Tom Brennan - SILVER LININGS, PART 2
I did a "Silver Linings" article several days ago.
After getting annihilated in two straight series by superior Nats and Dodgers teams, how is it finding silver linings? Gotten a bit harder, admittedly, but let's have at it.
Because silver linings do exist.
Jake deGrom won Player of the Week with two straight great outings and a home run to boot. He looks regal wearing post-game crowns, I'm sure you'd agree. My favorite Met.
Zach Wheeler has biceps tendonitis, which should help him with his innings limit after being the 55th Met put on the DL this year (or at least it seems that many). Every kid needs a summer vacation; Zach's had the whole summer off the past two summers, so a little summer break in 2017? OK.
David Wright - no pennant race, so no urgency to rush rehab to get back and join the fray. Did anyone ever tell you that Buy Out rhymes with Fly Out?
Jose Reyes - despite an occasional breakout game, being sub-.200 as July approaches for an everyday player resounds that action must be taken with him sooner than later. Heck, they once released sub-.200 Eric Campbell so there is precedent.
Rafael Montero - with Wheeler, Harvey, and Thor out, and Tyler Pill not fooling the big boys standing in the batter's box, it seems clear that Montero (great in his last two relief outings) lives on. With no starter solutions available from the minors right now, he will no doubt get his 45th chance at redemption for the Mets. I have a funny feeling that this time, he will hold his own.
Curtis Granderson - has proven me both right and wrong.
- Right in that (as I had previously suggested) he should have been given April off instead of (as it turned out) hitting .128.
- Wrong in that I thought he was washed up, when he just needed April off: in 132 May and June at bats, 12 doubles, a triple, 7 homers, .281 and 23 walks (OBP of .390). If he did that in April, too, he'd be getting All Star consideration. Best hitting on the team over that span. Hitting like a young Curtis.
- He has 301 HRs - hopefully, the Mets ain't entertaining hopes of keeping him until he (ahem) reaches 400, and decide instead to get real value for him at the trade deadline. A contender can use a focused gamer like him.
Seth Lugo and Rob Gsellman - in headier times, both would be in the pen. They now get a chance to show if they can be legit major league starters. Rob gets to see if he can get his ERA back below 6.00. He should remember that while Roger Craig went 5-22 with the 1963 Mets, he did it with a solid 3.78 ERA, so he wasn't so bad after all.
The 2018 Draft - we just selected 20th in the first round. Our 2017 record right now would have us drafting 6th next year. We have a shot at a top 3 pick if we keep losing. If the Mets do get a top 3 pick, the good news is Nimmo and Cecchini have already been drafted, so they cannot make the same mistakes of picking them again with high first round picks.
Brandon Nimmo and Gavin Cecchini - with numerous injuries and the Mets likely being sellers before the trade deadline, these two aforementioned first rounders should get opportunities to play during the rest of 2017 and truly show if they have enough talent to help this team going forward.
Hobie is hoping Victor Cruzado gets a chance too.
Catchers: d'Arnaud, Rivera, Plawecki - without the pressure of a playoff race, the Mets have ample time to see if there is any gold in these here 3 hombres. Meanwhile, Tomas Nido and Pat Mazeika continue their catching journey towards the big leagues and it will be much clearer by the end of 2017 exactly how close they might be to Queens.
Michael Conforto - with Lagares out, and Jay Bruce and/or Grandy potentially moved by the trade deadline, Conforto should play a whole lot the rest of the way - we will see what he can do over a full season after two partial ones.
Paul Sewald: in a season where it was unclear if he'd get called up to Queens, he has had 21 outings due to the bullpen turbulence: guess what? 18 of the 21 have been very good (OK, OK, after last night's "whoops" made it 18 of 22). We will hopefully get to see enough of Paul Sewald in 2017 to see if (and to what extent) he can help a hopefully contending team out of the pen in 2018.
Amed Rosario and Dominic Smith - game by game, they get closer to starting their major league careers. A case could be made that both are ready now. Undoubtedly, both will be ready soon. We'll be ready for them.
Pitching Reinforcements - the system is not bursting with pitching phenoms like Thor, ready to take the majors by storm at a moment's notice.
That said, PJ Conlon, Chris Flexen, Marcos Molina, and Justin Dunn could be close to ready by opening day 2018, and Nabil Crismatt closing on them fast.
Crismatt, in his last 8 St Lucie outings, has been off the charts: 55 IP, 40 hits, just 6 earned runs, 10 walks, 59 Ks. Simply outstanding, and perhaps ready to help the big club by mid-2018.
Tyler Bashlor has a coveted laser beam relief arm for St Lucie, as his 28 Ks in his last 13 IP show. Why can't the flamethrower be a 2018 relief arm in Queens?
Hopefully, all of that makes you feel better about the Mets. Just try not to gaze on the road kill that is their 2017 dashed playoff hopes too closely.
TGIF, people.
12 comments:
I LOVE these silver linings posts. I hope you keep them up, 1x a week for the parent team, 1x a week for the guppies
Hi ho Silver, away! It will be easy for the minors, assuredly.
We need our silver linings now, after we faced 2 large enemies over the past 8 days and ...ahem ... faltered.
I just looked - Vegas lost again, this time 16-2.
Rosario and Smith hitting .322, Plawecki .317. Robles slammed again, ERA almost 9.00...pretty bad when he can't make it back to a historically bad Mets pitching staff.
Some guy on Salt Lake went 6 for 6 against Vegas, with 5 extra base hits. Not bad for a night's work.
If that Salt Lake player was on the Mets Terry would bench him the next day.
Jay Bruce continues to be a silver lining. Last night notwithstanding, Jerry Blevins has been rock solid this year.
While the Mets are paying all the proper lip service about shifting Asdrubal Cabrera to 2B to allow Jose Reyes to field his natural position of shortstop (and to relieve Cabrera of his sub-Flores defensive woes on the left side of the infield), I'm thinking it's more of preparation for the arrival of Amed Rosario at SS to have a veteran at 2B to mentor him. Loyalty be damned -- when the chips start to fall Jose Reyes should be given his walking papers. He's not part of the future and he's hurting the present.
Reese, Bruce and Blevins have been solid silver.
Jose should not even be part of the present - the only excuse to play him now is if they hope he gets hot so they can trade him for something to a needy team.
Granderson deserves my apology - he has rebounded really well. One of the too few who are playing well in the face of adversity.
Saw this:
"You can have the nine greatest individual ballplayers in the world, but if they don't play together, the club won't be worth a dime."
Babe Ruth, baseball player
Thank You Tom for these posts. It keeps me dreaming that maybe one day the Mets will have a good GM who knows who to put a team together and a good manager who doesn't make you question his moves so often.
Right now I am sick and tired of reading virtually the same stories on a daily basis. Can't pitch and gave x amount of home runs...blah ..blah. Just a boring team right now.
At least the Mets have been getting blown out of the water early so I switch the channel and waste my time watching politics instead. I have to do better since that is just as depressing.
I say trade any player who is not expected to be here next year anyway. That to me means Duda, Walker (when ever he can walk), Granderson, Reed, Blevins (in the right deal), Cabrera, etc.
I much rather see the kids trying hard to impress than these veterans that have no future with the team and can't stay healthy. Go ahead, make this team stink even more so that we can have better draft picks next year.
But the problem for the Mets remain the same. Same GM who after 6 or 7 years cannot put together a team that can have a chance to win it all on a yearly basis. A manager with no common sense, a pitching coach who is not getting through to the pitching staff and owners who don't seem to care.
For the Mets to win, they need to bring a young GM with vision and commitment to follow the plan once is implemented. That means that the Genius doesn't qualify, a younger manager. Promote players so that the ones in the minors can see there is a chance if they play well.
All we need to do is compare what Brian Cashman has been able to do in 1 year vs what the Genius has done in 6 or 7 years to know that he is part of the problem, not the solution.
These Mets teams are always good enough to tease you but never good enough to go all the way and win. The only Hombre on the pitching staff with gravitas is deGrom.
Time to turn the page and move on from a lot of these players.
Viper -
I do everything I can to keep my Morning Reports away from all the drama going on in Queens.
Hope it is appreciated.
Tom -
I'm putting up a new top prospect bar for you - you can fill it in at your convenience,
As for Roger Craig... I was told around 7 years ago that helived here in Sun City.
I found his telephone number and called him, identified myself as the sports guy for the local newspaper that served his community, and asked if I could have an interview.
He didn't say a word. He just hung up.
Same Roger Craig? I never found out.
Viper, time to sell. Sandy needs to get us quality in return - no fire sales.
Mack, probably Craig probably got tired of the same question: how did it feel losing so many friggin' games? I'd hang up too.
Thomas,
Keep pluggin' VC!
BTW, since installed as reg CF and batting LO (10G): 10G hitting streak (BA .375, OPS > .500). Down side: one one XBH and only 1/1 SB. Still, switch hitting, LO CF'er anybody?
Hobie, the North Koreans have their rockets, but we have our far superior Cruz Missile in Victor Cruzado.
Let's hope he stays healthy and gets on a run. Vegas released that veteran OF (whose name escapes me), and Nimmo is with the big club, so Cruzado should play daily - his big chance to show what he can do, and time to stay HEALTHY so he can in fact play daily. Less than 240 games in the past 2 1/2 seasons is not enough/
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