The Mets Week One Review - Don’t Panic
Well, the first week of the season was filled with heartache and frustration. With that said, if you can look beyond the poor management of the bullpen and lineup, there are some positives that we need to talk about.
Before we talk about the positives, let’s start with the clear cut issue, Luis Rojas. I wonder how much longer Uncle Stevie will stand for it? As I mentioned in my first blog I have never been a fan of Rojas, but I was giving him a second chance. After 5 games Rojas has officially lost me and almost all of the Mets fans - how long before he loses his clubhouse? Now, we can’t blame him for errors, bad pitching, and batters swinging and missing, but we can criticize his decisions to take deGrom out in the 6th inning of Opening Day while dealing a 74-pitch gem, and we can criticize him for not putting his players in a position to succeed.
For example, Michael Conforto is having a rough start to the 2021 season, posting a meager .143 BA and .200 BA w/ RISP in his first five games. As a manager, you need to quickly recognize this and drop him in the lineup, allow him to find his swing and get his confidence. With a team as offensively-talented as the Mets, we don’t need to rely on him to be “the guy”. If you keep setting him up for failure, he will, and he will lose all confidence. Just think of a snowball rolling down a steep hill.
The Mets will hit, do not panic about that. In 2020, the Mets led all of baseball with .272 batting average. What they need to do is play some small ball. They need to lay down bunts, hit and run, steal a base, make the hustle plays. Plays like these ignite a team and makes the next man in the lineup want to do something to contribute to keep the merry-go-round in motion. When a team is struggling like the Mets did week one, you have to get creative as a manger - Rojas just sat by and watched his team dive head first into the shallow end.
As a baseball fan you can not say enough about Jacob deGrom. In his first two starts, deGrom has done everything except get a win, thanks to his teammates. Posting a stat line of 14IP / 0.61 ERA / 0.71 WHIP and 21 SO. The man is a unicorn… How he doesn’t walk into the locker room after every game he pitches and just tells the whole team that they are a waste of space is incredible, and he has to be going straight to heaven for it.
I am a gambling man, and I will bet all of you that this teams hitting slump will not last. Francisco Lindor will not bat sub .200 this year, Jeff McNeil will not bat sub .200 this year, Michael Conforto will not bat sub .200 this year, I promise you all of that. These men will turn it on and when they do, everyone watch out.
So while we all may want to panic, we have to give them some time. Yes, I am all for booing these guys when they don’t perform (I don’t know why, but this was a major topic in Mets twitter this week) but we better be ready to cheer for them even louder because the boys are going to get hot.
New Segment Alert!! - Nuke of the Post - In all posts going forward I will be recognizing and posting a photo of an MLB player who packs absolute hammers. The first recognized player is none other than Luis Guillorme! Congrats on the worlds most meaningless award. But who knows you may become an answer to a trivia question one day because of this. Probably not.
Photo Credit: Newsday/ Alejandra Villa Loarca
Pack em right, pack em tight - keep ya dip lip strong - NB
