Tom Brennan - Guys Who ARE Producing at the Plate, and Beware the Iceberg

Hi - the retired writer here.  Yeah. Again.

I posted here on this site, and in Facebook, yesterday, that Dom Smith hadn't hit a HR and was hitting just .200 since July 23, 2021.

Yesterday, I suggested his immediate demotion.

Fans on Facebook told me he is down....sulking....and more such silly excuses.

But July 23 to May 15 is 4 full baseball months of non-production.

Dom, simply, is being Dom-inated.

So...not to be cruel...send him to AAA...to learn to swim again...or sink.

He has turned into a more rotund version of the Bad Ike Davis.

Sink, by the way, rhymes with stink.

Sulk is a mere letter off from Suck.

He is sinking and sucking.

Anyway, the Mets' braintrust will do the right thing.  Don't they always?

They better - with Megill now on the IL, the margin of error on the pathway to the Canyon of Heroes narrows.

It helps, of course. to have hitters who can hit. 

We always say that about our Metsies.  They think "clutch" is a car part.

No, it's a baseball part.

But PRODUCTIVE players?  That's the headline, right?

Two producers from St Lucie that I wish were ready for Queens today.

1) Alex Ramirez - another 4 hit game Sunday.  DUDE...CAN...HIT. 

Imagine what he'll do once he plays as a 20 year old next year.

Hitting over .360 as we speak.  It takes 3 Syracuse hitters to hit .360.

2) Omar de los Santos.

Omar Who?

Just a guy hitting .294 with  .480 slugging % with 17 steals in 18 attempts.  Already 17 steals.  Sensational.  

That makes it 44 of 48 in his 127 game career so far.  And he has some pop as 21 doubles, 11 triples, and 10 HRs in 482 career ABs can attest.

He does, like so many kids, have to cut down on Ks, with 37 in those 27 games.  

But those steals, and 24 runs in 27 games?  PRODUCTIVE.

WAS THAT THE ANNUAL ICEBERG COLLISION?

The Mets, almost every year, hit that doggone iceberg and the ship starts to list and take on water.

Has the berg been hit in 2022?  Perhaps.

First that guy deGrom has been out nearly 2 months since he left spring training in pain.  No one is suggesting his return date yet.

Smith and Escobar aren't hitting a lick, McCann is suddenly out for 6(?) weeks, and now Megill is even more suddenly on the IL for an unclear amount of time.

In the "news goes from bad to worse" department, the Mets added Colin Holderman to make his MLB debut yesterday, but to make room for him, Trevor May was transferred to the 60 day IL - decidedly NOT good news.

Then the Mets falter on Sunday, but rally to make it 2nd and 3rd, one out, down by a run.

Then fishing season opened.  Starling and Pete got their licenses.

Starling Marte fanned on a sinker well out of the strike zone.

Seattle deliberately loads the bases and brings up out MVP, Pete Alonso, with two outs.  Force at any base, but risky if you walk in the tying run.

On 2-1, the over-eager lad swings at a slider that broke nearly two feet outside.  TWO...FEET.

So...instead of 3-1, he sat at the pitcher's advantage at...

2-2.

Then the cautious pitcher slipped to 3-2.  Crowd pulsating.  

Over-eager Pete meanwhile was trying to stay calm, stay in control.

But he wants to do good so badly. 

So it was not a surprise that Pete couldn't check his swing on a slider or sinker that broke a foot below the strike zone for what would have been a game-tying ball 4.  

Strike 3, game over.   

BAD, BAD LOSS.

True MVPs don't badly falter in such a moment.

Then a formerly delirious Mets fan at Citifield spotted a big chunk of ice dead ahead and yelled for SOMEONE to steer the boat clear.

But with Pete's feeble, un-checked swing, there was a shudder in the hull area of the S.S. Met.  

Did the annual iceberg collision breach the hull again this time?  

We'll soon find out.  

Somewhere, Braves players are laughing to one another and saying, "See? I told you so. Only a matter of time."

Anyway, before I go, a huge tip of the hat to Colin Holderman, who pitched a scoreless 9th in his MLB debut.

And pre-departure, a note of what could have been.

Now that Seattle fixed Paul Sewald in 10 minutes (with our Rick Peterson, presumably) once they got Sewald, I watched him today...he is to the bullpen what Mike Scott was after he left the Mets and became an Astro.

Sewald is overpowering.  Nothing else to say. Hitters are overmatched.

I will go so far as to say that if THIS version of Paul Sewald was in the Mets' pen now, the Mets in my mind would be World Series favorites.  Because he'd make their pen lethal.