Yoenis Cespedes single-handedly beat the Padres with a home run, triple, and double, knocking in three of the Mets’ six runs. In typical Mets fashion, Cespedes had to exit the game with “leg fatigue” before he had a chance to complete the cycle.
On a positive note, the Mets continue their trend of winning when Seth Lugo starts. He wasn’t his best, but kept the Mets in it, allowing four runs (three earned) over six innings. Three runs cam courtesy of the long ball as Lugo gave up home runs to slugger Hunter Renfroe and the rookie shortstop Allen Cordoba. The fourth run scored on an error by Asdrubal Cabrera while impersonating a third baseman. Paul Sewald delivered two flawless innings in relief and Addison Reed again made us bite our nails. For the second night in a row, he very nearly coughed up the game, but managed to squirm out of it after allowing a run for his 18th save of the season.
Curtis Granderson delivered two hits and a walk out of the lead off spot and Cabrera had an RBI double. Travis d’Arnaud drove in a run with an RBI single. Jay Bruce threw out another runner at home.
It’s been a wildly inconsistent season for these Mets but one reliable trend has been continually winning the first two games of a series against bad teams, especially if Jacob deGrom and Lugo are pitching. Now the real challenge is going to be the third and fourth games of this series with the struggling Steven Matz and the straight outta double A Chris Flexen taking on Joulys Chacin and Luis Perdomo, respectively.
The Mets now sit four games under .500 with five games to be played before the trade deadline. Are you thinking what I’m thinking?
No. Sell mode continues. These are the Padres and we just played the A’s.
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The biggest mistake in the world is believing something you know is wrong. This is not a playoff club. We see they win a few games against putrid teams, and hope beams like magic, then reality calls when good teams are the opponents. Good teams are in the post season. “Anything can happen” is about as reasonable as saying up is down. It would be a severe misread of this team.
Furthermore, once trades begin happening, the gaps will widen. The Mets are not buyers at any level, and those that are will likely create more separation as the season plays out. Are the Mets sellers? In my eyes, absolutely. Are the Mets hold pat? I can sort of see it, but view this as nearly as bad as thinking this team has post season potential, because it cements the worst possible outcome: no post season, and below 10 in the draft. remember Michael Conforto…those picks are pretty hard to find under 10.
Lets not get drunk on this team winning meaningless games against horrible teams and pretend we just swept the Nats and Dodgers back-to-back.
I think Sandy is going to be quiet in any event. Cabrera and Reed go. That may be it.
I think he should make room for Smith.
We shall see.
Even with injuries, they should be an above-500 team. The problem is, the goal always had to be to win the NL East — not to sneak into WC only to lose Game 163.
Padres and A’s, Padres and A’s….damn sure I will take those W’s, but let’s all take a deep breath and realize who and what this team is. Good if they can get to .500 about Aug 1st. Then what ?
Say they play great baseball and go 5 up in Aug, another 5 up in Sept, that makes them a 10 win above .500 team.
This and a couple of bucks may get you an UBER ride but that is about it.They are not going anywhere with that, so come on Sandy, wake up before all the teams make their moves and you are left with a ton of bodies that will just walk in the offseason and you missed a terrific oppty to continue building the young core of this team for 2018 and beyond ! Red Sox just got their 3rd baseman, Yanks got their guy, two teams that could have given up something for Duda and Cabrera, which in turn could have cleared the way for a call up for Rosario and D.Smith. Somebody ring the alarm on Sandy…he is snooooozing !
In Sandy’s defense, he has proven himself to be thoroughly professional with this kind of trade. Methodical, patient, cold.
How he handles this deadline remains to be seen, and sometimes waiting out the market can yield the best results.
I’m willing to wait this out, because that’s how he works.
Eh, not so fast. Alderson made a great trade with the Blue Jays, made a good trade with the Pirates. Then for Kelly Johnson, Juan Uribe, Kelly Johnson, Alex Torres, Jay Bruce, Tyler Clippard, Eric O’Flaherty and Yoenis Cespedes (we were lucky to win, wins aren’t guaranteed) gave away all the pitching depth this organization had. And, the only reason why the Reds took Herrera and not Flexen was the shoulder injury to Flexen concerned them, or it’s even worse. And also, we lost Bowman because he wanted to protect Tejada – a player he kept insisting we needed to upgrade from – who he would cut in spring training anyway. The upper minors are completely bare at the moment; a travesty from a five year “rebuild”.
I maintain: Cashman got more for Beltran at age 39 than Alderson did at age 34. Nor did I mention his return on Ike Davis.
Overall, Alderson’s record is spotty.
So what are you arguing, the judge him now?
This idea that he traded away all the pitching depth in any trade other than Cespedes is dubious.
Who’s the guy you wish we still had in the system?
There’s this narrative that he depleted the farm with those trades and I don’t believe it. He moved some bodies around, that’s it.
Here I go agreeing with Jimmy P again. Never even met the guy, but he makes a lot of sense lately. I too am tired of reading about how we’ve thinned out the farm from trades. The only real pitching prospect we traded was Fulmer. Name one other pitcher you wish we had. We gave away Ynoa and Verrett for nothing as part of a 40 man roster shuffle that could have been handled better. Either of those guys might have been able to help this year, but no one could have predicted that 6 out of 7 quality starters would land on the DL.
Matt and Jim, think what you want, but my point is that he took away all the depth for 25th men that he may have replaced with players in the minors. Last I checked, John Gant was pitching in the majors, as is Cessa, and a few of those guys.
Jimmy, your opening words were “In his defense…” so if I point out the various trades I’m being argumentative? Is having a different opinion bothering you?
I mean, it was comical the other day when you told me I was wrong the other day for saying Duda has underwhelmed but in your next sentence you say he hasn’t lived up to his promise.
Okaaaaay.
I wrote “in his defense” in response to Edwin’s comment.
My point was that he has had good results when it comes to trading established talent for prospects. I think he does a professional job; it’s one of his strengths.
Your mention of other trades that don’t fit that category doesn’t do much to make a point.
I don’t remember exactly what I said about Duda, and I’m not going to search for it now, but I don’t think your paraphrase quite captures the nuance I intended. I like Duda. I think he’s been a good player who receives more than his share of unfair criticism. At the same time, there was always a promise of potential that he has not yet realized. I could still imagine him having a big season somewhere.
Sometimes addition by subtraction works and in this 2017 season it should be utilized. Moving Duda, Granderson, Cabrera and Rene Rivera will open the door to evaluate younger talent to see how they fit into 2018. This is not a knock on these fine players, it is that these players are not in the 2018 plans so anything the Mets get in return is a plus.
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Agree.
Nature abhors a vacuum.
To back up your point, Mets are 14-6 when deGrom starts and 6-2 when Lugo does. When those two guys go, they’re 20-8 and 27-43 when anyone else starts.
So please do not trade deGrom.
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