Quality Pitching Being Wasted

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Matt Harvey

The New York Mets have been around since 1962 and they’ve always been known for their pitching. The Mets organization has been home to starting pitchers such as Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan, Jerry Koosman, and Dwight Gooden just to name a few. Strong pitching has carried the Mets to a pair of World Series Championships and it is once again prevalent with their present day team. The Mets currently have a surplus of young pitching in their organization that includes starting pitchers Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom, Zack Wheeler, and Noah Syndergaard along with relief pitcher Jeurys Familia. And the Mets have another starting pitcher in their minor-league system by the name of Steven Matz who they are very high on as well. The Mets team earned run average of 3.60 this season is fifth in National League while they are also fifth in quality starts (43), and fourth in strikeouts (566) as they currently have three starting pitchers that are posting winning records.

But the dominance of the Mets pitching staff hasn’t carried over to their lineup which has left this team perplexed. Injuries have put second baseman Daniel Murphy and third baseman David Wright on the disabled list. And for Wright, he has been diagnosed with spinal stenosis which has threatened to end his Major League Baseball career altogether. Offensively the Mets are near the bottom of most statistical categories in the NL. Already this season the Mets have played in 24 games where they scored two runs or fewer and one of the low lights of this came last month when the Mets lost consecutive 1-0 games to the Washington Nationals.

Sandy Alderson

For Mets general manager Sandy Alderson, his tenure in New York has been highlighted by re-developing the team’s minor-league system while keeping the big club together with spit and glue due to the financial peril of the team’s owners in Fred and Jeff Wilpon. But the past two off-seasons have seen Alderson spend money on veteran bats that have been unable to answer the bell.

Curtis Granderson

In 2014, the Mets signed outfielder Curtis Granderson to a four-year contract worth $60 million. Granderson is a lifetime .256 hitter, but the Mets brass knew that he was good clubhouse guy and they were hopeful that he would show some flashes of the player that had consecutive 40-plus home runs campaigns for the New York Yankees in 2011 and 2012. But what the Mets have gotten in Granderson is a player that is a shell of himself as he is batting .209 with an on base-percentage of .329 during his time with the Metropolitans. Granderson has only hit 9 homers this season for the Mets and he hasn’t been comfortable in most of the positions that he has been placed at in the team’s lineup. Then there is outfielder Michael Cuddyer. The Mets signed Cuddyer last off-season to the tune of $21 million for two years. Cuddyer led the National League in batting in 2013 as a member of the Colorado Rockies, but he is a shell of that player with the Mets as he is currently batting .256 with 6 homers and 28 runs batted in. Cuddyer has also grounded into 12 double plays this season including a game-ending one this past Sunday against the Atlanta Braves as his production or lack thereof has drawn the ire of fans and sports writers in the Big Apple alike.

The Mets currently have a record of 36-35 and they are in second place in the NL East as they are 1.5 games behind the Washington Nationals. The Mets have lost their last five games which included being swept over the weekend by the Braves. But if the Mets had a better offense, we could only imagine how good that this team could be.

The Mets lineup is lacking some key ingredients as they are missing a lead-off hitter along with a consistent clutch bat. And even when Wright and Murphy return to the Mets lineup, they might not be able to perk this team up by themselves.

Kevin Long

Prior to becoming the Mets hitting coach this season, Kevin Long was the hitting coach of the Yankees for the past eight seasons. In 2014, the Yankees offense was near the bottom of most statistical categories in the American League last season which is why he was let go last year, and in spite of this the Mets welcomed him with open arms.

As things are shaping up this summer, it appears that only one team will make the playoffs from the NL East and with the Nationals failing to put a stranglehold on the division, it is up for grabs. Even as the Mets claim to be “rebuilding”, they now have a golden opportunity to excite their fan base and win the NL East for the first time since 2006. Under Alderson’s watch, the Mets have played it close to the chest and at Major League Baseball’s trade deadline they have typically been sellers. But more than ever the time is now for the Mets and Alderson to be buyers. With the additional wild card spot in each league, it has given more teams the belief that they are contenders than ever before and thus they’ve become more hesitant to waive the white flag. However an upgrade to the Mets lineup could work like a blood transfusion for the club as eventually the pitching staff in Queens will get frustrated as far as not getting any run support behind them. If the Mets were to make the playoffs, they could be a very dangerous team due to their pitching. But that quality pitching can only get you so far if they don’t have quality bats to support them and thus it is wasted.

Source: Baseball-reference.com

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