I wish the Mets weren’t already out of the pennant race.
They’re not. They’re two games out.
I wish the Mets weren’t always getting their brains beaten in by the Washington Nationals.
They haven’t. They’ve split eight games this season thus far, winning the one last night.
I wish the Mets weren’t always falling apart after the All-Star break.
They aren’t. They’re two and three and have a chance for a .500 trip.
I wish the Mets didn’t have to rely on total deadwood coming off their bench.
They didn’t, at least last night. Eric Campbell, who, granted, isn’t much of a player, got a huge pinch-hit to key Tuesday’s 7-2 win.
I wish for once that when the Mets take a tenuous lead that they could maybe add on to it.
They did. They tacked on four in the ninth to put last night’s game out of reach.
I wish the bullpen wasn’t always blowing it.
It isn’t. After Jacob deGrom threw his usual sparkling start, Jenrry Mejia and Bobby Parnell provided a solid bridge to Jeurys Familia. Both of them have been mostly terrific since returning.
I wish Terry wasn’t using Alex Torres every frigging night.
He isn’t. Alex Torres didn’t pitch last night.
I wish the Mets wouldn’t lose every close game they’re in.
They don’t. Not only did they pull away at the end last night but they pulled out an eighteen-inning nailbiter on Sunday. It was by no means aesthetically beautiful, but they did wind up with more runs than the Cardinals, which has to count for something. It does actually. It counts for a win.
I wish the Mets could play a meaningful game in late July.
They are. The game today is as big as any as they’ve played in seven years. Win it and they’re just one game out.
I wish the Mets wouldn’t be doomed if they lose the rubber game against the Nats.
They won’t be. Even a loss would put them only three back with more than two months to go. By not being swept, at the very minimum they stay afloat. They have a chance to do much more.
I wish the Mets would go out and get somebody.
Me too. They still might. I’m not holding my breath, but the trading deadline is nine days away and supposedly they’re talking to people. It’s not like anybody else has already made a deal since the break.
I wish the Mets would give me nothing to complain about.
No you don’t.
I wish every aspect of my life was as entertaining as FAFIF!
And I also wish the Mets would deal anybody but the five young stud pitchers, Conforto, d’Arnaud, Duda, Flores and Plawecki, to upgrade the offense. I don’t care about the very long term, this team has a real shot right now, take it.
I wish that Gary Cohen, said to have an encylopedic knowledge of baseball trivia,
had recognized the other night that Wilmer Flores is not the first Wilmer to ever play in the bigs. Remember Wilmer “Vinegar Bend” Mizell? Perhaps, with your A list influence you could relay this to him?
Even without my alleged influence, Gary corrected the record last night, bringing up both Wilmer “Vinegar Bend” Mizell and Wilmer Dean Chance, better known by his middle name. The Mets have had a lot of Wilmers!
To be fair, Vinegar Bend didn’t register with me when he first brought it up, though I was looking ahead to the day when perhaps Wuilmer Becerra makes it to the bigs.
Thanks for the update. Q: What’s the solution for awful reception on WOR –a mere 90 miles from NYC? I cannot fathom how a NY team could have so maligned their listeners–leaving them without a 50,000 watt station.
And–am I alone in this complaint?
Great win last night! Thor today with a chance for a 3-3 road trip, putting the Mets one game out and then the Dodgers coming in, who haven’t been a good road team so far this season. LGM!!!!
Speaking for myself, the frustration with the Mets isn’t that they are bad in absolute terms. It’s that they are bad relative to what they could be. If they were winning games 4-1 instead of 2-1…one of those is a comfortable victory and the other is a nailbiter. They aren’t the worst team. Far from it. They are also not sporting the sort of record they could be if they hit just a tiny bit more.
Greg, My apologies in advance for the rant, but all the negativity surrounding this team has struck a nerve. I cannot understand why this fanbase is so unhappy.
I have a theory. Somewhere along the way, a large portion of us Mets fans developed PTSD associated with the following our of beloved team.
Need proof? Emotional distress causes people to do wacky things. Look no further than the Mets’ fan wearing a paper bag over his head sitting in the field level section near home plate last night. I live in northern VA and, even though I have mlb.tv premium, I am forced to listen to the Nats broadcast when the Mets are in town. The Nationals broadcast pointed how ridiculous the paper bag wearing Mets fan is, given the fact that the Mets, entering last night’s game, were a mere 3 games out of first place. Within striking distance of the playoffs for the first time in eight seasons (I lost count – sorry if this is inaccurate) and, instead of enjoying the ride, us know-it-alls whine and complain that the team isn’t good enough. The ascent to the top isn’t fast enough! Meanwhile, on the field, while our regular lineup has endured serious injuries to its two “best” hitters, the Mets have built a championship-caliber pitching staff. And here’s a news flash: those four aces aren’t going anywhere! Which means, we’re going to have a good to great team to root for for the foreseeable future barring extremely poor decision making or multiple calamitous injuries! Yet, as Mets fans, we’re no able to enjoy this.
Was it the Madoff scandal that did this to us? I guess.
Met fans are smart…most realize that this team has too many holes to compete for a title. Allowing oneself to really believe like a 10 year old will result in a massive disappointment. If they just played solid, fundamental ball, I could take the .235 team average and give them the benefit of the doubt and hope they add a Donn Clendenon and produce a 1969 type miracle. I just can’t.
While I agree they aren’t ready to compete for a title (I’m assuming you mean “World Series” title), I feel that they can compete for the division, given their pitching and the Nats underachieving, or a wild card. Which is an improvement from last season. I sometimes wonder if those who complain a lot have unrealistic expectations about this team, in that they should jump from 79 wins to an elite 95 plus win team. Regardless…..it does make for some interesting debates here. The one thing that is common is that WE ALL want them to be successful and consistently good year after year.
The pitching has been good enough to win 95-plus. The question is how many of those games the hitting will do enough to win.
I agree about the pitching being that good, but I still didn’t see the team making that big of a jump. In the hunt for a wild card spot yes. Now if Wright & d’Arnaud weren’t injured, Duda was replicating what he did last year, and Cuddyer perform to his career average they would have a better record. Still….49-45 to start the day puts them much better than they were at this date for the previous two seasons.
Wheaties is right about that fan with a bag over his head, though. This series is the closest thing Mets fans have had to a pennant race in almost a decade. Why would anyone wear a bag to a game like that? Personally, I can understand steeling oneself for disappointment (and this team’s offense certainly raises enough flags that I can’t bring myself to play Pollyanna), but I was psyched about the Harvey start on Monday, psyched about the deGrom start last night, and it’s killing me to watch this game play out on a little play-by-play diamond on the corner of my screen at work. Wearing a bag to a “meaningful game” when your team is chasing down the division leader on the backs of one of the most exciting young rotations the sport has seen in recent years? It just seems kind of ridiculous.
Wheaties54321……I agree about the fan with the paper bag. That’s just idiotic.
Life would be boring if there wasn’t anything to complain about.
Wheaties54321, if you cannot understand why this fanbase is so unhappy, then I have to assume you are either completely new to the team or you live in a world with rainbows and unicorns. Either way, I won’t bother you with details of inept management and penny pinching.
I’m 35 years old. I’ve been a Mets fan since ’86. I was there in ’88 when Scioscia spoiled the party. It’s been a long time between championships. I get it. I live and die with the team every day. But the long, climb from mediocrity to respectability (and hopefully something greater) is finally here. Enjoy it.
The specific kind of frustration of Mets fans this season is based on the team’s elite pitching and, secondarily, the vulnerability of the Nationals so far.
Notice that when the Mets lose due to a stumble by the vaunted pitching (eg, Colon’s blow-up, even Harvey’s Game 1 loss), fan frustration is less.
It’s less the losses for the sake of losing. It’s the losses that should have been wins.
Our gloomy Gus-hood is the byproduct of so many things. The current string of sub-.500 seasons is hardly the first, there’s the inept ownership and a spin doctoring front office that moves at a snail’s pace, the last time the team made it to the World Series they were treated like losers by their own hometown media, even when they’ve won it all, it was attributed to miracles, not being good or actually deserving it. Most of us are surrounded by condescending Yankees fans everywhere we go, whether it be friends, coworkers or for those really unfortunate, even family (no mixed marriage for me though, thank goodness, and we raised our daughter right).
But we persist because we’re made of strong stuff. Takes a lot to be a Mets fan, whereas rooting for that other team is easy, never get tested. I know this site has commenters who are sick of the chicken little attitudes, but I think they’re perfectly justified. That we’re on the site commenting confirms our bonafides.
Big win following the Game 1 loss.
deGrom pitched well. I thought he lost the game, though, when he gave up the 2-run homer in the 5th. Big hit by Campbell in the 7th following the gift 2-base error by Robinson on Nieuwenhuis’s grounder up the line.
The 4 tack-on runs in the 9th were good, but if the Mets don’t take the lead on Campbell’s clutch hit, the Nats use Storen to close the 9th and I doubt they score the 4 runs.
Thirst-quenching RBIs aside, the best part of the game was the unveiling of the 1-2-3, 7th-8th-9th out of the pen with Mejia-Parnell-Familia as a shutdown formula.
I was skeptical about Parnell, but the sample size is growing to the point of consistency. 96 MPH fastball.
Too much Familia last night (unneeded), not enough today. Spoke too soon about Bobby.
I didn’t mind Familia coming in last night because it showcased the Mejia-Parnell-Familia formula and Familia has been somewhat shaky, though still effective, since before the all-star break, including his BS in the 18-inning win against the Cardinals. I thought it was okay for Collins to use Familia in a low-stress game situation to get back on track.
Painful loss today, though. Syndergaard did well to only give up 1 run despite not having his usual command. Robles wobbled again, but held on in the 6th. Mejia was solid in the 7th. Parnell spit the bit in the 8th.
On one hand, I don’t fault Collins for giving Parnell the opportunity to clean up his mess. If Parnell is to be the 8th inning set-up man, like Familia was before Mejia’s injury and suspension, then he has responsibility to escape tough jams and close when Familia is on the shelf.
On the other hand, Parnell is coming back from TJ surgery, and we’ve seen how erratic Harvey has been in his TJ recovery. Like Harvey setting aside his ace mantle for now, perhaps it’s not a good idea to trust Parnell with too much as the 8th inning set-up man until next season. Post-TJ unpredictability and thin margin of error in late inning situations with a poor scoring team are not an ideal mix. Before today, it looked like maybe Parnell was the exception with his TJ recovery, but maybe not.
On the third hand, when Taylor tied up the game, and then got himself into scoring position with plenty enough speed to score on a single, that was enough trust for the ex-closer for one day and probably the sign to bring in Familia.
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