Jump to content

New York Mets 2016 Season Thread


Colorado Rockies 1976

Recommended Posts

Montero just can't seem to put it together at the major league level...did look good on those two Ks though.  He should give Lagares a great big bear hug.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not sure if this was mentioned already, or is old baseball news but Neil Walkers dad was an MLB pitcher named Tom Walker. He was good friends with Roberto Clemente and was going to accompany Clemente on the plane to Nicaragua on the humanitarian mission that ultimately claimed his life. Clemente convinced Tom Walker not to go since he was a single guy and should just enjoy New Years partying it up. Creepy almost. Reminds me of the Waylon Jennings/Buddy Holly story. Later Tom Walker gets married and has a son who becomes a star player for the Pirates.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, '7' said:

Daniel who? Neil Walker with HR #5 already.

Re:  Walker, obviously small samples lend themselves to anomalies by virtue of being small, but what's odd is he hasn't drawn a single walk this season...but has struck out 14 times.  The Ks are high for him (he's never struck out at this rate in any previous season), but he usually is able to draw SOME walks (usually about 50 or so per 162 GP).  If he had some walks he'd have a killer slash line to start his season, but even without them, thanks to a .585 SLG%, he's rocking an .830 OB+SLG (that would be a career-high if it ever held up).

Anyway, I still think when the season is over, Murph will have turned in a Murph-type season (maybe a little better than we're used to), and ditto Walker.  Nothing has changed, regardless of what Murph does or doesn't do...a year of Murph made sense, but he was able to find a three-year deal, Walker fits the 2016 plan perfectly, next season it's the inexpensive (but hopefully uber-cost-effective) Herrera show (off to a slow start in Vegas so far, but it's early).

Never heard that story about Walker's dad...damn. 

As great as last night was, you can't help but wonder what TC is thinking.  Obviously Montero is the guy right now who's here to eat up some garbage innings (or possibly come in if someone flames out very early), as he'll be headed back to Vegas pretty soon.  Why not give him three innings (at least two) in a blowout game, where it's more like a start for him, and to keep the other arms fresh?  Robles and Henderson have already pitched in seven out of the first 13 games of this young season.  Couldn't Montero have started the seventh and finished out the game?  So what if he gave up, say, 3-4 runs?  He would've been protecting a 9-run lead (when he first came in), and he's comfortable with a starter's workload, so I don't think 50-60 pitches to finish the game would've been that big of a deal.  In ways it reminds me of last season, when TC went into Robotic Terry mode and would just bring in Reed, Clippard, and Familia even if the team was up by a lot. 

You can argue that maybe TC only gave Montero the one inning (27 pitches) just in case Colon gets hit hard tonight (always a possibility in any given start with him), but if that's the case, then why pitch him at all last night?  Then save him for today.  Maybe it's nitpicking, but to me it's either pitch Montero last night with the intention that he's closing out the game (even if it's not pretty), or don't pitch him at all. 

 

Edited by Colorado Rockies 1976
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, '7' said:

Not sure if this was mentioned already, or is old baseball news but Neil Walkers dad was an MLB pitcher named Tom Walker. He was good friends with Roberto Clemente and was going to accompany Clemente on the plane to Nicaragua on the humanitarian mission that ultimately claimed his life. Clemente convinced Tom Walker not to go since he was a single guy and should just enjoy New Years partying it up. Creepy almost. Reminds me of the Waylon Jennings/Buddy Holly story. Later Tom Walker gets married and has a son who becomes a star player for the Pirates.

I only heard that story in Spring Training...probably was well known around Pittsburgh obviously though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't remember that story, re: Walker's father, but pretty creepy indeed.

Shockingly, 3 of Walker's homers this season have come vs LHP. Prior to this season, he had 6 (!) against LHP for his entire career.

Edited by nmigliore
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ouch for Vegas' Seth Lugo...after getting bombed yesterday, he's now allowed 15 ER and 26 hits in just 12.2 IP of work (3 starts).  Hard to believe that one of his starts was actually good. 

Verrett is in a tough spot...he's done enough in his limited major-league sample to get a shot to be a full-time starter in someone's rotation, but as we all know, it's going to take someone going down for the season for that to happen here.  At any rate, credit to him, in that he's now clearly ahead of Montero on this team's depth chart...that was actually supposed to be a battle during spring training.  If the Mets ever go to a 6-man again (when Wheeler returns), he may even get the nod ahead of Colon. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Mets K a lot because they take too many pitches. It seems like they are alway giving good pitches to hit because they want to work pitch counts. Walks will come if you approach at bats like your going up there to drive the ball hard. The Mets approach is to look for a pitch to jack out of the ballpark after the pitcher has already thrown them strike one.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

42 minutes ago, capo said:

The Mets K a lot because they take too many pitches. It seems like they are alway giving good pitches to hit because they want to work pitch counts. Walks will come if you approach at bats like your going up there to drive the ball hard. The Mets approach is to look for a pitch to jack out of the ballpark after the pitcher has already thrown them strike one.

What's scary is that as much as the strikeouts make me crazy, the Mets are actually not far from the NL average.  Teams are averaging 8.07 K per game...Mets are at 9 K per game.  SF has the lowest K rate at 6.4, and SD had the worst at 9.8. 

NL hitters strike out in 21.5% of their plate appearances now.  10 years ago, it was 17.4% of plate appearances (and it was the same 10 years prior to that)...30 years ago, it was 15.7%...40 years ago, 13.0%.  It wouldn't surprise me if the number was somewhere around 10% back in the 50s.   

Hitters just strike out a hell of a lot now...and I think it's a sh!tty part of the game. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Agreed, I'm not really in love with all the changes the game has undertaken. K's aren't about lack of talent or facing amazing pitching any more. It's about  approach to at bats and trying to walk all the damn time. Go up there looking to hit a line drive not just getting on. Line drives are what rattle pitchers. Makes them think maybe my sh!t isn't that good. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well it's a lot of things...pitchers are throwing harder and there are more power pitchers than there used to be, that's also a big reason for increased K's along with the general look for the three-run HR with every swing approach.  In the 50's the definition of a power pitcher was probably a guy that threw low 90's, and there weren't bullpen pitchers throwing gas either, you had pitchers on their 150th pitch and above.

Edited by NJDevs4978
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wright "strikes" again.  I actually have to choke back vomit when he comes up to the plate with a RISP.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ah those Philly sports fan idiot. Fan interference double as he reaches over. But it was clear he reached over, no way they could keep the HR call on that one. Umps got it right

Edited by '7'
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awesome, another golden opportunity for Wright to fail.  

Yep.  At least he didn't K.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That ballpark should be razed.  Hate bandboxes.  Fun to watch all these dingers though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jesus Gary, love you on the air, but did you HAVE to mention the Phillies' failure to score four runs over the last several games while the potential fourth run was at second?  Of course they score just after that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, NJDevs4978 said:

Terry, you might want to give the ghost a day off tomorrow...0-5 with 4 K's.

He has no choice...it's an off-day tomorrow.  But Wright killed his team today.  I know some of his numbers aren't bad, but at some point, TC has to be open to the idea of pinch-hitting for him with runners on late in games.  Too bad David...you never get it done, and it got old a long time ago.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

He has no choice...it's an off-day tomorrow.  But Wright killed his team today.  I know some of his numbers aren't bad, but at some point, TC has to be open to the idea of pinch-hitting for him with runners on late in games.  Too bad David...you never get it done, and it got old a long time ago.

lol ah, I saw an ad for the upcoming Mets-Braves telecast and I assumed they were just starting tomorrow for some reason.

Problem with that is who are they PH'ing him for?  Even though Wright's just a ghost of what he used to be Flores has had a nightmare start and Eric Campbell's still Eric Campbell.  They're not PH'ing one of the outfielders for him.

Edited by NJDevs4978
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.