That's it. I'm done.
The New York Mets just completed being swept in a three-game series by the actively-losing Miami Marlins. In the final two games, they didn't score a run and combined for three hits. I can no longer sit by and watch this.
Sandy Alderson was the Mets' General Manager from late 2010 until the middle of last season. I had great hopes for Sandy, which I've documented in this space, and they came to fruition in 2015 with a World Series appearance that was one of the highlights of my Mets fandom. It was a fun team to watch with exciting veterans, promising newcomers, great starting pitching, and lots of life and camaraderie.
Unfortunately, Alderson fell ill last year, and the stumbling cartoon villains who own the team, Fred and Jeff Wilpon, decided to install a former player agent named Brodie Van Wagenen, of all things, as the new GM. BVW, as we'll call him for convenience purposes and because he doesn't deserve a full name, made the curious move of trading the team's best prospect, Jarred Kelenic, for the 36-year-old Robinson Canó, who recently came off a steroid suspension, and closer Edwin Diáz. Now, you could justify the trade just for Diáz, but also taking on Canó's contract and baggage seemed like a rookie-GM mistake, and it has proven to be so.
Installed as the #3 hitter and second baseman, Canó has been nothing short of a disaster. He is slashing .245/.293/.374, has played indifferently in the field, with his main highlight being the concussing of star outfielder Michael Conforto on a shallow popup, and his baserunning has been atrocious. He rarely runs out grounders, and in this Marlins series, he twice failed to run out weakly hit balls that resulted in inning-ending double plays. On the first one, he said he forgot how many outs there were. On the second one, he didn't pay attention to the home plate umpire, who clearly signaled his nubber in front of the plate to be a fair ball. He apologized to manager Mickey Calloway (more on him later) for the first mental error, but didn't even bother on the second one. For all of this, he will be paid $24 million dollars this year and for the following four years, upon which time he will be 40 years old. Yes, 40 years old. That is not a typo.
Meanwhile, the Mets bullpen has been in sad shape for the last three years, probably due to the ailing Alderson's understandable inattention. BVW has done absolutely zero to help outside of the Diáz trade. The off-season acquisitions by BVW for the bullpen list as follows: Ryan O'Rourke, Jeurys Familia, Luis Avilan, Justin Wilson, Hector Santiago, Casey Coleman and Sean Burnett were signed as free agents, and Kyle Dowdy was selected in the Rule #5 draft. That's it. Here's how that's gone:
O'Rourke has appeared in two games with a 2.250 WHIP and is currently in Syracuse.
Familia has a 5.51 ERA and 1.776 WHIP with 13 walks in 16.1 IP.
Avilan has a 9.28 ERA and 2.063 WHIP and is on the injured list.
Wilson has a 4.82 ERA and 1.393 WHIP and is on the injured list.
Santiago is in Syracuse and has not appeared this year for the Mets.
Coleman is in Syracuse and has not appeared this year for the Mets.
Burnett is in Syracuse and has not appeared this year for the Mets.
Dowdy was not placed on the 25-man roster and was put on waivers. He has since been claimed off waivers by the Rangers, having not appeared in a Mets game.
The Mets bullpen overall has an ERA of 4.32, ranking it 19th in the majors, and that includes Diáz's excellent 2.16 ERA in 18 appearances.
In addition to that horribleness, BVW and Calloway, who was a former pitching coach, have somehow managed to get even worse performances from the starting staff. The staff ERA is now 21st in the majors. Last year, they finished 6th overall. Cy Young winner Jacob deGrom has not been himself, being shellacked by the Marlins in the first game of the recent weekend series, and Steven Matz has a some kind of elbow nerve problem, limiting his effectiveness. There is no real 5th starter. The Mets tried the less-than-stellar Jason Vargas a few times but now he is injured, and recently have given Wilmer Font, with a career ERA of 6.81, two starts. Zack Wheeler and Noah Syndergaard have not been setting the world on fire either. What a mess.
The pitching has not been the real problem though. The hitters have been moribund for several weeks, and have reached a .716 OPS, 20th in the majors. The Mets are 23rd in homers, 22nd in total bases, 15th in on-base percentage (they are getting some walks), and 22nd in slugging. As I mentioned, Conforto, one of their best young players, is concussed and has no timetable for a return. Rookie sensation Pete Alonso is hitting homers, with his 14 being tied for 3rd in the league, but his slash stats have regressed since a torrid April. Brandon Nimmo has been terrible at making contact, although he is getting walks. Todd Frazier was injured and has been lousy since his return. JD Davis is looking promising, but Calloway continues to bench him in favor of Frazier, who was a former client of BVW. Only Jeff McNeil has emerged unscathed to this point. He's slashing .342./.430/.471 and is a joy to watch. If only they hadn't buried him in the minors for 5 years (which, I have to say, was Alderson's fault).
In short (too late), this team sucks and there seems to be no hope. They are stuck with Canó and the corrosive rot of his contract, don't seem to want to ditch Frazier, and have no answers for the pitching problems. Veteran starter Dallas Keuchel and reliever Craig Kimbrel are available in free agency, but everyone is waiting until June 2nd when they won't have to give up a draft pick to sign them. The Mets have almost no chance of signing these two players once the bidding gets going in earnest. The Wilpons have consistently refused to acquire top-dollar free agents and there is no sign this policy will end.
Then we have Mickey Calloway. Alderson hired him as a first-time manager in 2018, and he has made all the mistakes of a first-time manager and then some. Despite being the Indians' pitching coach during a successful run, he seems to have no concept how to employ a bullpen, although a lot of it is the lack of resources that I just mentioned. His lineup construction is puzzling at best and a sign of weird front-office pressures that he can't seem to control at worst. Playing Frazier as much as he does is baffling, and can only be because Frazier was signed for $9 million with BVW acting as his agent before BVW became the GM. I can't think of another reason, because Frazier is slashing .183/.222/.333 and was never a great defensive third-baseman, although he is slightly better than the current Mets options. Mickey's in-game decision-making has been so poor that the Mets had to hire former manager Jim Riggleman to be his bench coach. At this point, it's unclear what value Calloway brings, if any, to the team. It certainly isn't in motivation. His handling of Canó's double-dip of loafing was abominable, and the three game series in Miami was a portrait of a team who no longer cares what will happen this season.
This diatribe can't end without a thorough scalding of the one true problem: the Wilpons. Fred and Jeff are conniving, deceitful frauds who either stole or lost the fortunes of their friends by investing them with Bernie Madoff. The truth may never come out, but I would tend to think, based on their baseball acumen, the Wilpons actually don't have the money and fell for Madoff as much as anyone did. They have squeezed the fans for decades by charging outrageous prices for everything and providing terrible customer service. They don't know how to build the organization required in the modern world of analytics to put together a team that can compete, and they don't care how to learn, but are certainly willing to meddle in it. In any other city, they would have been run out of the ownership by the commissioner for the Madoff affair, but because they are in New York and have kowtowed for decades to the MLB establishment, they get to keep the team and keep running it into an oncoming subway train. It will never get better with these doofuses in charge, and they don't even know they are doofuses and won't let go.
Therefore, I will stop following them. I live in the Houston area, and right down the road exists a model franchise, the Houston Astros. They won the 2017 World Series, and reached the ALCS in 2018. They currently have the best record in baseball, and have five dynamic and talented superstars in George Springer, Carlos Correa, Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, and Justin Verlander. They have a host of great lesser stars, like Yuli Gurriel, Josh Reddick, Gerrit Cole, Wade Miley, and Ryan Pressly, and many other role players who have been carefully selected by GM Jeff Luhnow using the most advanced analytics operation in the game. The minor leagues are stocked, led by Cuban sensation Yordan Alvarez, who has 18 homers already this year in Round Rock. The owner, Jim Crane, is a highly competent and respected player in the oil and gas logistics field in the Houston area, and he lets Luhnow run the team with little interference. It's everything the Mets aren't.
I have been a Mets fan on and off since birth. My dad was a Mets fan when I was born, and I took after him. When I left to live in Illinois, I couldn't watch or listen to the Mets, and I became a White Sox fan (because I couldn't bear to root for the Cubs). When I first moved to Houston, I started rooting for the Bagwell/Biggio/Caminiti Astros. Then we moved to Philly, and I became a Phillies fan, until the ownership excused Brett Myers for drunkenly beating his wife. MLB.TV came about around that time, so I switched back to the Mets in honor of my late dad. I gave it the best shot I could despite the Wilpons' poor stewardship, but I feel safe to say my dad would not abide by this any more either, especially if a better alternative was readily available. So, I have let go of the Mets. Instead...
LET'S GO ASTROS!
The New York Mets just completed being swept in a three-game series by the actively-losing Miami Marlins. In the final two games, they didn't score a run and combined for three hits. I can no longer sit by and watch this.
Sandy Alderson was the Mets' General Manager from late 2010 until the middle of last season. I had great hopes for Sandy, which I've documented in this space, and they came to fruition in 2015 with a World Series appearance that was one of the highlights of my Mets fandom. It was a fun team to watch with exciting veterans, promising newcomers, great starting pitching, and lots of life and camaraderie.
Unfortunately, Alderson fell ill last year, and the stumbling cartoon villains who own the team, Fred and Jeff Wilpon, decided to install a former player agent named Brodie Van Wagenen, of all things, as the new GM. BVW, as we'll call him for convenience purposes and because he doesn't deserve a full name, made the curious move of trading the team's best prospect, Jarred Kelenic, for the 36-year-old Robinson Canó, who recently came off a steroid suspension, and closer Edwin Diáz. Now, you could justify the trade just for Diáz, but also taking on Canó's contract and baggage seemed like a rookie-GM mistake, and it has proven to be so.
Installed as the #3 hitter and second baseman, Canó has been nothing short of a disaster. He is slashing .245/.293/.374, has played indifferently in the field, with his main highlight being the concussing of star outfielder Michael Conforto on a shallow popup, and his baserunning has been atrocious. He rarely runs out grounders, and in this Marlins series, he twice failed to run out weakly hit balls that resulted in inning-ending double plays. On the first one, he said he forgot how many outs there were. On the second one, he didn't pay attention to the home plate umpire, who clearly signaled his nubber in front of the plate to be a fair ball. He apologized to manager Mickey Calloway (more on him later) for the first mental error, but didn't even bother on the second one. For all of this, he will be paid $24 million dollars this year and for the following four years, upon which time he will be 40 years old. Yes, 40 years old. That is not a typo.
Meanwhile, the Mets bullpen has been in sad shape for the last three years, probably due to the ailing Alderson's understandable inattention. BVW has done absolutely zero to help outside of the Diáz trade. The off-season acquisitions by BVW for the bullpen list as follows: Ryan O'Rourke, Jeurys Familia, Luis Avilan, Justin Wilson, Hector Santiago, Casey Coleman and Sean Burnett were signed as free agents, and Kyle Dowdy was selected in the Rule #5 draft. That's it. Here's how that's gone:
O'Rourke has appeared in two games with a 2.250 WHIP and is currently in Syracuse.
Familia has a 5.51 ERA and 1.776 WHIP with 13 walks in 16.1 IP.
Avilan has a 9.28 ERA and 2.063 WHIP and is on the injured list.
Wilson has a 4.82 ERA and 1.393 WHIP and is on the injured list.
Santiago is in Syracuse and has not appeared this year for the Mets.
Coleman is in Syracuse and has not appeared this year for the Mets.
Burnett is in Syracuse and has not appeared this year for the Mets.
Dowdy was not placed on the 25-man roster and was put on waivers. He has since been claimed off waivers by the Rangers, having not appeared in a Mets game.
The Mets bullpen overall has an ERA of 4.32, ranking it 19th in the majors, and that includes Diáz's excellent 2.16 ERA in 18 appearances.
In addition to that horribleness, BVW and Calloway, who was a former pitching coach, have somehow managed to get even worse performances from the starting staff. The staff ERA is now 21st in the majors. Last year, they finished 6th overall. Cy Young winner Jacob deGrom has not been himself, being shellacked by the Marlins in the first game of the recent weekend series, and Steven Matz has a some kind of elbow nerve problem, limiting his effectiveness. There is no real 5th starter. The Mets tried the less-than-stellar Jason Vargas a few times but now he is injured, and recently have given Wilmer Font, with a career ERA of 6.81, two starts. Zack Wheeler and Noah Syndergaard have not been setting the world on fire either. What a mess.
The pitching has not been the real problem though. The hitters have been moribund for several weeks, and have reached a .716 OPS, 20th in the majors. The Mets are 23rd in homers, 22nd in total bases, 15th in on-base percentage (they are getting some walks), and 22nd in slugging. As I mentioned, Conforto, one of their best young players, is concussed and has no timetable for a return. Rookie sensation Pete Alonso is hitting homers, with his 14 being tied for 3rd in the league, but his slash stats have regressed since a torrid April. Brandon Nimmo has been terrible at making contact, although he is getting walks. Todd Frazier was injured and has been lousy since his return. JD Davis is looking promising, but Calloway continues to bench him in favor of Frazier, who was a former client of BVW. Only Jeff McNeil has emerged unscathed to this point. He's slashing .342./.430/.471 and is a joy to watch. If only they hadn't buried him in the minors for 5 years (which, I have to say, was Alderson's fault).
In short (too late), this team sucks and there seems to be no hope. They are stuck with Canó and the corrosive rot of his contract, don't seem to want to ditch Frazier, and have no answers for the pitching problems. Veteran starter Dallas Keuchel and reliever Craig Kimbrel are available in free agency, but everyone is waiting until June 2nd when they won't have to give up a draft pick to sign them. The Mets have almost no chance of signing these two players once the bidding gets going in earnest. The Wilpons have consistently refused to acquire top-dollar free agents and there is no sign this policy will end.
Then we have Mickey Calloway. Alderson hired him as a first-time manager in 2018, and he has made all the mistakes of a first-time manager and then some. Despite being the Indians' pitching coach during a successful run, he seems to have no concept how to employ a bullpen, although a lot of it is the lack of resources that I just mentioned. His lineup construction is puzzling at best and a sign of weird front-office pressures that he can't seem to control at worst. Playing Frazier as much as he does is baffling, and can only be because Frazier was signed for $9 million with BVW acting as his agent before BVW became the GM. I can't think of another reason, because Frazier is slashing .183/.222/.333 and was never a great defensive third-baseman, although he is slightly better than the current Mets options. Mickey's in-game decision-making has been so poor that the Mets had to hire former manager Jim Riggleman to be his bench coach. At this point, it's unclear what value Calloway brings, if any, to the team. It certainly isn't in motivation. His handling of Canó's double-dip of loafing was abominable, and the three game series in Miami was a portrait of a team who no longer cares what will happen this season.
This diatribe can't end without a thorough scalding of the one true problem: the Wilpons. Fred and Jeff are conniving, deceitful frauds who either stole or lost the fortunes of their friends by investing them with Bernie Madoff. The truth may never come out, but I would tend to think, based on their baseball acumen, the Wilpons actually don't have the money and fell for Madoff as much as anyone did. They have squeezed the fans for decades by charging outrageous prices for everything and providing terrible customer service. They don't know how to build the organization required in the modern world of analytics to put together a team that can compete, and they don't care how to learn, but are certainly willing to meddle in it. In any other city, they would have been run out of the ownership by the commissioner for the Madoff affair, but because they are in New York and have kowtowed for decades to the MLB establishment, they get to keep the team and keep running it into an oncoming subway train. It will never get better with these doofuses in charge, and they don't even know they are doofuses and won't let go.
Therefore, I will stop following them. I live in the Houston area, and right down the road exists a model franchise, the Houston Astros. They won the 2017 World Series, and reached the ALCS in 2018. They currently have the best record in baseball, and have five dynamic and talented superstars in George Springer, Carlos Correa, Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, and Justin Verlander. They have a host of great lesser stars, like Yuli Gurriel, Josh Reddick, Gerrit Cole, Wade Miley, and Ryan Pressly, and many other role players who have been carefully selected by GM Jeff Luhnow using the most advanced analytics operation in the game. The minor leagues are stocked, led by Cuban sensation Yordan Alvarez, who has 18 homers already this year in Round Rock. The owner, Jim Crane, is a highly competent and respected player in the oil and gas logistics field in the Houston area, and he lets Luhnow run the team with little interference. It's everything the Mets aren't.
I have been a Mets fan on and off since birth. My dad was a Mets fan when I was born, and I took after him. When I left to live in Illinois, I couldn't watch or listen to the Mets, and I became a White Sox fan (because I couldn't bear to root for the Cubs). When I first moved to Houston, I started rooting for the Bagwell/Biggio/Caminiti Astros. Then we moved to Philly, and I became a Phillies fan, until the ownership excused Brett Myers for drunkenly beating his wife. MLB.TV came about around that time, so I switched back to the Mets in honor of my late dad. I gave it the best shot I could despite the Wilpons' poor stewardship, but I feel safe to say my dad would not abide by this any more either, especially if a better alternative was readily available. So, I have let go of the Mets. Instead...
LET'S GO ASTROS!