Musings

Mets Players Hilariously Embarrass Themselves By Booing Fans

Finally, the New York Mets won a game in easy fashion. For that matter, they finally won two games in a row for just the second time this month.

Naturally, the Mets being the Mets, they found a way to ruin it. They ruined it with Javier Báez, Francisco Lindor, and Kevin Pillar doing a thumbs down after hits.

This wasn’t the thumbs down like we once saw with the Mets fan and Todd Frazier when Frazier was with the New York Yankees. No, according to Báez, it was retaliatory booing of fans.

It should be noted Pillar had a different version of events liking it to be nothing more than the Joey Lucchesi churve sign. Still, we know why Báez did it.

We can debate whether Báez was here long enough to react that way. The clear answer is no. Sure, he’s sticking up for his good friend Lindor, who fans stupidly booed, but Báez isn’t the guy here.

He’s also not the guy to adjudge fans not being behind this team. He seriously has zero clue as to what it means to be a Mets fan. It’s an idiotic statement. It’s all the more idiotic given the ovations he received when he first joined the Mets.

Assuredly, those are gone.

Another important note, this is a Mets team who opened the month with a 3.5 game division lead. It hasn’t even been a full month, and they turned that into a 7.5 game deficit.

That shifts to what makes this all too embarrassing and hilarious. Apparently, the Mets players had been trying to do this for a week.

That’s just how bad the Mets have been. They’ve been trying to make this a new thing for a week. The only problem is no one noticed because they have been so bad the past week, and really this month, they couldn’t even pull it off.

It’s just a bad joke.

They’ve been trying to get back at the fans for the better part of a week, and they were so bad, no one knew this was a thing. Pulling off this retaliation might as well have been the Mets hitting with the bases loaded.

And therein lies the problem. The players are now obsessed over trying to teach the fans a lesson. Great. Good for them. It’s not going to help them win games or hit.

So, great, teach Mets fans a lesson. They’re still going to boo a team four games under .500 who completely nosedived against teams they were supposed to compete with in the postseason.

Even better, the booing is going to get worse much like the Mets performance has been in the second half. So, in the end, the players actions are going to be as counter productive as their at-bats with RISP have been.

Really, all you can and should do, is laugh at them because this is just sad.

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Jeff McNeil Must Become Mets Everyday Third Baseman

Francisco Lindor has returned shifting Javier Báez to second. That begs the question what happens to Jeff McNeil, J.D. Davis, and Dominic Smith.

Starting with the obvious, none of that trio have exactly made the case to play everyday. At least, not this season.

Smith has an 84 wRC+ and a -2 DRS in left while he battles a wrist injury much akin to Michael Conforto in 2016.

Davis has been yet again completely incapable at third with a -6 DRS and -2 OAA. He’s been a horrible base runner, and as we especially see with the bases loaded, his strike out rate is climbing. Sooner or later, his BABIP luck will run out leaving him to slide to being what he was last year.

That leaves us with the enigma of McNeil.

Look, for whatever which reason, McNeil isn’t hitting. We see that with his career worst 94 wRC+. We also see it with his career worst K%, ISO, AVG, OBP, SLG, etc.

All told, this is the worst he’s ever looked at the plate. Maybe it’s injuries. Maybe it’s something else. Whatever the case, he hasn’t been good at the plate let alone near his career norms.

However, he’s been phenomenal in the field. He has a 5 DRS and a 4 OAA at second. This is the best he’s ever looked in the field, which is saying something given his level of success at different positions.

That success includes third where he’s been quite good in his career. With Báez back, that’s where the Mets need him.

Instead, the Mets are putting McNeil in LF. That’s a huge mistake for a few reasons.

First, it puts Davis at third where he has no business playing. Second, and perhaps more important, McNeil is dealing with leg injuries.

It’s part of the reason we’ve seen McNeil’s speed and sprint speed decline. That’s not a good mix for LF where McNeil was merely average. That’s nothing to say of the possibility he aggravates his leg injuries further when trying to track down a ball.

Overall, for his health and to prevent neutralizing the greatness of Báez and Lindor, McNeil should be at third. To build the best lineup and defensive alignment possible McNeil should be at third.

Really, no matter what way you look at it, McNeil should be the Mets everyday third baseman.

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Mets Lose On Umpire Blown Call And J.D. Davis Strikeout

The New York Mets offense has been dreadful lately. With that being the case, you can never quite tell if it’s the offense or the opposing pitcher.

Because the Los Angeles Dodgers started Walker Buehler it’s easy to concede it was the starting pitcher. After all, Buehler is arguably the current NL Cy Young favorite. Despite that, the Mets almost got him.

The Dodgers had jumped out to a 3-0 lead with Trea Turner being a pest. In the first, he led off the inning with a double, tagged up on a fly out, and scored on a Justin Turner RBI ground out.

In the third, Turner he hit a one out single and would score on a Max Muncy double. After Turner walked, Corey Seager hit an RBI single giving the Dodgers a 3-0 lead.

That would be the last time a Dodger reached base. Carlos Carrasco settled in, and he would have his finest start since coming off the IL. It was the first time he went five innings, he struck out a season high six, and he seemingly started figuring stuff out.

After Carrasco, the Mets bullpen did their job putting up zeros. That kept the Mets in the game, and a Pete Alonso fourth inning solo shot had the Mets trailing 3-1 entering the eighth.

That eighth inning set umpiring back decades, and you could actually argue putting players on the honor system would be better.

Patrick Mazeika got it started with a single. Brandon Nimmo followed with a one out single. They’d both advance on. Buehler wild pitch during the Jeff McNeil at-bat.

That McNeil at-bat is where home plate umpire Nestor Ceja which would’ve left Eric Gregg scratching his head. McNeil appeared to work out a walk loading the bases. That was until Ceja called a pitch a foot off the plate a strike.

That bogus strikeout was the difference between bases loaded one out and two on with two outs. It would make a huge difference.

It was Alonso driving in another run with an infield single pulling the Mets within 3-2. Problem is it shouldn’t have been a single.

Alonso who has a ton of hard hit outs lately got some assistance from his cleat. On the subject of Ceja, he had called a foul off Jonathan Villar‘s foot when the ball easily cleared his foot.

With Michael Conforto due up, the Dodgers brought in Alex Vesia. In what was a great 10 pitch at-bat, Conforto drew a walk. Unfortunately, this meant J.D. Davis came up with the bases loaded.

Davis would strike out. It was the fifth time Davis struck out with the bases loaded, and he has yet to get a hit in that situation. It’ll be interesting to see how he blames that on Alonso.

After Kenley Jansen made quick work of the Mets in the ninth, the Mets fell to two games under .500 and six games behind the Braves. There are just no words for that right now.

Game Notes: James McCann and Jake Reed were put on the IL. Geoff Hartlieb and Yennsy Diaz were recalled. Jacob deGrom was transferred to the 60 day IL.

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J.D. Davis Can Blame Pete Alonso From The Bench

In April, Kris Bryant hit a routine grounder to third, and he was safe because J.D. Davis doesn’t charge the ball before triple clutching it. Davis’ response to the play was he didn’t know what happened because he delivered a strike.

That’s right. Davis completely botched the play, and he laid the blame at the feet of his first baseman who did all he could do to save him. Apparently, this is not an isolated incident.

Against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Davis made a dive to stop a Chris Taylor grounder. Now, for any other third baseman, this is a routine play, but Davis, he of limited ability, he has to dive.

Then, somehow thinking he’s Manny Machado or Nolan Arenado, he goes to throw from his knee. Davis proceeds to throw it away despite Alonso’s desperate attempts to knock it down and keep it from rolling away.

Of course, Davis, thinking he’s amazing, has an issue not with himself. No, the Dodgers cameras showed us Davis was in fact irritated with Alonso:

This error, which was properly attributed to Davis, was the beginning of the end for the Mets. From there, Taijuan Walker let up some seeing eye hits which saw a 2-1 deficit grow to 4-1.

The shame is this is not at all reflective of how Walker pitched. Walker was quite good against a loaded lineup. However, when you play someone completely incapable of playing third at third this stuff tends to happen.

Really, Davis has no business at third. He has a -10 OAA and a -25 DRS at the position. He’s shown zero improvement, and as we saw, he apparently doesn’t think he’s the problem.

At the plate, he’s still a guy with an outlier second half fueled by an unsustainable BABIP. For those who point to this year’s numbers, again, they’re unsustainable.

Over his first 14 games, he had great stats with a .583 BABIP. No one can keep that up, and he hasn’t.

Since returning from the IL, he’s hitting .252/.352/.396. Even that has a lot of luck with a .375 BABIP. Notably, he’s struck out 32.4% of the time.

None of this even addresses his running the Mets out of the inning by getting doubled off second. Really, when you look at everything, you see a guy with a low baseball IQ and next to no instincts.

The press can continue to not cover his comments at Alonso much like how they ignored his involvement with the Houston Astros cheating scandal and lying about it. They can pretend he’s a better player than Bryant.

However, in the end, what you have is someone who is a mediocre hitter, wholly incapable defender, and someone who is completely unaccountable for his actions. That’s not a player who should be in your lineup.

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Mets Front Office Has No One To Blame But Themselves

As things started to slip, acting general manager Zack Scott had a press conference blaming the players for their injuries. He also called the team he assembled mediocre.

Now, that the season is falling apart with the Mets in third and 3.5 games back, owner Steve Cohen is now attacking the players:

Cohen, Scott, and whoever is with the front office can put the blame on the players all they want. Fact is, they assembled the roster, and they opted not to fortify a roster 3.5 games up in the standings at the trade deadline.

Their lone Major League acquisition was Javier Báez, a player who was dealing with heel issues at the time of the trade. He would play 10 games before hitting the IL.

The team failed to really add another starter. You could say Trevor Williams, but considering the Mets keep stashing him in Syracuse, they didn’t add one.

The Mets didn’t add to a bullpen who has been HEAVILY used. There are signs of overwork and fatigue with everyone but Aaron Loup. The front office opted to instead ride with pitchers like Anthony Banda, Yennsy Diaz, Geoff Hartlieb, and others of the same ilk in big spots.

Another important matter here is Chili Davis. His track record shows how players under his tutelage fall down this path. Despite that, they opted to keep him to start the season.

As an example of the Davis effect look at Kris Bryant. He went from an MVP to the absolute worst offensive season of his career. With Davis gone, he’s again improved to being Bryant again.

There’s another important point on Bryant. The Mets have punted on third base all year. They hoped for J.D. Davis to magically learn the position (he didn’t) or for Jonathan Villar to be a regular player (he’s been somewhat).

The Mets had the option to address the rotation, bullpen, third base, and the depth that includes non-playable players like Kevin Pillar. As we saw with the Braves, that didn’t need to be blockbuster deals.

Really, the Mets needed something like the 2015 trade for Kelly Johnson and Juan Uribe. They also could’ve gone the Los Angeles Dodgers route of taking on a bad deal to get players who help.

Remember, the Dodgers current run was jump started by trading for Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford, and Adrian Gonzalez. That option was on the table with the Twins looking to move Josh Donaldson and Kenta Maeda to the Mets.

Adding Donaldson and Maeda would’ve transformed the Mets and made them significantly better. However, the deal fell apart over money.

Therein lies another problem. Entering the season and at the trade deadline, the Mets treated the luxury tax threshold as a hard cap. They were unwilling to surpass it despite the very soft penalties for first time offenders. They were unwilling to surpass it despite a new CBA being negotiated this offseason which will likely change the threshold and penalties.

All told, the Mets front office just wasn’t willing to do what they needed to do to win the division. They failed to give a first place team what they needed to stay there.

In the end, they can point all the fingers they want, but at the end of the day, this team is a direct reflection of their actions, and when this team misses the postseason, they have no one to blame but themselves.

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J.D. Davis, SS Because Who Cares Anymore

With the injuries the New York Mets have faced, Jonathan Villar has become the everyday shortstop. Believe it or not, he’s actually done a good job with a 2 OAA and 2 DRS.

The issue is what happens when Villar needs a day or gets hurt himself. Looking at the roster, there really isn’t an answer on this roster. That may be why Luis Rojas offered up J.D. Davis as a possible name.

If you think about it, it makes complete sense. Davis couldn’t play left field, and he’s played there. He can’t play third, and he’s played there. He can pitch and play first, but you’ll never find him at either position.

Seriously, Davis has no business being in a position where he has to move, field, and throw. He has poor reaction time and instincts, and he needs to at least double clutch.

It’s seriously at the point where he makes a routine play look nearly routine, we get hyperbole. You can understand because it’s a complete shock to see it.

That may well be why when Davis made a routine play in what was a lopsided loss, Gary Cohen suggested Davis had shortstop skills.

Giving Cohen the benefit of the doubt, he’s sometimes so wry, you can miss the joke. He can also be like anyone of us watching a game into the early hours of the morning leaving us a little delirious. It’s also possible he’s watching the Mets fall apart looking to cling to something good.

Whatever the case, the statement was as insane as the thought itself.

Putting Davis at short is more of a give-up than a position pitcher pitching. It’s more so than Brandon Drury being relieved by Kevin Pillar. It’s just preposterous.

So that said, just do it. The Mets aren’t going anywhere with this stretch of games and with the way they’re playing. Put Davis at short and then use him as a defensive substitution in center.

After all, as Davis intimated after the loss dropping them to .500, it’s not necessary to stay over .500. With that being the case, let Davis play wherever he wants.

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Mets Fans Would’ve Probably Defended Trevor Bauer

Now, after we see what he’s done and has been accused of doing, it’s easy to say the New York Mets were lucky to not sign Trevor Bauer. At this point, it’s fair to question if he ever pitches again.

If Bauer took the mound for the Los Angeles Dodgers in this series, he would’ve been mercilessly booed. It is certainly one of the enumerated reasons Bauer is on administrative leave. However, make no mistake, if Bauer was a Met, there would be a legion of Mets fans who would be defending him.

We have actual proof of how Mets fans would react towards players who are/were violent towards women. They get introduced on the PA system and receive a standing ovation with “Jose!” chants.

https://twitter.com/deeshathosar/status/1426693689359876101?s=21

That’s right. Despite his beating his wife on Halloween 2015 to the point she was taken to the hospital and he received a lengthy domestic violence suspension, Jose Reyes received a hero’s welcome at Citi Field.

That sends a clear message Mets fans as a collective don’t care. They cheered Reyes, and you can bet the house they’d be defending Bauer right now if he signed with the team in the offseason as many desperately wanted despite other transgressions.

If you think otherwise, the Jose chants will be drowning out your arguments.

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All Star Game Should Be Played At Field Of Dreams

Watching that Field of Dreams Game, you couldn’t help but be overtaken by how extraordinary it was. The players coming out of the cornfield. The views on TV. The game. All picture perfect.

What raised the game to another level was the game itself. Getting huge homers from legends like Tim Anderson, Aaron Judge, and Giancarlo Stanton elevated that game. You can argue they’re not legends, but what they did on the field will elevate them to that status as we’ll be talking about it forever.

Whether you liked the movie, or not, there’s no denying there’s some magic to seeing the game there. That’s because the field is about the magic of baseball.

Put aside the hand wringing over Shoeless Joe and the Black Sox. Part of the magic and mystique was seeing the all-time greats emerge from the cornfield. There were players like Babe Ruth, Mel Ott, and other legendary all time greats – just not Ty Cobb.

There was a magic to seeing those players emerge from the cornfield and play. There was magic seeing the Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees emerge in the Field of Dreams Game, but it meant something extra to see players like Judge and Stanton.

There can be an argument to rotate this game to other teams for the experience. There’s some problems there. First off, it’s not just the same the second go-round.

Due to the book and movie, the White Sox should also be taking part. After all, a large part of it is it’s their story. Mostly, you’re going to miss the opportunity to see some of the true greats emerge from that cornfield.

We should be seeing Mike Trout and Jacob deGrom. Without a doubt we need to see other future Hall of Famers like Mookie Betts, Bryce Harper, Clayton Kershaw, Francisco Lindor, Buster Posey, and many more. Essentially, what you need and want is all of the greats of the game emerging from the cornfield like in the movie.

The best way to accomplish that is an All-Star Game, and what an All-Star Game it would be.

Instead of the awful uniforms from this year, Nike can design the throwback (or for newer teams throwback feel) jerseys. Instead of seeing players looking for reasons to opt out, you may find those same players pushing up get in and participate.

You can even expand it. Each team could send a living legend to take part in the festivities and emerge from the cornfield. You can see Johnny Bench, Ken Griffey, Jr., Willie Mays, Mike Piazza and other living Hall of Famers. Invite them all to come and be a part of what could be the greatest event in all of pro sports.

This could be pure magic. It could be all that we love about what makes baseball great. It can all we love about it. You will get the entire sports world excited, and you will make new fans.

Yes, there are obstacles. There are All-Star Games already assigned. Certainly, you can overdo it by making it a yearly event.

However, if you do it just right, say one or twice a decade, it will be perfect just like how baseball can be perfect. This can be the best thing to ever happen to the sport in years. Hopefully, it will happen.

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2021 Mets Biggest Problem

When trying to digest and assess how the New York Mets went from in control for the division to second place in a dogfight, there’s a lot of areas you can analyze. When this happens, there are some issues.

Assuredly, the injuries to Jacob deGrom and Francisco Lindor are devastating. The struggles of players like Michael Conforto and Jeff McNeil don’t help.

They don’t hit with RISP and sometimes not at all. Their depth across the board has been tested and exposed. If you pinpoint these, you’re not wrong, but there’s a bigger issue.

The 2021 New York Mets are a horrible road team.

Just dreadful.

So far, the Mets have a 23-35 (.403) road record. No other team with a record over .500 has been anywhere near this bad on the road. This is a road record more indicative of the Chicago Cubs, who traded Javier Báez and Trevor Williams to the Mets at the trade deadline.

This isn’t just because of injuries. It happened right out of the gate. They lost their opening series at the Phillies. After winning a series in Colorado, they were swept in Wrigley.

So far, the Mets have played 20 road series. They’ve lost 11, and out of those 11, they were swept twice. They lost three out of four three times. What’s incredulous is that came against the Washington Nationals, Pittsburg Pirates, and Miami Marlins.

The Mets have one just six road series with one of those coming against the Yankees. It shouldn’t be discounted as happening in New York because of their Subway Series history. That said, there may be something to just being home and that routine.

The biggest reason could be the pitching. While the Mets pitchers are dominant at Citi Field with a 3.03 team ERA (third best in the majors), they’re poor on the road. That road ERA rises to 4.39.

Combine that with the Mets actually hitting worse on the road (90 wRC+) than at home (100 wRC+), and you have what looks like a second division team on the road.

The question is what this means for the Mets chances of winning the division. On that keep in mind, they’re tied in the loss column meaning they’re effectively tied for the division lead.

They have 48 games remaining. Of that 48, half of them are on the road. If they keep the same road winning percentage, that drops their record from 59-55 to 69-69.

As such, if they want to win 90 games, they’ll have to finish the season 21-3 at home. The near impossibility of doing that is magnified by the Mets still needing to host the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants, and New York Yankees.

This means if the Mets want a road to the postseason, they’re going to have to be better on it. They won’t have an easy path facing the Giants and Dodgers on the road next week with a series against the Boston Red Sox on the horizon.

It’s difficult, but so is winning a World Series. If the Mets want to do that, they’re going to have to earn their way there. The talent is here. Lindor and Noah Syndergaard aren’t too far away.

This Mets team is good. They’ve already proven they can beat anyone. They now need to prove they can beat anyone anywhere. We have 24 games to see if they can.

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Theo Epstein Should Never Be Under Consideration For Mets

According to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, the New York Mets are looking to hire a big name president of baseball operations. This has led to Mets fans clamoring for Theo Epstein.

The talking points are breaking the curses with the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs. Of course, this ignores the Mets are partially in the predicament they’re in because of Theo Epstein.

Initially, the Mets had hired Jared Porter to be the GM with Zack Scott beneath him. This create the opportunity for Porter to grow into the president role under Sandy Alderson’s tutelage.

As we know, that didn’t happen due to a report from Mina Kimes and Jeff Passan of ESPN which reported Porter’s sexual harassment transgressions while a member of the Cubs. An important part of that report was the Cubs knew and actively tried to whitewash and hide the claims.

On this topic, remember Mets owner Steve Cohen hired WilmerHale to investigate the organization in the wake of the Porter and Mickey Callaway news. This led to the firing of at least two people, but more than that, it was supposed to be an indication the Mets were going to change the organizational culture and uproot these behaviors.

Cohen can’t do that and then hire Epstein. Epstein built the culture Cohen purportedly wants to eliminate. By hiring Epstein, it’s a signal Cohen never actually cared.

Frankly, Epstein doesn’t care. He’s the same guy who traded for Aroldis Chapman the same year he was suspended for choking and threatening his girlfriend with a gun firing it off in the garage. He’s also the person who actually tendered Addison Russell a contract after his vile physical and emotional abuse of his ex-wife.

If you don’t care and just think curse breaker, well, honestly, that’s just wrong. There’s no need for Epstein when there are so many other great people out there who could do an even better job.

If you remain unconvinced, remember, Epstein pissed off Kris Bryant with the service time manipulation. The Mets are in desperate need of a third baseman, and the free agent pool is essentially Bryant or nothing.

Does it really help the Mets to hire someone who will make signing all the more difficult? In reality, your answer shouldn’t hinge on this. There’s more than enough reasons beyond this to never want Epstein as part of the organization. In fact, there’s no reason why Epstein is even in baseball.

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