“In the days before Conforto, Johnson, Uribe and Cespedes were on the team, the young core of homegrown starting pitchers combined to start 51 of the club’s 96 games. The Mets had a 29-22 record in those games, for a .569 winning percentage. The team did not fare as well when the other starters were on the mound in the first 96 games, going 20-25 (.444 winning percentage) in those 45 contests.
In the final 66 games, when the offense was among the best in the game, the Mets went 26-12 in games started by deGrom, Harvey, Syndergaard and Matz. They also had a winning record in games not started by those four hurlers, going 15-13 in those 28 affairs.
Think about that for a moment. The Mets were 90-72 during the 2015 regular season. That’s a .556 winning percentage. Yet through July 24, when the likes of Michael Cuddyer, Eric Campbell, John Mayberry Jr., Darrell Ceciliani and Kevin Plawecki were starting games regularly, the team had a .569 winning percentage when deGrom, Harvey, Syndergaard and Matz started games with those offensively-challenged players in the lineup. That’s a 92-win pace.”
Source: Ed Leyro, Studious Metsimus
Ed is probably my favorite Mets blogger. It’s just too bad his Seahawks are going to meet a cruel fate in the first round of the playoffs.
*****
If you prefer longer articles, that’s our specialty here at Mets360. Just click on “Perspectives” or “Minor Leagues” or “History” on the grey menu bar above this article’s headline and you will be taken to a list of over 2,400 articles written since the beginning of 2010.
If you enjoy the quick hitters, click on “Quotes” in the same menu bar to see our archive.
*****
There’s a disclaimer that I hear whenever I see a commercial for mutual funds. It goes something like this:
“Past performance does not guarantee future results”.
While we all know that the Mets pitching staff is the bomb, we recognize that they need an offense. We see how all teams try to construct balanced rosters and to expect that a faulty team will still succeed is hubris. Alderson’s rosters usually are compromised in some way and we see situations when the team is hamstrung because of this. Hopefully, by the end of March, this team will have balance.
Staring at numbers too long seems to inevitably lead to conclusions that are increasingly divorced from the game on the field. He’s dicing and splicing pointlessly and, I will contend, misleadingly.
I do think the Mets will do fine against bad teams, and they are blessed with an NL East schedule. Last year the WC required 98 wins. Fortunately for the mets, the Nats tanked last year. That appears to be the plan again. Let’s hope the Nats comply.
Funny I keep hearing things like the Mets should be looking at least at a wild card berth for 2016, when in reality the wild card will again be far out of reach. The NL East will get its one team again, and hopefully it’s the Mets. The Nats are locked in some sort of purgatory, which makes some of the moves we seen, and the lack of others quite mystifying. Nevertheless, it’s Division Champs or bust!
A full season of Syndergaard and Matz, not to mention Conforto and hopefully d’Arnaud and maaaaaybe Wright, is certainly cause for a little optimism.
The Met cost conscious front office is apparently aware of these statistics and are very comfortable with their moves this winter. It does appear that the four starting pitchers should get the Mets another 90+ season if they remain healthy.The Mets still lack a right handed corner OF/1B.
The logical choice is Steve Pearce who has played 172 games at 1B, 115 in LF and 91 in RF with average defense and a carrer split vs LHP of 343/481/824. I am not sure the Mets can afford him if he wants 2/14 as MLBTR predicts.
The Mets went astray when they signed DeAza and Colon. The money should have been spent on Cespedes who would cost an additional $10m more but would substantially increase the odds of defending the Pennant.
Let’s hope Duda stays healthy.
+1 Metsense
Either the Mets gave up easily, or were in a hurry to just sign someone (their usual approach), or they truly didn’t believe in committing to Cespades for some reason.
It’s not that complicated. Sandy is waiting for market to come down for the outfielders, when and if it does, a 3 yr $60m offer with a team option for a 4th year will bring Cespedes back to the Mets.
Mets have the $$, heck, half what it will probably take to land Cespedes came as an early Christmas present from Cuddyer..!
If need be, Cespedes can also play RF, with his badass cannon arm, then Grandy can play CF. De Aza is a 4th – 5th outfielder (together with Lagares) which is needed on an MLB roster anyway. These sneaky Mets are not done yet. Same goes for the BP… there are reports that they are looking at BP arm Bastardo. Who would have thought that after signing Blevins ??
Yep, Sandy and his boyz are a little bit smarter than us. Watch.