Is the glass half empty or half full? You decide.
So the Mets first road trip of the year was a success, 6-3, and
they come home with a winning record of 8-7. Extrapolate that out over
the full season and you get 86 wins. Not Sandy’s goal of 90, but I
think any Mets fan would be happy with 86 wins this year. I know I
would. The question I now ponder is, are the Mets the team that got
swept by the Nats in their opening series, or are they the team that has
gone 8-4 since then.? Arguments can be made for both sides.
Reasons to be happy with the Mets 8-7 record.
1. They’ve managed to be a winning team with inconsistent starting pitching. After getting 5 quality
starts in their first 6 home games, they only got 4 out of 9 on the
road trip, although to be fair Mejia pitched 5 shutout innings before
being removed due to blister problem, so it really should’ve been 5 out
of 9. As SNY showed in the Arizona series, our starters have one of the
highest ERAs in the NL, and yet we are a game over .500.
2. They’ve managed to be a winning team with virtually no production from David Wright or Curtis Granderson. Yes, the Captain is on an 8-game hitting streak, but it has to be the most ho-hum hitting streak ever. Sure, the .306 average is nice during it (11 for 36) as are the 5RBI in the 8 games (5RBI in 8 games = 101 in 162), but does anyone think we are 8-7 because of David? Meanwhile, Granderson managed all of 4 hits while striking out 8 times during our 6-3 road trip.
3. Eric Young is doing what leadoff hitters are supposed to do. During the road trip, he was 12 for 36 (.333), with 12 runs scored, 9 SB, and 3 RBI.
4. They beat up on a weaker opponent. That’s what good teams do. At the very least, they beat up on weaker opponents and hold their own against the other good teams. Last year’s team didn’t do this at all. They played 65 games against 5 teams with a worse record then they had (Phils, Marlins, Cubs, White Sox, Twins) and 2 teams with the same record (Brewers, Rockies). Their record in those 65 games was 33-32. To make matters worse, they won only 8 of 19 games they played against the weakest team they faced last year, the Marlins (they never faced the Astros last year, the team with the worst record in baseball). Hopefully, their sweep of the so far woeful Diamondbacks, who to quote a tweet by Kevin Burkhardt yesterday, “…are a train wreck” is a sign of things to come this year.
Reasons to be concerned in spite of their winning record.
1. Their starting pitching is inconsistent. The starters’ ERA on the road trip was 4.39. Granted, much of that can be attributed to the licking the Angels put on Colon
(9ER in 5IP,and we shall never speak of that again), but a 4.39 ERA for
starters is not a formula for long-term success. Leaving out the Mejia
start in Arizona, which as I said earlier was essentially a quality
start, the Mets managed only 1 win in the 4 non-quality starts on the
trip (Mejia’s 5IP/4ER vs the Braves). This team isn’t going to score a
ton of runs and can’t survive not getting strong pitching from their
starters game in and game out. The offense can’t carry this team.
2. We are getting virtually no production from David Wright or Curtis Granderson. Wright has a whopping total of 2XBH, his Opening Day HR and a double on the road trip. That’s a little bit concerning. Of course no one thinks David’s power
outage will be a season-long problem, but I don’t think anyone would
have guessed he’d have 2 XBH 15 games into the season. He’s also
produced a strikeout:walk ratio of 8:3 during his hitting streak.
Usually when you hear hitting streak, you think it would be 3:8, so
there is cause for some concern there. Of course, he’s gotten virtually
no protection from Granderson, who had all of 1 XBH on the road trip. I
understand he was our big free agent acquisition, but at what point
does TC move him out of the clean-up slot if this continues?
3. Although the offense has started to come around, we can’t seem to put teams away. Case in point was the Angels game Valverde blew in the 9th that we won in the 13th. As much as I love Gary and Ron, I never once heard them mention the following in the broadcast: after scoring 2 runs to make it 6-3 in the 9th, we had bases loaded, 1 out with Murphy and Wright coming up and failed to score again. A base hit by either of them makes it 8-3 and no one is talking about how Valverde blew that lead. In Wednesday’s game vs. Arizona, we had 2nd and 3rd in the 4th inning with no outs and scored 1 run. In the 6th we had the bases loaded with 1 out and scored 1 run. That’s okay against a weak team like Arizona, but do that against the Cards, the Dodgers, the Pirates, etc and they’ll make you pay.
4. The bullpen is still a work in progress. It seems right now we have 3 people TC can rely on: Carlos Torres, Gonzalez Germen, and Kyle Farnsworth (who would’ve thought we’d be saying Farnsworth was someone we could count on). Other than one dominant save against the Braves, Valverde has Mets fans, including a former teacher of mine, Mrs. Supon, equating him to Armando Benitez (sorry Mets fan, I know the mere mention of his name sends you into convulsions) and Doug Sisk. He comes into the game and we hold our collective breath. It will be interesting to see how Dice-K does in the bullpen. He was pitching really well in Vegas, but that was as a starter. It remains to be seen whether he can successfully transition to a reliever.
Weather permitting, I’m heading to Friday night’s game with my boys and my dad (a Yankees fan, but I still love him). The baseline box seats they were offering for $19.64 in honor of the 50th anniversary of the opening of Shea Stadium were way down the line, so instead I opted for the $3.50 seats in the upper deck (sorry, I can’t call it the Promenade), because as you know, I’m just happy to be in the park.
Reasons to be happy with the Mets 8-7 record.
1. They’ve managed to be a winning team with inconsistent starting pitching. After getting 5 quality
starts in their first 6 home games, they only got 4 out of 9 on the
road trip, although to be fair Mejia pitched 5 shutout innings before
being removed due to blister problem, so it really should’ve been 5 out
of 9. As SNY showed in the Arizona series, our starters have one of the
highest ERAs in the NL, and yet we are a game over .500.2. They’ve managed to be a winning team with virtually no production from David Wright or Curtis Granderson. Yes, the Captain is on an 8-game hitting streak, but it has to be the most ho-hum hitting streak ever. Sure, the .306 average is nice during it (11 for 36) as are the 5RBI in the 8 games (5RBI in 8 games = 101 in 162), but does anyone think we are 8-7 because of David? Meanwhile, Granderson managed all of 4 hits while striking out 8 times during our 6-3 road trip.
3. Eric Young is doing what leadoff hitters are supposed to do. During the road trip, he was 12 for 36 (.333), with 12 runs scored, 9 SB, and 3 RBI.
4. They beat up on a weaker opponent. That’s what good teams do. At the very least, they beat up on weaker opponents and hold their own against the other good teams. Last year’s team didn’t do this at all. They played 65 games against 5 teams with a worse record then they had (Phils, Marlins, Cubs, White Sox, Twins) and 2 teams with the same record (Brewers, Rockies). Their record in those 65 games was 33-32. To make matters worse, they won only 8 of 19 games they played against the weakest team they faced last year, the Marlins (they never faced the Astros last year, the team with the worst record in baseball). Hopefully, their sweep of the so far woeful Diamondbacks, who to quote a tweet by Kevin Burkhardt yesterday, “…are a train wreck” is a sign of things to come this year.
Reasons to be concerned in spite of their winning record.
1. Their starting pitching is inconsistent. The starters’ ERA on the road trip was 4.39. Granted, much of that can be attributed to the licking the Angels put on Colon
(9ER in 5IP,and we shall never speak of that again), but a 4.39 ERA for
starters is not a formula for long-term success. Leaving out the Mejia
start in Arizona, which as I said earlier was essentially a quality
start, the Mets managed only 1 win in the 4 non-quality starts on the
trip (Mejia’s 5IP/4ER vs the Braves). This team isn’t going to score a
ton of runs and can’t survive not getting strong pitching from their
starters game in and game out. The offense can’t carry this team.2. We are getting virtually no production from David Wright or Curtis Granderson. Wright has a whopping total of 2XBH, his Opening Day HR and a double on the road trip. That’s a little bit concerning. Of course no one thinks David’s power
outage will be a season-long problem, but I don’t think anyone would
have guessed he’d have 2 XBH 15 games into the season. He’s also
produced a strikeout:walk ratio of 8:3 during his hitting streak.
Usually when you hear hitting streak, you think it would be 3:8, so
there is cause for some concern there. Of course, he’s gotten virtually
no protection from Granderson, who had all of 1 XBH on the road trip. I
understand he was our big free agent acquisition, but at what point
does TC move him out of the clean-up slot if this continues?3. Although the offense has started to come around, we can’t seem to put teams away. Case in point was the Angels game Valverde blew in the 9th that we won in the 13th. As much as I love Gary and Ron, I never once heard them mention the following in the broadcast: after scoring 2 runs to make it 6-3 in the 9th, we had bases loaded, 1 out with Murphy and Wright coming up and failed to score again. A base hit by either of them makes it 8-3 and no one is talking about how Valverde blew that lead. In Wednesday’s game vs. Arizona, we had 2nd and 3rd in the 4th inning with no outs and scored 1 run. In the 6th we had the bases loaded with 1 out and scored 1 run. That’s okay against a weak team like Arizona, but do that against the Cards, the Dodgers, the Pirates, etc and they’ll make you pay.
4. The bullpen is still a work in progress. It seems right now we have 3 people TC can rely on: Carlos Torres, Gonzalez Germen, and Kyle Farnsworth (who would’ve thought we’d be saying Farnsworth was someone we could count on). Other than one dominant save against the Braves, Valverde has Mets fans, including a former teacher of mine, Mrs. Supon, equating him to Armando Benitez (sorry Mets fan, I know the mere mention of his name sends you into convulsions) and Doug Sisk. He comes into the game and we hold our collective breath. It will be interesting to see how Dice-K does in the bullpen. He was pitching really well in Vegas, but that was as a starter. It remains to be seen whether he can successfully transition to a reliever.
Weather permitting, I’m heading to Friday night’s game with my boys and my dad (a Yankees fan, but I still love him). The baseline box seats they were offering for $19.64 in honor of the 50th anniversary of the opening of Shea Stadium were way down the line, so instead I opted for the $3.50 seats in the upper deck (sorry, I can’t call it the Promenade), because as you know, I’m just happy to be in the park.
