Bartolo Colon

Matt Reynolds Is Taking Advantage of This Opportunity 

Sometimes baseball makes no sense. The Mets went from getting swept by a horrendous Atlanta Braves team to sweeping a two game set from a Kansas City Royals team that beat them in the World Series. The Mets did this despite:

  1. Hansel Robles needing to pitch 3.2 innings after Bartolo Colon left four pitches into the game after taking a liner off his pitching hand;
  2. Wilmer Flores stopped hitting and fielding;
  3. Both Noah Syndergaard and Yoenis Cespedes left the game early with injuries;
  4. Alejandro De Aza appeared in both games; and 
  5. Matt Reynolds emerged as the Mets best left field option

The Matt Reynolds one is a strange one to say the least. 

Reynolds has been a completely different player in his second stint with the Mets (third if you count the 2015 postseason). In Reynolds first stint with the Mets, he hit .100/.182/.100. Given his poor play, there was serious doubt about whether he’d get another shot this year. Then David Wright went on the disabled list due to his neck injury. The Mets were left with little choice but to bring him back to the majors. 

Upon his return, he’s been terrific. He’s hitting .368/.368/.684. In three separate games, he’s delivered with an RBI single. Yesterday, he hit his first career home run. The opposite field shot gave the Mets the lead for good. 

Even more amazing is how he’s been capable in the field. It’s one thing for him to have played well at short and third. He played well defensively at those positions in the minors and college. It’s another to play well defensively in your first ever professional game in left field. It’s a testament to the work he has put in on the side. 

As he becomes more versatile, it makes it harder to send him back down to AAA. When he’s hitting the way he is, it makes it virtually impossible. 

There are many different reasons to believe this is a mirage. Reynolds was only hitting .231/.291/.360 in the Pacific Coast League, which is a hitter’s paradise. His current hot streak has been buttressed by a clearly unsustainable .500 BABIP.  That’s all well and good, but it doesn’t change the fact that he’s hot at the plate, and he’s producing. With the Mets offensive wors, they’d be wise to ride this hot streak for as long as it lasts. 

No matter what, Reynolds has fully taken advantage of this opportunity, and he should be lauded for it.  More importantly, he needs to get more playing time while he’s hitting this well.  Hopefully, he will keep it up, and he will make it difficult for the Mets to send him back down when the team is at full strength. 

page top

Hansel Was Hot Tonight

Four pitches into the game disaster struck. Whit Merrifield lined a ball off Bartolo Colon‘s hand knocking him out of the game. The Mets are beginning a stretch of 20 games without a day off, and they were left scrambling to fill in 8.2 innings tonight. 

Hansel Robles stepped up big time. He would pitch a career high 3.2 innings, and he throw a career high 65 pitches. He was terrific. It started with him combining with Travis d’Arnaud for a strike em out, throw em out double play to end the first.  The only run he surrendered was in the fifth, when he was stretched beyond his limits. He might’ve gotten out of the game if Wilmer Flores didn’t pull a Roger Dorn. 

Erik Goeddel came in and got out the jam. He would pitch two scoreless innings.  Jerry Blevins added a scoreless seventh stretching his scoreless inning streak to a career high 12 innings (over 20 appearances). Addison Reed set the Royals down 1-2-3 in the eighth, and Jeurys Familia would not blow the save against the Royals. 

The Mets were able to eke out a victory using the long ball. In the first, Asdrubal Cabrera hit a homer, and it was up to Rene Rivera to take off his helmet:

  

Of course, the other homer came from Yoenis Cespedes who hit it out to straight center. Cespedes would also add in a move over the shoulder catch to end the sixth. 

  

As the Mets hit two homers, they won the game. In true Mets fashion, they beat the reigning World Series Champions after getting swept by the worst baseball team assembled since maybe the 1962 Mets. 

It was made possible largely because of a terrific Robles performance. He got a well earned win. 

Game Notes: X-rays on Colon’s hand were negative. Former Met Dillon Gee relieved Royals’ starter Ian Kennedy in the fifth, and he shockingly entered to boos. He pitched a scoreless inning. In his first game back from the DL, d’Arnaud would go 0-3. 

page top

Walker, Conforto, and the Offense Is Back

The Mets unexpectedly had Neil Walker and Michael Conforto return from injuries today.  

Walker would go 2-4 with a run, three RBI, a double, and a homer. Conforto would go 2-4 with a run, an RBI, a homer, and this catch in the first to save a run:

Walker and Conforto would then go back-to-back in the third. However, Walker and Conforto were not the story of the third inning. It was Bartolo Colon who somehow hit a double:

If that wasn’t enough, Colon would score on a Yoenis Cespedes sacrifice fly. This sequence had to be more improbable than Colon’s homerun. 

The Mets would hit three homeruns on the night including Curtis Granderson‘s leadoff homerun. It was his 17th leadoff homer with the Mets breaking a first place tie with Jose Reyes.  The three lefties homeruns off Pirates starter Juan Nicasio wasn’t shocking:

As we’ve seen, the Mets are practically unbeatable when they hit that many homers in a game. Tonight was no different. 

It did get interesting in the ninth. Addison Reed allowed a leadoff homer to Andrew McCutchen followed by a double to Jung Ho Kang. Terry Collins wasted no time in going to his closer Jeurys Familia. Familia recorded his 22nd save out of 22 save chances preserving a 6-4 win. 

Game Notes: Wilmer Flores left the game after getting hit on the left hand with a pitch. The x-rays were negative. Kelly Johnson replaced him. Colon pitched 7.2 innings allowing seven hits, two earned, and no walks with with strikeouts. 

page top

The Mets Need More from Asdrubal Cabrera

Since David Wright went on the Disabled List, Terry Collins has mostly turned to Asdrubal Cabrera to hit in the second spot in the lineup.  Last night, it worked with Cabrera going 2-5 with 2 runs.  He helped spark a Mets offense that scored 11 runs.  However, far too often that hasn’t been the case.  In his 27 games hitting in the second spot in the order, Cabrera has hit .222/.282/.361.

Those numbers are not what the Mets signed up for when they added Cabrera as a free agent in the offseason.  Coming into this season, Cabrera was a .267/.329/.412 hitter who averaged 11 homers and 57 RBI a year.  In the second half of the 2015 season, he hit an astonishing .328/.372/.544 with 10 homers and 36 RBI.  The Mets saw this first-hand during a three game set in Tampa last August.  During that three game set, Cabrera went 4-11 with a walk, a run, a double, and a stolen base.  He did this against Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, and Bartolo Colon.  Clearly, the Mets were wowed by Cabrera, and they pounced on him in the offseason.

Early in the season, when the Mets were winning, Cabrera was great.  The Mets went 15-7 in April, and Cabrera hit .300/.364/.400.  Since April, both Cabrera and the Mets have faltered.  The Mets have gone 20-22 and Cabrera has hit .247/.310/.390.  It’s   Yes, there have been many issues that have afflicted the Mets including the aforementioned Wright injury.  However, as we see, one of those issues has been Cabrera’s struggles at the plate.

In fact, Cabrera has hit .306/.367/.440 in Mets wins.  Last night, Cabrera hit, and he helped ignite the Mets offense.  The Mets need more of that Cabrera this year.

page top

Granderson Leads the Way

Curtis Granderson was all the offensive support Bartolo Colon would need. 

Colon pitched seven innings allowing eight hits, one earned, and no walks with two strikeouts. He also helped himself by picking off Scooter Gennett in the third. 

Colon got into some trouble in the seventh. Old friend Kirk Nieuwenhuis hit a two out double to right just missing a homerun. Then Neil Walker took a sharply hit groundball off the chest. Nieuwenhuis was hustling all the way, and he would score right before Kevin Plawecki could apply the tag. It narrowed the score to 2-1. The Mets would get out of the inning when Plawecki’s one hop throw just beat Hernan Perez. It was a great tag by Asdrubal Cabrera off a tough throw to handle. 

The offense was essentially Granderson just like it was most of last year. He had the keynote address and a double in the third setting up the second run of the game. He scored the second run of the game off a Yoenis Cespedes RBI single. On the night, Granderson was 2-3 with two runs, a double, a homerun, and an RBI. Granderson’s double was particularly impressive because it went opposite field. 

The Mets blew it open in the eighth. The Mets loaded the bases with no outs, and Plawecki got a two RBI single through the drawn-in infield. The Mets could’ve had more, but Wilmer Flores pulled a TOOBLAN. With the play right in front of him, he kept going.  The ball was cut-off, and Wilmer was out on the basepaths. 

Lost in the TOOBLAN is how well Flores is hitting of late. He was 3-4, and he is hitting .476 over the last seven games. Another piece of good news was seeing Juan Lagares enter the game for defense. It was even better seeing him stretch a single into a double in his lone at bat. However, his sliding into second headfirst with a torn ligament in his thumb was cringeworthy. 

It was also cringeworthy seeing Matt Reynolds pinch hitting for Walker. It’s not a good sign especially after Walker took that hot shot off the chest. The good news there was Reynolds had another good pinch hit. He had an RBI pinch hit single scoring Lagares to make it 5-2. 

Even more cringeworthy was Terry Collins  decision to bring Addison Reed into the game after he pitched two innings yesterday. He would allow Gennett to hit an RBI double making it a 4-2 game. It would break his 15.1 inning scoreless streak. Jeurys Familia would close it out with a 1-2-3 inning with 2 strikeouts. He’s now a perfect 20/20 in save chances this year. Dating back to last year, he has 36 consecutive saves. 

Overall, it is nice to get some games in against bad teams to allow the Mets to get back on track. The Mets are now 4-0 against the Brewers, and they have now won two in a row. 

page top

All Hands Were on Deck

David Wright is gone for who knows how long. Yoenis Cespedes was scratched right before the game with a hip issue. When you don’t have the big bats in your lineup, you’re doing to need everyone to pitch in to try to help secure the victory. 

As usual, Juan Lagares provided Gold Glove defense:

It was an important catch as the game was 3-2, and that hit could’ve put the game out of reach. Instead, the Meys got new life. 

That’s when James Loney made his contribution. Loney led off the inning with a double and moved to third on a passed ball. Loney then scored on an RBI single by surprise starter Michael Conforto. Conforto has been struggling badly of late, but today he was 1-3 with a run scored, a walk, and two RBI. Conforto later scored on an RBI pinch hit single from Matt Reynolds. Reynolds had to pinch hit for Lagares, who left the game with an apparent injury, which may or may not have been related to that amazing catch. 

Seemingly every Met contributed to this 6-4 win. Wilmer Flores was 3-4 with a run and a walk. Neil Walker scored two runs, and Asdrubal Cabrera scored one as well. He also stayed in a game where everyone seemed to get knicked up a bit. Bartolo Colon pitched in and out of trouble allowing only one run over five. Jerry Blevins, with a little help from Lagares, bailed out Hansel Robles in the sixth. Jim Henderson pitched a scoreless 0.1 innings, and Addison Reed pitched a scoreless eighth. Alejandro De Aza had a two out, two run double in the the ninth. Jeurys Familia recorded his 18th save. As you can see, pretty much everyone contributed to this win, save Kevin Plawecki. 

  
He has an error in the second when he took a throw from Flores and couldn’t find homeplate with his foot or tag the runner. In the top of the third, he hit a double and was immediately picked off second. In the eighth, he couldn’t get down a sacrifice bunt. It was a tough say for him on what was a terrific day for his teammates. 

So long as the Mets role players and lesser starts keep stepping up like this, this is going to be a special season. 

page top

2016 May Report Card

The Mets entered May 15-7, in second place, and a half game behind the Nationals. The Mets finished May 14-15 and two games behind the Nationals.

The month saw some key injuries and their depth getting exposed. Below are the first month grades for each of the Mets players. Bear in mind, these grades are on a curve. If a bench player gets an A and a position player gets a B, it doesn’t mean the bench player is having a better year. Rather, it means the bench player is performing better in his role.

Position Players

Travis d’Arnaud (Inc). Due to a rotator cuff injury, d’Arnaud hasn’t played one game this month, and no one knows when he’s going to start a rehab assignment. Given the questions about his durability, this grade could’ve been an F.

Kevin Plawecki (F)  Plawecki hit .197/.284/.303 in May. He’s once again established he’s either not ready or incapable of being an everyday catcher in the majors.

Rene Rivera (C). Like Plawecki, Rivera hasn’t hit well. He hit .167/.286/.292 in the month. However, his grade is much higher as he’s been a good veteran presence behind the plate who has worked very well with Noah Syndergaard. Rivera has also neutralized the opponent’s running game.

Lucas Duda (D). Duda only hit .192/.300/.404 in May. We don’t know if these numbers are the result of his lower back stress fracture or not. With that said, you’re judged by your performance on the field, and he wasn’t good.

James Loney (Inc). He played in only one game. It’s too soon to judge.

Neil Walker (C). Walker came crashing back to Earth. In May, he hit .238/.326/.381 while hitting four homeruns. He also missed some games with a shin injury.

David Wright (C). Wright continued to strike out frequently in May. He still hit .215/.346/.462 with five homers.  His grade was downgraded because he’s been dishonest about his health. The only thing we care about now is whether the injection in his neck worked.

Asdrubal Cabrera (C-). Like his double play partner, Cabrera’s play was much worse in May. Cabrera hit .268/.308/.406 in May.

Wilmer Flores (D). Flores took a small step forward in May. He hit .250/.300/.357. He also missed some time on the DL exposing the bench.

Eric Campbell (F). Campbell had a decent West Coast Trip, but with that said, he’s been abysmal otherwise with him hitting .167/.281/.241. As a result of his poor play, the Mets designated him for assignment.

Matt Reynolds (D-) It’s a small sample size, but he hit .100 in his eight games. He was so bad, he couldn’t outlast Campbell or Ty Kelly. The only reason this isn’t an F is Reynolds stepped in for an ailing Cabrera one day, and he played decently.

Ty Kelly (F). He was called up due to injuries, and the only reason he stays on the roster is he’s a switch hitter.

Michael Conforto (F). Conforto is struggling for the first time in his career, and as his .167/.242/.349 line will attest, he’s having trouble figuring it out. He eventually will. However, the Mets need him to do it sooner rather than later.

Yoenis Cespedes (A). Cespedes has been everything the Mets could ask for and more. He’s showing that August was him turning a corner and not some hot streak.

Curtis Granderson (C-). Like seemingly every other Mets hitter not named Cespedes, Granderson struggled in May. His grade is higher due to the five homeruns, including the one walk off the other night. He’s also gotten hit lately. Hopefully, he’s turned a corner.
Juan Lagares (A).  His bat, even with a low OBP, seems to be getting better. Between that and his Gold Glove defense, he’s going to soon start forcing his way into the lineup more.
Alejandro De Aza (F). Hard to kill a guy who went from platoon to a 5th OF through no fault of his own.  With that said, when he does play, he doesn’t hit.

Pitchers

Matt Harvey (D). His nightmare of an April got worse in May. This isn’t an F as his last start was vintage Harvey. It looks like he may be back.

Jacob deGrom (B). Surprisingly, he was winless in May. Also, we may be seeing the effects of his decreased velocity with his ERA going up and his WHIP going down.

Noah Syndergaard (A). He followed a dominant April with a dominant May. He also hit two homeruns. It’s not an A+ because he didn’t actually hit Chase Utley.

Steven Matz (A).  Matz has been on a roll all month making him not only the odds on favorite for the Rookie of the Year Award but also making him a serious contender for the All Star team.  Even in last night’s blip, he still left the game in position to get a win.

Bartolo Colon (C+).  He’s been what he’s always been – good against bad teams and struggles against good teams.  There were more good teams on the schedule this month, so we saw him pitch to a higher ERA.  Bonus points for his first homerun.

Logan Verrett (F).  After a month of bailing the Mets out, it was Verrett who needed to be bailed out with a 6.46 ERA and a 1.761 WHIP.

Jeurys Familia (B).  He’s still perfect in save chances, but the last week he was shaky in non-save situations.  He blew a four run lead in one game, and he earned the loss after pitching poorly in a tied game.

Addison Reed (A+).  As good as he was in April, he was even better in May.  He has consistently been the best reliever in the Mets bullpen.

Jim Henderson (B-).  While his ERA has ballooned this month, his peripherals show that he’s still pitching pretty well.  He is starting to get exposed a bit by pitching too much to lefties and by getting a little more work than he was probably read to take on at this point.

Hansel Robles (B).  Robles was actually having a better May than April until the past week happened.  He’s gotten touched up the past two games by the long ball.  It’s something to keep an eye on going forward.

Jerry Blevins (B).  While his ERA has steadily gone done over the course of May, he has been hit a little harder.

Antonio Bastardo (C). Bastardo entered the season without the faith of his manager, Terry Collins, and it appears that he is in the same position.  Throughout his career, Bastardo has struggled with giving up walks, and he’s had that issue re-emerge this month.

Rafael Montero (Inc.).  Montero didn’t pitch in the majors this month.  One thing that is telling is even with Harvey’s struggles, the Mets never seriously considered him to pitch in the rotation or bullpen.

Sean Gilmartin (A).  Gilmartin had a brief return to the Mets due to some short outings from their starters.  Gilmartin did what he excelled at last year – pitching well no matter what the role the Mets gave him.

Terry Collins (B).  It was a tough month for the Mets all around.  However, this month the Mets seemed to finally get Harvey right, and Collins made sure to protect David Wright from himself.  As usual, Collins had his share of baffling lineup and bullpen decisions.  With that said, he still has the Mets in the thick of things.

page top

Glass Half Full Loss

Going into last night’s game, you’d be hard pressed to find reasons to be optimistic. 

Clayton Kershaw was squaring off against Bartolo Colon. David Wright missed another game with a neck issue, which mean another Eric Campbell start. To make matters worse, the Mets fell behind Kershaw 2-0. There was really now reason to believe the Mets could come back to tie the game. 

And yet, they did. 

In the sixth, Asdrubal Cabrera homered off Kershaw. In the eighth, the Mets had Kevin Plawecki on first with two outs.  Fortunately, Kershaw was lifted from the game leaving Curtis Granderson to face the lefty Adam Liberatore. Granderson hit a game-tying triple. The Mets showed some fight and came back against the best pitcher in baseball. 

Yes, Jeurys Familia struggled in the ninth. He took the loss after allowing two runs on two hits and two walks.  The Mets lost 4-2.  It was frustrating that Familia had a second straight tough night, but at the end of the day, Familia will be alright. This was just a blip on the radar. 

The biggest take away is that a weak Mets lineup fought back against the best pitcher in baseball. It gives you hope for optimism no matter how frustrating the ninth inning might’ve been. 

page top

Mets Show Some Resiliency 

The odds were stacked against the Mets today. They received word that Lucas Duda would be going on the DL with a stress fracture in his lower back. The Mets were facing Gio Gonzalez, who absolutely owns them. 

So naturally, the Mets offense played homerun derby. David Wright got it started with a three run homerun in the third. Yoenis Cespedes and Neil Walker went back-to-back in the fifth. With those and many more homeruns, the Mets now lead the majors as a team. Cespedes is the leader in homeruns. He’s now on pace for a 55 homerun season. Somehow that seems light. 

Throw in a third inning RBI single from Asdrubal Cabrera and an Eric Campbell sacrifice fly in the third, and you get a 7-1 Mets win. Colon pitched well going seven innings allowing five hits and one earned. One thing of note is he walked two batters. This is now his second straight start with more than two walks. Both of these starts came against the Nationals. 

The Mets are now only a half game back in the East with way too many games left on the schedule to be worried about the NL East standings. With that said, Matt Harvey takes the mound tomorrow with a chance to pitch the Mets into first place. 

Game Notes: Ryan Zimmerman stole a base in the sixth, and it was completely on Colon. Colon went to the wind up, and the extremely slow Zimmerman took off. He had the base stolen quite easily. 

page top

Reminder: The Mets Signed Colon . . . TWICE!

In Mike Vaccaro’s New York Post column, he had a quote from an unnamed member of the New York Mets organization who said about Matt Harvey:

He’s 27 years old. He’s a professional athlete, who makes his living – and wants to make $200 million – by being an athlete. Does he look like an elite professional athlete to you?

That’s right. The Mets wouldn’t possibly want to sign a player that has any body issues:

The Mets have signed Bartolo Colon to two contracts which pay him $27.25 million over three years. The Mets have made Colon their highest paid pitcher three years running. They re-signed him despite Colon being a well below league average pitcher (according to ERA+) for two years. 

That doesn’t mean overweight pitchers can’t be effective. No Mets fan would ever besmirch the good name of Sid Fernandez by making that statement. But that’s the point, a pitcher can be both overweight and effective. The Mets certainly think so. 

In reality, this is nothing more than a jab at Matt Harvey, who is struggling. It is similar to what they did in the offseason with Yoenis Cespedes when it appeared he wasn’t returning. It was a little more than a decade when they did the same to Scott Kazmir when trying to justify a horrendous trade. 

Overall, the issue should be how the Mets can help Harvey return to form instead of mocking him. Instead, the Mets decided it’s best to mock their pitcher publicly. They need to stop. 

page top