One night after a stirring comeback, the Mets turned in a lackluster effort and dropped the rubber game of the series to the Reds, 7-1, Sunday afternoon at Citi Field.
Marcus Stroman was solid through five innings but ran out of gas in the sixth, when he allowed three hits and a walk. The Reds put up three runs in the frame to extend their lead to 4-0 and with the way the Mets were playing, the game was over.
Jeff McNeil homered in the bottom of the sixth but that was just one of three hits the Mets would get in the game, despite facing a rookie pitcher with fringe stuff that they beat up the first time they faced him.
Next up is a four-game series with the Marlins in Miami. Hopefully we’ll see a better effort against a division rival.
Feels like losing the game was secondary. They lost more than the game.
So the Mets have maintained first place for two months despite a sub-500 record. It was a brutal weekend for the Mets, as Gus noted.
At this stage, the offense is teetering on being an embarrassment as it is close to MLB worst, close teams that were expected to be lousy. Trying to remain objective, it is very hard to envision them holding first given no DeGrom, no offense, and a very difficult schedule in August.
Brian, do you have any insight into why the Mets did not sign Kumar and why, as reported, they didn’t even make an offer?
James, it seems their medical staff didn’t like the medicals. The official comment from Zack Scott was that the Mets wouldn’t sign Rocker even “at any price”. I don’t know how to translate that, but I believe players that aren’t going to do physicals, should not be eligible for draft. Period. No other league allows this.
Rocker may well have been on the verge of TJ surgery even though Scott Boris claims his elbow “isn’t too much worse than it was when he graduated high school”.
Whatever that means, the Mets just lost their first round pick and while under the present agreement they receive the 11th pick next year, who knows. We had a chance at an ace, and we didn’t take it. This decision was made solely by the medical staff, supposedly. Depressing.
I suspect it had nothing to do with medicals. So what if he needed Tommy John. Who doesn’t? It wasn’t money because they’d already agreed to the $6 mil and had structured their whole draft around that amount. So, if it wasn’t money or medicals, I find myself wondering if it wasn’t character/conduct. Cohen wouldn’t want a repeat of Jared Porter. If it was, I seriously doubt the Mets would reveal it. Suggesting that it’s medical could well be a polite way of avoiding the issue, even if it makes the Mets look stupid and stupid they are not. Hope that’s not it, but what other options are there? I am open to suggestions.
“Whatever that means, the Mets just lost their first round pick and while under the present agreement they receive the 11th pick next year, who knows.”
I highly doubt that pick in question is in doubt. If they do change the rules there’s no chance they would apply anything retroactively.
If you step back the Mets don’t really lose anything except for optics. Essentially they just traded Rocker for a future 1st round pick so it’s not like they lose a 1st rounder, he’ll just be arriving the system one year later.
I was actually wondering if teams should be actively be using that strategy. Since you get compensation for failing to sign the first 3 picks, you could have a year where you intentionally punt and don’t sign any of your first 3, and then the following year you get 3 extra picks + the pool money that comes with it. You could then theoretically go multiple overslots that second year or maybe you just think the following year has a deeper class and you could take advantage of it.
Next year seems to be showing as a better draft.
It seems a lot will be determined in the next week. If the Mets can’t get healthy at the Marlins, how on earth will they get through a very tough August? I fear a shaken Taijuan and a tiring Stroman will not do. Eventually the bullpen will wear down and the Mets will find themselves trailing the Phillies and Braves.
They can continue to play close games and win their share, but they need strong performances from the starters… 6-7 innings each game. Who’s going to give us that? I hope we are not griping in a few weeks that the trade deadline was a bust and the FO blew an opportunity to get stronger.
Exactly. We are going into August with our best starting pitcher Tylor Megill, who has never pitched more than 71 2/3 innings in pro ball. They seem to be counting too much on Carrasco now, and Jake and Thor in September.