Several years ago, Mets360 shut down for a bit because everyone was so amazingly depressing that reading the negative comments day after day after day was affecting my mental health. At the risk of opening up that can of worms again, please use today’s article to vent about anything and everything that’s disappointing you about baseball in general but the Mets in particular here in 2023. Get it out of your system now and start the second half as optimists.
Before my Mets rant begins, humor me for a moment and let me talk about the local CPL team. We have a new GM, the fourth different one in my tenure and the first female. She’s done a really good job in areas where her male predecessors didn’t necessarily excel, specifically with in-game promotions, which are now much better than they’ve ever been before. She’s also done a very good job in keeping her cool while ongoing stadium renovations consistently fail to be finished on time.
However, there are areas where you just have to shake your head. We had a jersey competition night, where fans were encouraged to wear one from their collection to the park. This one guy showed up in a vintage 1970s Hank Aaron jersey. Judging was done by fans clapping when the finalists were announced. And when our Aaron entrant only received a smattering of applause, she said that fans didn’t appreciate Fred McGriff like they should. Oy!
That was bad but kind of understandable. But what really gets me is the GM’s need for there to never be a moment of silence, like that people might be able to hear one another talk – or just to enjoy a brief interlude of quiet. She gets on the intern who plays the music to play the equivalent of walk-up music for the visiting batters. Meanwhile, the intern has a hard enough job with the walk-up music for the home batters, including – but not limited to – turning it off once the batter is in the box. Two games ago, the visiting manager, admittedly for a team known for being jerks, complained to the umpires about it. And it’s a regular occurrence for the umpire to gesture for it to be turned off.
At our last game, our regular PA guy was out and we had a replacement. Our team was batting, our hitter had two strikes on him and the intern started playing the rhythmic clapping sound, the one you play when you want your pitcher to get a strikeout. Interim PA guy asks why on earth we’re playing that. And the only answer was that the GM hates silence and the intern – who plays collegiate softball – doesn’t know any better.
In addition to “YMCA,” we now hear “The Macarena” and “Sweet Caroline” every game. It’s a nightmare. And on top of that, the intern has to play “Pump it Up” – not the Elvis Costello version, which might be tolerable. Probably have the name wrong. It’s one of those get excited things. And the poor intern has to play it 8-10 times a game, even when we’re losing by a big margin, which happens fairly often.
I’m all for wacky between-innings games. But for the love of all things holy, can we enjoy some periods in a baseball game where our senses aren’t being attacked? We need to stop treating silence as an enemy.
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More often that not, Max Scherzer is calling his own pitches these days with the Pitch Com. So, we know exactly whom to blame when Scherzer throws a toothless-slider over the heart of the plate that gets deposited over the wall. Hey, Scherzer, quit calling for so many sliders when your curve is a much-better pitch!
It used to be a common practice for SP to throw an inning as a reliever right before the All-Star break. But we don’t see that any more as managers have seemingly decided as a group that you shouldn’t manage differently in the last game or two before the break. Yet Buck Showalter played Francisco Alvarez in a day game after a night game. Later, Showalter said because of both Alvarez’ young age and the fact that the team would have the next four days off, he thought it would be okay to ignore conventional wisdom. Alvarez went 0-3 with two strikeouts and a GDP. And he also dropped a popup. To be clear, we shouldn’t blast a manager for trying something unorthodox. Doing that is how innovation occurs. But this seemed less like innovation and more like desperation.
Mark Canha should play more often while Starling Marte should get many more days off.
Jeff McNeil hits too many weak grounders to the right side.
Showalter pulls his SP too early on a somewhat regular basis.
The bullpen Billy Eppler constructed was a disaster.
We thought Pete Alonso got his yearly funk out of the way in late April/early May. But in his last 116 PA, Alonso has a .147/.250/.353 line. That’s worse than Marte.
It’s time for Brett Baty’s free pass to expire. In his last 188 PA, he has just a .607 OPS with a .296 BABIP. He’s got a 26.6 K% in that span, which is unacceptable for a guy with 9 XBH (3 HR) in 188 PA.
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Even though this is a complaint piece, there’s something positive going on that we hardly acknowledge. And that’s the pitch clock has made the game better. Yeah, maybe it’s partially to blame for some of the bad pitching by the Mets this year. But my belief has always been that if you make reasonable asks, MLB players will adjust. And making a pitch within 20 seconds is reasonable. It’s been a chore to watch the Mets in a bunch of games this year. Just imagine how bad it would be if the games were each an hour longer.
No retractable Dome at Citi Field.
I remember the shutdown and how miserable the entire Mets enterprise made you.
I think you pretty much nailed things here. We’ve been saying it clearly for a month solid, and really even longer. There’s not that much different negative that needs to be addressed.
I’ll only add one thing and it’s about team-fan relations and expectations. I’m absolutely exhausted by fans worrying about the playoffs every single day, Who cares at this exact moment in time? Why is worrying about this for fans such a daily concern? Maybe we should be concerned with getting to .500 first. Here’s the deal, and this is where the disconnect comes from, the team is worried only about the game they are playing in the moment, and rightfully so. It’s silly for the fan base of a team 9 under .500 at the ASB break to be so concerned with the playoffs. Why not focus attention on the game and series at hand as the most important thing? The playoffs will take care of themselves. I can 100% tell you, no player is sitting there going “we’re now only 6 back and 5 teams behind the last wild card, let’s do this!” in the second week of July. Please people, September will get here soon enough.
And I hear ya about the new generation of non-stop required input. It’s part of the new world where entertainment must occur at every single second of the day. The fear of someone “checking out” to do something else is driving the need to keep your eyes focused on not leaving. It’s maddening, and it’s intentional.
The flip side of your article is at least worth a mention. We are all really lucky to have a place to get quality info about the team and a chance to talk at a high level – yes even to bitch about all the things a team playing this poor deserves. A lot of the Mets writing out there is absolute junk, so getting thoughtful pieces on a daily basis is a real treat. Another thing to be grateful for here is that we can all be agreeable in disagreement. So many sites are just hideous in the comments it’s hard to believe why anyone would even post. In Mets360 we have a tight knit community that has made friends of us all. Not much more you could hope or ask for.
You nicely put into words what I’ve been thinking about for a few weeks now in regards to the playoffs. It doesn’t make a blasted bit of difference how far back the Mets are. What does Buck keep saying? Play better. Once they start playing better, then we can worry about playoffs. If they had gone into the break with an 8-game winning streak, that would have been one thing. But with how pitiful the offense looked the past two games, it’s back to “play better” for me.
And thanks for the kind words!
I love this article and I want to second ChrisF’s last paragraph. Content and community are the two reasons why I’ve been following M360 for as long as I have. The other sites have some decent content, but it’s sandwiched between (at best) or completely buried (more often) in drivel. M360’s “no as#ho#e” policy has paid enormous dividends towards the community too. No trolls allowed.
These are the things that have driven me nuts this year.
1. McNeil’s lousy performance. He’s regressed to 2021 levels it seems and is only now seeming to get some heat for it. He’s a major part of the team’s struggles. He either grounds a weak tapper to 2B or pops up to the left side. He’s just not dialed in and his Danny Ainge tantrums and scowls are lost on me.
2. I cannot bear to watch Drew Smith pitch anymore. It seems that every single time he throws his breaking stuff, it costs us the game. He needs to be fined $10,000 every single time he throws a curveball in the strike zone.
3. No surprise, but I hate watching Vogey take center-cut fastballs for a strikes. Often, there are more than one in a single AB.
4. Why is Luis G here? He’s an adequate utility player but his defense is not anywhere near where it used to be. He might be an asset for a contender but has no value here. Trade him and let the prospects get some innings and ABs.
5. Max and Verlander are so frustrating. I keep expecting them to rise to the occasion and they inevitably come up short.
6. I hate what happened to Vientos. It made no sense then and I still don’t understand the rationale. I hope it did not wreck his confidence.
The biggest positive I see is that we have a trove of assets who should bring back some value at the trade deadline, especially if Uncle Stevie is willing to eat contracts. Building the farm and developing the top tier prospects should be the top priority from now til the end of the year. To me, this means that Pham, Robertson, Ottavino, Canha, Marte, Vogey, Guillorme, and Narvaez are all gone. McNeil should go if the price is right. Ditto Verlander and Scherzer. No doubt some will play a major role for some team’s WS run. So be it. Get the prospects ASAP. One benefit of Cohen’s wealth is that we can call 2023 a mulligan and try again next year, but with a better front office calling the shots.
I want to write an article about Vogelbach but I’m convinced that the effort it would take me to research it and write it up won’t be worth it when everyone has already made their minds up that he’s 100% useless and a waste of a roster spot.
One thing that fascinates me is that pitchers don’t necessarily have to waste a pitch on him. He so dislikes low strikes that they can get him out with pitches in the lower 1/4 of the zone. All of our lives we’ve heard how lefties like the ball low and Vogelbach is the exact opposite. Except he doesn’t like all high pitches, either. It’s a rare game where he doesn’t get called for a high inside strike.
I’d love it if the next time they play on ESPN they would mic up Vogelbach and ask him about his approach to hitting. Bet he would have some interesting things to say.
No doubt that Vogelbach is unorthodox, but is he worth it? I can’t believe that they gave him a week off to collect his thoughts. He can often crush the ball, but unreliable so. He can’t play a position and often requires a pinch runner. He is a specialist of specialists, but at the end of the day, he has a career OPS+ of 106. OK, one might argue that we have to look at how well he hits RHPs. He’s a whopping 117 OPS+ just against righties. (Unbelievably, he’s only a 26 against southpaws.)
He’s not worth the roster spot and certainly not worth the high maintenance. I am happy that you didn’t waste any of your brain-cycles on him either, Brian.
Many players aren’t playing like the back of their playing cards. Showalter isn’t adjusting their playing time or their position in the batting order to try to rectify the situation.
Marte, Baty, McNeil and Vogelbach are the primary culprits. The Mauricio and Vientos promotions are long overdue. They play the problem positions of OF, 3B, 2B and DH so there are plenty of AB’s for them.
Eppler roster construction in the off season, especially the back end of the bullpen and back up catcher was bad.
My turn:
My biggest problem is that as someone that hasn’t seen many games, I am not seeing anything different when I do check in. The batting order is similar, the playing time is similar, the intensity is similar. There aren’t any messages sent to any player to get their head out of their ass.
A few years ago, Jeff McNeil got into a funk and got a phone call from a buddy of his in the minors, Patrick Mazeika, correcting a batting flaw that Mazeika saw on tv and McNeil was able to go on a tear. He is certainly capable of similar. Maybe he needs to get some tapes of Daniel Murphy’s transformation.
A bullpen is a disgrace. A manager that is so afraid of hurting a feeling cannot manage in MLB. The starters being pulled based on predetermined plans rather than what is going on is what we used to fry Collins about, and as for how he uses the bullpen, Showalter should never be allowed to manage again. He doesn’t inspire confidence.
Lindor has been great. Alonso is not a cleanup hitter, he is a #5 or #6 hitter, and we said that a couple of years ago. Unfortunately, the Mets still think they need someone to “clean the bases” batting fourth. Although they don’t have the type of cleanup hitter that I would prefer, from the players on the roster, I would like to see McNeil first, Nimmo second, Lindor third…
Something is up with Verlander and Scherzer. These guys have fallen off a cliff this year. There has to be a reason.
Appreciate the opportunity to vent – one time and one time only – in this post.
My biggest complaint? The World Baseball Classic and the number of Mets who participated. Which Mets player who played in the classic is performing at our better than their career average? I think anyone of the Puerto Rico team was completely deflated by the Diaz injury. McNeil lost his confidence because he couldn’t crack the starting lineup as the defending batting champ. Alonso was a non-factor. The Mets had the most players of any team in baseball participate and here they are. A tired, old, underperforming bunch.
Who had the fewest participants? The Atlanta Braves.
But I still think we finish July 53-52 and sneak into the wild card.
I don’t believe either extreme is true – either that the Mets had the most or the Braves had the fewest. However, I do think it’s more than fair to complain about the WBC and the impact it had on the Mets. I know the event is popular with the players, so I’m careful not to dump on it too much. But at the same time, I don’t mind being the old man shaking his fist at the clouds and declaring I don’t like it.
Brian,
My condolences with regards to your local small town baseball experience. Unfortunately, guys like us are now the “get off the lawn” guy with regards to overstimulation at the ball park during play. I agree 100%.
With regards to the list of Met complaints, I basically have the same list as you and the rest of the comment gang. And, Chris definitely verbalized the playoff thing very well. Many fans just think they’ll win a few games, become buyers, and fill in the holes…possible, but highly unlikely. Not only is this team completely outclassed by the Braves, but, memo to fan base, they are pretty clearly the 4th best team in their division. Odds are, we are waiting for the great pumpkin, once again.
For me, it’s on the players sans Eppler’s muff on pen depth. But, frankly, they are not good on so many fronts that one miss by Eppler doesn’t matter.
While many things are same old same old, and this season is a major bummer, I don’t find the Mets as frustrating/hopeless due to the ownership change. Yeah, the money is nice, but we all know you can’t simply buy a championship caliber team. I do think Cohen sincerely wants to win, and that clearly wasn’t the Wilpon agenda post Madoff. That gives me more hope for the future, so long as he remains disciplined with respect to focusing on sustainable winning.
This probably needs to be written up as an article.
But are the Mets the fourth-best team in the division or are they having the most “unexpected in a bad way” performances of the four top NL East clubs? I don’t mind predicting declines in performance for a lot, if not most, of the position players from last year. But the drop in performance is more than reasonably could or should have been expected. And the same holds true for the pitching, although perhaps the age of the starting staff should have made a greater decline somewhat expected.
First of all, thanks for creating and keeping this fantastic site going for years. We, long time Mets fans know what losing feels like, but this year is different. We should have seen this coming. Diaz goes down and the bullpen was weak. We sign Narvaez for no good reason and send Alvarez to AAA. Scherzer and Verlander are old. I bet one of them would have would have slipped, but not both. And my biggest beef is that we fielded the same eight in the field and expected the same results.
McNeil is really irritating by swinging his wiffle ball bat. He slaps at the ball.
DH was a big miss.
The hitting coach should go and Eppler should go.
I hope they sell.
Hopefully tomorrow they start with a new one game winning streak.
No Vientos,no Mauricio. Too much Vogelbach.
Appreciate all the writing and commentary and Brian we are a good community of knowledgeable Mets fans because you have tied us together and kept the interest strong.
For me it’s a total season of disappointment after 101 wins last year. Great comment on the analogy of not playing up to the back of your baseball card. So true. You win if your players just have what is an average year for them.
Never thought Diaz being out would have as big an impact to the overall pen but it did needing to move the pieces around for what is usually 4 innings of needed relief. So I blame the WBC because it should take place after the season, not screw up spring training.
I have the same disappointment in some of our players as noted by several of you.
And there has been an infatuation with playoff potential since the beginning of the season when the commentators talked about how far a team was back in the standings and where they stood for a wildcard spot. Thought we used to wait until much later to start that talk.
We need to take it up a notch next weekend against the Dodgers and get this party started. Made it all the way through this comment without mentioning Vog……almost.
Here’s to a second half of fun articles, lively commentary and fun game chatter.
Not a complaint, just an observation. The first four position players the Mets drafted were all shortstops.
Hopefully during the break, the Mets and McNeil are working to straighten out his swing. All last year, I kept thinking that Patrick Mazeika looked and acted like a future coach or manager.