Which of the 6 guppies below are ready TODAY for Citi Field Fish Bowl?
At a time when there are more questions than answers, let’s ask a few questions:
OK….David Stearns takes great pains to not promote young guys quickly.
He did just belatedly promote Tong, Benge, Jett, and Rye Toast Clifford to Syracuse.
(Nick Morabito scorched in May and June, but missed 2 weeks in July with injury and had hit just .244 in just 41 July at bats. He is heating back up, but apparently is being kept there due to his 22 year old veteran presence, for now, so as to not pull 4 starters at once from what had been a steamrolling Bingo line up).
And belatedly also, pitchers Girton and Garcia and speedy hitter AJ Ewing and his 58 steals and .410 OBP out of the Brooklyn hellhole for hitters in Brooklyn, and not stopping there, Trace Willhoite and his 66 Lucie RBIs in 85 games and .285 average in July and August deservedly headed to Brooklyn. Trace is an undrafted 24 year old in his first pro season.
But, on to my question:
If you were the Mets GM, though, would you promote the following today to the floundering NY Mets?
Yes, or no. Yes or no, please say why.
Brandon Sproat
Nolan McLean
Dylan Ross
Jonah Tong
Jett Williams
Nick Morabito
Carson Benge
Me? I’d clean house in Queens and promote all 7.
But this is about you fine readers. Have at it, folks. Answer the question.
An added question:
if you were the lowly Chicago White Sox, which of the 7 players above would you promote to their big club today? All of them?
Yeah, I’m not done….
LINDOR AND SENGA (AND METS) MALAISE
There were multiple “uh-oh” moments for the previously scorching Mets around the first half of June, but none more than these two:
In a game when the Mets hit their season peak, 45-24, they also lost Kodai Senga to a leg injury on a bad toss to first base by Pete. Uh-oh. That notwithstanding, it was a very odd play to result in a pitcher actually going on the injured list. 99% of the time, a pitcher wouldn’t even get a little bit hurt on a play like that, hence the “uh oh”. He left that game with a MLB-leading 1.39 ERA, returned 40 days later, and has been mostly lousy since. As in 16 innings,14 earned runs in 4 starts. In the last start, he made an error on the simplest of ground ball plays, leading to 2 earned runs and a loss.
Uh-oh.
Francisco Lindor in early June was hearing folks call him an MVP candidate. Hitting .280, Lindor was hit in the toe by a looping curve ball. Notwithstanding that he got hit by a pitch, it was probably the slowest pitch I’ve ever seen a guy get a broken bone on. Uh-oh. Remarkably after sitting one game, he came in and drilled a key, 2 RBI extra base hit as a pinch hitter, and followed that with a 3 hit game, jumping him to .289, and then sliding a bit to .282 over the next few games.
On June 15, he started a 5 game, 0-18 skid. From June 15 through August 9, he went 36 for 189, .190, in a stretch the equivalent of 1/3 of a season.
Uh-oh. The MVP became the post-toe LVP.
Of course, there were other uh-oh injuries in recent months, most notably, Griffin Canning (uh-oh) going down with a season-ender in late June after a brilliantly stunning 7-3 season start; lengthy injuries to Megill, Winker, Kranick, Nunez, etc.
There was, compounding matters, also very extended season June debuts and, to date, a bunch of anemic post-return pitching by Messrs. Manaea and Montas, in which (uh-oh) the Mets have won just 4 of their 13 starts; a prolonged Pete slump, dropping his average from .300 in, yes, early June to .260; and the Mets-traditional “bewilderingly skimpy output from the bottom half of the order” malaise.
MULTIPLE UH-OH’S.
Putting the icing on the cake, Stinky Stanek having several stinkers since early June, and Cedric the Entertainer starting his Mets career going 3 for 20, strutting a “Tyrone Taylor malaise pace”.
Given all that, you see the anatomy of how a team could go from 45-24 to 63-54, a miserable 18-30 stretch.
Uh-oh.
Can my favorite Equalizer, Denzel Washington, bring this runaway freight train racing at high speed towards disaster and put it back on the playoff track?
No one else seems equipped to do so, with 45 games left. Uh-oh.
22 comments:
Sorry, I was moving this up to later today, from my planned tomorrow post, and it just posted itself. I’ll leave it up. ARRGGH!
And I was somehow bumped
As for your question, I would promote none of them
I also would remove Francisco Lindor from the lineup and send him to the medical tent to completely reevaluate that toe that has sent his season spiraling down.
If necessary, I would shut him down for the season and operate on it again.
As for the current team, I would let the current squad play it out.
Have to agree with Mack, especially if they continue to free fall. I wouldn't want to expose these kids to this.
I would give them 2 weeks to turn it around, if not I would put the entire team on waivers to see if we have any takers.
I think that is a good idea Mack. He has messed up all of his swing mechanics compensating for the pain. Let him heal up and start fresh. Call up Acuna (not on Tom's list) to play short for a week.
I don't understand what happened to Stanek. He is still throwing heat, but the ball has flattened out, and without movement, most MLB hitters can hit a 98mph fastball. He looks surprised every time they do. This seems repairable.
I would call up whomever is managing in Syracuse. Mendoza will never turn this around.
You can easily shut him down for a short stint on the IL citing arm fatigue and put him on lab to get his mojo back
Stanek is a goner by years end, why bother
Paul, I would realistically call up Acuna today and release Taylor today, so Taylor could link up with a World Series favorite team and hit .300 the rest of the way. Acuna can play CF. DO IT. And they might. You add 3 hitters to Syracuse, someone has to go. Acuna up, Taylor out is a good start.
DrHyperion, I am fine with a manager switch. Shake things up!
Stanek can leave today. He then can close for whichever WS contending team picks him up. Everybody plays better when they leave the Mets.
When you all read my article tomorrow, you will see why those 3 hitters should have been promoted from Binghamton to Syracuse long ago. You will see why those 3 hitters are better than their stats have portrayed - and their stats have been good.
Tom, good call on Acuna. Might as well see what we have in him moving forward. Believe it or not he has been the best of the bunch of the baby Mets this year. His is by far superior defensively and can play multiple positions efficiently.
Ideal super utility player, great defense, plenty of speed.
JoeP, just read my 9 AM article tomorrow. You may think a little differently about Jett, Clifford, and Benge. But yes, Acuna could be considered the best of Vientos, Baty, and Mauricio all-around. If he was even 3 inches taller, he could have been a star,
Wow mack that a drastic move... Basically end the season... Even I cant do that.
Tom Acuna is the most overrated player we have ever had and is on the 40 man based on his last name.
I do agree with promoting Mclean and Sproat basically because they are better than Montas (maybe he really cant perform in Queens and Stanek) move Holmes to the Pen and let the kids Pitch.
should have been methodically through the summer now done out of desperation, but either way it time now.
I would also bring up Benge. Conforto, Evan Carter and others have been shot in the arm... we need it.
But this would be a huge black eye for stern because he threw away 3 prospect for Mullins...
Can he or will he be able to admit mistakes
Eddie, I agree Acuna is mediocre, so are the other 3 Baby Mets. Yep, that is a Victor Zambrano-sized black eye Stearns is sporting.
Tong is ready, too. He is ridiculously good.
The Baby mets have been a failure... We still cant scout our own prospects, we should have traded them
Maximize Assets ... trade off too soon than too late...
Stern only here 2 years so we need to be patient but i almost wish he would have teared this team apart last year so we can really reset.
How about making Beltran manager for rest of year.
Sounds good
I literally have the movie Equalizer on when I’m writing articles lol. I like your style Tom! I’d call up everyone except Tong and Morabito. I think they need to shut Tong down soon in hopes of facilitating another velo bump this winter. Then they’ll have a finished version of Frankenstein they can unleash in 2026.
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