One series is complete, and the Mets stand at two wins, one loss. A .667 win percentage is pretty good, right? I have my reservations.
Right now, there are no statistics that are valid – there is
not enough of a sample size for any stats to tell a real story. So we have to go by the eye test. Here is what my eyes tell me:
Positives:
- Game one was a gift, but the Mets showed some mettle in the last two, coming back to tie both games late. Mettle is good – nothing drives belief in yourself and your team more than successful rallies.
- Game three had a walk-off home run, which out-did all of last year.
- David Peterson looked like the first-half version from last year.
Negatives:
- Our “ace” did not pitch like one. Five innings, four earned runs, two long balls given up. In a match-up with one of the game’s best pitchers, you have to be on top of your game. I hope that was not indicative of the top.
- Carlos Mendoza has not shown any improvement to his in-game pitcher management. Bringing Sean Manaea into a tied game (game 3) was a bad idea, and somehow he got away with it despite some very hard hit balls. Bringing Richard Lovelady in for the second day in a row with a rested pen was an even worse idea, and he did not get away with it. If this was September 29th, he would not have closed the game this way. Wins matter - all of them.
- Everyone raved about the new approach to hitting after the Mets seemed to foul off hundreds of pitches in game one and ran up pitch counts on the opponent. However, games two and three looked nothing like that. I saw more bad swings and strikeouts with runners on base in the late innings than earlier in the game.
- Game one was an anomaly because of the horrible baseball played by the Pirates on defense. They cleaned it up in games two and three, and we saw the Mets score a total of two runs in “regulation time”. Any team can have a bad hitting game, but not two in a row against a below average pitching staff that the Pirates have once you get beyond SP1 and into the bullpen. What is this going to look like against a capable staff?
So far, to my eye, the Mets are failing the test. If you have followed the RVH blueprint to 93
wins, the Mets need to beat up on teams like the Pirates (win accumulation). They escaped this series with two wins out of
three games, but were dangerously close to ending the series with only one
win. I am not predicting doom, but the
first series fell well short of expectations.
That’s my take.
9 comments:
Mendoza is not off to a good start with his bullpen usage. A good manager needs to net you some wins on the year. Mendoza seems to cost the Mets too many losses with his pitching decisions. The year is young thou so maybe he can turn it around.
Our hitters of course need to stop striking out so much as well!
I am looking forward to a Mets revival in mid 80s St Louis heat today.
It is too early to draw strong conclusions on most aspects of the Mets play, but not on all of them. Mendoza does not manage his pitching staff well. He should get credit for bringing in Manaea to face the lefty dominated part of the Pirate order, but with a bullpen of 8, throwing #7.8 when he did was embarrassing and showed no ability to think ahead. Same with getting Devin Williams up with the team still up by 4. This is a fixation based on the concept of a closer, a misuse of pitchers where they are needed most, and, embarrassing as it is, compensation based on metrics (in this case 'saves.') If Manaea is to piggy back and would have been a starter, and if you are bringing him into a game, he is not a 29 pitch limited pitcher. He pitched more than that in ST. He is 2-3 innings; not 1.1 innings. Foolish planning. Now with 7 games in a row, I believe, what damage can we expect him to do to the bullpen. We know that Holmes and Senga are unlikely to go more than 5 innings. If you bring Myers in for one of those, he's got to pitch 3 innings to help your bullpen survive. These are all things you should know in advance.
The Mets play passively, and then the excuse for sending Lindor -- which is inexcusable, and not even done in LL -- with no one out and 3,4, and 5 coming up, is that they are committed to playing aggressive. C'mon; it's just ex post rationale. It was a stupid, dumb move that is unthinkable in that position in the game.. Mendoza displays calm, which is good, but lacks the capacity to respond to circumstances as they arise informed by an overall grasp of not just the next move, but next few moves, and next few games. That is a special skill, and I am not saying most managers have it, but the FO does and it makes their choice of him as manager puzzling to me.
Speaking of FO, I am on record loving almost everything they have done, but Lovelady and Garcia, when you know you have a manager with a quick trigger? Please. Get Minter back will help. I have more faith in Kimbrell than in Garcia, but he is a shadow of his former self. Hopefully we see consistent improvement from guys honing their craft in the minors who can be added quickly.
I think I know something about how to use the body as an acceleration system, and I know the LAB must have all the technology to confirm pressure tracing,, and probably a Gears 3D machine, to trace what's going on inside the body, but the simple eye test is enough to show that Garcia simply doesn't have a movement that efficiently recruits or transfers energy. He is just going to be a declining 'asset' and a quickly declining one at that.
I, for one, found the performance over the weekend, concerning on matters that are likely to have, if they continue, a negative impact and unnecessarily so. I hate it when I can't even allow myself to be cautiously optimistic. I said it early on, and will say it again, I am most concerned about Mendoza of everyone on the Mets. In Baseball, managers are likely to have asymmetric impact. They are much more likely to be instrumental in creating negative impact, in games and over time, than they are to creating positive impact, in game and over time. They are often overthinkers, but worse, overthinking the wrong things.
I tried to defend Mendoza for years but he is a stubborn fool. Obviously his reprieve taught him nothing and his methods are still stupid.
Gosh, I could not have said it better.
And where did they find that genius of a third base coach? The only thing that gave Lindor a chance is that Cruz in CF doesn’t even want to throw the ball too hard. That was terrible.
Amen!
I am already worried about Mendoza and wishing they got Schumacher. I was wrong to defend Mendoza, it’s obvious.
Plus, Lindor of the recent hamate surgery did two tight hands-first dives yesterday. Not prudent.
Lambert is ultra-wild right now, not near a call up. Which does not help.
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