Punchless Mets are Fading Fast
Over 25 years ago, I purchased my first house, a 2-bedroom row home in Allentown, PA. I was assured that this was a fine investment, one that would pay off handsomely in just a few years. Instead, the post-industrial, socio-economic decline that has plagued many American cities descended upon Allentown and put my investment under water. Unable to sell and unwilling to start a family in this environment, I became a landlord. Instead of hiring a property manager, I did the repairs myself. More accurately, I put off doing the repairs myself until it was no longer advisable to do so!
One of the issues was mold in the bathroom. I thought I could just paint over it, but in a short amount of time, my beautiful new paint faded and was pock marked with the same old mold. Repeated paintings did no good and eventually I had to tear out huge slices of the shower walls and rebuild.
The Mets fast start to the season and their glittering new pitching arms reminds me of that situation. For quite some time (including the second half of last year and the entire offseason), it was very apparent that the team lacked speed, played defense poorly and had a paper-thin bench. Their entire batting order consisted of mismatched parts, with no true lead-off, #3 hitter, cleanup or RBI-spot guys. At best, the lineup is a group of six-hole hitters forced into roles that they really aren’t suited for. There has been plenty of time to address this and yet nothing has been done.
Instead, the glittering paint of their starting rotation and the closer-by-accident, coupled with some incredibly timely hitting, dazzled everyone for the month of April. This week at Wrigley Field the Mets are finding out that Good Young Hitting > (Good Young Pitching – (Poor Defense + No Speed + No Depth + Poor Management)). Since their 11-game winning streak, the Mets have lost 10 of 17. The moldy reality has set in and they are likely to be out of first place by Memorial Day, below .500 by Father’s Day and looking for a new manager by Independence Day. Another lost season, made particularly damaging because folks have come out to see them and they were presented with the Same Old Mets. It may take longer for some these casual fans to ever come back again.
It’s time to make a move. Yes, the return of their injured starters will help, but they need to start ripping out the mold, starting in the middle infield. They could also begin looking for another corner outfielder and let the two slumping incumbents split time at one position. Dare I say it—but if they can upgrade at first base, they should. They have become boring and are bordering on irrelevant (and this while they are still in first place).
Their brainy front office guys are being paid in the millions, so they need to start earning it by fixing the mold. They can keep their pitching crown jewels, IMO and still get the bat (or glove or legs) they need. I would start with a certain ex-Met outfielder in Milwaukee, train wreck of a team if there ever was one. There is another ex-Met in exile in Toronto who is owed $50+ million that might be interested in a reunion. I think all either deal would really take is money and few A ball prospects. The Mets have plenty of both, we’re told, but their willingness to part with either is the big question.
Oh and the Allentown house? In the end, I sold it at a loss, but was I grateful just to get it out of my hair. If only the same sentiment could reach the owner’s box at Citi Field.
I never expected the offense to be spectacular. I expected more from Cuddyer, Wright to return to a decent offensive player, Granderson to make a little more contact, Flores to hit better and give up some runs at short, and continued improvements from d’Arnaud, Legares, and Duda. That’s the offense I expected. And with the pitching staff, should be enough to win 85-90 games and compete for a wild card. I still think this can happen.
I’d like to know how you propose to keep all the young stud arms and still trade for Reyes and Gomez.
As for the former Met in Milwaukee, All Star centerfielders tend to cost more than low-level prospects. At a minimum you’d be talking about a Lagares, a Syndergaard or a Matz, and other pieces to get him, and then you’re stuck in the same boat as before with two aging, overpaid veterans in the corners.
Sadly the best bet is to stick (mostly) with what they have, turn second base over to Herrera, keep Duda at first (where he’s surprisingly adequate defensively), hope Wright isn’t done, and fast-track Michael Conforto who should be displacing a corner outfielder by 2016 at the latest.
So we should punt 2015? Let’s wait for 2016 and fast track a prospect/suspect and hope for the best?
Maybe that annoying Pedro Martinez is right: we settle.
Now, if you want to fast track anyone, I would look at Binghamton’s shortstop right now.
I think Conforto’s overall maturity as a hitter screams fast-tracking. It’s not because he’s hot in the minors, in fact it looks like he may be struggling a bit. Gavin Cecchini may finally be developing. Because of this, you don’t fast track.
The magic elixir may be Troy Tulowitzki but again your talking one of Harvey or deGrom, one of Syndergaard or Matz, plus other pieces to make it work. You can’t trade Dillon Gee and expect back an All Star unless someone wildly underrates a young player’s skill a la a Colin McHugh (d’oh!). So yes, you hope that as the season progresses the 23 year old Flores and 21 year old Herrera improve, Wright and d’Arnaud come back healthy and productive, and maybe spin some mid-level prospects for a Brandon Moss caliber player to upgrade the outfield if you can.
I agree with your analysis. I think that those of us fans who have been paying attention since 2007 knew to expect that the wheels would fall off after April. The team can’t hit, STILL doesn’t have a shortstop, and effectively has outfield defense consisting solely of Juan Lagares. Hot pitching can only paper over all these glaring deficiencies for so long. It would be nice if the glimmer of hope that, at least temporarily, brought back some fans would be an impetus to address these problems by taking our immensely profitable (SNY) big-market team out of the bottom 10 in MLB payrolls, but I am not optimistic.
Winning teams must, must, must get the runner home from 3rd with less than 2 outs. Flores failed to do it twice today. Ticket to Vegas, Matt Reynolds this is your chance. Of course, its not Flores fault no one taught him that he can’t hit a 3 run HR every time but 11, 12 times of pop ups and fly balls has to send a signal to someone.
And while I did not see the game, Terry’s use of the bullpen again makes me squirm. Why did C Torres come out for the 9th inning if Familia was available? And if the idea was to rest Familia, then why bring him in at all? Goeddel has been lights out, and Leathersich should have been in the ‘pen except for someone’s incompetence.
This team is headed in the right direction Dan, and dare I say it a better direction that your house in Allentown. Look at these struggles as important to compel the moves that turned the ’84 Mets into the ’86 Mets, to borrow an analogy I saw on this Blog some time ago.
Any word on how Jeff’s kid did at U Penn this year? I’m still holding out hope that your generation-skipping gene theory is accurate and Fred’s grandson will save the franchise.
Flores and Murphy are not the answer up the middle. They lack power and speed so they need to play station-to-station offense with a bunch of poor hitters. In fairness the Jerry Blevins injury re-opens an issue that had been somewhat fixed, but the bullpen is still weak. There is no one they can count on to come off the bench. This could have been written back in 2013 and yet it is STILL the case today!
I think the Mets have a lot of depth and I think they’ll be in the fight for the playoffs, and might even be successful. For example, if Flores can’t do the job, I think we’ll see Reynolds. The better player of Murphy or Herrera will play 2B. TDA will reclaim his spot at C when he comes off the DL, but if he goes into a tailspin, which I don’t suspect will happen, Plaw is waiting in the wings.
The Mets have lost Wright for an extended period of time, and have had a lot of injuries on the pitching staff: first, the starters – Wheeler (more serious), and Montero and Gee (less serious) and currently have an entire pretty good bullpen on the DL – Parnell, Mejia, Black, Edgin, and Blevins. And they have persevered okay.
The Mets haven’t played particularly well the past 18 games, but the baseball season is long and I’m confident the Mets will come around.
I don’t know why everyone wants to trade Murphy to “some team that wants to play him as a super utility guy.” I think this is where Murphy’s true value lies, and rather than seeing him do that on another team, why can’t the Mets keep him to do that? And please don’t say because of money. If Herrera is making the league minimum at 2B, the Mets can afford to pay Murphy to be the first guy off the bench; from a monetary standpoint, this is just as if Herrera (or Campbell) is on the bench making the league minimum, and Murphy is playing 2B.