Masking Agent

With all the back and forth about home runs vs. sacrifice flies (which is the baseball version of the conversation that Keith and Gary were having about potato chips vs. bananas, but I digress), we’ve all forgotten one thing: What the Mets are really supposed to be is “pitching reliant”. That game that Jacob deGrom had on Sunday … a one-hit shutout where the pitcher got the only hit (which amazingly is the fifth time that’s happened to the Mets) … we expected this every night. But Matt Harvey is broken, Steven Matz and Noah Syndergaard have bone spurs and Bartolo Colon is still 43 years old and we’ve depended on him for too much. And Jacob? He’s been battling diminished stuff all season, and still performed as well as could be expected.

But starting with that early July game against the Cubs (you know, the one where it poured on me for hours … that one), deGrom has looked like his old self. Like Rick Vaughn with the glasses good. That’s how deGrom looked on Sunday against the Phillies. And if the Mets rotation was as dominant as that, a lot of these complaints about how they’re getting their runs would be muted a bit. But now that deGrom has it back, I expect him to ride it to the end and single-handedly keep the Mets in this race. If Colon keeps this up, and Syndergaard and Matz’s bone spurs can just be a little patient and wait until October to scream “let me out”. the Mets will be okay.

The other question now becomes “who the heck is going to play center field”? Michael Conforto is back up with the big club as we bid not good bye but until next time to Brandon Nimmo. And Yoenis Cespedes is back but he wants to stay in left field to ease the pain on his legs. (Now the problem with that is that left field is too close to the stands for Cespedes to dive into, which started this nonsense with his injuries, but that’s another story.) But with Cespdes in left, then either Juan Lagares gets a ton of time in center field and plays against lefties and some righties, or Conforto plays right (which he did in Vegas) against the righties and Curtis Granderson plays center. So I don’t know what scares me more: Granderson in center, or Terry Collins having to manage his ass off to keep everyone happy and somehow keep baseballs from rolling around in the vast expense between a hobbled Cespedes and an aged Granderson. That’s a lot of Pikachus and Ratattas those baseballs can hit and capture on the way to the wall. (In case you’re reading this in ten years and are completely confused by that last reference, which I most likely will be then as well, here’s an explanation for that.) So this arrangement oughta be a whole lot of fun for the family. deGrom and company will have to do a whole lot of heavy lifting to make sure Granderson and Cespedes don’t get too much extra cardio.

But take heart, it won’t be Juan Samuel out there.

Today’s Hate List

1. Juan Samuel
2. Oliver Perez
3. Zach Eflin
4. Cole Hamels
5. Melvin Upton
6. Bonus: Kenny Williams (I was at the Pete Schourek one-hitter in 1991. Had really good seats. It’s only now that I realize that the one hit was by the current GM of the White Sox. Dammit.)