I’m not even mad anymore. What’s the use?
A couple of quick factoids:
- The Mets are horrible in one-run games — a hard-to-accomplish 10-20. (Only the Royals are comparably bad at 9-16, which is pretty much the difference between them and the Tigers.) Some of that — quite possibly a lot of that — is probably buzzards’ luck. But it counts, and it’s hard as hell to watch.
- Greg tweeted that tonight was the Mets’ 100th loss at Turner Field if you count the playoffs. From the scar tissue on my heart, I can assure you the playoffs count. I think the people of Atlanta are getting a Loria-level civic screwing here, but it ain’t my tax dollars going down the rathole or my suburban traffic disaster being created, so I’ll just cheer that the Mets are down to 2 1/2 more years of pain in this house of horrors.
And with that … well, what do you say? The Mets generally pitch somewhere between OK and pretty well, but they can’t hit. They need to get more bats somewhere. They aren’t going to get them for two years or so from the farm system. They could get them by trading off some of their surplus of starting pitching. I know this. You know this. The Mets know this. Are they going to do something about it? Do they have some other plan?
Would trading for bats work? It might and it might not. Is what the Mets are doing now working? By this point the answer to that seems rather clear.
Mets were in town here but I decided to go to a concert with my wife instead. The music was not my cup of tea. Like the Mets, the show was a hot mess, but at least it was a different hot mess than what we’ve been seeing night in and night out. Fortunately we’re just 30 days from seeing what the Mets do as far as trades are concerned. I fully hope they move 2 veteran arms and try to acquire at least 1 MLB level bat to put into LF and a minor leaguer that might make it to Queens next season. Otherwise this season will be more disappointing than just their record indicates. And it’s already clear that it is going to be awful.
I hate to harp on one mistake…but if you sign Nelson Cruz for the same money as Chris Young, you have some excitement instantly. Of course, it is far from the only mistake. We can NEVER assume any help is coming from the minors. Top free agents probably don’t want to hit in Shea. It would take the likes of Frank Cashen, RIP, in his prime years of 1980-1985 to turn this around with trades. Other teams have us over a barrel.
Sorry, but this is 20/20 hindsight:
1) Nobody thought Cruz would do what he’s done.
2) When the Mets were putting together an OF (with the FO under a fair amt of pressure to move quickly), Cruz wanted a long-term deal for a ton of money.
3) When Cruz settled for a short-term deal instead, he chose a bandbox where he could show off his slugging prowess to get a new deal. Citi Field wasn’t going to fit the bill for him.
Chris Young’s been a disaster, no doubt — I wish the Mets would just accept this and release him. But it wasn’t like they could pick Young or Cruz and chose Young.
Good points…but everybody also thought Young would not be successful…everyone except Sandy.
That’s not really true. The Chris Young pickup was praised by most sabermetric pundits as a worthwhile gamble. He just hasn’t worked out.
Yep. I thought he was an OK gamble — one-year deal, not too pricey. Just wish they’d admit it didn’t work and move on.
I would trade some young arms for major league bats faster than you can say “Yusmeiro Petit for Carlos Delgado.”
And we’re probably 2 years away from position player prospects being overmatched rookies, so that help is a long way away. Nobody’s saying that Brandon Nimmo is going to be the next Mike Trout.
Agreed. Even if Nimmo IS going to be the next Trout, it’s unlikely he’ll be that before 2016 or 2017. If they make a deal, I really want to see guys who can start helping next year. I can accept some growing pains, but let’s get bats in here that we think might make a difference sooner rather than later.
Of course Terry would have to actually play them, but one thing at a time.
Please never mention this Nimmo in the same sentence as Trout again…Nimmo had 4 HRs in 227 AB in A ball, was moved to AA and is hitting .179 in 39 AB. I’m not concluding he is a bust, but nothing hints he is even a flounder let alone a trout.
Good luck trading Syndergaard also:
“Syndergaard struggled again Tuesday, allowing five runs in 3.2 innings, bloating his season ERA to 5.70.
It was reported earlier in the day Tuesday that Syndergaard might not be promoted at all this season to pitch for the Mets. Given his struggles and lack of progress to date, that isn’t a surprise, as he has regressed, especially lately, allowing at least four runs in each of his last four starts, posting a 9.33 ERA. Syndergaard’s issues may be partly impacted by the time he missed due to shoulder and elbow injuries and he likely would need to string together several good starts for him to get promotion consideration.”
Re: Syndergaard, et al –
I’d love to meet the genius in the Mets FO who thought it would be a good idea to have the AAA team move to the thin air of Vegas. There, we have the benefit of having the hitters lulled into thinking they are all Hank Aaron, before they get to the majors and have trouble emulating Mario Mendoza. OTOH, we have a plethora of promising young pitchers who get so screwed up by having to pitch in Vegas that they will probably never be as good as they could have been (or maybe no good at all), even in as extreme a pitcher’s park as Citi Field.
Good call. Give that guy a promotion.
From what I’ve heard it’s pretty much the least-desirable place to set up shop as well, no one likes the facilities or playing out there. Hopefully they’ll be able to rectify that down the road sometime. Hopefully.
Not the FO, but ownership. The Wilpons pooched up the relationship with Norfolk, then Buffalo, and wound up stuck in Vegas.
Re Syndergaard, he’s freaking 21 years old with less than 400 IP in pro ball. A teaspoon of patience perhaps?
We were spoiled with Harvey (who’s not 21) and we see other outfits (Marlins, Cards) have young pitchers step up and contribute. I get it…but… patience only goes so far.
I’m patient…I never said they should trade him…but if they did want to trade him for some bats, they wouldn’t get a star now.
By all means, we should be patient with Syndergaard, and all the youngsters. But maybe let them work out their kinks somewhere where their teeniest mistakes aren’t clobbered over the wall. Vegas has plenty of other entertainment venues. They don’t need a baseball team.
What was the 68 Mets record in one-run games? I remember Hodges using that as a beacon of hope. If all it takes to turn this team into a winner is 1 or 2 more runs per game, we may be close.
By no means am I saying 2015 will be the second coming of 1969. It’s very possible it will be more like 1979. Hey, that was the final year under the old ownership… hmmm…
In all seriousness though, this team not only lacks run support but some serious brains. I see too many DUMB plays on the field to have any confidence in a postseason run anytime soon. That’s gotta change too.
Absolutely right. The baseball IQ here remains terrible. Daniel Murphy still screws up way too much in the field. He seems like a cool guy, but if the Mets could move him to an AL team where he could play the field less and DH a bit more, they should do it.
1968 Mets: 26-37 in 1-run games. Not great, but a far better winning pct. than produced to date in this dept.
And an augur of things to come.
Find the 2014 Mets their Clendenon and platoon wisely and things could be a lot brighter.
I think it was last night when d’Arnaud overthrew 2nd on a steal attempt and Murph alertly backed up the throw and then tried to deke the runner into thinking the ball had traveled into CF. He turns around with the biggest smirk on his face. Keith and Gary then went into a “Rocky & Bullwinkle” love fest (Murph is like Bullwinkle..hey Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat…nothin’ up my sleeve..presto!..meanwhile he is not fooling anyone), where K & G mentioned that they owned the complete DVD set of all the Rocky and Bullwinkly cartoons. How do you NOT watch this team just to hear what their announcers will say (akin to Howard Stern’s “Private Parts” movie…even the people that hate him listen to him..why? I wanna hear what he’ll say next….”
One thing that would help is GETTING CHRIS YOUNG OUT OF THOSE HIGH-LEVERAGE SITUATIONS.
Terry sounded surprised last night that his RH hitter didn’t “get” the relief pitcher.
In the last 3 games Chris Young, now batting under .200, has had the following at bats against RHPs when Kirk Nieuwenhuis, 5-11 with 3 doubles since his recall, was on the bench:
Sunday-9th inning–2 on, none out, down 5. It wasn’t likely that we’d have a 5-run rally but we’ll never know.
Monday 9th inning none out.
Wed 5th inning, 2 on, 1 out.
How can Terry continue to allow this guy to hit in the middle of the order, even if he is under orders to play him?
https://www.change.org/petitions/new-york-mets-fire-terry-collins
My understanding is that they got Vegas as their AAA team because there were no alternatives. Buffalo broke up with the Mets because they had trouble selling tickets to see quadruple-A nobodies, the game of musical chairs between MLB franchises and Triple-A teams was well underway, and like the last kids to be picked for kickball teams in gym class, there were the Mets and Vegas. So the blame goes not to one person so much as it does to the general lack of incentive any Triple-A team has to work with them. And whether or not there should even be a team in an environment like they have in Vegas.
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: nothing baseball-related pains me more than watching adequate-to-very good pitching going to waste. I seriously believe that if this lineup had any real pop at all we might be a reasonable facsimile of a respectable competitive baseball team. But it doesn’t and right now we are not. What should they do? I don’t know, but IMO “nothing” probably won’t work out too well.
latundan nutrients