Tom Brennan - For the Mets, Every Year is Ground Hogs Day

Remember that Bill Murray flick, where he's the news guy sent to cover the annual ground hog sighting to see how many more weeks of winter there will be, then ends up waking up every day, at the same time in the same town on the same day?

Kind of like Mets fans.

We start out hopeful, watch games, track players, get a stretch of early playoff contention - then fade back into our gopher holes.

Then we wake up, get worked up about Mets' season prospects, watch games, track players, get a stretch of early playoff contention - then fade back into our gopher holes.

Rinse and repeat.

Games like yesterday fill them with hope - which fades.

Early hope turns to moans and groans.  Answers are sought.  

Some fans, who have not yet caught onto the fact that this year will repeat in failure over and over and over, call the fans who've caught on and point it out "too negative", "have mental issues" and such ilk, as the season craters again.

Then the alarm clock sounds, and we're up and at it again.

Yanks fans have a different alarm clock.

Their daily repeat is a season that starts out shakily, but then instead of continued fade - they surge.  The playoffs await, and while World Series triumphs have been few lately, they do enjoy frequent post-season action.

Then their alarms go off again and again, and they do that again and again.

Ask some Mets "fans" why certain things go wrong?  

"YOU'RE TOO NEGATIVE!  ONLY POSITIVE FANS HERE!  LET'S GO METS.  LOVE THEM, WIN OR LOSE."

Nah, not me.  I just look at it like an owner named, oh, I dunno, Cohen, who wants to wake up in a hotel just like the one the Yanks stay in, instead of the Mets' rat-and-roach-infested dump.  

Because I don't want to be negative.  I just want to have a team that is not a complete failure at scoring runs.  And watches 10 or more teams make the playoffs while they heal and rehab in October.  Yada yada.

So, I may ask a question like, "I wonder why the Mets have scored 207 runs at home while the Rockies have scored 375?" and sincerely hope to get more than "well, that's a hitter's park."  

Let me ask that question another way - why have the Mets in 2021 scored a half run less per game at home than any other team in baseball (and in the case of the Rockies, almost 3 runs less per game)?

"You're too negative!!!  You just need attention!"  

No, I am just asking questions that might frequently get us a much better hotel stay, if answered correctly.

Morbid me, how many Mets fans have passed on to the sweet bye-and-bye since World Series 1986, thinking along the way that surely another World Series would be won in Queens in their lifetimes?  

"DON'T ASK THAT! 

THAT'S MORBID AND...AND...TOO NEGATIVE!"

OK - MAYBE I'LL STOP ASKING.  

But before I go.

SAY HI TO THE GROUND HOG FOR ME.

The one you see every year.  Not Punxsutawney Phil.  

But Punxsatawney Fail.  

He usually sees his Mets shadow by late August, early September, gets scared, and disappears.

Me?  I prefer happy endings.  Getting in the playoffs makes me happy.

WHAT ELSE MAKES ME UNHAPPY?  "ARGHH!"

Baseball’s restrictive promotion rules do.  They always have to obsess over the 40 man roster and remaining player options, blocking red hot minors players from joining an ice cold team.  

Here are two:

JAKE MANGUM: hot as firecracker, hitting .450 in 18 AA games in August. (And 2 for 2 in the suspended game yesterday). Excellent defender in the OF, good speed. Wouldn’t it be nice to give Iceberg Dom a month off to re-energize and give Mangum a whirl?

Second, if a healthy Jake deGrom were to start 5 games in AA and AAA, what numbers would you expect? Probably 30 innings, 48 Ks, allowing 1 run on 10 hits.  But it wasn't done by Jake.

THAT IS WHAT ADAM OLLER HAS DONE. 

Screw the rules, bring him up.

Sometimes, I really, really hate rules that make well-deserved promotions not happen.  

If not for utter desperation, would towering Tylor Megill be a Met yet?  Probably, they would be thinking, right about now, that he had enough AA and AAA innings now to warrant a promotion. You know, rationalizing under the current rule structure.  Holding guys back.

But he is a Met, for 11 starts so far, and they are 7-4 in his starts, but something like 17-33 in the other games in the latest 61 game stretch.  He was lucky he got the chance.  The Mets were, too.   Many other hot minor leaguers get stuck without a chance.

Besides Mangum and Oller, Marky Mark Vientos hit 17 HRs a fairly recent 34 game stretch, an astounding feat, at least in part while JDD was still out. 

Vientos? Called up? Nope.  We have to worry about years of service and burning an option, you see.  

So, you just stay down there, Sonny, and work on your game some more.  We'll get back to ya.  At some point.  Probably.