Metstradamus - We've Turned And Faced The Strange, Now Let's Change

 

By metstradamus | September 28, 2020 1:08 am

It’s 11:46 PM, and I’m watching the Mets game on replay.

I mean, I know what happens. The Mets got clobbered. But I wanted to have some sort of idea about the true ins and outs of this game. But quite honestly, when the Mets were up 2-0 in the top of the first after a Pete Alonso home run, I was thinking “man, this game is already dragging and, by extension, quite annoying. And all I’m retaining is that Keith likes almond milk in his cold brew, and Luis Guillorme shaved.

I just saw Trea Turner hit a grand slam. I’m not waiting to finish this game to write the following nonsense.

The first thing the Mets need to do in the coming days and weeks during the time when the entire rest of the league is in the playoffs (I mean, okay … the Brewers are in the playoffs at 29-31. Whatever. But if Rob Manfred rigs it so that an under .500 team can make the playoffs in a 162 game season, it’s going to be the slow boil of the metaphorical live lobster that is the game of baseball) is this: Figure out what aspects of 2020 went wrong because of the unusual circumstances of the 60 game pandemic truncated season, and what aspects of 2020 went wrong that were going to go wrong anyway, whether it be by lack of talent or roster malpractice.

To what level was the Mets’ inability to drive in runs with runners in scoring position a fluke? I mean, it’s always a fluke, especially to the level that the Mets were stranding runners on in the beginning of the season. But was it a fluke because it was a fluke? Or was it a fluke because players were pressing?

Speaking of pressing, to what level did the pandemic affect Pete Alonso? Did his batting average drop to Rob Deer levels because he was pressing with the urgency of a short season? Or was it because he, like the rest of the roster, was missing the in-game instruction and advice from Chili Davis? Or was it simply a regression that would have happened anyway with the league adjusting to the 2019 Rookie of the Year? The answer to this question most likely will not affect Alonso’s status with the 2021 Mets, but it would be nice to figure out what is happening inside his mind.

There needs to be a conversation about Steven Matz who, generously, was awful this season. Do you blame the pandemic/short season? Or do you conclude that Matz has reached his ceiling and that he can’t be trusted with a rotation spot anymore?

Continue reading by clicking here.