Musings
There is no such thing as a bad time to get called-up to the majors. Everything about the majors is better. The money. The travel. The women have long legs and brains. Mostly, it’s what you’ve worked for your entire life.
You don’t want to blow your shot. It’s why now may not be the best time for Matt Reynolds to get called-up.
In Reynold’s last 10 games, he’s hit .175/.214/.275 with no homers and four RBI. He has struck out 15 times. That means Reynolds has struck out 37.5% of the time over his last 10 games. He’s 0-1 in stolen base attempts. After this slump, Reynolds is now hitting .238/.303/.369. Simply put, Reynolds has not played well enough to earn a promotion.
However, he’s getting the promotion because it’s a numbers game. Wilmer Flores is on the DL, and the Mets need a reserve infielder that can play second, third, and short. Reynolds is the only minor league player on the Mets 40 man roster who can do that. So now with Reynolds playing the worst ball he ever has, he’s getting called up.
This is his shot to impress. Considering who the Mets manager is, he’s going to have to impress if he’s going to have a future with the Mets.
Terry Collins has some shortcomings as a manager. The first is he typically relies heavily upon his veterans. The second is that he’s quick to put players in his doghouse. We’ve seen it this season with Collins potentially dangerous use of Jim Henderson rather than using Rafael Montero.
Montero has been in Collins’ doghouse for being injured last year and not pitching effectively this Spring Training. Collins only used Montero when he absolutely had to use him and no more. Montero didn’t produce in his limited chances, and he moved into Collins’ doghouse.
Right now, Reynolds is scuffling. He’s going to get very limited chances, especially with six of the next nine against the Nationals. When Reynolds does get his shot, it’s going to leave a huge impression with his manager. If he gets a basehit, Collins may be inclined to use him more. If he doesn’t get hits, Collins will bury him on the bench. If and when he’s recalled, Collins will again bury him on the bench.
Whether it’s fair or not, Reynolds’ performance will have a big impact on the rest of his Mets career. With the way he’s been playing lately, this chance could not have come at a worse time.
Yesterday’s 0-3 with a strikeout certainly isn’t going to help his cause.
Editor’s Note: this was first published on metsminors.net
Lost in Daniel Murphy’s return to Citi Field is the fact that we have a good old fashioned pitching duel between the two best teams in the NL East.
The Nationals have Max Scherzer who is coming off a historic 20 strikeout game. The last time he faced the Mets he threw a no-hitter.
The Mets have Noah Syndergaard or
So far this year, Syndergaard is doing things we’ve never seen before and may never see since. In his last start, Syndergaard allowed two earned over eight innings with six strikeouts. By the way, he also hit two homeruns. In his last start against the Nationals, he allowed only two hits and one run over seven innings while striking out 10.
Tonight should be a terrific pitcher’s duel amongst two of the game’s best. Looking over the rosters, just about every time these teams meet, we should see a pitcher’s duel. These 19 games are going to be fun . . . especially when the Mets win them.
Sooner or later someone is going to hit .400. It’s been 75 years since Ted Williams famously played both ends of a double header bumping his batting average from .400 to .406. It was the last time anyone has hit over .400 in a season.
There have been some famous chases for that elusive .400 batting average. In 1980, George Brett was hitting .400 until September 19th. He finished the year hitting .390. In 1994, Tony Gwynn was hitting .394 until August 11th, which was also the last game of the season due to the strike. These were two Hall of Fame players, and they fell short.
Daniel Murphy isn’t a Hall of Famer, but he’s making a charge to hit .400. A big reason why is there is no safe place to pitch him:
I wonder if Nationals 2B Daniel Murphy's .406 heat map looks like Ted Williams' .406 heat map.
Pretty impressive! pic.twitter.com/iaDs0yAPC4
— Mark Simon (@MarkASimonSays) May 7, 2016
Right now, there’s no way to neutralize him. He’s hitting .385 off of righties and .452 off of lefties. He’s hitting .415 at home and .387 on the road. He hit .370 in April, and he’s currently hitting .441 in May. He has played in 38 games, and he’s sitting exactly at .400. Accordingly, he’s 23% of the way there.
In 1941, Williams played in all of the Red Sox 154 games. It wouldn’t be until 1961 that MLB changed to the 162 game schedule. When Williams had played his 38th game, he was hitting .422. He was in the middle of a 16 game stretch where he hit .557 raising his average from .369 to .436.
So Murphy is far off Williams’ pace. Murphy’s chase to .400 is further complicated by his having to face the Mets pitchers 19 times this season. With that said, as we saw last October, with Murphy, anything is possible.
Coming into this season, Fangraphs showed how the Mets switch from Daniel Murphy to Neil Walker would hurt the Mets in 2016. The projections were that Murphy would have a better year in Washington than Walker would have in New York.
So far, the projections were right. Murphy has been better with the Nationals than Walker has been with the Mets. Much better.
Coming into a three game litmus test for both the Mets and Nationals, Murphy is having a career year. He’s leading the big leagues with 56 hits. A month and a half into the season, he’s still hitting a major league leading .400. Among major league second basemen, he’s among the leaders in nearly every statistical category:
- Doubles (13) – 1st NL & 2nd MLB
- Triples (2) – 2nd NL & MLB
- Homers (5) – 3rd NL & 9th MLB
- RBI (3) – 2nd NL & 3rd MLB
- OBP (.433) – 2nd NL & MLB
- SLG (.629) – 1st NL & MLB
- WAR (1.7) – 1st NL & 5th MLB
Murphy is a big reason why the Nationals are in first place. It is unrealistic to expect Murphy to keep up this pace. He’s never been this type of hitter. With that said, it’s a month and a half into the season, and Murphy is showing no signs of slowing down. In fact, he’s been better in May than April. Even without facing the Mets once, he’s been a thorn in their side.
No matter how you look at it, Murphy been the best second baseman in the National League. He’s been the best second baseman to switch teams. Even with Walker tying the Mets record for homers in a single month, the Mets decision to pass on Murphy doesn’t look good.
However, the Mets moving on from Murphy wasn’t about 2016. It was about the future. The Mets, a win-now team, made a decision in Murphy based on the future.
The wisdom of the Mets decision will be judged by how Walker plays this year in comparison to how Murphy plays. It will be judged by how Dilson Herrera plays when he becomes the full time second baseman. It will be judged by how the compensation pick the Mets received for Murphy develops.
Ultimately, the Mets decision will be judged upon whether the Mets win the World Series. Murphy was the Mets best player in the postseason last year. The Mets don’t beat the Dodgers without him. They don’t go to the World Series without him.
It’s too soon to judge the Mets decision on passing on Murphy. However, with him helping the Mets biggest competition in the NL East, the early returns aren’t good.
This is as bad as it gets. You’re down a run against one of the best pitchers in baseball. Your guy is great, but he’s struggling. He just doesn’t have it. You lose this game, and your season is over. Someone has to do something and quick. That’s when Daniel Murphy did this:
With one stolen base, Murphy swung the momentum of that game. With his homer in the sixth, Murphy gave the Mets the lead:
Almost single-handedly, Murphy won Game Five of the NLDS. Without Murphy, the Mets lose in the NLDS.
Instead, the Mets won, and they hosted the Cubs in the NLCS. In his first at bat, Murphy let the Cubs know that 2015 wasn’t going to be their year:
Murphy went off on a homerun binge en route to winning the NLCS MVP Award:
This is all why you give Murphy a massive standing ovation when he steps to the plate tonight. Regardless of how you felt about his time as a Met or his move to the Nationals, you give him a standing ovation. That magical run to the World Series doesn’t happen without Murphy. If you enjoyed one iota of that run, you owe him a standing ovation.
Murphy’s earned it. Stand up and cheer.
The Mets are slumping. They had a rough 4-7 road trip that saw them fall from first to third place in the NL East. That will happen when your position players hit .209/.282/.336 over an eleven game stretch. The team hit .184 with RISP. The overreaction to the slump has caused some people to look for a solution.
Many have pointed to moving David Wright down in the order. With his spinal stenosis any slump could be a signal of the beginning of the end of his career. This is further exacerbated by his possible travel issues. That’s Wright’s new reality. Accordingly, the Mets and Wright should look to do what is best for the team even if that means Wright moves down in the lineup.
The argument for Wright moving down in the order focuses on the aspects of his game that are subpar starting with his strikeouts. According to Fangraphs, he’s striking out 32.6% of the time, which is by far the highest strikeout rate of his career.
Also of concern is Wright’s average with RISP. He’s only hitting .185 with RISP. That’s bad. However, it should make you question why someone would want to drop him lower in the lineup when people are on base. If he’s not driving in batters from the second spot in the lineup, there’s no evidence he will do it batting sixth or seventh in the lineup with more runners in scoring position.
No, you want Wright batting second and setting the table for the Mets big bats. Looking deeper into the numbers, Wright is succeeding in this role.
No matter how you look at the numbers, the fact remains Wright is getting on base. His 18.5% walk rate is the highest in his career. It’s fueling his .373 OBP. His OBP leads the team. That’s eight points higher than the second place Yoenis Cespedes and 20 points higher than the third place Michael Comforto. Cespedes and Conforto also happen to hit third and fourth in the lineup. In essence, Wright is getting on base in front of the team’s big run producers.
As for that tough road trip, Wright struggled like everyone else. He only hit .148/.361/.296. You’d like for him to hit for a better average and more power. However, it must be noted Wright’s .361 OBP was the second highest on the team next to Cespedes.
If we look at Wright’s numbers this year, the fact is he’s a table setter now. He’s the guy that gets on base in front of the Mets big bats like Conforto and Cespedes. So far this year, Wright is doing his job. It’s time the people behind him do their job and knock him in.
When you’re hitting .207/.296/.422 with a -0.4 WAR a month and a half into the season, you begin to wonder if a player is in for a rough year. When that player is 35, you start to wonder if this is the beginning of the end.
Those are the whispers that now surround Curtis Granderson. Are those whispers premature?
After a horrible 2014, Granderson was reunited with Kevin Long. The result was pure magic in 2015. Granderson hit .259/.364/.457 with 26 homers and 70 RBI from the leadoff spot. He had a 128 OPS+, a 132 wRC+, and a 5.1 WAR. As noted above, Granderson’s 2016 numbers are a far cry from that.
What’s happening?
First, Granderson’s BABIP in May was .152. Granderson’s career BABIP is .299 (right around league average). That would suggest Granderson is due for a little luck. With that luck, he could return to his 2015 form. However, there are some warning signs.
According to Fangraphs, Granderson’s hitting a lot of ground balls. His GB/FB ratio is now 0.98 (highest in his career). He’s hitting groundballs 41.2% of the time (highest in his career). Conversely, he’s hitting fewer line drives. He’s only hitting line drives 16.7% of the time (lowest in his career). He’s pulling the ball 45.6% of the time while hitting it up the middle 39.8% of the time.
Long story short, Granderson is getting affected by the shift. That’s going to happen when you hit more groundballs. That’s going to happen when you hit the ball up the middle and to the right side 85.4% of the time. The result is Granderson’s .152 BABIP in May and .227 for the season.
By now means should we look at these numbers and say Granderson is in for a rough 2016. He hit .241/.347/.471 with four homers in April. He was able to hit that well in April despite starting the year on a 1-24 stretch. Also keep in mind, Granderson’s worst month last year was May.
Overall, there is still plenty of time left in the year. Like last year, Granderson can rebound from a rough May to put up terrific numbers. There are warning signs, but sooner or later, we should see the 2015 version of Granderson return . . . or at least the 2016 April version.
Editor’s Note: this article first appeared on metsmerizedonline.com
My first experiences watching baseball was the late 80’s. Back then, baseball had a code. If you show up a player, expect to he plunked. If you’re plunked, the middle infielders better be ready to be on the receiving end of a takeout slide.
The idea of this behavior was to let the players police themselves on the field. If all else failed, the players would just have to resolve everything with a good old fashioned benches clearing brawl. This way of handling things has largely been legislated out of the game, but Sunday, we saw a return of it in the Blue Jays-Rangers game.
As a matter of background, these two teams played a hard fought, five game ALDS. The Blue Jays win was highlighted by this:
Now, there’s some disagreement whether this bat flip had any impact on Sunday’s game. In any event, Sunday was the last regular season meeting between these two teams. Jose Bautista led off the eighth with the Rangers leading 7-6. He was hit with the first pitch of the inning. Here’s what ensued next:
Wow.
Certainly, Bautista felt the Rangers threw at him. He had a very late, but still low, slide into Rougned Odor. There are three possible reasons for this:
- Odor’s throw was in line with Bautista’s head forcing him to get down;
- Bautista was trying to break up a double play; or
- Bautista felt the Rangers threw at him, and he was getting his pound of flesh.
Whatever the case, Odor was offended, and he landed a right hook. Keep in mind, this was no sucker punch. Bautista’s hands were up. It sparked an old fashioned benches clearing brawl.
Of course, that didn’t end anything. Prince Fielder would be hit with the first pitch in the bottom of the eighth. It was an 83 MPH change-up. The benches emptied, but tensions didn’t escalate as Fielder took his place at first base. It was all over.
Baseball has made many rules to try to prevent this all from happening. It’s why there are warnings. It’s part of the reason why the new slide rules are in place. The main reason for the new slide rules is Chase Utley is a dirty player and the Gane Two umpires in the NLDS had no idea what interference was.
Upon review of Sunday’s game, you could say the rules worked. Bautista was called for interference. There were six ejections stemming from the incident. However, the rules didn’t work as intended. The players attempted to police themselves and all hell broke loose. In many ways it was a throw back to 30 years ago when incidents like this would happen. No, they were not common place or even likely. It was just possible. In today’s game, it didn’t seem like this was possible anymore.
Overall, I don’t think anything that happened on the field has a place in baseball. There’s no reason to bean someone in the fashion the Rangers beaned Bautista if it was intentional. Late slides or throwing it at someone’s head is unnecessary. Furthermore, Odor’s punch shouldn’t happen on a baseball field. With that long caveat, I enjoyed it.
It reminded me of the baseball I grew up watching. It reminded me of a time when teams would use this as a rallying cry for the rest of the season. It reminded me of a time when teams generally disliked each other and wanted to beat each other’s brains in. It reminded me of a time where the Mets were on top of the baseball world. So yes, I enjoyed it.
However, one day of nostalgia is nice. What happened Sunday has no place on a baseball field, and I hope to never see it again.
On October 31, 2015, Jose Reyes allegedly grabbed his wife by the throat and shoved her into the sliding glass doors leading out to a lanai at their Hawaiian resort hotel room. His wife was taken to the hospital for treatment of her injuries while Reyes was arrested for these alleged acts.
If convicted, Reyes would’ve faced anywhere from two days to five years in prison. If convicted, Reyes could’ve been deported. If deported, Reyes would’ve had to forfeit the remaining $44 million left on his contract. Fortunately for Reyes, he didn’t have to face these consequences for his alleged actions because his wife didn’t cooperate with the prosecutors. Reyes walked off scot-free.
This left the ball in Major League Baseball’s court to punish Reyes. They dropped the ball.
Reyes was only suspended 51 games. Major League Baseball believed the hospitalization of a person violently grabbed around the throat and shoved was only worth 51 games. They believed whatever role Reyes played, if any, in preventing his case from coming to trial was worth 51 games.
The combined Chapman and Reyes suspensions equate to half a season. Half a season for two women allegedly being choked.
Major League Baseball had been opportunistic in announcing their Domestic Violence policy. There were good provisions like getting perpetrating players help. There were other interesting provisions like leaving the matter of suspensions open-ended. It was an interesting provision as it arguably allowed each case to be judged on its own merits.
The results have been vastly underwhelming. Reyes went from potentially facing deportation, thereby effectively ending his big league career, to a 51 game suspension. That’s only 31% of the season. He gets to keep roughly $36 million of his money. Additionally, he gets a $100,000 tax write-off for his donation to the cause of stopping domestic violence. With this suspension, Major League Baseball set forth a powerful message for all to hear:
Grabbing a woman by the throat and shoving her into a sliding glass door wasn’t as bad of an offense as using PEDs.