2020 New York Mets season thread

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

Obviously no immediate positives coming out of this, but at least when Noah does come back, he won’t be trying to blow everyone away with 110 mph heat.  He’ll actually have to learn how to pitch.

Would’ve been nice to have had some arms in the system, but of course BVW couldn’t give those away fast enough.

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

Getting to that point where you look up some random numbers, just for the hell of it.

Here is one player's "GREAT STRETCH WITHIN A HISTORIC SEASON":

90 GP, 338 AB (392 PA) .311 BA, .398 OB%, .760 SLG%, (1.158 OPS), 105 H, 13 2B, 2 3B, 45 HR, 101 RBI, 47 BB, 30 K

And even crazier, his BABIP was just .226 for this stretch...suggesting that he might have actually had some bad luck along the way.  Usually for such an insane run, you'd see that number in the .350-.400 range.

The player is Roger Maris, circa 1961...this is the run that he went on from 5/17 through 8/16.  Just before it began, he had put up a slash of .208/.345/.323, with 3 HR and 11 RBI through 28 games...there was even some talk of him being traded due to that slow start, despite having turned in a career-best MVP season the year before.  It really was insane how many home runs he hit to start that stretch...24 through the first 38 games, then 32 through 58, and 37 through 68.  He followed up the 37 through 68 with 1 in 16 games...but then had one last surge with 7 HR in 6 GP, to finish off that 45 in 90...at that point in his season, he had 48 HR in 112 GP.  

He would slow up after that, hitting "only" 13 HR through his remaining 43 GP...this is a 49 HR pace over 162 GP, but he was so locked in prior that suddenly that pace didn't seem that impressive, crazy as that sounds.  And of course, unlike the players of today, Maris did what he did without constantly striking out.  Great stuff. 

 

Edited April 8, 2020 by Colorado Rockies 1976

[NJDevs4978]

It seems so quaint now that Maris was getting pilloried for playing eight extra games than Ruth, expansion pitching in a 18-team sport and ‘being a .260 hitter’.

I am actually tempted to start watching old games now that it seems to be the du jour thing to do for sports fans but in some fashion or another I’ve seen many of the great moments in Met history, though I was only eight in 1986 I’ve seen the three big games from that year (G6 LCS, G6/7 WS) on a collector’s set. I guess maybe a couple of the NLCS games from ‘73 or the World Series games from ‘69 would be worth watching assuming they’re even on YT the way a lot of old NFL games are.

Edited April 7, 2020 by NJDevs4978

[NJDevs4978]

BTW the Mets are doing the same thing the Devils have been with a 'virtual broadcast' of a video game sim on YouTube, with the entire SNY booth getting in the act.  Too bad our virtual team isn't as good as the Devils' sim team has been (listed at 2-7 so far) lolz

I have to admit I was more into listening to this faux game than the Devils ones, partly cause of GKR and partly cause the baseball sims are more realistic than the hockey sims in terms of gameplay.  Didn't listen to the whole thing but a couple innings flew by.

Edited April 8, 2020 by NJDevs4978

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

13 hours ago, NJDevs4978 said:

It seems so quaint now that Maris was getting pilloried for playing eight extra games than Ruth, expansion pitching in a 18-team sport and ‘being a .260 hitter’.

I am actually tempted to start watching old games now that it seems to be the du jour thing to do for sports fans but in some fashion or another I’ve seen many of the great moments in Met history, though I was only eight in 1986 I’ve seen the three big games from that year (G6 LCS, G6/7 WS) on a collector’s set. I guess maybe a couple of the NLCS games from ‘73 or the World Series games from ‘69 would be worth watching assuming they’re even on YT the way a lot of old NFL games are.

That season Maris hit .269 overall...he was at .288 once that run ended, but promptly slumped down to about .270, then hovered right around there through the end of the season.

Would love to know what it was like to watch someone go on SUCH a pronounced HR tear like that.  Teammate Mickey Mantle hit 54 HR in 153 GP, but was steadier from start to finish (though he did enjoy a 58 game run where he hit 28 of his home runs).  I checked Alonso’s numbers for comparison, and same thing...his HR were relatively spread out throughout the season.  

Yeah I might start checking out some of these older games too (especially ones I’m too young to have remembered or seen, like anything from 1969 or 1973).  

['7']

To me personally it's starting to feel a bit bleak regarding if they have a season, how long it will be...what kind of playoffs we'd have. I can see them using this kind of "special" year to expand playoffs and get more teams involved. Right now I'm holding out hope...maybe by May 15th they can reconvene and do two weeks of spring training, and then start a season June 1st. Get 4 full months of baseball year. But even that seems too optimistic

Right now everybody involved fears that nightmare scenario of opening too early and having a player (or players) get seriously sick or god forbid perish. Then everything will have to be shuttered again

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/mlb/alex-rodriguez-jennifer-lopez-reportedly-end-bid-to-buy-the-mets/ar-BB13KJaI?ocid=spartanntp

“According to multiple sources, Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez are no longer interested in buying the Mets. That decision was reached after negotiations with potential partners failed to materialize and it became clear that the Wilpons’ reluctance to part with SNY makes it almost impossible for anyone without many billions of dollars to afford owning the team.”

 

Well, duh...these two clearly had no idea what they were getting into.  As wealthy as the two of them are, it would have very much been a Roger Dorn owning the Indians kind of disaster if they had been part of an investment group to buy the team...I think that they thought they would have much more pull with trying to drag legit investors to do what they can't (come up with insane amounts of coin), than they actually do.  A marginally talented (at best) singer/actress and a former baseball cheat with a lot of time on their hands (especially now) clearly thought that buying a team would be a lot easier than it really is...I could almost hear the conversation "Hey Jen, how cool would it be if we owned the Mets?  All we gotta do is just find some people with some money, to go in with us, our names will be all over it, and away we go!"  As we saw with Cohen, even when one actually HAS the funds and ability to buy, own, and run a MLB franchise, that so much can go wrong during the potential sale.  At least this charade ended relatively quickly.   

Wouldn't surprise me if eventually the Wilpons have to go back to Cohen with their worthless tails between their legs, with Cohen holding just about all of the leverage.  If anything, if A-Rod and his aging arm candy are really that bullish on trying to get involved with a MLB franchise, they should try to get in touch with Cohen and join his group as minority owners.  That's really where their funds slot them...they could a little like the PK and Lindsey of the Mets, but a little more public, and with a slight ownership stake in the Mets.  These two should realize that they need to spend some time in the shallow end, instead of climbing right up the high dive ladder and attempting a back flip.    

Edited May 8, 2020 by Colorado Rockies 1976

[NJDevs4978]

LOLohman, sadly you might not be too far off with the Roger Dorn reference.

Who the hell knows what's going to happen anymore.  I would think they would have to go back to Cohen hat in hand, but MLB pretty well backed them up on the Cohen fiasco so I don't think he's going to be allowed to ride in on the white horse.  If they had to sell before this, how quickly does everything that's going on speed up the timetable?  Or is Jeffy determined to hang on longer than he's likely going to be allowed to because they're never getting full value for the team now?

It also seems like they're determined to hang on to SNY at all costs, and not putting that on the table is driving down the price of the team even further.  Which is also another reason they blew it with Cohen, he didn't even care about SNY, but at this point nobody else is going to take on the team with the debt they already had BEFORE the events of the last two months, without it.

Edited May 10, 2020 by NJDevs4978

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if there were times behind the scenes where A-Rod and Lopez were wondering “But doesn’t anyone know who we are?”  Nothing against them, but it is kinda funny that even people worth roughly $700 million combined eventually find that club where all they can do is press their noses against the glass and enviously try to sneak some kind of peek.

Basically, it sure seems like you’d better have WELL over one billion of your own cash before you can even dream of possibly owning the Mets.  A-Rod and Lopez clearly thought their names alone were enough to get them backstage, despite them not actually having passes of their own.

Re:  Cohen, I wonder if (more like when) the Wilpons don’t have much choice, is Cohen even willing to listen at all?  Or if he just tells them both to fvck off...”You had your chance, YOU blew it!”

I just wonder if there any real suitors out there at all now.  Especially given our new reality.

 

Edited May 10, 2020 by Colorado Rockies 1976

[NJDevs4978]

With the A-Rod thing I’m sure there’s a little of ‘but Jeter owns a team’ envy too, or at least is getting to run it. Owning the Mets would be his way of trying to one up Jeter in addition to his own interest.

Edited May 10, 2020 by NJDevs4978

[NJDevs4978]

Kinda sucks for these minor league cities and all the others losing teams during the streamlining.  Brooklyn going from A to AA is kinda weird but it's nice to go there for a game, I've only been to like two or three.  The one time I went last year the game was fogged out, or at least I had to leave during a fog delay

[NJDevs4978]

Jesus, Mountain Man in training Howie looks so much different

 

Edited May 19, 2020 by NJDevs4978

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

Damn you ain't kiddin Has...

Colon apparently wants to pitch for the Mets again.  If he wanted to pitch for any other team, there would be absolutely no chance of that happening.  But due to the "Mets Being The Mets" factor, I give it 10-20%.  

['7']

Colon is maybe spring training cannon fodder at this point. His last year in the majors with 2018 Texas he really was just taking up a roster spot on a hopeless team and getting battered all over the yard. Now fast forward two years. Sure maybe the control will still be there but the velocity won't and he would get absolutely battered. No thanks

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

Oh I agree, absolutely no thanks.  But I could see the Mets actually inviting him to spring/summer training, and BVW saying something like “You can never have enough pitching depth.”  

[NJDevs4978]

Well with the rumored 50-man rosters anyone can make a taxi squad this year.  That'll be an interesting decision for teams, do you bring in short-term vets or subject kids to the taxi squad role.  Not like they can play in minor leagues but teams won't want to use service time on their best prospects if it's in a reserve role.

Edited May 20, 2020 by NJDevs4978

[NJDevs4978]

A pretty good read especially for someone who was barely old enough to remember the late ‘80’s teams and had only a cursory understanding of the controversy that swirled around Gregg Jefferies then

 

Edited May 24, 2020 by NJDevs4978

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

I remember Jefferies’ time with the Mets very well.  There were problems all around, starting with the Met organization.  For one, they clearly glossed over the fact that Jefferies didn’t really have a position.  For another, there were signs that he was not going to live up to his lower minor-league hitting prowess...his AAA season was pretty meh.   His small sample of success in 1988 in the majors with the bat made people forget that.

I understand his teammates saying that they could’ve treated him better and given him more of a chance, but at the same time, I could understand why they resented him back then...he simply didn’t produce enough to be given such preferential treatment.  His best asset was his ability to make contact and almost never strike out, but he wound up being merely pretty good at the plate...didn’t really excel at anything (wasn’t even really much of an on-base beast).  Had a couple of nice years with the Cardinals of course...but I would think a guy who carried himself the way that he did and was pretty underwhelming for a while would’ve rubbed a lot of clubhouses the wrong way.

And god-DAMN was that Samuel trade just fvcking brutal.  Samuel was not a good hitter...didn’t get on base nearly enough and struck out a ton...and the Mets brought him in to play CF no less. That one reeked of Cashen throwing something against the wall without having any reason to believe that it would stick.  I wouldn’t have dealt Dykstra for him straight-up.  I do remember Lenny becoming a PITA at that point in his career though...think he was REALLY chirping a lot about not being an everyday player.  Was still one of Cashen’s worst trades though.  He definitely made quite a few bad ones after 1986.

Edited May 25, 2020 by Colorado Rockies 1976

[NJDevs4978]

Yeah the whole Dykstra/Mookie/CF thing made little sense.  If you want to trade one guy to make room for the other that's one thing, but you don't trade both just to bring in a converted second baseman and have HIM play center field.  Cashen could do almost nothing wrong till they won the WS (other than the second Seaver fiasco I suppose), but then he pretty much did nothing right after the David Cone trade.

Edited May 25, 2020 by NJDevs4978

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

Foster was a pretty bad signing.  And not young when Cashen brought him in.

But yeah, most of his deals after 1986 were misfires.  Good enough used to say that the most frustrating part of Cashen’s dealings later was how much he ignored defense.  He seemed to want to get what he considered good bats at the cost of everything else.  And though Kevin McReynolds was obviously a nice player, he just didn’t fit in with the Mets at all.  Almost felt like Cashen saw the solid offensive numbers (and solid defense) and stopped doing his homework right there.

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

On 5/25/2020 at 12:52 PM, NJDevs4978 said:

Yeah the whole Dykstra/Mookie/CF thing made little sense.  If you want to trade one guy to make room for the other that's one thing, but you don't trade both just to bring in a converted second baseman and have HIM play center field.  Cashen could do almost nothing wrong till they won the WS (other than the second Seaver fiasco I suppose), but then he pretty much did nothing right after the David Cone trade.

Upon closer inspection...though I don't agree with the deal for Samuel in the slightest, for the reasons previously described (his bat really wasn't good, and he wasn't a true CF), I could see why the Mets had had enough of Dykstra.  He actually was getting a lot of playing time just before the deal, and wasn't doing much with it...he was slashing .218/.314/.333 in 33 GP (24 starts) before being traded (he had started that season on fire).  Davey was definitely getting tired of his act...I suspect some teammates were too (I've brought this up before, but both his own book and one written by a former employee show him to be a complete sociopath...right down to the trait that sociopaths can actually be quite charming if there's something that they want out of you).  

What was interesting is that he started off absolutely shredding it for the Phillies...a .307/.378/.447 slash in his first 27 games (all starts) with his new team.  But then he admitted in his book that it turned out Davey might be right...that his body wasn't up to playing every day after all.  He batted just .179 in his remaining 60 games (55 starts), and was so lethargic that he started popping greenies like crazy to try to compensate...which basically made him lose a ton of weight that he couldn't afford to lose and sapped of him what little power he had.  Supposedly that's why he turned to steroids the following season.  

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

You gotta consider the source on this one...it's one of several minor leaguers to be released by the Mets...his name is Andrew Church.  He's clearly bitter about losing his job, though he should feel pretty lucky to have had one in the first place...he really wasn't any good...some of his ranting sounds borderline childish, really.  But even if he's now little more than a cranky (now ex-) jock who simply wasn't good enough in the end, it definitely wouldn't surprise me if a lot of his Syracuse teammates (especially ones like Church, on-the-bubble types just struggling to stick in the minors) felt the same way that he did about Tebow (Church doesn't mention him by name, but it's obvious who he's talking about...near the end of his bitching):

 

 

[NJDevs4978]

And here comes the big tease, part deux

https://nypost.com/2020/05/29/alex-rodriguez-jennifer-lopez-taking-second-shot-at-buying-mets/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

Whether A-Rod gets to be a frontman for an investment group or not I hope this part is true at least (it seems being the operative words till further notice):

Quote

People close to the deal now say that the Wilpons are willing to part with enough of SNY to make a deal work but are insistent on keeping at least a slice of the network for themselves.

“Someone has shown the Wilpons the light here,” one person close to the deal said. “Some heavy hitters are getting involved here and it seems Fred and Jeff are listening.”

 

Edited May 30, 2020 by NJDevs4978

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

Still feels like two millionaires with two much time on their hands trying to reach for the stars.  I really wish they’d just go away.

[NJDevs4978]

🤣