The Amazins and Sticky Stuff

In this blog, I will write about the Mets and how they’re playing, and the sticky stuff situation in baseball.

The Mets Hitters: Every time the Mets win and produce at most 5 runs, I take that as a gift, and also I remind myself of how good we are going to be without subs playing starting roles.I’ll expand on those two points right now.

I take that as a gift because the Mets offense lately can’t get anything going. I am writing this right after the Mets ended a 22 inning scoring drought with a Francisco Lindor homerun. I am literally writing this after Francisco Lindor hit his second homer of the game to make him 3-3. Is the Smurf, Leprechaun or Troll finally earning his $341 million? Maybe. I don’t want to speak too soon.

Also, Dellin Betances, Carlos Carrasco, Noah Syndergaard, Jordan Yamamoto (who is a wonderful potential opener for the Metsies), JD Davis, Jeff McNeil, Albert Almora Jr, Michael Conforto, Johneshwy Fargas and Brandon Nimmo are all on the injured list. Kevin Pillar, Seth Lugo, Drew Smith, Pete Alonso and Luis Guillorme have all just recently come back from the injured list. Miguel Castro, Jacob DeGrom, Brandon Drury and Jonathan Villar have all had short stints on the bench due to a small injury. 19 guys have been slowed down by injuries. That’s 19 out of the 26 guys on a major league roster. Even though the worst of the ReplaceMets have passed, to say we have been hampered by injuries is a major understatement. But, we are still in first place in our division, so does that mean our farm system is amazing? Nope. Our farm system is in the middle third of the league (it would be a lot higher up if we would have now top MLB prospect Jarred Kelenic for the Mariners, nice job, Brodie Van Idiot), and none of our top prospects were included in this catastrophe.

No, we squiggled out of this mess because acting GM Zack Scott made great signings call ups and trades aided and abetted by Sandy Alderson and Saint Steve Cohen. Our offense has been a lot better as of late, but we’re still last in runs as a team. Trea Turner, a speedster who isn’t really known for his extra-base hitting unless he lines a gapper occasionally, has 10 homers, who else has 10 homers? POWER hitter Pete Alonso. Francisco Lindor is getting a lot better and making me happier because even as he was on the Indians, I liked him. James McCann and Jonathan Villar have been playing a lot better lately and Luis Rojas is starting to have more confidence in McCann. Tomas Nido has cooled off considerably, and I would love to have him have that kind of hot streak again because one good hitter brings us one step closer to a below average offense. Dominic Smith is starting to slug balls out of ballparks again, who now has 6 homers, the mode homerun count for the Mets. Billy McKinney has also been great lately, he’s been a nice contributor at the plate and in the field.

Mets Pitching: What can I say about them? To say the pitching is [insert any positive adjective here] is an understatement. We have the lowest ERA, the least amount of runs and hits allowed but the 16^th most strikeouts? I mean, ok…, I’ll take it, but I’d definitely take the umpire moving his arms violently than risk an error in the field. Our whole rotation, right now, is filled with 4 (arguably 3) pitchers that in any other season would not be pitching at an All-Star level.

Jacob DeGrom, Marcus Stroman, Taijuan Walker, David Peterson, and Joey Lucchesi are that rotation. With Noah Syndergaard and Carlos Carrasco nearing return, Peterson and Lucchesi would be and will be kicked out of the rotation. Lucchesi might be (and hopefully will be) moved into the bullpen to serve as an inning eater or an opener. Peterson? Nobody knows but he’ll be moved back in when (hopefully not) someone gets injured. The top three, DeGrom, Stroman, and Walker each have an ERA under 2.40. DeGrom has more runs batted in than earned runs allowed, 6 to 4.

The bullpen has been phenomenal, the guys in the big chairs upstairs in Citi Field have built this bullpen to have 5 closers in my opinion, Edwin Diaz, Miguel Castro, Trevor May, Jeurys Familia, and Aaron Loup. Diaz is the only one we use but we have 5 options. Sean Reid-Foley is an amazing inning eater and the funky release makes it that much tougher for the hitter to pick up (also the mustache can throw off hitters as well). Seth Lugo is an amazing shutdown man, he’s not a specialist, but you can give him any inning and he will put them down as they come up. Jacob Barnes has been traded, that’s why I didn’t address that dumpster fire. Also, the NL East teams who win the intra-series matchups have historically won the division, the Mets are leading in those matchups, postseason return?

Sticky Stuff Situation: As you may know, it has been brought up, talked about, suggested, tried-to-be-proven that Gerrit Cole of the New York Yankees has been using foreign substances to make his pitches sharper. There are a bunch of videos that say “Oh look, Gerrit Cole wipes sweat from his brow, could this mean he’s using Spider Tack?” and they look very convincing. I know these sentences may seem cynical, but I genuinely don’t know what to believe.

Gerrit Cole has been, well, Gerrit Cole-like throughout the whole season, so far, but nothing out of the ordinary. Then, the idea was brought up that pitchers have begun to use foreign substances. Josh Donaldson of the Twins went as far as to say he’s going to release a whole ‘catalog’ of pitchers that use foreign substances. Donaldson met with Cole on June 9 – how did that go? Donaldson struck out twice- both against Cole. When this issue was stirred up at first, MLB ramped up immediately, and Cole probably went white in the face.

Obviously, Cole stopped using whatever he was using (if he was using) for his June 3 start and was atrocious. He was hammered for 5 hits and 5 runs and his spin rates dropped considerably. Could this be a lack of confidence? Probably not, when you have $324 million in the bank, there’s very little that could lower your confidence. No, this means that he stopped using whatever he’s using. On June 16, he was dominant again, 8 innings, 4 hits, 2 earned runs, 1 walk but only 4 strikeouts when he’s a predominantly strikeout pitcher. Spin rates down again. MLB is going nuts trying to cover up this mess, they’re implementing a lot of new rules, like umpires giving random checks of pitchers to see if they’re using. I say using almost as if it’s drugs.

My opinion: Like Cole said the other day, everyone has been trying to get a competitive advantage since the beginning of time, especially in baseball. The bettors in the Black Sox Scandal, the stuffing of the bats to make balls go waaaaaaayyyyyy farther, pine tar, the 2017 Astros banging a trash can to steal signs, and of course, the infamous steroids. MLB has done a great job covering up and punishing the ballplayers involved, except with the Astros and the public agreed with it hands down. This one… not so much.

Take me, for example, I am all for pitchers using sticky substances because it is human nature to adapt. I’m not going to leave it there, pitchers have it harder, elite pitching mechanics are harder to get than elite hitting mechanics. Knowing and controlling 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 pitches are harder than just hitting them.

Also, look what happened with Kevin Pillar, he was drilled in the face with a 94 MPH fastball. I bet Pillar’s all for pitchers using substances to control their pitches. The knucklehead who hit him definitely wasn’t using anything but his fingers to grip the ball. But, I can totally understand those who are against it. Sitting at home or sitting at the stadium in uncomfortable chairs for three hours can get boring.

MLB is trying to shorten up games by taking away 5 seconds here and there, one way they’re doing this is the umpire chasing away the pitching coach from soothing the pitcher, nice job, Rob Clownfred, spot on. I would much rather see a 12-10 game than a 1-0 game.

Also, something happened with the ball, they tightened it or something because hitting stats have dropped considerably this year. Those who are leading baseball in homers, Fernando Tatis. Jr, Vladimir Guererro Jr., and Ronald Acuna Jr., props to you, to call them superstars would be an understatement.

What I believe that the circus over at MLB should do is to allow pitchers to command their pitchers to whatever degree they want, but counter this with something that makes hitters smile. Will they do this? Ab-so-lu-te-ly not. Shake my hand, why don’t ya? Bzzzzzzzzz. Look at this flower, examine it, why don’t ya? Next thing you know you have water all over your face. I have a bright red nose, care to take a look at it, why don’t ya? Honk, honk. Nyuk, Nyuk, Nyuk.

They’ll probably make the baseball even tighter (if that’s possible), bring the mound closer, replace the hitters’ helmets with kaleidoscopes as goggles, and make the hitters lug rocks around as they run the bases. But hey, it’s the national pastime, we all love it!