Braves Destroy Horrid Mets Defense And Bullpen
Brodie Van Wagenen built a poor defensive club with a bullpen that was an arm or two short. When you do that, you’re not beating average teams like the Cardinals, and you’re not beating good teams like the Braves.
When you get injuries and poor performances from the bullpen, you’re not beating anyone on the road, which is why the Mets have the most road losses in the National League.
Zack Wheeler was decent for four allowing two runs only for the National League worst defense to destroy his and the Mets chances of winning the game.
The Mets got misplays from Jeff McNeil, Pete Alonso, and Wilson Ramos, the latter of which who appeared to not even bother on the tough balls in the dirt. The embarrassingly poor defense and defensive effort took a 2-2 game and made it 5-2.
If you had a glimmer of hope after the Robinson Cano sixth inning homer, the Mets bullpen made sure to destroy those delusions of grandeur.
Jeurys Familia loaded the bases while recording just one out in the seventh causing Mickey Callaway to go to Drew Gagnon to put out the fire. Sadly, Gagnon decided to use a mixture of gasoline and kerosene to try to put out that fire.
By the time he was done, the 5-3 deficit grew to 12-3. Three of the runs were charged to Familia and four were charged to Gagnon. At the end, who cares? Every reliever not named Seth Lugo is pitching extremely poorly. The defense is worse than that.
You can tell yourself the Mets competed with the Braves for most of this game, and that they tied the score off Mike Soroka and his 1.92 ERA. It doesn’t matter because this bullpen is non-competitive.
Game Notes: Wheeler has a .323 batting average with a .828 OPS.
Sandy disregarded defense and loved older players too and he was really bad after Paul Depodesta left. That said Brodie is incompetent. So almost every move Brodie Van Wagenen made this past offseason blew up in his face while every move Chaim Bloom(runner up to Brodie in Mets gm hunt), worked out wonderfully like Yandy Diaz, Charlie Morton and Garcia but no surprise that the Wilpons picked the wrong guy as always. Brodie reminds me of Al Harazin
Who said Chaim Bloom was interested?
There was no way I saw Fred supporting adequate analytics that Bloom would find non negotiable.
What about including his pick up of Travis?
Chaim Bloom said he was interested.
Harazin is an interesting comp
Please stop trashing the GM unless you know of deals that were available available.
I saw one deal and it was about signing the Colorado second base FA.
What defense and what bullpen opportunities would the Wilpons approve that Brodie passed on?
Bullpen, team defense, catching (they offered the Brewer catch $72m over four) and I assure you that the Wilpons were all in on give Familia three years. Jeff is President and watched Familia since he was a setup man.
With Addison Reed out of baseball, hitters ending careers earlier I believe there is a transition going on, ask Cano about vitamins.
The off season, the Mets already saw Harvey lose his career, de Grom was not signed, Matz, de Grom had elbow histories, Wheeler possibly walking after the year and maybe they were all in with a constrained salary “cap” expecting Nimmo to maintain and Cespedes to return by July.
Look at the prospects the Braves forfeited and look at the prospects they developed…. so blamed Fred, Jeff, Ricco, Sandy and the entire scouting and players drafting system before you bash Brodie who was always in sync with ownership who possibly were shopping for a GM like him or stuck with him, commingle with his demand for autonomy because no one else wanted to come.
When do you just hold each player accountable not to be abandoned but via an ABAT or batter faced?
I know the Mets weren’t forced to trade Kelenic and Dunn for Cano and Diaz.
I know it’s ill advised to enter a season an arm short in the pen, two everyday caliber OF, and zero rotation depth.
I also know this is a third place team under .500 mainly due to roster construction.
That’s quite a job for a boastful GM who derided his predecessor.
He deserves criticism.
The front line team had little chance to be adequate defensively, with two above average but aging CFers in Lagares and Broxton, and two corner OF guys who were average as corners guys but seemed stretched in CF. Any 5th OFer the Mets were likely to employ, like Dom or McNeil, or JD Davis, was likely to be dismal in the field, while forcing Nimmo into CF, when he could take the field at all.
Frazier still looked a little above average in the field in 2018. Cano, too, but neither were stellar any more and both were declining. Rosario looked dreadful at times and was a -10 fielder by some methods, although only fans who hadn’t looked thought Alonso wouldn’t be adequate, even average. Nido’s defense was supposed to be good enough, too, to balance Ramos’. Overall, though, that was an infield with a lot of potential problems.
Just at random… Broxton is 29. Lagares is 30. Guys go from brilliant to average pretty fast, and then you’re left with an average CF on D who just can’t hit, and if you want action at the plate you end up putting JD Davis or Dom Smith in the OF, and somebody washed up that you had to snag off the waiver wire to fill in at CF. It looks like Carlos Gomez is now the Mets CFer. In the first half of the season, no less. That’s lousy planning. Continuing to play Nimmo when he was hurt, watching his defense suffer but leaving him out there–that was lousy planning too, since the FO did this in no small part because they had no one behind him, and no one in AAA. The combination of trading value for Broxton then cutting him after 51 PAs was distinctly odd, where there was no one to put in his place.
Overall, the FO’s love for old players put a 31 yo at C, a 33 yo at 3B, and a 36 yo at 2B. We had a 23 yo whose fielding had become a problem at SS, and a slugger at 1B whose upside his rookie year was probably average. Two older CFers, and guys with injury histories in the corners, and a few guys who have to fake playing corners. It was a strange lot.
Billy Hamilton was who the Mets needed. He’d be one of the best 5th OFers in the league. He’s durable. He could have been had for nothing but 5m. Actually, the Mets needed Charlie Morton, who could have been had for the money the Mets paid Justin Wilson and Jed Lowrie. But then they wouldn’t have had three starting 2Bmen, I guess.
== As for the pen, this is what happens when your #8-14, who you’re going to give a lot of innings to in 2019, aren’t just AAAA level guys, 0.0 WAR guys who don’t contribute anything but don’t tear up the club, but are truly awful.
There’s a startling vertical line in BB Ref’s Mets’ page, when you look at relievers. It’s the ERA+ for Mets relievers, for the back of the pen. It looks a lot like it did for most of 2018. It’s truly horrible. After the top 3 the FIPs are all over 5, with some 6’s and a few 7’s. No contender looks remotely like this.
I tend to put this kind of thing on the GM, but on the manager, too, especially a former pitching coach turned manager like Callaway. He couldn’t persuade the GM and ownership of the importance–in addition to the mainstays like Lugo–of rounding up a half dozen guys who can throw 15-20 pitches twice a week with an ERA or FIP around 4.25-4.50? In other words, below average, but not so bad as to put the torch to games? He can’t teach the live arms on hand between last year and this to be… just a little worse than league average?
These are the kinds of guys any halfway decent FO should be able to round up almost at will, the “freely available talent” that can’t quite cut it in the majors and that AA and AAA and the foreign and independent leagues are full of. It’s why at the start of the year you can project even a AAAA squad like the Orioles to win 48-49 games.
Somehow, the Mets can’t find these guys. Their AAA OF in Syracuse attested to this. The butt end of their pen attested to it last year, and this year. It’s a big reason why the Mets productive players could produce 40 WAR in 2018 and the team still only managed to win 77 games.
Wags seems to have no facility for building a contender. He clearly didn’t based on last offseason, and nothing he’s done in season suggests he’s learning on the job. The coming offseason is going to be brutal. The money seems already spent. The farm is largely barren. The OF is missing a starter and two backups. Rosario isn’t improving, and he’s not worth putting on the field at this point. JD Davis can’t play 3rd regularly. Cano might actually be done. There will be two holes in the rotation….
What’s so remarkable is that THIS was the year they were going for it.
Blair, an excellent read.
I wonder how much of the current situation has been completely and directly dependent on the FO.
Last year I checked up on how many scouts the Mets had I believe it was up there. However, who are these scouts, are better scouts getting higher money elsewhere and is the second and third tier of player development staff that works in New York the better brains in the game? I imagine that if salary is dollar for dollar I rather live in a lower cost of living area.
What did Fred say about analytics.
How have the Braves retooled so quickly and thoroughly and was it the huge debt of Citifield and that albatross settlement and loan with the last payment in 2021 even effecting how competitive are the salaries in their drafting and player development. The Nats certainly have two top OF prospects and traded away a ton of talent to the White Sox and the A’s.
I wonder if it is just go out and get the best option left on the market, the two – three year contract type of Walker, Cabrera, Swarzak, Frazier and Ramos…
Is it just doing it with less money and less homework?
How do we put Callaway on the plank for not only is it the players but at least Brody does not have to be accountable to an incumbent an unfairly and excessively criticized manager.
Like what manager can really get much more out of this roster?
The only point I would really disagree with is the farm being barren. It isn’t. The issue is the talent is too far away.
Way too much blame on Callaway, when he needs to send in a reliever his options are down to immediate or slow death. Couple of other comments:
1) Agree the SS and Catch need to go/be replaced-quickly
2) Where was all this criticism on Comforto prior to the latest swoon and as re: Frazier, considering his play since he returned from the injury he is actually one of the bright spots. Lets not over react, things are not good but trashing those who are actually able to play-?
3) Finally, the real back breaker, as pointed out by some, is a horrific relief corp that (again as noted), has one adequate reliever. Look at how many games went from competitive to a blow out or just plain blown -whoever is really responsible for this situation is (in my opinion)- the one who needs an escort out the door.
Every problem with this team goes back to the bullpen and defense.
Problem with the Mets start with ownership and the hiring of BVW, which was clearly a big mistake! BWV thinks he is the smartest person in the room, when he is far from it and this problem is further exacerbated by his reckless gamblers mentality and lack of foresight!
Trading for a perhaps 36/37 year old cano and his massive contract just to get Diaz giving up high-end prospect capital in a salary dump trade.
Trading prospect capital for broxton and font both dfa candidates with their existing teams without options.
Trading prospect capital for Davis a poor fielding 3b with a platoon player with a slider speed bat, without any thoughts on roster construction!?
Signing Famila a pitcher who can not control the strike zone, Wilson a high walk guy and Lowrie a aging infielder coming off two career years, again without any concept of roster construction or need’.
Lastly, Mets will not able to sign Allen after signing Wolf above slot and drafting college seniors rounds 4-10 as well as the subsequent rounds, which made no sense, when 125k would have be sufficient for many hs seniors and college juniors.
Like a last place fantasy baseball team with too many infielders and AAAA players on their 40 man roster.
The sad part is the Mets had a once in a generation type of prospect in Kelenic, and they just gave him away.
He is good but he is not mike trout! Point is it was a salary dump trade, Mets had the leverage but gave up two of their best prospects, both mlb pipeline 100 players. And the Mets had McNeil at 2nd although he was rumored to be part of the original trade package until BWV had a brain freeze and a moment of clarity said no McNeil, you take Bautista instead or no deal.
Point is famila was done and the Metsfans were done with famila after 2015! Why bring him back?? This is who he is!
Also, signing TDA and Dfa him after a few weeks was nonsensical after 5/6 years of the same can’t hit, can’t throw and on the dL tda!
Or just a plain dumbass move. Same thing as famila!
Btw MD decent pitch now eh, use to be a good pitch! ? You coming around MD!
Familia was a fine signing in isolation. You got someone who is able to pitch in New York at somewhat of a discount.
The real problem was the Mets didn’t fill in the bullpen completely.
Without listing the exact numbers for the other FA signings, it was not a discount! Irregardless of opinions on subjective valuations … if you watch the Mets games, famila can’t control his pitches and the opposition knows this and he can walk the base loaded on 12/13 pitches, then groove a pitch and game and comeback over! Mets Lose!
Nobody is perfect but this happens quite frequently and this has been who he is for the last few years!
I said this in 2015! Never should have brought him back! Mets brass should have known this, as the fans did long time ago but this is the Mets!
MD the padres just signed their 3th rd pick for 3m and Mets signed Wolf for $800k above slot, and now have about $1.8m to sign Allen, if you include the 670k slot value otherwise lose the slot value and have 1.1m to sign either Barco, Charles, Fowler or McIntosh. Can we conclude bvw gamble to draft Allen and then go heavy on the senior signs was another epic fail!
Allen hasn’t officially rejected the Mets yet but you should consider this for your next article.
It was a bit of a discount over what he could’ve commanded elsewhere. I’ll also note no one reasonably could have seen this coming.
Say all you want about what you said in 2015, he was excellent again in 2016, and he was good again last year.
As for the signings, I’m holding off to see how it all shakes out.
it was not a discount! Irregardless of opinions on subjective valuations … if you watch the Mets games, famila can’t control his pitches and the opposition knows this and he can walk the base loaded on 12/13 pitches, then groove a pitch and game and comeback over! Mets Lose!
Nobody is perfect but this happens quite frequently and this has been who he is for the last few years!
I said this in 2015! Never should have brought him back! Mets brass should have known this, as the fans did long time ago but this is the Mets!
MD the padres just signed their 3th rd pick for 3m and Mets signed Wolf for $800k above slot, and now have about $1.8m to sign Allen, if you include the 670k slot value otherwise lose the slot value and have 1.1m to sign either Barco, Charles, Fowler or McIntosh. Can we conclude bvw gamble to draft Allen and then go heavy on the senior signs was another epic fail!
Allen hasn’t officially rejected the Mets yet but you should consider this for your next article.