Is this the abyss or is this just us staring into the abyss? I think both.
There has not been such an anticipated season in Mets lore for some time now. Our beloved Metropolitans made it to the World Series after a whirlwind, dizzying few months – from tears to exhilaration. We lost the Series to the Kansas City Royals, who really were the better team. But we drew the curtain back on 2015 and waded through the darkness of the shortest off-season in Mets history.
As I write this, the Mets are in third place, a full nine games behind the division-leading Washington Nationals and only two games above the .500 mark. They are two games behind the Dodgers, the Cardinals and the Marlins for that all-important wild card. This time last year they were 59-50 and 2.5 games ahead of the Nationals.
My, what a difference a year makes.
If someone had told me last year that this year Bartolo Colon – who is 104 years old and has a right arm made out of play-do – would be leading the Mets pitching staff with 10 wins, I would not have believed them.
If someone had told me last year:
- Steven Matz would go 7-2 in his first nine starts but since June 7 would go 3-8
- Noah Syndergaard would go 6-6 for April and May and 7-4 since June
- Matt Harvey would be on pace to have lost 20 games this season had he not had season-ending surgery
- That the Mets would have a .204 team batting average with RISP, which is “three-thousandths of a point better than the 1969 Padres, who hold the record for the lowest average with runners in scoring position in MLB’s expansion era (since 1961)” according to Anthony DiComo of mlb.com.
- Daniel Murphy. It actually pains me to write this, but Daniel Murphy is hitting .353 with 21 homeruns and 81 RBI. The best season he ever had with the Mets was 2011, where he hit .320 with 6 homeruns and 49 RBI in 109 games. He is on a blistering pace to win the NL MVP.
April became May. Jacob deGrom would go win-less for close to two months. We ruled it out as being “early”. May became June. And we looked up, and we were at the All-Star break. Things had not improved. Yes, the Mets signed Jay Bruce and brought Jose Reyes home but things have still not improved.
Lingering thoughts:
- Are the bone spurs taking a toll on both Matz and Syndergaard?
- Is this season the end result of the pitching staff going so deep into November?
- Did we over-depend (if such a word even exists) on a pitching staff that is still relatively young and moderately inexperienced?
- Is it just me or has baseball figured out how to get to the starting pitching: foul off as many pitches as possible, make them go deep into the pitch count, watch the level of frustration rise.
- Are Cespedes’ nagging injuries just a blip or a sign of things to come?
- Did we watch David Wright play his last game as a New York Met?
From where I sit, perched and looking over the expanse of Mets Nation, I cannot help but wonder – one must be pragmatic in these situations – but look to the future. Yet again. By trading Dilson Herrera – a top prospect; the reason why the Mets did not sign Murphy – to the Reds for Jay Bruce, did Mets ownership concede this season? The DL reads like the waiting room at your local VA rehab clinic. Has this season been written off? Was the highlight of this season the Mike Piazza accolades and festivities and Hall of Fame induction? Was watching the tears shiny on the face of Vince Piazza as he listened to his son’s words in Cooperstown be our 2016 highlight?
