Perhaps it won’t make the people who pine for last year’s second baseman feel any better. But at least this year’s second baseman is still good enough to make other people besides Mets fans feel bad for a change. You see, the Mets acquired Neil Walker for Jonathan Niese. Niese hasn’t had a great season, and early on Friday Pirates GM Neal Huntington actually said this out loud:
“In hindsight, maybe the two fringe prospects and trying to figure out where to re-allocate the money might have been a better return. That’s where the results take us.”
Well that’s a triple snap and a how do you do. Of course, this wouldn’t have worked as the Mets need to keep every fringe prospect they have to reacquire Kelly Johnson for the next 15 seasons. But man, that’s kinda low for Huntington to tell the world that he’d rather have Stan Jefferson and Floyd Youmans than a pitcher who is in the prime of his career. And I really want to have sympathy for Niese, except that when he left he took every opportunity to be passive-agressive towards the Mets. Remember this quote?
“It’s always a great feeling to be wanted. I’ve got that feeling here.”
Well not only is he not wanted anymore, his GM wants to turn back time and deny his existence. That’s harsh. But hey, us Mets fans just went through a weekend of crying about letting go Daniel Murphy. So let other people be upset about trading a hometown fan favorite for Jon Niese. I’ve had enough Post Traumatic Baseball Disorder. Let Pittsburgh have a taste of that. (They’ll get over it. They have the Penguins. And Carl Hagelin. Oh dammit.)
As for Walker, funny how the same day that Huntington’s quote comes out, Walker hits a three run moonshot (well, moonshot by Citizens Bank Park standards) to lead the Mets to a 5-3 victory out of the break. The game featured performances by a few players who we hope can carry this on throughout the second half, including Walker who had a great April but slumped in May and June causing the Murphy Marching and Chowder Society to pipe up. April Walker would quiet that noise down. (Murphy and his new version of general soreness, the first hint of the Murphy we knew and loved from his Mets days, would quiet that down even more.) Another player who can quiet the panic is Juan Lagares, who got the Mets on the board with a home run, but because home runs are apparently bad, he had to do something else like walking and then coming around to score the insurance run on a grounder to shortstop, which he did in the seventh. Lagares having a big second half as he did last year would help things along. (Yoenis Cespedes getting healthy again wouldn’t hurt.)
Add Asdrubal Cabrera to that list. I think he’s been fine all season, but his three hits brought his average up to .267. And he is one of the big culprits when it comes to the Mets’ problem: hitting with runners in scoring position. His average in that situation is .196, while he’s hitting .286 with nobody on. Of course, if Jose Reyes continues to go 0-for-5 in front of him, he isn’t going to get a lot of chances with runners in scoring position. But Cabrera’s situational hitting deficiencies have been stark. If he can pick that up, the Mets will be fine.
And they’ll be fine because their pitching will always give them a chance to win as it did on Friday, with Bartolo Colon retiring the first 13 batters to face him, leading to texts coming to my phone brazenly calling a Colon perfect game. Honestly, with the Phillies lineup being what it is, I wasn’t dismissing that completely. Colon gave up three runs in five and 2/3’s, but they were unearned. And the bullpen brought him home as Hansel Robles, Jerry Blevins, and Addison Reed got it to the ninth for Jeurys Familia to finish it.
The Nationals and Marlins also won. The Nationals won because Stephen Strasburg is still awesome, and the Marlins won because God forbid Jonathan Broxton gets an important out in his life. But the Mets hold serve to start the second half of the season, and to start what promises to be a crazy pennant race, which is what baseball is all about. Crazy pennant races which kill your soul and leave you with nothing left once October comes.
Today’s Hate List
- Jonathan Broxton
- Shane Victorino
- Shelby Miller
- Tyler Flowers
- Elijah Dukes
And cheers to Freddie Freeman, who kills the Mets and I hate him for it. But more importantly, here’s wishing him good health.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
