Jun
8
2012
8
2012
3 Up & 3 Down: A DC Power Shift Edition
An article by Gregg Hopps
To be fair, we have to say the Washington Nationals are a nice up and coming team. With a mix of young guys, like Bryce Harper, veterans like Adam LaRcoche, some great starting pitching, and a fantastic field manager in Davey Johnson, DC baseball fans should not be making plans for October! Our Mets were in DC and they were only able to grab the last game of the three game series, so here are the 3 & 3.
3 Up:
- R.A. Dickey: It seems like R.A. is in this position in every entry I write, but why not when the guy is 9-1 and has 24 consecutive scoreless innings in the books. During his wrap up on WFAN, Howie Rose pretty much summed it up by saying “we are running out of superlatives to describe R.A. Dickey.” It’s true, Dickey has had a wonderful, incredible, magical start to his 2012 season. Let’s hope he keeps it up.
- Chris Young: Young returned to action Tuesday night and went 5 innings giving up three runs, (only 2 were earned). Young is a proven front end of the rotation guy, and to be honest I love the idea of Johan, Dickey and Young fronting the Mets rotation the rest of the way. Washington has good starting pitching, but with a healthy Chris Young in the mix, the Mets are right there too.
- Resiliency: Although the Mets lost on Tuesday, and although the Mets played so sloppy, their effort on Tuesday night proved to me why this team is easy to root for. Three times in the late innings the Mets came back to take the lead. Met teams of the not so recent past would have packed it in, but not these guys. They played short handed and sloppy, but they were competitive and that’s all we can ask.
3 Down:
- Sloppy Play: Well folks, this is what we’re going to see with a young team. I think the bashing of Daniel Murphy is unwarranted (at this point), and Valdespin is here due to the injuries to the starting and back up shortstop. Nights like Tuesday are going to happen. As the team matures the sloppiness will go away.
- Ike Davis: I’m sorry, but I’m getting tired of watching Auto-out Ike. We’re in June now, the Mets simply don’t have the depth to wait for Davis to work it out at this level. It’s time to seriously consider sending Ike shuffling off to Buffalo for a while.
- Bay’s Return: I’m going to put the free agent signing of Bay right up there with the trade/signing of George Foster as the worst in franchise history. Bay has been worse than a disappointment, he’s been a walking M*A*S*H unit. Here we have Bay set to return to action Thursday afternoon, but he misses the game due to “flu like symptoms.” Really? How about this, take some aspirin, take some Pepto and do what the Mets are paying you to do. The Mets should use Bay as a DH during the inter-league play, then trade him, even if they only get a couple of bats in return. The Mets have been winning and successful while Bay has been on the DL, they should continue without him. Sorry Bay fans (if there are any).
The first installment of the 2012 Subway Series begins Friday night, with Mr. No Hitter, the great Johan Santana taking the hill for the Mets. As always LGM!
About the Author: Gregg Hopps
Gregg lives on Long Island, and has been a Mets fan since Bud Harrelson and Pete Rose slugged it out in the 1973 playoffs. "Keith Hernandez is the best defensive first baseman to ever have played baseball."
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LGM, it’s good to see RA pitching well, you have to wonder if some of this players perform better when a contract extension is on the line
The Nats are a good team, but somehow they will run out of money, spending money on zimmerman and werth have not been good baseball desiciion it seems, but harper and the pitching staff can keep them in contention for good part of the season. could’ve won 2 out of 3 had not been for that vaunted bullpen sandy provided us last season, let’s go get the yankees.
2 out of 3 it’s ok for me. it’s doable.
Jason Bay sucks, we have now the worst FA as well as the worst GM in the history of the franchise at the same time.
“Jason Bay sucks, we have now the worst FA”
Bay has been bad, but I’ve seen worse. But hey, that’s what happens when you not only cave under fan pressure but try to convince people you’re not broke when you are actually having financial troubles.
Sorry Alex. Couldn’t disagree more with you in regards to Sandy Alderson. Who signed Bay? I’m pretty sure Alderson didn’t.
Who found R.A. Dickey? Who decided to go young kids and not bring in any more overpriced free agents? How’s Jose doing in Miami?
Alderson was brought in to clean up the mess that is the Mets front office. I think that considering all the money constraints that he has had to deal with, he is doing a nice job.
You wrote that the Nats will run out of money due to the signings of Zimmerman and Werth – do you think it would be any different for the Mets? The Mets are moving away from stupid signings like that – moves that have burdened their payroll for years (see Ollie and Luis…as the most recent examples and Bay of course).
Please tell me what moves you think Alderson should have made?
The Mets are 1.5 games out right now. In your wildest dreams did you think the Mets would be this competitive at this point in the season? I didn’t. They’ve got a nice core of young kids playing well and gaining experience. If they go into July or August and are this close, then it’ll be time for a move. Until then – some of the best moves you make are the ones you don’t…
Omar Minaya found RA Dickey oh and if the team is playing this well now even though no team is gonna succeed in the long run without proper defense – imagine how well the team could be doing if Alderson didn’t use bad judgement and waste so many millions of what little money the Mets had on bullpen and instead got another SP and maybe made some trades so so many guys aren’t playing out of position. Don’t ask me what trades unless you have your own ideas yourself but i’m sure if the Mets had a GM who actually believed that his team can contend the last couple years and tried harder to improve it during the off season the Mets can have a better and tighter look to them, especially defensively.
He’s not doing a good job, a couple of moves have worked out but I think if this team has another GM who actually tried to win regardless of how much money he had to work with this team could even be in better shape. During both off seasons many of us sat here and read articles about decent/good players being signed at good prices by other teams – at prices the Mets could afford and wondering why Mets didn’t go after these guys.
There was no mess he inherited also – all he did was cut 2 contracts that any GM would have done. But i will give him credit for changing the culture of accountability on this club and moving in the fences. Other than that he’s made a couple good moves but mostly BAD moves.
OK Genius. How loud would you be screaming if Alderson had not tried to revamp the bullpen? What starting pitchers were available? An injured Roy Oswalt?
Trades? He traded Beltran and he traded the wife beater for two potentially very good pitchers. Rather than pay a bizzilion dollars for Reyes, they let him walk. Before Tejada got hurt, he was having a better year offensively and defensively than Reyes.
According to your post – the Mets sloppy defense is also Alderson’s fault. So you might as well add that the SS position is now being played by the backup to the backup to the backup to the backup AND Alderson should have forseen this and brought in 8 more shortstops.
You ask me for my ideas? I love the fact that they are playing all these young guys! AND they are winning! You seem to miss the fact that they are only 1.5 games out. AND you could say that with some luck they’d be ahead.
You said that Alderson should have made “trades”. Tell me after they dealt Beltran and frankie, who were they going to trade? During the pre-season winter, if you were a GM of any other team – who would you want off of the Mets roster?????
Alderson doesn’t want to win? You must be mad. A little patience goes a long way. I believe they are trying to build a franchise that will compete year after year. You don’t do that throwing money after every free agent out there and by trading away prospects. They tried that in the past and it hasn’t worked.
Look at the St. Louis Cardinals and the Atlanta Braves. In my opinion the two best run organizations in baseball. Do they run out and make rash off season moves?? They rely on bringing in excellent scouts and always have good solid minor league talent. I believe that Alderson is from that same school of thought.
Mets have a solid minor league system – who do you think Alderson got all these kids from?
I have an answer and is initials are O.M.
yes Omar went the FA route too often but that’s not the reason for his failure. The reason for his failure is a sharp curveball in 2006 (or a bad AB by Jose Valentin – pick one) and 2 collapses in 2007 and 2008 where the team had the guns and the opportunity for them on a silver platter and they simply CHOKED. Signing Free Agents had nothing to do with those collapses – if anything signing a Delgado & Beltran helped – not hurt.
2009 was marred by injuries as was most of 2010 but when they did get healthier the 2nd half of 2010 they all suddenly stopped hitting. Then the off the field nonsense ensued.
But collapses and injuries are what did Minaya in – not free agent signings. They were only exposed after the losing and the FA signings did not contribute to the losing. 206-2008 would be the same whether we had Castillo and Perez or not. You can make an argument that Perez was actually more of a contributor to those seasons than hurt the team.
You’re second guessing.
And Alderson’s organizational philosophy of trying to “work the pitcher” instead of just playing ball and knock the pitcher out of the game can be hurting this team’s power all the way down to the minor leagues. You hear this philosophy criticized on the post game almost on a nightly basis. Thank God Duda is swinging the bat more and I know Ike’s having serious problems but maybe being forced to do things he didnt’ need to do helped accelerate the issue. I also think Daniel Murphy’s problems are a direct result of this stupid, conservative approach.
But Alderson has signed a lot of cheap moneyball style players and gotten lucky with some of them like Baxter (this year’s Danny Heap as one writer put it). But that’s sabermetrics. I’ve always said saber is the science and study of trying to get the best cheap, filler ballplayer as possible. That’s exactly what he’s doing. Oh and if you want to win you need veterans – there are not enough veterans on this team to help lead this group of kids from Omar Minaya’s talented minor league system
Broken record. Same argument, different day.
Omar got the job before the 2005 draft. It’s 2012 and NOW we are saying he built a “solid minor league system”
So why not wait until 2016 to determine what Alderson has done?
Shouldn’t the same rules apply? Because I KNOW you weren’t a fan of Omar up until 2010.
Omar’s talented farm system??
Los Mets? The guy who was going to make the Mets the Mecca for every Latin player in the world?
You want to talk revisionist history?? Okay I will then. Sharp curveball?
How about the fact that the 2006 pitching staff was a mess. Let’s see:
Pedro – old and hurt.
El Duque – older and more hurt.
The Human Rain Delay – who couldn’t hold a lead in game 4 that would have put them up 3-1.
Ollie – correct me if I’m wrong but wasn’t there an unbelievable game saving catch in there somewhere. AND wasn’t he something like 3 and 12 that year? 3 and 17?? I’ve tried to blank it out.
John Maine – he was awesome…..
How about Omar’s talent laden bullpens?
Veterans – you mean like Moises Alou who was already collecting social security and was on medicare? Cliff Floyd (I liked him, but he was more of a mess than Obama’s presidency.)
OH and how about that wonderful panic trade: Xavier Nady for Ollie and that other dreck reliever – can’t even remember his name – because a short middle reliever was in a car accident!! He gave up a starting right fielder with pop because a middle reliever got hurt!! Where were his Los Mets to bail him out?
Bayonne – I am 53 years old and have been a Mets fan my entire life. I have seen it all. I was at the Jimmy Quails game, I saw Swoboda’s catch, I saw Willie Mays’ chopper off the plate and I have seen a ton of heartbreak – including Luis and the “drop”. I am telling you from and through all of my experience as a passionate Mets fan – Sandy Alderson is the answer.
If you want to lay blame, look at Jeffy Wilpon. The tyrant of the front office. I have friends who work in the office and they hate his guts. He is the problem. Alderson took the job based on telling Jeffy to stay the “F…K” out.
So don’t tell me about Omar and how great the farm system was/is under him because it is not true.
“So don’t tell me about Omar and how great the farm system was/is under him because it is not true.”
It is true so stop lying to yourself. And me telling you it’s true is nothing because I’m not breaking any news here. Everybody knows it’s true except you so your years as a Mets fan tells me nothing if u can’t be honest.
Bayonne – with pithy comments like this last one you should probably root for the Yankees. Doesn’t take much intelligence to root for them. You could then concentrate all your efforts on deciding what high priced free agent Cashman should buy and then after he did – you could tell everyone about how bad it was and that Gabe Paul was a better GM.
The Mets management owes it too the fans,to send Ike down. Too also fix the bullpen before its too late.
Would like to see some BP fixes as well, but am fairly certain the BP fixes will be Mejia… With the extra wild card, there are many more teams that are still “in it”, thus less sellers and more buyers. The less number of sellers and the more number of buyers = rising prices. This team would really have to over pay in terms of prospects in order to get anything of value for the BP. Honestly, that same equation is working for about every position. I’d like to see the Mets snag Quentin, send Ike down and move Duda to first, but the rumored asking price for Quentin is basically like asking for Wheeler and Mejia or Flores. Waiting to get healthy is about the only real plan at the moment, unfortunately.
I certainly would like to see some of not so solid prospects (Valdespin comes to mind) be bundled up for something of worth to upgrade the major league squad and clear up some 40 man space, but that’s just me.
Let’s call this series a split being the first game was so flukey neither team deserved to win. Unfortunately the Nats get the W though, but there are plenty of chances to make up for that loss. Really encouraging to see what Young came with in that first game. I love pitching.
JJ, you didn’t need to go into the los mets argument, omar is a fine scout, 10x better than depodesta, he was just not cut out to be a GM, as soon as the pressure came he felt he needed to apeace the fans, mistake, now, he wanted to win, he wanted to build a foundation, he built a WS contender, on the other hand, alderson has FAILED miserably, in his 2 offseasons he’s brought in nothing to make our team better, if anything he has made the team WORST, yes minaya signed bay, but he ALSO FOUND RA DICKEY, and most of the players over performing and overachieving are the minaya’s kids, so please try to make sure you know what you talking about before commenting, the book it’s still open on sandy, but GM wise, he has done a terrible job, evidently by his best acquisition being a back up IF who had a hot week and he’s celebrated as a genius… This team has been pretty lucky to be where we at right now, but remember, other teams will get better, let’s see if sandy will do the same to help this team, and by help the team i mean, at least fix the bullpen mess he created after dismantling a great bullpen we had last year…
As far as the sloppy play in regards to Murphy I believe most were aware that he would have lapses at times but as a whole Murphy has been better than many originally expected at the position which by itself isn’t saying much but it should be noted. If anything Ike’s defensive lapses of late are more concerning. It’s hard enough carrying his .161/BA that is only slugging .278 but if he is not going to give you great defense at 1st base as well on a consistent basis than it makes it hard to make an argument for keeping him up with the team.
I know the new hashtag seems to be #BlameMetsHittingPhilosophy for everything rather than look at the players themselves but looking at the player it’s on Ike to step his game up on the field defensively or else the only reason to play him will become void and you might as well play Duda at 1st.
murphy has overall been adequate defensively. Problem is, his bat has not been good enough overall to make it a worthwhile trade. His BA has been OK, but that is it, and lately even that has slid. If he is hitting like a slappy contact hitter, he better be flashing one hell of a good glove to support it.
There are plays where you say How the hell did he make that play and then others asking WHY didn’t he make that play?
If you ask me Murphy has done a great job at 2B and what he screws up in the field he makes up for with his bat!
North jersey,
I remember hearing Ron Darling and Keith Hernandez on SNY saying that the Mets didn’t want to mess with Duda by moving him to 1B. Prior to Baxter getting hurt, I kind of thought that they might move him to 1B when Bay came back and then ship Ike to Buffalo. I just hope they don’t sit Newie.
Wow, after reading the comments I forgot what this post was, 3 up and 3 down
Anyway the Omar/SA debate can be had by all but Omar did draft/sign/acquire some players that are helping Mets now and some that will in the future, SA’s legacy is still to be written.
The taking of pitches is not bad, look at what the AL East teams have done over the years to wear out the starter and get into other teams middle relief, so it is not a bad philosophy, the problem I believe, just me and my 2 cents, is that you are having players like Duda, Murph, Thole, Tejada, Ike and Cap Kirk plus Torres now having to learn not to swing at the 1st pitch unless you think that is your pitch.
I have heard the discussions in the booth and agree to a point with Keith when he says players like Duda and Ike are letting the best pitch for them go because of their trying to buy into the work the count mantra.
The only issue with this is that you have Ike coming back from injury and lack of Major League playing time so his philosophy from the past might not fit into the new one and he has just out guessed and over thunk his game plan at bat.
Duda I have seen lately is looking and hitting the 1 st good pitch for him while still trying to work the count as has David whom I have seen go up there looking and ;swinging yet still able to work out a walk or drive up the pitch count.
Resiliency has to be the #1 thing I take away from this past series and season, they do not give up as evidenced by the awful extra inning game against Nats, but this is a part of their make up now and the kids coming up are also buying into this, mostly cause of Wally and his love for the game and being gritty also.
R.A., No-Han and lately Gee have given this team the opportunities with good pitching along with Young now that only for the lack of more power, reliable BP (doesn’t have to strike out every batter just get outs) and reliable play up the middle will allow Mets to remain in chase in this division.
The Ike situation eventually will need to be addressed cause while he has not held Mets back from where they are, this is a team sport and his bat could take up slack when other bats hit the wall as they will over a long season so Ike’s situation will become a issue eventually but how long do Mets and FO and TC wait? Till his impotent bat hurts this team? Nope, not while this magical season of No Han and R.A. is pitching great!
Mets record against NL East is no fluke but they have taken advantage of Phillies being hurt, same with Bravos plus lack of hitting, Marlin and Nat teams that are young but have to prove themselves over the long summer, so my belief is that IF Bay can resemble the hitter from last fall to balance the LH bats in lineup along with David then watching this RESILIENT team will be fun this summer despite who brought who up and who signed or drafted who cause in the end these are our Mets and I’m grateful for whoever put this team together, except for this years BP so far, that all the pundits that had us in last place in NL East are now required to talk about our RESILIENT team that wins w/o good defense and bad BP
Lastly I don’t think Nats pitching will hold up this summer and there are no studs available in trade this summer, Oswalt was the last one, so with Straberg pitching limit I see us battling for one of the 2 WC spots or dare I say it! Say it, Say it! Win the NL East!