Tom Brennan - PLAYING TIME WHEN THE INJURED METS HITTING HORDES RETURN

This Mets' team is still last in runs scored in baseball (Mets 182, Dodgers 298), in part because they are last in games played, and in part because hordes of regulars and semi-regulars got hurt and banished to the dreaded IL.

Alonso, McNeil, Davis, Guillorme, Nimmo, Conforto, Pillar, and even Almora.  

That's 8 offensive regulars and semis collecting Social Security Disability.  Not really, but might just as well, huh?

Heck, teams without a DH have 8 position players in the line up.  

Eight's a LOT.

Ipso facto, a lot will change when they return.

Pete is back, keeping Social Security solvent, and Pillar has returned and hopefully will be back to his normal self with the bat, thankfully sucking up ABs that were going to "oh-fer replacements".  

But before too long, presumably, Davis, Guillorme, Nimmo, Conforto and McNeil will also return - then the decisions of who goes elsewhere, and divvying up playing time amongst the healthy, will be a lot tougher.  

It is easy, for instance, to forget that in 2019, Jonathan Villar, for instance, was incredible and durable.  (Of course, he leaves with a tight hammy.  Right on cue.)  

Anyway, in 2019, he played all 162 games, got up 714 times, stole 40 bags, hit .274/.339/.453 with ONE HUNDRED ELEVEN RUNS SCORED!  

JV started out as a reserve on this Mets team, but he is just 30 and quite capable, as he has been amply proving.  For quite a few major league teams, he would be a 2021 regular.  Not part of the "JV squad".  

So, will McNeil and Davis lose some time to Villar?  I'd say that is very likely.  

Why, for instance, not start Villar instead of McNeil vs. lefty pitchers, even though career-wise, McNeil is almost as excellent against lefties as he is against righties?  I can see those 3 guys splitting pretty equal time at 2nd and 3rd, if for no other reason than to avoid re-injury to any of the 3 of them.

Guillorme will soon return, most likely, but Jose Peraza has largely played well in Luis' absence. and has over 2,000 MLB plate appearances, so when other IL guys return, who stays?  Peraza or Guillorme?  Both won't if all 7 key IL guys return.

An outfield of Nimmo, Conforto, Smith, and Pillar leaves room for only one, likely to be Billy McKinney. That's the tough math of the matter.  (They should have sent him in to try for a typing inside-the-parker in the 8th last night, BTW).

Almora, Fargas, Mason Williams, Khalil Lee, Cameron Maybin?  No apparent room at the Outfield Inn?   Syracuse already got Lee back for Tuesday night's game...he even had a hit and Mazeika had a couple.

So the headline above talks about hitting hordes returning.

Wait, just for a second more, I don't want to be accused of being a Batist, what about the pitching?

It is amazing to have a team with a second-best-in-baseball 3.17 ERA with guys like Lugo, Betances, Carrasco, and Syndergaard on the IL.   Lose 4 guys like that in prior seasons?  

Armageddon! The ERA would have been ranked 35th out of 30 teams, not 2nd.  

Lugo is back now, and when Carrasco returns, and later Syndergaard, this team will find itself in a place it has not been in for many years: a top-to-bottom 100% quality pitching staff.

And, I believe you can count on it: Syndergaard will be back for the playoffs.  We want that.  Remember 2015.  Remember 2016. Thor was Aces in those playoffs.  He no doubt wants it, badly.

Last season, the Mets were the pitching polar opposite.  

As I wrote back in February:

14 Mets pitchers in 2020 threw 247 innings, allowed 310 hits, 103 walks, 53 HRs, had an 8-26 win-loss record, and allowed 203 runs (7.4 runs per 9 innings).  Their 247 innings constituted an astonishing FORTY EIGHT PERCENT of all of the Mets' innings thrown in 2020. 

That was a nightmare.  This year, despite injuries, the pitchers are firing on all cylinders.  If this 2021 team pitched like 2020's pitching roster did, we might be discussing who the Mets might get in 2022 with the overall number 1 draft pick.

The pitchers, so far, have saved 2021.  So please, stop being George just for a minute, and let's just be Frank about that.

And the stragglers of the IL offensive cavalry are coming soon to ensure the pitchers' stellar efforts to date are not wasted.

This team could still win a World Series.  

They just need to get, and stay, healthy.

And not have Tatis Jr. hit 50 more HRs than Francisco Lindor - Tatis in the year of the supposed dead ball has 17 HRs in 144 ABs.

Injury-wise, the Brooklyn Nets struggled all season to get their Big 3 (Harden, Durant, and Irving) healthy and playing at the same time.  It rarely occurred in the regular season. They are healthy now, and are in the playoffs. 

In game 4 against the Celtics, all three were lethal, between them compiling 104 points, 25 assists, a slew of rebounds.  A total of over 140 team points.  Impossible to defend against.  (Impossible, too, Wednesday night, as they crushed the Celtics again.  The 3 slacked off an only scored about 85 points).

Perhaps we'll have two championship crowns this year in NY, with teams whose names end in ETS.

Let's go Mets.  

Let's go Nets.

I'm ready for that.  

Are you?