Empire State Bullpen

[Edgy MD]

The below guys currently represent the relief pitchers on the Mets' active roster. To any semi-observant viewer, Seth Lugo is the top-ranked pitcher, by the manager, based on his usage patterns, and by probably by anyone else.



But it's not always clear how management would rank the remaining guys, how much faith the guys who have been failing still retain, how much faith the guys who might have succeeded once or twice have gained.



So, here is your assignment. Rank the Mets relievers as you see them, not necessarily based on their 2019 performance to date, but on how you would deploy them tonight if you were in charge (and everybody had equal rest and you don't know if lefties or righties are coming up and blah-blah-blah).



But let this ranking be done in the form of floor assignments on the Empire State Building. There are 102 stories. Jesse Orosco 1983 is up there on the 102nd floor and Manny Acosta 2012 is down on the bottom. In the lobby. On what floor would you place each reliever, starting with the highest?



Because there's so many in the pen and so much failure going around, it's hard to make distinctions. But distinctions must be made.



Luis Avilan

Tyler Bashlor

Brad Brach

Edwin Diaz

Jeurys Familia

Drew Gagnon

Walker Lockett

Seth Lugo

Chris Mazza

Paul Sewald

Justin Wilson

Daniel Zamora



[FIMG=600]https://aws-tiqets-cdn.imgix.net/images/content/1e74453a4d2c45f9becb39add27f2dff.jpg?auto=format&fit=crop&ixlib=python-1.1.2&q=25&s=b720cbf5ab86e1786ee7bd2a6b4f26be&w=400&h=320&dpr=2.625[/FIMG]

[seawolf17]

Okay, I'll play.



Justin Wilson is on floor 75. He's been a left-handed, short-timed equivalent of Lugo.

I'd let Walker Lockett in on floor 40. He pitched to six batters and got them all out the other night, and he looked strong out of the gate in his start at Wrigley. Maybe his stuff plays to the short gamne better.

Avilan has looked good recently. Put him on the 25th floor.

Take the Washington game out, and Sewald isn't as bad as the numbers say he is, so he's on floor 15.

Daniel Zamora, by benefit of his Seawolfiness, is on the 10th floor to get a lefty out if you've burned Avilan already.



The rest of them can sign autographs in the Rotunda during the game; we won't need their services. (Yes, that includes you, Edwin.)

[Edgy MD]

So they are on the ground floor in front of the elevators. Where is Lugo? 85?

[seawolf17]

No, they're not allowed in the building at all. They're out on the plaza. And yeah, let's throw Lugo around 85. That sounds right.

[Edgy MD]

I don't know. You're copping out of the ranking a bit there. I should have made it one per floor. The back end is where it gets interesting, because someday soon, the manager will have to call on one of those blokes to save the day.



I'm inordinately interested in how deployment is going to play out going forward, with backs to the wall. I'm not saying that Justin Wilson move last night was wrong (heck, it worked out), but it sure was surprising.



You really don't let Brad Brach on the elevator at all?

[seawolf17]

Fair enough. I guess if the game goes 26 innings or if Zamora gets run over by the bullpen cart or whatever.



85 Seth Lugo

75 Justin Wilson

50 Walker Lockett

40 Luis Avilan

25 Paul Sewald

20 Daniel Zamora

10 Brad Brach

5 Jeurys Familia

4 Tyler Bashlor

3 Drew Gagnon

2 Chris Mazza

1 Edwin Diaz

[Edgy MD]

Gagnon is interesting, because he had a terrific season in the minors this year but was ass awful in the big leagues.



That's even more true of Stephen Nogosek, who isn't currently with the team.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

What the Mets ought to be doing -- now and all the time -- is investing in guys who can be expected to set up an office on the upper floors and sign a reasonable three-year lease and leave them there till they need them over at the Chrysler Building, where the starters work, or in the NYSE, where they go to get traded profitably.



Instead they rent the penthouse to the most expensive guys at a loss and fill the rest of the roles with an army of entry-level numbnutses who come in off the subway, embarrass themselves during the Christmas Party, and do generally shit work that distracts the rest of the employees.

[LWFS]

I concur with my colleague directly above.



Still, let's work this team-building exercise:



89: Loogie

74: Wilson

34: Avilan

32: Brach

21: When you're aqui, you're Familia

19: Se-word and his weird Tom Brady "ice cream"

17: Zamora

9: Mazza

8: Edwin Diaz, but he's locked in a closet, and if he can get himself out, he wins a promotion to the 40th

6: Lockett

Sub-basement 2: Bashlor

Poured into a suspiciously-colored patch of cement in sub-basement 3: Drew Gagnon

[Edgy MD]

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: What the Mets ought to be doing -- now and all the time -- is investing in guys who can be expected to set up an office on the upper floors and sign a reasonable three-year lease and leave them there till they need them over at the Chrysler Building, where the starters work, or in the NYSE, where they go to get traded profitably. Instead they rent the penthouse to the most expensive guys at a loss and fill the rest of the roles with an army of entry-level numbnutses who come in off the subway, embarrass themselves during the Christmas Party, and do generally shit work that distracts the rest of the employees.

If extended metaphors were measured in Watts, this post could power the Empire State Building.

[Edgy MD]

I did it with a formula. You guys are right about how many of these guys haven't earned their way out of the basement, but I stuck to my own rules and made the first floor the lowest rating.



My cold numbers are a lot more bearish than the ratings so far, but interestingly, more bullish on Diaz. That's mostly a product of not weighing recent results heavier than results earlier in the season.



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8) Daniel Zamora

7) Paul Sewald

6) Brad Brach

5) Jeurys Familia

4) Walker Lockett

3) Tyler Bashlor

2) Chris Mazza

1) Drew Gagnon

[LWFS]

Thing is, even DIAZ thinks he sucks right now. It's evident when he's on the mound, struggling to locate. It's evident when he gives up a home run, in the unsurprised way he greets the moment. It's evident in the post game interviews, where he just looks beaten. It's evident all over the damn building, fam.

[Edgy MD]

I was surprised at how far apart Familia and Diaz fell. But at least Diaz had April.

[smg58]

Diaz and Familia are running the falafel cart outside.

[nymr83]

90 Seth Lugo

70 Justin Wilson

30 Luis Avilan

7 Brad Brach

6 Paul Sewald

5 Walker Lockett

4 Chris Mazza

3 Tyler Bashlor

2 Daniel Zamora

lobby - Drew Gagnon

basement - Edwin Diaz

indian burial ground beneath the basement - Jeurys Familia

[Lefty Specialist]

I'd put everyone besides Lugo, Wilson and Avilan in the building and lock the doors.