The Mets opened up their big road trip with a humiliating 12-3 loss to the Braves Monday night in Atlanta.
How bad was it? The highlight was recently-acquired Brooks Pounders coming on to get the final out of the eighth inning with a strikeout.
The loss was a total team effort. The offense was nothing to write home about, the starting pitching wasn’t good, the defense was worse and the bullpen was just as putrid as we’ve come to expect. Jeurys Familia gave up three runs before being mercifully pulled after 0.1 IP. Drew Gagnon’s spell of effective pitching is long over, as he gave up 4 ER in 1.1 IP. In his last seven games, Gagnon has an 18.00 ERA. Time for him to get reacquainted with the restaurants in Syracuse.
“Man looks in the abyss, there’s nothing staring back at him. At that moment, man finds his character. And that is what keeps him out of the abyss.”
Can the Mets stay out of the abyss? It’s getting harder and harder to believe that to be true.
Frankly the best scenario for the Mets may well be to get punished on this trip and become clear cut sellers. It will be very interesting to see how BVW functions as a seller, and how he positions the team for 2020. Can he recover from ca omplete failure in 2019, and if so, how? His street cred among the fan base will be nil for the foreseeable future.
An Ugly, Ugly loss. If there is a right time to fire a Manager, it is right now. That’s not because this is all Calloway’s fault…. it’s just that there is nothing else left to do, before breaking it all to bits and starting over.
Well, Familia didn’t technically allow a run. He was pulled with the sacks drunk and Gagnon allowed all inherited runners to score and more!
A picture of the kid puking would have been better for this game.
Wheeler was obviously distracted by the trade talk and admitted it after the game. He will be fine.
Cano hit a HR, and of course Callaway looks like a genius batting him third, Cano’s rightful place in the order as so declared from up above.
The sum of the parts on this team don’t seem as bad as the results of those parts. Again, where are the pitching gurus to fix the relievers? LOL, Jeff Wilpon is looking at this mess and asking himself how many he has to get rid of, and is Chaim Bloom still available? Sorry Jeff, but the only way to fix your mistake is to accept you made one.
The only suspense we have to look forward to is what Magnum will sign for and if Allen will sign.
Thanks for splitting that hair about Familia – makes me feel much better about this game.
Here are some moves that they should make. Sell high on Vargas and Dom Smith. Sell Wheeler, since he is leaving anyhow. Same with Frazier.
Yankees will probably be selling Clint Frazier, but he cant field.
We have to think not only next year, but also after 2020 as well. Cespedes will be gone, so we could use an outfielder. We need starting pitchers. Need to think more about what to do with Syndergaard. I think it is too early to deal him. Would have to be a haul.
Van Wags needs to make his next chess moves. Let’s hope that they are better than his first moves.
Familia needs pitching lessons. Too many meatball pitches. I dont think he gets how to pitch.
And the last move, the Mets need a new manager, one who could inspire the team and motivate the players. It really feels that there is a real lack of motivation.
In fairness to BVW he plucked two old players, Cano and Lowrie, who played well last year. Cano came back with a respectable average type season after his suspension and Lowrie was coming off a career year. On paper it filled some holes. In reality, crossing over the 30 year old line shows how quickly things can drop off. As for Familia, who excelled as a set up man when he was shipped to the A’s, was still young and came here with high hopes and no closer pressure. Three years at $10m per is not such a lofty contract. He is the first player that needs a change of scenery. Regardless of how this road trip pans out, the for sale sign must come out. Frazier will be a nice bat for a contending team, and Wheels will bring a nice return as it is crazy to think he wouldn’t want to go to a contender and jump ship from the SS Rebuild. Agree we need an outfielder with a big bat since CF mostly has good gloves but not a big basher that we have lacked since day one. We don’t need an Astros three year horrible team rebuild but then again after all that suffering they have become an MLB force. Too much to think about. Welcome to the world of true blue suffering Mets fans. Keep the faith.
Our CF production is horrendous, worst in MLB. I’m tired of seeing that Lagares won a Gold Glove five years ago. Yes, we need a good CF, and a new bullpen. Need to shed the dead wood and the contracts that are up at the end of this year.
Gut reaction: it was only one game but it was a terrible one. Keep it in perspective, this was the first game of 13 they play with the Phillies and Braves. They have to win four from the Braves and five from the Phillies. They also have to play 500 ball against the other teams before the All-Star break. They have accomplished that. I am a fan so I root for them do it but this last game makes me a realist and I wouldn’t bet my money on it. Last night the Braves started a pitcher and 4 position players under 22 years old and the worst hitter in the lineup had a .785 OPS whereas the Mets started two players below 700 and one below 550. I don’t even want to compare the bullpen which is really “a cow pen waiting for slaughter. ”
I’ll root tonight with my heart but my brain is telling me about possible fixes. Let’s go Mets.
Welcome to my side of yard, Im grilling and the beers are cold. Much easier to watch relaxed when you realize this team is what it is and we can relish in whatever little accomplishment we get. Its been this way for ages…remember the season we all pulled for RA and the CY award? Or the Dark Knight starting the ASG? Or Jake with RoY and then CY etc. We really have small flashes of full team connectedness…otherwise we have onesies to celebrate. We have Alonso this year, a real contender for RoY…lets just enjoy that.
This team needs a stripped down rebuild in the worst way imaginable. I would guess an exorcism wouldnt hurt either. The problem is systemic…the owners suck and are hacks. The crap rolls down hill from there. Plain and simple. Every year we are fed the 90+ W season diet and we all flock to it with big eyes and hungry hearts, only to find out its another episode of Charlie Brown and Lucy is holding the football.
I don’t know if everyone gets the daily email via MLB-Mets but its always talking about ticket discounts, buy “x” tickets and get them at “x-discounted price”. So even the Mets know that they aren’t fooling anyone.
I am in favor of the big rebuild.
Chris, for me the problem is that I could care less about Cy Youngs and All-star appearances. I realize teams will have ups and downs, but this team has not be a certain contender on July 1 for upwards of 12-13 years. Pretending in early July and having two plus months of meaningless baseball every year except the fluke in 2015 and the late run in 2016, combined with the oversell every year is tough to take.
Oh I agree completely TJ, but its all there is to celebrate because this this organization is a total fail as *team*.
Without these things what else would there be? We’d be the Marlins.