TOM BRENNAN - WE'RE 17-9!!
How many of you thought the Mets would be 17-9 at this point? Prior to spring training, I did.
What I did not expect was the following:
Harvey to sputter and be sent to the pen.
The bullpen blow several big late leads, but the Mets to still have a fine record.
Matz to be lousy so far despite averaging a Koufax-like 10.8 Ks per 9 IP.
Thor to allow himself to be out-hit by fellow flamethrower Ohtani.
Cespedes to strike out a million times (OK, 43 times, just seems like a million).
Cespedes to knock in a million runs anyway (OK, 25 in 26 games, just seems like a million).
Cespedes to hurt his thumb foolishly stealing a base head first (we have our thumbs crossed that, for a change, a Mets injury is minor). You can't hit 50 and knock in 150 if you are not healthy enough to play.
Lagares to be leading the team at .342 in limited play, and just a K every 10 PAs.
Nimmo to have a head-turning .488 OBP, and have folks love his passion.
Conforto to not only be back in April, but have 80 plate appearances and a .390 OBP.
Frazier to be hitting over .210 and even have a .395 OBP and 17 RBIs.
Two catchers to go down with lengthy injuries at the same time, and their catcher replacements. recently start hitting better but still be 8 for 52.
Adrian Gonzalez to struggle at the dish, but have 17 RBIs in 66 ABs; he still has Star DNA and hitting better than he did as a Dodger.
Flores to struggle (even though he did last April, too, before breaking out).
Gsellman to be spectacular in relief.
Swarzak to go AWOL.
Bruce to have plantar fasciitis but still be doing OK.
Asdrubal Cabrera to refute a former writer here and put up huge numbers in the early going.
Reyes to do his best "I will suck most of April" impression that he perfected in 2017.
Smith to come into camp with a legitimate shot at 1B, and by the end of the April, being nowhere near being called up, and quite possibly about to be passed by Pounding Pete.
Blevins to have his shaky twin brother show up to pitch while he did something else. Jerry can come back to the Mets anytime.
Rosario to have more than 1 walk by now (he has 4) and, for the fastest guy on the Mets, to be 0 for 2 in steals while Todd Frazier is 2-0.
Familia to be 1-1 with 9 saves and a 1.80 ERA, and so many people kvetching about him.
Robles to pitch well after being called back up, and then get banned to Vegas again, where they expect frequent home runs.
Sewald to be pitching great - but still winless in his career. His imitating Anthony Young is getting old.
Wheeler to be pretty darned decent after a miserable spring.
Vargas to pitch like he's a fifth starter in Vegas.
Mets to be 4th in the NL in runs per game (well, no, I did expect that, sorry).
Mets to be 11th in team MLB team ERA (well, no, I did expect that, sorry).
Jake to be great (well, no, I did expect that, sorry).
AND FINALLY....METS TO BE LEADING THE NATIONALS BY 6 GAMES ON APRIL 29! Despite Mad Max pitching like Koufax.
One thing I do know - unless there are 3 rainouts in May, the Mets have no chance of going 17-9 in May, since they are scheduled for 29 games.
I'll take 19-10 - how about you?
P.S.
A wise Mets sage (whose name rhymes with JACK) just encouraged me to not lose heart with this team after Saturday's loss pushed them to just 5 wins in 13 games. I shook off my malaise after a nice 14-2 nail biter, and now I am back, baby!
Today may be May Day, but this team is not sending out May Day signals.
Koosman was 17-9 in 1969 - and the Mets won the World Series - maybe it is a sign.
And to Mr. Matz, you can and should be pitching like Koosman.
And to Mr. Matz, there once was a Cardinals lefty named John Tudor who kept the Mets from the playoffs in 1985:
He was 1-7, 3.74 through May. The rest of the season, he was 20-1, 1.33.
You can be John Tudor, too, Steve, in 2018. Shake off the bad start. it is payback time.
9 comments:
Tom -
Good morning Tom.
Great April recap. Lot's of ups and downs but the end result is great.
My hope is that Sandy and Company will address some of the concerns here in May.
In my opinion, we need another starter. Wheeler looks like he will be a career 4.00-ERA starter, which is fine for either an SP4 or SP5.
We might be seeing the beginning of another season-ending injury to Matz, which could basically end his career.
I would either give Flexen another shot, or bring up Oswalt for good.
The other glaring hole is catcher and I would put more sanctions on Miami... wait... this is not North Korea. Still, I would turn the heat up for Realmuto.
Wow. Anthony Young, Jerry Koosman, and John Tudor references in one post. Nicely done.
I’ll definitely take 17-9 at this point. Though I have a hard time imagining that Cespedes’ injury will turn out to be “minor”. Oddly, I’m less concerned with him missing a month that I am of him missing three days and then playing with a jammed thumb (those things can be painful and take a long time to heal) and hitting a buck fifty for the next month while Mickey trots him out there every single day regardless (and Ces lying that his thumb feels “fine”) while he winces on every weak swing that he takes.
And while i’m complaining about our manager (lifetime winning % .654, but hey, I’m a Mets fan) I want to see more AB’s for Nimmo, Lagares, and Flores. And I want to see a commitment to Nido as the starter until such time as reinforcements arrive or Loboton takes some batting tips from peter Alonso.
Morning all. Let’s do a number on the Braves this week, huh?
Adam -
Many of our readers have never played competitive baseball.
You simply can not swing and hit a 95 mph fastball unless you can properly grip the bat... and a bum thumb will prevent that, will automatically slow down your swing, and will reduce any resulting pop,
DO NOT bring Cespedes back until he is 100% healed no matter what the fans on Twitter say.
I concur. For once I'd like to see the Mets go conservative on injuries and immediately put Cespedes on the 10-day DL which would force him not to play and rest until he's 100%. It's a long season and you can withstand it.
AND NO GOLF
I give the DL for Cespedes two thumbs up - unless he reports in at least relatively fine today.
I agree - if you are hurt, you can't play as well as Lagares or Nimmo healthy - and heck, I want to see Zach Borenstein, don't you (although either Gavin or someone else like Dekker would get promoted instead)?
Sandy has his return-from-roadtrip press conference today, and I am sure no one will ask about the health of Yoenis. Only important stuff, like Jose getting some hits and smiling.
If Yo turns out bad, I will be writing another "Stupidity" article.
Adam, John Tudor singlehandedly kept us out of the playoffs in 1985 - the guy won almost every start he had from June forward, actually better than Gooden was in 1985 from June forward. I remember thinking, what the HECK is going on with this guy?
UGH.....I still suffer from Cardinals induced PTSD. Oh, the agony.....Tommy Herr, Jack Clark, Willie McGee, Terry Pendleton, and so forth!
If we only had the wild card in the 80's
As far as 2018 is concerned, we are definitely in a good spot as the calendar turns over to May, but I am a bit more apprehensive going forward. The rotation after the our two studs is pretty shaky, but I have my fingers crossed and a rabbit's foot in my pocket.
Looks good for Yo
On the pitching staff...
Just making a few assumptions here. May or may not make good sense. I was out all night at LA bars with movie starlets! (LOL)
Anyway, Call me whatever, but does anyone else here see a resemblance between Seth Lugo and Nolan Ryan facially. Did I tell you that I was out all last night...It's striking a resemblance. Not kidding. Agatha Christie, don't trade Seth Lugo like you did Nolan Ryan. Seth has multiple very good pitches in his arsenal and throws hard.
Here's what I do...
I call Seth and Gsellman into my fictional office (the one with a wet bar and hot tub) and I ask them this, "Do either of you two pitchers genuinely want to go back to the starting rotation?" Hopefully one does. The other then would stay in the bullpen. My preference might be to Lugo going back into the rotation again, but either one is very good. Both are really doing well in the bullpen too.
I then call up Tim Peterson to take that relief pitchers' place in the bullpen.
(What do I know)
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