The Mets defeated the Twins tonight at Citi Field 3-0 to open up the series. The win puts them at 78-69, matching their season-high nine games over .500. A Giants loss tonight to the Cardinals would move the Mets into a tie with them for the first wild card spot
- Bartolo Colon continued his inexplicable season. The 43-year-old pitched seven scoreless innings giving up three hits and striking out six. He did uncharacteristically walk two, but that didn’t hurt him. He’s now 14-7 on the season with an ERA of 3.14. I don’t think there’s really a debate at this point about bringing him back next season.
- The Mets offense squandered multiple opportunities to score in this one, including not scoring with the bases loaded in the first inning or with runners on the corners with no outs in the fourth inning. Let’s not slide back down that hill again…
- Jose Reyes and Asdrubal Cabrera got on base a total of five times between them and hit back-to-back solo homers in the third to get the scoring started. Cabrera left the game after the eighth inning with what the team deemed a “leg cramp” in his right leg (not his problematic left), though it’s something to keep an eye on. Yoenis Cespedes capped the scoring with an RBI single in the seventh to extend the lead to 3-0. He also contributed an error, dropping a flyball on a lazy attempt at a basket catch.
- Addison Reed was great in the eighth inning while striking out two. Jeurys Familia struggled again to close this one, walking two but ultimately securing his 49th save. We shouldn’t worry about him, right? Nah…..right?
A nice win for the Boys. We hit a homerun and we usually win. Bartolo is amazing. Excited to hear that deGrom will probably start on Sunday and that Lagares and Duda have or will be rejoining the team. Fingers crossed that we keep beating up on these lowly teams and continue the march to a playoff spot. #LGM
This was a well played, solid game with masterful pitching from Colon and Reed. Familia did his job so there is little to worry about.
The offense has been led by Reyes, Cabrera and Cespedes. Cespedes is slumping but still has 8 RBI’s this week. He is a true star although he would look more star like catching the ball instead of show boating.
Loney and TJ Rivera have been pitching in with hits but once again Bruce and Granderson are dragging the offense down. Come on TC, give DeAza a chance and let him play the next two games. Lets get the series win today!
I’m impressed with Rivera. Fast bat. Plays the game…runs the bases. First quick view is that he’s a Major Leaguer, and he will be on someone’s roster going forward.
I don’t know why I never connected the two before, but last night speculated that the dramatic power drop-off of Travis d’Arnaud — last year’s .485 SLG to this season’s .325 SLG — is very likely connected to his shoulder injury.
Bum shoulders do that.
I wonder if he’ll have surgery in the off-season.
The other thing I notice is that he hits so many grounders, rarely lifts the ball. Clearly a mess, but perhaps there’s something physical underlying it. Weird I didn’t figure that out before. When good pitchers suddenly do poorly, it’s the first thing that comes to my mind, that question: I wonder if he’s hurt?
Just looked it up:
His GB% is up from 37% to 53% this season. That’s a huge change.
Some fans might say — as I’ve been thinking the past few weeks — that he needs to get more “lift” in his swing. More fly balls. But why need to ask why it’s happening in the first place. Considering the injury, I see that more as a “result” than a “cause.”
A loss of power is consistent with a damaged shoulder.
He’s also sporting a terrible new stance where the bat head is almost pointing back at the pitcher. He has to drag the whole thing over his head before getting to the zone. It seems to slow him down just with bat distance travelled. Then it seems reasonable to ask – is this stance in response to a shoulder issue. In any event, Travis is second to a back up guy, who is really just a back up guy. That’s not a great place to be.
His stance is like Julio Franco’s. Batting stances come in different ways and if that’s what he wants, he should be able to have it. It’s his career.
I absolutely believe that when we see a player who we know can do something — hit with power, make the throw from the deep shortstop position, whatever — fail to do that thing, usually some level of injury is the culprit. D’Arnaud, yes; I would add Raphael Montero to that list. He never walked so many batters while he was progressing through the system, and what exactly was the matter with him last year was never adequately explained.
It’s an axiom, not my axiom but I do believe it: health is the single most important determining factor for a player’s success. And (to channel the King James version) the second is like unto it: the ability to stay healthy and ready to play is a skill.
d’Arnaud has adjusted the severity of his bat slant over the past week or so. His results are an obvious connection to his Injury(ies).
He’s a pretty crappy catcher, even when I concede his one supposed bullshit strength…Framing. I don’t believe his Bat will outlast the Physical Beating of the position, and He is far short of out-hitting his defensive weaknesses…and that’s as much about his present Offense as it is about his defense.
Hate all the “framing” talk these days, especially these guys who are trying to quantify it. Total BS.
This post is hilarious when you read it in Donald Trump’s voice.
Total BS. Except for the part where it’s been proven to be a repeatable skill. And except for the part where guys who were not good at it and who consciously changed the way they received the ball and saw their results improve. Chris Iannetta, for example.
“Chris Iannetta was the inspiration of this post, and he easily leads the list. Prior to the 2015 season, he gave an interview where he explained that after discovering he was a poor framer thanks to newer framing metrics, he worked on improving it in the offseason. That hard work clearly paid off. After costing the Angels 38 runs due to poor framing from 2010 to 2014, the third worst total among catchers, Iannetta saved the team seven framing runs in 2015, the eighth best total.”
http://www.billjamesonline.com/_the_most_improved_pitch_framers_/
It’s up for debate how big this effect is and what part should go to the catcher and what part to the pitcher. You can even suggest that umpires are now conscious of who gets the extra strike calls and are umpiring differently with certain catchers behind the plate.
The idea that catchers frame pitches is not new and it’s certainly not revolutionary. Since we know this is true, what’s the issue with quantification? If you have a specific critique of the methods employed by a particular source – by all means, please share. Otherwise you’re just pissing in the wind.
Baseball has long recognized the value of “good receivers” and “quiet” catchers, etc. What’s particularly silly — to me, at least — is the endless measuring and quantifying of this new-fangled skill. Simon’s pieces on ESPN are dogmatic and ridiculous, IMO. So and so gets 8 calls per game, and so on. Who is pitching? Who is the ump? What’s the score? There are so many variables that I see it as bad science. But I understand that there’s profit in it. Does framing exist? Sure, it’s always existed.
They used to say Ozzie Smith saved 100 runs per year with his glove. Now that was ridiculous. But until you sit down and make an honest attempt to accurately quantify it – you have people of all walks saying things that aren’t true.
You see new advances and your tendency seems to me to dismiss it as profit. I have no doubt that there are people trying to profit off of it – although I wonder where the profit lies in catcher defense, which doesn’t have a ton of fantasy value – but I tune that out. For me it’s the search for greater understanding of the game.
Not every new stat is a quality stat.
You have to show discernment.
Or at least respect those who don’t go ga-ga after every new set of dubious defensive numbers.
There’s catcher framing data going back to 2008. Let’s not treat this as something that’s brand new and that hasn’t been examined carefully at all.
I don’t blame anyone for not going ga-ga. But there’s a huge difference between retaining a healthy skepticism and claiming something as BS.