Tom Brennan - SHELLACKING LESSONS

Tom Brennan - SHELLACKING LESSONS

Shellacking can be a worthwhile thing for, let's say, decks.  

In baseball, when your team gets shellacked, it can be harder to see how it is worthwhile.

But valuable things can be learned from games like Wednesday's shellacking.

Offensively:

 

Travis Taijeron had 2 hits and a walk, and is now 5 for 14 with a walk and a HBP and 4 strikeouts in his last 16 PAs.  Maybe the jitters are subsiding and we will find out what he really can do against MLB pitching.  Maybe there is some potential there.  Play him and let's see.

Dom Smith hit his 6th homer in a little over 100 at bats...so, maybe he had HR power after all...and that .202 average?  Well, you can't have a low .227 BABIP forever, so he will likely hike that average sooner than later.

Gavin Cecchini fanned in 1 at bat; 1 for 18 in September.  He has 4 RBIs, on a 2 run homer months ago, and a 2 run single in August. As he is shellacked, we are learning perhaps that he is in fact nothing more than a weak hitter. 

 

Sadly, fellow IF Phil Evans (3 MLB at bats, 3 line drives) sat on the bench last night, so we learned, I guess, that Evans is capable of sitting on a bench, a talent also held by Aqualung.  Play the lad, Terry.  Just because you sit on the bench doesn't mean he has to.

We learned that Brandon Nimmo is unlikely to do as much good pinch hitting as he is in starting games in the outfield.  Start him daily - he is clearly not getting shellacked.

Pitching?  Stained is what we are seeing.

We learned Matt Harvey is until further notice a shell of his former self, got further evidence that Hansel Robles and Chase Bradford stink, and that new acquisitions Jacob Rhame and Kid Callahan are a very far cry from David Robertson and Dellin Betances, who pitch for our superior NYC-based competitor team.

We may be learning from this shellacking that we need to acquire a Wade Davis for our 2018 pen, because it currently has far more suspects than prospects.

We all so learned that Terry loves daily to start Jose Reyes (admittedly playing great lately), Aoki, and Asdrubal Cabrera.  The lesson to be learned there is that some people do not know the value of getting the 4th, 34th, and 64th picks instead of the 8th, 38th, and 68th picks.  We need to lose a lot with our current rookies to get better ones going forward.

If they don't learn that lesson, it may help the Mets get shellacked a lot more in future seasons.  Because I learned this: Bleacher Reports has the Mets' minors currently ranked 27th, with no Tier 1 prospects.  

The Yankees? Ranked 3rd, with SEVEN Tier 1 prospects. Rankings slanted?  Only if you think that Mets' farm teams ending up 117 games behind Yanks' teams was accidental.

Shellackings can be quite informative.  May the Mets' hierarchy for once look at shellackings with coldly objective analysis and not wishful thinking.  Or their future box office receipts will continue to get shellacked, for sure.