In what will be at most the second wettest game at Citi Field this week – fan tears on Saturday for David Wright’s final game will be a flood – Noah Syndergaard took the mound against the Braves. Atlanta, having already clinched the NL East, is fighting for home field advantage with Touki Toussaint, one of their bevy of young arms, on the mound.

The Mets, meanwhile, are playing out the string with Austin Jackson in center, Jay Bruce at first, and Peter Alonso at home. Maybe there’s a lesson there.

Game Recap

Noah Syndergaard, looking like he just got out of the shower, was shaky coming out of the gate. The right-hander worked around a Freddie Freeman double and a walk in the first, then a leadoff walk to Kurt Suzuki in the second. Thor finally managed a clean inning in the third, and the Mets offense promptly rewarded him.

After the Mets managed no decent contact against Touki Toussaint the first time through the order, Amed Rosario led off with a hard fly ball to center. That was an out, but the next three Mets all hit the ball hard as well. Jeff McNeil singled up the middle, Michael Conforto missed a home run by about an inch and settled for an RBI double and Jay Bruce ripped a single through the shift for an RBI single. In a three batter stretch, the Mets had built a 2-0 lead.

With the weather drying out and the Mets on top, Syndergaard settled in. He induced a double play in the fourth to erase a single, put the Braves down in order in the fifth and navigated a single from Ender Inciarte in the sixth to finish his outing. Syndergaard tossed six shutout innings, striking out five, walking two and giving up three hits. It wasn’t quite the dominant version of Thor we’ve seen in years past, but it was one of his better outings of the year, especially considering that Mickey Callaway said postgame that Syndergaard was sick and almost didn’t pitch. It also put he in line for his seventh straight win at Citi Field, which had never been done, as well as his first career win against the Braves.

A sacrifice fly from Tomas Nido stretched the Met lead to 3-0. This is the Mets, however, and starting pitchers aren’t allowed to get wins. Robert Gsellman – with the help of a dropped fly ball from Austin Jackson, who is still inexplicably employed by the Mets – gave up a run, recorded one out and left with the bases loaded. Drew Smith entered, threw a wild pitch, then gave up a two-run single to Ronald Acuña.

It seems fitting to mention here that the Mets have the worst winning percentage in the National League when leading after six innings. True to form, the Mets squandered scoring opportunities in the seventh, let the Braves blow things open in the eighth, then went quietly to their 84th loss of the season.

Thoughts from the Game

This game fits an irritatingly common pattern for the season. A starter pitches excellently for six or seven innings, departs with a narrow lead or with the game tied, then immediately watches as the bullpen blows the lead and the offense does nothing to help. It’s extremely frustrating to watch as a fan and must be even more maddening for Jacob deGrom. Noah Syndergaard and Zack Wheeler. It also highlights the most glaring needs on this Met team: at least two and preferably three high quality bullpen arms need to be acquired in the offseason, and the offense must be improved by addressing holes at catcher, center field, and first base.

Given all that, get ready for the Mets to re-sign Devin Mesoraco and Austin Jackson, bring in Brad Brach and call it an offseason.

Other Met News

David Wright is back, making this a very bittersweet week for us all. He most likely will not appear in this series against the Braves, as they still fight for home field advantage in the playoffs. For now, we’ll just have to enjoy seeing him in the dugout again and look forward to his farewell game on Saturday.

The Mets are already eliminated from postseason contention. The Phillies are mathematically still in it but realistically out of the race. For this game, the most important thing for the Mets would be getting to Aaron Nola, so that they can actually help Jacob deGrom’s Cy Young resume in a roundabout way. Steven Matz would lead that effort, coming off a solid start against Miami and looking to close out a solid, albeit unspectacular, season strong.

Game Recap

Matz was very clearly off in this game from the get-go. In the first, he walked three Phillies, consistently missing off the plate inside to righties. Despite walking the bases loaded, Matz worked out of the jam without allowing a run. He gave up a single and another walk in the second, but worked around that jam too. Still, with Matz seemingly off his game and one of the best pitchers in baseball on the mound for the Phillies, things weren’t looking good.

That is, until Matz came to the plate with one out in the top of the third. After homering in his last start, Matz set his sights on Aaron Nola, got a hanging curveball over the plate and lined it into the flowers on top of the left field wall. It was a significant home run for multiple reasons (see below), but most importantly, the Mets had a 1-0 lead.

In the fourth, they’d stretch the lead to 2-0. After Jay Bruce and Todd Frazier struck out swinging to start the inning, a single from Brandon Nimmo and a weakly hit, poorly played (by Rhys Hoskins in left field) double led to another run. In two innings, the Mets had built a lead and seriously damaged the Cy Young candidacy of one of deGrom’s biggest opponents — giving up a home run to a pitcher is bad enough, and anyone who allows an extra-base hit to Dom Smith (.219/.252/.321, 2.5% BB, 32.8% K) should be immediately disqualified.

Handed a two-run lead, Matz settled in. He started hitting his spots a bit more, working around a single in the third and setting down the Phillies in order in the fourth. Unfortunately, his pitch count was elevated from his early-inning command problems, and the fifth inning looked like it was probably his last. That issue was compounded by a one out walk to Hoskins. Undeterred, Matz capped his outing in spectacular fashion, making what might be the web-gem of the year to catch a ball behind his back and turn an inning-ending double play. He departed after five innings in line for the win.

The 2018 Mets team being what it is — that is to say, bad — Matz wouldn’t get the win. After the Mets left the bases loaded in the top of the sixth, Jerry Blevins and Drew Smith managed to give up five runs without recording an out in the bottom half of the inning. The Mets found themselves in a three-run hole 18 pitches after they had a two-run lead.

Watching the rest of the game as very much an exercise in futility. The Mets managed only one more run, while a cavalcade of unremarkable relievers worked around a couple Philly baserunners to keep things close enough to be interesting but not actually matter. Amed Rosario ended things with a weak bounce out to first, and the Mets had their 81st loss of the year.

Thoughts from the Game

Here are some fun facts about Steven Matz’s home run:

• He dedicated it to Jacob deGrom in his Cy Young battle
• Matz became only the third Met pitcher to homer in back-to-back starts, joining Tom Seaver and Ron Darling.
• This was the first time the Mets have lost a game in which their starting pitcher went deep since 7/24/96, when Jason Isringhausen went deep and lost, breaking a 19-game winning streak.

Other than that, I don’t have much to say about this game. Much like you, most of us have checked out at this point of the year. I spent most of this game doing work stuff and making babka (chocolate, because Jerry could not be more wrong about cinnamon in this context). Out of the three activities, only the babka wasn’t a total disaster. Then again, hitting 1-for-3 puts me in the hall of fame, so I can’t really complain.

Other Met News

The Mets are leaning towards shutting Zack Wheeler down for the rest of the season. Wheeler has been brilliant for much of this season after a slow start, and he’s now tossed 182.1 innings with a 3.31 ERA.It’s tough to describe how big an improvement that is for the former top prospect, who missed two whole season with Tommy John before tossing only 86.1 innings last season. With some struggles in his past two starts, shutting Wheeler down now makes sense, as he’s fully established his place in the Mets rotation for 2019.

After being scratched due to weather concerns on Sunday and rained out on Monday, Jacob deGrom finally got to take the mound against the Marlins on Tuesday night. Miami has been something of a bugaboo for deGrom; he’s only 4-5 against them in his career, though he did memorably strike out the first eight batters in September 2014. For once, the Mets actually built a close-to-optimal lineup behind their ace, with Amed Rosario, Jeff McNeil and Michael Conforto in the first three spots in the order.

Arguably, the Mets should have just let deGrom pitch on Sunday, as he’s now set to make only four starts the rest of the way rather than five. On the other hand, I get to recap a game started by deGrom rather than one started by Jason Vargas, so I’m not going to complain.

Game Recap

Rather than dragging this out and waxing poetic about how good deGrom was at the start of this game, let’s just jump straight to the part where the BABIP fairy sprinkled her magic dust on the Marlins, as she always seems to do at Citi Field. With two outs and nobody on in the fourth, deGrom gave up an infield single, a bloop single and a double that scored two. The infield single was off the glove of Jeff McNeil (would have been a tough play) and the double was a total misplay by Austin Jackson (also a tough play, but probably should have been made). As a reminder, the Mets like Jackson, a horrifically bad defensive outfielder, specifically for his center field defense.

Fittingly, a Michael Conforto double leading off the bottom half of the inning was wasted. deGrom went back to dominating and only got a solo home run from Conforto in run support. He left for a pinch hitter in the seventh, when the Mets squandered another leadoff baserunner and left the ace without a chance for a win. He finished with nine strikeouts, two walks and three hits allowed, with both runs coming due to the BABIP misfortune and poor defense behind him in the fourth. The outing raised deGrom’s ERA on the season to a still ridiculous 1.71, and lowered his FIP to an equally insane 2.06.

Anthony Swarzak replaced deGrom and served up a solo home run to J.T. Riddle that stretched the Marlins’ lead to 3-1. Todd Frazier got ejected at some point for arguing balls and strikes (he was right). Robert Gsellman gave up two runs in the ninth, with the help of an ill-advised dive from Brandon Nimmo that turned a single into a triple.

Kevin Plawecki hit a two-run home run in the ninth and a two-out walk to Jack Reinheimer brought Amed Rosario to the plate as the tying run. Rosario could only manage a weak dribbler to second, and that was that. The 5-3 loss was the Mets’ 78th of the year and dropped deGrom’s record below .500, now at 8-9.

Thoughts from the Game

The latest installment of Jacob deGrom facts:

• Lewis Brinson’s double was the first extra-base hit on 0-2 allowed by deGrom this season.
• deGrom has now broken Leslie “King” Cole’s single-season record with his 26th consecutive start allowing three runs or fewer, a record that stood for 108 years.
• Still the most deserving Cy Young candidate in the National League. But you knew that already.

Why the Mets have decided to rush Swarzak back this season is a mystery. This is a reliever who they need to contribute to the bullpen next year if the team wants to contend next season. He’s dealt with shoulder issues multiple times, and pushing a 33-year-old to come back quickly in a lost season rather than just shutting him down and protecting him for the future is silly. It’s also a great juxtaposition against the extreme “caution” the team is taking with David Wright. Nothing fishy there at all, no sir.

Austin Jackson is terrible. He doesn’t make contact — 32.7% K%. He doesn’t hit for power — .078 ISO. He doesn’t walk a noteworthy amount — 7.2%. His defense has been a travesty for three seasons; -12.5, -7.7, and -16.8 UZR/150 in the outfield the past three seasons. He’s not a prolific basestealer or a particularly good baserunner. His presence in the Met lineup hinders the offense, and his defense might’ve cost deGrom two runs and a win last night. Given all of this, get ready for Austin Jackson, 2019 Opening Day center fielder.

Other Mets News

A report by Andy Martino today had some troubling news regarding the Mets’ GM search. First, Terry Collins is expected to assume a larger role in the organization. Terry Collins, who was one of the most inept managers in baseball largely because of his inability or unwillingness to use or develop young players, will likely be playing a larger role in player development. This is the sort of hiring that reeks of interference from Fred Wilpon.

Secondly, Martino mentions Mark Shapiro as a name to watch in the GM search. Shapiro has a long track record, serving as GM and later team president of the Cleveland Indians, and more recently as CEO and president of the Toronto Blue Jays. He’s most notable for his obsession with young cost control, which, in and of itself, is not a bad thing to focus on; young, cheap players provide the core of most winning teams. But Shapiro seems to focus more on being cheap for the sake of being cheap, rather than for the purposes of building winning teams. In short, he offers perfect cover for the Wilpon not spending money.

Monday night was a frustrating but still enjoyable experience, because we had the pleasure of watching Jacob deGrom. Watching the best of the Mets’ three-ish homegrown aces is a reminder of the sort of potential this team had and still has. Tuesday, we got Jason Vargas, a reminder of why that potential has been and will continue to be squandered. At least Brandon Nimmo was in the lineup – batting eighth.

Game Recap

This episode of the Jason Vargas experience got off to a pretty good start, as the left-hander was perfect through the first two innings. Because his name isn’t Jacob deGrom, the Mets offense scored for him too, with Jay Bruce hitting a two-run home run in the second, and Michael Conforto adding a two-run bomb of his own in the third. Entering the bottom of the third, the Mets had a 4-0 lead.

Then, the cracks started to appear. Vargas walked Chris Taylor leading off the inning, then allowed a two-run home run to Austin Barnes. He worked around another two singles from Rich Hill (the pitcher) and Manny Machado, but the Met lead was cut to two. A home run from David Freese leading off the bottom of the fourth cut that lead to one, and the Dodgers followed that with a single and a double to put the go-ahead run in scoring position.

At this point, the New York defense wanted to prove to deGrom that they’re not just terrible behind him, they’re terrible behind every pitcher. Todd Frazier botched a ground ball off the bat of Austin Barnes, allowing Enrique Hernandez to score and tie the game. Two batters later, Tyler Bashlor replaced Jason Vargas, and he allowed the Dodgers to take the lead with a steal of third and an RBI groundout from Brian Dozier. L.A. led 5-4.

Eric Hanhold worked around some serious traffic in the fifth in his first major league appearance, and he and Daniel Zamora combined for a perfect sixth. Corey Oswalt took over for the seventh, and the Dodgers proceeded to blow the doors off. Three doubles, a wild pitch that allowed Manny Machado to score from second and a handful of walks and singles put the Mets in an 11-4 hole. They managed to load the bases in the top of the ninth with no outs, but amphibious ambidextrous reliever Pat Venditte shut down the rally, and the Mets failed to score.

The loss drops the Mets to 62-76, snaps their three-game win streak and ends a recent string of successful starts from Jason Vargas (real shocker on that last one). Zack Wheeler takes on Hyun-Jin Ryu this evening in the series finale.

Thoughts from the Game

Austin Jackson is really, really bad. Everyone except Met management knew this when he was signed, but at this point he’s batting second everyday while Jeff McNeil and/or Brandon Nimmo bat eighth or ride the bench. It’s patently absurd, and an insult to the younger players who are clearly superior and are a core part of the team’s future. Even a barely above-average OPS+ isn’t worth forfeiting the development of players who actually need it, and there’s no justification whatsoever for his place on the team at this point, let alone his prominence on it.

Jason Vargas is also bad, but that’s less revelatory. Hopefully the Mets get creative with him next year (hoping for a cut is wishing for a miracle), perhaps as a bullpen arm or in some sort of pseudo-Rays arrangement at the back of the rotation. He’ll probably just get shoehorned into a starting spot, however, simply because he’s a veteran making real money.

Other Mets News

No major happenings for the Mets today. Still maybe committing pseudo-insurance fraud with David Wright. Still not planning to end their service time farce with Peter Alonso. So it goes.

Photo credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea – USA Today Sports

Jacob deGrom versus a red-hot, newly-acquired, long-time Met rival Cole Hamels is a pretty juicy matchup. It’s too bad one of these teams is competently run and has maintained its status as a National League powerhouse since ascending in 2015 while the other has crashed and burned in spectacular fashion. So it goes.

Brandon Nimmo is back off the DL and in the lineup. Jeff McNeil is also out there, and Jay Bruce is starting at first.

Game Recap

If you watched the top of the first inning, you got a pretty good idea of what the Mets offense was going to do in this game. Amed Rosario led off with a double and moved to third on a groundout, and an Austin Jackson walk put runners at the corners with one out. The prime scoring chance was squandered, as both Michael Conforto and Todd Frazier struck out swinging to get Cole Hamels out of the first inning unharmed.

It was the first of what seemed like an endless number of missed opportunities for the Mets, who put three more runners on in the third with a single, error and a walk, but a caught stealing and another strikeout by Conforto ended the threat. Two singles, one a hussle infield single from deGrom, along with a walk loaded the bases in the fifth, but Conforto struck out once again. Consistently, Hamels put runners on base for the Mets, and every time they were wasted.

Of course, this is par for the course with deGrom, and the most deserving Cy Young candidate did his part to keep his team in the game. Over the first five innings, deGrom was brilliant, striking out seven and holding a potent Cubs offense off the board. There was a scary moment in the fourth when deGrom seemed to tweak something after slipping while trying to field an infield dribbler off the bat of Javier Baez, but he showed no ill effects, escaping the inning and promptly beating out the aforementioned infield single in his next at bat.

Sick of his teammates failing him, deGrom took offensive matters into his own hands in the top of the sixth. Former National Brandon Kintzler replaced Cole Hamels, and the first two Mets reached on an infield single and a walk. The next two batters couldn’t push a run across, and a walk to Brandon Nimmo loaded the bases for deGrom with two out. deGrom came through, as he always seems to, placing a groundball perfectly on the left side of the infield for his second hit of the day and his fourth RBI of the year, giving the Mets a 1-0 lead.

After navigating an leadoff single in the bottom of the sixth, the Mets had a chance to add some insurance in the seventh after McNeil led off with a triple. Predictably, they failed to do even that, with two hard line outs and a strike out stranding McNeil at third. The Cubs immediately made the Mets pay for their failure, rallying with two singles and a sacrifice fly to tie the game at one in the bottom of the seventh. The run should arguably have been unearned, as Bruce missed a relatively routine play at first base to give the Cubs their second hit of the game, but so it goes for deGrom.

A visibly pissed off deGrom worked around a leadoff single and a walk in the bottom of the eighth, finishing his outing with a strikeout and a double play. The Mets then failed to score for him in the top of the ninth, dooming the best pitcher in baseball to yet another no decision. Some quick stats on deGrom’s season after this latest gem, an eight-inning, 10-strikeout, one-walk, one-run performance:

• 24th consecutive start with three or fewer runs, tying Doc Gooden’s major league record
• 6th start allowing one run or less in which deGrom has received a no decision
• 9th time the Met offense has scored one run or less with deGrom on the mound
• 8th time deGom has gone seven or more innings and allowed one or zero runs but did not earn a win, tying a live-ball era record by Roger Craig on the 1963 Mets

Seth Lugo replaced deGrom and tossed a scoreless ninth, sending the game to extra innings. Mother Earth had other plans, and after Steve Cishek threw two balls to Conforto, the game was suspended. Thirteen hours later, the at-bat resumed, and Conforto worked a leadoff walk. He was erased on a double play when Bruce struck out two batters later, and Nimmo was doubled off on a line drive to waste another potential baserunner in the 11th, continuing the Mets’ absolute refusal to score runs for deGrom, even with the ace out of the game.

Mercifully, the Cubs ended things in the 11th before the Met offense could embarrass themselves any further. Paul Sewald continued to be bad, walking Javier Baez to lead off the inning, then throwing the ball away on a bunt to put runner son second and third with no outs. Kyle Schwarber was intentionally walked, Sewald struck out Albert Almora, and Daniel Zamora entered to face Ben Zobrist. Zamora got the ground ball he needed, but Zobrist placed it perfectly up the middle, and Rosario couldn’t get to it. The Cubs walked off with a 2-1 victory.

Thoughts from the Game

Watching pissed off deGrom’s body language on the mound is always fun, because it’s so clear he’s tired of everyone’s bullshit. At this point, he literally cannot carry this team any more than he already is, and it has to be beyond frustrating to see the team still fail so miserably. More relevantly at this point, if there is any writer or analyst who professes to be a baseball expert and doesn’t vote for deGrom in the Cy Young because of pitcher wins, that should be grounds for immediate firing. He’s the best pitcher in the National League, and it isn’t particularly close.

Other Mets News

There are two infuriating bits of Met news to discuss, so let’s start with the more common one. The Mets say they will not call up Peter Alonso this season, despite him racking up 33 home runs and 111 RBI this season between Double-A and Triple-A. Supposedly, this is because the Mets are still concerned about his defense and limited playing time with Jay Bruce, Wilmer Flores and Dominic Smith on the roster. That’s nonsense, of course — all of those options are somewhere between terrible and mediocre, and none of them are particularly good defenders. This is a very obvious service time manipulation ploy, a ridiculous tactic to claw back the age-31 season of a R/R first baseman in a totally lost season.

At least that’s a wrong the rest of baseball commits as well, however. The other bit of Mets news could originate only from an organization as deeply defined by dysfunction an ineptitude as this one; the Mets want insurance to continue to pay David Wright’s salary. As a refresher, the Mets get 75% of Wright’s salary back in insurance while he’s on the disabled list. Of course, they don’t reinvest this money, counting Wright’s full salary AND the premium on the insurance against club payroll. If Wright is activated and later needs to go back on the DL, the team does not receive payments until 60 days after the DL stint begins (likely combined between 2018 and 2019), and they can save roughly $2.4 million of Wright’s $3.2 million due over the rest of the season by keeping him on the disabled list.

This latest news takes things to a whole new level of scummy, deplorable and disgusting, even for the Mets. Wright is the greatest Met position player in history. He stuck with this team through some dark years, toiling away in his prime on teams that couldn’t even crack .500. He’s now spent two years working his hardest to overcome a debilitating, chronic back injury, one that has spawned shoulder and neck problems to boot. And now that he finally, finally has a chance to step onto a major league field for the first time since 2016, the team seems to be angling to classify him as permanently disabled against his wishes.

For full disclosure, I’ve never been as much of a fan of Wright as some others. Jose Reyes was always my favorite player when I was little (which has aged….not well), and I thought he should have been shipped out when the Mets started their rebuild. Nevertheless, Wright was on track for a first-ballot HOF career, and I struggle to find words to describe the depths the Mets have sunk to here. Disrespectful, abjectly cruel and disgraceful come to mind.

Photo credit: Patrick Gorski – USA Today Sports

Looking at this game, what’s the hook? Why should you, the viewer, care about a bad team playing a mediocre team with two nondescript starters on the mound? These are the sort of questions I spend 15 minutes staring at a blank document debating at this point in the season.

Anyway, Steven Matz got the start against Chris Stratton. Matz is still on a pitch count after his stint on the disabled list and the Mets burned most of their bullpen Monday in their 13-inning loss, so that has the potential to be a disaster. At least it can’t get any worse then a dropped pop up that drives in the game-deciding run.

Game Recap

Matz’s evening did not get off to a stellar start. Andrew McCutchen walked to lead off the game and Evan Longoria launched a ball into the left field seats two batters later to give the Giants a quick 2-0 lead. Matz rebounded very nicely, however, setting down the next 12 Giants before allowing a one-out double to Gorkys Hernandez in the top of the fifth. Hernandez didn’t get any further, inducing a ground out and striking out Chris Stratton. It was an excellent, albeit short start, as Matz struck out five and allowed only two hits and one walk.

As has become tradition at this point, the Mets simply refused to score for their starter. Jeff McNeil and Wilmer Flores had singles in the bottom of the first, but a double play off the bat of Michael Conforto ended that threat. The Mets didn’t manage another hit until the fourth, on another McNeil single, and he was thrown out trying to steal second. Corey Oswalt, pitching in relief of Matz, didn’t get any help either, as the Mets again went down in order in the bottom of the sixth.

McNeil came through again in the seventh with another single, and this time the rest of the lineup got their act together. A double, sacrifice fly and an RBI single later, and the game was tied at two. In the eighth, McNeil struck again with an RBI double to give the Mets a 3-2 lead. After an intentional walk to Flores, Conforto lined an opposite field, three-run home run to put the game out of reach. Oswalt, who was brilliant in three innings of relief after being booted from the starting rotation, was rewarded, and Matz was off the hook.

Seth Lugo entered for the ninth and worked around singles from Evan Longoria and Austin Slater (the latter of which clanked off of Jose Bautista’s glove and should’ve been an error) to close out a 6-3 win. Fittingly, the final out was a ground ball to McNeil, who was very easily the start of the game. The win improves the Mets to 55-70 on the season, and Noah Syndergaard will take the mound tonight.

Thoughts from the Game

McNeil is incredible and should 100% be the starting second baseman for the Mets next season. He’s now batting .318/.381/.455 on the season with two home runs in 99 PA, consistently making good contact and rarely swinging and missing. I’m not the first to make this comp, but he resembles an early-career Daniel Murphy in many ways, except McNeil is an actually competent second baseman. Every time he loses a start to Jose Reyes down the stretch is an insult to the team.

We got another extended rant from GKR about the shift in this one, after Zack Wheeler complained about a shift leading to a run-scoring bloop single in last night’s game. This time around, Ron kept talking about how “feel for the game” should change the shift at certain times, while also admitting to understanding and supporting the idea of playing the percentages. It’s an impressive bit of cognitive dissonance in order to get in a “back in my day” bit.

Other Mets News

Not much happening in Met land right now. David Wright finally broke through with two hits yesterday and had another hit today as he continues to rehab in St. Lucie. Jay Bruce has three hits of his own, and is probably pretty close to a return.

Photo credit: Noah K. Murray – USA Today Sports

The Orioles are one of the few teams that are having an even more depressing season than the Mets, sitting at 35-84. Jason Vargas is on the mound against the much-better-but-still-boring-and-bad Andrew Cashner. As a cherry on top of this shitty game sundae, Gary Cohen is on vacation for this series, with Wayne Randazzo taking over play-by-play duties.

At this point, the Mets should be paying us for watching this crap.

Game Recap

At the same time, maybe not, because baseball is a wonderful, weird, wacky game that you can’t predict. So of course, Andrew Cashner vs Jason Vargas turned into a pitcher’s duel. Vargas gave up singles to the first two batters he faced, but Jonathan Villar was thrown out stretching for two and Renato Nunez was erased on a double play. Cashner, meanwhile, set the first nine Mets down in order. Both teams faced the minimum through three innings, locked in a scoreless tie.

Jeff McNeil got the Mets’ first hit with one out in the fourth, but was stranded at first. In the bottom half, the Orioles also broke through, with a walk, double, and sacrifice fly giving them a 1-0 lead. The Mets replied right away, however, putting the first two men on in the top of the fifth and ultimately scoring runs on RBI singles from Kevin Plawecki and Amed Rosario to take a 2-1 lead.

Vargas worked around a single in the bottom of the fifth to preserve his new lead, which was significant as it gave him a chance to record an out in the sixth inning for the first time this year. He got that out, but then immediately surrendered a game-tying home run to Adam Jones. A walk and a double play ended the inning and gave Vargas his first quality start of the year, but the game was once again tied.

Ironically, with Jacob deGrom getting run support, Vargas was now receiving the deGrom treatment. The offense failed to provide him any help (two runs against Andrew Cashner and the Orioles is pretty pathetic), and the bullpen immediately imploded once Vargas was out of the game. Bobby Wahl gave up a home run to Chris Davis in the seventh and set the Orioles up for another run with two walks. Paul Sewald followed that up by giving up a two-run home run to Tim Beckham in the eighth. The Mets headed to the ninth down 6-2.

This is the Orioles, of course, so the game wouldn’t end without at least a bit of dysfunction. Miguel Castro entered and allowed a leadoff triple to Brandon Nimmo, then threw the ball away on an infield single by Todd Frazier that allowed Nimmo to score and put the game-tying run on deck. Buck Showalter had seen enough, and he brought in Mychal Givens, who promptly shut down the Mets rally with a strikeout, pop out and check-swing groundout.

The 6-3 loss drops the Mets to 50-67, putting them on an extremely nice 69-win pace. Zack Wheeler takes the mound against the Baltimore ace, Dylan Bundy (owner of a 4.70 ERA), this evening to conclude the two-game set.

Thoughts from the Game

The only real takeaway from this game is that the Mets bullpen is still Bad. The pile of right-handed relievers they traded for over the past two years along with the handful they developed internally are largely unimpressive. Further exacerbating this, the team still hasn’t promoted the other potential relievers still in the minors – most notably, Eric Hanhold, Adonis Uceta and Stephen Villines. Don’t expect the team to spend to fix this issue in the offseason, however. Instead, prepare for a full season of Bobby Wahl, Jacob Rhame and Paul Sewald running ERAs in the 4s on a very bad Mets team.

Boring game aside, bear with me for a personal anecdote. My building on the Columbia campus has a door man named Jay. Jay is generally a cool dude. We all like Jay. Today I found out his last name is Vargas. My building is literally staffed by Jason Vargas. I don’t know how to look him in the eyes anymore.

Other Mets News

Jay Bruce began a rehab assignment with St. Lucie, going 0-for-2 with a walk and a strikeout. He’s expected to split time between first and the outfield during his rehab and do the same if and when he returns to the major leagues. That’s time that should be going to Peter Alonso of course, but the Mets are never not going to play the struggling veteran with a $13 million per year contract.

Photo credit: Tommy Gilligan – USA Today Sports

This is a patently ridiculous statement, given both the moves the Mets have made in recent years and the fact that, even under Alderson, the team has a smaller analytics department than other major league organizations. To highlight that first point, let’s run down some moves that weren’t indicative of an analytics-driven approach.

Michael Cuddyer signing pre-2015

The Mets infamously rushed out to sign Cuddyer after the Rockies inexplicably made a 36-year-old with injury issues a qualifying offer. In doing so, the Mets forfeited the 15th overall pick in the 2016 draft for someone who had been a poor defender and relied on sky-high BABIPs over his previous two seasons. A cursory knowledge of the value of first-round picks and a 30-second analysis on Baseball Reference showed that this move was ill-advised.

Lo and behold, the Mets gave someone projected for fewer than 1.5 wins over the life of the contract a deal that should have bought them something more like 3 wins (at the $7 million / win market price at the time), and the deal turned out poorly.

Trading for Tyler Clippard in 2015

Looking to bolster their bullpen at the deadline, the Mets acquired Tyler Clippard for Casey Meisner. At the time, Meisner was a legitimate prospect who has since struggled, but he’s the sort of piece that teams should be willing to move for relief help. The problem was more with the reliever the Mets were acquiring. Clippard had a shiny 2.79 ERA and was a Proven Closer, but he also had a BB/9 of 4.89, a FIP of 3.96 and the worst xFIP in the majors at 5.51.

There is some subtlety here, because people will argue that elite relievers have a repeatable skill to control balls in play. Even with that factor, however, Clippard had glaring flaws that made him an objectively mediocre pitcher, and certainly not the sort of arm you acquire to bolster a playoff bullpen. It fits right in with Alderson’s quoted method of finding relievers to trade for: sorting a leaderboard by ERA.

Trading for Jay Bruce in 2016

At one point, Jay Bruce was one of the rising stars in baseball, coming up as a powerful bat in Cincinnati after being a first round pick. Then, a knee surgery after the 2013 season turned him into a shell of his former self, and he was totally unable to play the outfield or hit at a respectable level for two years. In 2016, the offense rebounded, as Bruce hit for a .295 ISO with the Reds and a .301 tAV, his best mark since surgery.

Despite that, Bruce was still so bad in the field that the value of his offense was totally negated, and he was basically a replacement level player. Beyond that, peripheral metrics about his exit velocity and batted ball distribution suggested harsh regression was in order. Even without understanding that second point, he made no sense as a trade target, due to his horrific defense. Instead, the Mets traded Dilson Herrera and Max Wotell and watched Bruce flail down the stretch and continue to play horrific defense, then doubled down on their mistake and exercised the $13 million option on Bruce for 2017, despite already having Michael Conforto and Yoenis Cespedes around to take the corner outfield spots.

Signing Jay Bruce after 2017

Continuing the Bruce saga, the Mets managed to finally get Bruce off the team in the midst of a disastrous 2017 season, sending him to the Indians for reliever Ryder Ryan. Of course, that meant the Mets no longer had Bruce, so they rushed to hand him a three-year, $39 million contract in the offseason. Analytics teams around the league had established that one-dimensional sluggers who aren’t actually elite offensively and don’t play any sort of defense are basically worthless, but the Mets were, as usual, behind the curve.

Oh, and they still had Yoenis Cespedes and Michael Conforto (even with the latter coming back from a shoulder injury). The only real CF on the roster was Juan Lagares, but the Mets chose to sign Bruce instead of signing Lorenzo Cain for only $3 million more in AAV. Bruce was projected for roughly three wins over the life of the contract, which should have bought the Mets closer to five wins on the free agent market.

Signing Jason Vargas

This basically boils down to WINZZZZZ. Vargas wasn’t particularly good for the Royals in 2017, running a 4.44 DRA. Spending two minutes to look at his splits shows that he was basically cooked after June, and he posted an ERA of 6.38 in the second half. The Mets’ analytics department was on the ball with this one, cautioning decision makers against signing the left handed. Someone in the front office saw Vargas’ 18 wins, however, and the statistical warning signs were ignored.

To say that this signing has worked out poorly is an understatement, and the Mets are still on the hook for another $8 million next year, along with a $2 million option.

Rostering Jose Reyes

Jose Reyes has been legitimately awful at basically everything since the start of 2017, but is still rostered largely due to “positional versatility.” He was projected to be worth less than half a win in 2018, and the Mets gave him $2 million just so he could play every position on the infield poorly and block younger, more important players. Since then, he’s been the fifth worst player in baseball with at least 184 PA, and all four players below him (Chris Davis, Victor Martinez, Dexter Fowler and Alcides Escober) have significantly more at bats.

The nightmare might not be over either, since Reyes has stated he’d love to be back in 2019.

*****

The track record here is clear; the Mets make bad moves that even a cursory analysis using publicly available stats tells you are misguided. Predictably, these moves almost always blow up on them. The Mets don’t scout or develop particularly well either, so this isn’t an organization focusing on a strength that makes them stand out from the league. Meanwhile, the powerhouses in baseball – Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers, Cubs and Astros – all have significantly larger and better respected analytics departments, as do most of the more exciting, rising teams like the Phillies and Brewers.

Somehow, management is either delusional or clueless enough to think that putting less emphasis on analytics solves this problem. If you were hoping for an analytically inclined GM hire that could modernize the franchise, I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Photo credit: Adam Hunger – USA Today Sports

It’s a Jason Vargas start. Don’t think much more really needs to be said.

At least the greatest second baseman of all time – Jeff McNeil – is still in the lineup.

Game Recap

Mercifully, Jason Vargas wasn’t in the game for long. After recording only one out and giving up three hits, an almost two-hour rain delay chased the struggling left-hander from the game. Paul Sewald replaced Vargas and allowed the two runners he inherited to score, closing the book on Vargas after 0.1 innings and three runs. By the time the top of the first ended at 9:10, the Mets trailed 3-0.

Sal Romano, meanwhile, continued with his regularly scheduled start after the rain delay, and he dominated the Mets. Brandon Nimmo and Jose Bautista managed their only two hits off the righty, both of which came in the second inning and led to the Mets’ only run. Romano also walked three, including two starting the seventh inning before he was pulled. Jared Hughes relieved Romano and worked out of that jam with little trouble, recording a strikeout, fly out and ground out to strand two.

The Mets, meanwhile, had to patch together a game from their bullpen. Sewald got through the second inning and was replaced by Bobby Wahl, who gave up two more runs in the third. Tyler Bashlor kept the Reds off the board in the fourth and fifth, and Drew Smith did the same in the sixth and seventh. Jacob Rhame kept that trend going in the eighth, but gave up a home run to former Met Dilson Herrera (traded for Jay Bruce in 2016) that stretched the Reds’ lead to 6-1.

In the bottom of the ninth, the Mets had one last chance, with singles from Nimmo and Todd Frazier putting two men on with one out. That chance was squandered too, of course, as Bautista and Kevin Plawecki both popped up to end the game. The loss drops the Mets to 46-65.

Thoughts from the Game

It’s a little sad and entirely unsurprising that most of us were hoping the rain would just cancel the game rather than delay it. More importantly, the fact that the Mets’ win expectancy probably went up with Vargas out of the game is a problem, and it’s one that will, in all likelihood, not go addressed in the offseason. There’s no reason for Vargas to be on the Opening Day roster next season, but the Mets front office literally doesn’t know the meaning of the term “sunk cost,” so expect him to be pencilled in as the third starter from the first day of spring training.

As a more uplifting tidbit, enjoy this pregame Jeff McNeil factoid:

Jeff McNeil is 8-for-12 in his last three games. The last Mets rookie with 8 or more hits over a 3-game span was David Wright in 2004.#Mets host #Reds
7 pm on @SNYtv

— Elias Sports Bureau (@EliasSports) August 7, 2018

Other Met News

Chris Flexen underwent surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his knee, which will end his season. The 24-year-old was in the midst of a disastrous season, recording an ERA of 12.79 in the majors and putting up an unimpressive 4.40 in Triple-A to go with unremarkable peripherals. Hopefully some of his struggles can be explained away by his injury and he he can hit the ground running next year as viable starting pitcher depth.

Photo credit: Andy Marlin – USA Today Sports

Zack and Jake are still here. That’s good! Bautista and Mesoraco are still here. That’s bad. Both will pass through waivers. That’s good! The Nationals didn’t blow it up. That’s bad. This game (Steven Matz vs Tanner Roark to start a two game set in D.C.) comes with free frogurt. That’s good! The frogurt is cursed. That’s bad. Jose Reyes isn’t starting. That’s good. Jose Reyes contains potassium benzoate.

If you’re ready to leave now, get in line with the rest of the Mets fans who wish this season was just over already.

Game Recap

There’s a great scene in “Moneyball,” where Billy Beane is driving to see Oakland’s minor league team while the major league team plays for the 20-game win streak. His daughter calls and tells him to come back and watch the game, at which point he turns on the radio and hears the broadcaster simply say, “If you’re just joining us, you’ve missed a lot. I think my recap will be simple: the A’s scored six in the first, one in the second and four in the third.” Beane proceeds to make a U-turn, return to the stadium and watch the A’s finish their historic streak in truly stupendous fashion on Scott Hatterberg’s walkoff home run.

So on that note, you’ve missed a lot. I think I’ll keep the recap simple: the Nationals scored seven in the first, three in the second, three in the third, three in the fourth, three in the fifth, six in the eighth and beat the Mets into the ground by a final score of 25-4. Steven Matz was awful, and the cavalcade of relievers the Mets sent out were just as bad for the most part. Wilmer Flores left the game in the first with dizziness and dehydration, and he was probably the lucky one.

There were a couple of bright moments. Jeff McNeil hit his first career home run off the facing of the second deck in right. A Michael Conforto double and a home run from Austin Jackson led to a three-run rally that really pissed off Nationals reliever Shawn Kelley, which was amusing.We also got to see Jose Reyes pitch and get destroyed, which was somewhat cathartic. Other than that, this was a game you were better off missing.

Thoughts from the Game

The only major thought from this game is man, do the Mets have a lot of work to do in their bullpen. Most of the relievers they traded for at the deadline last year are bad, and for some reason, several intriguing arms are still lingering in the minors or sit unused in the bullpen. Tyler Bashlor, Drew Smith, Eric Hanhold, Stephen Villines, Adonis Uceta and the newly acquired Bobby Wahl should all see significant major league action the rest of the season to evaluate their viability for 2019. I’m sure the Mets will just opt to track down Chris Beck again though, because that’s just how they roll.

Other Mets News

The Mets let the trade deadline pass without making any moves. In a vacuum, that’s not entirely surprising; the roster is a mix of guys who they really shouldn’t move (Jacob deGrom and Zack Wheeler) and rental pieces that don’t have much value (Jose Bautista and Devin Mesoraco). The latter group will almost certainly pass through waivers, meaning the Mets still have another month to snag a couple more marginal pieces.

More concerning than the lack of moves was the press conference that followed. John Rico came out and said the Mets haven’t decided whether they’ll go for it or rebuild for 2019. Commentary on which direction makes more sense aside, this is the latest in what feels like a tsunami of examples of the incompetence and dysfunction within the front office. It’s baffling that a major league team would enter a trade deadline with what amounts to no long term plan, but it’s just par for the course for this organization.