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How are you feeling?

Lefty Specialist Jul 12 2021 09:21 AM

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51tKFMU-vrL._SL500_.jpg> So it's the All-Star break, and we're 87 games into the season, 6 games into SHaMs. They're 47-40, 3 1/2 games up. How are you feeling? They've been the beneficiary of a division that's spinning its wheels. The Nats were charging hard but have fallen back. The Braves are mediocre and have lost Acuna for the season. The Phillies are, well, the Phillies. Met pitching has been well above average and their offense has been well below average (4th in ERA, 29th in runs scored). Somehow they've managed to scratch out that record. How will they finish the year? Is a 2021 version of a Cespedes deal coming? Do they stand pat and hope that recent trends continue? Do they burn the minor-league system for a rental? Do they do something in between? Inquiring minds want to know.

TransMonk Jul 12 2021 09:50 AM Re: How are you feeling?

Looking at their record and consistent first place standing for much of the year, it's hard to argue that they haven't been successful given the injuries. Yup, the division is weak, but out of the Mets' control. I don't believe the injuries and lack of offense is distinct to them. The COVID season, dead ball and possibly the Spidertackiness has contributed to some of the woes not just for the Mets but for the vast majority of teams, IMO. The pitching has been lights out and has really kept them where they are. Yes, the Mets have had a ton of injuries, but none of them were season ending, so some are already back with others on the way. Up until the past couple of weeks (return of Nimmo) they really haven't passed my eyeball test of a really good team despite their record and division lead. On offense especially, they have been very inconsistent and underwhelming. I'm also concerned about the bullpen usage strategy. There is a lot of talent out there and I'm not sure it is being used as effectively as it could be...although, I'm also still dwelling on the final game vs. the Bucs. I believe both the offense and the pitching will drift toward the average meaning the offense should get better and the pitching may not shine as brightly as it has been. Hopefully those two things will cancel each other out and the team will follow the same trajectory they have been on. The wild card is any trade deadline additions. I am in the "go get another bat" camp, but I believe any additions should fortify an already pretty good team. There's little reason for me to believe that the Mets can't win the division....they just need to go out and finish strong.

Edgy MD Jul 12 2021 10:28 AM Re: How are you feeling?

On the one hand, I'm sorry to see the break come just when some of the bats are heating up. On the other hand, this team needs some rest. Pitchers need rest, Alonso needs a rest, Lindor needs a rest. There were so many bats just a few weeks ago, that I'd see them come up in a key situation and think, "Oh, no, not him." I don't think I get that feeling about anybody. Nimmo just grounded into a big double play to take the Mets out of a rally in their last game, and he's been the guy you most want up. Heck, it was his first GiDP all season. If you get four guys swinging well, you're gonna be able to fight it out most nights, and I think they're at a place where they have enough redundancy to expect that many to be on at a given time. I know it's healthy to expect nothing from Syndergaard and Carrasco, but maybe they can help out in the bullpen in the second half. I feel good, though. I feel alive.

Ceetar Jul 12 2021 10:30 AM Re: How are you feeling?

Frustrated mostly. They've maintained a lead mostly due to the division. Even with most of the offense back, they haven't built that lead, and that's troubling. Only the Marlins, in the division, have played worse over the last 20, last 30, games. They desperately need more starting pitching. luckily the deadline is coming and more people will be willing to deal, but there's still 2 weeks before that. The Mets are the best team in the division, but without that cushion they could've built, if another team makes a good acquisition and the Mets don't, there are many avenues for them to squander this season. They could pull a 2015 Mets in which the right callups/trades play great and they dominate the head to head matchups and makeup those few games.

A Boy Named Seo Jul 12 2021 10:45 AM Re: How are you feeling?

I feel pretty good. I'd try to get a dude like Jon Gray ASAP, like today. Stro and Walker are coming back down to earth from ace-level and with Carrasco's debut still a couple weeks out, we need help pretty badly. I'd like to not limp through the rest of the month as currently constructed. Lindor and Pete have heated up, Nimmo is raking and Conforto and McNeil have yet to join the party, but will. I'm not worried in the least about the 29th best offense, or whatever the hell the Mets have been up til now. #blueandorangeglasses

Johnny Lunchbucket Jul 12 2021 10:49 AM Re: How are you feeling?

Appreciative given the struggles of the offense and the schedule and the injuries but not like, overly jazzed. They reached a peak of 10 over then faltered. 10 over needs to be the floor not the ceiling

batmagadanleadoff Jul 12 2021 10:58 AM Re: How are you feeling?

Biggest surprises and disappointments for all 32 teams, from The Athletic: New York Mets Biggest surprise: Taijuan Walker The Mets made one of the best value signings of the offseason when they inked Walker to a two-year, $20 million deal with a player option for 2023. They paid for a back-of-the-rotation starter but landed a front-of-the-rotation starter. Walker has gone 7-3 with a 2.50 ERA in 16 starts, and he's a big reason the Mets are in first place. Biggest disappointment: Francisco Lindor The Mets made a great trade to acquire Lindor in the offseason, then signed him to a 10-year, $341 million deal in April. He's fallen well short of that contract so far, slashing .220/.319/.362 with just 10 home runs and 8 stolen bases, mostly because of an embarrassing first two months with New York. Lindor's defense and leadership skills have lived up to expectations, but for that kind of money, he's supposed to be at the All-Star Game, not at home. https://theathletic.com/2699696/2021/07/12/biggest-surprises-and-disappointments-for-all-30-mlb-teams-at-the-all-star-break/

metsmarathon Jul 12 2021 11:10 AM Re: How are you feeling?

A Boy Named Seo wrote: I feel pretty good. I'd try to get a dude like Jon Gray ASAP, like today. Stro and Walker are coming back down to earth from ace-level and with Carrasco's debut still a couple weeks out, we need help pretty badly. I'd like to not limp through the rest of the month as currently constructed. Lindor and Pete have heated up, Nimmo is raking and Conforto and McNeil have yet to join the party, but will. I'm not worried in the least about the 29th best offense, or whatever the hell the Mets have been up til now. #blueandorangeglasses i agree fully with the above. the offense should be fine enough, is at its floor., and trending up. we need to elevate the ceiling on pitching just to insulate against injury and bullpen overuse. and the best way to do that is to add a healthy starter. and then, if and when our other starters come back, they're gravy and depth, and we don't need to hope they can all go 7 innings.

LWFS Jul 12 2021 11:24 AM Re: How are you feeling?

Good, all things considered. You could argue that an overwhelming majority of our key players have been hanging out in their bottom-third, expectations-wise... with not many (Stroman?) unsustainably lingering in their top-third. They were basically living waiver-wire-to-mouth for a damn month! Jon Gray or Kyle Gibson-- or even a middle-reliever or three on an expiring contract, on the cheap-- would be a delightful add.

MFS62 Jul 12 2021 12:09 PM Re: How are you feeling?

Cautiously optimistic. While the lineup will "look good" when all the regulars are in it, I remember last year's team that led the NL in BA and still struggled to score runs. The bases empty homer was their signature move. I'd like another certified RBI bat in the lineup, either in the OF or at 3B. Later

G-Fafif Jul 12 2021 12:16 PM Re: How are you feeling?

Fortunate to be living in the NL East. Fortified by the position player depth that's emerged. Concerned that two of every five turns through the rotation is something of a crap shoot. Cahn-fident that the offense is going to kick in more days than not. Reassured from knowing a team in first place is technically the same thing as a first-place team.

kcmets Jul 12 2021 01:44 PM Re: How are you feeling?

My hip hurts, I have a low grade fever and I haven't eaten anything today so starving. Not thinking about the Mets again until Thursday.

smg58 Jul 12 2021 02:15 PM Re: How are you feeling?

Given all the injuries, the disappointing hitting, and the duct tape holding the back end of the rotation together, I'm thrilled. The most likely team in the NL East to get hot in the second half is the Mets, and we're already in first. The key is if we get Carrasco and Syndergaard back in time for October. That, and the lineup hitting like they're capable of hitting, would give us a shot against anybody. I haven't been this bullish about the team in a while.

Ceetar Jul 12 2021 02:29 PM Re: How are you feeling?

They're actually saying Carrasco might be back _next week_ so that'll help.

Marshmallowmilkshake Jul 12 2021 03:30 PM Re: How are you feeling?

=smg58 post_id=71162 time=1626120939 user_id=62] Given all the injuries, the disappointing hitting, and the duct tape holding the back end of the rotation together, I'm thrilled. The most likely team in the NL East to get hot in the second half is the Mets, and we're already in first. The key is if we get Carrasco and Syndergaard back in time for October. That, and the lineup hitting like they're capable of hitting, would give us a shot against anybody. I haven't been this bullish about the team in a while.

Right there with you! I'm thrilled, too! It's July 12, the All-Star break, and the Mets are in first place, and have been nearly all season! We have the best pitcher on the planet, a front office intent on doing things the smart way, an owner who wants a winner, under-performing players who are more likely to revert to career norms that not, and depth that has been tested and succeeded. Oh, and the Yankees suck. Thhhheeeeeeeee Yankees suck. (And that's what the team's general manager says!)

Lefty Specialist Jul 12 2021 03:39 PM Re: How are you feeling?

I worry that a bad stretch could doom this team. In August they play the Giants and Dodgers for 13 straight games, both there and here. That could make or break them. I'm all in on Jon Gray. And they definitely need someone else for the bullpen. I'm expecting Carrasco to give them little and Syndergaard to give them nothing. And I don't like TBD to be the next day's pitcher. I'd be less concerned about the offense if Michael Conforto would wake the F up and Francisco Lindor could play to the back of his baseball card. Don't know where any bat they would get would play. JD Davis will be back after the break, which is great for the offense but problematic for the defense. They have to make a move. If they don't, I fear they'll fade in the stretch run. The Yankees may suck, but they'd only be a game and a half behind the Mets if they were in the same division.

Edgy MD Jul 12 2021 04:06 PM Re: How are you feeling?

Lindor's start will take a long time to put behind him, but he's at .298 / .431 / .468 // .899 over his last 15 games and .333 / .462 / .619 // 1.081 over his last seven. That's exactly a small a sample size at it seems, but it's sure not nothing. All I ask is that the best part of your season be more or less now.

bmfc1 Jul 12 2021 08:33 PM Re: How are you feeling?

I check the standings often because I can't believe that this team with the way they've played is in first place and by that much. They've made it this far with so many good hitters not being good which makes me optimistic as I expect much more from the hitters in the 2d half. I'm also optimistic because I expect the FO to get another starter and improve the bullpen. And the Mets still have Jake.

Fman99 Jul 12 2021 09:07 PM Re: How are you feeling?

My back hurts, but aside from that I feel all right.

batmagadanleadoff Aug 13 2021 02:14 PM Re: How are you feeling?

fivethirtyeight.com on the NL East: The NL East Is Suddenly Very Interesting Excerpt: That brings us to New York, which in March was (on paper) the best bet to steal the division away from the Braves. The Mets have the division's most expensive roster, thanks in no small part to the offseason acquisition of shortstop Francisco Lindor (who makes $22 million this year, and is due another $341 million over the following 10 years). With it, they seem to have more than enough top-tier talent to rank among the MLB's best teams, provided they're all healthy and in the lineup together. These being the Mets, though, health of course has been an issue. Jacob deGrom was having an all-time pitching season before he hit the injured list in mid-July with forearm tightness, causing him to miss about a half-dozen starts. He's just the biggest headliner in a group that, going into August, had lost the most production to injury of any club in MLB this year. In a press conference this week, acting general manager Zack Scott heaped a lot of the blame on his players for their own injuries, which was a pretty bad look. But it's undeniable that the Mets' efforts to expand — and then merely hold on to — their division lead have been greatly hampered by the procession of star absences. So too did Scott call out an anemic New York offense that ranks 28th in scoring, with 3.80 runs per game on the season and just 3.36 in the month of August. While it was glaring earlier in the season that this team was scoring less than we would expect based on its underlying stats, that's actually less true now — and the hard-luck explanation is harder to accept now that we've seen four-plus months of this team trying (and failing) to hit. Alonso has done his part to prevent those struggles. Including Thursday's walk-off home run against the Nats, he's been 25 percent better at the plate than league average by weighted runs created plus (wRC+) so far this season. But he's also one of just four New York hitters (joining Jonathan Villar, Jeff McNeil and Brandon Nimmo) with 150 or more plate appearances and a wRC+ above average this year. (Even newcomer Javier Báez, acquired from the Cubs at the deadline, has done little since homering in his first game as a Met.)4 Most of the players the Mets have been counting on to produce offense have not delivered, which is a big reason that their division hopes have stalled out late in the season. What's interesting about the Mets in the big-picture view is that, of the three clubs vying for the NL East right now, they made the World Series most recently, last appearing in 2015 (compared with 2009 for Philadelphia and 1999 for Atlanta). That's recent enough — and most of that 2015 team's core was young enough — that you might expect the current Mets to be a continuation of that group's arc. But it's not true. DeGrom and Michael Conforto are the only remaining members of that team to appear for the Mets in 2021 so far.5 Instead, this is a team mostly cobbled together just as recently as when the Phillies' and Braves' rebuilds yielded their fruits. In turn, that may make this year's potential collapse even less palatable, since it's hardly the last gasp of some aging, once-great core: Theoretically, these Mets should be in their division-chasing prime. With plenty of time left in the regular season, that may still yet be true. But it's also true that the Phillies and Braves have very much caught up with their division rivals to the north. That should help produce a desperate battle for the playoffs over the rest of the schedule, since there's almost no chance that the East's runner-up could be good enough to snag a wild-card consolation prize if it doesn't win the division. The Phillies, Mets and Braves have all taken very different roads over the past decade to find themselves here, but now there is just one prize they're eyeing as they look ahead to the stretch run. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-nl-east-is-suddenly-very-interesting/

batmagadanleadoff Aug 13 2021 02:20 PM Re: How are you feeling?

fivethirtyeight.com on the NL East: The NL East Is Suddenly Very Interesting Excerpt: What's interesting about the Mets in the big-picture view is that, of the three clubs vying for the NL East right now, they made the World Series most recently, last appearing in 2015 (compared with 2009 for Philadelphia and 1999 for Atlanta). That's recent enough — and most of that 2015 team's core was young enough — that you might expect the current Mets to be a continuation of that group's arc. But it's not true. DeGrom and Michael Conforto are the only remaining members of that team to appear for the Mets in 2021 so far. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-nl-east-is-suddenly-very-interesting/ And Familia. (Syndergaard's hurt)