Marc Carig | Newsday- The nightmare unspooled in the most gut-wrenching way possible Sunday night, ripping at the emotions of a fan base still haunted by collapses of long ago Septembers. Here was Harvey, the franchise ace, cruising along with a one-run lead against the Yankees. He had thrown only 77 pitches in five shutout innings. He struck out seven. But he was limited to only five innings. When the time came, he was pulled. The night unraveled from there. It was swift. "It's extremely hard to take him out there," said Collins, who has swallowed his old-school beliefs, all in order to adhere to the innings plan. "It was the perfect storm."
(Chris Soto: Look...last night sucked but honestly you could have foretold it. The 1 weakness for this club right now is that the back end of the bullpen is quite terrible. So when a SP can only go 5 IP, it's gonna force TC to use the weakest part of his pen. Robles was bad and Stauffer, O'Flaherty, and Torres are likely to not even make the playoff roster. So let's not panic folks, and remember the whole point of last night. We needed to see improvement from Matt Harvey heading into the playoffs....and that's exactly what we saw last night....MAJOR improvement.)
Colby Conetta | Amazin Avenue- When the Mets selected Sean Gilmartin in the 2014 Rule 5 Draft, it was assumed that he would become the team's lefty specialist. Throughout the course of the season, though, the Mets brought in other pitchers to handle that duty. Despite these changes, Gilmartin has remained in the pen, becoming Terry Collins's only reliable left-handed reliever. In 49 IP, Gilmartin is sporting a superb 2.76 ERA with a 2.59 FIP and a 8.9 K/9 ratio. Despite his supposed role as a lefty specialist, he is adept at retiring right-handed hitters, too–they've only managed a meager .239 wOBA against him all season, while lefties have mustered a paltry .293.
(Chris Soto: Quite honestly, Gilmartin doesn't get talked about enough. Most Rule 5 draft picks don't stick around as the talent level usually isn't high enough to compete at the MLB level. However, Gilmartin has been the exception to that rule; he's not only held his own....but he's gotten better as the season has progressed. He's doing exactly what a pitcher his age should be doing, developing. All of a sudden, now Sandy Alderson has a strong arm for his bullpen that is under team control for the next 5 years.....Edgin who?)
Bill Baer | NBC Sports- The slugger has only two hits — though both are home runs — in his last 27 plate appearances spanning seven games. He was one of baseball’s most fearsome hitters since joining the Mets at the trade deadline, smoking 17 home runs since the beginning of August. Cespedes was asked by the media about his slump. He got a little deep... “The only thing I’m scared of is death,” he said, then corrected: “I’m not scared of that.”
(Chris Soto: Boy...this slump of his has gotten severely overblown. Players go through peaks and valleys all season long...yet when the new guy has 1 bad stretch...everyone starts freaking out to the point where they are now calling for him to be dropped in the batting order. Take a chill pill folks....most of the club seems to be laboring through some exhaustion towards the end of the season. The club has 7 more games against much weaker opponents before they're next off day...I'll be happy with them taking 4 of them.)
20 comments:
And so goes the ongoing saga of Mets baseball. Maybe they get swept by Braves and Panic City burns to the ground.
Maybe they take 7 out of 10 and enter Nats series with citi field absolutely rocking and chanting lets go mets as they they try to clinch home field advantage against dodgers.
Game within a game, and forgive me if I got this wrong, as I was driving and listening on the radio at the time.
After Yanks hit early on Saturday, Mets had the same chance Sunday. Run in, 2 on, 2 outs, Duda up. 3-0 count. Radio call was a fastball down the middle taken for a called strike. My brother confirmed that.
Forget about working the pitcher there, Lucas, for crying out loud. Pitch right in your zone, you are the masher. Swing, maybe it is a 3 run homer and we are off to the races. Sure he walked, but they did not score, huge chance missed.
Duda, don't hit like a pansy, please. You pop up there, I'd be ecstatic that you swung.
Chris, we don't need just 4 of the next 7. I have a feeling Nats could go on a major roll right now.
Positive terry Collins comment in 3.......2.........1.........
Im now believing that terry knows exactly what he's doin lately for the best of this organization.
I've thrown in my two cents arguing about terry pitching clippard and familia with 4 run leads but last night shows me exactly why he's been doing that. Because he's fighting against this ridiculous innings caps with his other arms.
And I'll tell you what if Niese has a comeback gem tonight and mets are up 4 runs in the 8th. You can bet your sweet ass that ur gonna see clippard and familia.
I know I soundly lost the debate here at Mack's Mets, but it still kills me that the Mets are content to sit Michael Conforto against all LHP.
At this rate, he'll get one start vs. Dodgers, or 2) He'll finally get a start and he'll be unprepared to face a tough lefty.
When I look at an outfield of Lagares and Cuddyer, I feel like the organization is making a major mistake . . . game after game after game.
James Preller
The Mets can't rely on the Nats right now to hand them the pennant. They are playing like hell and their schedule is as soft as the Mets is (both are the softest left in the season for the entire league).
Morning Mack and METS Fans or Fanaticks
Lets look at whats going on as TC being cautious as too not,have his players spent for the last week of the season!
1st off this is Conforto's 1st long season in Pro ball?
Maybe TC doesn't want him tire down the stretch?
As the same with all key players?
Lets look at it this way?
If the Mets were 1 game behind the Senators, it would be all hands on deck!!! Harvey would've stayed in the game last night 100pct!!
But since the Mets are up, TC decided to conserve energy, for the big picture. Lets not panic lets enjoy this ride, and have some faith the manager knows what he is doing
The comments section of this blog have diminished tremendously as the season winds down.
Any theories?
Ouch last night felt like stubbing your bid toe.
There is only thing that I question about the pitching game plan going into the game.
Losing by 9 runs however, it most likely would not have made the game a win.
I would have thought, knowing that he was going to take Harvey out of the game in the 4th or 5th inning, that Collins would have had a "piggy-back" starter/reliever that was capable of pitching 3 innings prepared and ready to go (like spring training or early season minor league ball).
Instead it seemed by going to Robles that he was taking an approach similar to if a pitcher had a bad start and he had to suddenly react with a series of relievers piecing together the next 4-5 innings.
Maybe this would have been a good game for Gilchrist to show what he could do with the "piggy-back" opportunity?
Or...maybe provide rest to DeGrom by piggy-backing him and Harvey, instead of giving DeGrom Tuesday off this week.
We had the B-lineup in last night. Throwing in a ton of bench players when we face LHP isnt going to always get the job done. Granderson/Conforto/Murph should have started I think. Those guys have been some of the best hitters all year, its hard to bench them when we are still in a race to get ahead of Dodgers and clinch the division. Maybe we arent pressed to throw to third base and make errors if we have a couple more runs with Robles out there.
Dallas -
I never understood the need for a 'B' lineup with less than 20 games to go in the season.
This makes no sense to me.
Put the best lineup in, win the games, and get this done without looking at the scoreboard for help.
Did Cespedes "slump" start before or after Collins rested him that day?
Agreed Mack. Looks like the "A" lineup is back out there today. Hopefully no signs of O'Flaherty later.
I like Bob's idea to combine deGrom and Harvey in one day. You've maxed out your chances of winning that day, given the two of them a rest, as well as your bullpen!
no chance the mets do that, it's far too good an idea...
Bob -
I believe that Cespedes' slump started the at-bat after he was hit in the back
Dallas, there isn't an "A" and a "B" lineup. What we are seeing, I'm afraid, is that TC has become something of a platoon robot.
So a LHP gets the starts, and he begins looking for a way to get Uribe in there . . . and of course Conforto can't possibly play . . . etc, etc.
My problem is that he's over-playing this hand with the one-sided, stacked lineup. I've commented before that it's insane and horrible to me that the organization has decided to sit Conforto against ALL LHP. Mack and others have all jumped in to support this approach, but I hate it.
I like Uribe as a PH and a guy who can spell Wright. He's not a 2B. I don't think Lagares needs to play much at this point; and Cuddyer does not have to start against every LHP.
Too matchy-matchy, too predictable.
Against Dodgers, who feature mostly LHP, Conforto will either get one start vs. Grienke . . . or he'll get to start wholly unprepared to face LHP. TC has taken a fabulous full-time player and reduced him to STRICTLY a platoon guy.
I do think that Granderson will be in there against most LHP and that Murphy should be, too.
In his defense, TC's approach has kept everyone active and involved and happy.
James you are right, but that platoon robot is a "B" level team. Bench players as starters regardless of the reasoning.
Remember Campbell, Kirk, Recker were active and involved too on a more regular basis 6 weeks ago and I'm pretty OK with them not active and involved now with their sub .200 averages!
My Jays buddy was telling me about how they use to platoon younger Olerud/Green/Delgado the same way to give older worse players at bats. It looked pretty silly in hindsight like I think it will with Conforto.
James -
with all respect, please don't say that I support a platoon system.
I've pointed out a number of times who invented it, but I've always been a fan of the 'hot bat' and the best lineup.
I don't think the Mets thought this out correctly. This wasn't supposed to be the year they would make a run for it. It was supposed to be the year that young arms had innings restrictions. That has never changed though no one likes it now.
Also... for the gloom and doomers out there... imagine someone would tell you before the season started that you would come out of the Yankees series in September 6 games ahead in first place. You'd be dancing in the halls.
We just need win the Atlanta series. That will be a good start.
"The comments section of this blog have diminished tremendously as the season winds down.
Any theories?"
It's the reverse of the old joke about the kid who seemingly couldn't speak. The parents take the kid to all sorts of specialists who can't figure out what's wrong. One day, at the dinner table, the kid says, "Could you pass the salt, please?" Mouths drop to the floor. "You haven't said a word in all these years." "Well," says the kid, "everything was fine until now."
I'm afraid most people have some deep seated need to complain about things, to get their anger on and out. With the way the second half of the season has gone, there's not much to complain about. Even when there is, it seems kinda petty to do so when your team is in first place by 6 or 7 or 8 games nearing the end of September.
Don't worry, though. Unless the Mets win the Series this year (which I'm not expecting), there will be plenty of griping and second guessing through the off-season.
Mack,
I can only speak for myself, but the workday prohibits me from commenting at times, and many the regulars make the same point before I can. That said, I do read daily anyhow, appreciate the articles and comments, and try to add where I can. And, I hope to do so in good Met times, just as in bad. Thanks to all for their efforts.
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