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?
As I write this, Grayson’s parents have received $13,746 towards the $30,000 needed to get him out of the hospital and home. It’s important to raise this money because: (1) he’s had infections while at the hospital requiring additional open heart surgery; and (2) he didn’t get to spend his first Christmas at home.
Think about that. It’s heartbreaking. He was in a hospital fighting an infection after having open heart surgery. While you and your family members got to dress up as Santa and watch the baby open gifts, Grayson was in a hospital.
First, I want to say that the $13,746 raised so far is a tremendous amount. I want to thank everyone who retweeted my incessant tweets trying to get the word out. I want to thank those that made donations as well. With that said, it’s frustrating. It’s frustrating because donations after the first day were around $8,000. Less than half that amount was raised in the subsequent four days. I’ve been sitting around trying to figure out how I can help more. I came up with a giveaway.
Right now in my possession, I have the following items to give away: (1) a David Wright Oyo Figure; and
(2) a PBS style Mets tote bag
Both were purchased with my own money, and neither of the aforementioned companies are sponsors. If you’re interested in the giveaway, here are the rules:
- There is no purchase necessary.
- One winner will be randomly selected.
- To enter, you must either RT the Tweet containing this article and/or enter a donation on the webpage leaving MetsDaddy and your Twitter handle in the comments section.
- If you RT and enter a donation, you will be deemed to have entered twice. There is no minimum donation required. However, only your first donation will count as an entry. All subsequent donations will welcome but not considered for the giveaway.
- Prior RT and donations do not qualify for the giveaway. Only RT and donations made after this is posted on Twitter will qualify.
On Friday, January 22nd at noon, I will selecte two winners at random. If the donations at that time meet the $30,000 goal, I will do an additional giveaway. If you want to make a donation, please click this link.
Again, thank you for all that you’ve done so far to help my friend’s son. Let’s finish the job and let his parents bring Grayson home.
Like most people, I like to play the projection game going into a season. I’m curious what other people think about the Mets. A vast majority of us are really using gut instinct and intuition to make these judgments. A site like Fangraphs uses hard data to arrive at their projections.
While much attention has been made about the projected standings, not at lot of attention has been paid to the different drivers to that calculation. Specifically, I’m referring to the Mets decision to trade Jon Niese for Neil Walker. At least according to Fangraphs, the way too early returns on this trade are not good for the Mets. It’s not the whole reason, but it’s at least part of the reason they are projected to finish behind the Nationals.
Let’s start at the switch from Murphy to Walker. Last year, Murphy hit .281/.322/.449. In his career, he’s a .288/.331/.424 hitter. He’s played most of his career with Citi Field as his home park. Last year, he worked with Kevin Long and saw some increased power. His replacement, Walker, is projected to hit .258/.329/.427. Essentially, Fangraphs sees Walker as a downgrade from what the Mets previously had offensively at second base. They see Walker as a downgrade from a player who really wanted to return to the Mets.
As we know, the side effect of the Walker trade was Murphy signing with the Nationals. Now that he’s away from Citi Field, he’s projected to hit .308/.351/.440. Effectively, Murphy is taking the place of Ian Desmond because Danny Espinosa is moving from second to short. Desmond hit .233/.290/.384. By the Mets not re-signing Murphy, it allowed the Nationals to do so, and as a result, their 2016 team projects to be a lot better than the 2015 version.
Sure, you could argue Murphy’s projected 2.3 WAR isn’t significantly better than Walker’s 2.2 WAR. This does neglect the fact that the Mets could’ve had Murphy for nothing. They had to give up Jon Niese for him. Niese has a reasonable, team friendly contract with team options for $10 and $11 million respectively in 2017 and 2018. Niese was a big trade chip. They used it on Walker, who isn’t even an upgrade.
Don’t believe me? Consider this. For his career, Niese has a 3.91 ERA, 3.84 FIP, and a 7.0 K/9. Wei-Yin Chen has a career 3.72 ERA, 4.14 FIP, and a 7.0 K/9. Both are left-handed. Both put up similar stats. Niese is 29, and Chen is 30. Chen just received a five year $80 million deal. Niese makes $9 million this year. If he gets injured, a team can walk away. If Niese is good, a team has him on a two year $20 million deal. Niese’s production and his contract carry a lot of value.
The Mets used Niese and didn’t even upgrade at second. They treaded water. Their old second baseman has gone to the Mets main competition in the NL East and has made them markedly better. To make matters worse, the Mets don’t have Niese to use as a trade chip for a big bat this year. Instead, they have the 42 year old Bartolo Colon, who has next to no trade value next year. This leaves the Mets hoping everyone outplays their predicted production.
As a result, the very early returns suggest the Mets made a bad trade and will regret losing Daniel Murphy.
Editor’s Note: this article also ran on metsmerizedonline.com
I don’t know about where you live, but I’ve gotten snow on Wednesday and Thursday. It seems like just yesterday it was shorts weather. It was just yesterday that we were trapped in a bad Elvis Presley Hawaii movie. Speaking of Hawaii, my Dad and I were talking about Mets players born in Hawaii. Can you name them? Good luck!
If you’re signed up for Mets emails, the slew of requests for fans to purchase game plans and the like. My favorite is when the Mets inquire if you’d like to get single game suites.
It’s something I always wanted to do. If love to go to a hot July day game and sit in a nice air conditioned suite. It’ll be great to let my son run around the suite if he gets antsy. It’ll be great to not have to wait in line for concessions during the game. Hungry? Just get up and grab something. Have to use the bathroom? Well there’s no line. It’s your own bathroom.
The Mets don’t have the information online, so I had to do some digging. The going rate for 19 people seems to be in the $4,000 – $5,000 range. Assuming I could bring my son in for free (his growth spurts aren’t helping that), the cost would be between $210.53 – $263.16 per person. However, it appears that may be without the food, which is part of the charm. If you were to sit in the ballpark, that would be the equivalent of sitting in the Metropolitan Silver section.
I can’t sit in the Metropolitan Silver section now with a little kid, but I could sit in a suite. It’s a lot for a game, but it’s something I would love to do. I guess it’s time to get 18 of my friends together.