IGT 8/18 Mets v Royals Wheeler & Sparkman

[Frayed Knot]

=G-Fafif post_id=19275 time=1566164115 user_id=55]
Difference between today and MIL-WSH last night, from Keith's perspective, is Keith was doing this game.

[bmfc1]

The Mets must be doing something right as the next 4 games are on either ESPN or MLBN:

http://mets.mlb.com/mlb/official_info/broadcasts/national.jsp?c_id=nymhttp://mets.mlb.com/mlb/official_info/broadcasts/national.jsp?c_id=nym

[batmagadanleadoff]

The Mets must be doing something right as the next 4 games are on either ESPN or MLBN: http://mets.mlb.com/mlb/official_info/broadcasts/national.jsp?c_id=nymhttp://mets.mlb.com/mlb/official_info/broadcasts/national.jsp?c_id=nym

In addition to their recent torrid pace, the Mets have a lot of star power -- marketable names. Actually, a heck of a lot of star power for a team that hasn't contended for most of this season and isn't much over .500. deGrom's a star and the reigning Cy Young award winner. Syndergaard's baseball's hardest thrower and has one of the highest ceilings in the game for pitchers. Alonso's on pace to shatter every Mets single season HR record, might break the MLB single-season HR record for rookies and is not that far off the pace of Ruth and Maris's single-season HR records, which are the real standards in that category if you wanna discount the steroid era records. Ruth 60, Maris 61, it's essentially the same record and if not for steroids, those marks would've held for almost 100 years. And McNeil plays like a batting champ, even though he's currently out. But you know all this.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I'd be quite happy if he passed (or tied) Hack Wilson's 56.

[Edgy MD]

Frayed Knot wrote: =G-Fafif post_id=19275 time=1566164115 user_id=55] Difference between today and MIL-WSH last night, from Keith's perspective, is Keith was doing this game.

And that it's a get-away day.

[ashie62]

Great game today. I give Gary Apple an A- in the pinch hitting role. He is easy on the ears and would guess he will improve when next called upon.



LGM

[Benjamin Grimm]

I don't know if it was commented on in this thread, but at one point Gary Apple seemed to be praising Brodie for being canny enough to not include Jeff McNeil in the Cano/Diaz deal. Yes, I'm glad McNeil wasn't included, but I wouldn't be inclined to praise a GM for not making a stupid awful deal more stupid and more awful.

[Lefty Specialist]

Gary Apple spent a week reminding me why I love Gary Cohen so much.

[bmfc1]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I don't know if it was commented on in this thread, but at one point Gary Apple seemed to be praising Brodie for being canny enough to not include Jeff McNeil in the Cano/Diaz deal. Yes, I'm glad McNeil wasn't included, but I wouldn't be inclined to praise a GM for not making a stupid awful deal more stupid and more awful.

100%.

[Benjamin Grimm]

http://potg.leaptoad.com/mets/images/schaefer30.jpg>



http://potg.leaptoad.com/mets/index.phpCast your vote!

[Centerfield]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I don't know if it was commented on in this thread, but at one point Gary Apple seemed to be praising Brodie for being canny enough to not include Jeff McNeil in the Cano/Diaz deal. Yes, I'm glad McNeil wasn't included, but I wouldn't be inclined to praise a GM for not making a stupid awful deal more stupid and more awful. 100%.

Gary Apple is a shill. Bad one.

[Edgy MD]

Grapple.



This was a fascinating game from an armchair manager perspective. We had good decisions that worked out, bad decisions that didn't work out, good decisions that didn't work out, and bad decisions that worked out.



To me, the J.D. Davis drama was all over the place.



a) J.D. has a strained calf.



But Mickey insists he's OK to pinch hit.



c) But Mickey doesn't have him at DH, which is kind of like pinch-hitting four times. Presumably Mickey is OK with him at the plate, but doesn't want him to run the bases.



d) Mickey instead puts his starting catcher at DH, which is defensible, except that his backup catcher is mired in a deep slump, and now you can't pitch hit for him in a tight spot without losing the DH.



e) And the emergency catcher is J.D. Davis, so that's right out.



f) Mickey has J.D. Davis pinch-hit, but when he reaches base, he totally forgets why Davis wasn't starting, and leaves him in to run the bases. (This was perhaps Mickey's most egregious boner since batting his players out of order.)



g) Davis tweaks (hopefully, just a tweak) his calf going from first to third.



h) Mickey, short on bats, long on athletic pitchers, puts Ruben Tejada in to run for Davis (after the calf is already out of the barn), which takes away the option to use Tejada as a pinch-hitter later in the inning, or whenever.



i) Kansas City can confidently put lefthander Richard Lovelady in to face Joe Panik in a pinch, knowing that pinch-hitter Tejada has been burned. He probably wouldn't have been used anyhow, but still.



j) The Royals' bullpen collapsed like a house of cards anyhow.