Tag: Noah Syndergaard

Mets Finally Get Mad As Hell; Offense Erupts

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Final Score: Mets 11, Pirates 2

Last night the Mets finally got mad as hell and unleashed their fury on the Pirates.

Thunderous Rage: Noah Syndergaard was mad as hell. He wanted every Pirates head on a pike last night. He was out for blood. He went 8.1 innings, gave up 5 hits, 2 runs (1 ER), and struck out 11. He was untouchable until the 9th inning when he gave up a leadoff double to degenerate crust punk John Jaso. When he gave up the one out double to David Freese that scored Jaso, he smacked his glove and howled at the moon. He wanted the complete game, but I’m sure he’ll take the win. Terry brought in Jeurys Familia with a ten run lead to finish the game off. Terry is hilarious.

Offense Mad As Hell (And Also Supposedly Having Fun): The Mets offense finally erupted last night. They pounded lefty starter Jeff Locke (who stinks by the way) for 7 runs and 9 hits over 4 innings. Curtis Granderson led off with a single, Asdrubal Cabrera followed with a single, and then Yoenis Cespedes walked to load the bases. With the bases loaded, Wilmer Flores hit a dribbler up the first base line that essentially served as an RBI squeeze bunt to make it 1-0. With two outs and two on, Matt Reynolds hit a two RBI double to make the game 3-0. The early outburst really allowed me to exhale as a fan, so I’m sure it was a welcome sight for the players too. Kelly Johnson added a solo bomb in the third inning to make it 4-0. In the fifth inning, the Mets piled on the runs. Cabrera, Cespedes, and Flores started the inning with back to back to back singles to make it 5-0. The Pirates starter Locke was yanked after the Flores RBI single and the new reliever gave up RBI singles to Johnson to make it 6-0. Then with two outs, Rene Rivera singled to make it 7-0. In the 6th inning, Wilmer Flores added a two run blast and James Loney hit an RBI double to make it 10-0. Rivera also added an RBI single in the 8th inning to make it 11-0. It was an absolute hit parade. Yoenis “The Engine” Cespedes had three hits. Kelly Johnson had three hits and two RBIs. Flores had two his and four RBIs. Matt Reynolds finally broke out with three hits and two RBIs. The Mets said after the game they were finally having fun. Duh! Winning and dingers are fun.

The Opportunity: Wilmer Flores has been on fire offensively since taking over for David Wright. Good for him. You know what? It’s about time he stepped the hell up. Everyone step the hell up goddamnit. We need to score runs and support this pitching staff.

Thumbless Juan: Juan Lagares was scratched last night due to his torn thumb ligament. It flared up. So much for “playing through it” to avoid season ending surgery. How long did that last a week?

New Left Fielder: Kelly Johnson drew the start in left field for the injured Michael Conforto. Honestly if Conforto, Neil Walker, and Juan Lagares ever return from their injuries, it wouldn’t surprise me to see Terry go back to the play whoever is producing model. Kelly should play somewhere if he is hitting. That’s for sure. Speaking of Neil Walker, he’s supposedly going to play tonight.

Yo Says Go Do It: The NY Post asked Yoenis Cespedes about the new Cuban Yulieski Gourriel. Yo said Gourriel was the best player in Cuba when he played with him on the National team, and that they are good friends. Yo also said Gourriel is going to get paid big money as he should. Just a reminder that we should 100% sign this guy. He plays third base now, and if David Wright decides to try and play again next year, he can be moved to second base. Then when David gets injured again we can play Gourriel at third and Dilson Herrera at second base. Go get the Cubano. It’s a no brainer.

Today: Please win this series today Mets. Please score for Big Sexy Bartolo Colon. We need a series win big time.

Mets Somehow Win Game In Pittsburgh

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Game 1: Bartolo Colon vs. Jimmy Nelson

Game 2: Matt Harvey vs. Junior Guerra

Game 3: Logan Verrett vs. Wily Peralta

Game 4: Steven Matz vs. Zach Davies

Mets Backups Step Up In Win

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Final Score: Mets 6, Marlins 2

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Series Preview: NL Least Rumble In Miami

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

Pitching Matchups:

Game 1: Noah Syndergaard vs. Tom Koehler

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

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

Game 2: Bartolo Colon vs. Justin Nicolino

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

Game 3: Matt Harvey vs. Jose Fernandez

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

Things To Look For:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thor Ejected; This Is Baseball Now

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Final Score: Dodgers 9, Mets 1

Recap To Start: Let’s start with the stupid game recap. Noah Syndergaard got tossed from the game in the 3rd inning for throwing behind Chase Utley. Our bullpen got crushed by the Dodgers. Logan Verrett (2), Antonio Bastardo (3), Hansel Robles (3) and Jim Henderson (1) combined to give up 9 runs. So much for our league leading bullpen ERA. Chase Utley hit a solo blast in the 6th inning off of Logan Verrett and a grand slam in the 7th inning off of Hansel Robles. Adrian Gonzalez, Howie Kendrick, and Corey Seager added solo blasts late in the game.

The Mets didn’t score runs and the Dodgers scored a ton. The Mets had 3 hits. Juan Lagares hit a garbage time 8th inning solo blast. Eric Campbell went 0 for 4 and struck out 3 times. Our Soup/Ty Kelly/Rene Rivera offense couldn’t get anything going against Kenta Maeda or the Dodgers pen. Our big bats couldn’t get anything going either. Yoenis Cespedes went 0 for 3 and struck out twice.

This Is Baseball Now: So let’s move on to the only thing that mattered. In the third inning, Noah Syndergaard decided to throw a pitch behind Chase Utley as a message for his takeout slide from the 2015 NLDS and the ump immediately tossed him from the game without a warning. You know what? Thor and Terry and all the Mets who planned to throw that message pitch are idiots. This is baseball now. They banned takeout slides. They banned home plate collisions. They don’t want purpose pitches. People are going to call it “pussification of the game” and whatever else they want to say. But the bottom line is I was only surprised Thor got instantly tossed because I am in denial about the direction the game is moving.

The Bullshit: All that being said, the bullshit part of the Thor ejection stems from the same old problem we’ve had in baseball forever. All the rules are “unwritten”. Last night Thor gets tossed for a purpose pitch. A couple weeks ago the Rangers throw at Jose Bautista and the umps do nothing. Then Bautista tries to “respond” to the purpose pitch with a dirty slide at second base and Rougned Odor punches him in the face. The point is the umps don’t know whether to follow the old unwritten rules of “handle things on the field with baseball plays” or the new unwritten rules where dirty plays are banned. So the umps are always going to be wrong. They are wrong if they do nothing because there’s an unwritten mandate to stop all these dirty plays. They are wrong to toss Thor instantly because all these players grew up with purpose pitches being part of the game. It’s actually really fitting that Thor threw a pitch behind Utley. He didn’t nail him on the back because he probably figured he would get instantly tossed. So he went with a BS in between purpose pitch and crossed his fingers that he’d get away with it. That’s where we are in the game right now. We are stuck in the middle with no damn explicit guidance from the top. So screw MLB for not actually stating the rules. Screw Joe Torre for being bad at his job. Screw Chase Utley for being old and clutch and making the Mets look like morons on ’86 reunion night by hitting two home runs.

You know what else is bullshit? The umps didn’t say anything before this series about not throwing at Chase Utley. That’s why the instant ejection was ultimately BS. They should have said something explicit before the series. But they didn’t because of the same old unwritten rule/unspoken understanding crap. I hate it.

But the bottom line is Thor made a decision that led to his ejection which basically destroyed our chances of winning this home series with our ace on the mound. It’s a stupid shortsighted call on his part. And Terry is a mook for letting it happen. Now, like every team we are probably going to get buzz sawed by Clayton Kershaw and drop a home series that we could have won. Ridiculous.

I Swear To God: If Noah Syndergaard is suspended for that goddamn purpose pitch then I hope he personally hunts Joe Torre down and field goals him in his old wrinkly balls.

Laser Cheats: Apparently the Dodgers use laser GPS technology to preemptively determine in-game positioning for their outfielders. Supposedly it’s legal, and they even have permission to make marks on the grass at Dodgers Stadium so the fielders know where to stand. They apparently asked the Mets if they could make marks at Citi Field and understandably the Mets said hell no. But the Mets seemingly suspected the Dodgers were using lasers or something during the games to relay the positioning orders despite their strenuous objections. I’m sure Sandy Alderson will use his contacts in the MLB offices to make sure the appropriate discipline is passed down. Whatever.

Wright’s Neck Exploding: David Wright has been bashing homers lately but apparently he threw his neck out doing it. The Mets sound really negative about Wright’s latest physical setback. I hope he doesn’t need to go on the DL. Honestly playing with Wright in the National League is basically unmanageable. Without the DH, it puts us in an impossible roster predicament every other week with David. I’m sure we’ll just play short handed for a week and then DL him. Soup’s on.

Today: Mets have the game of the week tonight against Kershaw. Greaaaaat. Bartolo Colon better be sexy.

Series Preview: LA Bums Come To Town

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I know the Brooklyn Dodgers were the Bums, but I can’t pass up an opportunity to use that hilarious Daily News front page hobo caricature in a post. Plus, as a Mets fan I’m legally required by the Wilpons to pay homage to the Dodgers in some way in every single thing that I do all day long. Fred can’t get enough of his Brooklyn Dodger shrines, memorabilia, and everything else. So that image is for old Fred Wilpon. Once he pays off the final $58.3 million dollars that he owes to the Madoff trustee, maybe he can save up enough to buy the Dodgers and get the hell out of New York. Speaking of Da Bums, the Dodgers are 5-5 in their last 10 games. They lost 3 out of 4 to the Angels in Anaheim. They lost 2 out of 3 to the Padres in San Diego. Then they swept the stanky Reds at home. They have quietly drifted 4.5 games back from the first place even year Giants. They face the Mets at Citi and then they head to Wrigley to play the Cubs. Yeesh. I don’t envy that stretch of games. I hope we can keep up our winning momentum at home.

Pitching Matchups:

Game 1: Jacob deGrom vs. Julio Urias

The Dodgers are finally calling up their 19 year old lefty phenom pitching prospect Julio Urias. He’s been dominating the Pacific Coast League to the tune of a 1.10 ERA. That’s the same league where Ty Kelly was hitting like .390. In other words he’s dominating in a hitter’s paradise. Last July, Jacob deGrom shut out the Dodgers in New York over 7.2 innings with 8 Ks. In LA a couple weeks ago. deGrom pitched 7 innings and gave up 2 runs. He battled through jams all game.

Game 2: Noah Syndergaard vs. Kenta Maeda

This is a reboot matchup from the series in LA. Last time out Thor pitched 8 innings, struck out 6, and gave up 2 solo blasts (Corey Seager and Yasmani Grandal) which accounted for the only runs. Thor also hit two dingers (solo and three run shots) off of Kenta Maeda. Maeda took the loss after giving up those 4 runs over 5 innings. Unfortunately for the Mets, Syndergaard was the only source of offense in that game. Since that start though Maeda has struggled. He took a loss against the Angels giving up 4 runs in 4 innings, and then he gave up another 4 runs over 5 innings against San Diego. Maeda is 3-3 with a 3.29 ERA.

Game 3: Bartolo Colon vs. Clayton Kershaw

Kershaw is destroying everyone. He’s 7-1 with a 1.48 ERA. He pitched a complete game shutout against the Mets in LA with 13 strikeouts. We should probably try and win the first two games of this series. Bartolo took the loss in LA going 5 innings and giving up 5 runs. It was an ugly start. But in July 2015 at Citi Field, Bartolo dominated the Dodgers over 8 innings surrendering only one run. Hopefully he fares better at Citi on Sunday.

Things To Look For:

Hot Dodgers: Despite his crummy .234 average on the season, Howie Kendrick is hitting .318 in his last 7 games. Yasiel Puig and Chase Utley are both hitting .308 in their last 7 games. Trayce Thompson, who hit the walk-off blast against us in LA, has 7 home runs and is hitting .282 on the season.

El Mariachi Loco: Adrian Gonzalez is hitting .227 over his last 7 games, and he missed some games last week with a bad back. He’s got the backiosis like every single player on the Mets. Supposedly he will be fine for this series, but I’m just disappointed we won’t get to hear his stellar LA walk-up song El Mariachi Loco. Maybe the Citi Field DJ can play it just one time. It’s straight fire.

Grandforto: We face the lefties Urias and Kershaw. Terry really loves benching Michael Conforto instead of Curtis Granderson when we face lefties. Grandy is 2 for 14 against Kershaw lifetime and Juan Lagares is 0 for 10. Nobody is going to hit Kershaw, but Conforto needs to be in the lineup. With all these injuries, we can’t afford to sit our competent major league bats.

Big Pimpin’: On Tuesday Yasiel Puig crushed what he thought was a dinger, but it stayed in the yard. He admired the shot and ended up with a single. Dave Roberts yanked him from the game. I’m totally fine with the bat flip culture and pimpin’ home runs. But these are the cases where you need to draw the line. You can’t be costing your team extra bases like that. Puig admitted he screwed up. He really seems to screw up a lot.

Big Timed: In a recent Dodgers/Marlins series, outfielder Joc Pederson (who leads the team with 8 dingers) had a chance to meet his idol Barry Bonds. He went up to Barry, asked if he could take a picture with him, and apparently Barry big timed the hell out of him. Barry straight up turned away and didn’t respond to the request. That’s literally the most insane thing I’ve ever heard. I cannot believe people who live on the same planet as I do, big time people. Not responding to someone in that situation is literally refusing to acknowledge that the person speaking is another human being that breaths air. I’m pretty sure if a deranged hobo came up to me and kindly asked to take a picture because he thought I was Babe Ruth, I would do it. I always kind of thought Barry just got a bad rep in the media because he ticked off a few people, and they consequently decided to paint the picture that he was a dick. Well this story unequivocally confirms that Barry Bonds is a piece of garbage.

Wilmer Reunion: Wilmer Flores is supposedly coming off the DL this weekend and joining the Mets. I have to believe he will immediately take over as the full time first basemen. Good? I guess? He’s better than Eric Campbell that’s for sure. I’m not looking forward to the adventures of Wilmer over at first base. Quite frankly it’s more realistic to expect Matt Harvey to magically figure out his problems than it is to expect Wilmer to be a competent first basemen. At least Harvey has had actual tangible success on the mound before. Wilmer’s been booting grounders since he was a teenager. But who knows, maybe he will surprise everyone.

’86 Reunion: This Saturday is the 1986 Mets reunion game. Supposedly they are going to do a video tribute or something and a bunch of ’86 alum will be showing up. So long story short, if you are looking to bump some rails after the Mets game on Saturday night, look for Keith and Lenny Dykstra in the Citi Field McFadden’s bathroom.

Harvey and deGrom Modeling; Thor Should Do Full Frontal

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So yesterday, Forbes featured articles on Jacob deGrom and Matt Harvey. DeGrom talked about the upcoming season and why he won’t cut his hair. Harvey talked about Men’s Fashion. It was basically just another excuse for these two aces to act like models. Harvey’s been working on his modeling career for years now. The guy has been featured in a ridiculous number of magazine spreads. And now deGrom is getting in the mix? We read all about how the Mets young pitchers feed off of competition. And not just competition with other teams but with each other. Well it’s time for Noah Syndergaard to take modeling to the next level. He’s gotta hang dong. A nude photo shoot is the only way to one up the rest of the rotation. Thor is bigger than the other pitchers, and he throws harder. He needs to model bigger and harder. And he’s named after a Norse god who has a hammer. A hammer! And gods are always featured in the nude when they are included in paintings. If he won’t do a nude photo shoot or model for a nude painting, he should at least commission a life-sized nude statue.

And I know what you’re thinking. Harvey already did the nude photo shoot. Harvey was featured in the ESPN The Magazine 2013 Body issue. Umm that’s a tasteful nude photo shoot. That’s like when George Costanza did his semi-nude photo shoot in Kramer’s apartment. It’s more of a “timeless art of seduction” type of shoot.

How many times did the ESPN photographers say to Harvey, “Whatever you’re comfortable with Matty.” Being naked in a studio, surrounded by professional photographers and the hosts of Baseball Tonight, while wearing a bathrobe and occasionally covering your nether regions with a baseball glove is not the kind of nude I’m talking about. Thor needs to go all in. Full frontal. The time is right. Plus if he doesn’t do it now, those bastards from Anonymous will just get him in the next Apple iCloud hack. If they broke into the Cloud and got Justin Verlander (with Kate Upton), they can get to Thor (and whoever he’s dating).

Thor is also the member of the rotation who would do something like this. Based on the Always Sunny “Ghostbusters Dynamic”, deGrom would be the “brains” of our rotation and Harvey would be the “looks”. I guess Bartolo would be the “muscle”? The big fat muscle. And Thor is the “wildcard”. Thor is the one throwing 100 MPH fastballs at your head in the World Series and telling you to meet him 60 feet 6 inches. Thor is the one riding into Spring Training on horseback. And Thor is the one who would do a real nude photo shoot. All I know is Harvey is modeling. Now deGrom is modeling. It’s Thor’s turn.

And yes I did Google “Nude Matt Harvey photo shoot.” As an investigative journalist I had to do my due diligence.

The Next Generation: 2016 Top 10 Mets Prospects 

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Today, ESPN’s Keith Law released his highly anticipated 2016 Mets Top 10 Prospect rankings. Law is one of ESPN’s baseball analytics gurus, and he previously worked as a special assistant for current Mets Assistant GM J.P. Ricciardi when Ricciardi was GM of the Blue Jays. This year, Law had the Mets farm system ranked at 16th out of the 30 teams. Middle of the pack. Not showing off. Not getting left behind. Now that did represent a significant drop from our 4th place ranking in 2015. That being said, the drop makes some sense considering we promoted the top three prospects from his 2015 list (Noah Syndergaard, Michael Conforto and Kevin Plawecki), and we traded our top pitching prospect Michael Fulmer to Detroit at the 2015 trade deadline for Yoenis Cespedes.

Anyway, here is Law’s list and my thoughts:

1) Dominic Smith: The scouts love this guy. He was drafted 11th by the Mets in the 2013 draft. Law has him at 29th in his overall MLB Top 100 Prospects list. Law describes him as “one of the best pure hitters in the minors”, and he hit .305 in 118 games at High A ball last season. His power is still developing, but his glove is supposedly MLB ready and gold caliber. The idea of a defensive-minded player in our infield is borderline unfathomable (closes eyes…sees Lucas Duda throwing ball over D’Arnaud’s head in Game 5… shudders). His ETA is 2017 which would align well with Duda’s free agency timeline after the 2017 season. The only negative mentioned by Law is that Smith looked like he had gained a lot of weight in the Arizona Fall League, and he wasn’t talking about muscle mass.

Keith Law just fat shaming the hell out of Dom Smith. I think we can cut the guy a break, I mean after all it is winter. A perfect time to put on a little mass in the midsection for the sake of warmth. Granted, Smith is from California so additional blubber might not be entirely necessary. And conditioning is part of his job description as a professional athlete. But I am just going to pretend its a minor seasonal weight fluctuation, and that he’s on track for a breakout rookie campaign in 2017.

2) Steven Matz: Hard to count Matz as a prospect, but he didn’t hit maximum rookie innings thresholds in 2015. So he’s still technically a rookie. And why didn’t he meet the thresholds? Late promotion but also injuries. And injuries are the biggest red flag with him. In fact Law indicated his ceiling is capped at a number 4 starter with number 1 stuff because he fears he just won’t pitch enough. He doesn’t see him as a horse like Noah Syndergaard, Matt Harvey, or Jacob deGrom. Let’s hope Matz proves Law wrong.

3) Amed Rosario and 4) Gavin Cecchini: Two shortstops in our Top 5 and in the leagues Top 100? Really? Is a Jose Reyes successor really on the horizon? Are the annual Spring battles between Ruben Tejada and someone else finally coming to an end? According to Law the answer is yes. Rosario, ranked at 42 in Law’s Top 100, is 20 years old but projects as a possible star. Law says “he has the kind of raw tools and athleticism to be a top 10 prospect in the game in a year”. Cecchini, ranked at 89 in Law’s Top 100, is closer to the major leagues then Rosario. He projects as a contact hitter with above average defensive skills. We selected Cecchini 12th in the 2012 draft, so the high expectations around him make sense. He broke out offensively at AA last year and is likely to start at AAA Vegas this season. If he can get past the distraction of the Vegas clubhouse slot machines and have a big season in AAA, he may be in the plan for 2017.

5) Wuilmer Becerra: We got this OF in the R.A. Dickey trade. He is 20 years old and projects to be a regular who can hit for average and power. The idea to trade R.A. Dickey after he won his CY Young Award in 2012 was an absolute no brainer. However, the haul Sandy got for him is truly astounding. Thor, Travis d’Arnaud, and this outfielder Becerra. It’s already looking like an all time heist based on the early success of Thor and D’Arnaud. If they both really go on to have successful, healthy major league careers and Becerra actually becomes a viable major leaguer, it’s going to look even more lopsided in the Mets favor.

6) Brandon Nimmo: Jose Fernandez, Sonny Gray, Kolten Wong, and Joe Panik. All pretty good players right? Well we passed on all of them in the 2011 draft when we selected Nimmo 13th out of high school. Nimmo doesn’t project to have the defensive skills to play CF, and he has not developed the power that the Mets originally anticipated. He was going to start the season at AAA, but he tore a tendon in his foot so he will now miss 4 to 6 weeks. “4th outfielder” is being thrown around. “Bust” can’t be far behind.

7) Desmond Lindsay: Mets second round pick in 2015. He projects as a speedy defense first CF.

8) Robert Gsellman: He’s a sinkerballer that projects as a 5th starter. Should start the year in AAA Vegas and serve as rotation depth. Hopefully, our young starters are healthy and we never see him in the rotation. Ever.

9) Jhoan Urena: He’s a 21 year old third basemen that played at Single-A last year but battled injuries. Keith Law likes his swing and propensity to make contact.

10) Luis Carpio: He’s a 17 year old SS that has raw skills and handles himself well in the field and at the dish for his age.