ALL STAR
Juan Soto was voted in as starting NL left fielder.
Amazing.
Wow.
Why “WOW”?
It is encapsulated in this July 4 article excerpt from Anthony DiComo, quoting interim manager Andy Green:
“ At the precise moment Juan Soto learned he had been voted a NL All-Star starter, he was leading the circuit with a .971 OPS. That would be impressive in any context. That Soto was doing it for one of the worst teams in the NL encapsulates, in Mets interim manager Andy Green’s words, “what makes him really special.”
“Certainly, everybody’s numbers tend to be better when your team is performing well,” Green said. “I think that’s contagious. I think everybody feeds off one another. We help each other by playing really well and doing our jobs well. He hasn’t had that, and I think he’s still leading the National League in OPS right now. So not much more you can ask from a guy like that. It’s been special.”
This is what Stearns fails to grasp.
And Cohen, perhaps, as well.
“EVERYBODY’S NUMBERS TEND TO BE BETTER WHEN YOUR TEAM IS PERFORMING WELL.”
Your team GREATLY SUFFERS when, for the first quarter of the season, your guys hit in poor hitting conditions in their hitter-friendly home park.
Most of the hitters will press. Most will struggle.
Most will succumb to the pressure.
Having to climb from a deficit, it will dog them the whole lost season.
As team losses increase, the pressure increases.
There are very few Soto types that can weather that pressure.
Alonso and Nimmo sure could.
Stearns shipped them out and replaced them with glass-fragile veterans.
Veterans who had played very limited games pre-2026 in Citi Field.
A huge gamble. A really bad gamble.
Hence, the almost inevitable implosion. Guys get hurt. The pressure builds. The hull ruptures.
And the team with the Titanic payroll sinks like a rock.
The only easily controllable variable is fence depth. You reduce it, and pressure comes off the hull.
No sinking. No stinking.
I do, of course, love 36 runs over the last 4 games. It might just be real.
Lindor is still MIA at the plate, but Ewing is turning into HOF Pete Friggin’ Rose, and Benge has been a second wonderful catalyst. Baty has stopped overthinking AND STARTED HITTING - halleluia!
Polanco may suddenly be a real offensive upgrade over the AAAAs.
And Robert had 2 hits in rehab last night.
If Lindor suddenly joins the bat party, might this offense become POTENT and become a repeat of 2015, where baseball’s worst offense through mid-July became its BEST offense the rest of the way?
ERRORS ARE THE OVERLOOKED ELEMENT
I saw this errors by team chart (below). Not surprisingly…
- Dodgers are best ar a dazzling 0.29 errors per game.
- Mets are 28th at 0.66 per game.
HUGE DIFFERENCE.
OVER 162 GAMES, THAT IS 60 MORE ERRORS THAN LAD.
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