Better To Have Missed

I actually had tickets for Friday night's game between the Mets and the Marlins. Because I'd moved that morning I didn't go, which was just as well as the Mets were still shaking the gremlins out of their system and lost what I can only assume was an eminently forgettable game, 3-1.

By not attending that game, and of course not attending the other Mets/Marlins game I had tickets for earlier in the season, I in fact have missed seeing the Marlins for 2017. This is just as well; I think everyone by now knows my feelings towards the Marlins, and if you needed another reason to hate this utter blight of a franchise, well, look who their new owner is going to be. I can't wait to root against them even harder.

I didn't even see Friday's game on TV as my cable hadn't been turned on yet. Then, of course, came the late night news of the Curtis Granderson trade, as he'd been shipped out to the Dodgers for another prospect, and of course it was immediately followed by another shitstorm of reactionary Mets fans screaming about the stupid team, and giving away all the players and a bah blah blah. I hate to see Granderson go, in fact my other half hates it even more and I had to spend the rest of the evening again explaining to her about Free Agency and the Mets trying to just get something rather than letting him leave for nothing, and the fact that the Mets were still losing with him anyway, but at some point things are beyond explanation. The gutting of the 2017 roster is basically complete, although there's still about 10 days for them to deal Asdrubal Cabrera.

Saturday, my cable was on and I did see some of the game, where the Mets actually decided to be a team and hit the ball and treat the Marlins like the Marlins. Wilmer Flores homered, Kevin Plawecki, newly returned, homered, and Rafael Montero pitched reasonably well in an 8-1 victory.

Sunday was, well, Sunday and as the Mets were home and it was Sunday, even Jacob deGrom couldn't save them.

This week, Arizona is in town and I'm actually going to be at a couple of games this week now that I'm starting to unbox myself. It feels like months since I've been there, but that's probably a side effect of moving as opposed to the team, even though sitting through a full game must feel like œons right now.

Out East Again

Last year was, as I'd deemed it, the "Summer of Long Island." Various personal matters kept dragging me out to assorted places in Nassau (and sometimes Suffolk) County, usually on weekend days which my other half and I would then turn into odd little adventures that would result in me missing entire Mets games and as such not having much to say.

This happened again yesterday, not so much because of personal matters, more out of wanderlust, but as a result, I didn't see the game last night and so I have nothing to say which is just as well because based on the results, there probably wasn't much to say anyway.

I have about as much to say about the game as I do about the Neil Walker trade. This was coming and not at all surprising to me. I realize that these trades at this point are more about just clearing out salary and getting some sort of a return, which is fine. Walker woefully underperformed his Qualifying Offer this season after a very nice year last year that was cut short and, well, everything I'd say about this trade, I said 3 days ago after the Bruce trade. So if you're not sure, just go read that. Just don't read comments about it on Facebook because those tend to just make me angry.

Settle Down, Beavis

This afternoon's game, surprise surprise, was one I didn't watch. But as it was the 12:10pm "Summer Camp Special," which I believe has also been known in past seasons as "Senior Citizen's Day," or "The Businessman's Special," I was at least able to follow the early portion of the game on my lunch break...you know, on Gamecast at my desk. But as far as I could tell, the game turned on two pitches in the top of the first. With two outs and men on 1st and 3rd, Rafael Montero had 2 strikes on Joey Gallo, who is essentially a feast or famine hitter on the level of Rob Deer or Dave Kingman. But Montero balked to bring home a run. He then laid an absolute meatball in to Gallo who promptly hit it out for a Home Run. Just like that it was 3-0 and that was pretty much the game right there. The Mets managed a Wilmer Flores Home Run off of Martin Perez and lost 5-1.

The more interesting Mets news came later this evening when news broke of the Jay Bruce trade to Cleveland for an A-ball pitcher. I have no issue dealing Bruce and although the return is underwhelming, it's something, and that's all you can ask for given that there just wasn't a great deal of interest in him. Of course this has brought out all sorts of Idiot Mets Fans out of the woodwork screaming about "stoopid sandy and corny collins gotta go" and "here we go another seven years of losing." One particular nutjob went so far as to suggest that the reason Alderson didn't deal Bruce to the Yankees for a supposedly "Better package" is because the Mets are bitter that they're failing and the Yankees are having a good season. I wonder how many of these people actually pay attention to the moves Collins makes, or if they're even Mets fans because the way they behave I sometimes feel like they're trolls that were sent by the Yankees just to piss us off. You can blame Alderson at times for inactivity, but I've been watching him for seven seasons now and there has not been a single trade made that didn't come to serve some greater purpose. It's as though these people are yearning for the days of Omar Minaya, who would react to any minor adversity by babbling and making short-sighted, unnecessary trades. Bruce is going to be a Free Agent and probably wasn't going to be back anyway, I mean, sure, the Mets could use the offense but to what end? To help them finish in 3rd place instead of 4th? It's the old adage of "We're losing with you, we can lose without you," and so it seems to me there is no loss in this deal.

Then again, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised by the Idiot Mets Fans. These are the same people that continue to crow for Wally Backman (who by the way still does not have a Major League managing position) and think the soul of the team left with Daniel Murphy, who was a great player for all those years. It's kind of like listening to the rhetoric of people who support the current Presidential administration. Sometimes I'm not sure what fans expect the team to do. This season is lost. We just have to try and make the best of what's left because I much prefer Baseball Summers to Winter and no Baseball.

Next Generation

The Mets of course made news with two moves on Monday, one of which was expected and the other of which had been long anticipated.

The first was the departure of Addison Reed to Boston for a trio of Pitching prospects whom none of us have ever really heard of so we just let them marinate in the Minors for now and hope for the best, because the hope is that they turn out to be more useful than many of the relievers the Mets have blindly been trotting out this season. As for Reed, we wish him well. He did some excellent work here; in spite of being somewhat iffy in his brief cameo in 2015, he put it all together and was outstanding in 2016 and for the most part again this season when he was shoved into the Closer's role.

The other news, of greater import, was the promotion of Amed Rosario to the Major Leagues after months of clamoring and clanging and wondering when it would actually happen. Well, now that time is here and we can see just what, exactly, Rosario is or will be. I expect he'll take a few days to get his sea legs under him; it helps that he'll be debuting in Colorado, but nonetheless that he was ready skill-wise was not in doubt. Let's see how ready he is mentally. The hope with these guys is, as always, that you have someone who will grab the position and stay there for the next 10-15 years. Sort of like the guy he's basically replacing, Jose Reyes. We'll hear that comparison made a few times, I'd think.

So...yeah. Reed out, Rosario in. Excitement abound for the last two months of a basically lost season. Let's go.

Rooster

Seattle is a place where the Mets seldom visit (and aside from that a place I've never visited, but that could be said of most Major League cities) and the Mariners are a team that the Mets seldom play. I know that these Interleague games work on a 3-year shift schedule but for whatever reason, it seems like the Mets and Mariners took a particularly long time to fall into that schedule. The Mets did play in Seattle in 2014, but prior to that they hadn't faced each other since 2008, which is the last time the Mets and Mariners played in New York, which means that the game was at Shea Stadium, which means that the Mariners have never played a game at Citi Field, one of only two Major League teams to not have done so (the other being the Cleveland Indians, who haven't played the Mets in New York since 2004). So if the Mets and Mariners seem like a rare matchup, it is.

The Mets can boast a native son of Seattle in Michael Conforto, who has come out of the land of Pearl Jam and Coffee and turned into a pretty good player, as he showed in his return home, in front of a passel of Confortos. In the 3rd inning, he hit a Home Run off of lefty Ariel Miranda which, at the time, put the Mets ahead 3-0. In the 8th inning, facing Mark Rzepczynski, another lefty, he hit another Home Run, this time dragging the Mets out of a deficit and tying the game at 5-5.

In between Conforto's two Home Runs was a Rafael Montero meltdown in which he took a 4-0 lead that had been handed to him thanks to, among other things, a 2-run Home Run from Jay Bruce, and summarily handed it back. First, he allowed a Home Run to Mike Zunino, the Seattle Catcher who's one of those "Trades High" guys because he has a ton of power and no particular plate discipline. So giving up a Home Run to Zunino was no great shakes. In the 5th, he had a Montero inning, where he started giving up hits, and throwing wild pitches, and walking guys and finally was pulled from the game after walking Nelson Cruz and loading the bases. But just so you remembered, Josh Edgin came in and allowed two of said runners to score by allowing a 2-run single to Kyle Seager (because of course it was one of the Seager boys who did it to the Mets).

Meanwhile, after a lousy first few innings, Miranda had settled down and quietly put the Mets to sleep. He departed after 6 with a lead, which Hansel Robles threatened to turn into a greater lead in the 7th. Then, of course, came the 8th, and Conforto's 2nd Home Run, and then a Met rally ensued when the Mariners brought in recently-acquired former Marlin David Phelps, whom the Mets usually knock around and they were kind enough to knock him around some more. Wilmer Flores managed to beat out a potential inning-ending double play and that opened the door for Neil Walker to double home the lead run, and Curtis Granderson to drive in the insurance run to put the Mets ahead 7-5.

Paul Sewald got the Mets through the 8th, and Addison Reed worked the 9th to finish off this series-opening victory up in the Northwest. Meanwhile, if one could use this as a segue opportunity, as the game was going on, news of another Mets trade broke, which seemed kind of mystifying to me, but while the Mets are and should be in sell mode, they traded for Marlins closer A.J. Ramos. This, I would assume, is insurance for an impending Reed trade, and nothing further. While Ramos is a perfectly capable pitcher, well, he was on the Marlins and you all know how I feel about that. I've particularly singled out Ramos for Marlin-ish behavior (excessive celebration, irritating gyrations on the mound) and part of me isn't convinced that this is another Marlin Ruse that's going to bite the Mets in the ass at some point. But, on the other hand, he is a capable pitcher, and he's a Met now, so, welcome, A.J. Ramos. We hope to wash the stink of your prior franchise off of you as quickly as possible.

Fare Thee Well

Thursday night's Mets/Padres game was sort of emotionally pre-empted by the pregame news that Lucas Duda had been traded to the Tampa Bay Rays. Granted, a move like this was forthcoming and certainly Duda's life span with the Mets was limited at best given his impending Free Agency, but, still, when a home-grown player that's been in the organization for years moves on, there's still a little bit of sadness attached to it. Certainly, Duda's time with the Mets had its ups and downs, and I picked on him maybe a little more than I should have, but for once, someone I really ragged on quite a bit in 2012 and 2013 shut me up good and proper when he emerged for a career year in 2014, and came up with several key hits in big spots during 2015. More than that, Duda was a favorite of my other half, who had a Duda shirt and usually stopped whatever she was doing to watch an At Bat, and was always happy to see him when she went to games with me. She was particularly distraught over this; the news of the trade broke as I was leaving work, and when I arrived home, she greeted me with a scowl and said "I'm not going to the games anymore! THEY TRADED DUDA! HOW COULD THEY TRADE DUDA?!" and of course any logical explanation about the business of Baseball went out the window.

Duda, himself, handled himself with particular class on his way out the door. Others (Curtis Granderson) had a harder time of things. Irregardless, Duda is off to Tampa, where we wish him all the best for the remainder of this season, and wherever he may end up in 2018.

There was still a game to be played, however, and it featured the Major League debut of Chris Flexen, a young righthander who was one of those named I'd heard of but didn't know much about. Flexen was up from Binghamton to make this start in the Wheeler spot in the rotation. You have starry-eyed fantasies about guys like this coming up and setting Baseball on fire in spots like this, but sometimes these sorts of things can backfire. The Mets got him a 1st inning run against Luis Perdomo, which helped, but you still can never tell until you the kid on the mound. And whether it was nerves or whatever, Flexen looked very much like what he was: a young pitcher that kind of got overwhelmed by the moment. It's never helpful to have your entire family in the seats watching (and his poor mother looked like she was ready to pass out the entire time) but, well, we know what happened. Flexen gave up a Home Run to Manuel Margot, his first batter, then walked the next batter, then gave up a hit. Disaster seemed imminent but for a pair of slick plays to tag out Padre baserunners at Home Plate, and Flexen escaped his first inning only having allowed 1 run.

Flexen did not fare nearly as well in the 2nd inning, when, after loading the bases, he allowed a long double to Margot that ultimately scored 3 runs and kind of sealed Flexen's fate. To his credit, he came back and worked a clean 3rd inning, but by that point the damage had been done and this game, which was just creeping along, was headed for a repeat of last night where I turn it off and go to bed early. Tyler Pill emerged after Flexen and made things worse, allowing a 3-run Home Run to Dusty Coleman that made the score 7-1.

I was about to throw in the towel, but then the Mets rallied in the 7th, scoring 4 runs off a trio of Padres pitchers, and involved a long double by Yoenis Cespedes and an even longer Home Run by Jay Bruce. This got the score to 7-5, and, well, this was the Padres...

...but it was also the Mets and they got no closer than 7-5, going down meekly in the 8th and gonged out of the stadium in the 9th.

So, the Mets leave San Diego, where they did not get swept, and they did not lose every game 2-1, but they also leave in no better shape than they were when they arrived, which is basically the same old story here. Actually, you could say they leave in worse shape since they've now officially started to break down the roster a little bit and by time they return to New York, who knows who's here and who will be gone.

You Jerks

The Oakland A's are in town this weekend, for one of those obscure interleague matchups that only occurs once every three years and seems much odder than, say, the Orioles coming to town. We'll get another one of these really weird matchups next weekend too, but I'll worry about that when I have to.

Currently, the A's are on my shitlist. Not because I hold some residual bitterness from 1973, because that was 6 years before I was born, but because of something they did earlier this week, totally under the radar. I know the A's aren't going anywhere this season and they're generally one of the more active teams around the trade deadline, but they went and dealt their two best relief pitchers, Sean Doolittle and Ryan Madson, to the Fucking Nationals, thereby strengthening their weak spot. I mean, what the fuck? Why help those clowns out? Now, I know that Billy Beane is a pretty shrewd judge of talent, to the point where I'd be leery of dealing him prospects he wants, simply because if he wants someone that badly, he may know something you don't. I'm not certain that was in play here, because I don't know who Oakland got in return (and in fact I didn't even know about the trade until 2 days after it happened), and, I'm not sure I care. The A's are by and large never the Mets problem. We have to see the Fucking Nationals 44 times a year and dammit, I don't want them getting any better. In fact, I'd like to see the other 29 teams purposely collude to NOT trade them pitching help and let them inevitably screw things up on their own. To wit: The Mets themselves have a few relief pitchers on the trading block, and Sandy Alderson has essentially said outright that he wouldn't trade them to the Fucking Nationals.

So, yeah. The A's pissed me off. So hopefully, the Mets teach them a lesson this weekend. They got off to a good start this evening, running out to a lead thanks to a pair of Home Runs from Michael Conforto and 5 solid, if unspectacular, innings from Steven Matz, and then surviving a hairy late charge by the A's to win the series opener, 7-5.

I'd like to talk about Matz and Conforto a little more, but of course since it was Friday and I wasn't at the game, I went home and fell asleep, and by time I woke up and put the game on, it was the 8th inning and Erik Goeddel was busy making a mess of things. He'd gotten lit up by Josh Phegley and Jed Lowrie, and then was removed in favor of Addison Reed, probably earlier than one would prefer, and, well, he wasn't good. He walked Rajai Davis and gave up another run-scoring hit by Marcus Semien, and then he was removed for Jerry Blevins. Because when you think 5-out Save, you think Jerry Blevins.

So, of course, Blevins got the 5-out Save. He got around Yonder Alonso and Khris Davis, the punch in Oakland's lineup, to finish the 8th and got through the 9th rather quietly to seal the victory.

Now, of course, the Mets did plate some of their runs against Blake Treinen, one of the pitchers Oakland acquired in their trade with Washington, if you can take some consolation from that. I wouldn't. In fact, I'd rather have the Mets take out Treinen with him still in a Washington uniform. I mean, Conforto hit his two Home Runs off of Paul Blackburn and Frankie Montas, the latter being another Beane Deadline Special, acquired from the Dodgers last season. Where I'm going with this now, I'm not sure. I guess the bottom line is that generally when Beane is making deals, usually nothing good comes from it.

Smile Later

The Mets limped into San Francisco on Friday looking every bit like a team that was primed to fall into the abyss. They'd been swept and really kind of embarrassed by the Dodgers on the heels of once again getting their asses handed to them by Washington, 11 games under .500 and going nowhere fast, and that was before Asdrubal Cabrera opened his mouth and said he was demanding a trade.

These sort of spats tend to be antimatter to me, mostly much ado about stuffing, but in this Twitter/Blogger/Idiot Fan era everything turns into a "thing," and then you can't avoid it. So it's just another case of the "stupid metz bein stupit" as the case may be. My general feeling is that you just play the fucking game and do your best. Terry Collins I think said as much before the game in not so many words.

Friday, the Mets had the good fortune of playing a team that appears to be even worse off than they've been in the Giants, who have had injuries, inconsistency, and general hopelessness, just like the Mets, AND they're stuck in a division with three of the best teams in Baseball thus far. So while the Mets kind of feel buried, the Giants probably actually are buried for this season. And when you watched this game on Friday, well, that's how it felt.

The Giants weren't helped by a late game followed by a cross-country flight the night before and the Mets attacked Ty Blach early and often and the Giants, with most of their regulars resting, didn't fight back very much against Seth Lugo. The Mets had one of those "quietly developing" big innings in the 2nd, and I refer to it as such not because it took a while to come together but because I was cooking and not totally paying attention, so I missed Lugo's double, but did check in in time to see Yoenis Cespedes hit a Home Run, which at that point made the score 5-1, and the Mets then continued on to score two more runs in the inning, centering around Michael Conforto, who may well be pulling himself out of his June slump.

Later, the Mets would tack on more runs against the Giants Bullpen, and if you had any more questions about the Giants season, they were answered when they brought in Steven Okert and Josh Osich in succession. Point being, when you bring in interchangeable middling middle relievers with similar sounding names and they both get wrecked, you're probably having a bad season. The Mets, who at times have a hard time knocking out 5 hits in a game, came up with 20 last night and cruised to an 11-4 win. If you were keeping score (at home I don't), everyone in the starting lineup had a hit (except for Jose Reyes), and in fact 5 players had 3 hits—Cespedes, Wilmer Flores, Conforto, Lucas Duda and Cabrera, even after causing a pregame uproar.  So, I mean, maybe more guys should start demanding trades if they're going to go out and get 3 hits and score 11 runs.

Shit Show Week

Imagine, if you will, that the Subway Series is not simply a set of games between the two New York teams. Instead, picture the Subway Series as some horrible, demented green, or perhaps eggplant-colored blob, something like a cross between Shrek and Mr. Bighead. It isn't present except during these games this week, and usually it causes things that rarely, if ever, happen in a Baseball game to occur. Or it makes a player do something totally out-of-character. Or it makes a baseball bounce in such a way that defies general logic. Once again, the Mets and Yankees proved why the Subway Series is a horrible, wretched thing and needs to be stopped.

In spite of the fact that for a hot second, the Mets had a lead and things looked to be in a steady place, the Subway Series reared its ugly head and a series of dumb shit began happening to the Mets, culminating in the Yankees tying and eventually winning the game 6-5 in a miserable, predictable 10-inning crapfest.

The game had that dumb Subway Series thing going right from the start. Fire Hydrant Head hit Logan Verrett's second pitch of the game over the head of Justin Ruggiano and off the wall, and ultimately the ball caromed back towards the infield. Gardner appeared to have an easy triple, but he had an attack of Subway Series and decided to score, and fortuitously, Curtis Granderson and Neil Walker made perfect relay throws home to Travis d'Arnaud, who blocked the plate and tagged Gardner out.

But the tone had been set. The game was one of those back-and-forth affairs. Wilmer Flores homered of C.C. Sabathia in the 2nd. The Yankees struck back tied it in the 4th on a Verrett Wild Pitch. In the 5th, the Yankees grabbed the lead when they started hitting a string of 2-out doubles. At 3-1, conventional wisdom would have it that the Mets were going to fold their tents, but they can have an Attack of Subway Series too, and after a Michael Conforto RBI double cut the deficit to 3-2, Matt Reynolds had his Kaz Matsui moment by hitting a 3-run Home Run in the 6th to turn the game in the Mets favor, and everything, for the moment, was great.

But, lest we forget, this is still the Subway Series, which meant that even if the Mets were ahead 8-3, they weren't immune from the Subway Series. By this point, Erik Goeddel and Hansel Robles had worked clean innings, and Jerry Blevins came in to start the 8th, and of course he walked Fire Hydrant Head to start the inning, because Subway Series. With 1 out, Addison Reed came in and appeared to restore order by striking out Mark Teixeira's Carcass. Mr. Morality singled, and then was run for by Ronald Torreyes, who nobody's ever heard of, and appears to be no taller than 5'3" and of course is the embodiment of Subway Series so you knew he was going to do something to screw things up. It appears his mere presence gave Addison a Subway Series, because he then labored through an 8-pitch At Bat by Didi Gregorious, in the midst of which Torreyes predictably stole 2nd, before Gregorious hit a dying quail of a single to left to score both runs and tie the game.

The Mets, at this point, had packed up their bats for the night, since 5 I guess was more than enough for them. The game, however, was not over. Jeurys Familia came in for the 9th and somehow managed to fight off the Subway Series, but in the 10th, Seth Lugo, oddly the last man in the Bullpen for the Mets on this night, entered the game and the Subway Series literally ate him alive.

First, Lugo dug his own grave by walking Ellsbury on 4 pitches, which is just about unconscionable in that spot. Then he got 2 strikes on Teixeira's carcass, before he singled to left. Then some dude with a mullet was batting, which instantly meant that a Subway Series was about to attack, and of course it did because Mullet laid down a bunt back to Lugo, and instead of at least trying to get the sure out, Lugo threw to 3rd, and of course Ellsbury was safe because THAT PLAY NEVER WORKS AND IT ESPECIALLY NEVER WORKS IN THE SUBWAY SERIES!

You know what happened from there. Yankees take the lead, Yankee fans start smacking Mets fans with rubber chickens, the Mets get James Loney to 3rd with 1 out in the last of the 10th and strand him there when Curtis Granderson has a Subway Series and takes a pitch that Dellin Betances basically set on a tee for him to hit out of the ballpark.

So, I mentioned that Lugo was the last man in the bullpen for the Mets and that's of course because the roster was totally cocked up by this afternoon's trade deadline, which saw the Mets make a pair of deals, which were both totally necessary and completely puzzling at the same time.

First, there's the Jay Bruce trade, which seemed to unfold in typical Metsian fashion: complete, then almost dead, then done in totally backwards fashion. Initially, the deal included Brandon Nimmo, who I like but could understand moving here. Somewhere, the Reds balked at some medical records and so the Mets had to go back and figure out something else, eventually closing the deal at around 3:45 by sending Dilson Herrera and youngster Max Wotell to Cincinnati. I like moving Herrera even less, just based on the fact that he's so young and has, I think, a ton of upside. But then again, he also strikes me as one of those guys that the Mets just don't like, because they never gave him a real chance to earn his keep in the Majors and then kept blocking his path. Then again, the perfect scenario would have involved Neil Walker leaving and Herrera taking over next season. We won't see that now, which is a shame, but again, the Mets need something resembling a legitimate bat in the lineup right now, someone who will hit behind Cespedes and provide some protection. Is it a perfect fit? Hardly. But I also trust Sandy Alderson to make trades that have a purpose, so I'm going with it. And as far as the Herrera situation, well, Gavin Cecchini appears poised to ascend soon, too, and could slide over to 2nd Base. So, too, could Jose Reyes if he sticks around.

Then, of course, there's the trade the Mets made with Pittsburgh that somehow ended up with Jon Niese coming BACK to the Mets. Once you're done laughing your ass off over this one, you can shrug, and then laugh some more. I don't know if I can even call this trade addition by subtraction. Yes, the Mets got rid of Antonio Bastardo, which is probably the most operative thing here, but I guess the moral to this story is that sometimes, you have to take something lousy back in order to get rid of something lousy. So...yeah. After leaving and running his mouth a little bit, Niese is back and I believe the first thing he's going to do is sit down with Terry Collins, and Collins is going to give him a towel so that he can wipe all the egg off his face.

And then Bruce and Niese can turn around and dive right into the shit show.

Ye Sloggers

The early portion of last night's Mets/Pirates game held to the script that I'd predicted. Noah Syndergaard wasn't quite at his best, and the Pirates dinged him for a pair of runs in a sweaty, 30-pitch 1st inning. Meanwhile, the Mets patchwork lineup was doing nothing against Jameson Taillon. Through 3 innings, Taillon was having a dream debut, carving up the Mets without much extraneous effort.

But somehow, the Mets fought back, and because of the nature of the game and the nature of the Mets at this particular point in time, it ended up being an unlikely source to get the big hit as Ty Kelly hit his first Major League Home Run with 2 outs in the 4th inning to tie the game. Kelly was later seen in the dugout jubilantly pumping his fists, and perhaps he was acting on behalf of all Mets fans, because finally, someone had stepped up and gotten a key hit in a spot where the Mets desperately needed one.

Still, there was a long way to go for the Mets to get through this game. Syndergaard immediately handed the lead back to the Pirates in the last of the 4th inning, but as he can sometimes do, he made up for it himself by doubling and later scoring in the 5th on a Michael Conforto Sacrifice fly.

The game remained tied into the late innings. Syndergaard and Taillon both departed after 6, and it seemed like clockwork that the Pirates immediately jumped on the bullpen as no sooner had Jim Henderson hit the mound that the Pirates scored another 2 runs to go back ahead 5-3. This is how it's been for the Mets. Try to keep it close, try to take advantage of as many opportunities as you can and yet it's still not enough. PNC Park and Pittsburgh haven't been as awful for the Mets as, say, San Diego or Atlanta, but the Mets hadn't won a game there in 2 seasons, they hadn't beaten the Pirates period in 2 seasons, and it seemed as though this game was headed down a parallel track. It was enough to make me want to go to bed right there.

Again, though, the Mets got off the mat. A.J. Schugel walked Alejandro De Aza to start the 8th, departed in favor of Jared Hughes and Conforto re-re-tied the game with a 2-run Home Run. Again, somewhat unlikely, for although Conforto will eventually be a likely suspect, he hasn't looked much the part of late. Not that it's of particular concern right now because young hitters often go through valleys like this, but then again, it's a testament to his fortitude to come up and do something like this even when he's in the midst of an extended slump.

So, 5-5 and away we go again. Addison Reed put the Pirates to sleep in the 8th and again in the 9th, while the Mets did little against Tony Watson, and so it was off to Extra Innings. After playing a Doubleheader on Tuesday. And with a flight to Milwaukee coming up immediately afterward. Extra Innings, it seems, hasn't been a winning proposition for the Mets of late, even though they've managed to avoid them altogether for the most part this season. A few years ago, it seemed like the Mets would play Extra Inning games on a regular basis, primarily because they were often only good enough to extend games before disaster hit. It happens less now, I suppose, because they're more decisive in their wins and losses. Or this is just one of those vicissitudes of Baseball. Probably that. But here we were on June 8th and the Mets were playing just their 3rd Extra Inning game of the season after having lost their first two, so one couldn't be blamed for having a kind of ominous feeling. Even after the Mets rallied against Cory Luebke and scored a run to take the lead for the first time all night on a dying quail of a hit from Wilmer Flores, I still felt uneasy.

Jeurys Familia, who for as shaky as he's often looked at times this season still hasn't blown a save, came in for the last of the 10th and immediately walked Fake Paul LoDuca. I mean, if he was going to do that, couldn't he have just saved the time and the pitches by sticking it in Cervelli's ribs like he deserved? While I was still stewing over this, Familia walked Jordy Mercer. Now he was in some shit. You could just see the gap hit coming and Cervelli doing a back flip across Home Plate in celebration. But Sean Rodriguez did what was most helpful and hit into a Double Play. So what does Familia do next? HE WALKS THE NEXT BATTER! I don't know what the hell the deal was, but Familia just seemed bound and determined to make this as difficult as possible. He was all over the place. David Freese followed and now I wasn't thinking game-winning hit, I was thinking game-tying hit and 15-inning debacle where they have to put deGrom in Left Field and Matt Reynolds pitches. But, Freese struck out, looking at the one good Slider Familia threw in the inning. Familia probably looked as bad as a closer could possibly look in a Save situation without actually blowing the Save and so, for as odd as it still sounds, remained perfect on the season in Save opportunities.

So, the Mets managed to escape Pittsburgh with their first win there in two years. I mean, sometimes you need to win a horrendous slog of a game like this in order to get yourselves back in line. A loss in the big picture probably wouldn't have been a disaster, although it would have meant 4 in a row and a legit losing streak. It would, however, have led to large amounts of panic in the press and among fans, and also meant that there would officially be a "Pittsburgh Thing" with the Mets. If nothing else, I'm glad to avoid either of those things for the moment.

Rolling Heads

As per usual, I've kind of vanished from the Blogosphere the past month or so. Not so much because I've gone into hiding, but because there simply hasn't been much to say. Sure, I could have come back on November 3rd or 4th and done some soppy postmortem on the Mets season and the ride to the World Series. Hell, if they'd won the damn thing, I might have spent a week waxing poetic. But things went badly against Kansas City and now the Mets have to work on getting themselves back. No longer an also-ran, the Mets have proven themselves among the better teams in the league, and, dare I say it, a Team to Beat.


Which is why it's important that some moves get made here. One of the worst things the Mets did in 2000 was approach the ensuing offseason after losing the World Series with the attitude of, "Hey, we went to the World Series. We're good enough!" That sort of approach has really done wonders for the Mets. Just look at 2001 and 2007.

Which is why I'm sort of refreshed to see the Mets go out and make a couple of moves. Not major moves, but moves to tidy things up. Gone is Jon Niese, after spending parts of 8 seasons here, toiling for mostly bad teams in mostly hopeless situations and at times looking hopeless, but he had his moments. He's off to Pittsburgh in exchange for Neil Walker, who as far as I can discern is basically a more fundamentally sound Daniel Murphy. This, then, would mean that Murphy is most likely gone as well, and quite honestly if the Mets are going to just patch some holes, Murphy was one of the holes that needed to be patched. Yes, Murphy has been here as long as Niese and went through the same stretch of terrible teams, and in a vacuum you sort of feel a sentimental attachment, but let's face it. Daniel Murphy basically happened to have a really well-timed two-week hot streak and that sort of changed everyone's attitude towards him. I wasn't particularly fooled then and I'm still not fooled.

Also appearing will be Asdrubal Cabrera, whose signing really kicks Murphy out the door, possibly Ruben Tejada as well, and also moves Wilmer Flores into a more complimentary role. Again, Cabrera isn't a difference maker, but he's also not going to do stupid shit. And more importantly it's a change of pace. A different look.

Still, more to be done. But this is a good step in the right direction.

The Place To Be

Very quickly, the Mets have managed to regroup and make some moves to fix the issues that the team was having. It cost the Mets little in terms of impact talent; the players that were given up are still a year or two away from Major League contributions. In their place now, the Mets can boast Kelly Johnson, Juan Uribe, Tyler Clippard and their big catch on Friday afternoon, Yoenis Cespedes. Yes, these players are essentially rentals for the remainder of the season, but if nothing else, this was a show of support by the front office and a message to the fans that this team is indeed going to go for it as opposed to sitting around twiddling their thumbs while opportunity slips away.

I'd not been around for the Padres series, obviously, and given the way Wednesday and Thursday went, it certainly seemed like the ship was sinking. But then again, how many times have we felt that way about the Mets this season. When it seems particularly awful, as it did going into Friday, the Mets somehow pull it together. Here the Mets were, coming off a 2-4 road trip and coming home and going 3-4 and sitting at 5-8 post All Star Break, with the Washington Nationals, the Mets chief competition coming to town. The Nationals, who routinely have come into Citi Field and just beaten the Mets senseless, had won something like 44 of the last 47 games they'd played at Citi Field, and each loss seemed worse than the one before it. But that was also during the Wilderness years for the Mets. It seemed daunting, but the task was rather simple: Just step it up and beat these turkeys and show them they mean business.

So far, that's what the Mets have done. Matt Harvey pitched his ass off for 8 innings on Friday, only to depart a tie game, but Wilmer Flores, who's now everyone's favorite player, hit the winning Home Run in the 12th.

Last night, it was Jacob deGrom's turn to take the mound. deGrom, despite not having his best stuff and despite getting pinged to death by the Nationals all night somehow managed to grit his way through 6 innings and allow only two runs when at multiple points he appeared ready to melt down. But deGrom didn't give an inch when he needed to most, and by keeping the score 2-0, he gave his teammates time to come back. And by teammates, I mean Lucas Duda, who's gone back to being Lucas Duda and mashing Home Runs all over the place. Duda's hit 8 Home Runs in the past 8 (?) days, probably because he now has real Major League hitters hitting behind him, and now with Cespedes in the fold, that's even more protection. The results were pretty obvious; not only did Duda hit two solo Home Runs to tie the game, but in the 8th, the Nationals walked Cespedes in front of Duda with Joe Schmegeggie on the mound and Duda responded by blasting an RBI double over the head of Jayson Werth to plate the game's winning run.

These two wins, in the grand scheme of things, have done little for the Mets in the standings, other than to draw them within one game of the Nationals for 1st place in the NL East. They're still only 7-8 since the All Star Break, and now 5-4 for this homestand, but the attitude on and around the team seems completely different. I guess everyone seems to be pointing to Wilmer Flores and his display of emotion on Wednesday night. Here was a guy who probably had every good reason to be pissed off at the team and yet the thought of being traded away absolutely broke his heart. Zack Wheeler showed a similar display of emotion on Friday, far from the public eye, when he went so far as to call Sandy Alderson and ask not to be traded. As strange as it seems now, given how miserable the past several years have been, players really want to be a part of this team, and when the fans sense just how much the players want to be here and be a part of what could happen, well, it endears them to the fans. Wilmer Flores now gets a standing ovation and fans are roaring his name every time he comes to the plate. The passion of the players isn't always quite so in your face as it has been these past few days, and now it's spilling over onto the field. Citi Field was sold out last night and it appears it will be sold out again tonight, on a Sunday night no less. It's starting to get very interesting.

Too Much Sense

Yeah, I know, the Mets traded for Tyler Clippard earlier on Monday, which is a helpful move to shore up the bullpen and more evidence that the Mets aren't just going to sit idly by and let a huge opportunity go to waste.

But then came this late night, out-of-nowhere blockbuster trade between the Blue Jays and the Colorados. After months, or perhaps years of speculation, the Colorados finally dealt Troy Tulowitzki to the Toronto Blue Jays, along with old friend LaTroy Hawkins, and in return received what I can only assume is a hefty load of prospects, as well as one Mr. Jose Reyes.

For the Colorados, a team that's clearly in rebuild mode, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense for them to deal away Tulo's massive contract and then take on the similarly hefty price tag Reyes carries.

So what, then, does this have to do with the Mets?

Well, Slapenfield, quite a bit. The Tulo-to-the-Mets talk was going on all offseason until it finally died down. But apparently it heated up again somewhere over the last few days, until it once again became apparent that there just wasn't a match to be had. Tulo's contract right now is probably a bit much for the Mets to bear, seeing as how he's still signed through 2020 (with an option for 2021) and owed upward of $90 million with no opt-out in sight. Moreover, the haul Colorado probably wanted in return was more than the Mets were willing to give up, which is probably the real reason a deal like this didn't happen in the offseason, and it didn't happen again now, because Colorado probably never came off of their asking price. And the Mets were probably right to not meet that price since it likely would have meant dealing a pitcher that they shouldn't be dealing at this point in time.

HOWEVER...Jose Reyes, while still owed quite a bit of money, is due about half of what Tulowitzki is owed, with a deal that expires after the 2017 season, which seemed so far away when he left to sign his "Godfather" deal with Jeffrey Loria and instead ended up with a dead fish in his locker. So to that end, it's not as onerous a contract to take on now that it's more than halfway complete. What's more important is that while Reyes will probably command a prospect of some acclaim in return, he does not command the mother lode that it would have taken to acquire Tulowitzki.

So maybe I'm reading between the lines too much, but this seems to be more than just a little coincidental. Mets need a SS. Colorados are trying to deal their SS. Mets and Colorado cannot agree on mutual terms as Colorado is asking too much. Colorados then deal said SS to another team to pick up a talented, but less expensive SS that they have little to no intention of keeping. Colorado and the Mets re-open discussions? The prodigal son returns home when the Mets need him the most?

This now stands to be a very interesting next few days.

A Loser Either Way

I was supposed to be at Thursday night's game, but I exchanged my tickets for Friday night based on scheduling and pitching matchups. Based on the results, either decision would have been the wrong one.

The Mets played a game on Thursday night that was so lifeless I couldn't even be bothered to write a post about it. Granted, the Mets are hardly the first team to get steamrolled by Clayton Kershaw, but the Mets nearly turned it into an art form, as Kershaw had a Perfect Game into the 7th and certainly looked good—and the Mets bad—enough to finish the deal. Since I've already seen the Mets get No-hit this season, I'd had my fill of such games. Fortunately, the Mets managed 3 hits, but no runs and ran their train-wreck of a post-All-Star Break record to 2-5.

Tonight, I was expecting a matchup of Zack Greinke and Jon Niese, hardly a more favorable matchup for the Mets, but at least Niese has been in a really good groove lately, so he might at least keep it competitive. Colon kept the game on Thursday night competitive, too, in contrast to his prior start when the Cardinals beat his brains in. Greinke, however, was expecting himself, and thus was scratched from Friday's game in order to be with his wife. So, instead, I got Niese and Ian Thomas, whom I believe I saw earlier this season with the Braves.

Then, of course, earlier in the day came the news that Michael Cuddyer was going on the DL and the much-hyped prospect Michael Conforto was being called up. Conforto, with but a whisper of Minor League time on his resume, probably wasn't going to fix the offense by himself, but if nothing else some new blood is never a bad thing when you're going as badly as the Mets have. You try to find a balance, and if it means giving a kid a shot, well, give the kid a shot. What else is there to lose?

There was a palpable buzz in the air at Citi Field on this particular Friday, partially because of the lure of Free Shirt Friday, partially because of the Major League Debut for Conforto, and also because of the word flying around that the Mets were finally about to make a trade and get some more new faces in here. Granted, the trade was for Juan Uribe and Kelly Johnson, not exactly headliners, but hardly schlubs, either. For a team that's been trotting unabashed dreck off the bench for weeks, getting two real, professional players is a big deal. Uribe and Johnson on the bench, or in the lineup, means no more Danny Muno, no more John Mayberry, Jr, no more Johnny Monell, or whoever they decide to jettison. The last piece of news, which filtered out just as the game was about to start, was that like Greinke, Niese was also expecting, but opted to pitch the game.

Unfortunately, the way Niese pitched, he would have probably saved us all quite a bit of misery had he just gotten on a plane to Ohio instead. The Dodgers attacked Niese early and often, with old friend Justin Turner leading the charge, red hair flying all over the place and baseballs flying into gaps and into the seats. Turner drove home a 1st inning run, which got me thinking that the Mets would just have to come back, no big deal. In the 2nd, Niese got Thomas to ground into a DP with the bases loaded, to score a 2nd run, but rather then buckling down, he gave up another double to Joc Pederson to score a 3rd LA run. In the 3rd, Turner homered, then Yasiel Puig homered and given the way the Mets were going, this game was toast. Niese was out of the game following the 3rd, mercifully, and Carlos Torres took over. Predictably, he threw 3 shutout innings. Had Niese left, well, maybe Torres would have taken the start and maybe we'd be writing a different story here tonight.

When it's 6-0 and you want to just leave, well, you start looking for reasons to stick around. On this night, Conforto was everyone's reason. His first at bat came with 2 outs and Juan Lagares on 1st, facing Thomas, a lefty. Undaunted, Conforto hacked at the first pitch and hit a screaming line drive which unfortunately found Scott Van Slyke's glove. Had 1st been unoccupied, this ball would likely have been in the corner. Conforto later hit in the 5th, with Lucas Duda on 3rd and 1 out. He grounded out to 2nd, but if nothing else the grounder got Duda home, giving Conforto his first career RBI. In the 7th, Conforto grounded out again. At 0-for-3, not an overwhelming debut, but at least Conforto looks the part of a professional hitter. He wasn't content to just swing at sucker pitches or hit pop flies, he was swinging like he meant it. I know most of the Mets do, but you sense that Conforto has an approach that lives up to his hype.

More than that, however, Conforto looks the part of a Joc Pederson or Baseball Jesus. He doesn't have the ink they're getting yet, but you can see there's that swagger to him. He's got that kind of cocky, weasel-y sort of look to him. You could see him walking into an opposing team's stadium, ripping 3 doubles and strutting around with this smug smirk on his face while the opposing fans seethe. He has attitude. The only players on the Mets you can say that about right now are all Pitchers. The offense needs a guy like that. Hopefully he sticks around.

So, basically, the pieces of the game were more interesting than the game itself, and it's unfortunate that that's not the first time I've had to say that this season. But maybe these new faces will help to fix that a little bit. Again, these players aren't going to turn the whole thing around by themselves. But you want to at least try to change something and finally something's being changed. Washington refuses to get out of their own way, so the Mets have every opportunity to wreak some havoc. Now they just have to get wreaking.

Horribly Terrible

The above photo of Erik Goeddel basically sums up the weekend, doesn't it.

In the recurring theme of "I didn't see the game," I watched none of the Mets/Pirates series in total and I think I'm probably better for it because the way things turned out, I can see I probably didn't want to see any of this. In their three-game obliteration of the Mets, the Pirates scored 21 runs to the Mets 4, they handed Matt Harvey the worst beating of his career and they underscored just how troubled and in need of a boost this Mets offense is.

The Mets have sort of been dancing and jabbing at their opponents for the past few weeks, ducking their underlying issues and surviving because, let's face it, their pitching is really really good. But this can only get so far, and this weekend, the Pirates delivered a haymaker. This is now getting to the point where good pitching isn't good enough, because for as good as the Mets pitchers can be and often times are, they can't outpitch their own offense and if by some chance they don't have it, you may as well throw the entire game down the shitter.

The Mets starters didn't pitch well this weekend in Pittsburgh, but even if they had, would it have made a difference? I know injuries are a problem but I'm not sure that the injured guys would be making much of a difference in the grand scheme of things. To this point, I'm comfortable with the offense I've seen from Lucas Duda...and that's about it. Curtis Granderson, perhaps, if only because he's certainly provided a good spark in the leadoff spot. Juan Lagares and Wilmer Flores have provided some nice moments, too, if you're willing to look past Flores' defensive foibles (and unfortunately it seems like most Mets fans are not).

That leaves half a lineup of dreck. Eric Campbell has fallen victim to the Endy Chavez Corollary (overexposure), and probably shouldn't be playing at all. Kevin Plawecki plays like a 22-year old that's been in the Major Leagues for a month, and this is acceptable only because that's what he is. Michael Cuddyer has scuffled, and Daniel Murphy I'm convinced is just a total lost cause. The other problem is that the depth behind these guys hasn't materialized. John Mayberry Jr has done nothing, Kirk Nieuwenhuis did even less than that before getting shipped out of town, and the rest of the mob of Johnny Monell-types seem to be mostly adept at hitting into Double Plays more than anything else.

The solutions aren't much of a solution because right now, they're all hurt. Dilson Herrera, who I believe is the future of the team at 2nd Base is hurt, Travis d'Arnaud, who was off to a great start is still a week off, and who even knows when we're going to see David Wright again what with this whole spinal stenosis business. Thing is, none of these three guys by themselves will make that much of a difference, I don't believe. Nobody is going to come back and immediately start carrying the Mets offense to more victories. David Wright, as much as we'd like to think he's The Guy, just isn't that kind of player. His best seasons, which now seem further and further away than we care to remember, came when he was surrounded in the lineup by Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado, and anyone can look good when they're surrounded by that kind of talent. And if Wright's going to be out indefinitely, prognosis undcertain, well, then the Mets need to make some kind of move, don't they?

I don't know who the hell is available right now, but if Sandy Alderson is conscious, he might want to think about trading Daniel Murphy, and for that matter he can trade Jon Niese and Dillon Gee, too. Murphy seems to have a nice career ahead of him as a Designated Hitter somewhere, so he ought to be useful to some well-meaning AL GM. If people aren't too convinced that Jon Niese is just White Oliver Perez, he might have some value too. I mean, management usually will trip over themselves for Left handed pitchers. Dillon Gee hasn't done anything wrong per se other than not be Harvey, deGrom, Syndergaard or any other exciting young pitcher the Mets have. You'd think this kind of a market exists, because what the Mets are putting on the field right now isn't sustainable for success. Nobody's buying the charade.

Wrong Direction

The scuttlebutt flying around today involves the Mets, which is strange for December, but given that the Jets and Gnats both stink, the Knicks are even worse and nobody can get it up enough for the Rangers (and the Islanders are a non-entity), why not the Mets? The discussion centers around a trade that hasn't been made but has been talked about plenty, involving the Colorados and their all-World Shortstop, Troy Tulowitzki.

It's no secret that Tulo is a great Shortstop. He has been for several seasons, and what's more, he's one of those players that can actually hit in Citi Field, since he came in one year and hit something like 6 Home Runs in 3 days, or at least it felt like that. The resume speaks for itself; he's been an All Star 4 times, and he's got two Gold Gloves and two Silver Sluggers. With the Mets in need of a Shortstop since nobody seems too keen on Wilmer Flores (and everyone's given up on Ruben Tejada), well, a trade for Tulowitzki on paper makes a lot of sense.

But it's not the right move, in spite of several arguments to the contrary that I've heard.

Tulowitzki is a great player. That's not up for debate. But it goes against pretty much every principle that Sandy Alderson has been building towards. This might not be the world's most popular argument, but it's the truth. Tulowitzki right now is set to make $20 million a year for the next several years, with a contract that runs through 2021 and owes him $114 million in total. The Mets right now as they're comprised have a low payroll and ownership that won't spend for better or worse, and since you can't force an owner out (or at least not until someone catches Ratso Wilpon screaming racial epithets on video), this is what we've got. This means little now since the Mets don't have a lot of high-priced players, but if we're to believe that the guys here are going to continue their budding success, they'll have to get paid at some point, and sooner rather than later.

And, sure, Tulo is probably worth the money he's making, but he's got to be playing in order to make that work, and in his 9-year career, Tulo has played over 150 games twice. Injuries have been a major issue for Tulo, and in case you were wondering why we haven't seen Tulo playing when the Colorados have come to Citi Field the past few seasons, well, it's because he's always hurt. Injuries limited him to 47 games in 2012, 126 games in 2013 and a major hip injury cut his season to 91 games last season. And how major was that hip injury? Remember the hip injury Carlos Delgado had in 2009? He needed hip labrum surgery and it was Goodnight, Sweetheart for his career. I bring this up because that's the same injury Tulowitzki had last season and he's yet to prove he can return to his normal high level of play.

Then, there's the question of ransom. The Colorados are choking under his contract and his string of injuries and would happily get rid of him, but it's clear that they're not just going to give him away. The word is that Noah Syndergaard would have to be the centerpiece of the deal from the Mets' end of things, but what else are the Colorados asking for? Nobody's brought up what it would cost the Mets. Word is a second pitcher would need to be involved; nobody's quite sure what level pitcher but you'd have to assume at least Rafael Montero, and then even MORE! This goes against pretty much everything the Mets have done over the past 5 seasons. Why spend all this time breaking things down and rebuilding the farm system only to gut everything just when it seems like it's about to pay off? The hot word is that the Mets fans that are up in arms about Tulo and why they don't spend money "would go batshit" if they knew what the Colorados were asking in return.

The bottom line here is that it's a nice pipedream to think of Tulo coming to the Mets, but that's all it is, and that's all it probably should be. There's no indication as to what he'll be after so many seasons lost to injury, and it smacks of a replay of Jason Bay more than anything else. My feeling was summed up rather concisely by a caller on WFAN early this afternoon. If the Mets wanted an expensive, injury prone Shortstop, they would have kept Jose Reyes. In fact, Jose Reyes seems a much more attractive option for the Mets if you really believe THEY GOTS TA HAVE a better Shortstop. I know there's no particular discussion involving him and who knows if Toronto even wants to deal him, but you'd have to imagine he'd cost the Mets less than Tulo would, and lord knows Reyes would probably run back to the Mets in a second, since he a) Hates the Astroturf in Toronto's cave of a stadium and b) Loved playing here. It doesn't sound quite as crazy now as it did a few years ago.