The long story:
Conforto playing like we hoped he would. Conforto playing like he did in April 2016. Let's see what May brings.
Bruce has been awesome! He is streaky, so it probably won't last.
I love Yo. He can do no wrong in my eyes. He gets picked off second, or botches a play in the outfield, my response is "Yo's awesome. Anyone else and I would be flipping out." Yo has been injury prone. See you Memorial Day.
I love Asdrubal, but he's been eh. He tends to be up and down from year to year. Looking more down than up thus far.
Duda's streaky like Bruce. When he plays, he can wreak a game. When he plays. He also walks. And looks like he never held a bat when he's not streaking.
Walker has been disappointing thus far. Rumors say that he's unhappy with his one year contract. For $17M. Coming off back surgery. Please somebody insult me like this. If the rumor is true, then he's just ridiculous.
Not a lot of offense from the backstops. I can live with Rivera because of his D, not with d'Arnaud and his lack of it.
Beneath the Mendoza line:
Wilmer - love him, can't hit righties.
Lagares - lost his swing
Granderson - was a fan even when he wore the pinstripes. Looks terrible. Opening the utensil drawer?
Reyes - was not thrilled when they brought him back last year, but was pleasantly surprised. Disappointed now, believe his lady love's request for an additional 30k/month is messing up his head. Insert fork?
Pitching:
Thor - delivering as advertised. Now arm issues - given recent team history, I am not confident.
DeGrom - The Man! Throws too many pitches early in the game. Coming off surgery.
Harvey - now Bruce Wayne. Still think he can be a good pitcher. Coming off surgery.
Wheeler - shows glimpses. Coming off surgery.
Gsellman - strikes out a lot of guys. The others score. Disappointing. Coming off surgery (but non-throwing arm).
Steven Matz - Southpaw Missing. Still Mending. Sorrowful Mets. Sad Met fans - Sado Masochists. Feel free to add your own here. Coming off surgery.
Lugo - have we hit the point where we are hoping he can get back asap? Sheesh.
Bullpen - looked good early, burned out already. Lots of frequent flier miles to be racked up between here and Vegas.
Coaching staff - Collins to blame for directly above. Sherlock coaching third makes me miss TT, who I thought was terrible.
Defense - sloppy second innngs. And other innings as well. Apparently getting fielding tips watching third graders in Little League.
Uniforms - hate the orange squatchee on the cap, it should be blue. Glad Mr Met is off the sleeve.
Crybaby fans - I loved Murph. I wasn't too upset that he was not resigned. Nobody saw him turning out this good (and don't go on about the playoffs, he hit a buck fifty against KC). Still can't field consistently. Only better than Jay Payton on the base paths.
Miscellaneous - Ahmed Rosario killing it for the 51's, so the Mets brought up Matt Reynolds. Dominic Smith also putting up numbers. We also have a world class athlete down in the lower regions of A ball who raised his batting average about 90 points in the last week, dare we think of him as our savi... nah, not going there.
From this crybaby fan, Murphy was the Mets toughest out in the clutch BEFORE he became one of the best hitters in baseball and was their only remotely consistent hitter. He absolutely carried the Mets through the early rounds of the playoffs but let's let him go because he finally cooled off. And to say nobody saw him being this good, obviously, Keven Long did and, oh, he only worked for the Mets. Meanwhile let's stack the lineup with .180 hitters because they MIGHT hit a home run now and then. And to prove what a great baseball organization we are, just for kicks, let's baby all our pitchers because thats what will keep them healthy. Oh, wait, less innings means MORE injuries, you mean all that evidence from decades of baseball that there was little or no correlation between innings pitched and injuries is actually RIGHT??
One last thought, people disagree, just because you were ok with the Mets letting Murphy walk doesn't mean others can't disagree, and as long as we are throwing out insults, who proved to be right on that Einstein? I complained about it VERY early in 2016, way before Murphy showed what he had become.
Murphy was the Mets toughest out in the clutch BEFORE he became one of the best hitters in baseball and was their only remotely consistent hitter.
We agree on this point, see my reply to Andrew2
He absolutely carried the Mets through the early rounds of the playoffs but let's let him go because he finally cooled off.
No disputing his epic NL playoff run.
And to say nobody saw him being this good, obviously, Keven Long did and, oh, he only worked for the Mets.
No baseball executives saw him being this good. And Kevin Long, did he alert Met brass? If so, it's on Sandy. If not, it's on him.
Meanwhile let's stack the lineup with .180 hitters because they MIGHT hit a home run now and then.
I covered this in my initial post, reference "Mendoza Line". The Mets are a lousy offensive team, and have been for years. In Game 5 of the 2015 WS, the announcers said "For the Mets to win, they need a home run. For the Royals to win, they need a baserunner". Paging Kevin Long...
And to prove what a great baseball organization we are, just for kicks
You want to bash the organization? I am down with that! From ownership (Madoff, still paying Bobby Bo, too much Dodger stuff at new Shea) to the strength and conditioning coach (no strength or conditioning on the team), we need to block out several hours to cover this. Also, please see my Ahmed Rosario reference under "Miscellaneous"
let's baby all our pitchers because thats what will keep them healthy. Oh, wait, less innings means MORE injuries, you mean all that evidence from decades of baseball that there was little or no correlation between innings pitched and injuries is actually RIGHT??
I recall mentioning Met pitching injuries once or twice times thrice in my original post
One last thought, people disagree, just because you were ok with the Mets letting Murphy walk doesn't mean others can't disagree
Please see my initial paragraph in my response to Andrew2. My handle isn't "Cal Berkeley", I in no way tried to stifle any debate. As far as how serious I take dissention to my POV on this topic, please see my second sentence in the aforementioned paargraph.
and as long as we are throwing out insults, who proved to be right on that Einstein?
Did you really take offense to "crybaby"? I know this is far from your first Flushing rodeo, cowboy, and we've all been through more crushing Mets-administered disappointment than 2017 and .340 Murph (2008, 2007, Yadier, Piazza flying out to Bernie, Young Guns, Mike Scioscia, Tim Leary, good bye Franchise, etc). And it was not directed at anybody in particular (can you say the same? BTW, I took no offense) - now if I started it with "Boeheim-esque fans", well, them's fightin' words! As far as being right, I never claimed it was the right move (certainly wasn't in retrospect), merely the reaons why things shook out as they did, that it's been a year, and it's time to move on.
I complained about it VERY early in 2016, way before Murphy showed what he had become
I will take your word for that, no questions asked. I know people who felt exactly the same. My point was that no baseball execs did, otherwise he wouldn't have been on the market as long as he was. And I can argue that Murph didn't feel the way you did, otherwise he would have taken the Mets' 15M, 1 year tender and cashed in afterwards. Instead, he took the 3 year, I think 13M per for 3 years (and I don't blame him for taking the guaranteed, life changing money). But what if? Does he help the Mets beat Bumgarner in the wild card? Debatable, but Madison was nasty that night. Maybe his Met plus/Nats minus gives us the division, I think very possible. Do we beat the Dodgers (who beat the Nats), the Cubs, and then the Tribe? With a rotation of Thor, Big Sexy, Gsellman and Lugo (as we have seen, pitching in September is different from pitching in any other month)? Unlikely. And this year? Let's give him 8 homeruns instead of 5, he probably has 14 RBIs, given the Mets' OBP. We may not be last in the NL East, but certainly second division positioning at this point.
Bottom lines:
We agree on almost everything
You loved last night's game, and so did I
I look forward to our kumbaya moment when Tim Tebow is named WS MVP
My "short story" post did, does, and by and large, will continue to apply
