IGT 7/3/2018: NYM@TOR -- It's A Beauty Way To Go

[smg58]

Gsellman was on a 100-inning pace until recently, and very few relievers can sustain that. The problem is, who the hell do you bring in at this point?

[Edgy MD]

Well, one option is to not bring in anybody until you have to, and get over artificial belief in the number 100 having special powers over a pitcher.

Starting the season by limiting the starters to 80 pitches really put the bullpenners behind the eightball.

[Lefty Specialist]

smg58 wrote: Gsellman was on a 100-inning pace until recently, and very few relievers can sustain that. The problem is, who the hell do you bring in at this point?

And that's your problem in a nutshell. There aren't any good options.

[smg58]

Edgy MD wrote: Well, one option is to not bring in anybody until you have to, and get over artificial belief in the number 100 having special powers over a pitcher. Starting the season by limiting the starters to 80 pitches really put the bullpenners behind the eightball.

It did. But you had four starting pitchers coming off injuries, and working them up made long-term sense. (Matz and Wheeler are substantially better pitchers now than they were in April.) At least it made sense for health reasons, as opposed to the "third time through the lineup" nonsense. But it put tremendous strain on the pen, and the Mets couldn't afford to have things go wrong there.

It didn't help that the Mets spent significant money on three relievers who have given the team nothing at all this year. Blevins was probably a poor fit given that the team needed innings, but the complete implosion was not something you could predict. Ramos had a history of being erratic, but you had the right to expect more than him sucking and then getting hurt. Swarzak was exactly the kind of quality innings-eater you wanted to find on the market, and you had the right to expect more than him getting hurt and then sucking.

I'm not a fan of 100 as the magic number either. I think right now, you need the starters to protect the pen until Gsellman and Swarzak right the ship. We're left with Lugo and Familia, and Familia won't be here in August.

[G-Fafif]

G-Fafif wrote: Nimmo, pointing up to the CN Tower CF Bautista, where he once reigned RF Cabrera, gutting it out as always 2B Conforto, trying to get the feeling again LF Flores, playing a position that shouldn't even exist DH Frazier, wondering what to do with all those t-shirts 3B Smith, about to write the...WRIST of the story 1B Mesoraco, putting down fingers and trying not to get his head whacked C Rosario, learning the pleasures of a simple walk SS Wheeler shall pitch if not bat

Inevitable enough to be predictable, it turned out.

[Lefty Specialist]

Watching this team is like getting whacked in the helmet nightly.