Musings

Positives To Be Taken From Wild Card Round

While most agree the expanded postseason made sense in a 60 game season, many do not want to see it going forward. Seeing these Wild Card series only affirms that for many.

The best of three format removes the drama of the winner-take-all Wild Card Game, and it completely fails to build the momentum you get with even a best-of-five series.

In short, we’ve learned the best-of-three format is a dud. It removes what is the typical excitement we see with postseason baseball. What it really accomplishes is giving fans who love baseball more baseball. While never a negative, it’s not accomplishing anything on the larger scale.

Learning that in and of itself is a positive. Believe it or not, there are more positives we can draw from the Wild Card round.

The first real positive we saw was holding the series in one ballpark with the top seed being the home team.

After the first year of the Wild Card format, we saw MLB switch the series to a 2-2-1 format. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this other than it not being a significant home field advantage.

When you have two division winners, it’s understood why you would use that format. However, when you have the top team in the league facing the Wild Card, it makes less sense.

Really, the biggest failing of the Wild Card format is top seeds don’t have a significant benefit to being the best team in the league. Oft times, they’re stuck playing the better team than the second best division winner. The best way to combat that is to have all five games played in the home field of the team with the best record in the league.

The other real benefit we see is playing these games closer to real baseball.

We saw teams playing three games in a row instead of having days off scattered throughout a series. With that, teams had to pay a little more attention to bullpen usage and the like. Honestly, seeing the series play out, that wasn’t much of an impact at all.

However, what we did see was baseball everyday. If you’re an Athletics or White Sox fan, you got to see your team play three days in a row. Typically, they would’ve seen their teams play two games followed by an off day followed by two more, and depending on the TV schedule, another day off or a game the following night.

At least for the Division Series, we should get five straight games. It will force teams to use more than 2-3 starters. That, in turn, really shows us just how good of a TEAM is winning the series.

Really, after 162 games, we should hope the postseason format benefits the best team. The current format doesn’t quite do that. Typically, we see teams with 1-2 top level pitchers or teams with a strong bullpen make unexpected runs.

Pushing a Division Series to five straight days would push the lesser teams to actually use their weaker fourth starter, which in turn, could very likely impact the outcome of the series.

That, in turn, could lead to better LCS and World Series matchups. Although, to be fair, MLB hasn’t been exactly suffering on the World Series matchups in recent years.

Overall, we see from these Wild Card rounds, there is a better way to handle the Division Series. We see the playing baseball everyday is a positive, and we see the best teams in the league should get complete home field advantage.

Mostly, we see best-of-three series are a dud, and they need to go away in 2021 much like the universal DH will.

Reasons Mets Should Retain Brodie Van Wagenen

In light of Mike Puma’s article for the New York Post regarding whether the New York Mets should retain Van Wagenen, here is a complete list of the reasons why Van Wagenen should keep his job:

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Henrik Lundqvist Inspired Children To Love And Play Hockey

While baseball and the Mets are my main passion, it’s not the way with my oldest son. No, for him, it’s hockey and the New York Rangers. Henrik Lundqvist is a huge reason why.

Back in 2014, I would rush home from work to spend time with my infant son. He was most excited on hockey days. The ritual was I would come home, get him in his Rangers onesie, and we would watch the Rangers improbable run to the Stanley Cup Finals; a run made possibly by Lundqvist’s greatness.

From that moment, he was hooked.

My son has literally loved his Rangers all his life, and his first favorite player was Lundqvist. He wanted to play hockey all the time, and the jersey he wanted was Lundqvist’s.

In his first game at MSG, it was the thrill of a lifetime for him to see Lundqvist between the pipes.

In fact, when looking for seats for the game, he didn’t want center ice. He didn’t want to see the side the Rangers shoot twice. No, he wanted to see Lundqvist in action.

It got to the point with him where he increasingly wanted to play in net more and more like Lundqvist. If you’re a hockey parent, you know the multitude of reasons why that’s daunting. Eventually, we relented a bit, and we let him have his shot.

Yes, the gear he wanted was Bauer because that’s the gear Lundqvist uses.

In his first tournament in net, he wore his Lundqvist t-shirt under the equipment telling me he wanted to do Lundqvist proud. He certainly did picking up his first ever win.

He’s loves playing in net, but he also loves playing out and scoring goals. Where he goes from here is an unknown. That said, no matter the path, Henrik Lundqvist has been his inspiration.

This is just our story. Undoubtedly, Lundqvist has been an inspiration to many around the world. We’ve personally seen that talking with other parents around the rink. We’ve also seen that with Igor Shesterkin.

In the end, that is Lundqvist’s true legacy. With his aura, greatness, humility, and charity, he’s inspired children across the globe and helped them love hockey. They want to be just like him.

In the end, that is the real reason he is the King. He’s led and inspired children the best they can be. Seeing him as a player and person with his work with the Garden of Dreams Foundation, he’s worthy of children wanting to follow in his footsteps.

Henrik Lundqvist, Long May He Reign

When you look through sports in New York, the legends always win. No, we’re not talking about beloved players like David Wright. We’re talking true legends.

Every Yankees legend has a ring. Tom Seaver won with the 1969 Mets. The famed Knicks teams have two. LT has two, and even Namath and the Jets have one. The Islanders have their dynasty.

After 54 years, Leetch and the Rangers got his as well in one that may have to last a lifetime.

It’s funny. For it being the world’s most famous arena, it just seems to come up short over the last 25+ years in delivering titles with all-time great players. First, Patrick Ewing. Now, Henrik Lundqvist.

Lundqvist could be the best Ranger of all-time. He might be the best hockey player in New York history. He’s definitively the best player to ever leave New York without a title.

That’s what happens when the Rangers officially buy out his contract later today. It is a decision which hurts, but in the end, it’s the right decision for all involved. Hopefully, everyone feels respected in the process.

The Rangers just couldn’t get it quite right. They had a legendary goaltender who was the driving force behind the Rangers going to the Conference Finals in three out of four years.

Maybe with a fair whistle, he and the Rangers have a Cup, but sadly, it didn’t happen. From there, the team had just one more run in them.

At the moment, the Stanley Cup, a living championship trophy, is incomplete without Lundqvist’s name etched onto it. Maybe Lundqvist goes somewhere next year, and he accomplishes what Ray Bourque and Dominic Hasek did before him.

Even if he doesn’t, it doesn’t change how great he is. For all the talk about his not winning a Stanley Cup, people conveniently forget he led Sweden to Olympic Gold in 2006. On the highest stage with the best players in the world, Lundqvist reigned.

And he still reigns because he’s not just a Rangers legend, or a hockey legend. He’s a New York legend.

Babe Ruth was the Sultan. Henrik Lundqvist is the King. He has been and always will be.

We will miss Lundqvist in a Rangers sweater between the pipes because he’s the best to ever do it. We look forward for his 30 hanging from the Garden rafters, and and we look to see what he does next.

Before all that, Rangers fans everywhere thank you. The past 15 years were among the best in Rangers history and that had come on the heels of the worst period in Rangers history.

You were responsible for that, and we loved you for it. Thank you.

-30-

Don Mattingly Should Get ZERO VOTES For Manager Of The Year

On July 25, 2020, the Miami Marlins were informed three of their players tested positive for COVID19. That included Jose Urena, who was supposed to start the following day.

At that point, as noted by Matt Breen of the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Marlins, who had been in close contact with one another, opted not to quarantine as per MLB and CDC protocols. No, instead, the Marlins opted to play their game against the Phillies.

Now, there was a pandemic. The Marlins were based in a city considered a hot spot. According, to Marlins manager Don Mattingly, he and his team never hesitated in their decision not to play:

From there, the three Marlins who tested positive grew to 20. The Philadelphia Phillies would see members of their organization test positive. The Marlins would not be permitted to play in a game for over a week.

The schedules of the Phillies, Yankees, Nationals, and Marlins were also screwed up. That happened because Mattingly and his players didn’t remotely care about the health and safety of their opponents and the low level staffers who they come into contact.

Mattingly and the Marlins team he was supposed to lead jeopardized the entire 2020 season in a completely selfish act. Worse than that, they put the health of many in jeopardy.

It wasn’t just the Phillies. It was the people who were still working in the visitors’ clubhouse. It was the people at their hotel. It was the unlucky person who had to drive the sick players on sleeper busses back to Miami.

Through it all, Mattingly showed reckless abandon both for the MLB season and for the health of his players. He didn’t care about the health of the other 29 teams or all the human beings his team would come into contact.

When you exhibit you don’t care about whether your season is actually played or the health of thousands of people, you should not receive awards or accolades. Instead, Mattingly should’ve been fined and suspended with the Marlins wondering if this is really the person they want to lead their team in the future.

By giving your vote to Mattingly for Manager of the Year, you’re rewarding his sheer recklessness and complete lack of decency. You’re actually rewarding someone actively trying to stop the 2020 season from being played.

Voting for that is absurd. There are many other managers who had great years and who managed not to threaten the health of people or the season. Those managers deserve the votes. Not Mattingly.

2020 Mets Did Not Underachieve

As the season wound to a close, there was much talk about how the Mets were too talented for this season to have unfolded the way it did. Certainly, some players struggled, but in the end, the Mets missing even an expanded postseason should not have shocked anyone.

Things changed dramatically for the Mets the day Noah Syndergaard had to shut it down due to Tommy John surgery. It was at that point the Mets went from possible postseason contender to a team who was likely going to miss the postseason.

Syndergaard presented, along with Jacob deGrom, two top of the rotation, swing and miss pitchers. The Mets desperately needed this as this was a team with far too many pitchers who pitched to contact in front of a terrible defensive team.

In 2019, the Mets were last in the National League with an 86 DRS. Despite planning on going into 2020 with Marcus Stroman and Rick Porcello, two pitchers who pitch to a high rate of contact, the Mets affirmatively opted not to improve their defense. In actuality, they probably made t worse.

Remember, the plan was to always have two first basemen in the field with Pete Alonso and J.D. Davis. Based on what we saw of Robinson Cano in 2019, you could’ve argued, the Mets were really putting three first basemen in the field. That’s beyond ill advised.

An important thing to remember here was not only were the Mets playing three first basemen, they were playing three poor ones at that, at least in terms of their respective positions.

By OAA, Alonso was the worst defensive first baseman in the NL last year. Davis was the 26th ranked LF with the second worst success rate. Cano was also ranked 26th.

The good news is Cano rebounded by OAA but not DRS. Past him, well, it was a complete disaster.

Davis didn’t last long in LF because he was even worse, which you could not imagine to be possible. He then moved to third where he was again an unmitigated disaster. That was a precipitous drop from the good, albeit declining defense, provided from Todd Frazier last year.

Alonso too regressed leading him to lose his everyday job at first. Instead, he split time with Dominic Smith at the position. When Dom wasn’t at first, he was in left. That meant the Mets had FOUR first basemen in the field.

You can’t win games that way.

What makes this even worse is the Mets didn’t really surround these players with plus defenders to offset the terrible defense.

Brandon Nimmo isn’t a center fielder. That was again proven by his -4 OAA and -5 DRS. Wilson Ramos was just about the worst catcher there was in baseball behind the plate. His framing numbers were poor, his ability to block the ball worse, and his ability to tag out runners nonexistent.

Essentially, that made the pitchers mound look more like a tiny island with a bunch of people around him just letting him drown.

Really, when you look at the Mets, the only position they had good defense was short with Andres Gimenez and Amed Rosario providing very good defense there. Other than that this was a terrible defensive ballclub with the fourth worst DRS in all of baseball.

The sad thing is it didn’t have to be this way. There were very good defenders on this roster who earned playing time. Case in point was Luis Guillorme. He had a very good defensive season with a 1 OAA and DRS, and he posted a 144 wRC+ at the plate. Playing him up the middle with Gimenez or Rosario could’ve had a profound impact on this suspect pitching staff.

On that note, Porcello struggled with terrible defense behind him. Stroman opting out certainly hurt, but he also might’ve struggled in front of a flat out terrible defensive team.

Throw in Michael Wacha being predictably bad and injured and Steven Matz regressing, and this wasn’t even close to being a team being built to compete over a 162 or 60 game season.

Truth be told, the only way this team could’ve competed was by having a starting staff of swing and miss pitchers who induced soft contact. Unfortunately, Syndergaard was injured, and the Mets didn’t want Zack Wheeler. Once the latter two were gone so were the Mets chances.

In the end, Brodie Van Wagenen and Jeff Wilpon treated the Mets like they were a fantasy team. With the Mets having an MLB best team 122 wRC+, they probably won their fantasy league.

However, on the field, where things like defense and base running matter, they built a flawed and arguably bad baseball team. Certainly, this was not a team truly built to compete, and in the end the Mets didn’t.

That’s why Van Wagenen will be gone and why Steve Cohen has zero interest in keeping Jeff Wilpon around in any decision making capacity when the sale is officially ratified by MLB.

Overall, the 2020 New York Mets didn’t underachieve. No, this team did EXACTLY what they were built to do. That was have deGrom be great, the offense hit, and get horrendous defense and suspect starting pitching.

Wilmer Flores Almost Ends Mets Postseason Hopes

As the day progressed, the rained out New York Mets hopes of making the postseason lied in only one scenario. They had to win out while the San Francisco Giants were swept by the San Diego Padres.

The Padres are a very good team, so it was at least possible. With the Padres up 3-2 entering the sixth inning of the seven inning game (thanks again Manfred), there was increasing hope. That hope seemingly vanished when Wilmer Flores stepped to the plate:

This should infuriate every Mets fan.

Flores was a fan favorite and productive bench player who wanted to be a Met. Instead of looking to keep him around, the Mets non-tendered him and made up an arthritic condition he didn’t actually have.

Worse yet, Flores has been more productive than any player Brodie Van Wagenen has brought into the Mets organization. That includes Jed Lowrie who actually did have a knee issue.

They tried to replace him too by trading for J.D. Davis who was actually a significantly worse defender than even what they made Flores out to be.

Overall, the Mets would’ve been much better off with Flores. That’s not only because he was better than every single Brodie Van Wagenen alternative. It’s also because Flores wouldn’t have been in San Francisco trying to end the Mets season.

Fortunately for the Mets, Trent Grisham hit a seventh inning walk-off homer for the Padres (in San Francisco) to give the Padres a 6-5 victory and to keep the Mets hopes alive.

Tomorrow, the Mets will have to win two games while hoping Flores doesn’t have any more magic in his bat. Whatever the end result, we’re not too far away from Jeff Wilpon and Van Wagenen making stupid decisions that has Flores in San Francisco with worse options on the Mets roster.

Important Mets Countdowns

Days remaining for Mets to extend Michael Conforto and Noah Syndergaard: ~401

Days remaining to extend Marcus Stroman: ~33

Years until Sandy Alderson can bring Jarred Kelenic back to the Mets: ~ 7

Games remaining in Brodie Van Wagenen Era: 3

Time we need to waste worrying about the Wilpons: 0

Sandy Alderson Back To Fix What Brodie Van Wagenen Did To His Team

According to reports, Steve Cohen is bringing Sandy Anderson back to the Mets as an advisor, and he is planning on finding a replacement for Brodie Van Wagenen. Both are excellent and needed decisions.

When it comes to Van Wagenen, it’s difficult to quantify exactly how much damage he has done to the well built and talented Mets organization gift wrapped to him from Alderson. Essentially, all that Alderson built needs to be rebuilt.

Van Wagenen was given a starting staff comprised of Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Zack Wheeler, and Steven Matz. Behind them were well regarded prospects in Justin Dunn, Anthony Kay, and Simeon Woods Richardson.

The Mets rotation over the final week of the 2020 season will be deGrom, Rick Porcello, maybe Matz, and who knows what else?

The position player core was remarkably cheap and talented. There was Michael Conforto, Brandon Nimmo, Pete Alonso, Jeff McNeil, Dominic Smith, and Amed Rosario. Behind them was Andres Gimenez and Jarred Kelenic.

Sure, there were some bad contracts, but they were short term in nature, and they were not going to serve as an impediment to either building on or retaining this core.

For example, the Jay Bruce and Yoenis Cespedes contacts were set to expire after this season. That coincided perfectly with having to have the money to re-sign deGrom and to have extension talks with Conforto, Matz, and Syndergaard.

Instead, the Mets no longer have Kelenic giving them a buffet against losing one of Conforto or Nimmo. They also have Robinson Cano‘s onerous contract on the books which already served as an impediment to re-signing Wheeler.

That’s nothing to say of the quality prospect purge in the same of finding a late inning defensive replacement in center for a team who already had Juan Lagares and adding J.D. Davis to a team already overstocked in 1B/DH players.

Couple this with the Mets getting rid of Wilmer Flores for nothing only for him to be more productive than anyone Van Wagenen brought into the organization and signing Jed Lowrie for $20 million to get eight pinch hitting attempts, and the Van Wagenen stint as GM has been an unmitigated disaster.

If you want to point to Van Wagenen’s drafts as a positive, you should. However, in doing that, remember, that was a scouting group built by Alderson and Omar Minaya. The Mets will be keeping both advisors.

When you take everything into account, Alderson built the Mets to be a competitive team in 2019 and 2020. With any luck, he had a deep farm system to make the types of trades he made in 2015 to help get the team over the top.

The real window for this Mets team was supposed to open in 2021. Given the talent on the Major League roster and in the farm system, it promised to be a 1980s like run.

Instead, Alderson is back to figure out how yo fix this mess. Fortunately for him, he won’t have Van Wagenen or Jeff Wilpon standing in his way. Instead, he will have an owner with deep pockets who intends to let smart baseball people like Alderson do their jobs.

Mets Can Still Make Postseason But . . .

As of this morning, the New York Mets are 22-27. That puts them 6.5 behind the Atlanta Braves for the division. That means they’re effectively eliminated from the NL East race.

However, due to the expanded postseason format, they’re only three games out in the loss column for the last Wild Card spot. With 11 games remaining in the season, there’s a chance.

However, when you break it down, it’s a very unrealistic chance.

First and foremost, you’re asking this Mets team to go on a run. We’re nearly 2/3 through the season, and the Mets have only won two series all season. Both series have come against the Miami Marlins, and that season series is over.

After today’s game against the Philadelphia Phillies, the Mets remaining opponents are the Braves (third best team in the NL) Tampa Bay Rays (second best team in the AL), and the Washington Nationals.

Asking for the 8-2 stretch against that schedule is a big ask. It’s also a big ask to ask the Mets to leapfrog four teams in the process.

Keep in mind, the St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers, two teams ahead of the Mets, play each other five more times this season.

In the West, the San Francisco Giants and Colorado Rockies, two teams ahead of the Mets, play each other four times.

That means during those games the Mets are not going to make ground on at least half the field. It also means when they lose, they’re losing ground to half the field.

Couple that with Jacob deGrom dealing with a hamstring spasm. Beyond that spasm not making it possible for deGrom to make multiple short rest starts to help push the Mets over the top, the Mets can’t be sure what deGrom can give them in the event he can pitch.

After deGrom, the Mets are really only guaranteed five good innings from Seth Lugo. Past Lugo, the rotation is a complete and utter mess to the point not even the Mets seem to know who is going to start for them the rest of the way.

So, yes, mathematically, the Mets can still make the postseason. However, when you break it down, even if they put up a completely improbable 10 game winning streak, chances are they’re missing the postseason.