Musings
One of the issues surrounding Jacob deGrom all year is what has happened to his velocity. According to Brooks Baseball, deGrom’s fastball velocity has dropped from 96 MPH to 94 MPH this year. Part of the reason was his lat injury to start the season. Another reason could have been the troubles he had at home with a sick child. Whatever it was deGrom has admitted he wasn’t as prepared this season as he had been in years past.
The result was deGrom getting off to a sluggish start for him. For the first two months of the season, deGrom allowed batter to hit .246/.301/.354 against him. Midway through June, deGrom had a 2.96 ERA and a 1.137 WHIP. Now, these are not poor numbers to say the least, but they did represent a step back for deGrom who emerged as an ace last year going 14-8 with a 2.54 ERA, a 0.979 WHIP, and a 149 ERA+.
Starting in the end of June, deGrom has started to piece things back together. His June 25th start against the Braves saw him go on a nine start streak where he has been dominant. In that nine start stretch, deGrom has gone 4-1 with a 1.49 ERA and a 0.945 WHIP. In this stretch, deGrom pitched his first ever complete game shutout, and he has allowed one run or less in seven of his nine starts. As the season as progressed, deGrom has slowly but surely gained velocity with him throwing 95 MPH during the month of August. Overall, deGrom has completely turned his season around.
Now, deGrom has a 7-5 record with a 2.30 ERA, 1.050 WHIP, and a 177 ERA+. The ERA and ERA+ figures are better than the numbers deGrom put up during his breakout 2015 season. Not only has deGrom gotten better as the season has progressed, he has just gotten better. Diminished pitcher or not, deGrom is putting up the best numbers in his career, and he is doing it at a time when the Mets need him the most.
This should come as no surprise to Mets fans. We saw him outpitch Clayton Kershaw to start the NLDS last season. In Game One he only allowed five hits over seven shutout innings while walking one and striking out 13. Perhaps more impressive than that was him defeating Zack Greinke in Game Five of the NLDS. In that game, deGrom had nothing going for him, and yet he still won the game allowing just two earned runs over six innings. In that game, deGrom dug deep and was able to figure out how to get batters out.
With that in mind, it should come as no surprise that deGrom has been even better this year despite his having less velocity on his fastball. It should never come as a surprise that deGrom is coming through when the Mets need him most. In the end, it should come as no surprise that once again deGrom has emerged as the best pitcher on the Mets staff.
Recently, Neil Walker has been the hottest hitter in all of baseball. Over his last 19 games, Walker is hitting .455/.488/.740 with two doubles, one triple, six homers, and 14 RBI. He is making last year’s version of Yoenis Cespedes look like Mario Mendoza. For a Mets team that is struggling to get above .500, let alone be relevant in the Wild Card race, the team can ill afford to lose his bat especially with injuries to players like Asdrubal Cabrera and the aforementioned Cespedes.
And yet, that is exactly what is going to happen. Neil Walker’s wife is expecting to deliver the couple’s first child – a daughter. Walker keeps his cell phone close waiting for the notice saying, “I’ll pretty much have my phone on me everywhere but second base. You try to bottle up those three hours any way you can. In between at-bats, I’ll shoot in [the clubhouse] just to check my phone and make sure nothing is going on.” (MLB.com).
Once that happens, Walker is on the next flight out to New York as he intends to take paternity leave. He is going on paternity leave with full knowledge that his team needs his bat in the lineup, and that his taking time off may have an impact on his production. Walker joked, “Obviously, when you are swinging the bat well, you want to continue to get as many at-bats as possible, but I certainly am not going to go blaming my newborn if I don’t stay on fire. I’ll be mentally taking at-bats.” No matter what happens with Walker’s bat, he is doing the right thing by going to be by his wife’s side.
What is bizarre is that someone actually had to say that.
Back in 2014, when the Mets weren’t expected to go anywhere, Walker’s predecessor, Daniel Murphy, took paternity leave, and he was outright chastised. Boomer Esiason, a former New York athlete himself, said, “Bottom line, that’s not me. I wouldn’t do that. Quite frankly, I would have said ‘C-section before the season starts. I need to be at Opening Day. I’m sorry, this is what makes our money, this is how we’re going to live our life, this is going to give my child every opportunity to be a success in life.” (Boston.com). Obviously Boomer wasn’t the only one to chastise Murphy, but he was one of the few that had the audacity to challenge both Murphy’s commitment to the team while instructing Murphy’s wife how she should deliver their baby.
Lost in the shuffle was the fact that Murphy’s wife needed to have surgery. As Murphy would say, “It’s going to be tough for her to get up to New York for a month. I can only speak from my experience — a father seeing his wife — she was completely finished. I mean, she was done. She had surgery and she was wiped. Having me there helped a lot, and vice versa, to take some of the load off. … It felt, for us, like the right decision to make.” (ESPN.com).
A husband needs to be there for his wife because you never know what will go wrong. We were reminded of that this year with Jacob deGrom.
Back in April, deGrom found himself on the Bereavement/Family Medical Emergency List as his newborn son had difficulty breathing with apnea. The deGrom family went through the harrowing process of not knowing if their child was healthy. At the time, deGrom was home to not only be there for his wife emotionally, but also to spend time with his son Jaxon. Fortunately, deGrom’s son would be alright allowing him to put in the work he needed to for the baseball season.
Fortunately, Murphy’s wife and deGrom’s son were ultimately okay. During that time, Murphy and deGrom got to spend time with their families that desperately needed them home. But that’s not the only reason for the paternity leave.
The birth of your child is the greatest experience of your life. It certainly was for me. In fact, each day with my son is better than the next. No father should be robbed of that experience. Not me, not you, and not Neil Walker.
Furthermore, your wife needs you. There are no words to describe what your wife goes through not just during pregnancy, but also during labor. Her reward after that grueling experience? She has to feed a baby every two hours followed by burping and changing the baby. By the way, she also has to find some time to sleep. She needs all the help she can get, even if it is just a day or two with her husband.
Walker making the decision to remove himself from the lineup at a time the Mets need him most does not make him a bad teammate, it makes him a good husband and father. Walker’s place is with his family. It is his teammates job to pick him up during his absence the way Walker picked them up in April and over the course of August.
There were a number of reasons why the Mets made the move for Jay Bruce. There was the obvious reason that Bruce was the major league RBI leader and he was hitting well with runners in scoring position. His addition was meant to address the Mets issues in those areas. The Mets also obtained Bruce as Yoenis Cespedes insurance, not just for this year with Cespedes quad, but also for next year in the event the Mets cannot re-sign him after he opts out. Furthermore, and perhaps more importantly, the Mets acquired Bruce due to the struggles of Michael Conforto.
It’s at least a possibility that the Mets never make the trade for Bruce if Conforto was hitting like he should. Instead, Conforto was mired in a horrific slump for two months after a hot April all but forcing the Mets hands. The team would have to send him to AAA to try to set him straight.
Conforto would start out hitting pretty well when he came back from his stint in AAA. In his first 12 games back, he hit .267/.371/.400 with four doubles and two RBI. He was taking the right approach at the plate by not only looking to hit he ball the other way, but by also hitting it the other way with authority. However, Conforto’s success wouldn’t carry forward. Terry Collins outright refused to give him regular playing time. He sat Conforto against lefties, and he sat him against tough righties like Justin Verlander and Jose Fernandez. Collins sat Conforto at times in favor of Ty Kelly because apparently Collins thought Kelly gave the Mets a better chance to win. By the way, the Mets are 7-14 in games in which Kelly plays.
Predictably, the young player gets lost on the bench, and he starts to press and lose his way. Conforto began to slump, and he found himself amid a 2-20 slump. In that stretch, Conforto only started in five of the Mets eight games, and he had only started 13 out of 23 possible games. Naturally, the Mets decided to send Conforto back to the the minors . . . again . . . so he could get more playing time. Apparently, this was a better solution than telling the manager the obvious – Play Conforto because he is a much better baseball player than Kelly.
In fact, Conforto, even at his worst, has been a better hitter than the other options the Mets have. Even with Conforto struggling this year, consider this:
- Michael Conforto – hitting .200/.298/.340 with four doubles, one homer, and three RBI in the 19 games he played after he spent time in AAA
- Brandon Nimmo – hitting .237/.297/.288 with one homer and five RBI in 20 games with the Mets
- Ty Kelly – hitting .186/.280/.256 with one homer and four RBI in 21 games with the Mets
- T.J. Rivera – hitting .222/.211/.278 with a double and three RBI in six games (none in the outfield).
In relatively similar small sample sizes, Conforto has hit better than Nimmo, who had been called up in his stead when Conforto was first demoted. Furthermore, Conforto has hit better than Kelly and Rivera, who the Mets have on the major league roster over Conforto now.
Also, take into consideration the Mets have a real center field problem. The aforementioned Bruce is struggling in right field this year meaning he is not suited to play center field. That leaves the Mets with the following two options to play in center field:
- Curtis Granderson – hitting .187/.265/.293 with two doubles, two homers, and two RBI in his last 20 games
- Alejandro De Aza – hitting .196/.339/.304 with two doubles, one homer, and three RBI in his last 20 games
Essentially, it is only Conforto who is being punished for being in a slump. Remember that during an epic postgame rant following a 9-0 loss to the Padres on August 11th, Collins had this to say, “Starting tomorrow we’re going to get after it. And those that don’t want to get after it, I’ll find some who do. Because in Las Vegas there is a whole clubhouse of guys that want to sit in this room. And that’s all I have to say.” (NJ.com). After that game, Conforto was the only position player sent down because apparently he was the only player in that clubhouse that needed to be taught a lesson.
The end result is the Mets getting diminishing returns from Granderson as he is forced to play every day in center field. It is also resulting in the Mets playing De Aza, who is once again slumping at the plate, against righties and Kelly, who cannot hit major league pitching, against lefties. Even with his struggles, Conforto was better than the numbers those three are putting up right now. Instead, the Mets would rather watch Conforto play everyday in AAA and tear the cover off the ball. Since his ill advised punishment, sorry demotion, Conforto is 5-9 with a hit by pitch, three runs, a double, a homer, and two RBI.
This isn’t a AAA mirage either. We’ve seen Conforto do that at the major league level. However, in order for him to do that he actually has to play. Instead, the Mets would rather leave him in the minors while fielding the worst possible team they can muster. If the Mets really want to win, they would call up Conforto and play him everyday because at his worst, he’s still better than what the Mets are throwing out there right now.
Editor’s Note: this was first published on Mets Merized Online
The Mets have a serious problem with Curtis Granderson. He is looking every bit of his 35 years of age hitting .226/.317/.420, and it is getting worse as the season progresses. Since the All Star Break, a time when players can rest up and get rejuvenated, Granderson has been hitting .186/.250/.304 while striking out in 21% of his plate appearances. When he does hit the ball, he is hitting an excessive number of grounders into the shift. It’s a major problem as Granderson has the lowest batting average on groundballs among active players. Keep in mind that list includes players like David Ortiz and James Loney, both of whom could lose a race to Sid Bream.
Even worse for Granderson is while he was a finalist for the Gold Glove in right field last year, he has taken a real step backwards defensively. Granderson’s defensive metrics in right field have dropped considerably with him having a -4.9 UZR and a 0 DRS this season. Fortunately, Granderson isn’t the Mets right fielder anymore . . . he’s their center fielder.
More than anything else, that is the issue with Granderson. He is the team’s best option in center field meaning he has to play everyday despite the fact he has stopped hitting and despite the fact he is no longer a good fielder.
The Mets got to this point for a number of reasons. The first is injuries. Yoenis Cespedes was supposed to be the everyday center fielder. However, with his quad injury, he will be unable to play center for the rest of the season. The Mets platoon option against lefties, Juan Lagares, is on the disabled list after needing surgery to repair a torn tendon in his left thumb. The recently imported Justin Ruggiano played only three games with the Mets before needing to go on the disabled list himself. With the injuries, that leaves the following options on the roster to play center field:
With respect to De Aza, he has come crashing back to Earth after a torrid July. So far in the month of August, De Aza is hitting .088/.244/.176. As bad as things have been with Granderson, he hasn’t been that bad.
With respect to Bruce, he’s miscast as a right fielder. After two bad years in Cincinnati where he averaged a -5.2 UZR and a 0 DRS, he is at a -13.2 UZR and a -13 DRS this year. Honestly, the Mets should be looking for a way to take him out of the outfield and put him at first base rather than put him at a position he is ill equipped to play and last played eight years ago.
That leaves Kelly and Rivera neither of whom are center fielders. However, they are the Mets next best option as the team decided both should be in the majors over Michael Conforto and Brandon Nimmo. While you can certainly make the argument that one of them should be on the roster with the need for another third base option with Asdrubal Cabrera on the disabled list moving Jose Reyes to shortstop, it is unfathomable why both of them are on the 25 man roster. It’s unfathomable to have them both on the roster when you consider Conforto and Nimmo are better hitters than either one of them despite their struggles in the majors this year.
The rationale is the outfield is too left-handed with Granderson, De Aza, and Bruce is quite poor reasoning. Granderson is a career .224/.296/.398 hitter against lefties, and that hasn’t stopped Collins from playing Granderson against lefties. Yet somehow, Collins decides that Conforto and Nimmo, two players who have hit lefties in the minors, cannot possibly hit lefties. The end result may very well have been that Collins is right as his refusal to play either against lefties may have created a mental issue with them.
Regardless, the Mets only options right now in center field are Granderson and De Aza. While Granderson has struggled mightily this year, he is currently the Mets best option in center field. With that in mind, Granderson simply has to play every day. He has to play every day despite his slump. He has to play against lefties despite him hitting .225/.290/.392 off of them this year. He has to play in center because the Mets have no other options.
Ultimately, that is the real Granderson problem. It’s not that he’s struggling. It’s that the Mets don’t have a better option than him right now – especially since the team decided Kelly and Rivera were better than Conforto and Nimmo.
Reports are that Justin Ruggiano has begun his rehab assignment in Las Vegas. It’s strange to think that is the case because Ruggiano was released from the Texas Rangers while he was in AAA before the Mets picked him up. Apparently, it is because the Mets believed he was a better option in center field than just about anyone, including Michael Conforto.
It was an odd decision considering Ruggiano is not a particularly good defensive center fielder. Over the course of his career, he has a -6.4 UZR and a -9 DRS. If the Mets were looking to add him for offense for when the team faces left-handed pitching, their decision making is equally misguided as Ruggiano is a career .271/.334/.516 hitter against them. Overall, the addition of Ruggiano could be classified as a bit of a panic move as Yoenis Cespedes is unable to play center field for the rest of the year, and Terry Collins has outright refused to play Conforto and Brandon Nimmo against left-handed pitchers. Long story short, the Mets are without a true center fielder, especially when there is a lefty on the mound. In some ways, the Mets signing Ruggiano was the team making the best out of a bad situation.
However, now there is a better center field option available as the Houston Astros have released Carlos Gomez.
Now, the Astros released Gomez as he has been terrible for them. Since he joined them last year, Gomez has hit .221/.277/.342 as an Astro. With each and every game, Gomez faltered, and he justified the Mets decision to void the trade to acquire him for Zack Wheeler and Wilmer Flores due to concerns about his hip. However, now, the Mets can acquire Gomez, and they should be interested.
From 2013 – 2015, Gomez averaged an 11.7 UZR and a 13 DRS in center field. Now, his defense has slipped from his 2013 Gold Glove caliber season, but judging on the advanced defensive metrics, Gomez has been an average at worst defensive center fielder no matter what Collin McHugh thinks:
Look, Gomez is available because he has been a bad baseball player for the past year. However, he is not that far removed from being a very productive major leaguer, and he is still only 30 years old.
If the Mets really want a right-handed bat as a platoon option, if the Mets want a player who still may have upside, and a player that can actually play center field, the Mets should go out and get Carlos Gomez. But they won’t, and it shouldn’t come as any surprise as this is a team that truly believes Ty Kelly is currently a better option in the outfield than Conforto right now. This is a team that passed over Juan Uribe to keep Kelly on the roster.
Passing on Gomez in favor of Ruggiano will become just the latest in a series of curious roster decisions the Mets have made this season.
With the Mets finally admitting that Logan Verrett was not capable of being the team’s fifth starter for the rest of the season, the Mets had to make a decision on who should be the fifth starter for the rest of the year.
Seemingly, there were a few options. The first was Robert Gsellman who has made significant strides this year in the minors, but is struggling in AAA going 1-5 with a 5.70 ERA and a 1.406 WHIP. The other option was Seth Lugo, who has pitched fairly well out of the Mets bullpen, but he has not been fully stretched out. There was also Gabriel Ynoa, who entered the season as the Mets top rated pitching prospect in AAA as the year began. Ynoa started the year strong, but he pitched to a 6.64 ERA in June and July this year.
Given the fact that the younger Mets arms didn’t seem ready, it is no surprise the Mets turned to recently acquired Jon Niese to be the new fifth starter. Niese has been horrendous this year, but with Dan Warthen as his pitching coach, Niese has been a .500 pitcher with a 3.95 ERA and a 1.365 WHIP. These are not great numbers, but these are numbers that you can live with from your fifth starter.
However, what is surprising was the Mets calling up Ynoa to be the long man in the bullpen. First and foremost, Lugo has done a good job as the long man in the Mets bullpen. In his seven appearances, Lugo has pitched 13.2 innings with a 2.63 ERA and an 0.878 WHIP. More than that, Lugo is actually a reliever. Due to his own struggles in AAA, Lugo was demoted to the bullpen where he was used as a reliever. Lugo has actually made appearances in back-to-back games and appeared in a number of different scenarios.
Ynoa hasn’t. Before being called up to the majors, Ynoa last made a relief apperance on August 26th of last year. In that relief appearance, Ynoa was on regular rest, and he pitched two innings after a Steven Matz rehab start. Prior to that Ynoa last made a relief appearance as an 18 year old pitching in the Gulf Coast League. It should be noted that in those three relief appearances, Ynoa was piggybacking the starting pitcher. In essence, Ynoa has never truly been a relief pitcher in his entire professional career.
That didn’t stop the Mets from making him one for the first time in the majors. Not only that, it didn’t stop Terry Collins from using Ynoa in back-to-back games. That is all the more startling when you consider the fact that Ynoa HAS NEVER pitched in back-to-back games in his professional career. This is no way to treat a 23 year old pitcher who very well could be a part of the Mets rotation within the next year or two.
If the Mets truly believed he was ready to get called-up to the majors, it is hard to dispute that especially seeing how poised he was on the mound in his first two appearances. However, with that said, if you’re calling him up, why not put him in the rotation and leave Niese in the bullpen where he has had some experience and some success? It’s not like Niese is fully stretched out, and it’s not like Niese has exactly earned the opportunity especially since Niese was given the rotation spot AFTER allowing six earned runs in an inning.
Instead of doing the obvious, the Mets are putting Niese in the rotation and Ynoa in the bullpen. It doesn’t make any sense.
Approximately 117 games into the season 2.5 games is all that separates four teams for the final Wild Card spot. As we have seen repeatedly this season and again this past weekend, injuries have played and will continue to play a major role in this Wild Card race.
Over this past weekend, it was announced that Giancarlo Stanton is going to miss the rest of the season with a groin injury. It’s a devastating injury for Stanton and the Marlins as Stanton had turned his season around hitting .287/.349/.588 with 10 homers and 30 RBI since July 1st. With him gone, the Marlins have lost both the most feared hitter in their lineup, but also the only hitter in all of baseball that can truly say owns Jacob deGrom.
Stanton’s injury comes on the heels of the Marlins having to send back Colin Rea and his torn UCL to the Padres as it turns out he was damaged goods. The Marlins also do not anticipate their big free agent addition, Wei-Yin Chen, to contribute for the rest of the season as he is dealing with elbow issues of his own. Joining Stanton and Chen on the disabled list is Adam Conley, who is arguably the Marlins second best starting pitcher. In addition to losing two of their starters to injuries, the Marlins are without their closer A.J. Ramos as he was put on the disabled list with a fractured middle finger on his pitching hand. Add all of that to the Marlins needing to skip a couple of Jose Fernandez starts to manage his workload, and the Marlins are in real trouble on the pitching front.
The Marlins have been relatively healthy all season, and now it seems as if they are starting to get bit by the injury bug at the wrong time of the season.
A team that has been decimated by injuries all year has been the St. Louis Cardinals. The Cardinals season got out on the wrong foot when they began the year without starting shortstop Jhonny Peralta as he was recovering from a surgically repaired thumb.
Joining Peralta on the disabled list this year has been his replacement Aledmys Diaz with a broken thumb of his own. The Cardinals are also without Matt Adams, who had been the starting first baseman during the stretch that the Opening Day first baseman, Brandon Moss, was on the disabled list. Centerfielder Tommy Pham has spent much time on the disabled list this year leading to the Cardinals experimenting with Kolten Wong in center. This is the same Wong who had to be sent to the minors due to his struggles at the plate and at second base. The most recent and possibly most devastating injury is Matt Holliday going down with a broken thumb.
As bad as things have been for the Cardinals position players, their pitching staff is just as decimated by injuries. Lance Lynn has not made one start for the team this season as he is still recovering from Tommy John surgery. He has been joined on the disabled list by one time NLCS hero Michael Wacha who may not only be done for the season, but also may need to have his role as a starting pitcher be re-evaluated all together with his scapular issues. This duo joins a number of Cardinals bullpen arms on the disabled list.
Neither Jordan Walden or Mitch Harris have thrown one pitch this season as they have dealt with injuries. Kevin Siegrist was recently put on the disabled list with arm fatigue, and Tyler Lyons is done for the year as he is dealing with a stress reaction in his right knee. The reliever problems are only exacerbated by the fact that their closer Trevor Rosenthal was first ineffective to start the year and then landed on the disabled list with a flexor tendon injury. Like most of this Cardinals team, it is questionable whether he can return this season.
Unlike the Marlins and the Cardinals, the Mets are starting to get healthy. This weekend the Mets not only had Jose Reyes return from the disabled list, but the team also saw him score a Reyes Run on Sunday.
Reyes should soon be joined by some of his teammates. Today, Yoenis Cespedes is expected to start his rehab assignment. Tomorrow, Asdrubal Cabrera will begin his own rehab assignment. Their return will dramatically improve a Mets lineup that has been starting Ty Kelly and his .200 batting average in left field all too frequently. Matt Reynolds and his .211 batting average had already been sent to the minors when Reyes was activated from the disabled list.
Long story short, the Mets will soon be as close to full strength as they have been all season. They are getting healthy as two of their main competitors for the Wild Card are dealing with some disastrous injuries. With all these injuries, the Mets are a better team than the Marlins and the Cardinals meaning the Mets are out of excuses. It is time for the Mets to go on a run and take control of the Wild Card race.
Last thing I knew, Jeurys Familia was toeing the rubber to save a Jacob deGrom outing.
Over seven innings, deGrom only allowed three hits, one earned, and one walk while striking out nine. The Mets only scored two runs giving both he and Familia the thinnest of margins – as usual.
Around this time, a tree fell knocking out the electricity until 3:00 AM or so.
Apparently, I missed out on a Wil Myers two out home run off Familia with two outs in the ninth. I also missed Gabriel Ynoa making his major league debut in the 11th pitching a scoreless inning, striking out one, and earning his first major league win. I also missed out on Wilmer Flores with the walk-off scoring Neil Walker. I missed out on a lot of aggravation and some fun.
Hopefully, the Familia frustrating blown save against a woeful Padres team and Flores extra inning walk-off will kick-start this Mets team like it did in 2015.
Here is my appearance on the Amazing Metscast where I discussed why the Mets should fire Terry Collins and why I think the Mets can still win the Wild Card.
In my defense, it was recorded the morning before the 9-0 loss.
Also, here is the article written for Mets Merized Online referenced in the podcast.