At the end of the month, 29 year old Tim Tebow is going to hold a showcase for all interested major league teams in an attempt to get a professional contract. The Mets should attend the showcase, and regardless of the outcome, the Mets should sign him.
There are those that will tell you he can play baseball. Former Met and current player agent Gary Sheffield called Tebow “a natural” at the plate. Mets hitting coach Kevin Long looked at tape of Tebow’s swing, and he said, “His swing is very simple. Not a whole lot of head or body movement. Chad and Tim did a nice job of simplifying and putting his swing together. It’s short and explosive.” (New York Daily News). Couple that with Tebow’s belief in his own abilities and his raw athletic talent, and Tebow may just very well prove all the doubters wrong and become a major league player.
These are all very well and good reasons why you would take a flyer on Tebow. There’s a bigger reason why you would take a flyer on him – money.
Everywhere Tebow goes, fans follow. When he became a New York Jet, fans went out and purchased his jersey. When he got one last chance with the Philadelphia Eagles, Tebow’s jersey was the 15th best selling jersey in the NFL ahead of players like Tony Romo. Whatever team winds up with him is going to get a major boost in attendance. That matters for teams that own their low level minor league affiliates.
Considering the Mets own the St. Lucie Mets and the Brooklyn Cyclones, the Mets organization should get a jolt of revenue if Tebow were to play in either location. That holds true for St. Lucie, which is in his native Florida, where he has a huge following. That also holds true for Brooklyn where Tebow has a following among Jets fans. That doesn’t even account for the people who will want to come just to see the spectacle.
Keep in mind, Tebow is not necessarily taking the spot of another prospect. Teams routinely fill out their minor league rosters with depth players who they know will never make it to the majors. However, those players don’t typically draw in revenue the way Tebow most likely will. For that reason alone, Tebow is worth a flyer.
Who knows? He may actually have enough talent to make his way to the majors in the process.
In case you forgot why the Mets went on a run last August, you were reminded of it tonight. The Mets got dominant pitching from Noah Syndergaard, a home run from Yoenis Cespedes, and completely dominating an inferior team in a 12-1 victory.
Overall, Syndergaard seems to be back in a groove after struggling while adapting to pitching with bone spurs. He only made one mistake to Freddy Galvis in the third giving the Phillies a very short lived 1-0 lead.
Syndergaard would shake it off and dominate the Phillies from there on out. His final line was seven innings, two hits, one run, one earned, two walks, and seven strikeouts. He is now 12-7 with a 2.55 ERA and close to getting himself back in the Cy Young race.
He would get a lead in the bottom of the third on an Asdrubal Cabrera two run homer:
Asdrúbal's third homer in the last 24 hours. He has the power! ?#Mets 2-1 | Btm 3 pic.twitter.com/n3n5DJcZxg
— New York Mets (@Mets) August 28, 2016
It was the first of four Mets homers on the night, and it was another huge game for Cabrera. He was 3-4 with two runs, two RBI, one walk, and the aforementioned homer.
The Mets next homer would come from Cespedes – who else?
The Lion King walkup song is suiting him well. ? #LGM#Mets 5-1 as we play the 5th. pic.twitter.com/jlT5T1TZOE
— New York Mets (@Mets) August 28, 2016
The three run shot scored Syndergaard and Jose Reyes, who did his job setting the table tonight going 3-5 with two runs.
The Mets then blew the doors open in the seventh scoring six runs. Alejandro De Aza hit a two RBI bases loaded double off the center field wall and just past the leaping Odubel Herrera. Kelly Johnson then hit a pinch hit grand slam to make it 11-1.
New dad Neil Walker then hit his 23rd homer on the season in the eight to make it 12-0. The home run ties his career high.
With that, the Mets are flexing their muscles again, and they are taking advantage of bad baseball teams to beef up their record. Tomorrow the Mets go for the sweep.
Game Notes: Jay Bruce was given what was called a mental day off. His injure leg had nothing to do with it. Curtis Granderson continued his struggles going 0-4 with a run, walk, and a strikeout.
Pennant Race: The Nationals lost to the Rockies 9-4. The Cardinals lost to the Athletics 3-2.
The entire Jon Niese situation is just another unforced error in a series of unforced errors during the entire Mets season in how they have dealt with pitcher injuries.
It started with Matt Harvey. From the beginning of the season when he had his medical issues, there was something wrong with Harvey. However, even with his missing time due to it, he started on Opening Day. He struggled somewhat on Opening Day as he would most of the season. He consistently complained of issues with his mechanics, and on a few occasions, the Mets actually debated whether or not he should be sent down to the minors. Even with his velocity drop, the Mets pinned it on mechanics. As it would turn out, Harvey has thoracic outlet syndrome requiring him to have season ending surgery.
Next up was Steven Matz. Matz has bone spurs in his elbow that are very painful. Matz wanted to have the surgery, but the Mets talked him out of it. Instead, the Mets shot him up with painkillers before every start, and they put him on the mound. The Mets did this despite Matz not pitching anywhere near as well as he had been pitching before the bone spurs became an issue. When Matz finally did seem to turn things around, he went on the disabled list with a shoulder strain and rotator cuff irritation. For what it’s worth, it does not seem like he is going to miss the rest of the season. However, given how the Mets have handled him thus far, it is fair to question if this decision is predicated on trying to win as many games as possible or whether Matz really will be ready to return.
Finally, we are back at Niese, who the Mets brought back because they needed another arm with all of the other injuries the Mets had. When Niese faltered in the bullpen allowing six earned in an inning of relief work, the Mets moved him to the rotation believing starting would be better for him and his knee. They were of course wrong. Niese would only last four batters in his last start against the Cardinals before having to come out of the game. Now, he is going to have surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee. He may very well be done for the season.
The Mets decision to start Niese taxed the bullpen as Mets relievers needed to go 8.2 innings in the game. Speaking of the bullpen, we again circle back at the Jim Henderson decision. Henderson is coming off two shoulder surgeries, and he did not pitch in the majors this year. A day after Henderson threw a career high 34 pitches in a game, Terry Collins went right back to him in a “must-win” April game. Henderson would have reduced velocity not just in that appearance, but also future appearances. He would eventually have to go on the disabled list with a right should impingement.
Judging from how Collins has used Erik Goeddel both this season, a pitcher who has had a series of arm issues, it appears the Mets have no intention of learning from past mistakes.
There is no doubt the Mets have had some bad luck on the injury front. Harvey’s thoracic outlet syndrome wasn’t caused by anything the team did, and bone spurs is a common issue for pitchers. There is no evidence to suggest the Mets did anything to cause Niese’s injury. So no, the injuries aren’t the Mets fault. The issue is how the Mets have handled those injuries. Instead of the Mets giving these players rest and putting them on the disabled list as a precaution like how the Nationals did with Stephen Strasburg, the Mets told them to go out there and continue pitching. It created the possibility that each and every single one of these pitchers could have been further injured.
So no, the Mets can’t be blamed for how each of these pitchers got injured. Rather, the Mets can be blamed for these pitchers might have had further injuries with how the Mets have handled them.
Jose Reyes and Asdrubal Cabrera let everyone know right off the bat the Mets were not going to take a second division club lightly by hitting back-to-back homers to start the bottom of the first.
"Watching these guys take off, I'm ready to dye my hair blonde." – Ron Darling. https://t.co/7sWZupyJDP #Metshttps://t.co/vw2V7WN511
— New York Mets (@Mets) August 27, 2016
They also brought their gloves. After Cabrera made a nice play in the fourth, Reyes followed up with a better one:
At the time, it preserved a Bartolo Colon no-hitter. Colon would lose it in the fifth on an Odubel Herrera hustle double. Herrera scored after the Mets gamble of intentionally walking Peter Bourjos, who is hitting .179 in the second half, to get to the pitcher Adam Morgan. Morgan hit an RBI single to close the gap to 2-1. That’s as close as the Phillies would get.
In the bottom of the fifth, Wilmer Flores made it 6-1 with a grand slam off Morgan:
Wilmer. Flores. CRUSHED! https://t.co/HgRyjgt2in #Mets #LGMhttps://t.co/xEUwvKJkQ3
— New York Mets (@Mets) August 27, 2016
Once again both Flores and this iteration of the Mets lineup just crushes lefties.
In the sixth, the Mets would put the game out of reach off Phillies reliever Frank Herrmann. Travis d’Arnaud hit an RBI double, and he would come around to score on Cabrera’s second home run of the game. It was the first time he homered from both sides of the plate. It gave the Mets a 9-1 lead effectively ending the game.
The Phillies would touch up Colon a bit in the eighth to close the gap to 9-4, but in reality it was just putting lipstick on a pig. Colon was terrific in every way tonight starting with a quick defensive reaction in the first:
Bartolo doing him. #Mets #LGM pic.twitter.com/WmgahMWWGv
— New York Mets (@Mets) August 26, 2016
He didn’t just help himself in the field, he helped himself at the plate going 2-3 with two runs and a double . . . yes, a double.
His final line was seven innings, six hits, four runs, four earned, two walks, and six strikeouts.
On what was a terrific day for the Mets, Cabrera put the capper on the night with a terrific defensive play in the eighth. Reyes tried to bare-hand a ball at third, and he missed it. Cabrera backed him up, and dive to tag out Aaron Altherr.
After a second lackluster appearance by Sean Gilmartin and his bleeding thumb, Terry Collins wasted no time in bringing in Jeurys Familia even though it wasn’t a save situation. Familia got out of the first and second no out jam to preserve the Mets 9-4 win.
Game Notes: Neil Walker was activated from the paternity list, and he went 1-3 with a run and a walk. T.J. Rivera was sent back down. Jay Bruce returned to the lineup as well, and he went 0-4 with the golden sombrero. Curtis Granderson sat against the left-handed again.
Pennant Race: The Nationals beat the Rockies 8-5. The Marlins are losing to the Padres 6-3 in the ninth. The Pirates are leading the Brewers 5-4 in the sixth. The Cardinals lead the Athletics 3-1 in the seventh.
There are a multitude of reasons why the Mets are only a game over .500 and 3.5 games back of the Cardinals for the second Wild Card.
The most popular excuse is injuries. There is some validity there with Matt Harvey, Lucas Duda, and David Wright gone for the year. Yoenis Cespedes was hobbled by a quad injury before he was finally forced to go on the disabled list. Now that he’s back, he has a heel issue. Both Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz are dealing with bone spurs. Matz is also dealing with a shoulder issue that landed him on the disabled list. For what it’s worth, Jon Niese is also on the disabled list as he needs arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee.
That’s a litany of injuries, and that’s not all of them. However, that’s not the Mets biggest problem. The Mets biggest problem is they’re not beating the Mets they are supposed to beat.
Over the past two weeks, the Mets went 1-5 against the woeful Diamondbacks. TheDiamondbacks can’t best anyone as represented by their 53-75 record, which is a 93 loss pace.
The Padres are on the same 93 loss pace with a 53-74 record. On the season, the Mets could only muster a 4-3 record against them.
The Mets are 7-6 against the Braves this year. The Braves are well on their way to a 100 loss season with a 46-82 record.
The Mets are 5-4 against the Phillies. The Phillies are near a 90 less pace with a 59-68 record. With the Phillies rolling into town, the Mets can turn that 5-4 mark to an 8-4 mark.
Fact is the Mets need to do that if they have designs on getting back to the postseason. Keep in mind, beating teams like the Phillies and Braves powered the Mets run to a division title.
In 2015, the Mets were 90-72, which is 18 games over .500. Against the Phillies, Braves, and Marlins, three teams that lost over 90 games, the Mets were a combined 36-21. Against just those three terrible teams, the Mets went 15 games over .500. It goes a long way in explaining why the Mets were 18 games over .500 and won the division.
Currently, the Mets are 64-63. Against the aforementioned second division clubs, the Mets are 17-18, one game over .500. If the Mets played those 35 games at a similar clip than they did against the intradivision 90+ loss teams in 2015, the Mets would’ve gone 22-13. That would mean that the Mets would be a more respectable 69-58. That would’ve put them in a tie with the Giants for the first Wild Card and five games back in the division.
Now, if the Mets beat the aforementioned second division clubs at the same rate other teams beat them, their record against those teams would be be 21-14. This means the Mets record would be 68-59 giving them a half game lead for the second Wild Card and putting them a game behind the Giants for the first Wild Card.
Overall, people can point to injuries all they want, but the simple fact is even with those injuries, the Mets were still better than the Phillies, Braves, Diamondbacks, and Padres. They just didn’t play like it.
The Mets have a chance to reverse course. Of their remaining 35 games, 22 of them are against teams under .500. If the Mets truly want to win the Wild Card, they’ll need to destroy those opponents like they did in 2015. That begins tonight when the Mets begin their three game set against the Phillies.
Editor’s Note: this was first published on Mets Merized Online
One of the long forgotten storylines of the early part of the season was the Mets couldn’t hit left-handed pitching. For their careers, Curtis Granderson and Lucas Duda have mostly struggled against them. That effectively neutralizes two of the best bats in the lineup. Terry Collins ices a third when he refuses to play Michael Conforto against lefties.
With the Mets injuries and Sandy Alderson remaking the roster on the fly, the Mets now destroy left-handed pitching.
It starts with new (and old) leadoff hitter Jose Reyes. In his career, Reyes has always been a slightly better right-hand hitter than he was a left-hand hitter, but this year the splits are even more pronounced. In 25 games against righties, he is hitting .254/.289/.408. However, in the 17 games against lefties, he is destroying them hitting .342/.419/.605. Each and every game, he sets the pace.
Usually playing across the diamond from Reyes is Wilmer Flores who suddenly turns into Babe Ruth when a lefty is on the mound. Flores has played 44 games against lefties, and he is hitting an astounding .344/.392/.678 with three doubles, nine homers, and 22 RBI. Flores OPS+ against lefties is 176. To put how good that is in perspective, that 176 is better than Paul Goldschmidt‘s and Jose Altuve‘s. Goldschmidt and Altuve currently led their respective leagues in those categories.
Rounding out the infield is Neil Walker who has been a completely different hitter against lefties this season. Walker entered the year hitting .260/.317/.338 against lefties. This year, he is hitting .327/.383/.612 against them. He has more than doubled his homers against lefties this year.
In the outfield, with Juan Lagares going down with injury, the Mets eventually replaced him with Justin Ruggiano. He has been the Mets center fielder when a left-handed pitcher starts a game. In his seven games against lefties, Ruggiano has hit .400/.471/.867, and he had a monster home run against Jaime Garcia:
It’s not a fluke for him either. In his eight year career, Ruggiano is hitting .276/.340/.530 against lefties.
When you add these bats to a lineup that already has Yoenis Cespedes, you have a team that mashes lefties. You have a team that knocks Madison Bumgarner out after five innings. You have an offense that can do anything no matter who is on the mound. You have an offense you believe can go the postseason as the second Wild Card.
Through their history, the Mets have only gone to the postseason in consecutive seasons one time in their history. That means the Mets have failed to accomplish returning to the postseason six out of seven times in their history. With the way things are going right now, it appears the Mets will once again fail to go to back-to-back postseasons.
However, just because the Mets missed the postseason, it doesn’t mean there weren’t some outstanding performances by Mets players who tried to will their teams back to the postseason. Do you know who were the best Mets players the year after they went to the postseason? Good luck!
Mike Piazza, Tom Seaver, Jon Matlack, Edgardo Alfonzo, Darryl Strawberry, David Wright, Howard Johnson, Noah Syndergaard
As if the Cardinals weren’t evil enough, they sent Adam Wainwright of all people to the mound to end the Mets season. Fortunately for the Mets, they had the better right-handed with a terrific curveball on the mound.
That’s right. In the most important game of the season, the 2011 34th round draft pick Seth Lugo took to the mound, and once again he was terrific. His final line was 5.0 innings, two hits, no runs, none earned, three walks, and five strikeouts. He only lasted five innings as he left the game with a cramp in what was a hot and humid day.
Lugo was never supposed to be in this spot, but there he is. Better yet, much like Jacob deGrom in 2014, he’s taken advantage of an unexpected opportunity.
The Mets offense took advantage of a struggling Wainwright and a bad Cardinals defense.
In the fourth, with the Mets already up 1-0, Curtis Granderson would reach on a Jhonny Peralta error. He’d go to third on a Wilmer Flores double. Both would then score on an Alejandro De Aza RBI single expanding the Mets lead to 3-0. Flores, De Aza, and the Cardinals defense would conspire again in the fifth to blow the game open.
The Mets had Yoenis Cespedes and James Loney on with two out, and Wainwright seemingly induced Flores to hit an inning ending ground out. Instead, second baseman Greg Garcia booted it allowing Flores to reach and Cespedes to score. De Aza would then really make the Cardinals pay:
Ale-ale-jandro! 3-run jack for De Aza. 7-0 #Mets!!https://t.co/tp7FTpj6H8
— New York Mets (@Mets) August 26, 2016
Just like that it was 7-0 Mets.
Wainwright’s final line was five innings, nine hits, seven runs, two earned, two walks and three strikeouts.
The story of the night, aside from Lugo, was Flores and De Aza. Flores was the surprise starter with a right-handed on the mound and Neil Walker on paternity leave. De Aza got the start with Jay Bruce dealing with some type of leg injury.
Flores would go 2-4 with three runs and sac fly RBI. De Aza would go 2-4 with two runs, five RBI, one walk, and a homer.
De Aza would also rob Matt Carpenter of a homer on the Cardinals first at bat of the game.
The Mets offense just exploded in the night. Everyone but Jose Reyes, Cespedes, and Granderson got at least two hits. However, even they reached base two times a piece. Reyes and Cespedes also drew a walk, and Granderson reached on the error.
The 10 runs the Mets put up made up for some ugly bullpen work. Jim Henderson, Josh Smoker, and Sean Gilmartin combined to allow six earned runs.
Fortunately, the Mets offense put up 10 runs to win the game 10-6. With that, the Mets took two out of three from the Cardinals bringing them back to 3.5 games behind them for the second Wild Card. It also allowed Lugo to earn his first major league win.
Game Notes: Loney hit cleanup and went 3-5 with three runs snapping his August cold streak. Asdrubal Cabrera was 2-5 with an RBI double. Rene Rivera was 2-4 with two RBI, a double, and a walk. His two RBI came on a single that went to the wall.
Pennant Race: The Pirates are tied with the Brewers 2-2 in the eighth. The Nationals beat the Orioles 4-0. The Marlins lost to the Royals 5-2.
Back in 2007, the Mets collapsed in part due to a rash of pitcher injuries. Pedro Martinez missed most of the year following offseason surgery to repair a torn labrum. An injured Orlando Hernandez (El Duque) had to be moved out of the rotation and into the bullpen. With they myriad of injuries, Mike Pelfrey was put in the rotation before he was truly ready. Brian Lawrence made a few poor starts. With the walls crashing in on the Mets and the Phillies gaining on them, the Mets had to turn to Philip Humber.
Humber was the third overall pick in the 2004 draft. In his career, he never lived up to that billing. It could have been that he was damaged goods coming from Rice University, who is well known for abusing pitcher arms. He did have ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction surgery before his major league debut. It could be that he was rushed through the system never being given proper time to develop. It could any single factor or any combination thereof. It could just be that he just wasn’t good enough to be a top line starting pitcher.
He certainly wasn’t on September 27, 2007. His final line was four innings, six hits, five runs, five earned, two walks, no strikeouts, and one home run allowed. Humber did his best to battle that night, but he either wasn’t ready or wasn’t capable of winning a big game like that. The only reason he didn’t take the loss was the Mets staked him to a 4-0 and a 6-2 lead. It would be his last game as a Met as he would be part of the Johan Santana trade. It was also the last day the Mets would have sole possession of first place as the loss would drop them to only one up in the division.
Like in 2007, the starting pitching is dropping like flies. Matt Harvey, Steven Matz, and even Jon Niese have found themselves on the disabled list. Logan Verrett has served as this year’s Lawrence. Robert Gsellman serves as this year’s Pelfrey. However, Lugo isn’t quite this year’s Humber. They really have nothing in common.
Whereas Humber was a high draft pick, Lugo was a 34th round draft pick. While Humber was pushed through the minors without mastering a level, Lugo has performed at each and every level having to prove himself over and over again. During his career, Humber had trouble developing a real outpitch. Conversely, Lugo has a terrific curveball that has already fooled Anthony Rizzo, who is a terrific major league hitter. More importantly, the main difference between Humber and Lugo is Lugo has already had success as a pitcher for the Mets.
In nine appearances as a reliever, Lugo pitched 17.0 innings and had a 2.65 ERA. When injuries forced him to make an unexpected start, Lugo was better than anyone could have imagined. He was not only good, but he was efficient. When Lugo walked off the mound, he had pitched 6.2 innings allowing seven hits, one run, one earned, and one walk with three strikeouts. At a minimum, Lugo has shown everyone he has the capability of being a good and reliable major league pitcher.
During this season, this Mets team has been compared to past Mets teams that have failed. Namely, they have been compared to the 1987, 2001, and 2007 teams. You can go up and down the line and compare different aspects of those teams to this current team. However, those comparisons need to stop with Lugo as everyone should have faith when Lugo steps on the mound.
There is no sugar coating it. Travis d’Arnaud has had a bad year. Blame his shoulder. Blame the hex the Mets have seemingly been under this year. Blame whatever you want. The simple fact remains d’Arnaud has had a horrible year. You can even say he has regressed offensively.
However, behind the plate, he is the same guy he has always been. He is still a terrific pitch framer that helps his staff by helping ensure that strikes are called strikes and by occasionally getting a ball called a strike. He allows very few passed balls. When there is a play at the plate, d’Arnaud is not only adept at fielding a throw, but he does a great job blocking the plate within the terms of the new rules. As seen last night, he goes a great job in making sure he gets the tag on the runner before they have a chance to touch the plate.
He is slightly below average in throwing out base stealers when there is a pitcher on the mound that bothers holding on runners. When the pitcher doesn’t hold runners on, like most catcher’s he virtually has no chance to throw out the base runner. Generally speaking, he seems to call a good game, and there have never been any public complaints from any of his pitchers about his abilities behind the plate.
The reason is on the average d’Arnaud is a good defensive catcher. While it was anticipated that d’Arnaud’s value would be in his bat, the truth is, as a major leaguer so far, his real value is as a receiver.
With all that said, it seems d’Arnaud has been the scapegoat for this entire 2016 season. With the Mets struggling offensively, the team sought to upgrade the position by aggressively pursuing Jonathan Lucroy. Apparently, James Loney and his 86 OPS+ wasn’t hurting the team. When someone steals a base, it is on him. Nevermind the fact that Rene Rivera also has a supbar caught stealing percentage (28.6%) or that Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz don’t bother holding on base runners. On a team where no one is hitting well, he is the guy slated to hit eighth. Seemingly, d’Arnaud has been blamed for everything. It is a shock no one has pinned Yoenis Cespedes injuring his quad on d’Arnaud.
Even with that in mind Nelon Figueroa took blaming d’Arnaud to a new level. After the game, Figureoa pinned part of the blame for Jacob deGrom’s poor outing on d’Arnaud. Figueroa took issue with d’Arnaud not going out to the mound to calm down deGrom (frankly, a lost art in the game that few catchers do), and with his pitch selection saying d’Arnaud failed to call inside pitchers. Only that’s not what happened.
According to deGrom, it was on him saying, “It’s hard to get results when you throw everything right down the middle. That’s what it is. I’m missing down the middle and these are big-league hitters and that’s what they do.” (New York Post).
There is no amount of pitch calling, pitch framing, or pep talks that can cure a starting pitcher who has just been completely missing his spots for two days now. There are very fair and valid criticisms of d’Arnaud. As noted, he doesn’t throw base runners out. Furthermore, he is having a terrible offensive season. That’s all on him. However, things are going overboard with people now blaming him for other player’s poor performance.