Matt Snyder | CBS New York- The Mets beat the Rockies Sunday, 5-1, giving them a three-game sweep and pushing their record to 67-56, matching their season high of 11 games over .500. They hold a five-game lead in the NL East and are about to get the (arguable) face of the franchise back. Seven-time All-Star David Wright will return Monday and he's going to start three games before resting Thursday and re-evaluating where things stand. How will his back react to multiple starts in the majors? How long will his adjustment period be to MLB pitching? He's been quite injury prone these past few years, so what if he overcompensates for his back and injures something else?
(Chris Soto: This is the big story of the day. The return of our +5.0 win per year All-Star third baseman. A healthy Wright is a massive upgrade over the bodies the Mets have been throwing out there on a nightly basis. During his rehab assignment Wright batted .321 with a .424 OBP so it looks like the bat is ready to go. How much is he going to contribute? Only time will tell....but I think you will all be quite surprised.)
Brian Devine | Metsmerized Online- [According to] reports, the Mets aren’t finished looking for relief help. Even with the additions of Tyler Clippard and Eric O’Flaherty, their bullpen has been unreliable and inconsistent during the second half. Mets’ relievers own an ERA just above four since the break, and they have allowed 13 runs in their last 17 innings. The Mets have looked into reuniting with the team’s former closer Francisco Rodriguez, but the fact that he is owed money beyond this year is an issue. K-Rod, who is dominating for the Brewers, is under contract next year for $ 5.5 Million. He has an excellent 2.06 ERA and 0.82 WHIP in 43.2 innings serving as Milwaukee’s closer this season.
(Chris Soto: I would be 100% behind reuniting with Francisco Rodriguez for not only 2015 but 2016 as well. You have to remember that Jhenrry Mejia is likely to be non tender after failing another drug test and it is also very likely that Parnell gets non tendered too after struggling to recover fully from Tommy John. In addition, Clippard, O'Flaherty, and Blevins are all free agents after this season so 2016's bullpen is pretty barren right now.)
Anthony DiComo | Mets.com- The Mets have not been able to shake him...[they] were ready to option Conforto to Triple-A Las Vegas days after his debut, when they traded for Cespedes, but Cuddyer's DL stint bought the rookie a bit more time. A few days later, they actually did option Conforto, but a DL trip for Nieuwenhuis ensured that he would never cash in his plane ticket. This weekend the Mets avoided demoting Conforto when Duda hit the DL. Then Sunday, because Verrett saved the Mets' bullpen with eight brilliant innings in a 5-1 win over the Rockies, the Mets decided they no longer needed to carry an extra reliever. So rather than ship Conforto out to clear roster space for Wright, they optioned Alvarez to Vegas. "It's crazy," said Conforto, "The way it's been happening, you don't like to see that, you don't like to see guys going on the DL. But the fact that I'm still here, I'm very excited. It's where I want to be."
(Chris Soto: As expected, Conforto is holding his own. He's not hitting everything....but his .258 batting average and .840 OPS is by far better than anything else the Mets have been putting out in LF during the 2015 season. As indicated by the wide split in his average and OPS, when he is making contact....it's very loud. In fact, of his 16 hits so far, 50% of them are of the extra base or HR variety.)
(Chris Soto: This is the big story of the day. The return of our +5.0 win per year All-Star third baseman. A healthy Wright is a massive upgrade over the bodies the Mets have been throwing out there on a nightly basis. During his rehab assignment Wright batted .321 with a .424 OBP so it looks like the bat is ready to go. How much is he going to contribute? Only time will tell....but I think you will all be quite surprised.)
Brian Devine | Metsmerized Online- [According to] reports, the Mets aren’t finished looking for relief help. Even with the additions of Tyler Clippard and Eric O’Flaherty, their bullpen has been unreliable and inconsistent during the second half. Mets’ relievers own an ERA just above four since the break, and they have allowed 13 runs in their last 17 innings. The Mets have looked into reuniting with the team’s former closer Francisco Rodriguez, but the fact that he is owed money beyond this year is an issue. K-Rod, who is dominating for the Brewers, is under contract next year for $ 5.5 Million. He has an excellent 2.06 ERA and 0.82 WHIP in 43.2 innings serving as Milwaukee’s closer this season.
(Chris Soto: I would be 100% behind reuniting with Francisco Rodriguez for not only 2015 but 2016 as well. You have to remember that Jhenrry Mejia is likely to be non tender after failing another drug test and it is also very likely that Parnell gets non tendered too after struggling to recover fully from Tommy John. In addition, Clippard, O'Flaherty, and Blevins are all free agents after this season so 2016's bullpen is pretty barren right now.)
Anthony DiComo | Mets.com- The Mets have not been able to shake him...[they] were ready to option Conforto to Triple-A Las Vegas days after his debut, when they traded for Cespedes, but Cuddyer's DL stint bought the rookie a bit more time. A few days later, they actually did option Conforto, but a DL trip for Nieuwenhuis ensured that he would never cash in his plane ticket. This weekend the Mets avoided demoting Conforto when Duda hit the DL. Then Sunday, because Verrett saved the Mets' bullpen with eight brilliant innings in a 5-1 win over the Rockies, the Mets decided they no longer needed to carry an extra reliever. So rather than ship Conforto out to clear roster space for Wright, they optioned Alvarez to Vegas. "It's crazy," said Conforto, "The way it's been happening, you don't like to see that, you don't like to see guys going on the DL. But the fact that I'm still here, I'm very excited. It's where I want to be."
(Chris Soto: As expected, Conforto is holding his own. He's not hitting everything....but his .258 batting average and .840 OPS is by far better than anything else the Mets have been putting out in LF during the 2015 season. As indicated by the wide split in his average and OPS, when he is making contact....it's very loud. In fact, of his 16 hits so far, 50% of them are of the extra base or HR variety.)
21 comments:
Wright and Conforto put 2 smiles on the face. K Rod could add a 3rd smile.
I am all in on KROD, hopefully the Brewers will trade with us after the Gomez Debacle?
Welcome back David Wright!
May the baseball gods shine on him and give him the opportunity to make a difference on a winning Mets team.
Even after the improved hitting of recent weeks, and particularly the weekend, the Mets are 30th in batting average, and 23rd in runs. Amazing.
Quick ways to improve Mets BP, DFA Colon and aquire K-Rod. Replace Colon with Alvarez. With Matz coming back shortly and Verrett showing he can handle the bigs time to part ways with Colon, he has long outlasted his usefulness IMO.
Reacquiring K-Rod would indicate just how short and selective fans' memories are. Apparently domestic violence is more acceptable than PEDs. In the heat of a pennant race, everyone this side of K-Rod's father-in-law would probably applaud the move, yet everyone is encouraging the Mets to cut ties with Jenrry Mejia. I'm not defending Mejia by any means, but it seems disingenuous to me to vilify Mejia for something he did that only caused harm to himself (and his team's chances) but would look past the assault committed by K-Rod which forced the Mets to part ways with him for PR reasons. Does this mean that come 2017 the Mets fans would welcome back Mejia with open arms? Probably not...and therein lies the problem. You either want players of good character or you don't.
Dallas, with comnsidering. 5.66 ERA in Colon's last 18 starts. That is unacceptable.
Worth considering, that is.
@Tom - Mets are 3rd in MLB in runs in August - and only 2 runs behind 3rd; so the trades have definitely made a difference, besides, this is a completely different team than the one on the field in May and June
@Dallas - As much as Colon has been streaky and shaky, much has been written about his influence among the pitching staff, I would hate to lose that - also, while he has thrown some clunkers, he has also 5 starts since July 1 with 2 ER's or less - frankly I take 3 out of 5 decent starts from him if he can keep innings off the rest of the staff - I am holding out hope that Saturday was an aberration and he can give us a few 6+ inning starts and keep us in games
Also - I am not ready to count on Verrett to be consistently good in his first month in the MLB; so I am not sure he would give a 5 start body of work better than Colon would.
@Reese - What K-Rod did was awful, but I haven't heard of any issues with him over the past few seasons - if he has straightened himself out, then he deserves another chance
Mejia on the other hand has blown it twice - however, I hope we DFA him and no one claims him - then his butt can twist in the minors for a bit next year. Besides, the fact that he hasn't been DFA's yet shows that he might not be - after all, I believe he isn't sucking up a 40 man spot while suspended - can anyone clarify that?
One more then I have to get to work:
Fun with numbers, Wilmer Flores addition:
Since the trade that wasn't:
Flores - 19 G / 64 AB's - .328/.368/.516 - .883 OPS
Gomez - 21 G / 80 AB's - .188/.226/.250 - .476 OPS
On Gomez - if you go back to July 1st his OPS is still on .630 over two months.
Maybe Sandy & Co. were on to something when they reviewed his medicals.
Yeah I would keep Colon now, just because the rosters expand in a week. Was wondering does Dario still have to wait 10 days even when the rosters expand?
Everyone keeps going to the influence on the young starters rubbish with Colon. Its really worth keeping a guy with 4.90 ERA (6.08 Post All-Star) for this immeasurable reason that a reporter floated out there earlier this year?
Zozo, sure the rosters expand but he still clogs up a spot on the 40 man roster. If you want more flexibility to say bring up Eric Young Jr to give you some speed you have to make room.
You have about a 50% chance of him putting up a complete clunker or pitching decent. I just think we have better options and that he could cost us a win or 2 by seasons end. I'm pretty sure the big 4 can survive without his clubhouse presence.
Dallas -
I'm double checking on something I just posted on Stephen's post about Logan Verrett.
Didn't Terry Collins say at the end of the game that Verrett would go forward now as a back-end member of the Mets pen?
Fair enough, Lew, but I think Colon has to be on a short leash. Perhaps if he gets bombed again his next start, move him to pitching coach if he is amenable, and continue to pay him regular salary?
Good point by Lew on the Flores/Gomez comparison. Going further, does anyone know of a site showing the to-date results of ALL the major players dealt at the deadline? I know Tulo, Hamels, Reyes and others have disappointed, but I'd like to know how our pickups (Uribe, Johnson, and Cespedes) compare with those of other teams.
Reese-- Aren't you the one who pushed for the Mets to acquire Delmon Young and others in the past few years, and criticized the Mets for "going vanilla" instead of going for the best talent, even with personality flaws?
If the incident with his father-in-law is the only strike against K-Rod, why not give him a second chance if the Brewers absorb part of the $$$?
Guys, it was 1 start by Verrett. It was a great one, but still only 1 start. Let's not get ahead of ourselves saying to DFA Colon and put Verrett in the rotation. It's an option sure but you can't just assume that 1 start is a clear indication of what's to come. If Colon continues on this path he's been on recently then it's worth exploring.
Also, while the plan is to bring up Matz up in another week, who knows if that will happen until it actually happens.
Small sample size? Yes, but Conforto's .840 OPS puts him in the top 15 OFers in all of MLB, tied with Cespedes. We need this kid for the stretch and the playoffs if we make it.
@Metsiac -- as usual, you have trouble reading what's written. I asked about consistency with people with "Good Character" vs. best available talent. Where I have an issue is with it being selectively applied.
@Dallas - You have a fair point on Colon, but I think you are being overly narrow - yes Colon has a 6.00+ ERA since the break;
HOWEVER - two of his beating were:
getting shelled by St Louis (best team in the league) and Colorado (another plus offense) in Denver (Niese has been pitching very well this year and he got hammered by Colo the day after Colon)
In three of his other post break starts (I am not defending his crappy SD start) he has pitched well - including only giving up 1 run to the Pirates in 7 IP.
I am willing to give him a short leash because I think he can give us 3 good starts out of 5 and, frankly, that is a plus #5 starter
Now, if he gets shelled in his next start, I would agree he needs to be shelved down the stretch
Help me out;, Reese, and explain why Delmon was worth picking up despite his behavior which offended millions of New Yorkers and Jews elsewhere, while K-Rod is tabu because of a fight with a man who publicly verbally assaulted him.
Without being "selective", of course.
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