The Mets dropped the last two games of the season series against the Marlins to finish the year 11-8 against their division foe. It was the first time since Aug. 28-29 that the Mets have lost back-to-back games and they went 12-3 in that stretch. After a day off on Thursday, next up is the Yankees. The Mets lost two of three in their first matchup in the Bronx. If the Mets hope to get back to their winning ways, they’ll have to get better pitching than they have recently. In their last four games, Mets hurlers have allowed 24 runs.
In the first game, Steven Matz squares off against Masahiro Tanaka, who’s been the Yankees’ best starter this year, with a 3.40 ERA and a 0.993 WHIP. When he’s been healthy, Matz has been pretty fine, himself, with a 3-0 record, a 1.88 ERA and a 1.083 WHIP. It should be a great matchup on its own but it also serves to point out a distinction between the two clubs that is neither new nor surprising. The Yankees go primarily outside of the organization for talent while the Mets have a healthy number of homegrown guys.
Baseball-Reference lists the guys at each position who have started the most games for the club this year. Of the Yankees’ eight starting position players plus DH, only Brett Gardner was drafted by the club and came up through the farm system. Meanwhile, six of the eight starters listed for the Mets were originally signed by the club, although that’s not necessarily representative of the club that the Mets field here in September. More on that in a minute.
Turning to the starting pitchers, only Ivan Nova of the five guys with the most starts was developed by the Yankees. By contrast, at least three of the Mets’ top five came up through the system and Noah Syndergaard made 54 of his 89 starts in the minors for Mets affiliates. The bullpen is also tough to gauge by the B-R listings but one of the two main relievers for both clubs came up through the farm system.
Instead of starters, let’s use a PA minimum. Of the players on both teams to amass at least 100 PA in the majors, 10 of 17 came up through the Mets’ system while just three of 13 came up through the Yankees’ system. Of the 10 pitchers to hurl the most innings, six (plus Syndergaard) came up through the Mets’ org while just three did the same for the Yankees.
There’s more than one way to skin a cat and if a team can successfully compete in MLB without a ton of help from their farm system, bully for them. My preference is for the core of the team to come up through the farm system, something the Yankees used to have when they made the World Series four times in a row and six times in eight years in the Derek Jeter era.
Here’s hoping a team getting star performances from Michael Conforto, Lucas Duda, Jacob deGrom, Familia, Matt Harvey, Matz, David Wright and others can lead the Mets to a similar streak of postseason success.
This is a little off-topic, Brian, but it’s right in your bailiwick.
When good players perform way below their established norms, I immediately think about the possibility of an injury. Add to that the fact that Duda was just on the DL for his back, I think it’s a legitimate concern that he’s not right. I believe he’s hitting .120 since his return, without power. Could be rust. Could be something deeper. I thought it was troublesome that he didn’t play last night, especially if it’s rust.
He’s had a weird, weird season for the big man. In some ways, his strong start has masked the reality of his disappointing season. When you look at Duda’s splits, he hit under .200 in both June and July, though he had that incredible, brief power surge. August was better, but cut short. We’ve seen September.
Lately I’ve wondered if the Mets weren’t better served with Murphy at 1B, with Flores & Johnson at 2B, and mostly Tejada at SS.
Ideally, a fully functional Lucas Duda is vitally important. I haven’t seen that guy in a while.
“Lately I’ve wondered if the Mets weren’t better served with Murphy at 1B, with Flores & Johnson at 2B, and mostly Tejada at SS. ”
I actually feel pretty much the same way. Flores continues to un-impress at short, and Duda is, again, lost in the corn-field maze unable to find his way out.
I think we are seeing a change in the Yankee approach. This is a team in transition. Severino looks pretty spectacular. Betances is scary. Judge is supposed to be special. More importantly, they’ve been extremely, extremely aggressive on the international market. I recall reading that they had signed 10 of the top 30 ranked international prospects. If this is true, then they’ve gotten smart again. A productive farm, plus money to spend, that’s a winning formula moving forward. I think they are turning the ship around.
Hopefully the Mets spend on Cespedes and likewise try to compete on all fronts.
The Met farm system is set up for the future.Conforto should be the starting left fielder and Matz the fourth starter in 2016. Herrera should replace Murphy in 2016, Cecchini should replace Tejada by 2017, Dominic Smith for Duda and Nimmo for Granderson in 2018. There is a solid core of potential relief pitchers in the minors and the first vacancy in the starting rotation isn’t until 2019. The Met philosophy is to build from within and after six years they are set for a long winning run.
In the salad days Yankee fans always argued that their core four were all home grown. They can make no such claim with this old and fragile store bought crew.