Pete Alonso started the season having difficulty making contact and in particular the long ball contact people have come to expect from him. It seemed to take awhile for him to get on track. The first big push forward was his second consecutive Home Run Derby championship at the All Star Game. When he wants to crank the ball, there are few that can claim to be his equal.
After the midsummer classic he seemed to go on something of a home run barrage and quickly brought himself up to numbers for both long balls and RBIs that suggest he is indeed near the hitter he showed in his 2019 Rookie of the Year season. If you look at the season long numbers, he’s not approaching the home run every 11.26 ABs as he did back then. This year it’s one every 14.96 ABs. Still, if you flush away the slow start, then those numbers are closer to what he showed off as a rookie.
Jacob deGrom was on his way towards an incredibly stellar 2021 pitching performance. Prior to his arm, elbow and other body parts balking at his effort, he went to the IL with a record of 7-2 with an ERA below Bob Gibson’s 1.12 for the season at 1.08, and a mind blowing 146 strikeouts in just 92 IP. To make these numbers even wilder, he was pitching to a WHIP of an unheard of 0.554 baserunners per IP and had already earned 5.0 WAR less than halfway through the season.
Unfortunately, his injuries this season robbed him of opportunities to start and no one is clear how much pitching is left in him for the seemingly lost 2021 season. If he can manage to return for a half dozen September starts, he still has the opportunity to be in the Cy Young discussion for a third time, but without more innings he’ll be a very shiny but forgotten star when it comes time to dole out the awards.
The third entry for praise for this season is probably not the first name on anyone’s mind when he was inked as a low priced setup reliever during the off-season. Aaron Loup was a lefty and the Mets most definitely needed some southpaw assistance in the pen. He’d been a very good reliever during his previous nine years in the majors for the Blue Jays, the Phillies, the Padres and the Rays, but he wasn’t a game changer the way people think of dominant relievers.
As a Met in 2021 he has been performing at that level of competence. For a $3 million contract, he is pitching to a 3-0 record with a 6:1 strikeout to walk ratio while limiting the damage to a sparkling 1.22 ERA, allowing less than a single base runner per inning pitched. In the most anti-Conforto way possible, Loup is going to enter free agency expecting and deserving a major increase in salary.
There have been a few bright moments here at times from Brandon Nimmo, J.D. Davis and Luis Guilorme, but for the most part the rest of the Mets roster has underperformed either across the board or post All Star break. No one is clear what to expect from Taijuan Walker anymore. Marcus Stroman has a terrific ERA but a losing 7-11 record. Tylor Megill seems to have hit a wall. Much of the rest of the bullpen has been inconsistent. I won’t even get started on the lightweight output of the hitters. In my mind, these three profiled players are the ones most deserving of kudos for their 2021 efforts.
9 comments:
Loup has been exceptional. Not said enough on this site. Exceptional.
Pete is 7 for his last 53. His assurances that "we got this" ring hollow.
Too bad Jake and Break not only rhyme but have much in common.
My #4 would have been Nimmo.
We are talking about We got this is false bravado and is insulting to anyone who has followed this offense all year.. The elite first half pitching carried this team....
If this team had one or 2 solid hitters (Adam Frazier) then offense may still go through a slump but it would also right itself.. give me three or four guys that hit 285 hit 15 home runs play solid defense and baseball IQ is high that's a winning team.I love HR but citifield doesn't play that way and that style leads to big drought and or the team relying on the 3 run HR.Bringing in Baez justed added to poor OBP and increased strikeouts.
CHAZZ50, you could not be more spot on.
All that bravado, when they have 13 straight games with LAD and SFG after this Nats series? It looks bleak to me.
If you are going to persist with big power, high K bats, you must move the fences in again. It is still a pitchers' park. 5 feet in all around, and 8 feet closer in CF, would help bring it to truly neutral. Every time I think of the original Wilpon Citifield dimensions, I realize how utterly clueless they were as owners. Given the atmospheric conditions, after moving the fences in, and down, a lot, the park is still pitcher-friendly.
Mack, there has been far too much # 2 offensively this year.
Reese I applaud you for your optimsm but as I sit here on this glorious Monday morning I'm in morning. The mistakes this club has made since SC bought it are glaring. Instead of waiting out the season to make a decision on a FA SS we had to jump on Lindor for OMG 341 million...WHY?? He obviously doesn't read MacksMets and shame on him but the choice was Springer and Realmuto for what about 80 million less and by the way we needed another lefty for the BP at least and instead go with Rosario at SS AND by the way we have him for TEN MORE YEARS. I know SC is a smart man but he has alot of work to do this off season.
A memo from the desk of the "Cookie People"
I cannot help hearing in my mins (more recently) the old Simon and Garfunkel classic hit "Slip Slidin' Away" where it says, "The nearer your destination the more you're slip sliding away."
This is precisely how things have gone here lately, and a little bit too often one might suggest.
So what is it actually causing this we wonder?
Well, it's several things I believe. Here's a few running through my mind.
1. Injuries galore. The injury bug is fat and lazy here now I tell ya'. He bought a mansion down in the Hamptons, and has bikini girl bugs all around the poolside tanning. This isn't good.
2. Costly player personnel moves for little tangible improvement reasons. Trading a younger player with much promise and already some decent accomplishments, for an All Star level more proven expensive player, whose prior team (for some reason) is only too willing to unload them. Which I never understand.
3. Manager tactics. Ones that may not always work so well, but are often repeated as if in the movie "Ground Hogs Day" with Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell. Hey, didn't I just see this move?
4. Lack of adequate player personnel depth with perhaps too large a "starting player to backup player" talent drop off. Grand Canyon-ish one could say even. Who knows.
5. Bringing back management executive type people (because we love them) but who never won anything here for this team (or its fans), and probably never will even if they live to be 200 years old or older.
6. No one true leader on the field who can lead by offensive prowess and sheer behavior nearly every game out. A team Captain guy. Now there is a thought. We need a new David Wright, Keith Hernandez, Gary Carter, John Franco, or Bob Ueker.
7. Too many starting player positional changes game to game.
I am trying to do my scorecard. Where is everyone playing today Mrs. Doubtfire?
It's nice to rest players and all, I concur, but some players like to be out there in what they themselves consider to be "their own positions", and as much as possible. They have worked hard and they feel like they own it. They play better this way.
A known starting eight when the team is finally healthy again helps to foster starting player consistency and confidence. Lately, it's been like a merry-go-round type situation, but with only the horses moving all around the floor and the little kid riders all wondering, "Where the heck did my horse go now? It was right here just yesterday!". Getting the lineup set could conceivably help.
8. There simply are not enough "Cookie People" at the games anymore.
"Cookie People" were what built this franchise from day one in 1962 at the Polo Grounds, no relation to Ralph Lauren's Polo World. They drank beer and filled their faces with hotdogs, hamburgers, and Crackerjacks. But for the most part they are sadly all gone now. Dispatched. Replaced by what they themselves call the phony material fans with their new Xperia Pro smartphones and perfectly whitened teeth. The "Cookie People" have been sent home.
I say, power to the "Cookie People, for they are real, and real in numbers. Let the elite stay home and get drunk or stoned watching "This Is Spinal Tap" with Michael McKean I tell ya'!
There you have it. That simple.
If me.
1. Luis gone. Not working. True, cannot blame him for the injuries. But some other things. Team not rowing in same direction lately, acceptance to losing ways winning over team. Not a lot of time left for experimentations. Overall the team may not accept how he does things or something close to this. Maybe Mets trading for the Lindor and now Baez (love match) while all along Rosario and McNeil were fine there to my eyes.
2. Lefty starter Josh Walker pitched another gem down at Syracuse Mets recently and righty starter Trevor Williams had a nicely pitched gem as well. I'd probably let Josh go one more solid game and Trevor perhaps two more, then consider calling them up to relieve Taijuan Walker (who didn't get the 2-3 game rest I suggested when he first went down after the ASG) and maybe fit Trevor Williams into the bullpen to relieve Jeurys Familia for the rest of the season.
3. Start: 1B Alonso 2B McNeil SS Baez until Lindor is walking again. He can sit up now I am hearing, and move his arms some. 3B Davis LF D. Smith CF Nimmo RF Drury.
4. Get Drew Smith into the rotation. Then you have he and Josh Walker added in for depth.
5. Is Jonathan Villar as good as Luis Rojas thinks he is. Jonathan always gets into games as some position. But he is a relatively streaky hitter to me.
My article on Josh Walker at 8:00 AM Tuesday
Post a Comment