Week 1 recap
6 games and 1 week in the books
and what can we say so far about the Mets season?
The starting pitching has been solid, but not spectacular. Had Niese gotten the 3rd out in the 6th inning on Sunday, we would’ve been 6 for 6 in quality starts. Granted, I’m not the biggest fan of that stat because if you give up 3 ER in 6 innings you are pitching to a 4.50 ERA, but it does has some merit. I think Niese gave us more
than any of us expected Sunday, and on a very tough night to pitch,
Mejia showed us why, at least for 1 start, he deserves to be in the
rotation.
It is a tale of two cities in the bullpen. On the one hand you have Valverde, Farnsworth, and Germen who have combined for 11 IP, 8H, 3 BB, 14K, and only 2 ER. On the other hand you have Torres, Rice, Familia, and Lannan who have combined for 5.1 IP, 12H, 6 BB, 6K and 10 ER. OUCH!!!! As much as Rice was a feel-good story last year, there’s a reason why he spent 11 years in the minors before making it to the big leagues. I’d love nothing more
than to see Lannan thrive in the bullpen. He’s a LI guy and fellow
Chaminade alum (Go Flyers!!!), but if those 4 continue to struggle, will
the Mets take a page out of the Cardinals playbook and bring up some of
their young starting pitching and use them in the bullpen?
We are hitting HRs and not much else. Our 7 HRs have us tied for 6th in the majors, but our 33 hits overall and .178 team batting average both rank dead last, and our 61 Ks are near the top in a category you’d rather not lead the league in. To be fair, the Dodgers have struck out the most and they are 5-3 so you can strikeout a lot and still win. Still, with 2nd and 3rd and 1 out in Sunday’s game, wouldn’t it have been nice if either Murphy or Wright had just delivered a single to score 2 runs?
TC seems willing to give Gee a little more leeway than the other pitchers. In both his starts, you kind of felt like TC went one batter too long with Gee. In Saturday’s game, he started the 8th inning having thrown 92 pitches. Not an unreasonable amount, but we’ve seen that for whatever reason, Dillon seems to “lose it” rather quickly. After giving up the leadoff double, that was probably the time to go get him. The Opening Day start was a little trickier. Before running into trouble in the 7th inning, he was on cruise control, having retired 15 in a row. But with 2 outs, a man on first, and LaRoche, who had already homered off him in the game, coming up, you had to be thinking that TC was going to go to the lefty there. Of course he didn’t and we know how the inning turned out. Part of me wonders if TC is trying to send Dillon a message, something to the effect of “For now, you’re our ace, get yourself out of these innings the way Harvey would.” I don’t know, maybe I’m overthinking it or reading too much into those 2 starts, but it will be interesting to see if it continues.
Can this team win on the road like last year’s team did? This first road trip will give us some idea how that question will be answered I have to thank the schedule makers. Very glad that the Mets head out west to LA and Arizona the week of Spring break. Staying up to watch the games is much easier when I don’t have to go to work the next day!!!!
and what can we say so far about the Mets season?The starting pitching has been solid, but not spectacular. Had Niese gotten the 3rd out in the 6th inning on Sunday, we would’ve been 6 for 6 in quality starts. Granted, I’m not the biggest fan of that stat because if you give up 3 ER in 6 innings you are pitching to a 4.50 ERA, but it does has some merit. I think Niese gave us more
than any of us expected Sunday, and on a very tough night to pitch,
Mejia showed us why, at least for 1 start, he deserves to be in the
rotation.It is a tale of two cities in the bullpen. On the one hand you have Valverde, Farnsworth, and Germen who have combined for 11 IP, 8H, 3 BB, 14K, and only 2 ER. On the other hand you have Torres, Rice, Familia, and Lannan who have combined for 5.1 IP, 12H, 6 BB, 6K and 10 ER. OUCH!!!! As much as Rice was a feel-good story last year, there’s a reason why he spent 11 years in the minors before making it to the big leagues. I’d love nothing more
than to see Lannan thrive in the bullpen. He’s a LI guy and fellow
Chaminade alum (Go Flyers!!!), but if those 4 continue to struggle, will
the Mets take a page out of the Cardinals playbook and bring up some of
their young starting pitching and use them in the bullpen?We are hitting HRs and not much else. Our 7 HRs have us tied for 6th in the majors, but our 33 hits overall and .178 team batting average both rank dead last, and our 61 Ks are near the top in a category you’d rather not lead the league in. To be fair, the Dodgers have struck out the most and they are 5-3 so you can strikeout a lot and still win. Still, with 2nd and 3rd and 1 out in Sunday’s game, wouldn’t it have been nice if either Murphy or Wright had just delivered a single to score 2 runs?
TC seems willing to give Gee a little more leeway than the other pitchers. In both his starts, you kind of felt like TC went one batter too long with Gee. In Saturday’s game, he started the 8th inning having thrown 92 pitches. Not an unreasonable amount, but we’ve seen that for whatever reason, Dillon seems to “lose it” rather quickly. After giving up the leadoff double, that was probably the time to go get him. The Opening Day start was a little trickier. Before running into trouble in the 7th inning, he was on cruise control, having retired 15 in a row. But with 2 outs, a man on first, and LaRoche, who had already homered off him in the game, coming up, you had to be thinking that TC was going to go to the lefty there. Of course he didn’t and we know how the inning turned out. Part of me wonders if TC is trying to send Dillon a message, something to the effect of “For now, you’re our ace, get yourself out of these innings the way Harvey would.” I don’t know, maybe I’m overthinking it or reading too much into those 2 starts, but it will be interesting to see if it continues.
Can this team win on the road like last year’s team did? This first road trip will give us some idea how that question will be answered I have to thank the schedule makers. Very glad that the Mets head out west to LA and Arizona the week of Spring break. Staying up to watch the games is much easier when I don’t have to go to work the next day!!!!
