With time off between the NLDS and the NLCS, it seemed a perfect time to check in with the former Mayor – Chris Flanders – and get his take on Mets playoff baseball.
Brian: As one passionate Mets fan to another – your comments in the Game Chatters have me a little concerned for you. How are you handling the wild swings, the ups and downs, that the Mets have encountered here in the 2024 playoffs?
Chris: Oh man, it’s been absolutely rough. I confess to having to look away on occasion late in some of these games! I realize that so much is different than the regular season that I miss much of the totality of baseball, whether that be GKR, the SNY info banner, a regular number of games for a series, starters starting etc. Let me tell you though, that win in Atlanta was as incredible as anything in the official post season. But it is great to have a lot of activity in the chatter which is super helpful. How are you holding up?
Brian: While I get anxious – especially any time Edwin Diaz is brought into the game – for the most part I’m amazingly calm. I think it’s because I view this year as playing with house money. When you come into the season expecting 80-82 wins, finding your team in the NLCS is nothing short of amazing.
News has come out that Jeff McNeil is going to see some action in the Arizona Fall League to get himself ready to be activated for the NLCS. I think he should resume his September role of starting 2B against RHP and RF against some lefty pitchers. How do you see Carlos Mendoza using him in the next series?
Chris: Diaz is indeed especially troubling when he comes in. He’s lost the zone, and seems to do a lot of full effort chucking rather than pitching. It’s good he can recover some, but 8 more wins has got me worried. I’m with you with the playing with house money perspective. In my eyes, this season is already a major accomplishment even if they didn’t win another game. It is magical to watch this unfold though.
Wow, McNeil. The good news story is that Iglesias needs a break and having McNeil means the Acuna post season experiment is likely over. But I’m also cognizant of the less optimistic things that come along, like the endless terrible ABs and accompanying bad attitude. Truthfully, I haven’t missed him at all, or thought we really need McNeil here. It’s great he’s back, and he did turn things around later in the season, which is perhaps the most we could hope for.
So, Dangerous Dodgers or Painful Padres?
Brian: My preference would be for a little more professionalism from McNeil and fewer helmet slams and cursing himself when he makes an out. But that seems a small tradeoff for a .289/.376/.547 line like McNeil had in the second half of 2024 before he wound up on the IL. It would be great if McNeil could give something a little bit like that in the NLCS. Iglesias is 6-29 with 1 BB and 0 XBH so far in the playoffs.
The Padres without Joe Musgrove are not nearly as frightening. It’s gone a little under the radar because it’s happened over three seasons but Musgrove is putting up numbers reminiscent of Mike Scott in the ’86 NLCS. In his last three starts against the Mets, Musgrove has 20 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 1 BB and 21 Ks. That’s incredible – even Scott gave up one run in that series where the Mets felt Game 6 was a must-win situation because they didn’t want to face Scott a third time.
But I want the Dodgers. First, they were the best team over 162 games and my preference is to beat the best. And a win there gives them a victory over all three division winners en route to the World Series.
We’ve seen teams struggle recently in the playoffs after having an extended time off, most recently the Phillies as the second seed losing to the sixth seed. Are you worried about how the Mets will handle the time off? And do you think MLB needs to revamp the playoff setup?
Chris: I’ve been really thinking about the time off. I’ve come down on not being worried. No one likes to interrupt a run like this, and being the first to clinch for the Championship Series was quite a pleasant surprise, but the wait is basically three days. This team needs a day to recover from the partying, a day to unpack and do laundry, then a travel day out west to get time zone acclimated. There really won’t be endless time to sit at home and watch TV or play a scrub team to face live pitching/hitting etc. This is different than 2015 where I believe the long down time really mattered or like this year for the Phillies, who seemed rusty.
As far as revamping the postseason picture, I’ve puzzled on this since the expanded wild card series format and just not really sure what to do unless you shorten the totality of postseason games, which I would be in favor of. There is no way the owners and MLB are giving up postseason gate and TV proceeds after expanding the Wild Card. But the fact is winning the division and getting a first-round bye is not a clear advantage down the road. What about a day-night double header for the Wild Card series?
I am indifferent about either NL West team right now and sort of view both the same. I’d like to get even with the Padres, but it is always sweet to knock down a behemoth, and let’s be honest, the Dodgers postseason record is pretty sad all things considered. One thing for sure, postseason Mets baseball is really terrific.
Regarding McNeil – it feels like the Mets really could use another left handed bat to turn to whether that’s in a platoon with Iglesias or simply off of the bench. For that reason alone, I think McNeil can be an extremely useful add for the next 2 series. I also don’t think it means Acuna is necessarily off the next roster. Neither Ottavino nor Young have pitched in the post season so far and Young hasn’t even warmed up. With Peterson thriving in the bullpen role and Garrett and Butto effective against both righties and lefties, I could see Young being the odd man out. Acuna at least offers you a chance to steal a base late in the game if JD Martinez or Mark Vientos represents a tying or winning run on base.
For the playoff format, I think every series should be best of 7. If you want to make the wild card best of 5, ok fine, but both the NBA and NHL have a better playoff product because every series is 7 games and that usually results in the higher seed (and in theory the better, deeper team) finding it’s way through. Might mean reducing the regular season to 154 so you’re not playing November baseball, or shortening spring training by a week or two. No one would mind that.
And for the next round – i’m tempted to say it really doesn’t matter. Part of me wants no part of Ohtani playing for a chance to go to the world series. But then again, the Dodgers seem to be a bullpen oriented pitching team at the moment and that’s our bread and butter. If the Padres get by LA tonight, they have some serious “let’s win one for our dead owner” vibes. So I’m leaning Dodgers, but still confident we can go into either stadium and win at least one giving us a chance to take control of the series and even potentially win it at Citi Field.
I’m no fan of lefty relievers, so I won’t shed a tear if Young is removed from the roster.
My opinion is that Mendoza has buried Ottavino when he didn’t necessarily have to do it, certainly not as long as he has.
The thing about Acuna and his speed is that when Mendoza used a PR, he chose Bader, even with Acuna and Bader both coming in the next half inning for defense.
I’m stealing this from Tim Britton, in today’s article for The Athletic:
“Their offense presents a problem in several ways. Los Angeles hit left-handed pitching better than anyone else all season, and the Mets would likely start three of the seven games with lefties, not to mention the significant role David Peterson would play in backing up Kodai Senga.
The Mets were concerned about facing the Brewers because of Milwaukee’s excellent plate discipline and refusal to chase outside the strike zone. The Dodgers were the only team in the National League that chases less, and they have the kind of game-changing power throughout their lineup that the Brewers lack.
And then, of course, there’s that trio at the top of the lineup. The tensest moments of the Division Series came because the Mets struggled at times to handle Bryce Harper; Los Angeles has three hitters of that caliber in Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman (even if Freeman’s status is in jeopardy because of his ankle injury). Ohtani is on an all-time heater, with 16 homers and 46 RBI over his last 38 games. Betts might be breaking out of a prolonged playoff slump with homers in each of the last two games for Los Angeles. And Freeman is Freeman, one of the pre-eminent Mets killers of this century.
Those three have combined for 300 plate appearances against New York pitchers likely to be on the NLCS roster, with a .924 OPS. (Kudos to Ryne Stanek, who has held the trio to a combined 3-for-17.)”
“In Michael King and Dylan Cease, the Padres also have two pitchers likely to get top-five Cy Young votes, and their bullpen is a clear strength, especially when compared to New York’s.
The San Diego offense doesn’t chase like Philadelphia’s, hits the ball out of the park better than Milwaukee’s and puts the ball in play better than anyone else in baseball. It’s diverse and goes nine deep, kind of like New York’s when it’s operating at its peak.”