One of the things you realize as a baseball season progresses is that it's indeed a very long 162 game schedule during which a lot can happen. Some of it is planned, some of it is luck, some of it involves injuries and some of it concerns self-inflicted suspensions from the game.
As Mets fans we're well aware of the latter as PED abuser extraordinaire Robinson Cano cannot keep a job (and apparently cannot hit a baseball without some chemical assistance as he approaches age 40). Now the Padres know this pain when homegrown superstar Fernando Tatis, Jr. is going to have to sit out 80 games for being caught with an illegal performance drug in his system.
Injuries are something Mets fans know far too well. Whether it was the 2/3 of a season without Jacob deGrom, the long absence by Max Scherzer, the longer absence by Tylor Megill, the injury stint by Trevor May, multiple departures by James McCann and various other players dealing with the physical realities of stressing your body day after day.
Now players hitting the IL is nothing exclusively belonging to the Mets. The Dodgers' All Star starting pitcher Walker Buehler is now down for the season and postseason due to upcoming elbow surgery. The young man has been a real find for the fans in Chavez Ravine as he sports a career record of 46-16 with a 3.02 ERA (artificially inflated by this year's injury-affected 4.02). Somehow they will also manage to continue atop their division because that's what good teams do.
With the recent news about Guillorme it meant the Mets made what some regard as a curious decision to bypass hot rookie prospects Brett Baty and Mark Vientos to fill the void. Instead they went with veteran scrub Deven Marrero who is a career .194 hitter in the majors spread over parts of six previous seasons. He's not exactly going to contribute offensively to help if needed at a crucial point late in a game.
Even stranger was that the Mets needed to add another catcher due to an illness experienced by backup Tomas Nido. Instead of the usual Patrick Mazeika shuttle ride to Queens, this time they went after veteran receiver Michael Perez obtained off waivers from the Pirates earlier in the year.
What we can see from the previous injury stints by various players, the Mets are not solely dependent on any single hitter or pitcher to keep them playing competitively. They adjust as they are forced to do and somehow the wins keep happening. Let's hope that these necessary substitutions are as un-newsworthy as the previous ones have been and that the Mets will just keep rolling along.
8 comments:
Tatis and I are FB friends and have corresponded with each other frequently.
He currently has gone pretty much stealth over this hiccup.
Perez does have a superior defensive game and the Braves felt the pain dealt out by his cannon arm last night.
Mack I did hear that about Perez. But what you did see last night is what had happened a bazillion times in Mets history. They add 2 or 3 non-hitters to the line up and fail to score. Fail to score, you lose. It is why I was (mostly) thrilled with the deadline bat pick ups. Teams that hit win; teams that fail to hit, lose.
Baty and Max tonite - let's do it.
I also do make a case for Mark Vientos tomorrow, whom the powers that be seem to want to ignore.
Taijuan Walker is pulling his second half swoon again? We'll see.
A Frenchman asked me, "Ou est Monsieur Megill?" Where is he and his rehab, already? It is sliding into the 2nd half of August, so let's go, and Cookie is gone and Walker is highly suspect - and the pen surrendered beaucoups runs the last 2 nights. Let's not have the Annual Unravel Event now.
I also have a concern with over-use of guys. I saw Pete score from second on a base hit the other day, and he was running full tilt and to me looked a little off balance - then a head-first slide - I was thinking, please stay healthy. This season would go downhill fast without a healthy Pete, Lindor, Marte and McNeil.
My advice? If it is a blow out, take a seat on the bench and rest a few innings.
Pete runs like those man puppets race some minor league teams run
Always.tilted around corners
Funny image - Pete the Puppet.
The Mets have been outscored 18-1 in the first two games. After 4 games are done, I hope they have been outscored 18-3.
I like this post - it is very true that injuries are part of the game for all teams. What I like about this year's team is that they are a team - greater than the sum of the parts. When someone goes down, they have the resiliency to play on. This is being severely tested now with two starting pitchers and our super sub, but I think they can hold it together.
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