Carlos Beltran
Yesterday, Wilmer Flores actually fouled a ball off his face:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/f/florewi01.shtml
That is the most Mets injury this season.
Adding to the absurdity of the injury, Flores had to be taken to a Houston area hospital.
Could you just imagine that hospital? “Everyone! Dropwhat you’re doing. We will get to all those affected by the hurricane and subsequent flooding later. A New York Mets player fouled a ball off his face. We need to address this STAT before Ray Ramirez can get to him.”
Throw in the fact this was the second time this season a Mets player hurt himself while swinging. With Flores and Michael Conforto, it really makes you question what activities a Mets player can undertake without hurting themself.
After all was said and done, Flores broke his nose. If Flores is lucky, former Met Carlos Beltran will pay for the surgery to fix his body much like he did for Jon Niese.
Well, we finally have the moment that perfectly encapsulates the Mets 2017 season. We just had to wait for the 135th game of the season and the second game of today’s doubleheader:
Wilmer is lucky he didn't get hit in the eye at least. Gif is before the blood comes don't worry. pic.twitter.com/eRhyMKfJXb
— Meditations in Panic City (@MedInPanicCity) September 3, 2017
That’s right, Wilmer Flores fouled a ball off his face and had to leave the game.
That moment right there is the Mets season. In fact, the whole double header was the Mets season.
In the first game, Matt Harvey was rocked in his first game back from the DL. Yes, you did get the sense Houston seemed to relish teeing off on Harvey. More than anything, they just seemed relieved to be playing baseball.
Harvey only lasted two innings throwing 70 pitches. His final line was two innings, eight hits, seven runs, seven earned, no walks, and three strikeouts.
Harvey had some velocity hitting 94 MPH, but he didn’t have much else. Again, like he’s done many times in the past, he said there were mechanical issues. As history repeats itself, we know Dan Warthen lacks answers.
After that, we got the Major League debuts of Jacob Rhame and Jamie Callahan. Rhame had the more successful debut of the two, but still, both threw some serious heat. Like Harvey, Callahan was abandoned by his defense, but he didn’t pitch well enough to make it an issue.
The shame of Callahan’s tough outing was the Mets made a game of it after a poor Harvey start and bad Tommy Milone relief appearance (2.2 IP, 3 ER).
Dominic Smith hit a two run fourth inning homer to cut the deficit to 7-2. In the seventh, Flores hit a grand slam to make it a 10-7 game.
With Callahan’s poor outing, it would end at 12-8.
Of course, with the doubleheader, we got fun with Collins making lineups.
Despite Brandon Nimmo starting both ends of the doubleheader, he didn’t lead off once because the Mets have Jose Reyes and now have Aoki. Also, we were blessed to see Cabrera play in both ends of the doubleheader.
The Mets were much more competitive in the second game of the doubleheader. Note, competitive, not good.
The main problem was the Mets offense was not doing anything against Brad Peacock. In fact, when the Mets got to him in the sixth, they didn’t really get to him but to George Springer.
Juan Lagares led off the sixth with a triple to right-center. Lagares busted it out of the box, and he appeared to have a shot at the inside-the-park home run. However, Glenn Sherlock held him up at third.
For a moment, it seemed as if the Mets wouldn’t score. Amed Rosario, who came on for Flores, struck out, and Asdrubal Cabrera walked. The Astros then brought in Francisco Liriano to face Smith.
To the surprise of everyone, Terry Collins didn’t PH for Smith. Perhaps that is because Flores was already out of the game.
Smith lined a ball to Springer, which might have been deep enough to score Lagares. It didn’t matter as Springer misplayed it into a double. Because Cabrera is slower than Sid Bream right now, he didn’t score on the play.
It wound up biting the Mets because the horrors of this season continue to repeat themselves.
Seth Lugo cruised through five innings keeping the Astros scoreless. In the sixth, the Astros began going through the lineup for the third time, and they began teeing off on Lugo.
The first three reached against Lugo with the Astros tying the game on a Josh Reddick RBI single. They then took the lead taking advantage of new Met Nori Aoki‘s bad arm.
Astros third base and outfield coach Gary Pettis sent Jose Altuve. With Aoki’s throw up the line, he didn’t give Kevin Plawecki much of a chance to make the tag. Just like that, the lead was gone.
Later, Matt Reynolds got gun shy with a shot to nail the runner at home. He took the sure out at first. With the shift being on, his being far off third allowed Marwin Gonzalez to go to third setting up his scoring on a sac fly.
As if the indignity wasn’t enough, Reynolds lost a ball that was literally lost in the roof. The ball would drop right in front of him just out of his reach.
It appears Houston doesn't have all of its gravity back just yet pic.twitter.com/dsisv6DzKQ
— Meditations in Panic City (@MedInPanicCity) September 3, 2017
Of course because baseball is cruel, a ball would once again go into the rafters:
I don't blame Matt Reynolds for giving up. Horrible thing to say but sometimes kids you might as well. pic.twitter.com/Fxn3cnVGzD
— Meditations in Panic City (@MedInPanicCity) September 3, 2017
After the rough half inning was over, the Mets were down 4-1 with all four runs being charged to Lugo.
In the end, the Mets were swept in the doubleheader by a MUCH better team. They lost to a team representing a city who needed this distraction. Hopefully, those who are still suffering were able to take some time and enjoy these games.
As Mets fans, we’re hard-pressed to enjoy any of this. The veterans are still playing over the prospects. The players are still getting hurt. The pitchers are still struggling.
Game Notes: Reports indicate once the Rumble Ponies season is over, Tomas Nido will get called up to the majors. Former Met Carlos Beltran did not appear in either end of the doubleheader. He is dealing with a foot injury.
Back in 2005, Pedro Martinez was having a Cy Young caliber season that was about to be cut short due to a toe injury. From Rick Peterson to Willie Randolph to the training staff, they all agreed with the Mets out of the race, Pedro should shut it down for the rest of the year. However, there was one person that didn’t agree – Jeff Wilpon.
As Pedro would later tell in his the eponymous book “Pedro,” Jeff Wilpon approached him telling him to pitch to help the Mets sell-out a September 22nd game against Dontrelle Willis and the Marlins. Pedro protested leading to an argument where Pedro even offered to give back the rest of his contract. Ultimately, he pitched because, as Wilpon told him, “While I’m the boss here, you’re going to have to do what I say.” (Tyler Kepner, New York Times).
While we can never be sure of the root cause of the injury, this moment resonates as Pedro would suffer a torn rotator cuff making him unavailable for the 2006 postseason. That was one of many what-ifs that happened that year.
Fast forward a decade.
Last year, Steven Matz had what was described as a massive bone spur the team knew needed to be removed surgically. Rather than have the surgery right away, Matz was pumped full of cortisone shots, told to scrap the slider, and pitched until he could no longer pitch. The odd thing is Matz initially didn’t want to go this route.
As Jon Heyman of Today’s Knuckleball reported, “[Matz] was seriously considering surgery, and maybe even leaning that way, before a meeting with the Mets brass.” Sound familiar?
During Spring Training this year, Matz had arm issues, which he self-described as a strained flexor tendon. The team disagreed with an unnamed Mets official with knowledge of Matz’s medical care telling Bob Klapisch of the Bergen Record, “Our [doctors] found nothing wrong.”
The answer was once again to pitch through the pain and to abandon the slider. Matz continued to pitch despite his elbow reportedly swelling to the size of a grapefruit.
One thing that is quite notable is a passage from Marc Carig’s Newsday column on the topic, “Matz insisted on powering through, perhaps in defiance of a reputation he’s gained for often being injured. And the Mets proceeded as if he were dealing with inflammation.” More damning was this statement, “One source described a belief by some in the organization that Matz was simply learning to get over the ‘mental hurdle’ of pitching through pain.”
Certainly, this wasn’t the first time we’ve heard people discuss Matz needing to learn the difference between pitching through pain and pitching hurt. Ron Darling has made the point a number of times during games. His manager Terry Collins previously said Matz needed to learn how to pitch through his issues. (Anthony Rieber, Newsday).
Seeing these comments, we should not be surprised the Mets were completely blind-sided by Matz’s recent ulnar nerve injury and need for surgery. It is even less surprising considering the team and team doctors dealt with the same issue with Jacob deGrom.
Seeing this happen time and again, we all look to point the finger at someone. Over the past decade, we have see a change at General Manager, manager, and pitching coach. The Mets have been affiliated with the Hospital for Special Surgery, which is one of the top hospitals in the country. Many will point to Ray Ramirez, but he is actually well-regarded in his field. No, the issue is the Mets organizational culture.
In 2005, they forced Pedro to pitch. In 2010, they were livid Carlos Beltran had knee surgery, which turned out to be a necessary and possibly career saving procedure. Now, they have both pressured Matz to pitch and are surprised by his suffering as a result. Really, the only thing that isn’t surprising is the Mets culture not changing over the past decade. How can it with Jeff Wilpon still calling the shots?
Look, we can all agree the Dodgers are a much better team than the Mets. There are several reasons why this is the case, and there is another time to re-evaluate how the Mets have gone from beating the Dodgers in the 2015 NLDS to being completely over-matched in a three game series where Clayton Kershaw didn’t even pitch.
Teams have bad series all the time. Even when the Mets are good, we see clunkers like this from time to time. However, this series seemed more than that. This was a team thoroughly out-classed on the field. It makes you shudder when you consider the Mets had Jacob deGrom and Seth Lugo going.
At this point, it’s time to press the reset button. We all know the Mets aren’t going to the postseason. With each passing day, even getting to .500 is a pipe dream. For what it’s worth, getting to .500 is detrimental. The Mets need to lose as many games as they can to get the best possible draft pick they can in the 2018 draft. You want the Mets to be able to go and draft the next Michael Conforto.
No matter what happens, we know the Mets are going to continue to lose a number of games to close out the season. That’s fine. We’ve all accepted it. What we cannot accept is turning on the game and watching a team lose without any purpose whatsoever.
What is the team accomplishing by playing Wilmer Flores and Jay Bruce at first base? Neither one of them are going to be the first baseman next year. That job is going to Dominic Smith. With each game Flores and Bruce play first, and Smith remains in the minors, the Mets have accomplished absolutely nothing.
What does playing Curtis Granderson everyday accomplish? He’s been a good Met and an even better man. He’s also accepted a role as the team’s fourth outfielder. It’s likely he will be gone after the 2017 season. With each game he plays, you learn nothing about him. All the while, Brandon Nimmo sits languishing on your bench not even getting at-bats in Triple-A to help him improve as a player.
For that matter, why is Gavin Cecchini in Triple-A? Do we really need to learn more about Jose Reyes and Asdrubal Cabrera? Isn’t one or two of them likely gone after the season? If not, aren’t their roles going to be much different in 2018? Reyes should be firmly on the bench in 2018, and Cabrera has shown he should be at third base. If that is the case, why isn’t Cecchini playing second base over these two?
Ultimately, you can justify playing any of the aforementioned veterans you want. Certainly, you want Neil Walker to showcase himself to teams after a lengthy disabled list stint. However, the aforementioned veterans have already been showcased and teams have passed on them for a variety of reasons. Playing them everyday serves this Mets team no purposes. That is unless the Mets are going to have a huge push to celebrate Bruce passing Carlos Beltran and Todd Hundley for the Mets single season home run record like they pushed Reyes winning the Mets first ever batting title. Note, Reyes’ batting title didn’t exactly draw fans to the park.
Calling up Amed Rosario was a step in the right direction. Seeing Paul Sewald pitch in some high leverage situations is another step. Taking a chance on Chris Flexen was inspired. However, it’s simply not enough. Sooner or later, Mets fans are going to tune out these games . . . if they haven’t already.
To that end, it’s time to get Smith and Cecchini up here and play them everyday or close to it. Fans would rather see them work through some growing pains at the major league level than watch Bruce, Cabrera, Granderson, Reyes, and Walker lose in lackluster fashion.
It’s time to turn the page if for no other reason than it’s time to give fans a reason to watch what has become a dreadful team.
Looking at the numbers, Jay Bruce is having one of his better seasons as a professional and a much better season than most expected with his nightmare stint with the Mets last year. So far, he has played in 91 games hitting .264/.328/.523 with 25 homers and 67 RBI. If he were to finish the season with the Mets, he may very possibly challenge the Mets single season home run mark of 41 shared by Todd Hundley and Carlos Beltran. He should not get that chance.
Simply put, the Mets have to trade Jay Bruce at the trade deadline.
The 30 year old right fielder is a free agent at the end of the season. Given the fact the Mets are not going anywhere this season with or without him, there is no reason to hold onto him. There’s even less reason when you consider the Mets are probably better off without him next year.
Heading into next year, the Mets will have Yoenis Cespedes and Michael Conforto firmly set in the Mets outfield for the next three years. During their tenure with the Mets, both players have shown they are capable of handling center on a short term basis, but both players have also shown they should not be playing center field on a full time basis. With respect to Cespedes, it is clear neither side wants him moving back to center.
On Conforto’s part, he seemingly wants to play the position. On the surface, he appears serviceable at the position with a 225.2 innings at the position, Conforto has a 0 DRS and a 1.2 DRS. Given his work ethic and his athletic ability, he could improve those numbers. However, he’s not likely to improve them to the point where he’s a good enough defender at the position.
Ultimately, the Mets need a good center fielder. Their Mets center fielders, including Conforto, have posted a 0 DRS, which is 18th in the majors. The Mets are in the bottom half of the league defensively at an important defensive position. That has been a common theme with this team. This is a bad defensive team that has been bad at key defensive positions.
This has had a direct result on the struggles on the pitching staff. As a team, the Mets pitchers have allowed an absurdly high .320 BABIP, which is dead last in the majors. Yes, the pitching staff has had some issues, and yes, the left side of the infield, which is atrocious with a -29 DRS contribute to this. Another contributing factor is the lack of a true center fielder who can cover the amount of ground a major league center fielder needs to cover. Again, the Mets center fielders are 18th in the majors. The team needs an upgrade.
Part of that is finally finding out what Brandon Nimmo can provide. At a minimum, the Mets need to see if he can platoon with Juan Lagares next year. For that to happen, the Mets need to trade Jay Bruce to free up some playing time for Nimmo.
If Nimmo can handle the job, great. If not, the Mets could decide to go with Lagares, or they can look outside the organization for players like Lorenzo Cain. The one thing they cannot do is bring back Jay Bruce.
Bruce has been a good player for the Mets, he has been healthy, and he has done all the team has asked him to do. The reward for that is to send him to a contender. It’s not to bring him back on an overpriced deal or to risk getting stuck overpaying him on a qualifying offer next year. Bringing him back is only going to cement the Mets defensive problems, and it is going to lead to another season like this. No one should want that, Jay Bruce included.
Accordingly, it is time the Mets put defense front and center, and move on from Jay Bruce.
Back when the Mets traded Carlos Beltran for Zack Wheeler, the Mets touted the trade as the team adding another potential ace that would one day serve as one of the cornerstones of a rotation that would bring the Mets their third World Series title. Unfortunately, with Wheeler missing two years after his Tommy John surgery, it hasn’t happened that way.
In the time he was gone, he almost became expendable. Matt Harvey was the ace in 2013, and he was well on his way in 2015 to re-claiming that spot. Jacob deGrom went from 2014 Rookie of the Year to the Game 1 starter of the 2015 NLDS. Noah Syndergaard brought a repertoire that included a 100 MPH fastball and a mid 90s slider. Throw in the tantalizing talent of Steven Matz, and the Mets almost moved Wheeler in 2015 as part of the ill-fated Carlos Gomez deal. With Gomez’s hips, Wheeler remained a Met, but after he missed all of 2016 as well, he was almost an afterthought.
Now, he has gone from damaged goods to the staff ace. After shaking off some rust in the early part of the season, he really has been a dominant starting pitchers. Since May, Wheeler has made six starts going 2-1 with a 2.48 ERA, 1.431 WHIP, and a 7.7 K/9 while averaging over six inning per start. Last night, we watched Wheeler play the part of the stopper with him going seven strong and giving the Mets a chance to snap the Mets out of a funk that saw the team lose five out of its last six games.
Now, many would point to the fact Wheeler is now the staff ace because the rest of the rotation is either injured or has struggled. Syndergaard is likely gone for the year with a torn lat. Matz and Seth Lugo have yet to throw a pitch this season. Harvey and deGrom have not been the same pitchers after last year’s season ending surgeries. And frankly, anyone is better than Rafael Montero, Adam Wilk, and Tommy Milone. Still, even if everyone was pitching to their best abilities, Wheeler would stand out.
It’s easy to forget, but we did get a taste of this with Wheeler. In 2014, Wheeler had a stretch from July until September 6th where he made 12 terrific starts. In those starts, Wheeler was 7-1 with a 2.28 ERA, 1.213 WHIP, and an 8.9 K/9. During that stretch, Wheeler looked like the ace the Mets thought they were getting when they traded away Beltran. It was during that stretch where you believed the three starters who would carry the Mets to the World Series were Harvey, deGrom, and Wheeler.
It seems as if Wheeler is recapturing some of what he was back in that terrific 2014 stretch. If he is, he is certainly becoming the ace the Mets believed he could be. More than anything, he is the ace the Mets need right now.
No matter how bad the Mets are, I am in front of the TV, or I have the radio on to see how the game is going. Heck, even on the day I was married, I tipped the limo driver extra to give me score updates. Jon Niese was starting that day, and Carlos Beltran wasn’t playing due to his pre-season knee surgery, so I had to tip a little extra. I use that as the context for my going to sleep last night.
The Mets are not just playing bad baseball right now, they’re playing depressing baseball right now. It was the same thing yesterday.
To start the game, the Mets had Zack Greinke on the ropes. After Curtis Granderson earned a bases loaded walk, the Mets rally ended. Sure, it is unreasonable to expect Tommy Milone to deliver an RBI in that spot. And yes, it is hard to get on Michael Conforto for striking out in that spot considering how good he has been to start the season. The Mets offense has also been humming of late, so again, you can’t get on the offense too much. Still, it was demoralizing because with Milone on the mound, you knew the Mets needed more than just that one run.
And they did. Gregor Blanco hit a two RBI single to give the Diamondbacks a 2-1 lead. After Paul Goldschmidt was intentionally walked, Chris Owings hit an RBI single to make it 3-1. At that point, you figured things can’t possibly get any worse. It did. Owings would break for second, and Rene Rivera would have nailed him if Owings didn’t get caught in a run-down. While this is happening, Lucas Duda notices Goldschmidt break for home, and of course, he makes a terrible throw home allowing Goldschmidt to score.
As a Mets fan, you were disgusted. Right now, the team is finding different ways to make watching them more painful. Duda reminding you of the Eric Hosmer play took the cake.
I didn’t go to bed immediately. The anger had to subside. I got to see the Granderson homer. No, I wasn’t fooled into thinking they would win the game. I feel asleep not to long after that. I didn’t even try to fight it. I subsequently missed the Rivera two run homer, and the Paul Sewald appearance.
Overall, it doesn’t matter. It’s hard to watch this team right now, and it is harder to watch them when games start at 9:30 at night. Thankfully, today’s game starts at 3:40. As a result, you will only lose sleep over them going over what transpired during the game as opposed to watching those things transpire.
Game Notes: Asdrubal Cabrera finally hit the disabled list, and the Mets added Neil Ramirez and his 8.71 ERA to help the bullpen.
With Opening Day already behind us, it is now time to look forward to see how the rest of the 2017 season will progress. Yes, this is the typically ill-fated projections post. As with anything else, this will likely be wrong by season’s end, and with any luck, I will be reminded of it come October.
AL East – Boston Red Sox
The Red Sox won the division last year with an MVP caliber season from Mookie Betts, Rick Porcello with a more ways than one surprising Cy Young season, and lots of young talent. The team will be hurt by the loss of David Ortiz, but they will be helped by the addition of Chris Sale, who should help boost a rotation that has David Price as a question mark. Considering the rest of the AL East downgraded as well, it it fair to surmise the downgraded Red Sox roster will stay on top.
AL Central – Cleveland Indians
So, the American League Pennant winners add Edwin Encarnacion, get Michael Brantley back, and return Carlos Correa from injury? That’s the rich getting richer. This team is poised to not only win the division again, but they should be poised to return to the World Series.
AL West – Texas Rangers
This team is truly going to benefit from a full season of Jonathan Lucroy behind the plate, and they are also going to benefit from a full season from Yu Darvish. Combine that with a good bullpen, an excellent manager in Jeff Banister, and veteran leaders in Adrian Beltre and Mike Napoli, you have a team that will get the most of its roster and be able to win those close and tight games like they did last year.
AL Wild Card 1 – Houston Astros
The Astros will probably lose the division due to the lack of depth in their starting pitching. However, with a deep lineup that has George Springer–Alex Bregman–Jose Altuve–Carlos Correa–Carlos Beltran as their top five hitters. Combine that with Beltran’s leadership and mentoring of young players, and this is a team that will give the Rangers all they can give them.
AL Wild Card 2 – Seattle Mariners
The Mariners fell heartbreakingly short last season, and they have improved the roster with Jerry DiPoto suddenly becoming Trader Jack McKeon. To name a few, the Mariners added Jean Segura, Yovani Gallardo, and Drew Smyly to what was already a pretty good team with Felix Hernandez, Robinson Cano, and Kyle Seager.
NL East – New York Mets
The Nationals are certainly more formidable than they were last year with them having a full year of Trea Turner and with the Adam Eaton acquisition. However, on the pitching side, they do not have the depth they typically have, and that is an issue with Stephen Strasburg‘s medical history and Max Scherzer having questionable health entering the season. Ultimately, it is the Mets depth that should carry the team over the Nationals in what promises to be a tight race.
NL Central – Chicago Cubs
They won the World Series last year, and they get Kyle Schwarber back into the lineup everyday and add Wade Davis to the bullpen. The real question is not whether they win the division, but whether they get to 100 wins again.
NL West – Los Angeles Dodgers
Like with the National League East, the top two teams are very close, and it’s picking hairs to separate them. If you look at it Clayton Kershaw is better than Madison Bumgarner. Kenley Jansen is better than Mark Melancon. Johnny Cueto is better than another other pitcher the Dodgers have, but the Dodgers have a deeper rotation than the Giants. The Dodgers also arguably have the deeper lineup. If it goes in the reverse, no one should be surprised, but ultimately, the Dodgers appear better on paper.
NL Wild Card 1 – San Francisco Giants
When you have Buster Posey, Brandon Crawford, and two aces atop your rotation, it is hard to believe you are going to miss the postseason in its entirety.
NL Wild Card 2 – Washington Nationals
While the team is not deep and has some issues, there are real strengths. Bryce Harper and Daniel Murphy are as good and as clutch a 3-4 combination as there is. The bullpen with Koda Glover, Joe Blanton, Shawn Kelley, and Blake Treinen could be dominant. Again, their only real question is health.
Postseason Series
AL Wild Card Game – Postseason Beltran and the Astros offense overcomes King Felix in his first ever postseason start.
ALDS – In what proves to be a slugfest, the better Astros lineup carries them past the Red Sox. In the other ALDS matchup, the Indians pitching, including the unleashing of Andrew Miller proves to be too much for the Rangers.
ALCS – The Indians pitching proves to be too much for a hot hitting Astros team leading them to consecutive World Series appearances.
NL Wild Card Game – Pick your reason: (1) Bumgarner; or (2) it’s technically a postseason series.
NLDS – This year, the Giants with an improved bullpen won’t be denied as Cueto and Bumgarner led the Giants past the Cubs. The Mets and the Dodgers 2015 NLDS matchup is not as intense as the Dodgers only have Kershaw to match the Mets aces leaving the Mets to be able to get past them a little easier this go-round.
NLCS – Bumgarner and Cueto are offset by Noah Syndergaard and Jacob deGrom. After that, the Mets can pick from Matt Harvey, Steven Matz, Robert Gsellman, Zack Wheeler, or maybe even Seth Lugo. You’d probably take any of them over the Giants next best starter Jeff Samardzija. As such, the Mets pitching outlasts the Giants pitching.
World Series – As painful as this is to say, Terry Francona just manages his way around Terry Collins and brings the Indians their first World Series title since 1948.