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6/21/19

Reese Kaplan -- You Can't Make This Stuff Up!


Start your jokes here…

On Twitter, “The Mets fired Dave Eiland because he was too ‘old school’ for their tastes.  So they replaced him with an octogenarian.

Also on Twitter, “The Mets are seriously considering 91 year old Tommy Lasorda as a manager if they decide to move on from Mickey Callaway.”

From me, “Hey, now…it’s another outside the box idea like hiring a white-haired sexagenarian who held the distinction of flaming out of pro ball in three countries and five leagues, who could only scrape together a job shepherding a team in the independent Northwoods League of college players to be your next manager.”


As Jim Morrison once sang, “This is the end.  Beautiful friend.  This is the end.  My only friend, the end”  What else can it be in the Bizarro Mets world when they conclude the problem with the pitching is not the execution by the players, the sad state of keeping their arms healthy, but the coaching that’s responsible for the 20th out of 30 teams in team pitching?


Oftentimes in sports and in politics you see the higher-ups wield their hammer down upon the head of those closest to the one they really want to fire as a signal that it’s time to shape up or ship out.  I’m not exactly sure how the logic behind that methodology works when you take someone who’s already overstressed and struggling to tread water, take away his support system and think he’s magically going to flourish.  Expect the official fire sale to begin during the All-Star Break.

I’m not here (today, anyway) to bury Mickey Callaway and more than I am here to praise him.  I simply go by results and any way you slice it they are not good.  I will applaud the attempt to inject a little more offense into the lineup when you saw both Carlos Gomez and Juan Lagares seated on the bench with more robust hitters taking their place, but then proceeding to fail to find the ball with a GPS. 


The fault, dear friends, lies not in ourselves but in our stars (or what passes for stars many moons ago).  I won’t one-by-one recite the litany of failures, but a great many fall into the category of the 2nd and 3rd tier talents whose best days were long behind them.  The problem is not recognizing and acknowledging the mistakes made.  When Coca Cola brought out New Coke they realized they had zigged when the market had zagged and took corrective action.  The guys with the authority to do that are the GM and the owners.  Thus far they’ve sat on their hands when premium talent was readily available elsewhere and continued looking at the scratch and dent section of the supermarket.  The result is another season of below average mediocrity and they continue to apply Band-Aids to hemorrhages. 


Tom suggested the answer to firing the owners is to start rooting for the successful New York team that plays across town.  A comedian once said that rooting for the Yankees is like going to a casino and rooting for the house to win.  I tend to agree with that.  Still, if the value of the franchise plummets low enough then perhaps the owners will either invest or bail.  Continuing to support their losing ways only enables them to perpetuate the mediocrity.  

13 comments:

  1. First time Phil Regan won at least 10 games - 58 seasons ago in 1961.

    Back in the Mickey and Maris season. Both of whom were kids when Babe Ruth was still playing.

    Ans a year before the Mets joined baseball.

    That Regan dude is OLD! Back in the 82 year old's day, guys threw 82.

    Pete homers again - 25 in 74 games, needs 25 more in 88 games for 50. Why not?

    I found a great app called LETGO that I recently used to sell some household stuff. Can the Mets sell a Lockett with LETGO? If it works, they can sell about 15 more pieces.

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  2. I'm pining for our former manager to return and bring Ruben Tejada back...could it be worse?

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  3. ITS THE CUBBAGE CURSE I TELLS YA !

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  4. The team is a disaster.

    They lead the NL in GIDP
    28th in Bullpen ERA
    Middle of the pack starters
    Rank 28-30th in just about any defensive category you can imagine

    The Cano trade is going to just kill us for years. It makes me sick to think about. Instead of 2 big prospects not far from helping the team this year or next we also lose payroll flexibility and are forced to play an aging below replacement player because there is no chance whatsoever of trading him and they arent going to cut him. Of course the 2 big prospects are also in our biggest places of need coming up (SP, CF)

    Lets look at who is blocked or potentially blocked by Cano here...

    Jeff McNeil - 2nd best position player on the team
    Dom Smith - potentially better than McNeil or Alonso the way he has been playing but blocked because McNeil is in LF
    Andres Gimenez - Mets top ranked prospect
    Lowrie - Another old infielder who is hopefully fares better on the age curve than Cano
    Herrera - 25 year old 2nd base prospect with 1.120 OPS in June
    Tejada - 29 year old past Met with 1.028 OPS in AAA
    Guillorme - 24 year old prospect hitting .357 in June in AAA

    I mean how do you fix this team? How do you deal with Ramos, Davis, Rosario, Cano complete ineptness in the field?
    Where do you get rotation depth when someone gets hurt? Did anyone think Lockette stood a chance against the Cubs? Honestly Im surprised he made it to the 3rd inning. What the hell do you do about the bullpen? Naturally Swarzack is killing it for the Braves and Bruce destroying for the Phils (1.171 OPS.. 6HR in 13 games...)

    Mets are cursed.

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  5. I love your reference to the song "The End" as I remember it from the Apocalypse Now movie which seems very appropriate today. It's all the more painful when the Evil empire constantly makes us look like amateurs which lets face it we are most of the time. I know we'll never spend like they do but its much more about the decisions Cashman makes and I'm not talking about big ticket signings. The trading of Chapman and Miller for a haul of top prospects, the signing of 30 year old LeMahieu when we signed 35 year old Lowrie, Keon Broxton who was a AAA player at best, the Familia signing don't get me started on that and 3 years?...ugh. Brodie is looking more and more like he thinks he's "the smartest guy in the room" but frankly even he can't hide for long if this disaster plays out as we think it will. Stay tuned.

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  6. Dallas, all true. Mets are cursed. And so poorly run.

    Imagine Alonso being on a 55 homer pace and still feeling sick about the team? What a place to be! Alonso, McNeil, Kelenic - what a core that would have been.

    I only disagree about the middle of the road starters - put them on the Braves and they'd flourish.

    You missed one category - ownership/management: last in competence.

    You know why the 1962 Mets lost 120 games? 147 unearned runs. The White Sox that year allowed 56. Unearned runs (and poor play depsite a lack of errors, leading to excess earned runs) cannot be coupled with bad pitching.

    Gary - the Broxton signing is a flashing neon sign of Mets cluelessness. He would excel in A ball.

    I like to write positive articles - this team makes it virtually impossible to do so.

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  7. Mac - that line says it all. How much longer do you think before they cut Cano and/or Brodie? I give Cano until mid-late next year. Next spring you will see the stories how 2020 will be a bounce back year. I give Brodie until the end of next year. At least those of us upstate can see the "prospects" in Syracuse and Binghamton.

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  8. Btw, did you see Kay had another rough start for Syracuse last night? 4 runs in the first. The only inning he threw.

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  9. Wow, that makes Walker Lockett Cy Young by comparison.

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  10. John

    'Bounce this' about prospects in 2020

    Read my Sun 8am

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  11. I love that we keep hitting Cano 3rd despite being the worst or 2nd worst hitter on the team. Callaway was asked why he keeps hitting him 3rd “His bat’s coming around and he can feel it.” WHAT??

    This just shows how all-in they are on Cano. I don't care how Cano feels. Let the results speak for themselves. Hit him 8th, if he starts hitting then move him up. Even better... bench him until he proves he deserves a chance to start again..

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  12. Dallas, I was listening to Francesca before, a huge Cano guy in the past, and he was all over him about a lackadaisical swing on a grounder to first, as if Robbie didn't seem to care.

    $30 million a year and you don't care?

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  13. I have only seen Cano play for the Mets so I don't know how much he cares but I hope Francessa is wrong...

    Already the Mets have a few errors today. I wonder how many of these problems with our pitching is related to the defense.

    Honestly I would have them eat 100% of salary and see what they can get for any of Lagares, Wheeler, Frazier, Cano, Hech, Gomez, Vargas. Find a place JD Davis can DH or maybe play 1B and get some value for him. Maybe packaging Rosario and his bad defense can help, and start the building for next year...bring up Kay and Herrera and Tejada and play your best players.

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