Off-Day Musings

[Centerfield]

What a terrific run this has been. I'm using this off-day to take a look back at how improbable it is that we are in this thing at all. Following the Mets loss to the Giants on August 19, the Mets were 2 games under .500. Our season was basically over. Check out the link to the standings on that date.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/games/standings.cgi?year=2016&month=8&day=19&submit=Submit+Date

We were 12.5 games behind Washington. St. Louis was in position for the second wild card, comfortably ahead of us by 5.5 games. Also ahead of us were Pittsburgh and Miami. Even Miami, the closest team, was 3 games ahead. San Francisco wasn't even in the picture, a distant 8 games ahead of us.

Then, Ryan and Stella visited the Baseball Hall of Fame.


Who needs Peru?

Since then, the Mets have gone 17-7. The best in all of baseball. Even better than the fucking Cubs. Meanwhile, our competition has basically imploded. SF, Miami and Pittsburgh have been 3 of the 4 worst teams in the league (Along with Philadelphia). They have gone 26-45 collectively for .366 winning percentage. Only St. Louis has kept it together, but even they have a losing record (11-13). Our competition has been outperformed by teams like Atlanta (12-12) and Milwaukee (13-12).

They've done this despite Cabrera and Cespedes continuing to be hobbled by their nagging injuries. We lost Walker (our best hitter not named Cespedes) to season ending surgery. deGrom and Matz went on the DL and have not yet returned. Flores was one of our best hitters last month but decided to ram his head into Pierzynski's shin guards. We even lost Justin Ruggiano. Jay Bruce, as noted elsewhere, sucks. Jon Niese sucked, and now is hurt. And of course, we are still missing Wright, and Duda, and Harvey, and Lagares. And shockingly Mejia's appeal has not yet been successful so his suspension remains in place.

And despite all of this falling our way, we are still only a half game up and in a dogfight that will probably come down to the last day of the season. But still, we are right in the thick of a pennant race in mid-September. Good stuff right?

Ten game homestand against the Twins, Braves and Phillies. Let's make some noise.

[Edgy MD]

Worth noting that James Loney hasn't hit much at all this whole run. It seems like six weeks without him. And I don't think he'll see another lefty all year except maybe by accident.

[Lefty Specialist]

It really is all waiting for them to grab.

But like every Met fan I'm haunted by the ghosts of Losing When We Should Have Won.

[Centerfield]

Edgy MD wrote: Worth noting that James Loney hasn't hit much at all this whole run. It seems like six weeks without him. And I don't think he'll see another lefty all year except maybe by accident.

To that end, I don't know why we haven't tried Jay Bruce at 1B and Conforto at RF. Conforto, I feel, has a better shot of getting hot than Loney, and as for Bruce, we should be trying everything including sacrificing a chicken.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Centerfield wrote: Edgy MD wrote: Worth noting that James Loney hasn't hit much at all this whole run. It seems like six weeks without him. And I don't think he'll see another lefty all year except maybe by accident. To that end, I don't know why we haven't tried Jay Bruce at 1B and Conforto at RF. Conforto, I feel, has a better shot of getting hot than Loney, and as for Bruce, we should be trying everything including sacrificing a chicken.

Excellent point. Also, is Doodoo coming back?

[Guest themetfairy]

Jim Breuer's Rant from August 11

At the time it was just venting, but perhaps he was prescient?

[Guest d'Kong76]

Card at Giants for four games... eeek.

[Chad ochoseis]

That's a good thing. The Mets should be able to pick up two games on at least one of them. And only one of them needs to be beaten out for a WC spot.

[Ceetar]

Chad Ochoseis wrote: That's a good thing. The Mets should be able to pick up two games on at least one of them. And only one of them needs to be beaten out for a WC spot.

I'm torn between wanting a sweep and wanting it settled versus wanting a split so the Mets can takeover the first spot.

[seawolf17]

Ceetar wrote: Chad Ochoseis wrote: That's a good thing. The Mets should be able to pick up two games on at least one of them. And only one of them needs to be beaten out for a WC spot. I'm torn between wanting a sweep and wanting it settled versus wanting a split so the Mets can takeover the first spot.

I'm here too. I think I'm rooting for sweep, because that's potentially a four-game swing.