And note to David Stearns: If it ain’t broke, dont fix it! Second team that he handicapped by overthinking his involvement and ruining what was working.
Lindor injury was a "tail wagging the dog" moment. Senga quick rehabbing was another one. Also when Alonso was in a slump he still played to preserve his consecutive game streak was another one. All of these decisions were detrimental for the team.
In the minor leagues when a player succeeds then he should be promoted to the next level. There were opportunities to have McLean, Sprout or Tong promoted to the majors for one start before the trading deadline even if it was only one start. But this isn't the Mets philosophy.
Acuna, Siri and Mullins had too many at bats this season at the expense of McNeil, Marte, Baty, Vientos and Mauricio.
There were too many times that a pitcher contributed and was sent packing. That doesn't promote cohesiveness on the team. Yes, it does seem backwards especially when there is a reliever on contract with a 5+ ERA still here.
And finally, the 100 pitch Boogeyman has crawled out from under the bed and now he has grown to the fifth inning Boogeyman.
I would have installed McNeil as the every day center fielder in April and cut Siri on April 1st. At the deadline the Padres picked Ramon Laureano and Mason Martin. Martin throws 102 and is signed for I believe another year or two. If we traded for Martin, he would also be our closer after Diaz leaves. He could also probably contributed to help us win another 2 or 3 games. I also believe Mendoza is a problem. Not leaving starters in to go further in games really hurt us. What troubles me about him is everything he says is hollow, uh Beavis, we have to play better. I cant remember a team with so many mental lapses, mistakes and sloppy play. Siri deserved to be pulled out mid inning the other night. Then he goes up to the plate late and gets a clock violation and a strike. Yet, Mendoza never does anything about it. Yes, the second half has been a nightmare. Even if they pitched and hit exactly the same, how many more games would we have won without all of the gaffes? Two maybe? If so we would have a two game lead with six to play. Why, why, why keep playing Mullins? He is awful.
Somebody has to take the hit for this. Cohen has been quiet but behind closed doors he has to be fuming. 300+ million for this crap rotation of junk pitchers and projects. He is going to light up Stearns and demand more accountability. Sorry, venting.
I would have brought Suarez in as a DH. I would also have sent the three young pitchers to AAA earlier in order to bring them up earlier. Id have Mauricio spending more time at AAA playing center field. His ability to play OF and infield would be much better than our bench.
At the deadline I would have brought in a veteran utility player and absolutely a starter.
We ran out of gas after two months. Stearns did nothing. The roster needs a makeover and the makeover could have been started during the season to help this year and next.
I have to thank him for his wonderful memories and new Mets career home run king, but its time to wish Pete good luck as a DH for another team.
And as I said someone has to pay, but Mendoza probably should have been let go six weeks ago. How can you even walk into the locker room as a manager and act like things are ok, ugggh.
0 and about 75 after 8 innings. That is really pathetic.
One more for my long winded post. I wish they had a big celebration at Citi Field for Davey Johnson.
I have been a rabid fan for 56 years. If Stearns makes more boneheaded foolish moves with bargain bin players, I may for the first time boycott the team. At age 63 I cant allow my blood pressure to go up anymore.
That was a fun read and echos many of our similar thoughts. It’s hard to believe where they are right now when at one time they were more than 20 games over 500 and we were thinking about running away with the division. Six games to make the playoffs, and although we are all being pretty pessimistic right now, they could still make the playoffs. Of course our next thought is that well. They’ll get eliminated pretty quickly. But anything can happen once you get into the playoffs maybe even Mullins would get a hit. If God forbid they put him in the lineup so keep the faith. Brian, it will be interesting to see how you would have ended this unedited article if you finish it after the season.
Please forgive me for being off topic, but the next four pitchers we face are: Horton, Boyd, Imanaga and Alcantara. If the Reds win 3 of their final 6, then we need to go 4-2. If we lose tomorrow and the Reds win, we are probably toast. Their next three games are against Pittsburgh.
It's unfortunately straightforward: The Mets were completely undermined by one of the worst performances by a GM/POBO in the game's history----and that is not an exaggeration. Even Cashman knew to bring up Cam Schlittler on July 9th when the Yankee rotation was in trouble, but Stearns waited until August 16th to bring up a literal ACE in Nolan McLean even though his rotation collapsed around him two months prior.
Stearns did nothing when Montas went out for months as of February 17th.
Stearns did nothing when Manaea went out for months as of February 24th, even though a number of decent pitchers were available in FA and even more were available in trade.
Stearns did nothing when the rest of his depth was gone with Blackburn's injuries.
What the he!! did Stearns think he was doing??
Stearns did nothing when Senga went out thanks to Alonso's ineptitude, on June 12th.
Stearns did nothing when Megill went out thanks to the abuse by Mendoza, on June 14th.
Stearns did nothing when Canning went out for the year on June 26th.
What the he!! did Stearns think he was doing? He had 3 bullpen games in 6 days!
Merrill Kelly and Zack Littell were among the starting pitchers dealt at the Deadline and Stearns, despite dealing away ELEVEN prospects, added no starting pitchers.
THEN, incredibly, with the starting pitching having completely collapsed Stearns waited until August 16th to bring up ACE Nolan McLean.
Stearns waited until August 29th to bring up Jonah Tong, then he waited until September 7th to bring up Brandon Sproat. Simply unbelievable.
-----Add to that Stearns' bad offseason despite a $327 million payroll and his inept, misguided Deadline and you have a list of blunders that you would not have believed possible as of November 2024. You would have laughed and said, "don't be ridiculous." But it happened. Incredibly, it happened.
Please do not capitalize words in your post, as it is a violation of our Comment Policy. The next time your post has capitalized words, it will be deleted.
And note to David Stearns: If it ain’t broke, dont fix it! Second team that he handicapped by overthinking his involvement and ruining what was working.
Very good points Brian.
Lindor injury was a "tail wagging the dog" moment. Senga quick rehabbing was another one. Also when Alonso was in a slump he still played to preserve his consecutive game streak was another one. All of these decisions were detrimental for the team.
In the minor leagues when a player succeeds then he should be promoted to the next level. There were opportunities to have McLean, Sprout or Tong promoted to the majors for one start before the trading deadline even if it was only one start. But this isn't the Mets philosophy.
Acuna, Siri and Mullins had too many at bats this season at the expense of McNeil, Marte, Baty, Vientos and Mauricio.
There were too many times that a pitcher contributed and was sent packing. That doesn't promote cohesiveness on the team. Yes, it does seem backwards especially when there is a reliever on contract with a 5+ ERA still here.
And finally, the 100 pitch Boogeyman has crawled out from under the bed and now he has grown to the fifth inning Boogeyman.
I would have installed McNeil as the every day center fielder in April and cut Siri on April 1st. At the deadline the Padres picked Ramon Laureano and Mason Martin. Martin throws 102 and is signed for I believe another year or two. If we traded for Martin, he would also be our closer after Diaz leaves. He could also probably contributed to help us win another 2 or 3 games. I also believe Mendoza is a problem. Not leaving starters in to go further in games really hurt us. What troubles me about him is everything he says is hollow, uh Beavis, we have to play better. I cant remember a team with so many mental lapses, mistakes and sloppy play. Siri deserved to be pulled out mid inning the other night. Then he goes up to the plate late and gets a clock violation and a strike. Yet, Mendoza never does anything about it. Yes, the second half has been a nightmare. Even if they pitched and hit exactly the same, how many more games would we have won without all of the gaffes? Two maybe? If so we would have a two game lead with six to play. Why, why, why keep playing Mullins? He is awful.
Somebody has to take the hit for this. Cohen has been quiet but behind closed doors he has to be fuming. 300+ million for this crap rotation of junk pitchers and projects. He is going to light up Stearns and demand more accountability. Sorry, venting.
I would have brought Suarez in as a DH. I would also have sent the three young pitchers to AAA earlier in order to bring them up earlier. Id have Mauricio spending more time at AAA playing center field. His ability to play OF and infield would be much better than our bench.
At the deadline I would have brought in a veteran utility player and absolutely a starter.
We ran out of gas after two months. Stearns did nothing. The roster needs a makeover and the makeover could have been started during the season to help this year and next.
I have to thank him for his wonderful memories and new Mets career home run king, but its time to wish Pete good luck as a DH for another team.
And as I said someone has to pay, but Mendoza probably should have been let go six weeks ago. How can you even walk into the locker room as a manager and act like things are ok, ugggh.
0 and about 75 after 8 innings. That is really pathetic.
One more for my long winded post. I wish they had a big celebration at Citi Field for Davey Johnson.
I have been a rabid fan for 56 years. If Stearns makes more boneheaded foolish moves with bargain bin players, I may for the first time boycott the team. At age 63 I cant allow my blood pressure to go up anymore.
Lets go Mets.
That was a fun read and echos many of our similar thoughts. It’s hard to believe where they are right now when at one time they were more than 20 games over 500 and we were thinking about running away with the division. Six games to make the playoffs, and although we are all being pretty pessimistic right now, they could still make the playoffs. Of course our next thought is that well. They’ll get eliminated pretty quickly. But anything can happen once you get into the playoffs maybe even Mullins would get a hit. If God forbid they put him in the lineup so keep the faith. Brian, it will be interesting to see how you would have ended this unedited article if you finish it after the season.
Please forgive me for being off topic, but the next four pitchers we face are: Horton, Boyd, Imanaga and Alcantara. If the Reds win 3 of their final 6, then we need to go 4-2. If we lose tomorrow and the Reds win, we are probably toast. Their next three games are against Pittsburgh.
It's unfortunately straightforward: The Mets were completely undermined by one of the worst performances by a GM/POBO in the game's history----and that is not an exaggeration. Even Cashman knew to bring up Cam Schlittler on July 9th when the Yankee rotation was in trouble, but Stearns waited until August 16th to bring up a literal ACE in Nolan McLean even though his rotation collapsed around him two months prior.
Stearns did nothing when Montas went out for months as of February 17th.
Stearns did nothing when Manaea went out for months as of February 24th, even though a number of decent pitchers were available in FA and even more were available in trade.
Stearns did nothing when the rest of his depth was gone with Blackburn's injuries.
What the he!! did Stearns think he was doing??
Stearns did nothing when Senga went out thanks to Alonso's ineptitude, on June 12th.
Stearns did nothing when Megill went out thanks to the abuse by Mendoza, on June 14th.
Stearns did nothing when Canning went out for the year on June 26th.
What the he!! did Stearns think he was doing? He had 3 bullpen games in 6 days!
Merrill Kelly and Zack Littell were among the starting pitchers dealt at the Deadline and Stearns, despite dealing away ELEVEN prospects, added no starting pitchers.
THEN, incredibly, with the starting pitching having completely collapsed Stearns waited until August 16th to bring up ACE Nolan McLean.
Stearns waited until August 29th to bring up Jonah Tong, then he waited until September 7th to bring up Brandon Sproat. Simply unbelievable.
-----Add to that Stearns' bad offseason despite a $327 million payroll and his inept, misguided Deadline and you have a list of blunders that you would not have believed possible as of November 2024. You would have laughed and said, "don't be ridiculous." But it happened. Incredibly, it happened.
And the joke is on us.
Please do not capitalize words in your post, as it is a violation of our Comment Policy. The next time your post has capitalized words, it will be deleted.