With a chance to take over first place with a sweep, the Mets dropped the first game of the three-game set against the Nationals by a 7-2 score Monday night.
- Matt Harvey, pitching for the first time in nine days, allowed five runs in the first three innings before settling down to retire the last 14 batters he faced. Hopefully the people who are so gung ho about limiting Harvey’s innings will keep this outing in mind before suggesting he just skip a couple of starts.
- The offense was just as inept as we’ve come to expect. Both runs scored on an RBI single by Harvey.
- Alex Torres came on after Harvey pitched seven innings and promptly gave up two runs. Remember when everyone was excited about Sandy Alderson making moves to address the 2015 team? This was what he did – focused on lefty relievers. On the list of things that the team needed, lefty relievers were just ahead of new batboys. If there’s any justice in the world, Torres will be removed when Erik Goeddel is ready to return.
- It’s now 129 PA since Wilmer Flores hit a home run.
When the Mets were down only 2-0, we all knew that it would be a long night, and indeed it was. Who thought that it was a good idea to bring in Alex Torres? Two people, Terry Collins and Alex’s mom.
To Alex Torres, “I want that man removed!!”
Flores has become the whipping child of fans that don’t want to realize that the failures of much more prominent players like Cuddyer, Duda, Murphy, even Lagares, have more to do with the Mets’ ineptitude than Flores does. Flores was meant to bat seventh or eighth and obviously is a second baseman that tried to handle SS. Putting him second, third, fourth or fifth says more about the state of this team than anything else. He has no business batting fourth or fifth, but:
– Wright is hurt and hasn’t been replaced because he will be back by a) mid-June b) the all-star break c) mid August d) next year.
– Cuddyer sucks
– TDA is hurt, again.
– Lagares is the official #9 hitter because MLB rules will not allow Collins to DH for him or bat him tenth.
Take Flores completely off this team and you have the same crappy offense and a young player that is completely overmatched in Herrera teamed up with Tejada to make a laughable middle infield. This team is put together by either a very arrogant person that expects things to go completely as planned and thus doesn’t need a Plan B, or by a person that can barely put what will pass as a competitive team but cannot afford adequate reinforcements.
Hopefully next year, this team has a true #1 outfielder that will allow Cuddyer to keep to around 440 plate appearances as a #4 outfielder (I don’t care what they signed him for) and a very good SS (Desmond?) that will allow Herrera to come along slowly and keep Flores and Tejada as bench strength or Wright insurance.
The addition of Desmond and an Alex Gordon or a Justin Upton will be a boon for this lineup, assuming that Herrera is the leadoff man and Granny hits second. Then, Gordon, Duda, Desmond, Wright, and TdA will give length and quality with Cuddyer playing four times a week. Watch how much better Lagares and Flores are then without having the pressure of making up for other people’s failures.
When Flores batted 8th last year, people were calling Collins an idiot for doing that. Now that’s he’s not batting lower in the order, you’re saying he should. I’m no fan of TC – but he’s being backed into an unwinnable position with this particular player.
Why is it that when Herrera goes through a 3-31 stretch, he’s completely overmatched but when Flores goes through a 4-30 stretch he continues to play every day and no one bats an eye?
Ian Desmond has a .208/.251/.335 line in 362 PA this year. That’s amazingly bad and we should thank our lucky stars that we didn’t trade Syndergaard and more for him this offseason.
I don’t think anyone expected Flores to be batting in the heart of the order, that was for Wright, Duda, Cuddyer, Murphy, Granderson, TdA; I believe you will concur with that. The circumstances that led to Flores being in the middle have more to do with his early power showing and the disappearance of most of those guys, figuratively and literally.
Further, while I don’t know if he is 4-30, but he was robbed by Harper yesterday and he hasn’t seen an inside pitch in over a month. He’s adjusting, and I believe that’s what MLB is all about. I guess Herrera was sent down to give Flores a chance at his natural position to see what he looks like. It’s hard to figure out what this group is thinking. Not only do I like Herrera, I often said he should bat at the top because thats the type of player he is. It would have been a great situation to have him bat behind Granny, but that is for Wright, Murphy, et al.
My opinion on what the Mets should do won’t matter anywhere, so …
Without looking it up, I believe a low OBP, hi SLG guy should bat 6th
Many times I think Collins does alot of things just to give the fans the middle finger and say, “I do because I can”.
It was very telling in the chatter to hear people’s opinions. I went in there when it was 2-0 and asked Metsense how his confidence level was; he said low. When it went to 4-0, Steve wrote it might as well be 40-0. At 5-0, he said 50-0.
When Harvey (the pitcher) got the hit to score two runs, everyone perked up a little as we have learned to feed and be satisfied with crumbs. But, that was it. And this was against a pitcher that the league was batting .280 against so far this year; and we didn’t even have hope.
Two things:
1) Defense matters. Night and day last night, we’ve seen it time and again. Easily a 4-5 run difference in the outcome of the game, probably in the first inning alone.
2) I find the constant Flores bashing on this site strangely mean-spirited. He has not played well. He’s been a disappointment. But he’s a 23-year-old kid in his first full season in the majors on a team with a pitiful offense. It would be nice if there was a better alternative, as I’ve always felt that he’s best-suited as a utility player.
Defense matters…please James…just what kind of renegade are you?
; – )
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN200809280.shtml
Mike Vaccarro, NY Post wrote that September 28, 2015 was the last important post July 4th game the Mets played since last night.
Reyes, Beltran, Delgado, Wright, Evans(lf),Ramon Martinez(2b),Church, Castro with Chavez, Murphy,Castillo,M.Anderson and Schneider coming off the bench. That is one 900+, three 800+, Three 700+ OPS players in the lineup and they lost. Look at last nights lineup and one can see that Sandy is not doing his job.
Flores should not be the whipping boy because he is playing as best as his talent is allowing him. Sandy was foolish to go into a supposed playoff season with him and Murphy as his Keystone combination. This all points to Sandy and poor roster construction.
In order to make any ground this series the Mets need to win the next two. I have faith because of the two pitchers starting. I have zero faith in Nero.
Flores does seem to be the scapegoat. Duda, Cuddyer, Lagares and the injuries are more at fault than he is. However, take a look at what the Nats have suffered in terms of injuries and see what they’ve been able to accomplish. I realize that there are a lot of opportunities to second-guess moves that SA made or did not make. One thread that seems relevant but doesn’t get much attention is the role that Jeff Wilpon really plays here. I am not an SA apologist, but in a scenario where JW is truly calling all the shots, then he’s the one to blame. I am in Texas and can’t see for myself the daily drumbeat of the NYC media, but the similarities between Dolan and Wilpon seem significant and Dolan gets raked while Wilpon stays in the background.
All that said, it feels pretty hopeless for either team as long as the incompetent owners play a big role.
Flores is easy to pick on because his position was a lightning rod, and the Mets made it clear they had been searching for a SS all off season. Hes also easy to pick on because he’s not a major league every day guy. The good news is by most measures hes better in the field at 2B than SS, although he couldnt hit a beach ball with a tennis racket.
But the long and short of this is that the biggest blame for the misery we see daily is Sandy Alderson. He has put this quad A team on the field. Forget blaming the Wilpons, its an obvious easy thing, but they are going nowhere. Can a team make the playoffs with a 100M$ payroll? Yes. Has Sandy been good at building such a team? No. He has missed repeatedly with player evaluation, whether it be Flores as a cheap answer, or spending tons of money on guys like Grandy, Cuddyer, Young, and Frank Frank.
Im sick of seeing Murphy unable to catch, unable to throw and now, unable to hit. Its painful to watch Campbell do practically anything. All over the field, this team is incapable, and has found itself in a great spot by serendipity, much like a broken clock is correct two times a day.
The Mets sure showed those Nats last nite who was boss — harvey being lit up by a triple A lineup didnt help — and of course we hv no offense — like whats happened to TDA this guy is always hurt and if the Mets can get this guy bk in the line up and hope he stays healthy for the rest of the season the Mets should think of moving him to LF or use him as trade fodder cuz he does us no good as a catcher when he plays a position he gets hurt in
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