Asdrubal Cabrera
Mets games have just become the theater of the absurd. Noah Syndergaard refuses an MRI and then leaves his next start with a torn lat. Matt Harvey doesn’t show up to every game. Kevin Plawecki apparently is kinkier than we think. Mr. Met is walking through Citi Field flipping off the fans. Today? Well, for the Mets, it was more of the same.
In the fourth, the Brewers got a rally going on a couple of base hits including a Jonathan Villar single that deflected off Zack Wheeler. After a Nick Franklin RBI single, the Brewers had a 2-0 lead and runners on first and second. Brewers pitcher Chase Anderson squared to bunt and popped it up in front of home plate. Travis d’Arnaud went to let it drop in the hopes of starting a double play. Instead, he hesitated after picking the ball up, and he couldn’t get an out. In a normal baseball game, this would be a fairly event filled inning. Not the Mets.
Eric Sogard would pop up in fair ground in what should have been the second out in the inning. Instead the ball boy ran directly into Wilmer Flores‘ arm causing him to drop the ball:
Milwaukee batboy bet the Brewers to beat the Mets today. pic.twitter.com/RQYTYWzUWG
— Jimmy Traina (@JimmyTraina) June 1, 2017
Same old Mets. Fortunately, Wheeler settled down, and he was able to induce Sogard to hit into the inning ending double play. It was one of three double plays the Brewers would hit into on the day. The double plays would allow Wheeler to go deep into the game. He would throw 102 pitches over 6.1 innings allowing 1o hits, two runs, two earned, and one walk with six strikeouts. He departed the game down 2-0 with a runner left on second base.
Jerry Blevins got the job done getting Sogard to ground out by striking Eric Thames out.
Unfortunately, it didn’t matter as the Mets offense did nothing against the Brewers starter for the second straight game. Lucas Duda (2-3) and d’Arnaud (1-2) were the entirety of the Mets offense on the day. To be shut down yesterday by Junior Guerra is one thing. Getting shut down today by Anderson is another.
While the Mets offense was inept, the pitching was doing its job. That includes the bullpen. After Blevins bailed out Wheeler, he got into some trouble of his own in the eighth leaving runners on first and second with no outs. Fernando Salas came on and he got the Mets out of the jam striking out three batters.
In the eighth, the Brewers went to Jacob Barnes. On the first pitch he threw, Flores launched a home run to deep left field to cut the score to 2-1. Unfortunately, it was not the start of a comeback, but rather a single flare that went unheeded by the rest of the Mets offense leading to a 2-1 loss. Case in point, Reyes and Jay Bruce took back-to-back strikeouts looking to start the ninth against Brewers closer Corey Knebel.
This was an extremely winnable game, and the Mets let it slip through their fingers. For a team fighting just to get back to .500, they can’t keep doing this. It’s losses like this that have put them in this position, and it is losses like this that will sink their season.
Game Notes: Asdrubal Cabrera got the day off, and Jose Reyes moved from third to shortstop for the day game.
In the Matrix, Morpheus said to Neo, “You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.”
Apparently, Tyler Pill is the blue pill because there were a number of strange things that happened at Citi Field that only the most ardent Mets fans could believe:
Jose Reyes started over a red hot Wilmer Flores. More than that, Zack Davies appeared to strike him out looking. Instead, the home plate umpire called it a call leading to a Reyes bases loaded walk.
Travis d’Arnaud threw out last year’s stolen base leader Jonathan Villar:
Thing of beauty! pic.twitter.com/biPntHLwZq
— GENY Mets Report (@genymets) May 31, 2017
Jerry Blevins allowed an inherited runner to score.
Fernando Salas not only got an at-bat, but he also got a hit.
More than that, Pill only allowed one run over 5.1 innings.
Despite Pill having a minor league 1.60 ERA this year, his peripherals indicated his ERA should be over 4.00. Long story short, Pill has been extremely lucky this year. While that luck escaped him in his major league debut, he brought it with him today.
Starting with his warm-ups, Pill was in trouble all night. He hit Keon Broxton, who was the very first batter he faced. He’d be the only one to score against Pill after a Travis Shaw double.
From there, Pill had no 1-2-3 innings. He somehow stranded seven batters including Eric Thames, who tripled to lead-off the fifth thanks to some poor Jay Bruce defense (that was believable).
Through of all this, the Mets had a 4-1 lead scoring twice in the fifth and sixth innings. In the fifth, Curtis Granderson and Asdrubal Cabrera hit a pair of doubles to tie the game at one. The Mets would then load the bases, and Reyes drew the aforementioned bases loaded walk.
Neil Walker hit a lead-off double off Brewers reliever Eric Sogard, and he would score on a Lucas Duda homer:
This left Pill on the long side on a night despite allowing six hits, three walks, and a hit batter over 5.1 innings. Despite all of this, he wouldn’t get the win.
He didn’t get the win because in the seventh inning the unthinkable happened. Yes, it was easy to believe Salas would walk two to help load the bases with one out. It’s easier to believe that happened when you consider he was running the bases in the top half of the inning.
Blevins came on, and it appeared he did what he had to do. He struck out Shaw looking. While he did issue a bases loaded walk to Domingo Santana to make it 4-2, he did get Jett Bandy to pop up to short.
That’s when the unthinkable happened. The sure-handed Cabrera Luis Castilloed it:
https://twitter.com/therendermlb/status/869733991867445248
Thankfully, Santana was not hustling like Mark Teixeira did meaning the Brewers merely tied the score on the play instead of potentially going up 5-4.
The bullpen did its job. Josh Edgin and Addison Reed each pitched a scoreless inning, and Josh Smoker pitched three scoreless. Smoker got into a jam, but he got a huge strikeout to get out of the 10th. We then saw one of his signature celebrations:
What the hell kind of celebration is that @Josh_Smoker? lol pic.twitter.com/NgFZnKdlmI
— MetsKevin11 (@MetsKevin11) May 31, 2017
What’s interesting is Terry Collins had the opportunity to double switch both Reed and Smoker into the game to possibly get an extra inning out of them. He passed both times.
Finally, the Mets got something started in the 12th. T.J. Rivera led off with a pinch hit single off Wily Peralta, and Conforo walked. After Reyes couldn’t get a bunt down, he hit a fielder’s choice with Thames getting Conforto at second. The Mets finally won it with a Bruce single against the drawn-in shifted infield.
A long bizarre game finally came to an end with the Mets winning a game they have typically lost all year. The final score indicates Mets fans really took the blue pill.
Game Notes: Walker’s two doubles on the night gave him 1,000 hits for his career. Mets are 3-10 when they walked six or more. They walked eight.
In his last start, Terry Collins controversially lifted Robert Gsellman after throwing 84 pitches over six innings in a 5-3 game. It came back to haunt the Mets as the bullpen blew the lead and the game.
Today, Collins controversially left Gsellman in the game. In the bottom of the sixth, Gsellman was due up with the bases loaded and two outs. To that point, Gsellman had thrown 89 pitches, and the Mets were clinging to a one run lead.
Rather than go for the knockout punch, Collins stuck with his starter in what could be Gsellman’s last start. Before the game Sandy Alderson announced both Steven Matz and Seth Lugo will likely join the rotation some time next week. In all likelihood, this means Gsellman is bound for the bullpen or Vegas.
Collins’ faith in Gsellman was rewarded in more ways than one. First, Gsellman earned a bases loaded walk off Brewers reliever Rob Scahill with some help from C.B. Bucknor:
Call hurts #Brewers
Ball 3 should be strike 3
Bot 6 Scahill vs Gsellman
30% call same
1.1in from edge pic.twitter.com/uFnOvwnT0S— Brewers Strike Zone (@BrewersUmp) May 29, 2017
It was actually Gsellman’s second RBI of the game. His previous RBI came in the fifth inning.
The Mets had runners on second and third after a Rene Rivera RBI double. Gsellman hit a medium to shallow fly ball to right, and Glen Sherlock sent Wilmer Flores. Rivera would then score on a Michael Conforto RBI double.
With that, it was 4-2 Mets heading into the seventh. Gsellman rewarded his manager’s faith in him by mowing down the Brewers with a 1-2-3 inning. That would close the books on a good start for him.
Gsellman’s final line was seven innings, three hits, two runs, one earned, two walks, and five strike outs. It was the Mets fourth straight quality start, and it might’ve been his best start of the season.
He kept a good hitting Brewers team at bay. The one run on him was a home run he allowed to Domingo Santana on a pitch that was on the batter’s shoe tops. The first run was on the Mets infield.
Asdrubal Cabrera threw a ball away allowing Jonathan Villar to reach. Later that inning, Jose Reyes picked up a Matt Garza sacrifice fly bunt attempt rather than letting it go foul. This put Villar in scoring position and allowed him to score on a groundout.
The Brewers wouldn’t have a rally like that until the ninth. Travis Shaw and Domingo led off the ninth with back-to-back singles. Addison Reed then settled down by striking out the next two batters and then getting a game ending ground out. It was Reed’s seventh save of the season.
Right now, it’s time to start getting optimistic about this team. The offense is still scoring runs, and the starting pitching has been pitching better and going deeper into games. If that continues, you’ll see more games of just Paul Sewald and Reed. That right there is a winning formula.
Game Notes: Jerry Blevins did not warm up. Unlike Saturday, Curtis Granderson moved to right field for defense when Juan Lagares came on in the eighth for defense. On Saturday, Jay Bruce stayed in and couldn’t get to the game winning hit. Flores was 3-4 with all at-bats coming against right-handed pitching.
Whenever he takes the mound, the biggest story in any Mets game is going to be Matt Harvey. Part of the reason is Harvey is a lightning rod. The main reason is the Mets need Harvey to be good if they have any hopes to get back to .500 and then back into the NL East race. If we get the Harvey we saw tonight, there is a chance.
Now, this wasn’t the Harvey of 2013 or even 2015. Heck, this wasn’t even the Harvey of April. This was a Harvey still trying to find himself and succeeding more than he has been. We saw some things from his struggles this year that gave you some pause as to how this game would progress. First, there is his propensity to give up the long ball as evidenced by the Gregory Polanco second inning home run. There is the command as shown by Harvey’s two walks. Then, there is the inability to really put batters away. Tonight, he had only four strikeouts.
And yet, there was a Harvey emerging that could be a good pitcher again. The one thing that stood out was his ability to limit the damage. The biggest example of this was the fourth inning. The Mets had a narrow 2-1 lead, and the Pirates had a rally going. David Freese hit a one out infield singles, and Andrew McCutchen followed with his own single. As if this wasn’t enough, Harvey threw a wild pitch putting runners on second and third with one out. Harvey responded by striking out Francisco Cervelli and Jordy Mercer to end the inning.
Overall, Harvey threw 102 pitches over six innings. It was his longest outing in over a month, and it was his second straight win. It might’ve been due to a weak Pirates lineup. It could be Harvey is getting back to becoming a reliable pitcher. Whatever it is, the Mets should take it right now.
The Mets will also take the seven runs they got tonight. The biggest source of those runs came from the three players who would be most affected by the return of Yoenis Cespedes – Jay Bruce, Lucas Duda, and Curtis Granderson. Bruce showed signs of getting out of his May funk going 3-5 with a run, two doubles, and an RBI. Granderson, hitting lead-off with Michael Conforto getting the night off, had hit first three hit game of the season going 3-5 with a run, double, and an RBI. Duda homered in his second straight game, and third out of the last four games.
Jose Reyes and Asdrubal Cabrera also collected RBI hits in what was an easy 7-2 victory. Overall, the only thing that put a damper on the night was Terry Collins‘ handling of the bullpen. With a five run lead in the seventh, he turned to Paul Sewald for two innings making him unavailable again for a few days. It wasn’t until the ninth that he used Neil Ramirez, and Ramirez struggled enough to lead to Jerry Blevins having to warm up in yet another game.
Still, the Mets took two out of three in the series. It was a step in the right direction and another step towards .500. Sooner of later, the Mets are going to have to stop giving games away, and they are going to have to turn some of these series victories into sweeps. Still, it was a good win leaving the team on a good note as they head back to Citi Field.
Game Notes: This was the Mets first win on a Sunday since their first Sunday game of the season. For the second straight game, a Mets pitcher failed to get down a sacrifice bunt. Juan Lagares was the only Mets starter without a hit.
When Lucas Duda and Travis d’Arnaud came back from the Disabled List, neither one was hitting much. Recentky, Duda broke out, and he’s literally getting on base in half of his plate appearances. After last year, there was legitimate concern over whether d’Arnaud would hit as well.
Those concerns were put to rest as d’Arnaud came within a triple of hitting the cycle. Overall, he was 3-5 with a run, double, homer, and two RBI. It should also be noted the Pirates didn’t attempt one stolen base against him. It was about as good a night as a catcher can have.
Duda was just as good. He was 2-4 with a run, double, homer, and RBI. Seriously, no one can get him out right now including Pirates ace Gerrit Cole. Actually, that’s not entirely true. Duda’s manager was able to get him out.
It was one of a series of bizarre moves from Terry Collins on the night.
Going into the sixth, the Mets had a 4-2 lead due to the aforementioned contributions from Duda and d’Arnaud as well as a Jay Bruce first inning solo home run.
In the sixth, after Neil Walker botched a potential inning ending double play, Collins left Zack Wheeler in to pitch to Andrew McCutchen. At that point in the game, McCutchen had homered and walked against Wheeler. With Wheeler under 90 pitches and pitching well, Collins stuck with his starter who gave up an RBI double.
It was somewhat of a damper on what was a good night for Wheeler. His final line was six innings, seven hits, three runs, three earned, two walks, and five strikeouts.
For a brief moment, it seemed the Mets would hold onto that 4-3 lead.
In the seventh, Collins went to his bullpen and somehow decided to go with Neil Ramirez. Collins used Fernando Salas to close out an 8-1 game, but he decided to go with Ramirez and his 27.00 ERA with the Mets to hold a one run lead. After Jordy Nelson doubled to start the inning and moved to third on a groundout, it became obvious the pitcher with a 27.00 ERA wasn’t going to get the job done.
Collins then double switched Jerry Blevins into the game. This meant the Mets best hitter and defensive first baseman was lifted from a one run game. Fortunately, Blevins got the Mets out of the jam as he typically does.
The Mets also went unscathed though the eighth with a combination of Blevins and Salas. Salas was helped out by Juan Lagares who raced back to get a McCutchen ball at the wall.
The Mets were no so lucky in the ninth. Mercer hit a double to center off Addison Reed that not even Lagares could catch. The way Lagares played tonight in center, that’s saying something. John Jaso tied the game sending it into extras.
The Mets had a chance to go ahead in the top of the 10th. Lagares hit a lead-off single and moved to second on a T.J. Rivera pinch hit single. However, while d’Arnaud was huge for the Mets all night, he struck out to end the rally.
With Collins once again ripping through his bullpen, he had to go to Tyler Pill to pitch the bottom of the 10th. Things did not go well.
It started with Lagares absolutely robbing Gregory Polanco of an extra base hit. Pill then quickly loaded the bases allowing a single to David Freese, plunking McCutchen, and walking Francisco Cervelli. With all that, the Mets were so close to getting out of that inning.
Gift Ngoepe popped out to shallow right. Collins then went to Josh Edgin to try to get Jaso out. Edgin struggled with his command, but he fought back into the at-bat going 3-2 with Jaso. Jaso then hit a line drive to right almost every right fielder in baseball gets to. Not Bruce. As he flailed at the ball, the Pirates were scoring the game winning run to take the game 6-5.
It should be noted Collins brought Lagares in for defense. Instead if moving the far superior fielder, Curtis Granderson, to right, Collins stuck with Bruce, and it indirectly cost the Mets the game. It’s not exactly how Collins wanted to celebrate his 68th birthday. Instead of blowing out his candles, his overworked bullpen did the job.
Game Notes: Asdrubal Cabrera was the only hitless Mets starter. He made up for it by dekeing McCutchen in the sixth. Cabrera got to a ball in the hole, and he had no play at first. He feigned going there, and he then nailed McCutchen at home as he tried to score from second.
Due to the rain, the Mets played it safe and started Rafael Montero over Jacob deGrom. While it is smart to protect the best pitcher in your team so you can win games down the road, putting Montero into any game severely hampers your chances of winning that game.
That was evident when Montero needed 45 pitches to get through the inning. Of note, the Mets wanted to limit him to 75 pitches due to his throwing 3.1 innings on Sunday. Montero needed 45 pitches because he was usual terrible self.
In the first, he allowed three walks including one with the bases loaded. He allowed three singles with two of those being infield singles. Despite the mayhem, the Mets were only down 2-0 after the first. Believe it or not, that would be all the runs the Padres needed despite them starting Dimelson Lamet, who was making his first career start.
The only run the Mets would score would be on a second inning Lucas Duda home run. After that, the Mets would squander opportunity after opportunity.
After the Duda homer, the Mets stranded Curtis Granderson on second after his two out double.
In the third, Matt Reynolds, who earned a lead-off walk pinch hitting for Montero. The Padres would execute a perfect relay and get the tag down just before Reynolds touched home as he tried to score from first on a Jose Reyes double. The Mets then stranded Reyes on second.
Hunter Renfroe handed the Mets a gift in the fifth. He couldn’t get to a Travis d’Arnaud shallow pop up, and then his throw pulled Chase d’Arnaud off the bag. Then for some reason, Terry Collins opted to go with the butcher boy with Paul Sewald instead of a straight sacrifice bunt attempt. Sewald struck out. Michael Conforto, who had a golden sombrero, struck out as well. Reyes popped out to end the rally.
Jay Bruce and Neil Walker led off the sixth with back-to-back singles off Padres left-handed reliever Jose Torres. Duda then grounded into the 3-6-3 double play. The Mets were still alive in the inning putting runners at the corners after a Wilmer Flores walked against Kevin Quackenbush. With Granderson coming up to the plate, the Padres brought in Ryan Buchter, and Collins countered with T.J. Rivera. Rivera flew out to end the inning.
There were runners and first and second and two out in the seventh, but Bruce was unable to cash in grounding out to short.
The shame of this is this was an extremely winnable game. Even as bad as Montero was, the Mets were still in position to win. Montero’s final line was three innings, five hits, three runs, three earned, three walks, and four strikeouts.
The score remained at 3-1 because Sewald was brilliant. Sewald was stretched to three innings and 41 pitches due in part to Montero’s ineffectiveness. Sewald once again answered the call pitching three scoreless allowing just one hit and one walk while striking out four. It should be noted Collins deemed him unavailable yesterday.
Josh Edgin was nearly as good as Sewald pitching two shut out innings himself. Overall, while the bullpen has struggled, they did their job tonight.
Finally, in the eighth, the Meys offense broke through. Walker hit a lead-off double off Padres reliever Brandon Maurer, and he would score on a Duda seeing eye RBI single. Still, that rally would fizzle as Asdrubal Cabrera would ground into an inning ending double play.
The Padres added a run off the struggling Addison Reed in the ninth making it 4-2. That run would loom large.
Juan Lagares walked off Padres closer Brad Hand tostart the ninth inning rally, and he would go to third on a Conforto single. Reyes hit a high chopper which was enough to score Lagares and prevent the double play. Still, it was the second out of the inning. Bruce then fouled out to end the game.
The foul out put a capper on a frustrating night at the plate going 1-10 with RISP. It does not matter who the Mets did and did not start in this three game series. The Padres are terrible. The Mets should have swept them or at least taken two of three. Instead, they blew a five run lead last night and couldn’t hit with RISP tonight.
The entire Mets organization needs to do some soul searching after this series.
Game Notes: Cabrera was activated from the Disabled List but did not start. Kevin Plawecki was sent down to make room for him on the roster.
Fact is, the Mets season is on the brink. They need to upgrade anywhere they can in order to help get the Mets season back on track. For many, that starts with calling up Amed Rosario. In response, many have offered excuses as to why the Mets shouldn’t call-up Rosario. In reality, they are flimsy excuses. Let’s go through them one-by-one:
EXCUSE #1: The Pitching Is the Problem and Rosario Doesn’t Pitch
Yes, the Mets and their MLB worst ERA is a big problem, and no, Rosario doesn’t pitch. However, the Mets right now are playing Jose Reyes and his .189/.269/.310 batting line at shortstop. Assuming the pitching doesn’t get any better, the Mets are going to have to out-slug teams to win games. Reyes is not going to help that.
Also, the Mets defense at short has been terrible. They rank dead last with a -9 DRS. Better defense at an important defensive position like shortstop will only serve to help a pitching staff. Take Robert Gsellman for example. He has a 58% ground ball rate, and he is allowing a .368 BABIP. With a better shortstop, especially one like Rosario who projects to be a very good defender, that BABIP can go down. That is the result of Rosario being able to get to more balls and the rest of the infield being better positioned as a result. That could result in a lower BABIP, which means base hits becomes outs. Rallies thereby end sooner or don’t begin in the first place. Gsellman can then go deeper into games and take pressure off the bullpen.
EXCUSE #2 You Don’t Want Rosario Up On a Short-Term Basis
Who says is has to be on a short-term basis? Even assuming Asdrubal Cabrera is ready to come back at the end of his 10 day disabled list stint, why couldn’t Rosario stay in the major leagues? You have the option to move Rosario to third base if you so choose. You also have the option of moving Cabrera and his poor range to third base. If Rosario comes up, and he’s shown he can play well defensively and hit well, he has shown he belongs to play at the major league level. If that is the case, keep him up.
EXCUSE #3 He Doesn’t Have Enough Triple-A At-Bats
There is no precise formula detailing how many at-bats are needed in Triple-A. Miguel Cabrera never played in Triple-A before his call-up, and he is well on his way to the Hall of Fame. Matt Reynolds has 1,145 at-bats in Triple-A, and he is still not ready to consistently hit major league pitching. There is no tried and true formula to follow. Rosario has shown he can hit in Triple-A. You either believe in him, or you don’t.
Excuse #4 You Don’t Want Him to Struggle and Be Sent Down
Why? Keith Hernandez struggled as a 21 year old, and he was sent down. After that, Hernandez won an MVP, 11 Gold Gloves, and two World Series titles. After jumping on the scene in 2015, Michael Conforto had a nightmare of a 2016. So far this year, he is hitting .327/.413/.654 with nine homers and 24 RBI. Overall, if you are going to be great at the major league level like many believe Rosario will be, one set-back is not going to prevent you from fulfilling your potential.
EXCUSE #5 You Don’t Want to Bring Him Up into a Losing Situation
The corollary of this is you don’t want to bring up a prospect expecting him to be a savior. In 1983, the Mets were nine games under .500 when Darryl Strawberry was called-up to the majors. In 2003, the Mets were seven games under .500 when Reyes was called-up. In 2004, the Mets were one game under .500 when David Wright was called-up to the majors.
Each of these players were immensely talented, and they have each had successful careers. Being called-up into a losing situation or being asked to be a savior didn’t prevent them from being terrific players.
EXCUSE #6 He’s Had Too Many Errors This Year
Reyes and Cabrera have combined to post a -9 DRS, which again, is the worst in the majors. Looking at how the team was built top to bottom, defense has been not incentivized. Now all of a sudden, the Mets are going to care about defense when it comes to a player with plus range for the position? Further, if he’s struggling, get him away from the terrible infield at Cashman Field, and get him some major league coaching. You’re likely going to see a better defender out there.
EXCUSE #7 Calling Him Up Sends a Signal the Team is Panicking
Shouldn’t the Mets be panicking at this point? The team has the worst ERA in baseball. Their ace and closer are likely gone for the season. They are already nine games behind the Nationals. By all means, the Mets should be panicking. Even if they aren’t panicking, they should be concerned. The best way to address this would be to address the concerns the team has. One of those concerns is the offensive and defensive production they get from shortstop. Rosario can alleviate those concerns.
EXCUSE #8 He’s Not Ready to Hit Major League Pitching
On this front, you have to defer to the front office. Despite Rosario’s terrific Triple-A numbers, we don’t really have a breakdown on his ability to hit a fastball or breaking pitches. They can justifiably be seeing something we don’t see. Still, the team is willing to go with Reyes, his poor defense, and his .189 batting average at the position. Even if Rosario were to put up similar offensive numbers to Reyes, he’s going to do that with much better defense. As a result, the Mets would be a better team with him on the field. Furthermore, it should be noted that if he needs to make some improvements at the plate, he would be better served by working with Kevin Long. \n
EXCUSE #9 What Do You Do With Him When Cabrera Returns?
Thumb issues like this are tricky. We saw Juan Lagares try to play through a torn ligament in his thumb until he was finally forced to have surgery to repair the tear. We still do not know if Cabrera needs surgery. We don’t know if this is a two week or two month injury.
Assume for a minute Cabrera will be back sooner rather than later, the Mets have an opportunity to give Rosario a brief look at shortstop. At the very least, it’s a reward for him being the time in to become an improved player. It presents an opportunity to see if Rosario is ready. When and if Cabrera comes back, the Mets can then judge if Rosario should stay up with the team or go back down to Triple-A. If he were to go back down, he will have a better idea of what he needs to work on in order to stick at the major league level.
EXCUSE #10 You Don’t Want to Have Rosario Become a Super Two Player
So what? Now the Mets aren’t all-in? Did that only apply to signing Jerry Blevins and Fernando Salas? If you are all-in, be all-in regardless of Super Two deadlines.
Overall, that’s the point. If you are truly all-in, you do everything you can do to improve your team. You do everything you can do to win games. Every day the Mets keep Rosario in Vegas is another day this team is not all-in. Rather, the team is letting everyone know they would rather lose with what they have this year.
No matter how bad the Mets are, I am in front of the TV, or I have the radio on to see how the game is going. Heck, even on the day I was married, I tipped the limo driver extra to give me score updates. Jon Niese was starting that day, and Carlos Beltran wasn’t playing due to his pre-season knee surgery, so I had to tip a little extra. I use that as the context for my going to sleep last night.
The Mets are not just playing bad baseball right now, they’re playing depressing baseball right now. It was the same thing yesterday.
To start the game, the Mets had Zack Greinke on the ropes. After Curtis Granderson earned a bases loaded walk, the Mets rally ended. Sure, it is unreasonable to expect Tommy Milone to deliver an RBI in that spot. And yes, it is hard to get on Michael Conforto for striking out in that spot considering how good he has been to start the season. The Mets offense has also been humming of late, so again, you can’t get on the offense too much. Still, it was demoralizing because with Milone on the mound, you knew the Mets needed more than just that one run.
And they did. Gregor Blanco hit a two RBI single to give the Diamondbacks a 2-1 lead. After Paul Goldschmidt was intentionally walked, Chris Owings hit an RBI single to make it 3-1. At that point, you figured things can’t possibly get any worse. It did. Owings would break for second, and Rene Rivera would have nailed him if Owings didn’t get caught in a run-down. While this is happening, Lucas Duda notices Goldschmidt break for home, and of course, he makes a terrible throw home allowing Goldschmidt to score.
As a Mets fan, you were disgusted. Right now, the team is finding different ways to make watching them more painful. Duda reminding you of the Eric Hosmer play took the cake.
I didn’t go to bed immediately. The anger had to subside. I got to see the Granderson homer. No, I wasn’t fooled into thinking they would win the game. I feel asleep not to long after that. I didn’t even try to fight it. I subsequently missed the Rivera two run homer, and the Paul Sewald appearance.
Overall, it doesn’t matter. It’s hard to watch this team right now, and it is harder to watch them when games start at 9:30 at night. Thankfully, today’s game starts at 3:40. As a result, you will only lose sleep over them going over what transpired during the game as opposed to watching those things transpire.
Game Notes: Asdrubal Cabrera finally hit the disabled list, and the Mets added Neil Ramirez and his 8.71 ERA to help the bullpen.
The Mets are a team with a number of issues right now. The pitching staff as a whole has the worst ERA in all of baseball. The starters haven’t been going deep into games, and the bullpen is just now starting to crack. While the position players are hitting, the team defense is unacceptably poor. While there may not be any causation, there is certainly a correlation between the Mets poor pitching, and their poor defense.
With Noah Syndergaard and Jeurys Familia going down, it is hard to believe the pitching staff is going to get any better. Right now, the Mets can pin their hopes on Steven Matz and Seth Lugo, but who knows when they can come back? And when Matz comes back, how long is he going to be healthy? Same goes for Lugo who has a torn UCL in his pitching elbow. With the Mets unlikely to significantly upgrade the pitching staff in any way, the team is going to have to upgrade their defense.
There are some minor tweaks that can be made. Juan Lagares can start in center field over Curtis Granderson. Typically, you do not want to start Lagares due to his offense, but with Granderson hitting .144/.206/.272 on the season, it’s hard to argue Lagares can be any worse. Unfortunately, a switch from Granderson to Lagares is likely insufficient to address the defensive issues. That goes double with the Mets statistically having the worst middle infield in the major leagues.
Right now, the easiest position to upgrade is shortstop. Asdrubal Cabrera has a torn ligament in his thumb leading the Mets to consider putting him on the disabled list. In addition to his thumb, we have also seen Cabrera struggle for the second straight year with some leg issues. If he were to go on the disabled list, the natural option to replace him would be Jose Reyes.
For his part, Reyes just isn’t hitting. For the season, Reyes is hitting .189/.286/.315. Those numbers have been boosted by his numbers in May. In May, he is hitting .220/.283/.341. As a result of his poor hitting, Reyes is eminently replaceable. In fact, he has been replaced. When Lucas Duda returned from the disabled list on Friday, Reyes moved to the bench, and T.J. Rivera was moved to third base.
Overall, the Mets need a shortstop. As it so happens, they have on in Triple-A with Amed Rosario.
Depending on whichever source you rely, Rosario is either a top 10 prospect or the best prospect in all of baseball. One of the main reasons for this is he is succeeding in Triple-A. Through his first 36 games, Rosario is hitting .359/.401/.493 with 11 doubles, a triple, two homes, and 22 RBI. This isn’t even him padding his numbers at Cashman Field. In fact, he has hit better on the road.
Now, Rosario has cooled off in May hitting .283/.339/.472. However, if those numbers are indicative of what a slump looks like for Rosario now, that’s extremely encouraging. Even with a potential regression if he were to be called up to the major leagues right now, Rosario’s offense would certainly play in the majors. One of the reasons why is Rosario is a good defender.
Look past his nine errors this season. This is a player widely regarded as one of the top defensive prospects in baseball. Overall, it is his defense that is needed right now. His range at shortstop is far and above what either Cabrera or Reyes can provide at the moment. Those ground ball hits pitchers give up could be turned into outs. If those hits become outs, rallies end, or maybe rallies don’t start in the first place. The starting pitchers now have to throw less pitches, and they could go deeper into games. In turn, this could take some of the burden off of the bullpen.
Is this an oversimplification? Perhaps. But there is no denying the Mets need a better glove at shortstop. A shortstop with more range would permit help abate the range issues Neil Walker has at second and Rivera has at third. Even if this all is an oversimplification, it’s at least worth a shot.
Right now, the Mets are not really going anywhere as currently constituted. There are few areas in which the team can look to upgrade internally. With Cabrera’s injuries and Reyes’ ineffectiveness, shortstop is one of those areas. If the Mets are serious about winning in 2017, now is the time to call-up Rosario.
The best way to summarize Zack Wheeler‘s start is he answered the bell. Despite throwing 89 pitches through five, he went out for the sixth. Even with him throwing 103 through sixth, he came out for the seventh.
In the sixth, it backfired a bit as Wheeler allowed a lead-off homer to Jake Lamb to tie the game at one. In the seventh, he gave up a lead-off single to the eighth place hitter Jeff Mathis. After that lead-off hit, Terry Collins lifted Wheeler.
Unfortunately, that meant Wheeler would not get the win despite a very good outing. He didn’t get the win because the Mets offense only registered one hit against the Diamondbacks starter Zack Godley.
The Mets did make that one hit off Godley count. In the second, Godley issued back-to-back one out walks to Jose Reyes and Curtis Granderson. Rene Rivera then got the Mets lone hit off Godley giving the Mets a 1-0 lead.
With the Mets not scoring more runs for Wheeler, he got a no decision despite striking out six and allowing just one run on seven hits and one walk.
He also didn’t get the win because Collins lifted him after one batter in the seventh. Wheeler started that inning despite his having an at-bat the prior half inning. In what was an obvious pinch hitting situation, Collins instead elected to play matchups.
Despite the lead-off hit to start the seventh, the Diamondbacks would not score a run. Jerry Blevins relieved Wheeler to face the left-handed hitting David Peralta. Peralta hit a shallow bloop to center that Granderson made a nice sliding play on.
Granderson couldn’t get to a bloop hit by the next batter Rey Fuentes. However, Granderson was able to nail Mathis who tried to go from first to third on the play. The one thing we learned on that play was just how slow Mathis is.
Collins then brought in Hansel Robles to pitch to Chris Owings. Look, anytime you can go through three pitchers when one would’ve sufficed, Collins is going to do it.
Mets dodged a huge bullet in the eighth when Paul Goldschmidt hit what appeared to be a go-ahead homer off Robles. Upon replay, it was ruled a double as Goldschmidt’s ball hit the yellow line. It should be noted for a manager hell-bent on playing matchups, Goldschmidt is now 5-6 off Robles.
The Mets good fortune was short-lived. After Lamb was intentionally walked, Yasmany Tomas hit a no-doubter to center giving the Diamondbacks a 4-1 lead. Later on in the inning, Mathis would hit a two run homer to make it 6-1. At that point, Robles would be lifted.
It should be noted Robles has had two rough appearances after he has been overworked like the rest of this Mets bullpen. In his first 18 appearances, Robles allowed three runs. He’s now allowed nine runs in his last two appearances. He’s apparently gassed. It’s not an excuse. It’s a fact.
Speaking of gassed, Collins went to the overused Josh Edgin who was greeted by Daniel Descalso with a home run. After that, Edgin finished the eighth in what could only be described as mop up duty.
That’s mop up duty for a reliever on pace to make over 80 appearances while Rafael Montero sat unused. If Montero isn’t being used in mop up duty, why is he on the team?
Wilmer Flores hit a two run pinch hit homer in the ninth to make the final score look more palatable. Still, whether it is 7-1 or 7-3, a loss is a loss.
The Mets have now lost five straight games and four straight on this road trip. All four of those games were winnable at some point. That point was up until a gassed bullpen was asked to get some outs. Something has to change and fast.
Game Notes: Asdrubal Cabrera missed the game with a thumb injury. The Mets are debating whether or not to put him on the DL.