It was supposed to be different this year. After all, with so much money coming off the
books the GM sought to bolster the roster through quantity rather than quality. To call the results mixed is being
charitable.
On the offensive side of the ledger, the Mets as a team are
hitting but .233 which places them at 23rd of 30 major league
teams. That’s not exactly the stuff of
post-season contenders, is it?
Well, they must be scoring runs then, right? Through 37 games the Mets have driven in just
149 runs which is only good for 27th out of 30 teams. That’s 4.02 runs per game. In the World Series year of 2015 they
averaged 4.22 runs per game, so they’re about 5% off that pace.
They’re certainly not doing it with the long ball. They have hit 37 homers which puts them in a
3-way tie with the Royals and Reds for 23-25th place out of the 30
teams.
How about stealing bases…surely there’s some good news to be
found?
Ummm, no…in fact, they are surprisingly as high as 24th
in that category with 15. The team
leaders tied with three apiece are not names you would have guessed going into
the season – Yoenis Cespedes and Todd Frazier.
For all of his career history as a threat, Jose Reyes sits at but
2. Then again, you actually have to get
on base in order to have the opportunity to steal. To illustrate how bad that is, he’s actually
tied with Mr. Plantar Fasciitis, Jay Bruce, not exactly someone who strikes
fear into opposing batteries. .
So if it’s not hitting that’s helping them win ballgames, it
must be pitching, right?
Wrong.
The Jason Vargas and Matt Harvey inflated team ERA is 4.16. That’s not awful and places the Mets at 14th
in the pack. Now if you consider they’re
giving up 4.16 runs while only scoring 4.02 runs, the fact that as of Monday
they’re 1 game over .500 means they’re actually outperforming their
numbers. (Wow, that’s agent-spin if ever
I heard it!)
With all of those big arms, surely the Mets are striking
people out at a prodigious pace, right?
Wrong.
As of Monday, the Mets had struck out 343 batters which
gives them a tenuous grip right smack in the middle of the pack at 15th
place. If it’s any consolation to former
Indians pitching coach and current Mets manager Mickey Callaway, it’s Cleveland
that sits a single strikeout behind them.
Surprisingly the most impressive number on either side of
the ledger has been saves where the 12 recorded by the Mets places them in the
top 10 in all of baseball (7th to be exact). Of course, 11 of them belong to Jeurys
Familia. I guess that whole closer by
committee thing floated during Spring Training didn’t take root after all. (And trivia question…who has the other
save? You’ll certainly be forgiven if
you didn’t guess Jacob Rhame.)
There have been some good signs of late. Last night's laugher was long overdue. On offense Michael Conforto and Wilmer Flores
are showing signs of breaking out of their slumps. Asdrubal Cabrera has slowed down a bit but
still is providing more than they could realistically have hoped. Juan Lagares is also catching some folks off
guard with his strong start to the season.
On the pitching side of things, Steve Matz has now turned in
two stronger efforts in a row. Zack
Wheeler was sensational in his first game with Devin Mesoraco behind the
plate. Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard
may not be in Cy Young form yet but they are not the ones who cause pitching
coaches to have sleepless nights. Jeurys
Familia has been brilliant and there have been some fine outings from Robert
Gsellman, Seth Lugo and Paul Sewald at various times (the big dinger off Sewald
in the Phillies series notwithstanding).
I’ve said it before but it bears repeating…with a rookie
manager, a myriad of health problems and some highly questionable roster decisions,
you should probably be counting your blessings to be only 4 games out of first
and with a winning record. Terry Collins couldn't do that. Try to erase
the past 25 games from your memory, but also erase the 11-1 start. Think about the team as if the season is
starting today and it would seem there’s pretty much nowhere to go but up.
8 comments:
Hopefully last night's robust hitting will be a turning point.
Last night was fun but I am far off declaring victory here.
Can we keep Lagares in the lineup for a while?
And let us not sign off that Syndergaard is a great pitcher.
Last night was (I think) his 70th start and he still has not one complete game.
He is a 7 inning pitcher at best.
I would DL Cespedes for the next what FIVE games? Get him right. Play Lagares.
DL stints cost money because you must fly in a replacement. These are the Wilpons, after all :) Also the only person on the 40-man roster who can play OF is Phil Evans hitting .240.
Max Scherzer took a while to get going. If I were Thor, I would study Scherzer tapes. He is the best.
Agreed, Reese......I think the hot start changed some expectations (unjustly) and it made the follow up seem worse, if that is possible.
I see a team that will hover around .500 the rest of the way.
Oh and it looks like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Wheeler) made his "ugly" appearance today.....that dude is the poster child for inconsistent.
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