Remember Arizona when Arizona was really Arizona? When Arizona was a welcoming oasis for Mets bats? Remember 14-1, 18-4 and 15-2? Those were scores by which the Mets pounded Diamondback pitching at Chase Field in 2005 and 2006. We didn’t always win by a ton but we always won when we visited the desert. We won thirteen consecutive games at one point. We won every series we played in Phoenix from 2004 through 2008. Hell, we swept in 2014 and took two out of three in 2013.
What happened, Mets? You used to love these trips. Now you act like your sinuses are too good for them.
Your bats aren’t, that’s for sure. Holy crap, it’s 1971 out there these nights. It’s great pitching and no hitting. It’s a bottom of the order whose worst hitter when Bartolo Colon is pitching isn’t necessarily Bartolo Colon. Bartolo Colon has learned how to hit. Ruben Tejada has remembered how to hit. Maybe somebody else puts lumber to horsehide in a meaningful manner once per evening — Cuddyer on Friday night, Lagares on Saturday — but that’s it.
Our fellas sometimes get on base but don’t come around. Nobody drives them home. Everybody hits into double plays. Everybody else lofts balls into the outfield. Don’t hit balls on the fly to Arizona outfielders. David Peralta, A.J. Pollock and Ender Inciarte cover three-thirds of the earth’s surface. Even water doesn’t seep through.
The Diamondbacks play good defense. Shall we use that as the excuse du jour? Chase Anderson and three relievers pitched pretty well. Shall we act as if they were impenetrable? The Mets suffer from multiple player injuries. Shall we pretend nobody informed those with personnel-procuring responsibility that major league teams should come equipped with a certain amount of depth? And while we’re making inquiries that ought to have obvious answers, can we ask the likes of Anthony Recker, Eric Campbell and latest mystery guest Danny Muno why they can’t maybe bust out once in a while considering they’re in the big leagues collecting big league meal money?
Colon pitched wonderfully. Colon hit professionally. Colon made one mistake. Colon lost. The Mets lost. Such outcomes seem to be recurring in the present, regardless of how wonderfully positioned we might be for the future.
Over the first sixteen games of 2015, the Mets’ winning percentage worked out to a full-season record of 131-31. Clearly, that was unsustainable. In the 41 games since, the Mets have played at a clip that would net them a full-season record of 67-95. It’s a larger sample and it’s more recent. It’s troubling. It’s not the stuff of good-pitch/no-hit 1971. It’s the stuff of no-chance 1980 (minus the Magic). It doesn’t have to represent the prevailing wind of the 64.8% of what remains of this year, but it sure does blow.
Is it too early in the season to start our annual “We Want Wally” campaign?
Why……is Wally going to bat and drive in runs?
It’s not fair to judge them on those 41 games. They’ve been decimated by injuries, and that’s not the fault of the Wilpons, Sandy Alderson, Terry Collins, or anyone else. It sucks, but what can anyone have done to prevent any of that?
In the bigger picture, the players they have needed to consolidate skills have all done that (both in the majors and in Las Vegas)…they are simply running out of major-league caliber hitters (which wasn’t a strong point to begin with). It’s fair to mention depth….that being said, it’s unreasonable to expect a young team that’s still developing to have half a damn team in reserve in case 14 guys go on the DL. That would stretch ANY team (look at the Nationals). They covered Mejia, they covered Wheeler, they covered Wright for a while, they covered d’Arnaud for a while, they covered Blevins, they covered Gee…that IS depth. Then you ask them to cover the guy who’s covering Wright, and cover Murphy, and find guys to cover the off days Cuddyer and now Flores need on top of that…there just aren’t enough roster spots to do all this.
It would be great to get those meaningful late-season games we all wish for (and we still can), but the short-term Metscape has changed since Opening Day, no one could have reasonably predicted that, and they deserve to be cut a little slack here.
“Then you ask them to cover the guy who’s covering Wright, and cover Murphy, and find guys to cover the off days Cuddyer and now Flores need on top of that…there just aren’t enough roster spots to do all this.”
Excellent point. Most MLB teams don’t have that depth either.
Swing by at 1 AM on consecutive nights and tell me this after 3 runs in 18 innings.
open the gates, I’ve been posting #FireTerryHireWally for a while and it’s not based on this season, but a body of incompetent work. When the Mets miss out on the playoffs by a couple of games this season, Totally Clueless will be among the reasons (along with a popgun lineup due to injuries and management’s apparent refusal to now fill gaps no team could’ve legitimately prepared for in the first place).
Five runs today, hope it’s enough.
Note the correlation between a Met corner outfielder getting multiple hits (in one game, to be clear) and victory. It’s uncanny. Seriously though, obviously injuries are a huge factor, but getting little-to-nothing out of your RF & LF offense-wise can be tough to overcome on a regular basis.
But a win is a win, plus they ditched that dopey “six-man rotation” nonsense before it ruined everything, so thumbs way up there. Despite some pretty galling losses and generally shoddy hitting, they’re sitting there in first place on June 8th. I can’t bitch about that too much, as sometimes they’re completely done by this point. So there’s that.
Yes Lenny65, it is nice to be in 1st place. But we all know this team as currently constituted can’t keep this up and even the return of d’Arnaud isn’t enough. This team needs a legit power hitting 3B and Wright is nowhere near returning if he returns at all this season. It’s on management at this point.
Anyone else wondering what happens if the Nationals actually make a trade to improve their team?
It’s a good thing you guys aren’t headline writers or today’s would read something like: “Campbell Error, deGrom’s Three Walks Not Enough to Undermine Mets Win – Nats Pass Mets to Take Over Second Place”
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