9/18/16

CAN JAY BRUCE FOLLOW GRANDY?

CAN BRUCE FOLLOW GRANDY?  by Tom Brennan

On a day when we got the sobering news that Jake deGrom would miss the rest of the season with what is considered relatively minor pitching elbow surgery, we needed good news in this team's continuing fight for a Wild Card berth.

We got GRAND news.

Curtis Granderson continued a sporadic but increasingly productive pattern this year with his come-from-behind homer (to left, of all things) to tie the Twins bottom 11, and then, after Jose Reyes was punched out to end the 11th with bags stuffed, Grandy hits yet another homer in the 12th for the win.

Some of the most clutch, dramatic hitting I can ever remember from a Met.  Wow.  It reminds me of Swoboda's 2 two run shots off of Steve Carlton to beat the 19 strikeout lefty at an equally critical juncture in 1969.

Suddenly, Curtis sits at 28 homers and over 50 RBI.  It seems like only yesterday that he was stuck at 17 homers and a paltry 33 RBI, and getting torched in blogs (including mine) as washed up.

So...a lefty power hitter who is ice cold is inundated with calls to be benched...but taps into his power DNA and proves us wrong and Terry Collins right.

Will Jay Bruce be next?  The man who led the NL in RBI with 80 in late July, but who did not realize that donning a Mets uniform meant checking it first to see if it had disabling kryptonite in its pockets?

Well, after 0-5 last night, the temptation would be to sit Cousin Brucie today...but Terry got Grandy right when he continued to play him, so Terry, time to work some more MAGIC with J B.

Anyway, a fantastic win last night, and who can say enough about Seth Lugo.  The 34th rounder has simply been a revelation.  4-2, 2.35 in 54 IP....we all saw that coming. Uh huh. Five more great innings last night.

I think the Mets are onto something...pitching in Vegas is SO HARD, this major league pitching stuff is easy by comparison.

How do you spell SWEEP?

And never too late to call up Paul Sewald.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

You can say that again...WOW! Grandy hitting 2 critical late game dinger's AND finding out Jake is done for the season is why we love this game/team so much because you just never know almost minute to minute and it will be interesting to see the lineup today...does TC go with mostly reserves to rest the weary as well as maybe Nimmo over JB ..stay tuned. Also an interesting article on the almost Lucroy trade so here's the question Thomas and all...do you make that trade with Conforto the key piece? The other question I have about Conforto is if you could go back to the 2014 draft knowing what you know now would you still pick Conforto over Turner? The fact that HR power is still such a premium over the athleticism and versatility of a Turner is a question to ponder. Lets go Mets!

Tom Brennan said...

I would have picked Mack's favorite guy, Trea Turner, over Conforto. I would still prefer to see Conforto play for at least 3-4 games over Bruce at this point. Or Nimmo. Or de Aza.

Tom Brennan said...
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Tom Brennan said...

I wonder if a lefty super-student of hitting like Murphy helped Conforto last year and is one reason why Conforto is struggling this year. Just a thought.

Tom Brennan said...
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Tom Brennan said...

Two other possible call ups now that deGrom is down: Andrew Barbosa or Tyler Pill. Use in blowout wins or losses. What could you lose?