The Insignificance

I made the argument before the game, and I stand by it, that these two months following the trade deadline, which started with Tuesday night’s game, would probably be the least significant two months of baseball in franchise history. Reason being, with a new GM supposedly taking the reins for next season, that person isn’t going to judge anybody on the strength of these last two months.

The best argument that I think someone came up with, from a development standpoint, was whether Amed Rosario can keep his current walk rate up. And I thought, well jeez, that’s a riveting reason to watch two months of Mets baseball. Amed Rosario taking pitches. And if these two months are so crucial for his development, then what the hell were the last four months about?

The other guy from last year’s up and comers, Dom Smith, is lost. He isn’t all of a sudden going to come up and make an impact. Partly because he stinks, and partly because the Mets did him no favors. And I don’t expect that to start now. So who else do we have to find out about? Jeff McNeil is the guy that everyone is excited about. But let’s not forget: He’s 26, and he’s the 20th ranked prospect in the organization. He’s not Mike Trout, so let’s pump the brakes on him a little bit. Peter Alonso is a nice prospect but he isn’t coming up this season. And the one guy I’d like to see more of coming out of that bullpen is Drew Smith. The rest of them? I’m not going to trust what they do in August and September … especially September. Remember when we made a huge deal out of what Travis d’Arnaud and Kevin Plawecki did in September last year? Pepperidge Farm remembers. And Pepperidge Farm is pissed that you took valuable time which could have been spent making Double Mint Milanos to think about Travis F***ing d’Arnaud.

But the most frequent answer I got was “JACOB dEGROM’S CY YOUNG CHANCES!!!” Look, you want to watch a master at his craft work up and down … in and out … that’s a great reason to watch deGrom pitch this season, as long as you turn it off in the eighth inning before the bullpen blows it. You want to see him win a Cy Young, turn on MLB Network on that Wednesday in November when they make the announcement. And guess what: He’s not winning the award! Not unless his ERA sinks to about 1.12 and Max Scherzer quite baseball tomorrow to run for public office. Max Scherzer leads the league in enough categories (H/9, K/9, WHIP, K’s, IP) to offset the ones that deGrom leads in (ERA, ERA+, FIP,) while Scherzer is going to be much more relevant going forward than deGrom this season. (The Mets might as well play in American Samoa the rest of the year, that’s how relevant they are.) You want to blame somebody, blame the everyday players and the bullpen. They took deGrom’s 2018 Cy Young Award and threw it in the trash and set it on fire.

This team is in such limbo that there doesn’t seem to be any hope. There’s just nothing overly compelling about this team. Proof? Steve Gelbs conducted a lengthy in game interview early during Tursday’s game with Chelsea Janes, who covers the Nationals for MLB.com. The Nationals! On SNY! Get your D.C. sports here! This team is a dead carcass with many formerly key players like Jay Bruce, Todd Frazier, and Jason Vargas, signed beyond this season. Unless the Mets are willing to trade these guys for salary relief and put that money into signing Manny Machado, Craig Kimbrel, and A.J. Pollock, how the hell am I supposed to look forward to next season? Do you think this shift in philosophy is possible? If so, would you like to buy some bitcoin that I molded myself in my basement? It’s just like the real thing.

And the realization of all this insignificance that surrounds the Mets was before Steven Matz took the mound at Nationals Park where he had not allowed an earned run in 20 innings (thanks for shooting that clown, Gare), and threw meatball after meatball down the middle and couldn’t get out of the first inning. That was before Wilmer Flores wandered off the field out of nowhere and took himself out of the game to quit baseball and join the circus. That was before the bullpen came in and gave up three runs per inning until the scoreboard looked like a CFL game. That was before Daniel Murphy, who looks more like the Mets version of Daniel Murphy after microfracture surgery. became Roy Hobbs again and hit two home runs off Met relievers to go along with the meatball he hit for a single against Steven Matz. And that was before Jose Reyes took the mound in the eighth with the Mets down 19-1.

Now we know why the Mets kept Reyes on the roster all season. They were waiting for a game when they were down 19-1 in the 8th for him to pitch so they could save the bullpen arms. BRILLIANT! @GusRamsey @Metstradamus @SNYtv @howaboutafresca

— Jake Stevens (@ThereItIsJake) August 1, 2018

Position players, especially those as useless as Jose Reyes has been all season, should pitch in final innings of 19-1 games. Doesn’t matter if they give up a million runs and fans have to stay all night to watch it. Jose Reyes should bite the bullet for this team. (Besides, it’s the least he can do after sucking for 18 months.) Bite that bullet he did, giving up six runs in the ninth inning. But at some point, Dave Eiland came out to visit him and Paul Sewald was warming up in the bullpen. Forgive me for inquiring, but isn’t the whole f***ing point of sending a position player to pitch is to not burn your other pitchers? Eiland is worried about his arm???

JOSE REYES’ ARM??? NOAH SYNDERGAARD CAN PITCH WITH BOILS AND FROGS RAINING ON HIM AND THAT’S OKAY, BUT WE’RE WORRIED ABOUT JOSE REYES’ ARM??????? ENOUGH TO WARM UP PAUL SEWALD??? IF REYES IS HURT, LET MESORACO GET AN OUT!!! LET AL JACKSON GET AN OUT!!! LET THE BONES OF WARREN SPAHN RE-CONFORM AND PITCH TO WILMER F***ING DIFO!!!

This team has a way of screwing up things that don’t even matter. Like a Tuesday game after the trade deadline where the Mets couldn’t even trade Mesoraco for a chili bowl. Like the rest of this season is going to be while Gary, Keith and Ron read from the media guide the rest of the season. Like next season will be after Jeffy decides “hey, Daniel Murphy’s still got it, let’s give him $21 million, order some Murph-Gnomes and watch the ticket money roll in!!!”

All insignificant.

Today’s Hate List

Hey Shawn Kelley,

Shawn Kelley clearly thrilled to be closing out a 24 run lead… pic.twitter.com/I88bKNbmS8

— Tim Murray (@1TimMurray) August 1, 2018

You’re up by twenty-three runs. Please take that opportunity to calm the ever loving f**k down!!!