20/20 Hindsight: Mets Play Worse Than Awful Players’ Weekend Uniforms Looked
As has seemingly been the case since the dawn of time, the Mets played a big series against the Braves, and the Braves left them in the dust. Somehow, the Mets were not all that worse for ware:
1. Congratulations are due to Pete Alonso who tied Todd Hundley‘s and Carlos Beltran‘s Mets single season mark for homers. Of note, this broke his tie with Mike Piazza for single season homers by a right-handed batter.
2. That homer should’ve been a momentum change in Saturday’s game and for the rest of the series. Instead, due to the way the Mets played, it proved to be a footnote.
3. Speaking of historic footnotes, Jacob deGrom became the first ever pitcher to homer in a game where he struck out 13 batters twice in his career. In that game, the Mets struck out 26 tying a Major League record.
4. With the Yankees roughing up Hyun-Jin Ryu, we should be reminded the Cy Young race is still wide open. On that front, deGrom leads the league in bWAR, fWAR, and strikeouts while being top five in nearly every important statistical category.
5. Steven Matz has also been great recently. On Sunday, he ripped off his fourth straight start of at least six innings allowing two earned or fewer. Of course, with the way the Mets played in this series, he’d take the loss.
6. Two of the three losses were games Billy Hamilton had a huge impact. He got the game winning hit in one, and he scored from first on a single on what proved to be Ronald Acuna‘s game winning two RBI single.
7. One of the reasons Hamilton scored from first was J.D. Davis‘ not hustling in to field it and his weak throw back to the infield. It should be noted he’s a -7 DRS in left.
8. The only thing uglier than his defense was the uniforms this weekend. Seriously, what’s the point of having uniforms promoting players and their personalities if you can’t read them.
9. The only thing worse than that was not claiming Hamilton so you can keep having Aaron Altherr on the bench. To end the narratives, no, Hamilton would not have been designated for assignment when Jeff McNeil and/or Brandon Nimmo returned, especially with rosters expanding in September.
10. Nimmo’s recent rehab appearance looks promising. If he’s right, and Juan Lagares keeps hitting while playing Gold Glove defense, you have to wonder how long the Mets will be willing to live with Davis and his cooling bat in left.
11. No need to speak of Jed Lowrie‘s rehab until he plays consecutive days in the field or even a full game in the field.
12. On the topic of injuries, the Mets need to be heavily fined for how they handled Tomas Nido‘s concussion. He was hit on the head with the follow through of Josh Donaldson‘s back swing and went down. He had to be pulled then and not finish the inning with him then going through concussion protocol between innings. This is not okay.
13. This wasn’t the Mets only terrible decision. Mickey Callaway having Amed Rosario bunt was one of the dumbest decisions he’s made as Mets manager. He doubled down by overmanaging ordering a hit-and-run with Joe Panik. Panik swung and missed, and Rosario was caught at second easily.
14. There was also Callaway not pinch hitting Wilson Ramos for Rene Rivera. The decision made zero sense, and Rivera ended that rally.
15. That’s right, just like Carlos Gomez and Ruben Tejada, Rivera is back because nostalgia is apparently more fun than actual depth and winning.
16. On the Rivera point, Francisco Cervelli was released by the Pirates and was picked up by the Braves. Yes, he’s been bad, bout Nido was hitting .088/.162/.176 in the second half. With Ramos’ injury history, the Mets needed more depth, and they passed on that depth. Like with Hamilton, Cervelli made the Mets pay.
17. Brad Brach needs to be better. After allowing runs on three of his last five appearances, his 7.50 Mets ERA is higher than what it was with the Cubs before he was released. The Mets can’t afford for him to be this while Edwin Diaz is dealing with a trap issue. If he’s not, Paul Sewald May take his spot on the depth chart.
18. This series and history highlights why the Braves are the Mets biggest rival and should be the most hated team by Mets fans, not the Nationals.
19. If you’ve ever heard anyone scream about Brian Jordan, Mel Rojas, Kenny Rogers, or anything Armando Benitez and weren’t quite sure why the vitriol, just look at this series. Mets-Braves games in the late 90s were always like this series.
20. Feel depressed after watching this series? Don’t be. The Mets went from two games out of the Wild Card to two games out of the Wild Card. They’re now hosting the Cubs, the team currently in the second Wild Card spot, and they’re a bad road team.
Mickey managed like Jerry Manuel all series long dude is cracking under the pressure.
I wouldn’t go that far. Callaway didn’t manage like he wanted the Mets to lose
Davis is nowhere near as good a player as Nimmo, and highlight reel plays don’t make him a capable player.
His recent hot streak was fueled by a .400+ BABIP which has not been able to be sustained in the 150+ year history of baseball.
Minor league stats don’t make a player, nor do hot streaks.
Aug 27 game v Cubs, the bench is Rajai Davis, Guillorme, Lagares, and Rivera. That bench has 4 HR this year. The bullpen is Avilan, Brach, Diaz, Familia, Lugo, Mazza, Sewald, Wilson, w ERAs of 4.26, 6.31, 5.55, 6.00, 3.14, 5.19, 3.00, and 2.22. Their FIPs are worse.
Panik’s batting 7th. Frazier at 8th is down to .226/.300/.404. There’s no one on the bench at all if a rally got going. Lagares might actually have to ph.
After the August 27th loss, the 4th straight loss, w the Mets at 67-64, their main rivals are WAS at 73-58 and the Cubs at 70-61. The loss puts the Mets 3+ GB for the wildcard. It’s the loser of the Chi and StL race for the NL Central title that the Mets are battling with. They’re also against Phi 68-63, Mil at 67-65, Ariz at 67-66, even SF at 65-67. That’s not a good chance, and they already surrendered their #4 and #6 minor leaguers, and what they’d get for Wheeler and Frazier.
–So even after a streak of stunning good luck, even bizarre malfeasance and ineptitude by other teams and managers sufficient to finally kick them over the .500 line, the Mets are still at least 3 games behind two better teams. Philadelphia, and either Chicago or St. Louis–one of which will win the Central while the other will come in 2nd.
Unlike most contending teams the Mets have suffered no unexpected injuries to key players except of the self-inflicted kind, such as with Nimmo, where once injured he was still run out there every day until the known, existing injury was so aggravated he hit the IL for months.
The Mets have also suffered no injuries to their rotation, even after voluntarily getting rid of the only SP depth they’ve had. It’s a remarkable display of extraordinary luck overcoming marked FO ineptitude. Striking, really.
On the down side, deGrom and Syndergaard will hit 200 innings pitched by season’s end. Syndergaard’s never gone over 184 innings. Stroman will hit 180 IP, a jump of 80 innings over last season. Matz will get to a personal high of 160 ip. Wheeler is on track for the same kind of season, a personal high of 190 ip. Lugo will get to a personal high in games pitched by 13. Some of the regular position players are being played into the ground.
And now the team has to finish the Cubs series, go to Philadelphia and Washington, then play Philly again, then an Arizona team with a much better RA/RS than the Mets, then the Dodgers. It’s likely to be ugly, leaving 13 games to play against some very poor teams. It may well be too late by then.
Still, the Cleveland sweep was a very pleasant surprise, so we’ll see. But this is a mismanaged, badly run team that is essentially a .500 club that can only contend thanks to a weak NL this year after the Dodgers. It’s not likely they’ll make the postseason.