Tom Brennan - Pluses Are Outweighed By Minuses; &, On the Couch?

THE METS ARE ALWAYS ON A DOWNWARD-TILTING SEE-SAW

Last night, in the latest Mets’ loss, 2-1, we saw two minuses: 

A total inability to score, and Soto misplaying a ball in left that he charged in for, but which went past him for an in-the-park HR. We all watched that ball, and the season, roll right on by. Anyway…

I imagine that every team has its pluses and minuses.

What it all comes down to, many times, is whether, for YOUR team, there are more pluses than minuses, or more minuses and pluses.

In the Mets case, there are clearly more minuses than pluses. Some self-inflicted. 

And those minuses?  They are a chronic condition. It is a seasonal malady.

The starting pitching, for one thing, was supposed to be a strength. A plus. 

Instead, it’s been a real minus. 

And, Zach Thornton‘s recent start aside, the starting pitching help that we expected from The Mets minor leagues has been a minus, as well. Wenninger, Santucci, and Tong have been minuses as compared to my preseason expectations for each of them.

This team always seems to have several minuses in the lineup no matter what it does. Guys get hurt, and the guys behind them do not step up. 

In Sunday’s 5-4 loss, the “ Minus Hitters” once again didn’t do very well. Tyrone Taylor did pick up two hits to climb to an ever-so-lofty .202, but the rest of “the minuses” did what Mets minuses do:

Ronny, Baty, Vientos, Young, Wagaman and Alvarez went 1 for 16. MINUS!!

Hey, but they improved greatly in last night’s loss - the 6 bums…err, I mean batters…combined for 2 for 15. One more hit in one less at bat. WOW! 

Maybe today, following that pattern, they will take another huge stride forward and combine to go 3 for 14.

Try winning games with that much crapola. Call them “The Minus Mets.”

Too many minuses on the hitting side. That’s how you lose so many games.

On the plus side, I couldn’t be more pleased with Carson Benge and AJ Ewing. If the Mets only had two more of them, then the team’s pluses would outweigh the minuses, at least on the hitting side. The duo had all 4 Mets RBIs on Sunday, and Ewing only played half the game.

On the pitching side, I see a guy like Mark Vientos hitting under .100 when he gets to two strike counts, so pitchers know just what to do with Swaggy V in two strike counts.

Senga, who pitched on Sunday pretty well, but fell to 0-7, had Kyle Schwarber with a 1–2 count, after throwing some great fork balls, and he then decided to throw the major league’s leading home run hitter a fastball, which Schwarber made disappear for his 30th. No big deal really, it just cost them the game. That’s life in the big city. In the borough of minuses.

Take a poll. It will be 100%. How?

There is no way on earth that he should’ve thrown that pitch the Schwarber. It seems like the many pitchers who pitched to Mark Vientos understand exactly what to do with him when they get the two strikes. 

This guy Senga doesn’t. He is a mental minus.

The Mets always somehow have been too soft, and that’s been a consistent franchise minus. 

They are so far down in the standings, in part because they seem to perennially roll over and play dead, that it again seems hopeless. Lack of toughness in terms of not letting games just slip away is a real minus with this franchise.

Meanwhile, ex-Met Pete Alonso has been on a tear in May and June. The genius in the front office let Pete, Brandon, and Jeff go. Alternatively, he could’ve signed Pete, and kept the other two, and not put in their places the broken pottery that he did, and the Mets would probably have many more pluses than minuses right now.

Then, he could’ve dealt any or all three next year. Actually in McNeil‘s case his contract would’ve been over.

I talk to other people who are Mets fans. 

They also see the Mets as having too many minuses. And do you know what else is a minus? Their attendance at Met games. Those empty seats are the ones their butts would be in if the Mets had more pluses than minuses. They’d go. They’d want to go. They don’t go.

Yes. They don’t go. I don’t go. 

I have got better things to do than to chase after minuses. 

How do you see it?

MEANWHILE…ON THE COUCH

Of course, I also saw this, which probably is not a key indicator of Soto wildly inspiring his teammates, but who knows? I too am a couch potato. 

I can still hit like Soto. We are both lefties with pop.  

But someone might want to give Soto a “Stearns talking-to” re: the following:

 From NY Post: 

Former Mets hitting coach and bench coach Eric Chavez can be added to the list of critics of POBO David Stearns. 

Chavez, who worked with the Mets from 2024-25, said Juan Soto would sit on couches near the batting cages between innings instead of with the team in the dugout — and Stearns did nothing about it.

“This is a lack of leadership, a lack of accountability, from the top down,” Chavez said on his “EC3” podcast. “And we had an assistant GM who would sit there with [Soto] — the assistant GM would sit there with him — and kind of coddle him, tap him on the shoulder, without saying ‘hey dude, how about getting in the dugout with your teammates.’”

I’d never sit on a couch on the field like that. I’d fall asleep in a flash.

Anyway, Soto was asked about it: No comment.

YOU REMEMBER THE GUY WITH THE WEIRD DELIVERY, DON’T YOU?

Ty Roger’s was briefly a Met. He has a 1.82 ERA with the Blue Jays, who count him as one of their pluses.