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9/30/17

Reese Kaplan -- Inertia: My Recurring Nightmare


Spring training 2018 rolls around and once again the Mets have not added a single major league player to the roster.  They have picked up the option of Asdrubal Cabrera and signed free agent Jose Reyes.  Sitting in the dugout holding the lineup pencil is soon-to-be 69 year old Terry Collins.  He’s on the phone to Sandy Alderson saying yes to whatever his boss demands.  Dan Warthen is staring off into space while there’s obviously something going wrong during the bullpen session prior to the start of the game.  Kevin Long is encouraging uppercut swings from everyone, including the pitchers.  Sandy Koufax saunters around camp with Fred Wilpon, muttering under his breath about what a circus this has become.  Kevin James is fielding grounders and looks positively svelte next to Dom Smith.


Fortunately I wake up from this nocturnal horror show and realize it can’t possibly be that bad.  After all, no sane GM would possibly think that his club is so perfect that it’s not in need of improvement, right?

Furthermore, no savvy GM would possibly want to build for the future around 35 year old infielder who’s lost several steps and range in the field.  No keen strategist would reward a malcontent who demanded a trade with another year in uniform.

Surely a manager who is hopelessly out of touch with modern  metrics, an inability to develop younger ballplayers and who holds the dubious distinction of the club record as the losingest manager in its 45 year history wouldn’t be asked back. 

Then there’s the pitching coach who never seems to notice when someone is overcompensating or changing their natural motion, setting himself up for injury…they can’t want him back again, right?

Then there’s that swing for the fences mentality that has the Mets setting club records for home runs while fighting to stay out of the cellar…surely they would want to change that!

Then there’s the whole health and nutrition thing.  Given the many years of injuries and conditioning problems they wouldn’t keep bringing back what hasn’t worked, right?

There’s no way the Mets can go into 2018 with Smith at 1B, Reyes at 2B, Rosario at SS, Cabrera at 3B, a timeshare of d’Arnaud and Plawecki behind the plate, Cespedes in LF, Nimmo/Lagares platooning in CF and Aoki in RF, can they?

Futhermore, the starting rotation built more on hope than reality, would right now include Noah Syndergaard, Jacob deGrom, Matt Harvey, Zack Wheeler and Steve Matz.  Behind them would be solid backups like Rafael Montero, Chris Flexen, Robert Gsellman, Seth Lugo and Tommy Milone.  That worked so well in 2017, right?

Then the bullpen will contain Jeurys Familia, A.J. Ramos, Jerry Bleviins, Paul Sewald, Hansel Robles, Erik Goeddel, Josh Smoker and Chasen Bradford with nothing to show from any of the salary dump trades from this summer…that can’t be happening, could it?

Sometimes it’s tough being a Mets fan.  It’s like a reality TV show where the audience is yelling at the screen about what they should do and then they go off charging in the opposite direction.  Parting ways with Collins and Warthen would be baby steps in the right direction.  Kicking the veteran infielders to the curb would represent more progress because as long as they are there, the temptation will exist to bench the developing players in favor of the ones past their prime.  I’d truly believe they want a change in direction if they suggest Sandy Alderson also find a hammock on a beach somewhere, but that’s got as much chance of happening winning the lottery (which is about as likely as the Mets winning a pennant without a complete overhaul top to bottom).  

7 comments:

  1. Yep it’s ground hog day over and over again with our Metsies!!!

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  2. The Mets are not an inert compound. They are a decomposing one.

    This compound decomposes, briefly stabilizes, and then decomposes some more.

    The Yankees are C-4.

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  3. It has been and interesting and yet painful life being a Met fan since 62' but this is really the first time I'm almost tempted to switch allegiances because the same nightmare is keeping me up nights. How in the world were we forced by MLB to keep the Wilpon/Katz ownership when the Dodgers were able to jettison McCourt? Now of course we don't know how a new ownership would have handled things and maybe we don't go to the WS in 15' but are we ever going to stop having to deal with not competing dollar wise with the top teams. This is a New York franchise that's probably worth upward of 2 BILLION DOLLARS!!! and were always penny pinching and we all know Reese your spot on with your thought's on what to expect next year and it sucks. I also have no faith that this ownership will pick the right manager and pitching coach next year either and lets face it all us fans really want is hope and I'm finding it harder and harder to follow this team. Major changes need to be made but will they?

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  4. Gary, Reese, Zozo - I took a look at individual Yankees' stats - Judge, Sanchez, Bird (of late, and also, Sandy, a 5th round pick we passed on so we could draft slow slap hitters), Gregorious, Castro, Clint Frazier - then also thought of ALL the Tier 1 prospects they have.

    The Mets drafted oft-fragile pitching, and their luck was even worse than expected. We are WAY behind a truly, truly exciting Yanks franchise. And likely to be there for a decade.

    I was a fan of the Yanks in 1961, switched to the Mets in 1962. Any logical person would switch allegiances. I was, after all, a Yanks fan before the Mets came along...

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  5. The Yankees should revive the old Flip Wilson show bit each time Aaron steps to the plate. https://g.co/kgs/jtLBpi

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  6. You guys focus far too much on Reyes and Cabrera as if they are the reason we suck this year. Reyes had an awful start and Cabrera fell off the charts defensively. Even with that Reyes is the 12th rank shortstop in baseball this year per fangraphs WAR and Cabrera number 17. Reyes had a 2 and Cabrera a 1.2 WAR.
    While both are subpar on defense Reyes is capable at second and fine for a backup shortstop or back up third baseman. Cabrera is passsble at third, Reyes is ranked as one of baseballs best base runners on fangraphs . Neither one had good years but they aren’t the anchors either.
    The Mets suck this year mainly because their “young” pitchers sucked....Harvey, Matz, Wheeler and Gsellman all sucked. Additionally Thir and Cespedes missed huge chunks of the season. Add a horrendous bullpen and and a sell off and you get 90 losses..
    Memo to you guys - besides Rosario (who has a lot to learn)we don’t have good youngsters. Most of the others who you are begging for playing time cap out as bench players. If I see one more Reynolds or Cechini or tajeton at bat I am going to vomit.
    Unless we add significant pitching to next years team it matters none if Reyes and Cabrera are starting at second and third. Nor would it matter if Collins managed the team.

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