Four Angry Mets Fans on Another Metsian Podcast

From the desk of: HEAD-BUTTING MR. MET

With SAM, RICH and MIKE

GUEST

John Coppinger aka METSTRADAMUS

The season is 38% done.  Last time Mets were above .500 was July 28.  It's now mid August and they own a 9-14 record.  Steven Matz is 0-4 with a 9.00 ERA, and the Polar Bear is wilting in the dog days of summer.  

We rant.

#LGM

A Mushroom Cloud Rises Over Flushing on Another Metsian Podcast

From the desk of: HEAD-BUTTING MR. MET

with SAM, RICH, and MIKE

!! GIMMIE SHELTER !!

DEALING WITH THE FALLOUT

Joined by 

Jeff Cohen from Baseball And BBQ

NEW YORK METS

• First Ten Games: 3-7 (.300)
• Five Game Losing Streak
• 19 for 94 (.202) with runners in scoring position
• Team ERA: 5.52
• YOENIS CESPEDES EXITS STAGE LEFT

And the rant begins...!

Give a Listen

#LGM

N.Y. Mets: One of These Starters is Not Like the Others

From the desk of: HEAD-BUTTING MR. MET

One of these performances just wasn't the same...

With Jacob deGrom's second start of the season underway against the Red Sox at Boston, the Mets starting rotation officially begins its next go-around.

First Time Around:

• Game One vs. ATL: Jacob degrom throws 72 pitch gem through five scoreless innings of one-hit ball, with eight  strikeouts.

• Game Two vs. ATL: Steven Matz throws 93 pitches through six innings, while limiting the Braves to one run on just two hits, with one walk and seven strikeouts.

• Game Three vs. ATL: Rick Porcello does not make it out of the third.  He yields seven runs (six earned) on seven hits, with three walks, before manager Luis Rojas summons relief.

• Game Four vs. BOS: Michael Wacha faces twenty batters, allows one run on just five hits and one walk, with five strikeouts.  Unlike deGrom and Matz whom exit to no-decisions, Wacha earns his first victory of the season.

• Game Five vs. BOS: With injuries to Noah Syndergaard and Marcus Stroman, Dave Peterson is a victim of baptismal by fire.  The Mets 24-year old first round (20th overall) draft pick makes his major league debut on Tuesday.  He responds with two earned runs allowed on seven hits and just two walks, with three strikeouts over 5.2 innings pitched, to earn first major league victory.

All told the rotation's first five starters allow fourteen earned runs, on twenty-two hits and nine walks, with 23 strikeouts, through twenty innings pitched.  That equates to a 3.87 ERA, and 1.551 WHIP, and an average of four innings per start.

But we well realizes these stats are skewed because of what occurred on Sunday.  In truth there is no escaping that out of the aforementioned five starters, one respective performances didn't turn out like the others - one of those five starts just isn't the same (.. if that reference doesn't trigger a childhood memory, then too bad for you).  But the point remains: after a disappointing first start with the Mets, Rick Porcello will soon feel the heat of having all eyes beaming upon him.

N.Y. Mets: Tip of the Cap to Dave Peterson

From the desk of: HEAD-BUTTING MR. MET

DO WE HAVE A NEW HURLER OF THE METROPOLIS?

Well done!  Well done, indeed.

Dave Peterson, the Mets first round selection (20th overall) of the 2017 amateur draft, on Tuesday makes his major league debut against the Red Sox at Boston's Fenway Park.  All it took was 46 minor league appearances, during which he posts a 3.63 ERA through 247.0 innings pitched, before being summoned to the show.  In 2018 he splits the season between Port St. Lucie and Columbia.  Last year he spends the entire season with the Binghamton Rumble Ponies where he posts a 4.19 ERA and 122 strikeouts in 116.0 innings pitched.  That said, with no triple-A experience, here he is.  Staked to an early 3-0 cushion, the 24-year old rookie southpaw faces 23 batters, throws 78 pitches, with 46 (59%) going for strikes, and averages roughly 15 pitches per inning.  For the night Peterson yields two earned runs on seven hits and two walks, with a trio of strikeouts in 5.2 innings pitched.  I was pleased he lasted five innings, and rather happy he walked back out for the sixth.

Once again, well done, rook.  Congratulations on your first start, and your first ever major league victory.  He joins Michael Wacha in turning in a somewhat surprisingly effective performance at Fenway.

The Mets are 2-0 at Boston.

Thanks guys.

A Metsian Podcast 2020 Season Preview in July Special

From the desk of: HEAD-BUTTING MR. MET

THE NATIONAL PASTIME RETURNS

OPENING DAY IN JULY!?

GUEST 

  Mets Beat Writer 

NEWSDAY'S TIM HEALEY

2020 COVID NEW YORK METS

SEASON PREVIEW

seventy-minutes

N.Y. Mets: No Baseball For You

From the desk of:  HEAD-BUTTING MR. MET

WE INTERRUPT SPRING TRAINING AND THE

2020 REGULAR SEASON DUE TO THE COVID-19 OUTBREAK 

No baseball for you  - at least not yet, or the foreseeable future.  With coronavirus running wild, Take Me Out to the Ballgame certainly takes on a different tune.

However, the Trolley rolls on ... 

I - Starting Pitching

• Starting Rotation Weaker Without Wheeler 
• Stop Matzing Around With Starting Rotation

Noah Syndergaard will turn 28-years old this season.  It's time for him to step it up.  My most serious criticism against Noah through the years has been his lack of craftsmanship.  Last season he exceeded 30 starts for the first time in three years, fanning 202 batters and walking only 50 through 197.2 innings pitched.  However he surrendered a career high 24 home runs which contributed greatly to his career high 4.28 ERA.  That must change.  With health presumably back on his side there will be little excuse should he fail to elevate his game.  We Mets fans wish and hope for him to become an elite pitcher.  But he is not there yet.

Rick Porcello has to date yielded 15 hits and just one walk with eight strikeouts through 10.2 innings pitched.  I was in complete agreement with this acquisition.  However, the signing of Michael Wacha, not so much.  Wacha has surrendered eight hits and four walks in just 7.2 Grapefruit League innings pitched.  In 2019, Wacha's first full season back from injury, he yielded 143 hits and 55 walks for a 1.563 WHiP through 126.2 innings.

II - Bullpen

Looks like Dellin Betances will have all the time he'll need for amping up that velocity.  He says he's a slow starter.  Time is now on his side.  Meanwhile a slimmed down Jeurys Familia is performing well, but the troubled Edwin Diaz is not - four hits allowed and just one strikeout in three innings pitched.

As we know the Mets staff is short on left-hand pitching.  In fact, Justin Wilson is the only bullpen southpaw whom I would qualify as reliable.  That's why I've been rooting for Chasen Shreve to win a seat on the bus back to Flushing.  A potential power arm, Shreve to date has yielded five hits (two home runs) and two walks with five strikeouts in six innings pitched.  Not exactly what I had in mind.

Seth Lugo wants to start, but his performance betrays him.  Compare 2017, his last season as a full time starter, versus his last two seasons as a full time reliever.  As a starter he yielded 114 hits in 101.1 innings.  As a reliever these last two seasons, he has allowed just 137 hits over 181.1 innings pitched.  As a starter he posted a 10.1 H/9, 2.2 W/9, and 7.5 K/9.  Last year he posted a career low 6.3 H/9 and 1.8 W/9, and a career high 11.7 K/9.  The Mets need to utilize him to the best of his ability.  If that means putting their foot down, so be it.

#washyourhands

N.Y. Mets: Stop Matzing Around With the Starting Rotation

From the desk of:  HEAD-BUTTING MR. MET

Stupid is as Stupid Does

No one is untouchable.  But all this trade scuttlebutt involving Steven Matz potentially going to the Yankees as far as I'm concerned is pure media clickbait.  I do not believe any of it.

However, I strongly believe the Mets would be foolish to utilize Matz out of the bullpen.  While there exists a dearth of left-handed pitching throughout the pitching staff, taking him out of the rotation is a non-starter.  As the lone southpaw in the rotation the Mets would be better served having Matz break up the train of right-handers.  Now the latest rumor has the Mets assigning a fifth starter based on that particular day's opposition.  Because turning Matz and Wacha into spot starters makes sense.?  That's called out-thinking themselves.  While seemingly clever on paper, practical application usually proves ruinous.

Pure folly ...

After three appearances Michael Wacha has to date yielded just one Grapefruit League run through 7.2 innings pitched for a deceptive 1.71 ERA.  I am not impressed as Wacha has also surrendered eight hits and walked four for a 1.57 WHIP.

In his three Grapefruit League appearances, Matz has yielded just one earned run on two hits and no walks with five strikeouts through 6.0 innings pitched.

He is coming off back-to-back 30 start seasons, and turns 29-years old in May.  Most would agree when I say Steven Matz' biggest problem has always been between the ears.  Therefore the hope for Matz as he enters his physical prime is that he is growing into a more composed, mature, and polished hurler.

Michael Wacha is nothing more than the back up plan.

Steven Matz gets first dibs.

N.Y. Mets: Rotation Weaker Without Zack Wheeler

From the desk of:  HEAD-BUTTING MR. MET

Although Zack Wheeler last March made it very clear to all that he welcomed free agency and that the club would need to meet his price, I was hoping against hope the Mets would re-sign him.

In turn the Mets let the regular season play out and apparently were dissatisfied with his performance.  Granted, Zack posted a somewhat unsightly 3.96 ERA and 1.259 WHiP through 195.1 innings pitched.  However, despite turning 30-years old this coming May, I believe health is finally on Wheeler's side and that his best days are still ahead.  Over the last two seasons he's made 60 starts with 374 strikeouts through 377.2 innings pitched.  Fangraphs had his 2018 velocity pegged at 95-mph, while last year's velocity remained steady at 96-mph.  Be that as it may the Mets made him no offer, qualifying or otherwise, electing instead to let him walk.

Wheeler signed with Philadelphia for $118 million over five seasons.  The general manager within me would have been agreeable negotiating a one hundred million package.  However I would have tried chewing him down from the other $18 million.  I'm inclined to believe Wheeler and his agent just to stay in New York would have agreed to a five year $105 million dollar deal.

Moreover, Zack Wheeler at the time I feel was better than any available replacement sans Gerrit Cole.  Simply put, the acquisitions of Rick Porcello and Michael Wacha have yet to sway my opinion, which is the starting rotation has been weakened.

Starting Depth: Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Marcus Stroman, Rick Porcello, Steven Matz, Michael Wacha.

vs.

Impacting the N.L. East: Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Zack Wheeler, Steven Matz, Marcus Stroman, and adding Rick Porcello.

Of course, I could be wrong.

But I doubt it.

ARod, Mad Man Manfred, and Other Great Stuff on Another Metsian Podcast

From the desk of:  HEAD-BUTTING MR. MET

Show Date: 16 February 2020

A METSIAN PODCAST

with SAM, RICH, and MIKE

94 minutes

Mad Man Manfred's Wacky Playoff Proposal  ~  Spring Training Experience

Zack Wheeler vs. Brodie Van Wagenen  ~  Trolling Noah Syndergaard

Rick Porcello  ~  Michael Wacha  ~  Pete Alonso

Mets to Wear #43  ~  Who Is Jerry Girard  ~  Al Lang Stadium

Florida Geography  ~  Things and Stuff  ~  The $57 Million Dollar Question

A-Rod and J-Lo  ~  so much more!

A Most Metsian Time of the Year Holiday Podcast

From the desk of: HEAD-BUTTING MR. MET

A METSIAN PODCAST

with SAM, RICH, and MIKE

WITH SPECIAL GUEST

Greg Prince of 

FaithAndFearInFlushing.com

sixty-seven minutes

Peace on Earth