3 UP
1. Teammates First
One of the purely remarakable aspects of this 2019 Mets team is the friendship between Pete Alonso and Dominic Smith. Dating back to last year, these are two players who have been put in an adversarial situation as they were competing against one another not just for playing time but for the Mets first base job. In a credit to both of them, they have risen above it, and they have put the team first.
When one does something special, the other is there smiling and offering sincere congratulations. For example, when Alonso hit that moon shot to deep center a smiling Smith was there celebrating with this teammate. The same goes for Alonso who has cheered Smith every step of the way.
This is a mindset they have had for a while now. In fact, during Spring Training, Alonso said of the situation, “Me and Dom, we played together last year, we spent some good time this year. I’m really happy he’s playing well this spring. I don’t want anyone to do bad. He’s a teammate of mine. I want him to do his best as he can and do the best I can.” (Matt Ehalt, Yahoo).
The two first baseman are doing their best so far. So far, Alonso is hitting .389/.450/.722 with three doubles, a homer, and seven RBI, and Smith is hitting .444/.500/.444 with three RBI.
2. All-Time Great
Just when you thought Jacob deGrom’s greatness couldn’t surprise you anymore, he puts together another incomprehensibly great game.
Not only did deGrom tie Bob Gibson’s all-time record for consecutive quality starts, he continued his own Major League record streak of consecutive starts allowing three runs or fewer.
With his home run, he has now knocked in more runs than he has allowed in 13 innings pitched this season.
He had a personal best 14 strikeouts. He became the fifth pitcher in Mets history to strike out 14 while allowing two or fewer hits and allowing no runs. This list includes Hall of Famers Tom Seaver and Nolan Ryan. With how dominant deGrom has been, you wonder if he will be Cooperstown bound himself.
3. Conforto No Longer Left Out
In Michael Conforto‘s first few seasons in the majors, then manager Terry Collins would not let him hit against left-handed pitching. Instead, he would start players like Michael Cuddyer or even Matt Reynolds over him. What was maddening about this was Conforto had shown all his life that he was able to hit left-handed pitching.
Sooner or later, with Conforto not hitting left-handed specialists or pitchers like Madison Bumgarner well, the narrative became he was not able to hit those pitchers. Worse yet, there was a narrative facing Bumgarner ruined Conforto’s 2016 season instead of people looking at the real issue which was his wrist.
Since Mickey Callaway has taken over as manager, he has let Conforto face left-handed pitching, and Conforto is proving to everyone he can hit anyone. So far this season, Conforto is hitting .364 off left-handed pitching. While this is a small sample size, it should be noted this is part of Conforto’s continued development in this area. For example, last year he had a 122 wRC+ against left-handed pitching.
Entering the year, some saw Conforto as a possible MVP candidate. If he continues hitting left-handed pitchers like this, and the Mets continue to win games, he may very well win the award.
3 DOWN
1. J.D. Should Mean Just Don’t
When the Mets traded Ross Adolph, Scott Manea, and Luis Santana, they were paying a high price for J.D. Davis. Judging by what we have seen, the Mets are going out of their way to try to make it work. So far, we have already seen Lagares, Jeff McNeil, and Keon Broxton sit so the Mets could insert Davis into the lineup. Worse yet, we have twice seen McNeil lifted for Davis in double switches late in game.
More puzzling than that, the Mets have batted Davis clean-up twice. The first time he was batting ahead of Michael Conforto, and the second time, he hit ahead of Wilson Ramos.
So far, Davis is hitting just .158/.238/.263. While this is admittedly a small sample size, it looks not much different than the stats he put up in his previous 181 Major League plate appearances. Part of the trouble is he continues to strike out at a fairly high clip, and he’s once again hitting a high rate of groundballs.
Worse yet, he has been poor in the field. In Monday’s game, he lollypopped two throws to Robinson Cano, whiffed on a Lagares throw which had Rosell Herrera dead to rights, and he had insuffient range to get to a Starlin Castro hit. Tuesday, he missed a couple of balls a normal third baseman would have fielded routinely helping contribute to Seth Lugo‘s rough outing.
So far, the early returns on this trade are not very good. While we can still hope there is room for Davis to improve, we should hope all the more the Mets will stop trying to make this trade work by having him play over better players.
2. Getting in the Callaway
In his first year as Mets manager, Callaway showed some signs of promise, but there were also signs of his not being well suited to being a Major League manager. The hope was with the addition of a bench coach like Jim Riggleman, Callaway could improve as a manager. Instead, we are seeing Callaway regress and even lean on his worst instincts.
The perfect encapsulation of what is wrong with Callaway as a manager was Tuesday’s game.
Callaway showed a rigidity to sticking with Jason Vargas for five innings and going to Lugo for two innings because that was the pre-game plan. It didn’t matter than Edwin Diaz and Jeurys Familia were unavailable or that Lugo was sick. The plan was the plan was the plan.
Yes, even though he was at just 74 pitches, Vargas was getting hit hard. You could understand his getting pulled from the game. However, Callaway needed to adapt somehow. He could have let Luis Avilián, who has only faced one batter this season, get through the bottom of the Marlins line-up. With the lead and knowing how thin the bullpen was, he could have allowed Robert Gsellman to hit for himself.
Instead, Callaway was forced to push Lugo and Justin Wilson for a white knuckle victory in a game which should have been an easy victory.
The bullpen almost spoiled deGrom’s gem, and that is partially because Callaway pushed Luis Avilan too far. Avilan has only faced one batter all year, and he has dealt with shoulder issues. This isn’t only how you put 6-0 leads into jeopardy, it’s how you potentially get guys injured.
When you combine all of the bunting and the forcing of a truly poor defender as Davis into games (while Luis Guillorme sits) at the expense of McNeil, you have to wonder what Callaway is thinking. You also have to begin to contemplate how much longer Callaway should hold the job.
3. Oil Can Controversy
Ron Darling‘s book “108 Stitches: Loose Threads, Ripping Yarns, and the Darndest Characters from My Time in the Game,” has created controversy with the passage regarding the racist insults Lenny Dykstra made towards Oil Can Boyd. Darling would go so far as to suggest the insults were worse than what he believed Jackie Robinson might’ve heard.
For his part, Dykstra has denied the allegations while threatening to both sue and attack Darling.
The situation has grown complicated with 1986 Mets Kevin Mitchell and Dwight Gooden both being unable to verify Darling’s claims, claims Darling has averred with each and every interview he has done on the topic.
On CMB, Boyd said he did not hear the comments, but he does not believe Darling was making the encounter up. In fact, Boyd said he said while he didn’t hear it, he believes Dykstra did indeed make the statements.
After all that has been written and said about the 1986 Mets, it is actually quite surprising that team can still create controversy over 30 years later. Mostly, it is sad to think a key win and one of several turning points in that series was due to allegedly racist comments made by Dykstra.
