Our bullpen has been a disaster of late. Who’s to blame? Management for bringing back Jerry Blevins and signing Anthony Swarzak instead of other available free agents? Coaching for overusing the bullpen early in the season with the “two times through the lineup” strategy? The starters for not going further into games? The relievers themselves for not performing up to expectations?
I guess you could say a little but from each Matt. But this 100 pitch cut off and the idea that a starter falters the third time around means you better have a deep and sturdy bullpen. I don’t why knowing this, the Mets did not have the plan of putting in a 6th starter and allow him to pitch 3 innings in relief to cut down on wear and tear. Is this how they did things in Cleveland?
Pete,
1 – In Cleveland their two top pitchers, Kluber and Carasco consistently went 7 or 8, even CGs sometimes to save the bullpen. deGrom and Syndergaard often go 6 or 7.
2- Cleveland’s bullpen the last few years (not this one) was deep and strong with Allen, Miller, Shaw, Smith, et al.
If this was the Mets plan, they weren’t prepared for it. But then again, when you look at the back of the baseball cards, we should have gotten much better performances out of Familia, Ramos, Blevins, and Swarzak. Injuries and ineffectiveness of those four trickled down and we had to rely on Gsellman (burnt out), Sewald (flatlined), Robles (stinks) and a bunch of AAA guys who don’t look the part. It’s hard to put all the blame on management when so many players have just had outlying bad seasons. Same goes for the lineup to some degree.
Important read for us fans.
I’m not impressed with Michael Powell’s sports writing. Perhaps he was better when he covered economics issues. Or maybe when he covered Presidential campaigns.
The Times once ran a piece in their sports section where the writer (presumably not Powell) suggested that the batter have the option to run to either first or third base when he hit the ball.
The fact is, this team is humpty dumpty broken, not a pen arm and a big bat away from anything other than the last place it deserves. This team is a failed experiment and needs to be completely shaken up. I look to keep Conforto &/or franchise deGrom (somewhat mixed feelings given his age) and put a price-to-sell on everything else. Of course, not everything moves, and the price tags should be high, but it is beyond time to realize this team is “close” to anything, except terrible.
You nailed it. And its not just the team. Its the entire organization. Scouting, drafting, coaching, player development, and decision-making in general: the decision to stay in Vegas after 2014 rather than try and move the team to Nashville or OK City which were available and changed affiliations that year. The decision to keep d’Arnaud at catcher rather than teach him another position when he was marooned in St. Lucie recovering from injury a couple of yeas ago., or to keep Flores on the bench as much as they have the last two seasons.
So let’s play GM for a moment Chris. Cespedes goes where? The team eats half his salary? How about Bruce? 28 million left for the next 2 seasons. Vargas 8 million next year. I think we can safely say these signings are a bust at this moment. How can you trade them? You’re selling low but what if they don’t come back to the level you would expect them to play? Question marks at 1st base, 2nd base, catcher, SP, bullpen closer for 2019. If the 3 amigo GM’s don’t do anything to resolve this, the Mets payroll after arb hearings will be over 100 million with no end in sight for signing a few decent FA’s.
I think this starts to place some hard reality on the level of the crisis. These guys arent good now…can you envision dumping more money on more lousy mid level FAs to try to “go for it” as the has been doing – on the totally failed notion it is almost there? I think people are in denial that we are now on the front end of a 5 year rebuild.
The system is broken. The Alderson regime placed zero emphasis on player development. The reason Rosario and Smith have been disappointments is because they weren’t ready as athletes or baseball players. That’s the structure the GM built. He’s gone now, but that doesnt mean the system is fixed. Everything needs to change from scouting and talent, to the minor leagues, to the big league roster. That is a major task.
My point for saying this is that these guys on terrible contracts need to build value and be traded…eventually, or released. Smaller contract vets should be DFAd now and the salaries eaten.
Ces is a difference make if he can get on the field. Bruce is another matter. But having these contracts is not enough to throw good money after bad. Maybe bundle these guys with someone like Flores or Smith or _________ and eat some of the contract to get rid of them. The critical mistake is saying, well theyre here now, we should go all in. We should not be acquiring FAs at the moment. We need to be filling the pipeline with near major-league ready blue chip prospects.
We’ve been reading these kinds of articles for a while. He’s late to the party. He was better off writing about his experience at Citifield.
At the time of the Bruce signing, they had a full outfield and they had back-up first base options. Plus, this is a player that no one was really chasing over three trading deadlines for a reason. I give Bruce credit for trying to hit the other way and for taking more pitches, but he abandoned that. Like the AGone signing, this was a signing of Alderson’s own feeling that his players suck because in both cases, the Mets filled in what wasn’t leaking. Again, he couldn’t read the talent.
But, the biggest damnation is the “rebuilt minor league system”. Not only is it bare, but it isn’t skilled. Hence, while we blame injuries once more, the minors are a complete failure. From finding players to developing them, it shows that the team doesn’t have a support system.
We keep hearing that Alderson was more let go than leaving on his own and the cancer was used as an excuse, but hey, can you blame them?
In 2010, Fred Coupon hired a manager no one else would hire and a GM that no one else would hire, and put them together. Eventually, we would all see why on both counts. Good thing Minaya’s players and a blue-hot Granderson got them to a World Series. Enter remember it unless some strokes of genius happen. Good luck in this organization.
I agree its a story most people are aware of, yet the number of “just a bat and a pen arm away” from wild card is what most fans still adhere to.
Quite frankly, I dont think most fans understand all the alarms are going off and this team is a fully involved 5-alarm fire. The main reason to trade deGrom and Syndergaard is that this team *will not* be relevant before they become free agents. The bruising, heavy contracts of Ces, Bruce, and Vargas severely limit forward spending. And we know the Wilpons will not just eat those and agree to have spending go off the hook. Why on earth would we think that Jake is an asset to team standings when he is having a CY caliber year and were are headed to number 2 or 3 in the draft? That makes no sense. The best Jake can do for the team is in return for a top level, near promote-able prospects + MLB-level haul of youngsters. I would not advocate for anything under AA as a centerpiece, and would prefer a star that already is producing (Im talking to you Mr Cashman who is gonna have to give up Gleyber and Andujar).
The other thing is the derelict state of the entire farm system. We heard Sandy wanted remake it in his vision. Well we have that now. And the vision was a real nightmare. The whole system has neglected to develop baseball skills. In recent weeks, on camera, we have seen – at the big league level – Amaro leading base running primers, bat handling primers and other very basic things. Are you kidding me?
The state of the team is shattered. deGrom needs to be “franchised” and built around, like Freddy Freeman, or traded while his value is so high.
Trade idea:
Marlins give us JT Realmuto
Mets give Marlins Tebow (think of the crowds…and the children!!!) and KP
What a great deal—for us!
Not only is he a AA all star, he can go out and buy 6 packs of Bud Light for the team, so they can all hang out in the parking lot after games.
How true!!
How is it that Washington can continually bring up youngsters who can perform while the Mets kids flounder? Soto is 19 and is unaware he doesn’t belong in the big leagues. From Rendon to Turner the list goes on and on. Whoever is responsible for drafting these kids bring him here.. Atlanta is another team that comes to mind as well.
Its not just Washington. A lot of teams’ farmhands perform when they come to the majors, even those who are called up prematurely because of injuries. The Mets’ guys, on the other hand, don’t perform.
In recent years, we’ve seen the Yankees, Dodgers, Astros, Red Sox, and Cubs all bring up player after player after player who’ve succeeded. Cleveland has had multiple major leaguers from their farm system. And now we’re seeing it with the Phillies and Braves. The Cardinals have always produced guys who can come up and do the job that is asked of them, even if they’re not fully MLB-ready, or are not future stars. Grichuk, Pham, Diaz, Gyorko, Carpenter, Adams.
Where are our home-grown position players? Where are our stars? They don’t exist. Even Michael Conforto, who certainly has star-level talent, has been up and down with his performance in what is now his 4th season with big league time.
But forget about stars and big names. The last guy who was called up, held a major league job, and never looked back was Daniel Murphy a decade ago. The Reds developed a steady crop of talent in the form of Votto, Bruce, Frazier, Cozart, and Mesoraco.
The list goes on and on and on and on. It can’t all be bad drafting. There’s something very wrong and very lacking in the player development system and structure.
Well, my posts was trashed because my email auto-fill screwed up. Recapitulating my previous lost remark, NY Times sez I have 4 free visits remaining. Didn’t realize anyone was counting. I won’t be using my 4 remaining visits cuz article was a dud, didn’t finish reading it. Previous lost version was written better.