Michael Conforto
The Mets walked 13 times . . . THIRTEEN . . . and only scored one run in a 13 inning game they lost 2-1.
The Mets once again trotted out an ugly lineup reminiscent of July 2015. David Wright is still unavailable with the neck injection, so Terry Collins decided to go with Ty Kelly over Wilmer Flores. Yoenis Cespedes was out of the lineup as he informed Terry Collins he needed a day off. It was an ugly lineup reminiscent of a July 2015 lineup. It doesn’t help that Michael Conforto is still struggling. With today’s 0-6 with the golden sombrero, Conforto is now one for his last 21. With that said, the Mets had to win the 2015 way. They needed deGrom to be dominant. He was, but it wasn’t enough.
Jacob deGrom‘s velocity continued to tick up a bit with him getting it back up to the 95 MPH range on occasion. He had a season high 10 strikeouts. He had allowed only three hits and no runs over six, and he was at 92 pitches, and due up to lead off in the seventh inning. Terry Collins let him go back out there.
For the second day in a row, Todd Frazier hit a homerun. He tied the score at 1-1.
That matched the Mets offensive output. James Loney got a second inning rally started by walking. He moved to second on a Juan Lagares sacrifice bunt (really looked more like a bunt for a base hit, but that’s official scoring for you). Rene Rivera then came up and hit a one out RBI single to make the score 1-0. It was the first time Loney reached base and scored a run as a Met.
The Mets tore through their bullpen, including but not limited to, an injury to Hansel Robles. Logan Verrett came in, and he eventually gave up the winning run in the 13th in a rally started by a double hit by Matt Albers, an American League relief pitcher.
It was a bad loss capping off a poor 2-4 home stand. The Mets bench is inexcusably bad even with the injuries. The Mets need to make some moves.
Game Notes: Don Draper took his hatred of the Mets to the next level by sending Roger out there to interfere with Melky Cabrera resulting in interference being called costing Loney a chance at bat. It is the four year anniversary of Johan Santana’s no-hitter.
Its astounding how much 2016 is paralleling 2015. This year, like last year, 46 games into the season, they trail the Nationals in the division. Interestingly enough, this is not where the parallels end.
Catcher
Last year and this year, Travis d’Arnaud had a significant injury forcing him to miss a significant period of time. This pressed Kevin Plawecki into assuming the starting catcher’s job, and he struggled. However, Plawecki kept on catching because his backup was a good defensive poor hitting catcher. Last year was Anthony Recker. This year it’s Rene Rivera.
Back Issues
Last year, the Mets faced the prospect of not knowing when or if David Wright could return due to his back problems. As a result, Eric Campbell played many more games than the Mets ever anticipated he would. The same thing is happening now as a result of Lucas Duda‘s stress fracture in his lower back.
Minor Leaguers Not Ready for the Majors
With the rash injuries last year, the Mets trotted out the likes of Daniel Muno and Darrell Ceciliani to try to fill in the gaps. It didn’t work. This year the Mets have pressed Matt Reynolds and Ty Kelly into action. Reynolds and Kelly are having similar difficulties.
Rotation Issues
Last year, Jon Niese and Dillon Gee were having the worst years of their careers thereby putting the pressure on the other starters. The Mets were stuck in a holding pattern about making a change as the obvious replacement, Noah Syndergaard, still needed a little more time. This year it is Matt Harvey struggling while the obvious replacement in the rotation, Zack Wheeler, still needs more time to get ready to pitch in the majors.
Colon Dependability
At this point last year, Bartolo Colon was 7-3 with a 4.82 ERA and a 1.20 This year Colon is 4-3 with a 3.44 ERA and a 1.22 WHIP. This year and last year the Mets have been able to count on Colon to take the ball every fifth day and give them a chance to win.
Mid 30’s Corner Outfielder
Through May 25th last year, Michael Cuddyer was hitting .250/.328/.372. This year Curtis Granderson is hitting .204/.304/.413. Like Cuddyer last year, the Mets are relying heavily on Granderson, and unfortunately, they are not getting the production they need from them.
Second Year Starter Stepping Up
Last year, Jacob deGrom went from Rookie of the Year to All Star. He emerged as the ace of the staff. This year that honor belongs to Syndergaard. Syndergaard has been dominating on the mound like deGrom did last year. He’s a likely All Star, and he’s quickly become the staff’s ace. Honorable mention should go to Steven Matz here as well.
Call for the AA Prospect to Get Called Up
Last year with a rash of injuries and offensive ineptitude, Mets fans shouted from the rooftops that Michael Conforto should be called up to the majors from AA. This year the fans have begun the same with Dominic Smith due to Duda’s injury and Campbell playing there everyday.
Jeurys Familia
Last year, Famila was as dominant as anyone at the end of the game. He started the year a perfect 13/13 in save chances. This year Familia is back to his dominant form. He’s a perfect 16/16 in save chances. As in 2015, Familia is going to slam the door shut.
The Two Team Race
Last year the Braves were the upstarts that faltered. This year will be the Phillies. However, when the dust clears, this is really a two team race between the Mets and the Nationals for the NL East.
Just remember that no matter how bad things got last year, the Mets still won the division by seven games. This year the Mets have a much better team across the board. We may sometimes forget this when the Mets slump or have a couple of injuries. However, this is a much better Mets team that can win the division. This is still a World Series contender. That’s the overriding lesson from 2015.
After Terry Collins stated he doesn’t believe the prognosis of Lucas Duda‘s back is good, it has caused many to speculate on how the Mets will proceed in fulfilling the first base vacancy. Many of those thoughts are creative as the Mets may need to get creative to fill the void. Unfortunately, most of the suggestions will not work. Here’s why:
Move Michael Conforto to 1B
The thinking here is Michael Conforto was deemed to have all the tools to be a great 1B by his biggest fan – Keith Hernandez. This move would allow Juan Lagares and Alejandro De Aza to platoon in CF while moving Yoenis Cespedes to LF.
Admittedly, this sounds great. It’ll improve both the offense and the defense. However, the problem is the Mets never even sought to have Conforto to play RF. Why should we now believe they’re willing to move him to the infield mid-season. They’re not.
Move Alejandro De Aza to 1B
This one makes sense as De Aza is languishing away on the bench. He went from a platoon player to a fifth outfielder with the Cespedes signing. However, he hasn’t played there in over a decade, and he has just recently started working with Tim Teufel to get acclimated to first. He needs more than a week to get ready.
Slide David Wright to 1B
The idea here is David Wright is better suited to first now with his back and throwing issues. In actuality next to catcher, first is the last position Wright should play. The amount of twisting and stretching involved is harder on the lower back and would only exacerbate his stenosis. Furthermore, even if he could play first base, all you’ve accomplished is reshuffling the deck chairs as you’ve now moved the hole to third instead of first.
Slide Neil Walker to 1B
In this scenario, the Mets move Neil Walker to first and call up Dilson Herrera to play second. The argument is this is exactly what the Mets would do if they had Daniel Murphy.
The problem with that thinking is Walker isn’t Murphy. Walker has never played first base in the majors. He last played first in AAA in 2009 and that was only for seven games. It’s not fair to expect him to be able to slide over with no preparation. It’s also not fair to add more things to his plate while he’s in the midst of a bad slump.
Move Asdrubal Cabrera to 1B
The thought is Asdrubal Cabrera was once a utility player who is capable of playing multiple positions. In addition, the Mets have Matt Reynolds on the roster who is a SS. There are two problems here. First, Cabrera is one of the few Mets producing day in and day out. You don’t want to mess with that especially when he’s never played first. Second, Reynolds was in the middle of a slump in AAA, and he hasn’t shown any signs he’s getting out of it in his limited major league duty.
Move Kevin Plawecki to 1B
This is a holdover from Spring Training when the Mets were looking for ways to keep both of their young catchers in the lineup while letting Duda sit against lefties. Doing this now would also open up more playing time for Rene Rivera, who has shown himself to be a terrific catcher.
The problem is this really damages your offense. Kevin Plawecki has hit .203/.300/.291 this year. Rivera is a career .209/.258/.329 hitter. It’s one thing to have either one of them in the lineup. It’s a whole other thing to have both of them in the lineup.
Call Up Dom Smith
The thinking here is if the Mets don’t have the answer at the major league level, they should go into the minor leagues to solve their problems. Who better than one of, if not the, best Mets prospect. The problem is he’s just not ready. He’s only played 41 games in AA. While the obvious counter-argument is Conforto, it must be noted, Conforto was much further along in his development offensively.
Call Up Brandon Nimmo
The thought process here is Brandon Nimmo is absolutely raking in AAA right now. He’s on an eight game hitting streak that’s seen him hit .364/.462/.636 with three doubles, three triples, and six RBI. While he has played CF almost exclusively, he should be athletic enough to play first. While these are valid points, it should be noted he’s never played first, and like with Conforto, the Mets do not appear inclined to let either one play first.
Trade for Yangervis Solarte
Yangervis Solarte makes a lot of sense for the Mets. He can not only play first, but he can also play third. In his career, he’s also played at second, short, and left. In essence, he’s a much better version of Eric Campbell. In his first full major league season last year, he hit .270/.320/.428. He’s hitting .250/.379/.375 this year. This is all the more impressive when you consider he plays most of his games at Petco.
Here’s the rub. The Padres have no incentive to trade him. He’s not arbitration eligible until 2017, and he can’t become a free agent until 2020. If the Mets were inclined to even trade for Solarte, it’s going to come at a high cost, and the Mets most desirable trade assets were traded away last year. No, if the Mets do make a move your looking at the In the interim, the Mets can inquire about the Kelly Johnsons and Ike Davises of the world.
Overall, that’s the issue. The Mets don’t have what it takes right now to address the first base position internally or externally. Although, the idea of having Travis d’Arnaud work at first during his rehab assignment is intriguing given his shoulder problems and injury history (hat tip Brian Mangan). However, short of that happening, it’s more of the same for the Mets.
This means Campbell is your everyday first baseman until Flores comes off the DL. At that point, the Mets will probably go with Flores until Duda is healthy. Ultimately, Duda needs to be the answer there because in reality any other solution is unrealistic or just a question mark.
In 1986, the Mets were lead by two immensely talented players. The first was a 24 year old outfielder named Darryl Strawberry. Coming up, he was thought to be the next Ted Williams. Joining him was a 21 year old young ace named Dwight Gooden. Gooden was unhittable and was starting to do things not even Tom Seaver had done.
Thirty years later, we celebrate these players and their contributions to the Mets last World Series victory.
Yesterday, there was no greater tribute than seeing 23 year old Noah Syndergaard and 23 year old Michael Conforto lead the way. They were wearing the old racing stripe jerseys to boot.
Syndergaard pitched seven innings allowing only six hits, one unearned run, and no walks while striking out 11. This year he’s 5-2 with a 1.94 ERA, a 0.978, WHIP, and an 11.3 K/9. He’s doing things not even Dwight Gooden or Tom Seaver have ever done:
Noah Syndergaard: 1st pitcher in Mets history to have 10 K, 0 BB, and 0 earned runs allowed in back-to-back starts pic.twitter.com/PXWlqIgtjj
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) May 23, 2016
Part of the reason he earned the win yesterday was due to Conforto’s homer in the first inning.
For the second year in a row, Conforto is showing no moment is too big for him. He has shown himself to be a natural born hitter. This year he’s hitting .284/.358/.553 with eight homers and 24 RBI. He has an astounding 146 OPS+.
Overall, thirty years later the Mets are once again led by two budding superstars in their early twenties. History is repeating itself. Hopefully, history will keep on repeating itself straight through October.
Tonight promised to be a pitcher’s duel, and it did not disappoint. The difference in the game was Max Scherzer made two mistakes and Noah Syndergaard made none.
Curtis Granderson took the first pitch from Scherzer, and he homered to right. Scherzer would be careful with Granderson the rest of the game. Granderson would finish the night 2-2 with a run, RBI, the aforementioned homerun, and two walks. It appears that Granderson is breaking out of his May slump.
The Mets needed it too. Before the first pitch, the Mets discovered neither Lucas Duda or David Wright would be available. Wright’s back flared up necessitating he sit. Duda’s own back issues re-emerged requiring him to receive an injection and sit. In their stead, Eric Campbell and Matt Reynolds manned the corners. It was Reynold’s major league debut. He played third, batted ninth, and wore Wright’d glove. Campbell and Reynolds each went 0-3. Campbell struck out twice, and Reynolds struck out once.
It was a lineup reminiscent of last July. Like last July, Granderson provided the offense. Like last July, Michael Conforto came to the rescue. In the third, he homered to right to make it a 2-0 game. Syndergaard did the rest.
Syndergaard pitched seven innings only allowing five hits, no earned, and no walks while striking out 10. He had the pitches coming in at 100 MPH. Before the game, Bryce Harper said at the ESPN Upfront event he was curious as to what would happen against the 100 MPH fastball. The answer was an 0-3 night with two strikeouts against Syndergaard.
Aside from the two mistakes, Scherzer matched Syndergaard pitch for pitch. He allowed three hits, two earned, and three walks while striking out 10. He did all he could do, but he didn’t get much help from anyone other than Daniel Murphy.
It was Murphy’s first game back at Citi Field since signing with the Nationals in the offseason. In the first inning, he made a sparkling defensive play robbing Campbell of a hit:
Daniel Murphy knows this Citi pretty well: https://t.co/adZAVppFSs pic.twitter.com/Ti2okeEWOq
— MLB GIFS (@MLBGIFs) May 17, 2016
After that play, Murphy would get his first official at bat against the Mets. Before the at bat, Murphy would get a well deserved ovation:
Murphy would foul out to third. Before his next at bat, he would be booed. Murphy responded by dropping a single over the head of his replacement, Neil Walker. Overall, Murphy would go 1-3 dropping his batting average from .400 to .399.
Despite Murphy’s and Scherzer’s efforts, the Mets shut down the Nationals. Addison Reed and Jeurys Familia came on and slammed the door shut. The Mets won 2-0, took sole possession of second place, and moved within a half-game of the Nationals. The Mets can take over first place with a win tomorrow.
Game Notes: Kevin Plawecki had a nice game going 1-3 and throwing out Ben Revere trying to steal a base. It was only the fourth runner in 33 attempts thrown out while Syndergaard was on the mound. Of course, Oliver Perez entered the game and got his only batter out. Here was the Mets pregame video tribute to Murphy:
Thank you, Murph!https://t.co/bna7xfzZWX
— New York Mets (@Mets) May 17, 2016
The Mets are slumping. They had a rough 4-7 road trip that saw them fall from first to third place in the NL East. That will happen when your position players hit .209/.282/.336 over an eleven game stretch. The team hit .184 with RISP. The overreaction to the slump has caused some people to look for a solution.
Many have pointed to moving David Wright down in the order. With his spinal stenosis any slump could be a signal of the beginning of the end of his career. This is further exacerbated by his possible travel issues. That’s Wright’s new reality. Accordingly, the Mets and Wright should look to do what is best for the team even if that means Wright moves down in the lineup.
The argument for Wright moving down in the order focuses on the aspects of his game that are subpar starting with his strikeouts. According to Fangraphs, he’s striking out 32.6% of the time, which is by far the highest strikeout rate of his career.
Also of concern is Wright’s average with RISP. He’s only hitting .185 with RISP. That’s bad. However, it should make you question why someone would want to drop him lower in the lineup when people are on base. If he’s not driving in batters from the second spot in the lineup, there’s no evidence he will do it batting sixth or seventh in the lineup with more runners in scoring position.
No, you want Wright batting second and setting the table for the Mets big bats. Looking deeper into the numbers, Wright is succeeding in this role.
No matter how you look at the numbers, the fact remains Wright is getting on base. His 18.5% walk rate is the highest in his career. It’s fueling his .373 OBP. His OBP leads the team. That’s eight points higher than the second place Yoenis Cespedes and 20 points higher than the third place Michael Comforto. Cespedes and Conforto also happen to hit third and fourth in the lineup. In essence, Wright is getting on base in front of the team’s big run producers.
As for that tough road trip, Wright struggled like everyone else. He only hit .148/.361/.296. You’d like for him to hit for a better average and more power. However, it must be noted Wright’s .361 OBP was the second highest on the team next to Cespedes.
If we look at Wright’s numbers this year, the fact is he’s a table setter now. He’s the guy that gets on base in front of the Mets big bats like Conforto and Cespedes. So far this year, Wright is doing his job. It’s time the people behind him do their job and knock him in.
The Mets bullpen blew a lead, and they found themselves trailing going into the eighth inning needing to score a run to tie the game.
Because there was a lefty on the mound, Terry Collins pinch hit Juan Lagares for Michael Conforto. It paid off as Lagares hit a one out double. The Rockies then intentionally walked Yoenis Cespedes as he’s hitting lefties harder than Rougned Odor hit Jose Bautista. That brought Lucas Duda to the plate, who has been struggling of late. What ensued was an umpire making a horrendous call for the second straight game.
Duda hit a groundball directly at Nolan Arenado. Arenado lunged to tag Lagares, but Lagares juked out of the way. Arenado then threw the ball to first to get Duda for an inning ending double play. You tead that correctly. The umpires ruled Duda hit into an inning ending double play. The reason was the umpires determined Lagares ran out of the baseline.
Before commenting further, there are two things to keep in mind. First, Josh Harrison wasn’t deemed to be out of the baseline in this play against the Mets last year:
Second, Lagares gets three feet:
https://twitter.com/jschapiro_sbr/status/731976606835740672
It’s hard to tell from the angle, but it would appear Lagares was within the allotted three feet. Put it this way, Lagares didn’t step on the infield grass like Harrison did. What happened was the umpire made a horrendous call that potentially affected the outcome of the game.
Terry Collins ran out to argue, but he didn’t exactly get his money’s worth. Based upon his ejection and post game rant Saturday, I’m assuming the umpire told him that if Collins doesn’t pick his words carefully, the Mets won’t get another call the rest of the year.
Mostly, that play was a lot of bad luck for the Mets. First, Duda goes the other way with the pitch, and he hits a sharp grounder away from the shift. Unfortunately, he hits it right at Arenado. Lagares then runs right at the fielder. Now, Lagares could’ve read that ball better and either chose to go behind Arenado or stop thereby ensuring no double play. Instead, he busted it to third presumably hoping he could score.
What happened was Lagares was in a position that Arenado could make a play and the umpire could make a call. It seems when you’re struggling like the Mets are, the ball finds the lone fielder on the left side of the infield, and the umpire makes a bad call.
In any event, the Mets got swept by the Rockies and are returning home for an already over-hyped three game set against the Nationals. With the day off, the Mets should play much better. Hopefully, the umpiring will be much better too.
Albert Eistein once said, “the definition of insanity is seeing 2016 Matt Harvey pitch over and over again and expect to see him pitch well into the fifth inning.” Well, it was something like that.
Coming into tonight’s start Harvey had a 1.93 ERA in the first four innings. In the fifth, he had a 7.71 ERA. In the sixth, he had a 16.20 ERA. Each and every game, Mets fans think from innings 1-4 that Harvey’s back. Each and every game, Mets fans are trying to figure out what’s gone wrong again in the fifth and sixth innings. Tonight was more of the same.
Harvey pitched 5.2 innings allowing 11 hits, five earned, no walks, and six strikeouts. Three of the earned runs were scored between the fifth and sixth innings. The other two were scored in the fourth with a little help from a Michael Conforto misplay in left. Somehow his allowing a single to drop in front of him and roll past him was scored s triple.
Harvey’s undoing was the sixth . . . again. Harvey had stifled a rally the fifth only allowing a run. He allowed a one out double to D.J. LeMahieu. LeMahieu scored on a Tony Wolters single. Harvey had previously dominated Wolters. He struck him out twice. However, it’s hard to dominate someone when your fastball drops from the 95+ MPH range to the 90 MPH range. It also doesn’t help when the pitches are over the middle of the plate. By the way Harvey allowed these many hits and saw this much of a velocity drop?
That 13-hit performance by the Tigers in 2013 was Harvey's last start before the Tommy John surgery.
— Adam Rubin (@AdamRubinMedia) May 14, 2016
Jerry Blevins relieved Harvey with two outs in the sixth, and he allowed an RBI double to Charlie Blackmon. It closed out the final line for Harvey. Again, Mets fans are just left with questions as to what is happening with Harvey.
Rockies starter Jon Gray dominated the Mets over seven innings to earn his first career win in his 14th career start. Kevin Plawecki was the only one really able to touch him up when he hit a two RBI double in the second. Those would be the only runs the Mets would score in Coors Field tonight. The Mets lost 5-2 in Coors Field.
Where has the Mets offense gone? The Mets offense was once again stymied. Put it this way, Plawecki’s two RBIs were the first from a Mets position player in 26 innings. It’s been 33 innings since a position player other than Plawecki has had an RBI.
Mets offense has disappeared. Hopefully, they’ll find it tomorrow. They are playing in Coors Field.
Game Notes: Once again David Wright struggled in the first game after a flight. He was 0-4 with three strikeouts.