Clean Shaven

A lot has been made over the last couple of seasons about Dillon Gee's pitching results when he's bearded as opposed to clean shaven. His performances in general are better when he's shaved before the game. Early in the season, Gee sported a babyface and was off to a fine start until the dreaded lat injury shelved him. When he returned, he had one good start but since then, last night included, he's pitched rather badly and it seems that part of the problem is that Gee's still pitching with a little bit of moss on his face. This clearly doesn't work for him. He got lit up by a poor-hitting Padres team last weekend, and last night, the Brewers knocked him around but good, running out to a 6-0 lead after 3 innings and rendering the game completely unwatchable from there.

You kind of had a bad feeling about this game from the outset. The Mets did win 2 of 3 in Seattle, but they didn't exactly light up the scoreboard. They've gone about a week now without topping 3 runs in a game, only managing to win on the days where their starting pitching has been particularly great. However, this isn't exactly a recipe for extended success. Gee gave up an early Home Run to Jonathan Lucroy and then a series of long hits to Ryan Braun, Carlos Gomez, and Jean Segura, who's basically Carlos Gomez Lite, and before you looked up, the game was out of reach. The Mets had no particular answer for Matt Garza, who continues to be one of the more mercurial pitchers in the Majors, looking like a top-dollar pitcher on one night and a bearded Dillon Gee on other nights, but that's scarcely the concern here.

The Mets, as comprised right now, putting up 3 runs a night, aren't going to draw much excitement. Unlike most years, however, the farm system is currently rife with decent prospects at some key positions, which has created something the Mets haven't had in several years: Tradeable depth. For years, the Mets probably would never dream of doing something like dealing Daniel Murphy, who's proven himself to be the best Daniel Murphy he can be, sometimes making rather annoying hiccups but generally hitting modestly well at a premium position. But with no decent replacement on the horizon, what benefit was there for the Mets to deal him? Now, the Mets have players like Dilson Herrera, pilfered from the Pirates in the Marlon Byrd trade last season to push Murphy and, perhaps, make him tradeable for some sort of commodity that might provide more immediate help. That's not to say that Murphy should be dealt now, but that he can be dealt and the Mets seem to have a plan in place to replace him. It's just some food for thought.