Before the season started the most optimistic of Mets fans
were salivating over an offense that included the likes of Yoenis Cespedes,
Michael Conforto, Jay Bruce, Adrian Gonzalez and Todd Frazier. Surely you had five batters there capable of
putting up 30/100 type seasons and that would propel the Mets from obscurity
into contention.
Well, as we’re all well aware the club has ended the month
of April with a surprising 17-9 record, yet the output from this modern day
quintet of a murderer’s row has been pretty much non-existent. Todd Frazier has been a pleasant surprise,
hitting 4 HRs, driving in 17 and batting (for him) a surprisingly strong .256
batting average. From there it’s a
downhill slide. Conforto has been
particularly poor with just a single home run, 6 RBIs and a .222 AVG. (He gets something of a pass having been
rushed back and not preparing with a traditional spring training due to
injury). Cespedes is on a record setting
pace of striking out and Bruce has only recently started to come to life.
Adrian Gonzalez has until recently been flirting with the Mendoza line.
Then it must be the stellar starting pitching on which the
team was built that’s kept the Mets atop the division, right?
Ummm, no.
Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard are doing what they’re
expected to do. deGrom is 3-0 with a
2.06 ERA and really should have another couple of victories if not for the
gasoline provided by the bullpen. Syndergaard
is 2-1 with a 3.10 ERA. People would
sign up for a full season of that type of productivity.
After that, however, it gets much less impressive. Zack Wheeler was retrieved from AAA shortly
after starting there and he’s been a work in progress. He is 2-1 with a 4.09 ERA with about a
strikeout per inning pitched. The walks
are down (for him) and he is indeed looking like a back end starter.
Matt Harvey has been banished from the rotation due to
ineffectiveness. Steven Matz is hanging
on by a thread. He’s 1-2 with a 4.98 ERA
despite striking people out at a prodigious rate but he recently admitted he’s
lost confidence out there.
Then there’s Jason Vargas.
To be fair, he didn’t have much of a chance at preparing for the season
after suffering the fracture in his non-pitching hand, but given how poorly the
club’s starters have fared he was rushed back and it showed. The 9 earned runs given up resulted in an ERA
over 22.00. Ugh.
So are they doing it with mirrors? Well, there are a number of unsung heroes
whose performances have far exceeded early season expectations.
Let’s start with the backup outfielders. Juan Lagares, after a very poor spring
showing off his allegedly revamped swing, is actually leading the team in
hitting right now. He’s batting a robust
.342 while playing sporadically. He’s
probably get more time on the field if not for the exploits of his teammate
Brandon Nimmo who bats lefthanded and is hitting .313 himself. More importantly, Nimmo is getting on base to
the tune of a .488 OBP.
Asdrubal Cabrera was another person for whom expectations
where fairly modest. He has had two good
seasons for the Mets but many wondered whether his attitude, health and
declining defense made it a wise investment to pick up his option. No one is wondering now. He’s hitting .340 with 5 HRs and 17 RBIs
while leading the team in ABs. Yeah,
that’s $8.5 million well spent indeed.
On the pitching side of the ledger two names clearly stand
out. Paul Sewald had been an absolute
monster in the minors but was pretty lackluster as he was clearly overused in
2017. This season he’s showing that the
minor league numbers were indeed no fluke and his new off-speed pitch is
setting up his fastball. All he’s done
so far is deliver a 1.98 ERA over 13 games with 17 Ks in 13 IP.
You could, however, make the argument that Robert Gsellman’s
success is even more surprising.
Granted, he looked terrific when pressed into starting duty in 2016 ,
going 4-2 with a 2.42 ERA and a respectable WHIP of 1.28. Last season he took a major step backwards
before his now infamous declaration about not caring when he got sent down to
AAA. The results were ugly – 8-6 and a
5.19 ERA with batters hitting .280 against him.
This year is actually quite similar to 2016 with a 3-0 record and a 1.80
ERA. The WHIP is again down to 1.27 and
batters are hitting a more acceptable .232 against him.
An honorable mention should go to bullpen mate Seth
Lugo. He’s not been quite as good at a
3.77 ERA and a 1-0 record. Batters are
hitting .245 against him. He’s showing
quality but not at the stellar levels of Gsellman or Sewald.
The conclusion, of course, is that once the fearsome
fivesome of batters gets it into gear then this hot start should be
sustainable. Matz and Vargas have
nowhere to go but up. If you get some
improvement from Amed Rosario and a return of Kevin Plawecki then the offense
shouldn’t be a problem.
