New York Mets 2016 Season Thread

[capo]

A sign Reyes has a lot left.... the extra base hits and scoring without getting a hit. The latter being what this team has lacked the most. 

['7']

Letting Wethless get on base all the time is ridiculous. He's not that good

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

1 hour ago, capo said:

A sign Reyes has a lot left.... the extra base hits and scoring without getting a hit. The latter being what this team has lacked the most. 

Right now Reyes reminds me of the guy who's not known for scoring goals, then comes to your team and suddenly scores four goals in his first six games.  The HRs seem like a pretty random event, and it's not like he was brought in to do that anyway.  The good you can take from Reyes in the early going is that he hasn't looked completely shot, and is showing signs of life at the plate.  But it's like anything else...the sample size is too small to analyze positively or negatively.  

Matz with another one of those "Well, he battled and turned in some decent innings" outings, but I'm getting really tired of those "pretty good" games from this bunch.  How about 7 innings of being near-untouchable for once, instead of these "looking hard for silver linings" efforts?  How about not putting your team in a 2-0 hole right away, then almost immediately coughing up another run after your team scores one for you?  

Edited July 10, 2016 by Colorado Rockies 1976

[NJDevs4978]

22 minutes ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

Right now Reyes reminds me of the guy who's not known for scoring goals, then comes to your team and suddenly scores four goals in his first six games.  The HRs seem like a pretty random event, and it's not like he was brought in to do that anyway.  The good you can take from Reyes in the early going is that he hasn't looked completely shot, and is showing signs of life at the plate.  But it's like anything else...the sample size is too small to analyze positively or negatively. 

It's just funny how when guys get here they immediately start swinging for the fences.

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

Same old unclutch bunch of dipsh!ts.  Thought this season would come down to head-to-head between the Nats and Mets, and the Nats are sure winning that battle, despite having plenty of weaknesses of their own.  Still dreaming of Collins and his staff being jettisoned, but I know it ain't happenin', for reasons previously discussed.

[NJDevs4978]

Just now, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

Same old unclutch bunch of dipsh!ts.  Thought this season would come down to head-to-head between the Nats and Mets, and the Nats are sure winning that battle, despite having plenty of weaknesses of their own.  Still dreaming of Collins and his staff being jettisoned, but I know it ain't happenin', for reasons previously discussed.

I thought head-to-head would be fairly even tbh but yeah 4-9 against them is not doing the job, especially the 1-6 in the last week plus.

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

I thought it'd be much closer than it's been for sure Has, as far as head-to-head goes...somewhere around break-even.  The Mets and Nats have about the same record against everyone else.  

['7']

Murphy has 21 rbi's vs the Mets, which is the most any player has had vs a team he played for the previous year since 1960

[NJDevs4978]

No games till Friday but MLB Network is airing a documentary on Piazza at 10 tonight while ESPN has the 30 for 30 on Doc and Darryl tomorrow night at 9

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

So Robert Gsellman gets called up to AAA in early June, gets shelled, gets hurt, finally comes back after missing almost a month, and then promptly gets shelled again. 

Vegas sitting dead last in team ERA, at 5.58.  They've given up an insane 974 hits in 786 IP (only one other team has given up more than 900 hits).  I know not all PCL teams play their home games in the thin-air areas, but man is the organizational pitching depth just damned-near non-existent right now. 

On ‎7‎/‎13‎/‎2016 at 9:11 AM, NJDevs4978 said:

No games till Friday but MLB Network is airing a documentary on Piazza at 10 tonight while ESPN has the 30 for 30 on Doc and Darryl tomorrow night at 9

I've mentioned Doc's memoir (I still read some parts of it on occasion), and I'm still amazed that he's not dead.  Guy had more rock-bottoms in the last 25 years than most people ever have in a lifetime.  His strongest attribute is a certain likability that he never seems to lose, no matter what he's done.  Straw definitely did not ever really have that.  I remember a great article in SI written when both were still playing as Mets and still fairly young (and having problems).  The author basically said of Straw "His first reaction to being hit is to hit back.  He seems much younger than ".  He then said of Doc "His first reaction to being hit is to avoid being hit again.  He seems much older than ".  Basically Strawberry always kind of came off as an immature "It's all about me me me" PITA and much more of a baby than Doc, despite both having demons.  I'll never forget the team photo fiasco with Straw.

Doc makes it pretty clear in his book that he doesn't have much use for Straw in the present...basically called him a complete phony...said Darryl often had a way of telling the press something negative about someone, then would claim to have been misrepresented or misquoted, and then would have a way of getting off the hook as everyone would just shrug their shoulders and say "Well, that's just Darryl being Darryl.", with Darryl then offering up an insincere apology.  Doc said that simply happened one too many times, and he finally told Darryl something along the lines of great, you're sorry, I accept, but I'm not forgetting your bullsh!t anymore, enough is enough. 

Edited July 15, 2016 by Colorado Rockies 1976

['7']

1 hour ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

So Robert Gsellman gets called up to AAA in early June, gets shelled, gets hurt, finally comes back after missing almost a month, and then promptly gets shelled again. 

Vegas sitting dead last in team ERA, at 5.58.  They've given up an insane 974 hits in 786 IP (only one other team has given up more than 900 hits).  I know not all PCL teams play their home games in the thin-air areas, but man is the organizational pitching depth just damned-near non-existent right now. 

I've mentioned Doc's memoir (I still read some parts of it on occasion), and I'm still amazed that he's not dead.  Guy had more rock-bottoms in the last 25 years than most people ever have in a lifetime.  His strongest attribute is a certain likability that he never seems to lose, no matter what he's done.  Straw definitely did not ever really have that.  I remember a great article in SI written when both were still playing as Mets and still fairly young (and having problems).  The author basically said of Straw "His first reaction to being hit is to hit back.  He seems much young than ".  He then said of Doc "His first reaction to being hit is to avoid being hit again.  He seems much older than ".  Basically Strawberry always kind of came off as an immature "It's all about me me me" PITA and much more of a baby than Doc, despite both having demons.  I'll never forget the team photo fiasco with Straw.

Doc makes it pretty clear in his book that he doesn't have much use for Straw in the present...basically called him a complete phony...said Darryl often had a way of telling the press something negative about someone, then would claim to have been misrepresented or misquoted, and then would have a way of getting off the hook as everyone would just shrug their shoulders and say "Well, that's just Darryl being Darryl.", with Darryl then offering up an insincere apology.  Doc said that simply happened one too many times, and he finally told Darryl something along the lines of great, you're sorry, I accept, but I'm not forgetting your bullsh!t anymore, enough is enough. 

It was inevitable that we'd hit a lull once everybody graduated. Plus Montero essentially became worthless, Fulmer needed to he traded, Wheeler is still around but hurt (doubt we see him this year at all, but next year he'll probably be taking Harveys spot in the rotation) 

But good thing we drafted Dunn and Kay with our 1 & 2...so a replenishment is on the way. At the very least I have faith that the Mets can identify front end starting pitching

['7']

Terry Collins is facing some criticism (slow news day, no baseball until Friday) for not playing any Mets at the ASG. How dumb is that? Colon is due to start on Saturday night. And why waste Familia at all? Save every bullet.

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

6 minutes ago, '7' said:

It was inevitable that we'd hit a lull once everybody graduated. Plus Montero essentially became worthless, Fulmer needed to he traded, Wheeler is still around but hurt (doubt we see him this year at all, but next year he'll probably be taking Harveys spot in the rotation) 

But good thing we drafted Dunn and Kay with our 1 & 2...so a replenishment is on the way. At the very least I have faith that the Mets can identify front end starting pitching

Oh I get that the Mets had to start trading away some of that depth for right-now guys...it's more that it sucks that some potential "next wave" guys have simply crashed and burned, and right before the deadline to boot.  sh!t, Montero was mentioned in the same breath as Syndergaard and deGrom not so long ago.  Not saying anyone else would've been as electric as the most recent batch of "graduates", but if Montero had just been as good as he'd been at the AAA level in previous seasons, he might have had some worth in a package.  Ynoa's been evening out in a hurry, but chances are no one would've been fooled anyway...all the peripherals pointed to his coming back to Earth a while ago, and it's finally happened.

8 minutes ago, '7' said:

Terry Collins is facing some criticism (slow news day, no baseball until Friday) for not playing any Mets at the ASG. How dumb is that? Colon is due to start on Saturday night. And why waste Familia at all? Save every bullet.

Terry might be one of the dumbest managers ever to helm an All-Star team, but who can blame him for being gun-shy with his pitchers right now?  It seems like every pitcher who wears a Met uniform is made of straw and bubblegum these days.  The ASG outlived its usefulness a long time ago, really...it made a lot more sense when TV coverage was a lot more limited and interleague play didn't exist.  There's no mystique to these players anymore (you can see highlights of their heroics all over the place), so the game has no mystique...and the home-field advantage being tied to it remains a joke and a travesty.  Stop trying to be clever in forcing relevance and importance down our throats. 

[NJDevs4978]

5 hours ago, '7' said:

Terry Collins is facing some criticism (slow news day, no baseball until Friday) for not playing any Mets at the ASG. How dumb is that? Colon is due to start on Saturday night. And why waste Familia at all? Save every bullet.

And if he'd pitched Familia in the 7th inning just to get him in there and the NL suddenly needed a closer in the 9th people would have gotten on Terry for THAT because it would be dissing Familia to not have his guy close the game when he's 'perfect' in save chances.  And re: Colon who cares that he didn't pitch, it was arguably a gift he even got selected.  Heck, deGrom was more deserving just by numbers but he's pitched in the game before anyway.

It's just funny the Mets were the only team not to have a player play in the game and Terry was managing but really it's not like they didn't have two guys who would have made an appearance pull out on the eve of the ASG   Plus I totally get having Colon as the reserve guy cause he's got a rubber arm.  I figured even before the game this could happen (neither Met pitching) if the NL was behind again once Terry said Familia was the closer and Colon was the extra innings length guy.

Edited July 13, 2016 by NJDevs4978

['7']

Lucas Duda WAY behind schedule still has not been cleared for any kind of baseball activity. Do we really miss him? Eh...Loney has put up a respectable .277 avg and .336 obp, but it's still irritating, because when he gets hot he is a more feared hitter than Loney and can go on a 5-6 HR a week tangent.

[NJDevs4978]

Either way at this point they pretty much have to assume they're not going to have Duda for any meaningful AB's this year.

re: the Piazza special, some of the stuff last night was pretty good.  They actually had footage of Ted Williams saying Piazza looked like a better hitter at 16 than he did.  If that was public knowledge before the draft no way he lasts till the 62nd round   They also went into detail about his early career how he was looked at cross-eyed because of being Tommy's boy and how he had to learn catcher being the only American player in the Dominican Republic.  For an hour long show it was pretty good though I don't think they had anything about his Met tenure that we didn't already know.

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

On ‎7‎/‎14‎/‎2016 at 2:09 AM, '7' said:

Lucas Duda WAY behind schedule still has not been cleared for any kind of baseball activity. Do we really miss him? Eh...Loney has put up a respectable .277 avg and .336 obp, but it's still irritating, because when he gets hot he is a more feared hitter than Loney and can go on a 5-6 HR a week tangent.

My problems with Duda remain the same:  better pitchers have little trouble getting him out (he's an easy K), and he can disappear for weeks at a time.  He's also still a clumsy fielder.  I temporarily got fooled into thinking he might not be a bad-team ballplayer in 2014, but no more.  Mets have to move on from him in 2017.  Duda can definitely have a respectable MLB career, but it shouldn't be on a team that's serious about contending.  You can't count on Duda at all in big moments.   

That being said, though there are things about Loney's game that I really like (ability to hit for average and make contact, some good defense), he just doesn't provide enough pop for a first baseman.  I don't miss Duda really (I'm just tired of his limitations and long stretches of looking overmatched)...but I get the feeling Flores is going to start getting some playing time at first base, at Loney's expense.  I think the Mets are starting to lose a little confidence in Loney...he's just 10-for-his-last-43 (.233 BA), with just 3 BB (does have 2 2B, 2 HR and 8 RBI in that stretch, so it's not like he's done nothing).  Though I think the Mets are still probably a little iffy on Flores long-term, I think his recent power surge has them intrigued enough to try to get his bat into the lineup...and it seems like first base will be his best opportunity to get consistent ABs, with Reyes apparently the guy who the Mets really want to take third and run with it. 

Conforto shredding it in AAA BTW, for whatever that's worth.  Impossible to judge him by the numbers there.  When he's called back up, we'll see if he's really back on track.   

Edited July 15, 2016 by Colorado Rockies 1976

[NJDevs4978]

Wally says Conforto is fixed now lol, if that's the case hopefully Long doesn't ruin him again

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

22 hours ago, NJDevs4978 said:

Wally says Conforto is fixed now lol, if that's the case hopefully Long doesn't ruin him again

No matter how you look at it, who can really say the coaching staff has done a good job here?  Obviously players only have so much individual talent, and it's not like there's any one coach who is going to get everyone on the roster to do more than anyone thought possible...but I think you can make the argument that both Long and Warthen haven't really helped a whole lot. 

Edited July 15, 2016 by Colorado Rockies 1976

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

Did anyone see the 30-for-30 with Doc and Darryl?  I missed it, but it comes on again on Sunday at 3.  Boomer and Carton mentioned it...Carton said Doc looked like he was really struggling.  Really hoping he hasn't relapsed, but he does look very gaunt in recent pics.  Not saying one necessarily correlates to the other, but it's been such a fight for him to stay sober, and in the end of his book, though he admitted that this battle won't ever truly end for him, he did make it sound like he was doing pretty well.  Just hope that he still is. 

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

Herrera goes 2-for-5 in his first game back after the break.  Been a very up-and-down season for him.  He was slashing .300/.347/.526 back on 6/11.  He's down to .276/.320/.476.  Overall the sabes don't really make it appear as though he's been unlucky...he's just mostly been inconsistent.  Hope he has a big second half, because I'll be surprised if he's not coming into 2017 with a job to lose.

Rosario picks right up where he left off in AA, with a 2-for-4 game.  Slashing .429/.471/.619 so far for Binghamton.  Obviously those numbers will come down (he had a .500 BABIP coming into last night's game), and I don't think he's ever been expected to be that much of an offensive force at the major-league level, but unless he really tails off, it's hard to imagine that he won't have a shot at making the big club in 2018.  With Cabrera still signed through 2017 (and playing terrific defense and hitting at his career numbers), the only way Rosario would have any chance at consistent playing time at the big-league level in 2017 would be if Cabrera suffered a long-term injury...but even then, I'm guessing Reyes and/or Flores would probably be asked to fill in ahead of Rosario.  I think it would take a lot for Rosario (he'll be in his age 21 season in 2017) to get much more than a cup of coffee before 2018.

[NJDevs4978]

3 hours ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

Did anyone see the 30-for-30 with Doc and Darryl?  I missed it, but it comes on again on Sunday at 3.  Boomer and Carton mentioned it...Carton said Doc looked like he was really struggling.  Really hoping he hasn't relapsed, but he does look very gaunt in recent pics.  Not saying one necessarily correlates to the other, but it's been such a fight for him to stay sober, and in the end of his book, though he admitted that this battle won't ever truly end for him, he did make it sound like he was doing pretty well.  Just hope that he still is. 

I saw it...one thing that really struck me was how affected Doc was (and still is) by missing the parade in '86 because of drugs. And literally the first time Darryl met Doc he - Doc - was wasted. Both guys' demons went way back to their childhood in different ways, neither had the ideal home life. 

I remembered the stuff about Darryl and spousal abuse with his first wife, as they were going through it I thought man with the sensitivity people have to it now his career would have careened off a cliff even before it did. As it was both of them were very good-All Star players for nearly a decade...you don't like to think of just how good they could have been without their demons.

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

1 hour ago, NJDevs4978 said:

I saw it...one thing that really struck me was how affected Doc was (and still is) by missing the parade in '86 because of drugs. And literally the first time Darryl met Doc he - Doc - was wasted. Both guys' demons went way back to their childhood in different ways, neither had the ideal home life. 

I remembered the stuff about Darryl and spousal abuse with his first wife, as they were going through it I thought man with the sensitivity people have to it now his career would have careened off a cliff even before it did. As it was both of them were very good-All Star players for nearly a decade...you don't like to think of just how good they could have been without their demons.

Read Doc's memoir if you haven't already.  Yeah, he had a difficult childhood for sure. 

The opening chapter talks about why he missed the parade, in great and gritty detail.  He basically got a liquor buzz after the game (with teammates), snuck into an office to call his coke connection, then cut out to go to a coke party in the projects, where he pretty much snorted his brains out.  As one would expect, he felt horrible once the sun started to come up, so he went back to his apartment, took a shower to try to pull himself together, and simply couldn't.  He heard Darryl's knocks at the door and also received multiple phone calls from the Mets (Joe McIlvaine and Jim Horwitz I think, who told him they would have someone pick him up if he didn't feel up to driving), but was both paranoid that he'd be found out and embarrassed that he was such a mess...so he simply kind of hid.

Based on what we know about him now, it seems like it was only a matter of time before he'd find coke (or coke would find him), but the first time he tried it, he almost didn't.  He went to a friend's or relative's house during the '85 offseason, to smoke some pot, and there were two female strippers fooling around on a bed, snorting away.  The friend/relative told him not to go in there, that he didn't need to be involved with that.  The friend/relative went out for a while, and Doc checked out the strippers.  They offered him some coke, which he turned down at first...but eventually his curiosity got the better of him, he snorted a line...and, in his own words, "It was love at first sniff.", and he was instantly hooked.  What followed was basically a three-way orgy of sex and blow.  The friend/relative came back, took one look at Doc, and chastised him for succumbing, and yelled at the strippers for giving Doc his first taste of cocaine.  The friend/relative then told Doc that he had some pot if he was still interested, but Doc simply smiled and said "Nope...I want what they've got!"  It sucks on a lot of levels, but you wonder if he had never gone to that house...would he ever had become a cocaine addict?  Based on the fact that he had addictive tendencies, it seems like it was really damn-near preordained that he'd try coke somewhere...especially given the time period. 

Teammates were already suspecting something was going on with him by the time spring training rolled around in 1986...Doc admitted showing up too often with glassy/red eyes and not being his usual easy-going self...he said that Ed Lynch just looked at him one day and shook his head.  Doc said "What?", to which Lynch simply replied, "You know."  I remember thinking he didn't look good physically...he seemed like he was a little out of shape (ironically he had a bit of a gut), and would sweat even more profusely than usual during his starts.  Of course he got off to a 5-0 start with a 1.04 ERA in '86 (the end of that crazy 50-start, 37-5 run we've detailed more than once), but he really seemed to labor a lot after that...and was completely spent (by his own admission) by the time the World Series rolled around.  What's amazing is that he actually stayed completely coke-free for seven years, after his failed drug test in 1987...but in his book, he admits that he wasn't truly rehabilitated.  Once he fell off the wagon in the mid-90s, he fell off hard...and sadly, it happened again and again and again. 

 

Edited July 15, 2016 by Colorado Rockies 1976

['7']

Phillies have been playing a lot better of late, 10-3 in their last 13. No-matter, we usually slug like hell at Citizens Bank Park and it is imperative to go in their and sweep their asses, because after that it's Wrigley and I highly doubt the Mets are going to continue to steamroll the Cubs.

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

2 minutes ago, '7' said:

Phillies have been playing a lot better of late, 10-3 in their last 13. No-matter, we usually slug like hell at Citizens Bank Park and it is imperative to go in their and sweep their asses, because after that it's Wrigley and I highly doubt the Mets are going to continue to steamroll the Cubs.

Meh, even bad teams are going to have occasional surges...but the Mets have 13 more games against the Phils and they can't go something like 7-6 against them.  The Nats aren't so good that they will leave the Mets in the dust, but the Mets have to hold up their end.  Mets need to go on one of those .700-ball for 20-games-or-so kind of binges at some point.  Too many damned fits and starts since the 15-7 start to their year (as evidenced by the two games under .500 record since).