season. Let’s hope the Miami sun helps them regain some fire.

Bahamas: The papers ran a headline today talking about how Noah Syndergaard, Matt Harvey and a few other Mets took a day trip to the Bahamas before this series against the Marlins. The paper was trying to stir the pot once again asking what these guys were doing in the Bahamas and particularly what Thor was doing there the day before a start. Umm they’re probably swimming. Maybe drinking. Maybe they went to buy chachkies at the airport. Who the hell cares? I’m hoping they all went to recruit some famous Bahamian slugger. We need that most of all. We should be searching far and wide for a solution on offense.

The Mets Are Officially Painful To Watch

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Final Score (in 13 torturous innings): White Sox 2, Mets 1

The Quick and Dirty: Jacob deGrom pitched a brilliant ballgame. He went 7 innings, gave up 5 hits, 2 walks, 1 run, and struck out 10. Unfortunately, he surrendered a solo home run to Todd Frazier in the top of the 7th inning and with this anemic Mets offense that was a guaranteed death blow. Poor Jacob. The pen was stellar as well. Addison Reed, Jeurys Familia, Antonio Bastardo, Jim Henderson, and Hansel Robles combined to pitch 4.1 innings of scoreless ball. Last night’s loser Hansel Robles came in to pitch the 12th inning, retired Tyler Saladino, and then keeled over in pain. Apparently he twisted his ankle or some crap. He left the game and Logan Verrett came in. Verrett got out of the 12th, but in the 13th he surrendered a double to relief pitcher Matt Albers. Then he threw a wild pitch and let Albers get to third base. Jose Abreu then hit a sac fly and that gave the White Sox the second run they needed. Sox won 2-1.

So Embarrassing Part 1: I already typed it, but it’s worth re-typing. Logan Verrett surrendered a leadoff double to relief pitcher Matt Albers, Albers advanced on a wild pitch, and scored the winning run on a sac fly. Are you freaking kidding me? That might be the Metsiest thing the Mets have done all season. Total loser trash ending to a total loser trash baseball game.

So Embarrasing Part 2: Yoenis Cespedes didn’t start today’s game, so it’s not that surprising we couldn’t score at all. The Mets only run came on a second inning RBI single by Rene Rivera. The Mets offense collected 13 walks in this game. The Elias Sports Bureau said they became the second team since 1893 to draw 13+ walks and score 1 or fewer runs. The other was the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1953. Jesus H. Christ.

They hit into 5 double plays. Curtis Granderson walked in the first inning and Asdrubal Cabrera hit a single to get him to third base. They had runners on the corners with no outs and failed to execute thanks to a Michael Conforto strikeout and a Neil Walker double play. They squandered opportunities thanks to double plays in the fourth inning (Ty Kelly) and fifth inning (Grandy). Other than the 8th inning, the Mets really didn’t threaten the rest of the way. Grandy came up in the 11th with two men on and two outs, but flew out. Asdrubal led off the 12th with a walk and Conforto instantly hit into the fifth double play. It was a brutal day at the ballpark.

Playing Short: In the 8th inning with one out, James Loney singled and Juan Lagares walked. The Mets had a real chance to take the lead and hand the ball to Familia. But because they are playing short handed, the Mets couldn’t pinch hit Yoenis Cespedes for Ty Kelly. Wilmer Flores was the only infielder left on the bench, and I guess Terry was too worried to play without any infield option left. I would have been scared too quite frankly considering we can’t score for shit and everyone keeps getting injured. And what did Kelly do? Double play. He stinks too, but we already knew that when they called him up.

So Embarrassing Part 3: The White Sox came into Citi Field on goddamn crutches, bleeding out, struggling to breath, with their season spiraling out of control. After the Mets took game one of this series, the Sox had lost 7 in a row and 15 of 19. They leave Citi in an all out sprint ready to conquer the world. Looks like Robin Ventura gets to keep his job a little longer thanks to his old team.

Jesus Christ Conforto: Michael Conforto is funkalicious right now. Actually that sounds like a good thing. Let me clarify. He’s in a terrible funk. He went 0 for 6 with 4 Ks. He’s going to have to adjust because the league sure has. He will.

Fan Interference: In the 6th inning, James Loney hit a ball down the left field line and a fan interfered. Melky Cabrera would have caught it in foul territory and the umps agreed. People who interfere at baseball games should be taken to the dungeons at MLB headquarters and spend the rest of their days in solitude. For the record, the dungeons are right below the MLB replay review center.

The Answer was Three (Or One): So the answer to the question “How many injured starters does it take to turn the Mets offense back into the anemic 2015 version?” is three starters. The absence of Travis d’Arnaud, Lucas Duda, and David Wright has finally taken its toll and the Mets are back to being the worst offense on the planet. Also an alternative answer to the above question is one injured starter when that guy is Yoenis Cespedes. Without him the Mets have no chance.

What Do We Do?: Sooooo this was a brutal homestand. We lost 4 of 6. I mean it’s the same story over and over again. We have nobody to step up for these injured players. Kevin Plawecki and Rene Rivera can’t hit. Eric Campbell couldn’t hit. Ty Kelly can’t hit. Wilmer Flores can’t hit. And right now Cespedes and Conforto ain’t hitting either. I have no idea why the Mets didn’t do exactly what the Cubs did. The Cubs had arguably the leagues best starting position players last season. And they had some of the best backups as well. What did they do? They kept all those guys and signed Jason Heyward, Ben Zobrist, and re-signed Dexter Fowler. They’ve had major injuries, and they have the depth to make up for it. The Mets let Daniel Murphy walk, Kelly Johnson walk, Juan Uribe walk, and they dumped Ruben Tejada. The only reason they signed Alejandro De Aza was because they thought they weren’t signing Cespedes. We all thought Wilmer would at least hit off the bench. But he’s regressed into oblivion. What do we do? We wait for Sandy to make one, two, three moves and pray. This roster ain’t going to cut the mustard and Duda/Wright/d’Arnaud may never come back. Seriously. Lucas Duda is out for months. Terry said yesterday that d’Arnaud isn’t even close to a rehab assignment. And David Wright is the most dunzo of all these guys. Every time Terry talks about David it feels like he’s reading his eulogy. He’s got his lower lip trembling with sadness permeating in his voice. Just awful.

Tomorrow: Day off tomorrow to mourn after that horrible loss then off to Miami. I’m shocked that we only went 14-15 in May. June is looking like it’s going to be a lot worse. Goddamn Mets. Of course Matt Harvey and Jacob deGrom start to kick things into gear right as we finish making headstones for three of our starting position players.

Matz And Robles Meltdown

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Final Score: White Sox 6, Mets 4

Sac Flies and Neil Walkyear: The Mets scored early in this one. Yoenis Cespedes hit a sac fly in the first inning and Curtis Granderson hit a sac fly in the second inning. Neil Walker added a two run home run in the fourth inning to make it 4-0. Walkyear has been really solid all season, but he sure is coming alive lately. He’s smashing at a .391 clip over his last 7 games. Those four runs represented all the scoring for the Mets last night. The way Matz was pitching, it felt like it would be all the scoring the Mets needed.

Matz Cruising: Steven Matz was for the most part cruising during the first five innings of this game. In the second inning, Avisail Garcia reached on an error by new first baseman James Loney. What a way to start things off J-Lone. Matz followed that error by walking Tyler Saladino, but then he struck out Dioner Navarro to squash the situation. He gave up a single in the third inning and two singles in the fourth inning, but he got key outs when he needed them in those spots and escaped. His success lasted until the 6th inning.

Matz Meltdown: In the 6th inning, Matz lost his composure and reminded us that he’s a rookie. He may be a rookie of the year candidate, but there’s still room for maturation and growth. The inning started when Jose Abreu hit a hard ground ball to James Loney at first base that ate him up. It bounced off of him, rolled into foul territory, and Abreu reached. It was called a single, but it was a play you need to make. Matz clearly lost his focus, and he followed that play by serving up a cookie to Todd Frazier who put the ball in the seats to make it 4-2. Matz has been stellar all season, and everyone makes mistake pitches. But it was clear that the Loney misplay was in his head and led to a bad pitch choice to Frazier. Matz then surrendered a single to Melky Cabrera but got Avisail Garcia to hit into a double play. However with two outs he walked Tyler Saladino, and he just didn’t hold him on base. Saladino totally embarrassed Matz by stealing second base and third base. Dioner Navarro then singled to drive Saladino in and make it 4-3. Matz failed to focus on the base runner and the batter. That was the end of the day for Matz, but those three runs and particularly that final run proved to be crucial.

Error City: As I said, James Loney was charged with one error and made one misplay that was ultimately labeled a hit. Asdrubal Cabrera made a fielding error in the seventh inning. The only reason Asdrubal’s error didn’t bite the Mets in the ass was because Thor happened to pitch the seventh inning tonight. Noah Syndergaard is striking out the planet even when he’s throwing the equivalent of an in-game bullpen session. Clean it up on defense man. We all know defense is one of our big weaknesses. I’m just going to pretend it won’t be our downfall.

Robles Meltdown: Jim Henderson and Thor got the Mets through to the 8th inning with the 4-3 lead. Jeurys Familia was unavailable last night so the Mets brought Hansel Robles in for the 8th inning, and he crumbled. He walked the leadoff man like a damn fool. Then he struck out Avisail Garcia before surrendering a two run home run to Tyler Saladino. Yeesh. With two outs he walked pinch hitter Jimmy Rollins. That was all for Hansel. But Jerry Blevins came in and walked Adam Eaton, and Logan Verrett came in gave up a single to Brett Lawrie that scored Rollins. 6-4. That was all she wrote for the Mets. After a hot start, Hansel Robles has been terrible lately. The pen was another one of our preseason weaknesses. Well after a hot start with our team ERA near the top, we are tumbling big time. Once again, I’m just going to pretend it won’t be our downfall.

Hold Men On For Christ’s Sake: Tyler Saladino ran all over Matz in the 6th inning and then Rollins did the same to Blevins. I get that those two guys have speed. But Jesus Christ can we find a way to hold guys on base? I can’t believe we’re going to have to play Rene Rivera, a guy who bats .100, in order to ensure we stop the stolen bases.

Grandyman Can Again: Curtis is heating up. He went to 2 for 4. That was a positive in this poo poo loss.

Soup’s Gone: Speaking of positives, I wrote a post on Monday saying it was time for Soup to go. And boom. Just like that, Soup was dumped to make room for James Loney. Prayers answered.

Wright Should Be DL’d: We’ve been playing with 24 guys since last Friday because the Mets are still waiting to see if Wright can avoid a DL stint for his herniated neck disk. The playing short handed consistently thing is becoming a joke. I wrote about how David Wright should be DL’d yesterday.

Ketchup or Mustard: I was at the game yesterday, but apparently Keith ordered a hot dog with ketchup on it during the broadcast. This obviously sparked the always raging ketchup vs. mustard discussion. I’m a mustard on a hot dog guy. But I really couldn’t care less if you put ketchup on your dog. Why? Because I’m a condiments man first and foremost. I’ll dip things in salsa, mayo, mustard, ketchup, ranch, Russian dressing and whatever else you want to throw my way. Ketchup never wronged me. So I have no reason to get fired up on this debate. If you want to dip you hot dog directly in a bottle of blue cheese dressing, be my guest.

Today: The Mets need to win this game and salvage a .500 road trip. Losing 4 out of 6 at home would be embarrassing for a team that fancies itself a contender.

Carrion For Vultures: Wright Should Be DL’d

On By themetssiah2 Comments

Caught With Our Pants Down, Again: So David Wright “avoided” the DL today despite his continuing battle with a herniated disc in his neck. The first round of anti-inflammatory medication didn’t work. Surprise, Surprise. Now the Mets are giving the poor guy another injection in his neck, and they will re-evaluate his condition in 48 hours. Keep in mind, David hasn’t played since Friday 5/27. The Mets insistence on perpetually playing shorthanded is getting to be ridiculous. The only real surprise here is that David made it through the first 50 games of the season without a DL stint.

Listen, I understand the difficult situation the Mets are in with David. There was no way the Mets were going to formally declare David Wright “dead” before the season even started and trade for an heir apparent like say Todd Frazier. But the truth is we all knew David had no chance of making it through this season injury free, and the Mets did not appropriately prepare for this inevitable situation. Nobody expected Wilmer Flores to completely stop producing at the plate. But it wasn’t fair or realistic to appoint Wilmer the backup at every single infield position and have Eric Campbell on double deck. That strategy was completely and utterly absurd from day one and anyone who disagrees should get their head checked. Now we are in the same position as last season. If David goes on the DL, we are going to run a subpar lineup out there on a regular basis. If he stays on the roster, then we wind up playing long stretches shorthanded, and we already have a weak bench. But the bottom line is, the subpar lineup option is better than playing shorthanded. We should put him on the DL, backdate the stint to Friday, and see where he’s at next week. And in the meantime, our front office needs to find a reasonable stopgap solution at third base, and they need to work quickly. It sounds like cantankerous old Terry wants nothing to do with Neil Walker at third base and Dilson Herrera at second base. Or maybe the front office is frowning upon that option. I don’t know. What I do know is they better act fast. Ben Zobrist or Daniel Murphy would be pretty useful for this team right about now. Whoops!

Can’t Be Done Without The DH: In the long run, it’s going to be incredibly challenging for the Mets to continue carrying David Wright on this roster without the option of the Designated Hitter. It just doesn’t appear to be feasible in the NL. Sure we kind of did it last season, and we made it to the World Series. We are doing it right now as I type. But can we really do this long term? Can we build a roster riddled with uncertainty where nobody knows David’s status on any given day and nobody knows what position they are going to play if somebody goes down at the same time as David? The permanent state of infield musical chairs is not sustainable. Maybe it’s sustainable for a stretch of two months, but it’s not sustainable for this organization in the long term.

Is This Almost The End?: Where does the latest David injury leave us? Well it undoubtedly leaves us in a state of limbo. There’s really no escaping the Wright purgatory in 2016. Maybe he will return to the lineup on Friday. Maybe a backdated DL stint is inevitable. Maybe this neck injury will nag all season long. It’s just so challenging for this team to continue to play with this clear and obvious roster handicap. And when I use the word “handicap” I’m obviously not talking about Wright’s performance. When he’s played, he’s produced at a fine level. The handicap comes in the form of roster management, and at some point we need a resolution on that front.

It’s really sad quite frankly. I’m 28. I’m a late 90’s and 2000’s Mets fan. I watched Mike Piazza come to the end of his baseball road. I watched his bat speed slow down and his skills diminish. I saw Johan Santana get injured and never really come back. Jose Reyes battled injuries forever. But I never watched a Mets player as prominent as David deteriorate due to injury at the level that he has. It’s so awful. The guy works so hard, and his body just won’t cooperate. There’s seemingly nothing he can do to stay in playing condition. I genuinely don’t think this is a battle he can win. We’ve seen many players in MLB history try to beat injuries in the past. It’s a losing battle. Will he retire? Will he continue to try and triumph over his physical challenges? I don’t know. I admire his perseverance no matter what path he chooses to follow. But the continuously running injury storyline is sad and frankly demoralizing for a lifelong Mets and Wright fan such as myself.

P.S. – I love you David. I’m sorry I gained too much weight since high school to wear the child’s XL Wright jersey I once rocked so frequently. I’m also sorry I spilled sausage and pepper grease all over the jersey. Now it’s just a small greasy piece of polyester that lives in my mother’s basement. I’m also sorry for any time I may have said you weren’t clutch, cursed your name, or referred to you as a corpse or dead man (including in the title of this post). Please forgive me and get well soon. I want to win this season, and I want you there to be gently carried off the field into the sunset. Pray for David.

It’s Time For Eric Campbell To Go

On By themetssiah1 Comment


The Metssiah has been on the “dump Eric Campbell” train since day one. Not day one of the 2016 season. Not day one of 2016 Spring Training. I wanted nothing to do with Soup on day one of 2015 Spring Training. In 2015, our front office promised us that we were finally assembling a true 25 man roster. Then they went ahead and gave us John Mayberry Jr., Kirk Nieuwenhuis, and Eric Campbell. They made us wait until July 31st before a real 25 man roster of major leaguers was assembled. Fortunately for Mets fans, Sandy assembled a championship caliber roster at the deadline. But here we are again in 2016 dealing with the same lack of depth BS. Time and time again, Terry Collins has been forced to use this guy whenever we have an injury at first base or third base. Unfortunately with the health struggles of David Wright and now Lucas Duda, we’ve been getting more Soup than ever this year. Somehow in the eyes of the Mets front office, he’s the team’s 26th man. Well the time has come to cut ties with Soup. I don’t mean demote him to Vegas. I mean he needs to be released and cast out of the organization. Eric Campbell is batting .159 on the 2016 season. He hit .197 in 173 ABs last season. He’s a .221/.311/.624 lifetime hitter. He’s absolute crap, and there’s no place for him in New York.

Since his debut in 2014, I’ve been forced to listen to all the Soup apologists. I’ve read article after article talking about his walk rates, the exit velocity when he makes contact, the number of pitches he sees per AB, his versatility in the field, and all the absurd Soupermetrics. Well enough is enough. He’s useless and brings nothing to the table whatsoever. What’s that? He plays third base and first base and we need depth at those positions? Well the Mets should have handled that problem before the season. Instead they handed the backup keys to this bum again in 2016. It’s the Mets fault. I don’t blame Soup for being put in these positions. He doesn’t belong here. He’s facing competition that he has no chance of succeeding against. I don’t know if he will ever be a competent major leaguer, but the time has come for him to explore that path elsewhere.

I’ve lived through this situation many times before with the Mets. When the Mets employ a player who’s a good person and tries hard but wears out his welcome. My personal favorite examples are Roger Cedeno from 2003 and Luis Castillo from 2010. Cedeno had prior success with the Mets, we paid him some money, and by 2002/2003 he completely lost his ability to steal bases and make contact which were the reasons we paid him to begin with. Luis Castillo had a similar story. By the time he joined the Mets he lost his speed, his contact bat, and his range in the field. The fans chose to scapegoat these two players for the team’s woes and booed them out of town. The differences with Soup are 1) Soup was never good like Castillo/Cedeno 2) This team is actually good, so we can’t afford to have weak links. Sure it’s not entirely fair to pin every little offensive problem the team has on Soup, but the reality is we’d be better off playing someone different out there. It literally can’t get worse than a guy hitting .150. It just can’t.

So goodbye Soup. Get the hell off my team. Get the hell out of my organization. For now, James Loney plays first base and Wilmer Flores plays third base until Duda and Wright can come back. Sandy must go out and get a real backup 1B/3B. But in the meantime, play anyone else out there. Because I’m done with Soup. And so is the rest of the fan base.

Matt Harvey Breaker of Slumps Returns 

On By themetssiah1 Comment


Final Score: Mets 1, White Sox 0

Well the floundering White Sox came to town and with that Matt Harvey has returned. Today was a vintage Matt Harvey start. He went 7 innings, surrendered 2 hits, no runs, and struck out 6. His fastball had that high 90s velocity, and he was able to locate it. He threw all his pitches effectively. He even got out of a couple jams. In the 5th inning, he gave up a single with one out to J.B. Shuck. Then he got Brett Lawrie to hit into a double play. In the 7th inning, he surrendered a leadoff walk to Adam Eaton and a single to Jose Abreu. But he managed to retire the next three hitters without surrendering any runs. He was resilient and fired up.

Jose Quintana was just as impressive in this game until he tired late. He also went 7 innings, gave up 6 hits, one run, and struck out 7. He made a bad pitch to Neil Walker to leadoff the bottom of the 7th inning and Walker launched a dinger. The solo blast was the game’s only run. It was the difference.

Familia Returned Too: Jeurys Familia got the save in this one which was huge after a horrendous weekend where he blew two games. I trust him. He’s our rock in the pen.

My Boy Rene: Rene Rivera called a hell of a game and deserves some credit for the success of Harvey and Familia. Too bad he can’t hit at all.

Hurry Loney: This game was also classic Harvey in the sense that we couldn’t give him any support. Jose Quintana is the AL ERA leader, so it’s rare that anyone scores off of this guy. That being said, Alejandro De Aza and Ty Kelly didn’t bring much to the table today. They really never do. We need to get James Loney in this lineup as soon as possible. I’m hearing he’s going to start tomorrow.

Pray For Wright: David Wright is seeing the neck doctor tomorrow. The DL seems like a lock. We should probably re-acquire Kelly Johnson or Juan Uribe or get someone to replace David Wright as soon as he joins the injured All-Stars in Port St. Lucie. Pray for David.

Mini Mid-Series Preview: I didn’t get a chance to post a full series preview for the White Sox. Obviously I’ve been too busy honoring our troops etc. But here’s a mini dose. In my season preview, I had the White Sox near the bottom of the AL Central right above the Twins in the cellar. They have some hot pitching at the top of the rotation in Chris Sale and Jose Quintana. I wasn’t convinced Todd Frazier solved all their offensive woes from 2015. Well for the first month of the season, I looked like an idiot. The White Sox and Cubs were the two best teams in the game through the first week in May. But lately? Lately the White Sox have been struggling. They are on a seven game losing streak now. They’ve dropped 15 of 19. They are now in third place in the Central. I’m not sure if it’s a blip on the radar or if they are returning to their stanky 2015 form.

Game 2: Steven Matz vs. Mat Latos

Game 3: Jacob deGrom vs. Miguel Gonzalez

No Chris Sale for this series. Thank God. Let’s take the series tomorrow night.