Pirates 5 Mets 2

Mets drop three of four against a .500 club, falling to 8 games below .500 themselves.

Mets 5 Pirates 3

Mets spank Gerrit Cole early and hold it up through nine.

Pirates 3 Mets 2

Mets drop their third straight, holding on to NL East cellar and remaining the third-worst NL team in June.

Pirates 5 Mets 2

Mets drop their second in a row and fall seven games below .500 as they’re pilfered by Pirates at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.

Athletics 8 Mets 5

Mets miss golden opportunity to sweep The Best Team In Baseball.

Mets 10 Athletics 1

Mets beat the bejeezus out of The Best Team In Baseball. Does that mean the Mets are better than the best?

Over the weekend, I interviewed sport kinesiologist and pitching mechanics expert Angel Borrelli. We discussed the following topics:

– Chad Billingsley‘s recent major setback from Tommy John surgery

– Flexor tendon: what it is, its role in the pitching motion, how it relates to the ulnar collateral ligament (UCL), and what it had to do with Chad Billingsley’s return from TJ surgery

– How Chad Billingley could have avoided this setback

– Planet Olecranon, and if we need to be worried about aliens from there attacking Earth

– Just kidding. What exactly is the olecranon, and how/why it can be fractured by a pitcher

– How to avoid an olecranon fracture

– How an olecranon fracture is related to Tommy John surgery

– Why Noah Syndergaard‘s forearm tightness should NOT be described as “minor”

– Should stride length be a specific percentage of a pitcher’s height?

– Is velocity directly related to stride length?

– What is the ideal stride?

Listen below:

If the above player doesn’t work in your browser, try going to BlogTalkRadio to listen.

I realize that many of you aren’t “into” podcasts, and that there isn’t much directly related to the Mets in this interview. However, the Mets have three pitchers coming back from Tommy John surgery right now — Jeremy Hefner, Bobby Parnell, and Matt Harvey — so the information is relevant in regard to them. Beyond Mets pitchers, if you happen to be a pitcher, the parent of a pitcher, or a coach of pitchers, you should absolutely listen to this podcast, as you will learn how to keep pitchers safe and effective. For those who prefer to read, I get it, and I apologize — I’m not much into listening to podcasts myself. At some point I hope to have the time to create blog posts detailing the information in these interviews, but until then, here’s my question: would you rather listen to Mike Francesa or me?

Hmm … maybe I’d rather you didn’t answer that.

If you have a question for Angel, either related to this podcast or any question you have regarding pitching mechanics, post it in the comments and we’ll address it in the next podcast.

Yeah, I know we’re a week away from the end of June, but it just came to my attention that the Mets were the worst team in MLB in the month of May, with a record of 11-18.

I know, I know — “worst” means different things to different people. And few people who are focused on baseball stats count wins and winning as important, because as everyone knows, a win is simply a result, and not something you can necessarily measure. But me, I’m old-school, so I put more value on the team that has the most runs at the end of a ballgame.

Interestingly, despite having the most losses and the worst winning percentage (can you call it a “winning” percentage when you mostly lose?), the Mets were neither the lowest-scoring club nor did they allow the most runs. Their 112 runs scored in May was about middle of the pack in the National League, and their 122 runs allowed was the fourth-highest total. Wait — I thought the Mets’ problem was that they couldn’t hit / couldn’t score? Hasn’t that been the mantra for the past several weeks — that the Mets were “one hit away” from winning the ballgame? That they weren’t getting the “big hit”? That they didn’t have enough offense, and it was too bad because their pitching is such a strength?

As has been mentioned by many readers in the comments, there is the illusion that the pitching is a strength because the hitting is so bad. But now I’m really wondering — how can pitching be a strength if the team allowed the fourth-most runs in the league? Maybe our perception is more about living on Planet Mets and not seeing the rest of the baseball universe, where everyone is pitching well.

So far this month, things are evening out a bit, and the Mets’ recent three-game winning streak has pushed them further away from “the race to worst” in June, as well as closed the gap on their run differential.

Here are the worst 8 teams in the NL in June. Why 8 and not 10 or 5? Because there are 15 teams in the unbalanced NL, and I wanted to represent the bottom half, but half of 15 is 7.5, which rounded up to the next even number is 8. OK?

Race To Worst

Anything jump out at you in the above? For me it’s that “+3” in the run differential column for the Mets. The only other team with a positive integer is the Phillies, who are only one game below .500 for the month. I suppose you could look at yesterday’s drowning of the Fish as being a contributing factor, but there is still a pattern forming here, based on the current +3 and last month’s -10. If you believe the numbers, the Mets can score enough runs, and prevent enough runs, to be a better team than their record indicates. Could that be true? Might the Mets be better than 6 games under .500? Could they be, say, three games better, which would make them 38-38, and fighting for the top of the NL East right now instead of trying to crawl out of the bottom? And if they are, what’s holding them back? Or, what has been holding them back?

Before you spout out something like “as soon as Juan Lagares returns …” or, “once Noah Syndergaard joins the rotation …”, please understand that’s not what this is about. We’re looking at PAST PERFORMANCE, and trying to understand why the Mets are in the mess they’re in. Based on the personnel available over the past 76 games, it would appear that their record should or could be better. Is it bad luck? Running into the wrong teams at the wrong times? Something else?

Post your theory in the comments.