Mets Regular Season thread

That team was of course the best one the Mets have ever had by a wide margin - their performance that year was as impressive as just about any team's in the last 80 years, up there with the 1970 Orioles and 1975 Reds, and just behind the 1998 Yankees. One thing about that year is that in many ways there was a lull in the excitement from mid-July to mid-September because they were so far ahead of the Phillies (they did have the occasional brawl to liven things up). Of course, they made up for it in October - there has NEVER been a postseason as exciting as that one, period.

But if you want to talk about how electric the city can be, nothing can possibly compare to 1969. It was that way almost the entire season. They started slowly (they were only 18-23 on May 27th), but the 11-game winning streak from May 28th to June 10th changed everything. From that point on the excitement just kept building - the "nine crucial days" from June 8th to June 16th where they played the Cubs twice and the Expos once and went 6-3 (including Seaver's "imperfect game"), proving to everyone (including the Cubs) that they were for real; the 4-7 stretch early in August that dropped them 10 games back after being swept by the Astros in Houston; immediately winning 12 of 13 to cut it back to 2.5 out; and the 22-4 stretch in September that took a 4.5 game deficit and turned it into a 9 game lead (including the famous "black cat" game at Shea against the Cubs). It was 4 solid months of baseball, baseball, baseball, with only the moon landing and Woodstock even being a blip on the radar. And that doesn't even include the World Series, with the JC Martin bunt for the win, Agee's catches, Swoboda's catch, etc. Electric doesn't even begin to describe it.

 

Glad to see it, and also glad to see that they paid $500,000 over slot. They signed their top 12 and 19 of their 21 picks. Maybe the bad old Minaya days really are gone.

 

Can't Bay be benched yet?

Pretend he has another concussion. I don't care.

 

I was reading the AP preview for today's game (6:35 PM EDT start) and saw this:

Pretty amazing that they'd have an NL high for any 12 game stretch with that lineup in that ballpark.


Bay is batting 5th. Mets have a pretty sad lineup, too.

 

I wish the Mets could actually play some meaningfull games... it always gets depressing this time of year

 

David Wright hit a home run.

 

Ten runs and counting in the game tonight (7-3 Mets). Odd, considering neither team has much in the way of hitting.

 

Of course various people aren't playing for them right now (Murphy, Beltran, Reyes), but the Mets are 4th in the NL in runs/game, 2nd in team batting average, 2nd in team OBP, 7th in slugging percentage (thanks to lots of doubles and triples), and 2nd in OPS+. Even in August before tonight they averaged 4.3 runs scored per game, which is above the league average (they gave up 5.5, which is why they were 4-10). They're in the bottom 3rd in most pitching categories, unfortunately.

 

Well, I don't know how they're scoring. This is a pretty awful lineup. The season-long stats are misleading because those stats were put up with a completely different group of guys. And still 6th in the NL in OPS.

You forgot to mention Ike Davis and Turner.

Davis, Wright, Beltran, Reyes, and Murphy were the five best hitters on the team. Now four of them are either injured or traded away.

Aside from Wright, there's no one who would scare me as an opposing pitcher.

Bay is in the bottom third of corner outfielders hitting-wise, and he's 5th. Duda batting cleanup, and he's a career .257 hitter with 9 homers and 42 RBI in 265 AB.

Pagan leading off with a sparkling .317 OBP. Harris batting second batting .238 (.338 OBP, amazingly enough) and a 4/8 stolen base number.

Pridie batting 6th and he can't hit at all.

Still a better lineup than San Diego's, but that's not saying much.

 

I didn't mention Davis because he's been out for almost the entire year. Duda's career stats are irrelevant - he's got an .820 OPS this year. Scott Hairston's is .804.

They've averaged 4.4 runs per game in the 10 games since Murphy got hurt, almost exactly what they've averaged for the entire year, all without all of those guys you mentioned. They were 4-6 because they gave up 5.2 runs per game. Hitting has not been their problem this year, pitching has. If they had had Davis, Wright, Reyes, and Beltran the entire year they probably would have had the best hitting team in the NL, and they still would have been 12-15 games behind the Phillies and 5-8 games behind the Braves because of their pitching.

 

10 games is a small sample size. I'd wager that we're going to see that drop in the games before Reyes returns.

I agree that the pitching has been lousy, but the lineup they're sending out there is striking.

 

I've liked Gee though this year.

 

Gee started off great but lately he's been subpar.

 

And despite that, at this point of the season I'll only watch games Gee starts.

 

My thought exactly. My impression was that when got his 300th he'd stop closing, and Parnell and/or Beato (who combined for 2 1/3 hitless innings in the 5th-7th innings yesterday) would get a shot. It accomplishes absolutely nothing to have Isringhausen closing games at this point.

Yet another game where pathetic pitching does the team in. And I guess ol' K-Rod just can't pitch in Citi Field?

 

Agreed, Isringhausen should absolutely not be closing games.

He's not a Mets legend (maybe a legendary bust, if anything), and he's about to turn 39. Why play washed up guys when you can give some opportunities to guys who might have a future here?

 

Since then:

1 run
9 runs
2 runs
0 runs


Bay is 2 for his last 32, and he's gotten his BA down to .237. One of the very worst outfielders in baseball this season, and the Mets #5 hitter.