6/15/19

Tom Brennan - HONESTLY, IS THERE A CURSE IN METSVILLE?



"HONESTLY, IS THERE A CURSE IN METSVILLE?"

I honestly wonder more and more about that as time goes by.

Of course, we have signings like David Wright, Yoenis Cespedes and Jed Lowrie, where enough money to fund a small third world country was contractually obligated by the Mets with very, very little to show for it.  

Curse?  Or just bad luck?  Seems like a Mets Curse.

Was it a deal with the devil so the ball would get by Buckner?

Jake deGrom is another example of the Mets Curse.

Last year, in 2018, Jake had a 1.70 ERA, and a Cy Young award, and yet somehow, inexplicably, after winning his first 2 starts magnificently, he went an astounding 3-6 in 19 starts mid-season despite an ERA of under 2.00 in those 19 starts.  

The baseball world shook its head, wondering how a guy could pitch so well over 19 starts and win just 3 of them.

You knew, even as a long-time Mets fan, that such a freak occurrence, even in Metsville, was preposterous and couldn't happen again.

You were relieved when he was magnificent in his first 2 starts of 2019 and was 2-0.  "See, it isn't happening again - not even here."

But then it did again.  Somehow, it did - again.

After those first 2 magnificnet wins in 2019, he has gone 1-6 in his next 12 starts.

Sure, this year he is a little more culpable, as he gave up 5 or more runs in 3 of those 12 starts.

But in the other 9, he has allowed just 14 earned runs.

Good enough to go 8-3 in that stretch.  

Yet he goes just 1-6 in 12 games.

Combine those 2 stretches, the one in 2018 and the one this year, and they add up to 31 starts, an ERA right around 2.00  -  and a record of 4-12.

That's right, 4-12 in 31 starts with an ERA of 2.00.  

That's 4 Jake wins in those 31 games, with an ERA of 2.00.

Incomprehensible.

Insane?  Or a curse?

I dunno.


Then there is Sugar.  

Sugar (Edwin Diaz) was amazingly magnificent last season - for Seattle.

He was 0-4, OK, not good there, but the rest was mind-blowing: a 1.96 ERA, and a stunning 57 saves in 61 opportunities, and equally stunning K #s.

This season, he was Sugar at the start - pure Sugar.  

Through April 28, for the Mets, he saved every opportunity, hadn't lost a game, had an 0.84 ERA.  

Since then, he is 1-3 with 2 blown saves, and actually a 3rd, for the yet to be completed game from last night.  His two biggest meltdowns?  

Giving up 2 runs in the 9th yesterday, blowing a 4-2 lead.

And surrendering 4 runs in the 9th against LA, blowing a 3 run 9th innings lead and losing that game, 10 days ago.  

His 0.84 ERA on April 28 has quickly climbed to 3.38 through June 13.

As he has gotten about 3 steps shakier than his brilliant first month as a Met, I start to wonder - is the Curse creeping into the Sugar?

Or is it just that Jake started last night and the blown save was because the seemingly cursed Jake started.


I dunno - you tell me.  

All I know is I find myself in conversations with friends a lot, saying:

 "Do you think this team is cursed?"  

Most say yes.

After last night's sickening DH loss:

The vast majority are calling for:

THE EXORCIST!


8 comments:

Reese Kaplan said...

Born under a bad sign...if I didn't have bad luck I'd have no luck at all.

Dallas said...

With an average bullpen and some average defense instead of the worst defense in NL and a near 6 bullpen ERA would would probably be leading the NL East by 5 games. These last 2 games were extremely brutal 3 games under vs one game over is such a big swing against them. There is no way they are going to catch the Braves with this bullpen and Rosarios atrocious defense. Lets face it the offense is largely doing its job and the starters have pitched decent enough in most games to let them compete. If you said at the season start that all the starters would be pretty much healthy and Varags would have a 3.5 ERA in addition to Alonsos 22 HR and McNeil hitting 3.40 you would easily peg them for being in first place.

Robb said...

Im not sure you can call poor roster construction and bad managing a curse, but having a (checks notes, 2nd tier) real estate developer as an owner who entrusts the team to his idiot son is piss poor luck.

Gary Seagren said...

Of course Brodie still views us as playoff contender but there's no way we can limp through the next few brutal weeks so it'll be interesting how BVW handles all this if were 8-10 games under .500 and 10 to 12 games out come the AS break. I still believe Diaz is hurt and I'm just waiting for news he's on the IL. The news last winter of the signing of this brash, young cocky GM to be followed by a mostly new FO was a real breath of fresh air and just about everyone was on board but now it's put up or shut up time for our new crew and just how their going to deal with failure will make or break this season.

John From Albany said...

No curse just bad management and no, it is not about being cheap as many say. It is about not having a smart plan and sticking to it. Why else would you build a cavernous ball park and not value speed and defense that are needed to win in such a park? Why would you fill your minor leagues with a large number of cast offs from other organizations? Why sign managers with no prior managerial experience and only value the ones who won't question your decisions? I could go on but you get the point.

Tom Brennan said...

John, point taken. McNeil broke the curse last night, though.

But seriously...how could a pitcher as GREAT as Jake have 2 combined stretches totaling 31 starts in 2018 and 2019, AND WIN JUST FOUR OF THEM (13%)? If not a curse, that needs some serious talent fixing.

Tom Brennan said...

Mets give up the sun, moon, and stars in Cano trade with Seattle. Yanks get AL HR leader Encarnacion from Seattle basically for free? Which mgmt team is better?

Anonymous said...

The only curse is named Wilpon!!!