In a nice season farewell to their fans, the Mets won handily tonight 7-1 to win their last home series three games to one against the Braves. It was an unlikely win with Robert Gsellman on the mound and a lineup that included even more lightweights than usual. But Gsellman, who’s been inconsistent when healthy, pitched one of his better games of the season, allowing just one run in six innings. Meanwhile, one of the most feeble lineups the Mets have trotted out since the John Mayberry, Jr. and Eric Campbell phase managed to score seven runs courtesy of a Travis d’Arnaud two-run single, two helpful Braves errors, 10 walks by Braves pitchers, an upper deck pinch hit home run by Dominic Smith and an RBI double from Jose Reyes. That’s why they play the games and that’s why this blogger doesn’t bet on sports.
Jamie Callahan and Chasen Bradford looked terrific in a scoreless inning of relief and, unlike fellow new bullpen trade acquisition Jacob Rhame, he looks like he might factor into next year’s bullpen. Add Chasen Bradford and Paul Sewald to that conversation as well. They each pitched in a scoreless frame of their own.
The Citi faithful gave the Mets a heartfelt applause at the end. It was a disappointing season for sure, but Mets fans are a knowledgeable bunch and know that this may well be their last chance to root for a number of players and coaches at the ends of their contracts. The laundry will be the same next year, but the faces won’t be the same. Always bitter sweet to be a Mets fan. On an interesting positive note, the Mets won their final regular season home game for the seventh season in a row – every year of Terry Collins’ coaching tenure.
The Mets are off tomorrow before heading to Philadelphia for their least three games of 2017. Matt Harvey and Jacob deGrom will start games one and two. A starter for game three, Sunday, has not yet been announced, though Noah Syndergaard is expected to make another appearance during the series.
I know people want to lose as many games as possible to get the best draft pick. Still, I enjoy beating the Braves and this win gives the Mets 12 victories over Atlanta this season, the most in one year ever against the Braves.
Off topic:
Look what I ran into just looking around the Internet:
https://www.amazinavenue.com/2017/2/9/14545694/breaking-down-kevin-plaweckis-mechanical-issues
This was an article that we talked about when it came out, and whoever did it seems like he was pretty accurate. At the time, I guessed it was Glenn Sherlock because he wasn’t with the Mets in 2015 or 2016 (and openly knocks their decisions to change what Plawecki does well), openly admits he was given all the tape in the world on Kevin Plawecki, and works on catchers’ defense. He may not be a third base coaching guru, but he hit the nail on the head here.
Didn’t feel like reading the whole thing over again – just skimmed it since I read the whole thing twice back in February – but the writer felt Plawecki was a better hitter than we got to see, and he was proven correct this year.
September Baseball with September Statistics that can give fans a warm feeling that can get them through the snows of the winter only to have them melt way in the Spring.
Gsellman has had three good outings this month. Nimmo was done all his hitting in September of 2016 and 2017. TDA and Plawecki have looked like a solution instead of a problem. Smth can extrapolate out to a 30 homer/100 RBI man. The games count, the stats go on the back of the baseball card but when it comes to team building, September Stats should be looked at warily. It is better that the players have improved and stepped up when they got the opportunity but don’t build your team foundation on the results.
And on that note, I can’t quite forgive Jose Reyes for tanking the first two months of the season when we needed him most. It wasn’t just slumping. He was brutally bad in a way that suggested, to me at least, that he wasn’t fully into it.
As others have said, Plawecki and Nimmo have made a strong case for themselves to have a place on the 2018 roster.
Smith is on probation.
I really wonder what Sandy will do. It just doesn’t seem like a bold move, or series of moves, is in the cards.
Jimmy P – As you may recall, Jose had some serious personal stuff going on when the season started. I think he was distracted and didn’t have his head on straight. I’m not sure he makes sense as a starter, but, assuming he’ll accept a reasonable one or two-year deal, I’d bring him back as a valuable swing man.
Mets (69 wins) have now slipped behind Reds (67) to the #6 overall pick.
With a strong finish, they could fall behind Padres (70) and Braves (71) to pick as high as #8.
They had #5 until this spurt of meaningless wins. Oh well. It’s hard to lose intentionally.
I’m personally not taking any pleasure in “wins.”
With a strong finish they could move behind the Braves? Who just laid down for them? LOL!
Seriously though, you want to win every game you play but I’m thinking right with you. The fifth pick would have been nicer. Look at it this way, this team had no business being this bad to begin with.
This isn’t the NBA where tanking has become part of the fabric of the game. In the NBA there is often a huge difference between the 3rd pick and the 8th pick – just ask any Knicks fan. In MLB, Mike Piazza and Albert Pujols come out of the late rounds and Shawn Abner is a bust.
although not uniformly true, Id much rather have a top 5 pick. These games are utterly meaningless. I dont advocate taking, but I couldnt give one hoot about the score. Get kids out there and play – Taijeron deserves more time with that walkoff, Reynolds deserves more time because of his white shoes, and Cecchini just deserves more time.