Kevin Plawecki“And the road trip is over!” Gary Cohen could have shouted that into the mic with as much enthusiasm as after a big win. The Mets concluded a brutal road trip, going 4-7 against the Padres, Dodgers and Rockies. This knuckle-headed writer pegged the then first place Mets to go 8-3. Instead, our bats went quiet and our pitching was mediocre and we dropped to third place behind the surprisingly decent Philllies.

Jacob deGrom continued pitching consistently the way he has – going about six inning and allowing 2 or 3 runs. He hasn’t been dominant and his strikeout rate is way down, but he’s been keeping us in games. But it’s hard to win when 3/4 of your lineup goes into a slump at the same time. Jim Henderson surrendering a home run in relief gave the Rockies the lead in the 7th, but it felt like the Mets were destined to get swept in this series. One of the few bright spots on this road trip was that Kevin Plawecki started hitting some.

Now we get a much needed day off before we begin our first series against the Nationals at home. Let’s hope we can get back on track. LGM!

21 comments on “Gut Reaction: Rockies 4, Mets 3 – 5/15/2016

  • TexasGusCC

    For all the noise about Harvey and deGrom not looking right, the bats are the most disappointing aspect of this team. I don’t care how many homers they hit if they can’t get a hit with two men on. Chatwood pitched well, but the Mets were shut down the whole road trip.

    Let’s look at the four wins: one Syndergaard did by himself; another one was a 6-4 victory where all the runs came on homers, including Babe Colon; the other win was aided by a two out double by Matz to give them a lead. What was the common theme in all three wins? The big hit came from a pitcher. Had it been seven wins with half of them being big hits from pitchers, well, ok.

    I am a big believer in putting bat on ball with authority. But, the Mets have fallen into a habit of trying to yank everything. They not only don’t have a two strike approach but also are last in the MLB with batting average with runners in scoring position. That’s downright unacceptable, but if the Mets don’t care, who are we to bother?

    Today Conforto deliberately inside-outed a ball to hit it through the gaping hole at SS to score a run. Never mentioned! He should have been lauded to wake up the others. But, it was only a single. Huff….

  • Matt Netter

    TexasGusCC – I agree 100%. I said it in the off-season and I’ll say it again now, this team has a boom or bust offense with too many streaky players. It was the Cubs undoing in the playoffs last year. Power is great, but when your lead off hitter isn’t getting on base and your 2-hole hitter strikes out like Dave Kingman, it leads to a lot of solo homers. No speed, not enough contact hitters to advance runners. The Earl Weaver offense only works if you have table setters.

    Until Grandy gets back on track I’d like to see him sit against lefties and get Lagares in the lineup more.

  • Chris F

    Yeah, it was brutal, and we historically have done terrible in SD. Everyone sort of hoped for 2/3 in CO, but when you are basically beat because the opposing team has an extended bench with 4 umpires on it that impacted 67% of the games, its barely a surprise.

    That said the bats didnt just suddenly go quiet in my opinion. Sure the HR went quiet, but in general we have not had much offense outside HR, which we know tend to come in lumps.

    Lets hope this gets them mad, motivated, and believing things are at a crux point — then respond properly.

  • Eraff

    we are roughly 20% into the season…… Exactly one pitcher who is both impressive and healthy.

    The formula is dominant starters and power/good Enuff hitting.

    ….lets hope the next 20 games gets them closer to that

  • James Preller

    I think Eraff has the clearest view. The team isn’t really built on power, it’s built on great starting pitching — which it really hasn’t received. The club is not getting any 2-1, 3-0 wins. The offense is only good to very good. Curtis has really been bad. David is, I fear, nearly done. Who takes off in Colorado? Only a guy whose body is in really rough shape. Losing Travis really hurts, going from a plus to a minus at the catching position.

    But, anyway: I think if Dom Smith can become the type of hitter he profiles to be, 15 HR, .300 BA, then he is a good replacement for Duda, shifting the dynamic of the offense.

    • Chris F

      The team is not built on power pitching as a sole strategy to win. If that were true, we would not have spent millions to bring the fences in, and staffed the team with power-centered batters. The other thing is that SA would have maximized defense, but that clearly hasn’t happened. So yes, they believe in power pitching, but also just as much, power hitting. Collins said as much. What has gone under appreciated by many is just how well the bull pen has been in getting this team to where it is given our starters can go past 6 on an almost nightly basis.

      • James Preller

        I don’t get your point. No one is saying “sole strategy.” The concept, with this roster at this moment in time, was “enough” offense, not a great offense.

        When most of us looked at this flawed team heading into Spring Training, the one thing that most of us couldn’t overlook was this: Harvey, deGrom, Syndergaard, Matz. With starting pitching like that, hell, it’s hard not to see a 95 win team (I had them at 94).

        Unfortunately, so far, Harvey is a pale duplicate of his former greatness and Jake has lost 4 MPH off his fastball. His results have been better, but he’s not the guy I remember. It remains to be seen if Matz can ever pitch a full season. Like d’Arnaud, he may have Craig Swan’s disease.

        Due to the current brutal trip, the offense has not scored runs. I do believe that when all is settled, it will be an NL average to slightly-above-average offense (as defined by the only thing that matters, runs scored).

        The defense is getting killed at 3B (Wright lists at last in baseball, by a wide margin), but it is more solid at SS and 2B.

        With Flores hurt, Campbell is playing too much, not that TC has a choice.

        Time for some tweaks to the roster.

        • Chris F

          My point is the team is most certainly built on power. I do not think its reasonable to say the team is built on pitching. If that were true, it would do everything to maximize that, and Alderson has not done that. The team is built on a HR offense as much as it is on starting pitching.

          • Brian Joura

            My recollection is that when they brought in the fences a second time, they had studies that showed the new dimensions helped their hitters much more than it hurt their pitchers. My assumption has always been that if it was the opposite that they would not have done that.

            • Chris F

              What a load. Alderson is a HR guy and thats how this team is supposed to score. The fences came in to get more homers. That much is obvious. All this left handed power with Granny and Duda (now Conforto) and oppo power for Wright was to score more HRs. A look at the HR since the walls came in show that clearly—the majority of HR last year came with moved in walls

              • Brian Joura

                So, if studies showed that for every homer the Mets hit with the new fences, their pitchers gave up 1.5 HR — do you think they would have moved in the fences?

                • Chris F

                  Only if Miss Cleo said it was true after reading my lifeline and it was confirmed with a magic 8 ball. Those kinds of projections are worthless…1.5 plus or minus how many? There is no way to predict how a pitcher will perform as we are seeing.

                  If you go to the ESPN hittracker you can see exactly why the fences were moved in.

                  • Brian Joura

                    These weren’t projections. They were tracking where balls were hit for both the Mets and their opponents in the previous season.

                • Chris F

                  But that only applies to the past, and therefore anything forward applying is a prediction of future performance, which means nothing.

                  In any event, this is a team based on hitting HR for offense, and that cannot be denied.

  • James Preller

    One other thing:

    I keep thinking about Omar and how he would have constructed this bench. He typically found a discarded veteran — think: Damien Easley — to perform that bench role. And he would have paid the guy $2 million. The nearly washed-up vet. SA has gone for savings, and youth. Flores, Campbell. It is sad to see Lagares wasted and diminished as purely a platoon player. And, of course, the De Aza signing was an abomination from day one — a terrible misuse of resources.

    Anyway, Flores maybe makes sense if he’s a 400 AB guy and if you believe in him. But TC has shown that he won’t rest Cabrera (which I think is a big mistake) or Walker, so Wilmer is essentially a young developing player asked to perform a role typically handled by a veteran.

    It feels like the Mets need to trade for Uribe and Johnson all over again. Which is a shame, because the money was there. Bernadina could fill the De Aza role, and suck for $5 million less.

    • MattyMets

      James, great point. The deAza signing may still make sense when one of the OFs inevitably gets hurt. Now it’s $5 MM sitting on the bench. I’d like to see Lagares get more PT and hoping Flores will embrace the utility role in time.

      I hear you though. Might make sense to bring back Uribe in July. Guys like that are easy enough to find.

  • Jimmy P

    Just a quick test, looking to change my ID.

    From the artist formerly known as “James” um “Preller.”

    Jimmy P!

  • Charlie Hangley

    The good news? they don’t have to go back there until 2017!

  • Eraff

    (Chris—your assertion that the team is “not built on Pitching” is a total head scratcher!!!)

    Regarding the Bench…. I’ve made the suggestion (many times) that Collins needs to force ab’s at 2 of 3—Lagares, DeAza and Fliores—My choices are Flores and Lagares. They cannot be serviceable in anyb role without some level of Live Play.

    The scary part of the first 30 some games is not the production of the starting pitchers- it’s more about the way it looks and the fear of Injury/diminished capacity. My opinion is that this team is first and foremost about Big Bully Starters— A Post Season with 3-4 Door slammers…7-9 innings of Ace Starters in every game. That’s the only way this works.

    • Chris F

      Of course its built on pitching, but that does not tell the whole story, as I said, because other moves make it clear the team is equally built on power hitting. If every pitcher did nothing but throw no hitters, they still cannot win. The team is a power offense built to score by the HR. I dont believe there is a “singular” built as a one-thing kind of approach. This team is build on pitching and HR.

  • Eraff

    Jimmy P…Nice ID!!!!!!

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