There were a ton of Debbie Downer posts and comments from disheartened Mets fans this week. As Bluto said, “Nothing is over until we say it is!” It’s been an ugly month of baseball with injuries, slumps, and losses, but it’s a long season and it’s only half over. Let’s get a grip here.
There’s a lot of baseball left to be played. Eighty four games to be exact. We’re four games over .500. We have awesome pitching. Yes the offense is struggling, but our best hitter, Yoenis Cespedes, just hit a ball a country mile and seems poised to go on a tear. Brandon Nimmo looks legit and Juan Lagares is coming back. Jose Reyes, our old speedster friend, is about to reunite with the city he loves. And, even if he’s only half the player he was in his prime, he could still provide a spark. If he takes over the leadoff spot, Curtis Granderson can drop down in the lineup and turn his solo shots into 3-run homers. The trickle down of adding Reyes is that our bench gets stronger. Wilmer Flores can platoon with James Loney, giving us solid play at first base until Lucas Duda returns. Let’s not forget Mr. Duda should be back next month.
This 11-game home stand is huge. Four games a piece against the league leading Cubs and the division leading Nationals, sandwiched around three versus the hot and pesky Marlins. We took the first one in dramatic fashion last night. If we can just split the rest, we’ll go into the All-Star break four games over .500. We’ll then get a four day rest, followed by three games in Philadelphia. By then, Granderson will be healthy, Reyes and Lagares will be on the team. If we have a solid July, the end of the month gives us a jolt with the return of Duda and Zack Wheeler. Zack Wheeler! Then there are the trade possibilities.Slumps don’t last forever. Our fortunes are about to turn. Let’s go Mets!
They still have time to turn it around. And Washington still has time for a slump of their own.
Washington just lost 7 in a row and still sit atop the division by 6 games.
This is a little deceiving.
When the Nats lost 7 in a row, the Mets were 2 games back. Since then the Nats have won 5 in a row, including 3 against the Mets.
A slump is a slump. The Nats did have one, and we cured them of it.
Rah rah! (From your lips to God’s ears)
Don’t give up the ship, we’ll plug the holes. Lucus Duda? Better without him.
Way too soon to say Nimmo looks legit! He is batting .250 – doesn’t that usually get reserved for someone who comes up and over the 1st few games is hitting more like .350
Lagares is a 4th outfielder and Duda is such a streaky hitter we have no way to know what he is going to give us when he comes back.
Reyes is on the wrong side of 30 and was not hitting very well in Colorado a hitters park. In 193 AB’s he hit .259
Clearly the club still has a shot at the Division, and/or Game 163 (yikes).
As fans, it doesn’t matter if we give up or not. There’s still a lot of baseball to play. It all depends on the health of the arms.
Let’s go Mets.
I’m tired of hearing about how devastating the injuries have been. Our pitchers and our best hitter have remained healthy. In general, injuries are not the biggest culprit for our poor month of June. The primary cause for this team’s slide is the collective batting slump led by Conforto crumbling into dust and then Granderson not getting on base. The secondary cause, IMO, is that the bench players, namely Plawecki, Flores and de Aza, did not step up. Campbell also stunk when he was here and then Lagares got hurt. Flores has been better of late, but he was awful earlier on. Had Conforto not crumbled, Grandy and the bench players met expectations, we might still be in first place.
Matt, You are watching different bunch of games than I am. The starting pitching has been acceptable at best, and putting high expectations on the pen because the 7 inning starts are a thing of the past. Harvey has 10 games in the loss column, Matz’ bone spur is for real (he wanted surgery now, and no longer can throw his slider), and who knows what happens to Syndergaard with his bone spur. Harvey has been taken over by aliens. Wheeler is unknown. Colon? Its a lot to expect. In any event, pitching has a shaky forward-moving look.
The Mets are on a historic run in failing to score runs as is detailed here: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/mets-hitters-couldnt-be-less-clutch/
Quite simply hanging the worst offensive team in the league (possibly ever) on bench guys is well off base IMO. From every angle the month of June was absolutely atrocious offense, and 2016 as a whole is embarrassing.
We are at a watershed moment with an 11 game homestand against real competition. If we come out of this 8-3, there is a lot to be hopeful for Alderson making moves to fill the many holes we have. If its the reverse of that, and at the ASB we are 10 games back and 5 under .500 then its time to go into re-load mode and sell off everything that is spinnable: Walker, Colon, Flores. Then we let Matz and Syndergaard get their surgeries and begin healing for next season.
Thanks for linking that article, Chris.
In response to Matt, it’s certainly not fair to blame Granderson’s OBP for the team’s June woes. Granny had a .358 OBP in June. He was horrible in the first three weeks of May but has been fine since then. Cespedes, Flores, Granny and Loney were all solid or better in June while Cabrera was okay. The home runs weren’t there and the sequencing wasn’t good.
The Mets don’t need a trade as much as they need good fortune and a slightly better batting order
The injuries have hurt both quality and depth…. a slug of Not Ready for Prime Time Players, and slumpers.
June was worse than it should have been….but contention with a bunch of AAAA’s should not be expected.
To few unsettled parts to make a move….too may needs to stand pat… the next 15 games are huge!!! Get competitive…find some functioning healthy parts…look for som tweeks.
Re Nimmo– He has a good approach,,, he looks like a contact and spray guy. I’m sure they’ll focus on that going forward. He has a chance to play.
Thanks for reminding some of us (like me) of what we need to be reminded of and Lets Go Mets and Lets Get Murphy out and not enable him to beat us anymore by throwing him meat balls that he can drive for RBIs.