Good morning, Mets fans!

Juan Lagares is expected to return from the DL tonight. This is great news… I’m a huge fan of The Amazing Spider-Juan.

But now, for the first time, the Mets have their 4 key outfielders— Lagares, Chris Young, Eric Young, and Curtis Granderson— all healthy at the same time. Because the Mets play in the National League, only 3 of those guys can play each day. So now, the question “What Outfield?” has evolved into “What do we do with all these outfielders?”

Lagares was the Mets’ best player before he got hurt. If he hits the ground running upon his return, he has to play consistently.

Chris Young, like Lagares, missed a couple weeks with an injury, but has been impressive since returning from the DL. While CY is only hitting .206, he has been hot lately and has shown an impressive ability to drive the ball to go along with solid defensive skills and good speed.

Eric Young got off to a rough start, but has been a major catalyst for our offense recently, thanks in large part to his blazing speed. “Speed Kills.”

And then you have Curtis Granderson. Granderson has been the worst of the four so far, but he was the Mets’ biggest acquisition during the offseason and the Mets simply can’t just bench him a month into the year. And we can’t ignore the fact that Grandy has been looking much better of late.

So what should Terry do? As long as all 4 are healthy, it looks like he plans to rotate the outfielders, allowing for regular rest for CY, EY, Granderson and Lagares.

But it’s frustrating, isn’t it? Those are 4 of our best players, and each day, we have to bench one of them and still trot out Ruben Tejada or Omar Quintanilla…

Rotating the outfielders seems like the best way to go, for now. Grandy should be safe for the foreseeable future. If one or more of the other outfielders gets hurt or starts showing some discouraging signs on the field, Terry can make an adjustment. And if everybody is producing, Terry could get creative by giving Murphy the occasional day off and moving EY to 2nd, or by giving Duda a day off and moving Murphy to 1st and EY to 2nd, allowing for all 4 outfielders to play.

Depth is a good “problem” to have. So I guess we shouldn’t be complaining too much about this particular issue. But it will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

Readers, what do you think should / will happen with the outfield situation?

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Good morning, Mets fans!

Congratulations! If you are reading this, you have as many hits as the entire Mets pitching staff has in the 2014 MLB season. The Dodgers and Yankees will be entering a bidding war for your services shortly.

Mets pitchers, as Jared Diamond pointed out in his column yesterday, are 0-for-41 on the season, which is the longest hitless streak from a pitching staff to start a season since at least 1974. Because pitchers were much better at hitting back in the day, I would guess that the 2014 Mets actually have the all-time record.

Gonzalez Germen and Carlos Torres are 0-for-1. Zack Wheeler is 0-for-7. Dillon Gee is 0-for-9, Jenrry Mejia is 0-for-12, Jon Niese is 0-for-3, and of course, there’s Bartolo Colon, who is 0-for-8. I’ve always wanted to see Scott Rice bat, but that’s probably a pipe dream unless Terry Collins‘ love for him really gets out of hand.

Anyway, add those all up and you get 0-for-41. Now, it’s not all so bad. Mejia sprints down the line with impressive speed every time he makes contact, which sets an example for the “real” hitters (not that they follow it) and will probably result in an infield hit before too long. Bartolo Colon’s at-bats give the Mets the game’s premier Comedic Reliever. And Jon Niese, who has only had 3 at bats, will probably start cracking a few singles before too long; Jon has always been a fairly decent hitter.

But let’s be serious. So far, It has been painful to watch our pitchers try to hit. The other day, the Mets had runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs and the #7 hitter Anthony Recker at the plate. Recker struck out, and at that point, I think we all knew that the Mets weren’t going to get a run before the end of the inning: #8 hitter Ruben Tejada is an easy out and our pitchers have been automatic outs so far. So when Recker whiffed, I was ready to give up on the inning. Ironically, Dillon Gee worked a walk to load the bases for Eric Young, but EY grounded out to end the inning… a walk is NOT always as good as a hit, guys.

The Mets don’t their pitchers to start hitting .300, or anywhere remotely close. But the occasional hit out of the 9 hole deepens a lineup and makes opposing pitchers really pitch to everybody who comes to the plate, instead of, as Gary Cohen said when Gee stepped to the plate late in Sunday’s game, throwing a couple pitches down the middle and “getting it over with”.

Have a good day, Mets fans. We play in Citizens Bank Park tonight, so if Jon can hit a pop-up: the hitless steak will end emphatically, with a home run.

LGM!

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Good morning, Mets fans!

Rough loss last night. I was there to watch my school sing the National Anthem, but left fairly early in the game with my friends (who aren’t Mets fans, so are they really my friends?), in part due to the freezing cold. But I was definitely there for the first inning, when Bobby Abreu cracked a two-run homer to right field.

I like Bobby Abreu. In my recap of Thursday’s game, I wrote about how the Mets need veteran leadership on the bench, “and guys like Rick Ankiel don’t count”.

I really meant that. When the Mets were a solid team they had veterans on board, from Moises Alou, to Cliff Floyd, to Paul Lo Duca, to Marlon Anderson (I’m still not over that BS interference call in Philadelphia), to Jose Valentin, and even to the ancient Julio Franco.

The Mets need guys on the team who have been around the game and seen both the good and the bad. In recent seasons, our bench “hitters” have been Nick Evans, Mike Baxter, Mike Nickeas, and the like.

Bobby Abreu isn’t one of those guys. Bobby Abreu is a former star who adds a meaningful veteran pretense to the club. And here’s the thing: Abreu knows how to hit. You never lose that. He may not have the speed, the reflexes, and the strength he once had, but you never forget how to hit a baseball. Many players with the the raw talent needed to be stars in the league— including a certain first baseman now playing in Pittsburgh— never really learned in the first place.

Abreu has a good eye, the ability to hit to all parts of the field, and he still has a bit of pop as well. He has been making solid contact with the ball, and even if his athleticism has fallen off of a cliff since his days as an All-Star, he can still contribute. The Mets need more guys like Bobby Abreu filling out the edges of their ball club. Sorry, Nick Evans.

Have a great day, Mets fans! Hopefully we can get a win this afternoon and take the series. I’ll be back after the game with the recap!

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Good morning, Mets fans!

Nobody has seen or heard from Jeurys Familia in ages. They say that if you listen hard, on certain nights when the moon is full, you can still hear him howling at the night sky. But I’m not buying it.

But seriously, where is Familia? After taking the loss on Opening Day, and struggling in his next outing as well, Familia seemed to find a bit of a rhythm during his next few innings of work. But Jeurys hasn’t pitched in a week and hasn’t taken the mound in a meaningful scenario in 2 weeks.

Familia was great during Spring Training, so it was a bit of a letdown to see him struggle out of the gate once the games started counting. But it’s clear that he has electric stuff and good potential, so despite his rough start, it’s pretty surprising that we haven’t seen him lately, especially given how often we hear about our older relievers needing rest.

Familia shouldn’t be the closer. But he should be pitching. And if Terry Collins doesn’t think he can be safely used in a Major League game, Jeurys should be sent down to the Minor Leagues so that he can join Vic Black in the “Strike Zone Training Program”. There is no way that a young, talented power arm should be wasting away on the bench.

Jeurys Familia should be pitching. Somewhere.

Have a good day, Mets fans! Maybe Familia gets some serious work in tonight if Zack Wheeler gets tossed in the 2nd inning for attempting hide pine tar on his neck, but that seems unlikely…

LGM!

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Good Morning, Mets fans!

Great win last night. The Mets, despite having had one of the league’s toughest schedules so far, are over 500 and are keeping pace with the fastest starters in the National League.

But they haven’t been hitting lately. The Mets rank poorly in nearly every offensive category (except for strikeouts!). So how have they been winning these games against good teams? Simple: their pitching and defense have carried them.

Mostly the pitching. Over the past 9 games, Mets starters have a 1.91 ERA and 8 quality starts. Over the past 4 games, the entire pitching staff (rotation & bullpen) has a 1.76 ERA. While occasional late-game bullpen shenanigans (mostly from Jose Valverde) have cost us a couple wins and made a few others very stressful, the men on the mound have given the Mets a chance to win nearly every night.

The defense has also had its moments. Sure, you’re probably still thinking about Ruben Tejada‘s botched play in the first inning. But from his point of view, in real time, it was probably hard to tell that Daniel Murphy had caught that ball on a bounce, so, if you allow him the fairly reasonable (but false) assumption that Murphy had caught the ball on the fly, his actions from that point on make sense.

Tejada went to step on the 2nd base bag, realized that wasn’t enough to get an out, and then tried to get a guy in a rundown. He should have ran back to the bag after making the first throw in the rundown, but on most plays, Murphy would have gotten there in time, so… I won’t bash Tejada too badly for that play, or the pop-up which he misplayed (nearly every fly ball gave the fielders trouble tonight with the heavy winds).

Looking at the positives: Ruben was a key part of a great play to save the game in the ninth inning for the Mets. Kirk Nieuwenhuis battled a spiraling wind gust that grabbed hold of a deep fly ball and dropped it to the ground. Kirk then fires a solid cut-off throw to Tejada, who turned and fired a strike to Travis d’Arnaud, who made an excellent diving tag to get the out at the plate.

Ruben also made a few highlight plays in his last game, and has been looking a bit better with the leather lately. Daniel Murphy‘s range has improved a good amount recently, as he continues to really get the hang of the 2nd base position. I also think that Travis d’Arnaud is looking more and more comfortable behind the plate with each passing game.

Trading Ike Davis will hurt our infield defense a bit, but Lucas Duda has been improving at first base, which is by far his best position. In the outfield, Duda and the other plodders of the past have been replaced by quality, speedy defenders, and David Wright is a Gold-Glove caliber third baseman, although I have noticed his range seems to have decreased just a tad this season. All in all, our defense looks solid, despite the occasional frustrating lapse.

The Mets will need to hit if they want to make some real noise in this league. But so far, they are off to a decent start even with many players struggling at the plate. If the hitting can start to trend upward and reach an acceptable level—and i think it will— and the pitching and defense keep excelling, the Mets will be poised to achieve Sandy Alderson’s ultimate goal: “Meaningful Games in September”.

Have a good day, Mets fans! I’ll be back this afternoon with the game recap. Let’s take the series!

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Good morning, Mets fans!

Let me set the scene. The Mets head into an important inning, late in the game. It might even be the 9th. It’s usually the 9th. They’re down by a run, or maybe 2. Whatever the deficit is, it’s usually larger by the time the inning ends.

The Mets hand out so many insurance runs that Mr. Met should probably be replaced by a sassy gecko by the end of the season (No word on whether the sassy gecko has Super-2 status, which would be a game-changer).

Take Opening Day, for example. The Mets allowed the Nationals to take the lead in the 10th, then let Washington tack on a few more runs before getting out of the inning. David Wright hit a 2-run home run in the bottom half of the inning, but thanks to the insurance runs, it didn’t matter.

Or why don’t you take Saturday night’s game, when Jose Valverde ket a 1-run deficit become a 4-run gap, which wasted the impressive rally the Mets would put together against Craig Kimbrel in the bottom of the 9th.

Even last night’s game would have looked a bit different if Valverde hadn’t given up a run in the top of the 9th to make it a 3 run game. In a 2-run game, maybe Curtis Bay Granderson is more aggressive with a runner on base once he gets into a hitters’ count. Maybe David Wright and Daniel Murphy take different approaches at the plate.

Whenever the Mets dig themselves into a hole, they  have to try and see if they can pull out one last rally. But when one of their relievers deepens that hole right before the Mets get set to make their final push, it makes the comeback attempts harder (obviously) and can have a demoralizing effect on the hitters. Imagine running out onto the field for the top of the 9th knowing you’ll just need 1 run in the bottom half, but being down 4 runs by the time you get back in the dugout.

Relievers are most often criticized when they blow leads (you have ONE job!), and they take a good amount of heat when they can’t maintain a tie. But when a reliever enters a game with his team trailing by a run or 2, he has to bear down and keep it that way. Keep your team in the game, give your team a chance to win. That’s what you have to do if you’re a reliever, and our bullpen’s current inability to do so has cost us early in the season.

Let’s hope the bullpen can stop handing out insurance runs. Or better yet, let’s hope we can hand our relievers leads, and render this entire discussion moot. A nice, relaxing, blowout victory today would be nice. Have a good day, Mets fans!

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Good morning, Mets Fans!

Nice win yesterday, although it took a bit too long, dragging on for 14 innings before Curtis Granderson won it by doing what he does best: making an out. The absurd length of yesterday’s game is actually what brings me to the topic of this edition of the Morning Grind.

The Mets went into extra innings 20 times last year. They were 8-12 in those games, several of which went far beyond the 10th inning. This year, the Mets have already played 4 extra-inning games (winning 2 and losing 2), each one of which has been longer than the previous one. New York is on pace to go into extras 36 times this season.

These contests can either be fun and exciting, or miserable and stressful. It depends on the game. But going past the 9th inning with such alarming frequency could hurt the Mets in the long run.

The Mets went 6-14 in the games after extra-inning games last season. This year, the Mets are 1-2 in the games after extra-inning games, and that record will have another win or loss tacked onto it after tonight’s game against the Cardinals.

Extra inning games, especially the marathon ones, take their toll on teams. The managers are forced to burn through their bullpens, forcing relievers to work for longer than they are accustomed to, even on days where they had been expected to take a rest. Sometimes, even starters are forced to get into the action. Hitters are also prone to the scrambling that occurs in the wee hours of the morning on some occasions. You might see third basemen at shortstop, first basemen in the outfield, or backup catchers serving up bombs on the mound. When teams constantly go into extras, it can lead to ineffectiveness and even injury.

An extra-inning win is still better than a 9-inning loss, so we should be happy that the Mets won yesterday, even if it was a pretty messy win. But if the Mets want to keep their players running fresh and smooth, they have to find a way to stop letting every game turn into a wacky, prolonged adventure.

Have a good day, Mets fans. Let’s hope for a win tonight… a normal one.

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Good morning, Mets fans!

We managed to stay over 500 yesterday, in part because we didn’t have a game. Tonight, the Mets will be coming home to begin a nice, long, 10-game homestand. I’m especially excited for tonight’s matchup with the Braves, as I will be attending my first game of the year (although, since I’m going with a Yanks fan and a pair of Braves fans, things might get hostile).

But here’s the thing: The Mets just haven’t been good at home. They were solid at home in their first 2 years at Citi Field, but over the past 3 seasons, their winning percentage in Flushing is a paltry .423, which translates to an average home record of 34-47 each year (103-140 overall).

To make things more frustrating, the Mets actually have had a winning record (122-121) on the road over those three seasons. So even a decent performance at home during that time would have made us a relevant team.

When you lose at home, two things happen. First of all, it hurts your record. That’s the obvious thing. But in addition, when fans who pay good money to come out and see the team are constantly leaving the ballpark with the bitter taste of defeat in their mouths, it can hurt sales and generate disappointment and, in some cases, apathy.

A fan is far more likely to want to come back if he or she sees a thrilling victory rather than a bleak, 5-1 loss in which the team only gets 2 runners past first base. If the Mets are going to charge New York Prices for fans to come out in this New York Weather and see the New York Mets, the team had better perform if they want to be able to generate the interest and revenue that teams in the New York Market are supposed to generate.

The Mets are 2-4 at home and 6-3 on the road this season. They’ll have a chance to pad that home record in the next couple weeks. The Mets are off to a decent start at 8-7, but if they want this season to mean something, they have to perform at home. Good teams don’t lose in their own ballpark.

Citi Field is a fantastic stadium. Let’s hope our Mets can make the most of it.

Have a great day, Mets fans!

The post MMO Morning Grind: Coming Home… for Better or Worse appeared first on Metsmerized Online.

Good morning, Mets fans!

Nice win yesterday! We’re over 500. Can we get to 90? Time will tell.

Anyway, we’ve reached the point in the season where we can start to throw around terms like “good start” and “bad start” for certain players. But stats at this point in the season can still be incredibly deceiving.

Yesterday, I wrote about how amazing Gonzalez Germen has been. His stats are eye-popping, although, as I said, they are not sustainable. Juan Lagares has also been fantastic, but he just landed on the disabled list and only time will tell if he can hit the ground running once he returns. Lucas Duda has been mashing the ball, Kyle Farnsworth is pitching well… there have been some good signs so far.

There have also been some struggling players. David Wright, Curtis Granderson, Ruben Tejada, and Travis d’Arnaud have had their struggles in these first couple weeks.

It is important that we remember not to get too high or too low on any given player so early in the season, because while there have been enough games played for noticeable trends to develop, there are more than enough games remaining for those trends to strengthen, stop, reverse, and reverse again several times over.

Even within the small sample size we have been given, we can see how fickle these trends can be. Jose Valverde was awesome in his first couple outings, but had a disastrous meltdown in Anaheim and then gave up home runs to the first two batters he faced yesterday. Eric Young was dreadful for the first few games, but has been red hot lately and has been a major catalyst at the top of our lineup.

Curtis Granderson won’t hit 170. Gonzalez Germen won’t have an ERA of 0.89. April stats are tempting, but can be very misleading, and that’s why I have dedicated this edition of the MMO Morning Grind to John Buck, who was Mike Piazza at the plate for one month and then Brian Schneider for the rest of the season.

The season isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon, and that goes for every player on every team in the league. Keep that in mind, and enjoy your day, Mets fans!

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Good morning, Mets fans!

Another nice win last night. A stress-free win, for once. The only blemish on our victory was Jenrry Mejia having to leave early with a torn blister, but considering Mejia’s luck with injuries, I’ll settle for a torn blister any day of the week with that guy. Anyway, my post this morning is going to be about the awesomeness of Gonzalez Germen.

Now, let me start by saying that if, before the season, you had told me I’d be writing a positive, serious (or mostly serious) article about Gonzalez Germen, I would have laughed in your face.

Germen was totally going to be my scapegoat when it came to our terrifying (for us, not our opponents) bullpen. He would be called up early in the year, he would be the worst pitcher on the staff, and I would basically dub him the Face Of The Mets’ Bullpen Struggles (assuming he could beat out Eric Sogard in the fan vote). Basically, Germen was going to be our 2014 version of Ollie Perez (who looked good last night for Arizona, by the way).

Sure enough, Germen was called upon for some late innings work in the second game of the season after Bobby Parnell blew out his elbow on Opening Day. And sure enough, Germen gave up doubles to the first two batters he saw, leading to a Washington run. I started laughing– you know, like one of those sad, “I was right but I was also pessimistic so it sucks that I’m right” laughs…

But Germen hasn’t given up a run since that game. In fact, until he gave up a hit in this third inning of work last night, Germen hadn’t given up a single hit since the second of those two doubles. In that time, Germen has struck out 10 hitters. His 2014 ERA is 0.89 and his WHIP is 0.48. The season is young, and those numbers obviously cannot be sustained, but Gonzalez Germen has been absolutely ridiculous this season. He has been lights out.

Kyle Farnsworth and Carlos Torres have also been fantastic and Jose Valverde as well, his meltdown against the Angels this weekend notwithstanding. Our bullpen won’t be this amazing all season, but early on in the year it looks like the bullpen— which was supposed to be one of our biggest weaknesses— should be decent and has the potential to possibly even be a strength.

I may have been wrong about you, Gonzalez Germen. Please accept today’s Morning Grind as a token of my most sincere apologies, and keep up the absolutely mind-boggling work.

In the event that you are a Mets fan reading a blog, and not Mets reliever Gonzalez Germen, have a great day, and let’s hope our guys can finish off a sweep tonight!

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