What bothers me about the Mets

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

They make too many mistakes. It seems like half the games they've managed to blow they've also managed to leave guy on 3rd base with less than 2 out. They get picked off and caught stealing a lot. The defense has been, if not outright bad, sloppy too much.

Even if we were at full strength these execution issues would be screwing us.

Oh and Jay Bruce. When's the last time this fucking guy had a home run?

[Centerfield]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: They make too many mistakes. It seems like half the games they've managed to blow they've also managed to leave guy on 3rd base with less than 2 out. They get picked off and caught stealing a lot. The defense has been, if not outright bad, sloppy too much. Even if we were at full strength these execution issues would be screwing us. Oh and Jay Bruce. When's the last time this fucking guy had a home run?

And speaking of mistakes, he misjudges a lot of balls in the outfield. So there was all that talk of having the flexibility to move him to 1B in case Gonzalez struggled. Well Gonzalez is struggling (.718 OPS) but Bruce is even worse.

So what do you do?

If the Mets were serious about making a run, they'd have to call up Alonso. But I don't know if the Mets are good enough to be serious contenders. So maybe you have to try out Dom Smith and move Alonso to AAA. I guess you give Dom Smith 2018 to see what he's got, then move him when Alonso is ready.

[MFS62]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Oh and Jay Bruce. When's the last time this fucking guy had a home run?

Or even looked good chasing a fly ball?

OE: apparently was typing this while CF posted.

Later

Edited May 29, 2018 by Guest

[Guest d'Kong76]

They have to be leading the league in BBB.

#3 in the 2018 CPF Rankiings Project, All-Star.

And yeah, Bruce is making this 'Expectation for '18' guy look pretty dumb.

[Edgy MD]

Yeah, as Nimmo futiley tried to throw out the tying run, it was Bruce who let the go-ahead run get in scoring position by not cutting the throw off.

I guess some sloppiness is supposed to be expected with players out of position. (Reyes frequently looks lost at third, but he's there only after Wright, Frazier, and Flores have gone down, and he's sharing the job with a minor league shortstop.) They have to tighten up their play. I guess that's DiSarcina's role as the only infielder on their big league coaching staff.

[dgwphotography]

As I said in the preseason prediction thread:

The bullpen, defense, and lack of team speed all give me pause

Yep.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Bruce has definitely become more of an albatross than I had anticipated. They keep putting him in the lineup because of that inevitable hot streak that may not be so inevitable. And even if it does come, it will have to be a hell of a hot streak to make up for two solid cold months. Because he's signed through 2020, I don't think he's going anywhere any time soon.

I doubt that Alonso would be able to save the 2018 season, so I'd rather see him in Vegas than Queens for now.

[Edgy MD]

Yeah, I don't think that kind of saving is in the cards. The first priority is going to be getting Plawecki/Frazier/Céspedes back into the rotation, and doing it in a way that doesn't marginalize Nimmo.

Hopefully when this goes down, it'll be Gonzalez (who has shown facility as a pinch-hitter) who mostly gets rotated out, and Bruce to a lesser degree. And yeah, maybe Smith displaces them both, but he's not hitting right now.

The season is long and hard. It would help if they didn't have to carry 21 relief pitchers. /*yells at cloud

[Centerfield]

I mean, keep in mind, we are all dealing with symptoms rather than the underlying problem.

What bothers me about the Mets is the owners. Everything else is a byproduct.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Well, yeah. My hope (which may be unfounded) is that when Fred dies, Jeff decides he'd rather have billions of dollars in cash than a baseball franchise.

[Guest 41Forever]

Centerfield wrote: If the Mets were serious about making a run, they'd have to call up Alonso. But I don't know if the Mets are good enough to be serious contenders. So maybe you have to try out Dom Smith and move Alonso to AAA. I guess you give Dom Smith 2018 to see what he's got, then move him when Alonso is ready.

I'm confused about this one. If you are a serious about making a run, you call up a guy from Double-A and have him develop at the Major League level? That sounds like something a rebuilding team does. What's the thinking there?

Alonso sure is raking in Bingo. So is Jeff McNeil, who I confess I don't know much about.

Having two guys get picked off in one inning is atrocious.

We've seen the stories about guys coming to the Majors unprepared. Maybe they should have dumped Wally sooner.

Injuries are killing us again. Cespedes can't seem to stay on the field.

[Centerfield]

If you're serious about making a run, then it's all hands on deck. The best hitters and pitchers are called up to the big league club, even if it possibly means starting the clock on them a year "early". Like 2015 with Conforto. That team had terrific pitching, but a terrible offense. Call up Conforto. Get Cespedes. Have Murphy turn into the machine he is now, and suddenly the Mets were on fire.

This year, I don't see that they do anything well. The offense is bad. Even if you called up Alonso and hope he is 2015 Conforto, you don't have anything in the minors to bring in the next Cespedes. And the pitching, as we all can see, is nowhere near 2015.

In other words, it would take a lot more than Alonso to save this season.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Centerfield wrote: And the pitching, as we all can see, is nowhere near 2015.

Big yeah. By the time the 2015 Mets transformed into the team that would run away with the division, they had four starters pitching like aces. This year's team has just one ace. Thor's been pretty good, but I wouldn't say he's dominant.

[Centerfield]

41Forever wrote: Injuries are killing us again. Cespedes can't seem to stay on the field.

Also, this is absolutely not true. Cespedes and Frazier are on the DL. Losing both catchers at the same time hurt. But we haven't been "killed" by any stretch. All of the starting pitching has been healthy. They're just not very good. Our entire bullpen has been healthy except Swarzak. That is one significant pitching injury over the first 50 games.

As of today, our starting CF, RF, 1B, 2B, SS, and C are all healthy. Our back up LF is our best hitter.

[Guest 41Forever]

Centerfield wrote: 41Forever wrote: Injuries are killing us again. Cespedes can't seem to stay on the field. Also, this is absolutely not true. Cespedes and Frazier are on the DL. Losing both catchers at the same time hurt. But we haven't been "killed" by any stretch. All of the starting pitching has been healthy. They're just not very good. Our entire bullpen has been healthy except Swarzak. That is one significant pitching injury over the first 50 games. As of today, our starting CF, RF, 1B, 2B, SS, and C are all healthy. Our back up LF is our best hitter.

Well, I'd say that the catcher just came back yesterday, and I think many would say that d'Arnold is the main starter, and he's gone for the year. For a month we had a double-A guy and a castoff behind the plate. Swarzak was intended to be a big piece and he's made, what, two appearances? Our ace missed a start, and we probably dodged a big bullet on that one. Robles has been on the DL -- but I don't think we're complaining there.

Losing Frazier and Cespedes at the same time sapped a lot of power. Hopefully Wilmer's absence is short.

[Edgy MD]

It's interesting that, considering the broad range of injuries to the starting rotation in 2017, the team currently has no starters (unless you count Montero, who wasn't a projected part of the rotation going in) on the DL. They have three relievers (four, if you count 40-man roster guy Jamie Callahan), one catcher (two until yesterday), four infielders (two of whom you knew would be hurt going in), and two outfielders sucking up DL time.

They have had two starters do the DL. Vargas missed the first month and a stretch of spring training. deGrom did a short stint missing the equivalent of two starts.

Conforto also didn't get his spring in.

This isn't really what bothers me about the Mets, except insofar as I think their weight trainer is a reckless maniac.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Centerfield wrote: I mean, keep in mind, we are all dealing with symptoms rather than the underlying problem. What bothers me about the Mets is the owners. Everything else is a byproduct.

I meant to say this thread is separate from the other thread where we botch about Jeff and Fred.

[Centerfield]

Centerfield wrote: All of the starting pitching has been healthy.

Um. So nevermind.