Monday, November 2, 2015

Mets Pitching, Curtis Granderson & Daniel Murphy

I haven’t had much of a chance to sit down and do this and I’ll be honest, I’m pretty flattered a lot of friends/people have been curious of my take on the World Series. So here it is.
First of all, the aspect of the entire month of October I’ve been disappointed with (from a baseball standpoint) was the showing the Mets had in the World Series. I didn’t for one second think the Mets deserved to win, considering the way they played, but at the same time, I felt their play was a supremely subpar to how well they had played since the trade deadline.
That said, I am in no other way disappointed with the outcome. I am not mad. I’m not pissed. I sat back and watched the World Series from the standpoint of: this is far beyond what I could have ever imagined the 2015 Mets doing, and for them to get to where they were was nothing short of fun.

I enjoyed watching them on a national stage. It was funny, as I’m watching, if I had stuff going on around me, I’d take the time when they were hitting to take care chores.
Maybe I’m not nuts, but I have often found most people want to see their team’s hit. I wanted to watch these young pitchers, specifically, Steven Matz, who I hadn’t seen much of in the big leagues.
I have to admit, once it came down to Chicago/New York and Toronto/Kansas City, I really didn’t care who won the World Series.
I’m not the biggest Blue Jays fan, so had the Mets faced them, I might have been a little more emotional, but for the most part, watching the Royals win was not the worst thing I’ve ever been through.

Anyone who knows me, knows I’ve been a huge fan of Salvador Perez, before he was this big start with KC.


I like the Royals as a franchise. I love that ballpark. I don’t mind guys like Moustakas and Hosmer and Gordon. I guess I don’t dislike them, but I wouldn’t ever consider them among my favorite players. That’s no knock on them. They’re terrific talents, I’m just saying, I have other players I root for more prominently.
But Sal Perez for several years now has been my guy.
I love watching him catch a ballgame and swing the bat. To watch him win the title and the MVP of the World Series was very cool.
I’m happy for the Royals and their fans. Terrific fans. Some of the best in my opinion.

But my reaction for the Mets is simply this: The Mets far exceeded my expectations this year and I won’t complain about much.
In fact, I don’t do this often, but I’ll rave about the young pitchers. I’ve thought this from the time they clinched the Dodgers series, and then the Cubs series really reinforced it.
If the Mets simply get in over the next 5-7 years, they are going to be one of the toughest outs in all of baseball and it all comes down to their five pitchers. Yes, five. Forget not they have Zack Wheeler, a (once) top 10 prospect, who’s currently recovering from Tommy John Surgery.

I find that extremely exciting.


I have to admit, I wasn’t a fan of the Mets bringing on Curtis Granderson a few years ago, but I’ll say this, if he wasn’t on this team, we probably are nowhere near the postseason, let alone the World Series.

To me, he earned every penny of that contract.
Prior to the Yoenis Cespedes trade, Granderson was the glue guy on this team. His numbers may not reflect it, but this may have been the most impressive year of his career because of how he carried this team on his back from April to the trade deadline.
Year Age Tm Lg G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS TB HBP SH SF IBB Pos Awards
2004 23 DET AL 9 28 25 2 6 1 1 0 0 0 0 3 8 .240 .321 .360 .681 9 0 0 0 0 /8
2005 24 DET AL 47 174 162 18 44 6 3 8 20 1 1 10 43 .272 .314 .494 .808 80 0 2 0 0 87
2006 25 DET AL 159 679 596 90 155 31 9 19 68 8 5 66 174 .260 .335 .438 .773 261 4 7 6 0 *8
2007 26 DET AL 158 676 612 122 185 38 23 23 74 26 1 52 141 .302 .361 .552 .913 338 5 5 2 3 *8/7 MVP-10
2008 27 DET AL 141 629 553 112 155 26 13 22 66 12 4 71 111 .280 .365 .494 .858 273 3 1 1 1 *8
2009 ★ 28 DET AL 160 710 631 91 157 23 8 30 71 20 6 72 141 .249 .327 .453 .780 286 2 3 2 4 *8 AS
2010 29 NYY AL 136 528 466 76 115 17 7 24 67 12 2 53 116 .247 .324 .468 .792 218 2 4 3 3 *8
2011 ★ 30 NYY AL 156 691 583 136 153 26 10 41 119 25 10 85 169 .262 .364 .552 .916 322 12 4 7 0 *8/D AS,MVP-4,SS
2012 ★ 31 NYY AL 160 684 596 102 138 18 4 43 106 10 3 75 195 .232 .319 .492 .811 293 5 1 7 4 *8/D AS
2013 32 NYY AL 61 245 214 31 49 13 2 7 15 8 2 27 69 .229 .317 .407 .723 87 1 2 1 1 8D97
2014 33 NYM NL 155 654 564 73 128 27 2 20 66 8 2 79 141 .227 .326 .388 .714 219 6 0 5 1 *987
2015 34 NYM NL 157 682 580 98 150 33 2 26 70 11 6 91 151 .259 .364 .457 .821 265 7 0 4 3 *9/8D
12 Yrs 1499 6380 5582 951 1435 259 84 263 742 141 42 684 1459 .257 .341 .475 .816 2651 47 29 38 20
162 Game Avg. 162 689 603 103 155 28 9 28 80 15 5 74 158 .257 .341 .475 .816 286 5 3 4 2
DET (6 yrs) 674 2896 2579 435 702 125 57 102 299 67 17 274 618 .272 .344 .484 .828 1247 14 18 11 8
NYY (4 yrs) 513 2148 1859 345 455 74 23 115 307 55 17 240 549 .245 .335 .495 .829 920 20 11 18 8
NYM (2 yrs) 312 1336 1144 171 278 60 4 46 136 19 8 170 292 .243 .345 .423 .768 484 13 0 9 4
AL (10 yrs) 1187 5044 4438 780 1157 199 80 217 606 122 34 514 1167 .261 .340 .488 .828 2167 34 29 29 16
NL (2 yrs) 312 1336 1144 171 278 60 4 46 136 19 8 170 292 .243 .345 .423 .768 484 13 0 9 4
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 11/2/2015.


As great as he was in the postseason, the Mets cannot bring Daniel Murphy back. Murph’s performance in the NLDS and NLCS will never, ever be forgotten by me. When, or if, I ever see him in a big league ballpark, I will cheer for him. I will clap and applaud when he does well. But he cannot come back to this team if he wants more than the qualifying offer the Mets reportedly plan to offer him.
Now, again, if it wasn’t for Murphy, the Mets are probably playing five or six, hell even seven games with the Cubs, and who knows how things are going down.
And again, I will never, ever forget what Daniel Murphy did and what he meant to this team. It’s tough to say those things, but it’s the reality of the situation.
I want to say for the record, I had no issue with Terry Collins going back to Harvey in the ninth. I would have done the same thing. He's earned that spot. He had earned the right to go back out. I would have done the same thing.

 Lorenzo Cain had a great at bat. That breaking ball on 3-2 he knew was coming and finally laid off. I thought he made the one bad pitch to Hosmer, which as we know, was the straw that broke the camels back.

I knew when Hosmer drove in Cain, the Royals were going to win the game.

 Again, not mad. Not even disappointed. Just a little disheartened.

I so badly wanted to hype up the Mets pitching train that is deGrom, Syndergaard, Harvey, Matz and probably in full force in 2017, Zack Wheeler. But I honestly didn’t want to wear out my social media friends, specifically on Facebook. So I kept relatively quiet.
Additionally, I just wanted to watch the games and have fun seeing my team actually enjoy success.

As a Mets fan, these types of teams and these types of runs are just so rare. I didn’t want to get all up in arms about them losing or winning. I just wanted to have fun seeing.
I felt I did that. And it was a blast. I was sad to see it end. But I wasn’t upset either that their opponents were winners once again.
I look back after that game 7 loss to St. Louis in 2006, and I remember it like it was yesterday, Carlos Beltran saying, “We’ll have another chance. We’ll get back here. I have no doubt.”

Well if anything, history has told us it’s so hard to get back. Which is why I enjoyed what I was witnessing.


BUT… I think the Mets have a great foundation for getting to the postseason, if not the World Series. And I won’t ever say we’ll definitely be back. But, I really think they are in a position that it would not shock anyone if they’re there a few more times in the next five years.

Again, if they just get in, those pitchers are good enough to carry them through.
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