Ah well.
A nightmarish inning of bullpenning, combined with Paul Goldschmidt realizing, “Hey I’m Paul Goldschmidt,” did away with the Mets’ modest winning streak and hopes of sweeping the Cardinals, and I was first surprised and then a little heartened to register that I was annoyed. I didn’t think I was still capable of that, not after the selloff and with garbage time upon us.
Well, you know what? It’s good to be annoyed — or, to be more specific, it sure is better than being numb.
It’s also good to realize you were wrong. I greeted the arrival of DJ Stewart, Rafael Ortega and Jonathan Arauz with disdain, declaring them the sort of Quad-A fill-ins whose only function is to tell you things have gone disastrously wrong. (Stewart actually arrived pre-selloff, but work with me here.) That’s not wrong, exactly, but it was dismissive in a way that missed some things.
Stewart is a barrel-shaped player out of the Vogelbach sample book — since he’s never been a Milwaukee Brewer we can only conclude he will be one before his career ends — and while it’s no surprise to discover he has some thump, he’s also a much better defender than you’d guess. He’s not exactly lithe and graceful out there in right, but he gets to balls you’d assume he wouldn’t, his instincts are sound and he’s got a good arm. Ortega (who was genuinely useful a couple of years back as a Cub and so perhaps shouldn’t have been a total shock) is a capable center fielder, has speed and can spray the ball around. Arauz — who’s only 25 — hasn’t hit, but has brought some much-needed stability to third base now that Brett Baty, Mark Vientos and Eduardo Escobar are elsewhere, and he’s proven sound at the other two infield positions too.
There’s some hypocrisy here, of course — if your team wins, you discover all sorts of positive qualities in players that proved elusive when your team was losing. But it’s been a valuable lesson to realize Stewart, Ortega and Arauz are a little better than my first scouting report, the one that relied more on the spleen than the eyes.
Not that I think the reconstituted Mets are going anywhere — they’ve beaten up on terrible teams and the talent ceiling has still been substantially lowered by the Steve Cohen Supplemental Draft. But that’s OK. The floor is higher than I’d thought, and that’s a relief given how much baseball there is left to play.
I still have no use for Trevor Gott, but give me another winning streak and maybe we’ll talk.
“It’s also good to realize you were wrong. I greeted the arrival of DJ Stewart, Rafael Ortega and Jonathan Arauz with disdain, declaring them the sort of Quad-A fill-ins whose only function is to tell you things have gone disastrously wrong. (Stewart actually arrived pre-selloff, but work with me here.) That’s not wrong, exactly, but it was dismissive in a way that missed some things.”
Yes – the collective group has been an improvement on Pham and Canha, and even, in his diminished state, Marte. Though the team still rises or falls on 4 players – Nimmo, Londor, McNeil and Alonso. No coincidence that the recent stretch has been fueled by each of them seeming to remember the player he was last season.
And in the classic, “You know you’ve lost your manager’s confidence when . . .” Yesterday it was taking Carrasco out after 75 pitches with bases empty in a one-run game. I’m not blaming Buck. We’ve all lost c0onfidence in him. His breaking ball doesn’t break, his fastball isn’t fast and you can’t throw a changeup 100% of the time. But giving up a HR to Goldschmidt isn’t the greatest sin in the world. I’d of let him at least try to continue, give him another baserunner or two before giving the hook. Unless this was the last start before giving up on him completely.
Keep having the ghost of a, “Y’know we’re still in it for the WC, sort of,” thought. Silliness really. The team has shown what it is after 120 games. Sure, it COULD turn it around but those are very rare exceptions and not worth thinking about at the moment.
Mets 2023: 58-67, 7 games back of the NL 3rd wildcard, 5 teams.
Mets 1973: 57-68, 6.5 games back of the NL East, 5 teams.
Given the schedule the rest of the way, I don’t expect the Mets to reach 82 wins like they did in 1973, and I don’t expect 82 wins will be enough to win a playoff berth this time. Still, at the moment, it’s fun to think about.
It’s actually quite depressing to think about, really…
Carrasco has had a frustrating season, for sure. It still feels like the Mets could have won this game, except for another Gott-forsaken performance.
Capped by lovable ol’ Bonehead Pete self-extinguishing our last chance.
mikeski, you may have to take “Bonehead Pete” off your hook here, he was waved in by Cora.
Thanks. I immediately went about looking for something else to watch and, of course, the only game stories I read are here.
Apologies to my friend Bonehead. Go forth, Pete, and sin no more.
Jason, curious: Is there a reason you left out Abraham Almonte and Danny Mendick from the journeyman group? Mendick’s played 28 games, the same as Stewart. Mendick and Arauz haven’t hit much, but neither did Baty and Vientos. Mendick and Arauz at least provide credibly average defense, unlike Baty and Vientos. Stewart and Ortega haven’t been appreciably worse than Pham and Canha, which is a compliment given Pham was the best Met at times this season.
I feel bad for Gott. He had 12 straight scoreless appearances covering 11.1 innings. Promising. Then yesterday. He’s establishing a distinctive pattern as a Met where he can deliver a string of scoreless outings, but when he gets hit, he gives up bunches of runs.
The Braves, Mets-level Angels, Rangers, and Mariners are next and followed by a playoff-team laden schedule the rest of the way. It was a nice feeling when the Mets reduced their games back of the 3rd wildcard to 6 games. That lasted all of 1 game and it’s back at 7 again, where it’s been since the Robertson trade. I expect the deficit to grow over this stretch. If the Mets close the deficit to something feasible, say 4 games back by September 1st, they’ll earn our hope.
Bit of schadenfreude: Speaking of beating bad teams and the expectation that the upcoming good teams will beat the Mets, against the Brewers yesterday, his 1st game as a Ranger against a contender, Scherzer pitched like the former Mets ‘ace’ who struggled to finish off hitters anymore.
Scherzerfreude.
NOBODY will be rooting harder for an extra-large helping of Scherzerfreude than me, timed precisely for when playoffs begin.
Braves called up Mets minor-league reject Allan Winans to start against the Mets again tonight. He shut out the Mets over 7 innings in his last start.