There is no such thing as a bad time to get called-up to the majors. Everything about the majors is better. The money. The travel. The women have long legs and brains. Mostly, it’s what you’ve worked for your entire life.
You don’t want to blow your shot. It’s why now may not be the best time for Matt Reynolds to get called-up.
In Reynold’s last 10 games, he’s hit .175/.214/.275 with no homers and four RBI. He has struck out 15 times. That means Reynolds has struck out 37.5% of the time over his last 10 games. He’s 0-1 in stolen base attempts. After this slump, Reynolds is now hitting .238/.303/.369. Simply put, Reynolds has not played well enough to earn a promotion.
However, he’s getting the promotion because it’s a numbers game. Wilmer Flores is on the DL, and the Mets need a reserve infielder that can play second, third, and short. Reynolds is the only minor league player on the Mets 40 man roster who can do that. So now with Reynolds playing the worst ball he ever has, he’s getting called up.
This is his shot to impress. Considering who the Mets manager is, he’s going to have to impress if he’s going to have a future with the Mets.
Terry Collins has some shortcomings as a manager. The first is he typically relies heavily upon his veterans. The second is that he’s quick to put players in his doghouse. We’ve seen it this season with Collins potentially dangerous use of Jim Henderson rather than using Rafael Montero.
Montero has been in Collins’ doghouse for being injured last year and not pitching effectively this Spring Training. Collins only used Montero when he absolutely had to use him and no more. Montero didn’t produce in his limited chances, and he moved into Collins’ doghouse.
Right now, Reynolds is scuffling. He’s going to get very limited chances, especially with six of the next nine against the Nationals. When Reynolds does get his shot, it’s going to leave a huge impression with his manager. If he gets a basehit, Collins may be inclined to use him more. If he doesn’t get hits, Collins will bury him on the bench. If and when he’s recalled, Collins will again bury him on the bench.
Whether it’s fair or not, Reynolds’ performance will have a big impact on the rest of his Mets career. With the way he’s been playing lately, this chance could not have come at a worse time.
Yesterday’s 0-3 with a strikeout certainly isn’t going to help his cause.
Editor’s Note: this was first published on metsminors.net
Tonight promised to be a pitcher’s duel, and it did not disappoint. The difference in the game was Max Scherzer made two mistakes and Noah Syndergaard made none.
Curtis Granderson took the first pitch from Scherzer, and he homered to right. Scherzer would be careful with Granderson the rest of the game. Granderson would finish the night 2-2 with a run, RBI, the aforementioned homerun, and two walks. It appears that Granderson is breaking out of his May slump.
The Mets needed it too. Before the first pitch, the Mets discovered neither Lucas Duda or David Wright would be available. Wright’s back flared up necessitating he sit. Duda’s own back issues re-emerged requiring him to receive an injection and sit. In their stead, Eric Campbell and Matt Reynolds manned the corners. It was Reynold’s major league debut. He played third, batted ninth, and wore Wright’d glove. Campbell and Reynolds each went 0-3. Campbell struck out twice, and Reynolds struck out once.
It was a lineup reminiscent of last July. Like last July, Granderson provided the offense. Like last July, Michael Conforto came to the rescue. In the third, he homered to right to make it a 2-0 game. Syndergaard did the rest.
Syndergaard pitched seven innings only allowing five hits, no earned, and no walks while striking out 10. He had the pitches coming in at 100 MPH. Before the game, Bryce Harper said at the ESPN Upfront event he was curious as to what would happen against the 100 MPH fastball. The answer was an 0-3 night with two strikeouts against Syndergaard.
Aside from the two mistakes, Scherzer matched Syndergaard pitch for pitch. He allowed three hits, two earned, and three walks while striking out 10. He did all he could do, but he didn’t get much help from anyone other than Daniel Murphy.
It was Murphy’s first game back at Citi Field since signing with the Nationals in the offseason. In the first inning, he made a sparkling defensive play robbing Campbell of a hit:
Daniel Murphy knows this Citi pretty well: https://t.co/adZAVppFSs pic.twitter.com/Ti2okeEWOq
— MLB GIFS (@MLBGIFs) May 17, 2016
After that play, Murphy would get his first official at bat against the Mets. Before the at bat, Murphy would get a well deserved ovation:
Murphy would foul out to third. Before his next at bat, he would be booed. Murphy responded by dropping a single over the head of his replacement, Neil Walker. Overall, Murphy would go 1-3 dropping his batting average from .400 to .399.
Despite Murphy’s and Scherzer’s efforts, the Mets shut down the Nationals. Addison Reed and Jeurys Familia came on and slammed the door shut. The Mets won 2-0, took sole possession of second place, and moved within a half-game of the Nationals. The Mets can take over first place with a win tomorrow.
Game Notes: Kevin Plawecki had a nice game going 1-3 and throwing out Ben Revere trying to steal a base. It was only the fourth runner in 33 attempts thrown out while Syndergaard was on the mound. Of course, Oliver Perez entered the game and got his only batter out. Here was the Mets pregame video tribute to Murphy:
Thank you, Murph!https://t.co/bna7xfzZWX
— New York Mets (@Mets) May 17, 2016
Lost in Daniel Murphy’s return to Citi Field is the fact that we have a good old fashioned pitching duel between the two best teams in the NL East.
The Nationals have Max Scherzer who is coming off a historic 20 strikeout game. The last time he faced the Mets he threw a no-hitter.
The Mets have Noah Syndergaard or
So far this year, Syndergaard is doing things we’ve never seen before and may never see since. In his last start, Syndergaard allowed two earned over eight innings with six strikeouts. By the way, he also hit two homeruns. In his last start against the Nationals, he allowed only two hits and one run over seven innings while striking out 10.
Tonight should be a terrific pitcher’s duel amongst two of the game’s best. Looking over the rosters, just about every time these teams meet, we should see a pitcher’s duel. These 19 games are going to be fun . . . especially when the Mets win them.
Sooner or later someone is going to hit .400. It’s been 75 years since Ted Williams famously played both ends of a double header bumping his batting average from .400 to .406. It was the last time anyone has hit over .400 in a season.
There have been some famous chases for that elusive .400 batting average. In 1980, George Brett was hitting .400 until September 19th. He finished the year hitting .390. In 1994, Tony Gwynn was hitting .394 until August 11th, which was also the last game of the season due to the strike. These were two Hall of Fame players, and they fell short.
Daniel Murphy isn’t a Hall of Famer, but he’s making a charge to hit .400. A big reason why is there is no safe place to pitch him:
I wonder if Nationals 2B Daniel Murphy's .406 heat map looks like Ted Williams' .406 heat map.
Pretty impressive! pic.twitter.com/iaDs0yAPC4
— Mark Simon (@MarkASimonSays) May 7, 2016
Right now, there’s no way to neutralize him. He’s hitting .385 off of righties and .452 off of lefties. He’s hitting .415 at home and .387 on the road. He hit .370 in April, and he’s currently hitting .441 in May. He has played in 38 games, and he’s sitting exactly at .400. Accordingly, he’s 23% of the way there.
In 1941, Williams played in all of the Red Sox 154 games. It wouldn’t be until 1961 that MLB changed to the 162 game schedule. When Williams had played his 38th game, he was hitting .422. He was in the middle of a 16 game stretch where he hit .557 raising his average from .369 to .436.
So Murphy is far off Williams’ pace. Murphy’s chase to .400 is further complicated by his having to face the Mets pitchers 19 times this season. With that said, as we saw last October, with Murphy, anything is possible.
Coming into this season, Fangraphs showed how the Mets switch from Daniel Murphy to Neil Walker would hurt the Mets in 2016. The projections were that Murphy would have a better year in Washington than Walker would have in New York.
So far, the projections were right. Murphy has been better with the Nationals than Walker has been with the Mets. Much better.
Coming into a three game litmus test for both the Mets and Nationals, Murphy is having a career year. He’s leading the big leagues with 56 hits. A month and a half into the season, he’s still hitting a major league leading .400. Among major league second basemen, he’s among the leaders in nearly every statistical category:
- Doubles (13) – 1st NL & 2nd MLB
- Triples (2) – 2nd NL & MLB
- Homers (5) – 3rd NL & 9th MLB
- RBI (3) – 2nd NL & 3rd MLB
- OBP (.433) – 2nd NL & MLB
- SLG (.629) – 1st NL & MLB
- WAR (1.7) – 1st NL & 5th MLB
Murphy is a big reason why the Nationals are in first place. It is unrealistic to expect Murphy to keep up this pace. He’s never been this type of hitter. With that said, it’s a month and a half into the season, and Murphy is showing no signs of slowing down. In fact, he’s been better in May than April. Even without facing the Mets once, he’s been a thorn in their side.
No matter how you look at it, Murphy been the best second baseman in the National League. He’s been the best second baseman to switch teams. Even with Walker tying the Mets record for homers in a single month, the Mets decision to pass on Murphy doesn’t look good.
However, the Mets moving on from Murphy wasn’t about 2016. It was about the future. The Mets, a win-now team, made a decision in Murphy based on the future.
The wisdom of the Mets decision will be judged by how Walker plays this year in comparison to how Murphy plays. It will be judged by how Dilson Herrera plays when he becomes the full time second baseman. It will be judged by how the compensation pick the Mets received for Murphy develops.
Ultimately, the Mets decision will be judged upon whether the Mets win the World Series. Murphy was the Mets best player in the postseason last year. The Mets don’t beat the Dodgers without him. They don’t go to the World Series without him.
It’s too soon to judge the Mets decision on passing on Murphy. However, with him helping the Mets biggest competition in the NL East, the early returns aren’t good.
This is as bad as it gets. You’re down a run against one of the best pitchers in baseball. Your guy is great, but he’s struggling. He just doesn’t have it. You lose this game, and your season is over. Someone has to do something and quick. That’s when Daniel Murphy did this:
With one stolen base, Murphy swung the momentum of that game. With his homer in the sixth, Murphy gave the Mets the lead:
Almost single-handedly, Murphy won Game Five of the NLDS. Without Murphy, the Mets lose in the NLDS.
Instead, the Mets won, and they hosted the Cubs in the NLCS. In his first at bat, Murphy let the Cubs know that 2015 wasn’t going to be their year:
Murphy went off on a homerun binge en route to winning the NLCS MVP Award:
This is all why you give Murphy a massive standing ovation when he steps to the plate tonight. Regardless of how you felt about his time as a Met or his move to the Nationals, you give him a standing ovation. That magical run to the World Series doesn’t happen without Murphy. If you enjoyed one iota of that run, you owe him a standing ovation.
Murphy’s earned it. Stand up and cheer.
The Mets are slumping. They had a rough 4-7 road trip that saw them fall from first to third place in the NL East. That will happen when your position players hit .209/.282/.336 over an eleven game stretch. The team hit .184 with RISP. The overreaction to the slump has caused some people to look for a solution.
Many have pointed to moving David Wright down in the order. With his spinal stenosis any slump could be a signal of the beginning of the end of his career. This is further exacerbated by his possible travel issues. That’s Wright’s new reality. Accordingly, the Mets and Wright should look to do what is best for the team even if that means Wright moves down in the lineup.
The argument for Wright moving down in the order focuses on the aspects of his game that are subpar starting with his strikeouts. According to Fangraphs, he’s striking out 32.6% of the time, which is by far the highest strikeout rate of his career.
Also of concern is Wright’s average with RISP. He’s only hitting .185 with RISP. That’s bad. However, it should make you question why someone would want to drop him lower in the lineup when people are on base. If he’s not driving in batters from the second spot in the lineup, there’s no evidence he will do it batting sixth or seventh in the lineup with more runners in scoring position.
No, you want Wright batting second and setting the table for the Mets big bats. Looking deeper into the numbers, Wright is succeeding in this role.
No matter how you look at the numbers, the fact remains Wright is getting on base. His 18.5% walk rate is the highest in his career. It’s fueling his .373 OBP. His OBP leads the team. That’s eight points higher than the second place Yoenis Cespedes and 20 points higher than the third place Michael Comforto. Cespedes and Conforto also happen to hit third and fourth in the lineup. In essence, Wright is getting on base in front of the team’s big run producers.
As for that tough road trip, Wright struggled like everyone else. He only hit .148/.361/.296. You’d like for him to hit for a better average and more power. However, it must be noted Wright’s .361 OBP was the second highest on the team next to Cespedes.
If we look at Wright’s numbers this year, the fact is he’s a table setter now. He’s the guy that gets on base in front of the Mets big bats like Conforto and Cespedes. So far this year, Wright is doing his job. It’s time the people behind him do their job and knock him in.
When you’re hitting .207/.296/.422 with a -0.4 WAR a month and a half into the season, you begin to wonder if a player is in for a rough year. When that player is 35, you start to wonder if this is the beginning of the end.
Those are the whispers that now surround Curtis Granderson. Are those whispers premature?
After a horrible 2014, Granderson was reunited with Kevin Long. The result was pure magic in 2015. Granderson hit .259/.364/.457 with 26 homers and 70 RBI from the leadoff spot. He had a 128 OPS+, a 132 wRC+, and a 5.1 WAR. As noted above, Granderson’s 2016 numbers are a far cry from that.
What’s happening?
First, Granderson’s BABIP in May was .152. Granderson’s career BABIP is .299 (right around league average). That would suggest Granderson is due for a little luck. With that luck, he could return to his 2015 form. However, there are some warning signs.
According to Fangraphs, Granderson’s hitting a lot of ground balls. His GB/FB ratio is now 0.98 (highest in his career). He’s hitting groundballs 41.2% of the time (highest in his career). Conversely, he’s hitting fewer line drives. He’s only hitting line drives 16.7% of the time (lowest in his career). He’s pulling the ball 45.6% of the time while hitting it up the middle 39.8% of the time.
Long story short, Granderson is getting affected by the shift. That’s going to happen when you hit more groundballs. That’s going to happen when you hit the ball up the middle and to the right side 85.4% of the time. The result is Granderson’s .152 BABIP in May and .227 for the season.
By now means should we look at these numbers and say Granderson is in for a rough 2016. He hit .241/.347/.471 with four homers in April. He was able to hit that well in April despite starting the year on a 1-24 stretch. Also keep in mind, Granderson’s worst month last year was May.
Overall, there is still plenty of time left in the year. Like last year, Granderson can rebound from a rough May to put up terrific numbers. There are warning signs, but sooner or later, we should see the 2015 version of Granderson return . . . or at least the 2016 April version.
Editor’s Note: this article first appeared on metsmerizedonline.com
The Mets bullpen blew a lead, and they found themselves trailing going into the eighth inning needing to score a run to tie the game.
Because there was a lefty on the mound, Terry Collins pinch hit Juan Lagares for Michael Conforto. It paid off as Lagares hit a one out double. The Rockies then intentionally walked Yoenis Cespedes as he’s hitting lefties harder than Rougned Odor hit Jose Bautista. That brought Lucas Duda to the plate, who has been struggling of late. What ensued was an umpire making a horrendous call for the second straight game.
Duda hit a groundball directly at Nolan Arenado. Arenado lunged to tag Lagares, but Lagares juked out of the way. Arenado then threw the ball to first to get Duda for an inning ending double play. You tead that correctly. The umpires ruled Duda hit into an inning ending double play. The reason was the umpires determined Lagares ran out of the baseline.
Before commenting further, there are two things to keep in mind. First, Josh Harrison wasn’t deemed to be out of the baseline in this play against the Mets last year:
Second, Lagares gets three feet:
https://twitter.com/jschapiro_sbr/status/731976606835740672
It’s hard to tell from the angle, but it would appear Lagares was within the allotted three feet. Put it this way, Lagares didn’t step on the infield grass like Harrison did. What happened was the umpire made a horrendous call that potentially affected the outcome of the game.
Terry Collins ran out to argue, but he didn’t exactly get his money’s worth. Based upon his ejection and post game rant Saturday, I’m assuming the umpire told him that if Collins doesn’t pick his words carefully, the Mets won’t get another call the rest of the year.
Mostly, that play was a lot of bad luck for the Mets. First, Duda goes the other way with the pitch, and he hits a sharp grounder away from the shift. Unfortunately, he hits it right at Arenado. Lagares then runs right at the fielder. Now, Lagares could’ve read that ball better and either chose to go behind Arenado or stop thereby ensuring no double play. Instead, he busted it to third presumably hoping he could score.
What happened was Lagares was in a position that Arenado could make a play and the umpire could make a call. It seems when you’re struggling like the Mets are, the ball finds the lone fielder on the left side of the infield, and the umpire makes a bad call.
In any event, the Mets got swept by the Rockies and are returning home for an already over-hyped three game set against the Nationals. With the day off, the Mets should play much better. Hopefully, the umpiring will be much better too.