Last time at this keyboard an article spit out asking for people to complain a little less. The reaction was to explain their complaints. You know, in a complaining kind of way. Of course it’s easier to complain than it is to be grateful. Besides, it was pretty vain of me to think that people would change their ways just because of an overly long blog post. Maybe that could be my epitaph – Here lies Brian, who vainly believed that people should be merely depressing, rather than unbelievably depressing, around him.

Don’t let it bring you down
It’s only castles burning,
Just find someone who’s turning
And you will come around.

So, come with me on the never-ending quest for the river of sight. And along the way, let’s continue our tradition of handing out the Christmas gifts really needed by the guys on the Mets.

Jerry Blevins – A season-ending line with 60 IP.

Asdrubal Cabrera – The return of his slugging prowess. In an era when everyone is showing power and leaving the yard, Cabrera somehow lost 40 points of ISO last year.

Yoenis Cespedes – A couple of crates of flavored water. He’s right, water is boring and Gatorade tastes horrible. But there are other options to keep hydrated. One week he could do grape and the next week he could do lemon. And if he wants, he could venture into the land of Pineapple-Mint-Ginger water.

Michael Conforto – The old saying is that everyone needs a little head and shoulders to make it through and the joke is the blonde wanting to know how to give shoulders. If anyone can help that blonde – and Conforto – out, let’s come up with a healthy shoulder.

Travis d’Arnaud – The confidence to embrace the freedom of no expectations and to deliver the year we all thought he was capable of five years ago.

Jacob deGrom – A few more early “W’s” so that the powers that be will give him the All-Star nod he so richly deserves.

Jeurys Familia – A return to his 2015 BB/9 rate.

Wilmer Flores – A trade to an organization that believes in him as much as TexasGus does.

Robert Gsellman – More changeups to LHB.

Matt Harvey – A return of the bite on his breaking balls.

Juan Lagares – The ability to elevate the ball while hitting fastballs to right field and breaking balls over the fence in left.

Seth Lugo – The health to be used out of the bullpen and the opportunity to be an impact multi-inning reliever.

Steven Matz – Thirty pain-free starts.

Brandon Nimmo – For a majority of his PAs to come from the leadoff spot.

Kevin Plawecki – The total elimination of bounced throws to bases so he can be a viable option to play when the pitchers who are bad at holding on runners start.

AJ Ramos – The same present as either Familia or Flores.

Hansel Robles – The opportunity to pitch in primarily low-leverage situations, where maybe he can enjoy the success that 2015 Antonio Bastardo did.

Amed Rosario – Improved strike zone recognition.

Dominic Smith – A visit from the BABIP regression gods.

Anthony Swarzak – For his six to eight bad appearances (since we know every single reliever will go through a bad stretch) to come after he’s had 20 or 25 good ones.

Noah Syndergaard – A season where he doesn’t visit the barber and end up looking generic, like deGrom does now.

Zack Wheeler – The confidence to attack and put away hitters when he gets to a two-strike count.

*****

Sandy Alderson – For him to show us more of his no-nonsense Marine side and less of his stand-up comedian side.

Mickey Callaway – The stones to run his pitching staff in the way that makes sense to him, not the paint by numbers approach that we saw all too much of the previous seven years.

*****

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of the readers here at Mets360! My gift to you is a break – however brief – from relentless negativity.

I’m very happy that you come to our site on a daily basis. And I’d like to give an extra special thanks to loyal readers like Gus, TJ, Jimmy P, Jim OMalley, Chris F, Mike Walczak, Eraff, Name, IB, Metsense, BK, Pete in Iowa, Pete, IDRAFT, Steevy, NormE and anyone I may unintentionally be forgetting. Your contributions add to the site and make us all better writers. And finally, thanks to all of the writers at the site. May you have a wondrous holiday season.

25 comments on “Christmas wishes for the 2018 Mets

  • Pete

    Same to you and your family Brian. My X-Mas wishes. That Terry Collins can enjoy his retirement at the F.O. without too much complaining. That Scott Boras gets his wish and all teams sign his FA clients (for one year). That Fred Wilpon doesn’t get cast in the new part of Ebenezer Scrooge this off season. That Jeff Wilpon will grow out of his father’s shadow and can have at least one press conference to confirm he’s still invaluable. To the Met players. Health and happiness to them and their families. To all who post here a Happy Holiday season. To my friend Gus. Have some patience and Santa will bring you a bigger payroll in 2018. Optimism in in short supply these days but you never know what tomorrow may bring.

    • Brian Joura

      Thanks Pete!

      Loved the Jeff Wilpon line.

  • NormE

    Hey Brian,
    Thanks for giving us a great site to share our thoughts. We may not always agree, but the exchanges are done in a respectful manner (with I think a little help/prodding from the editor).
    My best wishes to all.

    • Brian Joura

      Thanks NormE — right back at you!

  • DED

    Sigh. You had to reach back 47 years to locate a pop song that expresses what you feel. Depressing!

  • Mike Walczak

    I wanted to personally thank Brian and the rest of the blog writers. This has been a tough year for me and I really look forward to reading and responding to the articles. So, yes, this blog about the Mets gives me something to look forward to. I am very grateful for it.

    Happy Holidays to all of you.

    Maybe under the tree we will all get a Bartolo Colon life size cutout.

    • Brian Joura

      I appreciate and enjoy you sharing your gratefulness!

  • Chris F

    All the best to Brian, the M360 writers, the entire M360 extended community. Rarely is there a place on the internet where people can gather, agree or disagree without turning ugly, and yet manage to speak your peace. It makes M360 my multi-times-a-day tonic for stress everywhere else. Thanks Brian!

    As for the Mets:

    to our power arms – recognizing that a letter high fastball with 2 strikes is better than digging lower and lower in the zone.

    to Harvey – finding late life in the zone again.

    to Lagares – a new home. Ive led the charge here in your support, but being a malcontent is not the right move even of you are being treated poorly. I hope you find success on a new team that allows you to reach your potential.

    to Rosario – Dude, slow your roll with the swinging at everything. We need you to have a strong eye.

    to Ces – yeah, they are going up and out on you and down and out on you. No kidding. none of those pitches are Ks. Hoping your eye finds the zone and your hammys stay long.

    to Conforto – rest. rehab. take the time. i wish you the power of patience. there is negative value in returning too soon.

    to Flores – like with Lags, wishing you the best in your new AL home. Its for the better of our relationship. Its me, not you.

    to Wheeler – i hope you find that thing that brings control. if you ask me, its the biggest thing you have to settle

    to Mets fans – the strength to muster along no matter the ineptitude and dark cloud that never seems to leave Flushing.

  • Metsense

    Good Health and Fortune for the 2018 Mets!

    And for Brian, his staff and all the posters – Happy Holidays to all.

  • TexasGusCC

    To all my Mets360 friends and fellow Mets fans, I, too, would like to wish all a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and a wonderful Holiday Season.

    While I may not be able to give all the gift they prefer, I too have some goodies in my bag:

    To Pete: May ARod buy the Mets because there isn’t a more Jeter hating, Yankee despising, and competitive person we can have on our side. Cheers to our next owners JLo and ARod!

    To Brian: May Mets360 stay at controllable levels and you find more writers than you need.

    To Chris F: May you find the confidence to feel that down nine runs going into the eighth, there’s still six outs to go.

    To Name: May you get discovered by Stats Inc and get a dream job working at MLB analytics.

    To Metsense: May we have an enjoyable off season traveling/relaxing so you could be strong for the real season.

    To Mr. Gomes: May you join me in toasting Collins’ departure, something we’ve both begged for since 2012.

    To James P: May you become more tolerant of Brian, Name and I (just kidding Jim).

    To Matt: May you meet up with us to watch the World Series in Citifield this October.

    To Mike Walczak: May you find the willingness to give this core group a chance.

    To my buddy Wilmer: May they not get another second baseman and give you a chance to show you are – at least better than Starlin Castro, and – one of the top offensive second basemen in baseball and acceptable defensively, and working with a running coach to improve your speed.

    To Juan Lagares: May you learn that the slider on the outside part of the zone is not your friend. More than the fly all pct or the exit velo, that is what you need to improve on.

    To Marc Carig: May you get anything you want in Metsville and go into the Hall of Fame as a writer. Keep beating on them and giving us the truth. We love you Marc!

    To The Dominator: May you get 80 consecutive starts to show them that you better than LoMo, Dude, AGone, Lind, and anyone else available.

    To Mike Vaccaro: May you and Carig drive the Wilpons out and have your place in Met fans’ hearts forever, and a regular gig at MLBNetwork.

    And to everyone else reading this: May you find inner peace and happiness with this flawed team, this arrogant general manager, our new on-field leadership, and may MLB step in to “review the situation with Mets ownership”.

    • Pete

      Well Gus if A-Rod is the new owner at least the team will have a supportive owner who can appreciate a good “trainer”.

    • Brian Joura

      Hey, I want to toast TC being gone, too! Merry Christmas, Gus

  • TJ

    Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a Happy and Healthly New Year to all!

    Brian,
    I have a slightly different perspective on the perceived negativity – I find it quite healthy and actually uplifting in most all cases. Yes, it can get a bit depressing to drone on and on, but overall it is based on a deep passion for both the Mets and baseball. All in all, that is a good thing, especially for the older followers. Lastly, a thanks to you for whatever efforts of yours to maintain the site and post consistently high quality, thoughtful content.

    • Brian Joura

      I don’t think it’s perceived. It’s palpable.

  • MattyMets

    I’m so thankful for Mets360, “the house that Brian built” and the way it has attracted thoughtful, smart and respectful Mets fans. Wishing you all a very merry christmas and happy new year.

    • Brian Joura

      Thanks Matty! And smart, respectful fans has always been the target audience.

  • Mets6986

    Thanks for a great year of talking Mets. Love the 360. My wish is for health – something quite elusive these past few years. If we can keep our starters on the field there’s reason to feel good about reaching the post season. Happy holidays.

    • Brian Joura

      Thanks! Health would be the greatest gift of all for Mets fans.

  • BK

    Merry Christmas, happy Holidays, and happy new year to everyone at mets360.com! All I want for Christmas is health for our pitchers and power hitting for our lineup.

    • Brian Joura

      Power to the people right on!

  • Remember1969

    I have recently discovered the Mets360 site and it looks like a great place for information and opinions. I will be following the writing here through the next year. I have been a Mets fan through the good, bad and ugly since that great year in 1969 when I learned how to score a game as a 10 year old with a transistor radio and Ralph, Lindsay, and Bob! Great job here. While I am a little late for the Xmas wishes, my New Year’s wish is for a happy and healthy year for all and a few surprises by the front office that will make a successful 2018 for my 50th year of following the Mets.

    • NormE

      Welcome to the club!
      Don’t be afraid to express yourself,
      Do not capitalize!

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