More Important Than Winning

[Centerfield]

Sure, it would be great if the Mets got back into it, but right now they are not realistically in any race. That's ok.

Here are things I'd like to see for the remainder of this year. If some of these things pan out, I'm ok with falling out of the race.

1. Play Lucas Duda against lefties. Let's see how he does. I want 30 HR's.

2. Play Flores at SS every day. We know what we have with Tejada. It's not much...even when it's "good" Tejada. Let's see what Flores can do.

3. Don't push DeGrom past his innings limit. Don't worry about his innings, because the Mets will...

4. Call up Noah Syndegaard. It's time. Throw him into the mix. Let him get the jitters out in a stress-free environment.

5. Wrest Wright. His shoulder seems to be bothering him. Let's give Campbell 2 weeks at third.

[TransMonk]

I'd like to see Montero back up in September as well if he is healthy.

[Edgy MD]

Maybe (he probably has an innings limit of his own).

But September will come soon enough. I see no reason to bail out now.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Wright is just having a terrible season. I wouldn't be surprised to see him go under the knife since playing through doesn't appear to be helping.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

-- Duda has been playing more against lefties, hasn't he?

-- I wouldn't mind getting Flores some run at second, too.

-- Let's open up the OF-- give me some Las Vegas-rakin' den Dekker and Nieuwenhuis sweet action. Learn more AND win more! ('Cause Lord knows, the Youngs aren't giving us much, no?)

-- I'd like Montero and Syndergaard up to take some of the innings-burden from deGrom AND some of the other barking arms (Niese, Gee). As to your motivations for bringing up the young, I don't think a semi-playoff-chase is exactly a stress-free environs... and I think that's bad for the kids, honestly. Moderate stress-- "let's win" versus "must-win"-- could be helpful in breaking them in, mebbe.

Edited August 4, 2014 by Guest

[Ceetar]

Edgy MD wrote: Maybe (he probably has an innings limit of his own). But September will come soon enough. I see no reason to bail out now.

this.

teams don't just 'give up' cause it looks dire. They're still an 8-2 stretch from climbing back in it anyway. Which they've done before.

[Guest d'Kong76]

Ceetar wrote: They're still an 8-2 stretch from climbing back in it anyway. Which they've done before.

YEAH![/bigpurple]

[Frayed Knot]

Centerfield wrote: Sure, it would be great if the Mets got back into it, but right now they are not realistically in any race. That's ok. Here are things I'd like to see for the remainder of this year. If some of these things pan out, I'm ok with falling out of the race. 1. Play Lucas Duda against lefties. Let's see how he does. I want 30 HR's. 2. Play Flores at SS every day. We know what we have with Tejada. It's not much...even when it's "good" Tejada. Let's see what Flores can do. 3. Don't push DeGrom past his innings limit. Don't worry about his innings, because the Mets will... 4. Call up Noah Syndegaard. It's time. Throw him into the mix. Let him get the jitters out in a stress-free environment. 5. Wrest Wright. His shoulder seems to be bothering him. Let's give Campbell 2 weeks at third.

So far, a quick check mark against #s 1 & 2 as in the last 24 hours or so the club has certainly implied that Duda will see more LHP (he's expected to start tonight vs Hamels) and that Flores will pretty much be the everyday SS.
But the thing is, moves like this have more to do with staying IN the race than passively opting out of it.


As far as the rest:

3 - no one has put a number on what a limit might be, but I suspect there probably will be a time when his starts either tail off, maybe via a 6-man rotation, or stop completely

4 - no earlier than September and maybe not even then. There's also HIS innings target to consider and possibly some 40-man roster issues

5 - who knows? Hard to tell what's causing his off-year/lack of power and it's not like we're ever going to get a straight answer on it.

[TransMonk]

Again, I think it is more likely that Montero will be the September call up than Syndergaard. Montero threw 155 innings in 2013 and has only thrown 80 this season due to being dinged up a couple of times. Noah tossed 117 innings last year and has already pitched 107 in 2014. Also, Montero has looked very good of late and is having a slightly better overall season than Syndergaard.

I believe that one of the benefits of keeping all of our pitching at the deadline means that we don't have to rush any of the young ones to the show. I'd like to see Noah get his ERA under 4 against AAA hitters before putting him in front of big leaguers.

[Edgy MD]

Solid reasoning. I wouldn't be surprised to see Montero actually arrive this week and bump out and injured Niese.

I don't think it's either/or though. Montero could get a stretch of a few weeks in the rotation, with Syndergaard getting a two-start looksee too.