Same
Old Same Old
So let’s say Jacob deGrom is pitching. It’s the first inning. He didn’t have his stuff while warming up. He still doesn’t have his stuff through the first two batters who got on base. What does he do? He considers what he’s got and uses those tools to the best of his ability. He changes his techniques. He uses another approach. He makes do with what he’s got. He doesn’t keep doing the same old same old.
Let’s say the Mets’ batting order is going
through a game. They’ve been shut out through the first three innings against a
top-flight pitcher. They haven’t even managed a hit. What should they do? The
same old same old? Comparing this to the first example would say they should run
out some new techniques to score some runs and win the game. But what do the
Mets’ hitters do? The same old same old. They look for the right pitch to hit,
to pull into the stands. They reach for the pitch on the outside corner and
pull it toward the side of the field that has a majority of the fielders.
Do they try some new techniques? Do they see
if they can turn things around by changing their game plan? No, they don’t.
They just go with the same old same old.
Whenever Richard Herr isn’t solving all the
Mets’ problems, he spends his time writing humorous science fiction novels.
You can see his books at https://www.amazon.com/Richard-Herr/e/B00J5XBKX4.
5 comments:
Great point, I never thought of it in that way. Somebody should hire this guy as an consultant.
Gary -
I did
If that's the case, I'll explain it in straight Consultanese.
The Mets must synergize their in-house assets to architect an alternate problem-solve that will give them a higher ROI in the production sector.
Not to toot my own horn, but in this morning's post I echoed the same sentiment best evidenced in this paragraph about last year's playoff game:
"But, but, but…he got us to our second straight post-season in 2016. Once again, I give a lot of credit not only to Yoenis Cespedes, but also to Robert Gsellman and the pre-WBC Seth Lugo for getting us there. And what happened when we did get there? He used luminaries like Eric Campbell to pinch hit and “we’ve seen this movie before” left in a clearly “lost it” Jeurys Familia to blow the game. There's some merit to ride the horse who brung ya, but a thinking man adjusts. Once again these decisions were made by the guy with the career losing record."
Can't teach old ball players new tricks.
But your point is very well taken.
Over the years, so many times, if the Mets trailed 2-0 in the third, I feel like all is lost. They can't improvise to score runs. I hated and appreciated the 1985 Cardinals because they had many ways to beat you, including bunting and speed. The only speed in the Mets clubhouse, if ingested, would result in a 50 game suspension.
As Reese noted, a good manager would have said to Jose "take a week off, we'll give TJ a shot." Maybe TJ gets 8 more hits that week than Jose, and they win a few more. Then tell Jose when he gets some starts, "forget what you did the first few weeks, as of today, you are 0-0, .000 and treat it like a new season."
In all of baseball, Jose Reyes is only ahead of 2B R Schimpf of SD (.104 vs .102) but he has 3 homers and 6 RBIs, which is 3 homers and 6 RBIs more than Jose.
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