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6/20/18

Reese Kaplan -- Be Thankful For Small Favors



Yes, readers, this article is one in which a flipped coin landed on its edge for I am about to extoll some virtues of this modest three game winning streak which seems totally surreal considering what preceded it. 


Brandon Nimmo has become a one-man wrecking crew of late and there’s not much more to be said at this point other than occasionally even Sandy Alderson gets one right.  His 4-6, 2-HR night with 4 RBIs has his season average up to .287 and he’s in the top 5 in the league in both OBP and SLG. 

Amed Rosario is also showing signs of life.  If this was earlier in the season and he stepped to the plate with the bases loaded I might have gone to the fridge for a beverage because you just knew either a strikeout or weak ground ball was about to result.  Last night I said aloud, “I’ll bet he does something here” and sure enough he unloaded to drive in a couple of runs as part of a 3-hit game.  Over the period from June 13th through 18th Rosario is in the midst of a modest five game hitting streak during which he’s delivered a .300 average.   

Michael Conforto teed off on a lefty last night, driving the ball and collecting three hits.  Like his teammate Rosario, Conforto is in the midst of a June 13th to 18th stretch which has him batting .304.  While the Nimmo explosion was unexpected and the Rosario development anticipated, the Conforto resurgence was expected and feels long overdue. 

While many people think Jacob deGrom has to be the happiest pitcher in a Mets uniform, I would volunteer that an even bigger smile yesterday probably belonged to Paul Sewald.  The embattled reliever has been flat out awful lately, so getting to pitch the final frame of a game with a 10-run lead was a no­-pressure situation.  He did allow a walk but got out of it and delivered a scoreless 9th.  Considering that for the month of June he was sporting a 9.95 ERA coming into the game, that had to feel like the weight of the world was lifted from his shoulders.


Tuesday night is the true test for this team with the club’s most suspect starting pitcher, Jason Vargas, heading to the hill to see if the streak can extend to four games.  When you look at the probable pitchers and see that the Rockies starter German Marquez has a 5.13 ERA and is coming off a game in which he gave up six runs you would figure the Mets must be salivating…until, of course, you realize that Vargas himself is sporting a 7.39 ERA.  Unfortunately it showed and he gave up 7 runs in just a short stint of just over 2 innings.  It's going to be far worse.  I'm wondering if the Mets are now thanking themselves they have an out of his contract for 2019.  

Of course, through it all the Jose brothers are wrestling for the futility trophy.  Jose Reyes is hitting a mere .163 and Jose Bautista a mere .183.  Unfortunately with the latest blip in Jay Bruce’s health, Bautista has gotten his umpteenth lease on life.  However, the other infielders appear to be healthy so you have to wonder why Jose Reyes still manages to suit up every day. 



9 comments:

  1. Vargas was vulgar, performance-wise.

    When the Rockies went back-to-back-to-back off Vargas, David Wright popped 2 Advil. He felt Jason's "back" pain.

    AJ Ramos has season ending surgery - "achy, breaky" Mets syndrome.

    Dom Smith had a good game last night - 0-4 with 2 Ks (.174) but no dumb hot dog plays. I hate hot dogs, unless they have sauerkraut.

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  2. Tim Peterson threw 2 perfect innings and fanned 3.

    Vargas 2.1 innings, 9 hits, 7 runs, no Ks.

    So, when do they send Peterson back down?

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  3. Reese -

    Is Vargas the definition of insanity?

    I know we aren't overflowing with healthy productive starters, but wouldn't Oswalt even be better than this.

    There ought to performance clauses in some of these contracts, but, of course, than pitchers like Vargas would never sign the damn thing.

    I wish this team would just win 10 in a row or lose 10 in a row. Either way would deternine the direction of this team in 2018.

    A 5-5 record would just be a slow cancer.

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  4. Mack my vote would be 1-4 every 5 games ... this way degrom has change to win

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  5. Oh, I was SEETHING when I saw how bad Beck and Robles were and how good Peterson was. It's like they always ask themselves, "What's the dumbest, most useless move we can make?" and then go do it. Farming out Peterson and his 2.08 ERA to make room for Beck has to go down as a candidate for worst of the year, but we do have the Ty Kelly promotion, the Buddy Baumann promotion, the contract to Jose Bautista, the lingering love affair with Jose Reyes, the contract to Jason Vargas and many others. Yet Sandy still has a job.

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  6. Vargas looks done......he is getting hit so hard, the catcher doesn't even need his gear, since none of his pitches make it past the batter.

    This team is the result of consistent, horrible decision making (along with injury issues and crappy luck).

    SOMEONE should be held accountable, right?

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  7. Let's see, Sandy can't fire Jeffie, so maybe...

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  8. Tom:

    Jason Vargas had one half of a good season (2017) in his career and evidently Dave Eiland was impressed enough to bring Jason over here.

    God willing, I hope Chris Flexen can make us forget Jason Vargas just as Dominic Smith has made us forget Adrian Gonzales.

    But then again here, if these two (Gonzales and Vargas) had worked out and the Mets had traded them both at this year's trade deadline, we'd all be praising this team's General Manager's brilliance. My point is merely that player personnel can be a crapshot sometimes.

    Not everything always works out as planned either, there is no magic formula for player personnel just a lot of luck and praying.

    But I am thrilled with the addition of Dominic Smith. Now we have Conforto, Nimmo, Rosario, and Smith all in the next generation core. Soon too maybe Peter Alonso and Jeff McNeil in the field to make six young players in this next core. Six is very good. And who knows, maybe even Chris Flexen in the rotation too to take Harvey's vacated spot! Woo Woo! Awesome!

    Now, if we can only get Todd and Yoenis healthy again! I think Jay Bruce is probably done for the year the way things looked with him. Hopefully not, but not sure yet.


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  9. Mack:

    See my point on Jose Reyes in last night's game. he can still be a huge spark for this team and he just needs to play more games. He will also help motivate Rosario too I think. Jose Reyes is not done here on these Mets. We need him.

    Todd Frazier is hurting. I can see it. Something physical is not right with him. He doesn't smack the ball that hard anymore. He used to. I might bring up David Thompson soon to platoon on third with Todd, or maybe David Wright. Or get Dominic Smith and Jose Bautista to platoon with Todd until Todd is clearly 100% again. He hurts the team as is playing less than 100%.

    Wilmer Flores is proving that he can be consistent over a longer playing duration of games. This is such a good thing. "The Wilmer" has landed! All praise to the Queen of Queens, Joan Payson.

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