Reese Kaplan - There's Bound to be a Pony Somewhere!

There's an old story about a father who had twin sons, one an eternal optimist and the other an eternal pessimist. One day he decided to test their attitudes so filled their favorite play space with a deep layer of horse manure. 

The first son upon discovering the situation immediately started wailing and complaining about the foul smell, the disgusting appearance and totally obnoxious situation. Disgusted, he threw up his hands and stormed off. The second son immediately ran out to the barn, grabbed the largest shovel he could find, and immediately started shoveling the disgusting manure with vigor and excitement. 

When the father saw this happening, he immediately asked him, “Son, why are you so excited about shoveling horse manure?” His son excitedly replied, “Dad, where there’s this much horse manure, there’s bound to be a pony somewhere!” 

The start to the 2014 Mets season reminded me of this story.  While it’s easy to hammer the Mets for what they haven’t done, the individual failures and the injuries that have presented themselves already in this first week of the season, there have also been some positives that were well hidden.

Juan Lagares

The man continues to play the kind of defense that should have earned him the Gold Glove last year.  However, it’s been six games thus far and he’s had hits in every one of them.  If not for the injury to Chris Young, you’d have to wonder if he’d have gotten the opportunity to do so, but he’s making the most of it. 

Jenrry Mejia

Yes, he did have a few control issues with 5 walks allowed, but wow!  The man pitched like a veteran of 10 year in the league, keeping hitters off-stride and showing a terrific cutter rather than simply relying on heat to overpower everyone.  For once the team made the right call (motivated, of course, by the language in Daisuke Matsuzaka’s contract and the uncertainty of Jon Niese’s fragile health). 

Jon Niese

While the “noffense” reared its head once again, Jon Niese was in command Sunday, giving up just a few scratch runs in nearly 6 innings of work.  You really couldn’t have asked for more from a guy starting the season on the DL after being shut down in spring training.  The 4 Ks and a single walk indicated he was throwing strikes.  That’s a good sign for the Mets.

The Two-Headed First Basemen

Both Lucas Duda and Ike Davis have each had a day in the sun, first Duda cracking a pair of homers after being named the starter, then Davis as a pinch hitter getting a walk-off grand slam against the Reds.  While neither one is likely a good long-term bet for success, it was good to see some production out of what has recently been a black hole. 

The Bullpen

No, I have not taken a severe blow to the head recently…after the horrific start against Washington, a few members have gotten their groove back, including Gonzalez Germen, Jose Valverde and even Kyle Farnsworth.  With Bobby Parnell now officially gone for the year, they’ll need more than that, but it was great redemption after that first series. 

Sure, there have been some standout bad performances, too, as well as the usual spate of head-scratching managerial moves, but it’s not all doom and gloom yet.  There are still 156 games to play and although 2-4 is not the best start in the world, it’s still better than 0-6 (though that kind of start might have hastened some necessary personnel changes).  I’m not worried about a few of the veterans off to slow starts and I expect others will also come around.  What will be interesting to see is how they perform when Chris Young returns and the outfield shuffle begins in earnest.  Will one configuration be declared the “starting” outfield a’la first base, or will it even matter considering that consistency between what is said and what is done is still but a pipe dream?