Centerfield

I never want to see Carlos Mendoza put in some ******** reliever in a winnable game, then watch him struggle, then run him out there for a second inning effectively punting the game. The Zach Pop Phenomenon. There are lots of games you can look back on this year. But one that may be forgotten is the July 18 game against the Reds. The first one out of the break. Manaea goes 4 IP, 1 run. Mets leading 2-1. With a completely rested pen, Mendoza goes to Alex Carillo. Who immediately gives up the lead. HBP. HR. Trailing 3-2, Mendoza then gives him a second inning effectively punting. Where he proceeds to give up another HR. Then a walk. Then a wild pitch. Then yet another HR. Finally pulling him when it’s 6-2. An inning and a third. Three HR. 5 runs. Then he goes to Brandon Waddell, who gives up another 2 runs. Again, this is the first game out of the break with a completely rested pen. The Mets closed to 8-4. But it was too little too late. I get that it’s on the players. And it definitely is. But it’s also hard to overcome a manager that is effectively saying “eh, we’ll get ‘em tomorrow” in a one run game in the 6th. In this case, they didn’t get ‘em tomorrow. They lost to the Reds the next day too. And now the Reds are tied with us in game 162 with the tiebreaker. For too long the players played, and Mendoza managed, like the post season was a given. And now we’re paying the price.

Strained oblique is several weeks minimum. Rest up Brett. He’s arrived.

I’m trying not to buy into the theory that the other playoff teams want the Mets out. But 0-7 by the Cubs and Brewers would be something.

If the Reds close it out today, they will have won 9 of their final 11 games. Their pitching has been great. In none of these games have they allowed more than 4 runs.

Brewers are starting someone named Robert Gasser. One appearance this year. 6.00 ERA. They’re mailing it in.

So here’s the big question for David Stearns. What do you do about the starting rotation that was ranked 18th in ERA and 26th in WHIP? The staff that collapsed in the second half. You run it back of course! I don’t know. Probably not. But most of these guys are signed for next year. Holmes, Peterson, Senga and Manaea are all back. Maybe you trade one? They’re not high on Senga. But he’s also a guy that can pitch like a #2 when right. And his salary is only $13M. Holmes could always be moved to the pen, but he’s been the best of the bunch. Then you have the young guys. McLean has done enough to start the year in the bigs. I think Sproat too. Tong should go to Syracuse until his secondaries are refined. And who knows what we’ll get from Christian Scott. Montas is a sunk cost. Good riddance. And Megill is out until 2027. I think you need an anchor. Whether that’s Sandy Alcantara, or Dylan Cease, I don’t know. But I feel like you need some dependability in this staff. I was ready to go all in for Michael King, but he has an issue with a thoracic nerve. Super risky. One thing we absolutely cannot do is commit multiple years to some hack like Frankie Montas and hope that our ******** pitching lab can fix him. I hope that idea has been put to bed. I’m sure there will be a low risk flyer too. The 2026 Griffin Canning.

But mainly I never want to see Carlos Mendoza again. ****** uninspired baseball for 4 months. They somehow played tight and sloppy. Bad in game decisions. Never ever give me another post game interview about how they’re too talented and have to grind it out.

I never want to hear about the ******** pitching lab again. Wow was that a ****ing fraud. ERA 18th in baseball. 24th in the second half. We knew the pitching was a question mark coming in. It ended up being so much worse than we could have imagined. How can you have that many guys perform below expectations. The entire protected rotation. Manaea. Peterson. Senga. Montas. Montas came in with low expectations and managed to somehow do even worse. How do you end up with your top 3 being unpitchable by September. Holmes is the only one that was ok. And even he has a 4+ ERA in the second half. All of the deadline relievers pitched worse here than they did for their old teams. Absolute ****ing disaster.

Diaz is 31. While the back of that contract may not look great, you figure he has 2-3 years left of his prime. Between Diaz, Raley, and Minter, you have the building blocks for a decent pen. Brazoban (didn’t realize he wasn’t a FA) and Smith are ok low leverage guys. But they’ll need to do a lot better. Maybe the kid Ross can be something. Though I hear he’s wild. I get that good relievers are hard to find but for now I’d be happy with different faces.

If that’s the effort the Brewers are giving this weekend then it’s over.

I never want to see Cedric Mullins again.

Brewers 3 hits. Mailing it in.

In fact this whole bullpen besides Raley and Diaz can go. No more Stanek. Or Brazoban. Reed Garrett is getting TJ surgery so he’s gone anyway. Helsley. I’m glad you figured it out. Too bad you sucked when we actually needed you to be good. Rogers I guess was ok. But he coughed up a few games early when we could have stopped this bleeding. Plus he’s goofy as **** and throws weird. Get him outta here too.

If there’s a silver lining to this **** season ending Sunday, I’m glad I’ll never have to see Mendoza pull a starter early and put in Soto to let all the runners score and light the game on fire. And then watch him do it again ma few days later. Wishful thinking is that Mendoza will be gone. But just not seeing Soto anymore will be something.

Mathematicians! With the DBacks losing our odds must be better now, yes?

The Reds' starting pitching is the real deal. Even beyond Hunter Greene, they get a well pitched game seemingly every night.

A sweep was going to be a tall order. Mets are just going to have to win themselves.

Reds and Pirates underway. 0-0 in the 2nd inning. If you had told me before the series that the Pirates would take 2 of 3 I would have been thrilled. But dammit that's thinking small! Go Bucs!!!

Maybe what went wrong in 2025 is as simple as this. Mets Team ERA by Month: March: 2.38 (4th) Record: 2-2 April: 2.68 (2nd) Record: 19-8 May: 3.08 (3rd) Record: 15-12 June: 4.80 (27th) Record: 12-15 July: 3.99 (12th) Record: 14-10 August: 4.97 (25th) Record: 11-17 September: 5.14 (26th) Record: 8-13 I hope the Mets are able to figure out how the pitching could implode to this level. Senga, Peterson and Manaea were all #2 level starters. All three are now unpitchable. Frankie Montas had the worst season of his career. Yes, it's on the players, it always is. But when an entire staff implodes, you have to look at the organization.

Awful.

You guys are mathin at a level that makes my head hurt. Simpler math. 0-0, through 3.

The West divisions in this proposal here are across three time zones (and in most every other proposal, to be fair). It’s part of why we know Manfred is full of it when he talks about travel. There aren’t enough teams in the Pacific/Mountain time zones, so there are always going to be theee-time-zone divisions. Maybe if they award expansion franchises to both Portland and Salt Lake City that changes the balance enough, but as Ben Grimm flagged, it seems likely that Raleigh/Charlotte/Nashville gets one of the new teams. So yes, sloppy wording. All WC and DS are played as close to your time zone as possible, and against teams within your division. My proposal is designed to: (a) satisfy Manfred's gripes about a Dodgers-Mets Wild Card Series ( maintain the leagues and traditional rivalries © restore meaning to division titles Manfred can certainly scrap the AL/NL and go completely geographically. But the only round of playoffs that would affect is the LCS. And you figure the LCS is important enough that fans would watch anyway. That small bump in viewership hardly seems worth it to scrap 150 years of tradition. But what the hell do I know.

I’ve been unimpressed with Siri overall, but it’s only been 36 plate appearances, and he’s shown elite speed and plays good defense. Seems hasty to determine that he needs to go. He is gone.

I see the problem. I just misnumbered. Tigers have been reinstated!

Wait. I did something wrong. There's 30 teams right? I must have listed a team twice.