Tag: jose reyes

The Mets’ Season Is Officially Not Over

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Final Score: Mets 5, Nationals 3

The Mets have won 2 out of 3 against the Nationals in Washington. The season is officially not over in April. The full blown Panic City meltdown has been temporarily postponed (until next week probably).

The MVP of the game was Michael Conforto who hit a two out two-run homer in the 5th inning to give the Mets a 3-1 lead and then hit a solo shot in the 8th inning to left center field off a 99 MPH fastball from a left handed reliever. That homer gave the Mets a 4-2 lead and the extra run was the difference in the game.

Conforto vs. Bruce: I think it’s important to point out that one month into the season we have an answer to the debate that dominated the entire offseason among fans and beat writers. The majority of fans and writers spent the offseason saying that the Mets had to trade Jay Bruce to allow Michael Conforto to play everyday. If you held that view and you are gloating at the moment due to Conforto’s early season success I think it’s important to note that you were wrong. You were 100% wrong.

In the end, the people who said “play Conforto everyday” were right AND the people who said “don’t trade Jay Bruce” were right. We needed the extra outfield depth immediately thanks to injuries. Curtis Granderson has been so bad that we probably would have needed Conforto to start even without the injury to Yoenis Cespedes. The bottom line is, the people that argued to keep all of the outfielders around for depth purposes were right.

Innings Nibbler: Speaking of depth, the Mets need Steven Matz and Seth Lugo back in a big way. Zack Wheeler is the opposite of an innings eater. In this game he pitched 4.2 innings gave up 2 runs (1 ER) on 5 hits and 4 walks. The defense sucked behind him, but that’s to be expected with this Mets team. Wheeler is pitching 4-5 high stress innings every time he takes the mound. That is totally unsustainable over the course of a season. We really need a situation where Matz and Wheeler are in the rotation and Robert Gsellman and Seth Lugo are in the pen to regularly piggyback on their starts.

Reyes Heating Up: Jose Reyes hit a solo homer in the 9th inning making it 5-3 Mets and giving them an insurance run. Reyes looks like he’s heating up. I just snagged him in my fantasy league.

Contact! Glorious Contact!: T.J. Rivera really is the king of contact. He had two hits. He puts the ball in play almost every time he steps to the plate. We still won this game with the home run ball like we always do, but it’s still enjoyable to watch Rivera’s approach at the plate.

Back To A Pumpkin: Addison Reed entered the game in the 8th inning and gave up a homer to Ryan Zimmerman for the second day in a row. Perhaps Addison Reed is turning back into a slightly above average pumpkin in 2017.

Mets Say Yo Is Fine: The Mets said that team doctors examined Yo’s hamstring, and the damage wasn’t as bad as originally expected. I think Cespedes should get a second opinion.

Today: Noah Syndergaard takes the mound today and the Mets try for the sweep. Pray that Thor’s bicep doesn’t explode.

April Scapegoats: Time To Bench Reyes

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Final Score (in 10 innings): Phillies 6, Mets 2

The Mets suck right now, and I’m ready to start scapegoating. Get Jose Reyes out of my face. Get him out of my lineup. He went 1 for 4 last night to raise his average to .100. He dropped an infield pop up with two outs in the 8th inning, and that error preceded the game-tying hit by the Phillies. Terry didn’t help the situation by bringing in Jerry Blevins to face a right-handed hitter for some reason, but that’s a separate issue. The bottom line is Jose needs to be benched for now. I’m not saying release him (yet). But he needs to sit. Play Wilmer Flores . I can’t tell you officially that Jose is washed up. It’s too early to make that judgment. But I can tell you that prior to the Mets signing him last year, scouts were in agreement that his skills had diminished significantly. His range in the field was gone, and he couldn’t hit from the left side anymore. So far that’s what we’re seeing in 2017.

Snoozefest: These long extra inning games that the Mets keep playing are terrible. Joel Sherman of the Post recently wrote an article about how baseball should have ties. If these awful extra inning losses continue I may change my mind and be pro-tie by the All-Star Break.

Five Inning Wonder: Zack Wheeler loves throwing 100 pitches over 5 innings. It’s his favorite thing. He gave up 1 run on 4 hits and 2 walks over 5 innings. He struck out 7 Phillies. I appreciate that he kept the Mets in the game, but these short starts aren’t going to work in the long run. The bullpen won’t survive the season.

No Offense: The Mets scored two runs in the first inning off a young pitcher making his first start of the season. Then the offense shut down. Pathetic.

No Defense: The Mets made three errors. Neil Walker made one early in the game. In the 10th inning with the Phillies leading 3-2 the Mets had a play at the plate, and Juan Lagares launched a perfect throw to Travis d’Arnaud. The runner was dead by a mile but Travis just lost the ball. The error was charged to Juan, but it was Travis’ fault. That error allowed a run to score making it 4-2, and after that the Phillies piled on runs putting the game out of reach.

Meaningful Games In April: Rafael Montero gave up 4 runs (3 ER) in the 10th inning and Sean Gilmartin came in to bail him out. Neither of these guys should be pitching in meaningful games in April. They shouldn’t be pitching for our major league club at all. This is a direct result of the Mets not addressing their bullpen needs in the offseason. If you don’t think this team would be better with Bartolo Colon and perhaps Greg Holland on the roster then you’re cray cray.

Throwing Programs: At least Steven Matz and Seth Lugo will be back soon. They are supposedly starting their throwing programs this week. Shut down for the season by Sunday?

Today: Robert Gsellman pitches today. Please God just finish this game in 2.5 hours and 9 innings. I never thought I’d turn into a pace of play crusader, but I don’t think I can handle another one of these four hour snoozefests.

Flip Them All Off

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Final Score (in 11 innings): Mets 9, Phillies 8

What a goddamn game. Mets fans went from thoughts of drinking bleach to dancing along with the Bleach Boys as Jose Reyes and Asdrubal Cabrera propelled this team to a shocking extra innings victory. Yesterday I had one of the worst regular season baseball hangovers in recent memory. The Braves snatching that Yoenis Cespedes near homer away from the Mets and handing us the L sent me and the fan base into a goddamn depression spiral. Then the Mets announced that Steven Matz ain’t coming back this year. The game was a painful rollercoaster full of blown leads and what felt like false hope. And then all of a sudden we were back. The Mets gave us a classic walk-off home run amphetamine-esque regular season energy boost, and now I am soooooooo back. I’m back! I’m ready for the final 9 games. Let’s go!!!!

Grandyman: Curtis Granderson hit a two-run homer in the second inning. He’s probably going to hit 30 homers and have under 60 RBIs. That’s insane. He’s so freaking hot too.

The Savior: Yoenis Cespedes tied the game at 3 with an RBI single in the 5th inning and gave the Mets the lead with an RBI double in the 7th inning. He had 3 hits. He’s the reason Jose Reyes and Asdrubal Cabrera are absolutely raking at the top of the order. Pay him now.

The Bleach Boys: Jose Reyes hit a game-tying two-run homer in the bottom of the 9th inning, and he went ballistic. He was fist pumping and dancing. Then in the 11th inning after the Phillies took the lead 8-6, Asdrubal Cabrera came up with two men on base and launched a game-winning three run homer. He added the most incredible bat flip I’ve ever seen and limped around the bases. Pray for that knee. He’s en fuego. Apparently Terry wanted to bat him 4th in the order last night. Ummm please keep him in front of Yo. Does Terry not realize it’s because of Yo? Jesus.

Props To The Young Outfielders: Brandon Nimmo singled in the 9th inning to set up the Reyes homer and Michael Conforto walked in the 11th (before Jose singled) to set up the Cabrera game winner. They will probably have a bigger role next year once the Mets pull the plug on Jay Bruce. The METS disease has Jay looking like a vegetable. Poor Jay.

I Won’t Get Into It: I just want to focus on the positive walk-off home run energy in this post. I won’t get into the fact that this was the first time in 2016 that the Mets came back to win in a game they were trailing after 8 innings. I won’t get into Eric Campbell being in moron Terry’s starting lineup and striking out with two men on base in the bottom of the 4th inning. I won’t get into Seth Lugo looking pretty mediocre over 5 innings in this game. I don’t want to talk about Ryan Howard, despite being dunzo as a player, hitting a game tying solo homer in the 5th inning to make it 2-2. Cameron Rupp followed that with a solo shot to take the lead. I refuse to dwell on the reality that Addison Reed and Jeurys Familia are burning out as we approach the finish line. I won’t get into the 8th inning three-run homer Maikel Franco hit off of Addison Reed. Sure he’s on my friend’s fantasy team who I am currently playing in my league’s semi-final. But I can’t dwell on that crap. I won’t get into Jay Bruce stepping up to the plate in the 9th inning as the tying run and striking out and being the worst midseason acquisition in baseball history. I won’t get into Lucas Duda missing a game winning pinch hit homer in the 10th inning by inches as it just missed the right field foul pole. I also won’t get into the mystery of why Duda isn’t playing for James Loney (if he’s actually healthy). I won’t get into mook A.J. Ellis continuing to burn the Mets (and nobody else) with an RBI single in the 11th that gave the Phillies a 7-6 lead. I refuse to focus on Jim Henderson walking in a goddamn run in the 11th to make it 8-6. Our bullpen loves walking in goddamn runs now.

Today: No I won’t get into any of the negative stuff from last night’s game because we won, and I feel great today. Let’s spank the Phillies tonight. Let’s hit more home runs. I need more of that good stuff.

A Day Of Resurrection

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Final Score: Mets 3, Twins 0

The Mets hit a couple of homers, Bartolo was dominant, and they beat the terrible Twins. That wasn’t really surprising at all. The shock of the day came before the game when the Mets announced that Jacob deGrom will start Sunday’s game, Lucas Duda/Juan Lagares have both been activated out of nowhere, and Steven Matz will throw a bullpen session this weekend and look to start soon. In all my years as a fan, I’m not sure I ever remember an injury resurrection day of this magnitude. I half expected David Wright and Michael Cuddyer to show up at Citi Field riding a tandem bike, ready to play ball. Insanity. I’m pretty sure they all did what I said weeks ago. They all smell the playoffs, and they had Ray Ramirez give them the pain numbing shot. Cortisone showers for everyone!

It’s Always Been About Dingers: In the actual game last night Jose Reyes and Asdrubal Cabrera hit back to back solo homers in the 3rd inning off of young stud prospect Jose Berrios. Team Power. That’s what we’ve been about since Opening Day. That made it 2-0 Mets. Yoenis Cespedes added an RBI single in the 7th inning. His RBI made up for an error he committed earlier in the game. The error didn’t end up mattering. Against a team like the Twins you get plenty of mulligans.

Big Boy: Bartolo Colon pitched 7 scoreless innings and gave up just 3 hits. Addison Reed and Jeurys Familia closed the game out. Those three guys have arguably been the most dependable arms on our team this season. Sign Bartolo this offseason and keep him here. We’d be lost without Big Sexy.

Cabrera Cramp: Cabrera came out of the game last night with a leg cramp. Now he has the bad knee and his other leg is cramping. He needs a cortisone shower big time. We need to rest him as often as we can afford to do so.

Ricco Not So Suave: The Twins want to interview our boy John Ricco for their front office. Ricco not so suave. They should hire Ricco as GM and Wally Backman as manager and create the island of Mets front office misfit toys. And obviously somehow make Jeff Wilpon the owner of the Twins. Please God take Jeff away from us.

Today: Ervin Santana and Seth Lugo face off tonight. Let’s see if Seth can keep him momentum going on the mound. Also Ervin Santana followed me on Twitter. He follows like 150 thousand people. He must have some insane account that randomly follows people. Or maybe he googled “Best and sexiest Mets blogger in the business” and The Metssiah was obviously the number one result.

Hooray! We Beat The Reds!

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Final Score: Mets 6, Reds 3

The Mets once again beat the absolutely horrendous Cincinnati Reds. Hip hip hooray! Today the Mets continued to hit home runs and the Reds just kept making mistakes. That combination enabled the Mets to walk away from Great American Ball Park with a sweep.

Calm Down: With the Mets surging the fan confidence meter is obviously at a season high. The fans went from planning Terry’s managerial funeral to planning a parade. Let’s all take a deep breath and relax. We beat the Stanton-less Marlins and the Reds are bad. We have the easiest remaining schedule of all the Wild Card teams, but we still need to keep the foot on the gas these last few weeks and actually win the games.

But Also Celebrate: On the other end of the spectrum, I’m surprised some Mets fans are still hating on this team. For almost the entire season the team failed to get hits in big spots and failed to beat bad teams. Well the team is finally doing that now. The team’s absurdly low batting average with runners in scoring position was bound to trend upwards at some point. Well it’s finally happening, and we should all enjoy it.

Don’t Crown Jose: Jose Reyes remained scorching hot in this game with a leadoff homer, and he also stole a base and scored on a wild pitch in the third inning to make it 2-0 Mets. Since his return from the DL he’s been hitting well over .300 and hitting for power. But I must say the “Reyes is on fire and therefore everyone who doubted his comeback are completely wrong forever” people on Twitter are hilarious. Just don’t forget everything that comes with Jose. Jose Reyes has played in 40 games, and he’s already had one 3 week DL stint.

My main point from day one has been that relying on Jose is a mistake. We’ve seen the Jose movie before. He sparks the team for 3 weeks and then he’s gone for a month. Then he comes back and the team is rejuvenated and…then he’s gone. It’s the same story every single time. Well the Mets are back to relying on Reyes. I’m sure it’ll work out this time! I for one plan to just enjoy the current Reyes ride and pray to the baseball gods that he keeps this crazy streak going for the rest of the season. But for Christ’s sake please don’t rip the Captain badge off of David Wright’s corpse and hand it to Jose already.

Reds Can’t Do Anything Right: In the second inning the inept Reds were caught stealing against Noah Syndergaard twice. In the third inning they were caught again when Jose Peraza was nailed heading home after Eugenio Suarez was stuck between first and second base. The Reds are the only team I can think of this season that struggled to run all over Thor.

Wild Thor: Noah Syndergaard wasn’t great today. He threw 95 pitches over 5 scoreless innings and gave up 6 hits and 4 walks. The Reds sloppy play really saved the day for Noah. I was obviously day dreaming about a Wild Card playoff during today’s game, and I was thinking about our starting pitcher. It has to be Thor right? There’s nobody else left. Bartolo Colon?

Bye Bye Balls: Curtis Granderson hit a solo homer in the 6th inning to make it 3-0 Mets, and Wilmer Flores added a pinch hit two-run shot in the 8th inning to make it 5-0 Mets. The entire team is smoking hot. Wilmer, Jose, Grandy, Asdrubal Cabrera. The bottom line is we saw this kind of production in April and then it disappeared. Whether it was before the All-Star Break with Yoenis Cespedes in the lineup or afterwards when he was on the DL, we rarely had multiple hitters producing at a high level at the same time outside of that early stretch of the season. It’s nice that it’s happening again in September.

Dumb Old Terry: Terry Collins brought in minor league starting pitcher Gabriel Ynoa to pitch the 8th inning. He asked a guy who wasn’t pitching in relief in the minors to pitch on back to back days. Terrible managing. Furthermore, in my mind Ynoa is the best option to replace Rafael Montero in the rotation. That seems unlikely now. It better not be Logan Verrett. Well Terry brought Ynoa in, and he loaded up the bases. Terry was forced to bring in Addison Reed to bail him out. Reed surrendered an RBI single to Tucker Barnhart and a 2 RBI double to Jose Peraza to make it 5-3 Mets. But Reed escaped without giving up the lead, and Jeurys Familia closed the game out. Yoenis Cespedes also added an RBI double in the 9th to swing the momentum right back for the Mets.

Tomorrow: The Mets have the day off tomorrow and then head to Atlanta. Remember back in June when the Braves embarrassed this team? The Mets should probably change that narrative this weekend. Also for the record, this sweep of the Reds was the first one since the Mets swept four games from the Cubs before the All-Star Break in July. How insane is it that we demolished the Cubs, but struggled all season to beat the Rockies, Braves, and D-Backs? Baseball is crazy.

2017 Mets: The “Walk Year” Season

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Are You Not Entertained?

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Final Score: Mets 5, Marlins 2

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Josedrubal Granderpinch Wins It For Mets

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Final Score: Mets 7, Marlins 4

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Walk-Off Yo Bomb

On By themetssiah1 Comment


Final Score: Mets 2, Marlins 1

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Big Sexy And Asdrubal Crush Phils

On By themetssiah1 Comment

Final Score: Mets 9, Phillies 4

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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