Musings
Yesterday, the New York Jets traded Defensive Lineman Leonard Williams to the New York Giants for a 2020 third round draft pick and a conditional 2021 fifth round draft pick. This is a shocking trade between teams who don’t just share a city but a building.
It was a gamble for the Giants in taking on an enigmatic player who is a pending free agent. For the Jets, this was seen as a coup to get a good return for a player they were not re-signing. However, if the Giants are able to get Williams to play like someone who was once the third overall pick in the draft, the Jets will constantly be reminded of their failure.
At the end of the day, who cares? Both the Giants and Jets did what they thought was best for their franchises. They put the fears aside, and they made a football trade just like they would’ve done with any other team. Somehow, this concept eludes the Mets.
Back in 2017, the New York Yankees were rumored to have interest in Lucas Duda. However, rather than trading Duda to the Yankees, the Mets opted to trade him to the Tampa Bay Rays for Drew Smith. There were rumors the Yankees could’ve bested the offer of what was just one relief prospect, but there was no real confirmation of what that return would be.
The Yankees were also to have been interested in Neil Walker. The Mets eventually wound up trading him to the Milwaukee Brewers for Eric Hanhold, a player the Mets recently designated for assignment so they could keep pitchers like Drew Gagnon, Donnie Hart, and Chris Mazza. In terms of the Yankees, we are not sure what they would offer, and there are some rumors the Yankees backed out of their deal because of Walker’s medicals.
Finally, there was Jay Bruce. The Yankees were reported to offer multiple prospects for him. Instead, the Mets moved him to the Cleveland Indians for Ryder Ryan, a converted reliever.
Over the past few years, the Yankees have been rumored interested in a number of Mets players like Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, and Zack Wheeler. Those trades never materialized, but then again, no trade ever materialized between the Mets and another team with those players.
Still, the point remains there has long been a hesitation between the Mets and Yankees to make a trade. While it does seem to mostly come from the Mets side, there is assuredly some hesitation from the Yankees as well. That may be in no small part due to their Pedro Feliciano experience, or inexperience as it proved to be, and they may also harbor the same issues which are imputed on the Mets.
Whomever is to blame, they need to get over themselves, and they need to make smart trades between themselves to benefit both teams.
The Yankees have seen former Mets like Carlos Beltran, David Cone, and Darryl Strawberry play well for them. The Mets have seen former Yankees like Curtis Granderson, Orlando Hernandez, and Al Leiter play well for them. This is of little surprise as good players who can handle New York can play well for either team.
Given how that is the case, perhaps it is time both teams benefit from these players switching teams rather than seeing other franchises serve as the beneficiaries of being the ones who get these players in-between stops.
Aside from the 22 games of experience Tim Bogar has with the 2014 Texas Rangers, the Mets managerial field is filled with inexperienced candidates. Despite that being the case, the Mets have a very interesting group of candidates with Eduardo Perez perhaps being the person whom the Mets should hire.
In an era of analytics, you want someone who is well versed in advanced data. With Perez being a part of the ESPN “Nerdcasts,” you know he is well versed in analytics. However, when it comes to analytics, it is not just being well versed in them. In fact, like the Boston Globe reported, Alex Cora showed with the 2018 Boston Red Sox it’s not just knowing analytics. It is also about how about how to best utilize them, getting the best people into the organization to handle them, and finally, finding out those things you don’t know.
With respect to Perez, he knows all of this. He knows this from his dealing with the people at MLB and other organizations who compile the data. He knows that from working with ESPN and MLB Radio. He also knows that from his being the Astros Bench Coach when Jeff Luhnow and the current analytically driven people were brought to the organization.
That is one aspect currently overlooked with Perez. He has experience as a coach and manager. From 2008 – 2009, he was the manager of Leones de Ponce of the Puerto Rican Winter League. In 2008, his team won the championship, and his team would win the league title. He would serve other roles from there including the Marlins hitting coach, and as discussed above, the Astros bench coach. It should be noted Perez resigned to spend time with his family.
Perez returned to ESPN. On that front, Perez has developed media savvy. In an era when the manager does pre-game and post-game press conferences, that ability is of vital importance. For the Mets, it is all the more important considering the incident Mickey Callaway had with reporters earlier this year.
Part of Perez’s media savvy is understanding people. Recently, while co-hosting The Leadoff Spot with former Mets General Manager Steve Phillips, Perez was asked by Phillips about the importance of being bilingual. Perez responded it isn’t about being just bilingual, but rather being multicultural. It’s understanding the players from Puerto Rico have a difference experience than those from the Dominican Republic or Venezuela. It’s also about understanding how the kid from the Midwest is different from the Northeast or California.
On the topic of his co-hosting a show with Steve Phillips, Perez has an opportunity to gain insight into how the Mets run their organization. He gets the chance to hear from someone who was a part of the Mets organization for 13 years on how the team operates and how best to navigate his way around the organization.
Any manager who is hired by the team is going to be confronted by that right away as the team is rumored to want to keep some of their coaches from last year’s Mets team. Those coaches include Chili Davis and Gary Disarcina, who were teammates of Perez from his playing days.
With Perez’s playing days, coaching career, and time spent in the media, he has been a baseball lifer. In fact, his being a baseball lifer goes all the way back to his being the son of Hall of Famer Tony Perez. When you think about it, Perez has spent his entire life not just in baseball, but around some of the greatest players who have ever played the game.
When you break it down, Perez has a wealth of knowledge and experience. With all that he brings to the table, he is going to be a vital asset to whoever hires him. If reports are to be believed, that is going to be the Mets. If true, the Mets are going to get an intelligent communicator who knows this game just as well as anyone. Overall, he just might be the best possible candidate for this job, and the Mets will be much better off for having hired him.
It’s strange. You would think if the Washington Nationals ever made it to the World Series at least one of Stephen Strasburg or Max Scherzer would start at least one of the games played at Nationals Park. With Strasburg starting Game 2 that wasn’t going to happen. But Scherzer, well, we all expected him to start.
Until he didn’t.
As it turned out, Scherzer could not go. The pitcher who struck out 14 in a game he started soon after breaking his nose would have to tell his team he could not start the biggest game in team history. It is impossible to imagine the amount of pain he must have been in to have to tell the team he could not start the game.
Max Scherzer said the pain was so severe today that he could not dress himself and needed his wife to help him. #Nationals #STAYINTHEFIGHT #WorldSeries @nbcwashington pic.twitter.com/0t53WCGB3a
— NBC4 Sports (@NBC4Sports) October 27, 2019
As a Nationals fan, it must’ve been a cruel fate to not see the best pitcher in franchise history not get the ball in the World Series. As a baseball fan, you missed out on what should have been one of the greatest pitching match-ups in World Series history with him facing off against Gerrit Cole. However, none of that disappointment can even compare to what Scherzer felt.
And make no mistake, even if he didn’t tell us his wife had to dress him and he couldn’t lift his arm, we should have known he was in excruciating pain. We’d know that just by the simple fact he said he couldn’t pitch. The fact this came in a game against the Astros should have served as that reminder as there will forever be the story of J.R. Richard, who should forever serve as a cautionary tale of questioning just how injured a player is.
For those unaware of the story, Richard was as great a pitcher was we’ve ever seen. In back-to-back seasons, Richard struck out over 300 batters. In 1980, he was in his prime, and you were left to wonder what was next in what was shaping up to be a Hall of Fame career. Instead, it all unraveled.
Richard complained of injury, and yet no one believed him. That was until he had a career ending stroke. As it turns out, he had a blood clot in his shoulder. He was never the same, and eventually, he would become homeless.
Despite this happening, we see this time and again. There was Jay Cutler in the NFC Championship Game. With respect to Mets fans, we saw it happen with Matt Harvey, who would eventually be diagnosed with Thoracic Outlet Syndrome. To this day, people still want to make Harvey’s downfall to be more than his TOS.
Going back to Scherzer, he was smart getting in front of the cameras to tell us why he couldn’t pitch. He did it despite being in such excruciating pain he couldn’t dress himself. However, Scherzer probably knew he needed to explain himself, and once he did that, we would understand. As we know, there are those who will refuse, but thankfully, they seem to be in the minority.
In the end, Scherzer didn’t start the biggest game in Nationals history. He may not pitch again in this series. It’s cruel for fans to miss seeing him pitch. It’s worse for him in that he missed that chance to pitch, and despite the excruciating pain, he felt the need to explain himself.
The managerial candidacy of Carlos Beltran is an interesting one. Every organization of which he has been a part believes he has the tools necessary to be a good manager. They speak to his mentoring younger players and his intelligence and love of the game. Those skills were part of the reason he was a runner-up to Aaron Boone in the Yankees search for a replacement for Joe Girardi.
We know Beltran brings something to the table as a potential manager, and yet, this is still person with zero managerial or even coaching experience. Beltran was also a player who was at least perceived as uneasy with the press. When you consider Mickey Callaway‘s lack of managerial experience and his not dealing well with the press were two reasons for his downfall, you really have to question why Beltran is the direction this organization wants to go.
Still, if Beltran is the best candidate, he’s the best candidate, and that is the person you should hire. Despite that, there is another reason why the Mets should tread lightly with Beltran’s candidacy.
Starting with the obvious, there is always going to be a portion of the fanbase which is not going to accept him. Despite his arguably having the best season any Mets position player ever had and his hitting three homers in that NLCS, they are always going to blame him for striking out against Adam Wainwright.
There is also his skipping the Walter Reed visit. It does not matter to them Beltran had planned going to Puerto Rico to help set up an academy before the Mets scheduled the visit. It also does not matter he would win the Roberto Clemente Award for this endeavor. It also didn’t matter Beltran attended other visits to not just Walter Reed but also to other veteran hospitals, which did not receive the same publicity. What mattered to him was he missed it this one time.
There are other issues including his knee surgery. The overriding point is there is already an issue with Beltran with many parts of the fanbase, and they are never going to get over it. As we saw with Willie Randolph, a manager many refused to accept due to his Yankee ties, this eventually creates a bit of a toxic environment.
Eventually, there is going to be a slump, and the fans are going to race to boo, call into WFAN, and tweet incessantly demanding his ouster. That level of discontent eventually becomes a story.
Going back to the knee surgery, there is another factor at play here. When you revisit the 2010 knee surgery, it is clear there is a level of mistrust between the Wilpons and Beltran. That mistrust extends further when Fred Wilpon said of Beltran to the New Yorker, “‘We had some schmuck in New York who paid him based on that one series,’” he said, referring to himself. In the course of playing out his seven-year, $119-million contract with the Mets, Beltran, too, has been hobbled by injuries. “’He’s sixty-five to seventy per cent of what he was.'” During that interview, he would make reference to the strikeout.
Time does heal all wounds, and we see that with Beltran not only getting these interviews, but also in his being a serious candidate. While things appear all well and good now, we see the Wilpons and Beltran do not have the best relationship, and if put in a situation where they are forced to deal with each other daily, it could prove to be a toxic mix. That isn’t good for anyone involved, especially the players who will have to navigate through that to go onto the field and play.
In the end, what all of this deals with is the Mets relationship with Beltran. Right now, it is seemingly as good as it ever was, but remember, managers are all eventually fired. When the time does come, the Mets will be firing one of the greatest players to ever wear a Mets uniform.
On that front, Beltran is eligible for the Hall of Fame in 2023. Make no mistake, Beltran is going to be a Hall of Famer. The only two questions surrounding him are when and what cap is he going to have on his plaque?
If Beltran is hired as the team’s manager, it all but increases the likelihood he is going into the Hall of Fame as a Met. That matters for a team who only has Tom Seaver and Mike Piazza in the Hall of Fame. Of course, Beltran picking the Mets over the Royals or a blank cap is going to be partially contingent on his still being the Mets manager.
Do the Mets really want to put themselves in the position of undoing all the healing which has occurred to take a complete chance on Beltran? There is really no easy answer to this question. As a result, before the Mets take this next step in the process, they need to make sure they have taken all of these factors into account, and proceed in a fashion which is best for the Mets in not only 2020, but also 2023 and beyond.
Well, now we know everything Stephanie Apstein of Sports Illustrated wrote about Houston Astros Assistant GM Brandon Taubman did was accurate. We know that because the Astros confirmed it in a public apology given by Astros General Manager Jeff Luhnow.
The Astros just announced that they have terminated assistant GM Brandon Taubman's employment. Here's the full statement: pic.twitter.com/4TslyAeOW1
— Mark Feinsand (@Feinsand) October 24, 2019
Hearkening back to the Astros original response, they called the article “misleading and completely irresponsible” while going on to say they were “extremely disappointed in Sports Illustrated’s attempt to fabricate a story where one does not exist.” Now, the Astros are claiming that statement was “based on witness statements about the incident.”
Who were those witnesses?
Obviously, one of them was Taubman, but who else? We know each and every reporter who witness and spoke about the incident said it was exactly the way Apstein reported it. This means one of the following occurred: Astros solely relied upon the account of Taubman, had multiple internal accounts confirming Taubman’s false version of events, the team never bothered to investigate, or they decided the best way to handle this was to go on the offensive.
The overriding point here is the problem extends well beyond Taubman’s completely inappropriate actions. These actions were made all the worse by the Astros tactics in attempting to smear a reporter for doing her job. In essence, this was a complete organizational failure which extended well beyond one person singling out reporters and attacking them in defense of a player in Roberto Osuna, who is an Astro partially because of his assaulting the mother of his three year old son.
Osuna’s actions led the woman to return to Mexico, and she would not return to Canada. He was ordered to stay away from her for one year. Major League Baseball imposed a 75 game suspension, which at the time, was the third longest Domestic Violence suspension ever levied upon a player.
Not only did the Astros, by and through their assistant General Manager, verbally attack people in defense of this player, but they also made things worse by trying to pretend it never happened. Overall, the Astros not only showed little to no character in first obtaining Osuna, but they also continued to show they lack it in their actions subsequent to the trade.
This is why firing Taubman is not sufficient. There is a culture in that building where domestic violence is not an issue, and there is a culture present where the Astros believe they have the right to attack the credibility of those who properly report their actions. The Astros don’t even care if they have to resort to lies to do it.
So no, firing Taubman is nowhere near close enough to resolving this issue. The people in that building who supported him through their lies, both in the supposed investigation and statement in response to the article, need to be held accountable. More than that, the entire Astros organization needs to be held accountable for their actions.
On that front, it needs to be noted the Astros still have not offered a personal apology to Apstein. What makes that all the more incredulous was Luhnow asserted he never had that opportunity despite her being in attendance at the press conference. This is a stark reminder that even if people utter the words they are not necessarily sincere.
To that end, it is now up to Commissioner Rob Manfred to take a decisive action against the Astros. His failure to do that sends a message to everyone Major League Baseball condones violence (physical and verbal) towards women, and they take no issue with maligning the credibility of people.
The Philadelphia Phillies did what we expected and hired Joe Girardi to replace Gabe Kapler. To their credit, the Phillies knew they wanted, nay needed, an experienced manager like Girardi, Buck Showalter, or Dusty Baker to take their team to the next level. They honed their search, and they hired who they deemed to be the best candidate.
What is interesting is Girardi was the one candidate the Phillies and New York Mets had in common. In 2017, that person was Mickey Callaway. That led the Mets to hire Callaway after just one interview to keep him away from the Phillies. The following offseason, the Mets would admit to including Jarred Kelenic in the Robinson Cano deal to keep Edwin Diaz away from the Phillies.
However, when it came to Girardi, the Mets didn’t rise to the occasion. Rather, they let Girardi go to the Phillies leaving them with a group of managerial candidates without Major League managerial experience. Looking at it that way, you could say this was a managerial search which was Girardi or bust, and with Girardi going to the Phillies, the Mets search went bust.
While the Mets do deserve scorn for how they operate the team, the manager search did not go bust. In fact, there are a very intriguing candidates remaining.
Tim Bogar is a well respected coach and a three time Minor League Manager of the Year. He has experience as a first base, third base, and bench coach. He has spent time in the front office on the player development side. Also, in 2014, he took over as interim manager of the Texas Rangers after Ron Washington resigned due to personal issues. Bogar would led the Rangers to a 14-8 record in those game.
With his work on Baseball Tonight, MLB Radio, and other media ventures, Eduardo Perez is a media savvy individual, which is something all managers, especially the Mets manager need. That said, Perez is much more than that having been a minor league and Winter League manager as well as a former Major League bench coach. With his working on the “Nerdcasts,” we are well aware he is well versed in analytics.
Another interesting factor with Perez is the Mets seem to want to keep some of their current coaches on the Major League coaching staff. To that end, Perez is a former teammate of both Chili Davis (hitting coach) and Gary Disarcina (third base and infield coach).
On that point, Luis Rojas has worked extensively with Phil Regan both this year’s team as well as the minors. Speaking of the minors, Rojas has managed most of this current Mets team including Pete Alonso, Jacob deGrom, Jeff McNeil, Brandon Nimmo, and others. They speak highly of him, and the team thinks so highly of him they created the Quality Control position for him. In that position, Rojas was entasked with handling communications between the front office and players on expectations and how to utilize data. To that end, there is perhaps no one better prepared to understand what the front office expects and wants from their manager.
In terms of relationship with the front office, perhaps no one would have a better relationship than Carlos Beltran. Beltran is close with both Assistant General Managers Allard Baird and Omar Minaya. There’s also his close relationship with David Wright which began in Beltran’s first Spring Training with the Mets when he took Wright and Jose Reyes under his wing to show them how to prepare for the season.
Sure, he has had his clashes with ownership, especially when he opted to have knee surgery prior to the 2010 season. However, that does speak to an asset Beltran has. Over the years, the Mets have been criticized for their handling of injuries. Who better than Beltran to help protect the players from themselves and the team?
Finally, there is Twins Coach Derek Shelton. He has a wealth of experience including his being a hitting, quality control, and hitting coach. In those roles, he has worked for analytically forward organizations while also working for different types of managers like Joe Maddon, Eric Wedge, John Gibbons, and Rocco Baldelli.
Overall, you could make the case any one of these five candidates would make an excellent manager for the Mets. While you are free to question the wisdom of the Mets exiting the Mickey Callaway era by going to another first time manager, especially when Girardi apparently wanted the Mets job, that does not mean these candidates could not be better than Callaway. In fact, it’s very possible each one of these candidates could ultimately prove to be better than even Girardi.
Back in 2012, Stephen Strasburg didn’t pitch. Instead, on the advice of his agents and doctors, he sat out the postseason after throwing 159.1 innings in his first season back from Tommy John.
The decision was widely panned. His manager, Davey Johnson, was particularly angry. It didn’t matter as Strasburg, his agent, and the Nationals front office valued his future more than the 2012 World Series, or for that matter, the 2012 NLDS.
Since that time, Strasburg hasn’t had perfect health. Far from it at times. However, he’s still pitching and pitching well.
Since that 2012 season, he’s had two All-Star appearances, and, assuming this year’s vote, he will have three top 10 Cy Young finishes.
He also signed a seven year $175 million contract extension entering the 2016 season. He has an opt out which he is sure to exercise to cash-in even further.
Now, after Game 2, he has a World Series victory as his Nationals team is just two wins away from winning the World Series.
What’s interesting is how Strasburg finally got this opportunity in his third postseason and the fourth the Nationals have been in during his career. It’s all the more interesting he’s at this point after he wouldn’t pitch in 2012.
It’s certainly an interesting parallel to Matt Harvey, i.e. the man who did pitch.
In 2015, Harvey returned from his own Tommy John, and there was controversy.
The controversy was Boras was putting the Mets on notice Harvey was going to exceed the preset 180 inning limit set for Harvey for the 2015 season. The Mets pretended to be blindsided, but they knew all along.
Instead of doing what Strasburg did, Harvey pitched. He’d pitch more than anyone had coming back from Tommy John. His last start was a truly great effort against the Kansas City Royals.
In an interesting twist, in Game 5, it was Harvey, and not the Mets, who insisted on pitching.
When Harvey came back out, it was all downhill from there. He walked Lorenzo Cain, and he allowed an RBI double to Eric Hosmer. He’d soon leave the game.
When he walked off the mound, we suspected it could be the last time we saw Harvey in 2015. What we didn’t know was that would really be the last time we would ever see Harvey, or at least the real Harvey.
In 2016, Harvey struggled mightily, and he just didn’t look right. Eventually, he’d be diagnosed with Thoracic Outlet Syndrome leading to his undergoing season ending surgery.
He’d come back before he was really ready in 2017, and in 2018, after a poor start, he’d be designated for assignment before being traded to the Cincinnati Reds for Devin Mesoraco.
Harvey rebounded enough to get an $11 million deal from the Los Angeles Angels, but after a 7.09 ERA, he was designated for assignment. Harvey couldn’t latch on with anyone until he signed a minor league deal with the Oakland Athletics nearly a full month after the Angels released him.
At a time when Strasburg was winning Game 2 prior to what is going to be a lucrative foray into free agency, Harvey is a minor leaguer just hoping to catch on with someone next year. It’s an interesting dichotomy for these two pitchers.
Strasburg, the one who listened to Boras, is still pitching. He’s going to have a top five Cy Young finish, and based on the first two games of the World Series, he’s going to have a ring.
Harvey, the man who eschewed Boras’ advice to win a World Series, didn’t get his ring. Based on what we’ve seen since that 2015 World Series, it’s fair to question if he’ll ever get another opportunity.
No, we can’t say for sure Harvey’s pitching in 2015 caused his subsequent health problems. Certainly, you can find information which suggests the TOS was eventually going to be an issue no matter what Harvey did.
In the end, it just seems like a cruel twist of fate the pitcher who did all he could do to win a World Series, won’t win one, but the guy who shut himself down in 2012 is halfway there.
Yesterday, Ty Kelly in threw his hat into the ring to succeed Mickey Callaway as the manger of the New York Mets. We knew it was tongue-in-cheek because he followed that up by saying if he didn’t get the job he would like to open a food truck named Sweet Potato Ty’s in Queens. Even if it was tongue-in-cheek, perhaps the Mets should consider Kelly for a position with the organization.
At the moment, there is a vacancy for the Brooklyn Cyclones manager job with Edgardo Alfonzo not being retained by the organization. Given Kelly’s background, you can see why he would be an asset as a minor league coach or manager in Brooklyn or in any of the Mets other affiliates.
Kelly was the 13th round draft pick of the Baltimore Orioles in the 2009 draft. He’s spend seven years in the minors playing for five different organizations before finally getting his call-up with the New York Mets. He’d have a good year as a utility player for the Mets, and he would get a pinch hit single in the Wild Card Game off of Madison Bumgarner.
In addition to his play with the Mets, he would play for Team Israel. In the World Baseball Classic, Israel would not only win the qualifying rounds, but they would also win Pool A before losing in the second round. Even after retiring from professional baseball, Kelly would continue playing for Israel, and with him on the team, Israel would qualify for the 2020 Olympics.
If nothing else, Kelly’s tale is one of perseverance. That could be a big asset when dealing with prospects. After all, there is really no one better to speak to prospects about the trials and tribulations and the roller coaster that is a minor league career. Perhaps no one knows better how to get everything out of your talent to get to the Major League level.
On that front, Kelly once said to Mathew Brownstein of MMO, ” I think we should be evolving and growing as players and gaining from our experiences and everything. I’ve kind of looked at my career through just trying to gain every year, and to add more to my game.”
Really, no one knows more about the trials and tribulations of a player. He is someone who can relate to players, tell them what they need to do, and he is a great communicator. That’s exactly what you would want in a minor league manager.
You could also argue these are attributes which could be of an asset to the Mets Major League coaching staff. Certainly, when you have players like Luis Guillorme going up and down all year or players like Jeff McNeil or J.D. Davis, who have to learn multiple positions on the fly, Kelly’s experience having to do that is an asset.
Overall, Kelly is someone who is a communicator and who perseveres. While he has a number of interests, he obviously has a love of baseball. He is an intelligent person and player. Through it all, you see the qualities you would want as a coach in either the Major or minor leagues. Should Kelly have any interest, this is something the Mets should investigate.
In some ways, the careers of David Wright and Ryan Zimmerman are intertwined. It’s been that way since they were teenagers playing for the same AAU team in the Chesapeake Valley.
Both would be first round draft picks of their respective National League East franchises. They’d become cornerstone Gold Glove winning All-Star third basemen.
The comparisons would go further as both hit the first ever homer for their team in the their new ballparks. We’d also see both players become increasingly injury prone, and in 2016, it looked like the end.
Zimmerman would finally get healthy (relatively speaking), and he’d have a bit of a renaissance starting in 2017. As for Wright, aside from two games at the end of the 2018 season, he was done after the 2016 season.
That made the 2015 postseason Wright’s final hurrah. He’d had a big Game 1 of the NLDS against the Dodgers. That, along with Jacob deGrom‘s dominance, set the tone for a series the Mets would win in five winning the clincher at Dodger Stadium.
The Mets followed this by sweeping the Cardinals in the NLCS thereby allowing Wright to have his first and only shot at a World Series. The fates, and his manager, would conspire against him, but he’d still have a moment of glory:
Zimmerman’s postseason path has been eerily similar. The Nationals beat the Dodgers in five games in the NLDS winning the fifth game at Dodger Stadium. They’d then sweep an NL Central team (Cardinals) to win the pennant. Finally, Zimmerman would hit his own World Series homer:
"And it is … GONE! GOODBYE!
BANG, ZOOM! GOES THE Z-MAN!"#WorldSeries // #STAYINTHEFIGHT pic.twitter.com/uZQxoPHrda
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) October 23, 2019
Unfortunately, while the respective careers of Wright and Zimmerman have mirrored each other, there has been some separation beyond Zimmerman being able to continue his career.
The Lerners are all-in in getting a ring. That led to Zimmerman having more postseason shots than Wright. We’d also see Zimmerman’s team not waste a huge game from a young star (Juan Soto) like the Mets did (Michael Conforto).
Finally, tonight, Sean Doolittle did what Jeurys Familia couldn’t do. He saved Game 1 on the road giving the Nationals the lead in the series the Mets never had in 2015.
In the end, that’s what hurts most about Wright’s career. He never got the chances he deserved, and as a result, his career ended without a ring. We shall soon see if that’s the case with Zimmerman.
A World Series match-up between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros is just about the last thing anyone inside the State of New York wanted to see. Aside from Mets fans wanting to be in that Wild Card Game, they also didn’t want to see a divisional rival in the World Series. As for the Yankees, for the second time in three years, they were beaten by the Astros in the ALCS.
Aside from New York, there are plenty of other fan bases who did not want to see this World Series. However, if you are baseball fan, you could not ask for a better World Series. Just look at those pitching match-ups in the first three games:
Game 1: Max Scherzer v. Gerrit Cole
Game 2: Stephen Strasburg v. Justin Verlander
Game 3: Zack Greinke v. Patrick Corbin
Looking at those pitchers, Scherzer, Verlander, and Greinke look to be future Hall of Famers. Strasburg is a former first overall pick, who if you include this year’s likely results, is a three time top 10 Cy Young finalist. With the way he has pitched the last four years, who knows where his career will go.
The same can be said for Cole, who is arguably the best of this group right now. With respect to Cole and Strasburg, both pitchers are set to cash in big in free agency, but first comes their attempts at World Series glory.
As if the pitching wasn’t enough, there are players like Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, Anthony Rendon, Juan Soto, George Springer, and more. There’s absolutely great starting pitching, and there are great position players. With both teams weakness being the bullpen, we could see some absolutely exciting finishes to what could very well be a seven game series and a great one at that.
Hopefully, this is the type of series which can get fans to forget a lot. That includes Ryan Zimmerman and Kurt Suzuki completing a nightmare inning against Paul Sewald, Luis Avilan, and Edwin Diaz. Soto’s bases clearing single off Josh Hader. Rendon and Soto homering off of Clayton Kershaw followed by a Howie Kendrick grand slam.
There’s Cole shutting down the Rays in Game 5. Cole would also shut down the Yankees, and he would have been looming in Game 7 if not for Altuve ending the Yankees season a half inning after DJ LeMahieu had seemed to save it.
Like most teams who made it to the World Series, they left plenty of teams and fans in their wake. For the fans, you could understand their being despondent and not wanting to watch anymore baseball. To the extent they’re able to get over it, they should really tune into this World Series because if you are a diehard baseball fan, this is exactly the type of World Series match-up you dream of seeing.