I started smoking cigarettes when I was 16 years old. I thought smoking made me look cool. When I turned 21, I decided to quit. I figured that it wouldn't be too hard; I was stronger than a stupid habit. And I was, I guess, but it took me a quarter of a century to finally do it. If those 30 years of smoking taught me one thing, it was not to underestimate the power of bad habits to stick around, long, long after they're no longer welcome.
I had a feeling before the season started that the bad habits of recent Mets teams were going to be tough to shake. What I've seen so far has looked an awful lot like the kind of baseball we've been watching for the last couple of years. Jacob deGrom is 0-1 despite only allowing a single run in both of his starts. When the Mets get runners on base, home plate might as well be a million miles away. The bullpen has been as undependable as they were the last couple of seasons.
If anything, it's been a bit more frustrating to watch over the first five games of 2021. After being forced to wait until every other team in baseball besides the Mets and the plague-ridden Nationals had completed their first series, the Mets seem to have left their bats behind in Port St. Lucie. Jeff McNeil is hitting .077, Michael Conforto .143, James McCann and Francisco Lindor .176, and Pete Alonso is at .211. At least last season the Mets would get some guys on base with regularity. Nothing makes a team look flatter than when they're not hitting. It's not inspiring to watch, either.
The Mets gave manager Luis Rojas a vote of confidence when they allowed him to continue as manager in 2021. In fairness, there weren't any slam-dunk replacements available out there, either. While it's silly to assign the manager all of the blame for a team not performing, Rojas has looked a bit in over his head in the early going.
Marcus Stroman was angry today that he started a game that looked like it had little chance of being played. Stroman was right. Marlins manager Don Mattingly, never a great tactical manager IMHO, outmanaged Rojas today by forgoing his scheduled starter for an opener — who never made it in the game, anyway, as the game died a soggy death in the top of the first. Mattingly's call was the correct one. If Rojas had elected to do the same, he could start Stroman tomorrow against the Phillies or even brought Stroman into that game later if the skies had miraculously cleared.
Between the Nats' covid outbreak, today's weather, Rojas' rookie mistakes, and some seriously limp bats, this has been quite a disappointing start to a season that we all looked forward to quite a bit. I was hoping the Mets might come out strong in 2021 and send a message to their fans and the rest of the league that they weren't the same old Mets. It's still mighty early, but the first impression hasn't been a strong one.
1 comment:
Sometimes, I feel like being a Mets fan makes me a butt head
Hopefully, the Mets dazzle and don't fizzle in the twin bill tomorrow
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