Tag: yoenis cespedes

Cespedes To The DL; The Season Is Over

On By themetssiah4 Comments

Well it’s official. Joint funeral services for the 2016 Mets and Yoenis Cespedes will be held at Yankee Stadium tonight at 7:05 pm. All Mets fans in attendance will receive a complimentary Rob Refsnyder shirsey, a hymnal, and a noose. They’ll stop serving beer after the 7th inning, but all Mets fans that want a tall glass of bleach can get one through the end of the game.

I’ve spent the morning listening to my girl Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On and watching 2015 Cespedes highlights. What else can I do? It’s all over folks. The Mets did exactly what they’ve done for the 20 years that I’ve watched the team. They mishandled an injury to a key player, and ultimately it will cost him the most important stretch of the season. Cespedes tweaked his quad before the All-Star Game. That was like a month ago. I’ve been screaming “Put him on the DL!” ever since the injury. But they kept playing him a couple games and then sitting him for a few. Playing and sitting. Playing and sitting. And…he officially tweaked the hell out of it last night. Off to the DL. The season is over.

I’m Done Pretending: I don’t care about the NL East standings (which is now a ridiculous and insurmountable 8.5 games) and the Wild Card (which is 2). This team has been terrible for months! Months! I’m not going to sit here and pretend that all of a sudden they will start playing a different brand of baseball. I won’t do it. They barely win a game and then they drop two. Then they win and lose. Win and lose. Win and lose. They haven’t won two games in a row in a month! Not an exaggerated month. An actual freaking month. The last time they did it was July 6th and 7th. That’s not a team that makes the playoffs. That’s not a team that wins a damn thing.

Is There An Adult In The Room?: In regards to the Cespedes injury, just burn them all. Front office. Manager. Ownership. Everyone. How does this happen? Is there an adult in the goddamn room? How do you let this guy play injured? I knew he was going to have a setback and hit the DL. Every single Mets fan knew it in their heart. I wrote yesterday that I was worried about him. That’s right. I was worried about a grown ass man because he was in the clutches of the Mets. They kill grown ass men every single day. Can we hire an adult? Is that impossible because Jeff Wilpon is an infant child? What about Sandy? Sandy is an acclaimed MLB executive. How does he let this happen? He’s a military hero for Christ’s Sake! I thought we could trust Sandy. Why? Why?!?

How Does This Keep Happening?: Why?!??!?? God oh God why?!?!? What did we do to deserve this? Did we build Shea Stadium/Citi Field over the site of a prison that exclusively housed the world’s most violent criminals, and it burned down in the 50’s and now the ex-con ghosts haunt our franchise? Is there some running theory? I can’t believe this. They have all this garbage programming on SNY and on the History Channel they play Ancient Aliens all day. Can they please collaborate on some program that explains the curse of the Mets? Help me understand. I’m sure it already exists. I guess I’ll spend the rest of the season researching that since it’s not worth paying attention to this team.

Shut Up About The Golf: As soon as the game ended, the Cespedes golf BS started. Let me state this clearly. If you think Yoenis Cespedes injured his quad playing 18 holes of golf in a freaking cart yesterday then you are a bigger moron than Yo’s golfing partner Kevin Millar. Golf had nothing to do with the injury. Zero. Nada. Nothing. But rest assured, the golf and the injuries will be his fabricated ticket out of town. It’s so obvious. It’s already starting. Sandy is going to address “the issue” today. Ummm the issue? The issue is the goddamn Mets unnecessarily played him injured for a month, and he should sue the stupid organization for their incompetence.

Ces Is A Goner: Bye Yo. He’s going to opt-out and leave. He’ll probably head to the Nationals, and they’ll launch a dynasty where they win 4 championships and Yo and Daniel Murphy will alternate MVP awards all four years. I will say this, I’ve already had a million people ask me whether or not we should sign Yo. This is how you answer. You channel your inner Robert De Niro and you repeat the same four lines over and over again. You say, “Look at me. What did I say? Keep him here! Did you hear me? Look at me! What did I say? Keep him here! Did you hear me?” And on and on and on. Maybe you add “Give him his money!” But you don’t need to say anything else. He’s the best player this franchise has seen since Mike Piazza and Carlos Beltran.

I Want Heads: Someone needs to pay for this injury mismanagement. I don’t blame Terry because it’s not really his call. He should probably be fired for other reasons but that’s a topic for another day.  Ray Ramirez has to go. Finally. Give the fans his head on a spike. Send him to his precious Hospital For Special Surgery, and let them operate on his body for a change. Let them do their little experiments. Let’s see how he likes it when he goes in for a routine knee scoping, and he comes out crippled.

Gotta Give Him Credit: I swear to God, after last night the first time someone says to me “You gotta give him credit” regarding Sandy Alderson I’m going to lose my mind. Really? I need to give Sandy credit for our one year World Series trip that we lost? I need to give Sandy credit for letting the potential National League MVP and Triple Crown Candidate Daniel Murphy walk to our top division rival?

The Price: You know what we’re starting to see? We’re starting to see the damn price. Matt Harvey is dunzo because of that playoff run. Steven Matz and Noah Syndergaard have bone spurs possibly because of the extra innings they logged during the playoff run. Michael Fulmer is an AL Rookie of the Year candidate and looks like a future Cy Young winner. Oh and now we go ahead and dump Dilson Herrera. Good GMs put the major league team in a position to win in the short term and long term. We went from having a top farm system to promoting our top talent and then trading the rest away. All of that happened in one and a half seasons. Whatever. This isn’t a post meant to rip the GM that helped save this franchise post-Madoff, but I just don’t want people to tell me to praise him right now. I won’t do it because he had a terrible offseason and a terrible follow up season to last year’s run.

Your Precious Little Recap: Oh I forgot about last night’s stupid game. Here’s the recap. Curtis Granderson hit a leadoff BS Yankee stadium home run (1-0 Mets). Then the Mets loaded the bases with nobody out and only got one additional run to show for it (2-0). In the bottom of the first, bone spur Matz reared his ugly head and gave up 3 runs as the Yankees shellacked him (3-2 Yanks). Then in the second inning, Kelly Johnson doubled and Rene Rivera drove him in to tie the game at 3. In the second inning, Matz was rocked again and gave up a BS opposite field three-run homer to Mark Teixeira (6-3 Yanks). That was the game.

The Mets offense then proceeded to go to sleep for the rest of the game other than a few rally killing double plays. Hitting into double plays is literally the thing the 2016 Mets are best at. In the seventh inning, the Mets loaded the bases with no outs again and only scored a run. The Yankees piled on runs late against Hansel Robles. Whatever. Final Score: Yankees 9, Mets 5.

Tex Is A Whiny Loser: There was some controversy in this game, but obviously none of it matters now that Cespedes is hurt. The controversy was Tex hit a BS Yankee stadium homer and Matz was pissed. So in the fifth inning, Matz may or may not have thrown at Tex, and he hit him with a pitch. Tex complained like a whiny loser. Then with Robles in the game in the 7th inning, Tex started stealing signs at second base and Robles lost his composure and gave up a ton of runs. And Tex sat at second base laughing in the Mets faces. He was literally laughing. And he didn’t deny the sign stealing after the game. He said if you think I’m stealing signs then change them. He’s a schmuck, and I can’t wait for him to be forced to retire due to injury and declining play. I’d like to hate on him more, but I honestly have nothing left in the hate tank.

Bruce Already Caught The Sickness: Jay Bruce went 0 for 4 and failed in a number of big spots. I’m pretty sure he punched the dugout wall after one big strikeout. Hopefully he didn’t shatter his hand. He’s already caught Mets Disease. His skills are day-to-day.

Thanks For Showing Up Jerk: Neil Walker is one fire. He went 4 for 5. After two months of doing nothing he is so back. Thanks for showing up late to the party jerk.

The Wilmer Apologists: Wilmer Flores played a horrendous shortstop last night. He made an error. I won’t say much more than that because then all the Wilmer apologists will come out of the woodwork and attack me. Everyone loves this guy. He can hit. I get it. But God he’s such a liability in the field.

My Heart Will Go On: Okay my rant is over. The season may be over, but that doesn’t mean I’m going anywhere. That doesn’t mean I won’t be sinking with the ship. I’m playing my goddamn violin on the main deck watching everyone get on lifeboats and leap overboard. That’s what I do every season. I quietly play my violin and watch some of the fans sitting on the deck muttering prayers while waiting for lifeboats and the others thrashing about in the sea gasping for air.

I didn’t want to proclaim the season over, but it had to be done. I’m about as loyal to this team as it gets. And if I’ve learned anything from Game of Thrones, it’s that loyal service means telling hard truths. And we all know the hard truth. We’ve known it since the All-Star Break the minute Cespedes was hurt. This ship is sinking baby. I’ll watch the rest of the games as always. I’ll watch the Wild Card “race”. I’ll watch the standings. I’ll continue to occasionally pretend we have a chance. But do yourselves a favor and grab a life preserver. A lot of people said with this pitching this ship can’t sink. Umm this ship is made of struggling sluggers and injured pitchers. I assure you she can sink. And she will.

The Dirty Little Neil Walker Secret

On By themetssiah2 Comments

As much as the Mets would like the fans to believe yesterday’s Jay Bruce trade was solely about bolstering the inept offense, it also said a lot about the Mets future plans. It undoubtedly exposed the Mets dirty little secret. The first thing it showed was fairly obvious. Jay Bruce is “insurance” for when Yoenis Cespedes opts-out of his contract. But insurance isn’t really a fair term to use because it implies that Bruce is protection against something unexpected happening. The “unexpected” thing to protect against would be Yoenis Cespedes taking big money to go elsewhere at the end of the season. I would argue that’s not unexpected. It’s seemingly an absolute lock. The Mets made it clear last offseason they had no intention of paying Cespedes the money he has earned and giving him the long term deal he deserves. They lucked out because the free agent market was skeptical of Yo repeating his career best 2015 season. As a result, he was willing to spurn the Nationals and accept the Mets ridiculous one year opt-out deal.

But the other thing the Bruce deal officially confirmed is we are about to experience Daniel Murphy 2.0 with Neil Walker in free agency. The Mets supposedly let Daniel Murphy go because they felt his defense was too much of a liability, but they also sold everyone on the notion that Dilson Herrera was the unquestioned second baseman of the future for the organization. Yet yesterday they put him into the Bruce deal in place of Brandon Nimmo like it was nothing and shipped him off to the Reds. When he was asked about second base beyond this season, Sandy Alderson mentioned Jose Reyes and Triple-A shortstop Gavin Cecchini . He made no mention of Neil Walker in the pool of candidates. Why? Because there’s no chance the Mets retain him. He’s Neil Walkyear. He was brought in to ultimately walk away and make room for Herrera. That was his destiny. But now Herrera is gone, and I feel like everyone has just accepted the notion that Walker will be gone soon too. Nobody is asking why.

Why wouldn’t the Mets consider retaining Walker? After a scorching hot April where he hit 9 home runs and posted a .962 OPS, he cooled a lot between May and July. His .565 June OPS was exceptionally bad. But he still posted a respectable .754 OPS in May and a .753 OPS in July. He still ranks 6th in the NL in OPS among qualifying second baseman. He still ranks second among NL second baseman with 17 home runs behind you know who. If he finishes strong in August and September, he’ll rank among the top second baseman in the NL in plenty of offensive categories. That’s the exact player we were told we were getting when we traded for him. He also has an UZR (Ultimate Zone Rating) of 8.2 according to FanGraphs which is tops among MLB second baseman. So one of the advanced metrics says he’s been a strong defender in 2016. Based on all that, why wouldn’t we consider signing him to the reasonable 3 or 4 year deal that he’s likely to command as a free agent? I’ll tell you why. It’s the same reason we didn’t even entertain signing Murph. The Mets have no interest in signing players to long-term deals, especially if they can fill the need for free (see Jose Reyes). And I’m not saying Neil Walker is the unequivocal choice for second base or a long term deal either. I’m not solely making an impassioned plea for Neil Walker. If the Mets want to consider other infielders like Martin Prado, Justin Turner, or someone else in the offseason that’s fine by me. But you know they won’t do that. They will all command multi-year contracts. The Mets haven’t said a word about that because it’s not in the cards.

Can you believe Sandy cited Jose Reyes as the second baseman of the future? The same Jose Reyes that was the subject of deplorable off-field actions and the same Reyes that currently sits on the DL (where he spends most of his time). Well now we know the dirty little secret. We know that the Herrera second baseman of the future story was just a line we were fed to make it easier to stomach the front office’s decision to pass on signing Murph to a reasonable 3-year deal. I’m sure they’ll come up with an even better spin as we get closer to the offseason to rationalize not even pursuing Walker at all in free agency. Sure he’s a former Silver Slugger winner and has a chance to lead all NL second baseman in home runs this season, but who cares? We have Jose! At least until he strains his hammy in Spring Training.

Oh No, Not Tonight!!!

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Final Score: Cardinals 5, Mets 4

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Michael Conforto in Center Field Is Bananas

On By themetssiah1 Comment


Let me start by saying I fully understand the Mets current predicament. Yoenis Cespedes is playing injured. His legs are sore, and he has stated openly and on the record that playing center field has contributed to his leg problems. As a result of that assertion, the Mets have no choice but to accommodate Cespedes’ request and play him more often in the corner outfield to keep him in the lineup.

I also understand the notion that Cespedes isn’t really a true center fielder, and according to the advanced defensive metrics he hasn’t been that great defensively out there this season anyway. Therefore, if we were willing to play Yo in center field and sacrifice defense, why wouldn’t we be willing to try someone else out there and make a similar sacrifice? I get how someone could come to that conclusion. Unfortunately, that conclusion makes no sense when the “someone” we plan to use in center field is Michael Conforto.

Michael Conforto in center field just feels like something the Mets would try and completely bungle. It’s so Mets. My biggest concern with even entertaining the notion of Conforto in center field is he’s 23 years old, never played the position, and just got sent down to the minors for hitting struggles. Hitting is supposed to be his strength. Hitting is what comes natural to him, and he’s struggled with that at the major league level in 2016. And those struggles are completely understandable for a young player. Now we are going to ask him to figure out hitting as well as learn a position that requires arguably the most athleticism of all the places in the field? It’s borderline unfair to ask Conforto to learn a new position when he’s still learning to hit MLB pitching.

I’m not saying Conforto wouldn’t be able to eventually succeed in center. But this just reeks of a failed Mets experiment that sets a young player’s development back. Let’s teach Jose Reyes a different running style! Let’s move Reyes to second base and make room for Kaz Matsui! For God’s sake, Lucas Duda still wakes up in cold sweats after having nightmares where he’s hurriedly retrieving balls in the left field corner as runners are rounding third and heading home. The Duda outfield experiment screwed with Lucas at the plate, and as a result it took years for the Mets to see what he was fully capable of in the batter’s box. But Conforto in center field sounds great. I’m sure it’ll be different.

I get that Curtis Granderson can’t effectively play the position anymore. He can’t cover the ground in center and doesn’t have the arm. Unfortunately, this whole outfield debacle really exposes one big issue that we’ve all been ignoring/pretending doesn’t exist. If Cespedes opts-out and the Mets pony up the dough to keep him, they have to trade Curtis Granderson for a player that fits better on this roster. I love Grandy. He’s one of the best players on the team and a class act off the field. I don’t want to get rid of him at all. But if Yo can only play the corner then there’s no place for Grandy.

As far as this season goes, there’s only one real answer. If Cespedes can only play center field once or twice a week, then Juan Lagares gets the rest of the starts. That’s the only real option. I realize the plan was to have Juan platoon against lefties. Well throw that plan out the window because having Cespedes in the lineup is the only thing that matters.

Frankly, I’m not quite sure why this is even being made out to be an emergency situation. Michael Conforto wasn’t hitting when he was demoted. We crowned him as our number three hitter before he even had a chance to get fully acquainted with big league pitching. But he’s struggled this season, so why are we rushing to reconfigure our defensive alignment to “get his bat in there”? We’ve tried every configuration imaginable this season, and the team has still failed to produce with runners in scoring position.

The idea of giving Juan Lagares more at-bats and starting him more often in center field down the stretch doesn’t scare me at all. I actually like the idea of prioritizing defense the rest of the season. Our young studs are pitching through elbow bone spurs. Matt Harvey is out for the season. That should mean strikeouts will be down and more balls will be in play. Let’s see how many runs Lagares can save with a healthy throwing arm (let’s just pretend he has two healthy thumbs). Let’s not forget the Mets paid Lagares. We need to determine if he really is the future full time center fielder who will be flanked by Conforto and Cespedes for years to come. There’s no better time to assess that than the present.

Mets Pass On Cuban Star; Prefer To Have One

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In the least surprising news of all time, the Mets passed on signing free agent Cuban infielder Yulieski Gurriel (formerly spelled Yulieski Gourriel). He plays second base and third base and was touted as the best international talent available in the market. But the Mets don’t have a need at either of those positions. We already have our studs Wilmer Flores and Jose Reyes. I mean let’s be reasonable here. We have all these infielders signed to expensive long term deals. How can we possibly fit any other infielders on our roster? And by “all these” I mean just David Wright who may never play another game again. The Mets infield logjam is a real problem. We can’t go complicating things by adding another talented body.

Instead, Gurriel goes to the Astros on a 5 year deal worth $47.5 million dollars. The Astros have an abundance of infielders on their major league roster and Alex Bregman their top position player prospect is also a middle infielder. Obviously the Astros GM has lost his mind. How will his team possibly accommodate all these talented players? There’s simply no way to do it. If the Mets have taught us anything this year it’s that maintaining a deep roster is simply too risky. A team is much better off playing short-handed every single week and being forced to address roster deficiencies during the season by trading pitching prospects for Kelly Johnson.

Plus the Mets don’t want to violate MLB’s strict “one Cuban All-Star per team” policy. I know Yo wanted Gurriel to join the Mets very much. But he just doesn’t understand that rules are rules. One star Cuban per team. That’s it. I’m sure he’ll be disappointed. Also it’s hilarious that the Mets completely ignored the plea by Cespedes. He came to them and said this guy is the real deal and the team should sign him. Cespedes is rarely vocal about anything with the media. He went out of his way to express his feelings about Gurriel. What did the Mets say to that? Nope! Pass!

This is 100% foreshadowing the Mets 2016/17 offseason Cuban relations. Don’t be fooled people. Yoenis Cespedes opting out of his current contract is an absolute lock. There is no way in hell the Mets are going to give him the long term deal he wants and deserves. And you can rest assured that some team is going to give him his money this time. If his unproven former Cuban teammate is getting 10 million a season over the next 5 years, I guarantee you some team is giving Cespedes (who’s younger than Gurriel and a major league All-Star) 25 million a year over 6 years. I know everyone said that last offseason Cespedes would get paid. But last offseason it was pretty obvious that Cespedes wanted to stay in New York more than anything. The World Series trip was so fresh. He just couldn’t get over that feeling and pass on a chance to try and get there again. I’m sure that feeling will wear off by the end of this season. Plus he’s going to need extra cash considering he’s spent his entire 2016 salary on horses, pigs, and sports cars.

Speaking of Cespedes, he tried running the bases today and his quad injury hasn’t healed. I can’t decide what’s more likely. He’s either going to sit for 15 days on the active roster and then come back, or the Mets will pinch hit him tonight and he’ll re-aggravate the injury thus making it impossible for the team to backdate the DL stint. Whatever. I’m just going to assume the Mets passed on this new Cuban to save their money for Cespedes. Because if the Mets let Cespedes walk away from the team, we all should do the same thing.

God Hates The Mets

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“Kill the Mets. I hate them.” -God

Final Score: Nationals 3, Mets 1

On the same day that Matt Harvey announced he will get season ending surgery to address his thoracic outlet syndrome, Noah Syndergaard and Yoenis Cespedes left the game due to injuries. God hates us. The Lord hath smited the Mets yet again. At least the Wilpons won’t have to pay for Thor’s and Yo’s airfare to the All-Star Game.

Thor Got Burnt: In the second inning, Clint Robinson hit a two run homer that made it 2-0 Nats. In the top of the third inning, Ben Revere led off by hitting a ball between Yoenis Cespedes and Asdrubal Cabrera. Yo made a sliding catch and nearly took out Asdrubal who was standing in his way. Then with one man on and one out, Daniel Murphy crushed an opposite field RBI double making it 3-0 Nats. On the play, Yoenis Cespedes ran a little awkwardly while pursuing the ball in the outfield.

Cespedes Dead Quad: In the top of the fourth inning, Cespedes was removed from the game with a strained quad. Murph killed him. Murph and God. Every time he steps to the plate against the Mets, Murph is slicing us open and watching us bleed out on the field. And now, his magic hits are injuring our stars. After the game, Cespedes said he dealt with a similar injury last year with Detroit. He said he missed 4-5 days, and then he was back. Then he said something like I hope I can avoid the 15-Day DL “God willing”. I wouldn’t look to the man upstairs for help Yo. He doesn’t like us very much.

Syndergaard Dead Arm: In the top of the 5th inning, Thor’s velocity all of a sudden dropped down to 91. Terry didn’t like what he was seeing and he pulled him from the game. He told Terry after the game he just lost it. He said his arm went dead. Harvey’s arm went dead. Thor’s arm went dead. That’s two thus far Shooter. Unbelievable. He says he’s fine. Hopefully it’s just temporary dead arm. But forget about the All-Star Game. We have no shot this season without him. He’s got Ridged Ruffle bone chips in his elbow. His arm is inexplicably shutting down like an old Super Nintendo with a shoddy motherboard. Please give him this week off to reset.

Uno Dinger: Asdrubal Cabrera hit a solo homer in the bottom of the fifth inning. At least he’s showing power lately.

Pen Pickup: The pen really picked up Noah. Seth Lugo, Jerry Blevins, and Erik Goeddel combined to toss 4.1 scoreless innings of relief.

Strasburgo: Stephen Strasburg is so good. He’s healthy, and he knows how to pitch now. That’s a dangerous combination. He went 7 innings, gave up 2 hits, 1 run and struck out 9. The Mets never had a shot against him.

The Only Chance: In the 8th inning against Shawn Kelley, Wilmer Flores hit a ground rule double and Jose Reyes singled. Then Oliver Perez came in and got Curtis Granderson to line out softly to the shortstop and Juan Lagares to hit into a double play. Juan was hitting in Cespedes’ spot in the lineup. So yeah Ollie danced on Yo’s grave. He rubbed salt in our wounds for sure. Choke artist Jonathan Papelbon closed the game out at 3-1.

Bartolo The Human Twinkie: Bartolo Colon was named to the All-Star Game. He’s such an enormous 43 year old dynamo. He could survive a Nuclear Holocaust. He’ll be heading to Petco Park where he cranked that dinger earlier this season. By the time this weekend is over he may be the only one representing the Mets. Pray for Familia.

Today: Logan Verrett vs. Max Scherzer. The odds are against us. And we already know God ain’t on our side. Please stop killing all of our players big man.

Mets Let Giancarlo Beat Them For Some Reason

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Final Score: Marlins 5, Mets 2

The Mets let Giancarlo Stanton beat them twice last night for some reason. That’s the story of the game. We let one of the best power hitters on the planet burn us twice. I don’t care that he’s had a bad season. I don’t care that he’s been a non-factor lately. You simply cannot let Stanton launch two dingers against you. And these were bombs with men on base no less. Unacceptable.

Matz and His Mistake: Steven Matz was lights out last night. I said this for Noah Syndergaard on Sunday, but I hope this means the cortisone is working. Whether it’s working or not Terry Collins didn’t give a crap. He saw Matz had good stuff and let him throw a 100 pitches. TC don’t give a damn about dem bone chips. Matz went 7 innings, gave up 6 hits, 2 runs, and struck out 6. The frustrating part was he got lit up by Stanton in the 7th inning. He was so close to the damn finish line. He gave up a leadoff single to Marcell Ozuna and then Stanton took him deep to make it 2-1. He had already given up a damn single to him earlier in the game. I know you don’t want to put the lead run on base, but Chris Johnson stinks. Challenging Stanton more often than not equals home run.

Yo Bomb: Yoenis Cespedes hit a solo home run in the fourth inning. He was the only guy who could hit Wei-Yin Chen. Chen straight up outdueled Matz. He went 7 innings, gave up 3 hits, 1 run and struck out 5. I suppose Chen let Cespedes beat him. But that dinger was in the fourth inning. Remember the bottom of the 7th inning? He walked Yo to leadoff the inning. It wasn’t intentional, but he sure as hell didn’t fall behind and then foolishly challenge him. I wouldn’t want to get rocked by Yo again either. Then he easily retired the next two guys. But the Marlins did luck out because James Loney singled, and Juan Lagares hit a sinking liner to Stanton in right field that he snagged for the third out. On a different day that falls in for a hit and ties the score. It wasn’t the Mets night.

Letting Giancarlo Beat You: The Matz home run to Stanton was less appalling than the bomb surrendered by Erik Goeddel. With two freaking outs, Goeddel hit Christian Yelich with a pitch and gave up a single to Marcell Ozuna. I’m not sure why with two outs the Mets are letting Commissioner Goeddel blow a one run game, but they sure did. Goeddel got behind Stanton and gave up a three run home run on a 3-1 pitch. That made it 5-1. I don’t care what the score is. If you have an open base and the option to walk Stanton and get a fresh count against Chris Johnson, you take it. Call me crazy. Call me stupid. Call me whatever the hell you want. Goeddel getting burned was an absolute lock. I was washing dishes during the at-bat with my iPad set up playing the game next to the sink. Before he even threw the pitch I was already shaking my head. It was so obvious. I can’t believe we gave into the script.

Will The Guys We Paid Perform?: I’ve complained about the performance of Antonio Bastardo and Alejandro De Aza more than a few times this season. They both got into the action last night. Bastardo pitched a scoreless inning and De Aza hit an 8th inning pinch hit solo dinger. De Aza managed to survive yesterday despite the vast majority of people calling for his head when Reyes was promoted. I was not calling for his head. You know what I’d like? How about these two jerks have a big second half? We paid these two guys. They have major league track records. They have historically not sucked. Maybe it’s time they stop sucking. I’m going to hope for that. I’ll never trust them in a big spot because I’ve already seen the ugly stretch. I’ve seen them at their worst. But turn it around. We kind of need them to work out. They were part of Sandy’s plan.

All-Stars: The All Star rosters were officially announced last night. Yoenis Cespedes will start in the outfield and Noah Syndergaard/Jeurys Familia will be on the pitching staff. They are the obvious Mets All Stars. They are the best players on the team. I hope Terry pitches the other NL arms into the ground for a change.

Reyes Return: Jose Reyes returned last night and went 0 for 4 at the plate. He didn’t get a single opportunity at third base. I really only have two points on Reyes. I’m kind of surprised we brought him back so quickly. I figured we’d give him some time to actually learn his new position and get his bat up to speed. Nope. Looks like he’s just going to do that here right when the offense finally got a little momentum. Oh well. I guess ticket sales trumped commen sense. The second point is I’m really surprised people make signs and give him a heroes welcome. It’s one thing to reluctantly accept something you have no control over. It’s another thing to essentially celebrate the return of Reyes like some sort of victory for the team and some sort of personal victory. I understand the nostalgia. I understand people getting excited because they used to root for him. But I’ve actually seen and heard people celebrating the return of Reyes like they won something. As if his return proves some point they personally were trying to make. I’m not sure what that point is and frankly I don’t want to know.

Today: It’s nice to have Jacob deGrom on the mound in a rubber game against a division foe at home. Let’s win today at 1:10.

Just Give Cespedes His Money Now

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On July 4th 2016, Yoenis Cespedes did what he’s been doing for the Mets for over 130 games at this point. He sparked the offense, had clutch hits, and won the team a baseball game. The Mets had arguably their most impressive victory of the season yesterday. Before the end of the third inning, they were down 6-0 to the Marlins. Matt Harvey gave up 11 hits, 6 runs (5ER) over 3.2 innings. He continued what has been an unimpressive campaign in his second season removed from Tommy John surgery.

But despite being down 6-0, the Mets were able to crawl back and eventually win this ball game. Travis d’Arnaud and Curtis Granderson hit solo homers in the fourth and fifth inning respectively. That made it 6-2 Marlins. In the sixth inning, the Mets got to the Marlins bullpen. Travis d’Arnaud hit an RBI single and Kelly Johnson hit into a run scoring double play to make it 6-4. It was at this point that Yoenis Cespedes took the team on his back and contributed the big hits that were needed. In the 7th inning, Neil Walker walked and Yo hit a huge double to make it second and third with nobody out. That set up a James Loney RBI groundout and a Wilmer Flores sac fly to make it 6-6. Then in the 8th inning, d’Arnaud drew a leadoff walk. Juan Lagares then sacrificed him over to second base in what was a close play at first that was originally called safe, challenged, and ultimately ruled a sac bunt. Then with two outs Neil Walker was walked (again), and Yoenis Cespedes crushed a double to score d’Arnaud and Lagares to make it 8-6. The double was Yo’s third hit of the game. 8-6 was the final score.

Almost every member of the bullpen stepped up and combined to toss 5.1 scoreless innings of relief. The bullpen was huge in the effort to bail out Harvey. But there’s just no way the Mets score enough runs to win that game without Cespedes. We could probably say that sentence for a majority of the team’s wins in 2016. I have always been firmly in the “pay Cespedes whatever he wants” camp. But I think considering the MVP level 2016 campaign he is putting together, we’ve reached that point in the season where it’s time to be more vocal about the need to lock him up.

Cespedes is the only true undisputed impact bat (franchise bat? elite bat? choose whichever cliché you want) in this Mets lineup. Without him this team doesn’t make the playoffs last year and is barely a Wild Card contender at this point in the season. I still have no idea why he didn’t receive any market value offers this past offseason. I have no idea why the Nationals didn’t up their offer so it had a higher Net Present Value than the Mets 3 year deal. Part of me thinks Cespedes dealt with a little bit of the Daniel Murphy effect. I’m not trying to compare the actual career production of these two players at all. But I am saying that teams may have been hesitant to pay Murph and Cespedes because of enormous spikes in production relative to their career numbers over the last year or so.

Murph’s 14 regular season home runs last year combined with his 7 postseason home runs certainly represented a spike in power production when you consider his previous season high was 13 (in 2013). When you look at that and then you consider his 14 home runs in 2016 along with his .347/.387/.579 batting line through 81 games, the production starts to become a little more than a product of small sample size. Yoenis Cespedes has had a similar spike in 2015-16. He’s been hitting between .290-.300 for a season and a half at this point and posting an OPS close to .900. He’s on pace for 40 home runs. This is a guy who hit .240 in 2013 and .260 in 2014 and never hit more than 26 long balls before his 35 home run campaign last year. Daniel Murphy is 31 years old and Cespedes is 30. I can understand that teams might be skeptical that these two players will sustain these late career production spikes in the short term and over the course of a long term deal.

I also think regardless of whether you feel it should, the poor 2016 performance by Matt Harvey may impact the Mets decision to sign Cespedes. It seemed unlikely before the season that Matt Harvey was going to sign a contract extension with the Mets because he’s a Scott Boras client, and also because he was under team control for another 3 years. Well based on his performance so far this year, it seems almost impossible that he will sign any type of extension in the near future. He’s certainly not going to lock up a deal with his value at an all time low, and I don’t think the Mets are going to be inclined to pay him right now either.

Assuming the Mets financial resources are somewhat limited (which seems to consistently be the case) the team might be more inclined than ever to use their additional revenue to extend Cespedes rather than plan to save funds for a future Harvey deal. Again, the two deals should not be linked because the Mets should spend whatever is necessary to field a winning product. I think in the long run, a winning product should include Cespedes and Harvey. But we must be realistic and acknowledge that any long term contracts they give out will undoubtedly diminish the chances that they give out more of them. If the Mets are actually debating whether to devote future resources to Cespedes or Harvey, 2016 may fully tip the scales in Yo’s direction.

The bottom line is Yo is going to opt out of his contract at season’s end, and I think it’s safe to assume a lot of teams are going to bet on his 2015-16 level of production continuing. I think the majority of teams are going to want to add his franchise bat to their lineup. He’s only enhanced his value this season by showing that he can at least hold his own as a center fielder. The Wilpons need to grab their checkbook, call Roc Nation, and add whatever number of years and dollars he wants to his current deal so they remove the opt out and ensure the Mets keep him in the lineup for the next 6 years or so. I don’t care about the bad back end of the deal. I don’t care that he may throw his back out at the driving range. We need to make this happen ASAP and avoid an offseason bidding war. The guy is a warrior and a star. He’s the heart of the offense, and I want to be able to see him launching upper deck moon shots at Citi Field for years to come.

Sandy and Matz? Respect 

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Final Score: Mets 4, Cubs 3

Before last night’s game even started, the media talked to Sandy Alderson about the state of the team. I respect the hell out of what Sandy said. Sandy basically said there’s no savior coming. He said there’s no Yoenis Cespedes on the horizon. There’s no big trade or trades that will help the Mets salvage this season. Sandy put the onus on the players on the current roster. Sandy essentially said “step the hell up”. Which is what I’ve been preaching for a while. I really respect Sandy doubling down on the roster he built. It may come back to burn him. But in my opinion he’s saying the right thing.

Matz Respect: Before the game, it was being widely reported that Steven Matz was considering surgery to get that bone spur removed from his elbow. Apparently the Mets convinced him to battle through the injury. They gave him the anti-inflammatory injection. Now, it goes without saying that nobody should ever trust the Mets medical advice. He shouldn’t pitch if he’s risking any long term damage. That being said, I respect his decision. I respect that he went out there and gave the Mets a chance to win. He basically abandoned his slider because it puts the most strain on his elbow. I’m not sure if his approach is sustainable, but I respect him for not giving up on us.

Steven Matz went 5.1 innings, gave up 7 hits, 3 runs, walked 3 and struck out 6. He certainly wasn’t at his best. In the first inning, Kris Bryant hit a 2 run jack off of Matz. Matz tried to get a 1-2 pitch down and in, and he left it over the plate. Bad pitch. Great hitter. In the 6th inning, he left another pitch out over the middle and Javier Baez made him pay with a solo blast that made it 3-0 Cubs. Once Matz’s pitch count got over 100, Terry decided to yank him. It worked out because Erik Goeddel gave the Mets 1.2 innings of solid relief.

Yo Bomb: In the bottom of the 6th inning, Yoenis Cespedes did his job as team spark and crushed a moon shot homer off of John Lackey. It went to the upper deck in left. It was over 450 feet. Absolute bomb. The Mets didn’t score anything else that inning, but I think it woke the team up.

Finding Nimmo: So I think the Cespedes homer helped wake the team up, and also the Cubs bullpen was dog crap. Travis d’Arnaud hit a one out single off of Lackey in the 7th inning. D’Arnaud had two hits in the game. He needs to get things going for the Mets to have any chance of competing this summer. Anyway, Cubs reliever Joel Peralta came in and promptly walked Alejandro De Aza. I don’t care that De Aza had a nice AB. Inexcusable walk by the Cubs pen. Then last night’s leadoff hitter Brandon Nimmo came to the plate. Nimmo had a fantastic AB against Peralta. He got the count to 3-2 and managed to rope one up the middle to drive in d’Arnaud and get De Aza to third base. I can’t even remember the last time the Mets had a clutch hit, but this one was as clutch as they come. That made the score 3-2 Cubs. Then Joe Maddon brought in Pedro Strop and the Cubs essentially gave the Mets the lead. With De Aza on third and Nimmo on second, Neil Walker hit a ball to second baseman Javier Baez. Baez threw the ball to third base to try and get Nimmo, and he made a terrible throw that missed Bryant’s glove. De Aza scored and Nimmo scored and that made it 4-3 Mets.

The Bridge: Addison Reed came in for the 8th inning and gave up a single to Willson Contreras. He struck out the next two batters, although he did toss a wild pitch along the way that allowed Contreras to get to second base. Then in the “Battle of the Addisons”, Reed walked Addison Russell and Terry pulled him from the game. Luckily, Jerry Blevins came in, retired Jason Heyward and preserved the lead.

Thank You Jeurys: Jeurys Familia did his 2016 tightrope routine. He walked leadoff man Miguel Montero and gave up a double to Ben Zobrist. Then he struck out Kris Bryant for the first out. He walked Anthony Rizzo intentionally to load the bases. Then Familia got a strikeout followed by a pop out to end the game.

Fire: Steven Matz was ready to charge the mound last night when Lackey almost hit him with a pitch in the fifth inning. Nimmo was jacked up when he won his battle against Joel Peralta and smacked that clutch hit in the 7th inning. Addison Reed was ready to punch a wall when Terry pulled him in the 8th inning. Jerry Blevins was screaming and shouting when he got the last out in the 8th. Familia’s head was about to explode when he closed the game out. I’m sure these guys are jacked up for the Cubs. There’s no doubt about it. But they have to be jacked up to turn this season around too. They knows what’s up. They feel our pain. I hope they keep this fire all weekend.

Today: Jacob deGrom goes tonight. Let’s win two games before Jake Arrieta and Jon Lester take the mound. Right the ship baby. Score runs please.

Thor, Yo, and Wheeler Healthy; The Gods Are Merciful

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As my prayer vigil raged on late into the night, I feared the worst for our boys Noah Syndergaard, Yoenis Cespedes, and Zack Wheeler. The Mets were indicating they wouldn’t have an update on any of the guys until today. Ray Ramirez couldn’t update the fans because he was too busy running from room to room at the Hospital For Special Surgery asking each of the players to provide another stool sample for his “collection”. Then after 10pm, the first bombshell finally dropped. Thor posted the above photo on Instagram. “Happy elbows” was all I needed to hear. Then, just before 11pm the Mets dropped the news on SNY. All three guys are fine. Praise Jesus.

Thor’s MRI showed no elbow damage, and he was cleared. Yoenis Cespedes was diagnosed with a mild sprain of his left wrist. He got a little cortisone and will take a couple days off. Zack Wheeler just had some nerve irritation in his elbow. He got a cortisone injection too, but his elbow structure was fine. I’m sure the Mets will handle all three of these guys with care, but for another day we can all breathe a sigh of relief. Our two best players are alive. The season isn’t over.

P.S. The Nationals are finally hitting a rough patch. They’ve dropped five straight games and three straight in LA to the Dodgers. Michael Taylor went 0 for 5 (5 Ks) last night and misplayed a ball that led to the game winning run. He turned a single into a three base error and a loss for the Nats. Can the Mets please take care of the Braves in this four game set? Please? Let’s try and limit the setbacks. I think we’ve reached our quota for the week.