Mets

[Amazin69]

Originally Posted by Westheim

(deep sigh)

And you're what, shocked and appalled?

Welcome to the Mets.

Rotation:

Kodai Senga…out until August
Sean Manaea…return delayed
Frankie Montas…hope you're Montastic
David Peterson…reverted to form
Tylor Megill…out indefinitely. (Which may not be a bad thing, on recent form.)

Paul Blackburn…remains Paul Blackburn
Clay Holmes…pitched poorly last time out
Griffin Canning…pitched poorly last time out
Blade Tidwell…talent TBD

To quote Edwin Starr…Good God, Y'all

[Westheim]

I hated the Mets' plans for the rotation from the start, and I am stunned they managed to ride that bull for as long as they did. But the next three months could be kinda brutal.

I'm currently trying to piece the Raccoons' pitching staff back together after a few seasons where the team was just kinda gross (69-93 last year, but 60-102 expected record...), but at least I am trying to go out and find some actual talent. And yet, the Critters ran out 29 pitchers (including a pair of Rule 5ers that didn't make it) and four position players, and found SEVEN tossers that could give them any amount of positive WAR at all. It was absolutely horrendous from April to September.

And yet, despite all the praises sung about how well the Mets were pitching for the first 10 weeks of the season, if you go to bb-ref and the team page right now, you will find that the Mets have already used 27 (!!) pitchers AND Jared Young, and June isn't even over yet!! How many more Tyler Zubers and Rich Reads until it's enough!?

Funnily, 15 of those Mets posted a positive WAR of at least 0.1, and of those Megill is 15th. What a banker!

[Westheim]

The good news: Frankie Montas is the least of our problems.

The bad news: Frankie Montas is the least of our problems.

Even Dickie "Richard" Lovelady wasn't a major problem in the grander scheme of things. By then the game had already fallen into the toilet and had been flushed. Brázobad and Can'tillo, with a kind assist from Garrote, had already ****** a 3-0 lead to bits in the sixth and there was not real way to recover after that, given that the Mets offense for eight innings consisted of clumsy walks by Strider, who really does have thighs like a horse, and that odd clutch 2-run single by Baty.

That's the same Baty that in the ninth inning, with the tying run in the on-deck circle, took a miserable hack at a 3-1 that he had just seen buy a ticket to ride the subway, and then looked at a 3-2 that was right in the "can't just look at it there" zone for a 3-2 pitch; THEN somehow found a reason to object about the (deserved) strike three call and chirped at the umpire.

Hey, Baty! Shut your pie hole, get some glasses, maybe also get a throwing arm, and how about taking an extended vacation in Syracuse, if we're already at it!?

Take Mauricio (that one RBI double notwithstanding) and Young with you, while you're at it. And Vientos? Can stay where he is, where the pepper grows.

What an absolutely rancid **** show.

[Amazin69]

So, yeah, the coMetose, having somehow taken three runs off of Spencer Aragorn, gave them back, and more.

BRIAN ANDERSON: Carlos Mendoza can't believe what he's seeing.
ME: Oh, please. He sees this every day. The Mets are boring. Awful and boring.

[Amazin69]

Mets finally break out the bats…just as a brief thunderstorm knocks out the TV, which is taking its sweet farking time coming back online. (The internet bounced back promptly, you may note.)

Tried to activate DirecTV's "SignalSaver" backup, where they send you a SD picture through your internet. Not worth the effort. Of course.

Meanwhile, by the Inner Harbor, Jacob de Grom throws 6 perfect innings, walks Holliday in the 7th and surrenders a single to Colton Couser in the 8th, with the Rangers having scored plenty of runs. So that moves him to 8-2, 2.08 on the year and a Baker's Dozen starts without allowing 3 ER.

And the cries of "**** you, Eppler!" once more ring out actross the land.

Oh, apparently SignalSaver™ doesn't work for live sports. I can watch Gordon Ramsay's Secret Service, if I wish. (I'd rather juggle Gordon's knives.)

At least I got to see Squirrel-Man scale the CF wall to steal that would-be dinger.

[Westheim]

I liked the Mets scoring seven runs and not blowing it regardless.

I liked Keith bringing the buffalo story to a realistic conclusion.

That the Mets have reached the stage of the season where they put up the big sign outside that screams "VOLUNTEERS WELCOME" to fill the bullpen - I don't like that so much.

Although at this stage a win is a win is a win...

[Amazin69]

Jonathan Pintaro is too blond for such a Mediterranean name.

He pitched for Shorter University…and if he keeps giving up runs, he won't be here much Longer.

Although, judging by how overstuffed his uniform was looking, I might have thought he attended Widener College.

[Amazin69]

[Howard Cosell voice] And down goes Canning!! DOWN GOES CANNING!!! [/Cosell]

And the Killer Grass strikes again. Okay, technically, Canning got his cleat caught in the mound's dirt while turning to go back up 3B in case Eli White tried to sneak over there while Frankie was throwing out the runner at first, but still. No more than 20' from where Kodai got his season ruined last year.

Rotation!

Kodai Senga…out until August, at least
Sean Manaea…still not ready
Griffin Canning…on the shelf until??
Tylor Megill…unable to pitch. And he's hurt, too!

David Peterson…it was only one bad start, right?
Frankie Montas…whaddaya mean, it was only one start?
Clay Holmes…back on track?
Paul Blackburn…do we really have to?
Blade Tidwell…at least he's well. You can tell it by his name, right?

Lawd ha' mercy!

***************
Highlight of the Chopcast tonight is CJ Nitkowski completely roasting young Wiley Ballard (the new Braves ballpark reporter; don't know where Paul Byrd has gone) for failing to take anywhere near proper advantage of NYC's dining options for his pregame lunch.

According to CJ, Ballard fails as a gourmand because…

a) in a city full of great restaurants, Wiley went to Chipotle
b) Wiley ordered a chicken salad to go, and
c) having ordered online, Wiley actually went to the wrong Chipotle and had to rush to the other one before catching the team bus to the ballpark

Wiley tried to claim that he thought his dramatic sprint through the streets was kind of akin to Rocky, but CJ was not having any of that. Sorry, kid.

(CJ, tiring of the press-box food, went and sank his teeth into a chicken-parmagiana sandwich from the LF restaurant, calories be damned. He had no regrets, he said.)

******************

Have to give credit to various bullpenners; they shut Atlanta down cold. Of course, the Noc-a-Homas' offense had been pretty dead before they met us in Atlanta…I believe they had a team OPS under .600, IIRC.

So part of that was their feasting on our dubious pitching, but the other part of the Tribal Revival was the return of their Acuña, who has been on fire. Braves studio hosts Nick Green and Peter Moylan were whimsically hoping that Ronald Jr could be the man to challenge Ohtani for MVP honors, but then reluctantly admitted it was more likely to be…

…wait for it…

…Pete Crow-Armstrong. Oh, FFS.

("Best two months of [Javy's] career", right, Gar? Sigh.)
*************

To be fair, Mr. 765 probably isn't going down without a fight. He now has 10 HR and 20 BB in June, becoming only the second Met ever to achieve both those feats in the same month, Brandon Gaudin said.

(Darryl Eugene Strawberry, May, 1987 being the other one.)

[Westheim]

Mets beat Barves, 4-0, and it's all so over.

I had a little cry when they dragged Canning off the field.

But it was for sports, so it was a manly cry, so it's okay.

[Amazin69]

How bad were the Mets tonight?

So bad that MLB didn't put out a highlights package. And that House of Highlights, instead of using audio from both teams' radio and TV feeds, as is normal, gave us nothing but the Pirates TV, all package long. Not a peep out of Gary or Howie or Gelbs, at all. Just Greg Brown, all 10 minutes' worth.

(Wow, I've forgotten how freaking dull Greg Brown can be. No need for Sominex™, this was a sleep aid in the making.)

Mets' only run was Mr 765 hitting #20, which was not quite a Strawberry Special. Remember, my dad would complain that Darryl only went yard if the Mets were 5 runs up or 5 runs down, but Soto hit his Solo when it was a mere 4-0 against, so that was WAY relevant! Totally got us back in the game!

Peterson continues to turn back into a pumpkin, and we burned Blade Tiddles in relief, which I think leaves us one "starter" short. Huh.

[Westheim]

Odds of the Mets finishing under .500?

[Amazin69]

Still less than 50% but…

MLB did FINALLY do a game recap, with Gary making the Mets calls. I mean, obviously, there was still a lot of Greg Brown, but it wasn't a monologue.

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Odds of the Mets finishing under .500?

Originally Posted by Amazin69

Still less than 50% but…

...but increasing, like their neighbors in the other borough. In 16 games dating back to June 12, the Yankees have averaged 2.8 runs per game. Throw out the three shutouts and the three high points (7,9,7 runs) and the average dips to 2.2 in the remaining 10 games.

I just spent 3 hours watching them lose to the Oakland A's (that is, Sacramento A's), 7-0. I now switch to Mets at Pirates. I hope to gain some solace.

[Westheim]

And we begin our broadcast with the news of recently-minted Hall of Famer Dave Parker having passed away at 74.

There's the right somber mood for a Mets game.

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Westheim

And we begin our broadcast with the news of recently-minted Hall of Famer Dave Parker having passed away at 74.

There's the right somber mood for a Mets game.

Well, he did not live long enough for the induction ceremony, but he almost certainly was aware of his election. That's consolation, for sure, and not a bad way to exit this earth.

[Amazin69]

Aw, Cripes. That will kill the mood at PNC, too. Hope they have a patch ready to go.

Remember that Cobra Dave, in the midst of an otherwise fine comeback season with Cincinnati in 1986, was the man who dropped Keith's fly ball that should have been the final out of the game of July 22nd, paving the way for the Ray Knight-Eric Davis fight, Gary Carter at 3B in the middle of that exquisite 2-5-3 DP, Darryl getting his fool self thrown out arguing a third strike, and thus Davey needing to have Orosco and McDowell shuttle behind the mound and RF.

This was the game that convinced me the Mets were truly destined to win it all that season. All possible due to Dave's dropsie.

The full Reds telecast has been out there since forever, but the WOR-TV Mets-cast from the 9th inning on didn't show up until last year.

So enjoy. And RIP to the greatest #39 of all time, no offense to Gary Gentry.

[Déjà Bru]

They are showing highlights of past Mets glory during the rain delay in Pittsburgh. Gary Cohen is great, no argument about that, but I had to mute the telecast after a while because his excited "The Mets just did something good!" voice was becoming irritating.

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

They are showing highlights of past Mets glory during the rain delay in Pittsburgh. Gary Cohen is great, no argument about that, but I had to mute the telecast after a while because his excited "The Mets just did something good!" voice was becoming irritating.

I can't see the rain delay footage on MLB.tv, but any sort of concentratd excitement becomes tiresome after a while.

At normal pace, the Mets never do something good for more than two consecutive ballgames, so it stretches out a lot more.

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Westheim

I can't see the rain delay footage on MLB.tv, but any sort of concentratd excitement becomes tiresome after a while.

At normal pace, the Mets never do something good for more than two consecutive ballgames, so it stretches out a lot more.

Heh, I thought you (or A69) would say, "If you were a TRUE Mets fan, it would be like music to your ears! "

[Westheim]

Blackbum brought back after 90 minutes under the tarp.

It's probably more a thing of "we can't cover 8 innings with the pen AGAIN" than "we don't give a hoot whether his arm comes off at the shoulder".

Just when I was about to go to bed. (eyes closing)