It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane … It’s Our Draft Pick Flying Away

This was supposed to be a big week for FOX.

First on Thursday, the Mets and their $350 million payroll meeting the perennial contender St. Louis Cardinals in what was sure to be a tense playoff battle. It would be followed on Sunday by the USWNT in the World Cup Final, with millions upon millions watching.

Instead, FOX got England, Spain, and two teams battling for last place. I felt bad for FOX until I heard John Smoltz come up with the conspiracy theory that pairs of fans who come to ballgames together wearing the jerseys of both teams involved in the game were only doing so to get on television. I felt less bad for FOX then.

Pete Alonso hit a monster home run, and Jose Quintana pitched great for 6 and 2/3’s innings in a 4-2 Mets win. Tim Locastro even hit a home run into the grassy area in center field. Brandon Nimmo also made a catch that would have been compared to Strawberry hitting the clock in Mets/Cardinals lore. Instead, it was on a major network and nobody saw it.

Brandon Nimmo found this one 😀

(via @MLBONFOX) pic.twitter.com/BAjcf85gCg

— SNY (@SNYtv) August 18, 2023

The Mets also beat Adam Wainwright in what will turn out to be their last game against him. But they didn’t embarrass him, which means the Cardinals will have to keep him in the rotation despite basically putting him on notice going into this start. So the Cards got screwed twice. Good for them.

However, the Mets fall a little bit further away from a Top 6 draft slot. They only have the 9th worst winning percentage, meaning they would draft 19th because of the payroll penalty. That might change with the amount of TBA’s coming up in the rotation. Don’t get me wrong, I love that Quintana looks good. But the Mets might need to save their high draft pick by making Carlos Carrasco an opener.

Today’s Hate List

1. Jack Clark
2. Vince Coleman
3. John Tudor
4. Terry Pendleton
5. Danny Cox