Musings
Yesterday, Chase Utley had a press conference to announce he was going to retire from baseball at the end of the season. As a Mets fan, this probably should make you elated.
After all, back from his days in Philadelphia, he has been nothing but a dirty player, and he has been a villain. For proof of that look no further than that tackle which not only broke Ruben Tejada‘s leg, but it really ruined his career. Just remember that as people write and talk about Utley being a hard-nosed player who “played the game the right way.”
Utley is also the guy who completely embarrassed Noah Syndergaard and the Mets. Really, Shawn Estes‘ message to Roger Clemens was more heartful, and really much closer, than the message Syndergaard tried to send that night. As a bonus, we did get that great Terry Collins‘ ejection video.
If you’ve been a Mets fan long enough, there are many, many, many more Utley moments which will instantly spring to mind.
So yeah, in a sense it’s good for the Mets that Utley is gone much in the same way it was good to see players like Chipper Jones retire.
However, the Mets and their fans are nowhere near a position to celebrate the retirement like Utley, even if he was a coward ducking the Mets and and their fans during the NLDS.
Ulitmately, it’s really hard to care when the Mets not only chose to employ the 35 year old Jose Reyes, but they also play him over Amed Rosario, Dominic Smith, Jeff McNeil, and really any player who could hit better than .164/.246/.227.
So, people can go ahead and celebrate Utley’s retirement and pretend like the bad guy is gone. It’s not true.
The real bad guy, the one who is a Met right now because he threw his wife through a glass door, is still with the Mets, and he’s become a major impediment to the Mets organization moving forward and improving for the future.
So congrats on a great career to Utley. He may have been dirty and ruined careers, but at least he didn’t beat his wife and complain to the press to help take playing time away from players he was supposed to mentor.
When Todd Frazier landed on the disabled list, one of the justifications proffered for the Mets not calling-up Jeff McNeil was the organization views McNeil as a second baseman, and at the moment, the team still had Asdrubal Cabrera.
In true Mets fashion, their narrative and their actions made this statement and position increasingly absurd. And that’s before you consider Cabrera having an MLB worst -16 DRS at second base.
First and foremost, the Mets actually had Mickey Callaway say Jose Reyes was playing well enough recently to man third until Frazier returns. It shouldn’t shock anyone that since Callaway uttered those words, Reyes is 1-for-17 at the plate.
1-for-17
While Reyes was hitting, sorry not hitting, Cabrera would hyper-extend his elbow requiring him to come out early from one game and not start the next.
Now, this wasn’t an opportunity to call-up McNeil. Not for a game. However, this was a chance to play Dominic Smith. After all, the former first round pick and once first baseman of the future has only started in 16 of the Mets past 28 games.
Instead, the Mets opted to start Wilmer Flores at first, Jose Bautista at third, and Matt den Dekker at third.
Think about that for a second, the Mets actually went out of their way to start the soon to be 31 year old den Dekker in center over giving the 23 year old Smith playing time. Naturally, the Mets are now looking to send down Smith while presumably keeping den Dekker up in the majors.
It gets better.
Because Amed Rosario was playing well, the team opted to have him sit against Max Scherzer. It should come as no surprise Reyes got the start at short in his stead.
With those lineup decisions, the Mets had a starting lineup with an average age of 29.6 years old. Take out Brandon Nimmo (25) and Michael Conforto (25) and that average age jumps to 31.2 years old.
The average age of the Mets bench last night was 26.0 years old, and that includes the 22 year old Rosario and the 23 year old Smith.
Remember, this is a Mets team who his now 17 games under .500. Sure, you can understand the concept of playing Bautista to try to pump up his trade value. However, it is unfathomable to sit both Smith and Rosario to get Reyes and den Dekker into the lineup.
If you think this is all a sick joke and a gross mismanagement of the team, we have yet to reach the best part.
Last night, McNeil, the guy the Mets solely viewed as a second baseman, played third base for Triple-A Las Vegas. On Monday, McNeil was just a second baseman. By Thursday, he was capable of playing third base. It didn’t take the Mets a week before completely upending their own narrative.
This just highlights how completely lost this entire Mets organization is.
The player the Mets view only as a second baseman is playing third base. The man who is supposed to be the first baseman of the future has played way out of position in left field over one-third of the time. Their starting shortstop, a player upon much of the future hangs, is sat because he’s playing too well.
The Mets would have to significantly improve things in order for them to start looking completely inept and confused. Really, this is as bad as it gets. But hey, at least the Wilpons are doing well financially.
For some reasons, Mets fans become fixated on players from other teams, and there is a constant call for the team to acquire those players at all cost. In recent years, one of those players has been Jonathan Lucroy.
Last night, Lucroy made Luis Castillo‘s gaffe not even worth mentioning. In the bottom of the 11th with one out and runners at first and second, Alex Bregman hit a ball right in front of home plate. Lucroy pouned on it, missed the tag, dropped the ball, and then threw it into Bregman’s back. As the ball rolled into right field, Kyle Tucker scored the winning run.
No, it’s not fair to judge Lucroy from one play, but it does merit looking a little deeper into his stats. On the season, Lucroy is hitting .245/.298/.318. Since 2017, he’s hitting .257/.328/.352 with a 79 wRC+.
Simply put, Lucroy isn’t the player Mets fans think he is, not anymore. The same rings true for Kevin Plawecki.
In 2015 and 2016, Plawecki just was not a good baseball player. Rushed to the majors due to Travis d’Arnaud injuries, Plawecki hit .211/.287/.285 in the two year stretch which equated to a 59 wRC+.
If you want to expand it further to the first two months of the 2017 season where he was again thrown into the majors due to a d’Arnaud injury, Plawecki started his career hitting .206/.282/.272 with a 55 wRC+.
At 26 years old, Mets fans had seen more than enough, and they were not only too happy to label him a bust, but they have also been quite upfront about being done with him.
Well, after being sent down in May 2017, Plawecki FINALLY received consistent playing time, and he got to put the work in at Triple-A he needed to do for the past two-and-a-half years. The guy who couldn’t hit was suddenly hitting .338/.386/.529 since his demotion. With Rene Rivera being released, it was as good a time as ever to see if Plawecki was for real.
Well, since August 19, 2017, his first game since being recalled again, Plawecki has been hitting .256/.378/.417. Really, this is much improved from his play to start his career. Digging deeper into the numbers, he’s been much more impressive than you could actually believe.
In this time frame, Plawecki ranks third in wRC+ among catchers. That puts him ahead of catchers like Buster Posey, J.T. Realmuto, and Gary Sanchez.
Now, you may believe each one of the aforementioned catchers are better than Plawecki, and when you assert that belief, there are going to be very few if anyone who dares contradict you. However, making this argument completely misses the point.
The point is Plawecki is continually showing himself to no longer the catcher from 2015 to the first few months of 2017 who had no business being in the Major Leagues. Regardless of where you want to rank him among MLB catchers, one thing is increasingly clear – Plawecki has the bat to play the position.
Also, given his historical pitch framing numbers, he has the ability to be an everyday catcher at the Major League level. Saying differently ignores the progress he has made over the past year and asserts personal biases built up after the terrible start to his career.
Heading into the 2018 season, one of the justifications for the Mets bringing back Jose Reyes was for him to serve as a mentor to Amed Rosario. Certainly, that seemed to be the case with Rosario publicly lobbying for the Mets to bring Reyes back into the fold and with article after article mentioning this as a positive from Reyes’ dreadful 2017 season.
Now, it’s quite possible Reyes was more than willing to give his time to a young Rosario who was in the minor leagues. However, with Rosario in the majors serving as an impediment to Reyes’ playing time, it increasingly seems as if Reyes is less mentor and more malcontent.
Aside from his complaining publicly about his playing time and opportunities leading to a significant increase in playing time, there are some things which remain a real concern about his “mentoring role” which was highlighted last night:
Here's Amed's "mentor" Jose Reyes taking a ball away from Amed Rosario. Listen to Gare. Look at Amed's reaction. pic.twitter.com/RWsFbm5YyY
— Meditations in Panic City (@MedInPanicCity) July 10, 2018
Reyes, being the “mentor” and a former shortstop, knows that’s this shortstop’s ball. He’s called off the play by Rosario. Instead of giving way, which is the correct baseball play, Reyes lunges in front of Rosario to make the catch.
Looking at it, Rosario was not happy, and Reyes was quite dismissive of Rosario’s being irritated.
Even if this is reading too much into the situation, and Reyes is really mentoring Rosario, you have to ask the question of when that mentorship is going to bear fruit?
In Triple-A, Rosario hit .328/.367/.466, but there were some warning signs in his game. Notably, Rosario had a 5.4 percent walk rate. Another issues is despite his speed and athleticism, Rosario was only successful 76 percent of the time on his stolen base attempts.
When Rosario was called-up to the majors, he struggled mightily. He hit .248/.271/.394 (74 wRC+). In the field, he had a 1 DRS. All told, he was a -2 WAR player.
The good news was supposed to be Rosario was just 21 years old, and really, he could only go up from there. That hasn’t happened.
This season Rosario has been much worse. He’s hitting .234/.279/.347 (69 wRC+). In the field, an area he was supposed to thrive, he’s at a -10 DRS. Overall, he’s a -0.7 WAR player.
He’s a -0.7 WAR player who has shown no improvement in his game. His walk rate is 5.2 percent. He’s got just a 50 percent success rate in stolen bases. When you look at him, you see a 22 year old who is just over-matched. Worse yet, his mentor is publicly lobbying for playing time which is likely to come at Rosario’s expense, and whent heya re in the field, his mentor won’t so much as defer to him on a ball that is his.
Even if Reyes is making an effort to serve as a mentor to Rosario, the results are not there. Rosario is regressing instead of progressing. Reyes’ presence is serving as a distraction, and it is now impeding the playing time of Dominic Smith and Jeff McNeil.
In the end, the Mets have to really reassess this situation and see if this is a dynamic which is serving the best interests of their 22 year old former phenom. If it isn’t, the team is going to have to do what is best for both Rosario and the franchise, not the washed up veteran.
Through baseball history, we have seen some absolutely astonishing moments, which were someone heightened by an equally amazing call.
Other times, we get John Sterling stepping all over Charlie Steiner terrific call of Aaron Boone‘s epic walk off ALCS winning home run off Tim Wakefield:
Despite it not being his call, Sterling tripped all over Steiner to jump in with his “Thuuuuuuuh Yankees Win!” shtick.
As we’ve seen with Sterling and his home run calls, it’s always shtick over the call. It’s why he stepped all over a great Steiner call. He couldn’t help himself.
This is another reason why we should all appreciate Gary Cohen.
Like any announcer, he has his signature and set calls for each type of play. Everyone does, but what separates a great one like Cohen from the rest is his ability to let the game dictate how he makes the call:
Joey Bats, FTW. #PapaSlam pic.twitter.com/WS8E7vWJc9
— MLB (@MLB) July 7, 2018
Rather than go to, “IT’S OUTTA HERE!” for the call, Cohen called the Jose Bautista walk off grand slam in a different fashion. Presumably, it’s because that’s what the moment dictated.
The shtick and signature calls were not needed there, and the genius that he is, Cohen didn’t go to it.
That’s why he will one day be a Hall of Famer, and it’s why he should be in the Mets Hall of Fame.
Really, as Mets fans, we are all truly blessed to have Cohen announce these games.
Heading into the 2015 season, the Mets handed Wilmer Flores the starting shortstop job. The ensuing two-and-a-half years have been mercurial for both Flores and the Mets organization, and somewhat astonishingly, the Mets probably still do not know what they have in Flores.
For a while, that matter seemed resolved. Flores was a platoon bat you could use to platoon at any position across the infield, especially first base. A funny thing has happened. Flores has learned how to hit right-handed pitching. So far this year, Flores is hitting a robust .301/.359/.553 against right-handed pitching.
Considering Flores has improved his OPS against right-handed pitching in each year since 2015, this may not be a fluke either. Flores may actually be a bat to keep in your everyday lineup right now. However, that leads to the eternal question over where exactly Flores should play.
Well, based upon circling trade rumors, it appears that decision may be up to a new team.
Now, if the Mets are going to trade Flores, they need to first consider what type of prospect would Flores even merit?
While not a perfect comparison, let’s look at Eduardo Nunez. Like Flores, Nunez was seen as a guy who didn’t really have a position on the infield, but ultimately, contending teams were willing to take a chance on him due to his versatility and his offense.
Back in 2017, Nunez was acquired by the San Francisco Giants from the Minnesota Twins in exchange for Adalberto Mejia.
As noted by John Sickels of Minor League Ball, Mejia was a C+ prospect who projected to be a fourth starter in the majors. Of note with Mejia, he had already served a PED suspension and didn’t look the same since returning from the suspension.
Since the trade, Mejia has made 22 starts and one relief appearance for the Twins. Overall, he is 4-7 with a 4.74 ERA and a 1.620 WHIP.
Assuming the Mets could even acquire a player the level of a Mejia, the question is whether a C+ prospect would be worth foregoing Flores’ prime years. Put another way, are the Mets really willing to risk Flores becoming the next Justin Turner or Daniel Murphy for what may ultimately become a forgettable prospect?
To that end, Flores may actually be the type of player who is more valuable to his own team than to another team.
Flores is a fan favorite, and he is a player who is steadily improving. We have never heard him complain about his playing time or about what position he plays. More than that, from his crying on the field to his recent comments, this is a guy who genuinely enjoys and wants to continue being a New York Met.
All told, it would behoove the Mets to find out if this is another step in Flores’ progression. They can easily give him the second base job for the end of the year into next year to see if he further grows as a player. If he does, it’s very possible Flores will want to sign a deal to be around for the next Mets team to go to the World Series.
And who knows? Maybe this time, instead of making the last out, he’s delivering the series winning hit as both he and all of New York have tears streaming from their eyes.
While the Mets are trying to pull out all the stops against a Marlins team actively trying to lose games, over in Cincinnati, it seems Matt Harvey is starting to put things together.
Over his last three starts, Harvey has been terrific pitching to a 1.47 ERA, 0.818 WHIP, and a 7.0 K/BB ratio. Over these starts, opposing batters are hitting just .200/.257/.231 against the Dark Knight. What makes these starts all the more impressive is when you consider they have come against the Cubs, Braves, and Brewers.
That’s three quality offensive opponents in games all started in hitter’s parks.
But it’s more than just the opponents and the results. His velocity and control are back. As already noted, Harvey is no longer walking batters, and apparently, he’s not leaving the ball in a position to be teed up by opposing batters:
Matt Harvey, 96mph Fastball paint. ??️?️?? pic.twitter.com/ZJ4RHx09yc
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) July 1, 2018
According to Brooks Baseball, Harvey is back to throwing 95+ with a slider near 90. Before getting traded to the Reds, Harvey was missing a tick or two on all of his pitches. In some of his outings, he had nothing but guts out there.
As noted by C. Trent Rosencrans of The Athletic, Harvey says he is feeling better than at any time since 2013. That’s notable because in 2013, he had Tommy John and in 2016 he was diagnosed with Thoracic Outlet Syndrome.
That could partially because the Mets never really let Harvey get back to full strength post TOS surgery. It also could be because Harvey always believed he was getting better and getting there. It just so happened that has actually proven true with the Reds.
Maybe the credit should go to Reds interim pitching coach Danny Darwin and an assistant pitching coach Ted Power. The duo, especially Darwin, are beginning to get credit for helping turn not just Harvey around, but also what was once considered a bad Reds pitching staff.
That’s not a criticism of Mickey Callaway and Dave Eiland. After all, the Mets duo has helped Jacob deGromreach another level in his game. They have also seen Zack Wheeler and Steven Matz possibly turn the corner in their careers becoming more reliably and healthy starters.
What it is an indictment upon is the Mets patience and their ability to properly evaluate their own players. After all, Harvey’s spot in the rotation was effectively taken over by Jason Vargas to be an effective starter this season. Therein lies the problem.
To that point, here’s the series of transactions and moves the Mets made immediately after designating Harvey for assignment:
- May 5th – Call up Hansel Robles
- May 6th – Call up P.J. Conlon for spot start
- May 8th – Call up Corey Oswaltas an extra arm in the bullpen
Since that time, the Mets have designated both Robles and Conlon for assignment. We’ve also seen the Mets give chances to Buddy Baumann, Scott Copeland, and Chris Beck. At a minimum, this is really bizarre roster management, and you have to question what the Mets saw in Baumann, Copeland, and Beck that they didn’t see in Harvey.
Even if you invoke all the Justin Turner non-tender defenses (wouldn’t happen here and the like), that doesn’t mean getting rid of Harvey was the right decision.
It’s not the right decision when you look at the pitchers who have made appearances and struggled in his stead. It’s not he right decision when you consider the team miscalculated on whether Harvey had something left in the tank. Really, they miscalculated on his being a disruption.
Since his being traded, the Mets are 14-30 (.318). They just had a 5-21 month. On the other hand, the Reds 26-19, and they were 15-11 in June.
Overall, both the Mets and Reds are sellers, and right now the key difference between them is as a result of the deal, the Mets will be looking for someone to take Devin Mesoracowhereas the Reds will have Harvey, who is suddenly a pitcher who is building up trade value.
In the end, it’s funny. Harvey was partially traded to remove a distraction to help them win ballgames. In fact, in pure Metsian fashion, the opposite happened. They fell apart with his replacement in the rotation, Vargas, going 2-6 with an 8.60 ERA and a 1.832 WHIP.
When it comes to Jeff Wilpon, you keep wondering how one person could be just so despicable. Over the past few years, he fired an unwed pregnant woman leading the team to have to settle a lawsuit.
In 2015, when former co-owner Nelson Doubleday died, the Mets held a moment of silence, but they refused a uniform patch or even a black armband for the man who rescued the Mets in 1980.
As reported by the New York Time this past December, Jeff Wilpon holds a grudge against Ed Kranepool stemming from an incident from about five years ago when Kranepool said rather than buying shares available for sale, he wanted to buy the team from the Wilpons because he could run the team better.
In response to this, with Kranepool suffering through real health issues causing him to sell off some of his personal memorabilia, Kranepool said, “Not that I need them to do anything for me, but Fred or somebody could have called to say, ‘How you feeling?’”
In and of themselves, each of them are despicable acts, but in true Jeff Wilpon fashion, he seemed to raise the bar yesterday.
In what was a surprise press conference, where Sandy Alderson was announcing he was stepping aside so he could continue his battle with cancer, Jeff Wilpon led things off by saying this:
This is a results business and we’re well below our expectations, from ownership on down. Talk to the baseball department, the scouting department, the development department, the coaches, the players. Nobody expected to be in this position.
You have a range of emotion just like our fans that include incredibly frustrated, disappointed, angry about our season at this point, certainly. We’re in a results business and at this point, we’re well below our expectations.
From there, he went into saying how Sandy Alderson was basically stepping aside, and how there was going to be the triumvirate of J.P. Riccardi, Omar Minaya, and John Ricco, who would bring the decisions to Jeff much in the same way they were handled by Alderson.
Put another way, before giving Alderson the floor, Wilpon trashed the job Alderson did this year, essentially said he could do Alderson’s job better, and then he sat there stone faced, disinterested, and playing with the paper in his hands as Alderson, a man fighting for his life, fought through tears to get through everything.
Mets GM Sandy Alderson announces that he will take a leave of absence as he battles cancer. pic.twitter.com/jAXPkRUTzJ
— SNY (@SNYtv) June 26, 2018
Jeff Wilpon just sat there as Alderson took responsibility for this season and in his saying his performance does not merit him returning to the Mets after he hopefully wins this battle with cancer. Mets fans can all agree Alderson made some mistakes over the years, but you’d be hard pressed to find a single one who believes everything was completely his fault.
To that end, this smelled more like a “dignified” firing with cancer as an excuse that allowing a good man to focus all of his energies fighting cancer and then being given an opportunity resume his duties as the Mets General Manager. Certainly, Jeff Wilpon had plenty of opportunities to say Sandy was welcome to return to the Mets, but he always made sure to steer clear of that.
Perhaps most disgusting of all was there was not one thank you uttered from the lips of Jeff Wilpon. Not one.
This is a man whose hiring probably helped the Wilpons retain control of the team post-Madoff. This was a man who did the rebuild which led to the Mets making it all the way to the 2015 World Series. He is just one of two Mets General Managers to make consecutive postseasons.
Last year, after the season fell apart, he focused on saving the Wilpons money than maximizing the return for each and every single of those the players traded.
Mostly, this was a good man who fought for his country, and who did all he could do for the Mets. In all the years after 1986, Sandy Alderson was quite possibly the closest to winning that third World Series.
When he leaves, he leaves behind players like Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Michael Conforto, Brandon Nimmo, and Amed Rosario. He also leaves behind a farm system with Andres Gimenez, Mark Vientos, David Peterson, Justin Dunn, Peter Alonso, and so much more. Long story short, he did an admirable job in difficult circumstances.
At the very least, even as Jeff Wilpon was trashing him and allowing Alderson to take the heat all upon himself, you would think at some point Wilpon would offer a simple, “Thank you.”
Thank you for serving the Mets for the past eight years. Thank you for 2015. Thank you for allowing us to retain control of the team.
That “Thank you” never did come, and we shouldn’t be surprised if it never comes. After all, Jeff Wilpon has shown himself to be a despicable person who can’t help one gravely ill person in Kranpeool, who fires pregnant women and jokes about it, and lastly, allows Alderson to take the heat for all that has gone wrong.
The point cannot be driven home enough. Jeff Wilpon is a petty and despicable man, and what he did to Alderson yesterday was inexcusable.
For about the millionth time, shame on him.
If you had the pleasure of watching Luis Guillorme play middle infield in the minor leagues, you had the privilege of watching a virtuoso at work. He had the ability to make the impossible seem plausible, the difficult seem easy, and perhaps just as impressive to make the routine look routine.
Defensively, he could be the best player in the entire Mets organization this side of Juan Lagares. Offensively, well, he had work to do.
While he had work to do, he continued to make strides. Over the past three years in the minors, he increased both his walk rate and his wRC+. He worked both on bunting and hitting the ball with more exit velocity and a better launch angle. Really, he was working to do anything he could do to make himself a Major League hitter.
When he was called up to the Majors on May 11th, he may have been making progress, but he was not ready to make the leap to the majors. However, with his being on the 40 man roster to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft and the team facing a number of injuries, he was needed in the majors.
It’s been a struggle for Guillorme since getting called-up. Not only was he asked to play third, a position he had not previously played as a professional, but he struggled at the plate. With those struggles, he has become buried on the bench being nothing more than a pinch hitter.
During this stretch, a stretch which may potentially stunt his development, Guillorme said nothing. No complaints. No excuses. Nothing.
That was the case yesterday when he made a couple of errors and another misplay. Instead of whining about rust, lack of playing time, and not being in the best position to succeed by his manager Mickey Callaway, Guillorme owned up to his mistakes and made no excuses.
Seeing how hard he works as a player, and seeing his making no excuses, why is he used as a pinata for those people who want to call upon Jose Reyes to play more for some reason or other.
Guillorme is not someone to develop in the way u mean. Reyes numbers are skewed by fact that Callaway has not put him in the best position to succeed. They are both low ceiling. This is a silly argument and I'm incapable of convincing someone so I prob shouldn't have started it https://t.co/YFtnl6JIG2
— Andy Martino (@martinonyc) June 24, 2018
That’s just one example of the unfair treatment Guillorme has received from those in the media who would rather have a wife beating bad baseball player get more playing time. The narrative on Reyes has gotten to the point where they suggest he has not been put in a position to succeed, which is completely absurd because Reyes was getting the playing time befitting a utility player, which is what he signed on to be.
As an extension, the people holding the water for Reyes and the Wilpons decide that since they can’t defend Reyes based upon his play on the field, they would rather trash a player like Guillorme.
It’s nonsense, and it has to stop.
Day-in and day-out, Guillorme is there waiting for his chance. He’s working on his game. He’s not speaking to Matt Ehalt of nj.com and saying things like, “I believe in what I can do. But it’s hard for me if there isn’t opportunity out there.”
Nope, Guillorme keeps to himself and works hard. His reward? People going out of their way to trash him for making the simple mistake of getting called up before he was ready, arguably still out-performing Reyes, and being the being labeled as the guy who is preventing Reyes from getting in the lineup.
Guillorme deserves better than this garbage treatment.
My grandfather always said if you have nothing nice to say about someone, you should keep it to yourself. Granted my grandfather was hardly unique in that advice, but it does seem to be a good adage for life. Unfortunately, when you want to talk about the Mets, this necessitate you remain almost completely silent.
Right now, about the only good thing to talk about when it comes to the Mets is Brandon Nimmo. To that end, the Mets Blogger Roundtable undertook telling everyone what our favorite things about him are:
Roger Cormier (Good Fundies)
I like how he has broken the brains of “traditional” baseball fans and sportswriters who erected statues in their minds of players who hustled and practiced the religion of stoicism. Now they see a dude who runs out everything and smiles all the time and have to readjust their perspectives because he isn’t going away anytime soon. There are a million different interpretations of how to play The Right Way.
Metstradamus (Metstradamus Blog)
He’s not Andres Torres.
Greg Prince (Faith and Fear in Flushing)
My favorite thing about Brandon Nimmo is his interviews. I don’t think I’ve seen a Mets position player who’s so comfortable and cognizant of what it’s all about while he answers questions. He elaborates, he distributes credit, he’s personable, he’s funny — he gets it. This isn’t dutiful or smooth. This is a genuinely fun kid who understands what it means to be going well.
I don’t know what the internal dynamics are, but he comes off as a natural team leader, as if being drafted first wasn’t so random. Of course it helps that he’s playing like a first among equals. Gives reporters a reason to want to talk to him.
And though I think about most of the Mets most of the time, I take particular joy when a Met explodes into the general baseball consciousness. We don’t have it happen too often. I love that we are, at least in the immediate present, living in the Age of Brandon Nimmo.
Breanna Susa (MMO, That Mets Chick)
His hustle/love for the game.
Mets Daddy
The thing I love best about Nimmo is day-in and day-out, no matter what the odds, he comes to beat you. With the Mets down 10 runs with two outs in the ninth and nobody on, he’s working the count, nudging his elbow out there, and busting it out of the box all for the sake of getting on and helping the Mets win.
This and his positive attitude rub people the wrong way for some reason. It’s just bizarre as he is a guy who seemingly gives his all on every play, plays the game the “right way,” and he gets the most out of his ability.
These are the guys we are supposed to cheer, and in his brief Mets tenure, it has been a pleasure to root for him.
For those of you who were looking for this on Thursday, including the people who graciously take their time out to contribute for the site, I do apologize for not running this on time. There was a family emergency. Thankfully, everything right now seems to be alright.