Mets Hopes Are Spelled deGrom
The Mets had an opportunity to seize the second Wild Card spot by sweeping the Cubs. Those hopes died when they were shut down by Yu Darvish.
They arguably had their chance to still control their own destiny, but Noah Syndergaard was shelled for 10 runs (nine earned) over three earned. After that, the Mets made it VERY interesting, but they just couldn’t deliver that key hit.
The last indignity was Craig Kimbrel, the man the Mets weren’t interested in because they had Edwin Diaz (who has since lost the de facto job to Seth Lugo) earned the save.
It now all comes down to Jacob deGrom. He wins today, and the Mets are three out with a real shot. There is no one you would rather have on the mound between his greatness and his big game experience. It’s up to the offense to finally support him.
Can the Mets come back from five back with over a month to play? Absolutely, but the task is much more difficult, especially with the season ending with the Mets playing the Braves. That last point is the most troubling.
This run has been fun, but there’s been a bit of a reality check losing at least 5/6 to the Braves and Cubs. Runs are great, but in the end, this is about winning the World Series. The Mets have the pitching to do so, and we’ve seen more unlikely runs than this in baseball history, but that said, that’s been the biggest issue over these six games.
That all said the Mets still have deGrom, and when you have deGrom, you always have a chance. Because of that, stay excited for today, the rest of the season, and hopefully, that magical postseason run.
Let’s Go Mets
The current 5-game losing streak (which deGrom v Lester has a solid chance of ending tonight!) against actually good teams isn’t surprising. The Mets are still playing with half a team that’s regularly undermined by bad managing and an inept front office. Are Lagares, Guillorme, R. Rivera, and R. Davis the weakest bench in the majors? Surely the weakest bench on an ostensible contender.
How to harm your player’s production: Ramos over the last 1/3 of this season is on pace to play 146 games, a preposterous number for an old, often hurt catcher whose previous peak was 131 games. The Mets use, or abuse of Ramos has turned their power hitting catcher who slugged .496 in 2016 and .487 in 2018, into a singles hitter now slugging .416 for the season and who slugged .395 in the two months from June 25 through August 27, during which time Ramos had a pitiful 8 extra base hits. That’s the period that includes his pointless 21-game hitting streak. That hitting streak is just odd luck, a minor statistical freak. It has hardly meant he’s been any good. He hasn’t, and I don’t think it’s his fault.
Ramos Jun 24 to Aug 21, 43G, 38GS, .288/.341/.404, .290 babip.
He played in 43 of the 47 games from Jun 25 to Aug 27, when he was reduced to a singles hitter by the load, and played in
47G of 52 through August 27 w an SLG of .395, an OPS of .740, and a babip of .309 (career: .298).
Ramos has 0.9 fWAR for the season, which takes into account FRAA. (While BBRef doesn’t.)
The Mets are two games above .500, thanks to some extraordinary luck that’s abating. Washington and Chicago are their primary opponents now, with Washington all but out of reach and the Cubs 4 games ahead. Philly, Milwaukee, Arizona, and San Francisco are all roughly in the Mets’ neighborhood. We’ll see, but it’s not looking good.
The FO has thrown away its rotation depth, and all but deGrom are going to be stretched to and past their previous limits in the last few weeks of the season. They’re going to keep playing Ramos into the ground. Same with Frazier, now down to .229/.302/.405 for the season and since June 25th has hit a shockingly bad .186/.244/.340. It’s no coincidence that Frazier has gotten zero games off in that stretch. He hasn’t gotten a game off since May 18th despite always being a modest hitter and now at an age when most players of his caliber are already out of the game. The Mets would have been better off playing Hechavarria (.259/.352) for the last two months. When you burn your starting 3Bman and make him worse through overuse than Hech, you’re in the wrong line of work.
This isn’t likely to get better.