The combination of Mike Soroka and Freddie Freeman was too deadly to handle for the Mets and their day game champion, Jacob deGrom, as they were defeated by the Atlanta Braves 2-0.
An offense that has been completely stagnant as of late continued their incredible streak of inferiority. Soroka completely baffled the hitters of the Mets today, no hitting them until the seventh inning. The youngest pitcher in the Major Leagues outdid one of the oldest lineups, which is a problem moving forward for the Mets. My Gut Reaction is that with such a veteran lineup, many players are unable to keep up with young, talented pitchers like Soroka.
This hit came off of the bat of Michael Conforto, on a ball that was suffocated by Dansby Swanson to keep it in the infield. The only other hit for the Mets came off of the bat of Brandon Nimmo, and it was a double that he laced in the eighth inning. Dom Smith and Jay Bruce drew walks in addition to Conforto.
On the mound, the Mets received another fantastic performance from Jacob deGrom on the mound. Known for his strong day game performances, deGrom did not disappoint. Over seven innings of work, deGrom struck out seven Braves and allowed no walks. His performance came yet again with no run support, which in turn led to him receiving the loss on the day. The big blow in the game came against “lefty specialist” Jerry Blevins. Blevins allowed a two-run blast to Freddie Freeman, a leftie, to give the Braves the lead that they would hold onto for the rest of the game.
Blevins has shown no progression from his early season struggles, and has only proven that he is incapable of getting the clutch out on a left-handed batter that he was signed to do.
This loss dropped the Mets record to a lowly 28-36. The stagnant offense has only crossed the plate in the last 78 games according to ESPN, but they might be in for some relief as their road trip continues down the hitter-friendly Chase Field in Arizona. On Thursday, Steven Matz will take on Matt Koch and the Diamondbacks at 9:40 pm.
That’s 10 runs in the last 78 innings. Brutal.
Thanks Matty for clearing that up. Doesn’t make me feel any better though.
Ah yes the “lefty specialist” that is absolutely owned by the key left handed hitters in the division he needs to get out….
The stat that Howie Rose gave was that in the last nine games, the Mets have not scored in more than one inning per game, if that much.
It has to be mental at this point, and some brutally bad luck as even a bad hop, or a fielding error, or a check swing that goes over the infielder’s head at an opportunistic moment would get a run home.
What can you do, but running them out there? This is the roster.
Need to start to make some changes to that roster Gus. I love Reyes but its time to cut the cord. What’s going to happen next year with Bruce, Cespedes? The Mets are stuck with them. Also need to move on from DL’Arnaud. The window has closed on this group.
“The window has closed on this group.”
I completely agree. One question though, do you trust this goofball FO to be the architects of a sell off and talent acquisition? After all, here we are after the brilliant job the Alderson goon squad did the first time.
#FireTheFrontOfficeNow
No I don’t trust the FO. Just look north to see the proper way to sell off your assets (Chapman) is done.. It’s going to be another fire sale- salary dump this trading deadline. We are the hamsters caught in the Wilpon wheel
I trust the Front Office to do a fire sale, but I don’t trust ownership to add money to get a better prospect. When they sold Dickey, Byrd, and even Beltran, they got good value. Wheeler was a top ten MLB prospect, and d’Arnaud was #15 and in demand from many teams. [It’s why I say I wouldn’t do a full sell-off because prospects aren’t guaranteed.]
In fact, I was reading an article today about Hal Steinbrenner saying that they would ask teams to add money to stay under the luxury tax threshold, as I expect from the Dodgers and whatever big market team sat out the free agent season; they didn’t go that route to let another team mess that up.
What I don’t trust the Front Office to do is sign a Free Agent. Alderson just gets played by agents for some reason and he makes promises that consistently handicap the team’s approach. There must be a scouting report that all agents have, I guess.
You can fire the front office and nothing will change as long as the Wilpons are the owners.
Gee I’m glad we got that second hit in the ninth. Being 1hitted by a 20 year old would have proved embarrassing.
Conforto is turning into another Bruce. Anemic hitting and atrocious defense. Good to see Bruce turn a single into a double and equally as good to see Conforto back up Bruce on the line drive over his head.
I would send Conforto down to find his stroke right now. I don’t care if he feels he has nothing to prove in the minors. He is just plain hurting the team and himself, for that matter. If Bruce’s back is acting up, put him on the 10 day DL. We can’t do worse substituting anybody from AAA.
His stroke isn’t the issue the issue is he’s coming off a severe shoulder injury and going to Vegas isn’t gonna do anything for him.
Supposedly he came up a month ahead of schedule after the injury. Obviously that was too soon. He used to have a good eye and usually made contact but now he is striking out at a rapid rate. Not much power either. If anything, succeeding in LV might boost his confidence, because what he has been doing here surely can’t.
For as much of a Met fan as I am I have been watching the college world series because at least the players give a crap. I’m having trouble understanding why veterans making big bucks can’t hit a baseball. I’ve heard all the excuses but I think it is now time to rebuild from the top down. The GM’s model for building the team hasn’t worked so lets go and follow the model of the Astros, Phillies, Braves. We are wasting great starting pitching with anemic hitting. I’m tired of Reyes not hitting and then making 2 errors on the same play. I’m tired of hearing about Cespedes not being able to play again after we dropped $50 M for a bat but no legs. There is something going on in the organization that has finally surfaced and needs to be cleaned up. Unfortunately a major player is Minaya who screwed up once before, I live in Cincinnati Reds country – they can’t pitch but their games are always exciting because they sure hit the cover off the ball. Sorry for venting – I think I’ll go back and watch the college game (or my grandson’s little league team).
So how did Minaya screw up?
Per Elias, the Mets have made history:
“The Mets 2-8 record in deGrom’s last 10 starts in which he has pitched to a 0.87 ERA is the fewest wins by a team in a 10-start span by a pitcher with that low an ERA since earned runs became official in both leagues starting in 1913.”
I’ve lived through too many downs with this team since 1962..Sure, there were some very very good years, 69, 73, and 86 come to mind, the road to the subway series as well, but this year has to be rock bottom. No one expected anything good in those early years and some of those teams were really bad. This 2018 team is pathetic. An embarrassment to New York sports let alone NY baseball.
New Yorkers deserve so much better than the poor excuse we have for a team
The only fix would have to begin with the sale of the team, get the Wilpons out of there, Then overhaul the front office. Spend some money and put a winner on the field or at the very least a competitive team.
I’m venting I know, but the frustration during the last 6 weeks has been intolerable.
The worse part is we’re stuck with Cespedes, Bruce and Frazier for how long? Talk about dead payroll! And who is going to come to Flushing? Harper? Machado? List the positions the Mets realistically need to upgrade and then you’ll see how fruitless and lost this franchise is.
This is the issue and I’d add David Wright to the list, too. They’ve received 1.6 fWAR from four guys they’re paying $68 million. Wright’s a sunk cost but they’ve got to get more than that from the others.
Old guys get hurt and old guys on the Mets getting hurt is something you can take to the bank. But I don’t recall anyone booing loudly from the sidelines when these guys were signed. I bet if we went back and checked the comments section for when these guys came back that the response was near universal praise. I think there’s a lot of hypocrites floating around here.
Shoot – let’s just go ahead and see
Mets re-up with Jay Bruce – https://mets360.com/?p=34232#comments
This was the most negative comment — Bruce is OK. I’m not jumping for joy but i’m not enraged like Carlos Santana’s contract.
Mets sign free agent infielder Todd Frazier – https://mets360.com/?p=34383
This was the most negative comment — Makes an awful lot of outs.
Mets re-sign Yoenis Cespedes – https://mets360.com/?p=31000
This was the most negative comment — I still don’t think he makes sense at all since he absolutly cannot play CF.
The links are there and anyone who wants to can go back and see what was said. The positive comments outweighed the negative ones by a ratio of well over 10 to 1.
You have to judge signings and deals by two methods – what was thought at the time and the actual results. We can argue about how much you weigh each factor but anyone who completely ignores what was thought at the time is nothing more than a Monday Morning Quarterback.
I have more respect for someone who says, “I think this is a bad deal,” and then admits they were wrong when it turns out great than I do for someone who leads the cheers when the deal happens and then throws the GM under the bus when the player gets hurt and doesn’t played well.
Let me be as transparent as I can possibly be because before I’m done I am certainly going to throw the GM under the bus. As best as I can recollect. Some of this is not verifiable here at Mets 360, but if you don’t believe me, well, I don’t see why I would lie. As I will explain, I could be wrong 100% of the time and that doesn’t excuse the GM.
– I was for signing Cespedes.
– Wanted Cain as our free agent signing, (this I said on the Met360 Podcast)
– Was fine with Frazier as an okay move when prodded by Brian on the same Podcast. I still expect Frazier to be just that okay.
– Said if Bruce was signed it had to be to play first base as he can’t play the OF anymore.
– Liked the Vargas signing!
– Once said Robles would eventually close for us (in my defense Brian did stipulate I had to say something crazy)
– Said on a Mets360 Podcast after the 2015 WS season that Daniel Murphy was a more important signing that Cespedes and that it was insane to chase after Ben Zobrist rather than sign Murphy.
– Always defended Collins because his teams played hard. Also, I never thought Collins was the guy who had a veteran fetish I thought that fetish came from above him and I said that often.
– I loved the Reed trade and hated the Chris Young signing. I liked the Walker trade but thought bringing him back for $17.5 million was nuts. I’ve been okay with Cabrera all along, not too energized in either direction.
– I’ve never given a crap about Reyes being around one way or the other as we always have guys crappier around so why get upset about him? I mean Luis Guillorme and Ty Kelly need more playing time?
– Railed against the dumping of all of our decent players for zip last year but I do understand that had more to do with “Those that Shall Not Be Named on Mets 360”
– I hated the Loney and AGon moves and will end here for a reason, knowing most of you have scrolled on by now anyway.
I look at all that and don’t feel empowered to apply for a major league GM job. But so what? I’m not paid to be a major league GM. If the argument is Sandy Alderson knows more about baseball than me that’s a low bar. None of us are his peers.
The thing that bothers me about Alderson is he cant do the one thing that a team with this “situation” needs the most. Build a farm system capable of producing the talent needed to win. He inherited a burgeoning system from his predecessor and yes, made two game changing trades. And now eight years later is leaving behind the same mess that he left in San Diego, and I was predicting that back when I blogged as far back as 2012.
Nobody hires a guy in his 60s to do a job when the last time he can show success on his resume is twenty years before his hiring. It could work, because anything can work but the chances are too minimal for any savvy business person to make the hire.
It is difficult for any GM to be brought in to succeed with the Mets. You start out at a handicap. But I would love to see someone who doesn’t need a nap every afternoon get a shot. It’s how I feel about Dom Smith versus Adrian Gonzales. I doubt Smith can play, (always have and that’s verifiable since we are keeping score today) but I know Gonzales can’t. So what is there to lose by making a change, especially when you consider the guy I want out is the only person on the planet, except maybe Mrs. Adrian Gonzales, who thought AGon had anything left in the tank.
But the Rays do it year in and year out with a micro budget. Find out who’s making their draft decisions. They always seem to have someone come up and make an immediate impact on what is probably the toughest division in baseball and without a fan base!
I think there is a little navigation room here, but point taken.
1. Cespedes. The Mets record with Ces playing undeniably says this team is better off with him on the field. I think the regrets moment is in coming to terms that he has a profound chronic ailment that in 2016 that was not really a knowable thing.
Games played:
2014 = 152
2015 = 159
2016 = 132
2017 = 81
2018 = ?
Ces makes the team better, and when he plays hes a total difference maker. Signing him was not a bad a idea, but its fair to lament the drastic drop in games played. His contract isnt bad beciase he’s not a bad player.
2. Frazier. Minimal deal all things considered. I dont regret it one bit. He is exactly who he is. No matter what we think about Frazier today, remember, that could easily be Flores at 3B butchering every single play. Hes not Arenado, but in the absence of anyone in the system actually capable of playing 3B (Jay Horwitz perhaps?), I think we take the production as it is and be happy we have a third baseman at the position.
3. Bruce. It looks bad today. Its looked bad all season. I think we will get professional ABs like we saw last year. Its amplified by the fact no one can hit the ball, and being a leade its expected he can turn the tides. Am I crazy about Bruce? No. Im also not thinking this is what we will get for 2 2/3 more years.
Bruce fits the Alderson profle to a T however, and in my eye shows where the issue lies with this team. An early 30s vet thats a good every day player, cant field or run (perfectly in line with “de minimus” defense Alderson is so proud of), but hopefully gets you 30/90. In the absense of other skills, it looks brutal today. Much like the team. Older, slower, unathletic, reliant on 1 way to pitch and score. Just not functional in todays world.
Its just unwatchable, not much else more to say. I’ll follow the box scores and blogs, it’s just better for overall mental health.
The Sandy Alderson experiment should be over. Old and slow. The Mets need to clean house including Alderson.
It is obvious that Conforto came back way too early.
Cespedes is a joke, him and his sore muscles. How many of you who stand on your feet all day at work can go cry and take off a month because your muscles hurt.
You really can’t blame Callaway though, he has no talent.
Arggggh, this is tough to stomach.
Its like ground hog day for the Mets, every game is the same. Great starting pitching undermined by a bad bullpen and a microscopic offense.
Dont fret they will score a bunch of runs, but the pitching will be a mess, and oh yeah, it wont be enough runs.
Omar drafted Eddie Kunz ahead of guys like Freeman and Stanton in the 07 draft and also give away draft picks to sign 80 year old Moises Alou. He is probably my least favorite Mets gm because he pissed away Wright, Reyes and Beltran’s peak years by surrounding them with scrubs.
Weren’t Wright and Reyes draft picks from Minaya? Didn’t Minaya sign Beltran? Wasn’t Harvey a Minaya pick as well? I can go on. I don’t think you can hang that awful collapse to the Phillies on Minaya. Yes he made some terrible decisions but the team was still in a position to win the division and should of. My only gripe was with Randolph and Manuel.
No. Wright and Reyes were Phillips guys and Beltran was a great signing but the rest was terrible. Omar put together historically bad rotations and bad starting right rotations in 07-08. I mean Brian Lawrence made big September starts.
The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire.
The Mets are up in flames. How many more games do they have to be out before they start the sell off?
If you suck, you suck, acknowledge it. Sell off the parts and start over. I have no problem with that.
Watch, Alderson will go out and get old friend Neal Walker, or maybe sign Jake Peavy. Hey, look what I found today at the thrift shop, a 39 year old pitcher. He’s cheap, what a deal.
Today the Mets are closer to the Marlins than the Nat’s in the standings. Going, going, gone.