The Dickey Deal

Ladies, gentlemen, friends, family, and irrational Met Fans,

The intent of this post is to publish and prove the factual statement that the R.A. Dickey trade is a good move.  I will prove this in a clear, concise, and unemotional manner.  For those of you that thrive on drama, exit out of this post and go watch Terms of Endearment.

Fact #1:

R.A. Dickey had a career year in 2012.  Not just for him, a career year for the vast majority of major league hurlers past, present, and future.  History tells us it is extremely difficult to match a season like that.  Therefore, it is very unlikely his value to will be any higher.

Fact #2:

R.A. Dickey is 38 years old.  The chances of him staying this effective and relevant are not very high.

Fact #3:

Combine Dickey’ shelf life with his current effectiveness, and it is clear he is a great fit for a team ready to compete this year, and perhaps a year or two in the future.  The New York Mets have not changed their 2012 lineup.  In fact, they have only subtracted players.  With R.A. Dickey in the rotation, performing at a Cy Young Award winning pace, the Mets finished in fourth place.  Clearly, this team is not ready to compete now.

Fact 4:

The New York Mets do not have the finances to sign a Josh Hamilton or Zack Greinke, or both for that matter.

These are the facts, and they are irrefutable.  After looking at the situation factually, realistically, and rationally the quickest and best way to build a winner in Queens was to trade #43.

POST SCRIPT:

Thank you R.A., for carrying yourself with class and potentially helping the New York Mets for years to come.

 

Pitching, Pitching, & More Pitching

Jose Reyes will dominate the discussion in terms of 2012 roster decisions for the New York Mets.  He’s one of the most exciting players in all of baseball, so it’s easy to understand.

The problem is, the shortstop position should not be the focus of the organization.  The starting rotation should be.  The Mets could re-sign Jose Reyes, successfully convert Ike Davis into a gold glove center fielder, sign Prince Fielder and they still wouldn’t make the playoffs with their current rotation.  I may be exaggerating a tad, but you get the point.

Besides, their offense isn’t the problem.  The Mets were sixth in the National League in runs scored (718).  That’s five runs better than the Phillies.

The 2011 Mets’ starting rotation sported a woeful 4.11 ERA.  There were nine teams better in the National League in this particular area, including all four playoff teams.  As it stands, the rotation has no legitimate ace, a number two or three guy in Johan (due to injury and age), a number three guy in Dickey, and a collection of #4 or #5 guys at best.

Mike Pelfrey (career 4.40 ERA) and Chris Capuano (career 4.39 ERA) need to go.  To put it simply, they are not part of the solution.

Jon Niese and Dillon Gee still have yet to prove they are worth holding on to, but I wouldn’t be upset if the Mets want to give them both another chance in 2012.  Part of me thinks Niese doesn’t have the stamina or strength to make it as a starter and the Mets need to consider moving him to the bullpen. Right now, his 4.20 ERA in 2010 and his 4.40 ERA this season place him alongside Big Pelf and Cap.

Back to Jose for a second. For those of you new to Midwestropolitan (shame on you for not joining us earlier), I am not saying I don’t want Jose to remain a Met.  As a fan, I hold on to hope they can figure out a way to re-sign him and fix the rotation at the same time.  The realist in me knows that is a tall order.

The bottom line is we should keep an eye on what the front office does with the rotation.  It will tell us a lot about whether or not they truly believe they can contend in 2012.  If there isn’t much turnover, it means they are willing to sacrifice 2012 to give Jenrry Mejia, Matt Harvey, and Zack Wheeler time to develop with hopes that any and all of them form a strong young core in 2013.

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I Guess Not

Earlier today I posed the following question:

Go ahead.  Point and laugh at my unfortunate misspelling of the word expect.  Get it out of your system.

If you must know, I mistakenly keyed an x instead of a c when I was tweeting from my phone.  Stupid fat fingers.  They have haunted me my whole life.

Now that’s been addressed I can move on to tonight’s game.

• With the exception of one Jayson Werth at bat, R.A. Dickey pitched well.
• When I posed the question above I wasn’t expecting the Mets to get shut out.  Ouch.

I’m not overly concerned about the shutout.  It was one of those games where the bats were a tad off of a number of pitches.  You’ll have that every once in a while.

• David Wright and Jason Bay continued to hit, which is nice.
• Jose Reyes went 0 for 4.

He’s been on an interesting pattern in the last two series.  He will have on 0fer one night and then follow-up with a Jose night the next game.  My hope is that he isn’t on the verge of a major cool down. 

The bottom line is that the Mets still find themselves in a position to pick up another road series win.  So I’m chalking this one up to not catching a couple of breaks with the bats and expect to see them put the pressure back on at the plate tomorrow.

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Biting Toungues And Other Randomness

We try to make it a point not to write when we are frustrated with the Mets.  The last thing we want to have happen is for this to become a “rant a day” type of website.  We hope you visit for the humor and intelligent (I’ll let you be the final judge there) opinions we provide.

I’m not sharing this with you because I am practicing for an appearance on the Dr. Phil Show, ummkay.  I’m sharing this because I was in no position to publicize my thoughts about last night’s loss.

Heading into the game, I was genuinely excited.  I was anticipating a well-played ball game from the Mets.  Instead we got a dud.  R.A. Dickey was average, the offense was MIA, and defensively the Mets looked atrocious.  Not exactly how the second half of the season should start.

Had I written about it last night it would have been an expletive filled tirade that would have made most gangster rappers squeamish.  After a night of shut eye, I’m still disheartened about the performance.  However, it is just one game.  The Mets still have a chance to win the next two games and meet my expectations.

They certainly have their backs against the wall now.  But this team seems to be okay with that position.

A Couple Of Random Thoughts

No one has ever accused me of being the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I am somewhat surprised at the number of Mets fans that are caught up in K-Rod news.  Who cares how his option has changed with the Brewers?  The trade has been completed.  He is no longer a Met.  Let’s move forward.

Last night I shared the following thought on Twitter:

There really is no need to elaborate, I just wanted to share this with you.

While I am in the mood of sharing my tweets, I was a bit over zealous on this one:

I’m an honest guy.  I can admit when I’m wrong.  redturn2 is Justin Turner’s Twitter account for those of you that do not follow him or partake in the world of Twitter.

Well, on to this afternoon’s game.  Hopefully, Jon Niese will pitch the Mets into a tie in the series.

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Mets Clinch +.500 Record At The Break

A few quick thoughts before I call it a night:

• R.A. Dickey is pitching through what I assume is a hell of a lot of pain. Despite that, he’s going out there and putting in solid outing after solid outing. It is nearly impossible for me to criticize him.
• Brian Wilson looked ticked after he left the game. I wonder whether that has to do with his poor execution or the fact that Bruce Bochy has pitched him a few nights in a row. I doubt we’ll see him again tomorrow.
• Either way, what a big hit by Scott Hairston. Maybe the biggest of the year to date.
• The Mets, as mentioned in the title, clinched an above .500 record at the All-Star Break. Considering the 5-13 start and the laundry list of injuries, it’s pretty remarkable.
• The Mets move to within 6.5 games in the Wild Card Race, pictured below.

Atlanta	53	37	—	72
Arizona	49	41	4.0	72
St. Louis	47	43	6.0	72
Pittsburgh	46	42	6.0	74
New York	46	43	6.5	73
Washington	45	45	8.0	72

Fourteen Runs?!?

With 8,000 other Mets blogs out there surely you’ve read a riveting recap of the Mets 14-5 win by now. So, as always, I’ll take no part in that.

Anyway, the 14 run outburst had me wondering just how good the Mets offense is. Naturally I consulted the Midwestropolitan Research staff, and let’s just say I was surprised to find that the Mets are the highest scoring team in the division.

Ok, Atlanta, Washington and Florida are all pretty bad offensively. But I figured at least Philadelphia would be ahead of New York (the Mets hold a 12-run advantage, 329-317).

The difference? The Phillies lead the NL in ERA and the Mets are 12th, almost a full run higher. That’s why the Mets only (slim) shot is the Wild Card…unless another one of the fantastic four goes down to injury…

So who is to blame?

Well, the Mets team ERA of 3.99 would be pretty awesome any other year, but it is the year of the pitcher. Clearly Mike Pelfrey (4.78 ERA) is the one dragging down the starting staff. Capuano has picked it up, Gee has been great, Dickey gets no run support and Niese is solid.

Four names have really messed up any chance of the team having a lower ERA though – Carrasco, Misch, Boyer, and Acosta. All of them have 5 or more games pitched and an ERA ranging from 6 point something to 11 point something.

The Point?

There is none!

Thoughts Before the Quick Turnaround

Six days after losing on a balk-off the Mets walk off on a hit batsman. Kind of crazy. Nice job by Justin Turner to sort of move into the pitch while turning his back away.

Additional thoughts:

• K-Rod is pretty quickly turning a stellar season into an average one. His ERA has risen from 1.73 to 3.34 in a matter of ten outings. He’s blown two straight saves and looks really hittable (thanks captain obvious).
• These past two games have felt like American League baseball. Ugly as hell. Games take forever. It doesn’t help that last night Dillon Gee couldn’t throw a strike nor does it help that the A’s love taking pitches.
• Oakland’s grey pants with the yellow tops are gross. In my opinion their green jerseys with the white pants look fine. They should just wear gray on the road.
• I didn’t get to mention it last night, but why was Keith’s scorecard the focus of the SNY broadcast all night? Was it because the game was so unwatchable?
• J-Bay-Bay followed up his good night with an 0-5. Last year when he went yard twice against the Yankees a lot of fans believed he was breaking out. I don’t think many fans are holding their breath this time around.
• Game ball goes to R.A. Dickey who followed up a bad outing with yet another outstanding performance.

Other Notes:

• Jason’s little league team lost tonight. You can send him your condolences and well wishes by emailing midwestropolitan@gmail.com. He could really use some cheering up. He’s kind of like the Manny Acta of the wheelbarrow league. He just overthinks everything. Jason, you don’t need to pull a double switch or go lefty-lefty every game.

Series Expectations For Non Athletics Supporters

Yesterday, Tom questioned my prognostication skills as he mercilessly made fun of the expectations I published about the Angels’ series.

“I’m questioning your prognostication skills. Don’t screw up the Oakland series or we’ll have to find a replacement.“- Tom

This coming from the same person who picked the A’s to win the AL West interestingly enough.

In my defense, they are my expectations, not predictions.  It is a fine line that even confuses me sometimes.  Basically, I am saying here’s what should happen realistically, but combining how squirrely the game of baseball is with how unreliable the Mets are, I wouldn’t put money on what I say.

Well, Tom wasn’t buying it.  After hours of crying uncontrollably and begging for my job, I started working on my expectations for the series against Oakland.

Here we go:

Even though everything is telling me this probably won’t happen, I still expect the Mets to take the series.

Why?

1.  At some point, the Mets should win a home series right?  Especially against sub .500 teams.

2.  I like the pitching match ups.  The Amazin’s have All World Dillon Gee going tonight followed by R.A. Dickey and Chris Capuano.  Surely that’s two of three.  Unless of course, R.A.’s last start is a sign of a string of games in which he scuffles and Chris Capuano comes back down to Earth.

3.  The Mets are coming off a day off after 13 straight games and the A’s had to travel across country so jet lag may be a factor.

Why Not?

1.  The A’s are on a roll right now as they are riding a five game winning streak.

2.  The Mets haven’t been that stellar at home in 2011 for some reason.

3.  There is a conspiracy that involves every MLB club and the sole purpose is to make me look silly when my expectations are not met.

I Think They Smoke A Lot Of Dope in Oakland

Check out this post by an A’s fan named Robert (last name withheld to protect the innocent…or until you read his post).  The Midwestropolitan Research Staff assures me this isn’t taken out of context, but Robby actually believes that Jose Canseco could still contribute something to the Oakland Athletics.

“I have 1 name that can help all 3 of these problems. You LOVE him and you HATE him.  His name is Jose. And you know exactly who i’m talking about. Go to youtube and search Jose’s videos of him destroying softballs over 500 feet. We could do much worst as a hitting coach AND he could be a late inning Pinch hitter.”- Delusional A’s Fan Robert

All I can say is WOW, and you gotta love this guy’s moxy.  It is out of the box thinking.  I’ll give him that.  That’s like asking Mex to come down from the SNY booth to be our left-handed bench threat (secretly I do believe he could still out hit Willie Harris or Jason Bay).

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Which Way Will Uncle Mo Be Heading After The Visit To ATL?

Well here we are.  The Mets are two games under .500 having established themselves as an opponent not to be taken lightly.  That’s a place very few would have placed the Amazin’s a few weeks ago.

So what’s next?

Visiting the Braves in Atlanta has the potential to swing old Uncle Mo one way or the other. The Mets have never played well there traditionally.  A three game sweep would all but kill the little bit of momentum they have been able to obtain.

On the other hand, if they are able to find a way to take two of three it would do a world of good for their confidence heading into a 15 game stretch of inter league play.

What To Expect

Unfortunately, I don’t have a whole lot to make light of this time around.  The Mets will be facing Jair Jurrjens and Tim Hudson again accompanied by Mike Minor.  However, the Mets will be throwing their top three starters right now in Jonathon Niese, Dillon Gee, and R.A. Dickey.

I am actually giving the Mets the slightest edge on the starting pitching front.

The offense of the Braves has started to heat up which scares me, especially when they get to the bullpen.  Expecting complete games out of Niese, Gee, and Dickey is unrealistic and insane.

Using this logic, this means the Mets success will boil down to the lineup trying to build a big enough lead for the pen to hold on.  A big enough lead in my opinion would be a minimum of three runs as I don’t know how you can’t expect the bullpen to give up at least two runs each game.

Based on this reasoning and the fact that the games are being played in Atlanta I am expecting to see the Mets drop the series 1-2.

Who knows?  Maybe Fredi Gonzalez may figure out a way to screw up a game or two with his poor game management skills.  It’s happened in the first two series against the Braves.  That may be the X factor in helping the Mets steal one.  It’s not something I like to rely on however.

Mets Playoff Starting Rotation

Don’t get your undies all in a twist.  I haven’t gone off my rocker.  I realize it is early June and the Mets are far from playoff contention.  Just thought it would be fun to assess the starting rotation on this lovely off day.

So here’s how I would set up the rotation if the playoffs started today and the Mets were in it.  A guy can dream can’t he?

1.  Dillon Gee

You’re probably sick of me singing Gee’s praises lately but I don’t care.  I have been on the Gee band wagon from the beginning and I’m going to keep riding it until I get thrown off.  Or he puts together a string of incredibly horrific starts.

The reason I have him at the top is that he appears to have the best mental game of all of the Mets starters right now.  Nothing seems to phase the guy.

He has yet to throw a game in which the Mets haven’t had a chance to win (knock on wood).

I enjoy the fact that he has the ability to have great command of all four of his pitches.  This makes him better suited to make a number of different adjustments in the event one or two of his pitches aren’t working.  It also prevents the opposing offense from keying in on a single pitch during an at bat.

2. R.A. Dickey

A few weeks ago, R.A. would have found himself lower on the depth chart.  However, it appears as if he has found his knuckle ball just in the nick of time.  Strangely enough this seems to have coincided with the fact that the weather has finally moved away from antarctic conditions.

Also, how bad ass is it that he is doing this all on one foot?

3.  Jon Niese

Young Mr. Niese is a very close third in my book.  I really wouldn’t have a problem with him in the two hole, but I had to make  a decision so I went with Dickey.

One might also argue to bump him to the two spot to split up the righties but I am not one that buys into that philosophy.  Go with the guy you believe in more regardless of which wing he uses.  That’s my motto.

Niese really has been the most consistent starter this entire season (taking into account that Gee did start this year in Buffalo).

4.  Chris Capuano

This was the hardest decision for me in terms of setting up this rotation.  By placing Cap in the four hole, this means I am bumping fellow Midwestropolitan, Mike Pelfrey, out of the playoff rotation.

However, Cap has earned it by throwing seven quality performances in his ten starts.  And yes, I am counting his last start in that mix even though his line shows that he gave up five earned runs.

Odd Man Out:  Mike Pelfrey

As I have stated in the past, I’m a straight shooter.  There is no Midwest Bias when it comes to this author.

Big Pelf finds himself in the bullpen for the playoff rotation because I just can’t count on him to be consistent.  When he’s off, he’s really off.  Teams seem to crush him when he doesn’t have his best stuff and that just can’t be tolerated in the playoffs.

He really should be 3-6 right now, but the offense has been able to erase two seven run deficits this year to get him off the hook.

The good thing is Big Pelf has some time to climb the ladder if he can put together a nice string of quality starts together.