Friday, June 30, 2017

Bartolo Colon Has Been Designated for Assignment



Can't believe that I'm saying this, but considering just how awful Colon's been this year, I'd rather stick with Rafeal Montero and possibly Tyler Pill than a give a most-likely-done Big Sexy a try.

Thursday, June 29, 2017

R.I.P. Anthony Young



Damn, those were some bad Met teams and I hated those uniforms even more. Still, regardless of that infamous losing streak, unlike some of his teammates, you never had to question Anthony Young's desire to win.

FiveThirtyEight.com:
Long before the win became the most universally derided statistic in baseball, there was New York Mets pitcher Anthony Young. Young, who died this week at the age of 51, is most often remembered for the longest losing streak by a pitcher in MLB history — dropping 27 consecutive decisions. For sabermetricians, however, Young has another significance altogether — he’s the perfect example of why pitcher wins and losses are utterly meaningless. From May 6, 1992 to July 24, 1993, Young appeared in 77 games, starting 17 of them and finishing 37. 

He notched 16 saves and four holds — but he just couldn’t catch a break when he was awarded the decision. He lost low-scoring nail-biters; he lost games in relief; he lost after throwing a lot of pitches and after throwing very few. A total of 448 days went by without Young’s name next to a “W” in the box score. Young finally broke through at Shea Stadium on July 28, 1993, when the Mets pulled out a 5-4 walk-off victory in the bottom of the ninth against the Florida Marlins.

Sunday, June 25, 2017

Mets Can't Be Taken Seriously Until They Reach .500


After the Dodger debacle, they needed this sweep of the Giants. But they're still 7 games under .500 and more than 10 games out of the last wild-card spot. Still, the All-Star break isn't here yet, so barring other significant injury to a key player, Terry Collins finally taking Jose Reyes out of the starting lineup and learning how to use his bullpen properly, I say that the 2017 season isn't quite over just yet.

Saturday, June 24, 2017

Asdrubal Cabrera Is Being A Little Selfish Right Now


CBSLocal.com:
Asdrubal Cabrera played part of one season with the Nationals.

During those 49 games in 2014, Cabrera hit .229 with five home runs. He mostly played second base, as Ian Desmond was the incumbent shortstop, and he was a fine second baseman. However, he always made it perfectly clear he saw himself as a shortstop, not a second baseman,

After the season, Cabrera moved on to the Tampa Bay Rays, where he played shortstop and hit .265 with 15 home runs in 2015, then he traveled north to the New York Mets. He’s played with the Mets the past two seasons, mostly playing shortstop.

Now, the Mets want to move him to second base, and the 31-year-old veteran isn’t thrilled about it, reportedly asking for a trade. Mike Puma of the New York Post has comments from Cabrera saying, “If they don’t have a plan for me, I think it’s time to make a move.”
Upon hearing this news, I can presume that there's two things going on with Carbrera right now: 1) his ego is bothered at the idea that Mets management doesn't think that he has the range to play shortstop anymore and 2) while the guy replacing him, Jose Reyes, might be the better defensive shortstop right now, for Chrissakes, Reyes is currently hitting .193. Either way, with the Mets 8 games under .500 and like 12.5 games out of a wild-card spot, the last thing they need is a veteran player, who's still starting by the way, requesting a trade. To think too, this Cabrera stuff comes not long after the Braves All-star 1st baseman Freddie Freeman offered to move to 3rd base (a position he's never played before on the major league level) in order to keep hot-hitting first baseman Matt Adams in the lineup regularly.

In other words, Asdrubal Cabrera needs to put his ego aside and do what's best for the team.

Friday, June 16, 2017

The Mets Should Not Call Up Amed Rosario


NJ.com:
Sandy Alderson hears you loud and clear, Mets fans.

The Mets general manager is aware that your desire to see top prospect Amed Rosario in Flushing is at an all-time high, especially with second baseman Neil Walker (left hamstring) hitting the disabled list on Thursday.

After all, it's hard to ignore Rosario's dominant Triple-A stat line: .333 batting average, seven home runs and 45 RBIs.

But Alderson doesn't want to rush the 21-year-old shortstop's development.

"First of all, we have some good players here," Alderson said ahead of Thursday's series-opener with the NL East leading Nationals. "(Jose) Reyes is playing currently at shortstop, (Astrubal) Cabrera is coming back. It's not like we have a big hole in our lineup. If not more importantly, we review Rosario as a possible long-term answer for us."
Finally, something that I can agree with when it comes Mets management: leaving Amed Rosario alone and not bowing to pressure from fans and the media to call him up. I don't care how great Rosario is racking it up in Triple-A, it's still Triple-A and frankly speaking, even if Rosario got called up and he continues to hit like he's doing now, that ain't saving the 2017 Mets. Because injuries have just about killed this team.

From Noah Syndergaard to Yoenis Cespedes to Steven Matz to Lucas Duda to Seth Lugo (and now the trio of Neil Walker, Matt Harvey and Juan Lagares are each heading to the DL too), this team just can't catch a break. And no potentially superstar SS is going to save them. Better to just let the veteran Asdrubal Cabrera play out what's left of his contract this year, hope against hope that Jose Reyes has something left in the tank and that Cespedes along with the rest of the pitching staff can stay healthy for the rest of the year. Then too, there's always Brandon Nimmo...I'm just saying.