Two major reasons why the Mets are what they are in 2012.
This is going to be a very long rant because I just finished watching the Mets/Phillies play the rubber game of a very important three game set. It was absolutely amazing considering the ramifications that this game may possibly hold for both teams.
Don’t get it twisted: this was NOT the way smart people would’ve figured this season to play out: the Mets with their rag tag, Quadruple A team contending for the NL East, while the significantly more “talented” team in Philadelphia at the midpoint of the season in the cellar and beginning the early stages of picking apart a contender. Yes, its 2012 and all end of world scenarios are in play here but pardon my french when I write this: WTF?!?!
The Mets are now 45-38, and now sit 4.5 games out of first place with a three game set against the lowly Cubs before the All Star Break. The Phillies meanwhile are now 37-47, a full 13 games out of first and with this loss may have firmly placed themselves in the sellers side with the July trading deadline 26 days away. Can the Phillies make up the difference with two plus months remaining? Absolutely, and Met fans would know about their ability in September.
But here are some very rational thoughts on the Phillies: Cole Hamels, tonight’s starter and the Phillies youngest ace, is due to hit free agency this winter and all indications are that he will entertain offers from rival clubs. Count the Mets out. Count the Angels out thanks to last offseason’s spending. But that’s it. The Yankees can never truly be counted out and if they are involved you can bet that the Red Sox will be. Then there are the Dodgers who are now out of the hands of Frank McCourt and in the eager arms of a group of owners who are looking to make a major splash in the second largest market and will surely be in on any major free agent especially one with SoCal ties like Hamels. So the Phillies would be prudent in trying to get some kind of compensation for Hamels while he has this kind of value. Hamels would instantly boost a minor league outfit depleted thanks to contender status moves that the Phillies had to make to shore up midseason weaknesses and create strengths. The Phillies had a great run and can still make a very good run for the next two to three years but its clear that this team is trending down while the rest of the division is trending up. Ruben Amaro, the Phillies GM will have some very interesting decisions to make especially with Shane Victorino who also may price himself out of a Phillie uniform. Remember, the Phillies will be paying three guys in the range of $72 million. Cole Hamels will demand a $25 million per year contract which the Dodgers will gladly pay from all indications and so the Phillies have to be careful whether they want to get into a bidding war with other teams OR get as much value as they can NOW. The best option is to trade him for pieces and replenish a farm system that desperately needs it and this loss and their position in the standings now may have been the best thing for the franchise.
Now that we got that out of the way back to the Mets. What a feisty team and a great win within the division for a team that has exceeded all expectations and surpassed everyone’s ideas about what this team would be. There’s no ceiling because this team is basically David Wright and a bunch of question marks and even David Wright would’ve qualified as a question mark after two sub par seasons. But Wright has been the player that the Mets expected and now becomes an indispensable part of this team’s future. Much like last year when Jose Reyes played his best ball heading into an unsure offseason the Mets are now with yet another cornerstone player playing lights out and making the decision for the front office, you get the sense that perhaps the GM and ownership will play this one differently.
Last year I said the Mets should have traded Wright and done everything in their power to keep Reyes for the long term. Wright had been largely ineffective thanks to concussions and injuries limiting his playing time. This season, largely healthy for the first time and definitely the leader of a young team Wright has found rejuvenation with this ball club and the tone of the season seems to be rebound. Johan Santana entered the year being a question mark in terms of what the team was expecting: he gave them the franchise’s very first no-hitter. R.A. Dickey was a decent pitcher the last two years and was slotted in as their number three starter: he’s in line to start his very first All Star Game. Chris Young returned after his own shoulder problems and hasn’t given up more than three runs in any ONE of his starts. Jon Niese has warranted that extension he got prior to the season beginning. That’s four starters who have combined to give them a top 5 staff in the NL. Of course the bullpen is from hell but it only makes sense given the nature of building a bullpen: you pick six or seven guys and you cross your fingers the entire time.
The offense has been productive despite not getting any real power or being a team that utilizes speed. They have worked long counts and gotten to the opposing team’s bullpen’s more often than not. Its been impressive to watch and still very difficult to believe. But all this has been spearheaded by the MVP-like season that David Wright is having. I’ve long questioned Wright’s ability to have a big moment for the Mets basically saying he’s a good stat sheet filler but not someone you want leading your team. I was very hesitant heading into this season to predict what kind of year the mets would have because I didn’t feel like Wright was the guy to lead this young team. He never exhibited that kind of moxie you need from your leader but he sure was a good Derek Jeter at the microphone- offering up cliche’d responses to questions that made you wonder if he was reading from a cue card.
This season has been different and you have to figure that health has a big deal to do with it. My opinion on Wright more has to do with my own personal hang ups based on my years of watching the Mets and seeing almost 95% of his games. I don’t consider myself the foremost expert on David Wright but I do have some kind of perspective when I speak on him. It was in 2006-2008 where he enjoyed his most productive years and even 2009 up until Matt Cain came head hunting with a pitch and put the Mets at rock bottom; Wright especially. I put a lot of the Mets problems at the feet of David Wright especially in 2007 and 2008 when the Mets gave up late season divisional leads but the Mets had other players/leaders and he always got away with not having to answer the call. He was never the Mets highest paid bat so he never was the first to get the blame. Especially not when he’s in the same locker room as Carlos Beltran who still can’t shake his called third strike in game 7 of the NLCS back in 2006.
But this season, with Delgado, Reyes and Beltran all gone, he was the lone member of that 2006 team remaining so the blame wasn’t going anywhere but on his shoulders and he’s responded with his best year statistically. He’s getting every hit in every situation imaginable. His OBP (.441) is almost a full 100 points higher than last year. He needs just four more home runs and 6 more RBI’s to match last year’s output playing in 24 less games. He needs four more walks to match his total from last year and has climbed to the top of several All-Time Mets categories. Of course, this was expected from David Wright who since he came has been heralded as the best player on the Mets and deserves serious consideration for the MVP.
But the strength of this team has been hitting with 2 outs. With two outs the Mets have scored 184 runs with two outs (5 of the 6 runs tonight) which is remarkable and shows how gritty this ballclub is and how effectively they have bought into hitting coach Dave Hudgen’s selective approach at the plate. Many make the link between the OBP loving Moneyball types like Sandy Alderson, Paul Depodesta etc but the fact is the Mets have been aggressively attacking first pitch like tonight when Wright took the first pitch fastball from Papelbon and blooped it for the game winning hit. Another two out hit but this after two hitters had worked walks to load up the bases. Many times once the batters go down 0-2 its almost routine to find them back in an AB 2-2 or even draw a full count, forcing the pitcher to make a pitch somewhere in the strike zone and sometimes creating walks, which the Mets lead the league in as well. Its no wonder they also lead the league by seeing the most pitches per plate appearance: 3.9.
So what to make of this feisty ball club going into the All Star Break with a good feeling but major offensive, defensive and bullpen issues? Alderson has to be calculating. First order of business is figuring out if he can bring up any of his young arms to pitch from the bullpen to give them a lift but chances are that both Jenry Mejia and Matt Harvey may only POSSIBLY see a spot open up when the rosters expand in september meaning that even in the case of injury or success they are enjoying in the minors the only way that they will get called up before September will be if a plague rips through the Mets team and they are forced to call up everyone to take the place of the major league team. Otherwise I see the Mets being patient and allowing the young guys to grow and mature before putting them on the major league team. The front office is being judicious in how they will respond. The Mets may be contenders this far but the front office is NOT willing to trade the farm to get one or two role players. They have built the farm system up in order to give the team a steady pipeline of talent and once the revenue streams start building up again (aka- fans start coming back to the ballpark in droves), the Mets will spend on free agents and do their best to lock up their young talent as well.
The biggest reason for the Mets success? Terry Collins in my opinion. He has been virtually the opposite of what his critics said. They said he was overbearing and his players tuned him out. They said he wasn’t fit to manage a bunch of young guys. Well, all those critiques have proven to be wrong. Dead wrong. He’s not only handled the team well, he’s shown he cares. It was especially evident during Johan Santana’s no-hitter in which the cameras caught Terry Collins extremely relieved face as the 134th and final pitch was thrown on a record-setting night. He then shared a very emotional hug with Johan as he was coming off the mound. He knows his players and has pushed all the right buttons this year. They are a top 3 team in pinch hits. All because of their ability in situational hitting.
Nothing more symbolizes this team than tonight’s game. Getting good pitching when it mattered. Getting five 2-out runs and especially that ninth inning. Trailing 5-4 and facing a dominant closer like Jonathan Papelbon, the inning started with a double by Ike Davis who went through such a tough stretch in the beginning of the year, to the point where fans were calling for his demotion. Then a perfect sacrifice bunt to move the runner into scoring position. A strikeout by Kirk Nieuhenweis to make it two outs, but it seemed like thats where the Mets wanted to be anyway. With two outs, the Mets worked out consecutive grueling walks by Jordanny Valdespin (6 pitch walk), and Ruben Tejada (8 pitch walk) to load the bases for Daniel Murphy. Murphy went down 0-2, which made it three consecutive batters that went to a 2 strike count at that point in the blink of an eye. Murphy fouled back a pitch and then took a pitch leading up to the fifth pitch of the AB which wound up being a chopper up the middle and bouncing off Papelbon’s leg and almost caroming into Murphy as he went down the first base line. Papelbon tried to play it cleanly but slipped in the process of picking it up allowing the run to score from 3rd and the Mets to tie the ball game and set it up for Wright. Wright who had already driven in 3 of the Mets 5 runs at that point came up and admitted that he was looking fastball and sitting on it. With the first pitch, and the crowd still on its feet anticipating a Met win, (it felt like the world wouldn’t be right if the Mets lost tonight’s game), Wright got a 95 MPH fastball that came inside. Wright looped it and it fell right before the outstretched arms of Hunter Pence and celebration ensued as Valdespin scored from third.
Its honestly the most fun Mets team I’ve seen in quite some time. The 2006 season was fun because the Mets were dominant. This season is fun because it almost feels like we’re playing with house money. No matter what, ONLY good things can come from this season. And it makes sense. In such an upside down season where the once power house Phillies are on the verge of being sellers at the trade deadline, and the Mets and Nationals competing for the NL East crown at the deadline the options and limits on this season are unlimited. As a Met fan we can only sit back and watch. David Wright promises more fun to be had. Good times.
two of the biggest reasons the Mets are what they are in 2012
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The Lazy Eye of Sports 