IGT 4/15/17 Mets @ Fish

[batmagadanleadoff]

Terry Collins responds to your gripes:

http://nypost.com/2017/04/15/jacob-degroms-gem-wasted-as-mets-bullpen-implodes/

excerpt:

Should Collins have left in deGrom, who matched a career high with 13 strikeouts over seven innings consisting of 97 pitches? Collins said it wasn’t an option. “I don’t know how many times we have to say that right now we have made a commitment to take care of these guys and not overdo it,” Collins said. “It’s easy to second guess when you blow a save — we could have run Jake out there. We have three pitchers that are coming off surgery. If Jake goes out there and he gets in trouble, the immediate thing is, ‘Why didn’t you take him out?’ I want to protect these guys. “Jake was basically at 100 pitches, he was pitching great, that’s enough. Fernando Salas has done nothing but put up zeroes, so we went with that.” Collins also defended his decision not to use lefty Jerry Blevins, who had pitched four times in the previous five games, to face Yelich. “We tried to avoid that,” Collins said. “[salas] has gotten lefties out, he’s gotten righties out. It’s just one of those nights.” The loss was the first the Mets could perhaps tie to Jeurys Familia’s 15-game suspension for violating MLB’s domestic violence policy. Familia, who pitched in a minor league game Saturday for Single-A St. Lucie, will not return before Thursday. “I don’t even think about that,” Collins said. “You go with who you’ve got. We’ve played very well and gotten the job done with the guys we have got down there. Tonight it didn’t work.” For a second straight night, general manager Sandy Alderson, clearly disgusted, was seen stalking around the clubhouse after his bullpen folded. On Friday, lefty Josh Edgin surrendered a run in the ninth in the Mets’ 3-2 loss. Salas, who hadn’t allowed an earned run in his previous seven appearances, walked Miguel Rojas with two outs in the eighth. Yelich then unloaded into the right-field seats before Stanton launched a shot into the shrubbery behind the center-field fences. But Salas, who pitched two shutout innings for the Mets on Thursday in their 16-inning victory, insisted fatigue was not an issue. “I feel bad for the team because they played hard every inning,” Salas said. DeGrom’s pitches were as elusive as the Easter Bunny, but had just as much hop for most of the game. The righty matched a career high with 13 strikeouts on a night he allowed only four hits and one walk over seven innings. But two of those hits were homers — back-to-back shots by Justin Bour and Marcell Ozuna in the second — accounting for the Marlins’ two runs against him. “I was battling mechanics all night, but I was able to make pitches,” deGrom said. “Early on those were two bad pitches.” And the stud righty said he had no problem with Collins’ decision to remove him after the seventh. “I kind of figured I was done after that inning,” he said. “It’s early in the season and off of surgery I had a feeling I was going to be done. “The goal is to be able to pitch all year, and I wasn’t able to do that last year. Salas has done a great job for us, he did a great job for us last year. It was a rough inning for him and that is rare that it happens. I felt very comfortable handing the ball over to the guys in the bullpen.”

[Guest cooby]

Those guys behind home plate were weird

[Edgy MD]

Eventually you have to think beyond protection mode. You want to protect everybody, which means a willingness to put games on the line not with the guy who is most able, but with the guy who is most disposable.

That's counter-competitive. Certainly not what I'm hoping to see.

[Benjamin Grimm]