SAVAGE VIEWS – Magic Number Twenty
As I begin to write this, the Mets have completed 20 games and are sporting a 12-8 record. This has been accomplished by playing teams that all have a winning record. Perhaps, some of the naysayers will admit the Mets are a better team than originally forecast.
It’s a fair
statement to state that there is no truly dominant team in baseball. The top
ranked teams, pre-season, the Dodgers, Yanks and Braves have sustained critical
injuries. The one common denominator for
teams with a winning percentage has been a strong bullpen.
The Braves and Yankees have been piling up wins by attacking the mediocre pens they are facing day to day. The Mets are also employing that strategy. Right now, our team has not had much success getting our starters to go more than 5 innings.
Our success is not sustainable,
and our pen will eventually falter if the starters can’t go deeper in games. Before Sunday’s game, the Mets had the best
ERA in the National League. However,
losing Raley for a few weeks could have a negative impact. The good news is that the schedule favors us
for the next couple of weeks and then it gets really tough.
It’s safe to say that the Mets have put together a very competitive team. Like all good teams we are getting production from unexpected sources. Players like Bader, Stewart, Taylor and Garrett have exceeded expectations.
The team is winning without significant
contributions from our core players.
Alonso, McNeil, Lindor and Nimmo have been rather lackluster thus
far. Defense has been poor and this was
supposed to be a strength. The third
basemen have three errors, all by Short and Wendle. Baty has looked terrific fielding his position.
In the past week different sources have ranked the Mets 20 among 30 teams although they have winning records against four of the six teams played thus far. Clearly the Braves are the best team in baseball and no other team is close.
If you
follow the numbers, the Braves and Yankees are winning a lot of games with late
inning rallies. Having a strong pen
makes all the difference in the world. There
are probably not more than six “good” teams including the Orioles, Yankees, Dodgers,
Phillies and Brewers as well as the Braves.
All of the other teams have major deficiencies ranging from lack of position
player depth to poor pens and few quality SP arms behind the top two or three.
It’s hard to predict the future but if the
Mets enter June with a winning record, they should be playoff bound. By then, Senga, Megill and Peterson should
have recovered from their injuries. This
is a competitive team and will remain so unless we suffer several devastating injuries. Hopefully, Alvarez returns by mid-June.
As always, I
remain optimistic.
Ray
April 23,
2024
6 comments:
Ray, “hopeful” is the operative word. Tough April schedule. Let’s win the next 2 in SFG and head home.
Yeah, let's do that.
Citing Peterson as someone we should be happy to see return to help this year seems like a leap. As you noted, the starters inability to go deeper into games will eventually catch up to the bullpen. Not sustainable - but there is hardly any proof our starters are capable of achieving this result. That is a concern.
I remain in the trade Alsono camp, regardless of our position this year. I'd rather have Soto. Alvarez going down stinks. He is a reason to watch.
I think that anyone would have been pleased if you told them in March that we would be 12-8 at this point. And as Ray said, we have played good teams in this stretch. Even the not-so-good teams were hot just before we played them.
That said, I agree that the lack of depth into games by the starters is a bad sign. The toll on the relievers will impact everything that follows. You say that if we enter June with a winning record that we will be playoff bound, but if we have a winning record and a fatigued bullpen, things can fall apart in a hurry.
I'm counting on reinforcements arriving by then. And the schedule becomes a lot more pliable.
Ray, a question for you, as an avid Baty encourager:
when does Baty stop channeling Bud Harrelson?
The .267 Baty in 81 plate appearances has just 1 double and 1 homer, at a power position. That is paltry power output.
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