Everything's Coming Up Mets

[batmagadanleadoff]

The Mets are the lead story in this week's Grantland's 30.

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The 30: Who Did the Mets Sacrifice to the Schedule-Making Gods?

We�re eight days away from September, and so in keeping with a now-annual tradition, we�re about to get an onslaught of games between division rivals. Not a fan? Thank the dramatically unbalanced schedules meant to foster division rivalries. But for better or worse, the deluge of divisional games means that plenty of teams, both good and bad, are especially well-positioned to have an outsize effect on the shape of the standings over the final month. [***] Downright Offensive Already equipped with one of the best staffs in the game, the Mets� hitters have started to cook. 15. Tampa Bay Rays (62-62, minus-14, LW: 15) 14. Washington Nationals (62-61, plus-21, LW: 13) 13. Los Angeles Angels (63-61, minus-2, LW: 12) 12. Baltimore Orioles (62-61, plus-54, LW: 11) 11. Texas Rangers (64-59, minus-23, LW: 14) 10. San Francisco Giants (66-58, plus-62, LW: 10) 9. Los Angeles Dodgers (67-56, plus-51, LW: 6) 8. New York Mets (67-56, plus-37, LW: 9) We knew they would pitch. With Matt Harvey returning from Tommy John surgery, Jacob deGrom following up his rookie of the year season, flame-throwing righty Noah Syndergaard joining the parade, and veteran help from Jon Niese and Bartolo Colon, the Mets figured to field one of the league�s most impressive starting rotations in 2015. What we didn�t know is if they would hit. For the first three and a half months of the season, they mostly didn�t. David Wright�s injury, underachieving results from several of his teammates, and a core of hitters that just wasn�t all that good left the Mets only one game over .500 on July 24 and three games out of first place. Oh, how times have changed. In the past 30 days, the Mets lead the National League in doubles, runs scored, and slugging; they�re also second in home runs and third in park-adjusted offense. With the bats matching the strength of the arms, everything�s trending in the right direction: The Mets now sit a season-high 11 games over .500 and lead the East by five games. That turnaround starts with Yoenis Cespedes. Acquired in a deal with the Tigers right before the trade deadline during one of the wildest weeks in franchise history, Cespedes has hit a ton as a Met, batting .307/.344/.545 in 20 games. Compare those numbers to Carlos Gomez�s .188/.226/.250 line so far as an Astro, and the Mets might have caught a colossal break. By the time Cespedes crushed three homers Friday night at Coors Field, the complaints of fans and media over GM Sandy Alderson�s supposed lack of action were a distant memory. Beyond Cespedes and summer call-up Michael Conforto (.271/.371/.508 over those past 30 days), the same players that made up that moribund offense from early April to late July have woken up. During the past month, Daniel Murphy�s hitting over .300 and slugging better than .500. Curtis Granderson�s clubbed eight homers. Lucas Duda�s slugging a ludicrous .720. And Wilmer Flores has carried on his newfound folk-hero status, batting .324/.361/.500. Wright returns today, and although his loss once seemed like it�d be the end of the team�s playoff hopes, he instead rejoins a club that went 62-53 without him. But even with their captain back, the Mets still have some roster uncertainty on their hands. First, Duda hit the disabled list over the weekend. The Mets� best full-season hitter this year, Duda�s absence leaves them short a big left-handed bat and forces Murphy to another position he�s ill-suited to play. Over at Mets blog Amazin� Avenue, Kevin Palermo suggests that the best option for the Mets is to deploy platoons all over the diamond, and he�s probably right. Second, the rotation is going through some flux. The Mets skipped Harvey�s turn in the rotation Sunday. That was just the first salvo in what will be an interesting innings-saving experiment for the rest of the season, as the team tries to manage the workloads of Harvey and Syndergaard (and possibly deGrom, too) while not dropping out of first. Those efforts will be aided by Steven Matz hopefully rejoining the rotation on September 5, and the Mets subsequently going to a six-man rotation again, but this time with the intention of sticking with it for a few weeks. Despite those concerns, the Mets still have that cushy five-game lead, and the Nationals have shown few signs of playing the way most of us expected this year. Plus, New York owns the easiest remaining schedule in baseball, as its rest-of-season opponents sport an aggregate winning percentage of just .440.5 And as we saw yesterday, maybe this really just is the Mets� year: After the first two games of the weekend series ended with identical 14-9 scorelines, rookie Logan Verrett made his first major league start � at Coors Field. He threw eight innings, giving up just one run on four hits and striking out eight.

[Farmer Ted]

We knew they would pitch. But did we know they would pitch and hit, too?

You know I have a man-crush on Terry Collins. Don't get me started when he plugs the pitcher into the 8th spot. Holy hell I go crazy for Terry when he does that shit.

And he CAN do it because the hitting expertise employed by this pitching staff is crazy above-average. 39 hits (27 total in '14), 22 RBIs (12 total in '14), and 8 extra base hits (5 total in '14). You simply can't pitch around anyone in this lineup. Not since Niese-Santana-Dickey-Pelfrey have we seen this kind of a hitting onslaught from the pitching staff.

They're all hacking out there. All of 'em. Freaking Terry's a genius.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Farmer Ted wrote: They're all hacking out there. All of 'em. Freaking Terry's a genius.

I've come around to really like Terry Collins. He's not the best tactician out there, or even among the best Mets managers tactics-wise. His bullpen usage drives me crazy -- but you know what? -- so would the bullpen usage of just about every other manager out there. But I dig Collins's feistiness. And I root for him because he's an underdog, dealt a terrible hand --- playing out his entire tenure under the foregone conclusion that he'd be gone as soon as the Mets turned the corner. You think he likes that? What major league manager wants to be a placeholder? But the Mets poverty might've been the silver lining in Collins's cloud: he's probably still here only because of the Mets embarrassing financial situation. But he's survived the whole Madoff lolMets era, the low point, perhaps on that fiasco of a recent evening when he was left in the dark and kept Flores in the game even though the Mets had "traded" Flores. And when he's in a good mood, he's got one of the best smiles on the team. Really.

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Edited August 24, 2015 by Guest

[TransMonk]

I'm Collins-neutral. But that is a step up from where I was on him just a few weeks ago and at the beginning of the season.

I'm glad he's getting the chance to compete after years of rarely having a full roster to work with.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I'm pretty neutral on him too. I won't be upset if he doesn't come back next year (although I think he probably will) and I won't be upset if he does.

I do agree with this, however:

batmagadanleadoff wrote: His bullpen usage drives me crazy -- but you know what? -- so would the bullpen usage of just about every other manager out there.

[Lefty Specialist]

Collins was the guy they chose to keep the lights on and not make a fuss with Sandy or the Wilpons. It's a task he's performed admirably.

I've had a lot of issues with playing favorites and bullpen management and such, but one thing has always been a constant throughout his tenure- the players play hard for him. It's not anything you can quantify in a box score, but seeing how Jose Reyes dogged it this weekend, you can feel what that can bring to a ballclub. Players seem to like Terry Collins. And most of the time, face it, the ghost of John McGraw couldn't have won with the cast of misfit toys he was saddled with.

If they make the playoffs he's probably back. Hell, if they make the playoffs, he's probably in the running for manager of the year.

[Benjamin Grimm]

There have been times when the team has looked pretty dead. There was one year (last year, maybe, or 2013) on or around Father's Day when I heard him sounding so defeated I was sure he was about to be fired. Of course, the Mets recovered from whatever that was. I'm pretty sure Terry comes back unless the season ends in a humiliating collapse. (And that kind of thing never happens, does it?)

[Ceetar]

I could see Terry 'retiring' after a WS victory, but I think that's the most likely outcome.

I'm excited to see how he manages in the playoffs or if this race actually gets close in late September.

[Frayed Knot]

btw, 15-8 if you start counting with that cock-punch 'Upton game' in the rain - and seven of those eight losses have been either in extra innings (twice) and/or by one run. IOW, they've been in every game.
Only in the final game during the Pittsburgh sweep did we get blown out (8-1) and even that game was tied in the 7th.

While most of the wins during that same stretch have been a bit less dicey:
1 run = 3 times
2 runs = 3
3 runs = 2
4 runs = 3
5 runs = 2
6 or more = 2

[G-Fafif]

Terry: the guy from work who sometimes you roll your eyes at as he leaves, sometimes you think he's not so bad -- he may even kind of know what he's doing.

In real life guys like that aren't replaced every time they do something you disagree with. They stick around and after five years maybe they get mentioned in an anniversary recognition ceremony if the company's big enough or acknowledged with a piece of cake if the company's friendly enough. At this company, a ring might be in order.

[Zvon]

As you may have noticed by now I pretty much back up any manager we have. Sometimes they can put themselves on the fence but they'd really have to fuck up to fall on the "fire him!" side. I think the last manager I totally trashed was Howe and that took awhile before I could see he did not fit in well. Collins I like on a few levels and I hope regardless of how this season ends he is able to return.

Mostly I figure what's the use of complaining. Managers have decisions to make and sometimes they are right, and sometimes wrong. Like many here TCs late inning pen moves, or more so removing the starter for the pen, like yesterday with Verrett, I don't agree with, but I understand that's what they do these days. I just read an excellent interview with Jon Matlack on facebook and when asked to compare today's baseball with the game in his day he said,"Today's game seems to me to be fantasy baseball on the field."

[Edgy MD]

That's a forgotten story: Some video of a guy sitting alone in his section talking to a Mister Met hand puppet, if I recall correctly.

[Zvon]

That's a forgotten story: Some video of a guy sitting alone in his section talking to a Mister Met hand puppet, if I recall correctly.

I believe you do.

I thought we'd do the puppet thing all season but it puttered out pretty fast. I bet I have some I never even posted. Here's 7 of em and I have at least 20 in a folder.



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[Fman99]

Edgy MD wrote: That's a forgotten story: Some video of a guy sitting alone in his section talking to a Mister Met hand puppet, if I recall correctly.

It was a guy I spotted in the upper deck at Citi Field, sometime in 2012-ish, talking to a Mr. Met hand puppet in very hushed tones. I managed to snap a photo of him as well.

He had a CPF alias here for a spell, if I recall. I hope he comes back to enjoy the Mets this year (comes back to the Citi, that is, and his alias returning to the CPF to whisper sweet nothings to his mascot-anus-lovin-hand).

Edited August 24, 2015 by Guest

[Fman99]

Here he is!

[Edgy MD]

2012. My hero for a while there.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

G-Fafif wrote: Terry: the guy from work who sometimes you roll your eyes at as he leaves, sometimes you think he's not so bad -- he may even kind of know what he's doing. In real life guys like that aren't replaced every time they do something you disagree with. They stick around and after five years maybe they get mentioned in an anniversary recognition ceremony if the company's big enough or acknowledged with a piece of cake if the company's friendly enough. At this company, a ring might be in order.

I was about to post something along these lines, only less, y'know, dead-on. There you go. Terry's got a nice smile, and the guys seem to like him, mostly, and the guys who don't are guys who you probably don't want working for you for long, right?

In dark times, I sometimes wonder whether Gil would've ended up as this guy, had he lived a bit longer.

[Edgy MD]

I don't know. Terry's a small man in a land of giants and has to force himself upon people. Gil was probably as big as anybody in the room well after his career ended, and he was a self-assured marine. He had gravitational force that Terry perhaps never could have. And a moral authority along with it.

I only know from reading, but I got the idea that, when Gil emerged from the dugout, the umpires thought, "Uh, oh, what did I do wrong now?"

The John Wayne of Brooklyn. Terry's more of an Alan Ladd.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Or Mickey Rooney.

[Edgy MD]

Hey, let's be fair. We all know Tommy Lasorda is the Mickey Rooney of managers.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Okay, how about Ron Carey?

[Edgy MD]

We're going for Western hero analogies here, man.

[Benjamin Grimm]

[batmagadanleadoff]

We're gonna need a bigger bandwagon if this amazingness continues.

Even ex-Braves star Chipper Jones is a Mets fan now

PHILADELPHIA -- Protect yourself and stock up on canned goods because Chipper Jones just might be rooting for the Mets right now. How weird is that to see? The former Braves star, future Hall of Famer, and target of Mets fan ire is seemingly cheering on the team he beat up all those years. The return of David Wright seems to have won him over. At least according to his tweet Tuesday night. See for yourself. And if it's true, who would have thought such a thing could happen from the guy who named his kid Shea because he liked tormenting the Mets so much. Chipper Jones ? @RealCJ10 Good to see David Wright back off the DL. Division leading Mets getting stronger. Hope Captain America enjoys the stretch run. U deserve it! 10:19 PM - 24 Aug 2015

http://www.nj.com/mets/index.ssf/2015/08/even_ex-braves_star_chipper_jones_is_a_mets_fan_no.html

[Theoldmole]

[Lefty Specialist]

I never had a problem with Chipper. He was an honest competitor and wasn't a jerk about it, he just went out there and beat them, repeatedly. He reveled in the 'Larrrrrrry' calls he was serenaded with.

And hey, with the Braves falling off the planet, he's got to root for SOMEBODY.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I never had a problem with Chipper either. If he's seen the light and wants to be a Mets fan, then he's more than welcome. (Invite him to the forum NOW!)

He named his kid after Shea Stadium! Tom Seaver named his girls "Anne" and "Sarah". What the hell kinds of names are those?

[metsmarathon]

he named hte kid shea because he loved playing at shea stadium and enjoyed great succes there, hence his love for hte facility. and presumably the energy that mets fans filled it with, but who knows. i think it's mostly for his successes there.


but he didn't name his kid shea to torment mets fans. if he did, the kid would've been named 'armando benitez'.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Chip's a dumb jock but always been OK in my book.

[Benjamin Grimm]