The irony with a stubborn ego driven leader is that the only way change is facilitated is through the only means that gets management attention: loud complaints of terrible losses.
Yoenis Cespedes had, according to stat cast, an almost 80% chance of catching the fly ball of which he did not make an immediate break for, resulting in both the walk off win and the limp walk of Ces. The limp comes amidst a terrible slump.
TJ Rivera had, also according to stat cast, an almost 78% chance of an out on the ground ball which he did not.
Jose Reyes, in spite of hitting .300 the past few weeks, continues with poor defense, though he benefits from MLB's generous scoring system.
Stats tell us that our defensive is at the bottom, with prima donna Astrubel leading the way.
It is time for a breath of fresh air of leadership in the club house and on the field where "team first players" and productivity, not contract, nor whining, fills out the line up card.
Steven Matz looked superb, but the defense betrayed him, while Seth Lugo did not pitch as poorly as the numbers suggested; both bright spots for possible 2018.
With losing comes the fire sale.
With the fire sale, hope springs eternal.
Brandon Nimmo in almost 100 career major league at bats, may prove to be a major league .300 hitter, and the only way he gets opportunity to play is via injury to others.
Jay Bruce should be considered a possible signing but only with possible insurance buy out of David Wright.
Grandy may want to play another year, but we should keep in contact post playing career; he is a net positive for young players.
The Mets have stumbled into the All Star Break with its lone Star, Michael Conforto, a player management wanted to demote after a solid Spring so that contracts could fill the outfield. It is beyond maddening for fans. He is our "part time All Star" in the age of the aged general manager and the obedient field manager.
We are forced to root for losses if we want the changes necessary, including Reyes waived and Rosario promoted.
Lucas Duda, a fan favorite, does not factor into long term plans where Dom Smith is expected to man first.
Amed Rosario may be playing discouraged and dispirited ball right now having done all in AAA that can be required of him except to fulfill Alderson's slavish devotion to pitch counts.
Generally a good idea but not with all, and certainly not with sluggers.
Rooting for the Mets to lose, while watching for bright spots (Matz, Nimmo) is psychologically insulating, even while Murph continues to remind us, ever so acutely, of Alderson's folly in snubbing the post season champion.
A well thought out post
ReplyDeleteSaturday we will be publishing a rant about Sandy Alderson's tenure as GM in which I pose the question, "What exactly does he do well?"
ReplyDeleteYes Daniel Murphy the defensive wiz. Let's be clear defense is only the topic of the day since the pitching the team was built around sucks so much. We were bad defensively in 2015 and 2016 and made the playoffs because we hit and pitched well. Defense isn't saving Harvey's meatballs , the bullpens control and the rash of injuries besetting our valiant pitching staff.
ReplyDeleteBlaming Jose Reyes or TJ Rivera defense for the demise this season is laughable
And of course we will see a post shortly about how Wilmer "gold glove" Flores should be playing everyday....so much for defense
Well said. This is my bviusly a lost season. I'd love to see the 2nd half devoted to our youngsters in the hope of prepping for 2018.
ReplyDeleteBad defense at some point becomes indefensible.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Amed may not walk a lot, a la Sandy Philosophy 101, but neither did Daniel Murphy...he's done OK.
I looked at Travis Taijeron's career #s today - a .269 career power hitter with a 29% career K rate and a .371 on base percentage - I wonder if he is another Sandy-induced failure...he walks a lot, and may be getting coaxed to work the count, resulting in a 12% walk rate but also that 29% K rate. It got me thinking whether this guy is taking too many pitches - with 344 extra base hits in 2469 career at bats (a terrific one for every 7.2 official at bats, as compared to Cespedes' one every 8.8 at bats - heck, Babe Ruth was 1 every 6.2 at bats, so Taijeron is pretty close there too!).
What if they are forcing Taijeron to work counts, driving up his strikeout rate, when he is an extra base hit machine? What if he was instead encouraged to be aggressive early in counts and as a result had an extra base hit every 6 at bats?
One very interesting stat on Babe Ruth, who in the classic video homer swing we see of him looks like the slowest player of all time: he had 69 triples in a 6 year stretch from 1918 thru 1923 in which he averaged 130 games per year. A triple every 11 games! Yeah, a lot of those parks were big parks, but the big boy must have had some wheels back then. All the more amazing considering how many times he couldn't triple because he homered or walked in those games.
Jonathan, good point - let me add that Murphy might be a shaky 2B (of course, Nats fans are not complaining) but he should have played in 2016 and 2017 as Mets first baseman, not Duda. If Murph could play 2nd, he'd likely have excelled defensively as an everyday 1B.
ReplyDeleteBeware running away from offense in search of better defense - offense matters - a lot.
Agree with Thomas.
ReplyDeleteKeeping Murph was contingent on your confidence that he would get 120G at 3B/1B. I was one o those who thought that was a lock. Every bit as confident, BTW, as I was the Dilson was "ready" to be the FT 2B.
This should be our lineup once we trade everyone
ReplyDeleteRosario SS
Nimmo/ Lagares CF platoon
Conforto RF
Cespedes LF (as long as he's healthy, give home extra rest)
Flores/ TJ Rivera 3rd
TJ Rivera/ Cecchini 2nd
Smith 1st
Rivera/ Plawecki C
If we win that's good
If we lose that's ok
But we will see what we have going forward into the offseason and see what we need to update for 2018.
In the words of Smokey Robinson, I second that emotion.
ReplyDelete