Tag: mlb

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.

Walker Done; Mets 2016 Injury Excuse Officially Valid

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“I never should have let the Wilpons sign me up for that Strongman Competition.” -Neil Walkyear

I pushed back on the 2016 injury excuse all season. With every new Mets injury I’ve said that the club still has enough talent to win, and I’ve continuously pointed out that the squad has underachieved for long stretches. SNY cites the injury woes every single game and even then I’ve said that they’re just feeding us the Wilpon organizational excuses. Well I’m done fighting it. Neil Walker is out for the season. He’s getting surgery to repair the herniated disk in his back. Yeah that’s right. Another season ending back injury for the Metsies. With David Wright, Lucas Duda, Matt Harvey, Juan Lagares, Zack Wheeler and now Neil Walker out for the season, I think we can officially say that the 2016 injury curse is ridiculous even by Mets standards. The lineup, the rotation, and the bench have all been ravaged by injuries.

Hell the Mets just put Justin Ruggiano on the 60-Day DL. The guy arrived a month ago and now he’s out for good. I don’t even know what happened to him. Apparently he got here and injured his shoulder on some play in the outfield. Then he went on the DL with a hamstring injury that happened when he was running out a grounder. And then out of nowhere the shoulder is what ultimately did him in for the rest of the season. Old Dr. Death Ray Ramirez has really outdone himself in 2016.

Whatever. The team is playing solid ball right now and Wilmer Flores/Kelly Johnson are stepping up. I’d like to complain about Dilson Herrera not being here, but honestly I doubt he’d get the shot to take the job right now anyway. Terry refuses to play Michael Conforto in the outfield, and he’s had some major league success. I can’t imagine him throwing Herrera out there during this Wild Card race even if he was still in the organization.

I’m not going to start speculating regarding how this will impact Neil’s free agency or the qualifying offer or his tenure with the Mets. I’m just focusing on the rest of the season and this playoff race. Pray for Neil Walkyear. Even when the Mets bring a guy in and he posts career high numbers across the board, it still ends with a horrible crippling injury. C’est la vie for Mets fans.

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

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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!

Heart Of The Mets Order Ripped Out

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Final Score: Phillies 5, Mets 1

I swear to God I’ve been trying so hard not to blame the Mets injuries this season for all the team’s problems. I’m really trying. I’ve written countless times about how this team has had healthy stretches where the roster just underachieved. I’ve blamed Terry Collins for bad managerial choices, and I’ve blamed Sandy for his roster construction. But the bottom line is we’ve seen what this lineup can do with a hot Yoenis Cespedes, Neil Walker and Asdrubal Cabrera. We saw it in April and some of May when this team was launching home runs and winning baseball games. And we saw it yesterday when Yo, Neil and Cabrera were the heart of the order for a 12 run outburst.

I went to sleep looking forward to another slugfest on Sunday. When I woke up Yo was scratched with his lingering quad injury and Neil was scratched with his lingering back injury. Then in the second inning Asdrubal Cabrera hurt his hand/arm on a collision with the first baseman. He stayed in the game and promptly re-aggravated his knee injury running to second base. He was pulled out immediately and just like that the heart of the Mets order was dunzo. And that was it. Once Cabrera was out of the game the Mets never had a real chance to score. And of course they didn’t. Those are the three best hitters in the lineup. Jose Reyes is the only one left, and he’s a lock to aggravate some injury before the season is done.

I realize the Mets aren’t the only team with injury problems. The Dodgers are setting DL records, the Marlins lost Giancarlo Stanton, and the Cardinals have a full DL. But the Mets have it the worst. I don’t care what anyone else says. They had three guys starting today from the 2016 Opening Day lineup. Three!!!! I realize the Mets won the series, and I realize all the other Wild Card teams lost today. But this was a winnable game that the Mets would have won if their best players suited up. And that seemingly may never happen for more than a couple games in a row this year.

Caveman and Zombie Robles: Geico Gaveman Robert Gsellman pitched a nice ballgame. He went 6 innings and gave up 4 runs on 7 hits. That may not be a quality start by definition, but if these young guys keep the team in the game we need to find a chance to capitalize and win. Period. And the numbers are deceiving. He gave up a run in the fourth inning, but other than that he was solid until he ran out of gas in the seventh inning. He gave up 3 straight singles in the 7th to load the bases, and Terry yanked him and brought in Hansel Robles. And dead arm zombie Hansel Robles did exactly what you’d expect at this point in the season. He gave up a two run double. Then he intentionally walked Freddy Galvis to set up the force play with the bases loaded only to follow that by hitting the pinch hitter Peter Bourjos with a pitch. That forced in a run to make it 4-1. Then Jerry Blevins came in and gave up a sac fly to make it 5-1. Robles has absolutely nothing left in the tank.

Stinky Hair deGrom: After studying the hair of Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, and Robert Gsellman I’ve come to the following conclusions. Jacob deGrom has the best groomed hair. Clearly he lives in a nice house with a wife who buys awesome hair products and shows him exactly how to clean and maintain the long locks. Thor has naturally gorgeous hair, but it looks like a cheap wig because he clearly doesn’t brush it often. It constantly looks tangled and a little greasy. I doubt he has any conditioner in the bachelor pad that he once shared with Michael Conforto before he was banished to Vegas forever. Robert Gsellman on the other hand is such a 23 year old. His hair is the most disgusting and greasy of the whole lot. I’m pretty sure that dude hasn’t washed his hair in 2 years. It probably smells horrendous. In terms of cleanliness, Gsellman is the Pig-Pen to deGrom’s Charlie Brown.

Terry’s Biggest Sin: Curtis Granderson went hitless again in this game. He’s been awful. He doesn’t deserve to play anymore. Bring Michael Conforto up and stop this madness. Arguably Terry’s greatest sin this season has been giving Grandy 162 games of rope because of his 2015 performance. He doesn’t deserve to play right now, and he’s hurting the club every single game.

Every Team Lost Because They All Suck: The Mets remain 2.5 games behind the Cardinals in the Wild Card because all these teams are injured, flawed, or both. The Cubs will trounce all of them come playoff time.

Tomorrow: Rafael Montero starts against Jose Fernandez tomorrow. Cross your fingers and hope that our three best players Yo, Neil, and Cabrera all magically heal overnight and all the other players somehow avoid postgame injuries.

Mets Bats Are Finally Hot

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Final Score: Mets 12, Phillies 1

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

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

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

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

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

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

Big Sexy And Asdrubal Crush Phils

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Final Score: Mets 9, Phillies 4

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

The De Aza Game 

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Final Score: Mets 10, Cardinals 6

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

DeGrom Had Nothing; Pray For Fluke Win Tonight

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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