Paul Articulates – My wish list

I wish the Mets would have played better during their long stretch of series against teams under .500.  It was a tremendous opportunity to stay competitive in the NL East.  Now that we know the Braves lost traction for a while, it would have been even more satisfying.  Well, it didn’t happen and now there is a very difficult stretch of games in front of us.

But just when the pessimist on the shoulder of every Mets fan is whispering doom their ear, things start to turn around.  The Mets have taken the first two games from the Phillies in an important East matchup.  Carlos Carrasco has tossed two brilliant games in a row since I wrote that he was running out of highway.  Max Scherzer says he’s “feeling like himself again”.  Mark Canha had a great night at the plate yesterday.

OK, let’s take this a little further – what else do I wish for that would be beneficial to the Mets?

1) I wish that Starling Marte would return to the offensive powerhouse he was last season.  Marte has looked lost this year.  It is easy given his history to speculate he is not healthy, but I don’t believe that is the case.  He is running hard on infield grounders, dropping bunts, and stealing bases.  That’s not the signature of a guy gritting out an injury.  He just needs to barrel up a few balls and become confident again so he stops guessing in the batter's box.

2) I wish that David Peterson finds himself in AAA.  Peterson was someone I was counting on to give the Mets some long outings as the only left hander in the starting rotation.  It appeared that he lost the ability to control some of his pitches, because his walk rate was up, and he was behind on too many hitters.  If he can make some kind of mechanical adjustment that allows him to reclaim the strike zone, he would be an entirely different pitcher – and one the Mets will need to keep their aged rotation from wearing down.

3) I wish that the last two outings were the real Carlos Carrasco.  That everything else this year and in the second half of last year was an anomaly.  If he can be as good as last night for most of his starts as SP5, then the Mets won’t have to out-homer everyone to win ball games.  Even though they have more power in this year’s lineup with Alonso, Alvarez, Baty, and others I still don’t like counting on high run counts to win.

4) I wish that we could just be done with the DH experiments.  Vogelbach, Pham, and a host of others have failed to make the DH a position of significance for MLB’s highest paid team.  Yes, the trade season is coming upon us and yes, you have to showcase your cast to get the best deals, but after this awful stretch of baseball, the team needs to win games now.  If Mark Vientos is the best performer at that position, then let him hit against righties, lefties, and even ambidextrous pitchers – he needs to play!

5) I wish that Drew Smith would find a pitch with some vertical break.  Smith has always shown great promise for the Mets, and still displays a very live arm.  But it looks like his pitches all have horizontal movement, and that’s much easier to hit than pitches that drop late.  He can be a mighty contributor in this year’s pen with his live arm and youth, but he has to miss bats.  In 2020 Drew had a 25.0% hard hit rate and a 10% barrel rate.  Last year his hard hit rate was up to 50.4% and this year it is 44.2%.  That is not going to keep men off base, and his WHIP shows it – this year’s 1.31 is the worst WHIP he has had since his rookie year.

6) I wish for a June to remember for Mets fans.  They have struggled with the last half of April and the full month of May with this high expectations team.  They deserve better.  This team is still good, but they have to put it together.  There’s no better time than now.

How about you, readers?  What is your wish for the Orange and Blue?