35 Years of Misery & Counting
Considering all the emphasis and changes the Mets made to their medical staff this off-season, it’s funny that Sandy Alderson gets flustered when asked about the rash of injuries this year. To think, we’re just hitting June.
Almost back to .500 after an 11-1 start and people want to blame Jose Reyes for the Mets play of late?!? Instead of yunno, Sandy Alderson and his horrible signing of Jason Vargas or Jay Bruce’s struggling start or a bullpen that continues to implode (esp. A.J. Ramos and Jerry Blevins). Forget that Reyes is just a backup infielder at this point of his career or that he only starts like once a week or that he got off to just as much of a bad start last year and rebounded to have a pretty good season or that besides Brandon Nimmo, he’s the only guy Mickey Callaway can count on to steal a base every now and again. Picking on Jose Reyes for the Mets recent failings just seems like a reach to me.
Allegedly putting a gun to a Uber driver’s head and making terrorist threats, all the while possessing illegal drugs?!? The man is clearly beyond sick.
To think, with all the heat the Marlins got this off-season for trading away their star players and allegedly giving up on the 2018 season, we can only score 4 runs in 3 games against this wannabee Triple-A team?!? Embarrassing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdXDQSvbl0c
Huge sweep, at home no less. And all without their best hitter. Great pitching by Noah and a huge pinch-hit HR by Cabrera, our MVP this season. Now we got the lowly Marlins coming up…let’s keep taking care of business.
Regardless what the future still holds, injuries will always define Juan Lagares’ Mets career. Never has Lagares, the Mets’ Gold Glove center fielder, enjoyed a full, healthy big league season. This year, he did not come particularly close.
Lagares is expected to miss the rest of the season after tearing a ligament in the big toe of his left foot, the Mets announced Friday. The team placed him on the 10-day disabled list, reinstating reliever Jerry Blevins from paternity leave, with plans to send Lagares for surgery next week.
“It’s going to hurt us a little bit,” manager Mickey Callaway said. “We counted on Juan off the bench at times. He was probably in a situation where he was going to start playing a little more than he had, with some guys out. It’s going to hurt us.”
To think, I was going to write a post demanding that Lagares be named the starting CF and then comes this news…smh. It’s like we’re cursed sometimes. Time for Conforto and Nimmo to step it up. We don’t have any other choice.
An offseason focused on flexibility and injury prevention did not allow Yoenis Cespedes to avoid the disabled list. Following days of consideration, the Mets opted Wednesday to place Cespedes on the 10-day DL with a strained right hip flexor, retroactive to Monday. Cespedes will be eligible to return May 24.
Injuring his hip in a May 6 game, Cespedes initially played through the injury, going 5-for-15 with two walks and a home run in five games. On Tuesday, he underwent an MRI, which revealed the strain, but the Mets still did not place him on the DL at that time. Only after playing shorthanded in their 12-2 win over the Blue Jays did the team decide to make a move, calling up utilityman Phillip Evans from Triple-A Las Vegas.
“The information I have is that he can get this resolved with some rest,” Mets manager Mickey Callaway said of Cespedes. “He could have continued to gut it out, continued to play. We were hoping with the off-day and days like that, the progression would be there at some point, maybe this would go away while he was playing. … [We decided to] take a different route and make sure that we are cautious with him and get him back to being the Cespedes he can be soon.”
Honestly, this has gotten ridiculous. It’s the same quad issue that pops up every year with this guy. And the Mets have way too much invested in Cespedes to not take this extra seriously, much less wonder how often it’s going to keep happening. It’s been reported that Cespedes has given up golfing in his spare time during the season and even changed his workout regimen (even taking up yoga) to prevent these quad issues from arising. But clearly, that hasn’t worked. And when your team’s struggling and the same health issue keeps happening to your best player, it’s beyond frustrating to a Mets fan.
I know. I know. It’s way too soon to tell if Rosario’s a bust or not. But all the hype surrounding this guy last year and so far, other than an outstanding arm, nothing about this guy has impressed me. I mean, the guy can’t run, he swings at way too many balls out of the strike zone, his current OBP at .273 is beyond atrocious and even defensively at times he has too many lapses. No one was expecting the next Jeter over here, but nor were we seeking the next Rafael Santana either. If this keeps up by the All-Star break and the Mets are still hovering around .500, maybe they consider moving Asdrubal Cabrera to SS and calling up Gavin Cecchini and letting him play 2nd, if he’s healthy of course.
The New York Mets will skip struggling left-hander Jason Vargas’ next turn in the rotation on Tuesday.
Manager Mickey Callaway said Friday that Vargas will instead throw a simulated game before the Mets host Toronto. Vargas is 0-3 with a 13.86 ERA since returning from surgery on his right hand.
“You’ve got to look yourself in the mirror and just understand that the job wasn’t getting done,” Vargas said after completing a bullpen session before Friday night’s game at Philadelphia. “You have the opportunity to work on a few things and get some reps in that you wouldn’t normally be able to get in. I understood, totally got it. I need to be able to go out there and help the ball team win and those past three starts haven’t been it.”
I know that he was an All-star just last year and available at an affordable price when he became a free-agent, but I never really understood the need to sign Vargas this past off-season. Robert Gsellman or Seth Lugo could’ve easily been the Mets 5th starter going into the season and I would’ve rather had another quality left-handed reliever to go with Jerry Blevins, than yet another starting pitcher. That said, to say that Vargas has been atrocious this season would be an understatement. So the Mets should be willing to try anything to help him clear his head and work on his mechanics right, including skipping a start.
I wouldn’t go as far as Schein does here, especially when I still think that Harvey deserved another chance to start after what would be his last start against the Braves a few weeks ago. I don’t think that Harvey’s done just yet, the guy has too much talent to be done this soon in his career. It just seems to be more a mental/confidence thing with Harvey and a need to mix his pitches more. Either way, some preferably bad team in the A.L. could use Harvey, most likely the Rangers, which would reunite him with old pitching coach Dan Warthen. And if the Mets could get a decent catcher or left-handed reliever from Texas before they have to release Harvey outright in the next few days from Texas, that could be a win for the Mets and Harvey.