Tom Brennan - "Feelings, Nothing More Than Feelings"
Boy oh boy, when the Mets were 11-1, we were all feeling good, real real good, euphoric. Exhilarated.
But then, as Anne Hathaway sung in the movie Les Miz, "then it all went wrong."
Well maybe not everything went wrong but an awful lot has. The team after all has gone 24-50 since that wonderful 11-1 start. so let's recap, shall we?
I felt great when Jake deGrom started out pitching spectacularly, winning his first two starts.
Could he go 32-0? Not...quite.
From then through his first start in June he had a 2-0 record in those next TEN spectacular starts. I was feeling conflicted.
Could I feel even worse? Uh huh...
In his next six starts, he went one and four despite still pitching very well. Got me feeling depressed, morose, helpless, pained, sad.
When our catching tandem of Plawecki and d'Arnaud went down with long injuries in the midst of the team's hot start, I felt sheer dread, 2017 style, creeping in. Reminded me of the end of the Poltergeist movie, when it all seemed so peaceful, until it got real bad, real fast.
When Cespedes did not return at the end of his 10 day DL stint, I felt abandonment. Several weeks later, I also feel bewilderment and betrayal. He feels richer, though, and probably cheered himself up by buying another Maserati.
When Wheeler and Matz pitch great, and don't win over and over, I feel nauseated. I feel chunks.
When the bullpen comes in, I feel dread. On those few occasions it succeeds, I feel amazement.
When joyful Brandon Nimmo plays, I feel hopeful, until the next guy gets up. When wonderful Wilmer Flores succeeds when most fail, but sporadically plays, I feel bummed out.
When Jose Reyes gets up, I feel nostalgic and belligerent at the same time. When Joey Bats gets up, I feel shocked that an old guy is actually doing well for this sorry squad.
When I think of Broken Down Bruce, I feel like I want a full refund.
When I think of Dominic Smith, I feel keen disappointment as I watch him go in reverse.
When I watch Mickey Callaway, I sense that he is overwhelmed and is nostalgic for Cleveland bliss.
If I were Jeff McNeil, I would have increasing impatience and frustration, even anger, as I watch 42 pitchers get called up while Jeff, by far the best player in the Mets minors in 2018, continues to have to prove himself without promotion.
When I think of the Wilpons owning this team, I get infuriated and despondent.
How do you feel? I and a lot of other fans feel like doing something else with our time that makes us feel better.
5 comments:
Ty Kelly called up rather than Jeff McNeil because Ty Kelly better at 3B, per Mickey Callaway?
Career-wise in minors, Kelly has a worse error rate at 3rd than McNeil - why, then, LIE to us?
We could have used McNeil's hot bat last night...his not being here has me....PISSED OFF.
If Callaway bumped into McNeil in an elevator would he even know who he was?
Since when has defense mattered to this front office anyway?
If you want to try to see the future without that obvious promotion, play either Wilmer Flores or Asdrubal Cabrera at 3B, the other at 2B, Smith at 1B and Conforto, Nimmo and a platoon of Bats and Kaczmarski.
Reese, Smith is bewildering - 1 RBI and 1 walk in 70 plate appearances? And 24 Ks as a left handed batter? What the heck is that, especially after his very mediocre AAA results? Is he depressed, confused? Something is way off. I know, I know, he just needs time to get started...
That bizarrely sub par "1 RBI in 70 PAs" thing, by the way, is the sort of thing that happens to at least few Mets players each and every year (think Reyes, Vargas also this year). When you see a brutal, almost incomprehensible stat line like that, you automatically think (if you don't see the name) that it must be a Mets player. And most times, you are right.
Like even in 2015, when they went to the World Series - through mid-July there were several guys with about 800 total at bats hitting a ridiculously low combined .180 - Mission Impossible stuff. You look at that and say to yourself, how can this even be possible? Then you get the answer - because this is the Mets.
Why does this team seem to have guys who come in or come up and totally and utterly crater? What pervades this organization??? Is it a "this is going to fail" mentality? Acute Wilponosis? I dunno.
Guys -
1. The comments by Mickey re: McNeil sounded off the top of his foggy head. My guess, he didn't do the research. It is sort of like sending a player up to bat before the other team... no... wait.
2. As for Smith, this looks like another 'Anderson Hernandez' factor. There are players, for reasons that just never become defined, can't make the jump successfully to the majors. They repeatedly ace AAA but flop at the MLB level.
I applaud the attempt to convert Smith to an outfielder, especially during a period we have two on the DL, but Smith has lost all trade value. For now, I would keep him hear until Peter Alonso gets his bat screwed on correctly and starts hitting at the AAA level like he did in AAA. After than, flip these two and let Smith settle in for a career in the minors.
Smith should go back to AA - pupose being to re-start the engine - if he gets on fire, consider bringing him back up.
I still think that the team did not position Smith for success - letting him come up at 260 lbs. was entirely avoidable - they had to tell him they would NOT call him up until he dropped to 230 or less.
All everyone talked about was how Smith came up very overweight and probably was his reason for struggling. So now he was under a Failure Cloud, and it seems he cannot resurface.
If he hit exactly as he did last year, but was NOT fat, it would have been much less negative.
So I would hit the reset button and send him to Binghamton. Let him go on a tear and regain confidence. Call him back up in September.
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