Thinking back on my college days, I remember my squeaky voiced coach telling us every practice on Friday night, “Don’t worry about winning every game, worry about winning the series.” Back then we played a doubleheader on Saturday and a single game on Sunday. It made sense – winning 2 out of 3 against eight conference teams would generate a 16-8 record. Things aren’t quite the same with a 162 game schedule.
One would think that a team who won three out of four intra-division season series would be playing October baseball. Especially considering that that portion of the schedule accounts for almost 50 percent of the total games played.
On the same note, one would think a team who plays against 20 teams in a season and finished above .500 in season series’ wouldn’t be heading home in the fall. If given a nameless team and the season series record of 10-7-3, what kind of record do you think that would reflect? Obviously this team finished above the .500 mark, right?
Not for the Mets.
NL East (38-38)
Nationals L (4-15)
Braves W (10-9)
Marlins W (11-8)
Phillies W (13-6)
The Mets took three of four of their biggest season series. They beat the Braves, Marlins and the Phillies – and got destroyed by the Nationals. Winning 3 of 4 intra-division series, worth 19 games each, should guarantee an above 500 record. That notion gets wiped away when you barely avoided being swept by the remaining team.
The Mets only beat the Nationals 4 times in 19 contests. Out of our 15 losses to the Nats, 14 of them were by 2 runs or more. Simply put – they owned us.
Who else owned the Mets? Since the amount of games played outside of the division shrinks, we get a smaller snapshot of how the Mets compare to these other teams. They meet NL West and Central teams for two series’ as opposed to a lopsided six. Interleague games take up one series each (an exception being where they played the Yankees and A’s 4 games each). Taking a look at the results, the Mets performed pretty well overall, beating seven teams, losing to six and splitting with three outside of the NL East.
Upon further inspection, besides the Nationals, only three teams beat the Mets by more than one game for the season: the Giants, Dodgers and the Cubs; two playoff teams (which is understandable at this point) and the Cubs. Other than that, the Pirates, Brewers and Angels took the season series against the Mets by a one-game Margin.
Playoff Teams (1-5-1)
Nationals L (4-15)
Cardinals W (4-3)
Pirates L (3-4)
Dodgers L (2-4)
Giants L (1-5)
Athletics S (2-2)
Angels L (1-2)
Overall the Mets went 1-5-1 against playoff teams in 2014. Their only series win against a playoff team was beating the Cardinals who they edged by one game. They fell behind the Pirates and Angels by one game apiece, two behind the Dodgers, were five in the hole against the Giants, and got punished by the Nationals. They fortunately broke even with the athletics.
Their overall record against playoff teams in 2014 was 17-36. Remember, 14 of those losses are directly from our friends in Washington.
Non-Playoff Teams (9-2-2)
Braves W (10-9)
Marlins W (11-8)
Phillies W (13-6)
Reds W (4-3)
D-Backs W (4-2)
Rockies W (4-3)
Mariners W (2-1)
Astros W (2-1)
Rangers W (2-1)
Padres S (3-3)
Yankees S (2-2)
Brewers L (3-4)
Cubs L (2-5)
The Mets went 62-47 against non-playoff teams. Wow, those numbers look great. Now all we need is the Nationals to swap home cities with Arizona and we will be in good shape.
Lets recap looking at game differentials using categories I just made up now:
We Got Destroyed
Nationals -11
We Outright Lost
Giants -5
Cubs -3
Dodgers -2
Narrowly Defeated
Pirates -1
Brewers -1
Angels -1
Even Splits
Yankees 0
Padres 0
Athletics 0
Narrow Wins
Braves +1
Cardinals +1
Reds +1
Rockies +1
Mariners +1
Astros +1
Rangers +1
We Outright Won
Marlins +3
D-Backs +2
We Did Pretty Good
Phillies +7
So what does all this mean? In my opinion, the numbers are telling me the Mets are better than most of the league except for the playoff teams (and the Cubs).
It tells me that the Mets are above the bottom tier, but not just ready to compete. In a way, I’m looking at the Mets as I did the 2012 Royals. Loads of young talent, but just not quite ready yet.
The numbers tell us we really need to solve the Nationals if we are ever to compete for that division title. (Or hope for that D’Back switch I mentioned).
Overall, I like looking at the 2014 Season from a series point of view. This isn’t football where a championship is decided in one game. Of all the numbers discussed the one that makes me happiest is taking 4 of 7 from the Cardinals. The one that disgusts me the most is the 2 of 7 from the lowly Cubbies.
In a very positive light, the Mets did well against most of the teams they faced this year. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it – and carrying it into the 2015 season.
Lets Go Mets.
