Meet the Mets (For Mets Fans Only!)

As they say on the Soprano's, whattayagonnado?

Once you are well into a sports season, the ultimate, all encompassing stat reflecting a team's strength  is run (goal, point) differential.  The Mets are minus 20, which puts them at the top of the bottom third of teams.  That's what we are.  Injuries shminjuries.  Tell it to the Yankees.  

Is it too early to say the Mets are done? That last Diamondbacks game was an excellent display of apathy.

NotoriousEAM said:
Is it too early to say the Mets are done? 

Take it from a Phillies fan: No. Neither are the Nats. There are four whole months left, and it’s a wide-open division. All the teams have their flaws. See: https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2019/06/02/jay-bruce-phillies-mariners-trade/1319876001/

Not that Jay Bruce is Aaron Altherr ...

(I feel for Altherr. He was exciting when the Phillies first called him up, then tore a wrist ligament and just hasn’t been the same since.)

ETA: No, I have that wrong. His promising 2017 season was post-injury. So I don’t know what happened, other than pitchers eventually spotted a weakness and started exploiting it.

I saw a batting order for the Mets AAA team and 5 of the starters were retreads.  Not a good sign.  Kemp, Tejada, Gomez, Davis, and someone else.  Ugh.

FilmCarp said:
I saw a batting order for the Mets AAA team and 5 of the starters were retreads.  Not a good sign.  Kemp, Tejada, Gomez, Davis, and someone else.  Ugh.

 Could part of that be because they have moved a lot of their better young players to the MLB level?  

the Mets have been terrible on the road this year, and they have played 35 games as the road team and only 24 at home.  Let's see where they are when those numbers start to even out.

mfpark said:
 Could part of that be because they have moved a lot of their better young players to the MLB level?  

 Meaning they don't have much coming up to help.  

FilmCarp said:
 Meaning they don't have much coming up to help.  

 Or maybe they're trying those guys out to see whether they can help in the bigs? Not sure what the strategy is but maybe they're getting some playing time now to see what they've got.

mrincredible said:
 Or maybe they're trying those guys out to see whether they can help in the bigs? Not sure what the strategy is but maybe they're getting some playing time now to see what they've got.

 Well, to me it seems obvious that they added a bunch of retreads to be able to fill holes in the Mets lineup due to injuries etc., Which means they don't have the young talent to step up.  That's bad.  Really, it would be great if someone was trying to push Conforto or Rosario from behind.  But they have an empty system.

Great news!

Soul_29 said:
Great news!

 Welcome back.  I like that combination in the booth.  I wonder if he could handle pitching the 8th inning, as well?

Think Dykstra’ll pop in?  Maybe call a half inning?

Gruesome loss last night.

Anyhow, I was messing around in the Stat mines and I saw that the Mets have given up more stolen bases--49--than any other team in the Majors.  The second worst team, Oakland, has given up 42.  But Oakland also has 17 caught stealing, so their net is only 25.  The Mets have only caught 9 stealing for an abysmal net of 40.

How come?  It looks like the pitchers are not holding runners well.  Ramos has a 15% caught stealing rate this year--in all other full seasons (when not injured) he was in the high 20's to mid 40's in CS rate--often above the league average.  I don't see him suddenly dropping to 1/2 of the league average in one year. 
This is a big issue for a team that is among the lower quartile itself in runs scored.  Putting runners in scoring position is deadly for a team that finds 2-0 deficits almost insurmountable.

Not sure where you all went, but that was one hell of a pitching performance by Thor yesterday!  He said he made a small mechanical tweak to his four seam fastball, and that set up his other stuff.  

First-pitch strikes, too. A wet game in the Bronx tonight. Anything can happen. I hope Alonso bounces one off the black in dead center. 

The run differential is moving in the right direction at least.

it feels like every night a different reliever steps up to blow the game.  DeGrom  does well, Lugo does well, so Diaz blows it.

They timed the shirt day well for the guy that has them playing a suspended game today after blowing it last night. I hated that trade when they did it and that was when I thought they would get at least one healthy year out of Cano.

I keep reminding myself that part of that trade involved dumping Bruce and swarzak.  I never wanted Cano, but I thought Diaz would be as good as any closer.  Of course, I think almost all closers are overrated.

Is the tie game being finished tonight?

Yes.

Swarzak has a lower ERA than at least a couple of guys in the bullpen, though that's not saying much. I was happy to see Bruce go, but that was before I realized that the options were going to be Broxton, Lagares and Carlos Gomez if any outfielders got hurt. They could have signed Kimbrel and Ottavino for a lot less than the contracts their stuck with now for Cano and Familia. I can't think of one move that Brodie and Sandy made during the past two offseasons that paid off.  

They just suck.

And in his post game press conference, Callaway reminds us that we have Familia for three years.

Look at the bright side: it's not four.

Beat the Mets, Beat the Mets.  Come on out and beat the Mets 

Here comes Atlanta. We're toast. This Soroka dude (and Rookie of the Year candidate) for Atlanta has been lights out. A 0.97 WHIP. Yikes. 

The Braves, man.