7/17/16

Quick Hits on Last Night's Game

So how's Logan Verrett looking?  His gopher ball is in fine form.  Others will argue that he had a solid start yesterday.  I saw the ball off a washed-up Ryan Howard's bat that still may be in orbit.

How's Erik Goeddel looking?  After a rare clinker by Jerry Blevins, who'd have thought that Antonio Bastardo would be the most solid arm out of the pen?

You're down by two runs in the 9th inning and need to get baserunners and/or a long ball.  Your options include Kelly Johnson who is left handed and hitting .302 as a Met.  So, of course, Skipper decides to thrust .182 hitting Alejandro De Aza into the limelight in the most crucial spot of the game.  Per script, and he hits a weak fly ball to end the game.

There are a lot of stories being written today about the rarity of the Mets playing small ball and failing to win the game.  During the telecast they revealed that the Mets had won just 5 games all year in which they did not hit a home run.

While you can fault the players for failing to execute, failure to strategize falls squarely on the shoulders of the manager.  What happened to hit and run?  Bunting?  Hitting behind the runner?  Working the count?  Stealing bases?  (During the telecast they revealed that the club leader in steals is David Wright with 3.  I'm sure there are players around the league who have had that many in a single game!)

I got into an exchange yesterday about how the Mets are allegedly better than they were at this time a year ago.  The won-lost record is marginal.  There is excellent pitching from two starters -- Noah Syndergaard and Bartolo Colon -- the same from Jacob de Grom -- and worse from Steve Matz.  Furthermore both Matz and Syndergaard are having arm issues.  Then there's the whole Matt Harvey/Logan Verrett disaster.  There's no Tyler Clippard.  There's no Jose Uribe. For the fall run they had David Wright, Lucas Duda, a healthy Yoenis Cespedes and a rookie-of-the-year caliber Michael Conforto.  We have Alejandro De Aza and Brandon Nimmo.  We have James Loney.  We have Jose Reyes.

Sorry, but this team is markedly worse.

4 comments:

Tom Brennan said...

I think we'll know if they really are worse in about a week. Cespedes returning will cover a multitude of sins.

bill metsiac said...

I know you hate deAza (and I'm not thrilled with him either), but you apparently let the hatred blind you to the earlier BASES LOADED situation in which Johnson actually WAS the PHer used. He flied out to LF to end the inning.

Oh, and I'll take 6 IP with 2 ER from my SP any time. Yes, Howard looks washed up, but he's still got the power when he makes contact. If Thor had the same pitching line as Verrett ladt night, would you make the same big deal out of the HR?

I doubt it.👿

Reese Kaplan said...

Thor hasn't had the gopher problem if Verrett.

My bad on Johnson. I did not catch the while game. And get your facts straight. I don't like de Aza. I despise Skipper 😂

Reese Kaplan said...

Thor hasn't had the gopher problem if Verrett.

My bad on Johnson. I did not catch the while game. And get your facts straight. I don't like de Aza. I despise Skipper 😂