Mets Give deGrom Run Support As Postseason Hopes Officially End
It is typical Mets that they lose on a night when Jacob deGrom is absolutely phenomenal on the mound.
With his pitching seven scoreless, he now has a streak of 23.0 scoreless innings. He also had seven strikeouts while allowing one walk. After all was said and done, he picked up his 11th win of the year en route to what should be his second straight Cy Young.
It was a refreshing change of pace to see him get run support. The offense exploded for nine runs over the first three innings. There were a number of extra base hits with Jeff McNeil, Michael Conforto, Amed Rosario, and Brandon Nimmo each having RBI doubles. There was also Pete Alonso hitting his 51st homer:
The crack of the bat >>> pic.twitter.com/wejfJnGfXl
— New York Mets (@Mets) September 26, 2019
That puts Alonso just one behind Aaron Judge‘s rookie record. It also means every homer Alonso hits from here on out will be the rookie record.
This game was exactly how this series was supposed to go with the Mets winning 10-3. If that’s the case, how did that Mets lose?
Well, the Brewers beat the Reds 9-2. With that, the Mets are officially eliminated from the postseason. It was made all the worse with McNeil leaving the game with what proved to be a broken hand on a hit by pitch. Thus ends a valiant effort.
Game Notes: Curtis Granderson was given an ovation during the game in what could be one of his last games. On that note, it was reported Granderson wants to play next year.
Sucks about McNeil breaking his hand. We’re five months away from spring training so no worries about that but sucks to see his season ended prematurely and his offseason work being interrupted- he had a wonderful season and was a joy to watch this year. Speaking of a joy to watch deGrom was spectacular again and finished the season like a thoroughbred and dominated with his changeup today more than the slider. Jake has the cy young wrapped up now. Pete clobbered one and Conforto continues to rake and Rosario made two spectacular plays he never comes close to making just four months ago.
All in all, sucks to be eliminated but this was a fun season and there are building block here with a tremendous young core.
It was a fun finish. Rather than point out the issues, I’ll tip my cap instead to these players.
McNeil was enormous fun to watch. What a gifted, skilled player–like watching a scientist at work, at the plate.
Let’s hope the break is clean. Those injuries can linger, and the hand of a surgical hitter? Yikes.
Alonso’s head is now bobbing around when he hits, contrary to most of the season and contrary to what has been working for him. Still, the kid’s so strong he can hit home runs without shifting his weight and just by flicking the bat at an outside pitch while he’s all but falling forward. 5 games to hit 2 HR and own the record outright? He’s got a good shot.
deGrom’s amazing. It was interesting to see him rally after a slow start to the year, while Syndergaard didn’t, really. Seemed to be the difference between a smart pitcher and a guy who just doesn’t figure out how to adjust and only has raw talent to work with. I’m betting tonight sealed the deal wrt the Cy Young award. deGrom deserves it. I had him at 7 WAR for the season–a step back from 2018 but also a step up from his previous work, since he’d established a new level of performance. With a second Cy, the ROY, two more Cy fragments in 2015 and 2017 he’s definitely created for himself a path to the HOF. Late start, and only 1100 innings and 65 wins to date, but with 35 bWAR he’s at least halfway there by that measure. A lot will depend on how the voters eventually judge pitchers from this era, with the lowest workload in MLB history for SP’s, but with higher ERA+’s for the top tier of pitchers more easily available. I remember noticing that a typical HOFer, bottom tier but solidly in, had about 3000 innings and an ERA+ of 125. A guy like Tom Glavine would go in with a much lower ERA+ but significantly more IP, career. deGrom’s got 1100 innings and an ERA+ of 147. Pedro Martinez got to about 2800 innings with an ERA+ of 154. He’s more the model for deGrom than guys like Greg Maddux or Glavine. Will deGrom go in with something like 2500 innings and an ERA+ of 140, if he can pitch into his late 30s? Time will tell.
—Granderson as a 5th OFer who should never face a lefthander… maybe. The Mets need backup OFers who can play CF, though, so he’s not really a fit. Not with McNeil, Nimmo, Conforto, Smith, and JD Davis on the roster, none of whom is really a CFer. And given Nimmo’s fragility, and that he’s the only one of those five who can fake CF, the Mets probably need to add 2 CFers. With their self-imposed payroll restrictions and the fact that Smith and Davis have turned into real hitters, the team should be picking up guys with the skill level of a Billy Hamilton, Jr. In short, guys who make at most 2m in 2020 and can easily handle CF, and who project to be at least replacement level and ideally better in CF. The problem with Granderson is that he can’t play CF any more, and at this point his upside is replacement level. What will the Mets have to spend on OFers next year–$2m? 3m?
They also need to have a solidly replacement level CFer in Syracuse going into 2020 so they don’t have to chase DFA’s like Aaron Altherr. Good lord.
It’ll be interesting to see how they play out the string– I assume they’ll get a push from the ego-driven FO to play as if it was the postseason. Interesting to see Cano finally moved down to 6th in the lineup once it didn’t matter. He was only there once before, on Sept 14th. He was also the worst hitter in the majority of the lineups the Mets have had this year, the worst hitter of the eight position players, yet his most frequent batting order position was 3rd. Then 4th. They move him down to 6th when they finally know it’s over. Throughout the season, though, the Mets hit the guy who was typically their worst hitter, 3rd and cleanup. That surely cost them some fraction of a win. It’s just unbelievable.
You try to stay positive but the reality of this team just keeps hitting you in the face.
This, btw, is probably the most appropriate epitaph to the Mets season, spoken August 15th:
” ‘I bet 85 percent of our decisions go against the analytics,’ Callaway said. ‘And that is how it’s always going to be, because that is just on paper. It doesn’t take into account the person is a human being [yes it does], how he performs in these big spots [yes it does], all these things a manager looks at.’ ”
—–How is it possible he even passed the early portion of the interview process? How was he not fired after this? It’s like saying “I want to lose. I’m going to look for ways to lose.” It’s a bald statement that he simply doesn’t understand the most basic part of his job.
Callaway again: “You’re going against analytics most of the time [unbelievable], but I think there is something to be said when all things are equal and you are taking all these things into consideration and the decision still feels very equal, let’s lean on what does the matchup look like? [incoherent] What does the projection that our analytics department is coming up with, what does it look like, and if it’s a lot of points one way or the other [surreal] I think that is something to take into consideration to try to make a better decision.” [Callaway said there that when analytics is at it’s least helpful, THAT is when he’ll take it “into consideration.”]
https://nypost.com/2019/08/15/mickey-callaway-threw-away-the-math-in-mystifying-mets-call/
—-This is a clear disqualifier from the job. Like it or not, correct baseball decisions are largely the result of analytics; they’re largely science, largely statistics. It doesn’t matter if a manager likes statistics or not, if he refuses to abide by what they dictate “85% of the time,” how is it possible he has the job he does? He might as well be casting spells using chicken bones and making decisions based on die rolls, while wearing a shirt that says “Born to Lose.”
Well, at least we know why the Mets had no real chance. In addition to being a poorly constructed team with little of the depth teams today need when using 50-55 players over the course of the season, they have a manager who is guaranteed to cost them games–several games. They were constantly playing off their back foot, constantly trying to overcome their manager’s ineptitude–that had the wrong players trying to do the wrong things for the wrong reasons. All with the manager’s and the FO’s approval and complicity.
I feel sorry for the players–they never really had a chance.
Callaway initially was allowed to use analytics to inform decisions. For example, last year, he started Lagares due to deGrom’s flyball rate.
After the Mets 5-21 June, they went back to a non-analytical approach.
Your defense of a historically bad manager is mystifying.
Callaway isn’t remotely historically bad