Believe it or not, there are people that still believed that the Mets could make a run. The win against the Yankees on Tuesday gave some people some false hope. In most cases, they knew it the hope was false. They were aware of what was happening. But they wanted to believe, as we all do, so we believed going into last night’s game against the Yankees.
But if the other 53 losses didn’t convince is, this one did. It was the last “marquee” game that they’ll play before the trading deadline, so there is officially no hope. I mean, we haven’t had any real hope for a while. but now there’s not even the false hope that the ESPN’s of the world can provide by pointing to a “signature win”. (Editor’s note: Karl Ravech said at the end of Sunday’s loss against the Red Sox that the two games against the Yankees were “so important in determining whether the Mets would be buyers or sellers.” Anyone who knows anything about the 2023 Mets knows that was hype disguised as baseball acumen. There’s a lot of that going around these days.)
Basically what last night’s loss did was signal that it’s time to stop pretending. It’s time for all of us to stop pretending that “there’s a run in them.” There’s not. We can stop pretending.
Last night’s loss also showed some other things that people should stop pretending, like Mark Vientos being an infielder.
Like this is just not the right play at all from Vientos pic.twitter.com/AbhUvm3igY https://t.co/1blarQB1Vn
— 🇨🇦FireRossAtkinsOrSomeone | Latt (@Latt_90) July 26, 2023
Found Vientos btw pic.twitter.com/SfYg4HtCDb
— Fireside Yankees (@FiresideYankees) July 27, 2023
This needs to stop. He’s an outfielder at best. Maybe he’ll get reps in the outfield when Tommy Pham and Mark Canha get traded, but the young man is not a third baseman, nor a first baseman. Please don’t make the same mistake that the previous regime did with Wilmer Flores and make him into some sort of utility player where all his tools don’t work.
The other thing that the Mets need to stop pretending is that Vientos is some “lefty masher”. I don’t know what Darin Ruf did to their souls, but they’ve been trying to find that “lefty masher” to protect Pete Alonso ever since Ruf forgot to play baseball. Vientos is not that guy. If there’s a complaint that I have about the Mets handling of Mark Vientos, it’s not that he should play every day so that he can develop into the next Mike Trout (please stop overhyping Vientos, social media.) But that he should play more against righties because that’s what he’s been good at. The overemphasis on lefty-righty matchups that is happening all around baseball is going to be the thing that stops Mark Vientos in his tracks. Play him regularly against righties. See what he can do. And do it before we get to the point in the season in September where it gets harder to judge players because they’re going against AAAA pitching in the majors. He should be in the lineup against Domingo German and not Carlos Rodon.
Let’s live in reality, all of us.
Today’s Hate List
Carlos Rodon.
Even if he didn’t mean it.
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