Meet the Mets (For Mets Fans Only!)

yahooyahoo said:

The Mets are fortunate to be in the worst division in major league baseball. I'm happy they're in first place, but I have zero expectations of this team accomplishing anything beyond the regular season.

How can you say that with such certainty given all of the guys on the IL?

Nothing personal yahooyahoo, but the general pessimism is really getting old…

(Edited to add that I’m sorry. You have every right to your opinion and feelings. Mea culpa.)

yahooyahoo said:

ml1 said:

FilmCarp said:

True, but I am still a little hesitant to call them any sort of juggernaut.  They seldom win big, and really good teams play 500 against other good teams while clobbering bad teams.  Don't get me  wrong.  I'd love to look back at this post in August and call myself an idiot.  But right now I think  the subs are the guys impressing us, because usually we expect nothing from them.

 the Mets are not by any stretch an elite MLB team right now.  They're only in first place because the other teams in the division are struggling.  But they are banking wins right now with a lineup that's not much better than AAA.  They could just have easily found themselves in the same position as the Nats at this point in the season.  It may turn out that the postponements will be a good thing in that the regulars should be back when those games are made up.

If the subs can just play .500 ball for the next 3-4 weeks, the team will likely still be right in the thick of the division race.  As Mets fans we get used to a constant state of pessimism, so I hate to say it, but I'm starting to like this team's chances the rest of the way.  We know we've got the best pitcher in baseball, and two very good starters behind him.  The bullpen has been good, the fielding and baserunning are light years better than last year.  So reasons to at least be cautiously optimistic.

The Mets are fortunate to be in the worst division in major league baseball. I'm happy they're in first place, but I have zero expectations of this team accomplishing anything beyond the regular season.

 if most of the regulars come back and hit anything like the backs of their baseball cards the rest of the way, I really like this team's postseason chances.  The best team in the league so far is San Diego and we saw how they were held down by deGrom, Stroman and Walker (outside of the fluke two-run HR) last weekend.

what team wants to fact deGrom twice in a short series?  With Walker and Stroman in between?

jimmurphy said:

Pete getting a little “out there” with his accusations about the ball and free agency. 

So certain of his position, which surely can only be an opinion.

 to me it's an indication of the players' deep distrust of MLB and team owners, which IMHO is well-deserved. The worst thing to me that the owners have done is manipulate service time.  Sure, MLBPA should have been able to see what was coming from the last CBA, but they didn't anticipate the full effect.  And it was legal per the agreement for owners to play around with rookies' call-up dates to put off future free agency.  But just because as an employer you legally CAN do something, doesn't mean you should do it to your employees.  The players have a good reason to feel that the owners violated the spirit of the CBA if not the letter of it in denying dozens of players a shot at free agency in their primes.  Instead a lot of them ended up becoming FAs just past their best years and never really cashed in.

Not to mention what appears even to fans to be collusion regarding the lack of market for veteran FAs.  The Mets themselves have proven that signing pricier veterans (e.g. Pillar, Peraza) is a far better roster strategy than going with minimum salary rookies and journeymen.  The idea that it was more "efficient" to pass up on veterans is being shown to be totally false.

so to me Alonso is just saying out loud what the players are thinking -- they are suspicious that everything MLB has at least an intended side effect of trying to depress salaries.  And it's a pretty clear indication we're looking at a strike or lockout next year.  I suspect a lockout because the owners almost certainly like the current CBA and will do what they can to retain as much of their advantage as they can.

I actually don't think that there will be a stoppage next year.  There is a lot at stake for both sides.  Probably there will be an imperfect agreement.

FilmCarp said:

I actually don't think that there will be a stoppage next year.  There is a lot at stake for both sides.  Probably there will be an imperfect agreement.

 I'm not optimistic because of the level of distrust the players have for the owners.  And rightfully so IMHO.  Most MLB owners are among the worst people on earth.

I agree about the owners, but that's the case with most of the Uber wealthy, and we muddle through. 

FilmCarp said:

I agree about the owners, but that's the case with most of the Uber wealthy, and we muddle through. 

 but the difference between the rest of us who are forced to muddle through, baseball players are in one of the country's most cohesive and powerful professional guilds. They likely perceive (not without reason) that the last CBA was used by the owners to screw them out of hundreds of millions of dollars in aggregate.  With that kind of money on the line, if they remain in solidarity, I don't see them giving in just to go along.  Unless the owners make some concessions on when players are granted FA, there is likely to be a work stoppage. And historically the owners don't make concessions to the players unless they are backed into a corner.  Most of them make their money in other fields and think they can wait the players out indefinitely.  

I hope it doesn't come to that, but the distrust is pretty obvious, and that's not a good start to the process of coming up with a new CBA.

Holy cow.

The 3 ways deGrom has gotten even better

ml1 said:

 to me it's an indication of the players' deep distrust of MLB and team owners, which IMHO is well-deserved. The worst thing to me that the owners have done is manipulate service time.  Sure, MLBPA should have been able to see what was coming from the last CBA, but they didn't anticipate the full effect.  And it was legal per the agreement for owners to play around with rookies' call-up dates to put off future free agency.  But just because as an employer you legally CAN do something, doesn't mean you should do it to your employees.  The players have a good reason to feel that the owners violated the spirit of the CBA if not the letter of it in denying dozens of players a shot at free agency in their primes.  Instead a lot of them ended up becoming FAs just past their best years and never really cashed in.

Not to mention what appears even to fans to be collusion regarding the lack of market for veteran FAs.  The Mets themselves have proven that signing pricier veterans (e.g. Pillar, Peraza) is a far better roster strategy than going with minimum salary rookies and journeymen.  The idea that it was more "efficient" to pass up on veterans is being shown to be totally false.

so to me Alonso is just saying out loud what the players are thinking -- they are suspicious that everything MLB has at least an intended side effect of trying to depress salaries.  And it's a pretty clear indication we're looking at a strike or lockout next year.  I suspect a lockout because the owners almost certainly like the current CBA and will do what they can to retain as much of their advantage as they can.

Completely agree on the distrust.

Service time manipulation is unconscionable and the way they treat the minor-leaguers is even worse. They prey on these young men, taking advantage of their dreams and willingness to do “whatever it takes” to make it, including sleeping on sofas as charity cases, eating slop, and working for less than minimum wage.

The period of club control needs to shorten and minimum salaries in the early years needs to increase.

I draw the line at conspiracy theories though. Thrown out without evidence. That should stop.

Moammar said:

The Travis Blankenhorn era is great so far. 

Alas, it seems to be over.  For now…

jimmurphy said:

Completely agree on the distrust.

Service time manipulation is unconscionable and the way they treat the minor-leaguers is even worse. They prey on these young men, taking advantage of their dreams and willingness to do “whatever it takes” to make it, including sleeping on sofas as charity cases, eating slop, and working for less than minimum wage.

The period of club control needs to shorten and minimum salaries in the early years needs to increase.

I draw the line at conspiracy theories though. Thrown out without evidence. That should stop.

 agree completely on the treatment of minor leaguers. I'm not sure how I ended up following Collin McHugh's wife Ashley on Twitter, but I do. Mostly she's wacky and funny, bit she also makes some really good points about how difficult minor league life is. When fans tweet at her about being "rich" she reminds them that the vast majority of players never make money, and even those who do are digging out of years of poverty. 

Collin McHugh is the perfect example of a guy who needs the union. A good valuable player, but not a perennial star. 

I've never seen anything like deGrom. He's pitching like an elite, but he's also driving in important runs. Seaver and Gooden were good hitters, but they weren't consistently driving in runs that mattered. 

He also has a big strike zone.

I wonder when he will be able to go more than 80 pitches.  

FilmCarp said:

I wonder when he will be able to go more than 80 pitches.  

I was apoplectic about him coming out! 80 low-stress pitches through 6. Only a 3-run lead, 2 of which he drove in.

I know this is blasphemous, but unless he’s hurt, I think either he or the Mets are a little too in love with his historic numbers.

The “Baseball gods” are quite unhappy, I’m sure.

(Edited to add, looks like the qualifier applied. Right flexor tendinitis. Not good…)

Yeah.  He's got to go 7 innings.  Give up a couple more hits trying to keep the pitch count down and I'm okay.  

FilmCarp said:

Yeah.  He's got to go 7 innings.  Give up a couple more hits trying to keep the pitch count down and I'm okay.  

 He was injured. Siht.

jimmurphy said:

 He was injured. Siht.

 Doesn't sound too terrible this morning. Sounds he like he sort of self-diagnosed and Rojas is going along with it, so I hope he's right. 

The stadium was just electric when he was pitching last night.  

No definitive news on the elbow this morning. He says he's not worried and hopes not to miss a start.

I tuned in for only a few minutes last night and saw his 2-run single. Just a beautiful piece of hitting.

He has more RBI this year than earned runs allowed. Put that on your plate!

Going to game today.  Will report on the vibe.

mrincredible said:

No definitive news on the elbow this morning. He says he's not worried and hopes not to miss a start.

I tuned in for only a few minutes last night and saw his 2-run single. Just a beautiful piece of hitting.

He has more RBI this year than earned runs allowed. Put that on your plate!

 I guess deGrom knows better than anyone else.  But flexor tendon issues seem to precede UCL injuries. So until he pitches a couple of pain-free games, there's got to be some concern I would think.

Who’s doing the strikeout “gesture/routine” at the ballpark?

Is that the 7-line group? Haven’t seen that before.

Good game.  Diaz has really good movement on that fastball 

Very nice being at the ballpark today.  Felt normal.  

These wins against San Diego have been the first few wins that have really impressed me.  They are beating a good team, as opposed to AAA clubs.

I was not concerned about strength of schedule issues. It was a very small sample of games against good teams, nearly all on the road, and to some extent the Cubs and Sox happened to catch the Mets at the right time before their hitters started to hit. 

The division hasn't been good so far, but good teams take advantage and beat up on the poor teams. 

A third of the way through I like what I see from this team. They're still not hitting a lot, but they're playing clean in the field and on the bases. Unlike last year they aren't beating themselves. 

I still don't understand why Luchessi is on such a short leash.  If there were runners on I'd understand hitting for him, but today I would really try for another inning.

Familia remains the pits.

How much would I have to pay to never see Familia again?  Who is it that thinks he is a good option?  Who thinks pulling an effective starter to get to Familia is a good idea?  

FilmCarp said:

I still don't understand why Luchessi is on such a short leash.  If there were runners on I'd understand hitting for him, but today I would really try for another inning.

His OPS-against the third time through is awful. Couldn’t find the most recent article I read, but here’s one citation: 

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/padres/story/2020-01-31/padres-roster-review-joey-lucchesi

That said, he seemed to be dealing…