Tag: pray

Pray For Wright, Sign Kelly Johnson

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It didn’t take long for David Wright to have his first setback of the spring. Earlier this week, Sandy Alderson said David has a shoulder impingement. Today, Wright confirmed the injury after getting a second opinion in New York. The injury is related to his neck fusion surgery, and he’s being shut down indefinitely.

For the record, this is the millionth time David Wright has had a “career ending” setback in the last three years. Every single time they announce a new Wright injury it hurts me as much as the last time. It’s honestly torture for me as a fan, and I can’t even imagine how awful it must be for the guy who’s getting neck operations and constantly rehabbing a degenerative spinal condition. It’s too hard to even write about again. Pray for David. I don’t care if he ever plays again. All I care about is that this guy lives a long healthy life outside of baseball.

Does this setback hurt the Mets’ chances of competing in 2017? No not really. I haven’t been willing to pencil David Wright into our projected lineup for three years now. And for the first time this year the Mets aren’t depending on him either. Some combination of Jose Reyes and Wilmer Flores will slot right in at third base. That combination should be very productive at the plate and provide acceptable defense (barely).

That being said, the Mets should undoubtedly sign Kelly Johnson to take Wright’s spot on the roster. If David ever plays again it sure as hell won’t be by Opening Day 2017. They’ve said Lucas Duda is feeling better after his back/hip cortisone injections, but I’ll believe that when I see it. Kelly Johnson can play third base, first base, second base, and outfield. It’s always made sense to bring him back, but it makes even more sense now. The Mets need to make it happen.

And the Mets also need to start having Jay Bruce take reps at first base in spring games immediately. They can’t afford to delay because we all know Duda’s back could still be barking come Opening Day.

The Mets also need to experiment with Bruce at first base just to try and create more playing time for Michael Conforto. The team has only played a few Grapefruit League Games but so far Conforto is hitting .538. If Conforto continues to rake this spring then he’s starting in my Opening Day outfield. I don’t care where he starts. I don’t care whether Curtis Granderson or Jay Bruce lose out on playing time. If Conforto has solved the problems he dealt with at the plate last year then the Mets need to find him major league ABs. 

There’s no reason for excuses. I don’t care that the veterans have high salaries. Plus the Wilpons will be raking in so much money on Wright’s insurance policy they won’t even have to worry about the money being wasted on Bruce as he sits on the bench. 

Pray for David.

Mets Pass on Wieters, Put Eggs In One Fragile d’Arnaud Basket

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The Washington Nationals have signed Matt Wieters to a two year deal (with an opt-out after one year) despite already having a starting catcher, Derek Norris, on their roster. Two viable starting catchers? How in the world will they find a way to play TWO starting caliber players?!?

The Mets on the other hand will continue to put all of their catching eggs in the extremely fragile Travis d’Arnaud basket. In other words, Rene Rivera will be our starting catcher and Kevin Plawecki will be backing up for at least half of the season.

The Mets should have been willing to entertain signing former All-Star and 20 home run hitter Matt Wieters at this discounted price. The Nationals deferred 5 million bucks of this 21 million dollar two year deal for Christ’s Sake. It would have been a worthwhile depth signing and reasonable insurance for a player we know won’t stay healthy.

Yes I agree that in theory the healthy 2015 version of Travis d’Arnaud is better than Matt Wieters and Derek Norris. But even if d’Arnaud manages to rebound in the hitting department, there is almost no chance that he stays healthy. How do I know? Because he’s never stayed healthy ever. Not once. Not for one damn season in his entire career.

Whatever. I’m not going to waste my energy getting angry over the Mets passing on Wieters. Instead I’m going to refocus all of that energy on my prayers for d’Arnaud’s brittle body. Pray for Travis aka Mr. Glass.

10 Shocking Spring Injuries You Will Never See Coming

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The nature of these Mets injury cover-ups will absolutely shock you. The details are so horrifying that you may never think of the team in the same way again. The information is being concealed all the way at the top of the….

Am I in the clear? Did that little preamble surpass the character limit on the sites that show blog samples? Well if not, oh well. Y’all got clickbaited baby! The truth is there are no shocking injuries in Metsland. Mets fans ALL know the injuries that are coming. Sandy knows. Terry knows. Ownership knows. Everyone knows.

Zack Wheeler stopped his bullpen session yesterday due to tenderness in his elbow. The Mets say it’s no big deal. This shutdown should come as a surprise to literally nobody on earth. Zack was the unquestioned lock to be the first member of #TeamTender. Lock city. He’s the only guy on our team that has somehow played less than David Wright (another injury lock) over the past two years.

As far as the rest of the pitching staff goes, they are all injury risks. If any of them are dealing with residual injury issues by Opening Day, the team isn’t allowed to shrug and say “never saw that coming.” Would it really be that surprising if at the end of March Matt Harvey is still recovering from thoracic outlet syndrome surgery, Wheeler still can’t pitch, and Steven Matz has a sore shoulder? I’m certainly not wishing that on any of these guys. I’m being realistic. I’m literally just citing the injuries they dealt with all of last season and assuming that there may be some lingering issues.

The rotation is full of question marks and the team should have treated them as such. Bartolo Colon should have been re-signed. The Mets should have signed a swingman for the pen. They should have signed at least one veteran arm to a minor league deal for insurance (Jon Niese will be back. It’s going to happen. I feel it).

As far as the bullpen goes, Jeurys Familia may not be an injury risk, but he’s a lock to be unavailable on Opening Day. He’s getting suspended. The team knows this. For some reason fans don’t seem concerned by this at all because they are assuming Addison Reed is going to 100% duplicate his career best 2016 season. That’s not even close to a guarantee, but even if it was the team is going to have a tough time replacing the innings of the suspended closer. And if the rotation fears mentioned above come to pass, you can forget about Seth Lugo or Zack Wheeler picking up the slack in the pen.

At least the position players are safe right? Wrong. David Wright hasn’t thrown a baseball. That was the first lock of Spring Training. I actually read articles yesterday where people are proposing we try playing Wright at first base. Ummm he can’t play anything. Why would we think first base would be any different at all? He can’t throw a BASEBALL.

Who’s next? Come on, you know the answer. Go ahead and say it. Travis d’Arnaud! If Mr. Glass goes down with some injury like he always does, I’m sure it’ll be the week after the Nationals sign Matt Wieters to some cheap one year deal. Yup. We’ll be rolling with Rene Rivera and Kevin Plawecki, and the organization will pretend they never saw it coming.

I’m not even going to get into the risks around Lucas Duda, Neil Walker and the rest of #TeamCrackedBack or the risks of Jose Reyes (aka Senor Hammy Strain) running around like he’s 20 years old in the World Baseball Classic.

The bottom line is we must pray for health. But if/when the injuries strike, please don’t act surprised and let the organization off the hook. I wasn’t clamoring for the team to sign players and make trades all offseason just for the fun of it. I was begging for it because our roster (although seemingly deep) is filled with fragile young pitchers and aging position players, and the injury risks are already starting to show in week one.

Wheeler Is Tender, Start Praying

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It only took three days for the Mets to have their first pitching related hiccup of Spring Training.

Zack Wheeler has a tender elbow. Surprise! The man has had a tender elbow for two years now. His Tenderness attempted to throw a bullpen session, and the Mets quickly shut it down. Right now they are attributing the discomfort to scar tissue from the Tommy John surgery he had two years ago. The team says his physical at the start of camp showed no structural damage in the arm.

Whether it’s minor tenderness due to scar tissue or some massive injury being covered up by the Mets training staff, the bottom line is we must do what we always do when it comes to Mets pitching. We pray.

This early setback is really a reminder of two things.

  1. If Robert Gsellman has a strong spring he’s winning that fifth starter job.
  2. We should have re-signed Bartolo Colon.

These aren’t shocking revelations at all. Gsellman pitched great in September last year, and Wheeler hasn’t been healthy for two years. Gsellman has to be considered the favorite early on. And Colon was the horse of our pitching staff for three straight seasons. I never understood the dump Colon and pray plan. I mean I understood that the Mets didn’t want to pay Bart. But I didn’t understand it from a roster perspective (because it made no sense).

Anyway, here we are on day three of camp and we’ve learned David Wright hasn’t thrown a baseball yet and Zack Wheeler can’t throw one again. Sigh.

Meanwhile His Sexiness is strutting all over Braves camp like the dynamo he is.

I miss Big Sexy. At least we know Colon will be back midseason when we eventually trade Gsellman for Colon and Kelly Johnson.

Season Over; Pray For The Metssiah

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Final Score: Giants 3, Mets 0

The Mets lost the NL Wild Card game last night to MadBum and the Giants. The season is over. Pray for the Metssiah. The game itself was a true nail-biter and basically the Mets’ worst nightmare. MadBum pitched a complete game shutout, and once again reminded the baseball world why he is the postseason GOAT. He kept the Mets off-balance all night and his dominance was really the only storyline that mattered in the end. 

First Time Through: The first time through the order the Mets were extra aggressive against Bumgarner. I suppose they figured they’d see hittable pitches early in the at-bat before MadBum was able to get ahead in the count. The plan backfired, and Bumgarner had an incredibly low pitch count after three innings. 

Loney Stinks: The Mets started James Loney in this game and made their typical claim that he’s a better defender than Duda. He isn’t. He stinks. He can’t hit either. Rene Rivera led off the third inning with a single, and then James Loney hit into a double play on the first pitch of his at-bat. Pathetic.

Umps Stink: In the fourth inning, Thor issued a leadoff walk to Denard Span. As expected, the Giants were running on Thor. Span immediately stole second base, but he was called out on the field for some reason. On replay it was clear that Span was safe, but the umps reviewed and upheld the out call (wrong call) on the field. It was a gift blown call for the Mets. The umps sucked all game. The home plate dude had an inconsistent strike zone. Bumgarner was barking at him non-stop. Hopefully Rob Manfred rolls out robot umps in the offseason. I’m sick of these mooks. 

Squandered Chance: In the fifth inning T.J. Rivera doubled. Then Jay Bruce came up with a runner in scoring position and struck out. He not only failed to come through with a hit, but he also failed to advance the runner. Awful. Then Rene Rivera hit a ball to shortstop and T.J. Rivera was caught off second base. Rene managed to get to second base while T.J. was in a rundown but it was awful base running by T.J.

Late Battling: Span singled and stole another base in the 6th inning (that time it counted). But Thor was able to escape the inning thanks to an unreal two out Grandy catch in center field. In the 7th inning with two outs, Thor walked Brandon Crawford. Then Loney made an awful effort on an Angel Pagan infield ground ball that led to a single. But with runners on first and second base Noah Syndergaard buckled down and retired Panik to end the inning. 

Thor: Noah was really dominant in this game. He pitched 7 scoreless innings, gave up 2 hits, 3 walks, and struck out 10. Against almost any other pitcher this game is going down as a legendary Syndergaard start. Unfortunately MadBum outdueled him, plain and simple. 

Familia/Reed Dead Arms: I’ve raved on and on for months now about how Terry has killed his best relievers by overusing them. The fatigue of Reed/Familia showed a bit in late September, and it showed last night. Addison Reed gave up a leadoff single and struggled in the 8th inning with walks and passed balls. He ultimately intentionally walked Buster Posey to load the bases with two outs for Hunter Pence. By some miracle Reed was able to strike out Pence and escape that jam.

In the bottom of the 8th inning, Ty Kelly singled but Jose Reyes and Asdrubal Cabrera failed to come through with a big hit. Then Jeurys Familia had nothing in the 9th inning. He gave up a three-run shot to Mr. Nobody Conor Gillaspie. It started with a leadoff double by Brandon Crawford. Angel Pagan followed that by failing to get a bunt down, and he struck out on a foul tip. Then Familia walked Joe Panik. Honestly the Mets should have considered walking Gillaspie to load the bases. At least it would have forced the Giants to pull Madison Bumgarner from the game. Maybe it wouldn’t have. In the end Gillaspie hit the three-run shot and that was that. The ump blew some close strike zone calls for Familia. The umps sucked. Waddya gonna do?

Final Game Thoughts: 

  • Thank God for Thor. He gave the Mets every chance to win. Not only in this game but all season long. 
  • Yoenis Cespedes was ice cold at the end of the season, and in this game. Without Yo we don’t go, but this you already know. I’m sure the Mets will use Yo’s cold ending combined with the fact that he didn’t talk to the media after the game as an excuse to let him walk. Pray that doesn’t happen. Sign Yo. 
  • The Wild Card is a joke crapshoot ratings ploy by Major League Baseball, and I hate them for it. 
  • It wasn’t the year for this Mets team because ultimately there were too many key injuries. I’m happy they rallied and at least made the playoffs, but in the end the season was a failure. Year two of “the window” has officially been flushed down the toilet. 
  • The Mets ran into the MadBum buzz saw. They weren’t the first team to suffer that fate and won’t be the last. 

The Metssiah Will Rise Again: I’m taking a break for a few days to grieve for the lost season. Pray for me. But I assure you, The Metssiah will rise again with expanded end of season thoughts before fully converting to offseason mode. There are also some big announcements coming for the site and for The Metssiah personally. Stay tuned. Let’s Go Mets!

The Metssiah Is Ready For Thor vs. MadBum

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We are a little more than a day away from the marquee NL Wild Card pitching showdown that the MLB script writers have been fantasizing about for weeks. My winner-take-all single-elimination Wild Card game anxiety is approaching dangerously high levels. But I’m ready for Thor vs. MadBum.

My Lineup

  1. Jose Reyes 3B,
  2. Asdrubal Cabrera SS
  3. Yoenis Cespedes LF
  4. Curtis Granderson CF
  5. T.J. Rivera 2B
  6. Jay Bruce RF
  7. Lucas Duda 1B
  8. Rene Rivera C
  9. Noah Syndergaard P

This is the best lineup we can roll out there right now. Rene Rivera obviously starts at catcher for defense, and because he went 2 for 3 (with a homer) against MadBum this season. I think the only question in the lineup is around first base. In my opinion the starter has to be Duda. If he’s healthy you have to roll with the heavy hitters. But early indications from the Mets are that James Loney will draw the start. If Duda isn’t in the lineup it’s obviously due to health reasons which is extra disappointing.

My Fears

MadBum Duh: Madison Bumgarner is capable of dominating any team at any time. And he’s MLB’s best big game pitcher (career postseason ERA 2.14/road postseason ERA 0.60). The Mets will have to do what hardly anyone has done. They’ll have to beat MadBum in a big game. Our lefty heavy lineup (Grandy, Bruce etc.) isn’t ideal for a matchup with MadBum. But Grandy is hot, and we have no choice but to roll with our veterans.

Not 100%: Yoenis Cespedes looked like crap in the season finale. He was furious after the game, and he said it was because of his performance. He denied any physical issues, but he’s been playing banged up all season. Asdrubal Cabrera has been playing hurt too. Duda is still rusty. Are they ready to go? We’ll find out.

Always The Defense: The Mets D always worries me. Noah Syndergaard has to hold men on base. Lucas Duda can barely move out there when his back is healthy. Jose Reyes isn’t perfect at third base. Hopefully the Giants don’t expose any of his defensive inexperience. Grandy in CF? How are Yo’s legs? We all know Bruce is as slow as they come.

Waddya Say Rook: T.J. Rivera looks like a Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez love child. That Bronx blood flows through his veins. But does he have the clutch gene like Jeter? I hope so.

Terry Hits The Panic Button: After HarveyGate last year in Game 5 of the World Series, I’m worried Terry will have PTSD and pull Thor at the first sign of trouble or something crazy.

Rocket Science Over/Unders That Equal Victory

MadBum pitches under 7 innings: If Bumgarner is out of the game after 6 innings or gets pulled in the 7th it means the Mets drove his pitch count up and the Giants bullpen is involved in the game. The Giants pen has been atrocious this year. Pray for the pen.

The Mets lineup has over 2.5 homers: The Mets win when they hit home runs. If the Mets hit 3+ homers they’ll win #rocketscience.

Jose, Cabby, and Yo combine for over 4.5 hits: The Mets need the top of their order to stay hot. Jose, Asdrubal and Yo have all had historical success against MadBum. If they have success tomorrow the Mets will triumph.

Thor has over 9.5 Ks: I’m hoping Thor has his best stuff. Overpowering fastball, nasty slider, 90+ changeup. Hopefully the adrenaline brings out that 101 MPH gas. If he’s striking everyone out we don’t have to worry about him holding men on base.

Rene Rivera throws out over 1.5 prospective base stealers: Hopefully Noah strikes out the world. But if men get on base he has to at least hold them on effectively enough to give Rivera a chance to throw out some base stealers. I hope the Giants run themselves out of opportunities to score.

Duda (or Loney)/Bruce combine for over 2.5 hits off of MadBum: If Bumgarner is able to plow through the bottom half of the Mets order consistently, we may deal with some of those RISP woes we complained about all season long. Let’s hope Duda (or Loney) and Bruce can lengthen the lineup.

Bold Predictions 

  1. Jose Reyes hits a leadoff homer off of MadBum.
  2. MadBum has pitched in 7 road postseason games for the Giants and in those games the Giants are 7-0. That will be 7-1 after Wednesday and MadBum will take the L.

Please God No BS

All we can do is pray at this point. But please God make sure there are no BS calls, no BS replay issues, no BS game-changing bloop hits for the Giants, no BS home plate collision or takeout slide controversies, no BS freak injuries, no BS player ejections. No BS at all. Please God?!? Let’s go Mets!

Mets Sign Divine Domestic Talent Tim Tebow

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I knew the Mets signing Tim Tebow was a lock the second he announced his plan to hold a showcase. The Wilpons will never ever ever ever ever pass on a money making opportunity that involves almost no financial commitment whatsoever. Signing Tebow is the same as signing Jose Reyes except that Tebow is a good person and Jesus’ best friend on earth and Jose Reyes is a horrible sinner. But it’s the same thing in that they cost nothing and will sell tons of jerseys/tickets. It’s already being reported that this came directly from Jeff Wilpon. People are actually saying that it can’t entirely be a publicity stunt because Sandy Alderson wouldn’t sign off on it unless Tebow had real talent. L-O-Freaking-L. Sandy has no say whatsoever when Jeff wants something. How does the media not get that yet? That’s why Mets fans regularly live in fear. We know that at any moment Jeff could make a wild card decision that destroys the franchise forever. All that being said, there’s no downside to signing Tebow. He’s just some guy. Who cares?

You Can’t Teach Power: The thing that excites me the most about Tebow is he’s an enormously jacked football freak. They say you can’t teach power. What they really mean is it’s not easy to find incredibly strong freak people who have ingested the perfect combination of supplements over the years to achieve peak physical mass. And Tebow has achieved that level of physical fitness. So I’m totally fine with the Mets bringing him in and seeing if he’s able to launch some dingers in the minors. And the guy is a talented multi-sport athlete. If he focused on baseball as a senior in high school he supposedly would have been drafted.

Domestic Talent Only: I think it’s absolutely hysterical that the Mets have passed on every single top international free agent talent from Cuba, Korea, Japan etc. But the second a popular American Christian former football player expresses an interest in playing baseball for the first time since high school and takes one BP session the Mets are inviting him to the Arizona Fall League. The Wilpons seemingly have a Trump-esque policy when it comes to international free agency. They refuse to pay for anything and want to put American talent first.

Jesus Is Good: There’s only upside with Tebow. As we all know he’s the Lord’s Chosen. He’s God’s instrument. Sure his presence failed to help the Jets in any way. But hopefully he has a few blessings left up his sleeve to raise up our cursed franchise and downtrodden fan base. Hopefully his presence alone can cure the organization of METS disease and save future generations of Mets players. We pray.

Use The Tebow Jersey ATM For Cespedes: Apparently Tebow is represented by the same agency as Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard and of course…Yoenis Cespedes. People are speculating this signing is some kind of favor related to our dealings with Yo. I highly doubt that. I will say this though. Tebow will sell an enormous number of jerseys and make the Wilpons lots of cash money. Hell I want to buy a Tebow Brooklyn Cyclones jersey just so I can throw it in the trash. We already know Yoenis Cespedes is the savior of the Mets franchise. He came here last year and raised the team up from the ashes. He brought us to the World Series. Yo is the savior. But his opt-out is looming and there’s obviously a strong possibility he leaves the Mets for a big payday. If the Tebow Jersey ATM helps the Wilpons make enough money to retain Cespedes then in a way Tebow could save our savior. Which would kind of make him the new savior. If that’s the case then the Metssiah is fully on board. All hail Tebow!

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.

Mets Win; Lightning Lord Strikes Twice

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Final Score: Mets 4, Dodgers 3

The Lightning Lord: The story in this game was that Noah Syndergaard did absolutely everything. Thor pitched 8 innings, gave up 2 runs (solo dingers to Corey Seager and Yasmani Grandal) and struck out 6 Dodgers. He also hit a solo bomb in the third inning and a three run homer in the fifth inning to the opposite field. There’s not much else to say other than he’s a freak specimen. We’ve seen his power before. He’s always been competent at the dish. But I guess he’s feeding off Bartolo’s sexual home run energy. Maeda’s Priceless Face: Kenta Maeda pitched okay in this game. It was his worst start of the season by far considering he had gone 6+ innings in his first 6 starts. But Maeda absolutely deserved to get lit up by Thor when he gave up the second home run to him in the fifth inning. Before Thor stepped up to bat, he hit Soup with a pitch and then walked Rene Rivera. Those are two unforgivable sins.

Soup Is The Worst Player: In the top of the second inning, Yoenis Cespedes led off with a single, and Lucas Duda walked. Neil Walker was retired for the first out. Then Cespedes stole third base and with one out Eric Campbell couldn’t get a goddamn sacrifice fly. In fact he hit a weak ground ball to short and Cespedes ran home on contact. He got thrown out at the plate. Then Rene Rivera struck out in pathetic fashion.

In the 6th inning, Lucas Duda led off with a single and Neil Walker doubled. Then with runners on second and third and no outs, Eric Campbell fouled out to the first basemen. After a Rene Rivera walk to load the bases, Thor and Grandy struck out swinging.

In the 7th inning, Michael Conforto singled with one out and then Cespedes doubled. With runners on second and third Lucas Duda couldn’t get a damn sac fly. Then the Dodgers walked Neil Walker to load the bases for Soup (duh!) and as you would expect he struck out looking.

Before I get into stanky Soup, let’s acknowledge that a bunch of Mets failed to execute with runners in scoring position last night. Neil Walker, Rene Rivera, Curtis Granderson, and Lucas Duda all blew chances to drive in runs in this game. Those results aren’t surprising considering the team has consistently failed to execute with runners in scoring position all season. The Mets are dead last in average with RISP (.211). At least that was the number at some point during the game. We can hit home runs all day, but I guarantee the inability to drive in runners when they are in scoring position will be our undoing. We need to halt that pattern of failure immediately.

But my real takeaway from last night’s non-Thor offensive troubles is the same one I’ve had for years now. The bottom line is we play with a 24 man roster. It’s an absolute joke that Soup is on this team and has been part of our “plan” since Opening Day. We let Juan Uribe walk. We let Kelly Johnson walk. And you know what? We are going to have to trade another prospect this year to replace Soup’s spot on the roster. You cannot win with a black hole on the roster. Period. He sucks.

Save Familia: Jeurys Familia gave up a run in the 9th, but still managed to get the save. If anything, it’s more evidence that we need to score runs when we have the chance because our bullpen will not be perfect all damn season. Also, we’re are going to need reinforcements for the back-end of the pen. I’m just going to keep saying it until Sandy addresses it at the deadline.

Our Pets Heads Are Loose: Yesterday off the field was an absolute disaster. Steven Matz is missing his start on Saturday with elbow soreness and will be examined in New York when he’s back. David Wright missed last night’s game with shoulder soreness. Terry announced postgame that on May 2nd, Noah Syndergaard had his elbow examined. And to top it all off, Wilmer Flores has been placed on disabled list with a hamstring injury. Apparently he injured it on Monday and tried to play through it. Smart move! The Mets are calling up Sean Gilmartin to replace him on the roster. That’s about as bad an injury news cycle as we’ve had all season. Let’s hope it’s not the announcement that precedes a bunch of 2016 season obituaries.

Today: The Mets have taken two of the three games we’ve played in LA, which is what they had to do at a minimum. And the team won with Thor on the mound which is even more important. Honestly, the pressure is now on the Dodgers to split this home series with their ace Clayton Kershaw on the mound tonight vs. Bartolo Colon. It would be extremely impressive to win 3 out of 4 games against the first place Dodgers at home. It’ll be especially comforting to win these games considering we may be on the verge of an injury implosion. Light your candles and pray.