The Mets started the season with World Series aspirations. While some called it foolhardy to rely on so many young arms – especially with four of them coming off surgery or one sort or another – the more hopeful among the fan base pushed that notion aside. Because the arms were so young, they should be able to come back strong from whatever physical woes they might be encountering. Well, it turns out the hopeful – and it sure looks like GM Sandy Alderson was among the hopeful – were dead wrong. Inconsistency and further injury put the Mets’ season into a death spiral before May was over. As a Mets fan for most of my 52 years on this Earth, I can tell you from experience it’s no fun to be playing out the string on the Fourth of July. I can show you the scars, if you like. In any case, we’re nearly halfway through the year and the team is scrambling to find a healthy arm. The success of recent years has left the farm bereft of quality starting pitching. Deflecting criticism that the Mets “only develop pitchers,” Alderson has spent the last couple of drafts concentrating on position players. Only in the past two has he reverted to taking a pitcher with his first pick. They’d better develop fast.
With Matt Harvey, Noah Syndergaard, Robert Gsellman and Zack Wheeler all currently on the shelf, the Mets have had to take a deep dip into that rapidly drying-up well. Let’s ask the question: are you really prepared to go to war with the Washington Nationals when your third or fourth best option is Tyler Pill? A lot of people were encouraged by Rafael Montero’s win over the Giants this past weekend. In what might have been the best start of his career, he thoroughly throttled the San Franciscans, tossing nearly six superb innings while striking out seven and walking only one. But the caveat is that, it’s the Giants we’re talking about here, one of the two or three NL teams who might be more disappointing than the Mets. Their offense has been feeble all year, so it’s tough to tell whether that game was more about the Giants or Montero. In any case, with the Gsellman injury this week, Terry Collins now must rely on pitchers like Pill and Montero just to limp into the All-Star break with a modicum of dignity.
Let’s hope the “dog days” aren’t as cruel this year.
Follow me on Twitter @CharlieHangley.
Hey Charles.
I’m in the ‘throw in the towel’ school of thought at this point in the season and, though I loved the Steven Matz outing yesterday, I’m just happy if the Mets can find five starters to throw out each fifth game. One might as well be Montero.
In his last 11 starts in Double-A, Corey Oswalt has a 1.34 ERA. But he’ll never sniff the majors this year because the Mets view pitchers at that level as being a million miles away from the bigs.
Is he a savior? No, absolutely not. But he’s a guy they gave an above-slot bonus to who’s battled injury problems and now appears healthy and is performing well. Same thing with Chris Flexen. Marcos Molina has also overcome injury problems.
Maybe none of those pitchers are ready for the majors here at the end of June. Certainly, the Mets have done well developing pitchers so it’s tough to criticize their methods. It’s just that when three starters in Double-A have MLB potential, it doesn’t seem fair to say the system is bereft of quality starting pitching.
::Crossing fingers Wheeler isn’t out long::
They should be able to find a no. 3 guy on the FA market to bolster the rotation with all of the contracts coming off and the fact this is a New York team. Thor, deGrom, Matz, Lugo, Harvey, Gsellman and ______ could help, with two in the pen until depth is needed.
deGrom and Matz and hope for bats.
Bartolo Colon is available
I’d rather put a blindfold on, point randomly at any member of the Brooklyn Cyclones and have that person pitch.
Even with colon it’s gonna be hard to beat the giants for the top pick in the 2019 draft. I’m thinking we need to sign arod to be our starting ss to put us over the top.
The Mets are centered around their pitching and their pitchers are very dominant when healthy . The problem is the pitching is not durable. The rest of 2017 will be used be evaluate the durability. It seems many fans want to tinker with the offense but the offense is not the problem. A starting lineup of Flores(1B), Cabrera (2B), Rosario (SS), Walker (3B), Cespedes (LF), Conforto(CF), Bruce (RF), TDA (C) is a good start for a competitive offense team. The failed pitching is what has cost the Mets 2017. Take the money saved on Duda and Granderson and invest in starting pitcher and another back end reliever. It should never again come down to Rafael Montero in the future.