Mets

[Amazin69]

Peterson threw 5 acceptable innings, allowing 3 runs on 85 pitches. First time back, yadda-yadda.

Mets rallied to tie it in the bottom of the 5th, helped by Starting Catcher Tomas Nido hitting his first HR with a man on base since 2021.

6th and 7th went fine. Ottavi-NO came in to start the 8th, and left after allowing 4 runs and recording exactly one out. (The defense sucked, too.)

Mets are now 10-25 since the 12-8 start. If they continue this .286 pace for the rest of the season, they will finish 53-109.

If you project them on the basis of their season as a whole (albeit I find it hard to envision any more 12-3 stretches in their future), they are playing .400 ball. Which translates to 65-97 for the full year.

I really can't recall a greater disgrace. This is the Most Expensive Team, Suckers!, recall. I'm not saying that Uncle Stevie's checkbook should be able to guarantee a pennant…

…but it should be able to buy mediocrity. This is utterly pathetic in ways that other failures were not.

[Magus978]

It is time.

BLOW IT UP. Begin planning for it, and have it done by the end of July. This core has failed miserably. Trade who you can, eat salaries to try and get some decent prospects back, and let's start the rebuild.

You aren't winning with anyone on this roster right now. This team needs to look completely different in 2025.

[Amazin69]

Beside the point, surely. Who has trade value, exactly?

Pete is walking at year-end. Anybody who trades for him knows it's a rental. You'll get about 20¢ on the dollar, if you're lucky.

Lindor can't be moved. Edlose is a broken-down pile of crap. McNeil is grinding on gears right now. Mauricio and Alvarez are both hurt, and that's whom you're looking to build around, them and Megill and Peterson and Scott, Christian vs. the World.

You could get something for Nimmo, but there's probably more reason to keep him. What are you going to get for The Broken Corpse of Starling Marte, The Immortal Demetreous Jerome Stewart or The Bronxville Kid, exactly? What are Severed Arm or Manaearrhea or Adey Houser, R.P.or Creakin' Diekman or Ottavi-NO worth? (Quintana might find a sucker to take him, I'll give you.)

Obviously, the team is garbage. But to say "blow it up!" as if other teams are just panting to give us the next Adley Rutschman is silly. JMO. Most trades available (bar one or two B-list prospects for Pete) are going to be GIGO, nothing better.

(I call Drew Smith "The Legacy of Lucas Duda" because of the 12 or so players we got in the 2017 deadline purge, he's the only one who made an impact on the team. It wasn't those trades that built the 2019-2022 contenders. It was finding talent [Pete, Squirrel] in the minors, nurturing the young tradeables we kept [the Fireball Five, minus Harvey; Conforto, Nimmo, even Rosario] and spending when we needed to, down the road. "Trade them all!" is emotional catharsis, not so much a plan.)

[Westheim]

Winless
Overpaid
Mess
Peteless

Woeful
Ottavino
Miserable
Pain

[Amazin69]

Pete is apparently not seriously hurt. Enjoy his remaining 63 days as a Met!

OTOH, Jorge Lopez was DFA'd for throwing his glove into the stands. Good thing we have all that bullpen depth!

[Amazin69]

Apparently, The Immortal Demetreus Jerome Stewart is leading the team in OBP.

I. No wonder we suck.
II. Why is he not our platoon RF, rather than The Broken Corpse of Starling Marte? It's not as if we didn't know DJS tears up righties; he had an OPS over .900 against them last year.

Not really thrilled the Carlos Mendoza Line apparently went to the same "Boy Genius" school as Luis "Arm Care" Rojas. Play the hitters who hit. It shouldn't be so tough to understand.

[Amazin69]

GARY: Seth Lugo [who also leads MLB in ERA] has 9 wins. Mets starters have [a combined] 7 wins. But he wasn't good enough to start for the Mets!

I'd say this was the fault of ex-GM Zak "DUI" Scott being drunk on the job, but perhaps it means that Uncle Stevie needs to hire more drunks for the front office.

(See also "Williams, Trevor", "Walker, Taijuan" and "Wheeler, Zack". I guess this proves the Mets are allergic to W's?)
****************************

BTW, the Mets replaced Jorge Lopez on the roster with Danny Young. Another pitcher, rather than that reserve middle-infielder we (still) don't have.

What the heck. McNeil can buy new knees, right?

[Amazin69]

Peeeete comes off the bench with a heroic pinch-double in the 7th. Lindor gets his 4th hit of the night to tie things up. Danny Young pitches a scoreless 8th. JD bombs one to deep CF for the go-ahead dinger, and Reed Garrett shuts the door in the 9th!

Tomorrow, the WORLD!

(Or, you know, back to losing. But let them have their fun.)

[Westheim]

Yeah, they looked like a body in the village pond at dawn for six innings, but they scratched out a W against the similarly foundering Snakes, so I'll refrain from stomping on them until they make me ... by playing like this and posting another L.

Although Lopez was right about one thing. This might be the worst team in baseball. Can't see why he was (essentially) sacked for that. Grandmother always said that you're always allowed to tell the truth!

[Amazin69]

Anthony DiComo reports (unconfirmed as yet)

• Brett Baty and Scott, Christian v. The World are optioned to Syracuse

• Jose Iglesias and Dedniel Nuñez will replace them. (Jeff McKnees weeps in gratitude.)

• Narvaez is DFA'd! Our long national nightmare is ended!

• Mets acquire Luis Torrens from the Yankees for cash, to fill the backup catcher spot.

As Fred Talbot once said when being taken out of the game because he was being battered, "What took you so long?"

[Westheim]

What did Scotty do wrong?

[Westheim]

Darryl Strawberry Day was nice, at least until the Snakes showed up and pummeled Manaea and any other Mets hurler that dared poke his nose out of the bullpen for a 10-5 final (10-1 after 8 2/3).

Getting groovier: Pete with a meaningless homer in the ninth and a wallbanger double in the first that didn't miss the crowd by much.

Getting older: Ron complaining about his leg ailments, and Keith congratulating him with a dry "Welcome to the golden years."

Gyspy cursed: Nimmo taking Kevin Ginkel's leg clean off with a rocket liner and still getting thrown out at first when the carom comes right back to the catcher.

Ginkel got the W because the Snakes starter didn't go five. I'm sure that will help with the pain just as good as the spray-on cool stuff Ron and Keith won't tire talking about.

Also nice: the story Straw told about how his St. Louis-native father-in-law had reservations about his daughter going out with him. Not because of color or his history of addiction or run-ins with the police (as implied), but because he played on the METS.

[Amazin69]

With the end of their 2-game winning streak (hey, first time they won consecutive games since May 6th and 7th), it should be noted that the Mets have now conceded 19 runs in the last two games to a Snakes squad that had scored 9 runs in their previous 6 games. (Some of that is just the law of averages evening things out for Arizona, but still.)

Also, the Mutts' May record of 9-19 tied them with the Sacramento Solons-to-be and the South Side White Sux for the worst in MLB.

Future Trade Bait Jose Quintana gave up a home run to Ketel Marte on the 3rd pitch of today's game, and one to Junior Gurriel two batters later. Jiminy, Jose! Try to seem semi-respectable until we sell your ass, okay?

[Amazin69]

Updated summary of the 2017 purge (significant players in bold):

Lucas Duda to Tampa Bay for Drew Smith
Addison Reed to Boston for Gershon Bautista, Jamie Callahan, and Stephen Nogosek
Jay Bruce to Cleveland for Ryder Ryan
Neil Walker to Milwaukee for a PBTNL (Eric Hanhold)
Curtis Granderson to LA Dodgers for Jacob Rhame

That's four starters (and one key reliever) out, Drew Smith in. The idea that you build a team through a fire sale is dubious in the extreme. Fire sales are mostly useful for cutting costs (but Uncle Stevie has the $$$) or clearing space for young talent (which we don't have).

And giving emotional satisfaction to those saying "Blow it up!", I suppose.

(What was more significant for the Mets that 2017 summer was drafting Peterson and Vientos and signing Mauricio.)

[Westheim]

I like Drew Smith. Wherever he is right now, and however limbs the Mets have already shorn him of.

But I also liked Duuuuuu-daaaaa!

Ryder Ryan should count as significant, to be honest. He made the majors with the Pirates eventually (at age 28), and he was used in 2020 to bring back Todd Frazier from Toms River, NJ, for the 14th time.

In current terms, the Mets just hit back-to-back triples with Nimmo and J.D. (not DJ, nor D.J., nor J."D.") Martinez. Maybe that most unlikely of occurrences signifies the universe snapping into place for a 21-game winning streak.

No, I usually don't believe such things, I just throw them out for amusement.

[Amazin69]

Yeah, 2 triples in 58 games, then 2 triples in 2 AB. Wouldn't have bet on that.

And Drew Smith is right there in the bullpen, which I did not know when I started tying up that loose end from above.

(To activate Smith, the Mets sent Josh Walker down. You are in mourning, no doubt.)

[Westheim]

Aaaaand another blown save.

Turns out, nobody needs Boom-Boom Diaz after all.

[Amazin69]

Edlose, Ottavi-NO, Creakin' Diekman…the hits (and runs, and losses) keep on coming!

Mets fail to win series (after taking the first two of four), thus not having won a series since the two-game sweep of St. Loo four weeks back.

Mets lose after leading heading into the 9th for the 6th time since May 1st. No other team has blown more than two such games. Yes, the Mets are now as bad at holding 9th-inning leads than any three other MLB teams combined!

Mets are now 24-35, having gone 12-27 since the 12-8 start. If they continue this .308 winning percentage until death, er, the end of the season, they will finish a rousing (not "arousing") 56-106, all told.

If the Mets up their game from this slump to match their overall season winning percentage of .407, they will reach the heights of 66-96! Dare to dream!

[Westheim]

I have a little Excel list (which started mostly as just counting how many games I *actually* watch in a season after roundabouting it to about 200 for quite some time) and the Mets are 19-23 when I'm watching (even from the archives), and 5-12 when I'm not.

Not saying I can get the Mets to the playoffs, but maybe I should start a Patreon so I can take the next four months off work to lift them all the way to ... 73-89

[Amazin69]

Had them all the way.