Getting out of Milwaukee did not prove to be the magic pill the Mets needed, as they traveled to Phoenix and saw another late-inning meltdown in a 7-3 loss Monday night.
- Arizona tallied six runs in the eighth inning, with most of that damage coming against Hansel Robles, who first entered the game in the seventh. You know the story, the relievers are exhausted because they have to give so many innings night after night because the starters don’t go deep. And the problem is compounded because of the insistence of playing matchups.
- Jerry Blevins came on in the seventh inning and was removed mid-inning with a runner on second and two outs. Robles came on because a righty was coming up. He escaped the seventh but was not so fortunate in the eighth, as righty batters Paul Goldschmidt and Yasmany Tomas hit balls to straight away CF that might still be traveling if not knocked down by a 25-foot high wall. In their brief history against Robles, Goldschmidt is 4-5 and Tomas is 2-3 and combined they’ve hit three doubles and two homers in those eight at-bats.
- Zack Wheeler topped 100 pitches in six innings but was sent out in the seventh inning, something that no doubt the brass did not want to do. But he was removed once he allowed a leadoff single. It just makes you wonder – if he retired the side in order, would he have continued to pitch until he gave up a hit? Obviously, the answer is no, but the situation is so bad, you can imagine the thought of a 149-pitch outing from their starter as preferable than going to the bullpen again.
- Wilmer Flores delivered a pinch-hit two-run homer in the ninth to make the score a bit more respectable at the end.
Robles is, by far, the streakiest Reliever I’ve ever seen. Two Speeds–Boarderline Very Good and Suck.
If Robles isn’t striking guys out, there’s a problem.
And aside from that, there’s the issue where he’s significantly better against lefties. Versus LHB, his lifetime OPS is over 200 points better than it is against RHB. And this year it’s over 300 points. Yet he’s continually brought into games to get a righty out.
It’s too bad that Robles doesn’t throw with his left arm and Smoker with his right That way they could be used more efficiently.
I am mostly with you on this. Not at all against seeking matchup advantages, but frustrating when it goes against a pitcher’s track record.
However, the proper question is not Robles vs left or right. It is who is better against a RH batter in that crucial tie-game situation: Blevins or Robles?
I surely don’t get removing Robles for Blevins against a LH hitter, though that wasn’t the issue last night.
Right now they are two quality bullpen arms short.
The bullpen is overworked. There are reasons for this. Too many appearances caused by extreme used of match ups. TC shed light on his baseball philosophy this morning with this quote “Bullpens have become a huge part of the game, but they’re best when you can use them one inning, a couple hitters, to get the matchups you want,” Collins said. “If you overexpose them by going two innings or something else, that’s when you’re going to run into those problems. We’ve had to do that, and therefore we’ve run into some problems.” 5/16/17 Anthony DiComo / MLB.com | @AnthonyDiComo | 3:04 AM ET .
I disagree with TC on this thinking and his bullpen use is the cause of his problems. Keeping a relief pitcher in for a full inning saves you from using another relief pitcher. Second tier relief pitchers going more than one inning saves your bullpen. Not pitching your tier one relievers in non save situations saves your bullpen. (Familia with 214 appearances since 2014 leads NL).
The loss can be squarely put on Robles shoulders. Robles pitching in 20 of 37 games goes squarely in TC’s shoulders. Salas looks burned and Reed may also be there. The starting pitching failed and adjustments to bullpen useage needed to be made. It was TC’s job to make these adjustments and he hasn’t. The quote says it all.
I felt the exact same way when I read that quote. It made me throw up in my mouth a little bit. Make no mistakes, Collins has a singular game plan for pen use, and reality will never interfere with it. Doesnt matter the inning, score, actual splits, or anything else, as soon as relievers enter the game, its always matchy matchy. And it sucks. He is ruining this relief corps, along with the increasingly shameful starting rotation.
Did you see the quote DiComo put up last night where Collins said the baseball gods made every move he makes go bad? He’s not blaming injuries any more!
The Mets are 25th in innings pitched by starting pitchers with 201. The leaders are the Giants with 242.
Hence, the Giants starters are throwing about an inning more per start, and that’s the 1st team!
Instead of blaming the starters, let’s realize that not many pitchers pitch deep into games any more and if a manager burns out the bullpen by May 15th, it’s the manager and not the starters.
We are supposed to have arotation of aces…200 IP types, like CY types. Thats what they do. Ask Kershaw or Verlander. Kershaw is averaging a full inning more and only has 2 of 8 starts at 6 innings. Do you really want to make comparisons of deGrom and who, Matt Cain?
Yes, the starters are a failure. The bull pen is a failure, but the heart of that is misuse by the manager and a bad rotation.
In regard to the starters not being as advertised, right on! But in regard to their lack of innings being the cause for the relievers to be burned out already, that’s not the case.
My point is that the starters are giving similar innings to everyone else or a smidge less, but not such a significant amount less that they are the cause of the burnout. Last night I put in the chatter that Josh Lewin said that of the 7 relievers to have appeared in 20 games this year, 4 are Mets relievers. 4!!!!
Collins doesn’t care if they all appear in 100 games, so long as their innings are around 50-60. It’s not that he doesn’t “get it”, it’s that he never “gets it”. It isn’t his arm always warming up and not getting a chance to recuperate. And it is very hard for me to believe that we get more information than him, or he doesn’t see the results over the years.
The problem hasn’t been solely Collins, but his boss that allows the inequalities and popularity contests to continue.