Tag: cardinals

The 2016 Wild Card Mets

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Final Score: Mets 5, Phillies 3

The Mets have made the playoffs for the second year in a row. The Mets have achieved two straight playoff appearances for only the second time in franchise history (the other being 1999, 2000). We went into the season hoping for the NL East crown and a World Series Championship. After a hot April the Mets proceeded to play mediocre baseball for roughly four months and lose key player after key player to injury. They failed to produce with runners in scoring position at historically bad levels. The entire young pitching staff that carried the team to the 2015 World Series fell victim to some type of arm injury. But despite all those problems, the Mets went on to be the hottest team in baseball over the final month. They took advantage of a Giants collapse and won all their “meaningful games in September”. Wild Card playoff, here we come!

Early Scoring: In the fourth inning of yesterday’s clincher, T.J. Rivera hit a clutch two out RBI single to give the Mets a 1-0 lead. In the fifth inning, after a Travis d’Arnaud single and a sac bunt, Jose Reyes hit an RBI single to make it 2-0 Mets.

The Lock: In the bottom of the fifth inning, Maikel Franco singled off of Bartolo Colon and Ryan Howard came up in an obvious game-tying home run situation. Lock of the century. Every Mets fan felt it coming. Right on cue he put one in the seats to tie the game at 2.

The Unexpected: In the 6th inning, James Loney broke the tie with a two out two-run homer to make it 4-2 Mets. Loney smiled at the Mets dugout and gave the bat a drop flip. I thought the Phillies were going to retaliate in some way, but luckily they let it go. Hopefully it’s a sign that the game is moving past the bat flip retaliation crap.

The Fusion: In the 7th inning, Darin Ruf hit a pinch hit solo homer off of Fernando Salas to cut the Mets lead to one run. For some reason Darin Ruf and Cameron Rupp just blur together in my mind as one large bearded Philadelphia baseball player.

The Umpire BS: In the 9th inning Asdrubal Cabrera added a huge two out insurance RBI single to give the Mets a 5-3 lead. Jeurys Familia slammed the door in the 9th and that was the final score. But right after the Cabrera single, Yoenis Cespedes came up and was called out on strikes. Yo had a rare awful day at the plate. He went 0 for 5 and hit into some double plays. So obviously the tension was bubbling up for Yo at that point. But the umpire had an awful zone the entire day. And the strikes he called on Yo were awful borderline pitches. Yo had words for the umpire after the K and the ump instantly tosses him. All I have to say is this. I don’t really care what Yo said. If an umpire tosses a team’s best player because the guy said a few curse words over some questionable strike calls then that umpire needs to be banished from the sport. Pathetic disgraceful display by the home plate umpire yesterday.

One Note On Terry: I think it’s absurd that everyone feels the need to take an extreme view on Terry. For some reason when it comes to Terry Collins people seemingly have one of two stances. Either they say “he’s a great manager and his players love him” or “Terry is a moron who doesn’t know how to make the right in-game managerial decisions”. Umm it’s both people. Terry kept this team playing hard for 162 games and deserves credit for that. Terry also blew a bunch of games over the course of the season due to poor decision making. It’s both. I just hope nobody ever likens my parenting skills to Terry’s managerial skills. The Metssiah is terrible at the day to day parenting decision-making but his kids will run through a wall for him.

Wild Card Thoughts: I’d prefer to play the Cardinals. I don’t care that they are heating up lately. I don’t want to face Madison Bumgarner in a do or die playoff game. Nobody in their right mind wants to face MadBum. But I think we all know it’s going to be the Giants and MadBum at Citi Field on Wedneday. Noah Syndergaard vs. Madison Bumgarner feels like the matchup MLB would want. We’ll see what happens today. But whether the Mets play the Cardinals or the Giants, I assume both teams will shake off their regular season flaws and play like the classic National League clubs we all know. The Giants will do their inspired October magic routine and the Cardinals will channel their dark magic powers.

The MadBum matchup isn’t ideal considering he’s a lefty and our lineup is full of lefty sluggers but the more I think about it the more confident I become. Jose Reyes has been mashing as a right-handed hitter and is 3 for 9 lifetime against MadBum. Asdrubal Cabrera (2 for 4 lifetime) and Curtis Granderson are both en fuego and can hit anyone right now. T.J. Rivera went 2 for 3 against him when he faced him. Yoenis Cespedes is 3 for 10 lifetime against him. Rene Rivera hit a homer during the season against him. He’s not an ideal matchup for Lucas Duda and Jay Bruce but they are professional hitters. I think they’ll step up in the big spot.

Today: I’m going to enjoy the hell out of this meaningless game 162 today. No pressure. No worries. Rest and relax. Let’s go Mets!

1-877-Runs4Fans, The Mets Scored Runs Today

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1-877-Runs4Fans/R-U-N-S, Runs for fans/ 1-877-Runs4Fans/The Mets scored runs today!

Final Score: Mets 17, Phillies 0

What an explosive day at the plate for the New York Mets. Thank the gods for the Phillies. The Las Vegas 51s pitching staff and hitters made Philly look like they belonged in the Pacific Coast League this weekend. The Mets earned many of the runs on Sunday, but Philly also handed us runs left and right. Walks and wild pitches and hit by pitches. Sweet Jesus it was an ugly game for Philly. I’ll take it though! The other Wild Card teams lost. The Cardinals and Giants continue to struggle, and the Mets continue to excel against the bad teams during this crucial stretch of baseball. That reality has to be acknowledged. As much as it feels like “nobody wants the Wild Card”, the Mets have been among the best teams in baseball (record wise) for the last month. Let’s keep it up.  Also, I’m excluding the Braves from the “bad teams” because 1) They destroyed us and 2) Seemingly they aren’t as bad as their record would indicate. Look out for them next season.

The Runs They Gave Us: The Phillies handed the Mets so many runs on Sunday it was hard to keep up. With the bases loaded in the fourth inning, they walked Jose Reyes to force in a run. In the fifth inning with the bases loaded, they hit Rene Rivera with a pitch to force in a run. They also added a two out wild pitch in the fifth inning with Jose Reyes batting that allowed Jay Bruce to score. They walked in a run with bases loaded again in the 7th with Jose at the plate. The gifts just kept coming and coming.

The Big Hitters: There were many notable performances on Sunday including two hits from Jay Bruce. In the second inning Bruce led off with a double and T.J. Rivera followed that with a single. Bruce wound up scoring when James Loney hit into a double play. Curtis Granderson hit his 30th homer of the season in the fourth inning. In the fifth inning T.J. Rivera hit an RBI single. In the seventh inning Asdrubal Cabrera added the big time Grand Slam to make it 11-0 Mets. In the 8th inning Jose Reyes doubled in two runs. He had 4 RBIs on the day. Eric Campbell even got in on the action with a two-run single in the 8th inning. Michael Conforto had the final RBIs with a two-run double to cap off the 8th inning.

I’m Excited But…: I’m excited to see Robert Gsellman off to an incredible major league start. He pitched 7 scoreless innings and gave up 3 hits with 8 strikeouts. I’m excited but…I’m keeping my expectations low. I’m hoping he keeps this up, but I ain’t about to crown him as a new young ace. I made the mistake of doing that with Conforto. I don’t want to make that mistake again. Is he a playoff caliber starter? I don’t know. But it doesn’t matter does it? If we get there he’s pitching. So yeah he could be a playoff starter. We shall see if he gets the chance.

Today: The game tonight will be very emotional. Jose Fernandez was supposed to start before his tragic passing in a boating accident on Sunday. I will remember him tonight. I will remember him always.

The De Aza Game 

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Final Score: Mets 10, Cardinals 6

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

DeGrom Had Nothing; Pray For Fluke Win Tonight

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Team Platoon Triumphs

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Final Score: Mets 7, Cardinals 4

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Oh No, Not Tonight!!!

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Final Score: Cardinals 5, Mets 4

On a night where Yoenis Cespedes heroically gave the Mets a 4-3 lead with a 7th inning two run homer, Jeurys Familia finally blew a save. The Mets did their “never hit with runners in scoring position” thing for 6 innings. Then Yoenis Cespedes hit his home run, and at the time it felt like it could be one of those season changing clutch shots. Then it all came crumbling down in the 9th inning, and the Mets reminded us all that they are nothing but pretenders so far this season. We never get the happy script. It’s always the Shakespearean tragedy. The blown save couldn’t have come at a worse time. I felt like Barney Gumble in The Simpsons when he’s forced to be the designated driver, and he’s losing his mind at the bar as Homer and the boys get ripped. Then Duffman and the party patrol randomly show up because Barney had sent in 10,000 Duff labels, and it happens to be on the night he can’t drink.  Not tonight! Not tonight!!!!!

Quality Start: Logan Verrett pitched 7 innings, gave up 3 runs, 5 hits, 3 walks, and struck out 7. It was a quality start, and you can’t ask for more from a fifth starter in a big game against a Wild Card contender. Flush that quality start down the toilet with the rest of them.

We Suck: It was the same story in this game as every game. We had unlimited opportunities and failed almost every time. 12 hits!!! We were 1 for 11 with runners in scoring position before Yoenis Cespedes came up in the 7th inning.

Yo Saved The Day: Neil Walker hit an RBI single in the second inning to make it 1-0. Walker had 3 singles and a walk in this game. It was nice to see him do something at the plate for the first time this month. Once the Cardinals scored 3 runs off of Logan Verrett, it felt like that was going to stick. In the 7th inning, Travis d’Arnaud and Alejandro De Aza hit back to back singles off of Adam Wainwright. Then Curtis Granderson and Asdrubal Cabrera struck out back to back with runners on first and third. Same old story.

Fortunately for the Mets, Wainwright threw a wild pitch with two outs and d’Arnaud scored making it 3-2. A nice gift run. I suppose Wainwright decided to pitch to Cespedes because it would have been his final batter of the night. I still think it’s a dumb decision to give Yo anything to hit if you can avoid it. But Yo had one of the best ABs of the season and hit a two run homer off a Wainwright curveball. The homer had the stadium rocking. Yo hadn’t hit a homer since early July. Wainwright hadn’t given up a homer in months. Ridiculous.

Familia Blew The Day: Addison Reed shut the Cardinals down in the 8th, and then Familia blew the game. He gave up 2 runs. I won’t even get into how he blew it or nitpick his pitch selection. He walked two batters. He should probably stop doing that. But he hasn’t blown a regular season save since last July. It just couldn’t have come on a worse night.

Stink: In high school, my gym teacher once turned to a group of sweaty teenagers and encouraged everyone to take a shower because “You stink. You stink like shit.” That’s how I feel about this group of Mets after that loss. As Forrest Gump once said, that’s all I have to say about that.

Today: Oh great a day game against the Rockies. Who cares? I can’t wait to watch the Wilpons force Sandy make an ill-advised trade of a bunch of our top prospects for Jonathan Lucroy.

Mets Split Doubleheader; Reyes Injured (The Lock of Locks)

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Reyes Injured (The Lock of Locks): Let’s start with the lead story. Jose Reyes didn’t play game 2 of the doubleheader after the Mets had said pregame that Jose and Yo would play both games. And the reason is…he’s officially injured. Grade 1 intercostal strain. Hammy, quad, intercostal. Who cares? Jose is more injury prone than Travis d’Arnaud. The safest bets going in the world yesterday were U.S. Treasuries, Golden State vs. Cleveland in the 2017 NBA Finals, and taking the under in the “Jose Reyes to the DL by July 31st” pool. The only bet that is more of a lock now is the Mets waiting too long to put Jose on the DL. Although I read Dilson Herrera was scratched from his Vegas start last night. So maybe the Mets are already preparing for his promotion.

As far as the doubleheader goes, the Mets split the twin bill which is fine by me. The Mets lost the day game to Carlos Martinez and won the night cap with Big Sexy on the mound. And the Nationals lost in embarrassing fashion last night. Papelbon blew the game. So all in all it was a good evening.

Game 1 Recap: The Cardinals won game one 3-2. Noah Syndergaard wasn’t at his best in this game. He wasn’t getting ahead of hitters and had a high pitch count. He miraculously worked 6 innings despite having over 100 pitches after 5. He made a mistake to Jedd Gyorko in the third inning and Gyorko hit a two run homer. But the first Cardinal run came in the second inning. The Cardinals hit three straight one out BS singles. Two were infield hits. One was a slow roller to Jose Reyes. The “single” that loaded the bases was deflected by Noah Syndergaard and consequently a play couldn’t be made. Then with the bases loaded, pitcher Carlos Martinez hit a ball back to Thor, and he made an error on the throw home. Horrendous. Thor wiggled out of the inning after giving up only that one run. But that run plus the two run homer by Gyorko was enough for the Cardinals.

The Mets left 11 men on base. Basically they left men on base every single inning. Tim Teufel held Reyes at third base on a Yoenis Cespedes double in the third inning. That was a blunder. In the fourth inning, Rene Rivera hit a two run homer which represented the laugh out loud 2 run scoring total for the Mets in the game. Kelly Johnson failed in big spots. Even Yoenis Cespedes failed in some spots during this game. He also came to bat in the 9th inning after Curtis Granderson led off with a single. He swung at the first pitch and almost hit a two run homer to center field. It ended up being a deep fly out. Then for some reason Grandy tried to tag from first base and was thrown out at second. It was one of many odd lowlights in a weird embarrassing first game.

Game 2 Recap: The Mets won 3-1. Bartolo Colon was efficient and Sexy. He pitched 7 innings, gave up 3 hits, 1 run, and struck out 8. He made one mistake to Jedd Gyorko who hit a solo shot. Jedd Gyorko with two home runs? The Mets love getting crushed by odd players. We always have some new obscure nemesis. Terry yanked Colon from the game after 7 innings with only 87 pitches. This made no sense at the time, but apparently he’s going to pitch on short rest this coming Saturday. Addison Reed and Jeurys Familia shut down the Cards in the 8th and 9th so it worked out.

The Mets did manage to get one clutch hit in game two. Asdrubal Cabrera broke his 0 for 32 streak of ineptitude with runners in scoring position with an RBI double in the the third inning to make it 1-1. But the Mets still left 5 runners in scoring position. James Loney hit into a double play to score a run in the fourth inning. Cabrera added a sac fly in the fifth inning to make it 3-1. The Mets crummy offense didn’t matter as much in game 2 because the pitching was so elite and efficient.

Citi Field Food Recap: So I arrived at the stadium yesterday around the 6th inning of game one. Let me preface this by saying I am a big fan of the food at Citi Field and a big fan of chef David Chang’s Momofuku restaurants. That being said, I bought the spicy chicken sandwich and fries at the Momofuku stand at Citi. Meh. It wasn’t anything special. And it was 30 dollars for the sandwich, fries, and a beer. Too rich for my blood. Never again. I’ll stick with Shake Shack or a sausage with peppers and onions.

Today: Do the Mets want to make a run? Do they want to make some noise in the NL playoff race? Well then we need to win a home rubber game against a Wild Card opponent. Logan Verrett vs. Adam Wainwright in today’s rubber game. Let’s go Mets.

My Best Guess: Predicting the 2016 MLB Playoffs and Player Awards

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Major League Baseball has such parity. Sure we can probably narrow down the field of competition to around 15 teams before the season even starts. Roughly half the league is actually competing for a championship. But that’s a hell of a lot better than the annual three team dance in the NFL or the one team in the NBA that has a chance to win (I’ll give you a hint, it rhymes with Olden Plate Warriors). Jayson Stark from ESPN (and Winterfell) writes a brilliant annual column showing how the parity in MLB compares to that of the NFL. It really gives you an idea of how even the MLB playing field is, and how hard it is to predict the outcome of the season. Honestly, if you want the real crystal ball just look at the Vegas lines. Vegas knows better than me or any of the other baseball writers. That being said, if you want some of my magic insight, here are my playoff and player award predictions for 2016:

The Metssiah’s Player Award Predictions:

AL MVP: Manny Machado. Yeah I didn’t pick Mike Trout. I’m crazy!! Machado had a breakout season last year, he’s young, and he’s part of a beastly lineup. Plus my scouts (google images) say Machado’s head looks enormous this spring. Maybe he’s been getting his swoll on this offseason. I’m no phrenology expert, but big head equals big season.

AL Cy Young: Chris Archer

AL Rookie of the Year: Byron Buxton

NL MVP: Bryce Harper. Again. That being said, Yoenis Cespedes is going off at 25 to 1 in Vegas for MVP. I like that sweet action.

NL Cy Young: Max Scherzer. Yeah I’m betting against my boys, but I’ll say Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard finish 2, 3 and 4 respectively so I feel better about the betrayal.

NL Rookie of the Year: Corey Seager. But Steven Matz will probably be in the conversation.

 

The Metssiah’s American League Playoff Predictions:

WC Game: Rangers over Blue Jays

ALDS: Royals over Rangers and Astros over Yankees

ALCS: Astros over Royals

 

The Metssiah’s National League Playoff Predictions

WC Game: Nationals over Pirates

NLDS: Cubs over Nationals and Mets over Giants

NLCS: Mets over Cubs

 

World Series Prediction: Mets over Astros

 

Also, for my previously published divisional predictions see these posts:

American League East

American League Central

American League West

National League East

National League Central

National League West

My Best Guess: Predicting the 2016 National League Central

On By themetssiah2 Comments

Leo bear

(This is one post in a series of posts where I will be predicting the outcome of each MLB division. The final post will include full 2016 MLB postseason predictions.)

In 2015 the Cardinals, Pirates, and Cubs were the three best regular season teams in Major League Baseball, and it wasn’t really that close. The Cardinals are just completely ridiculous. They are like the Yankees in that they are God’s other chosen team. Every season, things seemingly work out for them. They overcome every injury and obstacle. In 2015, they overcame the statistical regression of their veteran catcher Yadier Molina, and they overcame injuries to veteran outfielder Matt Holiday. They also consistently get the most out of the players they acquire. Case in point would be John Lackey posting the best ERA of his career in 2015 as a 36 year old Cardinal. They won one hundred freaking games! They had the 24th ranked offense, but they had the league’s best pitching staff. Before the Mets acquired Yoenis Cespedes, they had an offense at the bottom of the barrel and a pitching staff at the very top too. Just like the Cardinals. Yet the Mets could barely maintain a .500 record without Cespedes. The Cardinals cruised to a hundo wins. Now that’s God’s work. Not to mention the fact that they had the best pitching staff with Adam Wainwright missing the whole damn season. The acquisition of Jason Heyward and his sabermetric mojo seemingly helped add to that win total. But I attribute it to voodoo magic or something. And I guess a little credit goes to the emergence of young outfielders Stephen Piscotty and Randal Grichuk.

The Pirates have had their young core in place for a few years now, and they keep winning a ton of games. But they keep losing MLB’s stupid one game Wild Card playoff. An entire damn season of domination wasted. Poor Pirates. They are just as talented as their division rivals. They just need some damn luck. And maybe this year Jung Ho Kang won’t get crippled by a takeout slide in September. But judging by the new rules he probably will.

The Cubs were a very similar team to the Mets before the 2015 season. They’d both been rebuilding for a nice long stretch, and they finally had their young talent ready to produce at the major league level. The only difference being the Mets had the talented young pitching and the Cubs were brimming with talented position players. In order to really compete, the Mets needed a big impact bat. The Cubs needed the big time arm. The Mets signed useless old man Michael Cuddyer. The Cubs actually filled their need with Jon Lester. The result? The Mets were mediocre until they got the big bat at the trade deadline. The Cubs dominated all season. The Cubs immediate jump from worst to almost first surprised people. But ironically it was the Mets young pitching that defeated them in the NLCS. So the Cubs went into the offseason knowing at a minimum they had to bolster their rotation. And in addition to their rotation, they decided to bolster every other part of their team.

Cincinnati and Milwaukee were in the bottom third of the league in hitting and pitching. They were terrible, and they were terrible from day one. Both teams had been in denial about their demise, but in 2015 they hit rock bottom. This offseason, both organizations officially checked themselves into a baseball rehabilitation program (aka a rebuild) and will take all the necessary steps to get better. Here’s what I see in 2016:

NL Central: 1) Chicago Cubs (x) 2) Pittsburgh Pirates (wc) 3) St. Louis Cardinals 4) Cincinnati Reds 5) Milwaukee Brewers

When Theo Epstein entered this Cubs roster into his robot projection computer, it exploded. No doubt about it. Every projection system has the Cubs winning 140 games, and then the computer starts to smoke and ultimately shorts out. And I understand why. They won 97 games last season. Their young position player studs should all improve. They retained Dexter Fowler. And they added two players that the sabermetric experts adore in Ben Zobrist and Jason Heyward. Oh and they also added John Lackey to their rotation. Oh and Lackey and Heyward came directly from the division rival Cardinals. So yeah I see why the computers shorted out. Their lineup should be elite from top to bottom with Kris Bryant, Kyle Schwarber, and Anthony Rizzo at it’s core. After breaking out in his age 29 season and winning the Cy Young, Jake Arrieta seems poised for another elite season at the top of their rotation and should get paid the big bucks very soon. According to Wikipedia, Jake is known as a “workout freak” who does pilates and incorporates kale juice into his diet. I’ll have to get me some of his kale Popeye smoothies so I can totally “emerge” as I approach 30.

Jon Lester and John Lackey give the Cubs strong veteran starters behind Arrieta. I don’t see Lackey matching the 2015 numbers he had with the Cardinals particularly at Wrigley Field. His ERA was much higher at the hitter friendly Fenway Park when he was with the Red Sox, and I could see the same thing happening in Chicago. They don’t have any studs behind their big 3 in the rotation. But they have so much depth on offense that they can really pull a trade for a starter at any time during the season. I don’t think the Kyle Schwarber experiment in LF is going to pan out. The guy is a big fat DH. I expect a lot of embarrassing belly flops out there for him with balls rolling all the way to the wall all season long. It’s got Lucas Duda outfield experiment written all over it. Addison Russell is going to be a star. The Mets lucked out that he was injured for the NLCS. The Cubs bullpen is full of former starting pitchers which is so trendy right now. Starting pitchers in the pen is so big in this year’s summer bullpen collection by MLB. Trevor Cahill and Adam Warren are two such examples. The computers are not wrong. The Cubs are going to be elite. They are going to battle with the Cardinals and Pirates all season long in the same way they did last year. But they will take the division this time.

The Pirates won 98 games in 2015. Andrew McCutchen is going to be an MVP candidate per usual. Gerrit Cole is going to be a Cy Young candidate as well. Francisco Liriano is a great number 2. They replaced A.J. Burnett and J.A. Happ with Jon Niese and Ryan Vogelsong. A little mid-rotation starter musical chairs. Who cares. They straight up let Pedro Alvarez walk to Baltimore, but they seemingly like the platoon they have at 1B now with John Jaso and Sean Rodriguez. Neil Walker is now a Met. But they were pretty deep in the infield already and Josh Harrison is great for 2B. They also just signed David Freese to bolster the infield depth. The ace in the hole here is top pitching prospect Tyler Glasnow is coming. And he’s coming in 2016. The Pirates definitely see him having a major impact for them this season. He could bring that rotation to the next level. It’s part of the reason they were willing to sacrifice some offense in Alvarez and Walker.

The Cardinals lost Jason Heyward and John Lackey to the Cubs. Matt Holiday is getting old. They have two first basemen in Brandon Moss and Matt Adams aka Fat Adams and only one base for them to play. But their rotation and bullpen are still elite even without Lackey. They signed a great replacement in Mike Leake. They have Adam Wainwright back. They signed Jonathan Broxton and Korean reliever Seung-hwan Oh for the bullpen. They had the number 3 bullpen ERA and the number 1 starters ERA in 2015. And they won 100 games. They should be in the same ballpark this season. Plus the Cardinals in general are just so #blessed like the stupid Yankees. But I still think the Cubs and Pirates find their way to the top of the Central in 2016.

Cincinnati and Milwuakee are in full rebuild mode. They are going to be unwatchable and will be trampled by the Cubs, Pirates and Cardinals all season long. Basically the same story as last season except the Reds and Brewers are now officially out of the “tanking” closet. The Brewers traded Khris Davis. They have former Met bum Kirk Nieuwenhuis hitting cleanup for them this Spring with former Met Eric Young Jr. battling for a spot on the bench. Captain Kirk hit 3 dingers in a game last season. Other than that he never did shit. Poor Brewers fans. May God have mercy on your souls.

The Reds have their white flags up and waving for 2016. They traded Todd Frazier and Aroldis Chapman for a plethora of prospects this offseason. The consensus was that they got hosed by the Yankees and White Sox in those trades. Whoops!

 

Other Divisional Predictions:

American League East

American League Central

American League West

National League East