At 45-50, the Mets have played 95 of 162 games in the 2014 season. Coming off an 8-2 home stand, the Mets were red-hot going into the All Star break, and they will hopefully continue their hot streak when they resume the season this Friday. But whether the Mets continue their hot streak or not, the “second half” of the regular season is long, so there will be some ups and downs. Big names may be traded, and the Mets could end up in a pennant race or in the cellar. Historically, the Mets have been terrible straight out of the All Star break, but this year’s team seems to have a little bit more “swag” within them, so the odds of them staying hot may be in their favor. But what about the rest of season: will the Mets stay contenders, or make any big trades?
It seems as if every year, the Mets go into the All Star break with hopes, and end up failing all of them within the first week. However, this year will different. The Mets’ first three series are against the disappointing San Diego Padres, the recently hot Seattle Mariners, and the recently struggling Milwaukee Brewers. Therefore, the Mets will have an easy time in the first series because the Padres just cannot win ballgames. Also, the Mets are 8-7 this year with explosive offense against American League ball clubs, so they may do better against the Mariners than most people think. Finally, they will go to Miller Park to play the Brewers. The Mets seem to be extremely dominant when playing at Miller Park, so that may be a great series for them as well. That being said, the Mets are in for a great start to the “second half” and they may be able to gain some ground on the Braves and/or Nationals and end up in a pennant race by September.
When the Trade Deadline approaches, Sandy Alderson may have a few tricks to pull out of his hat. The Mets probably won’t trade for David Price, but there are other players on the market that can be useful. Players like Chris Young and Bartolo Colon may be able to be traded for a few prospects, which Alderson seems to love. No promises of course, but the Mets may end up with of a new look by the beginning of September.
When September comes, the Mets may be in a pennant race, which is something the team has not been a part of since 2008. This race will probably be against the Braves and/or Nationals, so it will not be easy. However, the Mets do have the perfect concoction of players to go deep in the playoffs. They have the veterans in Bobby Abreu and Colon, the youngsters in Murphy and Lagares, a speedster in Eric Young Jr., and of course…an amazing pitching rotation. So before you call me crazy, think about it…the Mets may actually have a chance in the second half of the season!
Colon has some value, especially to a bubble team in need of pitching like the Yankees. Chris Young will be lucky if someone sends us a few used balls to be their fifth outfielder.
I’ll tell you one thing that won’t happen: Ruben Tejada won’t start every game at shortstop until the Sept 1 call-up’s, and still be standing and playing decent ball.
The short term benefits in keeping an additional, non-middle infielder bat on the team have been pretty clear; Eric Campbell Abreau and even Chris Young have delivered. But what works over the short term frequently fails over time; and as the roster is presently composed David Wright is the only player besides Tejada with major league experience at shortstop, that being 2 games. The best real emergency option for the position is probably one Juan Lagares, and the highest competition where he played shortstop was Low-A ball at Savannah.
Time to say goodbye to Abreau or Eric Young, and bring up Matt Reynolds.
Small note, but Murphy is not one of the youngsters really. However, you are correct that those first three series will be crucial to continuing this hot-streak. The Mets in recent years have played down to their competition, and teams like the Padres have been their worst enemy. They need to step on the Padres’ collective throats, at minimum take that series, and go into Seattle with that continued mojo.
I may have made myself unclear with the “youngster” comment. While most people consider youngsters to be under or at 25, I consider them to be anyone younger than 30. Murphy is 29, so that is why I put that label on him.
You should really reconsider that.
In the MLB this year, the average “batage” according to baseball ref is 28.7. My guess is that number may be a bit higher than the median because you see more 23 and under everyday position players than 36+ everyday guys so the distribution curve is likely skewed to the right.