Centerfield

I’m guessing they’ll fire coaches. But honestly how can they not. The offense, while featuring some good individual seasons, underperformed collectively. The pitching was a question mark coming in. But how they performed was so much worse than anyone could imagine. If you can’t fire these coaches you can’t fire anyone. But beyond that, this team played such bad baseball you almost have to fire the manager. Bringing him back is a tacit acceptance of the terrible play. Baty getting picked off twice. Mullins not running. The errors. The inability to work with Pete on his throwing. The team playing tight. All the intangibles were a mess. And then. The decisions themselves. How many games that were punted by Mendoza. For most of the freefall, he managed like he’d be able to turn things around tomorrow. And changed nothing even as he ran out of tomorrows.

Mendy coming back suggests to me a complete lack of accountability. The same attitude that allowed this mess to fester for four months.

I don’t know about you but I feel like today would be a great day for the Reds starter to give up 6 and get knocked out in the first.

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.

Three outs to save their season.

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

Just checking in. Did Mendoza really pitch Stanek? Fucking ridiculous. Fire him now. A fitting end to this terrible year.

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.

Missed a good one it seems. Clay Holmes playing the role of John Maine. Except unlike 2007 this collapse can end with a Mets win.

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.

I'll miss this game today. Hoping to check in after and see the Mets still alive.

I get the feeling that Mauricio, in the short time I've seen him, is just not a smart player.

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.

My feeling was the Mets could afford themselves one loss, in all likelihood. Have to win the next two and hope for the best. It's just. We have no pitchers for the next two games.

It might just be the frustration speaking. But I'm thinking I won't miss this 2025 team at all. Just a miserable year. Some good pieces here for sure. But I don't know how you fix the cloud that is sitting over this team.

Awful at bat. That's been him all September.