Fans are clamoring for Yoenis Cespedes. They want him. They need him. Here’s the problem. What’s the corresponding move?
When the Cubs signed Ben Zobrist, they were prepared. They had a deal worked out for Starlin Castro to go to the Yankees. Having the deal in place helped prevent the market from suppressing Castro’s value because the Cubs would’ve had to trade Castro. If the Mets want to sign Cespedes, they’re going to have to do the same thing.
Right now, the Mets have Michael Conforto in left, Juan Lagares and Alejandro De Aza platooning in center, and Curtis Granderson in right. If you sign Cespedes, something’s gotta give. Let’s start with the obvious. You’re not moving Conforto. Also, with the Mets signing De Aza cannot be traded until June 15th. That leaves Granderson and Lagares. Which one do you move? It’s a matter of selling low on Lagares or selling high on Granderson.
If you trade Lagares, you’re trading an elite defensive player. He was a 5.5 WAR player and a Gold Glover just in 2014. He had a down year in 2015. We don’t know how much of it had to do with his elbow injury, but he fell off the map defensively. He went from an 18.6 UZR to a 3.5. Basically, he went from a Gold Glover to merely above average. If Lagares isn’t elite defensively, he’s not an everyday player.
I still think Lagares has value. He had a terrific postseason hitting .348/.375/.435. He performed well in Winter League action this, even if he showed platoon splits. He’s still just 26 years old. The hope is he rebuilds his value. If he does, and you sell low, you’re going to regret it.
The other choice is Granderson, who may be at the apex of his value. Last year he hit .259/.364/.457. He was a dynamic leadoff hitter. For long stretches of the season, he was the only legitimate hitter in the lineup holding things together. He was a Gold Glove finalist. He was the best position player on the Mets last year. He then followed it up with a great postseason. He hit three World Series homeruns. He’s a great fit for a win-now team like the Mets.
However, he is turning 35 before the start of the next season. He’s a year removed from a .237/.326/.388 season. He just had surgery on a torn ligament in his thumb. There are risks relying upon his production for next year.
The last option would be to keep everyone. That is a monumental task for Terry Collins. You have to keep Lagares and De Aza happy with even more limited at bats. You have to hold off on the temptation of benching Conforto for stretches if he struggles or goes into a prolonged slump. There’s an issue of relying on Wilmer Flores too much. Remember, he hit .263/.295/.408 last year. The Mets still need a 1B/OF option.
Putting aside the issues it would create, Cespedes is a good player who could help the Mets. The fans want him. The issue then becomes who do the fans want to jettison?
There are real and legitimate reasons for the Mets not re-signing Yoenis Cespedes. Advanced stats like UZR and DRS suggest he’s a poor defensive centerfielder. Despite his hot streak with the Mets, he still only has a career .319 OBP. Also, you can knock the Mets finances all you want, but is a 30 year old outfielder worth a long term deal? Those deals typically end badly.
Well with Cespedes still unsigned, and the fans still clamoring for him, the Mets decided to offer some more reasons. As John Harper reported in his New York Daily News article, the Mets had other issues with Cespedes, which included:
- He marches to his own drumbeat;
- He refuses to take batting practice;
- He doesn’t hustle;
- He smokes during games; and
- He will be a headache if he receives a long-term deal.
I’m not going to say any of these reasons are incorrect. I’ve never seen Cespedes take batting practice. We saw him miss player introductions at Citi Field during the World Series. I’ve yet to see him go to first base when he struck out on a ball in the dirt. He was lacksadasical running down a routine flyball leading to the infamous inside-the-park homerun to open the World Series. Better yet, he didn’t even run after the ball once it got by him. So yes, I believe the Mets on all of these fronts.
However, why are you telling this to us now? I never heard of the batting practice issue in August. Apparently, there was no issue with smoking in September. Why are the Mets smearing Cespedes now?
If it’s to change the public opinions of Mets fans on him, it’s misguided. If it’s to distract about how the Mets aren’t spending, it’s not working. If it’s to drive down his market to put him within their range, it’s not happening. So again, what did leaking all this information to the New York Daily News accomplish?
To me, all it accomplished was making the Mets seem small and petty. This guy was a good player for your team for three months. He was a fan favorite. He was a thrill a minute. For all of that, the Mets just spat in his face and kicked him out the back door. They did it even when everyone knew the Mets had zero intention of re-signing him. At the end of the day, there was no need for it.
Cespedes deserved to be treated better.
Editor’s Note: a version of this article also ran on metsmezmerizedonline.com
From what I gather from reading incorrect interpretations of the book, I take many people did not actually read Moneyball. If you haven’t, you should go and read it. If you have, now is the time to re-read it.
The reason to re-read it now is the script for the Mets postseason lies within those pages. I know Sandy Alderson was no longer the A’s GM at the time; it was Billy Beane. However, remember Beane’s top two lieutenants were J.P. Riccardi and Paul DePodesta. Until recently, they were Alderson’s top lieutenants. They were at least in place when the Mets were creating their offseason plans.
One of the many aspects of the book, which the movie seemed to get purposefully wrong, was how the A’s went about replacing Jason Giambi and one-year rental Johnny Damon. In essence, the A’s determined they flat out didn’t have enough money to replace these guys with other high priced players. Instead, the A’s were going to have to replace their production using a different line of thinking. I’m summing up here and being a little over simplistic, but here was the thought process:
- The team needed to identify what was undervalued on the free agent market (OBP);
- They needed the cumulation of their entire roster to replace Giambi and Damon since they couldn’t just sign two big name free agents to do it; and
- They needed to do it as cheaply as possible.
So what did they do? Well we know the Scott Hatteberg story with him being moved to first due to his traditionally high OBP (more on that later). In the movie and most other places, the story behind the David Justice acquisition is plain wrong. The A’s obtained him from the Mets, not the Yankees, in exchange for a LOOGY by the name of Mark Guthrie and a mistake waiting to happen by the name of Tyler Yates. It was the Mets, not the Yankees, who kicked in salary. It was only $1.2 million.
Now for the moves that haven’t received much fanfare. The A’s handed the secondbase job to a young Mark Ellis, who was capable of higher production than last year’s second baseman Frank Menechino. Menechino was moved to the bench to create a deeper roster. The A’s traded for Carlos Pena, who was a promising young player. Pena was supposed to be the first baseman with Hatteberg at DH and Justice in LF. That’s the way it was up until the trade deadline. They also traded for Billy Koch to sure up the closer’s role for the departed Jason Isringhausen.
By design, the A’s replaced Giambi and Damon not only with Pena and Justice, but by also improving their DH spot (Olmedo Saenz and Jeremy Giambi) and secondbase. In essence, the A’s added three new starters putting their old starters on the bench. The A’s left some payroll flexibility and had assets for the trade deadline.
The A’s used Pena in a three way trade to acquire Ted Lilly to sure up the rotation behind their three young big pitchers. They then used a prospect to acquire Ray Durham to DH with some needed cash. Hatteberg moved to be the full time first baseman. And yes, like in the movie, the A’s also added Ricardo Rincon to be the LOOGY to sure up the bullpen.
Did it work? If you look at the record, it absolutely did. They went from a 102 win team to a 103 win team. However, the reason wasn’t Hatteberg or Rincon. No, the part we forget is Barry Zito won the Cy Young, and Miguel Tejada win the MVP. They were powered by an insane 20 game winning streak. Lost in that streak was the A’s played only one team over .500 and played two teams that lost over 100 games that year.
The 2002 A’s got top notch performances from their top guys, and they made sure to beat the teams they were supposed to beat. Make no mistake. The 2002 A’s were worse. They scored 84 less runs and allowed nine more runs. However, at the end of the day, it didn’t matter. They won one more game.
The Mets are in a similar position as the A’s were. Make no mistake about it, the Mets have limited funds. With those funds, they needed to go out and replace the production of Daniel Murphy and a half a season of Yoenis Cespedes. Last year, Murphy hit .281/.322/.449 with 14 homers and 73 RBI. Cespedes hit .287/.337/.604 with 17 homers and 44 RBI in his time with the Mets.
We already know how the Mets replaced that production. They traded for Neil Walker, who hit .269/.328/.427 with 16 homers and 71 RBI. He’s a career .272/.338/.431 hitter. The Mets then decided to go with a platoon in center. There is in-house option Juan Lagares to hit against lefties. He hit .273/.333/.438 against lefties last year and .279/.325/.427 for his career. Platooning with him is Alejandro De Aza, who hit .278/.351/.448 against righties last year and .274/.338/.418 for his career. Now, this isn’t enough to replace the production of both of Murphy and Cespedes.
That’s where Asdrubal Cabrera comes in. Last year, Wilmer Flores played the bulk of time at shortstop hitting .263/.295/.408. Ruben Tejada played a lot there hitting .261/.338/.350. The Mets hoped by signing Cabrera they have significantly upgraded the position to cover the loss of Murphy and Cespedes. Cabrera hit .265/.315/.430 last year with the Rays. Speaking of replacing Cespedes’ second half production Cabrera hit .328/.372/.544 in the second half last year. Tangentially, the bench is theoretically better by having Flores and Tejada there.
Following the script they invented in Oakland, the Mets have already done what they believe they needed to do to replace the production they have lost. Right now, the Mets projected payroll is ~$106 million or about $4 million less than the 2015 payroll. Accordingly, the Mets are maintaining payroll flexibility like the A’s did so they can make trades at the deadline.
And, by the way, the Mets are powered by their three big young starters. How will it work out in 2016? We don’t know yet. However, if history is any lesson, the 2016 Mets will be worse than the 2015 version. If they want to have a better record, the 2016 Mets will need to take advantage of their games against bad teams like the Phillies and Braves. One of the young pitchers will have to step up even more. We’ll see which everyday player can step up to have the Tejada-like season.
At some point or another, we have all heard of the Five Stages of Grief, which are:
- Denial
- Anger
- Bargaining
- Depression
- Acceptance
Not to demean anyone’s grief, but this truly feels like what the Mets fans are currently going through with Yoenis Cespedes.
When the Mets first acquired Cespedes, there wasn’t any question whether the Mets could re-sign him. Cespedes had a quirky contract that forced the team he was on to negotiate a deal within five days. If the deal was not completed, he could not be re-signed by that team for basically another year or so. However, there were some events that changed that.
The first was Cespedes got hot. Not just hot; no, he was insanely hot. From August 12th – September 14th, he hit .323/.379/.805 with 17 homers and 37 RBI. He then waived the obstructive clause in his contract thereby allowing the Mets to sign him at any point in the offseason.
As the offseason began, the Mets fans entered the denial stage. Despite all evidence pointing to the contrary, Mets fans believed that Cespedes would return. The reports all said he would t return. Mets fans focused on the team having extra money from the postseason run, money freed up from Michael Cuddyer‘s retirement, and Cespedes’ own overtures that he wanted to come back to the Mets.
Then the Mets signed Alejandro De Aza to be the left-hand hitting platoon option for Juan Lagares in centerfield. At this point, the idea of Cespedes not returning to the Mets became more real, and the Mets fans responded angrily. They besieged every Mets tweet with a “Re-sign Cespedes” or something of that nature. They began to point out how the Mets have all that extra revenue from an extended postseason run, and they’re still not spending it.
With the Tigers signing Justin Upton, the Mets fans have entered the bargaining phase. With one less suitor for Cespedes, the Mets fans now believe Cespedes may take a shorter term deal from the Mets. Sure, they want the Mets to give him a long term deal, but they’re willing to accept that the Mets can re-sign him for a one to three year deal. The Mets can make it work with lots of opt outs.
This leaves Mets fans with two more stages: Depression and Acceptance. Depression will surely come as another team swoops in and signs Cespedes. They’ll be depressed thinking about Lagares and De Aza manning center while Cespedes is off bringing his unique skill set somewhere else. Finally, probably around Opening Day, Mets fans will see their team in action and accept the roster for what it is.
So while this offseason is almost over, Mets fans are really only halfway through the Five Stages of Cespedes. If only it were as fun as celebrating the holiday of Cespedes.
Last year, the Mets won a weak NL East with a 90-72 record. It was an NL East the Washington Nationals were supposed to win. The Miami Marlins were supposed to be the surprise team. What happened?
Well, despite the Mets rash of injuries, they got a little lucky last year. They were buoyed by a hot April where they had an 11 game winning streak. They then seized the division and built a large lead in August by taking advantage of a weak schedule. They didn’t look back, and they rode the hot streak all the way to a National League pennant.
Much of the Mets success was built upon the NL East and/or bad teams in general. Here is the 2015 Mets record by division:
- NL East 47-29
- NL Central 13-20
- NL West 21-12
- Interleague 9-11
Essentially, the Mets were a .500 team against non-NL East opponents and 18 games over .500 in their own division. They needed the weak division too because the Mets were 28-38 against teams over .500. It’s an uglier picture when you consider their record against teams that made the postseason last year:
- Toronto Blue Jays 2-2
- New York Yankees 2-4
- St. Louis Cardinals 3-4
- Pittsburgh Pirates 0-6
- Chicago Cubs 0-7
- Los Angeles Dodgers 4-3
That’s a combined 11-26 record. That’s ugly. Compare that to their record against NL East opponents:
- Washington Nationals 11-8
- Miami Marlins 11-8
- Atlanta Braves 11-8
- Philadelphia Phillies 14-5
The bulk of the Mets record was built against a terrible Phillies team. Luckily, they’re projected to be even worse next year. The Braves are also projected to be worse. However, the Marlins, who were supposed to be the suprise team of 2015, are supposed to be a lot better . . . 13 games better.
It’s not unreasonable. We quickly forget Giancarlo Stanton had a season ending injury in June. Jose Fernandez only had 11 starts. Disregard any other free agent moves or trades made. Having Stanton and Fernandez over a full season makes the Marlins a much better team. They’re a much better version than the 2015 version that gave the Mets some difficulty.
The Mets also had the benefit of the Washington Nationals imploding last year. The Nationals entered August with a two game lead in the division. They went 12-17 in August and lost the division. Despite Bryce Harper winning the MVP Award and Max Scherzer finishing fifth in the Cy Young voting a lot went wrong for this team.
For starters, Matt Williams was terrible. He completely lost the clubhouse. Denard Span only played in 61 games. Anthony Rendon only played in 80 games. Jonathan Papelbon came to the team and choked Harper. They underperformed their Pythagorean Win-Loss record by six games. Part of that was an awful bullpen. While the Mets still might’ve won the NL East if none of this happened, it’s fair to say the NL East would’ve been a lot closer. Perhaps the Mets miss the postseason all together, and the exciting run to the World Series never happens.
While the Nationals did lose Jordan Zimmermann and Span in free agency, they have addressed some needs. They surged up the bullpen. They replaced Span with Ben Revere. They replaced Matt Williams with Dusty Baker. Fangraphs suggests all of that is worth an additional win next year.
Now, logic would dictate the Mets would want to improve their roster. They didn’t. The 2015 team that lost the World Series is better than the 2016 Opening Day roster as constituted. Apparently, the Mets plan in 2016 is to beat up on the worst teams in baseball while hoping the Marlins and Nationals implode again. Essentially, the Mets are expecting a repeat of 2015.
Apparently, good luck is the Mets strategy.
Apparently, the Cubs part-owner, Todd Ricketts, called Mets fans “really, really obnoxious.” We had to hear how when the Mets lost the World Series, his wife exclaimed, “Screw you Matt Harvey! Screw you Mets fans!” When I read this, I immediately thought of George Carlin. I’m also “getting tired of guys named Todd” too. [Warning: NSFW]
In all sincerity, I’ve never seen Mets fans cross the line. I’ve seen them rambunctious. I’ve seen them passionate. They’re louder than most fan bases. Obnoxious? Hardly. You want an obnoxious fan base? Rickettes needs to look no further than his own.
Look at how Steve Bartman has been treated by fellow Cubs fans. He was pelted with garbage. He received death threats and hate mail. They sold t-shirts with his head in a noose. The governor suggested he enter the Witness Protection Program. Famed Cubs fan and reporter, Michael Wilbon, blamed everything on him.
Put Bartman aside. This is a historically awful fan base. Their own players almost went into the stands to confront their fans. It led to a infamous Lee Elia rant about how awful Cubs fans are, and how they should go out and get jobs. They heckled Kris Bryant in his first game.
So next time any Cubs fan considers the Mets fans to be obnoxious, consider who he is defending.
Each and every year, on the anniversary of 9/11, mourners gather to commemorate the lives lost after a terrorist attack on our nation’s soil. The moment is important each year because we need to remember not only those lives lost, but also the reason why they lost their lives. They lost their lives because we’re free and our country helps protect those that need protection.
This moment is important to everyone but CBS. I still remember the day they cut away from the 9/11 memorial because well football. Apparently, honoring the victims of 9/11 is important until kickoff. To this day, I’m irritated over it.
I thought about all of this today because it’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. To some, it’s a day off. To others, it’s a day you have to go to work while others have the day off. On CBS, they will air Supergirl, Scorpion, and NCIS: Los Angeles. No one is going to take real time to contemplate what MLK meant to the country. In essence, why have the day off?
With that said, I’m taking my small corner of the world, and I’m taking time to share not my words about Martin Luther King, Jr., but his words. His “I Have a Dream Speech” should be aired nationally at a specific time across all networks on the day we honor him. Instead, they’ll appear here:
Thank you for taking the time out to listen. God bless you, and may God bless America.
Needing to get out of the house and looking for something to do, my wife and O took our son to The Crayola Experience in Easton, PA.
Here are some basics to know. There is a parking deck across the street that accepts credit cards. It’s $19.99 per person over the age of 2. If you purchase ahead of time on the Internet, it’s $16.99. With each admission, you get two tokens to use inside the Crayola Experience (more on that in a minute). You are not allowed to bring food and beverages in, but there are lockers at your disposal. They will search your bags. It’s not as intense as Citi Field, but you do have to open it up and they’ll look in the bag. The no beverage thing is problematic because it’s really hot on each level. Each level has vending machines and vendors begging you to purchase a drink at each level.
The first level is fun. You start with creating your own crayon wrapper. There’s a blue, red, green, yellow, and purple crayon to create. The specific variations of the colors change. Each label has the name of the color and the date. You get to select an image and out your name in the crayon (or anything else you want to put on it):
If you make a mistake, it’s alright. You get around a hundred chances to edit before you hit print. After you’re done, you get a crayon and a label. You then get to put the label on yourself:
It’s easy as 1-2-3. The cost per crayon is one token. If you run out of tokens and want more crayons, you can purchase more tokens. They are 50 cents a piece. Don’t go crazy. You can only use it to purchase these crayons (there are only five colors) and Crayola’s version of Play Doh. That’s it. Don’t be like me and get an insane amount of tokens expecting its currency throughout each level.
After the crayon making area, there’s an area to color or play with the Play Doh you purchase. They’re in vending machines. Here’s the great thing about the Crayola Experience: there are crayons and coloring pages throughout the place. Once you leave this level, you have no use for tokens.
The third level has a really cool feature. You sit in a photo booth and it converts you to a coloring book page. There are a number of backgrounds you can select. You can take as many photos and print as many pages as you want for free. If you want to convert it to a t-shirt, canvas print, or puzzle, you can do so in the store (we didn’t).
In the next section of the third level was an interactive experience. There is an image protected against the wall. There are a series of tablets where you can use your fingers to color an image. Once you’re done, the image will project onto the screen:
Note, there was a section for water play, but we skipped it. We didn’t feel the need to have a toddler splashing around and needing a full clothing change. I should also mention the different levels had a playground. As there were overaggressive parents and kid there, we avoided them. It’s a bad combination to have this situation in a very hot room.
The top level has more creative crayon play. In one area, you can melt crayons and use sticks to color paper with the melted crayons. You can also melt crayons to make a dinosaur, ring, or a crayon (the mascot):
It takes four minutes per item, and they try to make you go back in line to get another item. We pushed our luck and got a dinosaur and a ring. There was another area with melted crayon spin-art. It looks promising. However, the line was long. At that point, we were done waiting in long lines. I know my son was. As such, we went to the other side of the fourth floor.
The other section was all about crayons and the dark. It was a dark, but not pitch black, room. There are chalkboard style boards across the room where you can color in neon paint. There’s also a section with crayons on a movie screen. For some reasons, these crayons constantly change color. That’s not what makes it interesting. What’s interesting is the crayons mimic your movements:
It’s not perfect for a toddler or a tall daddy. However, if you’re a kid from 5-10, it seemed to mimic the movements very well including jumping and sitting down.
After this room, we were dying of thirst, so we headed down to the first floor and the overpriced cafeteria. It’s basically hospital food you purchase. I think it cost around $75 for two small bags of chips, two bottles of soda, and a slushie (comes in a special take home cup). Actually, the bill was around $20. You get get a meal for your kid that comes in a take-home lunchbox. It costs $7.99. Note, you can get your hand stamped and re-enter if you want to eat. However, they will not let you bring it into the cafeteria area. Also note, there’s no real feasible place to stop without getting in your car and driving.
In this first floor area, there are other interesting things like the World’s Largest Crayon:
and some Crayola crayon facts. These facts include how the number of crayons double every 28 years and the name origins or reasons for name changes of the crayons:
After the cafeteria, we went to the gift shop. It seemed moderately priced. The big attraction was the tins. If you purchase a tin, you can fill it with crayons and markers from the store. The crayons and markers have no special marking denoting where you purchased them. The tins cost around $20 give or take a few bucks considering the size time you purchase.
Note, you cannot use tokens in the cafeteria or the gift shop. You also can’t exchange tokens back for your money. What they will do is exchange your tokens for limited items, which include one washable marker (random color), one pack of Play Doh, or a four pack of crayons.
If you’re like me, you have a choice, go back and get more crayons, get whatever they’re offering, or save them for a return trip. We saved them for a return trip.
The lines were aggravating, but overall, it was fun. With a toddler, you’ll need 3-4 hours depending on what they want to do. My son’s favorite parts were making the crayon labels, creating a coloring book page, and the crayons mimicking his movements. And oh yeah, the slushie.
I’m still debating the season pass for $34.99. It is unlimited admissions for one year. Essentially, if you go twice a year, it was worth it. Apparently, it also comes with emails with special offers. I’m more interested in the savings. I know I’ll go at least once more, but I don’t know how much more than that (if at all).
Overall, it’s a good day trip with your toddler. Just make sure you avoid falling for overpurchasing tokens and be ready to wait in lines. If you do that, it should be a fun, relatively inexpensive day.
One common refrain I hear from people is that they’re tired of hearing athletes praise God when they win. I honestly don’t know why. How many times have you prayed for your team to win? More often than you admit, right?
When you pray, you find the outcome doesn’t always turn out the way you thought it would. There are reasons for that, but this isn’t one of them:
Spoiler alert: whatever God you worship doesn't care about sports.
— Molly Knight (@molly_knight) January 10, 2016
Put aside the condensation and snark in this Tweet for a second. It’s just plain wrong. First off, to suggest knowing God’s thought process is blasphemy. More importantly, it ignores all teachings and dogma.
To put my perspective in context, I was born and raised Catholic. I was an alterboy. I went to Catholic school from 4-12. I’m not a perfect Catholic, but I try.
With respect to God and sports, there are two things I know to be true: (1) God loves all of his creatures; and (2) God has bestowed upon man free will. Both are reasons why the notion God doesn’t care about sports is wrong. First, as sports are composed of His creation, He cares. I’m not going to suggest He prefers one sport over another or one person over another. Rather, I’m only suggestion that as God loves each of His creatures, He cares about sports.
Second, as an extension of free will, God is not interceding into the games. He is not interceding if there are more Mets fans praying than Royals fans. He’s not interceding if the batter is a nice guy and the pitcher is a jerk. God is not going to force the batter to lay off that 1-2 pitch in the dirt. He’s not doing that no matter what you saw in Angels in the Outfield. To do so would to counteract one’s freewill. Therefore, when the Mets lose to the Royals, it’s not because God prefers the Royals. When something amazing happens on the field, it’s because a player made an incredible play.
When things don’t go your way, it’s not because God doesn’t care. He cares. He cares so much He will allow the players on the field to determine the outcome of the game without His intervention.
What I’ve found is most of the people that support the Yoenis Cespedes trade is he transformed the offense, and he was the reason the Mets won the NL East. Other people say while Cespedes was great with the Mets, there were other more important factors helping the Mets win the NL East. These arguments rest upon the Mets getting healthy and a weak August schedule.
I think the best way to look at this is just to present the facts. I’m presenting them unadulterated and without comment. Before presenting them, remember that Cespedes’ first game with the Mets was 8/1.
Pre-Cespedes Record: 53 – 51
Post-Cespedes Record: 37 – 21
In the same time frame, here is the Nationals record:
Pre-Cespedes Record: 54-47
Post-Cespedes Record: 29-32
Mets Opponents Combined Win Percentage and Mets Record by Month:
April Opponents .458 Mets 15-8
May Opponents .510 Mets 13-15
June Opponents .483 Mets 12-15
July Opponents .537 Mets 13-12
August Opponents .480 Mets 20-8
September/October Opponents .458 Mets 17-14
Here is the Mets and Nationals records and position in the standings at the end of every month:
April
Mets 15-8
Nats 10-13 (5.0 games back)
May
Nats 28-22
Mets 28-23 (0.5 games behind)
June
Nats 43-34
Mets 40-38 (3.5 games behind)
July
Nats 54-47
Mets 53-50 (2.0 games behind)
August
Mets 73-58
Nats 66-64 (6.5 games behind)
September/October
Mets 90-72
Nats 83-79 (7.0 games behind)
Overall, the Mets went from 2.0 games behind heading into August to 6.5 games up at the end of the month. As stated above the Mets record in August was 20-8 against opponents with a .480 winning percentage. The Nationals went 12-17 against opponents with a .490 winning percentage. Aside from the records, here is some additional information to consider:
Dates Key Players Came off the DL for good (by first game played after activation):
Travis d’Arnaud July 31st
Daniel Murphy June 30th
David Wright August 24th
Michael Cuddyer August 11th
Here are some other key dates from the 2015 season to consider:
July 24 – Michael Conforto called up from AA
July 24 – Mets trade for Juan Uribe and Kelly Johnson
July 27th – Mets trade for Tyler Clippard
July 30 – John Mayberry, Jr. released
July 31 – Mets trade for Cespedes
August 1 – Cespedes plays first game with the Mets
Again, I’m making no comment on any of this information. It’s being presented to review it and process it. Upon reviewing the information, does your judgment on how Cespedes impacted the Mets change or remain the same?