The Mets lost to the Rockies 7-2 at Citi Field tonight after retiring Mike Piazza‘s number, dropping the first three games of the four-game set. It’s also their fourth loss in a row overall.
- Bartolo Colon started this one for the Mets. The 43-year-old had a stellar, efficient outing in his last start so the Mets felt they should start him on short rest. Three days of rest, to be exact. His first time starting on short rest in over a decade. Sure, why not. He lasted just five innings and finished with a line of 5 IP, 7 H, and 5 R.
- The Mets stealth-signed Justin Ruggiano hours before game time and quickly got his feet wet by starting him in this one. It was….an eventful night for the outfielder. He almost made a nice leaping grab in the fourth but came up short. He was thrown out trying to steal third with the pitcher at the plate. He also overran a ball he was trying to run and scoop in the fifth. Hey, he also got his first hit as a Met.
- The Mets got a few hits with runners in scoring position, if you were wondering. Wilmer Flores knocked in Neil Walker in the first inning. Kelly Johnson also got one in the second to put the Mets ahead 2-0.
- Yoenis Cespedes was double-switched out after five innings for reasons that the Mets described as “precautionary.” Chances are it had to do with his quad and the wet conditions.
- It was another gross game in a string of clunkers. The Mets will look to avoid the series and season sweep tomorrow afternoon.
2017.
Lucroy to Indians.
Miller to Indians.
We saw it last year. This is what teams lacking that little tweak do. We did it, and it brought us division and league championship. If we look around the battlefield, we see this is a team hurting on all fronts, a RH OF bat is not the “last cure” for the team. There are so many holes to patch, and we have stars risking serious injury by being played so hard they risk future injury. We have been utterly decimated by injury. Right now if there is a chance to spin off some vet talent that won’t be contributing, start making serious decisions about the gaps next year, and getting our potential promotions on the field earning some MLB stripes we should. Trotting out Neil Walker right now is a disgrace.
SA should be in full planning to (1) Find a serious solutions for 3B and 2B. (2) He needs to determine what 1B looks like. Even with a shortened season of 51 games, Loney is one of our across the board offensive leaders. (3) he must decide if TdA is the catcher or not. By failing to land Lucroy, TdA is diminished, and clearly lacking FO confidence. (4) he needs to address an outfield, which at one point we had a bounty of this season, and now — and forward looking is uncertain. Ces will be highly wanted in the off season, and word on the street is that he is far more likely to opt out. If we want Ces, then we are gonna need to negotiate before he enters the market. Granderson is not an every day guy anymore. His defense cannot prop up his bat; his bat cannot prop up his noodle arm. The team, or at least Collins, seems to have zero confidence in gold glove winner Lagares as a center fielder, yet he is the best RH option we have.
With all the square pegs being driven into round holes, it’s no wonder we are getting exposed in crunch time. I just hop SA makes the mature decisions to address real issues with MLB-level talent for the next few seasons.
So, Ruggiano is signed off the street in the afternoon and playing that night? Is this an expansion team? Is there not a player on the farm worth the opportunity? I have been told that they all suck. So:
Monell has been their cleanup hitter most of the year: He sucks.
Taijeron has been their #5 hitter most of the year: He sucks.
Rivera has been the #3 hitter most of the year: He sucks.
Roger Bernadina has been the #6 hitter most of the year: He sucks.
Herrera has not done much.; Ty Kelly sucks; Ashley sucks; The pitching staff certainly isn’t all that.
So I ask my fellow bloggers, how is it that Wally Backman with all these sucky players is two games less than Terry Collins when Collins has a team deemed playoff caliber? Duda got hurt, but Loney has been very productive, so no loss there. Walker, Cabrera, Granderson, TDA, and Cespedes is a pretty decent team when you add the starting pitching. As Metsense tonight said, “They are good on paper”. So, is it the players or maybe it is how they are used? When are we going to realize that all these excuses for mistakes aren’t helping? When will we see that players need opportunity and a lineup is not a popularity contest?
Terry Collins is excused for being a terrible strategist, but as a manager, what else is he supposed to be doing? Having a manager that can’t strategize is like having your weakest outfield arm in right field. These are the Mets.
Further, fans talk about the window of opportunity with the cheap aces. Well, these aces can be traded to restock, the young guys will be ready by 2019 that are now in the low minors, and we can resign two or three of these current aces.
But, until I can see these position players play for someone who can give them confidence, a complete decision on their value cannot be made. Backman needs to come up right now! Even if Backman absolutely stinks, first, he is doing better than Collins, second, what is there to lose besides winnable games?
I laughed at the line in the fourth graph.
We’ve seen a number of those LV pieces in Queens, and you cant say a lot. Monell and Kelly were not memorable unless you recall something different. none of them are even in the top 30 of Mets prospects, let alone MLB wide. The closet is bare. Comparing results in AAA v the Bigs is pointless. They serve entirely different purposes. Being a “paper tiger” means little in reality. We’ve seen that plenty. All that matters happens between the lines. As for Collins, I have plenty Im not excited about for Xs and Os, but repeatedly player-after-player, GM-after-GM, analyst-after-analyst say the same thing: the managers greatest impact is keeping players pulling in the same direction. As much as Collins is shredded by the fan base, the same is or has been true for Mattingly in LA, Girardi in NY, Washington in TX, Baker everywhere, Yost in KC. Yet these are very respected baseball minds. Anyway, we have the privilege of imagining the job from our Lazy-Boy loungers a few hours a day. In reality the job is 24/7 a lions share of which we never see. I believe you are entirely misguided about the starting pitching. The old addage “pitching wins championships” is the real deal. If you can roll out deGrom, Syndergaard, Harvey, Matz, and Wheeler for a season, it would be impossible to image not getting to October. Add Reed and Familia, and even Robles, and this is a formidable set of dealers. While they are super cheap, now is the time to try and run the table. This has turned out not to be our year, and that is no crime. It shows how hard a job it is to return. Hell look at the Royals as defending WS Champs. We need a bunch of league average guys and a few serious FAs and we could be unstoppable. Unfortunately this year, the rotation blew up, we dont have league average pieces almost anywhere, and the offense went off a cliff. Time to accept reality as it is, reload, and go for the juggler ’17-19.
The Mets are 2.5 games games out of the wildcard. They have been decimated by injuries with Harvey, Wright, Duda, TDA, Lagares, Wheeler, Henderson and Reyes. They have players who have under achieved in Conforto, TDA, Plawecki , Bastardo DeAza and for two months Walker. Some how people blame Collins for this while others blame Alderson. On paper this team was good when assembled last winter but through injury and under achievement they are sputtering. Yet, they are only 2.5 games out.
Lucroy would have helped. TDA hasn’t played to the teams expectaions.
Ruggiano is here because their two primary RH hitting center fielders are injured and Nimmo, Conforto and DeAza can’t hit LHP.
It is a disheartening and precarious position the Mets find themselves in this morning.
Metsense, I disagree on the injuries. Harvey was very big, but that was it. Wright was to be expected and he wasn’t producing all too well. Duda was replaced by a productive Loney. Reyes and Henderson were wild cards and we knew Wheeler would be out. Nonetheless, it isn’t the pitching that let this team down.
While we could debate back and forth, Walker went on a long slump and stayed in the cleanup spot. TDA was out for a while and came back hitting but was buried at #8. I just can’t see why this team should continue with Collins, and I see several reasons why it shouldn’t.
Rob – thanks for doing this last minute.
It’s hard to blame Alderson for going the washed-up veteran route after the success he’s had already this season doing that. Still, I’d rather see Conforto or De Aza get a shot at this point than a 34 year old hitting .226 in the PCL.
Bring up Backman, please!
It is premature to discuss the fate of Collins, because there is still so many games to play.
That said, if the Mets continue on this path, I think he should not be the manager next season.
And yet I do not think this season has been his fault. The players have failed utterly. No, he did not show a deft hand, did not magically squeeze victories from the group. But look at the numbers, look at what they done when they’ve stood at the plate, bat in hand, staring down the opposing pitcher. Phffffftt.
I hated the way he treated d’Arnaud, and believe the show of “no confidence” was the wrong move. And yet it must be said: The player needs to get it done. Travis has not.
I always go back to Sandy in these conversations. Who is he going to hire? This is the GM who forced Bochey out of San Diego. The guy who dumped Tony LaRussa in Oakland for . . . Art Howe.
When he was here, dull & soporific Bob Geren was Sandy’s obvious next choice. Now, I don’t know. I always believed that Sandy would never, ever hire Wally Backman as Mets manager. I’m not as sure about that today. Maybe Wally has been gelded enough. Maybe things are bad enough that the Mets really and truly need a sh**-kicker to come along. I’ve never seen that as Sandy’s style. He loathes a strong manager.
I should add that while I do blame Sandy for his complete failure at building a farm system — six years into his regime, when in the first four seasons he wasn’t even trying to win at the ML level — I don’t fault him for how he has handled this 2016 season. I mean, yes, there have been mistakes, but it’s not an easy job. So many things went wrong, and he had so few chips to spare. He picked up Loney & Rivera. Everything that happened at 2B was predicated on one thing: That Alderson and the Mets truly believed that Herrera was the 2B for 2017. Otherwise, what they’ve done at that position has been incomprehensible. Nobody wanted to win more than Daniel Murphy, and he could play 1B or 3B. He played for $8 million this season. The collapse of Conforto shocked me. The refusal to replace Cuddyer still mystifies me, and has hamstrung the offense all season long. Too much reliance of Wilmer Flores. Signing Reed was good; Bastardo has not worked out (though I think it was a reasonable mistake). Colon and Blevens: terrific.
The Phillies and Braves won’t be not trying forever. They are both loaded with young talent. Cespedes walks. Wright shows up in camp, eager to play. Scary times.
Sorry, an incoherent ramble.
Fortunately, the Wilpons made a boatload of money this season. Maybe they will decide that they like that experience. They are going to have to try to buy themselves out of this hole.
James, you paint a very clear picture. Nice post. You and Chris above are looking at things as they are. However, going after Jay Bruce at this point makes Alderson look either unrealistic or worse, a fraud that will once again try to deceive his fans to sell tickets, i.e., 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014.
This will once again make the reload half-assed, as has been the pattern.