Winning In Spite Of Things

A real baseball historian will need to tell me if other pennant winning teams (there's 2 of these per season) are able to win in spite of the things that the Mets won the 2015 NL Pennant in spite of.

They won the Pennant in spite of their owners. Their owners who mismanaged their money outside of giving money to an enormous ponzi scheme, have enormous debt against the team, the ballpark, and their team-majority-owned television network. Debt so big that they need to spend a MLB payroll paying off that debt each season before they can spend a dime on payroll. In spite of their owners who don't get that the only way for the team to be successful (or maybe I'm now wrong) is for them to sell and move aside.

They won the Pennant in spite of their manager. Their manager, who despite being in consideration for Manager of the Year, has made some truly bonehead decisions. To be fair, he's also rolled the dice and had critical decisions pay off. But I wouldn't trust him to manage a bullpen and an OF platoon to win a championship. Playing the players who got you there doesn't work when they're not playing well at all. Or sometimes it does. He flips a coin.

They won the Pennant in spite of having no consistent offense. Offense that was so dead at times that they got no-hit twice (including once in the same calendar month as most of the postseason), and there were many other times during the season, including Game 2 of the World Series, where it almost happened again. I get that a good pitcher, or even an average one, can be dominant in any single game, but the No Hitter is still such a rare feat because even a dominant pitcher will give up one or two hits per game. There were so many games, and even stretches of games, where so much of the lineup had an 0-fer. Most of these players are the players that a team would upgrade to make themselves a Pennant winning or Championship winning team.

They won the Pennant in spite of having no bench. Really, no bench or no backup plans. So much so that trading for 2 non-starters and calling up a kid from AA a week before the trade deadline were considered to be "a catalyst" for this club because it meant they wouldn't have to ride with never-should-be players filling in on a makeshift infield and outfield. There was no protection, players moving around, and just no coverage for injured players for almost 4 months of the season. Looking at what the team looks like on the first of November, I'm not sure if it's much better than it was in late July, or if it just seems that way.

They won the Pennant in spite of having a highly inconsistent bullpen. Outside of the closer (who, remember, was never supposed to be the closer and probably should be regular season team MVP for what he did), was there anyone the Mets could rely on? There were some injuries early in the season that set the path, along with the Mejia suspension, but look at who they're riding now and remember that these guys weren't Mets for most of the season. And one of them, the 8th inning guy (who remember got skipped over in favor of Familia so many times recently), was one of the goats in the game that turned the World Series. I don't even remember who was in the bullpen (which I think was considered a strength early on, but that's such a long time ago) for most of the season besides Familia.

They won the Pennant in spite of big injuries. I don't mean Murphy being on the DL for a couple of weeks. A young, highly regarded starting pitcher, a returning (and maybe even proven) lefty reliever both went down in the same week in Spring Training for Tommy John surgery. The veteran leader in the lineup and on the field was out for most of the season for, basically, a new chronic and debilitating ailment. Other injuries along the way, including an early-season ultimately season-ending injury for a new lefty reliever, arm issues for the former Gold Glove CF, the catcher going down twice during the season. I get that every team has injuries, and that usually makes every Pennant winner look even more impressive because there are a lot of teams who faced similar (in at least some cases) issues that didn't win the Pennant.

It's truly amazin' that they won the NL Pennant in spite of all of these things. This was a team that had 3 hot stretches - a homestand in April, the month of August, and about 2 weeks of October, where it might be fair to say they had good matchups in most of theses games - and basically played like a .500 team for the rest of the season. They had so many problems that they had no business winning 90 games, the division, and the NL Pennant. But somehow, they did. They have the starting pitching to give them 100 wins. Maybe even more. And knowing all of their faults, I predicted 81 wins based on what I saw in Spring Training (and that was with Wheeler and Edgin as factors).


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Another Day, Another Mets Injury

One point on today's game and Luis Hernandez's injury and home run. I was watching on TV and saw it live. I said to my dad that based on the pain he was in and the length of time that he was being looked at by the "trainer", that he had a broken bone in his foot.

Then why was he allowed to stay in the game to continue the at bat? He hit the home run, made it about 5 steps on adrenaline, and had a terrible limp the rest of the way around the bases. It was clear from there that he had to come out of the game. It was also a bit dramatic watching this kid limp around the bases hitting the home run with a broken foot.

When the trainers are looking at him, if they aren't convinced that he must be removed immediately, why not do a running test with him like they would have a possibly-injured pitcher throw a couple pitches?

The only thing that's changed since last year regarding injuries for the Mets has been luck.


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Mr. Met

Yesterday we received word that Jose Reyes has a torn hamstring in addition to the tendon problem he's had all summer. I'm just thinking that whoever it is sticking pins in the Mr. Met voodoo doll, STOP! It's not funny anymore. Well, at least nobody was killed.


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Injured Players

Here is an interesting take on injuries for the 2009 Mets. The following players from this season's roster did not play during the NHL's entire off season (defined here as the time between the end of the Stanley Cup Finals, June 12 and the first exhibition game, September 14):

• Carlos Delgado - last game was May 10


• Jose Reyes - last game was May 20


• Ramon Martinez - last game was June 2


• J.J. Putz - last game was June 4

John Maine missed being on this list by one day - he returned on September 13 after pitching June 6.

OK, I actually thought there were more players on this list. But when you consider 2 offensive keys and 2 of your top 5 pitchers (top 3 starters, setup man, closer) on this list, that spells doom.


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There are no more words

Monday it was late news that Johan Santana was missing the Tuesday start. He's done for the year.

Tuesday night it was late news that J.J. Putz was going to miss the rest of the season.

Wednesday afternoon it's news that Oliver Perez is done for the year with season-ending surgery.

Last night I shared what I see as the "bright side" in all the injuries with some of the folks at Amazin' Tuesday in Manhattan.

At least nobody died.

Scary!


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Ouch

Just looking at the photo on the NJ.com Mets blog below, you know that had to hurt.

Now, given this season from hell, do you think Fred Wilpon (as an owner/employeer) is (or should be) concerned with the rising cost of health care? All these MRIs and CT and CAT scans are certainly adding up. I wonder if the players have to kick in a certain percentage of the costs like the regular work force does.



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Oh Boy!

I don't know where to begin. I've written about injuries already. I realized today listening to the pregame show when they mentioned Alex Cora being in the starting lineup that Jose Reyes has been out for so long, the guy who replaced him has already been to the DL and back. Not to mention that the guy who replaced the replacement has gone down too.

All I can think of with the injuries is this (and I've posted comments on other blogs over the last year, and even talked about injuries in a post using this as the title). You need to click play, it's in the first 60 seconds of the video.


J.J. Putz has a bum elbow and may need surgery soon, and Reyes has a tear in his hamstring. Even the beat writers are questioning the methods of treatment. Lots of fans are getting on the doctors. I haven't had faith in them for over a year.

Even Keith Olbermann is picking on the Mets injuries.

Calling Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard

Oy. This is getting bad. And fast! First, it was Schneider, and then, long ago, it was Pelfrey - thank God that cleared up without costing too much. Then it was an "injury" for Perez. That's being worked on. In the last 8 days, Delgado, Reyes, and now Cora. The 2nd quarter of the Mets season (starting technically this coming weekend) will look nothing like the 1st. A review comes this weekend.

Reyes - at first, we thought it was punishment. But 2 games. 3 games. Oy. 5 games, and the backup shortstop goes down. Not really punishment. Jose, we need you.

Delgado - they should have planned for this one. It's not much of a shock. But the Mets, from the majors to the St. Lucie team, doesn't seem to have a real first baseman who can be called up, so they bring up an outfielder (actually, coming off the DL). If this lack of depth costs them the season, this one's squarely on Omar. I still think with the nagging nature of his injury, before the surgery piece came out, he should have been DL'd a week ago when he re-aggrivated it, allowed to have 2 weeks rest without costing the team a spot on the bench, and then evaluate, instead of sitting for a week and holding down the bench. The end result would have been the same for him, but maybe we'd have an extra pinch hitter to help us in those games. On the flip side, I hear Port St. Lucie is really nice this time of year, and has more Mets stuff in it right now than Citi Field does.

Cora - shit! I was out watching sitcoms and all the sudden, his injury was DL-worthy. We seem to have plenty of middle infielders to call up. Thank God Castillo is healthy and playing well. Let me say that again. Thank God Luis Castillo is healthy and playing well.

Ramon Martinez is back, and if Dodger Stadium was any further away from the airport, he wouldn't be in the starting lineup. 20 minutes before first pitch he arrived. I don't even like being at the park that late. So much for moving the AAA affiliate out of the Pacific Coast League.