We all know these sorts of adages:
"Some teams know how to win"
"We're in it to win it"
"We're in it to win it"
"Some teams won't settle for not winning"
"Winning isn't everything - it's the only thing"
"Winning isn't everything - it's the only thing"
You would think:
"No team wants to settle for less than winning, right?"
But then this teams, including the Mets, do things that dictate otherwise, because to use an another adage, "actions speak louder than words." And the Mets' actions don't.
Ask any local fan which of the above adages fits the team best, the Yankees or the Mets, over the past 25 years.
Any objective person would say, the Yankees, and it's not even close. I say it. My brother yells it.
The Mets ownership pays lip service to winning, but falls short of those adages in a variety of ways.
Today, let's touch on a few such ways to not win while saying you want to.
Today, let's touch on a few such ways to not win while saying you want to.
One obvious point where actions to win speak louder than words is when a team purports to want very much to win, but then uses washed-up, fading, or wishful thinking ballplayers a lot. And back up catchers of highly questionable ability.
The Mets did exactly that in 2018:
Last year, their "washed-up, fading, or wishful thinking ballplayers", below, whose 1,098 at bats represented a staggering 20% of the team's 5,468 ABs in 2018, hit an incomprehensibly low .198:
Last year, their "washed-up, fading, or wishful thinking ballplayers", below, whose 1,098 at bats represented a staggering 20% of the team's 5,468 ABs in 2018, hit an incomprehensibly low .198:
1,098 AB, 121 R, 218 H, 52 D, 6 T, 22 HR, 103 RBI, 108 BB, 309 K, .198.
Catchers in 2018 didn't hit. 2019? Mets backups are 3-34. Another "winning at all costs" miscalculation.
This year's fading, washed up, wishful thinking foursome are Frazier, Broxton, d'Arnaud, and Nido: 16 for 112 (.145). Now THAT is yet another year of misery. Real solution: all of them should be GONE ASAP, if of course "winning is the ONLY" thing.
Judge for yourself.
"Washed-up, fading, or wishful thinking ballplayers" in 2018 included:
"Washed-up, fading, or wishful thinking ballplayers" in 2018 included:
J. Bautista: 245 AB, 37 R, 50 H, 13 D, 9 HR, 37 RBI, 41 BB, 75 K, .204
J. Reyes: 228 AB, 30 R, 43 H, 12 D, 3 T, 4 HR, 16 RBI, 22 BB, 39 K, .189
A. Jackson: 198 AB. 17 R, 49 H, 9 D, 1 T, 3 HR, 19 RBI, 12 BB, 74 K, .247
D. Smith: 143 AB, 14 R, 32 H, 11 D, 1 T, 5 HR, 11 RBI, 4 BB, 47 K, .224
T. Nido: 84 AB, 10 R, 14 H, 3 D, 1 HR, 9 RBI, 4 BB, 27 K, .167
L. Guillorme: 67 AB, 4 R, 2 D, 0 HR, 5 RBI, 7 BB, 3 K, .208
J. Lobaton: 49 AB, 3 R, 7 H, 2 D, 1 T, 0 HR, 4 RBI, 7 BB, 15 K, .143
J. Reinheimer: 30 AB, 4 R, 5 H, 0 D, 0 T, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 5 BB, 9 K, .167
P. Evans: 21 AB, 1 R, 3 H, 0 D, 0 T, 0 HR, 1 RBI, 2 BB, 8 K, .143
M. Dekker: 18 AB, 0 R, 1 H, 0 D, 0 T, 0 HR, 1 RBI, 2 BB, 9 K, .056
T. Kelly: 11 AB, 1 R, 1 H, 0 D, 0 T, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 1 BB, 2 K, .091
K. Kaczmarski: 4 AB, 0 R, 0 H, 0 D, 0 T, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K, .000
It is hard to imagine winning when settling for that is your approach.
Well, this year, we have a brand new GM, Brodie VW.
This was to be a new day. Winning paramount, cutting corners left to loser franchises.
So, if that is the case, why did the team do the following 3 things?
A. Bring Keon Broxton north, when he is almost unparalleled in MLB history in terms of strikeout rate, and stick with him?
B. Essentially pull a red hot JD Davis from a pulsating line up and insert a fading, low BA guy like Todd Frazier after he clogged the offensive gears of last year's Mets (along with the 20 percenters above)?
C. Bring back Travis d'Arnaud so quickly from the minors to be their back up catcher?
Winning is still wishful thinking when your player decisions include those.
Another is trying to do just enough with the bullpen to get by. Teams that absolutely want to win will cut bait on a Chris Flexen far sooner than they have. Flexen has now surrendered 65 runs in 60 major league innings. An all time record pace cower futility? Maybe.
Every MLB pen has guys go down. Right now, Familia and Wilson...and Avilan now, too. A team TRULY COMMITTED TO WINNING, though, would have built a deeper pen at the onset, knowing adversity always comes. Last year, and this year, a bottom five bullpen.
Now THAT is no commitment to winning. Bottom 5 = LOSING.
Losing 13 of the last 20 has come all too easily, hasn't it?
Streaks like this happen every year, because the team player decisions are bad.
In Mets Fan Ville, frustration isn't everything...it's the only thing.
Each and every year - due to Mets' half stepping roster development.
I'm very happy I didn't wait for for the end of last night's game.
ReplyDeleteAnd no one seems to reading the site or commenting this morning.
I fully understand the attempt to get away fro this team right now.
Oh...
ReplyDeleteand thank you for the hard work on this post...
I don't think readers understand how time consuming it is to turn out posts like this overnight.
Went to Syracuse game and sat near third base. Either Jed Lowrie is still hurt or he is not a third baseman. He made an error and showed very limited movement in the field. Here's hoping it is not a sign of things to come.
ReplyDeleteJohn, hope you are wrong. we need a healthy Jed.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mack.
The Brox thing has me totally puzzled.
And the offense was humming with JD Davis - why bring Todd up when he was struggling in A ball and just start him? Idiocy. You win by scoring more runs than the opposition.
On a positive note Carlos Gomez looked good in center and hit a two run homer in the ninth to send the game to extras before Paul Sewald gave up two runs in the tenth. Mickey Jannis got destroyed today. 14 runs in three innings.
ReplyDeleteSorry to be redundant: the Mets are a real estate corporation run by ugly, dumb, rich moguls who use the baseball team as a tax cover. We will every year give away crucial innings and at-bats to minor league talent, because it is economical. Let's Go Mets!!!! It is just our team.
ReplyDeleteFormer Mets Watch: Jarred Kelenic one of best hitters in minors, Justin Dunn impressing. They will regret this trade.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course we shouldn't have signed Gio ...Dam just crazy and for chump change.
ReplyDeleteGary, they should have signed Gio, thanked Vargas for improving, and moved Vargas to the porous pen. Of such oversights do seasons melt away
ReplyDeleteLove Diaz, Anonymous, but I agree - a better course of action than trading Kelenic and Dunn would have been to sign Kimbrell. We will regret it. This is a franchise filled with regrets.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I really don't understand:We all want the Mets to win, and get frustrated/disappointed when they don't. But some us are totally convinced that the owners /GM are totally incompetent or uninterested in winning.
ReplyDeleteIf you really believe that, and you know that the same owners are not going away in the foreseeable future, then why do you stay? There ate 29 other teams, including two within driving distance of Citi, that you feel are better run, with wealthier and more sensible owners for you to choose.
I fully understand sticking with this team if you believe that it at least has the potential to improve and be successful. But why are those who feel it's a total lost cause still wearing the orange and blue and pledging loyalty?
I'm not writing this to disparage anyone, but I really would like to know the answer.
@ bill metsiac- i cant speak for everyone but I'll give you my perspective as to why fans such as myself, who loathe the wilpons, still root for this team in spite of them.
ReplyDeleteI turned 40 last month. My earliest memory of being a baseball fan is watching the mets win the world series in 86 when i was a 7 year old kid in 2nd grade. I fell in love with that team as a child. So i've been rooting for this team now for over 75% of my life. At this point its like part of how you identify yourself. Its how friends and family identify you. Im in too deep bro. I was in college during the yankee dynasty years, including 2000 when we lost the subway series and ALL of my boys were yankee fans. So im sure you can imagine how that went for me lol. During those years i was a full blown yankee hater. But growing into adulthood gives one perspective and maturity and you realize that the problem with the mets all along has been the Wilpon family. Through all the GMs, managers and players, they've always been the constant. So i dont waste my time hating on the Yankees anymore. In fact i admire their ownership and their commitment to to winning and excellence but i could never root for them. Im in too deep at this point and im loyal to a fault. But i do openly root for the Wilpons to one day soon sell the team to someone who's competent and committed to winning at all costs. Not shopping at the thrift store and expecting to contend that way. I want a team who's ownership doesn't always offer excuses when theyre poorly designed plans fail year after year. Hope that helps even if its from only one Mets fan.
I completely understand your feelings, Pablo, but you're rooting for something that isn't going to happen anytime in the future, barring totally unexpected circumstances.
ReplyDeleteYou're lucky that your intro to the Mets started with our best team ever. I go back to the original '62 team, which was our WORST ever.
I also suffered through the disastrous' 70s, when the team was owned by two sisters who inherited the team from their mother and knew nothing about baseball except how to milk the cash cow. They hired a financial advisor as qualified as they were, and even picked an ACTUAL jackass as mascot.
The turnaround came when Fred, who DID know and love baseball, and his partner, Nelson Doubleday (who knew more than Grant, but not much more) bought the team and put money into the team while hiring Frank Cashen to run it. They owned the team until Doubleday wanted out and Fred had to spend many millions to buy him out.
In '93, the Mets had the highest non-Yankees payroll in MLB, yet lost over 100 games (as documented in Bob Klapisch' s book, "The Worst Team Money Could Buy"). In '03, there was a virtual repeat of this disaster.
And all this was before "the Wilpons" ran the team. Jeff, who is probably around your age, didn't get involved until later, so "they've always been the constant" is just fiction.
But getting back to your poiny, MY dream of the team being sold came true. But yours (the team being sold now) is just a dream. You and others with the same dream have to accept REALITY. You can root gor the team with the same owners, or root for someone else.
My monkey babies will not be mets fans. To inflict this on them would, indeed, be irresponsible and quasi-abusive. And that would no longer be just funny as when I choose to endure this. I will not subject them to learned helplessness, betrayal,and poor critical thinking. They will enjoy a fair-minded, equitable tradition. It is a beautiful journey to ponder: my dad was a die-hard Yankee fan, but in the early seventies pushed me to be a mets fan for the zeitgeist and ballyhoo of it all. Now, the pendulum will swing again in my family. Even obi wan told Luke that it's all a matter of perspective.
ReplyDelete